Category Archives: Culture

Arts & Literature, Culture, Homes, Magazines, Previews, Reviews

Country Life Magazine – November 6, 2024 Preview

November 5, 2024 She Seeks Serene Leave a comment

Country Life Magazine (November 5, 2024): The latest issue features…

The legacy

Kate Green salutes Lt-Col John McCrae for giving us the poppy as a symbol of remembrance

Fake it ’til you make it

Nature’s mimics and frauds are full of cunning survival tricks, as Laura Parker discovers

Gentleman’s Life

Simon Mills walks a wardrobe tightrope
Matthew Dennison charts the rise and fall of the waistband
Hetty Lintell’s pick of the latest fashions in orange, brown, pink and more
Harry Pearson finds there’s nothing like a ’tache to divide opinion
Nicholas Foulkes marvels at rare métiers d’art timepieces
Jonathan Self examines the allure of the exotic menagerie
Tom Parker Bowles savours oysters, the food of love

Emma Ridgway’s favourite painting

The Foundling Museum director selects a captivating, life-size portrait of performing choir girls

The Sound and the Fury

Carla Carlisle tries to look on the sunny side, but remains on the alert for ‘tragedy and trouble’

Nine towers on high

John Martin Robinson examines two Lancashire powerhouses: Lathom House and Knowsley Hall

London Life

Get your skates on at Somerset House
Jo Rodgers seeks out the best Sunday roasts
William Hosie toasts London pubs

A life lived, a dream dreamt

Inscriptions etched by soldiers are a window into the First World War, suggests David Crossland

Are you feeling Broad-minded?

The wondrous wetlands of East Anglia are a marshy, manmade marvel for John Lewis-Stempel

Whispers of winter

Lia Leendertz weighs up the chances of an Indian summer

Conversations on conservation

A 1974 country-house revolution was a major turning point for our old buildings, says Simon Jenkins

Digging for victory and veg

The Anderson shelter was a war-time lifesaver in more ways than one, reveals Russell Higham

Interiors

Bright ideas with Amelia Thorpe

Swaying in rhythm

Tilly Ware applauds the bold planting in The Old Vicarage garden at Wormingford, Essex

Kitchen garden cook

Melanie Johnson harnesses the nutritious punch of cauliflower

Foraging

John Wright urges caution as he extols the virtues of blewits, the most tasty of wild mushrooms

Travel

Rosie Paterson shares the latest in luxury travel news
Mark Hedges celebrates a mile-stone birthday in style at a villa in Mallorca
Pamela Goodman gets a buzz on a Spanish holiday

The bare Bone

Mary Miers assesses the career of Sir Muirhead Bone, the first of Britain’s Official War Artists

Arts & Literature, Culture, Magazines, Opinion, Politics, Reviews

Preview: The New Yorker Magazine – Nov. 11, 2024

November 4, 2024 She Seeks Serene Leave a comment

Lady Liberty walks a tightrope over a city.

The New Yorker (November 4, 2024): The latest issue features Barry Blitt’s “Tightrope” – Lady Liberty’s precarious perch.

Standing Up to Trump

Jeff Bezos endorsed a Trump-era slogan—“Democracy Dies in Darkness”—for his newspaper, the Washington Post. Why wouldn’t he let it endorse a candidate? By David Remnick

Will Kamala Harris Win the Kamala Harris Vote?

The handful of Kamala Harrises who aren’t the Vice-President review the perks (wayward donors) and the perils (threatening phone calls) of their name. By Dan Greene

The Tucker Carlson Road Show

After his Fox show was cancelled, Carlson spent a year in the wilderness, honing his vision of what the future of Trumpism might look like. This fall, he took his act on tour. By Andrew Marantz

Culture, Magazines, Opinion, Politics, Previews, Reviews, Society

The New York Times Magazine-Nov. 3, 2024

November 2, 2024 She Seeks Serene Leave a comment

THE NEW YORK TIMES MAGAZINE (November 2, 2024): The 11.3.24 Issue In this issue, Jim Rutenberg on the potential for an election certification crisis in the weeks ahead; Amanda Taub on the game theory of democracy; Ariel Lown Lewiton on her grandparents’ protest pin collection; and more.Read this issue

How Will White Women Vote? It’s a Question With a Fraught History.

White and Black women have joined together to power progressive causes — from abolition to civil rights — but it’s a tenuous alliance.

What if A.I. Is Actually Good for Hollywood?

It’s already powering remarkable visual innovations, like in the new movie “Here.” But boosters think that’s just the beginning. By Devin Gordon

A Brief History of Messy Elections

Three times the results were disputed after the votes were in.

Culture, Economics, Magazines, Opinion, Reviews, Society

Culture: The Hedgehog Review – Fall 2024 Issue

November 1, 2024 She Seeks Serene Leave a comment

THE HEDGEHOG REVIEW (FALL 2024): This issue’s theme is “In Need of Repair,” and it includes contributions from James Davison Hunter, Nicholas Carr, Martha Bayles, Olivier Zunz, Elias Crim, Aaron Horvath, Paul Scherz, Firmin DeBrabander, and John J. Lennon, as well as other reviews and essays from such contributors as Eugene McCarraher, Alan Jacobs, Paul Nedelisky, Rita Koganzon, Matthew Milliner, and Richard Hughes Gibson.

In Need of Repair

At the bottom of each of our system dysfunctions is a distinctive cultural disorder emerging from the many pressures of our rapidly modernizing world.

Supply Chain Sublime

The Material World is no place for humans. By Richard Hughes Gibson

Culture Wars: The Endgame

Nihilism’s Grip on American Democracy by James Davison Hunter

The Age of the Average

All the Little Data

The Pathologies of Precision Medicine

Culture, Magazines, Politics, Previews, Reviews, Society

Politics: The Guardian Weekly – November 1, 2024

October 31, 2024 She Seeks Serene Leave a comment

The Guardian Weekly (October 31, 2024) – The new issue features ‘The Balance Of Power’ – What the U.S. election could mean for the world…

Five essential reads in this week’s edition

Spotlight | Israel and Iran’s war comes out of the shadows
The Observer’s Simon Tisdall considers the consequences for the region of Israel’s weekend missile strikes on Iran

Environment | The Colombian warlord who reneged on deforestation
As the Cop16 nature summit in Colombia comes to a close, Luke Taylor tells a story that highlights the country’s complex relationship between environmental aspiration and political will

Feature | The brain collector
Using cutting-edge methods, Alexandra Morton-Hayward is unravelling the extraordinary mysteries of grey matter – even as hers betrays her. By Kermit Pattison

Opinion | It’s time to tell it how it is: Trump has fascist instincts
Those who know him best use the F-word to describe the former president. Every warning light is flashing red, argues Jonathan Freedland

Culture | The intersection of art and war in Ukraine
Poets, artists, playwrights and musicians are fighting and dying in Ukraine, and their work is capturing the horror and emotion of the conflict, finds Charlotte Higgins

Arts & Literature, Culture, Homes, Magazines, Previews, Reviews

Country Life Magazine – October 30, 2024 Preview

October 30, 2024 She Seeks Serene Leave a comment

Country Life Magazine (October 30, 2024): The latest issue features…

Zandra Rhodes’s favourite painting

The fashion designer chooses a colourful, cheering scene.

A home reborn

Magnificent Knowsley Hall, Lancashire, has been rescued from institutional use through an admirable restoration project and is once again a home, discovers John Martin Robinson.

The Legacy

Amie Elizabeth White dons a Blue Peter badge to salute the show’s creator, John Hunter Blair.

Heal the land, heal the waters

Our precious rivers hold myriad life forms, yet have been sullied by the hands of humans. John Lewis-Stempel urges us to take care of them.

You’ve got peemail

Dogs, bats and other creatures keep up with the news through sniffing and sensing. Laura Parker reports on the animal kingdom’s telegraph system.

The ghost hunters

Deep in a glad or underwater, our rarest plants defy discovery. Peter Marren joins the quest.

Let Nature never be forgot

A cornucopia of delights awaits Tiffany Daneff in Alan Titchmarsh’s Hampshire garden, with secluded seats, ponds and plenty of space for wildlife.

The Renaissance men

Well-educated and curious, the British tourists with an eye for art laid the foundations of our great collections, finds Michael Hall.

Return to the steppe

Teresa Levonian-Cole boards the Golden Eagle Trans-Siberian Express to traverse Uzbekistan, a land brimming with art, history and caviar.

And, as always, much much more, including luxury, recipes, interior inspiration and gardens.

Arts & Literature, Culture, Magazines, Opinion, Politics, Reviews

Preview: The New Yorker Magazine – Nov. 4, 2024

October 28, 2024 She Seeks Serene Leave a comment

The New Yorker (October 28, 2024): The latest issue features Lorenzo Mattotti’s “Strides” – The exhilarating blur of the New York City Marathon.

Trump’s Health, and Ours

Studies increasingly suggest that a healthy nation depends on a healthy democracy. By Dhruv Khullar

The Improbable Rise of J. D. Vance

“Hillbilly Elegy” made him famous, and his denunciations of Donald Trump brought him liberal fans. Now, as a Vice-Presidential candidate, he’s remaking his image as the heir to the MAGA movement. By Benjamin Wallace-Wells

The Aid Workers Who Risk Their Lives to Bring Relief to Gaza

As the war grinds on, logistical challenges are compounded by politics, repeated evacuations, and…By Dorothy Wickenden

Culture, Magazines, Opinion, Politics, Previews, Reviews, Society

The New York Times Magazine-October 27, 2024

October 27, 2024 She Seeks Serene Leave a comment

THE NEW YORK TIMES MAGAZINE (October 27, 2024): The latest issue features David Gaubey Herbert on building a cheerleading empire; Elisabeth Zerofsky on the historian Robert Paxton; Jonathan Mahler on the tech billionaires who became major G.O.P. donors; and more.

How Cheerleading Became So Acrobatic, Dangerous and Popular

For decades, the sport has been shaped in large part by one company — and one man.

Nikki Jennings started cheering when she was 4 years old. She was small and flexible and became a flyer, a human baton spinning and twisting through the air before being caught by teammates. Until sometimes she wasn’t: She got her first concussion in the third grade.

Is It Fascism? A Leading Historian Changes His Mind.

Robert Paxton thought the label was overused. But now he’s alarmed by what he sees in global politics — including Trumpism.

Arts & Literature, Culture, Magazines, Opinion, Politics, Reviews

Preview: The New Yorker Magazine-October 28, 2024

October 21, 2024 She Seeks Serene Leave a comment

The undersole of a mans shoe obscures a sight of skyscrapers in Manhattans financial district.

The New Yorker (October 14, 2024): The latest issue features Eric Drooker’s “Crushing Wealth” – The market’s movers and shake

The Tight-Knit World of Kamala Harris’s Sorority

A.K.A., the oldest Black sorority, expects excellence and complete discretion. How are members responding to their most famous sister’s Presidential campaign? By Jazmine Hughes

The U.S. Spies Who Sound the Alarm About Election Interference

A group of intelligence officials confers about when to alert the public to foreign meddling. By David D. Kirkpatrick

How Republican Billionaires Learned to Love Trump Again

The former President has been fighting to win back his wealthiest donors, while actively courting new ones—what do they expect to get in return? By Susan B. Glasser