FRANCE 24 (November 21, 2023) – After “Alien”, “Gladiator” & “Thelma and Louise”, director Ridley Scott presents Napoleon to the French, with Oscar winner Joaquin Phoenix in the title role and Vanessa Kirby as his Josephine.
The filmmaker talks about his fascination with the brilliant and destructive emperor of France. From the final resting place of Napoleon, Paris’s Military Museum, Eve Jackson tells us more about the film which, as well as a good few battle scenes, focuses on the big love of his life.
Vanessa Kirby talks about the challenges of playing his wife. Plus, French cinema darling Tahar Rahim, who plays Paul Barras – a general who helped Napoleon’s ascent – discusses the historic significance of the film.
The Globalist Podcast (November 21, 2023) –News from the Israel-Gaza conflict and discuss South Korean president Yoon Suk Yeol’s visit to the UK.
Also. Andrew Mueller sits down with Timo Kivinen, commander of the Finnish Defence Forces, to find out more about Finland’s recent border tensions with Russia. Plus: music news with Will Hodgkinson, pop and rock critic at ‘The Times’.
London Review of Books (LRB) – November 30, 2023: The latest issue features Jaqueline Rose on violence and its origins; Zain Samir reporting from Southern Lebanon; Clare Bucknell – Rescuing Lord Byron; David Trotter – Werner Herzog’s Visions, and more….
In response to the destruction of Gaza, it seems to be becoming almost impossible to lament more than one people at a time. When I signed Artists for Palestine’s statement last month, I looked for mention of the atrocities committed by Hamas against Israeli Jews on 7 October, and then decided to settle for the unambiguous condemnation of ‘every act of violence against civilians and every infringement of international law whoever perpetrates them’.
‘Little Boy’ exploded over Hiroshima at 8.15 a.m. on 6 August 1945, wiping most of the city off the face of the earth and killing eighty thousand people instantly. But the ‘shock’ to the leadership in Tokyo envisaged by the former US secretary of war Henry Stimson failed to materialise.
Architectural Digest (November 20, 2023) – The AD100 is Architectural Digest’s annual list of interior, architectural, and landscape design’s top talent. Today on AD, we join some of the industry’s most influential designers, Martyn Lawrence Bullard, Leyden Lewis, Pamela Shamshiri, Bjarke Ingels, and more, for a closer look at their creative process and how they approach the concept of ‘taste’ in their designs.
Financial Times (November 19, 2023) – Lithium is the ‘new oil’ of the clean energy era, crucial to the production of batteries for electric vehicles. The FT investigates this booming industry – and the controversies surrounding it – on a journey from Chile to Norway and the UK.
Video timeline: 00:00 Lithium and the energy transition 01:13 Global lithium reserves 01:33 The process 03:03 The communities 04:05 Water reserves 05:29 The investors 07:40 Lithium supply and China 08:41 The policymakers 09:35 Cornish mining revival 12:16 The markets 15:28 Chile’s lithium policy 18:02 Direct lithium extraction 19:54 The indigenous perspective 22:58 Recycling batteries 25:30 The future
The New Yorker – November 27, 2023 issue: The new issue‘s cover features Chris Ware’s “Harvest” – The artist discusses the rituals of gathering and building memories.
hen Joyce Carol Oates was thirty-four, she started a journal. “Query,” she wrote on the first page. “Does the individual exist?” She felt that she knew little about herself—for instance, whether she was honest or a hypocrite. “I don’t know the answer to the simplest of questions,” she wrote. “What is my personal nature?”
Seventy years ago, before she was galactically famous, before she dropped an “a” from her first name, before she was a Broadway ingénue, before her nose bump was aspirational, before she changed the way people hear the word “butter,” before she was a macher or a mogul or a decorated matron of the arts, Barbra Streisand was, by her own admission, “very annoying to be around.” She was born impatient and convinced of her potential—the basic ingredients of celebrity, and of an exquisitely obnoxious child. When Streisand was growing up in Brooklyn, in the nineteen-forties, she used to crawl onto the fire escape of her shabby apartment building and conduct philosophical debates with her best friend, Rosyln Arenstein, who was a staunch atheist.
The Globalist Podcast (November 20, 2023) –We discuss Vladimir Putin’s position on the Israel-Hamas war and the outcome of Argentina’s presidential election.
Also in the programme: Daniel Gorman, director of English Pen, tells us about the state of books and literature in Ukraine and Carlota Rebelo interviews Christian Kroll, CEO of sustainable search engine Ecosia.
Using electromagnetic waves to flummox and follow smarter weapons has become a critical part of the cat-and-mouse game between Ukraine and Russia. The United States, China and others have taken note.
A 30-Year Trap: The Problem With America’s Weird Mortgages
One big reason the U.S. housing market is broken: Owners don’t want to give up their cushy old loans.
For Years, Two Men Shuttled Messages Between Israel and Hamas. No Longer.
Since 2006, Gershon Baskin, an Israeli peace activist, and Ghazi Hamad, a Hamas official, maintained a secret back channel between Gaza and Israel. Then Oct. 7 happened.
The Local Project (November 19, 2023) – In a stark juxtaposition from the materiality and pace of New York City, Brooklyn Mass Timber is an architects own home that steps away from the steel and concrete that dominates the architecture of the area.
Video timeline:00:00 – Introduction to the Architect’s Own Home 01:03 – The Original Property and its History 01:31 – A Specific Type of Building 02:00 – The Layout and Walkthrough of the Home 02:57 – Making An Example of Utilising Timber 03:40 – Designed to Be Dissassembled with Zero Waste 03:52 – Pursuing Passive House Principles 04:18 – A Curated and Integrated Approach 06:07 – Focusing on Connecting to Context 06:58 – Favourite Aspects of the Home
Schiller Projects creates an oasis made of timber, contained within one of the city’s coveted 1800s carriage houses. Not only does it test the bounds of adaptive re-use, but it sets an important precedence for housing in urban environments. The project is an architects own home – the residence of Aaron Schiller, Founder of Schiller Projects, his wife Anna and their two young children.
Located in Brooklyn just ten minutes from downtown Manhattan, it feels secluded while still being within easy reach of the city. As one enters an architects own home, they are met with a view directly to the backyard, a three-storey wood staircase with a garden at its foot and the kitchen. As one ascends the stairs, the second level holds two bedrooms and a laundry room, bathroom and living room that looks out towards the cathedral, and the top level contains the main suite.
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