| | | Too Famous by Michael Wolff review – a sneering apologist for the notorious | | by Peter Conrad Oct 31, 2021 | | In this collection of his essays and columns, the American journalist takes pride in being as ruthless as some of those he writes about – from Jeffrey Epstein to Steve Bannon Fame, according to Milton’s poem, spurs “the clear spirit... To scorn delights, and live laborious days”. For Milton, that quest for lasting renown was an aristocratic pursuit, an “infirmity of noble mind”. Michael Wolff’s new book begins by lamenting “the democratisation of fame”: no achievement is required of today’s self-promoting wannabes, and all that counts is visibility on social media. Yet the celebrities Wolff examines retain a status that he calls “semi-heroic” because they suffer the penalties of fame or infamy, which include “humiliation, prosecution, jail, even death”. Too Famous begins with Hugh Grant dodging the inevitable blitz of selfies by retreating into defensive privacy; it ends as Jeffrey Epstein dies in the solitude of his prison cell. Wolff himself became famous by writing three books of inflammatory gossip about the Trump administration. To capitalise on that success, he now recycles some early journalism, adding an unpublished account of time apparently spent in Epstein’s Manhattan mansion, where – although he doesn’t say how or why he obtained such indiscreet access – he eavesdrops as the predator’s cronies put him through a course of “media training” in the hope of palliating his crimes. Continue reading... | | | | | Ed Sheeran: Equals review – no more Mr Wild Guy | | by Kitty Empire Oct 31, 2021 | | Despite keeping one foot in the club-pop groove, commitment and maturity set the tone for settled-down Sheeran’s latest outing Within his relentless upward trajectory, there has always been tension between Ed Sheeran, the relatable and heartfelt balladeer, and a friskier musician partial to late nights out. The more playful Sheeran is represented by just two songs on the fourth album in the mathematical series (+, x, ÷). Maintaining his toehold in club pop are singles Bad Habits and Shivers: two effective, flirty bops. Other busy tracks such as Collide and 2Step, meanwhile, foreground the garage rattle of Sheeran’s early “grindie” (grime+indie) inspirations. But a happy marriage, fatherhood and the loss of an industry mentor (on Visiting Hours) mean that Equals tilts heavily into contentment and maturity, including an obligatory lullaby – Sandman – for his little one. Continue reading... | | | | | Gothic becomes Latin America's go-to genre as writers turn to the dark side | | by Mat Youkee in Bogotá Oct 31, 2021 | | The region used to be almost synonymous with magic realism but recent bestselling fiction draws on a legacy of dictatorship, poverty and sinister folklore A young man follows the bloody trail of his CIA father, through Paraguayan torture chambers and the sites of Andean massacres. An Ecuadorian artist fantasizes about running a scalpel through the tongue of her mute twin. In a Buenos Aires cemetery, teenage fans devour a rock star’s rotting remains. These grisly scenes – and many more like them – populate the pages of Latin America’s recent bestselling fiction. From the Andes to the Amazon and to the urban sprawl of some of the world’s biggest cities, a ghoulish shadow has been cast over Latin American literature. Continue reading... | | | | | He played Martin Luther King. Next up: a fiery white rightwinger | | by Vanessa Thorpe Oct 31, 2021 | | David Harewood cast as William Buckley in James Graham’s new play of fiery 1968 debates with Gore Vidal It was a battle royale fought between American political titans, and it played out on screen in a series of televised bouts in 1968. Now James Graham, the leading British playwright behind the television drama Quiz and stage play Ink, is to put the historic clashes between the leading liberal Gore Vidal and conservative intellectual William F Buckley Jr at the centre of a new play, Best of Enemies. Playing Buckley, a man who founded and edited the rightwing, libertarian National Review in 1955 and who worked briefly for the CIA, will be David Harewood, the actor known for his roles in the TV series Homeland and for playing Martin Luther King Jr on stage in The Mountaintop. Continue reading... | | | | | The Colour of the Climate Crisis – in pictures | | Oct 31, 2021 | | The Colour of the Climate Crisis is an exhibition by the environmental social initiative Do The Green Thing. It showcases the work of 24 Black and other artists of colour exploring the relationship between racial injustice and climate injustice. The exhibition will launch on 31 October and run until 2 November at Pipe Factory in Glasgow, Scotland, with a selection of works to coincide with the start of the Cop26 global climate summit. The works will form a permanent digital display at www.thecolouroftheclimatecrisis.art. Further gallery exhibitions will take place in London and New York in 2022
Continue reading... | | | | | Dare you take the Guardian's hideously horrible Halloween culture quiz? | | by Martin Belam Oct 31, 2021 | | 25 questions on literature, film, TV, books and music with a spooky edge – how will you fare? If it is gothic, spooky, scary, haunted or just plain weird, and was in a book, a film, a TV show or some music, you might just be about to get asked about it. How will you fare with these 25 questions about things that go bump in the night? It is just for fun, and there are no prizes, but let us know how you got on – and how you are planning to enjoy this spookiest of evenings – in the comments. The Guardian’s hideously horrible Halloween culture quiz If you do think there has been an egregious error in one of the questions or answers, please feel free to email martin.belam@theguardian.com but remember, the quizmaster’s word is always final, and you wouldn’t want him to put a hex on you. Continue reading... | | | | | | | Succession's Nicholas Braun: 'I feel better being honest than hiding' | | by Alex Moshakis Oct 31, 2021 | | He’s the reluctant sex symbol who is now partying with the Clintons. But actor Nicholas Braun is only just coming to terms with his life-changing role as Cousin Greg, TV’s favourite antihero in Succession. He reveals how he is learning to embrace his newfound fame Nicholas Braun arrived on Long Island by train, and then he took a car to the compound. This was three years ago. Braun had been invited to a weekend-long party at a fancy home owned by friends of the American actor Jeremy Strong, who Braun knew from the set of the Emmy Award-winning television show Succession, in which they both star. At the compound he was patted down by members of the secret service, which startled him at first, and then delighted him. (He later referred to the agents as “my boys”.) As guests flashed around, Braun remembers thinking, “How is it I’ve ended up here, at a party in a locked-down compound that has a federal agency working the door?” And then the Clintons arrived. By this point, Braun had filmed just one series of Succession, the HBO juggernaut, which revolves around and pillories the Roy family, a venomous media dynasty in the mould of the Murdochs. (Perhaps you’ve heard of it.) Braun plays Greg Hirsch, a distant cousin and Roy family satellite who, as the show progresses, finds himself increasingly surrounded by powerful and prestigious people and the mucky opulence in which they operate, and becomes both seduced and confused by his new surroundings, often to comic effect. Continue reading... | | | | | The big picture: incarcerated gang members in El Salvador | | by Tim Adams Oct 31, 2021 | | Tariq Zaidi’s powerful image of the overcrowded Chalatenango prison, which housed 1,637 inmates from the feared MS-13 criminal organisation The British-based photographer Tariq Zaidi took this picture in Chalatenango prison in El Salvador in 2019. At the time, the prison held 1,637 inmates, all of whom were members of the MS-13 gang that has terrorised the country for decades. Zaidi arrived in El Salvador in 2018 and spent eight months negotiating access to the brutal world of MS-13 and its rival, Barrio 18. In the following two years, he visited six maximum security prisons and numerous bloody crime scenes and funeral processions. His aim, he suggests, in his book of the pictures, Sin Salida (No Way Out), was to document the vicious dystopia that parts of El Salvador had become: “When then-President Trump was calling Central American migrant caravans ‘criminals’ and the like, I wanted to explore what kind of life these people were leaving behind.” The motto of MS-13 is “kill, rape, control”. It is estimated to have used violent extortion against 70% of El Salvador’s businesses. After a dozen years in which the murder rate was higher than any country outside a war zone, President Nayib Bukele, who styles himself as “the world’s coolest dictator”, won power in 2019 on a platform of zero tolerance of gang violence. His authoritarian “territorial control plan”, along with an alleged secret pact with MS-13 leaders, filled the country’s jails to more than triple capacity and dramatically cut the official murder rate. Continue reading... | | | | | |
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