‘Painting was my final act of defiance’: how a chef from war-torn Eritrea wowed the art world after his death | Art and design

What is home? What does it mean to belong? For Eritrea-born artist, activist and chef Ficre Ghebreyesus, who fled war in his homeland at the age of 16 and landed on US shores in 1981, these were vital questions that played out in his vibrant, often dreamlike canvases. “Painting was the miracle, the final act … Read more

‘Zippos circus is in town!’ Can Man Utd really raise £2bn for a throbbing big top? | Architecture

‘What Manchester does today,” Benjamin Disraeli once proclaimed, “the world does tomorrow.” So begins the breathless promotional video for Manchester United’s proposed £2bn football stadium, summoning the words of the Victorian prime minister to launch Norman Foster’s vision for a “mixed-use mini city” beneath a gigantic, three-spired tent. The only thing is, the world has … Read more

‘We swept into Moscow in Gorbachev’s limousine’: Neil Tennant’s love affair with Russia – before the ‘cancer of Putin’ | Pet Shop Boys

The journalist Andrey Sapozhnikov of Novaya Gazeta Europe, the independent Russian newspaper that now operates from Latvia in order to avoid censorship by Putin’s regime, recently asked Neil Tennant of the Pet Shop Boys: “You have been actively commenting on Russian politics since 2013 and the Pussy Riot case, and you are arguably one of … Read more

Spotify is trumpeting big paydays for artists – but only a tiny fraction of them are actually thriving | Music

Since 2021, Spotify has published its Loud & Clear report, corralling data points to show how much money is being earned by artists on the streaming service. There is much talk of “transparency” – perhaps the most duplicitous word in the music industry’s lexicon – but this year’s report feels very different, coming as it … Read more

‘Stolen off a donkey’: why is The White Lotus so obsessed with graphic penis footage? | The White Lotus

Lucius Malfoy just showed us his wand. In the fourth and latest episode of The White Lotus, viewers saw more of actor Jason Isaacs than they expected. Several inches more. We screamed in unison with his character’s grossed-out children. You didn’t get that at Hogwarts. As wealthy patriarch Timothy Ratliff, he has been steadily coming … Read more

UK reggae pioneers Steel Pulse: ‘We told punk fans – you can pogo, but please don’t spit at us’ | Reggae

In the late 1970s, whenever young Birmingham reggae band Steel Pulse performed their song Ku Klux Klan, the group’s vocalists would theatrically wear white KKK hoods onstage to illustrate the song’s lyrics, which excoriated the Klan’s violence, racism and cowardice. British audiences loved it and understood the power of a black band making such a … Read more

‘I demand to have some booze!’: how do actors fake being drunk or on drugs? | Television

“Iam not a big drinker, I don’t do drugs, I don’t smoke,” says Sagar Radia, best known as the ruthless, potty-mouthed trader Rishi Ramdani in the HBO/BBC banking saga Industry. “But when friends and family watch, they’re like: ‘You look like you do know what you’re doing.’” Nowhere was this more the case than in season … Read more