Why I Love Country Music - I Never Knew That I Did
After spending the past few months talking to mainstream media in the UK about the (sold out) C2C Country to Country Music Festival at the O2, quite a lot of things have struck me: i) Country Music is...
View ArticleThe View From Benefits Street
While few political commentators, bloggers and pundits have yet to offer a view on Channel 4's Benefits Street, a programme dubbed 'poverty porn' by critics, there is one voice largely missing from the...
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'Sleepy Hollow' Finale Review: They're In A Hell Of A Mess Now
Do not read on unless you've seen "The Indispensable Man" and "Bad Blood," the episodes that made up the Season 1 finale of "Sleepy Hollow." To quote Ichabod Crane: "Dude." That finale was even more...
View ArticleWarhol, To China And Back: The Art Market Changes Forever
As the "new" year progresses I find myself at once in awe of the record-setting that characterized 2013, and confident that 2014 will utterly eclipse it. To wit: • Francis Bacon's 1969 triptych Three...
View ArticleThe Enduring Appeal of Jeremy Kyle (Or Why You Are Ronnie Barker)
What follows is something like a typical scene from the ever popular Jeremy Kyle show - if it's enduring appeal (NTA nominated again) mystifies you then consider this theory... "You two don't have any...
View ArticleDon't Call Lena Dunham a Genius
The deluge of profiles, the magazine and newspaper hagiographies, and the red-carpet-bombing of our fashion pages recently all tell us one thing about Lena Dunham. The filmmaker and...
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British Underground Music by Way of Austin
For fans of the UK underground music scene, Mark Stoney is a familiar name. He's known for his distinctive songwriting talent of the critically acclaimed and somewhat enigmatic multi-instrumentalist...
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The Tell-Tale Heart by Jill Dawson - Book Review
As they attempt to reach out, you often hear the older generations baffled by the decisions of the younger. Such endeavours to connect go unnoticed by the Smartphone generation, with their Monster...
View Article'Frozen' Is Almost Perfect, Except for These Two Things...
Dear Disney and The Makers of Frozen, I want to tell you how much I loved your film. Loved it. There are so many things right with Frozen and in the spirit of positive reinforcement, I'm going to start...
View ArticleFive Tips to Making It in the Music Industry - It's All About the T-Shirts!
Alan Mcgee is right. Finally someone has said what I have thought for sometime. Music magazine reviews are redundant. So much stock is put on getting a review in Q or Mojo or the NME, but who really...
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2nd Amendment: Shooting for Freedom
It is estimated that between 270 million and 310 million guns are privately owned across America. Yet despite the growing possession of arms, the gun debate is also something that continues to grow....
View ArticleThe End of 2013 and a Preview of 2014...
My exhibition Zandra Unseen at the Fashion and Textile Museum closed 31 August, 2013 to make way for the gorgeous Belville-Sassoon exhibit. Featuring the work of my dear friend David Sassoon (including...
View ArticleNew Adventures, News Beginnings
Last year was amazing, one that still feels a little surreal and which ended on an incredible high with my daughter Natasha getting engaged! 2014 however is already starting off with quite the flurry...
View ArticleLiving a Fairytale
I've enjoyed living a fairytale reality in my head believing that my ambitions and dreams have always been within my reach pretty much my entire life. It all started by graduating early from high...
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Life in the Arts Lane - Week 59 - Westward by Road
Back behind the wheel, with my trusty giant Twix nestling in my glove compartment, ready to grant me the benison of its exquisite chocolate, caramel and biscuit melange when a sugar crisis raises its...
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'Rake' Review: Greg Kinnear As A Lawyer Gone Wrong
Perhaps the squishy ambivalence of "Rake" (9 p.m. ET Thursday) is somehow appropriate to the show. Its lead character, Keegan Deane (Greg Kinnear), can't quite decide what kind of man he wants to be,...
View ArticleForever in Blue Jeans
Born on this day, 24 January 1941, Neil Diamond, singer-songwriter. Many acts from Elvis Presley, Lulu, and Deep Purple have all covered his songs. With his 2008 album Home Before Dark, Diamond became...
View ArticleDon't Compare Bieber's "Problems" to Britney's Meltdown
When we did our year-end features last month, we included a piece called "Bieber's Best (Read: Worst) Moments of 2013," but after Justin was arrested in Miami for drag racing while drunk and high on...
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Taschen's 100 Illustrators: An Engaging Glimpse at Illustration's Finest
Taschen's book 100 Illustrators, is aptly described by its editors as featuring "today's most successful and important illustrators from around the globe". This is a stylishly designed and highly...
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Theatre Review: The Weir, Wyndham's Theatre
This production of The Weir is so warm and intimate, it makes you feel as if you've just pulled up a bar stool in a rural Irish pub for the evening. The premise of this play is a simple one. The four...
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