Gran Kropp | Mount Everest
Posted on May 25, 2024
| 4 minutes
| 814 words
| Valentine Belue
Mount EverestObituaryGöran KroppEbullient Swedish adventurer who climbed Everest alone and trekked to the North Pole"I wanted an adventure that was truly unprecedented," said Göran Kropp, who has died in a climbing accident aged 35, and in 1996 he achieved just that. Climbing on his bicycle in his native Sweden, his gear packed in panniers and a trailer, he pedalled off to Nepal. There, he climbed Everest without bottled oxygen, relying only on his own strength to carry his tent and supplies up the mountain.
[Read More]Jane OMalley obituary | Painting
Posted on May 25, 2024
| 3 minutes
| 502 words
| Jenniffer Sheldon
Other livesPaintingObituaryJane O’Malley obituaryMy friend the painter Jane O’Malley, who has died of cancer aged 79, was a still life painter of rare skill. Utilising a spare repertoire of daily objects, including bowls, vases, jugs and flowers, Jane could conjure up an alert, vibrant composition of colour, line and form. Recurrent backdrops were provided by St Ives in Cornwall, the stark lava fields of Lanzarote and her lush garden in Ireland.
[Read More]Mike Roberts obituary | Stage
Posted on May 25, 2024
| 2 minutes
| 370 words
| Valentine Belue
Other livesStageObituaryMike Roberts obituaryOur friend Mike Roberts (Big Mike), who has died aged 66 of organ failure as a result of osteomyelitis, was one of the theatre's more colourful sons. Mike used the term "stagehand" to describe himself, but this belies his mastery of technical theatre. Two of the country's leading regional opera companies have reason to be thankful for his timely dedication.
Trained at the Edinburgh Lyceum, Mike joined Scottish Opera in 1975, rising to become assistant to the technical director.
[Read More]Orbital: Optical Delusion review plague songs and hyper-pop
Posted on May 25, 2024
| 2 minutes
| 247 words
| Valentine Belue
The ObserverOrbitalReview(London)
A flurry of guest vocalists all have things to say on the duo’s potent 10th album, and yet the real magic happens when they’re left to their own devices
Purism has many drawbacks, but electronic music can sometimes seem diminished by vocalists cooing up top, as though some core fealty to the radical possibilities of electronics has been diluted. Not even Orbital – titans of the genre – are immune to the human-angle siren song.
[Read More]Paul Reizin obituary | Newspapers
Posted on May 25, 2024
| 3 minutes
| 512 words
| Valentine Belue
Other livesNewspapersObituaryPaul Reizin obituaryThe Guardian played a pivotal role in the life of the journalist and author Paul Reizin, who has died age 67 after a short illness.
At the turn of the millennium, with the business of swiping right and left still some years ahead, Paul put his future happiness in the hands of the Guardian’s telephone dating line, through which he met his wife Ruth Webb, a distinguished classicist, for whom he was happy to abandon what Mrs Patrick Campbell called “the hurly-burly of the chaise-longue”.
[Read More]The past does not define you: a gang member turned activist looks back
Posted on May 25, 2024
| 6 minutes
| 1242 words
| Valentine Belue
DocumentaryLorine Padilla, former ‘first lady’ of New York’s Savage Skulls gang, reflects on her life in a new documentary about strength and adversity
“This is a story about how the past does not define you,” says Lorine Padilla, community activist, mother and former “first lady” of the Savage Skulls gang, about a new documentary on her life. She speaks bluntly, and with an understated, yet undeniable strength that has come from a lifetime of asserting herself in inhospitable spaces.
[Read More]UN chief: refusal to accept two-state solution for Israelis and Palestinians 'unacceptable' vid
Posted on May 25, 2024
| 1 minutes
| 132 words
| Kary Bruening
United Nations UN chief: refusal to accept two-state solution for Israelis and Palestinians 'unacceptable' – video The UN secretary general, António Guterres, said on Saturday that abandoning the two-state solution to the Israel-Palestinian conflict was 'unacceptable', saying it would prolong the conflict, threaten global peace and fuel extremism. Speaking at the 19th summit of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) in Kampala, Uganda, Guterres said the number of civilian casualties in Gaza over such a short period of time was unprecedented, adding that 152 UN staff members had been killed since the war started
[Read More]California man charged with three deaths in suspected serial killer case | California
Posted on May 24, 2024
| 3 minutes
| 517 words
| Jenniffer Sheldon
California This article is more than 1 year oldCalifornia man charged with three deaths in suspected serial killer caseThis article is more than 1 year old‘We’re going to stay tenacious, we don’t know how many cases there are,’ Stockton police chief says
Prosecutors have charged a northern California man with fatally shooting three men whom police have said were among six victims slain by a serial killer over the past year and a half.
[Read More]Derailed train sparks molten sulphur fire in Kentucky | Kentucky
Posted on May 24, 2024
| 3 minutes
| 568 words
| Jenniffer Sheldon
Kentucky This article is more than 1 month oldDerailed train sparks molten sulphur fire in KentuckyThis article is more than 1 month oldState declares emergency and town of Livingston evacuated, to be fed Thanksgiving dinner by CVX rail company
The governor of Kentucky has declared a state of emergency after a train derailed and sparked a molten sulphur fire.
The derailment, involving at least 16 cars including two that were carrying molten sulphur, occurred north of Livingston in Rockcastle county at about 2.
[Read More]Fools, Frauds and Firebrands by Roger Scruton review a demolition of socialist intellectuals
Posted on May 24, 2024
| 6 minutes
| 1068 words
| Aldo Pusey
Sorrowful yet witty … Roger Scruton. Photograph: Andy Hall/The ObserverSorrowful yet witty … Roger Scruton. Photograph: Andy Hall/The ObserverPolitics booksReviewThis polemic adopts the abusive and paranoid style it decries in its leftwing opponents
The New Left is rather old news. Hence the title change for this new version of Roger Scruton’s critique of rampant intellectual socialism, which was originally published in 1985 as simply Thinkers of the New Left. Since then, RD Laing and Rudolf Bahro are out; Jacques Lacan, Gilles Deleuze, Edward Said, Alain Badiou and Slavoj Žižek are in.
[Read More]