Terri Carol | | The Guardian

 Posted on April 27, 2024  |  4 minutes  |  682 words  |  Aldo Pusey

ObituaryTerri CarolPaper tearer who boosted wartime moraleWhat was unique about the music hall performer Terri Carol, who has died aged 87, was that she bridged the gap between pre-television era variety and the variety which re-emerged in the 1980s. Terri was a paper tearer - she balked at the term origami - and became a symbol of the resurrected Hackney Empire in London's east end. Her presentation stunned modern audiences. Coiffured, magnificently gowned, the grand old lady - who called people " [Read More]

'Snip snap snappy!'

 Posted on April 26, 2024  |  2 minutes  |  325 words  |  Aldo Pusey

MusicSeasoned hit-makers McFly may occupy the UK's number one, but they've a way to go to catch the most successful record across the rest of Europe. Snappy (The Little Crocodile) has spent the summer at number one in 10 European countries, selling more than 1m copies. In Germany, it occupied the pole position for 10 weeks, staving off Robbie Williams. All this despite the fact that its chorus goes "Snip snap snappy, snappy snappy snap" [Read More]

Chimp attack kills cabbie and injures tourists | World news

 Posted on April 26, 2024  |  1 minutes  |  94 words  |  Kary Bruening

World newsChimp attack kills cabbie and injures touristsPolice are hunting 27 chimpanzees that escaped from a Sierra Leone preserve and attacked the occupants of a taxi, killing the driver. Four other people among the group of local and American sightseers were mauled by the animals and needed hospital treatment, including a Sierra Leonean man whose hand was later amputated. The US embassy warned Americans against visiting the Tacugama sanctuary, from where the chimps escaped. [Read More]

Cocteau Twins 10 of the best

 Posted on April 26, 2024  |  10 minutes  |  2075 words  |  Kary Bruening

10 of the bestMusicThey emerged fully formed from the post-punk shadows and developed a sound that would become the gold standard for enigmatic, ethereal indie-pop. Here are their 10 greatest moments 1. Wax and WaneTwenty years since their last full-length release, the Cocteau Twins remain, for many, a gold standard of a band, a group that seemed to have emerged fully formed from some dark, shadowy intersection of Victorian elegance and post-punk moodiness. [Read More]

Cult of Beyonc: how the star inspired a new wave of Christian worship

 Posted on April 26, 2024  |  3 minutes  |  482 words  |  Chauncey Koziol

Pass notesBeyoncéA service using the star’s story, songs and spiritual struggles has New Yorkers crazy in love after wowing worshippers in San Francisco Name: The cult of Beyoncé. Age: Quietly building since 1981. Appearance: Fierce, but also quite holy. Beyoncé! Yas queen! And yas queen with you. What? Why are you talking so weirdly? Beyoncé, I am not worthy to receive you but only say the word and I shall be healed. [Read More]

Everything Flows by Vasily Grossman

 Posted on April 26, 2024  |  4 minutes  |  766 words  |  Chauncey Koziol

FictionReviewChristopher Tayler on a new translation of a novel that was smothered by the KGBThe Soviet writer Vasily Grossman finished his major novel, Life and Fate, in 1960, four years before his death from stomach cancer. It could have made him as famous as Solzhenitsyn in the west, but it wasn't published anywhere until the 1980s, and until fairly recently he was little known in the English-speaking world. Born into a secular Jewish family in Ukraine in 1905, Grossman became a published writer in the 30s and volunteered for the army after the German invasion of 1941, in which his mother was murdered. [Read More]

Invisible bear makes cyclists safer | Transport

 Posted on April 26, 2024  |  4 minutes  |  787 words  |  Kary Bruening

The ObserverTransport This article is more than 15 years oldInvisible bear makes cyclists saferThis article is more than 15 years oldTransport for London gets more than 10 million viewers for quirky internet video with a serious messageA video clip featuring an 'invisible' moonwalking bear that has stealthily grown to be an internet hit has been revealed as a subtle road safety campaign planted by London transport officials. The minute-long film called simply Awareness Test has caught out millions of viewers on the video-sharing website YouTube and other sites. [Read More]

Paramore's Hayley Williams: 'A lot of my depression was misplaced anger'

 Posted on April 26, 2024  |  8 minutes  |  1649 words  |  Valentine Belue

ParamoreThe singer-songwriter’s first solo album, Petals for Armor, was born out of therapy, a failed marriage and the turbulent relationship with her bandmates. What has it taught her about herself? When Hayley Williams was nine, her dad often took her go-karting at Ultimate Fun World in Mississippi. The harder she pressed the accelerator, the more it alleviated her growing pains. She would spend all day driving until she forgot about the ache. [Read More]

Politicians' Christmas cards: five of the best and worst

 Posted on April 26, 2024  |  3 minutes  |  503 words  |  Valentine Belue

ChristmasThis year’s offering from the Blairs is questionable on many levels. But have festive designs from other politicians ever caught the right mood? What does the Christmas card you send say about you? Politicians understandably approach said question with caution – often with interesting results. See Tony and Cherie Blair’s, revealed on Tuesday. Once you get past Tony’s border terrier teeth and the fact that it looks as if Cherie has been superimposed, this is all about presenting the Blairs as a unit. [Read More]

Amy Winehouse falls apart | Life and style

 Posted on April 25, 2024  |  2 minutes  |  345 words  |  Chauncey Koziol

The ObserverLife and styleAmy Winehouse falls apartBackstage at Swan Lake, bloody ballet shoes are a nightly occurrence. But there was something particularly affecting about the sight of Amy Winehouse's blood-spattered pink pumps, snapped in the early hours of an August morning. Maybe it was the fact that every female in the land has a pair, minus the bloodstains, of course. Maybe it was the ghastly collateral that went with the soiled footwear: the sordid late-night goings-on; the humdinger of a row with her husband, Blake Fielder-Civil; the couple's his'n'hers flesh wounds. [Read More]