Honeymoon in Vegas: Why Sin City is more than a wild party location

Independent.ie

When I think of Vegas, I think of fun. Hedonistic pool parties, over-the-top cocktails, dancing till dawn and excessive eating, all in the name of a good time.

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When I think of Vegas, I think of fun. Hedonistic pool parties, over-the-top cocktails, dancing till dawn and excessive eating, all in the name of a good time.

In most people's minds, Sin City is just that - a place to be bold. What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas.

Perhaps that's why friends and family were surprised when I booked a weekend there as part of our honeymoon. People are far more likely to associate the Nevada city with stag or hen parties, or ill-thought-out nuptials. Vegas is also known for its top-class shows, incredible restaurants and once-in-a-lifetime experiences, however - so why wouldn't it make a great stop on our multi-city romantic holiday?

My new husband, Joe, and I love eating, drinking and having fun... so a trip to Sin City seemed right up our street.

I'll be honest. A major factor in wanting to go was Celine Dion's residency in The Colosseum (below) at Caesars Palace (caesars.com). We planned to start our honeymoon in Napa, California, before flying to Orlando, Florida, so why not schedule a three-night pit stop to see my idol's highly acclaimed show in between?

Luckily, Joe agreed.

We arrived in Vegas exactly one week after our wedding, batteries slightly recharged after North Cali's wine country. We checked into our suite at The Venetian (venetian.com, top), one of the classier establishments on the Strip. Twinned with The Palazzo next door, it's an all-suite, Italian-themed enclave complete with shopping mall, food court, casinos, theatre, countless restaurants and several bars, as well as a spa. All the rooms are enormous, the staff courteous and everything you could possibly desire is right there.

You needn't set foot outside if you don't want to, but there's so much more to Las Vegas than the casino floor, as we were soon to learn.

Our first stop was at In-N-Out Burger (in-n-out.com), a very unromantic joint famous on the West Coast. Las Vegas is its most easterly outpost, so my new husband insisted we go for a double-double, and as I was dragging him to a Celine Dion concert, I complied. We washed it down with a couple of icy ones from Jimmy Buffet's Margaritaville (margaritaville.com) as we walked down the Strip, and then went to get ready for Celine's show.

It did not disappoint. I cried so much, the lady next to me handed me a tissue. But they were good tears. Afterwards, we whiled away the hour or so before dinner with some good ol' fashioned gambling. I love the casino at Caesars Palace as it's pretty old-school and traditional. For somewhere pumped full of oxygen, brightly lit and crammed with drinking and smoking gamblers, it's very pleasant. I had a mini-winning streak on the blackjack, so we trotted off to dinner a bit squiffy.

We had late dinner reservations at the Vegas branch of my favourite New York restaurant, Beauty & Essex (above; beautyandessex.com). Its Sin City edition is situated in The Cosmopolitan - one of the latest additions to Las Vegas Boulevard. We underestimated the walk between it and Caesars, and ended up half-jogging, but it was worth it. The food was just as good as it is in New York; we devoured Caesar toast, barbecue fries, ravioli and ragu, all washed down with whiskey cocktails.

Next morning, revived by greasy sandwiches from the food court in our hotel, we took an Uber (the most efficient and inexpensive transport in the city) to the Neon Boneyard (neonmuseum.org), spending an hour among the old signage before heading back to stroll through The Wynn.

It's another stunning hotel, with a gorgeous lakeside bar and restaurant, whimsical dcor and very Instagrammable details. I made a mental note to return.

That night, we decided to check out everything our own hotel had to offer. First up, pre-dinner cocktails at The Dorsey on The Venetian's casino floor. Next, another show, this time Baz. Based on the movies of auteur director Baz Luhrmann, it's a cabaret show/musical hybrid that includes scenes from Moulin Rouge!, Romeo + Juliet and The Great Gatsby - many of the tables are on the stage or the runways leading off it, so the actors and dancers perform around you. If you want your drink refreshed, you press a little light on your table and a waiter visits when it's safe. Very enjoyable!

That night's feast was at Yardbird, one of the more casual restaurants at The Venetian, but still with tip-top service and delicious Southern-inspired food (when they heard we were newlyweds, they brought out a very impressive dessert complete with sparkler). More gambling ensued, this time less successfully, although I did learn to play Spanish 21 - a game in which there are no 10s (just say "hit me" and hope for the best). Cocktail waitresses bring free drinks as you spend... many a person's downfall.

Slightly delicate the next day, we made our way to Lago at the Bellagio (bellagio.com, above) for lunch and hair of the dog. Italian tapas is its thing: small sharing plates of pizza and pasta. Carbs, cheese, a seat outdoors on a lovely terrace and an Aperol spritz (or two) were just what we needed before chilling out on The Venetian's pool deck.

Our last dinner was at Mandalay Bay's Aureole (mandalaybay.com), a semi-fine dining experience with a heavy wine angle. The restaurant looked a bit chain-hotel to me, but there's a four-storey wine tower that a 'wine angel' travels up and down on a wire to fetch the bottle of your choice. Gimmicky, but fun.

We left Las Vegas a little depleted, but not as much as expected. Nightclubs and all-out hedonism were avoided, but there was so much to see, do and eat, they didn't even factor. It might not be a traditional honeymoon destination, but Vegas definitely has a classy, romantic, softer side.

Flats are essential for walking between resorts (quite a distance). A cross-body bag is good for women, freeing up hands for cocktails and casinos while avoiding pickpockets. Bring lots of light layers - it can be hot outside, but hotels are heavily air-conditioned to keep gamblers perky!

There are no direct flights from Ireland, but you can go via London or through another major American city Aer Lingus offers direct flights to LA (aerlingus.com), for example. Download the Uber app: youll use it religiously (resorts have separate entrances for Ubers and car-share rides).

See also visitlasvegas.com.

The all-suite Venetian (venetian.com) is gorgeous, complete with gondola rides and a good location on the Strip. Suites start from $259/220, plus a $39/33 resort fee (theres a 15pc discount if you book direct). Id also recommend The Cosmopolitan (cosmopolitanlasvegas.com).

Weekend Magazine

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Honeymoon in Vegas: Why Sin City is more than a wild party ... - Independent.ie

For the umpteenth time, Oscar Wildes only novel is getting a film adaptionbut this one promises to be perhaps the most unique spin on the story since it was first published 127 years ago.

Annie Clark, the Grammy-winning musician best known as St. Vincent, will direct a film based on The Picture of Dorian Gray, Wildes 1890 novel about a young man whose portrait ages while he remains eternally young, living a life of hedonism. In Clarks film, the title character will instead be a woman, Variety reported.

The film will be Clarks feature film debut. She previously directed one of the installments in XX, a horror anthology film directed by all women, which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival this year. As a musician, Clark has won many accolades, including the Grammy for best alternative album in 2015.

A Faustian philosophical horror about the value of beauty, The Picture of Dorian Gray is one of the most widely read (and studied) works of 19th century literature. At the time of its publication, though, the novel was met with contempt from a Victorian society offended by the novels perceived amoralityin particular, its homoerotic subtext. Wilde, whod later be convicted and imprisoned for gross indecency with men, was forced to expunge some of the novels references to homosexuality when it was republished in 1891.

The character of Dorian Gray has been female once before, in the 1983 made-for-TV movie The Sins of Dorian Gray. But that film eliminated the character of Basil Hallward (the artist whos infatuated with Gray and paints his portrait), and with him, much of the storys queer subtext. In order for Clarks film to retain that element of Wildes novel, Hallward would likely have to be a woman too.

The novelthe only one Wilde ever wrote before his death in in 1900, was first made into a silent film in 1910. Since then, its been adapted dozens of times and has inspired countless films, songs, books, and plays. Dorian Gray is a major character in the Showtime horror series Penny Dreadful, which uses several characters from 19th century British and Irish literature. Gray was also featured in the 2003 film The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, based on the comics of the same name.

David Birke, who wrote the Oscar-nominated French thriller Elle, will write Clarks adaptation. Lionsgate is developing the project, which does not yet have a release date.

Excerpt from:

The Picture of Dorian Gray is getting a gender-swapped film adaptation - Quartz

Can you feel it coming? Quickening on the horizon, a rustle of Uggs and shutter shades, skinny jeans and chunky highlights; a murmur of Friendster notifications in Netscape browsers and mainstremo bands on white iPods. Its name is aughties nostalgia, and it is almost upon us. The realization elicits a shock quickly followed by a no doy, considering the moribund state of nineties nostalgia. Look around you: The Toadies are trapped on a purgatorial tour that presumably consists of Possum Kingdom eleven times per night; the half-hearted comeback of chain wallets is wringing out the fashion dregs. Only a few unavailable seasons of Blossom still stand between us and total nineties depletion.

The aughts werent all well-dressed men singing songs for oblivion, hate-watching their own fame, and getting one another strung out on drugs, as portrayed in Meet Me in the Bathroom, Lizzy Goodmans recent oral history of post-9/11 New York rock. If some were hungry, others were haunted, and countered the wave of spartan decadence with arcane varietals of messianic monk-progbands like TV on the Radio and, of course, Grizzly Bear. While Casablancas and them rocked rumpled suits and struck poses of prep-school dissipation, Grizzly Bear were otherworldly ciphers whose ranks included a bona fide merman yowling in dolphin language and blowing a conch shell. Cultivating the tempo and grandeur of sances, they led a sensitive, severe shadow trend to all the disaffected hedonism, not unlike the post-acoustic bonfire music the art-hippies in Animal Collective were busy turning into a genre.

If Grizzly Bears influence was minted in the aughts, their commercial peak was 2012s lavish, laborious Shields, a validation that also felt like a logical conclusion. They scattered and did grown-ass things for a whilekids, divorces, leaving New Yorkbefore returning today with Painted Ruins, their first record in five years. Pieced together from afar, and consequently cautious, it seems unlikely to shift the bands attenuated trajectory. But it comes at an opportune moment in the nostalgia cycle, being so stoic and redolent of something were about to start missing.

It all started in the bedroom of Ed Droste, whose 2004 debut, Horn of Plenty, suggested a universe in which Leonard Cohen joined the Velvet Underground. Drostes sparse, droning, hollowed dirges conveyed a shaken austerity that lots of people identified with. Though the Strokes and Grizzly Bear sounded little alike, they and other New York bands were united in struggling to make and hold onto meanings, rather than bursting with an overabundance of them, in the manner of more ecstatic, perhaps more typical, rock musicians.

It took the addition of Daniel Rossen, a second singer, songwriter, and guitaristinsofar as you can define those roles in the all-singing, all-playing approach that Grizzly Bear helped imprint on the erato round out the scheme on 2006s Yellow House. Rossen, who has his own following with Department of Eagles, paneled in Drostes moody grays with songwriterly woodgrain. Yellow House was their most lovable album, and 2009s Veckatimest was probably their best, expertly balancing sere saturnalia with pert pop like Two Weeks.

But Shields, though critically acclaimed, was just not, generally speaking, a fun album to make, as Droste said recently. Its foggy-mountain jams are diligent but not joyful; even the beloved Sleeping Ute unwelcomely reminds me of a time when we had to listen to bass solos and Yeasayer, often simultaneously. Painted Ruins is an easier go. It has all the vibes and parts youd expectthe jagged somnolence, the lathed bass lines, the martial drumrolls and oceanic swells, the bright, crispy chords stabbing through the mannered churn like sun spikes though a hangover. Slinky grooves, like Steely Dan gone mod, exfoliate; Mourning Sound has a particularly perky thump and sway.

The choice of the wandering Three Rings as lead single indicates how utterly, even for Grizzly Bear, this record is about the rolling landscape, not the particular sights. Its a landscape haunted more by the past than by the present, and the title has an unmissable implication of putting a fresh coat on something inhabited mainly by memory. This is bigger than dated trends. Grizzly Bear were forged in a time when prestige music was learning to be made for the Internet in a certain way, pored over by the type of people who used to sit with headphones and liner notes, which created a market for prestige music that demanded more and more complexity, more ambiguity, more fiddly bits to hold our fragmenting attention.

In the 2010s, the aughties fad for the hermetic that Painted Ruins revives has passed. More music is made for a populist, personalized vision of the Internet than for an elite one. Bold statements of identity, swirls of social color, and off-the-cuff inspiration are the temper of our times. Of course Grizzly Bear cant shake the aughties by tunneling into vintage psych-pop citations. Theyre a band that was always prized for looking in, not out; its drowsy, not woke, elaborate without urgency.

Four Cypruses glimmers into being with magisterial serenity, beautifully rises and falls for a while, and fadesout. Its chaos, but it works, Rossen shrugs. Aquarian touches the lighter side of Captain Beefheart, laying out trippy thickets for people who havent tripped in years. Rossen sings about upcountry drifters in permanent repose on the spidery Glass Hillside, which perfectly captures the records overall sense of drifting disengagement, of shifting through internal gears and sorting out old lives. The forms are large, the meanings small, an inversion of contemporary musics vitality. Painted Ruins is monumental at a time when monuments fall.

Droste sings with such gravitas and remove that its easy to overlook how deliberately blank the lyrics are, and always have been. The profound trip-hop groove of opener Wasted Acres cant elide that all its about is riding a Honda TRX 250 ATV in a field. Throughout the record, words are just pathways through which the melody travels from one sweep to the next, but nothing really comes into focus except an almost free-floating regret and confusion. You can no longer feel the knife, but you can remember feeling it, in another decade, one just beginning to seem both self-defined and irretrievably lost.

See the original post here:

Review: Grizzly Bear Sort Out Their Old Lives on the Slinky, Satisfying Painted Ruins - SPIN

Seven years ago, when Kesha made her dbut, doused in glitter, she occupied the role of pops mononymous misfit with charm. Before I leave, brush my teeth with a bottle of Jack, she sang on Tik Tok, a massive, wacky earworm that effortlessly made its way into middle-school dances and bars in 2010. In the videos for Tik Tok and her other hit, Your Love Is My Drug, her jeans were ripped and her hair was mussed. (Back then, she spelled her name as Ke$ha, a joke about how broke shed been before making it big.) On her first album, Animal, she seemed averse to sincerity; for the most part, she strutted past balladry for the thumping hedonism of late-aughts E.D.M. She barely even sang. More often, Kesha rapped, sort of. Interestingly, there seemed to be no sex in her voiceonly brashness, and a buzzing, single-girl aggression.

When she did sing, as when she wrote songs, Kesha was best at sounding anonymous, and many of her own songs featured Auto-Tune. Slowly, though, and strategically, Kesha began to reveal the original rasp of her voice, exchanging vaguely warped trip-hop for sensual rock. There seemed to be a realization, sometime around the 2012 release of Warrior, that Kesha was more than a fun-house mirror of commercially packaged femininitythat she might be the real thing. A listicle about the number of songs that people probably werent aware she had written, for herself and for other artists, became popular on music sites. (Those other artists include Ariana Grande, Flo-Rida, and Alice Cooper; her talents are strangely malleable.) In 2014, she dropped the dollar sign. It became widely known that her mother is Rosemary Patricia Pebe Stewart, the songwriter who penned Old Flames Cant Hold a Candle to You for Dolly Parton. Old demos surfaced revealing Keshas ear for blues and sorrow. Like Lana Del Rey , or the intrepid young songwriters Charli XCX and Bebe Rexha, Kesha was versed both in party clich and heartfelt testimony.

She has also showed strength. For the past three years, the artist has pursued a suite of lawsuits against the producer Dr. Luke (Lukasz Sebastian Gottwald), formerly of Sony, whom she accuses of sexual assault and battery, sexual harassment, gender violence, unfair business practices, and infliction of emotional distress. (Gottwald denies all accusations, and has not faced criminal charges.) Keshas fight to release herself from the terms of her contract has initiated debates about the structural misogyny of the music industry and, more generally, the unchecked ways men may dictate the futures of the women they have harmed. Notably, the ordeal prevented Kesha from releasing any new music. Instead, she has performed covers, sometimes mournfully. Last year, before a court date, she uploaded a video of herself, taken in selfie mode. I cant put out new music, but I can sing a little of someone elses songs, of something that exists, she said, before singing Amazing Grace.

The release of Rainbow, her third album, was facilitated by a court decision allowing Kesha to record without the producer. (The decision upheld the contractual relationship; Dr. Lukes name appears on the albums liner notes.) On the Technicolor cover, Kesha stands like a trippy Venus, naked, in a cartoon pool, her back turned to us. Many have been impressed by the lushness of the albums sound, by the way that her grunts and groans meet soaring piano. Praying, the first single, which came out in July, is, as Rolling Stone put it, triumphant. But Kesha also understands that grungy irreverence has always been her skill, and that it is compatible with the grandiosity of hope. Woman, an anthem track, balances gloss and gravity with a touch of grime. Its an empowerment song of the storied Bills, Bills, Bills ilk, about shaking off no-good men and forging independencethe kind of song that could provide a soundtrack to the sequence in a feel-good romantic comedy in which a woman gets a style makeover. That movie would have an adult rating: no one says the word motherfucker quite like Kesha. On Woman, she sings it and its derivatives over and over again, employing it like a happy cudgel. Im a motherfucking woman, she exclaims, Im a motherfucker. The cursing rings like a genuine release; her profanity lifts the song out of triteness. The funk ensemble the Dap-Kings match her brass, filling the chorus with staccato horns. Around the second verse, Kesha breaks off for a momentprobably giggling about the silly lyrics, loosey as a goosey and were looking for some fun. Its sweet to hear her laugh.

See the original post:

Kesha's Liberating New Anthem, Woman - The New Yorker

Some film projects just appeal to you on a personal, spiritual level. For me, this is one of those jams. Annie Clark, better known as her stage name as musician St. Vincent, is set to direct an adaptation of The Picture of Dorian Gray for Lionsgate. But thats just the start of the good news. Per Variety, he script will come from Elle screenwriter David Birke, who is also set to pen Screen Gems upcoming Slender Man movie, and theyll be putting a twist on Oscar Wildes classic Victorian novel by gender-swapping the titular lead character.

The first and only novel from the prolific Irishwriter behind The Importance of Being Ernest, Salome, and no less than three of your favorite witticisms, The Picture of Dorian Gray follows a beautiful young man concerned with little more than the pleasures of hedonism who sells his soul to retain his youth and beauty. The libertine commissions a portrait that captures his preternatural beauty, and while he never ages a day as he continues his self-indulgent waysthrough the years, his portrait ages in his stead, revealing every vice and depravity he indulges along the way.

Image via Magnet Releasing

Clark made her directorial debut earlier this year with the female-driven horror anthology The XX, for which she helmed the films most offbeat piece a candy-colored suburban nightmare starring Melanie Lynskey that skirted the lines of the horror label. She showed off a visual acumen as a filmmaker and a refreshing, fluid approach to genre, both of which would suit an update of Wildes oft-adapted tale. More interesting is the gender swap and what commentary the film could reap from it. As it was, Wildes piece was a bit of an inversion on the more conventional Elizabeth Bathory/Evil Queen female tropes of beauty-obsessed villainy. Now, centuries later when both sides of the coin have been so well explored, Im curious if they can find something new to say. Im also very, very curious who theyll cast in the role of the lady libertine.

What do you guys think? Are you as excited as I am? Sound off in the comments.

Continued here:

St. Vincent to Direct Gender-Bent 'The Picture of Dorian Gray' Movie - Collider.com

I could never really explain my distaste for Jimmy Fallon until I visited Munich during Oktoberfest a few years back. I entered a beer tent to thousands of glassy-eyed revelers partaking in that most hedonistic of human activities drinking until you lose consciousness.

Jimmy Fallon would love this, I thought, and just like that, I understood where my feelings for him came from. Its not to say I have anything against Oktoberfest (on the contrary!) but I realized in that instant that hedonism is exactly what Jimmy Fallon represents. His comedy is the product not of suffering but of having grown up white, male, and economically secure. It has no substance because its not saying anything.

Theres nothing wrong with enjoying this kind of humor and Im also not saying that Fallon himself doesnt know pain, although a knowledge of pain is certainly not Fallons brand. That I dont personally appreciate comedy rooted in happiness is neither here nor there. But when a commitment to keeping it light means failing to stand up for the people who dont have that option those whose rights are in very real and present danger in this country it becomes a problem.

Jimmy Fallon is being lauded for his condemnation of Donald Trump Tuesday night. But what people are missing is this: after months of ignoring the terror the Trump administration has wrought upon this country particularly upon women, immigrants, Jews, people of color, the LGBTQ community it took actual Nazis marching in the streets for Fallon to finally speak up.

Even though The Tonight Show isnt a political show, its my responsibility to stand up for intolerance and extremism as a human being, Fallon said before launching into an admonishment of Trumps refusal to denounce the Charlottesville white supremacists. I was watching the news like everybody else and youre seeing Nazi flags and torches and white supremacists and I was sick to my stomach. My daughters were playing in the next room playing and I was thinking, how can I explain to them that there is so much hatred in this world. They are two and four. They dont know what hate is.

There is a reason we do not watch movies about 1930s Germany that do not in some significant way feature the Holocaust. It would be a bizarre, indefensible, and irresponsible artistic choice to make such a movie, as if the Holocaust didnt intimately affect the lives of every German, Jewish and otherwise, during that period. Though we cannot compare modern America to the horrors of Nazi Germany, we cannot pretend the ascendence of Donald Trump isnt a starkly present backdrop in the lives of all Americans right now. Progress is being undone, civil rights are being challenged, and the threat of white supremacy is more explicitly vocal than it has been in years.

In this world, silence is complicity. This goes for all people, especially those who have benefited and continue to benefit from the very white supremacy those marching in Charlottesville this past weekend are fighting to preserve. But it especially goes for someone like Jimmy Fallon, who has a platform and an audience whose apoliticism the reason, perhaps, many of them choose to tune in to Fallons show must be challenged for the sake of this countrys well-being.

Jimmy Fallons long-awaited condemnation of Donald Trump is appreciated but Im saddened by how long this man took to acknowledge the reality of whats going on in America. It doesnt matter if your show is political or not. It hasnt mattered for a long time.

Becky Scott is the editor of The Schmooze. Follow her on Twitter, @arr_scott

Link:

Jimmy Fallon's Condemnation Of Trump Is Too Little, Too Late - Forward

Hip hop has been experiencing a rebirth across China thanks to a new generation of rappers who focus more on hedonism than political messages.

One of the most popular Chinese hip hop crews are the Higher Brothers. The outfit from Chengdu in Sichuan province will be flying the flag for Chinese rap at Hong Kongs Clockenflap festival this November.

The crew have notched up more than four million views on YouTube for their Made in China video and have won critical praise for their debut album, Black Cab, which was released in May this year.

In the lead-up to the citys biggest annual music and arts festival, the Higher Brothers visited Hong Kong earlier this month to preform at Kitec in Kowloon Bay, where their lyrical prowess was on full display to the packed house.

See the article here:

Clockenflap 2017: Higher Brothers bring Chinese hip hop to Hong Kong and the world - South China Morning Post

Photography: Eric Johnson

The rapper'sHedonism highlight features longtime collaborator Rye Rye.

Wed, 2017-08-16 13:08

Cakes Da Killa pumps the beat on "Gon Blow," the Rye Rye-assisted standout off his debut studio album, Hedonism. Following music videos for "Talkin Greezy" and "Been Dat Did That,"the New Jersey rapper has dropped yet another, this time pairing the aggressive sounds of "Gon Blow" with colorful animations by Ben Marlowe. Spliced together with black-and-white scenes from a party Cakes hosted, the video is a celebration of dance culture.

"The visual is a collaboration with myself, photographer Eric Johnson and animator Ben Marlowe," Cakes told Vibe. "For me, the track is all about movement, so we included some B-roll from a party Eric and I threw. Bens animations helped add some dance sequences to the video, because dance culture influences my music a lot, and I feel there is a disconnect between that and rap culture lately."

Related |Queer Rapper Cakes Da Killa on Finding Self in Music: 'I Was Born Out of the Closet'

This isn't the first time Cakes has collaborated with Rye Rye, the M.I.A. affiliate whose debut rap album Go! Pop! Bang! was one of 2012's strongest, unsung releases. The pair also joined forces on "Get 2 Werk" off Cakes' Hunger Pangs mixtape, another high-energy cut that opens with New York's Contessa Stuto proclaiming her Cunt Mafia realness.

Watch Cakes Da Killa's "Gon Blow" video, below.

See more here:

Cakes Da Killa's 'Gon Blow' Video is an Ode to Dance Culture - Out Magazine

Chris Richards, The Washington Post

When a pop star survives a humiliating scandal with mettle and grace, is it heartless to call her big comeback album anything less than a triumph? Try listening to Kesha's "Rainbow" with two fingers pressed to your jugular and you might feel something like this: She's back (that's good), but her lyrics read like a slush pile of rebound tropes (that's bad), but her voice still sounds stretchy like spandex (terrific), and she seems to be steering it into new places (even better). Where, exactly?

"I'm going back home to outer space," Kesha promises over the country thrum of "Spaceship," her cosmic vehicle hovering auspiciously over the Nashville skyline.

Music Row or the Pleiades - either destination beats the courtroom purgatory where Kesha Rose Sebert has spent the past few years of her career. In 2014, she filed a lawsuit against her producer and label boss, Lukasz "Dr. Luke" Gottwald, claiming that he had "sexually, physically, verbally and emotionally abused" her, and since then, legal defeats have prevented her from releasing music outside her deals with him. And with her career in a holding pattern after her 2012 album, "Warrior," starrier vocalists snapped up Kesha's contributions and ran - Lady Gaga with the freak-flag felicity, Katy Perry with the affirmative uplift, Miley Cyrus with the rap-curious hedonism.

All of that gives "Rainbow" an impossible amount of work to do, but Kesha dives right in, pushing her melodies in the direction of catharsis, even when lyrical cliches block the rush. And they do, over and over again. "Nothing's gonna stop me now." "I can breathe again." "Live and learn." "The best is yet to come." All meaningless phrases that undermine her attempts at unburdening her heart.

On top of that, all of the on-the-nose-ness starts to make many of Kesha's stylistic choices feel unimaginative, too. "Praying," a piano ballad that addresses her struggles most directly, still sounds like the stuff of Kelly Clarkson. The album's title track pantomimes the band Fun. And "Boogie Feet," a collaboration with Eagles of Death Metal, doesn't replicate the electro-punk of Kathleen Hanna's Le Tigre so much as map its genome.

Kesha is far more compelling when she borrows from country music - a genre in which imitation feels less egregious because everyone always appears to be tubing down the cool river of tradition. With "Hunt You Down," Kesha delivers a few tongue-in-cheek threats of bodily harm over a vintage click-clack beat, making a smart nod to Miranda Lambert's "Mama's Broken Heart." And during the staccato refrain of "Learn to Let Go," it's obvious that Kesha has been listening to country's best new syncretist, Maren Morris.

But she sounds most like a country singer when she's singing a bona fide country song: "Old Flames (Can't Hold a Candle To You)," a Dolly Parton single from 1980 co-written by Kesha's mother, Pebe Sebert. Here, in 2017, Parton actually materializes during the second verse, and hearing her trembling voice alongside Kesha's yowl serves as a helpful reminder about how atypical voices can sometimes become legendary voices.

It's tough to imagine Kesha eventually hanging her star higher than Parton's, but it gets a little easier whenever she starts twisting up her vowels, sending a syllable in one direction and then yanking it back in another. This is an artist who has lost so much but whose voice still very much belongs to her. And in country music, nothing communicates human truth more effectively than one-of-a-kind vowel torquing.

Listen to how Kesha wraps up "Spaceship," the album's closing ballad, with a spoken, spaced-out soliloquy. "The wars, the triumphs, the beauty and the bloodshed, the ocean of human endeavor, it all grows quiet, insignificant," she chants in vocal fry, sounding mysteriously pouty and slightly aloof. She's apparently off to search for perspective in deep space, but let's hope it's a bluff. Why not park that rocket in Nashville and see what happens next?

Original post:

The best thing about Kesha's big comeback is where she's headed next - SFGate

Its been two years since Cakes da Killas bizarre Hot 97 interview with Ebro and Peter Rosenberg. For those who are unfamiliar, Ebro praised the emcees skills but said thatbecause of the lyrical content, the music wasnt for him. The session got even more strange when Rosenberg implied that Cakes should hook up with his lesbian assistant, following it up with the mind-boggling Is it directly penis that interests you the most? To his credit, Cakes laughed off the query: Oh, this cannot be a serious question. Yes, its directly the penis that excites me.

Theres no bad blood, though in fact, Ebro invited him to be a guest on his Beats1 show. And its not just the Hot 97 personality whos taken notice; DJ heavyweight Diplo tweeted that he liked Cakes latest album, Hedonism.

But Cakes is more than the sum of his cosigns, and his latest visual, for the Rye Ryeassisted Gon Blow, is proof. Cakes talked to us about the mesmerizing clip, premiering on VIBE today, as well as hip-hops relationship with the queer community and his dream collaborators: I just need someone like Missy Elliott to put me in an incubator for, like, six months, and then its, like, done. Ill even go back in the closet at this point.

What is the inspiration behind the Gon Blow visual? The visual is a collaboration with myself, photographer Eric Johnson and animator Ben Marlowe. For me, the track is all about movement, so we included some B-roll from a party Eric and I threw. Bens animations helped add some dance sequences to the video, because dance culture influences my music a lot, and I feel there is a disconnect between that and rap culture lately.

When did you discover ballroom culture? I discovered ballroom culture in high school via YouTube clips. For me, ballroom culture is the new B-boy, in a sense, where a community releases a lot of tension and pain through movement and art. During the time I discovered these clips, I also discovered artists like Jay Pendarvis on MySpace, who made tracks people could vogue to. That sound had a huge influence on what would become my rap style in the future, as far as cadence and speed.

What music did you listen to growing up? Well, growing up, music wasnt really my thing. It wasnt until my cousin introduced me to different types of music. Going through her CD collections I found No Doubt, Alanis Morissette, more alternative music. Obviously Im black, so hip-hop is always around. Its very much like a second language around the neighborhood.

The artists that I gravitate towards say fuck the system. They kind of do what they want to do, like Peaches or Beth Ditto. Or in the hip-hop realm, people like Lil Kim and Busta Rhymes. People who kind of dont really ascribe to playing by this formula. They come in and change shit up.

There was a lot of homophobia in 90s rap music. Did that ever fazeyou? No. I feel like rap gets this very negative [reputation] for being very homophobic, but theres homophobia in all genres of music. It didnt really bother me because I realize that rap is made up of different people with different opinions.

A few recent events have shown a shift toward queer acceptance in the hip-hop world: Yung Thug wore a dress on his Jeffery album cover, and Young M.A had a top 20 hit on the Hot 100. Do you feel like any of those moments were groundbreaking? I think overall as far as visibility, I think that it is cool, but to be critical, masculine female rappers have been making rap music for years. Thats really not reinventing the wheel. The problem is more so if youre a feminine artist: If youre a gay male or transgender, thats the issue. I mean, congratulations to Young M.A to getting that, but thats not really groundbreaking.

For the Young Thug moment, thats fab that people are now taking fashion and being more gender-fluid. But gay people have been doing that forever: Its kind of still straight privilege. For Young M.A to put on a dress I mean Young Thug, but thats fucking funny for Young Thug to put a dress on is kind of like progressive. But for me to put on a dress, its not progressive. Theres a double standard.

Do you think there is a shift toward queer inclusiveness in hip-hop? Theres not this panel of people in hip-hop who are saying we are being more welcoming to gay people. You have to keep in mind that hip-hop kind of came about after disco. The early rappers were kind of in the same places as gay people. You could even look at the early rap stars. They look kind of flamboyant. You know what Im saying? Its not really like theres a question of hip-hop. Its more so when the 90s came about, and there was that whole wave of hypermasculine, gangster rap music, which is what were still in now. Thats the problem. Its not rap or hip-hop, its that whole toxic masculinity.

A lot of your lyrics are implicitly gay. A lot of gay musicians [Laughs] Well, I am implicitly gay.

Ha! A lot of openly gay musicians shy away from their queerness. Do you think its important to vocalize your queerness? When I started making music, I never really thought that anyone would hear my music. Why would I be taken seriously? For me to be out, it wasnt an issue.

There are some privileges for being mysterious or not using specific gender pronouns in love songs. There is a kind of marketability to that. Do I get some setback for talking about blow jobs? Yes. But does that also empower some kids in Ohio? Yes. I think its more so a gambling thing. What do you really want to do with the record.

My grandmother had a gay best friend, and when he would come over for the holidays he was fabulous. He had money, he wore a mink coat. We all loved him. That was a positive reassurance: that if you were gay, you would be loved. My first viewing of seeing gay people on television was the Stonewall riots documentary. For me, gay people were never painted as less than or weaker than. We were people that started revolutions and bought nice clothes.

Do you think the hip-hop world is ready to move out of gangster rap and embrace a queer superstar? I think hip-hop is definitely the most mainstream its ever been. Its always gonna have that gangster in itself, because everybody wants to be a damn gangster for some reason. Ive always pointed the mirror back at the community. Obviously a fraternity in Atlanta probably isnt going be into my record. I can make peace with that. The gay club in New York, though? You guys should be supporting me. The music isnt that bad, you know what Im saying? The gays sustain a lot of these older divas who are still performing at Pride festivals. I feel like we should support each other.

If you got to hop on any mainstream pop stars track, who would you want to work with? Definitely Nicki Minaj. Definitely.

That would be phenomenal. Why that hasnt happened yet? Well, Im not that big yet. I just need someone like Missy Elliott to put me in an incubator for, like, six months, and then its, like, done. Ill even go back in the closet at this point. Ive been out long enough. I can go back in and start over. I came out in the third grade, Ive proved enough already.

Wait, so you actually came out in the third grade? Why would I lie about that? I told you my first piece of gay cinema was a documentary on Stonewall. I literally was ready to tell my mom Im gay, and if she didnt like it I was just gonna run away and live on the pier.

Diplo tweeted that he liked your album. When is that collaboration happening? Sooner the fucking better, I hope! I dont know. Diplo is a very busy person and Im a very busy girl, but Im down. Im sure itll happen down the line sooner or later. Im just constantly working on my own shit now. I have to strike while its hot. Im not getting any younger.

Whats next for you? Im about to drop some new singles for the fall, prepping for a European tour and finalizing a new project with a whole new sound. Ive been working in the same vein artistically for a few years, and Im interested in using another side of my brain. Im trying to be on the freshman XXL cover before Im too old.

Cakes Da Killa Official Tour Dates Sat Aug 26 Brooklyn Afropunk Festival Sun Aug 27 Chicago Oakwood Beach Tue Aug 29 Tel Aviv Gagarin Club Thu Aug 31 Berlin YAMM Fri Sep 1 Sopot Soundrive Festival Sat Sep 2 Oslo Blaa Mon Sep 4 Copenhagen Ideal Bar Wed Sep 6 Malmo Inknst Fri Sep 8 London -Jazz Cafe Sun Sep 10 Dorset Bestival Wed Sep 13 Brno Fleda Thu Sep 14 Zurich Exil Fri Sep 15 Dudingen Bad Bonn Sat Sep 16 Paris Smile Festival Fri Sep 29 Lincoln Lincoln Calling Festival Fri Oct 6 Haverford Haverford College Sat Oct 21 Bristol Simple Things Festival @ SWX Stage Sat Oct 28 Tromso Insomnia Festival

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Premiere: Cakes Da Killa Feat. Rye Rye Gon Blow (Video) - Vibe

It's not unusual for wealthy, middle-aged men to trade in their sports cars for newer models every year, but Leonardo DiCaprio takes Crisis Hedonism to the next level by trading in his models for newer models every year.

In fairness, he's been doing this for his entire adult life, the whole thing is just a bit sleazier-feeling now that Leo is 42.

But hey, Keith Richards' blood is 43% heroin; Charlie Sheen will give you crabs if you accidentally make eye contact; and Leo is on a quest to bed every woman who has ever walked a runway.

Sometimes, their misbehavior is what we love most about our celebs.

So it won't surprise you to learn that Leo is banging yet another rail-thin, globe trotting model with close to 1 million Instagram followers.

(DiCaprio and Nina Agdal have apparently broken up after several months together.)

But this time, Leo is actually breaking away from his usual M.O. in an interesting way.

Check out this photo of 23-year-old Lorena Rae and see if you can guess what we mean:

Yes, Lorena is not blonde.

That may not seem like a big deal, DiCaprio and blondes go together like peanut butter and jelly ... if peanut butter really loved having no-strings-attached sex with jelly.

But just because she doesn't match Leo's police sketch of the perfect woman, that doesn't mean Lorena isn't getting the full DiCaprio girlfriend experience.

In the past three months, Lorena and Leo have been spotted getting their culture on at the MoMa, Citi Biking in Manhattan (Leo was vaping, of course), partying in Monaco, and yachting in St. Tropez.

Friends say Lorena is incredibly down-to-earth, and while she loves to have a good time, she also shares DiCaprio's concern with important issues like climate change.

But she's not blonde! Leo probably thinks to himself each night, as he crushes a tumbler of Scotch in his bare hand.

Of course, much has been made of Leo's taste for flaxen-haired beauties, but we're guessing blonde-ness isn't terribly high on his list of requirements.

As far as we can tell, that list goes something like this:

Hot, young, a vocabulary that's missing the words "what are we?", and a job that allows for weeks at a time spent on a yacht in the Mediterranean.

We'd say the relationship probably isn't long for this world, but who knows?

Maybe DiCaprio's days of banging 6 models in one night are over.

Seems unlikely, but dare to dream, Lorena!

13 Handsome Photos of Leonardo DiCaprio

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Leonardo DiCaprio Is Dating Another Model ... But There's a Twist - The Hollywood Gossip

Monday, August 14, 2017 at 9:04 a.m.

Doeman

Photo by Marco Torres

While Mike Jones was taking his sweet time backstage Saturday night, the HOU's Next rappers were busy revving up the House of Blues crowd with a catalog of fire songs dashed with local love.

The HOU's Next crew represents the fledgling future of the local rap scene. These artists, not beholden to established labels or othermusic-industry snares, have the freedom to stretch the boundaries of what rap can be. Their tracks, forged in a world flush with anomie, are a far cry from the easy hedonism that defined the ascendancy of artists like headliner Mike Jones; they're sharp, they're critical, and they're self-aware in a way that an era of political and social unrest demands. Simply put, HOU's Next is making the rap both the city and the world needs right now. They're drawing an audience and raising eyebrows in a way the old guard of Houston rap can no longer do.

Genesis Blu, the "head-fucking hen" of the Houston rap scene, approached her portion of the HOU's Next set with her signature lyricism, humility and positivity. Songs like "Have it All" fed the crowd a smart message that refused despair and embraced possibility; with the lines "you can never check my mic/ I'm not your stereotype/ No limits and no ceilings/ I'm about that life," Genesis simultaneously confronted the barriers that entrap women in the world of hip hop without letting them hold her back. She kept on teaching with the fist-pumping anthem "Bluming Season" delivered a smooth, vintage flow woven into its story of personal growth.

Genesis Blu

Photo by Marco Torres

Though the artist usually resists music that's overtly sexual, Genesis cut loose with some older tracks that embraced her sultrier side. The song "Run it Back," an old-school narrative-style rap of sexual awakening, oozed into the mike with steamy innuendo, and the song "No Cuddlin'" popped back at a lousy ex-lover with a whole lot of side-eye. Genesis Blu's willingness to venture into a territory that she regularly forecloses demonstrated just how safe and supportive the House of Blues show was.

While the DJ got the crowd moving to Lil Keke's classic "Southside," T2 the Ghetto Hippie was waiting in the wings for his set. T2 fashions himself as the court jester of Houston rap. Dressed in a faded flannel shirt and pineapple pants (yes, pineapple pants), the self-proclaimed leader of the "Good Vibe Tribe" took to the stage with knowing glee, gripping the mike close as he laid into "Double Cups and Taco Trucks." Like any good jester, T2 used his moments of revelry to expose deeper truths; at one point, he proclaimed he "was going to do some cliche rapper shit," and hyped the crowd to make some noise for weed, drank, Houston, and other easy-to-pander-to items.

T2 the Ghetto Hippie

Photo by Marco Torres

By facing the these phony rap platitudes head on, however, T2 shows how he's wise to the cavern of emptiness underneath what audiences easily cheer for. It's that looming emptiness that the artist seeks to fill with his music. When T2 performed the deep and bassy "IDGAF," it was clear from his earnest performance that all his hustle, and his pleading overtures with the audience come together as one, are all done to stave off the desire "to put a piece to my head and make that bitch go bang."

The last HOU'S Next set, featuring Doeman, was a triumph of technical rap mastery. Doeman can freestyle like no other; he's quick and biting, popping into his bars faster than any writer can easily transcribe. His flow, in a word, is vicious, and it demands to be heard. The song "F.W.M.N.," the bitter, menacing diss track to all those who ever doubted the rapper, dropped like a bomb in the middle of House of Blues, unleashing an explosion of cathartic rage amidst its tinkling, horror-movie backbeat. While he might not brand it as such, Doeman's work is intellectual; for every bar that is an elaborate middle finger to the rapper's enemies, there's one that offers thoughtful critique. The line, "You worried about Instagram/I'm worried about the immigrants" showed that Doeman knows he's rapping in a world of injustice that requires a response. Unlike other rappers, Doeman is man enough to make that response.

DJ Baby Roo

Photo by Marco Torres

But what, you might ask, about headliner Mike Jones? The rapper made audiences wait over an hour for his set, starting well past the time his set was supposed to be finished. There's a metaphor hiding in that delay: the clock is striking midnight on the rap of the early aughts. In a world where nuclear attacks can be threatened with casual abandon, where white supremacists can walk the streets without hoods and where protesters can be murdered with impunity, songs like "Still Tippin" just don't resonate. In fact, that seem shamefully trivial in the face of so much turmoil. Houston's up-and-coming rappers have found a way to adapt party aesthetics to the changing world; maybe it's about time they got to take center stage.

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Local Rappers Stand Out While Mike Jones Keeps Fans Waiting - Houston Press

A couple of years ago I went on a fact-finding visit to Majorca. I had been approached by local people throughout the island, wanting to highlight the problems they were facing from tourism. As you leave Palma Airport, one of the first things you see is a large office block emblazoned with the logo of a major European Tour Operator. Throughout the island, you cannot escape the various logos of travel companies and their sponsorship of public events. Everywhere is a testament to one of the greatest industries on the planet and the logistical success of their operations. I subsequently and perhaps wistfully observed that the island had been colonised by an industry and that it was difficult to see its real possibilities.

This beautiful island however hid and continues to hide some uncomfortable truths. The effect of tourism was and continues to have a profound effect on those who live on the island, from crowded roads, housing, stresses on water supplies, concerns on the sustainability of the coastline and its waters, to the growth of mega-all-inclusive resorts and the very real presence of crime, seducing our young travellers through the industrial-scale operations of bars and clubs, offering hedonism by stealth.

For several years, local people throughout Majorca have been protesting about the lack of attention the authorities have paid to these very real problems, made even more difficult by a major influx of tourists whose choice of destinations have been limited by acts of terror.

Whilst the island, and indeed Spain, enjoys this tourist boom, the pressure-points that local people complain about have become more evident. Their voice has been raised to a crescendo through the actions of a group called Arran. Whilst we can debate the rights and wrongs of their tactics and public statements, the real people who live in and around these tourist centres are still not being heard.

Take for example the words of Almundena Lopez Diaz, a resident of Barcelona, who cites the rise of illegally operating apartments, rising prices for food and drink and a sense that local people are being priced out of Barcelona in favour of the tourist. Despite these problems, she comments that "86.7 per cent of locals see tourism as a positive thing, but many think it needs to be further regulated".

The issue of 'tourist saturation' is however a point that exists closer to home on the Isle of Skye. This pristine island is now receiving calls for help from islanders, to deal with the massive surge in tourist numbers. Holidaymakers are attracted by the 'locations' used by film and television companies and its lost-world atmosphere. Complaints have ranged from clogged roads, pressure on housing, because of the rise of holiday lettings, and up to 30 cruise ships arriving in the small bay of Portree, disgorging their cargo for the next round of island tours. The VisitScotland's Regional Director points out the obvious financial advantages to the local economy but acknowledges that, "I understand these issues. They're very real for people and very immediate, and it does have an impact", supporting a call for solutions.

The respected travel writer Simon Calder however highlights what I have been arguing for some time, that local and national politicians have it within their remit to control the excesses of cruises ships, drunken people, protection of their resources or a 'saturation' of crowds. He argues action could lead to a 'time-shift' of holidaymakers' habits, thereby leading to a more balanced visitor number. Where we perhaps disagree is on the claim that 'tourism is killing Mallorca' - Simon thinks that it has actually revived the island; I hold the view that the patient is on the critical list!

Simon Kettle also highlights the pressure-points in Venice, Dubrovnik, Skye and Barcelona and observes that "We may not be an infestation yet. But we are a problem. Travel can narrow the mind too". Elizabeth Becker astutely observes that "Only governments can handle runaway tourism...without serious and difficult government co-ordination, mayhem can follow".

For the people of Majorca and elsewhere, these are serious issues and in the face of political inaction, the likelihood of further protest is real and likely to capture a political agenda if not negatively affect the travel product. Tourism is however already a major player in the political agenda of the European Union; it takes centre-stage of the Lisbon Treaty, which embodies the ambition that European Tourism is a major growth industry that can lead to economic prosperity.

I understand only too well the pressures of life and work and our desire to get away from it all, but, as consumers, we should start to think about our own travel footprint and about how our presence impacts that local economy. This is a big ask of any consumer because they will not find the answers in any travel brochure or sales-pitch. As we travel into the future, we are all going to have to take responsibility for this 'wildfire' and play our part in delivering a valuable, thoughtful and responsible tourism in partnership with our hosts.

Read more:

The Wildfires Of Tourism - HuffPost UK

I think theres something particularly 'Kelela about starting on a somber note;" this is how Kelela introduces her sublime, shape-shifting new EP, and in particular the cavernous tumble of its first song A Message." While the track continually falls to pieces and puts itself back together again, Kelela duets with a disembodied spectre of herself recounting the emotional purgatory of a newly abandoned relationship. Its more than an opening song, it is the moment that launches the narrative arc that is the backbone of the EP, titled Hallucinogen.

Kelela expands, It speaks to the narcotic that is loving someone. It makes you exhilarated, it makes you feel drained, its in your body and it affects you so completely, and thus the record opens with a pair of tracks that conjure the feeling of emerging from an opiate haze and into the light of the EPs middle section. Gomenasai is a stunningly low-slung piece of grime-influenced futurism, with Kelela buoyed by Nguzunguzus MA on production. I think its more honest and realistic to start with the ultimate low, but equally there has to be hope, and this is where Rewind comes in. Co-produced by Kelela/Kingdom/Nugget, Rewind perfectly embodies the breathless euphoria of infatuation. Kelela steers some mutant form of Miami-bass-freestyle-electro to a sweaty basement rave where furtive companions lock eyes across a chaotic dance floor. All The Way Down (prod. By DJ Dahi) follows, and the timid interactions are replaced with an empowered courageous nerve...the decision to go all the way in love again, despite having dealt with heartbreak. By the end of the song Kelelas voice has become a submerged, pitch-shifted blur asking what you wanna do?

Rather than answer her question, the title track brings up many more. Hallucinogen might be the most aptly-titled track you hear this year, a queasy psychedelic odyssey in which Kelela intones like a wordless shaman while the world literally shatters around her. Born out of the same series of sessions with Arca that begat A Message, Kelelas instinctual harmonizing dances around the beat, telling the story of ecstasy through impulse, with sounds and shapes rather than lyrics. The 'reset button has been hit and the glow has faded as a monochromatic chopped-and screwed techno pulse by Gifted & Blessed carries Kelela through the euphoric peak on The High, an indulgent surrender that leads to a restarting of the cycle, then you go straight back into 'A Message from 'The High - from hedonism to heartbreak - its very much a continuum.

Hallucinogen represents a turning point for Kelela, marking only the second release of her ascendant career after the out-of-nowhere runaway success of the Cut 4 Me mixtape that made her name. As an artist Kelela plays a role not unlike that of her longtime fan Bjork, orchestrating the electronic avant-garde in pursuit of her unique vision. Im pulling things out of people to create a culture clash in me. Ive spent so much time synthesizing inside myself to realize the songs.

Kelela developed her approach singing over experimental instrumentals thinking to herself, is there a place for a weird black girl in this music? I had to make sense of these two things inside myself, the color of my voice in all its R&B glory and all the other music that was resonating with me. With this EP, she has made that place pulling the parts together under the umbrella of Kelela, incorporating different voices and inspirations, from Janet to Wiley, from Tamia to Aphex Twin a universe Kelela is building for herself. With her album epic well underway, Kelelas vision of progressive soul music is about to shine very bright. Hallucinogen is a strikingly realized piece that brings that into sharp focus.

Just last week, we talked about Kelela as an artist to watch after she came out with her new single "LMK....

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A few months ago, I touched on my disappointment in the fact that there weren't many rising black artists gaining widespread popularity....

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Kelela - LMK - Baeble Music (blog)

That mille-feuille effect is one of the glories of repertory companies like this one, in which members of a resident troupe of actors play two or three different roles a week in a wide variety of productions. But actually, there are few repertory companies like Stratfords; other than the Shaw Festival (also in Ontario, in Niagara-on-the-Lake) and the Oregon Shakespeare Festival in Ashland, Ore., this type of theater has mostly vanished, a victim of its own costs and complications.

Stratford is by far the largest survivor, this year employing a company of 130 actors (and 420 other artists) to mount 14 shows in a season that runs from April through October. Along with Bakkhai and Twelfth Night, I saw Timon of Athens and Guys and Dolls, all in three days. That sampling, with its interplay of Shakespeare, an older classic and a big musical, is reasonably representative, even if I missed the new commissions, modern works and family programs that usually round out the mix.

Four was enough: If no show I saw surpasses its best-ever incarnation, each is strong enough to make a lasting impression. In that regard, the Guys and Dolls (through Oct. 29) is typical. The latest in a series of musicals recently directed and choreographed for Stratford by Donna Feore, it delivers all the joys of that nearly perfect book and score, here using the excellent 1992 Broadway version (with a 19-player orchestra) as the template. The central quartet of actors are engaging and colorful, though among the leading men there is a slight sense of slumming. Not every Nathan Detroit (Sean Arbuckle) is also a noted Stratford Banquo or Agamemnon, not every Sky Masterson (Evan Buliung) a Pericles or Petruchio. The New Yawk accents are novel.

Brent Carver in a scene from Martha Henry's production of the Shakespeare play.

The women negotiate the musical-theater style with more finesse, especially Blythe Wilson as a believably dim but lovable Miss Adelaide. And in smaller roles the advantages of the repertory system are evident in the quick, confident character choices made by actors who, on other days, are probably appearing in H.M.S. Pinafore and Romeo and Juliet. The repertory system doesnt, however, account for the narrative verve and daring athleticism of the dancing, which Ms. Feore brings so far forward on the Festival Theaters thrust stage that you expect to end up with a crapshooter in your lap.

That stage, part of Stratfords original 1953 design, informs the feeling of many productions here, even those that take place in the three newer performance spaces the festival maintains in this charming city of 31,000. Sight lines (and the limited space for traps and flies) do not permit a great deal of scenery, so the sets are typically minimal and the costumes, in compensation, maximal. The unusual depth of the thrust also means that audience members, even those in the last row of the balcony of the 1,800-seat flagship theater, are never far from the action. This encourages an intimate acting style.

Both qualities are evident in the effervescent Twelfth Night (through Oct. 21), which in Martha Henrys production feels personal but not maudlin. Shannon Taylor (also appearing in School for Scandal) beautifully traces the stages of Olivias recovery from grief; for once, you get the sense that her love for Viola (in disguise as Cesario) is drawing her back toward the sunlight in which she always belonged. The comedy and cruelties are nicely balanced, too, with an especially piquant contrast between Geraint Wyn Daviess Sir Toby Belch the best and funniest Shakespeare rou Ive encountered and the scarily dour Malvolio of Rod Beattie. But the star turn in this production comes from Brent Carver as the fool Feste, here a honey-voiced melancholic singing a suite of lovely songs (set by Reza Jacobs) while accompanying himself on glass bowls.

Music plays as large a role in Jillian Kelleys production of the Euripides drama often known as The Bacchae but rendered here more Greekly as Bakkhai. Playing in the round at the festivals Tom Patterson Theater through Sept. 23, this highly sexualized version, which required an intimacy choreographer, imagines the title characters as a throbbing coven of longhaired groupies, somewhere between an ambitious porno and a Summers Eve commercial. The 2015 adaptation by the poet Anne Carson also makes much of King Pentheuss fetishy eagerness to spy on the women; when he applies lipstick as part of his disguise he does so like someone who has been longing for just this chance.

That is apt enough, and even an extended sexual encounter between Pentheus and Dionysos, no doubt worked out with the intimacy choreographer, seems justifiable. But larger themes are crowded out by the productions narrow focus on individual and small group psychopathology. We dont feel the Euripidean conflict between civilization and hedonism or government and anarchy so much as that between personal repression and liberation. Still, the cheeky modern approach pays off when Ms. Peacocks Agave, realizing the horrors she has committed while under Dionysoss influence, faces a contemporary feminine punishment. Off comes the comfy robe; on go the heels and Spanx. Its actually devastating.

Because Bakkhai is playing in the same theater where, earlier that weekend, I saw Timon of Athens, and because Stratfords Timon also has a modern kick, I began to imagine Euripides and Shakespeare discussing hubris in that room. But the Timon, running through Sept. 21, makes a strong case, as Bakkhai ultimately does not, for an awkward and rarely done problem play.

Awkward because its first half, an incisive comedy of false friendship, has little to do with its second half, a ragged tragedy of Lear-like madness. The turning point comes when the wealthy and magnanimous Timon realizes what the rest of us already know: His friends are sycophants, adoring him only as long as the handouts last. Bankruptcy shows him the hard truth.

Its unclear what truth Shakespeare (and his probable co-author Thomas Middleton) meant to show us. This production, directed by Stephen Ouimette, sidesteps the message problem by focusing on the way personal relationships are tested by both largess and loss. The modernizing helps: Fops and poseurs and senators and generals are more easily recognizable in pinstripe suits than Greek chitons. When Timons loyal servant Flavius (Michael Spencer-Davis) sadly shows his master the household accounts, it makes perfect sense that they are on a laptop and we instantly understand the bad news that QuickBooks brings.

During the week I saw him in Timon, Mr. Spencer-Davis, in his seventh Stratford season, was also performing in The Changeling and rehearsing The Madwoman of Chaillot. Such a varied menu must be hectic, if thrilling, for an actor. For an audience it is enlightening, and not just because the plays acquire new depth in the process. The audience acquires new depth, too. More than once I found myself forced to wonder how many characters we all have lurking how many mad Timons and hopeful Adelaides in the repertory theater of our souls.

Follow Jesse Green on Twitter: @JesseKGreen

A version of this article appears in print on August 15, 2017, on Page C5 of the New York edition with the headline: Where Maenads Become Dolls Overnight.

Read more here:

A First-Time Visitor Inhales Stratford's Theatrical Perfume - New York Times

PRESENTERS from the steamy Naked News network have stripped off for their raunchiest task yet.

A trio of scantly clad babes took on Ukrainian dancing in their own unique way for the feature.

Led by busty brunette Hanna Orio, co-hosts Carli Bei and Isabella Rossini stripped down to their birthday suits for the challenge.

In the clip, the girls can be seen leaping around completely nude while traditional Ukrainian music plays in the background.

NAKED NEWS

The Naked News channel presenters have set the internet alight with their saucy, full frontal antics. Now they've released their hottest pics ever

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But this isnt the first time the networks hosts have put on such a racy display.

Earlier this year Carli Bei got naked to meet with members of a swinging community in Jamaica.

As part of the feature, couples at the Hedonism II nudist resort in Negril spoke on camera about how they got into swinging and embarrassing moments theyve had.

Naked News bills itself as the programme with nothing to hide and regularly shows hosts stripping off on camera.

The Canadian TV station started in 1999 as an English speaking show and now has one based in Japan too.

NAKED NEWS

The raunchiest celebrity photos around

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Joanna Krupa shows everything in naked snaps

It was reported to be attracting more than six million viewers at its height.

The channels Twitter page has more than 60,000 followers with current anchors including Whitney St-John, Isabella Rossini and Elise Laurenne.

See the rest here:

Naked News presenters go fully nude for X-RATED starkers dance session - Daily Star

WHEN it comes to dream destinations, Thailand is way up there on the list for Australian travellers and with good reason.

Its flanked by some of the worlds most stunning beaches, has kilometres of untouched jungle, is laced with ancient temples, has inimitable night-life and legendary, fiery cuisine.

All of this has been drawing vagabonds, expats, travellers, and artists for decades, enchanted by the mix of peace and chaos, the spiritual and the unflinchingly capitalist, the tranquil nature and urban hedonism.

That enthusiasm on the part of travellers has made tourism incredibly important to the Thai economy. In 2017, it is expected to generate more than $99 billion.

Most tourists visiting Thailand come away with nothing but amazing memories, great tans, and a whole lot of stories.

But there is an underbelly to the tourism trade in Thailand. Some of that underbelly can be particularly unsavoury, and at times even deadly.

What follows are just a few issues that have put Thailands tourism in the news recently. All are worth considering when youre planning your trip to make sure you dont find yourself in a dangerous situation, or unwittingly supporting practices that victimise the planets most vulnerable.

IS KOH TAO REALLY DEATH ISLAND?

Koh Tao has been dubbed Death Island.Source:istock

Talk to almost anyone whos been to Thailand and youll likely hear the name Koh Tao slip out of their mouths.

This island is, for many tourists, exactly what a trip to Thailand is about. There are countless budget-friendly beachside hotels and bungalows, white-sand beaches, turquoise seas, and all sorts of backpacker bars slinging cheap drinks.

Koh Tao has gotten a bad reputation recently due to a spate of deaths involving foreign tourists. That attention became impossible to ignore when, in 2014, the bodies of Hannah Witheridge and David Miller were discovered on one of the islands beaches. While the case was supposedly resolved, responsibility was pinned on two migrant workers from Myanmar.

Complaints about the trial included accusations of an improperly sealed crime scene as well as the inappropriate handling of evidence. The death sentence of the two workers also speaks volumes about the fates of marginalised communities in tourism-heavy destinations. The pair may have been tortured and framed, in part, because of their outsider status as migrant workers.

Then in early 2017, a Belgian backpacker was found dead in the islands jungles. Her death was ruled a suicide by police, though ongoing investigations now suggest everything from murder to involvement with a rogue ashram on neighbouring Koh Phangan.

Several other deaths have occurred in recent years, with relatives of the deceased often expressing dismay at local police handling.

All of that being said, most will find the island beautiful and safe, and home to superb snorkelling.

THE KAYAN PEOPLE

A girl from the Kayan community in Thailand. Picture: Flickr/indigo moodSource:Flickr

What little unsavoury news that Westerners hear about Thailand is often focused on the fates of a small minority of foreign travellers who have met tragic ends. However, other sectors of Thailands tourism industry have problematic effects on both local Thai people and immigrants from Thailands impoverished neighbours in Myanmar, Cambodia, and Laos.

Migrant workers and refugees are made scapegoats for crime and unemployment rates around the world. The same holds true in Thailand.

Youve likely seen pictures of Kayan women, who famously elongate their necks to mind-bending lengths using heavy brass coils as they age. The group fled violence and persecution in Myanmar and were granted refugee status in Thailand.

However, the Kayan people are forbidden Thai citizenship, and their rights are extremely limited. This leads to issues like exploitation and, in some cases, trafficking.

These days, the Kayan in Thailand live in designated villages that are dubbed authentic, but are often no more than a repeated performance put on by members of the community because they have no other choice. In 1997, the New York Times revealed some Kayan tribespeople were forced to inhabit Thaton, near the Myanmar border, and been kidnapped and subjected to sometimes fatal abuse to prevent them from leaving.

Kayan tribespeople have organised themselves through agencies to help ensure humanitarian needs are met for the refugee communities. More than 10 years later, though, the BBC reported that the UN was considering boycotts to the villages, as there were substantiated reports of refugees being refused the right to resettle outside of Thailand. This is, in part, because the villages are often settled on privately owned Thai land and are major sources of income for powerful landowners.

However, if tourists do stop arriving, what little income the Kayan are given to live off of disappears, and an even more bleak future may be in store.

According to a website that purportedly represents the Kayan people inhabiting Huay Pu Keng, They are reliant on tourists for income. Most of their income is generated from selling their woven scarfs and bags to visitors.

SEX TOURISM AND HUMAN TRAFFICKING

Go go dancers perform at a dance bar on Walking Street in Pattaya. Picture: AFP/Roberto SchmidtSource:AFP

Bangla Road. Patpong Night Market. Soi Cowboy. Walking Street in Pattaya. Thailand is flush with red-light districts, some of which are the worlds most notorious.

To be clear, we arent here to shame the workers themselves. But there are guilty parties involved on many fronts when it comes to the link between sex work and human trafficking in Thailand and most of the guilt rests with tourists themselves.

According to UNHCR, the UNs refugee agency, as of 2013 there were at least three million migrant workers in Thailand. And while a significant portion of that number is involved in Thailands fishing industry and other factory work which doesnt mean that theyre free from exploitation men, women, and children are also channelled into Thailands booming sex industry. The UN said conservative estimates put this population in the tens of thousands of victims.

Another UN agency, the Action for Cooperation Against Trafficking in Persons, says: Sex tourism continues to be a factor, fuelling the supply of trafficking victims for sexual exploitation, and at the same time corruption, limiting the progress of anti-trafficking efforts.

The situation is due, in part, to the relative wealth of Thailand in a region where its neighbours have some of the lowest GDPs in Asia. Those same countries also have histories of war and violence. While time goes on, Thailand has remained something of a beacon in the region. However, given Thailands dependence on international tourism as a huge source of revenue, theres little incentive to aggressively enforce laws against trafficking and sex work.

And in case you needed proof about the role of Western travellers as fuel for this industry, simply take a walk through Patpong Market any night of the week and take note of the languages being spoken by the patrons at the ping-pong shows and strip clubs.

ELEPHANT SANCTUARIES AND OTHER EXOTIC ANIMAL ATTRACTIONS

Thai vets tend to a sedated tiger at the Wat Pha Luang Ta Bua Tiger Temple on June 1, 2016, after a raid by wildlife authorities. Picture: Dario Pignatelli/Getty ImagesSource:Getty Images

In 2016, the happy veneer of Thailands animal-centric tourist activities was ripped right off when Thai authorities raided the once-famous Tiger Temple in the nations western Kanchanaburi province. While arguments were made that the temples monks and the staff were actually providing the 137 tigers living there with better lives than those in state-run zoos, it was the discovery of animal pelts and other products common on black markets that struck a nerve with those who heard the news. The temple was estimated to be making around US$15,000 every day, according to Al Jazeera, as tourists flocked there for pictures with seemingly docile grown tigers as well as tiger cubs. Even more, it seems, was being made from the sale of tiger body parts on the Chinese market.

Up north, in Chiang Mai, elephant rides are a popular tourist activity, though this, too, is ethically questionable. This begins with smuggling baby elephants into the country and continues with brutal training regimes in which the animals are subjected to all manner of abuse. The animals are often kept chained and otherwise confined between rides, during which they are subject to often indelicate treatment by mahouts. This is to say nothing of family syndicates that control the smuggling of elephants and who intimidate those working to improve the lives of animals in captivity.

You should do a substantial amount of research before you visit any animal-related destination in Thailand, as even those that have chosen to designate themselves as sanctuaries may be that in name only. Opt for animal encounters that take part in rehabilitation of wildlife or formerly abused animals for something that puts you in touch with nature without doing it harm. These include Elephant Nature Park and Boon Lotts Elephant Sanctuary. Just to be clear, you wont be riding the elephants in either of these venues thats a practice you should avoid if youre looking to actually help these creatures have better lives.

SHOULD YOU STILL VISIT?

All that said, it really is an incredible country. Picture: iStockSource:istock

Our resounding answer is yes, you should absolutely visit Thailand. But, expectations need to be managed and you need to exercise some smarts.

The days of Thailand as a blissed-out bohemian tourist wonderland are essentially finished. Almost all of the previously untouched, gorgeous corners of the nation have been gulped up by the tourism machine, meaning that unless youre willing to go way outside of the tourist track, youll encounter touts selling elephant rides, blocks of shops slinging identical souvenirs, men and women selling sex, and plenty of offers for illegal drugs.

To be fair, amid all of that is a centuries-old Buddhist tradition, locals willing to share their culture, amazing street culture, and all manner of gorgeous natural scenery.

It would be a mistake to pass over Thailand on the whole. Nearly every nation on earth has its thorny ethical issues to contend with and we arent saying that the world is universally safe, but in places like Thailand, a little research and some street smarts will go a long way toward making sure your next trip there is as flawless as possible.

Related links:

Where to go in Thailand: A complete guide to the most popular destinations

Bangkok travel guide

The best itinerary for Thailand

This article originally appeared on oyster.com.au.

Read the original here:

The dark side of tourism in Thailand - NEWS.com.au

Summer is a selfish, fatalistic season. You career around the city, flitting through barbecues and ascending to rooftops, your eyes always trained on the next destination and the newest crowd. Consequences vanish: youre physically in the office, at least, though the boss is away until mid-September, so anything you do now, youll have to do again anyway. This year, Brexits penumbra and North Koreas nuclear posturings add a frisson to proceedings: global uncertainty famously breeds hedonism. Essentially, if the end is nigh, might as well make it a large one.

So you are drunk and self-interested which in turn informs your dating strategy. Winter is, notably, cuffing season finding a relationship to save on a central heating bill but once your legs are out, and shaved for the first time in six months, its a shame to be tethered up or so some millennials reckon. For a certain fast-and-loose cohort, this is a summer of love: monogamy is on hiatus.

To some,sticking with one person just feels unimaginative. Take one twenty- something chap who, after a long-winded but amicable break-up, decided not to waste a single long, languid summer evening on moping. Instead he picked up his smartphone and started swiping often left, but periodically right. Soon he had nine suitors of mixed sexes, and duly has started dating them all.

Naturally some friends were aghast though not so much by the outrageous polygamy but because even if you went on a date every single evening of the week, you still wouldnt see them all, and surely Sundays and Mondays are verboten? Think bigger: there are 24 hours in a day, and a Monday morning hangover is naught but an inconvenience if youre the only person in the office that morning. Plus, no ones getting hurt: each one knows about the other one further proof that everyone in town is playing by the same loose morals. Its all in the spirit of a bit of healthy competition.

Man sends crush hilarious ideas for a date but it goes horribly wrong

Everyone lives for the summer its like everything is heightened, observes one twentysomething committed summer singleton. People put more effort into their appearance and making plans. Everyone looks fitter and goes out more, so youre way more likely to meet someone. Why bother putting all your eggs in one basket (thank you, Love Island) when you could be trying all of the eggs to find one thats 100 per cent your type on paper? The only people I know who are in relationships during the summer are people who have genuine feelings for someone they think is the dogs bollocks. In terms of Tinder, Ive had way more spontaneous dates over the summer with minimal messaging prior.

Granted, while summer is a catalyst, theres evidence this generation has a shifting attitude to monogamy in general. A survey by YouGov published at the end of last year found that nearly half of millennials perceived monogamy on a spectrum, rather than as a binary state. Those under 30 were the least likely of any age group to want a relationship that was wholly monogamous. This chimes with our attitude to sexuality: millennials resist labels and use evasive language to describe the relationships were in (seeing each other, linking, hanging out) and sometimes avoid endings, too, even when theyre strictly necessary (ghosting to leave your flame hanging, of course).

Nonetheless theres also something about summers prickly heat that makes people go doolally. We are overstimulated there is so much fun to be had! and too weak to resist the temptations of the flesh which, despite this weeks execrable weather, is usually visible and lightly tanned from the group holiday to Turkey. While winter evenings at the pub are nicer with a hand to hold, festivals, for example, create a lawless temporary world, a mirage of sparkling lights and sparkly faces, from which the realities of the outside world are excluded. Snogging strangers in tents is all part of it: indeed, a survey by uSwitch in June found one in five people planned to download Tinder just for a festival.

These are Tinder's most popular singletons

Tinder/Cosmpolitan

Matches a day: 10

Number of first dates: 5

Tinder/Cosmopolitan

Matches a day: 15

Number of first dates: 10

Tinder/Cosmopolitan

Matches a day: 20

Number of first dates: 5

Tinder/Cosmopolitan

Matches a day: 4

Number of first dates: 18

Tinder/Cosmopolitan

Matches a day: 15

Number of first dates: 3

Tinder/Cosmopolitan

Matches a day: 6

Number of first dates: 10

Tinder/Cosmopolitan

Matches a day: 1

Number of first dates: 8

Tinder/Cosmopolitan

Matches a day: 5

Number of first dates: 6

Tinder/Cosmopolitan

Matches a day: 5

Number of first dates: 13

Tinder/Cosmopolitan

Matches a day: 10

Number of first dates: 1

Tinder/Cosmopolitan

Number of first dates: 15

Tinder/Cosmopolitan

Matches a day: 6

Number of first dates: 3

Tinder/Cosmopolitan

Matches a day: 6

Number of first dates: 4

Tinder/Cosmopolitan

Barbecues are more fun with a flirtation in your sights; reaching last orders is more thrilling if youre not yet sure whether the fun is, indeed, drawing to an end, or whether that two (or three) person after-party is about to start. Plus, invites are open and fluid in summer: dates dont mean sticking to drinks you can bring someone along to Sunfall in Brockwell Park this weekend, or as a plus-one to a mates house party. Everyones up for meeting new people. Frankly, its strategic: if it doesnt work out with you it might do with one of your mates.

Tinderis having a month of field days: the Tinder tourists are in town, which gives Londoners a chance to attempt to atone for the sins of Brexit. Sure, youd have to be a top shagger to mitigate for Article 50 in its entirety, but you can make your best attempt at international relations. One twentysomething student whos kicking about over the long summer says she downloaded it as soon as she got off the train home, despite having a few flirtations on campus that she wouldnt really want to ruin. Im far away and looking for people to meet and while away the lonely summer, she observes, shrugging.

Others confess to having changed their Tinder subscription strategy for the summer: Tinder Boost, which sends your profile top of the pile for 30 minutes, and gathers up to 10 times more profile views in that time, is worth the premium when you know youre competing with a whole capital full of people on heat.

One twentysomething girl has just started seeing someone, but both have holidays booked so theyre barely in the country at the same time, and frankly, monogamy would seem like martyred self-deprivation. Another guy grumbles that hes stretching the limits of his local knowledge to come up with a new date location several times a week he fears the opprobrium of the bartenders if he brings a rotating cast of men in every week. Dont: theyre all doing it too. Why do you think every waiter and waitress in town has a glint in their eye?

Crucially, though, dont pretend. If being a polyamorous playboy or playgirl makes you feel empty and alone, then dont persevere. Youll probably find a real gem everyone else is too busy being a lothario.

@phoebeluckhurst

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Why millennials are giving up monogamy for August - Evening Standard

Photo A group of young French militants carry out a series of attacks in Paris in Nocturama. Credit Grasshopper Film

Nocturama might be an interesting movie about terrorism if there were no such thing as terrorism. If, that is, politically motivated shootings and bombings in big cities were fantastical tropes or metaphorical conceits, like zombie epidemics or extraterrestrial invasions. But perhaps interesting is too strong a word. Without a real-world correlative for the actions it depicts, Bertrand Bonellos new film would merely be tedious and pretentious rather than repellent.

There is no denying that Mr. Bonello, whose previous films include House of Pleasures (a prurient peek behind the scenes at an early-20th-century bordello) and Saint Laurent (a salacious tour of 70s couture), possesses cinematic skill and suavity to spare. The story told in Nocturama splits neatly into before and after, with a few flashbacks thrown in for clarity and variety. The first half follows a collection of young French people as they prepare to carry out a series of attacks in Paris; the second stays with them in the immediate aftermath, as they kill time in a high-end department store.

Part 1 is fast-moving and suspenseful, Part 2 languorous and luxuriant. The young terrorists are brisk and businesslike until the plastic explosives detonate. Then they act out a parody of jaded consumerist hedonism, browsing among the brand names. Nike, Fendi, Issey Miyake Mr. Bonello places the products so lovingly in the frame that you might think he was being paid to do it.

A preview of the film.

Really, though, all he advertises is the vacuity of his imagination, which he mistakes for the moral emptiness of his characters and the society that spawned them. They are not or not all drawn from its margins or its oppressed groups. A few of the conspirators (there are eight in all, plus an inside man at the store) seem to be children of immigrants from suburban housing projects. The others come from Frances middle and upper classes. One of the leaders is a student at an elite university, with family connections to the minister of the interior, whose office is among the groups targets.

Other targets include the chief executive of a bank, a row of parked cars, a gilded equestrian statue and a skyscraper with the word global conveniently displayed near its crown. The cause that motivates this violence is never specified. One member of the gang is a Muslim who doesnt drink alcohol and believes he will be welcomed in paradise as a martyr, but religious extremism doesnt seem to be part of the overall agenda. Nor does any recognizable political ideology or economic grievance. It was bound to happen, a bored-sounding young woman says to a perpetrator who has wandered out for a cigarette.

Go here to read the rest:

Review: Bored, Beautiful Terrorists With a Taste for Luxury Brands - New York Times

PUBLISHED: 12:01 11 August 2017 | UPDATED: 12:01 11 August 2017

Thorpe St Andrew author Sabena Burnett. Photo: Sabena Burnett

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Out of Order explores the life of Sabena Burnett during the 1960s, 70s and 80s in London.

The 62-year-old spent more than a year writing the book, which is described as a poignant journey of hedonism and aspiring stardom alongside the movers and shakers of London.

She said: I would say it is a very, very honest, no holds barred account of my quite eventful life up until now.

I take the reader through time from my birth in North London, through my miss-spent youth, through some difficult and life-changing experiences to the happiness I have found with my husband, children and friends,and the life we have made for ourselves here in Norfolk.

Mrs Burnett has so far sold around 70 copies of her book.

And on September 8, she will be selling copies of her autobiography at the Birdcage pub on Pottergate from 5 to 7pm.

Originally posted here:

Thorpe St Andrew author Sabena Burnett publishes first autobiography - Norfolk Eastern Daily Press