Culture round-up

For no particular reason except to remind myself what I thought:

Arthur & George, by Julian Barnes: Don't believe the hype. Starts off well, but has far too much padding. No one cares about whether, why or how Arthur Conan Doyle related to women and/or fell in love, and we don't want to spend hundreds of pages wading through his thought processes while waiting for the plot to restart. Some wonderful turns of phrase, of course, but not enough to make the book worth reading.

The Whitney Biennial: I like messes like this, contemporary life is messy, contemporary art is messy, and this exhibition reflects that messiness in all its glory. There's humour enough here to keep one occupied, and there's even some good art, too.

Panic. Just watched it on DVD, so I'm adding it to the list. Fantastic cast, overly-oppressive soundtrack. Could have been a great movie, but for the Precocious Kid. But pretty much anything with Donald Sutherland in it is worth watching.

Posted by Felix at 23:02 EST