New Music: Easy

           

Graham Norton, legendary Blur's guitarist released "Castle Park" his 9th., studio album and also shares the single "Easy", an adorable tune in which Coxon has been shot wandering typical English streets while playing their guitars, the akbym was recorded during the "A+E" sessions but then Coxon return to Blur and began to touring, after that, another two great projects, the WAEVE band alongside his partner Rose Elinor, so that's the reason behing this album finally saw the lights nearly 15 years after it was recorded. 

New Music: Spin

           

Johnny Marr has shared "Spin" the first single taken from his forthcoming and 5th., album "The Age Of Everything" due out October 2. Marr describes the 10 songs as the most cathartic of his entire career, written in London a developped live during his tour across USA, then recorded in Manchester to capture the joy, energy and tensions of the city, "There is a pressure in today's culture due technology, but seeing it from another perspetiva also could be a sort of possibility, the tune is pretty intense with certain reminds of Electronic. 

Books: Still In A Dream "Shoegaze, Slackers And The Reinvention Of Rock 1984-1994"

The definitive story of the slackers and shoegazers who reinvented rock. Twenty years after his acclaimed postpunk best-seller, Rip It Up and Start Again, Simon Reynolds tells the tale of what happened next: the underground explosion of noisepop, shoegaze, slacker rock and grunge that reverberated through the mid-Eighties into the early Nineties.

Capturing the musical exhilaration of the era along with the alienation of youth during a period of ascendant conservative politics and glitzy mainstream pop, Still in a Dream celebrates a golden age of guitar reinvention, a second psychedelia of mind-blowing sounds pioneered by bands like My Bloody Valentine and Sonic Youth. In Britain, groups like Cocteau Twins and Slowdive escaped into shimmering dreamworlds while American underground rockers like Dinosaur Jr. and Pavement blended apathy and urgency into thrilling noise.

A propulsive and personal account from a journalist who covered this music in real time from the frontlines, Still in a Dream vividly recreates a period that was the last blast for the analogue culture of vinyl records and music papers, before the Internet changed everything. 

 

Title: Still In A Dream: Shoegaze, Slackers And The Reinvention Of Rock 1984-1994

Pages: 464

Author: Simon Reynolds

Publisher: White Rabbit

Format: Hardcover 

 
 

New Music: Cutting Off The Head Of A Ghost

           

Kelsey Lu a singer-songwriter from Charlotte, North Carolina, has been raised with the technical precision of a classical cellist, she floats between avant-pop, R&B, and experimental classical, and after seven years of deep-diving into experimental scoring, performance art, and visual storytelling, she shares her new single, "Cutting Off The Head Of A Ghost" is the heartbeat of her sophomore album, So Help Me God, a bold reminder that she’s never been one to play by the industry’s rule

New Music: Ugly

           

Manchester-based songwriter Chloe Slater has shared a new single "Ugly". The singer has offered up another astute, powerful offering that tackles social issues head-on; this time, it’s capitalism and consumerism in her crosshairs. "I wrote 'Ugly' after watching a documentary on Netflix called Buy Now: The Shopping Conspiracy, which looks at where away actually is when we throw things out, Chloe has said of the track, which follows her 2025 single ‘War Crimes’. “The song centres around this almost religious compulsion we have towards consumerism. Our ads are full of commandments, buy now, don't miss out, and we’re promised heaven in the form of status and wealth if we follow the right path.

In Memoriam: The Actress Who Played Mon In Alf "Ann Schedeen" Dies At 77

Anne Schedeen, the actrees who famously played Kate Tanner in "ALF," has died at 77. Her family announced her peaceful passing on Sunday, remembering her as a "force" with "whip smart humor," a "burning hatred for Trump," and deep love for family and dogs. 

 

Schedeen starred in "ALF" from 1986 to 1990. Her extensive career included guest roles on "The Six Million Dollar Man," "Emergency," "Three's Company," "Cheers" and "Murder, She Wrote." She made her final screen appearance in the 2023 reunion special "ALF on ALF." Schedeen is survived by her husband Christopher Barrett, daughter Tay, and other beloved family member. Schedeen’s death was announced by her family in a Facebook post on Sunday. She was 77.

“It is with the heaviest of hearts that we share Annie has passed peacefully," the post reads. "She leaves behind an extraordinary legacy of creative energy, whip smart humor, delight in her family, adoration for little dogs, burning hatred for Trump, passion for second-hand thrifting, and love for a good story. We are bereft without her. We loved her so so much, as did all who met her.

She was a force. And it is unimaginable to think about life without her in it,” the post continues. “But as she said, ‘I’m always with you.’ And she’s right. The memories, artwork, belly laughter, handmade jewelry, oil paintings, sculptures, costumes, and all around joie de vivre live on. Raise a margarita in her honor.”

Schedeen starred opposite Max Wright, who played her husband, Willie Tanner, in ALF, an acronym for Alien Life Form. Adopted by the Tanner family, ALF was a fuzzy character voiced and puppeteered by Paul Fusco, who co-created the sitcom with Tom Patchett. Mihaly ‘Michu’ Meszaros occasionally appeared as ALF in costume when full body shots were needed. The character's full name was Gordon "ALF" Shumway.

Born Luanne Ruth Schedeen on Jan. 8, 1949, in Portland, Oregon., Anne Schedeen made her screen debut in a guest role on Lee Majors' sci-fi action series The Six Million Dollar Man in 1974. Schedeen played guest roles on a half-dozen series, including Get Christie Love!, Ironside and McCloud. She also guest-starred in three different roles over 12 episodes in the hit medical series Marcus Welby, MD, from 1974 to 1976. During the same time period, Schedeen also appeared in guest roles in six episodes of the action drama Emergency!

Throughout the rest of the 1970s, Schedeen also appeared in guest roles on such TV shows as Bionic Woman, Family, Baretta and The Incredible Hulk. From 1978 to 1982, the actress appeared in various guest roles on five episodes of the hit sitcom Three’s Company.

In the 1980s, Schedeen also appeared in several more TV guest roles on such shows as Cheers, E/R, Simon & Simon, Magnum, P.I. and Murder, She Wrote. In 1984, Schedeen starred as Sarah Frank on the TV drama Paper Dolls. Schedeen appeared in all 13 episodes of the series about the modeling and cosmetic industries, which only ran for one season.

But then, her most well-remember role came from 1986 to 1990, Schedeen starred as Kate Tanner on 103 episodes over four seasons on ALF. Schedeen´s last screen appearance came in the 2023 reunion special ALF on ALF, which also featured Paul Fusco and Tom Patchett, as well as Andrea Elson and Benji Gregory, who played the Tanner children Lynn and Brian. Also featured in the special were Max Wright, who died in 2019 at age 75, and Mihaly ‘Michu’ Meszaros, who died in 2016 at 76.

According to her family's Facebook post, she is survived by beloved friends and family including her husband of 55 years Christopher Barrett, darling daughter Tay Barrett, daughter-in-law, Hilary Flynn, sister Sarabeth Schedeen, niece Minnie Land, brother Roland ‘Tony’ Schedeen, sister in-law Julieann Schedeen, and her beloved rescue dogs Roo and Red.

New Music: Teachers

            

Ed O’ Brien’s Blue Morpho, is a record full of genres but only three radio-friendly tracks, and one of these is "Teachers", a bass-heavy samba piece painted with crisp aural shapes, compiling a crazy smorgasbord of percussion, precision, and power chords, the video has been shot by Kit Monteith.

In Memoriam: The Pop Art Icon Pioneer "David Hockney" Dies At 88

Legendary and iconic British painter "David Hockney" made his name with sunkissed visions of California and never stopped breaking barriers, going on to become one of contemporary art’s most important figures, has died aged 88.

He made his name as a pop artist during the swinging 60s and was perhaps best known for his paintings of swimming pools that helped define the Los Angeles aesthetic. Works such as A Bigger Splash and Portrait of an Artist (Pool With Two Figures) depicted hedonistic scenes of love, lust and loss taking place below the city’s sun-soaked skies.

But Hockney’s six-decade career cannot be defined by a single era. He produced perspective-shifting portraits using photo-collage, experimented with abstract landscape painting and, in later life, investigated the possibilities of creating artworks out of emerging 3D technology.

He is survived by his long-time partner and companion Jean-Pierre Gonçalves de Lima; his great-nephew Richard, who acted as studio assistant in his last years; his brothers Philip and John; and numerous nieces, nephews, great-nieces and great-nephews, his publicist Erica Bolton said.

Born in Bradford, West Yorkshire, in 1937, Hockney was the fourth of five children in what he described as a "radical working-class family". His parents encouraged their son's early artistic promise. He studied art at Bradford College and sold his first painting – a portrait of his father – for £10 at the Yorkshire Artists Exhibition in 1957.

As a conscientious objector, he completed his two years of national service as a hospital orderly before enrolling at London’s Royal College of Art in 1959. He swiftly gained a reputation as a unique talent, albeit one with a rebellious streak. His refusal to paint a life drawing of a female model almost stopped him from graduating – pointedly, he submitted Life Drawing for a Diploma, which depicted a muscular male figure from an American physique magazine. Hockney also declined to write an essay required for the final examination, believing he should be assessed solely on his artworks. The RCA, aware of the talent it was fostering, bent its rules so it could award him the diploma.

It was the start of a career in which Hockney had no qualms about challenging conservative society. His 1961 painting We Two Boys Together Clinging, named after a Walt Whitman poem, was an early indicator of that. Works that followed, such as 1962's Cleaning Teeth, Early Evening (10pm) W11, with its phallic Colgate tubes and chains, would depict gay life with an honesty and openness that was almost completely at odds with a Britain in which homosexuality remained a criminal offence until 1967.

With his signature bleach-blond hair, round, thick-rimmed spectacles and cigarette dangling from his lip, Hockney became a figure on the 60s party circuit in London and the US. He partied with Andy Warhol, Ossie Clark and Dennis Hopper, earning himself a reputation as a playboy and a flâneur. Yet while he indulged in the pleasure-filled life of a drug-taking bohemian, he never lost sight of his strong Yorkshire work ethic. Even after a stroke in 2012, which temporarily impaired his speech, he continued working.

After moving to LA in the mid-60s, his more mature and restrained works garnered acclaim for their ability to transport deep and complex emotions on to the canvas. Man in Shower in Beverly Hills (1964) found the artist hitting his stride as he developed towards a more realist style. In November 2018, Hockney’s 1972 masterpiece, Portrait of an Artist (Pool With Two Figures), sold for $90.3m (£70.2m) at Christie’s, a world record for a living artist at the time. The work, inspired by Hockney’s breakup with his lover, enraptured critics, including the Guardian’s Jonathan Jones, who described it that same year as “a calm distillation of love and sorrow”.

While working on one of his LA paintings, Hockney took a series of reference photographs on a Polaroid camera and accidentally stumbled upon the next stage of his career: photocollage, or “joiners” as he would term them. Through assembling multiple photographs together, Hockney could explore his fascination with perspective. The portraits he created of his mother and the British art dealer John Kasmin exhibited a strong cubist influence that drew comparisons with his idol, Picasso.

In later years, Hockney experimented in many new areas including set and costume design for operas and ballets. Developing technology fascinated the artist: as his career evolved, his art made use of the photocopier, the fax machine, the printer and the iPad – the latter allowing him to create reams of digital paintings that he would excitedly email friends and acquaintances. But his technological interests always came back to one thing: "I'm really only interested in technology that is about pictures,” he told Interview magazine in 2013. “I’m interested in anything that makes a picture."

An avid smoker all his life, Hockney maintained that cigarettes had been beneficial to his mental health. Writing in the Guardian in 2007 he called the UK’s imminent smoking ban "the most grotesque piece of social engineering".

He had moved back to Yorkshire from Los Angeles in 2005, but in 2013 tragedy struck when his 23-year-old assistant Dominic Elliott was found dead at his Bridlington home. Elliott had been found to have consumed household drain cleaner after taking a range of recreational drugs including ecstasy and cocaine. A coroner ruled that Elliott had died as a result of misadventure. Hockney said that for a period he had considered giving up art altogether, as he was unable to draw in the wake of Elliott’s death.

Hockney is believed to have turned down a knighthood on several occasions and once declined an invitation to paint a portrait of the queen. His iconoclasm found its way into the 2001 book Secret Knowledge: Rediscovering the Lost Techniques of the Old Masters, in which he challenged much established thinking regarding how the great paintings of the past may have been created. It managed to both enrage and enrapture critics and art historians.

“I don’t reflect too much,"  “I live now. It’s always now.”

Film: The 80s Cult Classic "Ferris Bueller's Day Off" Turns 40

Premiered on this day back in 1986 "Ferris Bueller's Day Off" a cult classic about some fella named Ferris, and his friends Cameron and Sloane playing hooky and spending a great day in Chicago. A comedy film written, produced and directed by the legendary John Hughes.

The plot was simply: follows high school senior Ferris Bueller (Matthew Broderick), who skips school and spends the day in downtown Chicago along with his girlfriend Sloane Peterson (Mia Sara) and best friend Cameron Frye (Alan Ruck). He creatively avoids his school's dean of students Edward Rooney (Jeffrey Jones), his resentful sister Jeannie (Jennifer Grey), and his parents. During the film, Bueller regularly breaks the fourth wall by speaking directly to the camera to explain to the audience his thoughts and techniques, and practically this was a key element on the film.

Hughes wrote the screenplay in less than a week and shot the film, on a minimun budget of $5.8 million, over three months in 1985. Featuring many famous Chicago landmarks including the then Sears Tower and the Art Institute of Chicago, the film was Hughes' love letter to the city: "I really wanted to capture as much of Chicago as I could. Not just in the architecture and landscape, but the spirit." Released by Paramount Pictures, Ferris Bueller’s Day Off became one of the top-grossing films of the year and was enthusiastically received by critics and audiences alike.

This film is perhaps the finest entry in director John Hughes'  catalog of beloved '80s teen movies, which also features "The Breakfast Club," "Sixteen Candles" and "Pretty in Pink." Yet, there was a moment when it didn't seem like Ferris Bueller, which has stood the test of time — even making it onto today — would ascend to such heights.

Hughes cleaned things up before audiences saw the finished product in 1986 and have no doubt seen many times since. The idea of it being serious, though, was not lost in the end. Comedy and drama are often two sides of the same coin and enjoy a symbiotic relationship — laughter can come from pain. Cameron, who wrestles with depression in the beginning of the movie, addresses his poor relationship with his father throughout the film, eventually deciding to confront him at the end after he destroys his dad’s prized Ferrari. As time has gone on, some people online have suggested the movie is about mental health, prompting fans to reexamine what the film means. Broderick and Ruck, though, don’t necessarily believe their view of it has transformed over time. 

"No, I still think of it the same as — I don’t think it has changed, really," Broderick says. "Not for me, either, I don’t think," Ruck says. "The thing that John was really, really good at was he gave these characters dignity. Teen comedies, so often it’s just like they're sex-crazed doofuses, and he didn't do that. He was like, No, they're real people, and they've got real fears and real desires. And he honored all that, and we knew that when we were making it.

Hughes' movies are funny, but they almost always weaved comedy in with drama and earnestness, a characteristic that is vital in the genre and apparent in "Ferris Bueller’s Day Off." Like all good comedies, the underpinnings are serious," Broderick says. "You could say it's about mental health or whatever, but he (Cameron) really is depressed at the beginning and has a very tough relationship with his father." In addition to directing the movie, Hughes, who died in 2009, wrote it, which gave him an upper hand in sharing his vision.

Ferris Bueller sits in that rarefied air where everyone (except his sister and Mr. Rooney) seems to like him. A teenager full of bravado was nothing new on TV or in movies, but the brashness of the execution of his plans was. You could make the argument that he set a blueprint for other characters who came later. Zack Morris from “Saved by the Bell” certainly comes to mind — he’s another schemer with a pretty girlfriend, takes advantage of his awkward best friend, is always dueling with his principal and, perhaps most noticeably, he breaks the fourth wall. Ferris may have indeed been an inspiration. Broderick says.

"I think there were a number of things that came after that that kind of used that same format," says Ruck, who also mentions the short-lived TV series "Parker Lewis Can't Lose."

Another “Ferris Bueller” movie, though? Broderick has previously said he and Hughes shot down the idea of doing a sequel, and maybe that was for the best. The day off would be hard to replicate, but it is definitely remembered, appreciated and longed for by moviegoers who identify with Ferris’ quest to have fun.

Forty years later, as multiple generations have grown up watching it, the question isn't What kind of a lasting impact did it have?  The question is What kind of lasting impact didn’t it have?

Books: "The Smiths: A Novella"

Intense and wildly inventive and magnificently surreal, The Smiths: A Novella recounts the impact of an unconventional pop group from Manchester on one man's life. Taking the form of a flâneuring journey through the landscape of memory, our anonymous protagonist is accompanied by the iconic French actress Carole Bouquet, who becomes his guide and interlocutor, asking about his life during the years The Smiths were together and the profound effect of their music upon him.

As the unlikely couple perambulate from the old Selfridge Hotel to West Hollywood by way of a park bench in Cavendish Square, their conversation interrogates and celebrates the joys of outlandish pop genius, the zealous dedication of fans and the cult of outsider disaffection given uproarious voice. As such, this is not a book about The Smiths but one that emerges from their music, their emotional register and their literary resonance.

Michael Bracewell's novella-cum-fairy tale is at once deeply romantic and laced with comedy - not unlike the band themselves - and perhaps (in fictional form) the most astute and celebratory portrait of The Smiths to date. 

 

Title: The Smiths: A Novella

Author: Michael Bracewell 

Pages: 128

Publisher: White Rabbit

Language: English 

Format: Hardcover