Ferdinand

One by one, the toxic giants have come crashing to earth. In the last month or so Boris Johnson has quit, Donald Trump has been arraigned on felony charges, Italy’s Silvio Berlusconi has died, and even Vladimir Putin looks significantly weaker than he did. It’s sorely tempting to conclude that the chaotic ride of recent years is finally over, and life might return to something more like normal.But that, according to Ferdinand Mount’s absorbing tour of populist rogues through the ages, would be a rookie mistake. It may be…

How to deal, psychologically speaking, with Boris Johnson and Donald Trump? For obvious reasons, many of us have spent the past several years telling ourselves that these (insert your own insult here) politicians are outrageous anomalies, mere boils on the otherwise unblemished face of the body politic. Of course boils are nasty, their suppurating eruptions highly unpleasant for anyone who happens to be in the vicinity. We all know this. But we take comfort in the fact that they may also be treated. The condition,…

“Take it right down to the sweet Mancunian ground,” instructs Franz Ferdinand frontman Alex Kapranos. Telling the audience to drop before rocketing them back up like a firework by restarting the music is an old trick, and one that can fall flat as often as it works. But the hefty crowd at Manchester’s Victoria Warehouse dutifully obey and drop in unison. The band detonates via a stretched out and frenetic version of This Fire, and the crowd explodes along with them.The moment feels emblematic of Franz Ferdinand as a…

Photo: David Suh“It’s scary as shit. I’m working on Sandman as my first staff writing job?” Vanessa Benton shook their head as they said this, leaning back a little; we’re talking in the morning over video chat. “It was an incredible learning experience, diving headfirst into that.”Benton has been working in Hollywood for a while: after graduating they were a showrunner’s assistant for In Contempt, and then for Peter Nowalk while he was working on How to Get Away With Murder. Benton was later promoted to writers’…

Early to rise? On tour, you often don’t know what day of the week it is, so it depends how much I had to drink the night before. I do love that feeling of seeing an empty Sunday morning town or city. But who am I kidding? Most Sundays I like a wee bit of a lie-in.Sunday grub? Breakfast feels like a treat, as if you’ve got permission to go overboard. I love a good fry-up. To go really Scottish, add a slice of fried haggis. My favourite part is the mushrooms, but don’t just ram them in the pan. Fry sparingly and only turn…

Image: Anime BostonBilly Kametz, an anime and video game voice actor, has passed away at the age of 35. Kametz, whose credits include voicing Josuke Higashikata in the English dub of Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure: Diamond is Unbreakable and Galo Thymos in Studio Trigger’s hit anime film Promare, was diagnosed with stage 4 colon cancer back in April.On Kametz’s GoFundMe page headed up by his event agent A. Jinnie McManus, she revealed that Kametz had passed away earlier in the week on Thursday, June 9. Following notifying his…