gently

“This book doesn’t work. It must be destroyed.” Not a one-star rant from the bowels of Amazon or Goodreads, but rather the verdict of Colombian Nobel laureate Gabriel García Márquez on his now posthumously published novel, Until August, a breezy romp brewed in his 70s and previously excerpted by the New Yorker in 1999 after he read from it on stage in Madrid with the late José Saramago.The erotic adventures of a middle-aged mother, it was originally conceived as a five-part narrative more than 600 pages long, but was set…

Van Morrison has always ploughed a contrary furrow and as he heads into his twilight years, he’s bringing it all back home. His new album, Accentuate the Positive, finds him going back to songs that he first played in Belfast bar bands as a teenager a full 60 years ago. Morrison has said that he had been intending to re-engage with these rock’n’roll and R&B originals for more than 20 years. It was the Covid lockdown that gave him the headspace to tackle the project – somewhat ironic given that last year he put out an…

Allison Murray/ZDNETLike most people, I have a hard time falling asleep at night and waking up in the mornings. My nightly routine consists of either scrolling through my phone in bed or falling asleep to the sounds of Netflix. And my morning routine isn't much better: I go from snoozing the alarm to checking my work emails within seconds.But there is one gadget that has managed to improve my sleep hygiene: The Hatch Restore 2for Black Friday. !function(f,b,e,v,n,t,s)…

‘Oh fiddle faddle,” mutters Kaye Mannion in the front room of her house in Hackney, east London. Kaye is a cheerful soul in her mid-70s, a chatterbox, an extrovert. She also happens to be agoraphobic; and has been since she was a teenager. In this documentary about her life, Kaye comes over like Miss Havisham crossed with the mother and daughter Edies from Grey Gardens, with a bit of Carry On thrown in. She’s what you might call a character, and the film’s director Ben Reed – one of Kaye’s neighbours – take enormous care…

Post-rock titans Mogwai have signed several very good albums to their Rock Action label recently: Kathryn Joseph’s superlative for you who are the wronged, the magnificently glum Arab Strap comeback As Days Get Dark, and Strap spin-off Lichen Slow’s debut, Rest Lurks. Now we can luxuriate in Cloth’s latest collection of gentle guitar pop, thanks to Glasgow twins Rachael and Paul Swinton. They began spinning Cloth into gold at college seven years ago, releasing one album and an EP since. “Just keep it simple,” murmurs…

Meghan Markle and Prince Harry recently attended a basketball match at the Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles. Several videos and pictures of the duo emerged online as they sat and had a conversation as well as laughed while watching the game. (Also Read | King Charles extends ‘olive branch’ to Prince Harry and Meghan Markle ahead of May coronation) Meghan Markle refused to kiss Prince Harry on camera during a match. A video has been shared on Twitter in which the couple was caught on the Kiss Cam and they were…

Listening to Rozi Plain is like searching for shapes in the clouds. In her mirage-like lyrics and mix of gently warped folk and nomadic jazz, you can stumble on moments of sharp recognition. A former art student, Plain is a longtime member of Kate Stables’ luminous folk band This Is the Kit and a fixture of the Cleaner Records collective, which she founded with fellow folk artist Rachael Dadd. All the while, she has nurtured her own ambitions. Prize, her fifth record, is a document of her evolution over the past 15 years,…

By Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences December 5, 2022Close-up of the gripper’s filaments wrapping around an object. Credit: Harvard Microrobotics Lab/Harvard SEASA jellyfish-like soft gripper simulates the mechanics of curly hair.You are aware of how difficult it is to grasp and hold onto items with robotic grippers if you have ever played the claw game at an arcade. Imagine how much more nerve-wracking that game would be if you were attempting to grab a delicate piece of endangered coral…

Shot in the depths of winter, Jean-François Lesage’s black and white documentary finds the warmth hidden beneath the snowy streets of Montreal. A melancholic jazz score weaves in and out of this enchanting film, which luxuriates in the profundity of unexpected encounters between strangers and the delicate cycle of things lost and regained.Peering through the glass shield of a lost and found counter, the camera patiently observes the flow of people searching for objects they have left behind on public transport. From paper…

x https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WTLgg8oRSBE Netflix is bringing the romance and tears this summer with the upcoming emotional love story, Purple Hearts.  The trailer for the epic journey dropped today, and fans were immediately thrust into the romance of a young couple communicating through letters. Luke, a soldier, is deployed, and his wife Cassie is waiting for him at home — struggling with medical problems. The letters are sweet, and the pair seem to have a strong connection, but then we learn that their…