Greatest

The world of mechanical keyboards is a massive one, with literally infinite combinations of manufacturer boards, switches, plates, caps, and beyond. It’s also a massive money pit and an incredibly daunting hobby for someone who isn’t experienced in the segment, like me! I’ve been using the Keychron Q5 Pro for months and have put hundreds of hours of work into it. I’m happy to confirm it’s probably the best keyboard I’ve ever used, and absolutely one of the best mechanical keyboards for Mac and beyond. Keychron Q5 Pro:…

Get our free weekly email for all the latest cinematic news from our film critic Clarisse LoughreyGet our The Life Cinematic email for freeEach year, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts And Sciences attempts to award Oscars to the “best” film or artist in each category that year, and each year it fails at least a few times.There is always room for disagreement on what constitutes “best”: how can we possibly compare Toy Story 3, Inception and The King’s Speech? And yet voters did just that in 2010.It is similarly impossible…

Supergroup songs recorded and sold for a greater cause are not exactly a rarity but none have quite reached the legacy of “We Are The World” — the 1985 charity single that gathered, in the booth, some of the biggest music legends of all time, and to sing a fantastically written and composed song, at that. More than enough reasons, then, to warrant the making of The Greatest Night in Pop, a Netflix documentary about the making of “We Are The World,” which premiered on the platform on January 29, 2024, days after its…

The influential career of Italian horror master Dario Argento gets a well-curated tribute in Dario Argento Panico. Simone Scafidi’s new documentary features interviews with the director as well as famous collaborators and admirers, including fellow boundary-pushing filmmakers Guillermo del Toro, Gaspar Noé, and Nicolas Winding Refn.Alex Winter on the Most Important Modern Horror Movie Scafidi (who also made 2019 Lucio Fulci spotlight Fulci For Fake) frames his reflections on Argento’s past with current footage of the…

There is a sycamore in the front yard of my grandparents’ house, the house where my father grew up. It is a giant, towering over the home, the yard, the whole neighborhood. Last spring, when my grandmother was fading and the tree was coming into leaf, I stood under the sycamore for a long while, listening to the wind rustling its new growth. It was a delicate sound that, every so often, turned into a tremendous roar as the breeze went gusty.My grandmother died a few weeks later. She was 101. The tree must be at least as…

Sixty years ago, Columbia Pictures released the first of two black-and-white movies with the exact same premise: what if American planes with hydrogen bombs were inadvertently ordered to drop their payload on targets in the Soviet Union, potentially triggering an all-out nuclear war that wipe out humanity? The Cuban missile crisis had pushed the superpowers to the brink of conflict less than two years earlier, and film-makers were unusually eager to face their cold war nightmares head on.The release dates were like a…

If you have a bit of Apple nostalgia and a few spare minutes, you can surf through the last 40 years of Mac history with just a few clicks. A site called Mac40th has launched that showcases photos from the book Iconic: A Photographic Tribute to Apple Innovation, allowing you to see them for free. According to the site: “You'll see a continuous stream of random Macs - just keep clicking 'Show me more Macs' and that's what you'll get. If you're a hardcore Mac fan, this site should keep you busy for a very long time.”As it…

The career of producer Frank Farian had a polarising effect. To fans of the music he made – and, having sold hundreds of millions of records, there were a lot of them – he was a dependable bringer of uncomplicated pop joy. Like another Munich-based artist-turned-producer, Giorgio Moroder, Farian was seeking escape from a career singing schlager, the oompah-infused brand of MOR pop huge throughout central and northern Europe and, like Moroder, he called on the services of the city’s crack session musicians, who became…

Soul legends Shalamar have unveiled the dates of their 2024 Greatest Hits Tour, which will see the band celebrating almost 50 years together. With sales of over 25 million albums worldwide, the group will perform their greatest hits such as ‘A Night to Remember’, ‘Take That to the Bank’, ‘Second Time Around’, ‘Make That Move’, ‘Dead Giveaway’, ‘Disappearing Act’ and more. The dates run throughout May and June. The tour will return to where it all began for the band in the UK – the Dominion Theatre in London.…

Avril Lavigne will be bringing her best damn songs from The Best Damn Thing and her six other studios album on the road for the Avril Lavigne: The Greatest Hits tour. The career-spanning run will feature special guest appearances from All Time Low and Simple Plan on select dates. The Greatest Hits tour will kick off on May 22, just a few days before the 20th anniversary of Lavigne’s sophomore album Under My Skin, at Rogers Arena in Vancouver. The show will run through Inglewood, Las Vegas, Phoenix, and more before…