My Cultural Life
Damian Thompson's latest book, Counterknowledge, has recieved great reviews from the critics (see Marc Sidwell's review for the NCF here). Damian is Editor-in-Chief of the Catholic Herald and leader writer for the Daily Telegraph, where he also writes a popular blog. He tells us about his cultural life.
What's the latest download on your iPod?
Edwin Fischer playing Busoni's arrangement of Bach's 'St Anne' Prelude & Fugue.
What was the last thing you saw at the theatre?
That silly play about the death of John Paul II - was it called The Last Confession? Though David Suchet was superb.
Tate Britain or Tate Modern?
Not been to the latter
What are you reading at the moment?
The Accident Man by Tom Cain.
Which cultural figure from the past or present would you most like to meet or have met?
Beethoven
Which cultural figure from the past or present do you think is the most over-rated?
Salman Rushdie
And the most under-rated?
The pianist Stephen Hough
The X-Factor or Strictly Come Dancing?
Never seen either, but I like Gethin Jones.
You're asked by a paper to review either The Magic Flute or We Will Rock You. Which do you choose?
The Magic Flute.
Have you ever walked out of a play, film, concert or other production?
Bach St John Passion performed under the dome of St Paul's so the intricate choruses were liquidised.
Before being sent to your desert island, you're allowed to choose your three favourite films to take with you. What would they be?
Battle of Algiers, Pasolini's Gospel of Matthew and Team America
Counterknowledge.com
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Submitted by dominichilton on Thu, 2008-01-31 11:19.
This week's guest is James Delingpole, author, journalist and TV critic for The Spectator. In 2007 James had two books out - the liberal-baiting How to be Right (Headline Review) and a novel, Coward on the Beach (Bloomsbury), the sequel to which we will see in 2008.
What’s the latest download on your Ipod?
This is really tragic, but I still haven’t got round to using an iPod. My favourite new band, though, are a folktronica outfit called Tunng whose new album Good Arrows I recommend hugely.
What was the last thing you saw at the theatre?
I find the theatre a massive chore and try to avoid it as much as possible. I do like a panto, though. I’m about to take the family to see Stephen Fry’s Cinderella at the Old Vic, which I gather is wall-to-wall gay porn. But not all the theatre sucks. I did enjoy the His Dark Materials adaptation at the National a few years back (SO much better than the crappy film). And Journey’s End was great.
Tate Britain or Tate Modern?
Tate Britain, though I did like those lovely long slides they had at Tate Modern – it was as if it had finally found its purpose.
What are you reading at the moment?
Philip Marsden’s superb The Barefoot Emperor: An Ethiopian Tragedy and any number of books about Arnhem for my next novel Coward At The Bridge.
Which cultural figure from the past or present would you most like to meet or have met?
Shakespeare it ought to be really. But maybe Marlowe would be interesting too, what with him being a spy, a roisterer, a tobacco-and-boy-lover, and a soon-to-be murderee.
Which cultural figure from the past or present do you think is the most over-rated?
One of the modernists, I should think. Virginia Woolf?
And the most under-rated?
BS Johnson. His loose bound novel in the box (whose chapters you can shuffle and read in any order) The Unfortunates is one of my favourites.
The X-Factor or Strictly Come Dancing?
Life’s too short.
You’re asked by a paper to review either The Magic Flute or We Will Rock You. Which do you choose?
The Magic Flute. They’d have to pay me an awful lot to see the other.
Have you ever walked out of a play, film, concert or other production?
Yes, lots of times and think it should be encouraged. Most recently from Wedding Crashers. Films are OK to walk out of. Theatre’s much harder and more embarrassing – especially if you do it on a first night when people really glare at you. But the relief once you’re free is immense.
Before being sent to your desert island, you're allowed to choose your three favourite films to take with you. What would they be?
Withnail & I; Brazil; Team America
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Submitted by admin on Mon, 2007-12-17 10:57.
This week's guest is Tim Montgomerie, editor of Conservativehome.com . Tim has become a regular media pundit for programmes including Radio 4's Today, The Week in Westminster, The World at One, PM, The World Tonight, Any Questions?, BBC1's Daily Politics and Ten'o'clock News, and Newsnight. He's also written for The Spectator and a number of national newspapers including The Times, The Guardian, The Telegraph and The Independent.
What’s the latest download on your Ipod?
Chants from Taizé and also Moby’s Extreme Ways (because it’s the theme music of The Bourne Ultimatum – a great movie to end a great series of films).
Audio books on my iPod: Currently on the go are John Keegan’s Intelligence In War and Philip Gourevitch’s We Wish To Inform You That Tomorrow We Will Be Killed With Our Families. Everything happening in Darfur today encouraged me to revisit Gourevitch's book.
What was the last thing you saw at the theatre?
I saw The Taming of The Shrew in Washington three weeks ago. Before that it was Frost Nixon in New York, in July. Michael Sheen was great as Frost but Frank Langella’s Nixon stole the show.
Tate Britain or Tate Modern?
Tate Britain. Partly because I love the restaurant there. I’d recommend trying the chips covered in dripping.
I enjoyed the Turner exhibition that was hosted by the Smithsonian while I was in DC for Thanksgiving. I was delighted that it was receiving many more visitors than the concurrent exhibition of Edward Hopper paintings.
What are you reading at the moment?
Mike Gerson’s Heroic Conservatism was my last book. I’ve nearly finished John Bolton’s Surrender Is Not An Option. Rick Warren’s Purpose Driven Life is next. I’m saving a biography of James Stewart for Christmas. I’ll try and watch It’s A Wonderful Life, The Shop Around the Corner, Mr Smith Goes To Washington and The Philadelphia Story DVDs then too. The America portrayed in those movies caused me to fall in love with the USA.
Which cultural figure from the past or present would you most like to meet or have met?
Can I choose more than one person? If yes, it would be The Inklings group of writers who met between the 1930s and 1960s in Oxford. I have read so much C S Lewis and Tolkien over the years. It would have been inspiring to have been a fly on the wall as they drank, ate and debated with others in Oxford’s Eagle and Child pub.
Which cultural figure from the past or present do you think is the most over-rated?
Anyone who has won The Turner Prize.
The X-Factor or Strictly Come Dancing?
My mum loves all of these programmes but I have never watched either. Does that make me the equivalent of one of those High Court judges who doesn't know the name of pop groups? But... I must admit to being an Elvis Presley fan and recorded the recent World’s Greatest Elvis from that Saturday night slot.
You’re asked by a paper to review either The Magic Flute or We Will Rock You. Which do you choose?
The Magic Flute although I always think of David Hare’s Absence of War when I listen to it.
Have you ever walked out of a play, film, concert or other production?
Have you ever walked out of a play, film, concert or other production?
Yes, in the late 80s. Caryl Churchill’s Serious Money was playing at the Northcott Theatre in Exeter. I went with my dad. I hated the play’s politics. My dad hated the bad language. We left for a curry at the interval.
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Submitted by admin on Mon, 2007-12-10 09:08.
This week's interviewee is Douglas Murray, commentator and author of Neoconservatism: Why We Need It, and director of the Centre for Social Cohesion.
What’s the latest download on your Ipod?
The new Pet Shop Boys album and Mark Anthony Turnage’s ‘When I woke.’ I've got quite an eclectic Ipod. Some of it's for the gym, some proper music.
What was the last thing you saw at the theatre?
I haven’t been to the theatre in months, but I'm going to see Ian McKellen’s ‘King Lear’ next week.
Tate Britain or Tate Modern?
Tate Britain . I went to Tate Modern once just after it opened and would never go back. It’s a museum of juvenilia. I don’t hate all modern art, but I really hate the kind they’ve put in there. It’s technically remedial, and what it ‘says’ isn't worth listening to.
What are you reading at the moment?
I run about a dozen books at a time. Most are work-related. Some I fast-track, others I don’t finish for months.
The main book I’m on at the moment is the wonderfully readable ‘The Siege of Mecca’ by Yaroslav Trofimov. It’s an account of the 1979 siege, when one set of Islamist crazies temporarily took control of the Kaaba from another set of Islamist crazies. The best thing is not just the House of Saud massacring everyone in what is meant to be their holiest shrine, but the Saudi armed forces having to call in French commandos to sort out the problem. Because no ‘infidel’ can set foot in Mecca , the French had to be converted before they went in. Like Luxor in 1997, the siege is a useful reminder – if reminder were needed – that the current war against Islamic fascism was not started by us, and has nothing significant to do with the overthrows of the Taliban or the Hussein dynasty.
I’m also reading ‘Now they call me Infidel’ by Nonie Darwish, ‘The War Speeches of William Pitt the Younger,’ ‘Cultural Amnesia: notes in the margin of my time’ by Clive James, ‘Leo Strauss: an intellectual biography’ by Daniel Tanguay, ‘The Mitfords: letters between six sisters’, 'Surrender is Not an Option' by John Bolton, 'Three Victories and a Defeat' by Brendan Simms, ‘The Suicide of Reason’ by Lee Harris and ‘Bravest of the Brave: the story of the Victoria Cross’ by John Glanfield. The latter is one of the most humbling books I’ve ever read and can only be managed a few pages at a time.
I find it hard to read novels at the moment. But I tore through James Delingpole’s ‘Coward on the Beach’ and Ruth Dudley Edwards’ ‘Murdering Americans.’ I’ve got John Banville’s ‘The Untouchable’ on the go, and finally gave in at the airport in Washington the other day and bought Monica Ali’s ‘ Brick Lane ’. Irritatingly, it’s quite good.
As well as being a reader, I suffer from acute bibliophilia, particularly in its first-edition and association-copy manifestations. Leafing through book-dealers catalogues is one of the tragic ways in which I relax.
Which cultural figure from the past or present would you most like to meet or have met?
Alive: Clive James or Tom Stoppard. Dead: Shakespeare – obviously – or Byron. It would have to be a writer. Musicians are usually a disappointment. Artists are terrible company. Even when they have something to say, they’re tongue-tied.
Which cultural figure from the past or present do you think is the most over-rated?
Where to begin? This could go on. I’ll be strict.
Most over-rated of the past - all ‘beat’ writers; Picasso; Pinter.
Most over-rated of the present: Philip Glass; and although they’re not exactly ‘cultural’ I can’t not mention the variety acts which have invaded the classical market. Katherine Jenkins, Russell Watson, ‘Il Divo’ and so on. Mimics. And they’ve accentuated the single most aggravating category-error I know of: that classical music is music sung in a foreign language, or played on classical instruments. The other day I was in a CD shop and they were playing the Keane song ‘Bed-shaped’, sung in Italian by some tenor-impersonator with a fake-tan.
And the most under-rated?
John Adams. Still caught up in the same bracket as Reich and Glass, I know some people are sniffy about his range. But I think some of his works from the last decade (especially the piano concerto, ‘Century Rolls’) are masterpieces.
Anthony Powell.
Also Thom Gunn. A great poet, neglected both before and since his death. I have chunks of ‘Night Sweats’ committed to memory.
The X-Factor or Strictly Come Dancing?
Neither. I don’t have a television at the moment and rather enjoy this Puritanism. I’ve never seen Strictly Come Dancing, but it sounds dreadful. In the first few series I liked the early stages of X-factor and Pop Idol. But the series are too frequent now. Obviously there’s a diminishing pool of new talent if you run a talent contest every few weeks. The winners aren’t as good as they used to be, and nor are the nutters.
You’re asked by a paper to review either The Magic Flute or We Will Rock You. Which do you choose?
The Magic Flute. Everyone knows that Queen only had three good songs: Ben Elton’s never done anything good.
Have you ever walked out of a play, film, concert or other production?
Scottish blood dictates that if you’ve paid for it then you stay in. I used to see things that I ‘ought’ to see. ‘Stuff Happens’ and those crappy Tricycle ‘reconstructions’ for instance. But I don’t feel I need to any more. I’d have left any of those productions in a trice - not because of the plays so much as the smug, self-righteous audiences laughing and snorting out loud at things they already think they know.
I’ve walked out of ENO a number of times. Gotterdammerung most recently. Through pity more than rage. Piss-poor directing, cost-cutter staging, bathetic translation and so on. What I hate almost most in the world is opera trying to get down with the kids. Siegfried skate-boarding was pathetic, not cool – predictable not daring. They once threw an Ali G joke into Pirates of Penzance (I know - someone dragged me). Who’s happy with that? Does it make Ali G fans go to G & S? It’s buttock-clenching. ENO spends its days alienating its base and chasing after people who don’t like opera anyway.
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Submitted by admin on Mon, 2007-12-03 11:05.
