The ObserverFriendshipHe makes you laugh, shares your woes and comes with no sexual strings attached. But why, wonders Caroline O’Donoghue, is the gay man/straight female friendship such a caricature in popular culture?
Ryan and I met working behind the tills in HMV Cork in the winter of 2009. We bonded instantly, and as we are both natural romantics, began the process of myth-making in our friendship while it was still slippery from birth. Read More...
ArtWith his odd symbols and signs, the East German painter created a ‘democratic’ style in defiance of the state. A new exhibition shows how his vision was inspired by the trauma of conflict and the cold war
In 1979, the Stasi entered Ralf Winkler’s Dresden studio and trashed the place. It was the culmination of a harassment campaign against the artist, who found fame under the pseudonym AR Penck, for refusing to make social-realist propaganda. Read More...
10 of the bestTom WaitsTom Waits: 10 of the bestFrom the drunken balladeer to the Brechtian surrealist – here are 10 highights from the career of one of music’s true individuals
1 (Looking For) The Heart of Saturday NightWhat’s most remarkable about Tom Waits’s 1973 debut album, Closing Time, is just how unremarkable it is. There are some great songs, sure: the instrumental title track, and Martha, which could be a Neil Diamond tune performed by Willie Nelson, as well as Ol ’55 – covered by Asylum labelmates the Eagles – about whom Waits was publicly sniffy, biting the hand that fed him. Read More...