Arts and Culture Archives

<strong></strong>Josef’s Jukebox — ‘New York Dolls’ by The New York Dolls

28Jul

By J. Oscar WeinsteinNo Comments

Music

Josef’s Jukebox — ‘New York Dolls’ by The New York Dolls

“I don’t really like to sit around the house listening to my own records. They’re not that good”. One reads David Johansen’s speech and thinks ‘what a curious proclamation’. Was he simply espousing the truth about a band whose discography received wholesale rejection by the corporate establishment? Or yet more wily sass from Staten Island’s greatest musical antagonist? I would plump for the latter. For the Dolls’ debut is unique in the canon of contemporary pop and, like Johansen’s statement, filled with contrarianism. Glamorous yet filthy; feminine yet masculine; a type of proto-punk wholly relatable yet so foreign to the modern ear. A sonic niche that only one record continues to fill. In ’71, Johansen (joined by guitarists Johnny Thunders & Sylvain Sylvain, bassist Arthur ‘Killer’ ...

Noughts + Crosses: segregation dystopia with a Shakespearean twist

This article contains spoilers. You have been warned! It’s been nearly twenty years since Malorie Blackman wrote Noughts & Crosses, a dystopian novel taking place in an alternative timeline. In that timeline, African people had colonised the European countries and had made Europeans their slaves. Despite the government abolishing the enslavement of European people, racism still divides society. Black people still degrade them and cruelly call them ‘Blankers’ or ‘Noughts’, while the white people call them ‘Crosses’. Since 2001, it has spawned sequels, with its recent book, Crossfire, released in 2019. After years of screen adaptation rumours spiralling across the internet, BBC One finally released a TV adaptation in March. It currently covers the narrative of the first book in the seri...

Lockdown leisure: our recreation recommendations for these isolated times

With the UK now in lockdown due to the increasing spread of coronavirus, non-essential shops, pubs, restaurants, theatres, gyms and more have been closed, and we’ve all been told we must stay indoors unless for food or medicine, essential work, or one socially-distant exercise per day. With NHS staff toiling on the frontlines along with other essential workers in shops, schools and more, the least the rest of us can do is stay at home and sit down with a cuppa to suppress its spread. To help you do just that, we asked the Slant team which albums, series, films, books, and podcasts are accompanying us through isolation. From a book about video games through to Netflix recommendations; from a sports podcast through to fifteenth century music, we really do have it all. So, get comfy ...