‘Art is nowadays completely commercial'
German singer Ute Lemper, whose family was divided by the Berlin Wall, performed alongside Pink Floyd to mark its collapse. Her career has been defined by her love of the music of the Weimar-era, and the composer Kurt Weill.
125 years after his birth, she's released a new album adapting his music for the modern age – and she'll perform it at Cadogan Hall in London next weekend.
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Time Out
12 hours ago
- Time Out
Chicago named one of the best nightlife cities in America, beating NYC and LA
When you have the kind of winters Chicago has, you understand how to have a good time, no matter the weather. Now we're getting the recognition we deserve as the second-plash finisher on Time Out's ranking of best cities for nightlife in North America, after Sin City itself, Las Vegas. Yes, that means the Windy City beat out on nightlife powerhouses like New York City, Los Angeles and Miami. But that's not exactly a surprise to anyone who knows that a Tuesday night can be just as wild as Saturday when the vibe is right and the DJ knows what they're doing. What a change from a few years ago, though—the COVID-era shutdowns took us from barhopping on Clark Street to sipping Malört alone in our apartments in sweatpants. Restaurants and bars got creative with to-go drinks and patio heaters, but nothing will ever beat the buzz of a crowded bar on a hot summer night. But now we're living in a nightlife renaissance. You can feel it everywhere, from the new wave of cocktail bars tucked into historic buildings to the underground raves happening in lofts that may or may not be technically legal. There's an energy in the air again, and it's got nothing to do with the weather. Time Out polled thousands of people in hundreds of the world's best cities on both the quality and affordability of their city's nightlife scene, from clubbing to bars, pubs and nighttime entertainment. After crunching the data, a panel of nightlife experts, including Time Out's city editors and arts-and-culture writers, voted on their faves for the final rankings. Need proof that Chicago is killing it on the bar scene? Look no further than local favorites like Kumiko, where cocktails are treated like tiny, edible poems, or The Green Mill, which still feels cool after all these decades. There's late-night dancing at Smartbar, intimate wine bars in Logan Square and queer joy radiating out of Sidetrack. We've got dive bars, rooftop lounges, jazz joints, and anywhere else you might want to end up at 2am. In this city, 'last call' just means 'see you at the after party.' Best cities for nightlife in the U.S., according to Time Out Las Vegas Chicago New Orleans Miami New York Los Angeles Austin San Diego Orlando Dallas
The Guardian
12 hours ago
- The Guardian
Fair by Jen Calleja review – on the magic of translation
Jen Calleja is used to making things happen for herself, by herself, despite the fact that collaboration is vital to all her endeavours: her work as a literary translator, rendering German prose and poetry into English; her life as a publisher, and co-founder with her friend Kat Storace of Praspar Press, which aims to bring Maltese literature to a wider audience; her own writing, which includes the novel Vehicle and the essay collection Goblinhood; and her other incarnation, as a member of the post-punk band Sauna Youth. All of this takes a significant amount of energy and determination, but one of Fair's central contentions is that it is all made far harder than it ought to be by, in effect, the covert acceptance of inequality and exclusion in the arts and literature. She recalls, for example, finally feeling that she has made it as a translator when she is invited to speak at the London Book Fair; years later, she returns to tell the audience that she has plenty of work, but only £30 in her bank account because so many of the organisations in the room are behind on paying her. 'Out of the frying pan of grifting,' as she acidly notes, 'into the fire of contempt'. But it is not simply a question of spiralling workload, dwindling rates of pay, insecure employment or even the spectre of AI. Translators are additionally required to go along with their own erasure: to sign up to the idea that invisibility is hard-wired into their value, and that a truly great translation is the one that the reader fails to notice. Maintaining this fiction might take obvious forms – neglecting to give a translator their rightful billing on the text itself – or it might be subtle and insidious, as in the insistence that translators suppress their regional identity by rendering everything in homogeneous southern English. Departing from such strictures has not hindered translators such as the inestimable Deborah Smith, who introduced Yorkshire dialect into her versions of the novels of Korean Nobel laureate Han Kang. In fact, as Calleja demonstrates through several fascinating and detailed translations in progress, shepherding a piece of writing from one language into another requires so many minute responses, thought processes and decisions that the translator would find it impossible to suppress their own voice and experiences; and that if they managed it, the result would probably be worse, inert and undynamic. Her relationship with the manuscripts on her desk, for example, is informed by her life-changing encounter with Bernhard Schlink's Der Vorleser (The Reader), a novel that she selected at random in a Munich bookshop when she was a teenager, over time allowing the chasms in her understanding and appreciation of the prose to slowly fill in and resolve. 'Looking at this first page now, it feels so strange to know how I would translate it, how only I would translate it,' she writes. 'Even stranger to think that now I pick up novels in German, open them, read them, and know how to translate them into books you buy in shops. That people trust me to do this.' Fair is so titled in part to reflect its qualities as a manifesto – not only an improvement in pay and working conditions, but a demand that literary translation as a practice and profession should be a viable aspiration for a far greater number and type of people. It also describes the book's puckish structure, in which we wander the stands, stalls and hallways of a notional trade fair, and where the illusion of cosy intimacy and friendliness – the decorated cubicles for meetings, the drinks receptions, the musical performances – are at odds with the corporate reality of such gatherings, which are essentially transactional rather than poetic. It can be a somewhat distracting and disorientating mechanism, which is perhaps the point. Stripping away the industrial structures of creating art is far easier said than done, but as she repeatedly tells us, you have to start somewhere. Fair: The Life-Art of Translation by Jen Calleja is published by Prototype (£12.99). To support the Guardian order your copy at Delivery charges may apply
Telegraph
13 hours ago
- Telegraph
White female boss dressed as Whoopi Goldberg for Oscars-themed work party
A white female executive racially harassed her black colleague when she dressed up as Whoopi Goldberg from Sister Act at an Oscar-themed work party, a tribunal heard. Jerry Logo said he experienced an 'immediate rush of anxiety' when he saw Agnes Ganswindt wearing the costume from the 1992 comedy with her face painted black at the office Christmas get-together. The accounts manager told a tribunal that it made him think of the 'dehumanisation' of black people, which caused him to suffer a panic attack. A panel found that Miss Ganswindt, a customer service agent, was 'genuinely unaware' that a white woman dressing up as a black actress might be offensive to someone who is black. Mr Logo sued for racial harassment, but his case was dismissed because he had brought the case four years after the event took place. But after hearing how his employers themselves agreed the 'black-face' event did constitute harassment, an appeal judge has now ruled that the claim should be reheard. The employment appeal tribunal (EAT) heard that Mr Logo started working in the UK for German payments firm Payone in November 2016 as an accounts manager. Some four days after he started work, while at the company's Frankfurt office for induction training, the business held a Christmas party themed as Oscars night. The tribunal said: 'Miss Ganswindt, who is white, attended the event dressed as the character played by Whoopi Goldberg in the Sister Act films.' 'Immediate rush of anxiety' Mr Logo said he felt an 'immediate rush of anxiety' when he saw the person, who he later realised was Miss Ganswindt, in 'black face paint'. The earlier employment tribunal hearing, which took place in Watford in 2023, was overseen by employment Judge Judith George. She said that the panel accepted that not only had Miss Ganswindt chosen the costume before she met Mr Logo, but she was also not aware that he would be in attendance. The judge said the black-face did occur, adding: 'It is conceded by [PayOne] that this incident would amount to race-related harassment on the basis of the unwanted conduct causing the harassing effect, and we accept that it does. '[Mr Logo] argued that this incident was harassment because Miss Ganswindt had the purpose of creating the harassing effect. 'We accept, after careful consideration, that she was genuinely unaware that a black British person would be likely to associate a white woman dressed as a black actress with an offensive and demeaning portrayal of people based on race.'
