A warning to in-play bettors – first goal at Wembley is not so crucial
Features
Four of the Premier League's current top six will be doing battle at Wembley this weekend – but if you are betting in-play during the FA Cup semi-finals, remember that when the best teams play each other the first goal can be less decisive than it is on other occasions.
Source: Guardian Unlimited
Date Published: April 17, 2009
All eyes on Bright Eyes
Features
These days, many bands have a crew member on hand to film or photograph a few intimate moments and post them on the group's website. But guitar tech Phil Schaffart went further than most by shooting his paymasters, Conor Oberst and the Mystic Valley Band, for 18 months. He has edited the footage down to an hour-long film, made available via conoroberst.com this week.
Source: Guardian Unlimited
Date Published: April 17, 2009
Asher Roth: Asleep in the Bread Aisle
Features
Given the excitement surrounding Eminem's imminent return, it's easy to forget that his rise was not greeted with untrammelled delight by the hip-hop community. Indeed, some suggested his success might effectively signal the end of hip-hop as we know it. Once the music industry found a million-selling white rapper, it was bound to search out others and promote them at the expense of their black counterparts. Honky was going to go on one of his periodic musical mission creeps; hip-hop would be annexed as thoroughly as R&B had been by skinny kids from Richmond and Newcastle in the early 1960s.
Source: Guardian Unlimited
Date Published: April 17, 2009
Australia's Murray river close to running dry
Features
Australia's biggest river is running so low that Adelaide, the country's fifth-largest city, could run out of water in the next two years.
Source: Guardian Unlimited
Date Published: April 17, 2009
Bach: The Well-Tempered Clavier Books I & II; Angela Hewitt
Features
Angela Hewitt made her first recording of the 48 Preludes and Fugues in the late 1990s, as part of her Hyperion cycle of Bach's keyboard works. Her return to them seems to have been prompted by a sense of greater familiarity with the music itself, matured over 10 years of playing the pieces in recital. In fact, not a great deal about her performances has changed, though the piano itself has: for Hewitt now prefers the pearly glow of a Fazioli to the greater assertiveness of the Steinway. In some preludes, her rhythms are far more unbuttoned than before - a result, she suggests, of getting to know more music by French baroque composers such as Couperin and Rameau. But only occasionally does she take more liberties with expressive rubato than the music can stand. What shines through her playing most of all is a sovereign control of touch, texture and dynamic, so that every line is perfectly characterised and distinct. This is by no means the only approach to playing Bach's masterpiece on
Source: Guardian Unlimited
Date Published: April 17, 2009
Banks take control at West Ham as financial crisis deepens
Features
West Ham United will be taken over by a consortium of international banks in the coming weeks. Icelandic government-appointed officials running the stricken investment bank Straumur are set to take control from Bjorgolfur Gudmundsson at Upton Park as they seek to recover the money lost in the collapse of that nation's economy.
Source: Guardian Unlimited
Date Published: April 17, 2009
Before I Forget
Features
This is an insight into a subculture that, it's fair to say, doesn't get a decent crack of the cinematic whip: the demi-monde of the ageing, former-gigolo, gay Frenchman. The first few minutes - an unhurried inspection of an unpleasant coughing fit of someone we can only assume is seriously ill - doesn't promise much fun.
Source: Guardian Unlimited
Date Published: April 17, 2009
Bleep of faith
Features
It's one of the UK's greatest independent labels, responsible for introducing the world to Aphex Twin, LFO, Boards of Canada and Squarepusher. But the origins of Warp Records, which celebrates its 20th birthday this year, were much humbler. The track that would inspire a revolution in UK dance music was conceived in a teenager's bedroom.
Source: Guardian Unlimited
Date Published: April 17, 2009
Blood, guts and bullets
Features
For some reason I thought it would be fun to gather all the Italian-made western DVDs and tapes I could lay my hands on, and watch them in the order they were made. An interesting experiment, which maybe I could turn into a book, or a long article on the development of one of the most peculiar and popular cinematic sub-genres.
Source: Guardian Unlimited
Date Published: April 17, 2009
Breakfast briefing: Games in recession and YouTube's movie deal
Features
• Heard all that stuff about the video games industry being "recession proof"? Turns out it might have been phooey - according to a study of US sales by NPD, video game sales for last month were down 17% on the same period last year. VentureBeat points out the so-called Easter effect - but any way you look at it, it's not good news.
Source: Guardian Unlimited
Date Published: April 17, 2009
