Five Films with Incredible Style III

Film has the unique power to shape aesthetics. A well-cut suit, a cinematic apartment, the colour of a lipstick on screen—these details ripple outward into fashion, interiors, even identity. These five films show how style can define an entire cinematic experience. Casablanca (1942) – Michael Curtiz Humphrey Bogart’s trench coat and fedora, Ingrid Bergman’s tailoredContinue reading “Five Films with Incredible Style III”

The Novel Rediscovery of Old Favourites

On returning to E.M. Forster’s A Room with a View and Ray Bradbury’s Something Wicked This Way Comes — two novels about the terrible and liberating cost of desire. There is a particular kind of reading that only happens the second time around. The first encounter with a great novel is, of necessity, an actContinue reading “The Novel Rediscovery of Old Favourites”

Affordable Style: Inns and Guesthouses of Japan’s Countryside

Beyond Tokyo and Kyoto, Japan’s countryside reveals an older rhythm: wooden farmhouses surrounded by rice paddies, mountain villages with steaming hot springs, and inns where tatami mats and sliding screens define the architecture. Here, hospitality is deeply cultural, rooted in ryokan (traditional inns) and minshuku (family-run guesthouses). Many remain remarkably affordable, offering warm welcomes, regionalContinue reading “Affordable Style: Inns and Guesthouses of Japan’s Countryside”

Ms. Magazine: The Voice That Redefined Feminism

When the first issue of Ms. magazine appeared on newsstands in 1972, its impact was immediate and electric. On the cover was a striking illustration of a many-armed woman — part Hindu goddess, part suburban housewife — juggling a typewriter, an iron, a frying pan, and a baby. Inside were essays, manifestos, and reports thatContinue reading “Ms. Magazine: The Voice That Redefined Feminism”

Hemingway’s Cuba: Following the Writer’s Footsteps in Havana and Beyond

Few literary figures are as bound to a place as Ernest Hemingway is to Cuba. The American novelist first visited in 1932 and soon made it his base, writing some of his greatest works under the Caribbean sun. From the fishing village of Cojímar to the streets of Old Havana, Hemingway’s presence still lingers —Continue reading “Hemingway’s Cuba: Following the Writer’s Footsteps in Havana and Beyond”

Jesse Jackson: The Prophet Who Told America to Keep Hope Alive

The Rev Jesse Jackson, who has died aged 84, was never merely a witness to history. He was one of its great interrupters. For more than half a century, Jackson stood at the charged intersection of race, religion and American democracy – sometimes welcomed, often derided, always impossible to ignore. From the balcony of theContinue reading “Jesse Jackson: The Prophet Who Told America to Keep Hope Alive”

The Absurd Heroics of ¡Three Amigos!

There are comedies that chase the gag, and there are comedies that build a world so ridiculous that the gags feel inevitable. John Landis’s ¡Three Amigos! (1986), starring Steve Martin, Chevy Chase, and Martin Short, belongs squarely in the second camp. Part parody, part homage, it takes the bones of a Hollywood Western and dressesContinue reading “The Absurd Heroics of ¡Three Amigos!”

Jazz: The Sound That Shaped the Modern Century

Jazz has always been more than music. It is improvisation, rebellion, conversation, and seduction — the soundtrack of the 20th century’s upheavals and freedoms. Born in the crucible of Black experience in America, it spread across continents, infiltrated fashion, cinema, literature, and politics, and became the lingua franca of modernity. To trace the history ofContinue reading “Jazz: The Sound That Shaped the Modern Century”

Bauhaus: The School That Changed Modern Life

No movement in modern design carries quite the resonance of the Bauhaus. More than a school, it was a revolution in how we think about art, architecture, craft, and everyday life. Founded in 1919 in Weimar, Germany, by architect Walter Gropius, the Bauhaus lasted only fourteen years before the Nazis closed it in 1933. YetContinue reading “Bauhaus: The School That Changed Modern Life”