The cinema industry has long had a love affair with vampires, most often Dracula, based on Eastern European legends and Bram Stoker’s eponymous book. An exhibition at the Cinémathèque in Paris is a great opportunity to revisit the fascination with the undead across the arts: literature, painting, TV and film. It’s also an opportunity to … Continue reading “Vampires from “Dracula” to “Twilight””
St-Germain-en-Laye in the Yvelines has a long historic connection with Scotland, and is twinned with the Scottish seaside town of Ayr. For the weekend of 21-22 September, St Germain will be taken over by kilts and bagpipes for a Highland Games. The castle in St Germain was home to the exiled King James II of … Continue reading “Celebrate Scotland in St-Germain-en-Laye”
Route 66 has mythical status in the U.S.A. and around the world. It’s been immortalised in songs, novels and films. Although it’s no longer a major highway, it still draws visitors keen to experience the iconic home of the road trip. Every September, enthusiasts gather in Springfield, Illinois, for the Mother Road Festival, using the … Continue reading “On Route 66”
NASA is marking the fiftieth anniversary of the first Moon landings. Fifty years after Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin walked on the Moon, and 47 years after the end of the Apollo program, the U.S. space agency is preparing to go back to Moon by 2024. On July 20, 1969, Armstrong and Aldrin boarded the … Continue reading “Landing on the Moon”
Independence Day is a celebration for all Americans, but for some it has special significance. It’s a traditional day for holding naturalisation ceremonies, welcoming new citizens to the U.S.A. More than three-quarters of a million people obtained U.S. citizenship through naturalisation in 2018. Ceremonies take place all year round, but a lot take place in … Continue reading “Becoming American on July Fourth”
A new documentary film by Lord of the Rings director Peter Jackson brings the soldiers in the First World War to life to commemorate the centenary of the Armistice. The First World War was the first major conflict after the invention of film cameras. To mark the centenary of the end of the War on … Continue reading “They Shall Not Grow Old”
On July 4th, the U.S.A. celebrates its independence. And where better to do that than in Philadelphia, home of the Liberty Bell, and where the Declaration of Independence was written? The Pennsylvania State House in Philadelphia, renamed Independence Hall, truly deserves the title “birthplace of the nation”. It was here on July 4, 1776 that … Continue reading “Happy July Fourth!”
June 19 is marked in Texas and 41 other states as the commemoration of the end of slavery. Another “independence day” that grew spontaneously out of an accidental date, and flourished thanks to former slaves. On June 19, 1865, news of the end of the Civil War and Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation finally reached Texas, … Continue reading “Juneteenth”
2019 marks the bicentenary of the births of Britain’s Queen Victoria and her beloved husband Prince Albert. Victoria reigned from 1837 until 1899, the longest reign of any British monarch until the current Queen overtook the record in 2015. Victoria reigned over an era of imperial expansion, ultimately ruling over a quarter of the world’s … Continue reading “Victoria 200”
As part of the commemorations of the 75th anniversary of the D-Day landings, the town of Bayeux is hosting an immersive audio performance in English about British war poet and D-Day veteran Keith Douglas. Douglas was a WWII tank commander, who fought in North Africa and participated in the Normandy landings. He was killed three … Continue reading “D-Day in Sound and Poetry”
