El Hunt

Happy Pride Month, one and all! It’s the most wonderful time of the year, and to celebrate, we asked Time Out’s LGBTQ+-identifying writers and editors to tell us all about their favourite city on the planet. The resulting list covers all four corners of the globe, from the beaches of Brazil to the creative hub of Glasgow’s Southside. These are cities with a vibrant queer community, cities that support and protect LGBTQ+ citizens and visitors, and cities that are notable hubs for LGBTQ+ life in their respective countries and regions. So, what are the world’s most LGBTQ+-friendly cities? While we couldn’t possibly name them all, these are some of our favourites. RECOMMENDED:🗻 The world’s best places to travel alone🗺 The world’s most underrated travel destinations😎 The coolest neighbourhoods in the world  

Photographer Dougie Wallace has an obsession with fashion billboards. You’ll find them dotted throughout his work documenting east London. He sees them as the result of a process that’s been years in the making. ‘One of the barometers for gentrification is street art,’ he explains. ‘It started with big, bristly white letters: Shoreditch used to be a no-go area, with things like “Fuck the police” written on the walls. Later, that became street art. Then, gentrification.’ Now, Wallace says that the street art has been ‘appropriated by Gucci, Louis Vuitton and Burberry. It’s commercialised. Shoreditch has sold out.’ That’s the impetus behind ‘East Ended’, his latest exhibition at Gallery 46, featuring witty and sometimes surreal photographs of east London scenes. His photograph of a market on Sclater Street (above) captures the contradictions as the old East End meets contemporary Shoreditch: inked-up partiers making their way home, shoulder-to-shoulder with box-rummaging old locals, in front of a wall of Burberry ads. ‘The young people were on their phones and prancing about – it was a Sunday morning, so they were probably still out from the night before,’ says Wallace. ‘The old guy that’s going through the rubbish, he’s always there. Same with the other two. The clash of cultures says it all, really. That market isn’t going to be there very soon. It’ll be gone.’ Wallace happened upon this scene unfolding just off Brick Lane by chance. ‘I’ve been going down to that market every

Last year, Nigerian-American artist Kehinde Wiley, who painted the official portrait of Barack Obama in 2017, went scouting for subjects on the streets of Dalston.  He was looking for real people for a series of portraits celebrating east London women of colour. The artworks are now part of ‘The Yellow Wallpaper’, Wiley’s exhibition at the William Morris Gallery. ‘We just stopped people in the street,’ explains Rowan Bain, senior curator at the gallery. ‘It was everyday people going about their business.’ Wiley then invited the women to visit a makeshift studio in a nearby church hall. ‘It was amazing to see how Kehinde was able to transform them and give them confidence,’ Bain says. ‘In his work, the subjects are proud. They stand with their heads held high.’ One portrait (above) features Hackney local Kaya, who was on the school run with her daughters Asia-Imani and Gabriella-Esnae. The background is based on one of William Morris’s wallpaper designs, a recurring theme in Wiley’s work: he reimagines them in vivid hues. Bain says it was interesting watching people’s reactions on the shoot. ‘It was great to see how the children responded to being photographed. Kaya’s two-year-old really got into it,’ she says. ‘It’s unusual to see children portrayed in this way.’ Wiley scouted Kaya because he wanted to represent a modern family in a traditional way. ‘She is a proud young mother posing with her girls in the tradition of family portraiture,’ says Bain, ‘but she has her own indi

Photographer Peter Marlow, who died in 2016, lived in London for much of his life. He began his career as a photojournalist: capturing conflict in Northern Ireland, Angola and Lebanon. Later,  he stepped away from documenting war and became known for his candid photography of life in the UK. This 1979 photo, ‘A Beer Festival in Alexandra Palace’, features in the Barbican’s new exhibition, ‘Masculinities: Liberation Through Photography’. Curator Alona Pardo explains why it’s such a compelling image. ‘This is a public urinal, which says something about men’s lack of privacy, but also their togetherness,’ she says. ‘The men look equally comfortable and yet deeply uncomfortable about the whole situation. One guy is looking around directly at Marlow – he’s annoyed. It’s such a private moment, and yet utterly public.’ Although taking photos in toilets is probably not recommended, Pardo sees this image as empathetic, not sexualised or sensationalist. ‘This is just the everyday bloke taking a piss at a beer festival. It’s respectful. This isn’t the lads puking up around the back of Ally Pally, though I’m sure they were doing that!’ Pardo says that Marlow’s skill was in documenting small, unassuming snapshots of everyday moments around the city and beyond. ‘He often captured the things that weren’t of interest to other photographers,’ she says. ‘Whether it’s men in the bleachers or a dad taking his son to the chip shop, he gets up close and personal.’ ‘Masculinities: Liberation Throug

Hackney has changed a lot since the 1950s. Gentrification is rife in the east London borough, but these archive photos by local photographer Neil Martinson show that not everything is different. This picture of Ridley Road Market, for instance, shows a scene  you might still see on that road today. Martinson began documenting the area in the ’70s. From nurses campaigning for a fairer wage outside Bethnal Green Hospital to families running errands, he captured all aspects of everyday life. Five decades later, he’s published his photos in a new book, ‘Hackney Archive’. ‘At the time of the photo, times were tough in Hackney,’ explains Martinson. ‘The largest factory, Lesney, was facing closure, with hundreds of women losing their jobs. There was cut-throat competition in the rag trade and conditions were poor. Ridley was always jammed with people looking to buy cheap food and clothes.’ But it wasn’t just about doing your weekly shop – Martinson says it was the focal point for the community. ‘Street markets have always been an important part of London’s history and culture. Ridley Road was a meeting place – a place to demonstrate and be seen.’ As a child, he found the market intimidating. ‘I’d go with my mum to do her weekly shop. Back then I found it a bit scary, lots of shouting and shoving, but my mum gave as good as she took.’ The stall in the photograph is still going today. Back then it was run by Bill Julian (pictured) and it’s still in the family. ‘Bill Julian’s family h

Souleyman Bah was five years old when his family arrived in the UK as asylum seekers escaping political disturbance in Guinea. Once in the UK, he was diagnosed with a rare eye condition. Now, he’s a medal-winning sprinter and a contender for Team GB at the Tokyo 2020 Paralympics. Last year he became the first disabled candidate to compete on ‘The Apprentice’. When I was at school in Guinea, I couldn’t read any of the books or see the whiteboard. I didn’t get my eye condition diagnosed until my family moved to the UK. I have retinitis pigmentosa, a rare degenerative inherited eye condition which affects my peripheral and night vision. It gets worse over time and eventually leads to blindness. I didn’t speak English when I moved here, so I made friends through sport. I was especially good at racing against the other kids. I’d win races every sports day. When I moved to Kingston, I broke a school record and started to take sprinting seriously. I want to bring positivity into the world of visual impairment. It’s not the same thing as blindness. Sometimes people will see my white cane, and then see me glance at my phone to look at the time. They’ll be like: What the hell’s going on here? I love jogging along the river Thames. I love how it connects the whole of London. Whether you’re in Kingston or Waterloo, everyone sees the same river. Sometimes when family come to visit, I’ll take them on a guided tour. We always joke about the irony of going sightseeing with somebody who can’t

The devil may wear Prada, but in ’70s London the cool kids went kitsch. In 1976, cultural historian Peter York noticed that a clique of art school grads were strutting around town in camp, colourful outfits – usually finished off with a garish Andrew Logan brooch and soundtracked by Roxy Music. So he wrote an essay, entitled ‘Them’, about the movement which traded flowing hippy garms for flamboyant, glam gear. York even planned to make a film about Them, but his plans were scuppered just a month later by the arrival of Sex Pistols’ debut single ‘Anarchy in the UK’. Shortly after that, punk stole the style limelight in the city for the foreseeable. Now a new exhibition at The Redfern Gallery is revisiting the subculture that never quite took off, grouping together the work of five prominent ’70s artists. Like the aesthetic of Them, it’s eclectic. Kevin Whitney’s portrait of journalist and fashion stylist Chelita Secunda – dangling out the window of a car and gleefully wielding a revolver – sits alongside Duggie Fields’s pop-arty portrait ‘Fireside Scene’. Along with the late Luciana Martinez de la Rosa’s colourful and very meta ‘Pru Pru’ (the artist herself is in the painting, wearing a patterned kimono), ‘Them’ features work by Derek Jarman and Andrew Logan, showcasing a movement so achingly cutting-edge that almost no one’s heard of it. ‘Them’ is at The Redfern Gallery until February 15.

‘London throat’? Sounds like a medieval disease Actually, it’s a relatively new discovery. We’re a sickly bunch, what with our regular colds and black snot emissions, and now scientists at King’s College have found out why Londoners are prone to the lurgy: breathing in tiny particles from car brakes is weakening our immune systems.  Oh great, another thing to worry about. How does that work? Researchers think that one of the metals in brake dust stops our body’s macrophages from working properly.  Macro-what? ‘Macrophages are a form of white blood cell,’ explains Dr Nick Hopkinson, medical director at the British Lung Foundation. ‘Their job includes scoffing bacteria and producing enzymes and chemicals that break down things that cause infection. If they’re not working, that may translate into [us] being more susceptible.’ So basically, we’ll get ill more often? Yep, sorry. Hopkinson explains: ‘It can make people more prone to getting coughs, colds, sore throats, runny noses as well as blocked noses.’ Should I be using a protective face mask? Don’t bother, they’re not very effective. ‘Pollution is quite local,’ says Hopkinson. ‘Avoiding busy roads or walking on the side of the pavement further away from the road can reduce exposure.’ Better get used to taking the scenic route.

The ’80s were heavy times for London’s LGBTQ+ community. The Aids crisis, reproductive rights activism and fighting back against Section 28 – a Conservative law which banned the ‘promotion’ of homosexuality in schools – were live issues, and LGBTQ+ people were regularly abused in the media and the street. So thank goodness for photographers Jill Posener, Tessa Boffin and Ingrid Pollard. Photograph: Jill Posener, ‘Dalston, London’, 1979. Courtesy of the artist  These three women documented the lives of lesbian Londoners in the ’80s and early ’90s, putting forward a positive alternative that celebrated queer female identity. Their images touch on the homophobic representation of LGBTQ+ people in the press, gender expression and the ways in which queer women made themselves visible – from cabaret and theatre to activist book fairs, clubs and graffiti. Photograph: Tessa Boffin, ‘Angelic Rebels: Lesbians and Safer Sex’, 1989. Courtesy of the estate of Tessa Boffin/ Battersea Arts Centre Archive, Wandsworth Heritage Service Work by the three women features in ‘Hot Moment’, a new free exhibition at Bethnal Green’s Auto Italia gallery. All the images on display were captured around the city at a time of great struggle for the LGBTQ+ community, and they’re still essential viewing today. Get down there in a hot second. Photograph: Ingrid Pollard, ‘Performance outside The Fridge, Brixton’, c.1990. Courtesy of the artist 'Hot Moment' is at Auto Italia until March 14.

The best thing about this city are the people who live here. There are almost 9 million of us, and while it can feel lonely trying to navigate the hellscape that is rush hour at Bank, there are amazing Londoners building tight-knit communities all over the capital. For a new exhibition at the Southbank Centre, photographer Liz Johnson Artur has turned the lens on to some of the groups creating those links – in this case, south of the river. ‘London Is Love’ visits a few of the communities making London more welcoming, including Camberwell’s super-inclusive LGBTQ+ venue The Chateau, creative collective Born N Bread, and Ebony Horse Club: a riding centre in Brixton for disadvantaged young people. You’ll also spot Archbishop’s Park Gardening Club – a Lambeth project that provides a calming space for adults with mental health issues – and Coldharbour Lane’s secondhand institution Bookmongers of Brixton among the array of photographs on display across the Southbank Centre. Show these pictures to your grumbling relative who thinks London types are mean, unfriendly and self-obsessed. Take that, Nan. ‘London Is Love’ is at the Royal Festival Hall and Queen Elizabeth Hall until Jan 7 All photographs: by Liz Johnson Artur and commissioned by Southbank Centre

London legend and Hollywood star John Boyega is Time Out’s latest guest editor. We asked who his heroes were, and he told us: ‘For me, Teresa Early is a hero. She developed and built Theatre Peckham, and it’s a place for so many kids from the area to come and have a home. Giving them a voice is really important.’ So we got in touch with Teresa and asked her to tell us her London story… ‘I grew up in Findon, just outside of Worthing. When I wasn’t at school, I was at dance school. On Saturdays, we’d take the train to Brighton: from the age of eight I’d go to watch plays. Later I performed in musicals, and went on to drama school. After that, I moved to west London. I got involved in the ballet scene, doing choreography for the Royal Ballet School graduates. One day I just couldn’t do it any more: the culture there wasn't quite right for me. The arts are desperately elitist, and often it’s about whether you can afford it. I wanted to give disadvantaged kids the things that more privileged children just get. To earn some extra money I taught English to children from the South Asian community around Southall and Ealing. I really loved them. So I did a teaching qualification instead. I was head of drama in various schools around south London. After I got married, I ended up in Peckham. I didn’t know anybody. I thought: Well, walk out your door and find out about Peckham. ‘When kids are robbed of self-esteem, the arts are a powerful tool’ Soon I had children of my own. I met so ma

Berlin has Sven, the notoriously picky doorman at Berghain. The Vatican has professional shushers who police the Sistine Chapel. And south-east London has its own legendary overseer: the Brockley Cat, a stern-faced fella who scans locals’ shopping baskets from a lofty perch in Sainsbury’s. Unlike the inanimate Catford Cat nearby, Brockley’s four-legged mascot is a sentient creature with a thirst for trespassing. Officially named Olly Oliver, he lives a couple of doors down from the supermarket, and is famous in the area for his frequent excursions to the shops. Who can resist this ginger vision as he peers disdainfully down at us – his wretched, ready-meal-gobbling subjects? He first became known for inhabiting the Italian section of Sainsbury’s, paws neatly crossed, judging our pizza-purchasing choices. In his most censorious era, he developed a habit of hiding among the crisps, face scrunched as if he had just demolished a whole packet of salt ’n’ vinegar. Hapless security guards have attempted to shoo him out of Sainsbury’s countless times. Persistently he defies them, much to the delight of his adoring fans. ‘He’s a pioneering mog, a maverick who cannot be tamed’ Following his example, other rebellious felines have taken up very public positions around Brockley, most notably the gigantic fluffball who patrols the Overground platform. But it was the original Brockley Cat who made the first stride for catkind in SE4. He’s a pioneering mog, a maverick who cannot be tamed.

Gasping for an icy-cold pint of butterbeer? Pottheads, you’re in luck – London’s Harry Potter Studios reopened this morning, and eager muggles are already flocking back Warner Bros’ studio in Leavesden for their long-awaited fix of behind-the-scenes magical japes.  For the past five months, Warner Bros’ studio has been closed due to corona-virus restrictions. Not even Hogwarts, it turns out, has found a magical solution to the pandemic – but now, along with pubs, restaurants, museums, cafes, and all manner of other four-walled emporiums, they’re open for indoor business.  It’s been a busy morning at Platform 9¾, and Harry Potter enthusiasts are already clambering aboard the Hogwarts Express, strutting the lengths of the decadent Great Hall, and venturing into the gloomy depths of the Forbidden Forest once more – as well as feasting their eyes on all manner of props, costumes and sets.  Since Quidditch fixtures were postponed last year, Hogwarts’ most devious house Slytherin still rules the school – the Great Hall is draped in green and silver, and as part of the studio’s Celebration of Slytherin takeover, visiting wizards can bask villainously in the wicked glow of the Slytherin common room and take notes from Voldemort and Malfoy’s finest fashion moments. After months of magic-free malaise, the wand economy is booming once more, Diagon Alley is open for non-essential retail, and Harry Potter Studios' whopping collection of props, costumes and sets are back to nerd out over,

Poet Jean Sprackland is obsessed with London's cemeteries. Here she picks her top five haunts. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Bella Bicket herself (@bella.bicket) 1. Abney Park ‘One of London’s Magnificent Seven: an early nonconformist cemetery, now a green and tumbledown place of wingless angels and toppled urns. Rebels and mavericks of all kinds are buried here, and whichever winding path you take through the undergrowth you come at last to the huge gothic mortuary chapel at the centre.’ 2. St Mary's ‘This place is like a time machine – step in and you’re back in the days when Stoke Newington was a country village. I became obsessed with the story of Elizabeth Pickett, memorialised on one of the 18th century family tombs: she died at 23 "in consequence of her Cloaths taking Fire the preceeding Evening". ’ View this post on Instagram A post shared by coemeterium (@the.coemeterium.project) 3. Novo Cemetery ‘A historic Jewish burial ground, now enclosed within Queen Mary College. It’s a survivor, a simple quadrangle now surrounded by concrete and plate glass campus buildings. The gravestones lie horizontal in the gravel, and bright green moss has grown where rainwater has pooled in the lettering, making them glow like illuminated manuscripts.’ 4. St Andrew's ‘Home to one of the oldest living things in London: a 2,000-year-old yew tree. The yew was an important species in pagan times, prized for its extreme longevity and for its

When Sex and the City star Sarah Jessica Parker announced a new reboot of the iconic New York comedy-drama on her Instagram earlier this year, fans were eager to find out which characters would be coming back for the new series And Just Like That. Early on, HBO Max confirmed that Miranda (Cynthia Nixon), Carrie (Sarah Jessica Parker) and Charlotte (Kristin Davis) are all on board, while the show’s fourth main character Samantha (Kim Catrell) won’t be returning. John Corbott – Carrie’s carpenter boyfriend Aidan – is also confirmed, though who knows if he’ll still be wearing his ghastly turquoise rings this time around. Other actors have been busy dropping hints.Willie Garson, who played Carrie’s best friend Stanford, has dropped some fairly big ones about his involvement, and while David Eigenberg (Miranda’s boyfriend Steve Brady) isn’t officially confirmed yet, the actor has been speaking to show producers.  Meanwhile, we couldn’t help but wonder… where is Mr Big? And now we have answers – Chris Noth, who played Carrie’s leading love interest, has officially joined the cast. The pair’s on-off relationship was a crucial plotline in the original iteration of Sex and the City, and they later marry in the films. “How could we ever do a new chapter of the Sex and the City story without our Mr. Big?” said executive producer Michael Patrick King in a statement. The news comes after speculation that Mr Big would be killed off in a revival. Back in 2018, Hollywood Reporter reported th

Since Friends wrapped up almost two decades ago, telly fans have been crossing their fingers and hoping for the return of the long-running US sitcom. Now, 17 years after the final episode aired, the gang are finally getting back together for a cuppa in Central Perk. It’s not quite a full-blown reboot, and instead it’ll see cast members getting together for an “unscripted” chat about the show’s legacy with host James Corden. All of the original key cast – Jennifer Aniston, Courteney Cox, Lisa Kudrow, Matt LeBlanc, Matthew Perry and David Schwimmer – will appear, along with a bevy of familiar faces from the show including Reese Witherspoon (who played Rachel’s younger sister Jill Greene) Tom Selleck (Dr Richard Burke) and Maggie Wheeler (Janice). *screaming* #friendsreunion pic.twitter.com/j9GbWv4Ley — hbomaxPOP | originals (@HBOMaxPop) May 13, 2021 They’ve also rounded up an impressive and slightly puzzling selection of celebs, including Justin Bieber, BTS, Mindy Kaling, David Beckham, Lady Gaga, Kit Harington, Cara Delevingne, and Malala Yousafzai. Here’s how to tune in and watch ‘The One Where They Get Back Together’ in the UK. Where can I watch the Friends reunion? The HBO Max show will be broadcast by Sky One in the UK. What time is the 'Friends' reunion on TV? The show premiered at midnight US on HBO Max, and for early risers in the UK, Sky One showed the one-off reunion episode at 8.05am BST. Sky One will also be airing the episode again at 8pm BST tonight (27

Hand-horns at the ready – according to festival organisers, “moshing is allowed” at the newly resurrected Download.  The 2021 edition of the rock-leaning music festival was originally cancelled earlier this year due to corona-virus restrictions, but will now return as part of the UK government’s Events Research Programme. Dubbed Download Pilot, this will mark the UK’s first camping festival in well over a year. The line-up will be revealed on Friday (May 28). Usually, over 100,000 rock and metal fans flock to Download each year – but this new pilot festival will be a smaller-scale version taking place June 18 – 20 . This time 10,000 punters will camp for the weekend at the festival’s usual home in Donington Park, and they won’t need to socially distance or wear face coverings. In return, music fans will need to take a series of COVID-19 tests before and after the event, and present a negative test to make it through the gates.  If you’ve already managed to bag a ticket to the original iteration of Download 2021, tickets for the pilot camping festival will go on sale from June 1. A general sale will then follow on June 3.  Researchers have been studying pilot events to learn more about the safe return of live music. Earlier this month, thousands of fans gathered in Liverpool for a trial club night for 3,000 party-goers, featuring Fatboy Slim and The Blessed Madonna. The same weekend, the city also hosted a live gig headlined by the Stockport indie band Blossoms at Sefton Park.

Ahead of Ru Paul’s Drag Race All Stars 6 – airing on Paramount+ on June 24 in the US – the full line-up of competing queens has been revealed.  The All Stars spin-off sees Ru inviting back past contestants who narrowly missed out on victory in Ru Paul’s Drag Race, but launched hugely successful drag careers off the back of the show. In the past, beloved queens like Chad Michaels (runner-up in Season 4) Alaska (runner-up, Season 5) and Trixie Mattel (6th place, Season 7) returned to All Stars for well-deserved redemption.  So, who’s been cast for All Star 6? What have they been up to since their original seasons? And most importantly, which queen has the charisma, nerve, uniqueness and talent to bag the crown in the drag Olympics? Jiggly Caliente (Season 4) Despite being a first-rate comedy queen, Jiggly Caliente ranked in eighth place in her season of Drag Race. After the show, Jiggly appeared in the sitcom Broad City, and soon took a regular role as Veronica Ferocity in Pose – Ryan Murphy’s drama about the community behind New York City’s drag ball culture.  View this post on Instagram A post shared by Jiggly Caliente (@jigglycalienteofficial) Eureka! (Season 9, 10) All Stars 6 marks this queen’s third turn on Drag Race. After a knee injury forced her to quit Season 9, Eureka! made her triumphant return shortly afterwards, and made it into the top three. And who can forget when she wept onto the

So shines a good deed in a weary world – Call Me By Your Name and Little Women star Timothée Chalamet has been cast as Willy Wonka in a new film delving into the origin story of the world’s best known chocolatier. Directed by Paddington director Paul King, the all-singing all-dancing prequel Wonka will focus on a young Willy Wonka. Based on Roald Dahl’s 1964 novel Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, it’ll tell the story of how Wonka came to set up his confectionary-filled world of pure imagination. Like Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory – the 1971 film which famously starred Gene Wilder as the chocolate factory owner – Wonka is returning to similar musical roots, and Chalamet is set to perform in multiple numbers. David Heyman, who produced all eight Harry Potter films, will produce the film, based on a script by Simon Rich. Wonka hits cinema screens on March 17, 2023 – and in the meantime Timothée has a lot of other projects on his plate. Chalamet’s also starring in Wes Anderson’s forthcoming new film The French Dispatch, as well as a hotly-anticipated adaptation of Frank Herbert’s sci-fi epic Dune. Eagle-eyed viewers will also note that Chalamet’s entry to the Roald Dahl world is not his first notorious encounter with a giant peach. In 2017 the American actor’s breakthrough moment came when he appeared in Luca Guadagnino's Oscar-winning film Call Me by Your Name – a romantic drama featuring a sultry encounter with a piece of fruit. Want more Timmy? Read our interview… All

Paws up, little monsters – in honour of the tenth anniversary of Lady Gaga’s second album, West Hollywood has officially declared May 23 “Born This Way Day”. The singer was also awarded the keys to the city by West Hollywood’s mayor Lindsey P. Horvath, and a rainbow street painting bearing the album’s title was unveiled on Robertson Boulevard to kick off a month of LGBTQ+ Pride celebrations across the Los Angeles district. Born This Way, my song and album, were inspired by Carl Bean, a gay black religious activist who preached, sung and wrote about being “Born This Way.” Notably his early work was in 1975, 11 years before I was born. pic.twitter.com/92oIuPQYHs — Lady Gaga (@ladygaga) May 24, 2021 Since its release in 2011, ‘Born This Way’s title track has been adopted as an unofficial Pride anthem – atop thumping disco, the song celebrates Gaga’s LGBTQ+ fanbase and preaches acceptance and empowerment. Accepting the honor, Gagz revealed that ‘Born This Way’ as a whole was inspired by Carl Bean, a gay Black religious activist who founded America’s first LGBTQ+ affirming church, the Unity Fellowship Church, in Los Angeles. Bean also founded the Minority AIDS Project, and a Los Angeles intersection was renamed to honor him in 2019. “Thank you for decades of relentless love, bravery, and a reason to sing,” Lady Gaga wrote on Twitter. “So we can all feel joy, because we deserve joy. Because we deserve the right to inspire tolerance, acceptance, and freedom

In between winning Mr Universe four times as a body-builder, entering into politics as the former Governor of California, and starring in all manner of action films – from Terminator to Total Recall – Austrian-American actor Arnold Schwarzenegger already has many strings to his bow. Now, he’s trying his hand at telly for the first time with a new Netflix series. If you enjoyed Arnie’s turn as a secret agent in True Lies (1994), this new show will most likely be up your alley, too. Currently untitled, the eight-part series follows a father (Arnold Schwarzenegger) and daughter (Monica Barbaro) who discover that they’ve both been secretly working as CIA operatives. Once the espionage-loving cat is out of the bag, they team up as a spying duo, and get to know each other from scratch after years of lying to each other. Deception, betrayal, and confusion, all shaken up into a messy cocktail with notoriously tricksy family dynamics? You betcha! Though Arnie’s appeared on television before, this project marks his first starring role in a scripted drama, and the actor will also executive produce the series. Nick Santaro, who previously worked as a writer and producer on Prison Break, Law & Order, and The Sopranos, is showrunner. Outside of the upcoming series, fellow lead Monica Barbaro is set to star opposite Tom Cruise in the forthcoming action sequel Top Gun: Maverick. It’s not yet clear when the new spy drama – comprising of eight, hour-long episodes – will hit Netflix. So until t

Parks and Recreation’s resident band Mouse Rat are making a proper go of things in the musical rat race. Fronted by Chris Pratt, who plays Andy Dwyer in the mockumentary sitcom, the group are set to release ‘The Awesome Album’ on August 27.  Mouse Rat shared the news on a meaningful band landmark: the tenth anniversary of Li’l Sebastian’s funeral. A miniature horse beloved by the residents of Pawnee, Li’l Sebastian (who made his first and final appearances in Season Three) lived a rich and inspiring life. Following his passing, the show’s Parks Department hosts a pyrotechnic memorial service fit for a local celebrity, and Andy performs a stirring tribute song with Mouse Rat at the service. Now, the band have released ‘5,000 Candles In The Wind (Bye Bye Li'l Sebastian)’ as their debut single proper.  ‘The Awesome Album’ will feature loads of classic songs from Parks and Rec Mouse Rat’s debut will feature heaps of familiar favourites from Amy Poehler’s sitcom, including the band’s sink-hole inspired grunge anthem ‘The Pit’, and the indie-tinged ‘Sex Hair’ – as performed on the Pawnee Cares diabetes telethon.  ‘The Awesome Album’ will also include some famous covers, too. Andy’s version of Fred Astaire’s ‘The Way You Look Tonight’ (originally from the 1963 film Swing Time, and covered by Mouse Rat at Leslie Knope’s Galentines Day party in season 2)  appears on the album, along with a cover of Frank Sinatra signature ‘I’ve Got You Under My Skin’. 'The Awesome Album's trackl

Get schwifty, Rick and Morty fans – show co-creator Dan Harmon has given an update on that long-awaited Kanye West episode he and Justin Roiland originally floated last year.  The animated Adult Swim show is the US rapper’s favourite TV show, and when Rick and Morty renewed for a fourth season, West said he’d watched every episode at least five times – a definite achievement in a pre-lockdown world. Roiland told The Blast that Yeezy is “a kindred spirit, genius, [and] visionary” before Harmon added “I’m giving him an episode, I’m making it official.” Now, chatting to MSNBC, Harmon’s given another update on where things are at – when it comes to making the Kanye episode a reality, only “time will tell,” he says. “I think that when Kanye signs on, as he did, to do an episode, it’s not just gonna be Kanye doing a guest voice or Kanye doing a song,” the Rick and Morty co-creator said. “We agreed that it needed to be really interwoven with the Rick and Morty franchise having its own integrity and Kanye having his own, without spoiling any details of what that story would be.” “Suffice it to say that the end result was going to be a lot of original music,” he added. “I think that at that point, that’s when seven different corporations, and I don’t fault them for this because this is their job, they have to say, ‘Whoa, whoa, whoa, wait a minute. Slow down psychos.’ It’s like, ‘What are you doing?’” Harmon said that he’s already met with West to discuss potential plotlines for the ep

ロンドンでは、キツネを見かけることは珍しくない。夜の金切り声に目を覚まされたり、ほろ酔いで歩いて帰る途中、生け垣からシュッと飛び出してくる「オレンジ色の生き物」に驚かされるのは、まさにこの街の通過儀礼なのだ。セントポール大聖堂の聖歌隊席での目撃談もある。しかしロンドンの通りには、なぜこれほど多くのキツネがうろついているのだろうか。 ロンドンとキツネの関わりについて解説してくれたのは、野生動物保護団体、ロンドン・ワイルドライフ・トラストの保護担当ディレクターであるマシュー・フリス。 「アカギツネが街に現れ始めたのは、第一次世界大戦後。その頃は交通システムが発展した時期で、人々はある場所で働き、別の場所に住むことができるようになりました。次第に、かつて田舎だったエリアに住宅が建てられ、郊外ができたのです。キツネたちはそうした環境にすぐに順応。新しい家の比較的大きな庭で、食べ物や住処を確保するようになりました」 ロンドン・ワイルドライフ・トラストは、現在ロンドンには約1万匹のキツネが生息していると推測。周辺の田園地帯よりもキツネがよく見られる地域もあるという。人間との共存に慣れながら、キツネは街の中心部まで生息地を拡大。フリスは「都会で暮らすキツネの数は、過去30年間で大幅に増加したと考えられています。ロンドンでキツネが生息していない地域は、今ではほとんどありません」と教えてくれた。 しかし、都会生活にリスクがないわけではない。ロンドンで暮らすキツネの60％が毎年交通事故死している。それにもかかわらず、キツネの数は一定のまま。この街の生活にはそれなりの利点があるからだ。フリスによると、「田舎よりも都会の方が、食料や住居を得る機会が多い」そうだ。我々の気取った仲間たちは、古くなったサワードウブレッドやビーガン風フライドチキンを狙っているのかもしれない。 原文はこちら 関連記事 『動物と触れ合える観光スポット10選』 『動物と触れ合えるグランピング5選』 『イギリスのケント州にキリンホテルがオープン』 『ロンドンに日本と北欧をテーマにした複合施設がオープン』 『ロンドンの大みそか花火、2020年は中止』