Too Ill To Sing- But Still a Rare Talent
Only a third the way into the Nanci Griffith set in Birmingham, and she announces she is ill and leaves the stage….
Screengrab: Movies On The Box
by Richard Lutz Screengrab opens this week with a five star heads up for Cool Hand Luke (TCM; Thurs, 11.20pm) Now, here’s a film that really changed things. It was a 1960’s story about rebellion – but not in the counter culture/long hair/smoking pot kind of way. It was the slowburn truculence of Paul…
Joyful Mozart (Including the Cheeky Bits…)
Two pleasant things flow from Wales into Birmingham. One is water. The other is music from Welsh National Opera.
Screengrab: Movies You Can’t Miss
Richard Lutz checks out the runners and riders this week on the box.
Lenny: Live But Not There
Richard Lutz reckons going to see Lenny Henry via a tv link is strange in a lot of different ways.
Manufactured Truths: Where Are We Going?
By Richard Lutz Steve comes to my house – to my drive actually – to carry out essential body work on my 11 year old Honda. Someone ripped a mega-chunk out of it in a car park. From the damage it looks as if an SUV the size of a spaceship savaged it. Steve goes…
On The Box: This Week’s Films On TV You Just Got To See
On the day that the Oscars are given their final brush up, Richard Lutz offers up the latest on tv movies
On The Box: TV Films You Can’t Miss
Richard Lutz checks out the best and quirkiest tv movies on the box this week If you plunder the tv listings over the weekend, there are some movie gems ready to enjoy. Movie of the week is Johnny Guitar. (Wed Ch4, 13.00). It has Sterling Hayden (the bad cop from Godfather) in his blonde youthful …
Murdoch: The Snake Eats Its Own Tail
Richard Lutz takes a look at the Murdoch debacle. And finds rot at the top Like a snake that devours its own tail, Rupert Murdoch is gobbling down the very troops that helped build his tawdry UK media empire. His ‘independent’ investigators, called the Management and Standards Committee, have handed over name after name of…
On The Box: Which American Super-Series Do You Like Best?
Richard Lutz looks at those big mega-strand US tv shows and tries to figure out which is best.
Social Media Sites: Too Fast For the Law
Richard Lutz considers how the law needs to start sprinting to catch up with the modern world of on-line thought dumps.
Rough Magic for Pete and Kate
Richard Lutz sits down to see a play that still gets them hot under the collar 4 centuries on The Taming of the Shrew Royal Shakespeare Theatre, Stratford The Taming of the Shrew is one of those Shakespeare plays that enrages people still today. How can it sit comfortably when a guy (Petruchio) bullies, pesters,…
Top Marks for Top Girls
Richard Lutz sits down to a real corker at the University of Warwick Arts Centre
Birmingham takes to the Silver Screen – Well, Maybe
Latest thing to go viral on Twitter? Yes, it’s Brummie movie titles. Richard Lutz takes The 3.10 to Yardley.
2011- Year of the Jerk
This website commissioned Richard Lutz to look over his shoulder at 2011. Here is his shortlist of the men who really should be banished from this planet
And Here Is The News…If You’re A Student
Richard Lutz asks his students, “Where do you get the news from?” and notices an interesting trend in the replies.
Of Death and a Friend
from Richard Lutz Forty five minutes of the funeral service and I say good bye to my friend Jan. There are songs, memories, eulogies and fine little speech from a vicar who ties it all up with a final sermon about a woman who helped others- not in a big way shouting-headline sort of way…
Albert and His $250m Red White and Blue Pay Cheque
American baseball’s biggest star has signed one of the largest athletic contracts ever in the States. Richard Lutz explains what it means
Tough Guy Robin Hood Meets His Match in Marion In a Five Star Production
“Well, how do you like your Robin Hood?”, asks Richard Lutz
Health Warning: Don’t Read Health Stories
For the past month Richard Lutz has collected news stories about what to do and not do to improve his health. He’s more confused than ever. Warning…this story could either cure your troubles or make you ill from worry. And that’s because, I have been manically collecting health cure/ scare stories from the wonderful…
99 And Counting
Richard Lutz heads north- on a mission. The Gaelic names tumble from the tongue- Carn a Coire Boidheach, Sgurr Gaibhre, Liathach and Schiehallion. Those and about 280 others that collectively are the Munro mountains of Scotland. As Nigel said last month: ‘Climbing them all isn’t a hobby- it’s a sickness.’ I went up my 99th…
Review: Don Giovanni
Richard Lutz takes his seat at the Birmingham Hippodrome for this Mozart classic about love, sex and, inevitably, death
Review: Written on The Heart at The Swan, Stratford
There seemed to be a lot of earnest and frantic rustling through the programmes just before the curtain went up for Written on The Heart.
Glen Campbell – His Farewell Tour
Growing up in New York, we were drawn more to The Beatles or the Stones than to Glen Campbell
Review: One Man, Two Guvnors
Richard Lutz takes in One Man, Two Guvnors at The New Alexandra Theatre in Birmingham starring tv comedian James Corden
Kindle: We’re All Suckers Now
Richard Lutz asks if the Kindle e-book is the best thing since sliced bread or just a slick nasty marketing tool.
Of Scotland, The Riots and England
Richard Lutz is in Scotland- land of vicious football violence, demented sectarianism and an escalating murder rate. But no riots. He finds out why. North of the border then for a Scottish break. And as I pass Carlisle, things change. The air is sweeter, the accent sharper, the weather…well, the weather gets, shall we say,…
Of Birmingham and the Crazies
From Richard Lutz It’s an eerie feeling to walk up to your high street to see if it stills exists. With Birmingham city centre being trashed, 130 arrests (and rising), clashes in Brindley Place and Soho Road under siege , would my own local shops be destroyed? Would I be walking over glass and remains…
Theatre: A Sharp and Angry Homecoming for The Homecoming
Richard Lutz reviews Harold Pinter’s The Homecoming at The Swan in Stratford
The Piers Review
A West Midlands policeman once said to me: ‘Follow the rabbit.’ I asked him exactly what that meant.