Latest news with #Stygian
The Guardian
04-04-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
LPO/Jurowski review – conflict and loss power Russian-Ukrainian concert
It felt as though war and peace were locked in a battle for the very soul of this concert of Russian and Ukrainian music, a savage reminder three years on of the brutal invasion of one country by the other. Things got off to an inauspicious start. Even conductor emeritus Vladimir Jurowski's powers of persuasion couldn't disguise the fact that Semyon Kotko is second-rate Sergei Prokofiev. Set in rural Ukraine, his 1940 opera ran into difficulties from the start: after Stalin and Hitler signed their notorious non-aggression treaty, a drama filled with marauding hordes of German invaders was distinctly on the nose. An orchestral suite was the composer's way of getting some of it heard, but for all his evident warmth for the Ukrainian countryside (Prokofiev grew up in Donetsk), the inspiration struggles to rise above the commonplace. The most original movement here featured a garish execution sequence with more than a whiff of the firing squad about it. Matthew Rose's spook-haunted reading of Modest Mussorgsky's Songs and Dances of Death was in another league, his Stygian bass and razor-sharp diction cutting a swathe through Edison Denisov's vivid orchestrations. Clad in funereal black, hands drooping at his sides, Rose appeared every inch the grim reaper (though rather glued to his sheet music). With lugubrious visage, he nailed each song, whether crooning a lullaby to dupe the mother of a dying child, cavorting in the snow with a drunken peasant, or trampling on the bones of the fallen. Ukrainian composer Boris Lyatoshynsky's tempest-tossed third symphony – rarely heard abroad – was written in 1951. Nevertheless, it seems like a wartime work with three turbulent movements capped by a finale with the epithet 'Peace shall defeat war'. Jurowski and the LPO's convincing account ran the gamut from militaristic menace in the alarm-filled opening movement to a nocturnal andante, where rippling flutes over tender violin pizzicatos proved too good to last. The slaughterhouse scherzo juddered along in pitiless waltz time before the finale powered full-pelt to a percussion-fuelled conclusion.
Washington Post
17-03-2025
- Entertainment
- Washington Post
O, LaGuardia, a weary nation turns to you
You're reading the Today's Opinions newsletter. Sign up to get it in your inbox. In today's edition: A few years ago, Alexandra Petri for a Thanksgiving project wrote a snippet of a fake song from a fake musical about a woman stuck in an airport. The show's stakes depended on New York's LaGuardia Airport being the armpit of American transit. Indeed, as David Von Drehle writes, 'the old airport was Stygian, festooned with yellow police tape and smelling of hell, where angry travelers squatted on their roller bags for want of places to sit through perpetual flight delays.' But, boy, will Alexandra's fake musical never win a fake Tony, now: LaGuardia is gleamingly reborn. David chronicles the years-long, multibillion-dollar renovation the airport recently underwent, totally over the top of its own marshy Queens footprint, without the extra space for so much as an Auntie Anne's. The transformation into a hub heaped with praise is a story, he writes, of American ambition and prowess: 'From worst to best is not the pattern of a failing culture.' A less celebrated aviation change of late is Southwest Airlines' decision to give up the ghost at last and start charging for checked bags. Bill Saporito of Inc. Magazine writes that it's easy to imagine the carrier's 'late co-founder Herb Kelleher lighting a cigarette and ordering a Wild Turkey — maybe a double — at the notion that his airline is diverting from the culture that made it so successful.' Before you toast with your own teeny plastic bottle, though, consider Saporito's argument that Southwest could only run from market realities for so long. It's a miracle it made it as long as it did with one cabin class ('hell, that's airline socialism!'). Now, Saporito writes, Southwest faces 'a simple business proposition. If you can't soar with the hawks, soon enough you're going to be flying with the vultures.' I celebrated Purim this weekend with some Jewish friends (if anyone has any tips on keeping your hamantaschen from unfolding in the oven, please let me know), and talk turned to an essay you might have missed last week: law professor Zalman Rothschild's reflection on his Hasidic education growing up. Rothschild's schooling in his conservative Jewish community in Brooklyn included hours of close readings of ancient texts, six days a week. There was rigorous study of modern Jewish mysticism from every angle. Still, when he got to college, he had to teach himself basic arithmetic. Other instances of such ill-preparedness for the outside world abound in his essay. Rothschild writes that he prizes the Hasidim's ability to exist largely under their own laws that preserve the community's unique way of life, but he argues that 'the value of pluralism surely has an outer limit.' When it comes to educating members of that community, minimum duty is to equip those members — should they so choose — to leave. Chaser: Elsewhere in monotheism, Cardinal Robert McElroy just assumed the Catholic archbishopric of Washington. E.J. Dionne writes in a profile that the man has been preparing for this his whole life. From the Editorial Board's analysis of this slash to the city's budget, which requires congressional approval. It writes that 'D.C. residents are used to lawmakers regarding the city as the federal government's plaything, but this … sabotage is a new level of insulting.' What's more, it doesn't even save the federal government money, considering that D.C.'s budget is balanced and funded overwhelmingly by local taxpayers. Finally, it puts the lie to Republicans' claims of wanting to reduce crime in D.C.; the budget restriction will almost certainly require police cuts. Chaser: D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser has bigger fish to fry right now than the fate of Black Lives Matter Plaza, but Jonathan Capehart mourns its erasure all the same. Jason Willick has a really thoughtful piece on artificial intelligence's apparent ability to out-impartial federal judges when making weighty legal decisions. Therefore, the bots are better, right? Jason is examining a study in which judges were presented hypothetical convictions to either uphold or overturn. Some convictions were backed by precedent, and some not; some had remorseful defendants, and some not. The judges were much more swayed by defendant sympathy, whereas the AI stuck exclusively to the law. You know what other group just stuck to the law, though? Law school students, whose study results mirrored the AI's. 'This research is a reminder that the legal system isn't just about doctrinaire rule-following,' Jason writes, something that law students learn over time — and that AI has yet to pick up. Chaser: Speaking of judges, Karen Tumulty writes that Wisconsin's Supreme Court race might be the most important election of 2025. It's a goodbye. It's a haiku. It's … The Bye-Ku. To a fine country Mired in weighty baggage, Keep calm: Carry-on *** Have your own newsy haiku? Email it to me, along with any questions/comments/ambiguities. See you tomorrow!
Yahoo
15-03-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Silencing the 'mouth of hell': 10 years on
Saturday marks 10 years since Northampton's notorious Greyfriars Bus Station was demolished. More than 2,000 explosive charges were needed to bring the building, designed in the "brutalist" architectural style, crashing to the ground. A decade later, the site is still undeveloped and construction work on a regeneration scheme is not due to start until 2028. So what did the site used to look like, and why did it have to change? Greyfriars Bus Station was very much a building that divided opinion. It opened 18 months late and well over budget in April 1976 - a massive in-your-face brick-coloured monument to brutalism. The ground floor was dominated from the outside by two gaping voids, framed in grey, lit by largely ineffectual orange lamps, and known as the "mouth of hell". Buses would be swallowed up like live insects as they entered the void, only to be disgorged later as their drivers emerged with blinking eyes into the daylight to begin their next journey to exotic destinations like Lumbertubs or Blacky More. The Beauty of Transport website offers a miserable description of the passenger experience, describing how they were "forced to grope through what can only be described as Stygian darkness to reach their buses". Above the bus station was a pair of three-storey glass-sided trapezoidal lumps which were designed as office blocks, but spent most of their life empty, decaying and unloved. Possibly intended as a distraction from the brutalist rawness of the building, roof gardens were created between the office blocks. The idea had been that the rental income from the office block would pay for the building, but the demand for that kind of office space, if it ever existed, was clearly diminishing. It took five years to rent the office blocks out, and the first tenant, a Dutch engineering firm relocating from London, was given a five-year rent-free period. As the fifth anniversary of the firm's arrival approached, it announced it was pulling out of the UK. Barclaycard then spent 10 years in the building, but the lights went out for good in 1998. Alongside the struggle getting and keeping tenants, Northampton Borough Council (now defunct) also had to contend with other problems with the building. Everything from lifts breaking down to stalactites forming on the ceilings plagued the Greyfriars complex, and its poor reputation did not help. In 1989, it was named as Britain's third most-hated building in a survey in The Guardian, being cheated of a higher position in the table by Cumbernauld Shopping Centre and the Imax Cinema in Bournemouth. In 2009, the council decided enough was enough and announced plans to create a new bus station elsewhere and redevelop the site. The "mouth of hell" was silenced forever when the last bus left the station on 1 March 2014. Just over a year later, some 2,000 explosive charges were installed in the building, and people in 414 nearby properties were told to evacuate. DSM Demolition pressed the detonation button on 15 March 2015 to send the doomed edifice into oblivion. Work then started removing the debris, which the council said would mostly be recycled. The cost of the demolition was said to be £4m. In September 2011, the council announced that Northampton's fish market would be site of a new bus station. Work started on North Gate station in 2013 and the first buses emerged from the facility on Sunday, 2 March, 2014. It did not get off to a particularly positive start, with traffic grinding to a halt in the town centre, buses being cancelled and roads being closed. The whole saga even inspired a song. Some users criticised the smaller size of the site compared to Greyfriars, which meant many services did not stop at North Gate, and many were angered by the decision to charge people for using the toilets. More than 1,500 people responded to an initial consultation about the future of the 14-acre (56,700 sq metre) Greyfriars site. The resulting blueprint describes its destiny as a "new neighbourhood". It would have a creative hub, showcasing local talent, which might be based in the Corn Exchange building, and a town park. There would be a "playful space" with areas for children and an outdoor gym for adults. There would be a "spectrum" of different types of home, including accommodation for students and "later living" houses for older people. The vision promised "a neighbourhood that is fully stitched into Northampton, accessible by foot, cycle, and better served by buses". West Northamptonshire Council (the unitary authority that has replaced Northampton Borough Council and the county council) has found a partner to take the project forward - English Cities Fund, which is a joint venture between Legal and General, Homes England and Muse. It may still be some time before work actually starts as a formal agreement will not be signed until the summer. But, after its troubled history, it is hoped a bright future awaits the site to lay the ghost of the mouth of hell to rest forever. Follow Northamptonshire news on BBC Sounds, Facebook, Instagram and X. Agreement for ex-bus station to be signed in summer New neighbourhood planned for 'mouth of hell' site Former bus station regeneration plans unveiled 'Mouth of hell' reduced to rubble We are Northampton - Greyfriars English Cities Fund West Northamptonshire Council
BBC News
15-03-2025
- Business
- BBC News
Northampton Greyfriars bus station demolition: 10 years on
Saturday marks 10 years since Northampton's notorious Greyfriars Bus Station was than 2,000 explosive charges were needed to bring the building, designed in the "brutalist" architectural style, crashing to the ground.A decade later, the site is still undeveloped and construction work on a regeneration scheme is not due to start until what did the site used to look like, and why did it have to change? What was the old bus station like? Greyfriars Bus Station was very much a building that divided opened 18 months late and well over budget in April 1976 - a massive in-your-face brick-coloured monument to ground floor was dominated from the outside by two gaping voids, framed in grey, lit by largely ineffectual orange lamps, and known as the "mouth of hell".Buses would be swallowed up like live insects as they entered the void, only to be disgorged later as their drivers emerged with blinking eyes into the daylight to begin their next journey to exotic destinations like Lumbertubs or Blacky Beauty of Transport website offers a miserable description of the passenger experience, describing how they were "forced to grope through what can only be described as Stygian darkness to reach their buses".Above the bus station was a pair of three-storey glass-sided trapezoidal lumps which were designed as office blocks, but spent most of their life empty, decaying and intended as a distraction from the brutalist rawness of the building, roof gardens were created between the office blocks. What prompted its demise? The idea had been that the rental income from the office block would pay for the building, but the demand for that kind of office space, if it ever existed, was clearly took five years to rent the office blocks out, and the first tenant, a Dutch engineering firm relocating from London, was given a five-year rent-free the fifth anniversary of the firm's arrival approached, it announced it was pulling out of the then spent 10 years in the building, but the lights went out for good in the struggle getting and keeping tenants, Northampton Borough Council (now defunct) also had to contend with other problems with the from lifts breaking down to stalactites forming on the ceilings plagued the Greyfriars complex, and its poor reputation did not 1989, it was named as Britain's third most-hated building in a survey in The Guardian, being cheated of a higher position in the table by Cumbernauld Shopping Centre and the Imax Cinema in 2009, the council decided enough was enough and announced plans to create a new bus station elsewhere and redevelop the site. What happened to the building? The "mouth of hell" was silenced forever when the last bus left the station on 1 March 2014. Just over a year later, some 2,000 explosive charges were installed in the building, and people in 414 nearby properties were told to Demolition pressed the detonation button on 15 March 2015 to send the doomed edifice into then started removing the debris, which the council said would mostly be cost of the demolition was said to be £4m. What replaced it? In September 2011, the council announced that Northampton's fish market would be site of a new bus started on North Gate station in 2013 and the first buses emerged from the facility on Sunday, 2 March, did not get off to a particularly positive start, with traffic grinding to a halt in the town centre, buses being cancelled and roads being whole saga even inspired a users criticised the smaller size of the site compared to Greyfriars, which meant many services did not stop at North Gate, and many were angered by the decision to charge people for using the toilets. What is happening at the Greyfriars site? More than 1,500 people responded to an initial consultation about the future of the 14-acre (56,700 sq metre) Greyfriars resulting blueprint describes its destiny as a "new neighbourhood".It would have a creative hub, showcasing local talent, which might be based in the Corn Exchange building, and a town would be a "playful space" with areas for children and an outdoor gym for would be a "spectrum" of different types of home, including accommodation for students and "later living" houses for older vision promised "a neighbourhood that is fully stitched into Northampton, accessible by foot, cycle, and better served by buses". West Northamptonshire Council (the unitary authority that has replaced Northampton Borough Council and the county council) has found a partner to take the project forward - English Cities Fund, which is a joint venture between Legal and General, Homes England and may still be some time before work actually starts as a formal agreement will not be signed until the after its troubled history, it is hoped a bright future awaits the site to lay the ghost of the mouth of hell to rest forever. Follow Northamptonshire news on BBC Sounds, Facebook, Instagram and X.
The Guardian
31-01-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
My spooky stay at Adele's ‘haunted' mansion
I was intrigued, though a little dismayed, to read your article about Lock House in West Sussex and discover that the magnificent mansion still carries the reputation of being haunted (Spooky kettles and a girl in white: Adele's 'scary' mansion not all that's haunting Sussex village, 25 January). Several years ago, I was acting as an informal caretaker of the property for friends. At no time during my mostly solitary vigil did the old house give me reason to feel uneasy, not even when a storm caused a power cut and left me in the cavernous Stygian darkness without a torch. In fairness to Adele and the good folk of Partridge Green, I would not dismiss their misgivings out of hand. My time at Lock House had given me a chance to reorganise the artwork on my long-running science fiction newspaper strip for syndication, and my makeshift studio was littered with images of eerie extraterrestrials, an AI female android and spooky scenarios. Far from the ghosties scaring me away, was it I who was frightening them?Sydney JordanArundel, West Sussex Have an opinion on anything you've read in the Guardian today? Please email us your letter and it will be considered for publication in our letters section.
