Food & Drink,Summer skills

Summer survival skills No 1 – become a BBQ master

Summer survival skills No 1 – become a BBQ master

It’s warm. The weekend forecast is for more of the same (sort of). You haven’t got a ticket for Glastonbury. It’s all set up for a weekend spent dusting off your rusty BBQ and charring you way through a selection of choice meats. Here’s our guide to getting it right:

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Style

Don’t get the look

Don’t get the look

Roger Federer’s bizarre appearance at Wimbledon this week instantly destroyed all the good work he’s done in recent years to inject tennis with some much-needed visual panache. We appreciate that’s he’s handy with a racquet but merely being the best tennis player of all time hardly makes up for the foul strokes he made in the sartorial arena on the opening day of Wimbledon. [Read more...]

Technology

Blu is the colour

Blu is the colour

Contented though we are with the Blu-ray player somehow shoe-horned into our PlayStation 3, there is much to be said for having a standalone device through which to play our favourite films in retina-cosseting full HD. Particularly when the  machine in question – the appealingly understated Philips BDP7300 - will set you back just £249. For this recession friendly outlay you also get playback support for the best audio formats (Dolby TrueHD, etc) and a USB socket on the front so that you can view picture and video content from a camera/MP3 player through your TV.

Film,Review

Tackling cliché head-on

Tackling cliché head-on

The majority of movies about sport tend to focus on the tired old fairytale of the kid from dirt-poor origins whose natural talent makes him a legend. But one of this week’s film highlights, Rudo Y Cursi (out this Friday), subjects that same fairytale to some tough-eyed scrutiny. [Read more...]

Music,What we're listening to

New kids on the block…

New kids on the block…

Not exactly, though it is an easy mistake to make with White Denim. The band’s 2008 debut album Workout Holiday was raved about by critics, but not universally embraced by the public, which didn’t mean the hype was misplaced, rather it was mishandled. [Read more...]

Style,The fashion cupboard

From the fashion cupboard – Paul Smith trainers

From the fashion cupboard – Paul Smith trainers

Musa trainers, £70, by Paul Smith

Culture,Video clips

Will Arnett goes Brokeback

Will Arnett goes Brokeback

Will Arnett and Peter Serafinowicz team up with real-life wives in tow for this cautionary tale of what happens when you take bromance just a little too far.

Grooming

For the morning after the night before

For the morning after the night before

The first telltale signs of a long night of libation tend to manifest themselves in and around the eyes – dark circles, bloodshot sclera, etc. But unless you can lay claim to new parent status (the gold standard for successfully explaining away daytime fatigue to your boss), you may need to consider more dermatological measures to paper over the after-effects of your excesses. [Read more...]