moreintelligentlife.com
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GALACTIC GAMES AND PHABLETS
In his latest choice of a game, a gadget and an app, Tom Standage applauds a trilogy with everything but a happy ending, and the first pocket-sized tablet... read more »
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A WALK ON THE WRITER'S SIDE
~ Posted by Simon Willis, May 29th 2012 Robert Macfarlane, who writes our column "A Walk on the Wild Side", has just published a new book called "The Old Ways". It's about ancient paths—from the chalk landscapes...
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DICKENS AND THE LEVESON INQUIRY
~ Posted by Robert Butler, May 28th 2012 A topical aspect of Charles Dickens's career that has been overlooked in the 200th anniversary celebrations is his talent as a blagger. In February 1838 he travelled to Yorkshire to see the B...
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BURGUNDY, 8CL AT A TIME
The Wine-List Inspector: Tim Atkin visits a Michelin-starred restaurant in Beaune, which offers 134 wines by the glass... read more »
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JENNIFER EGAN'S BITE-SIZED STORY
~ Posted by Simon Willis, May 25th 2012 When Jennifer Egan's novel "A Visit From the Goon Squad" won the Pulitzer Prize in 2011, the judges praised it as "an inventive investigation of growing up and growing old in the dig...
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T-BONES AND SYMPATHY
On becoming a father, Laurence Earle formed the Dads’ Club, to eat out and chew the fat. He tells the tale and rates the restaurants... read more »
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THE THIN VENEER
Found in Translation: Simon Willis welcomes Peter Stamm's clinical account of a disturbing passion... read more »
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THE WHETHER REPORT
~ Posted by Maggie Fergusson, May 23rd 2012 read more »
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A TROPICAL BREW
Deep in the Brazilian rainforest there is a town built around a church where worshippers drink hallucinogenic tea. Alex Bellos took a trip up the Amazon to sample the high life in Céu do Mapiá... read more &...
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THIS IS NOT ABOUT RAIN DEFICITS
~ Posted by Robert Butler, May 22nd 2012 read more »
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SEX, VIOLENCE AND RIGOUR
This Season: for his classical music choice, Michael Church selects two productions by David McVicar, including an Olympian one... read more »
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DRAWING PAXMAN INTO THE LIGHT
~ Posted by Robert Butler, May 21st 2012 Among the performances from witnesses at the Leveson Inquiry—and Hugh Grant, Steve Coogan, Rupert Murdoch and Rebekah Brooks have given compelling ones—the appearance of Jeremy Paxman...
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THE GENOME GADGET
The Music of Science: Oliver Morton reckons Alan Turing would love this: a gadget the size of a matchbox which can read a genome sequence... read more »
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MORE THAN A BIG MERINGUE
Stove Notes: Simon Hopkinson explains that Pavlova, a pudding that's fit for a star, requires a magic transformation... read more »
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TRUTH TELLERS IN "THE BRIDGE"
~ Posted by Robert Butler, May 18th 2012 read more »
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A NARROW VIEW OF CORSETS
~ Posted by Kassia St Clair, May 17th 2012 Our most popular piece on the website at the moment is "The Shapes We're In". Our deputy editor Isabel Lloyd wrote that women often favour clothes of a particular decade. “...
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BED AND ABOARD
Quarter Finalists: Claire Wrathall straddles land and sea in five hotels that operate their own boats... read more »
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TWO MURDOCH BOOKS IN ONE
~ Posted by Robert Butler, May 16th 2012 Hard to think of a better example of two books squeezed into one than "Dial M for Murdoch", published last month, a fascinating account of the hacking scandal and the cover-up at Ne...
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SCENES FROM A LIFE
From a first visit to the Little Theatre, Bolton, to the role of chief theatre critic on the Times and beyond, few people have seen as many plays as Irving Wardle. In this memoir, he distils what he has learnt... read more&nbs...
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FUENTES ON TIME AND SPACE
The great Mexican novelist and essayist Carlos Fuentes died on May 15th 2012 at the age of 83. Two years ago, he wrote this piece for Intelligent Life for our series Authors on Museums. “Museums, like lovers," he said, "c...
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TRANSLATOR IN THE SPOTLIGHT
~ Posted by Simon Willis, May 15th 2012 read more »
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THE SHAPES WE'RE IN
Are you a leggy Edwardian? Or a nip-waisted New Look? With help from four actresses, Isabel Lloyd matches bodies to decades... read more »
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MAN CITY'S GREAT ANTI-CHOKE
~ Posted by Tim de Lisle, May 14th 2012 A funny thing has happened with Manchester City’s last-gasp Premiership triumph. It is being seen as the start of an era, even a dynasty. Both words were tripping off the lips of their ...
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RESCUING "ALIEN"
This Season: Nicholas Barber selects "Prometheus", Ridley Scott's bid to save the "Alien" franchise from its sequels... read more »
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WRITERS IN THEIR OWN HAND
~ Posted by Emma Hogan, May 11th 2012 “Writing Britain”, which opens today at the British Library, traces how writers from Chaucer to Zadie Smith have used the British landscape—from its rolling dales and hills to its i...
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MAN OF MANY PARTS
Notes on a Voice: this year marks Charles Dickens's 200th anniversary. Emma Hogan tunes into a mind teeming with other people's thoughts... read more »
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LEONARDO HAS THE BEST APP
~ Posted by Simon Willis, May 10th 2012 More and more galleries are producing apps for their exhibitions. Some are modest, like the one for the Lucian Freud show at the National Portrait Gallery, which doesn't go beyond the exhibition it...
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SOUND AND REVISION
Mood Music: With the exam season approaching, Matthew Sweet picks tunes to go with hard work—or blind panic... read more »
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THE ART OF THE FAIR
~ Posted by Hazel Sheffield, May 9th 2012 Where in New York would you put a very big tent? As Frieze’s co-founder Amanda Sharp said, “The true story is that I opened Google Maps and looked for big green spaces.” The one...
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WHERE THE WIND HOWLS
A Walk on the Wild Side: in a new series, Robert Macfarlane, acclaimed author of “The Wild Places”, walks the Mourne Mountains in Northern Ireland, formed 60m years ago... read more »
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DON'T MENTION SKIN COLOUR
It's been the most exciting English Premiership season for years, but the game has been marred by two racial incidents. Patrick Barclay shows how football can move on... read more »
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LENA DUNHAM'S DEBT TO "PEANUTS"
~ Posted by Tom Shone, May 8th 2012 Critics have been busy naming the various influences that have been stirred into the pot of "Girls", Lena Dunham’s bruised, brazen new comedy for HBO about the growing pains of a group ...
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ON THE MENTAL SPECTRUM
~ Posted by Rebecca Willis, May 4th 2012 Watching “The Bridge”, the latest offering of Scandinavian noir to reach our TV screens, makes me feel hopeful—despite the increasingly dark deeds of the criminal mastermind who'...
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FROM ANNE FRANK TO GANNETS
Six Good Books: Maggie Fergusson's choices include golden essays with a northern compass and a Holocaust novel with humour... read more »
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AN INTERMITTENT "SCREAM"
~ Posted by Robert Butler, May 3rd 2012 They thought it might go for $80m. But last night in New York, Munch's "The Scream" went for $107m—the highest price paid for a work of art at an auction. If you couldn't get there,...
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YOUNG AMERICANS (WHO ARE BRITS)
At the Cinema: Tom Shone details the latest qualities for a superhero—a super-agent, an accent coach and a British passport... read more »
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SCANNING THE PLANET'S CRUST
~ Posted by Simon Willis, May 2nd 2012 The pictures could be taken by aliens. When you walk into "Transmission", the current exhibition at the Brancolini Grimaldi gallery in London, it's not immediately clear what you are ...
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SOME LIKE IT VERY HOT
For years it was thought that life couldn’t exist below a certain depth or above a certain heat. Now those limits turn out not to be limits after all, and a lake under the Antarctic ice is about to open our eyes even wider. Bryan A...
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ACTING LIKE MURDOCH
~ Posted by Robert Butler, May 1st 2012 read more »
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94 ELEMENTS COME TO LIFE
This Season: Samantha Weinberg's pick of the science events is "94 Elements", a series of short films which takes us out of the chemistry lab and into the real world... read more »
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THE VOICE IS THE BEST
The Big Question: Edward Carr on the one musical instrument we all share... read more »
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THE ETIQUETTE OF SCANDI NOIR
~ Posted by Robert Butler, April 30th 2012 One more reason for watching the compelling Scandi noir series "The Bridge", now showing on Saturday nights on BBC4, is the comment thread it sets off in the Guardian. After the episod...
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NON COGITO, ERGO SUM
Sometimes thinking is a bad idea. Ian Leslie draws on Dylan, Djokovic and academic research to put the case for unthinking... read more »
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A 17TH-CENTURY MIKE LEIGH
~ Posted by Isabel Lloyd, April 27th 2012 Just in time for his birthday, it’s been announced that Shakespeare got some help writing “All’s Well That Ends Well”. The stylistic fingerprints of Thomas Middleton, WS&r...
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WHEN TEENAGERS GO SHOPPING
Applied Fashion: Should parents act as stylists or stay outside the changing room door? Rebecca Willis treads a fine line... read more »
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WASSER, WASSER EVERYWHERE
~ Posted by Samantha Weinberg, April 26th 2012 Spring in Switzerland and the snow is beginning to melt. Clear water is running down those beautiful mountains in babbling brooks and pellucid streams, and into vast, serene lakes. Unlike So...
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UP CLOSE ON THE IPAD
~ Posted by Robert Butler, April 25th 2012 If you download the new iPad edition of our May/June issue, and flick through Tim Flach's remarkable photo essay of animals, you can enjoy a feature that isn't available to readers of ...
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A VELVET FIST
If you want to start a peaceful revolution, the person to call is a Serb with a passion for Tolkien. Srdja Popovic is advising rebels in 40 countries. Emma Williams watches him at work and at home... read more »
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THE FRENCH HORN IS THE BEST
The Big Question: one instrument takes us back to the beginning of music. Jasper Rees has been learning it since he was ten... read more »
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I'M WITH MICHAEL BERKELEY
~ Posted by Simon Willis, April 24th 2012 In our current Big Question we are asking which is the best musical instrument. The composer and broadcaster Michael Berkeley argues that the piano is the best because of "its quite sta...
