http://www.independent.co.uk/extras/saturday-magazine/regulars/?service=Rss http://www.independent.co.uk/extras/saturday-magazine/regulars/beauty-queen-i-channelled-my-energy-into-finding-a-lipstick-in-rothko-red-that-would-capture-his-paintings-955311.html http://www.independent.co.uk/extras/saturday-magazine/regulars/beauty-queen-i-channelled-my-energy-into-finding-a-lipstick-in-rothko-red-that-would-capture-his-paintings-955311.html <p>At Tate Modern's new Rothko exhibition I engaged in my favourite hobby of watching the people watching the art. One man sat on a small folding chair provided by the gallery, staring at <I>Red on Maroon </I>with the imperturbable concentration that you normally only see on fisherman waiting to catch a particularly elusive trout. </p> Regulars Sat, 11 Oct 2008 00:00:01 +0100 http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/green-living/cyclotherapy-for-every-knockedoff-bike-being-sold-in-brick-lane-theres-a-heartbroken-owner-955312.html http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/green-living/cyclotherapy-for-every-knockedoff-bike-being-sold-in-brick-lane-theres-a-heartbroken-owner-955312.html <p>It's always struck me as rather perverse that it's so very easy to get your hands on a stolen bike in London. Just about everyone knows that if you take a trip down to the end of Brick Lane in Shoreditch, east London, on a Sunday morning, you'll find dozens of kids peddling (not pedalling) expensive and often shiny new bicycles for knock-down prices. Yet even though this is common knowledge, the police never seem to do anything about it. </p> Green Living Sat, 11 Oct 2008 00:00:01 +0100 http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/this-britain/minor-british-institutions-1-maltesers-955315.html http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/this-britain/minor-british-institutions-1-maltesers-955315.html <p> We cannot know what went through Forrest Mars' mind when he decided to manufacture his little &quot;energy balls&quot;, as they were first named, in 1936. Temporarily settled in England and estranged from his American family, Forrest first gave Britain the Mars bar in 1932. But you have to wonder where anyone would get the idea of little balls of malted honeycomb coated in chocolate. </p> This Britain Sat, 11 Oct 2008 00:00:01 +0100 http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/motoring/road-tests/motoring-jaguar-xf-27-litre-v6-diesel-955316.html http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/motoring/road-tests/motoring-jaguar-xf-27-litre-v6-diesel-955316.html Road Tests Sat, 11 Oct 2008 00:00:01 +0100 http://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/how-do-i-look-tawiah-singer-21-955322.html http://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/how-do-i-look-tawiah-singer-21-955322.html <p>My clothes are a reflection of me. If I'm feeling down, I'll be wearing black from head to toe. If I'm up, I'll be donning all the colours under the sun. There are people whose style I admire, but I pretty much do my own thing. If I see something and love how it looks on me, I'll just run it. I love granddad style. Those boys look gangsta in their little outfits. </p> People Sat, 11 Oct 2008 00:00:01 +0100 http://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/my-secret-life-nina-wadia-actress-39-955323.html http://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/my-secret-life-nina-wadia-actress-39-955323.html <p> <b>The home I grew up in... </b>was a one-bedroom, ground-floor space that regularly flooded during the monsoon season in Mumbai. My brother, sister and I squeezed together on the bed and my mum and dad slept on a mattress on the floor. Aged nine, we moved to a two-bedroom flat in Hong Kong. It was like moving to a mansion. </p> People Sat, 11 Oct 2008 00:00:01 +0100 http://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/first-person-i-was-one-of-the-kingsnorth-six-955326.html http://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/first-person-i-was-one-of-the-kingsnorth-six-955326.html <p>In October 2007, Ben Stewart and five of his Greenpeace colleagues scaled the 650ft chimney stack at Kingsnorth Power Station in Kent to stage a protest at proposals to build a new "super-polluting" plant on the site. Last month a jury found them not guilty of causing &pound;30,000 worth of criminal damage. </p> People Sat, 11 Oct 2008 00:00:01 +0100 http://www.independent.co.uk/extras/saturday-magazine/regulars/beauty-queen-john-gallianos-theatrical-new-scent-948100.html http://www.independent.co.uk/extras/saturday-magazine/regulars/beauty-queen-john-gallianos-theatrical-new-scent-948100.html <p>On the Eurostar to Paris for the launch of John Galliano's first perfume, there was much speculation as to what the extravagant designer and couturier's eponymous creation would smell like. His shows tend to have opulent sets and exotic hair and make-up, while for autumn/winter 08 he used pungent joss sticks to evoke Xanadu, Thus I was expecting something intense, dramatic and, well, a little bit overpowering. </p> Regulars Sat, 04 Oct 2008 00:00:01 +0100 http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/columnists/dylan-jones/if-you-ask-me-john-prescott-got-close-to-the-flame-but-seemed-to-learn-little-about-the-fire-948107.html http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/columnists/dylan-jones/if-you-ask-me-john-prescott-got-close-to-the-flame-but-seemed-to-learn-little-about-the-fire-948107.html <p>If you ask me, the prospect of John Prescott fulfilling his post-office potential becomes more enticing by the week. And before you splutter on your Cheerios and ask yourself if you've missed something &ndash; though it would be amusing to imagine the "great butcher of English prose" running a sub-Post Office, complete with his cheap uniform and a big, "Free with Look and Learn" badge &ndash; I'm actually referring to whatever it is he is going to do next.</p> Dylan Jones Sat, 04 Oct 2008 00:00:01 +0100 http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/motoring/features/the-verdict-volkswagen-golf-bluemotion-19-tdi-948109.html http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/motoring/features/the-verdict-volkswagen-golf-bluemotion-19-tdi-948109.html <p>You want to be green but you don't want to drive one of those strange, fragile, plastic electric cars or show-off hybrids. What to do?</p> Features Sat, 04 Oct 2008 00:00:01 +0100 http://www.independent.co.uk/extras/saturday-magazine/regulars/pets-corner-where-can-i-find-out-about-looking-after-a-new-puppy-948111.html http://www.independent.co.uk/extras/saturday-magazine/regulars/pets-corner-where-can-i-find-out-about-looking-after-a-new-puppy-948111.html <p> <b>Q.</b> <b>I am going to get my new puppy soon and I am hoping that we can enjoy lots of fun activities together. But it's the first time I've owned a dog and I'd like to know where to find out about things for us to do. Where is the best place to start? Ruby, Marylebone, London</b> </p> Regulars Sat, 04 Oct 2008 00:00:01 +0100 http://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/my-secret-life-margot-stilley-actress-25-948115.html http://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/my-secret-life-margot-stilley-actress-25-948115.html <p> <b>The home I grew up in... </b>was built in the Twenties by my great-grandfather. It had an amazing hanging garden made up of Spanish moss. My family was really into plywood, timber and bricks, and inside all the features had intricate detail. I still miss the smell of the place. </p> People Sat, 04 Oct 2008 00:00:01 +0100 http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/columnists/the-weasel-goodbye-to-all-that-948118.html http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/columnists/the-weasel-goodbye-to-all-that-948118.html <p>In their picturesque way, the French refer to orgasm as La Petite Mort. The same term could apply to the termination of a column, though the experience is not quite as pleasant. From an account of being snowed-in at Yorkshire, which appeared on 30 December 1995, to last week's tale of being penalised by H M Customs & Excise for importing an anthology of ancient gospel music, the Weasel has been my outlet for 12 years of vicissitudes. They ranged from a near-death experience in 2005 when a bunch of "arty boneheads" marched me at dead of night to the top of a Cumbrian fell for a chat with Ken Russell (he had left by the time we arrived) to a terrifying ride on a breakneck Big Wheel in the Tuileries Gardens in 1997. "Whataniceview," I repeated in an anguished mantra. "NotreDame-LesInvalides-EiffelTower." But Mrs W had her eyes tight shut.</p> Columnists Sat, 04 Oct 2008 00:00:01 +0100 http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/columnists/will-self/psychogeography-journeys-end-948121.html http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/columnists/will-self/psychogeography-journeys-end-948121.html <p>In Ibiza the night proceeds according to plan: we set off in convoy, several cars full of us. True, we're going to a party in a swanky villa on the other side of the island, but while half our company are teenaged, the rest of us are past the age when we can do any raving &ndash; except against the dying of the light. Then: solid darkness, with headlights gouging it out to expose switchback roads and useless signs. The mobile phone calls begin: like the echo location of decadent bats. Some Ibizan parties can be found by following lizards stencilled on walls, others by pink balloons, but the turning for this one &ndash; or so we're assured through the ether &ndash; will be clear to us because of a strategically placed pile of three white phones. </p> Will Self Sat, 04 Oct 2008 00:00:01 +0100 http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/columnists/the-weasel-hymns-to-the-joyful-943441.html http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/columnists/the-weasel-hymns-to-the-joyful-943441.html <p>Ever come across fifty-quid bloke? A phenomenon of the baby-boom generation, he's not uncommon. You may have one for your dad or have the dubious pleasure of being married to one. Fifty-quid bloke is a middle-aged music fan who hasn't got to grips with downloading and therefore drops &pound;50 or thereabouts on CDs whenever he enters a big record shop. Since I can't stand big record shops, I have fifty-quid bloke moments on Amazon. My most recent splurge was prompted by a long article in The New Yorker about American folk music. Near the start, it mentioned that an Atlanta record producer called Lance Ledbetter had issued "what many consider the greatest gospel compilation ever made: a six-CD set called Goodbye, Babylon". Not being a great gospel fan, this did not lure me.</p> Columnists Sat, 27 Sep 2008 00:00:01 +0100 http://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/my-secret-life-james-may-tv-presenter-age-45-943442.html http://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/my-secret-life-james-may-tv-presenter-age-45-943442.html People Sat, 27 Sep 2008 00:00:01 +0100 http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/columnists/will-self/will-self-holy-cow-943443.html http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/columnists/will-self/will-self-holy-cow-943443.html <p>I well remember sitting at a bar in Logan Airport, Boston, and watching the great cattledammerung of the mid-1990s on a flickering TV: mechanical grabbers lifting up tons of twitching steak tartare and dropping it into enormous trenches. It looked like the smorgasbord of the Devil himself. Ruminating over a few fluid ounces of Miller Lite, it occurred to me that this could well be The End. But no, because in '01, I found myself walking across the causeway to the Holy Island of Lindisfarne, shod penitently in &pound;1,300 calf leather walking boots, while behind me a 30 mile swathe of the Northumbrian coast was visible in the sunlight: the smoke from scores of death barbeques wavering up into the heavens, as once again the British cattle industry was near-annihilated.</p> Will Self Sat, 27 Sep 2008 00:00:01 +0100 http://www.independent.co.uk/extras/saturday-magazine/regulars/pets-corner-our-dog-wont-let-us-leave-the-house-943456.html http://www.independent.co.uk/extras/saturday-magazine/regulars/pets-corner-our-dog-wont-let-us-leave-the-house-943456.html <p><b>My partner has two dogs, one is a four-year-old Patterdale Terrier. The problem is that whenever anyone tries to leave the house he goes completely mad, starts barking and is really aggressive &ndash; then races madly around the house. He seems to be trying to stop us from going out and one day he nipped the back of my leg and this has made me really nervous. How can we stop this behaviour? Jeanette Thompson, via e-mail</b></p> Regulars Sat, 27 Sep 2008 00:00:01 +0100 http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/motoring/road-tests/the-verdict-seat-ibiza-14-sport-943457.html http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/motoring/road-tests/the-verdict-seat-ibiza-14-sport-943457.html <p>Latin flair combined with German quality and reliability &ndash; that's always been the promise held out by the Spanish Seat operation since it was acquired by Volkswagen more than 20 years ago. Sometimes, as in the case of the faster versions of the last-generation Leon, that promise has been met, but Seat has found it far harder to define itself clearly than VW's other European budget brand, Skoda.</p> Road Tests Sat, 27 Sep 2008 00:00:01 +0100 http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/columnists/dylan-jones/dylan-jones-view-from-the-west-wing-935137.html http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/columnists/dylan-jones/dylan-jones-view-from-the-west-wing-935137.html <p>If you ask me, the basic difference between the Democrats and the Republicans is surprisingly simple. In broad brushstrokes, the ideologies have rarely changed &ndash; small government versus womb-to-tomb interference, a free-market society versus a high-tax welfare state, and so on &ndash; but recently the parameters of definition have substantially shifted. Firstly, this is because America's attitude towards its foreign policy has never been so important, and secondly because the definitions of what constitutes each party are about to change in exactly the same way as they have over here. And not only that: this year America also has to choose between the world's oldest living white guy and an arrogant black rock star who has already been on a European tour. </p> Dylan Jones Sat, 20 Sep 2008 00:00:01 +0100 http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/columnists/the-weasel-black-magic-935138.html http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/columnists/the-weasel-black-magic-935138.html <p>ne, two, three, four, five," Mrs W seethed. Her fingers reluctantly probed the tangle of a blackberry bush, but she was not counting the fruits of her labours. "I've now had five nettle stings. Whose idea was this?" I'm sorry to admit that the impetus to go brambling stemmed from an Independent feature on cutting food bills: "Dine like a king, spend like a pauper." I'm even sorrier to reveal that the author was a certain C Hirst. "September brings blackberries for the hunter-gatherer," wrote this culinary tight-wad. "It is the most generous of wild fruits." </p> Columnists Sat, 20 Sep 2008 00:00:01 +0100 http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/theatre/features/my-secret-life-andrea-riseborough-actress-age-27-935139.html http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/theatre/features/my-secret-life-andrea-riseborough-actress-age-27-935139.html <p> <b>The home I grew up in... </b>was the house that dad built. He was not, in fact, Jack, but George. There was no one else living on the street when we bought our cheap plot of land; everything grew around us. </p> Features Sat, 20 Sep 2008 00:00:01 +0100 http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/columnists/will-self/will-self-frozen-music-935147.html http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/columnists/will-self/will-self-frozen-music-935147.html <p>Ralph Steadman &ndash; last heard of singing sea shanties at the Baltic Centre in Newcastle (how does he do it?) &ndash; understands better than most the force of Goethe's dictum that "architecture is frozen music". Mostly it's architects who ponder this, but Ruskin averred that no one could be an architect who was not a supremely sure draughtsman, as well as a proper applicator of paint. Well, Ralph is both, and I suspect that his visceral aversion to the follies of contemporary architects is as much a function of his own edifice complex &ndash; he has, as regular readers know, designed a multi-faith place of worship, the Maidstone cathedromoscagogue, that if completed will be the exact same height as the Tower of Babel, but equipped with better signage &ndash; as the ghastly heavy metal of theirs.</p> Will Self Sat, 20 Sep 2008 00:00:01 +0100 http://www.independent.co.uk/extras/saturday-magazine/regulars/pets-corner-my-dogs-become-a-fatty-bum-936111.html http://www.independent.co.uk/extras/saturday-magazine/regulars/pets-corner-my-dogs-become-a-fatty-bum-936111.html <p><b>I've recently been on holiday only to come back and find, to my horror, that my beautiful cocker spaniel, Charlie, has become a "fatty bum"! He is so huge that I don't really know where to start to get him back in shape. Please help! Christina, London</b></p> Regulars Sat, 20 Sep 2008 00:00:01 +0100