Kaleidoscope festival Alexandra Palace
(Picture: James Berry)THE ALBUM (AND THE GIG)
If you count The White Stripes/The Raconteurs/The Dead Weather,Entering Heaven Alive will be Jack White’s 17th album. Very rarely are they anything but great, but this — the second of two he recorded in lockdown — is a folk album and should excite fans of the world’s foremost vinyl evangelist’s quieter side. He’s also celebrating its release day with a show in the confines of Union Chapel. No doooo-do-dooo-do-do-dooo-dodoooing at the back now, please.
Out 22 Jul. Tickets from £36.50 (unionchapel.org.uk)
THE DOUBLE FEATURE
All Light, Everywhere (2021) and We Live In Public (2009)
This week we explore the digital age and privacy. Theo Anthony’s fascinating essay film All Light, Everywhere is a kaleidoscopic documentary that delves deep into the birth of the camera up to today’s use of surveillance, from the earliest film clips to modern police body cams. It exposes the uneasy relationship between technology, surveillance and recording, leaving you with plenty of food for thought albeit a lot of troubling Orwellian feelings.
Get your doc on by checking out the work of Ondi Timoner, who followed up her hit music documentary DIG! (2004) with We Live in Public. In 1999, internet entrepreneur Josh Harris (part genius, part unhinged exhibitionist) recruited dozens of young people to live in tiny underground ‘apartments’ for weeks while every movement was broadcast online. A year before Big Brother and long before Instagram Live, We Live in Public remains a disturbing, fascinating study of the infancy of the internet and how social media would change our lives.
THE FESTIVAL
If you’re fed up with the hangovers from Lovebox/Wireless/Mighty Hoopla, opt for more wholesome boogieing with the baby boomers at Kaleidoscope Festival in Alexandra Palace. There’ll be music and comedy by Orbital, Happy Mondays, Craig Charles and Ed Gamble, and far fewer trips to the A&E tent.
23 Jul. Tickets £65.30 (kaleidoscope-festival.com)
THE PEP TALK
Time to get those tendrils coiffed. This Morning stalwart Ruth Langsford is bringing a bunch of her loose ladies together to give us half-day masterclasses on harnessing our fashion and beauty lewks. Feeling Fabulous with Ruth will have fizz, QVC goodie bags… and neutral biker jackets layered sympathetically. Hunspirational.
23-24 Jul. Old Billingsgate (feelingfabulous.seetickets.com)
THE PLAY
Hold on to your hat — stormy weather lies ahead. A thunderous new adaptation of The Tempest has blown into Shakespeare’s Globe this month. Directed by the theatre’s associate artistic director, Sean Holmes, get ready for the manipulative Prospero, played by Ferdy Roberts, to stir the pot. And the real Shakespeare nerds can even book a guided tour on everything tempestuous before heading to the performance.
22 Jul to 22 Oct. Tickets from £6 (shakespearesglobe.com)
THE SERIES
Supersized fizzy drink glued to her hand and under a face-full of questionable make-up, a smirking Renée Zellweger stars as real-life convicted killer Pam Hupp in the must-see US crime drama The Thing About Pam. The story focuses on the brilliantly portrayed Hupp, who had literally got away with murder until the wrongful conviction of the victim’s husband was overturned. Tune in to see the events unfold that would reveal Hupp’s sinister scheme — or to just gawk at Zellweger’s stellar suburban Missouri fashion sense.
Stream now on Paramount+
THE EXHIBITION
Travel porn has been a big deal on TikTok since the app’s creation, lulling hills and clear waters that make you die with jealousy. Now there’s a new ‘TravelTok’ trend, reminding viewers of their age in order to prompt them into jetting off. ‘You’ll make your money back, but you’ll never be 24 and swimming off the coast of Italy again,’ read a caption that succeeded in sending us into a frenzy. Luckily, the Design Museum’s latest exhibition may be just the antidote. The Future of Ageing celebrates the process of growing older and explores how we can do so with both agency and joy. The display showcases reimagined products, services and environments that aim to enhance our experience of living later in life. While we can escape the city, time is not so easy to avoid — maybe this show will help us welcome it instead.
20 Jul to 11 Sep. Free (designmuseum.org)
THE DAY OUT
Hidden in a bend of the River Lea near Canning Town is London City Island and this Saturday it’s celebrating with The Islander Festival Summer Fete. Try cocktail-making to live music, thrill the kids with Sharky & George, tuck in to street food or visit locals, the English National Ballet.
