New horizons: music, art, books and more to get out of a rut
MusicFor a band who have experienced their fair share of internal hard times, US pop-rock titans Paramore have always found ways to bounce back. Although their permanent lineup hadn’t quite solidified on 2013’s self-titled album, it was chockful of songs that nodded to the restless need for change, with Moving On, Grow Up and Future all noting the urge to strive forwards even if it means leaving old relationships behind. By the time they got to 2017’s After Laughter, Paramore’s sonic and emotional metamorphosis was nearly complete, but there is something in the self-titled record’s work in progress that reminds you of the rewards of taking that first leap. Jenessa Williams
Art
Marcel Duchamp holding a glass study for The Large Glass: The Bride Stripped Bare by Her Bachelors, Even. Photograph: Library of Congress/Corbis/VCG/Getty Images
One of modern art’s core principles is to “make it new” and its history is full of reinventions, with media, ideas and, occasionally, the artists themselves. The most storied about-face has to be Marcel Duchamp’s. After changing art for ever by displaying found objects such as the urinal and bottle rack in galleries, in 1923, at the age of 36, he declared his great work The Large Glass unfinished and gave up his first creative life. Instead, he devoted his time to chess and became a late-blooming chess master. Skye Sherwin
Film
Christopher Plummer and Ewan McGregor in Beginners. Photograph: Focus Features/Allstar
The title of Mike Mills’ 2010 film doesn’t quite tell you what the film is about; these are not new beginnings, but old beginnings. Christopher Plummer gives the performance of a lifetime as Hal, a retired art historian who, with the death of his wife, astonishes his middle-aged son (Ewan McGregor) by coming out as a gay man at the age of 75. He is entirely relaxed, revealing that he has been in the closet all his life, enthusiastically embraces the gay scene, and even acquires a beautiful lover, played by Goran Višnjić. The final four years of Hal’s life are ones of glorious fulfilment not really shared by any of the younger – and less daring – characters. Peter Bradshaw
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Books
Penelope Fitzgerald was 58 when she launched her literary career with a biography of the artist Edward Burne-Jones. That was in 1975. A couple of years later she turned to fiction, writing exquisite novels based on her own experiences. Then, in 1982, she began working on an entirely different kind of historical fiction. The Blue Flower tells of the early life of the German romantic poet and philosopher Novalis and his doomed love for a young sickly girl called Sophie von Kühn. It is – among other things – an extraordinary evocation of the passions and uncertainty of youth. She was 79 when it came out – and it is a masterpiece. Sam Jordison
Theatre
Patterns of life … Kit Sinclair's 30 and Out. Photograph: Chloe Burton
Life-altering change can creep up on you at any moment. For Kit Sinclair, it was just after she had turned 30, left her boyfriend and realised she was gay. At this year’s Edinburgh fringe, to a rapt audience, Sinclair gave a sweet, raucous performance in which she dived into a tick-box of queerness, struggling to find what fitted as she attempted to get to grips with the word “lesbian”. With scenes interspersed with verbatim quotes about queerness, 30 and Out is a gentle reminder that we never have to accept the patterns our life has travelled in, and that if we feel stuck right now, it might just be a sign that beautiful change is ahead. Kate Wyver