lifestyle TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 5, 2017 MUSIC & MOVIES A Picture shows a view of the roofs of St Petersburg. — AFP photos A tourist looks at the city during a visit to the first official tour of the roofs in St Petersburg. Legal highs: Rooftop tours offer fresh look at Saint Petersburg tanding on a roof in central Saint Petersburg, they spotted visitors clambering up the stairwell. ulars. "Safety is paramount," Semyonov told the Marta Granadeiro gasped as she watched the Eventually the agency decided to strike a deal with tourists, who were busy snapping photos. They Sstatues on the Hermitage Museum's facade the residents, offering to repair the stairwell in proceeded carefully along the crest of the roof, gleam in the sunset. "We wanted to see something exchange for access to the roof. gripping a meter-high metal barrier to avoid slip- extraordinary in Saint Petersburg and now we ping down the slope. For Andrei Stepanov, who have," said Granadeiro, a 23-year-old Spanish Only for foreigners? takes groups on more clandestine outings, tourist who climbed onto the roof of an apartment The city of 5.3 million annually draws in throngs PanoramicRoof's trip is too tame and "mostly for building on a tour organized by a local tourism of visitors -- 6.9 million in 2016 -- eager to see the elderly and for foreigners". agency. The rusty rooftops of Russia's tsarist-era sights associated with the rule of the Russian mon- For him going the official route is a waste of capital, with its romantic skyline of elegant onion archs and gape at its museum collections. But time: residents rarely make a fuss and even when domes and pre-revolutionary buildings, have long some tourists are also drawn to go off the beaten they do, the fine is only 500 rubles ($8, seven been a coveted destination for illegal excursions. path for a more adventurous experience. Rooftops euros). He said the agency charges too much (500 To convince officials to let tourists admire the offer the best view of the city's skyline, which has to 700 rubles) and only skims the surface of the city from above, the agency PanoramicRoof spent remained lowrise in the historic center. The city's city's world of rooftops. "For that price, we can four years navigating bureaucratic hoops to get the 18th-century founder Tsar Peter the Great ordered arrange a visit to several roofs, and even walk along necessary permits. "I had this idea after getting my architects not to build anything higher than the from one to another, to take in more views," he wedding photos taken on Saint Petersburg's roofs," Peter and Paul Fortress: 122.5 meters (402 feet). said. "That's what's extraordinary, not any officially said Anastasiya Krasitskaya, the agency's coordina- Alexander Semyonov, the head of sanctioned visit." — AFP tor. "It was fantastic but dangerous and uncomfort- PanoramicRoof, took five tourists through the able, the roof was slippery, and all in all it was building's attic, heading toward the roof. Before stressful." Previously tourists could only surrepti- going out to the open air, he repeated safety Tourists look at the city during tiously access the building's roof. Those living in instructions: don't walk too fast and carefully fol- a visit to the first official tour of the flats below sometimes called the police when low the guide. He distributed hard hats and binoc- the roofs in St Petersburg. Lambert leads nominees Love, wrinkles and all, for country music awards conquers Venice iranda Lambert led the pack with for single and video of the year for "Better ove conquers all, even when wrinkles experience and all the film festivals we've five nominations for Country Music Man," album of the year for "The Breaker" become part of the equation. That's been to, and all the roles that we've had and MAssociation awards yesterday, with and vocal group of the year. Besides Lthe message from Helen Mirren and the successes we've had, and the failures Little Big Town and Keith Urban earning four Lambert, female vocalist nominees were from Venice, appropriately the world's old- we've had, the disasters, the families, the rela- nods each. Lambert was nominated for song Kelsea Ballerini, Reba McEntire, Maren est film festival. An art form that for tionships. "It's wonderful to be able to find a and single of the year for "Tin Man," and also Morris and Carrie Underwood. Along with decades was constructed around the role and a film where you simply kind of be earned nods for album, female vocalist and Urban, male vocalist nominees were Dierks dynamics of youthful sexuality has belated- who you are." best video of the year. Nominations for the Bentley, Eric Church, Thomas Rhett and Chris ly discovered that, when it comes to love Sutherland concurred: "It was an oppor- 51st annual awards were announced on Stapleton. Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit and sex, there are other stories to tell, and tunity to get to the center of some kind of "Good Morning America." The ceremony is earned an album of the year nomination for audiences waiting to hear them. After truth and use our persons as a vehicle for it," scheduled for Nov. 8 in Nashville. Old friend "The Nashville Sound," unusual for an artist Robert Redford and Jane Fonda, 81 and 79 he said. "Being old does not in any way This file photo shows rapper Lil Wayne performing during Taylor Swift, now a pop music queen, generally pegged in the Americana catego- respectively, hooked up for the fourth time diminish love and desire." It can however a free concert in Champ de Mars in Port-au-Prince. — AFP earned a song of the year nomination for ry. Brad Paisley and Underwood will host the in their illustrious careers in Netflix drama lead to confusion: one of the road trip's most penning "Better Man," performed by Little awards show. — AP "Our Souls at Night," now it is the turn of endearing moments features Sutherland Big Town. Mirren, 72, and Donald Sutherland, 82, to jovially participating in a pro-Trump demon- The inescapable song of the summer, fly the flag for love in later life. stration and his wife reminding him of his Rapper Lil Wayne Sam Hunt's "Body Like a Back Road," earned In "The Leisure Seeker", Italian director lifelong support for the Democrats. nominations for top single and song; it Paolo Virzi's first English language film, the holds the record for most weeks topping duo play a retired couple who decide to flee The grey dollar hospitalized Billboard's list of top country songs. Hunt their stifling existence and its cast of doctors "It's a film about being free to choose was snubbed in the best male vocalist and and bossy grown-up children, for a final road how to live your life right up to the last entertainer of the year categories. Veteran trip in their vintage 1970s camper van. moment," said Virzi, whose film was present- with seizures Garth Brooks is shooting for his sixth enter- Mirren said she had been drawn to the "fun- ed here in competition for the festival's top tainer of the year award, and his third ny, natural story" after some initial hesitation. prize, the Golden Lion. Redford and Fonda apper Lil Wayne has been hospitalized in Chicago straight since coming out of retirement. He's "Of course I love watching movies with have received rave reviews for their meas- after suffering multiple epileptic seizures, celebrity competing with four other men in the cate- young beautiful people in them," she told ured performances in "Our Souls at Night", Rnews site TMZ reported. The online outlet said Lil gory: Luke Bryan, Eric Church, Chris AFPTV in an interview in Venice. "But the which tells the story of widowed neighbors Wayne was found unconscious in his hotel room Sunday Stapleton and Urban. wonderful thing about film as an art form is who begin sharing a bed, for company and and was rushed to Northwestern Memorial hospital. The Urban, a 10-time CMA award winner, was that it has this ability to show us culture and conversation. Redford, a major voice in US New Orleans-based rapper was scheduled to perform also nominated for male vocalist and single life and humanity in all its different ways of independent cinema through his Sundance Sunday in Las Vegas, but his doctors advised him to rest for and music video of the year for "Blue Ain't File photo shows Miranda Lambert per- being. "And it had Donald Sutherland in it!" Institute, said he had chosen the project a few days, TMZ said. A representative for Lil Wayne told Your Color." He can even get an extra trophy forms ìTin Manî at the 52nd annual specifically because not enough films were TMZ the Vegas gig was cancelled. — AFP because he's also listed as a producer for the Academy of Country Music Awards at the Shared memories being made for and about his now-retired song. Little Big Town earned nominations T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. — AP Sutherland, whose career has ranged baby-boomer generation-arguably the last from 1967 World War II epic "The Dirty that will be regular cinema goers in the age Dozen" to the recent Hunger Games fran- of streaming and digital home projectors. McDormand scorches in 'Three Billboards' at Venice chise, plays a retired teacher who can still The power of the grey dollar, euro and recite pages of Hemingway but is losing his pound has been underlined in recent years short-term memory and is no longer entirely by the success of the Marigold Hotel films n a year of strong women on screen, Frances moving, as the plot and characters develop in unex- If your parents die you're an orphan.