Music superstar announces 2014 courtroom drama This House of Grief as first Australian pick for global monthly book club

Helen Garner has praised Dua Lipa as a “serious and sensitive” interviewer after the British superstar added Garner’s nonfiction book This House of Grief to her monthly book club.

Garner’s 2014 courtroom drama will be the first Australian inclusion on the popular list, taking the Melbourne author’s work to the singer’s growing global audience.

Mick Jagger wanted to play Frank-N-Furter, Susan Sarandon got pneumonia, and the cast were wet and half-naked most of the time. Richard O’Brien, Barry Bostwick, Patricia Quinn and Nell Campbell tell the surprising, seductive story of cinema’s longest-running cult smash

The Rocky Horror Picture Show was released in cinemas in late 1975 with little fanfare, but the provocative musical, with its campy parody of sci-fi and horror B-movies, fabulous costumes and rollicking songs, dug its glittering heels in and refused to let go for the next 50 years.

The film was an adaptation of the hit musical The Rocky Horror Show, created by Richard O’Brien when he was an unemployed actor. The story of Dr Frank-N-Furter (Tim Curry), an alien, transvestite scientist, decked out like a bewitching glam rock god and hellbent on seducing everyone around him, galvanised audiences into participating in a way that had never been seen before.

It’s like The Traitors meets Race Across the World, with contestants sent on a deliberately disorientating 175-mile helicopter ride – and then put onto a bus with no windows. And that’s before you consider the challenges …

It’s The Traitors on a bus! It’s Race Across the World in blindfolds! It’s the BBC’s new reality competition series, Destination X!

The premise is simple. A baker’s dozen of contestants assemble at Baden-Baden airport in Germany, from where they are transported via helicopter and a luxuriously appointed coach with blacked-out windows to various mysterious locations in Europe – one an episode – taking part in challenges en route to earn clues to help them work out where they are. At the end of each episode, the contestants enter the “map room” and indicate where they think they are by placing an X. The person who is least accurate is thrown under the bus. The overall winner will net £100,000.

A treasure trove of flea market photos spotted in 2004 show how some found liberation in the Catskillls at a tough time

A new show at the Met demonstrates the enduring power of photography to affirm trans identities and build trans communities. Titled simply Casa Susanna, it reveals a treasure trove of photographs made by a community of self-identified “cross-dressers” in the 1960s, as they found ways to make precious time to dress as their feminine selves in two resorts offering safe spaces in the Catskill mountains.

According to show curator Mia Fineman, these photos had sat dormant for decades until two antique dealers happened to discover them at a flea market in 2004. “What struck them was that they were men dressed in women’s clothing but not in drag,” said Fineman. “They were not wearing flamboyant clothing, it was a very conservative, midcentury style.”

Player, arranger, composer and teacher who brought the double bass to the fore as a solo instrument

The American virtuoso bassist Gary Karr, who has died aged 83 after a brain aneurysm, brought the double bass into the limelight as a solo instrument. He embraced the skills of his bass predecessors Domenico Dragonetti, Giovanni Bottesini and Serge Koussevitzky, then raised the bar to a new level through his sheer joy in playing and communication of his love for the instrument, combined with an unrivalled technical skill.

Hugo Cole in the Guardian, recalling Karr’s visit to the UK in 1978, likened him to an ostrich suddenly becoming a nightingale and remarked that his “breathtaking solo bass playing is surely one of the wonders of 20th-century musical performance”.

Risking arrest, and even decapitation, she ‘bombed’ yards, tunnels and trains in the dead of night. As she brings the spirit of the subway to the UK, the grande dame of graf remembers scaring Keith Haring – and killing a snake

Lady Pink was five when she killed her first snake – with her bare feet. “That shows what a precocious and fearless kid I was,” says the 61-year-old. Even over the phone from upstate New York, the venerated graffiti artist is a force to be reckoned with, talking at a breakneck tempo punctuated by bursts of raucous laughter. There’s a sense that this energy might quickly combust too – she admits she “totally lost it” while preparing for her current solo show, Miss Subway NYC, at D’Stassi Art in London.

The exhibition sees her vividly recreate a New York City subway station. There are paintings in eye-popping colours depicting trains, train yards and playful portraits of the characters you typically see there: a busker in a cat costume, an elderly lady with a shopping cart and a chihuahua. With the help of her husband, fellow graffiti artist Smith, she has even meticulously reproduced layers of tags on the walls from her halcyon days, when she would risk arrest – and sometimes her life – to spray across the city at night. On the show’s opening night, more than 1,000 people showed up to pay their respects to the grande dame of graf.

Amy Odell’s book about the controversial actor and Goop founder is brimming with stories – from Madonna giving her advice as a teenager to her disappointment at boyfriend Brad Pitt’s understanding of caviar

When the author Amy Odell approached Gwyneth Paltrow’s publicist about her plans for a biography of the actor, Goop founder and wellness pioneer, she was told that Paltrow would be glad to participate – if she was allowed to “factcheck” the book.

Odell didn’t agree. Her line to Paltrow eventually fell silent, and her book, Gwyneth , has just been published to much buzz, without the star’s participation. Paltrow, a source claimed to Odell, “ invented ghosting”.

‘Fabian grew up the inner-city where it was hard for him to pursue his love of horses. He’s set himself the goal of becoming a five-time Olympic gold medallist’

When I was about 16, I went to Bradgate Park in Leicestershire with a couple of friends. We were there as sunset approached and the landscape became illuminated by beautiful golden-hour light. There were deer and stags all around and I asked one of my friends if I could borrow his camera. It must have been quite annoying for him because I remember wandering off, trying to capture this feeling of mystery and magic.

That was the moment I first really felt a sense of excitement for photography and image-making. Before then, I’d visited many museums and art galleries with my mum and was inspired by some of the art we saw. I was particularly drawn to portraits by Vermeer and Rembrandt. I’ve never been good at drawing or painting, but having a camera gave me a tool to express that creative energy.

After a long day of exploring, swimming or hanging with grandparents, games from Fortnite to Super Mario are a good way to wind down. Sometimes I play along, too

We’re a week into the school summer holidays here in England, and I wonder how many parents who started out determined to keep their children completely away from screens are now beginning to feel the strain. When my sons were much younger, I often had these idyllic images in my head of day trips to the seaside, back garden treasure hunts, paddling in the river, visiting relatives … an endless series of character forming experiences which I imagined in grainy Kodachrome colours. Then I’d be faced with the reality of having a job, and also the, let’s say, limited attention span of my sons. Those boys could rocket through a host of formative activities in a few hours leaving a trail of muddy boots, half-finished crafting projects and tired grandparents in their wake. Sheepishly, we’d end up allowing some Fortnite time to catch our breath.

There is so much pressure and guilt around children and gaming, especially during long school breaks, and I think we need to seriously redress our outlook as a society. I harbour many lovely memories of gaming with my sons during hot August days; drowsily loafing about building ridiculous mansions in Minecraft or laughing ourselves stupid in Goat Simulator . We would always take the Switch on holiday with us, so that in the evenings, when we went out for meals, there would be an hour or so where my wife and I could linger over a glass of wine, while the boys silently played Super Mario together. We still managed to build sand castles, go swimming and explore unfamiliar towns, but games provided a way to wind down and enjoy something familiar.