When Keane burst forth on to the music scene with Hopes and Fears in 2004, they met with almost instant success. Their brand of melodic piano-drive pop found a ready audience with people drawn to beautiful emotionally-rich pop. Tom Chaplin’s voice captured anguish and heartache so perfectly you imagined he Continue Reading
Perhaps you can judge a book by its cover after all
The wisdom of that age-old adage remains as true today as the day it leapt into popular use sometime in the early Twentieth Century. We all readily acknowledge that making a judgement on the worth of anything by external appearances only means that we could well miss out on something Continue Reading
Let the pixels rejoice! “Community” and “Cougartown” both renewed
One of the fun games my house mate and I love to play at this time of year – the preceding phrase is laced with so much sarcasm that small puppies and kittens may die if they come too close to it – is whether our favourite US TV shows Continue Reading
Review: “Zombies Hate Stuff” by Greg Stones
Frankly I am not sure why everyone is worried about this Mayan calendar end of the world thing this year. I think we have far more to fear from the impending zombie apocalypse. Or do we? Thanks to Greg Stone, the inspired, uber-talented man behind this amusing book, which also Continue Reading
Road to Eurovision 2012: Week 6
Welcome to another week of barely-controlled Eurovision madness! The clock is loudly ticking down to Eurovision (with an occasional unexpected key change and the odd pyrotechnic burst from the clock face… oh and is that a Ukrainian grandmother popping out of the time keeping piece on the hour every hour, Continue Reading
Review: “The Five Year Engagement”
This is a romantic comedy that desperately wants you to love it wholeheartedly. From the quirkiness of the Meet Cute (where boy meets girl) where Violet (Emily Blunt) dressed as Princess Diana at a costumed New Year’s Eve party locks eyes across the room with a pink bunny costume-clad Tom Continue Reading
RIP author Maurice Sendak (1928-2012)
Maurice Sendak, much loved and admired author of the children’s classic, Where the Wild Things Are, and In the Night Kitchen, among more than 50 books he wrote and/or illustrated, died Tuesday US time of complications from a recent stroke. “I don’t write for children. I write…” While he was primarily known for Continue Reading
A darker shade of glitter: Eurovision’s political underbelly
You could be forgiven for thinking that Eurovision is simply a “smorgasbord of kitsch”, as Keith Lawrence’s headline so eloquently put it in an article he wrote about Eurovision on his website, and nothing more. But as the other half of his article’s headline suggests, “…and politics”, it is not Continue Reading
Review: “The Avengers”
At last a bigger-than-Ben Hur blockbuster bristling with intelligence, wit and humanity. I have to admit I was sceptical going in that it would be. For one thing, the movie had the malodorous stench of hype laying heavily across it. Secondly, snug within the giddy chaos of all Continue Reading
Review: “Delicacy (La Delicatesse)”
French cinema has a remarkable gift for crafting understated movies that, despite their under-the-radar approach to storytelling, manage to explore the depth and totality of human experience in a way that Hollywood can only dream about. Delicacy is a worthy heir to this innate French sensibility for subtle yet powerful narratives. Continue Reading