You’ve met Hope Arden a thousand times before. You simply don’t remember. Examining themes of identity, memory, self-awareness and the commodification of humanity, The Sudden Appearance of Hope by British writer Claire North (a pseudonym for Catherine Webb) goes to the very heart of what it means to be a person. Continue Reading
Divorce: Sarah Jessica Parker and Thomas Haden Church call it quits on HBO
SNAPSHOT Sarah Jessica Parker returns to HBO in the new comedy series, Divorce. Parker stars as Frances, a woman who suddenly begins to reassess her life and her marriage, and finds that making a clean break and a fresh start is harder than she thought. Other series regulars include Continue Reading
Book review: The End of All Things by John Scalzi
Ending up smack bang in the middle of a book series when all you thought you were doing was buying a standalone volume can be disconcerting. But now when it’s John Scalzi and not when you’ve picked volume 6 in the Old Man’s War series, a space opera that spans Continue Reading
Think, again: Expansive new game Obduction challenges what you know
I was never of a video game player growing up. Mostly that was the result of growing up in the ’70s and ’80s when board games were the diversion of choice, and all you really electronic games-wise were the likes of Pong and Space Invaders which, while fun, were Continue Reading
Weekend pop art: What if the crew of the Firefly returned to Earth?
My love for Firefly is damn near legendary. (OK it’s not but that makes for a dramatic opening sentence and so shall it stay.) I love the show beyond words, as well the constant tributes paid to it by fervent dedicated fellow Browncoats such as Joey Spiotto who has Continue Reading
Will ya keep it down?! Noisy Bird of Paradise drowns out Sir David Attenborough
SNAPSHOT Birds of paradise are one of David Attenborough’s lifelong passions. He was the first to film many of their beautiful and often bizarre displays, and over his lifetime he has tracked them all over the jungles of New Guinea. In this very personal film, he uncovers the remarkable Continue Reading
Movie review: Kubo and the Two Strings
If you must blink … do it now American-based production house Laika has firmly established itself over the course of the last seven years and four luminously good feature films such as Coraline and The Boxtrolls, as a master storyteller of the highest order. Their gift for enchanting films Continue Reading
What’s up Doc?! The origins of Bugs Bunny that’s what!
SNAPSHOT He doesn’t seem like a character from the nineteen forties. His anarchic gender-bending wiseass personality is pretty progressive even by today’s standards and he’s aged so well because he isn’t locked in any one specific pool of relatability. Something like the Flintstones can be revived again and again Continue Reading
Now this is music: Songs from The Blacklist #2 (season 3)
The Blacklist is one of those shows that seemed to spring forth fully-formed when it premiered on NBC on 23 September 2013. Possessed of an intriguing premise – one of the world’s most wanted criminals, Raymond “Red” Reddington, played with uncompromising joie de vivre and glee by James Spader, Continue Reading
Everyone deserves love: Lance Bass presents Prince Charming with a twist
Falling in love is hands down one of the most wonderful things that can happen to you. Along with the fluttering heart, the giddy obsession with one person and one person only, and the sense that life is exultantly beautiful and can only gets better, is the deeply satisfying Continue Reading