September 2, 2017 – SparklyPrettyBriiiight

Is that you Kermie? The Muppets most recognisable face gets a brand new voice

Posted on September 2, 2017August 30, 2017 by aussiemoose

What this? Kermit the Frog embroiled in a nasty juicy scandal that doesn’t also feature Miss Piggy? When news broke that the man who had voiced one of the most beloved Muppets out there for over 25 years (since creator Jim Henson’s death in 1990), Steve Whitmire, had been Continue Reading

Game of Thrones: “The Dragon and the Wolf” (S7, E7 review) #seasonfinale

Posted on September 2, 2017September 2, 2017 by aussiemoose

SPOILERS AHEAD … ZOMBIES AND BROTHERS AND LITTLEFINGER OH MY! You know how wonderful it is how, after an astonishingly long period of bitter estrangement, a family comes back together again, mends broken bonds, speaks words of healing, and they all become one big happy again? No? Well, you’re Continue Reading

Stuck for an answer? You should Ask a Cat

Posted on September 2, 2017August 28, 2017 by aussiemoose

As a cat person of longstanding, I am firmly of the opinion that cats are the font of all wisdom and sociability. (Contrary to popular opinion, cats, well at least the cats I’ve owned, have been quite happy to spend quality time with their favourite feeders, I mean humans). Continue Reading

Movie review: And Mrs

(courtesy IMP Awards) When my parent died within 3 1/2 years of each other, the grief that enveloped me was unlike anything I’d ever experienced before. It felt as if all the old certainties had been swept away and that all the things I knew and could count on were Continue Reading

Happy Christmas ads to all! John Lewis, Aldi Australia, Barbour, M & S Christmas Food, Sainsbury’s + Deutsche Telekom

(via Shutterstock) Yes, yes, I know, I know, Christmas os commercialised, we’ve lost the true spirit of the season etc etc blahedy-blah-blah and on and on … But honestly? I love Christmas ads. The good ones anyway. Sure, they’re trying to get you to buy something but they are often Continue Reading

Festive movie review: The Best Christmas Pageant Ever

(courtesy IMP Awards) As a child of the Church (thought failed, ultimately, to stick in childhood), it’s always fascinated this reviewer how something as pure as belief in the goodness of a higher power, which should always elevate and enliven can somehow become a tool for oppressive, punitive religious expression. Continue Reading

Book review: A Recipe for Christmas by Jo Thomas

(courtesy Penguins Books Australia) Life is full of “It seemed like a good idea at the time” moments. We can, we believe anyway, have all the wisdom of Solomon and the insight of a god, in one crystal moment of absolute clarity and act accordingly, only to find not that Continue Reading

Festive movie review: Hot Frosty

Having your festive viewing expectations subverted is a rare and precious thing indeed. Much of the time in Christmas viewing land, what you see is what you get, and that is usually a good thing since you want fun, escapist entertainment with a heartwarming moral core, and that is precisely Continue Reading

Comedy review double: Season wrap-ups of Frasier (S2, E9-10) and Only Murders in the Building (S4, 9-10)

(courtesy IMP Awards) Frasier (S2, E9-10) If you’ve been paying attention , and for the sake of my robustly fragile writer’s ego, I hope you have, you will have noticed how thrilled I am that Frasier 2023, as it’s often termed, has well and truly come into its own in Continue Reading

Book review: The Secret Christmas Bookshop by Cressida McLaughlin

(courtesy Harper Collins Collins Australia) If there is one universal theme in the rich and varied storytelling of humanity, it is the need to belong. Sure, we all want to fall in love, to know connection and find our village, but at the heart of all these story types, is Continue Reading

Something big and loud this way comes: Sneak peek at the Doctor Who 2024 Christmas special, “Joy to the World”

(courtesy BBC/Disney+ via The Gallifreyan Newsroom) SNAPSHOTBridgerton‘s Nicola Coughlan will be starring in the title role of “Joy to the World” as a traveler checking into a London hotel over the festive period. Before long, Joy’s quiet holiday is interrupted by a Silurian wandering into her hotel room and the sudden arrival of The Continue Reading

Movie review: Christmas Eve in Miller’s Point

(courtesy IMDb) In popular culture at large, Christmas is often seen in very distinct, sharply-realised ways. It is variously a season of miracles or healing or wondrous discovery, and there is always some sort of point to proceedings whether it’s saving Christmas itself by helping Santa or doing a life-changing Continue Reading

Songs, songs and more songs #117: Breakfast Road, Maria Sur, Griff, Late June +Vlossom

(via Shutterstock) Want some fast songs, then a shwostopper slow one that sparkle with beauty and emotion and possibility and then a couple of mid-fi electronic numbers that keep the energy up while subtlely also dialling it down? You’ve got it! It’s a surprising mix of curated sounds but it Continue Reading