As a kid, one of my favourite things in the world was to curl up on the couch, or spread-eagled on the floor, and read mystery novels. Anything from The Hardy Boys through to Nancy Drew, The Three Investigators through to the Dana Girls, and much later all 87 Agatha Continue Reading
Join Remy in the kitchen: Go Side by Side with Ratatouille
SNAPSHOT A rat named Remy dreams of becoming a great chef despite his family’s wishes, and the obvious problem of being a rat in a decidedly rodent-phobic profession. When fate places Remy in the sewers of Paris, he finds himself ideally situated beneath a restaurant made famous by his culinary Continue Reading
Movie review: Avengers Endgame
Spectacular though they may be, there is some crucial element that is glaringly missing from most big, brash modern blockbusters – a beating heart, a real tangible sense that the action happening before you is happening to real people who suffer, feel loss, experience elation, just like you do. The Continue Reading
Road to Eurovision 2019: Week 5 – Ireland, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Moldova, North Macedonia
What is the Eurovision Song Contest? Started way back in 1956 as a way of drawing a fractured Europe back together with the healing power of music, the Eurovision Song Contest, or Concours Eurovision de la Chanson – the contest is telecast in both English and French – is open to Continue Reading
Awwww … what a wonderful Pokémon Detective Pikachu world (new trailer)
SNAPSHOT The story begins when ace private eye Harry Goodman goes mysteriously missing, prompting his 21-year-old son Tim to find out what happened. Aiding in the investigation is Harry’s former Pokémon partner, Detective Pikachu: a hilariously wise-cracking, adorable super-sleuth who is a puzzlement even to himself. Finding that they are Continue Reading
Saturday morning TV: The Peter Potamus Show
Launching in September 1964 as a companion program to The Magilla Gorilla Show, The Peter Potamus Show is, like many of the Hanna-Barbera animated shows, a vehicle for multiple characters to get their moment in the Saturday morning TV sun. While early promotional materials listed the program as Peter Potamus Continue Reading
Songs, songs and more songs #6: Flora Cash, Gabrielle Aplin, Laleh, Sigrid, Gena Rose Bruce
You don’t need me to tell you, but I kind of will anyway (such is the nature of the blogging beast) that life is complicated. And messy. And hard to figure out at times. Sure, you’re bright and will likely muddle your way through like we all do, but it Continue Reading
Respect is coming: Elmo urges Game of Thrones’ Tyrion and Cersei to treat each other well
SNAPSHOT Respect brings us together, and if anyone can convince Game of Thrones’s Cersei and Tyrion to get along, a familiar furry red friend might just be the one. (synopsis via Laughing Squid) Oh, the fun they must have had with this one! The latest marriage of Sesame Street, which Continue Reading
Book review: The Shining Wall by Melissa Ferguson
If you look around at any given moment, on a world of towering buildings, fast trains and everything available at the touch of a button or a quick walk into a store bursting with products, it’s tempting to think that it’s all inviolably permanent. We have enough dystopian literature around Continue Reading
HBO Backstories: Creators talk about Barry, Game of Thrones and Insecure
For many TV or streaming viewers, seeing the finished show is enough; there’s no need to peek behind the curtain and see what led to their fully-formed, and hopefully, entertaining creation. But there are those of us, and I count myself among them, who like to find out what was Continue Reading