A title like The Seven or Eight Deaths of Stella Fortuna might lead you to suspect that this remarkably-involving novel by Juliet Games is one whimsically quirky moment after another, a tale of one woman staring death in the face multiple times and somehow living to tell the tale. But Continue Reading
Fear the Walking Dead: “Is Anybody Out There?” (S5, E8 review)
SPOILERS AHEAD … RADIOACTIVE CLOUDS, LOVE SWEET LOVE AND BUSTED VENDING MACHINES RIPE FOR THE TAKING … It is a rare thing indeed to watch an hour of apocalyptic television – and by that I mean TV of an apocalyptic nature, not reality TV whose sheer banal awfulness signals the Continue Reading
The evolution of Toy Story: How its animation style has changed over the years (video essay)
SNAPSHOTFrom Toy Story through Toy Story 4, Pixar has revolutionized [sic] animation in its nearly three decades of existence. Each new movie requires new technical innovations. Monster’s Inc. helped them create fur, Ratatouille helped them create wet fur, and Finding Dory led them to create an octopus from scratch. In Continue Reading
Movie review: A White, White Day (Hvítur, hvítur dagur) #SCA19
Much as we like to corral messy things like grief into tidy boxes and easily-understood processes, the reality is that it’s a contrary beast that pays no heed to any one’s idea of what it should be or how it should play out. How grief transpires for one person is Continue Reading
5 big, fun #SDCC TV trailers: Picard, Snowpiercer, Family Guy, The Witcher, Carnival Row
San Diego Comic Con is big, REALLY BIG. The just-concluded massive pop culture-a-thon is the must-be place to see and hear all the latest news and trailers about your favourite TV shows and soon to be favourite TV shows, and movies coming down the pipe. Given its gignatuan size and Continue Reading
Book review: Waste Tide by Chen Qiufan
Humanity, well most of us anyway, like to think of ourselves as a laudably progressive lot, constantly pushing up living standards, lengthening lifespans and generally behaving ever more like the inclusive, caring, beautiful people we like to think we are. But as Chen Qiufan’s magnetically-readable novel, Waste Tide (translated by Continue Reading
Comics review: Coda (TP issues 1 & 2)
There’s something gloriously enlivening and bracing about come across a story that is a breathlessly good take on something reasonably hackneyed and overdone; in this case, the apocalypse. No matter or what you slice it with – be it zombies, aliens, epidemics, sterility or any one of a thousand other Continue Reading
Stranger Things’ Hopper as Magnum P.I.? Yes, please and thank you
Stranger Things 3 is the current undisputed watercooler king of Netflix. Attracting a record 40 million Netflix account views, the show has a lot going for it, including one Sheriff Hopper (David Harbour) who, once again, when he’s trying to stop his daughter Jane/Eleven/El (Milly Bobby Brown) and Mike (Finn Continue Reading
Christmas in July … listening to Christmas With Friends by india.arie and Joe Sample
If Christmas ever gave you a great big gorgeous warm and fuzzy chestnuts roasting over an open fire Family all around you hug, it would sound a lot like India Arie’s Christmas album, Christmas With Friends. Released in 2015, this is a lush, masterfully-arranged album thta captures the intangible sound Continue Reading
Christmas in July adventures: Prep & Landing / Prep & Landing: Naughty vs. Nice (review)
One of the great mysteries of our time, or any time really, is how Santa manages to get to every boy and boy in the world in just one night on Christmas Eve. Granted, thanks to time differences, he has more than the average 8-9 hours to get the job Continue Reading