If you’re reading a romantic comedy, such as the utter delight that is The Bookish Life of Nina Hill by Abbi Waxman, you are meant to sit back happily, watch love unfold through quirky and lovingly flawed characters and wait expectantly for the inevitable happy ever after. It’s also quite Continue Reading
Simba! The Lion King gets an inspired cartoon recap
Apparently, The Lion King is a big thing. Everyone supposedly LOVES the original 1994 animated version and adores the 2019 completely unnecessary live action remake – they must do; it’s taken in over $1 billion worldwide – and so, The Lion King is close to becoming the biggest animated film Continue Reading
The surreal wonder of Phantasmagorie, the first animated cartoon
SNAPSHOTFantasmagorie is a short silent animated film created in 1908 by French caricaturist Émile Cohl that is considered the world’s first animated cartoon. The film follows the surreal adventures of a stick figure and is just over a minute in length. (synopsis (c) Laughing Squid) Where dd Mickey Mouse, Betty Continue Reading
Book review: On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous by Ocean Vuong
On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous by Ocean Vuong is a rare and special thing. A book that is so exquisitely and gorgeously well-written, that possesses such a richly-poetic and tender soul that you gasp again and again as you read its transcendantly beautiful writing and yet, which feels deeply emotionally Continue Reading
Weekend pop art: New luscious Wizard of Oz posters #Happy80th
I have read, watched and generally taken in a great of fantasy storytelling in my time. And yet for all the wondrous tales I have read, the one that sticks with me, and many others, is the one that takes me far away from the everyday while still validating the Continue Reading
Songs, songs and more songs #13: Demob Happy, TR/ST, Mabel and Jax Jones, Oliver Tree and Whethan, Zak Downtown
Feeling things deeply Feeling things deeply can be hard but it can also be amazing. For all the dark and awful feelings that weigh down the soul, there are those moments that elevate it, that send it soaring, the duality representative of life in all its contrary, messy glory. These Continue Reading
Weird promo hybrid #1: The Morning Show (TV) and Underwater (movies)
Pop culture is like a hydra, heads sprouting everywhere so often and in such profusion that finding the time and real estate on the blog to feature them all is next to near impossible. Hence, this new series which will throw two wholly different shows/books/movies/comics as a way of getting Continue Reading
Book review: Ancestral Night by Elizabeth Bear
One of the inestimable delights of plunging into a really well thought out space opera is how many incredibly fascinating observations they have to make about the human condition. That’s true of almost all science fiction to be fair, but there is something about the larger than life look (they Continue Reading
Tom and Meg Film Festival: You’ve Got Mail (retro review)
They were heady days back in the late ’90s. Back before omnipresent ads that serve you up ads for products you only thought you might want seconds earlier or Twitter became a bonfire of shouted opinions or inboxes became a stressful hallmark of cubicle serfdom, receiving an email or chatting Continue Reading
Fear the Walking Dead: “210 Words Per Minute” (S5, E10 review)
SPOILERS AHEAD … AND JELLY BEANS … AND REMOTE CONTROL CARS … AND STARLIT NIGHTS THAT AREN’T BUT ARE IN ALL THE RIGHT, LIEE-ENDING WAYS … Shopping in the zombie apocalypse is never a good idea. More specifically, shopping in the apocalypse at a mall in the zombie apocalypse a Continue Reading