Life is bleak right now in lots of ways. But it hasn’t completely ground to a halt and we are still loving and laughing, living and hoping and trying to figure all the weird and contrary ups and downs of being alive. These five artists, who admittedly recorded and released Continue Reading
Book review: Would Like to Meet by Rachel Winters
There is a glorious sense of feel good wonder that comes with the very best romantic comedies. It’s that innate sense that, all indications to the contrary, and let’s face it, at the moment COVID-19 is the reigning bestial monarch of those contrary indications, life is marked with transcendent romantic Continue Reading
Let’s read with … Dolly Parton? COVID-19 hasn’t stopped storytime …
If you were pick anyone to sit snug as a bug in a bed in their pajamas and read a picture book to you, the odds are good surely that you would pick someone as wonderful as Dolly Parton. She’s bright, smart, effervescently lovely and has the perfect sing-song cadence Continue Reading
Romance on an hilarious repetitive loop: Love. Wedding. Repeat.
SNAPSHOTIn this innovative romantic comedy about the power of chance, alternate versions of the same wedding unfold as Jack (Sam Claflin) tries to make sure his little sister has the perfect wedding day. But he’ll have to juggle an angry ex-girlfriend, an uninvited guest with a secret, a misplaced sleep Continue Reading
COVID-19 retro movie festival: Eagle Vs. Shark #MovieReview
With COVID-19 cutting a swathe through just about everything worldwide, it’s no surprise that cinema is being as affected as anything else. In just one day, one of my favourite cinema chains temporarily closed, the Sydney Film Festival was cancelled, the French Film Festival was postponed and my other favourite Continue Reading
Book review: The City We Became by N. K. Jemisin
In 1993, ABBA released a song by way of More ABBA Gold that they first recorded in 1982 – “I Am the City” gave a persona to the urban conurbations most people now live in and replete with a pounding, upbeat insistent beat and penetrating lyrics, it felt like the Continue Reading
It’s okay to cry Marge and Tina: Tim Brooke-Taylor (The Goodies) dies of COVID-19
It is always desperately sad to learn of the death of a performer who formed such an essential part of your childhood. The death of Tim Brooke-Taylor, one third of the legendary 1970s British comedy act The Goodies, from COVID-19 is a body blow, coming far too close to that Continue Reading
Easter festival 2020: Bugs Bunny’s Easter Funnies
SNAPSHOTThe Easter bunny is ill, Granny needs to find a replacement for him and suggests Bugs Bunny. When she reaches the Warner Bros. lot, she finds to her disappointment that Bugs is tied up in filming Knighty Knight Bugs but offers to work out a solution after filming wraps up. Meanwhile, Daffy Duck, partially overhearing the Continue Reading
Book review: The Year Without Summer by Guinevere Glasfurd
History tends to be remembered by most of us in big broad brushstroke terms. We can rattle off dates and times, impressive statistics and jaw-dropping moments but if pressed, we are usually unable to talk about this or that epoch-defining event affected the people who lived through it. Fortunately we Continue Reading
Road to Eurovision 2020: Week 2 – Ireland, Israel, Lithuania, Malta, North Macedonia, Norway
This is normally how I begin these review posts … 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 Continue Reading