Skip to content

SparklyPrettyBriiiight

Andrew's wonderful world of pop culture

A very Peanuts New Year’s Eve: Snoopy Presents For Auld Lang Syne

Posted on December 31, 2021December 31, 2021 by aussiemoose

Coming up to the start of a brand new year is always fraught with expectation, and yes, that seems to hold true even for Charles M. Schulz’s wonderful creations in his immortally iconic comic strip Peanuts. Even 21 years after its creator’s death, Peanuts holds a place close to many Continue Reading

Posted In Animation, Streaming, TVTagged In Peanuts

Movie review: Don’t Look Up

Posted on December 30, 2021December 30, 2021 by aussiemoose

Humans, as a species, are a happily delusional lot. While we are fiercely intelligent (for the most part: COVID may challenge that notion among certain segments of the population) and capable of successfully tackling anything we put our mind to – we didn’t climb to the top of the evolutionary Continue Reading

Posted In Movies

I need more popcorn and candy stat! My 25 favourite films of 2021

Posted on December 30, 2021April 3, 2023 by aussiemoose

This year was a highly unusual year. I finally started going back to the movies in something approaching normal fashion, and while the choices were a little limited with a lot of the big tentpoles titles such as No Time to Die, The French Despatch and Ghosterbusters: Afterlife all being Continue Reading

Posted In Movies

Book review: Fin & Rye & Fireflies by Harry Cook

Posted on December 29, 2021December 29, 2021 by aussiemoose

It will hardly come as a surprise to anyone that we live in an infamously intolerant world (except of course to the intolerant themselves who simply see themselves as upholding all manner of decency, truth etc etc). If you are an outlier of any kind to the scarily homogenous cisgender Continue Reading

Posted In Books

Download. Play. Dance. Sing. My 25 favourite songs of 2021

Posted on December 29, 2021December 29, 2021 by aussiemoose

Thank the glitter-splattered moose in the sky (my deity of choice) for music. While I didn’t need an amazing soundtrack to cushion the harshness of a long train commute, it was pivotal to my morning exercise routine which, as the only time I was allowed out during COVID, became incredibly Continue Reading

Posted In Music

Movie review: Encanto

Posted on December 28, 2021December 28, 2021 by aussiemoose

There was once a time, not all that long ago, when grief was treated as a linear, open-and-shut case, something that struck you, affected you and then left you alone to rebuild your life. That view of grief was simplistic at best, and as we’ve grown in our understanding of Continue Reading

Posted In Animation, Movies

Lost in a sea of beautiful words: My 25 favourite books of 2021

Posted on December 28, 2021December 27, 2021 by aussiemoose

I have always found books to be the most perfect of escapes. When I was a kid and into my teenage years, they helped me to screen out the bullies, who were damn near omnipresent in life and escape to all kinds of magical, wonderful places, and as an adult Continue Reading

Posted In Books

Book review: The Annual Migration of Clouds by Premee Mohamed

Posted on December 27, 2021December 27, 2021 by aussiemoose

As the COVID pandemic sweeps across the world again and again and again, it’s all too easy to feel like this is the end of the world. It isn’t, of course, well not yet anyway (and we can only hope that science and the dedication of an expansive cohort of Continue Reading

Posted In Books

Small screen, big stories, much bingeing: My 25 favourite TV shows of 2021

Posted on December 27, 2021December 27, 2021 by aussiemoose

2021 has been a very long year. Now, those of you of a more pedantic bent might casually respond that it had 365 days, just like any other year (except those delightful leap years which the Gregorian calendar throws in every four years just to keep us on our timekeeping Continue Reading

Posted In Streaming, TV

#Christmas movie review: A Boy Called Christmas

Posted on December 25, 2021December 31, 2021 by aussiemoose

As origin stories go, the one that belongs to Santa Claus is a doozy. Drawn from a host of different European traditions, embellished by one Charles Dickens in the nineteenth century and prettied up with fetching red and a convivial air courtesy of a soda maker in the 20th, Santa Continue Reading

Posted In Books, MoviesTagged In Christmas 2021

Posts pagination

1 2 … 5 Next

Recent Posts

  • Book review: Ancestral Night by Elizabeth Bear
  • Movie review: The Quiet Maid (Calladita)
  • Book review: The Dead Friend Project by Joanna Wallace
  • Why are the aliens here? Teaser trailer for Invasion S3 suggests someone has figured it out
  • During Christmas in July, I decorated my tree with 5 new pop culture ornaments

Recent Comments

  • aussiemoose on Book review: The Second Sight of Zachary Cloudesley by Sean Lusk
  • Sean Lusk on Book review: The Second Sight of Zachary Cloudesley by Sean Lusk
  • aussiemoose on Movie review: Thor – Love and Thunder
  • Carla Krae on Movie review: Thor – Love and Thunder
  • Daryl Devore on On a scale of one to ten, how would you rate your pain? Thoughts on Baymax!

Archives

  • July 2025
  • June 2025
  • May 2025
  • April 2025
  • March 2025
  • February 2025
  • January 2025
  • December 2024
  • November 2024
  • October 2024
  • September 2024
  • August 2024
  • July 2024
  • June 2024
  • May 2024
  • April 2024
  • March 2024
  • February 2024
  • January 2024
  • December 2023
  • November 2023
  • October 2023
  • September 2023
  • August 2023
  • July 2023
  • June 2023
  • May 2023
  • April 2023
  • March 2023
  • February 2023
  • January 2023
  • December 2022
  • November 2022
  • October 2022
  • September 2022
  • August 2022
  • July 2022
  • June 2022
  • May 2022
  • April 2022
  • March 2022
  • February 2022
  • January 2022
  • December 2021
  • November 2021
  • October 2021
  • September 2021
  • August 2021
  • July 2021
  • June 2021
  • May 2021
  • April 2021
  • March 2021
  • February 2021
  • January 2021
  • December 2020
  • November 2020
  • October 2020
  • September 2020
  • August 2020
  • July 2020
  • June 2020
  • May 2020
  • April 2020
  • March 2020
  • February 2020
  • January 2020
  • December 2019
  • November 2019
  • October 2019
  • September 2019
  • August 2019
  • July 2019
  • June 2019
  • May 2019
  • April 2019
  • March 2019
  • February 2019
  • January 2019
  • December 2018
  • November 2018
  • October 2018
  • September 2018
  • August 2018
  • July 2018
  • June 2018
  • May 2018
  • April 2018
  • March 2018
  • February 2018
  • January 2018
  • December 2017
  • November 2017
  • October 2017
  • September 2017
  • August 2017
  • July 2017
  • June 2017
  • May 2017
  • April 2017
  • March 2017
  • February 2017
  • January 2017
  • December 2016
  • November 2016
  • October 2016
  • September 2016
  • August 2016
  • July 2016
  • June 2016
  • May 2016
  • April 2016
  • March 2016
  • February 2016
  • January 2016
  • December 2015
  • November 2015
  • October 2015
  • September 2015
  • August 2015
  • July 2015
  • June 2015
  • May 2015
  • April 2015
  • March 2015
  • February 2015
  • January 2015
  • December 2014
  • November 2014
  • October 2014
  • September 2014
  • August 2014
  • July 2014
  • June 2014
  • May 2014
  • April 2014
  • March 2014
  • February 2014
  • January 2014
  • December 2013
  • November 2013
  • October 2013
  • September 2013
  • August 2013
  • July 2013
  • June 2013
  • May 2013
  • April 2013
  • March 2013
  • February 2013
  • January 2013
  • December 2012
  • November 2012
  • October 2012
  • September 2012
  • August 2012
  • July 2012
  • June 2012
  • May 2012
  • April 2012
  • March 2012
  • February 2012
  • January 2012
  • December 2011
  • November 2011
  • October 2011
  • September 2011
  • August 2011
  • July 2011
  • June 2011
  • May 2011
  • April 2011
  • February 2011
  • January 2011
  • December 2010

RSS SparklyPrettyBriiiight

  • Book review: Ancestral Night by Elizabeth Bear
    (courtesy Hachette Australia) Any good book worth its narrative, world-building salt should be able to hold immersively entranced through every page and exciting twist-and-turn. But some books are created more equal than others in this regard, and Ancestral Night by Elizabeth Bear, the first book in her White Space series, Continue Reading
  • Movie review: The Quiet Maid (Calladita)
    (courtesy IMDb) This may be news to the producers of many a Hollywood blockbuster – this reviewer loves many of them but subtle they are not – but there is real power in telling an emotionally impactful story quietly. While the temptation, especially in our cliffhanger-addicted, streaming algorithm modern digital Continue Reading
  • Book review: The Dead Friend Project by Joanna Wallace
    (courtesy Allen & Unwin Book Publishers) Books that subvert expectations are quite possibly the very best kind. When you first pick up The Dead Friend Project by Joanna Wallace, you might be struck by the quirkiness of the titlenand even the taglines on the front cover and atop the back Continue Reading
  • Why are the aliens here? Teaser trailer for Invasion S3 suggests someone has figured it out
    (courtesy YouTube (c) AppleTV+) SNAPSHOTInvasion follows an alien invasion through different perspectives around the world. In Season 3, those perspectives collide for the first time, as all the main characters are brought together to work as a team on a critical mission to infiltrate the alien mothership. The ultimate apex aliens have Continue Reading
  • During Christmas in July, I decorated my tree with 5 new pop culture ornaments
    (via Shutterstock) Somewhere around five years ago, with Christmas in July gathering in popularity all the time, I decided that I would use the white tree originally bought to display Easter ornaments, to display some Christmas ornaments during the cold winter months in Australia. The wins were many – we Continue Reading
  • This Christmas in July … I read Confessions of a Christmasaholic by Joss Wood
    (courtesy Harper Collins Publishers Australia) Christmas romantic comedies aren’t generally the time of stories to break the genre mold. And that’s perfectly okay because what you want, I would in fact argue, you need, from these types of tales is that everything that is broken can be fixed, that the Continue Reading
  • Take a big swing: Thoughts on Stick (S1, E1-5)
    (courtesy IMP Awards) Ostensibly, Stick is all about golf. Watch the trailer and even dive into the first five episodes and you will come across many discussions about why golf matters, how to play it well and what it means to the soul as well as the body. But, and Continue Reading
  • He’s gone too far! Trailer releases for a feisty and fun Cat in the Hat movie
    (courtesy IMP Awards) SNAPSHOT“Today is going to be THE. BEST. DAY. EVER!” Meet the Cat in the Hat you don’t know! In the whimsical tradition of Dr. Seuss, The Cat in the Hat comes to the big screen in his animated theatrical feature film debut, an all-new, epic adventure with Continue Reading
  • One last roll of the planetary dice … Project Hail Mary releases its first gripping trailer
    (courtesy IMP Awards) SNAPSHOTAstronaut Ryland Grace (Ryan Gosling) awakens with no memory of himself or his mission. He deduces he is the sole survivor of a crew sent to the Tau Ceti solar system in search of a solution to a catastrophic event on Earth. In his search for answers, Grace must Continue Reading
  • Book review: Rise and Shine by Kimberley Allsopp
    (courtesy Harper Collins Publishers Australia) There’s a popularly-held very binary dynamic at work when it comes to love stories. You’re either falling wildly and hopelessly in love with nothing but wine and roses and sunshine through dew drop eyes ahead of you … OR … you have reached the end Continue Reading
Copyright All rights reserved | Theme: Flash Blog by Unitedtheme.