Good lord but there were a lot of TV shows produced this year. Somewhere 500 to 600 scripted shows hit broadcast TV and streaming, and while the initial reaction is exultation at so much choice, it’s quickly tempered by the factor that (a) a good deal of those shows are Continue Reading
Download. Play. Dance. Sing. My 20 favourite songs of 2022
I love music – all kinds and at all times. It is the literally the soundtrack to my life, making my exercise sessions more bouncy, melodic and upbeat, my commutes feel almost fun (and that takes some doing!) and those times when the world seems a little (or a lot) Continue Reading
Lost in a sea of beautiful words: My 25 favourite books of 2022
Reading has always been my happy place. My safe space too, a place of escapism and reassurance, especially when I was growing up and my days were filled with bullying and a constant sense, gleaned from some of the people at the church where my dad was a minister, that Continue Reading
I need more popcorn and candy stat! My 25 favourite films of 2022
While COVID hasn’t gone away, and is currently once again doing its best to derail Christmas, 2022 did return sufficiently to something approaching normal to allow a lot of cinema visits over the last 12 months. Suddenly catching up with friends over dinner and a movie became an almost weekly Continue Reading
Not a protagonist was stirring, not even an anthropomorphic mouse … Merry Christmas to all and to all a good pop culture night!
It’s been a crazy, busy, pandemic-y year once again but even amongst all the stress and strain and plague, my hope, as it is every year, is that this Christmas … You will not find snowy monsters with big teeth pursuing you … but if you do, you’ll have good Continue Reading
Book review: Tinsel – The Girl Who Invented Christmas by Sibéal Pounder
You would think by now that’s there not a lot of imaginative newness that can be brought to bear on the story of Santa; after all, his story is well documented, to the point of exhaustive detail, and you could rightly assume that’s all the festive mythmakers wrote. But, as Continue Reading
Book review: Christmas Island (A Very Hygge Holiday, Book 2) by Natalia Normann
If you’ve ever taken an extended overseas holiday, chances are you’ve experienced the interesting existential remove that happens when you are plucked from your everyday life and find yourself looking back at your life and into your soul in ways you simply don’t do when the priorities of the day Continue Reading
On 12th day of Christmas … I watched The Claus Family 2
As the years progress, writers are becoming ever more creative about who Santa is, what he does and yes, importantly how he does it, and what happens when he decides that he’s had enough of the toy giving game and it’s time to hand over to someone younger, more agile Continue Reading
From the imagination of Tim Burton … Thoughts on Wednesday
The Addams Family has been around a long, long time. Created by American cartoonist Charles Addams as “a satirical inversion of the American family”, the single panel New Yorker cartoons featuring the creepy and the kooky horror-full delights have remained a mainstay of social commentary throughout their long fictitiously and Continue Reading
On 11th day of Christmas … I watched A Flintstone Christmas
Santa is in peril again! For someone who can go around the world distributing presents to all the girls and boys in a single magical night, with all of the logistical mastery, tenacity and physical endurance that implies, Santa Claus sure has a way of coming a cropper at the Continue Reading