Belonging somewhere or with someone, or a group of someones preferably since community is integral to the human condition, cuts to the core of what it means to be alive. We all know those sage observances about no one being an island and it taking a village to raise someone, Continue Reading
Boldly going animatedly towards … Thoughts on Star Trek: Lower Decks season 3
Star Trek is by and large, occasional episodes of whimsy aside, very serious science fiction. Predicated on the laudably idealistic premise that humanity, some centuries hence, has finally got its collective sh*t together and ventured into the stars where it has associated with likeminded alien species in a bravely enduring Continue Reading
A tiny ton of tantalising streaming trailers: Carnival Row (S2), The Mandalorian (S3), Hello Tomorrow!, Shrinking and The Reluctant Traveler
It was but a week ago that I remarked once again in how we are all drowning in a seas of wondrously good content. It’s definitely a first world problem and one that is luxuriously good to have but such is the vast sum of streaming shows on their way Continue Reading
Book review: Moths by Jane Hennigan
Copy for review provided by Angry Robot Books via NetGalley – publication due 14 March 2023. Humanity is balanced on a razor-thin knife edge. We may not always, or often, think so as we rush from train to work to lunch to evening function and on and on, but the Continue Reading
When you’re lost in the darkness … Thoughts on The Last of Us episode 1
One of the most jarring impacts of the last three years of the COVID pandemic has been the shaking to the core of the once cosy sense we all shared that civilisation with all the trimmings is inviolable, unbreakable and that it can withstand and endure anything. Granted, the world Continue Reading
Book review: Beach Read by Emily Henry
When the rubber hits the road in life, it’s hard, if not damn near impossible, to believe that any of the mess and damage can be fixed. Especially by love, which, if you go with the popularly romantic notion that it’s gooey, soft and ephemerally nice, is barely able to Continue Reading
It’s not as far as a long time ago but it’s a way back even so: Andor re-imagined as a ’70s TV movie promo
SNAPSHOTAnd now, we bring you tonight’s TV movie premiere. Get ready to travel to a far away galaxy that existed a long, long time ago. It’s the science fiction spectacular…ANDOR. Every Thursday night, only on ABC. (via Laughing Squid (c) Auralnauts) Let’s be clear from the start – Andor is Continue Reading
Movie review: Roald Dahl’s Matilda the Musical
There’s something enormously energising about watching a thoroughly in-love-with-life musical. For a few brief hours, you are taken from a world in which disappointments are legion, pain is manifest and hope, joy and justice must fight for limited space, into one where things may look bleak for a time but Continue Reading
Book review: The Seven Skins of Esther Wilding by Holly Ringland
If you have ever felt the full and unyielding grip of grief, you will be all too well acquainted with how impenetrably tight and suffocating it can feel. When it has its hold upon you, it becomes near impossible to imagine what it would like to be free from it; Continue Reading
A ton of tantalising streaming trailers: Foundation (S2), That ’90s Show, The Ark, Poker Face, Night Court and The Last of Us
Another year, another slew of TV/streaming options to dazzle, entertain and yes, overwhelm. That’s both the blessing and the cursing of the current digital tsunami of content – a lot of it is very good and you want to watch it all but finding the time is a huge challenge. Continue Reading