(courtesy Hachette Australia) Falling in love is sweet in a million different wonderful ways. But how much sweeter, especially if you’re a book lover, is it when it all happens against a backdrop of a bookstore, and concerns said owner of that literary retail establishment and a hunky writer who, Continue Reading
“Look alive, foolish mortals!” First full-length ghostly trailer releases for Haunted Mansion
(courtesy IMP Awards) SNAPSHOTInspired by the classic theme park attraction, Disney’s Haunted Mansion is about a woman and her son who enlist a motley crew of so-called spiritual experts to help rid their home of supernatural squatters. Disney’s Haunted Mansion movie is directed by the American filmmaker Justin Simien, director Continue Reading
Put your platform shoes away and get up from the stage: The Eurovision Song Contest wraps up for another year “united by music”
(courtesy Eurovision.tv / Corinne Cumming / EBU) What another amazing year of musical togetherness! With the Eurovision Song Contest have run its unifying course for another year, and Sweden having been crowned the winner with Loreen becoming the first woman with her atmospheric song “Tattoo” to win the contest in Continue Reading
“It’s time Empire had a reckoning.” Foundation debuts epic season 2 trailer
(courtesy IMP Awards) SNAPSHOTBased on the award-winning sci-fi novels by Isaac Asimov, Foundation chronicles a band of exiles on their monumental journey to save humanity and rebuild civilization amid the fall of the Galactic Empire. The premise of the stories is that, in the waning days of a future Galactic Empire, the Continue Reading
Back to Greece! Fun trailer drops for My Big Fat Greek Wedding 3
(courtesy YouTube) SNAPSHOTOur favorite Big Fat Greek Family is back – again. From writer and director Nia Vardalos, the worldwide phenomenon My Big Fat Greek Wedding is coming back to theaters with a brand-new adventure. Join the Portokalos family as they travel to a family reunion in Greece for a Continue Reading
Eurovision 2023: why the stage itself is the silent star of the contest (curated article)
(The stage of the 67th annual Eurovision Song Contest at the M&S Bank Arena in Liverpool. Adam Vaughan/EPA Images) This week, Liverpool stages one of the world’s largest live televised events, the Eurovision Song Contest. I grew up watching it as an annual family get-together. Now, as a lecturer in Continue Reading
#Eurovision cultural festival 2023 book review: Grey Bees by Andrey Kurkov
War, it almost goes without saying but it likely still needs to be said given the plethora of present horrific conflicts around the world, is a horrifically terrible thing to live through. But what is it like to live war-adjacent? This disorientingly strange limbo of normal is affectingly explored in Continue Reading
How to win Eurovision: the secret code of the contest’s winning lyrics (curated article)
(The Eurovision Song Contest stage. Review News/Shutterstock) The Eurovision Song Contest is one of the few remaining examples of event TV – and UK audiences lap it up. With 8.9 million viewers in 2022, Britain formed the largest audience of all Eurovision markets. And this time around, there’s even a Continue Reading
#Eurovision cultural festival 2023 UK movie review: Limbo
Severing someone’s connection to time and place, to the world which makes and sustains them is a catastrophic act that understandable generates a cascading wall of trauma that never really abates, unless, of course, by some compassionately selfless act, they are given the opportunity to reconnect in some other meaningful Continue Reading
UPCOMING READS: The apocalyptically toxic world of Battery Life by Brennan Gilpatrick and Gregory Lang
(courtesy Gizmodo / image (c) Blackstone Publishing) SNAPSHOTWelcome to the Junkyard, a toxic wasteland where humans, machines, and everything in between fight for survival among the ruins of a long-forgotten war. This is where Diane Three-One-Seven finds herself after the arkship Cradle—the only home she’s ever known—falls out of the Continue Reading