(courtesy Rakuten Kobo) By their very nature, books set around Christmas are supposed to be extra specially magical and joyful, a sizeable step away from the grim sheen of reality, festooned with sparkling lights, awash in mulled wine and festive-coloured candy with the air filled with the expressively happy tones Continue Reading
The short and the short of it: The playfully meaningful animation of Train Project
(courtesy Homework Radio (c) Luhan Wang) What a magical world is woven in the few all-too-short minutes of Train Project, the thesis film submitted by Luhan Wang for Sheridan College Bachelor of Animation 2022. Vivaciously colourful and exhibiting near-instant but fulsome worldbuilding, this gem of an animated short film gives Continue Reading
Book review: The Librarianist by Patrick deWitt
(courtesy Bloomsbury Publishing) Is it ever too late to turn your life around? All too often we think it is, figuring far too much water has flowed under the bridge and we haven’t got a hope of diverting it or purifying it and that who we are now is whom Continue Reading
Sci-fi double: Star Trek – Lower Decks (S4, E1-2) and Invasion (S2, E3)
(courtesy IMP Awards) Star Trek Lower Decks season 4, episode 1: “Twovix”Lower Decks is back, ready to fill the Star Trek-sized hole left in our viewing hearts by the end of Strange New Worlds‘ diversely creative second season. And what a return it is. Pivoting on the love the show’s Continue Reading
Never underestimate a Dublin woman with a guitar: The transformative power of music comes to the fore in Flora and Son
(courtesy IMP Awards) SNAPSHOTSingle mom Flora (Eve Hewson) is at a loss about what to do with her rebellious teenage son, Max (Orén Kinan). Encouraged by the police to find Max a hobby, Flora tries to occupy him with a beat-up acoustic guitar. With the help of a washed-up LA Continue Reading
Songs, songs and more songs #92: Scandinavian highlights – Violet Days, Nea, Grandi, Jonathan Floyd + KIDDO x Rxseboy + new Kylie single
(via Shutterstock) I have loved Scandinavian everything. Perhaps it’s because there’s likely Swedish blood flowing in these veins from away back or perhaps it’s all that ABBA I listened to in the ’70s or the Agaton Sax books I devoured from my local library (I still can’t work out how Continue Reading
Book review: Love Match by Clare Fletcher
(courtesy Penguin Books Australia) Being your real life is not as easy as it’s cracked up to be. Sure, there is a slew of movies, books, poems, TV shows and all kinds of other media dedicated to merrily and inspiringly advancing the idea that there’s nothing better than outwardly displayed, Continue Reading
Hello civilisation! Krapopolis brings gods, humans and monsters together in a gloriously funny tale of animated proto-urbanity (with pigs)
(courtesy IMDb) SNAPSHOTSet in mythical ancient Greece, Krapopolis tells the story of a dysfunctional family of humans, gods and monsters trying to run one of the world’s first cities, while also trying their best to not kill each other in the process. The series features the voices of Emmy Award-winner Continue Reading
Rot begins at the edges, long before it reaches the heart: Foundation (S2, E6-8)
(courtesy YouTube (c) AppleTV+) Episode 6 – “Why the Gods Made Me”You get the impression that when Hari Seldon (Jared Harris) first devised his maths-based theory of psychohistory that he must have bloodlessly and impassionately put it all together, convinced that while he was saving humanity, the actual affairs and Continue Reading
Where the real world and imagination meet: Winnie-the-Pooh & the Hundred-Acre Wood
(courtesy Wikipedia) SNAPSHOTIn this video, we’ll look at the story of how Winnie-the-Pooh pays so much attention to place, and how the map of the Hundred-Acre Wood, drawn by E.H. Shepard, allows us all to visit childhood for a little while. (courtesy Laughing Squid (c) Great Maps Explained) One of Continue Reading