January 1, 2026 – SparklyPrettyBriiiight

(courtesy Secret Garden Press) The idea that you can reinvent yourself if you just find the right inciting incident is a seductive one. It defies the idea that who we are at any one point in time is the only person we will ever be, and encourages us to dream Continue Reading

It’s time to raise the curtain again … trailer lands for The Muppet Show 2026 special

(courtesy IMP Awards) SNAPSHOTIt’s time to raise the curtain on The Muppet Show, a highly-anticipated special event with a special guest star and Executive Producer and guest star Seth Rogen. Kermit, Miss Piggy and the beloved Muppet gang are back with a brand-new special event. Music, comedy, and a whole Continue Reading

Book review: Café Puccini by Tony Matthews

This book was read at Kalimna, Yeranda cottages, near Dungog in early January 2026. If we’re honest, most of us live in fairly ordinary, decidedly unexciting cities or towns where everyone is as reasonably straight down the line as you can expect the contrarily idiosyncratic human race to be. They Continue Reading

Step into your future: Thoughts on Star Trek: Starfleet Academy S1, E1-3

(courtesy IMP Awards) There’s a peculiar thing that happens to some people when they love something for a long time. It doesn’t matter if it’s a religion, a food or, as is pertinent here, a TV franchise, what was once fresh, exciting and new for them, a place to explore Continue Reading

Book review: Outlaw Planet by M. R. Carey

What an extraordinary story. As you reach the end of Outlaw Planet by M. R. Carey, one of the finest contemporary voices working in science fiction and fantasy, you will be consumed by the idea that here is one of the very best and most human stories you have ever Continue Reading

Songs, songs and more songs #131: A Thousand Mad Things, Haute & Freddy, The Anahit, Robyn and Hatchie

(via Shutterstock) I love disappearing down rabbit holes. Not actual rabbit holes, of course; that’s best left to the family Laporidae I think; rather, the digital version where one discovery leads to another leads to another, usually on YouTube for me where so many songs and trailers and clips await. Continue Reading

Book review: Run for the Hills by Kevin Wilson

This book was read at Kalimna, Yeranda cottages, near Dungog in early January 2026. At first glance, a novel premised on the idea that one man, moving across America over some decades, managed to start, and crucially, abandon, four families, who then seek to unite many years later via a Continue Reading

Comic strip review: Unsupervised: A Crabgrass Comics Adventure by Tauhid Bondia

This book was read at Kalimna, Yeranda cottages, near Dungog in early January 2026. Ah, the carefree joys and fun of childhood. As adults, we all look back to that time of our life, or we are supposed, with a wistful, sigh-laced nostalgia, having lost all of the playfulness and Continue Reading

Journey to Laika’s Wildwood where magic takes flight

(courtesy Laika Studios) SNAPSHOTStep inside Laika’s Wildwood, where a powerful golden eagle commands the skies and magic takes flight. Wildwood – based on Colin Meloy’s illustrated book series – will see Prue McKeel leave behind her home of Portland, Oregon, venturing into Wildwood on a dark quest to save her Continue Reading

Book review: Bookish by Matthew Sweet

This book was read at Kalimna, Yeranda cottages, near Dungog in early January 2026. In the usual course of pop culture back and forth, a TV or streaming show would be watched in that medium, and then, the eager viewer would turn, if they were so inclined, to the book Continue Reading

Movie review: Rental Family

(courtesy IMP Awards) People are not very good at bring authentic. We talk a big name about laying your heart on the line or wearing it on your sleeve, and to be fair sizeable number of people do just that, but by and large, many of us play pretend about Continue Reading