(via Shutterstock) This article by by Wendy Hargreaves, academic in the School of Education and Creative Arts, University of Southern Queensland, was first published in The Conversation Australia. You can’t visit the shops around Christmas time without hearing “Feliz Navidad”, “Silent Night”, or Mariah Carey’s “All I Want for Christmas Continue Reading
Music
Songs, songs and more songs #135: girli, Em Beihold, Alex Warren, TOMORA + Jessie Ware … extra! RAYE live at Abbey Road
(via Shutterstock) We all need music. It soundtracks the good, the bad and the ugly – this reference makes way further down this pot – and it gives up hope and a sense of direction when all around us life feels like it’s sinking beneath the waves. These five featured Continue Reading
Songs, songs and more songs #134: Pattie Gonia & Imogen Heap, Qveen Herby & THOT Squad, Jacob Collier, Absolutely + Metric
(via Shutterstock) I love music … but I don’t just love any music. I want music with presence, the kind of music that strides forth with energised music, lyrics that don’t play cute and timid and produced by artists who want to say things in unforgettable ways. These five artists Continue Reading
Songs, songs and more Valentine’s Day songs #133: MIKA, Go-Jo, Harry Styles, St. Lucia + Maisie Peters
(via Shutterstock) Ain’t love grand? It is, it absolutely is, but it’s also confusing and complex and hard and wondrous and alive and dying and full of hope and crushed by loss. It’s so many things, and while it’s ultimately a good and powerful thing, it needs songs that speak Continue Reading
Songs, songs and more songs #132: Scandipop special feat. Chris Holsten, Tove Styrke, Janice, Cazzi Opeia + Agnes
(via Shutterstock) I have loved Scandinavian everything since I was kid. I was fortunate that my local country NSW library stocked the Moomins, Agaton Sax and a host of other titles and that ABBA wakened me to the emerging power and captivating creativity of Northern European pop. That love of 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
Songs, songs and more NYE songs 2025: Hurts, Aubrey Logan & David Ricard, Blair Davie, Ben Rector + Sia
(via Shutterstock) Gotta be honest – I’m a Christmas guy and once that day is done and dusted, I tend to lose interest in gthe other big event on the calendar, New Year’s Eve. I used to be more excited by it but as the years have gone by, I’ve Continue Reading
Fire up the playlists and let the music fly free: My top 25 songs of 2025 + my 8 fave clips of the year
(via Shutterstock) It’s been a weird year for me and music. I still listened to lots and lots and LOTS of it, it was still the soundtrack to all my commutes and occasional exercise outings and even short trips to the shops, and it remained the focal centre of the Continue Reading
Merry Christmas in books and movies and on streaming platforms and in song … may all your pop culture festive dreams come true
(courtesy Pinterest (c) Disney) In honour of Winnie the Pooh’s first appearance in a story by A. A. Milne and the 75th anniversary of Peanuts first cartoon, this year’s Christmas greeting centres on these two groups of characters. I have loved both of them ever since I was a child Continue Reading
On 12th day of Christmas … I added another 10 new pop culture ornaments to my tree incl. Scooby-Doo, Peanuts’ Spike, Miffy + more
(via Shutterstock) Forget decking the halls … at least for right now! With Christmas almost upon us, adding more pop culture ornaments to my tree is the order of the day, and yes, while I buy far too many new ones every year – is there such a thing? I Continue Reading