We are within 40 days of Christmas, and while I love this season far more than any other – the tinsel tattoos are a giveaway (I don’t really have them but I should) – it can get ridiculously busy. Manically, hectically, crazily, brain-numbingly, soul-sappingly BUSY. The best antidote? Some chilled Continue Reading
Music
Songs, songs and more songs #18: Overcoats, Grimes & i_o, MUNA, girl in red, Opus Orange + Eurovision update
Music is good for the soul. Especially, truthful music that combines catchy melodies with lyrics that say something richly meaningful. Never has this been more apparent to me than when a loved one, especially a parent dies or is close to death – my mother is dying of ovarian cancer Continue Reading
I ain’t afraid of no Ghostbusters #Halloween light display!
Who ya gonna call?! If you’ve got ghosts, it’s no contest but if you want a brilliantly-calibrated, all-in immersive light display, give a shout out to Tom BetGeorge of Magical Light Shows who decorates his home in Tracy, California every year in absolutely spectacular fashion. He’s assembled a chorus of Continue Reading
Songs, songs and more songs #17: FKA Twigs, BANKS, Oh Wonder, Charlie XCX, Snow Patrol
Take off your shoes. Sit a spell. Kick back and let your mind wander to things big and small. Or if you’re the five artists featured in this week’s post, ponder the many and varied ways life happens to us and how beautifully and profoundly they can be expressed. Whether Continue Reading
Songs, songs and more songs #16: Dizzy Fae, DUCKWRTH, Soaky Siren, Dillon Francis, Bombay Bicycle Club + Eurovision 2020 update
Great songs are often, though not always, a beguiling mix of insightful, meaningful lyrics and a great supremely-catchy melody. All five of the songs in this week’s post fit the bill and then some, reflecting the fact that while you can capture ears easily enough with an irresistible melody, capturing Continue Reading
Songs, songs and more songs #15: Aisle, Jhay Cortez + KAROL G + Haze, Estherlivia, Whosah, Haute + Eurovision 2020 host city
We’re zipping around the world with this instalment of Songs, songs and more songs, racing from Denmark to Puerto Rico and Colombia back to Sweden before touching down in the USA and then France. Some serious figurative frequent flier miles clocking up there. One thing that becomes clear with all Continue Reading
Weekend pop art: Aligned with the Sleeveface project
SNAPSHOTSleeveface is an amusing participatory photo project in which people from all over the world strategically pose with matching album covers, creating the illusion that the original picture is complete. The photos bring the inert photo to life, much in the same way that has been done with books and Continue Reading
Songs, songs and more songs #14: DIIV, Blood Orange, KONGOS, The 1975, Bat For Lashes + most iconic Eurovision opening acts
Distinctive musical artists are such a joy. Standing apart from the crowd, and possessed of a sensibility that doesn’t march in lockstep with the unthinking mainstream, they offer incisive thoughtful insights, interesting melodies and a sense of uniqueness that makes their songs truly something to savour. These five artists epitomise Continue Reading
Songs, songs and more songs #13: Demob Happy, TR/ST, Mabel and Jax Jones, Oliver Tree and Whethan, Zak Downtown
Feeling things deeply Feeling things deeply can be hard but it can also be amazing. For all the dark and awful feelings that weigh down the soul, there are those moments that elevate it, that send it soaring, the duality representative of life in all its contrary, messy glory. These Continue Reading
Songs, songs and more songs #12: Avicii, Agnes, Lil Nas X, bülow, Au/Ra + Eurovision 2020 update
If you’re paying attention, and not everyone does, life has some pretty big lessons to teach us. Whether it’s stepping away from the manic fray when you’re existentially on the edge or wanting to let loose but not sure now is the time to do it because of the people Continue Reading