Around about the time that the world marked The International Angela Lansbury Appreciation Day, a delightful video emerged of the multi-talented and endlessly effervescent Angela Lansbury performing the theme from Beauty and the Beast as its 25th anniversary screening. This gala event, whch also featured the actors who played Continue Reading
Music
Now this is music #77: LEISURE, Sleigh Bells, Magic City Hippies, merk, Opia
Fridays are the gateway to the weekends of the soul. OK they’re also literal weekends too but as they say, and they know things they do, all work and no play leaves makes Jack and Jill a dull couple of people, and you need those days to regroup and Continue Reading
From Bowie to Bieber: The under-appreciated art of the music video (curated article)
The spectacular release of Beyoncé’s visual album Lemonade earlier this year, and the critical response to it, has fleetingly put the music video in the spotlight. For a ubiquitous and influential art form, music videos tend to be easily dismissed and under-analysed, which means it took something as extreme Continue Reading
Just dance! TV show characters get their groove on in Timberlake mashup
A deftly executed mashup is a viral thing of great joy and so it is with the latest superlative effort from What’s the Mashup? which blends dance footage from 75 television shows ranging from Friends to Sponge Bob Square Pants, Mr. Bean to Happy Days and The Simpsons to Continue Reading
Now this is music #76: KUOSA, Polographia, DENM, Petite Meller, Death Team
The theme this week is quirky and a little bit different. That’s not the same as not having something worthwhile to say which is often what quirky is unfortunately conflated with; rather these are serious songs from artists who have thrown something out of the ordinary into their musical Continue Reading
CLIP ME! “Tilted” by Christine and the Queens
It’s a rare thing as you get older – not too old thank you, just older – when the first blush of musical discovery that so defines your teens has dissipated and you either only listen to the music of those turbulent years or use them as a stepping Continue Reading
Now this is music #75: The Lemon Twigs, Mwansa, Crystal Castles, LEAGUES, Middle Kids
Slowing things does a lot of good for the soul. It allows you time to think, to ponder … to feel. And to listen to music by fine, thoughtful artists who know it’s not enough to simply sound wonderful, though they do, but that you also need to speak Continue Reading
Yes I can! Channel 4’s inspiring ad celebrating the athletes of 2016 Paralympics
The Olympics is an impressive display of sporting prowess in anyone’s language. But while I enjoy the daring exploits of Usain Bolt and Michael Phelps, even more impressive for me are the achievements of the athletes who compete in the Paralympics every four years. They are superhumans in every Continue Reading
Now this is music: Songs from The Blacklist #2 (season 3)
The Blacklist is one of those shows that seemed to spring forth fully-formed when it premiered on NBC on 23 September 2013. Possessed of an intriguing premise – one of the world’s most wanted criminals, Raymond “Red” Reddington, played with uncompromising joie de vivre and glee by James Spader, Continue Reading
Everybody wants to rule the world: Gloriously good Game of Thrones montage video
It’s no secret, not after countless books by George R. R. Martin and six seasons of HBO’s watercooler-stomping megahit TV show, that everybody, and I mean everybody, wants to rule to rule the world. Or in this case, sit upon the Iron Throne and look out upon the Seven Continue Reading