Thank goodness for animation! In a world beset an apocalyptic level set of events from the COVID pandemic to war to climate change to, likely somewhere on the planet, zombie uprisings and aliens (over the top, true, but their existence would certainly fit the dark and dismal spirit of the Continue Reading
Getting their ship together: Thoughts on Our Flag Means Death (season 1)
On the face of it, and by that we mean a highly entertaining trailer rife with gleefully appealing parodic elements, Our Flag Means Death looks like it will a highly amusing, nay ridiculously hilarious, sideways take on the classic age of piracy. And in an age when pandemic, climate change Continue Reading
Mystery, mayhem and mirth returns in season of Only Murders in the Building
SNAPSHOTAccording to Hulu, season two will see Charles, Oliver, and Mabel “race to unmask” who killed Arconia board president Bunny Folger. It won’t be easy, though. For a whole lot of reasons that are bad for them but great for viewers. They’ll deal with multiple “complications.” The group “is publicly Continue Reading
Book review: The Vanished Birds by Simon Jimenez
Every novel worth its narrative salt should have an emotional hook that ensnares your reader heart. But there’s something about the emotionally evocative wonder that is The Vanished Birds, the debut book by promising writer Simon Jimenez, that captures your heart (and mind and soul) far more deeply and irrevocably Continue Reading
Songs, songs and more songs #63: Jordan Stephens, Florence + The Machine, Dayglow, Mabel + SIGALA +++ Eurovision 2022 update!
I have just recovered from COVID. After being so careful about where I’d go and who I’d go there with, catching the disease was a massive downer, not least because it laid waste to my life, even with all those wonderful vaccinations – get vaxxed people! – but because suddenly Continue Reading
Movie review: Spider-Man: No Way Home
Unless you have been sleeping under a great big rock made of some sort of superhero-enervating material, you would have noticed that the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) likes to go big, very, VERY big. That’s hardly a surprise – it’s there in the name, after all. So, the fact that Continue Reading
Book review: The Maid by Nita Prose
People for the most part do not take kindly to those who do not seamlessly blend with the mainstream. They should because often these people offer, fresh, original perspectives sorely lacking from the usual way of viewing things, but alas, they don’t, too interested in enforcing the security of orthodoxy, Continue Reading
Destructive vengeance and constructive hope: Thoughts on Star Trek – Discovery S4 (ep. 8-13)
There seems to be a widely held perception that Star Trek: Discovery is wildly inconsistent, a newly-installed flagship series for the franchise that never quite manages to do anything remarkable. Quite why that is is open to debate – as the lead series for the new wave of multitudinous Star Continue Reading
Graphic novel review: Peanuts by Schulz – Scotland Bound, Charlie Brown by Jason Cooper & Robert Pope
Going anywhere with Charlie, Snoopy, Lucy and the gang is to feel like you are with friends. That might seem cloyingly sentimental but the truth is that if you have grown up with Charles M. Schulz’s delightful creations, all drawn from the expansively imaginative and heartfelt panels of his justly Continue Reading
Road to Eurovision 2022: Week 1 – Albania, Armenia, Austria, Bulgaria, Croatia, Denmark (semi-final 1, part 1)
What is the Eurovision Song Contest?Started way back in 1956 as a way of drawing a fractured Europe back together with the healing power of music, the Eurovision Song Contest, or Concours Eurovision de la Chanson – the contest is telecast in both English and French – is open to Continue Reading