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
Book review: The Cat Who Saved Books by Sosuke Natsukawa
If you have been an avid reader like this reviewer, you will know deep inside yourself that books are rare and precious things capable of illumination, escapism, companionship and real empathy and warmth. They matter and they speak to us because they are, by and large, created by people who Continue Reading
Movie review: The Adam Project
One of the very worst things you can call any story is “derivative”, a casually poisonous accusation that inevitably coats the object of the derision in colours both inspired and cliched. But as with anything, it’s not the fact that the cliches and tropes are there in abundance that is Continue Reading
Graphic novel review: Specter Inspectors by Bowen McCurdy and Kaitlyn Musto
Here’s to stories that wonderfully defy expectations! While the media release for Specter Inspectors clearly quotes co-creator Bowen McCurdy describing this delightfully scary but heartwarming five-part tale of the supernatural as one featuring “queer characters on adventures, ghosts, romance, and only a handful of demons”, this reviewer somehow ordered it Continue Reading
Book review: The Keepers by Al Campbell
We wield the phrase “the weight of the world on their shoulders” about someone struggling with a great burden in terms both hushed and reverent, and often, sorrowfully pitying. Drawn from the Greek mythological tale about Zeus and Atlas, the latter whom carries the literal world on his enormous but Continue Reading
Three tantalising TV trailers: Fear the Walking Dead (7B), Parallels + Derry Girls (s3)
My viewing habits are nothing if not eclectic! For proof, I give you this post, exhibit A which features zombies, supernatural teens and wisecracking coming-of-age Northern Irish friends – each series completely and utterly different and inherently, wonderfully watchable. As I type this, I am holed up in my partner Continue Reading
A second go on the digital life merry-go-round: Thoughts on Upload (season 2)
Paradise is, by its very definition, supposed to be a place of perfect happiness and contentment where the flaws and brokenness of the real world find sweet, endlessly fulfilling resolution. But as Greg Daniel’s (The Office, Parks and Recreation) newest comedic creation Upload makes thoughtfully, if humourously clear, in its Continue Reading
Movie review: Turning Red
You would think that, given the chaotic, messy make-up of human nature in general, that as a species, we’d been reasonably au fait by now with the idea that who we are, what we do, and the society we create, won’t always fit into neat and tidy boxes. But … Continue Reading
Book review: The Sleepless by Victor Manibo
ARC courtesy Erewhon Books via NetGalley – The Sleepless releases 2 August 2022. It’s safe to say that in the third year of the COVID-19 pandemic people understand all too well how disruptive these kinds of events can be. No longer solely an artefact of post-World War One history, pandemics Continue Reading
Survival is insufficient: Thoughts on Station Eleven
You have to hand it to anyone who adapts a beloved book into a TV series. On the one hand, it’s a sensible move since some of the best storytelling around comes from authors who pour themselves and their stories into immersive, compelling reads; however, many readers, like fandom across Continue Reading