SNAPSHOTMost families experience drama from time to time. But aliens don’t usually play a part in said drama. That is not the case in Mike Chen’s Light Years from Home. The upcoming novel combines space opera vibes with family feelings. Fifteen years ago, Jakob Shao and his father disappeared during Continue Reading
Are marshmallows for bouncing or eating? Lucas the Spider finds out in “Fun with Findley”
SNAPSHOTThat’s so Findley! Lucas is so excited for you to meet his friend Findley the Fly™ who loves to laugh, eat, and play with Lucas in his new show for the whole family on Cartoonito coming to Cartoon Network THIS FALL! (synopsis via YouTube (c) Cartoon Network) It’s a debate Continue Reading
Book review: Loving Lizzie March by Susannah Hardy
Ah, the pursuit of love! If we all lived inside sparklingly quirky romantic comedies, and let’s face it the food, parking and occupational opportunities are unparalleled, then falling in love seems to be a simple matter of a whimsical meet-cute, a few further random but serendipitous meetings, a third act Continue Reading
Mini-mass of movie trailers: About Pie, Falling For Figaro, The Survivalist
Thank goodness for streaming huh? With lockdowns a feature of many people’s lives even in the latter half of 2021 – the Sydney one which I am in is in week 8 with about another 8 to go – it’s good thing we don’t have to rely on cinemas anymore. Continue Reading
Songs, songs and more songs #54: Magdalena Bay, Lump, Matilda Mann, Madison Olds, Sycco
Do not speak ill of pop my friends. There are those who look down upon it because of its derivation from the word “popular” with some erroneously assuming that if something is well liked by many, it mustn’t be any good. That’s rubbish, of course, because often something is popular Continue Reading
Movie review: Gunpowder Milkshake
Whimsical threatening title aside, Gunpowder Milkshake is one hell of a violent film. That is not necessarily a bad thing since much of the murderous mayhem takes place in almost operatically balletic fashion, cartoonishly lit by primary colours that instill a trippily colourful film noir aesthetic to proceedings. But the Continue Reading
Book review: The Misadventures of an Amateur Naturalist by Ceinwen Langley
There is a delicious feeling of immersive joy that overtakes any reader when they begin a book and discover in its first sparkling few sentences that not only does it possess the promise of a wholly engaging story that will propel you to turn pages with a fevered anticipatory eagerness Continue Reading
The short and the short of it: The anxious dilemma of Crosswalk (Disney’s Short Circuit series)
SNAPSHOTA crosswalk light at a quiet intersection plays games with a businessman who needs to cross it, but doesn’t want to break the law. That’s the simple premise of this hilarious short that most viewers will be able to relate to (unless you’re from New York City, where “Don’t Walk” Continue Reading
Graphic novel review: Alien Resident by Peter Hogan and Steve Parkhouse
One of the tests of how well a story is told, particularly one told over multiple, decade-long instalments, is how easily you can leap into a later episode and still not only know what’s going on but what the characters mean to each other and how this world, so well Continue Reading
It’s great up here: Thoughts on The Great North (season 1)
Quirkiness and whimsy are big in modern animation. It makes sense – we’re in a postmodern world where casting an ironic, self-knowing eye on things is prettymuch demanded of everyone and where sincerity is often squeezed out in favour of having a great deal of idiosyncratic fun with something. What Continue Reading