It would readily apparent by now that I really love Christmas, and by extension that I really love decorating my Christmas tree which takes pride of pop culture ornament-accented place in my lounge room every year. Granted, it’s almost 20 years old and is looking a little old and creaky Continue Reading
Book review: Mostly Dead Things by Kristen Arnett
One of the great truisms of reading, indeed life itself it seems at times, is not judging a book by its cover. However, it is well nigh impossible to pass by the boldly bright cover of Kristen Arnett’s Mostly Dead Things, a tale of messed up families, love and weirdly-expressed Continue Reading
On 6th day of Christmas … I listened to Idina Menzel’s Christmas: A Season of Love
Recording a Christmas album may often like an invidious proposition. You are wedged, rather uncomfortably as if someone has crushed a whole tray of glass baubles into the cushion of your seat, betweem those who crave the same old same old big band sound that has, for better or worse, Continue Reading
Here comes 2020! Five fun films to add to your cinema-going calendar incl. WW84, Free Guy and No Time to Die
Yes, yes I know Christmas has not yet come and gone and we should be luxuriating in the myriad festive wonders of the season – trust me I am; chocolate sultanas and tree decorating anyone? – but 2020 is technically only three away and with a host of new and Continue Reading
On 5th day of Christmas … I read Olaf’s Night Before Christmas #Frozen
Does Kristoff have trenchant personal hygiene issues? Is Sven moonlighting on Christmas eve as a sleigh-pulling reindeer hailing a strangely jolly bearded man in red through the sky? And, most importantly because enquiring sentient snowman minds want to know, are the stockings hung by the chimney because they’re wet? Are Continue Reading
Happy 40th birthday The Muppet Movie! (anniversary review)
Who doesn’t want to become rich and famous? Especially if it’s Orson Welles, in a cameo as World Wide Pictures studio boss Lew Lord (a tribute to Sir Lew Grade who co-produced the original Muppet Show), offering it to you? Certainly not one Kermit the Frog who finds himself strumming Continue Reading
On 4th day of Christmas … I listened to Lea Michele’s Christmas in the City
If you really want to set the mood for a Christmas album, then kicking off with “It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year” is pretty the best way to do it. Which is what Glee alum Lea Michele does on her third studio album, and first Christmas album, Christmas Continue Reading
“I have a boyfriend!” The festive stress of finding love on a timetable in Home For Christmas
Families can be wonderful things. They can be warm, nurturing and safe, a haven from the outside world where people can be more than a little unknowing of your true self and inadvertently cruel as a result. But much as Hallmark and Disney might like to promote the idea that Continue Reading
On 3rd day of Christmas … I watched Klaus
In the well-trodden, Santa-saturated, redemption-obsessed world of the Christmas film, there is very little snow-covered ground that hasn’t already been well and truly sleigh ridden over. Nowhere this is likely more true, besides the story of the baby Jesus himself, than in stories which address the origins and activities of Continue Reading
Book review: The Wailing Woman by Maria Lewis
If you’ve ever had a sneaking suspicion that more goes in this crazy, mixed-up world than meets the naked mortal eye, then has Australian author Maria Lewis got a tale (or five) to tell you. A whole universe of them in fact with the fantasy author on the rise responsible Continue Reading