Brain Pickings, a fascinating website run by the supremely-dedicated Maria Popova which she describes as “an inventory of cross-disciplinary interestingness, spanning art, science, design, history, philosophy, and more”, and Bill Watterson’s masterfully-clever, exuberantly funny and visually imaginative comic strip Calvin and Hobbes are a perfect match. Even more so Continue Reading
Colony: “A Clean, Well-Lighted Place” (S3, E7 review)
SPOILERS AHEAD … AND THE UNEASY SENSE A MONSTER IS LURKING BENEATH THE HAPPY FACADE OF THE Sometimes the darkest shadows lurk in the most well-lit of places. Dazzled by the light, you don’t notice them at first but take a look around – the darkness creeps in on Continue Reading
“And that’s why I always say, ‘Shumshumschilpiddydah!'” Deep dives into Rick and Morty
Dan Harmon’s fantastically off-the-wall, clever animation creation, Rick and Morty, is a very clever beast indeed. (And on its way to be pleasingly prolific with another 70 episodes on their way … eventually.) Possessed not only of beautifully-detailed characters, highly-imaginative plots and lush visuals that take worldbuilding to an Continue Reading
Sword at the ready: The fantastical destiny of The Outpost
SNAPSHOT “Years after her entire village is destroyed by a gang of brutal mercenaries, Talon travels to a lawless fortress on the edge of the civilised world, as she tracks the killers of her family. On her journey to this outpost, Talon discovers she possesses a mysterious supernatural power Continue Reading
Movie review: Puzzle #SydFilmFest
Agnes (Kelly Macdonald) is lost. Not physically necessarily; in fact, as you watch her walk, automata-like, through her daily routine of housework, church meetings, religious observance, and even waking up where the sameness of waiting for the alarm to go off is a thing of exquisite drudgery in and Continue Reading
Weekend pop art: People, books and the seamless matching of the two
The Librairie Mollat is an independent bookstore in Bordeaux, France that has had a great deal of fun, so notes Laughing Squid, matching customers and books together in fantastically creative ways. So seamless and imaginative are their efforts that it looks as if book and customer belong perfectly together, Continue Reading
Colony: “The Emerald City” (S3, E 6 review)
SPOILERS AHEAD … AND GRIEF AND GRUBBY SELF-PRESERVATION (GUESS WHO … GO ON, YOU’LL NEVER GUESS … OK, YES YOU WILL … Grief is a perniciously unpredictable thing. Much as we might like to think we have a neatly-categorised, five stages delineated grip on it, the reality is that Continue Reading
That’s *NOT* all folks! New Looney Tunes shorts arriving in 2019
One of the great joys of my childhood, and yes my adulthood too, has been watching Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck and the gang go through their madcap, often surreal, wittily clever and riotously funny paces. The cartoon shorts in which they appear, known collectively as Looney Tunes, ran from Continue Reading
Movie review: A Season in France (Une saison en France) #SydFilmFest
One look at the poster for A Season in France (Une saison en France) might lead you to believe that this film, written and directed with great insight and empathy by Mahamat-Saleh Haroun, is a feel-good triumph against considerable odds. It is anything but of course, with the understated nuanced narrative Continue Reading
Fear the Walking Dead: “No One’s Gone” (S4, E8 review)
SPOILERS AHEAD … AND A GREAT BIG RATINGS-GRABBING DEATH! Saying goodbye to a character you come to know and love in a TV show in never an easy thing. It makes sense – we spend huge amounts of time with them, come to love their outlook on life and Continue Reading