*SPOILERS AHEAD … AND THE CONSEQUENCES OF FOOLISH ACTIONS, GOOD AND BAD … AND FRAT BOYS WITHOUT CONSCIENCE* “Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to Mr. Amorality 2017! In a contest which is sure to create a talking point within the apocalyptic Twitterati – now confined to using actual birds Continue Reading
Hidden Figures: The amazing women who helped make space flight happen
SNAPSHOT Hidden Figures is the incredible untold story of Katherine G. Johnson (Taraji P. Henson), Dorothy Vaughan (Octavia Spencer) and Mary Jackson (Janelle Monáe)—brilliant African-American women working at NASA, who served as the brains behind one of the greatest operations in history: the launch of astronaut John Glenn into Continue Reading
Want Nick Offerman to read Mark Twain’s “Tom Sawyer” to you? Of course you do
Nick Offerman is one of the most talented actors working today. Adept at deadpan comic delivery – a talent enhanced all the more when he’s acting opposite his immensely-funny life partner-in-crime Megan Mullally (they played ex-husband and wife Ron and Tammy in Parks and Recreation) – and deft written Continue Reading
Comics review: The Flintstones (issues 1 & 2)
No matter how well-educated we might be, all of us have a tendency, to a greater or lesser degree, to interpret other cultures, peoples’ situations or even ancient civilisations through the lens of our modern worldview. We might have all the facts or evidence we need at hand but Continue Reading
The Best of Adam Sharp: The new book by Graeme Simsion (The Rosie Project)
SNAPSHOT On the cusp of fifty, Adam Sharp has a loyal partner, earns a good income as an IT contractor and is the music-trivia expert at quiz nights. It’s the lifestyle he wanted, but something’s missing. Two decades ago, on the other side of the world, his part-time piano Continue Reading
Road to Gilmore Girls A Year in the Life #1: “Pilot” (S1, E1 review)
Premiering on 5 October 2000, Gilmore Girls was one of those rare shows that many people, myself included, loved right from the start. Crafted with a very strong sense of time and place, and an exquisitely good eye for characterisation, by Amy Sherman-Palladino, Gilmore Girls was inspired by a Continue Reading
Kickass reading! The Librarians gear up for season 3
SNAPSHOT Returning to the universe of TNT’s hit movie franchise, The Librarian, this new series centers on an ancient organization hidden beneath the Metropolitan Public Library dedicated to protecting an unknowing world from the secret, magical reality hidden all around. This group solves impossible mysteries, fights supernatural threats and Continue Reading
Book review: Reader on the 6:27 by Jean-Paul Didierlaurent
Guylain Vignolles, blighted by a name that in French is uncomfortably close to a spoonerism, Vilain Guignol or Ugly Puppet, is a 36 year old man astride two worlds. By day he works at a book-pulping factory, overseen by “Fatso”, the corpulent supervisor of the plant, where is in charge of Continue Reading
Now this is music #76: KUOSA, Polographia, DENM, Petite Meller, Death Team
The theme this week is quirky and a little bit different. That’s not the same as not having something worthwhile to say which is often what quirky is unfortunately conflated with; rather these are serious songs from artists who have thrown something out of the ordinary into their musical Continue Reading
Watch this you must: Star Wars The Force Awakens VFX reel is AMAZING
One reason I watch every sci-fi film I can get my figurative hands on is the chance they give you to escape into a world/s wholly and utterly different to your own. To create those immersive worlds, films depend heavily on visual effects (VFX) which are advancing at such Continue Reading