When ABBA, Sweden’s youthful and highly unorthodox entry for 1974’s the Eurovision Song Contest in Brighton, England, walked on stage in all their extraordinarily tight glam pop glory, it was clear that the staid world of Europe’s post World War Two musical experiment in good neighbourliness, was in for Continue Reading
Movie review: 300 – Rise of an Empire
One thing is readily apparent within minutes of Noam Murro’s 300: Rise of an Empire portentous exposition heavy opening and that is its origins as one of the legendary Frank Miller artfully designed graphic novels. Graphic it most certainly is, almost immediately in fact (although in no way a fitting Continue Reading
Dreams do come true: Community within reach of #SixSeasonsAndAMovie
Way back in 1965, Mitch Leigh (music) and Joe Darion (lyrics) penned the song “The Impossible Dream (The Quest)” which went on to become the most popular song from the musical Man of La Mancha, the story of Don Quixote by novelist Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra. It was variously used Continue Reading
Now this is music #26: Talos, Lucy Mason, Sleep Thieves, Porter Robinson, Zella Day
Ah the sweet, sweet sound of new music on my ears! While it is always good to treasure the old songs that have got us through breakups, celebrated new love or simply helped us to dance and celebrate a joyously good mood, trying on some tunes for size is Continue Reading
Book review: Tiger’s Wife by Téa Obreht
The two most charming things about Téa Obreht’s assured debut novel The Tiger’s Wife, a captivating mix of real life and the delightfully fantastical set in what was once Yugoslavia, are revealed almost immediately by the evocative, descriptively-rich opening paragraph: “In my earliest memory, my grandfather is bald as a stone Continue Reading
Movie review: Rosie #GermanFilmFest14
Whether we realise or not, all of us launch on this strange journey called life with expectations aplenty, which, depending on our luck or dogged persistence, will find some fulfilment or die a slow and suffocating death. Or if you’re forty year old Lorenz Meran (Fabian Krüger), a Swiss Continue Reading
Road to Eurovision 2014: Week 2 – Denmark, Estonia, FYR Macedonia, Finland, France, Georgia, Germany
WHAT IS THE EUROVISION SONG CONTEST? Started way back in 1956 as a way to draw 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 Continue Reading
The Walking Dead: “A” (S4, E16 review)
The explosive finale of season 4 of The Walking Dead, enigmatically titled “A”, was many things – tense, deceitful, cruel, vindictive, hopeful, suspicious, but above all, an excellent lesson in relativity. Or to put it another way, no matter how great you think your own sins are, a factor which Continue Reading
Whoosh! Where’d they go? 3 movies that may have passed you by
Time is so annoyingly finite. In a perfect world of endless time and minimal sleep, I would be watching all the movies, #allofthemovies!, and doing my best not to overdose on Maltesers, popcorn and choc tops. But alas, there are only so many hours in the day and so Continue Reading
Movie review: Noah
Adapting any story, regardless of its literary source, into a big screen film, especially one with a budget as big as Darren Aronofsky’s Noah, is an exercise fraught with a thousand degrees of barbaric difficulty. No matter how you slice or dice its plots, themes or characters, someone, somewhere Continue Reading