You could be forgiven for thinking that Eurovision is simply a “smorgasbord of kitsch”, as Keith Lawrence’s headline so eloquently put it in an article he wrote about Eurovision on his website, and nothing more. But as the other half of his article’s headline suggests, “…and politics”, it is not Continue Reading
Review: “The Avengers”
At last a bigger-than-Ben Hur blockbuster bristling with intelligence, wit and humanity. I have to admit I was sceptical going in that it would be. For one thing, the movie had the malodorous stench of hype laying heavily across it. Secondly, snug within the giddy chaos of all Continue Reading
Review: “Delicacy (La Delicatesse)”
French cinema has a remarkable gift for crafting understated movies that, despite their under-the-radar approach to storytelling, manage to explore the depth and totality of human experience in a way that Hollywood can only dream about. Delicacy is a worthy heir to this innate French sensibility for subtle yet powerful narratives. Continue Reading
Road to Eurovision 2012: Week 5
It’s beginning to look a lot like Eurovision… Why? Well they have already announced the opening and interval acts for this year’s Eurovision Song Contest fiesta for one thing. Traditionally these two slots give the host country a chance to strut their cultural stuff and the music is either resolutely Continue Reading
Jericho returns: maybe, possibly (if CBS and Netflix make nice)
Ever since Netflix moved into the business of producing original content, they have become more and more like a pop culture Santa. On their latest trip down the TV show-giving chimney, it’s been announced that they’ve been talking to CBS about resurrecting the critically-mourned, but ratings-starved cult favourite Jericho, which Continue Reading
My brief tumultuous love afford with The Voice
I still have no idea how it happened. One minute I am watching hours and hours of scripted drama, glorying in the skill of the writers and actors that produce quality entertainment like Mad Men, Community, and Once Upon a Time… and the next? Why all of a sudden, as Continue Reading
A writer by any other name: the pseudonyms of famous writers
When most writers of fiction are published, they are so inordinately proud of getting their beloved work into bookstores that they think nothing of splashing their name across the book’s cover. Why would you do anything else? After all, you want the world to know you wrote this book, right? Continue Reading
Sonic Bliss #7: My favourite songs of the week
I may be squeezing every last musical drop out of Santigold’s fantastic new album, Master of My Make-Believe at the moment as it spins on high rotation like a runaway spinning top through my iPod but that doesn’t mean I don’t have time to listen and explore and find new Continue Reading
“Fringe” returns for a fifth and final season
After much nail-biting, which may have occurred in multiple dimensions depending on the day, and which version of me was doing the worrying, it’s been confirmed by a number of sites that Fringe will be back for a final 13 episodes. There was uncertainty about whether this would happen, so Continue Reading
Review: “The Visitors” (Deluxe edition) – ABBA
The front cover of the deluxe version which was released today [via] I am of a certain vintage now I will admit it, and being a person of that unspecified vintage (although the Sherlockian among you should be able to hazard a reasonable accurate guess about my age simply by Continue Reading