It would be fair to argue that one of the defining attributes of Mary J. Blige as an artist is her passion. Whether it’s been channelled into songs of anguish, heartache and pain, and the understandable willingness to fight back, such as “Enough Cryin’”, or articulated in songs of Continue Reading
On the 1st day of Christmas 2013 … I looked forward to the Doctor Who Christmas Special “The Time of the Doctor”
SNAPSHOT Orbiting a quiet backwater planet, the massed forces of the universe’s deadliest species gather, drawn to a mysterious message that echoes out to the stars. And amongst them – the Doctor. Rescuing Clara from a family Christmas dinner, the Time Lord and his best friend must learn what Continue Reading
Christmas book review: Letters from Father Christmas by J. R. R. Tolkien
Having a highly creative parent must, in theory at least, be a wonderful thing. Assuming they have both the inclination and the time after plying their craft for a living, having Paul McCartney sing you to sleep with Beatles-esque nursery rhymes, or Meryl Street act out a story for Continue Reading
Movie review: Kill Your Darlings
If you have spent any time at all around around writers, William Faulkner’s immortal advice to “kill your darlings” will be something with which you are intimately familiar. A clarion cry to all dedicated wordsmiths to parse down their text to only that which makes the prose or poetry Continue Reading
You shall not pass! But you can eat a cookie says Sesame Street … eventually
SNAPSHOT The Cookie Monster plays Gobble, the last known holder of the most powerful dessert recipe in Monster Earth. He must remember the recipe in order to bring cookies back to the land, but his own memory and lack of self control stand in the way. (source: mashable.com) Is Continue Reading
Get a whole new sense of Community: first season 5 trailer debuts
It’s back to school we go with Community and this time everything’s back to the way it should be! Dan Harmon, creator and showrunner of NBC’s Little Sitcom That Could Get #sixseasonsandamovie, for the first three seasons, is back in the creative saddle after a fairly lacklustre season 4 Continue Reading
Marvellous massing of movie trailers #7: Spider Man 2, White Reindeer, Island of Lemurs: Madagascar, Cold Turkey, Tracks + more
A funny thing happened to me the other day. I was measuring up a prime spot in my local cinema’s main screening room, trying to work out if I could fit my bed, side table and computer desk in a little nook up the back, when the attendant asked Continue Reading
Book review: The Shambling Guide to New York City by Mur Lafferty
Writing a post modern urban fantasy mash-up set in New York City, the natural home for all such tales you would think, is not necessarily as easy as it sounds. It is one thing to imagine a fantastical, credulity-bending world between, throughout and underneath the ordinary everyday almost gothic environs Continue Reading
Food truck fight! The Muppets Swedish Chef vs. Gordon Ramsey in all new Muppisode
There is one movie I am looking forward more than any other next year, Muppets Most Wanted – for proof see here, here and yes all the way over here – and I am thrilled to bits that the promotional effort leading up to it is every bit as zany, Continue Reading
All I want for Christmas are my UK TV specials: Call the Midwife, Downton Abbey, Still Open All Hours
One of the time-honoured traditions of Christmas in the UK, and to a lesser extent Australia, is the screening of specially filmed one-off festive episodes of TV series, that may or may not be part of that show’s official canon. Tucked in between a blizzard of repeats – which Continue Reading