Christmas is, on the surface at least, the shiniest and happiest of festivals – happy families exchanging presents, lavish feasts, joy and goodwill, everyone happy ever after lit by the glow of a 1000 warmed hearts. But as Abed, who is my favourite character in this creatively rich series, discovers Continue Reading
On the fourth day of Christmas, I re-visit Annie Lennox’s Christmas Cornucopia Review)
This is my second album with this extraordinary album that beguiled from the first beautiful notes last year. So I thought it only fair that I review it this year and let you know why it is such an exceptional gift to the canon of Christmas music… This is Continue Reading
On the third day of Christmas, I festively butchered innumerable TV catchphrases
Keeping very much with the Christmas spirit, I decided to grab some well known TV catchphrases and give them a festive makeover. Alas the hashtag #tvcatchphrasesmadexmasy didn’t trend at all on Twitter where they were first transmitted, so clearly the idea only amused me. Hopefully someone else will find a Continue Reading
On the second day of Christmas, my TV gave to me…
It is no secret that I love Christmas (unless you have been living under a rock in a small village on the windswept edges of Mongolia in which case you are (a) very odd, and yet quirky, and (b) forgiven for missing that) and naturally being a pop culture junkie, Continue Reading
M83 – Hurry Up We’re Dreaming (review)
I love new music. It’s not out of some desperate desire to remain hip and relevant in my 40s because let’s face it that never works as a deliberate strategy and you end up only as an object of pity by pitiless Gen Ys. No, I love new music because Continue Reading
COMICS: Calvin and Hobbes the Next Generation
Webcomic Pants Are Overrated has given Calvin and Hobbes a re-birth of sorts by fast forwarding 26 years, and the results are nothing short of magical. I feel like I have met up again with an old, dear and greatly missed friend, and I am supremely happy. (Their website is Continue Reading
Mary Poppins (musical, Capitol Theatre Sydney, 1 December) – review
Chim-chiminey, chim-chiminey, chim-chim-chiree! Who doesn’t recognize this joyful toe-tapping tune? It is the melodic heartbeat of Bert the Cockney chimney sweep and jack-of-all-trade,s and his fellow denizens of the rooftops of Edwardian London as they whistle and trill their way through an exhausting and dirty job. But you would never Continue Reading
Kathy Griffin (Opera House, 30 November) – review
What would happen if overnight, or even instantly on air, all the presenters on all the vapid entertainment shows suddenly started saying what they really thought about the celebrities they report on day in, day out? Why, my friends, it already has (kind of) and this much needed phenomenon’s name Continue Reading
Ceremonials – Florence and The Machine (review)
This is an album of astonishing vocal and melodic beauty. Florence Welch, who dazzled us with her ability to wrap her voice about the most exquisite of emotional textures on Lungs, returns with an album that ranges from the intensely intimate and heartfelt to the epic and anthemic. At times, Continue Reading
Ides of March (review)
Purity of belief is a powerful thing. It undergirds the faithful, drives the true believer and blinds the zealot. It is a virtue. It is a liability. It is the catalyst for war and the handmaiden of peace… … and it is a stranger to the art of politics, which Continue Reading