(courtesy Harper Collins Australia) Humanity is weird. We are; while we rightly take pride in our many positives and evolutionarily worthy accomplishments, we are also prone to more than a bit of superstition, twisted, strange belief systems and an enduring idea that certainly quite natural things are taboo in some Continue Reading
Songs, songs and more birthday songs #99: Retro favourites including “Pop Muzik”, “Born to Be Alive”, “I Eat Cannibals”, “Video Killed the Radio Star” and “Elaine” by ABBA
In my early years of discovering music in the 1970s, all I really listened to were the bands/artists my parents liked like The Seekers and Nana Mouskouri, and of course ABBA who were HUGE in Australia at the time. But then somewhere around disco bursting onto the scene, all kinds Continue Reading
Book review: Found in a Bookshop by Stephanie Butland
(courtesy Hachette Australia) We all crave somewhere to belong. Somewhere where people know us, really know us, where we’re valued, our presence welcome and out absence sadly noted, and where, yes U.S. sitcom of legendary fame, everyone does indeed know our name. That’s why we join clubs, churches, volunteer at Continue Reading
Time to face your fears with Orion and the Dark
(courtesy IMP Awards) SNAPSHOTOrion (Jacob Tremblay) seems a lot like your average elementary school kid – shy, unassuming, harboring a secret crush. But underneath his seemingly normal exterior, Orion is a ball of adolescent anxiety, completely consumed by irrational fears of bees, dogs, the ocean, cell phone waves, murderous gutter Continue Reading
Graphic novel review: Peculiar Woods (Vol. 1) – The Ancient Underwater City by Andrés J. Colmenares
(courtesy Simon & Schuster) Losing your sense of place in the world can be a hugely debilitating experience. Thais applies regardless of whether the replacement for your status quo is good or bad since any change, even if you can adapt quickly to it, leaves you feeling unmoored and uncertain Continue Reading
Book review: Beatrix & Fred by Emily Spurr
(courtesy Text Publishing) Books that absolutely defy expectations are a gloriously good treat indeed. You read the back blurb in the bookshop, decide that sounds enticing, grab the book and then after a suitable time on the TBR pile, open it up expecting it to dance to a particular narrative Continue Reading
Movie review: Quiz Lady
(courtesy IMP Awards) Everyone who’s ever undergone trauma has their own personal port-in-a-storm coping strategy. Some aren’t healthy while some are so beige healthy they border on a benign obsession which is precisely where Quiz Lady, directed by Jessica You to a script by Jen D’Angelo, finds its titular protagonist Continue Reading
Book review: Earth Retrograde by R. W. W. Greene
(courtesy Angry Robot Books) Coming up with a truly original idea in any genre or medium of storytelling is always a big ask. No matter how brilliantly one-of-a-kind your creatively epiphanic moment might be, it’s tricky not to sound like a thousand other great narrative ideas that have gone before; Continue Reading
There are no heroes. Only rebels. Blast off with the Rebel Moon – Part One: A Child of Fire trailer
(courtesy IMP Awards) SNAPSHOTFrom Zack Snyder, the filmmaker behind 300, Man of Steel, and Army of the Dead, comes Rebel Moon, an epic science-fantasy event decades in the making. When a peaceful colony on the edge of a galaxy finds itself threatened by the armies of a tyrannical ruling force, Continue Reading
Songs, songs and more songs #98: Baby Queen, Cat Burns, Tom Walker, Bonnie McKee + Jade LeMac … and Eurovision 2024 update
(via Shutterstock) One of the lovely parts of life is that we set out expecting everything to be wonderful. Fuelled by the innate optimism of youth and free from the scars of bitter experience, we naturally assume, because why would we think otherwise, that life will be one long moment Continue Reading