(courtesy IMP Awards) Star Trek Lower Decks season 4, episode 1: “Twovix”Lower Decks is back, ready to fill the Star Trek-sized hole left in our viewing hearts by the end of Strange New Worlds‘ diversely creative second season. And what a return it is. Pivoting on the love the show’s Continue Reading
Never underestimate a Dublin woman with a guitar: The transformative power of music comes to the fore in Flora and Son
(courtesy IMP Awards) SNAPSHOTSingle mom Flora (Eve Hewson) is at a loss about what to do with her rebellious teenage son, Max (Orén Kinan). Encouraged by the police to find Max a hobby, Flora tries to occupy him with a beat-up acoustic guitar. With the help of a washed-up LA Continue Reading
Songs, songs and more songs #92: Scandinavian highlights – Violet Days, Nea, Grandi, Jonathan Floyd + KIDDO x Rxseboy + new Kylie single
(via Shutterstock) I have loved Scandinavian everything. Perhaps it’s because there’s likely Swedish blood flowing in these veins from away back or perhaps it’s all that ABBA I listened to in the ’70s or the Agaton Sax books I devoured from my local library (I still can’t work out how Continue Reading
Book review: Love Match by Clare Fletcher
(courtesy Penguin Books Australia) Being your real life is not as easy as it’s cracked up to be. Sure, there is a slew of movies, books, poems, TV shows and all kinds of other media dedicated to merrily and inspiringly advancing the idea that there’s nothing better than outwardly displayed, Continue Reading
Hello civilisation! Krapopolis brings gods, humans and monsters together in a gloriously funny tale of animated proto-urbanity (with pigs)
(courtesy IMDb) SNAPSHOTSet in mythical ancient Greece, Krapopolis tells the story of a dysfunctional family of humans, gods and monsters trying to run one of the world’s first cities, while also trying their best to not kill each other in the process. The series features the voices of Emmy Award-winner Continue Reading
Rot begins at the edges, long before it reaches the heart: Foundation (S2, E6-8)
(courtesy YouTube (c) AppleTV+) Episode 6 – “Why the Gods Made Me”You get the impression that when Hari Seldon (Jared Harris) first devised his maths-based theory of psychohistory that he must have bloodlessly and impassionately put it all together, convinced that while he was saving humanity, the actual affairs and Continue Reading
Where the real world and imagination meet: Winnie-the-Pooh & the Hundred-Acre Wood
(courtesy Wikipedia) SNAPSHOTIn this video, we’ll look at the story of how Winnie-the-Pooh pays so much attention to place, and how the map of the Hundred-Acre Wood, drawn by E.H. Shepard, allows us all to visit childhood for a little while. (courtesy Laughing Squid (c) Great Maps Explained) One of Continue Reading
Accept your fate or fight back – what will you choose? Thoughts on Invasion (S2, E1-2)
(courtesy IMP Awards) Episode 1 – “Something’s Changed”Honestly if you’d asked this reviewer if he’d ever see a second season on Invasion, the answer would be a hard “NO”. While the first season was the very highest order of sci-fi storytelling, slowly and expertly building tension and dread in ways Continue Reading
Book review: The Legend of Charlie Fish by Josh Rountree
(courtesy Tachyon Publications / cover by John Coulthart) If you believe the adage that good things come in small packages then you are going to love the perfectly formed succinctness of Josh Rountree’s slim but powerful The Legend of Charlie Fish. Set at the turn of the twentieth century with Continue Reading
Graphic novel review: Vern – Custodian of the Universe by Tyrell Waiters
(courtesy Penguin Random House) There is something deliciously liberating, no doubt for the creator every bit as much as the reader, of a premise being seized by the lapels with alacrity and enthusiasm and taken to some narratively imaginative and epic but emotionally intimate places. It’s rare that two play Continue Reading