I was lucky to have had an opportunity to see a motion picture that won’t be on general release until October this past Friday night. Given how far away it is from hitting the cinemas, I will be extra careful in terms of not offering spoilers up for “Suffragette”, starring Carey Mulligan, directed by Sarah Gavron, […]
One of the sad truths about the human race is that we are constantly under and over-reacting to things
Homo sapiens are a funny old mammal: as a result of an evolutionary twist that is completely understandable, I think we have what I would constitute as a glitch. Our brains are adapted to view risk in pretty stark terms. Either the predator is there or it isn’t. It’s a binary equation to us poor, […]
Roger Avary and Quentin Tarantino: a case study on collaboration
Once upon a time, there were two guys who worked in a video shop in Manhattan Beach, California – a semi-suburban area a little south of LAX – named Quentin Tarantino and Roger Avary. It was here that they became very good friends and developed a working relationship. They both wanted to be in the […]
Holiday in Great Yarmouth aka why Owen Jones is wrong, part 1,217
Taking one’s holiday in England is not the done thing – at least, it’s not the done thing if you’re middle class. Even holidaying in a cheap and ready Greek resort is more acceptable within English bourgeois mores; the whole concept of the “holiday” means by definition almost, an escape from England. This is nothing […]
The best album of the 1980s was this one by several miles
The Beastie Boys broke into mainstream consciousness with their 1986 album Licensed to Ill. It was a somewhat silly and juvenile record in many respects and the group subsequently, in the glare of fame’s embrace, played up to the image created by the record: at one point they allegedly destroyed a hotel room by trying […]
The Monkees give you “Head” – a celebration of career suicide
In March of 1968, the last episode of the TV show “The Monkees” aired in America. The rock group that had been assembled by a television studio for the purposes of the programme alone, had lost its raison d’être. The group’s commercial potential, in terms of both selling albums and singles as well as attracting […]
Kraftwerk were brilliant – that’s it really
I would have called this article “Kraftwerk were the greatest band of the 70s”, but I’ve already passed that accolade onto someone else. Fair enough as well – still, being the penultimate musical outfit of an entire decade is pretty cool. And Kraftwerk deserve it as well. Let’s get the basic bio shite out of […]
Sometimes rejection is the world’s way of saving you from embarrassment
At different points in my life, I have been involved in what one might deem “the creative world”. I have been an actor, a writer, a film/TV director, the bass player in a country and western band, a lounge singer. Some of these came with payslips; several did not. However, when I look back at […]
The general election as seen through the prism of “House of Cards” (the Kevin Spacey American version, I mean)
Having already looked at the impending general election through the lens of one television series full of bloody, political intrigue inspired me to take a look at it through another. House of Cards, as we all know, was originally a British mini-series about a psychopathic, murderous Tory MP who through various manipulations becomes prime minister. […]
The general election as seen through the prism of “Game of Thrones”
Some time back I wrote an article comparing the current state of British politics to the original Star Wars trilogy. In response, I received many a request to give Westminster the Game of Thrones treatment. Problem was, I didn’t really see how it all fit; I just couldn’t puzzle out how all of those murderous […]