Hello Beatles! It’s been a while.
So what happened there? Work happened, to put it bluntly – in the midst of a brutal cold that beat my immune system like a gong, I had to write some pretty serious comics (part of which involved creating […]

In 28 Days Later, Cilian Murphy’s character wakes up 28 days after a localised zombie apocalypse has occurred. He is our viewpoint stranger in a strange land, wandering through a deserted London trying to survive. Perhaps it is telling (though […]

Cheese stats: Soft-ish raw cows milk cheese from the alpine patches of Franch
Bought from: Mons
This rind’s ochre, orange and white, bumpy and mottled, with specks of a bright yellow mould. Inside the cheese is a pale cream colour – crumb[…]

“The Invention Of Lying” is as dull as its title. Sorry to say this, particularly as Ricky probably still has a flat around here and he takes criticism badly, but “The Invention Of Lying” stunk. And it stunk because it didn&#8[…]

(This is the second part of a piece on managing long blog projects. The first part is here.)
Popular’s main strength – and I’m very proud of this indeed – are its regular 50-post comment threads that are lucid, civil, wide-ranging, full of he[…]

Stawley
Cheese stats: Small round of goats cheese, bought from Neals Yard Dairy[1]
The stawley has a creamy yellow and white white wrinkled rind. A sticky, translucent layer lies just below the rind, and the cheese becomes a denser, opaque white towa[…]

In September 2003 I started a blogging project: six years later, I’m halfway through it. It seems like a good time to put down in writing what – if anything – I’ve learned through doing Popular: what I got right and what I got wrong.
Not the […]

When the Sugababes shed Keisha a few weeks ago, I was a bit worried for the catty one. Not cos she can’t look after herself, and not because she’ll be poor. But rather because the old idea that you have a successful career in a boy / girl[…]

Obviously when bassline house poked its way into the 2007 charts what I hoped – and I wasn’t alone – is that this heralded UK Garage 2.0, one of those convergences of dance music trends, pop, and sales that lights up the Top 40 for […]

Cloudy With A Chance Of Meatballs is a terrific movie. Perhaps a touch smug with how clever it is in places, but its a solid narrative which confounds clichés at most turns whilst stuffing the slyest of sidegags and slapstick moments to keep every a[…]