Firkin Pubs: Classic Or Dud? – I must shamefacedly admit to becoming nostalgic for Firkin pubs. There seem to be so few of them around now. In their pomp they were certainly the enemy, buying up and homogenizing a variety of venues. But later i[…]

The Searchers is about some people searching. The Missing, which has ostensibly the same plot, is not really about the missing people at all. Its about The Searchers. In both senses.
The Missing articulates acutely how difficult it is in 2004 to make[…]

ILM At Its Finest: The collective knowledge of 200 music heads pooled for the common good – this is more like it![…]

UNHEALTHY VEGETABLES: PART TWO: aka the The Parsnip Paradise: – hey you know, I don’t think I’ve ever started a post with so many colons. And on which tenuous and probably not-at-all-proven-by-science link, I do wonder what the eati[…]

Do You Hear? I just found on [file-sharing network] the BBC’s Lord Of The Rings dramatisation, first broadcast when I was 8 or 9 and unheard (by me) since. Much though I like the films this is my LOTR, and the opening theme still makes me quive[…]

Can something be smug and heartfelt? After seeing three or four elderly dying person movies in the last few weeks, I am wary of how heartfelt any of them have been. Instead the dying relative is a universal way of ticking the viewers emotional boxes,[…]

I was watching Man Utd vs Porto last week. Benni McCarthy got 2 goals for Porto, but what I’ll remember from that game is the number on his shirt – 77.
Permit me first a curmudgeonly statement of my true feelings – what in the name […]

wive$watch
In his tremendous memoir, Times Square Red Times Square Blue, Samuel R. Delany spends a few pages discusses acting in porno movies during the 70s and early 80s: he was a gay man in the cinemas because they were also (mainly, in fact) male-[…]

Bubblegum Machine: “If it’s on K-Tel or Ronco, it’s in!” (where does that leave the Germs, hmmm?) 2 songs per week, plus archives, plus very nice design.[…]

EARLY RAP IN THE UK TOP 40 (not a definitive list cos I’m doing it quickly and haven’t heard everything)
Dec 79: Sugarhill Gang – Rappers Delight #3
Dec 79: Kurtis Blow – Christmas Rappin #30
Jan 81: Blondie – Rapture #5[…]