Emotion vs Technique in Soul Music and its Criticism
Does soul music have soul, and does it matter?
Hear or read most people praising soul music, and they’ll be hyping certain qualities, while some others won’t get a mention. ‘Soul&[…]

CAN MAN LIVE ON BEER ALONE???
Ans, proven by science = NO.[…]

There are people who captive the screen. You can pretty much point a camera at them and an hour and a half later most people will think they have seen a proper film (this explains Samatha Morton’s career over the last couple of years). My Summe[…]

I Bitch About the Gillers. (Non Canucks Look Away.)
Alice Munro has won another Giller. Can Canadians just give her shiny things, and let writers who are less well known, less over wrought, less wealthy, and less perfectly dull start winning things; […]

I’ve been having great difficulty writing up the amazing Forced Entertainment shows I went to last week. I think this is partly my inarticulacy, but also the difficulty of writing up theatrical presentations that dispense with plot, character,[…]

TV Cream on Dr Who and Bonkbusters
The Cream repays revisiting from time to time. The new item on Bonkbusters is a little summary, though they do get them ALL in there, even Joan Collins (largely bonk-free) masterpiece “Sins”. The Dr Who […]

You cannot just film any old documentary, put it on screen and expect people to kow-tow to your factual genius. Nothing will kill the current trend of on screen documentaries than badly argued documentaries. In many ways this is why the personality l[…]

Just what the world needed![…]

“This was a Royal fellowship of death”
Maybe it’s inappropriate to have a favourite war memorial. If so, I apologise. Working at Hyde Park Corner I pass several of the things every day. Most are appropriately solemn but never really[…]

When ILX – or rather Steve M on ILX – came up with the now all-conquering poll format (nominations then votes then drawn-out interactive countdown) I will admit my thought was “too much fannydangle”. But it works, and works we[…]