“Unless we can somehow recycle the concept of the great artist so that it supports Chuck Berry as well as it does Marcel Proust, we might as well trash it altogether” — Robert Christgau
“But rock criticism does something even more interes[…]

Welcome to our last Group A game. Let’s see how things stand.
Cameroon (managed by Chris) have QUALIFIED from the group with 5.5 points. Either they or Brazil will now top the group.
Brazil (managed by Matt DC) have 4.5 points. Anything other t[…]

I’ve spent the last month or so quarter of a year thinking a lot about what I’m going to write in my last thing about Young Avengers. I had thought I was done, mostly in the sense that although the series had more to go, I’d got so […]

Even men with steel hearts love to see a dog on the pitch – except when it holds up a vital second group game in the Pop World Cup! In this case the rogue canine was cleverly disguised as a market research conference – sorry everyone. Bac[…]

Group G’s middle game sees Ghana (Jonathan Bogart) in front after narrowly beating the USA (The Lex) last time. Behind them come Portugal (Weej) and Germany (Tak) who will be looking to make more of an impact on this very tough group.
As ever, […]

Of course he doesn’t have pneumonia, that would just be silly. What does Italian #2 hit-maker Gala‘s lover REALLY have apart from a shortage of cash?
(more…)[…]

The second Group F match finds Nigeria (managed by Cis) in pole position, riding a wave of appreciation for African pop. Charged with getting past them are Iran (Wichita Lineman) and Argentina (Chris B) with Bosnia-Herzegovina (Scott M) needing point[…]

Group E’s second game sees France (managed by Jessica) looking for the win that will see them through to the knockout phase. Giant-killers Honduras (Kat) will be trying to build on their fine early start, with Ecuador (Megan) and Switzerland (M[…]

THREE #1-#5 (Image Comics) by Kieron Gillen, Ryan Kelly and Jordie Bellaire
Kieron Gillen, Ryan Kelly and Jordie Bellaire’s THREE is a political comic on every level. The level on which it got most of its publicity was a right-to-reply in a convers[…]

England (managed by Ronald) top Group D at the moment – sparking tabloid frenzy back home – while Uruguay (Matthew), Costa Rica (Pete) and Italy (Andrew Hickey) will be looking to stop their momentum. It could be a closely fought group, w[…]