Computer can spot a hit. This is nylpm heaven of course, the hours of fun we could have feeding tunes into this computer to see whether it was proven by science to be a hit or not. I like the way the whole thing works too, comparing tunes to previous[…]

I love the idea of fortified wines. That someone felt that wine by itself was just not strong enough to be satisfying. Sherry is a perfect example of this, a Spanish drink certainly but also a very British one. In the 19th century when everyone was l[…]

There is a slight problem when thinking of low budget productions of treating this as a caveat, to ignore the obvious knock on effects and over-praise what there is that is acceptible. This can then confuse the average punter, who goes along to see a[…]

THE ADVENT CALENDAR OF ALCOHOL – 15 December (14%-15%) – Martini & Rossi Bianco
Rossi must feel a bit pissed off, up in the great cocktail bar in the sky. It was a clever trick naming the key ingredient in the flagship suave cocktail[…]

Mmmm, Piney goodness. Needs must and all, I remembered as a youth being doused in strongly smelling pine fragranced baths. If you are doing the dates coming back on the calendar thing in your head you are probably remembering that way back when Radox[…]

I wrote this a month ago and it has languished in my bag for so long (for the length to do Mac to PC conversion). Already Little Britain, a BBC3 exclusive, has transfered to pretty much prime comedy time BBC2….
Two hours of Special BBC Comedy. […]

Soul Mountain – Gao Xingjian
What does it mean to win the Nobel Prize for literature? Alfred Nobel was a scientist, should we therefore assume that it will be for science fiction? The literature prize, even more than the peace prize (but perhap[…]

THE ADVENT CALENDAR OF ALCOHOL – 11th December (10%-11%): White Zinfandel
Its a red grape. But its a white wine (well pink – maybe even rose). WOW!
That is not what I am going to be talking about here. If you want tasting notes there are[…]

You’re either S.W.A.T. or you’re not. On this evidence, I’m not.
S.W.A.T., completing Colin Farrell’s journey of being good in bad films this year (Intermission excepted), is a film that does not really know how to proceed wi[…]

I find novels without dialogue relatively difficult to get through. This is possibly some kind of psychological block, my word is defined so much by conversation (and my banal contributions to it) that acres of prose on the page daunt me. This was po[…]