KATE RYAN – “Libertine”
Sometimes the English Channel seems wider than ever. In France a libertine seems to mean “smouldering pop princess with a great line in trancey synth riffs”. In England it means “junkie with[…]

My interest in old adventure fiction continues to grow with a rediscovery of a pile of John Buchan books I’d been given for Christmas years ago and turned my nose up at. I thought I’d kick off with The Thirty-Nine Steps, but I couldn&#821[…]

HOW TO DO A TOP ALBUMS LIST: inspired by Pitchfork’s revision of its own Top 100 90s albums list (and don’t think I don’t sympathise with them).
1. Assemble ‘staff’.
2. Go to pub.
3. Drink a lot.
4. When all are drunk en[…]

It’s back!: Gabba/AMP/ has become Gabba/Pod/, and it’s taken me weeks to notice, seemingly. But now I have I can rejoice with everyone else (also! a votes and comments system! kewl! and a membership system I haven’t worked out yet).[…]

Of course having gone to McDonalds’ I could hardly pass up the opportunity to sample the BIG TASTY, a.k.a. the McBritish – the megaburger available exclusively to UK residents. It’s an interesting choice for a Brit-branded burger si[…]

NATION UNITES IN FAINTLY DUTIFUL REJOICING!: Good work our boys etc. etc., and it was all very exciting, but I have to say I can’t detect as yet the mass uplifting of the national spirit that some might have expected. Isabel and I went shopping[…]

The least welcoming, most alienating place I have ever eaten in London is the top floor of the Oxford Street MacDonald’s (the branch near Borders). I missed lunch on Friday because of a meeting and didn’t get a chance to eat until 4PM, at[…]

BEDROOM SECRETS FOR A HAPPY MARRIAGE: Something I really enjoy doing is reading aloud to Isabel – it’s good practise for probably the only aspect of childrearing I’ll be any good at, and it’s fun introducing her to favourites […]

Club Freaky Trigger Christmas Party: Happy Wobs to all our readers. The Club Freaky Trigger Christmas Party will be on a MONDAY, to best show our committment to senseless Yuletide ruin (and the fact that we could get a venue, and the fact that nothin[…]

Do you want some German pop dancehall? YOU KNOW YOU DO. A current constant on German pop channels, this caught my attention because the band are obviously having monster good fun in the video by dressing up as cavemen and rampaging through downtown D[…]