Continuity, Fandom and Pop
Anyone with more than a passing interest in the geekier elements of mass culture – superhero comic books or genre TV, for instance – will be aware of the idea of continuity. (more…)[…]

The area around Green Park tube has always struck me as a bad one for pubs, and last night showed that little has changed in the years since I was a regular drinker there. When I worked in Belgravia, there were three distinct types of local boozers &[…]

CHEAP FOOD I LOVE: The Gregg’s Sausage Roll
I was first introduced to the Gregg’s sausage roll while living on Record Exchange wages in Wood Green. The deal was 4 of them for 99p, which would keep me going for most of a Saturday. Nowadays[…]

Test The Nation is back again – like the Sunday Times Rich List (exactly as meaningful and a fiftieth as fun), TTN is showing every sign of turning into some kind of imposed ‘tradition’ that supposedly comes round once a year but in[…]

What a difference a beat makes! Both of these tracks are channelling the spirit of ’81 Tim Hopkins was talking about below – a kind of wired weakness, a sussed vulnerability, a stumble into hoped excitement – I was wondering if the guy on t[…]

Unpacking My Library Dept.: Last year I started buying a lot of books again for the first time since I was 16. The next trick is finishing some of them. My shelves are stuffed with admissions of defeat: maybe one time in four I’ve lasted until […]

Is there anyone who isn’t working with The Matrix now? Is there any way in which “Sleeping With The Light On” differs from a Matrix ballad anyway? Will The Matrix’ own record (ye gods) be the pop-rock answer to N.E.R.D.? Why d[…]

In case you hadn’t heard – TONIGHT is the third Freaky Trigger club night, at Parker Place, on Parker Street, off Kingsway, very near Holborn Tube, in London, from 6.30 until closing time. Come along if you’re at a loose end and say[…]

Tom’s Top Twelve this week is very much the Richard X Tribute Edition. All week I’ve been playing 80s records, to the point of making Isabel complain: I now think this was subconscious preparation for hearing Richard X. Often in comics or[…]

A relaunch for Stylus which should see it further shake off its (sometimes justified) rep as a kind of Pitchfork Junior. Under the scarily young and eager Todd Burns it’s always had a slightly broader focus than Pitchfork, paying a lot of atten[…]