The ILC Top Characters Of All Time: a very long time indeed in the making, the mighty poll has finally reached #1 thanks to the diligent efforts of Andrew Farrell.[…]

One of the great – though cynical – goals of marketing is to encourage consumers to waste stuff. Not in the enviro-friendly sense of extra packaging – the brands put that shit on their products when it was fashionable and they&#8217[…]

After playing Dungeons and Dragons and other games for a couple of years, I found myself firmly on the ‘storytelling’ side, not the ‘point-scoring’ side, of the gaming divide. I also had precious few people to play with and &#[…]

When The Tripods was first shown I was eleven – just about the right age to be excited and disappointed by it. I can remember a playground buzz around the show, stoked by Blue Peter clips – and I can remember (though more dimly) general a[…]

Scattered thoughts on Love by Beatles Band*.
– OK, a lot of this is, or once was, really brilliant pop music. But why does this artefact exist? (more…)[…]

Mark’s post on twins poses an interesting question – where did kid-lit twins vanish to? – and then lets it tantalisingly hang. So here’s two half-baked explanations!
i. A shift in the idea of kid-ness. When the heroes of child[…]

The Da Capo Best Music Writing 2006 compilation is out now. I’m in it, with a piece you’ve probably already read, and so are a lot of other people including Frank Kogan, Miss AMP, and many more. To be honest so far I’ve only read th[…]

Marketing Week have let us know that comments box regulars Diageo have been busy at the patent office, coming up with these new booze ideas:
– compartmentalised bottles for sychronised layered drinks pourage! Dragon’s Den tastic!
– […]

“As in JR Ewing? Sorry, you must be sick of hearing that.” Not especially, to be honest – the sudden fame of my surname in the early 80s pleased me more than it hurt me. For one thing, there wasn’t an awful lot of playground […]

My most eagerly-awaited comic of the year came out this week: Grant Morrison and JH Williams’ Seven Soldiers #1. The ‘awaited’ bit had come to carry a bit more stress than the ‘eager’: the comic had been delayed for seve[…]