All New Captain Scarlet changes the theme tune, the mode of animation and the colour of the Mysterons. It also manages to turn Melody Angel into a monkeyish munter with helmet hair and dispenses of Scarlet’s Cary Grant accent. But that is not a[…]

Alex Party Needs YOU
Troubled Diva presents its third annual cross-decade chart challenge, a concerted scientifical effort to discover when pop was best. The #10 from this week is pitted against the #10 from ten, twenty, thirty and forty years ago (t[…]

Football goes Pop
At 2.58 on the public address system at AFC Wimbledon vs Croydon on Saturday we heard Schanppi das Kleine Krokodil which I think is a UK first. Brilliant.
PS – new striker Andrew Martin has longish hair, so has been given the […]

Last lesson on a Friday is woodwork. In the workshop, thick with sawdust and the piercing whine of a circular saw, my heart is jumping. I am thirteen and have a date. Lisa is in my English class. She looks a little like Clare Grogan and that’s […]

Fightin’ Brian McFadden is back! These lyrics from his new single really take the cake, a worthy follow-up to “Real To Me” I’m sure you’ll agree:
There’s a world inside and a world out there
With that on tv you jus[…]

Decided on Sunday to stop drinking for a couple of weeks. I don’t drink at home much so it’s only in the pub that temptation strikes. Last night was the first test. Arrived, ordered a lime and soda, sat sipping it – this isn’t[…]

King Rat by China Mieville
I’ve enthused wildly over his second and third novels (Perdido Street Station and The Scar) here, and finally got around to his first. The others are set in SF-fantasy worlds, while this one is in London, but hardly t[…]

LOVE OF CHOCOLATE
Correct me if I’m wrong, but aren’t all the candies on sale now that the holiday has passed? Score! February 15th should be the real day of celebration.[…]

THE MOUNTAIN GOATS
“Dilaudid”
I’m not sure what it means. That said, you can hear this if you go over here for the next week or so and wait for the fifth song. It’s a lovely little thing because while it has that quick, shar[…]

I have always enjoyed sucking bones
Browsing for dinner components the other week in the supermarket, I examined with great interest a couple of chunky pieces of oxtail. Now these haven’t made any significant appearance for a while, what with […]