Do You Hear? I just found on [file-sharing network] the BBC’s Lord Of The Rings dramatisation, first broadcast when I was 8 or 9 and unheard (by me) since. Much though I like the films this is my LOTR, and the opening theme still makes me quive[…]

Can something be smug and heartfelt? After seeing three or four elderly dying person movies in the last few weeks, I am wary of how heartfelt any of them have been. Instead the dying relative is a universal way of ticking the viewers emotional boxes,[…]

I was watching Man Utd vs Porto last week. Benni McCarthy got 2 goals for Porto, but what I’ll remember from that game is the number on his shirt – 77.
Permit me first a curmudgeonly statement of my true feelings – what in the name […]

wive$watch
In his tremendous memoir, Times Square Red Times Square Blue, Samuel R. Delany spends a few pages discusses acting in porno movies during the 70s and early 80s: he was a gay man in the cinemas because they were also (mainly, in fact) male-[…]

Bubblegum Machine: “If it’s on K-Tel or Ronco, it’s in!” (where does that leave the Germs, hmmm?) 2 songs per week, plus archives, plus very nice design.[…]

EARLY RAP IN THE UK TOP 40 (not a definitive list cos I’m doing it quickly and haven’t heard everything)
Dec 79: Sugarhill Gang – Rappers Delight #3
Dec 79: Kurtis Blow – Christmas Rappin #30
Jan 81: Blondie – Rapture #5[…]

“I don’t possess the necessary level of irony to enjoy the Langley kids“: this Round Table of reviewers listening to Tot Rock and other kidforms of music struggle to attain the hipsterly correct degree of witty unmovedness they appe[…]

More Bandwidth Than Sense: This is a neat concept (original vocals over R’n’B ringtones) and it’s not the creators’ fault that it sounds mostly really horrible. Having spent 4 solid weeks poring over mobile phone websites for […]

Pavement – Elevate Me Later
It’s ten years since Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain came out, it’s only a couple of years since I realised that this particular song isn’t actually called Alleviate Me Later, and only a few minutes sinc[…]

HEALTHY VEGETABLES: PART ONE aka: Broccolli For Breakfast
Last night I did a slightly retro wee dinner party for my flatmates and a friend, centrepiece being a truly magnificent Coq Au Vin. No reason why said dish should have gone out of fashion, the[…]