This is almost certainly the only time Michael Gove will ever be mentioned in association with the idea of Zen-like calm. Continuing his seeming fondness for releasing stories designed to continue the war on joy, he’s today announced that 70-80% of all books studied in English Literature classes will be English. Classics of American Literature …
A couple of months ago I was asked to start writing for Comics Review. It’s a weekly, digital companion piece to Future’s quarterly Comic Heroes magazine and it’s a really smart idea. 99p gets you, as long as you’re an Apple user (Android and Windows folks I’m really sorry) a dozen or so reviews and …
It’s the European elections today. This is the map to my polling station conveniently located on the back of my polling card. That’s pretty much the only part of this process that’s convenient for me. The election’s on my day off and my polling station is a train ride away, not a long one admittedly, …
It’s the European elections today. This is the map to my polling station conveniently located on the back of my polling card. That’s pretty much the only part of this process that’s convenient for me. The election’s on my day off and my polling station is a train ride away, not a long one admittedly, …
Small towns are places we go when we need to go home, or places we go when we need to never go home again. The tiny populations give us the anonymity of the big city with none of the soullessness. The local culture gives us the sense of home with none of the obligations or, …
Adolescence is Hell. You careen through life, chained to a hormone-powered motorbike with only occasionally functional steering and do your best to not crash. It never works, you crash, LOTS, but in doing so you shape the person you’ll be for a good chunk of the rest of your life. Sometimes, if you’re lucky, you …
The Cure did, maybe, five happy songs throughout their storied career. This remains by far the most ramshackle and lovely. Enjoy your Sunday Moment of Zen. And, if you’re anywhere where Summer has actually been delivered, the sunshine! [youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mcUza_wWCfA]
Hannibal is unlike anything being produced in US TV right now. That’s not the elitist hipster nonsense that leads to statements like ‘Everything else is just TV’ either, it’s the truth. A show that’s black comedy, tragedy, the world’s most dysfunctional bromance and skin-crawlingly horrific can’t really be filed next to anything else. It’s also, …
Once a year, Europe (And that’s a surprisingly elastic geographical definition here) comes together to see who can produce a song which is simultaneously the most exuberant, ridiculous, banal and catchy. The Eurovision Song Contest is The Hunger Games with added disco, The Running Man with a bloke in an enormous hamster wheel. It’s a …
A little while back, I interviewed old friend Clara Barker about her second album, Fine Art & The Breslins. It’s a great album and now I’ve had a chance to listen to it a few times, it’s clear just how smart, and clear-eyed, Clara’s work on it is.