music – SparklyPrettyBriiiight

Eurovision Song Contest magic strikes again … Listen to “Volcano Man” from Will Ferrell’s “The Story of Fire Saga”

Posted on May 22, 2020May 22, 2020 by aussiemoose

SNAPSHOTEurovision Song Contest: The Story of Fire Saga is an upcoming American comedy film directed by David Dobkin, written by Andrew Steele and Will Ferrell and starring Ferrell, Rachel McAdams, Pierce Brosnan, Dan Stevens and Demi Lovato. The film follows Icelandic singers Lars Erickssong and Sigrit Ericksdottir as they are Continue Reading

Road to Eurovision 2020: Week 7 – France, Germany, Italy, Spain, The Netherlands, UK

Posted on May 16, 2020May 16, 2020 by aussiemoose

This is normally how I begin these review posts … What is the Eurovision Song Contest?Started way back in 1956 as a way of drawing a fractured Europe back together with the healing power of music, the Eurovision Song Contest, or Concours Eurovision de la Chanson – the contest is Continue Reading

Songs, songs and more songs #27: Aquilo, Ane Brun, Price Park & Jade Alice, uomo, Porter Robinson

Posted on May 15, 2020May 15, 2020 by aussiemoose

Life is busy and wonderful and exhausting and full of a million things to contemplate normally, even more so when things take a very dark turn like they have in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic. Processing it all can sometimes feel like an impossible task, beyond anything we can Continue Reading

Road to Eurovision 2020: Week 6 – Moldova, Poland, Portugal, San Marino, Serbia, Switzerland

Posted on May 9, 2020May 9, 2020 by aussiemoose

Songs, songs and more songs: ABBA and five songs of energetic defiance

Posted on May 6, 2020May 6, 2020 by aussiemoose

There is a popular perception of ABBA out in the general public of a Swedish group who were perpetually upbeat and sunny and whose music, composed of rich melodies and luscious harmonies, courtesy of the combined superlative vocal talents of Agnetha Fältskog and Anni-Frid Lyngstad, was the stuff of endlessly Continue Reading

Road to Eurovision 2020: Week 5 – Estonia, Finland, Georgia, Greece, Iceland, Latvia

Posted on May 2, 2020May 2, 2020 by aussiemoose

Songs, songs and more songs #26: Dagny, NZCA Lines, Gorgon City, PVRIS, Lemaitre

Posted on May 1, 2020April 30, 2020 by aussiemoose

COVID-19 has taken quite a lot of the expansive fizz from the world, making us feel that as we retreat into our homes, that our lives are following suit. But the thing is, as these songs remind us, that life, love and the pursuit never diminishes or is lost and Continue Reading

COVID-19 self-isolation getting you down? Stress not – Kermit the Frog’s is here to sweetly cheer you up

Posted on May 1, 2020May 1, 2020 by aussiemoose

Kermit the Frog has always the Muppet balm for a troubled soul. And it’s not exaggerating things to say that with COVID-19 troubling a great many souls in some fairly big ways, we need someone as kind, insightful, calm and sweet as Kermit (voiced since 2017 by Matt Vogel) now Continue Reading

Road to Eurovision 2020: Week 4 – Albania, Armenia, Austria, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Denmark

Posted on April 26, 2020April 26, 2020 by aussiemoose

Road to Eurovision 2020: Week 3 – Romania, Russia, Slovenia, Sweden, Ukraine

Posted on April 18, 2020May 9, 2020 by aussiemoose

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Book review: Mammoth by Chris Flynn

Humanity, you have been judged and found wanting. By a 13,000-year-old extinct mammoth fossil no less. While that revelation may be sobering, the good news is that the judgement is delivered by the extraordinarily imaginative novel, Mammoth by Chris Flynn, a book which takes the traditional anthropocentric view of the Continue Reading

Weekday pop art: If good movies were old books

In the usual scheme of things, movies and books don’t seem to have a whole lot in common. Different storytelling mediums – which for the more passionate among us usually ends up as “versus” situation rather than an “or” one – differing levels of expository or interior detail and complete Continue Reading

At home COVID-19 French Film Festival: Fool Circle (Tristesse Club)

It’s interesting watching a film that is clearly meant to be one thing but despite the best efforts, you would presume, of everyone involved, ends up being quite another thing entirely. Case in point is the Vincent Mariette written (he co-wrote with Vincent Poymiro) and directed 2014 film, Tristesse Club Continue Reading

Book review: Peta Lyre’s Rating Normal by Anna Whateley

One of the reasons many of us read is to be taken to places and realities far beyond our own and to get to know people who otherwise might never be a part of our lives. It is enormous privilege to be given the chance to dive into a world Continue Reading

Creativity in a time of COVID-19 lockdown: Sam Neill and Helena Bonham Carter in Das Fone Hell

While there has been a great deal to hate about being stuck in the midst of a seemingly neverending pandemic, one cool thing to emerge is the way it has inspired some amazing creativity from a slew of authors, actors, musicians and others. These are all people who found their Continue Reading

COVID-19 retro movie festival: What If? (The F Word) #MovieReview

It’s the eternal struggle. (Well, one of the many at least; humanity does not make things easy for itself.) At what point does a friend become something more and is that even possible when the object of your unstated but clearly obvious affection is not even in the position to Continue Reading

The Mandalorian: The LEGO is now strong with its trailer

The Mandalorian is hands (or lightsabres) down one of the best TV series of the last 12 months. “… a big budget, cinematically resplendent piece of storytelling that fits neatly, and with Rogue One edginess, into the rapidly re-expanding official Star Wars universe”, The Mandalorian took us deep into the Continue Reading

Book review: The Lost Future of Pepperharrow by Natasha Pulley

Diving headlong into a sequel novel without first reading the book that preceded it can be fraught with all kinds of difficulties. This is especially the case, when like this reviewer, you are unaware that the novel you have next on your TBR pile follows on from a well-received predecessor Continue Reading

At Home #COVID19 French Film Festival: 5 delightful shorts incl. Oktapodi, Stuffed, The Pocketman, After the Rain and Sam’s Dream

Animated short films are a delight in so many ways. They demand of their creators an elegant economy of storytelling, a knack for near-instant fully-realised characterisation and a visual style which can set the scene quickly and keep building until a not-far-off finale. These five French animated shorts, accessed via Continue Reading

Six seasons and a … table read? Community cast re-enact episode “Cooperative Polygraphy” for a good cause

It turns out that there’s lots of things you can do from your own home that, pre-COVID-19, no one had actually thought to try because, well, frankly, we had the outside world and gatherings with other humans for that. But with social isolation still very much in place for many Continue Reading

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