We all love a good treasure hunt. Even more so when it involves lost and fabled treasures from the distant past which thanks to ever more expansively-hyperbolic storytelling have taken on an aura so captivating that the very idea of them gets our collective pulse racing with only the Continue Reading
Our Last Summer: The emotionally-evocative geography of ABBA’s songs
ABBA is the great musical love of my life. Every single last one of their songs summon up some kind of powerful memory, including as a man in his ’50s a joyous/melancholic recalling of past memories, a theme that is common to many of the group’s epically-good songs. One Continue Reading
Retro movie review: Who Framed Roger Rabbit? (30th anniversary)
Diving back into the bright, technicolour world of the Robert Zemeckis-directed Who Framed Roger Rabbit?, which was released officially in Australia on 24 November 1988, is like re-acquainting yourself with a very funny, hilariously bawdy old friend whom you haven’t seen in years but with whom you still have Continue Reading
Go where no brick has gone before: The Lego Movie 2 – The Second Part
SNAPSHOT The LEGO Movie 2: The Second Part reunites the heroes of Bricksburg in an all new action-packed adventure to save their beloved city. It’s been five years since everything was awesome and the citizens are facing a huge new threat: LEGO DUPLO invaders from outer space, wrecking everything Continue Reading
Saturday Morning TV: The Secret Squirrel Show
First appearing in a prime-time animated special, The World of Atom Ant and Secret Squirrel, on 12 September 1965, Secret Squirrel (voiced by Mel Blanc) is my favourite Hanna-Barbera character after Scooby Doo. I’m not sure if it’s because he debuted on TV out the year I was born – Continue Reading
Now this is music #119: Farao, DYAN, Mija, Madge, Brynn Elliott + festive Lindsey Stirling
Standing out from the crowd can be tough. It’s often not enough to look the part, especially these days; you also have to sound the part, live the part, and have something fresh and interesting to say. These five artists most definitely do, taking life events and observances about Continue Reading
Who’s a Big Damn Hero? Mal and the crew of Firefly of course
SNAPSHOT Captain Malcolm Reynolds finds himself in a dangerous situation after being kidnapped by a bunch of embittered veteran Browncoats. (synopsis via EW) If you listen carefully, you can hear the sound of Firefly devotees wailing and gnashing their teeth, and bemoaning, once again, the fact the series was Continue Reading
Movie review: Fantastic Beasts – The Crimes of Grindelwald
Quite possibly one of the loveliest things that good fantasy or magically real films do is transport their audiences to a world far away from their own. While you are technically still sitting in a cinema, every other part of you, the dreaming, yearning, imaginatively-expansive parts of you are Continue Reading
Up, up and away: Dumbo gains cinematic altitude with new poster + trailer
SNAPSHOT From Disney and visionary director Tim Burton, the all-new grand live-action adventure “Dumbo” expands on the beloved classic story where differences are celebrated, family is cherished and dreams take flight. Circus owner Max Medici (Danny DeVito) enlists former star Holt Farrier (Colin Farrell) and his children Milly (Nico Continue Reading
Book review: Squirrel Days by Ellie Kemper
I just had the loveliest time sitting down and talking with Kimmy Schmidt. Having devoured every available episode of her, naturally, autobiographical, post-being trapped inside a bunker by a pedophilic cult leader sitcom – yep, that’s the premise and it works like a charm, an hilarious mix of quirky Continue Reading