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Recent Listening (Audiobook): Strong Female Character by Fern Brady.
Sometimes an audiobook trumps the written word. Barack Obama’s A Promised Land may be a case in point, because he voiced it. Fern Brady’s youngish memoir is another, because her astonishing voice makes this so much more relatable than it maybe is in print, although it will be wonderful in this medium too. I confess to be all-in with Fern. Her no-prisoner open-book comedy has drawn me in and the…
Recent Reading: Slough House by Mick Herron
Mick Herron is such a frustrating writer. His use of language is nuanced, often hilarious, clever, topical but sometimes somewhat obfuscating. He knows how to craft a world class insult. But, and it’s a big but, he’s not a novelist to read late at night, because his tightly woven plots with myriad characters and labyrinthine plots need careful attention to detail. In truth, I think his Slough…
It's my Beatles Birthday.
When I get older, losing my hair, many years from now (Lost hair. Check) (Many Years from now – nope today)Will you still be sending me a valentine, birthday greetings, bottle of wine? (Not sent valentines for years. Birthday greetings. Check. Bottle of wine. Check.)If I’d been out ’til quarter to three, would you lock the door?(Impossible to be out that late now, but the door would be locked,…
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Project Hail Mary: Movie Review
Ryan Gosling has made some great movies, this being one of the best. It sits alongside LaLa Land and Drive as his best work to date and he shares the screen, for most of the movie, with an animated rock, so that takes acting chops to deliver a 150 minute story that touches many emotions, but particularly humour. Screenwriters Drew Goddard and Andy Weir (who previously brought us The Martian and…
Recent Reading: Animal by Lisa Taddeo
I was excited to read this as it came pretty highly regarded, but I regret to say I bailed after 50 pages. I just coul;d not get into the writing style that was often wilfully obscure and to be frank after a bit I coudn’t be arsed. But, go on, read it. Tell me I’m mistaken.
Recent Reading: Butter by Asako Yuzuki.
This Japanese blockbuster, translated beautifully by Polly Barton, is very good indeed, although it is perhaps a touch on the long side. Concerning a real life Japanese mass murder trial of an overweight woman who used food to lure her male prey to their deaths, it takes the form of a novel. Journalist Rika has no appetite for food until she takes on the challenge of teasing an interview out of…
Recent reading: What We Can Know by Ian McEwan
This is my 21st Ian McEwan. His first 13 were universally brilliant (up till, and including, On Chesil Beach). Since then he has been decidedly hit and miss. Solar, Sweet Tooth, and now this are dogshit. This was an absolute trial from start to finish. It’s set both in the future, 2039 I think, and in the past, around 2010-14. And it’s a book about writing. Poetry specifically. And…
3,000 not out. A night at the Oscars.
This is it. My 3,000th post here. I’ve been oversharing here since October 2006, clocking up 1,544,012 views and 185,000 visitors. I know some of it, like this, is just stream of consciousness, but I’d like to think a few people have got little bits of inspiration along the way. My 3,000th post is a post of joy because my beloved Paul Thomas Anderson (PTA) finally rid himself of his Oscar…
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EPiC: Elvis Live in Concert: Movie Review
I’ll start by saying I’m not especially an Elvis Presley fan. And that I think Baz Luhrmann has a slightly patchy filmography. But I did enjoy his Elvis movie in 2022. This, however, is not a movie, it’s a full blown documentary, akin, in some ways, to Peter Jackson’s sublime “They Shall Not Grow Old” (his WWI recolourised documentary) and The Beatles “Get Back” TV series. It opens with a…
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Recent reading. How to AI by Christopher Mims.
I actually listened to this on Spotify for free rather than paying the £23 it commanded in the window of Waterstones. Drawn by the simplicity of the title, and my current obsession with AI, which I need to get up to speed with professionally, it proved to be an excellent listen on one level (the quality of the content) and atrocious on another (the worst narration in history, by the author…
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The Bride: Movie Review
There is talk that Maggie Gyllenhaal’s movie has reduced the chances of Jessie Buckley winning an Oscar for her role in Hamnet as it’s tarnished her reputation. But I beg to differ. This is a fine film that will obviously split opinion, but you can’t argue with the quality of Buckley’s slightly schizophrenic (tourette-like) performance. Yet again demonstrating her exceptional range as an actor…
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Now by Jasmin Vardimon Company at The MacRobert Arts Centre, Stirling: Review
I’m a sucker from great contemporary dance and this was great contemporary dance. The show, called now, is a reimagining of the best of 25 years of the Jasmin Vardimon Company, new to me, but I will keep my eyes open in furture because this was 85 minutes of electrifying visual creativity, technical trickery and exquisite, high level dance. A troupe of only seven commanded the MacRobert stage…
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A miraculous theatrical achievemt. You really MUST see this.
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Recent Listening: How to AI by Christopher Mims (audiobook)
I’ve been experimenting with LLMs—ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini—and, blimey, it’s like someone finally invented a tool that hands you a bagful of heuristics while you’re still trying to remember where you left your coffee. Oh, and I used Le Chat to help write this very blog post, because if you can’t practice what you preach, what’s the fucking point? Christopher Mims’ How to AI (a book you’ll…
"Wuthering Heights" Movie Review
“Wuthering Heights” the new Emerald Fennel movie produced by and starring Margot Robbie as Cathy has had some “withering Depths” reviews but I’m going to back the trend. There has been considerable conjecture as to why the movie title is in inverted commas, and that’s because it’s ‘inspired by’ the book rather than a faithful retelling in movie form. I’m fine with that. If every production of…
The Chronology of Water: Movie Review
Terence Malik will probably enjoy this absorbing but tough to watch, directorial debut by Kristen Stewart. I adore artists like Stewart for their willingness to mix arthouse with big bucks franchise movies, and this is a classic example. It’s firmly in the arthouse camp and, as seems to be the recent trend in this area, features a slew of collaborative film companies. It seemed the opening…
Pluribus - Apple TV review
This is an odd series. For many its very, very slow pace has been too much and they’ve given up. I was close, but persevered and was rewarded with a genuinely original, but by no means perfect, viewing experience. It’s sort of post-apocalyptic in that the population of the planet (with the exception of 12 people – one being our main protagonist Carol Stark, played by Rhea Seehorn) have had their…
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