Author Archives: admin

Gotham: Series Three. Television Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Cast: Ben McKenzie, Donal Logue, David Mazouz, Morena Baccarin, Sean Pertwee, Robin Lord Taylor, Erin Richards, Carmen Bicondova, Cory Michael Smith, Jessica Lucas, Chris Chalk, Drew Powell, Maggie Geha, Benedict Samuel, Jamie Chung, James Carpinello, Naian Gonzalez Norvind, Ivana Milicevic, James Remar, Raymond J. Barry, Alexander Siddig.

It is often bewildering to see that some television series are not appreciated at the time of their showing, viewer apathy perhaps, a certain level of niggling tedium born arguably of the fact that society, in the main, has got too used to everything being on demand, too eager to binge and then becoming bored because the art form doesn’t move along as quick as their racing and almost jumbled thoughts.

Gotham: Series Three. Television Review. full post

(536 words, estimated 2:09 mins reading time)

The Longest Day.

 

The longest day

again, déjà vu of the dark night

in full colour expose,

so much light uncovered

and the thoughts of solitary

mean nothing to you

as you go about your business,

never caring, just revealing

your version of a day with dusk

at two ends, fear not

for now the nights start drawing in

and I can sleep easier

knowing you will dream of me more.

 

Ian D. Hall 2018

Permanent link to this post (76 words, estimated 18 secs reading time)

Nick Maddocks, Listen To Your Heart. E.P. Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

It doesn’t matter when you finally see the boldness in your action, after all the saying about it being a marathon and not a sprint is one of the most singular truths we can hold onto, that we take heart on. For if we set out to achieve all that is possible by the time we hit our 30th birthday, what is the point in carrying on afterwards; what do we gain by torturing ourselves that at the back of our minds we must urge others to do the same, we must always take heed when someone says Listen To Your Heart and keep going.

Nick Maddocks, Listen To Your Heart. E.P. Review. full post

(357 words, estimated 1:26 mins reading time)

The Bevvy Sisters, This Moment. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

It could be argued that all that matters is the here and now, that life in many ways has become an intransigent, almost rushed and unforgiving monster, one that snarls in pain when plans in the future are discussed, one that relishes the heartaches of the past and makes the thinker and the voyeur gnaw away at their own soul in a kind of perpetual madness.

The Bevvy Sisters, This Moment. Album Review. full post

(351 words, estimated 1:24 mins reading time)

Fiction Lies, Blue Lights. Single Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

No matter the state of the world, you can rely on music to bring you to a point where anything is achievable, where the voices that were thought to be silent, mute, hushed in their anger, are raised to the place where barriers are broken, where the noiseless find public outcry and opinion is against them.

The state of the world as we see it as we come to the end of this century’s second decade, is in flux, it hangs its head in shame at the actions taken by those we placed trust in, and those who should know better, it is the Blue Lights that will carry us hopefully from them, it is the Blue Lights that prove that Fiction Lies, that deceit will never prosper.

Fiction Lies, Blue Lights. Single Review. full post

(333 words, estimated 1:20 mins reading time)

Empty Words Of The New Colossus.

 

Give me your tired, your poor,

your huddled masses…

the centre of a sentence and sonnet of hope

that I memorised from childhood

and in which I vowed to witness

with my own eyes

when I finally

plucked up the courage to ask the lady to dance

with me, an immigrant

who wasn’t tired, was not poor,

had nobody to huddle with, but who

yearned to break free…New Colossus

on a distant shore, how, I hope,

you now weep angel as your promise

Empty Words Of The New Colossus. full post

(172 words, estimated 41 secs reading time)

Rab Noakes, Welcome To Anniversaryville. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

Any anniversary reached is worth commemorating, however there is something inspiring about reaching 50 years of artistic endeavour, of finding that what you may have first laid down in the heat of a moment’s love, regret, resentment or happiness, is what has driven you onwards ever since; that first scribbled line as you declared your feelings towards a person or the wrath of government, that is the flourish in which you always try to capture and see as a daily, monthly or yearly Welcome to Anniversaryville.

Rab Noakes, Welcome To Anniversaryville. Album Review. full post

(389 words, estimated 1:33 mins reading time)

CeCe Teneal & Soul Kamotion, #5or5000. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound And Vision Rating * * * *

To have any chance of success you need more than just the good will of one person in your corner; it is a sad state of affairs when a person’s voice in the modern world is drowned out by the flippant and the scratch your head unseemly. It is arguably the way of society now that has seen fit to laud the plastic and false and ignore the positive, the heroines and heroes to whom might get overlooked. To be in a million, or even 5 or 5000, requires people to open their hearts and their ears and allow the music to flow properly and with passion.

CeCe Teneal & Soul Kamotion, #5or5000. Album Review. full post

(360 words, estimated 1:26 mins reading time)

Death & The Penguin, Anomie. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

There is beauty in anarchy, even when the art involved might not seem as though it has a rebellious bone in its body, anarchy doesn’t have to be the great swathe of civil disorder, it must though lead to a renaissance of thought, no punches thrown, no fires started and glass smashed, all that is required in an age of illumination, is to see art explode like a bomb in the mind and the fallout scatter around enough to contaminate with fresh ideas all that come into contact with it.

Death & The Penguin, Anomie. Album Review. full post

(369 words, estimated 1:29 mins reading time)

Virago, Theatre Review. Hope Street Theatre, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * * *

Cast: Abigail McKenzie, Mike Sanders, Mark Holland, Charlotte Melville, Allan Nicol, Hayley Thompson, Caitlin Mary Carley Clough, Oliver John Lawrensen, Jessica Olwyn, Sam Walton.

With 2018 marking the centenary of voting rights for women and signalling the advent of the #metoo movement, the timing of Make It Write Productions’ Virago – four one-act plays focussing on formidable females – is savvy to say the least, as is executive producer Sharon Colpman’s diverse selection of scripts.

Virago, Theatre Review. Hope Street Theatre, Liverpool. full post

(560 words, estimated 2:14 mins reading time)