Author Archives: admin

Desert Mountain Tribe, Om Parvat Mystery. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Music must progress, to allow it to stand still is to ask that the rain must never fall, that the sun must forever shine only on the privileged and that winds of good fortune and ill favour must always be separated into those who some higher power decrees it be upon. Music must be bold, music must flow like rivers drift and curse into the wider seas and oceans, it must shift course and it must take hold of the listener in ways they never expected it to; it must always remain a mystery in which the dutiful audiophile must explore and always understand that it can never be truly understood.

Desert Mountain Tribe, Om Parvat Mystery. Album Review. full post

(352 words, 1 image, estimated 1:24 mins reading time)

King Lear. Television Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * * *

Cast: Anthony Hopkins, Emma Thompson, Emily Watson, Jim Broadbent, Florence Pugh, Jim Carter, Andrew Scott, John Macmillan, Tobias Menzies, Anthony Calf, Karl Johnson, Christopher Eccleston, John Standing, Simon Manyonda, Chukwudi Iwuji, Samuel Valentine, Arinze Kene, Sharon Watts, Kaye Brown, Raphael Desprez, Peter Forbes, Sam Redford, Liam McKenna, Paul Tinto, Eric Kofi-Abrefa.

King Lear. Television Review. full post

(495 words, estimated 1:59 mins reading time)

Home From Home. Television Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 7.5/10

Cast: Johnny Vegas, Emilia Fox, Adam James, Niky Wardley, Oscar Kennedy, Harvey Chaisty, Paul Barber, Elaine Paige, Pearce Quigley, Olive Gray, Susan Calman.

Johnny Vegas certainly deserves his chance to headline a major B.B.C. comedy, after all, he has provided fans of the series Still Open All Hours with plenty of laughter, and his relationship with David Jason, Kulvinder Ghir and above all Sally Lindsay, is to be admired, the transition made from stand up to small screen is seamless, even perhaps a greater virtue, one in which finally the actor can feel Home From Home.

Home From Home. Television Review. full post

(442 words, estimated 1:46 mins reading time)

Solo: A Star Wars Story. Film Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 7/10

Cast: Alden Ehrenreich, Emilia Clarke, Donald Glover, Woody Harrelson, Thandie Newton, Phoebe Waller-Bridge, Paul Bettany, Jon Favreau, Linda Hunt, Joonas Suotamo, Ian Kenny, Anthony Daniels, John Tui, Warwick Davis, Erin Kellyman, Ray Park.

It is perhaps impossible to capture the essence of what makes a screen legend in a particularly iconic role; the one in which they not only ran with across four different films in a much-loved film series, but to whom in many ways was the absolute star, the one to whom the kids loved and the one that others admired. To try and do so would be reckless folly, and yet every hero needs their backstory told, every past needs to be explored and that of Han Solo is no exception.

Solo: A Star Wars Story. Film Review. full post

(475 words, estimated 1:54 mins reading time)

The Curse Of Adapting.

 

I wrote a thousand words down,

mostly direction, some form,

all cloud and dust from a temper that rages

to be free, simple

and subtle substance of memory

adapting to a new place, released

by a new phrase, new belief,

and yet as I look upon this meagre world

where pseudo black ink

discretely blots out pages of snow

and ice bound though,

I cry a little, for it surely is all for nought.

 

Ian D. Hall 2018

The Curse Of Adapting. full post

(82 words, estimated 20 secs reading time)

Shelby, Texas, We Are Shelby, Texas. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

In the heat of a spoilt Texas night, the sound of crickets and the thoughts of music gone by are sure to be illuminating, if not in many cases intimidating; add to that the beauty of the American Country ballad or the passion of a song that lights up the face when played in a bar that seems to be a few miles off down a dirt road and frequented by those with an absolute lust for the genre at hand, then you know you have been bitten by the gentle taste of the deep South and the mix of harmony that comes from Rock and Country.

Shelby, Texas, We Are Shelby, Texas. Album Review. full post

(399 words, estimated 1:36 mins reading time)

Stephen King, The Outsider. Book Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

It is perhaps one of our more realistic and understandably damaging fears, to lose our identity, to be accused of a crime that we know we didn’t commit but to have all the evidence, our D.N.A., witness statements and testimony from every conceivable source of police profiling and psychiatric testing, to have our identity wiped out, to have someone else wear your face, act like you, have your friends believe you have become evil, insane or just plain foolish, that is the basic premise of many nightmares and some great cinematic moments captured for eternity.

Stephen King, The Outsider. Book Review. full post

(506 words, estimated 2:01 mins reading time)

Wherever You Were.

 

Wherever you were yesterday, know

for sure that I thought of you,

that I talked of you, that I hoped

beyond measure

that your day was respectable, that you

did something positive

for someone else and atoned perhaps

the storm you left me in,

the disrespect shown as you slid

into a dirty corner and withered

from my sight, of no contact, of no Time…

I would ask of you, to seek me out

one day and ask of me what your actions meant

Wherever You Were. full post

(107 words, estimated 26 secs reading time)

On Chesil Beach, Film Review. Picturehouse@F.A.C.T., Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Saoirse Ronan, Billy Howle, Emily Watson, Samuel West, Anne-Marie Duff, Adrian Scarborough, Rasmus Hardiker, Bebe Cave, Jonjo O’Neill.

Time and sensitivity are not natural bed fellows, neither is truly mature enough to handle each other’s whims, demands or spoilt child like behaviour when the going gets tough; it takes a writer of delicate persuasion in which to capture the beauty in heartache and the sudden fall of a relationship which had been so clear before.

On Chesil Beach, Film Review. Picturehouse@F.A.C.T., Liverpool. full post

(437 words, estimated 1:45 mins reading time)

In Howth, It Started To Go Wrong.

The adorned grave in Howth,

overlooking an Irish Sea, was full

of memorabilia left by fans,

nearby a gardener mowed down

excess green tokens and kept order

between the various plots

lost to time, in his own small world

of Presidents and stars, of the ordinary men

and women who saw this village grow…

…time was we talked here, you and I,

before darkness fell

and shadows widened, we now reside

in cottages of straw and supposed moral

outrage, though yours is greater than mine,

In Howth, It Started To Go Wrong. full post

(131 words, estimated 31 secs reading time)