When I was a boy
I believed that witches
were real.
Even good ones.
The Witch in the Wizard of Oz
scared me,
the pointy shoes
and I cheered when Dorothy
and her friends
dropped a house on her
tired withered body.
I reasoned that good witches
could wear high heeled shoes,
all black, stiletto points
and daggers in the stamped down male foot,
when we didn’t behave.
Dorothy, I thought,
you can leave those witches be.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *
We are told as children that in the woods live all manner of creatures and furry things with ears, beings that will eat us up if we stray from the path, that they will snatch us, make us disappear and end up in the broth boiling away in the middle of the woods. There are those creatures though that despite the initial fear of what lays beyond, have only your best interests at heart.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *
It is a task that not even the once King of Ephyra would have considered a viable option in return for rolling a large, round stone ball up a hill and trying to balance it before it fell down the other side and Sisyphus smacked his head in frustration; such punishment is cruel, unusual and points the way to the unwary and the innocent to be aware.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10
Sue Hedges has never been known for hiding in the corner, confidence, preparation and a voice that knows how to box the ears of those whose ignorance betrays them. Strong is as strong does, it is alright to appear so but you must have the compassion that goes along with it and as the listener takes in Ms. Hedges’ new album, one thought makes itself known, that this could be regarded as the next peak to be scaled and one brilliantly traversed.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10
If we are fortunate in life then we will have experienced love as both the person adored and the one who has feels their heart pound faster when near the person who makes them special; if we prosperous in love then we have been so close to a family member that to be without them is the hardest emotion to bare.
We know we can rely on them just for a kind word when the going gets tough, we can give them a hug without seeking permission, even when the moment isn’t right, we can miss a smile, the smell, the look, the worn out jumper they used to wear as a second skin, we miss them because our Tender hearts are only human.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10
The very name evokes images that split the heart, the mind and the emotions contained within. To some San Francisco is a by word of an era that never lived up to its potential, a symbolic gesture now dashed upon the rocks of commercialism, of a thought that has come to despise such notions of free love, radical politics and anti-war truth and made to cheapen them, made to see the age of Aquarius as nothing more than a desperate attempt to lead humanity away from the dogma of Capitalism.
From where Sting sat on his chair on the top floor of the Maritime Museum he could have looked out and witnessed a dock that was now home to small boat owners and had all the furnishings of renewal, a product of change, of one that was required to save an important link to the city of Liverpool’s past.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10
Cast: Dan Stevens, Christopher Plummer, Jonathan Pryce, Simon Callow, Justin Edwards, Morfydd Clark, Miriam Margolyes, Ian McNeice, Donald Sumpter, Cosimo Fusco, Bill Paterson, Miles Jupp, Annette Badland, Anna Murphy, Ger Ryan, John Henshaw, Ely Solan.
The modern notions of how we celebrate Christmas has come to divide the way we view the period which should be about decency, fairness and that seemingly old fashioned notion of goodwill to all. Some see it as an excuse for excess, some wallow in the frenzy and find their time afterwards beset in debt and worry, others perhaps arguably more at peace with their lot, just surround themselves with a smile, a memory of a loved one no longer in their sights and the hands of a loved one still by their side.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *
Cast: James Franco, Dave Franco, Seth Rogen, Ari Graynor, Alison Brie, Jacki Weaver, Paul Scheer, Zac Efron, Josh Hutcherson, June Diane Raphael, Megan Mullally, Jason Mantzouskas, Andrew Santino, Nathan Fielder, Joe Mande, Sharon Stone, Melanie Griffith, Bob Odenkirk, Kelly Oxford, Bryan Cranston.
English towns and cities,
grassy, curtain twitching villages
very little play Hamlets
seem so ordered and logical
in how they are named,
how they gained their identity,
Ox-Ford, seemingly self explanatory,
Ply-mouth, a river runs through it,
Birmingham, named after a great Norman,
Wallsend-
a future prophecy in which the great
Ice Cream Wars finally came to pass.
Ian D. Hall 2017