Author Archives: admin

Thor: Ragnorak. Film Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Cast: Chris Hemsworth, Tom Hiddleston, Cate Blanchett, Idris Elba, Jeff Goldblum, Tessa Thompson, Karl Urban, Mark Ruffalo, Anthony Hopkins, Benedict Cumberbatch, Taika Waititi, Rachel House, Clancy Brown, Tadanobu Asano, Ray Stevenson, Zachary Levi, Luke Hemsworth, Sam Neill.

Norse mythology is such that it gets overlooked in the modern world in favour of a more fashionable awareness of modern possibilities, political issues and our place in the world. It is not only Norse that suffers, even now looking say at British history in the history of the Roman occupation can lead to sneers of derision in some quarters, people, perhaps understandably, forgetting that the way we are now is because of the stories passed down in myth and legend, Roman, Greek, Egyptian, Native American, Inuit or even Norse, they play a part in the way we view heroes and evil in the world.

Thor: Ragnorak. Film Review. full post

(500 words, estimated 2:00 mins reading time)

Murder On The Orient Express (2017). Film Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Kenneth Branagh, Penelope Cruz, Willem Defoe, Judi Dench, Johnny Depp, Josh Gad, Derek Jacobi, Leslie Odem, Michelle Pfeiffer, Daisy Ridley, Marwan Kenzari, Olivia Colman, Lucy Boynton, Manuel Garcia-Rulfo, Sergei Polunin, Tom Bateman, Miranda Raison, Paapa Essiedu, Michael Rouse, Joseph Long, Elliot Levey, David Annen, Kathryn Wilder, Phil Dunster.

It is a story that evokes images that many of us will never see, never experience and one that captures the raw cold hate of many emotions, as well as the beauty of the scenery that is on offer as one of the most famous pieces of engineering takes its passengers through Europe.

Murder On The Orient Express (2017). Film Review. full post

(492 words, estimated 1:58 mins reading time)

Saturday Night: Drowned Out Firework.

 

Didn’t we

have a grand day out,

just you and I, hiding

in the shadow of the cinema glare,

a motion picture about nothing

at all and then a play,

after a hastily eaten meal,

that signified the roar

and enthusiastic, spontaneous applause

of the crowd

thankful that the rain

had spoiled a thousand bonfire nights.

 

Ian D. Hall 2017

Permanent link to this post (64 words, estimated 15 secs reading time)

Samantha Fish, Belle Of The West. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * * *

Even in the current political and social climate it is easy to fall in love with America; there is something beautiful, a passion that unifies in the most unexpected places and raises the ghosts of all that once passed. This passion does not require a flag to be raised, a declaration of faith with hand on heart as if stopping from beating to fast from the opinionated wealth and abundance that is there to trick the passer-by into thinking that all is rosy in the garden founded and fought over for centuries. It is though in the spirit of the person, the Belle of the West, that makes America such a proposition of glory.

Samantha Fish, Belle Of The West. Album Review. full post

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

Peter Fergus McClelland, The Turn of the Tide: Songs of the Sea, Coast, Fishing, Rivers, Lovers & Banishment. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

The river plays such an important part in our lives that the only surprise is that perhaps we don’t venerate it in song even more than we do. No matter where you live, what county, what city or town, there is a river nearby that has had tales, songs and lyrical beauty bestowed upon it at some time or another. It doesn’t need to be the Thames, the musically enamoured Mersey, the mighty Clyde, the Tyne, the industrious Weir or the Tamar, what matters is that river plays such a role that the musician will find time to give it a moment of life, to capture it forever.

Peter Fergus McClelland, The Turn of the Tide: Songs of the Sea, Coast, Fishing, Rivers, Lovers & Banishment. Album Review. full post

(422 words, estimated 1:41 mins reading time)

Isolation: In A Spider’s Web.

Isolation, it is a fear more acute than

a room full of spiders,

for they at least

might be behind glass, snarling

away, venom rising,

wanting to taste your flesh; but they do it

only because they are hungry, not evil,

you are prey, not ridicule, as the first bite

goes deep into your skin

and the feeling of paralysis

comes over you in waves,

at least you know it is not out of hate.

 

Ian D. Hall 2017

Permanent link to this post (82 words, estimated 20 secs reading time)

John Jenkins, A New York Romance. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

A romance is something to be treasured, especially one that is hard fought for, arguably more so than the one that was easy, that fell into place and then as the saying goes, they lived happily ever after. It is better to hard won than to be won over with an empty promise, a meaningless gesture; it is the fight that shows others that it was all worth it in the end.

John Jenkins, A New York Romance. Album Review. full post

(460 words, estimated 1:50 mins reading time)

Cool Runnings.

 

I have never been fitter,

well in sarcasm terms anyway,

all this running in circles,

jumping through hoops,

clearing every hurdle

and pushing

myself forward

in a time

when all people want

is to be famous.

I just want to be able to live,

happy in the darkness,

not surrounded by obstacles

or contemplating the quick sprint,

out of breathe, out of touch,

just content to do the marathon

in my own time,

one foot

after another and to the beat of my own

Cool Runnings. full post

(94 words, estimated 23 secs reading time)

Blues Pills, Lady In Gold- Live In Paris. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

The lady might sing the Blues, but in the heart of the cultured Parisian theatres, it is a joyful affair, the rumble of the traditional beauty that Paris affords, the simple pleasure of painting scenic memories by the Seine, the grace in which their society flourished and was seen as a beacon of hope in the artistic world encompassing the down but not beaten and the regal posturing of good taste.

Blues Pills, Lady In Gold- Live In Paris. Album Review. full post

(447 words, 1 image, estimated 1:47 mins reading time)

Beast In Black, Berserker. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

You probably don’t believe that the trance like can take hold in something as acute or passionate as Power Metal, that the rage of the Berserker can be found settling into the form of the beasts that roam the stage, adrenaline fuelled, the blood pumping faster as if struggling to contain the soul. You might not believe in the hypnotic but as Beast In Black unburdens itself like a hero beside the fire, the warmth making the stories flow as if champagne is poured from the stars, then the hypnotic and the trance is what you find yourself in, the cascade of the words of the Berserker’s tale becomes the reason you fall under its spell.

Beast In Black, Berserker. Album Review. full post

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