Erja Lyytinen, Another World. Single Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

It is no surprise these days when the mainstream finds the understanding of the power of the belief in parallel universes, the worlds in which we inhabit, the different turns that we could have made as a species, as individuals, the decisions that would have made our lives infinitely nobler, more virtuous, perhaps more deranged, more exciting, less convincing, the enormity of a single fated moment in time dictating the rest of your life, judging you for a single snapshot of left or right at life’s impossible junction.

Erja Lyytinen, Another World. Single Review. full post

(404 words, estimated 1:37 mins reading time)

Mike Zito, Blue Room. Album Review. (2018 Re-Issue).

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10


Revisiting an old lover is either a pleasure renewed, or the moment in which you might wonder what was the initial attraction which drove you into their arms and shower them with the virtue and kisses they demanded, which you were happy to supply with open heart and mind. The casual call from out of the Blue Room, the tingle of excitement, the fizz of the electricity that once melted your heart and brought a new feeling of passion to the soul,

Mike Zito, Blue Room. Album Review. (2018 Re-Issue). full post

(628 words, 1 image, estimated 2:31 mins reading time)

Doctor Who: The Ghost Monument. Television Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Jodie Whittaker, Bradley Walsh, Tosin Cole, Mandip Gill, Susan Lynch, Shaun Dooley, Art Malik, Ian Gelder.

The finest of traditions are upheld when The Doctor does not understand everything that is laid out, throughout the long history of the much-loved programme, the element of doubt is one that leaves a longer lasting smile on the fan’s minds than the neatly, over-explained, often patronising view laid out by various writers. It is a tradition in which the new Doctor is thrust into with great forethought by Chris Chibnall as the worlds of time, space and new companions are brought together in the second of Jodie Whittaker’s appearance as the enigmatic alien, in The Ghost Monument.

Doctor Who: The Ghost Monument. Television Review. full post

(513 words, estimated 2:03 mins reading time)

David Hine & Mark Stafford, Lip Hook. Graphic Novel Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

In the small corners of the society we live in, there are stories of the old ways that have persisted, overcoming the likes of religious dogma, the sense of so- called Christian integrity that have gained a foothold on the country’s psyche, the Calvinist ethic, the Methodist belief, the Catholic doctrine, all shrouded in the rituals and observance that allows in many ways the rampaging evil of Capitalism to stoke the furnaces and lay waste to millions of people’s souls every year.

David Hine & Mark Stafford, Lip Hook. Graphic Novel Review. full post

(574 words, estimated 2:18 mins reading time)

Ol’ White Men.

 

I never thought

that I could ever be charged

with the crime

of being an Ol’ white man.

Despite having never once

seen myself as but

an ally, a willing supporter

and cheerleader of feminism,

an enthusiast of different cultures

and romantic scholar of other’s values

a devotee of equalism…

somehow,

I am just an Ol’ white dude

who cares nothing

for anything;

I wonder what my life was for

in such moments,

I stood for all,

now, none stand with me.

Ol’ White Men. full post

(90 words, estimated 22 secs reading time)

Emilio Pinchi, Holiday. E.P. Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

The art of melancholy is sadly underrated, it finds itself being treated as a state of unhappiness, to the cynical it is a passion for the miserable, a self-indulgent exercise which the unfounded optimistic cannot fathom and finds suspicious; like those who strive for years to have the Holiday of their dreams, the jealous will always sneer and beat their heads with regarded sage thought.

Emilio Pinchi, Holiday. E.P. Review. full post

(407 words, estimated 1:38 mins reading time)

Polly Panic, Losing Form. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

In the depths of a cello’s heart lives a sound that is arguably unique across the members of the string musical family. The double bass might be stout, resolute, never wavering in its texture, the violin may be more beautiful, the sound of the siren as she entices sailors to fall at her feet as the waves crash into rocks and the heart breaks with the sound of handsome, ethereal taste.

Polly Panic, Losing Form. Album Review. full post

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

Liverpool Sound And Vision: An Interview With Eddi Reader.

Occasionally in life you may find yourself in conversation with a person who leaves you feeling so utterly at peace with yourself that you cannot but help relax, intrigued with what they have to say, and finding that despite your phone doing its upmost to scupper the connection made between two human beings, that the interviewee is calm, collected and kind enough to understand that these things happen, that at the end of the day the Cavalier approach is quite often the best policy to adopt.

Liverpool Sound And Vision: An Interview With Eddi Reader. full post

(2091 words, estimated 8:22 mins reading time)

Blood Runs Deep, Theatre Review. Unity Theatre, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

Cast: Brandon McCaffery, Alice Merivale, Emma Vaudrey, John Schumacher.

It is the sins of the past that we inherit, perhaps shame gets sprinkled into the D.N.A., a dash of wickedness and a whole load of emotional turmoil, if we are fortunate it skips us, loses its power with each generation, and eventually the gene which causes us to contemplate such vile acts and misdeeds is eradicated.

Blood Runs Deep, Theatre Review. Unity Theatre, Liverpool. full post

(451 words, estimated 1:48 mins reading time)

The Deleted Scenes.

 

The deleted scenes

hidden away, far

in the recess

of the compartment marked

as pain, of abuse, of the neglectful reel

of shame, red-faced and embarrassment

caused, we skip over those moments

and turn our heads when

the obituary notice

at the end of the night of Oscar

winning performances

is revealed; the deleted scenes

erased, erased

erased,

but never on every machine

that recorded the moment…

somewhere your deleted scene

is still being viewed.

 

Ian D. Hall 2018

The Deleted Scenes. full post

(83 words, estimated 20 secs reading time)