Deadpool 2. Film Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * * *

Cast: Josh Brolin, Ryan Reynolds, Morena Baccarin, Zazie Beetz, Brianna Hildebrand, Brad Pitt, Bill Skarsgård, Matt Damon, T.J.Miller, Terry Crews, Rob Delaney, Alan Tudyk, Julian Dennison, Lewis Tan, Jack Kesy, Eddie Marsan, Shioli Kutsuna, Hayley Sales, Stefan Kapicic, Karan Soni, Sala Baker, Nicholas Hoult, James McAvoy, Evan Peters, Tye Sheridan.

In the land of the sequel, the audience is normally attuned to the fact that by and large the film will be below par, sometimes disastrously with a plot that was based on profit potential, sometimes just out of plain high expectation, but the result will be the same, that like most films, the sequel is never in the same class as the original.

Deadpool 2. Film Review. full post

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

Her Today.

Her today,

it is the song you sing

when the times get rough,

the call you make

when the nights become lonely,

Her today,

laying on satin sheets

in a crumbled down room

and as old as time

wall paper peeling in hard to reach corners,

Her today,

is the image in your mind,

silk black stockings

or American tan, like some

1950s desperate showgirl,

Her today

you have never left her behind,

she just sleeps in that thin space

Her Today. full post

(140 words, estimated 34 secs reading time)

Dawn Oberg, Gig Review. The Cavern Club, Liverpool. International Pop Overthrow 2018.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

To take the entertainment and skill of the cabaret lounge and place under the intense microscope of the unsuspecting eyes of Liverpool Cavern Club patrons may seem an unlikely success, but for musician Dawn Oberg, the combination of upbeat performance and hard-hitting lyrics is one that anybody finding themselves in the company of the artist, could not fail to like, admire and wish she was in Britain more often than her native home in the United States of America.

Dawn Oberg, Gig Review. The Cavern Club, Liverpool. International Pop Overthrow 2018. full post

(413 words, estimated 1:39 mins reading time)

Sleuth, Gig Review. The Cavern Club, Liverpool. International Pop Overthrow 2018.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Investigation is half the enjoyment of witnessing an abundance of bands when the Independent Pop Overthrow comes to one of its host cities. The research, the crossing off of a band, the tick box and the doodled happy face when you come across a group or artist who floats your boat and scratches the itch of the years of painted over smiles and thoughtful applause.

Sleuth, Gig Review. The Cavern Club, Liverpool. International Pop Overthrow 2018. full post

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

Midsomer Murders: The Curse Of The Ninth. Television Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Neil Dudgeon, Nick Hendrix, Fiona Dolman, Manjinder Virk, Callum Blake, Simon Callow, Colin Michael Carmichael, Robert Daws, James Fleet, Rosie Holden, Matthew Jacobs Morgan, Caroline Langrishe, Cyril Nri, Maggie O’ Neill, Joseph Prowen, Flora Spencer-Longhurst.

You can be scarred for life by the sword as it maims you, cuts into your skin and draws blood, but it is death by the bow that leaves you cold and frightened, the artist’s revenge and thoughts of cold bloodied murder always more palpable as the strings are drawn and the fire in the cold stare is highlighted across the bridge and the arm, drawing back till something snaps and the music becomes a requiem.

Midsomer Murders: The Curse Of The Ninth. Television Review. full post

(416 words, estimated 1:40 mins reading time)

Bleak Times.

 

In rainstorms, you look for the lightning

in the distance and hope

that the growl of dark clouds

keeps far and away from your door,

yet you know that for all the sunshine

that may come tomorrow, or the day after

that, that cloud will move on, seemingly spent;

instead it just finds more relish

to pour down elsewhere,

perhaps drowning some

in the process.

 

Ian D. Hall 2018

Permanent link to this post (73 words, estimated 18 secs reading time)

Alison Green, Gig Review. The Cavern Club, Liverpool. International Pop Overthrow 2018.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * * *

Alison Green at The Cavern Club, May 2018. Photograph by Ian D. Hall.

 

Some musicians and artist exemplify their surrounding so much that it is impossible to think of them in any other way, that the Cavern, the older, the more insistent part of Liverpool’s heritage in musical terms, should see the Independent Pop Overthrow return with such spectacular vision as to have within its ranks for a fifth straight year, Canterbury’s own but Liverpool loved, Alison Green.

Alison Green, Gig Review. The Cavern Club, Liverpool. International Pop Overthrow 2018. full post

(525 words, 1 image, estimated 2:06 mins reading time)

The Nova Flares. E.P. Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

If there was an award for ergonomic design, of spacious interlude and a towering view across the palatial and regal within music, then it could be argued that Jason Wagers and his music under the banner of Nova Flares would surely win hands down. The setting of the Progressive undertones flowing freely with the textured might of instrumental harmony always deserves such freedom to explore, it is after all the only healthy option, the only sensible choice in which to stand.

The Nova Flares. E.P. Review. full post

(310 words, estimated 1:14 mins reading time)

Innocent. Television Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Lee Ingleby, Daniel Ryan, Adrian Rawlins, Hermione Norris, Angel Coulby, Fionn O’Shea, Nigel Lindsay, Eloise Webb, Samuel Edward-Cook, Zahra Ahmadi, Hannah Britland, Christine Cole, Tony Gardner, Nicholas Asbury, Elliott Cowan.

To serve time, in any capacity, for a crime you didn’t commit; has to be arguably the most soul destroying, most seething with rage and contempt for your peers that you will ever feel, the emotions run high, the anger always at boiling point, and with no way to let off steam because you are locked away. The system, corrupt and dishonest, shakes your belief to the very core and no matter how hard it is to keep face, to show the world you are not beaten, the illusion of being Innocent soon slips away; society exacting its pound of flesh in revenge for the misdeeds you didn’t commit.

Innocent. Television Review. full post

(541 words, estimated 2:10 mins reading time)