I keep looking for the cracks,
the tell tale sign of disrepair,
that stems from attic to foundation
and the worrying whisper of wet,
damp through rumours and idle gossip
of the leak somewhere in this housed body;
perhaps I should look for the solid join,
too few,
too few original parts,
just the undertone of shifting
boards that sigh, telling me it’s too late,
my edifice, my home
is breaking down.
Ian D. Hall 2018
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10
Gary Numan at the 02 Academy, Liverpool. March 2018. Photograph used with kind permission by Dave Edwards.
The dust has barely settled upon the knowledge that the world is broken, not just torn at the seams, stretching thin like black tights that cannot contain the expanding skin or a ceiling under the pressure of water that has started to buckle and strain, the thin plaster becoming slack before coming cascading down upon the floor below; the world is broken and it is arguably in many ways, impossible to put right again.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * *
Cast: John Boyega, Scott Eastwood, Cailee Spaeny, Burn Gorman, Charlie Day, Tian Jing, Zin Zhang, Adria Arjona, Rinko Kikuchi, Karen Brar, Wesley Wong, Ivanna Sakhno, Mackenyu, Lily Ji, Shyrley Rodriguez, Rahart Adams, Levi Meaden, Dustin Clare, Chen Zitong.
There are films that come out of the imagination in which the viewer is perfectly aware of the debt they owe to other cinematic releases, of the plot line and the likelihood of the character’s chances of survival, of the overall plot line, whether it be paper thin or elaborately complex in the writer’s eyes, such films are bread and butter, they are the popcorn and the go to safety net in which to feel the thrill but not ask too many questions afterwards.
I go to search for you
online as I haven’t heard from you
in quite some time, I picture your face
and I smile, I remember your laugh,
your loves, the sad times and the moments
that fell to Earth in between,
thousands of ground dust silica particles
inhaled and tearing apart the breath for you,
as I struggle to think of your name,
once a volcano
erupting
reduced to shredded glass and faded recollections
suffering under the weight off the landslide mud
that has come to clog my own dying volcano.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10
Yes at the Philharmonic Hall in Liverpool. March 2018. Photograph by Ian D. Hall.
It is the longevity of certain bands that inhabit the Progressive Rock genre that makes the prospect of certain anniversaries a moment to salivate, and whilst nothing can last forever, that at some point the world has to give way to the next generation, that age rather than the dullness of the senses is what comes for us all.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *
Within each of us there is the urge to have achieved recognition in our name, just even the once, we sit and believe and revel in the daydream of putting out a catalogue of work to live in the sense of the forever. To say when the time comes that something lives on after we pass away into the great eternity, be it a small pebble thrown to cause several ripples, or the building of a dam in which to change the course of the once lazy tide into a more productive surge and rush of water. Before we say Over and Out down the radio transistor of life, we should consider that we can at least achieve something good in our own name.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 7/10
Cast: Claire Foy, Joshua Leonard, Sarah Stiles, Marc Kudish, Amy Irving, Colin Woodell, Myra Lucretia Taylor, Linda Mauze, Zach Cherry, Polly McKie, Jay Pharoah, Raúl Castillo, Juno Temple, Michael Mihm, Robert Kelly, Natalie Gold, Sol Marino Crespo, Will Brill, Stephen Maier, Matthew R. Staley, Matt Mancini, Emily Happe, Gibson Frazier, Erin Wilhelmi, Aimee Mullins, Joseph Reidy, Erika Rolfsrud, Elizabeth Goodman.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10
It always seems that the choice of music that a group comes out on stage to is a huge indicator of how the evening might progress, as if it is a secret message being audibly sent to the crowd, a musical Morse code filled with important notes and playful notation advising the audience of the adventure ahead. If The Stranglers for example can come out to their own Waltz In Black and Marillion at one time to La Gazza Ladra; it only is surely appropriate that Scotland’s The Fratelli’s, with all their high eyebrow cool and playful intentions, appear back in Liverpool to The Can Can.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10
It is the most endearing of qualities, the act of permanent kindness, one that can be lauded but is often abused, taken advantage of, being seen as a gain for all except for the person to whom their heart is in the right place and the urge to be constantly thoughtful often betrays the way they are looked upon.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *
It seems everything we do today is dictated by the push of the clock, we are in the grip of chaos to beat deadlines at an ever more consuming rate, we are pushed to the point of breaking and then people wonder why the robot you have become, suddenly starts to break down, the odd bit of snapping back occurs and the ever increasing heart rate becomes a dawning of realisations, that in the end you should have done it all In Your Own Sweet Time.