Doctor Who: The Doctor Falls. Television Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * * *

Cast: Peter Capaldi, Pearl Mackie, Matt Lucas, Michelle Gomez, John Simm, Briana Shann, Rosie Boore, Samantha Spiro, Simon Coombs, Stephanie Hyam, David Bradley.

“Without hope, without witness, without reward…” except for fan and casual viewer of Doctor Who alike, The Doctor Falls is an episode that gives that last part of the speech cause to contradict itself, with reward, the great return of a series that always seems under attack from a section of society that doesn’t know how to handle well made science fiction without denigrating it to the base offence, that somehow by striking a cord with its fans it somehow means it has to be assaulted and confronted on all sides.

Doctor Who: The Doctor Falls. Television Review. full post

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

Last Night I Prayed.

I clasped my hands together like a child,

before I found I no longer believed,

and as I lay on the sofa, hiding

from the dark, two in the morning blues,

I prayed;

not to your God,

not to mine of childhood nightmares

of Heaven and Hell,

but to the wider Universe,

to the ground in which our feet may tread

and to my ancestors,

please end this suffering

of a woman I love, I implored silently,

only once raising my voice when the strain

Last Night I Prayed. full post

(125 words, estimated 30 secs reading time)

Another Story From Another Place, Theatre Review. Unity Theatre, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

Cast: Lucy Fiori, Austin Hewitt.

The art of entertaining children, let alone an audience, is one that is vastly underrated. The minds of the young crave knowledge and yet they will not allow themselves to put up with the half baked or the condescending; for them a tale worth telling is a tale worth telling well, it is after all how we as a society get them to appreciate their imagination and treat it with respect and sanctity.

Another Story From Another Place, Theatre Review. Unity Theatre, Liverpool. full post

(356 words, estimated 1:25 mins reading time)

Baby Driver, Film Review. Picturehouse@F.A.C.T., Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

Cast: Ansel Elgort, Jon Hamm, Eiza González, Micah Howard, Lily James, Morgan Brown, Kevin Spacey, Morse Diggs, CJ Jones, Sky Ferreira, Lance Palmer, Hudson Meek, Viviana Chavez, Hal Whiteside, Flea, Lanny Joon, Jamie Foxx, Clay Donahue Fontenot.

 

The heist, a cinematic idea that has stood the test of time and sometimes patience, a theme that still produces a feeling of warmth for many to whom cinema is the true meaning of escapism, the expression of being part of against the system but not getting your hands dirty.

Baby Driver, Film Review. Picturehouse@F.A.C.T., Liverpool. full post

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

Despicable Me 3, Film Review.

 

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

Cast: Steve Carell, Kristen Wiig, Trey Parker, Miranda Cosgrove, Dana Gaier, Nev Scharrel, Pierre Coffin, Steve Coogan, Julie Andrews, Jenny Slate, Michael Beattie, Andy Nyman, Adrian Ciscato, Brian T. Delaney, Katia Saponenko.

Not quite so Gru-some but still very enjoyable with overtones of brilliance; for the lovers of Despicable Me, this third outing of a villain turned hero, his adopted children and arguably one very special group of comedic sidekicks in the history of animation, is still of such quality that the whole family can go along to the cinema and come out with everybody happy and content.

Despicable Me 3, Film Review. full post

(357 words, estimated 1:26 mins reading time)

Oh (Happy Birthday) Canada.

Is it right to wish you

Happy Birthday,

the land in which my grandfather loved

and would speak so highly of

as he sat in his favourite armchair,

Saturday glued to the horse racing,

picking up pennies won,

here and there,

after all, and I say this with the love

of someone who has held you just

as aloft as the grey haired man

who fell asleep one day in March,

three thousand miles from home

and dreaming of air so vast,

you was there before this day

Oh (Happy Birthday) Canada. full post

(172 words, estimated 41 secs reading time)

I Waged War.

I waged war tonight,

chemical warfare

in amongst the utensils, quickly

removed, shoved aside as

bombardment and napalm

rained down on the invaders.

I waged war,

against my better judgement

on a species intent on seizing

the momentum

whilst my back was turned,

whilst my guard was down

wind of their presence,

crawling through cracks,

damned ants, I waged war, thunderbolt

fists crashed, bleached top, powder,

not for the ant’s enjoyment or for their party

no doubt taking place in

an underground cave beneath

I Waged War. full post

(123 words, estimated 30 secs reading time)

Southbound Attic Band, Seekers Of Solace. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Life would be intolerable without the huge abundance of many fantastic bands and artists that live and breathe their daily toil of observation and celebration of life in all its shapes and often mishaps; life would certainly be more boring, less examined, surely unendurable without the Seekers Of Solace and the wonderful tale told, Southbound Attic Band’s Barry Jones and Ronnie Clark.

Southbound Attic Band, Seekers Of Solace. Album Review. full post

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

Roger McGough/ Royal Philharmonic 10/10 Ensemble. Summer With Monika. Music Rooms, Philharmonic Hall, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * * *

Poetry and music give the same sense of hope and beauty to which arguably nothing else made by our own minds and creative souls, save an artist’s delicate touch or an actor’s soliloquy, can stand up to in comparison. Combine them, join them at the hip and something truly magical happens, it can feel like seeing the stars for the first time, watching a waterfall cascade over thousands of years of rocks and rubble which have been shaped by time and patience or even the wide eyed wonder of a child realise that the world is there to be explored. In nature the moment is forever, in the words of one of Britain’s finest poets of the last one hundred years, it is a spectacle that makes your heart glow.

Roger McGough/ Royal Philharmonic 10/10 Ensemble. Summer With Monika. Music Rooms, Philharmonic Hall, Liverpool. full post

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

Pippin, Theatre Review. Unity Theatre, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

Cast: Chris Walsh, Pete Fendall, Matthew Sheffield, Tom Loughlin, Steph Scrutton, Heather Burns, Eilish Mulvihill, Thomas Wiggins, Eugene Chong, Megan Key, Andrew Abrahamson, Kate Rugen, Andy Walker, Lizzie Paes, Charlotte Wilson, Steph Longmuir, Lily Maketansky.

Musicians: Josie Conti, Mark Newberry, Amy Fazakerley, Holly Burrows, Abigail Morris, Chloe Farrington, Tom Crowley, Xana Davies, Joe Barnes, Laura Copestake, Ben Dyer, Jonny Knight, Luke Thomas.

Pippin, Theatre Review. Unity Theatre, Liverpool. full post

(516 words, estimated 2:04 mins reading time)