Paterson, Film Review. Picturehouse@F.A.C.T., Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

Cast: Adam Driver, Golshifteh Farahani, Chaston Harmon, William Jackson Harper, Barry Shabaka Henley, Johnnie Mae, Masatoshi Nagase.

There is only one thing worse than a poet without a voice, that their means of communication is destroyed by unseen hand and that is when they deny their craft in conversation to another poet, that their resolve or confidence is so low that they pretend or forget that they have spent time in the wordless void as they honed their verse.

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

(426 words, estimated 1:42 mins reading time)

Tuts.

It seemed much colder

for the time of year,

November in Bootle on the doorstep

whilst I fiddled for my keys, unlocking

the door with its customary deep groan,

“Hurry it’s cold”. You pronounced it cald

as if to draw out the meaning

and I told you so as I flicked the

inside light switch.

“What’s in a vowel?” You smiled,

beaming brighter than the bulb

over your head, incandescent.

“A lot”, I replied, “You would moan,

if in the cald,

I asked you to show me your tuts”.

Tuts. full post

(96 words, estimated 23 secs reading time)

The Innocents, Film Review. Picturehouse@F.A.C.T., Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 7.5/10

Cast: Lou de Laâge, Agata Buzek, Agata Kulesza, Vincent Macaigne, Joanna Kulig, Eliza Rycembel, Katarzyna Dabrowska, Anna Próchniak, Helena Sujecka, Mira Maluszinska, Dorota Kuduk, Klara Bielawka, Pascal Elso, Thomas Coumans, Leon Latan-Paszek

Not every story from the despair of World War Two has been told, not every action and reaction has been explored; however The Innocents seeks to address part of that by showing a world far removed from Julie Andrews singing the joys of spring as she wanders the hillsides in Germany-annexed Austria. Not every story has been told but there are some that you cannot help but wonder how they stay hidden for so long and the barbarity of some actions live long in the shadow, the stain of humanity.

The Innocents, Film Review. Picturehouse@F.A.C.T., Liverpool. full post

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

Black Friday.

Come inside the Mall,

the lights are bright and everything

is super, cheap and worth the risk,

of the stampede, of the pushing

and shoving, the charge of wallet and purse brigade,

the scattering of Stilettoes, the handbags

seized and used as battering rams,

the abuse towards the sales people, that’s O.K.,

the abuse towards your fellow man, that’s O.K.,

worth a black eye, that’s O.K. man,

as long as you get your 50 inch television

for fifty Dollars, quid, Euros, nicker less,

the money saved still more

Black Friday. full post

(145 words, estimated 35 secs reading time)

John Chatterton, Gig Review. The Casa, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

It is a question of illusion, do you listen to music or do you watch it, do you shut your eyes in the crowd and let each note transport you to another place, another realm, or do somehow diminish the sound you are hearing and take in visually as much as possible, letting your eyes be astonished by the speed, the delicate and the insanely beautiful. It is a question of illusion for in John Chatterton, you have to peel back the ears, let the eyes widen in anticipation and just sit there without an animated bone in the body and let life have its way with you, let it entertain and entrance for John Chatterton does things on a guitar that leave you breathless in their simplicity and amazed in their complex belief.

John Chatterton, Gig Review. The Casa, Liverpool. full post

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

Eleanor Nelly, Gig Review. The Casa, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

A hall fit for heroes of their craft, or perhaps just a simple way to enjoy the sound of a woman who is surely destined for great things, be it here in the suburbs of her home town in Liverpool or the drama of undiluted cool across the United States where her music pretty much already has no rivals; in Eleanor Nelly there is flourishing youthful hope and she is class personified.

Eleanor Nelly, Gig Review. The Casa, Liverpool. full post

(453 words, estimated 1:49 mins reading time)

When We Are Married, Theatre Review. Playhouse Theatre, Liverpool. (2016).

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

Cast: Kat Rose-Martin, Luke Adamson, Sophia Hatfield, Mark Stratton, Geraldine Fitzgerald, Adrian Hood, Sue Devaney, Steve Huison, Kate Anthony, Lisa Howard, Matthew Booth, Barrie Rutter, Zoe Lambert, John Gully, Andy Hall.

Mr. J. B. Priestley never fails to deliver, even if there are those out in the dark who fail to get the nuance of the times and denounce the clever introspection the playwright had on British Society and making it look back on its own peculiarities and diminishing importance on the future. Whereas the epic An Inspector Calls is very much in the calm outraged camp, the heated tongue of a barracking old outdated ways of thought, his classic drawing room comedy When We Are Married is firmly in the chaotic tranquillity mode and it is one that never loses its heart, especially not in the hands of the superb Northern Broadsides.

When We Are Married, Theatre Review. Playhouse Theatre, Liverpool. (2016). full post

(484 words, estimated 1:56 mins reading time)

Standing Out.

Standing out

before the crowd

is so very unnatural to me,

always unique, a favourite singer

once said I was the oddest man

He knew,

yet I am not a natural performer,

safer in the shadows,

I write in the dark,

it is for others to shine

and for me to capture their spirit

yet sometimes I poke my mind

out into the open rain,

pouring like a melted mirror

and imagine the applause

for a single moment, the poem congratulated…

yet,

Standing Out. full post

(99 words, estimated 24 secs reading time)

Johnny Coppin, All On A Winter’s Night. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Christmas has a horrible habit of feeding many addictions, of allowing the schmaltz and the more commercial, the more consumed side of the festive period to be seen in all disturbing glory. It is hard not to be cynical about the time of year when so many people are either left alone or in want of conversation, a roof over their heads or something to eat; it is the time of year that can bring out the very worst in people…and thankfully the absolute best, the most beautiful in humanity, it is a credo that Johnny Coppin adheres throughout his sincere and wonderful arranged album  All On A Winter’s Night.

Johnny Coppin, All On A Winter’s Night. Album Review. full post

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

The Day I Narrated W.H. Auden On The Radio.

It was an honour

to have been on the radio, one that might

never be repeated,

yet

for a short while, for the Time

it took the Earth to breathe

in and out,

shallow breaths, wandering planetary mind,

I sat in a studio with a microphone in front of me

and whispered into the unseen void,

the space between radio waves

and read with privilege

the words of W.H. Auden;

I stopped the clocks in my own world,

and paused, emotion, surrounded by four beautiful women,

The Day I Narrated W.H. Auden On The Radio. full post

(117 words, estimated 28 secs reading time)