The X-Files: My Struggle. Television Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 7/10

Cast: David Duchovny, Gillian Anderson, Mitch Pileggi, Annet Mahendru, Joe McHale, Giacoma Baessato, Hiro Kanagawa, Rance Howard, William B. Davis, Gardiner Millar, Aliza Vellani, Shaker Paleja, Sandy Da Costa, Nneka Croal.

Everybody wants to believe in aliens, it would make sense to the universe to know that on this one particular planet somewhere in the Solar System, right in the middle of the Goldilocks effect, human beings are not the only creatures who are able to make a complete disaster of their home, it would just be so awkward if we were the only sentient beings who actually cared about visiting another race of people’s home and leaving the toilet seat up and having a discussion about whether reality television is the spawn of the inconsequential.

The X-Files: My Struggle. Television Review. full post

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

He Was Returning Valentine’s Day Presents.

On nodding terms at the bus stop,

I saw the flowers in his hands,

fading quickly but revitalised in part

by the expensive looking

bottle of labelled perfume

stranded in agony, almost strangled

and choked back as he explained

he was returning them, having cancelled

the holiday,

the short trip away.

 

Straying off the subject

so not to cause to distress,

I asked him about his life

on the farm up in the North, surrounded by trees

and the fruits of summer, the cold chill

He Was Returning Valentine’s Day Presents. full post

(115 words, estimated 28 secs reading time)

Eleanor Nelly, Insane & Loved. E.P. Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

There is so much going on in the life of Eleanor Nelly that a music lover you have to stand back, smile and appreciate with utter faith and conviction the beauty in the songs that she offers to live audiences. That conviction, that heartfelt comprehension of her soul and understanding of her as a person, is only intensified when you finally get the chance to hear the songs played out in the setting of your living room or through the earphones as you disconnect from the world and the gossip on the bus. For through being able to hear the softness of a voice hammer home the anarchy of a young woman, the turmoil, the pain and the grace that comes with such an age, the listener is able to empathise with the disgraceful way we as a society are still treating our youth.

Eleanor Nelly, Insane & Loved. E.P. Review. full post

(385 words, estimated 1:32 mins reading time)

Eleanor McEvoy, Naked Music. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Presenting oneself in the raw, the utter abandonment of masks and paraphernalia, is to be open to the elements, other human criticism and witticisms and the looks of derision, yet ultimately it is arguably the most natural and compelling action to undertake. In art, music, poetry, the conquering of metaphorical mountains are always more appreciated when the artist allows the mask to be gently placed down beside them and the truth of their face and emotions to be revealed.

Eleanor McEvoy, Naked Music. Album Review. full post

(392 words, estimated 1:34 mins reading time)

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

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Cast: Bryan Cranston, Diane Lane, Helen Mirren, Michael Stuhlbarg, Dean O’ Gorman, David James Elliott, David Maldonado, John Getz, Alan Tudyk, Louis C.K., Richard Portnow, Roger Bart, Robert Stripling, Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje, Ellie Fanning, John Goodman, Stephen Root, Christian Berkel.

The era of McCarthyism was arguably one of the most shameful times in American politics, one that to this day still sends a shiver down the spine and causes the heart to miss a beat or two as the scare tactics employed by the junior senator and those of involved with the committee hearings dealing with the House Un-American Activities. That shiver should be felt for all time, it should never relent and whilst Arthur Miller brought the nauseous feeling and rising anger superbly to the stage in the classic The Crucible, Trumbo makes it feel so much more modern and dastardly.

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

(470 words, estimated 1:53 mins reading time)

Dad’s Army, Film Review. Picturehouse@F.A.C.T., Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 5/10

Cast: Toby Jones, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Bill Nighy, Michael Gambon, Tom Courtney, Mark Gatiss, Blake Harrison, Daniel Mays, Sarah Lancashire, Emily Atack, Ian Lavender, Bill Paterson, Frank Williams, Alison Steadman, Annette Crosby, Holli Dempsey, Martin Savage, Felicity Montague, Oliver Tobias, Julia Foster.

Nostalgia isn’t what it used to be but sometimes by revisiting the past you are in danger of completely undermining all the excellent work that once went on before; the package and the idea may look appealing but the beyond the sentimental, the finished article is a pale and perhaps at times, irritating shadow.

Dad’s Army, Film Review. Picturehouse@F.A.C.T., Liverpool. full post

(392 words, estimated 1:34 mins reading time)

Nothing More Than A Scene Shifter.

We forget

that whilst we are the hero

of our own particular story,

that we are also only bit players,

occasional extras,

unseen scene shifters

and barely existing wardrobe mistresses

and silent fancy dressers

in everybody else’s time in the spotlight,

that whilst they deliver the cutting line,

the well rehearsed, sometimes spontaneous

ad-lib or the images of abuse in human form,

we are the unspeaking audience,

looking in from afar

and with no right to have our say

on how we would like the play

Nothing More Than A Scene Shifter. full post

(158 words, estimated 38 secs reading time)

Elton John, Wonderful Crazy Night. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

The yellow brick road is long and hazardous; it is full of dreams and bounty, of falls, the odd failure and the extreme high of performance, the yellow brick road is journey that has been undertaken by one of the very finest and perhaps one of the most adored musicians of the last 50 years and yet the feeling of like him or loathe him still runs deeply throughout the veins of those who come across his music.

Elton John, Wonderful Crazy Night. Album Review. full post

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

The Rush Of Melancholy.

There is so much in the shadows,

the photograph of abandoned things,

shuffling old men on once glory filled streets,

holding hand written placards, nothing changes,

now filled with the discarded everyday

that rots insidiously

like teeth on sugar high diet,

old decomposing trains stations, haunted

by the clatter of memories

and stolen lovers kisses

watched by steam

and the jealous porter,

now all gone;

I love shadows like this,

faded memories I can linger in,

it gives me a melancholic high.

 

The Rush Of Melancholy. full post

(184 words, estimated 44 secs reading time)

Richard Durrant, The Girl at the Airport. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

The edge of Noir comes calling, the thriller so carefully played out that Trevor Howard, Orson Welles and Graham Greene could sit back in reclining chairs somewhere in the South American sunshine and tell old tales of spies, cheating at the game and crimes of passion long before the credits roll and the music leaves the audience to appreciate the finality of it all. Some episodes of the Noir culture lend themselves perfectly, some come along and leave a crater of enjoyment so wide it is possible to understand the scale of its arrival just by the impact it leaves on the memory.

Richard Durrant, The Girl at the Airport. Album Review. full post

(434 words, estimated 1:44 mins reading time)