Ancient Routes, Theatre Review. Liverpool Arab Arts Festival, Unity Theatre, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

Cast: Louai Alhenawi, Alia Alzougbi, Roskar Nasan, Sanaa Wehbe.

Storytelling is such an important facet of human nature that it strides, like music, across the many diverse and wonderfully different regions and countries of the world. Our own culture, derived as it is originally from many distinct and rampaging races and creeds, is full of folk tales and parables from many customs and backgrounds that it surely is a thrill when the sounds and stories of another area of the world comes and adds more influence to life.

Ancient Routes, Theatre Review. Liverpool Arab Arts Festival, Unity Theatre, Liverpool. full post

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

I Smile.

I smile,

though I am no villain,

flawed and complicated, problematic and absurd yes,

but no villain am I.

 

I smile

because the alternative is to scream,

to take the point of existence out of the illogical equation

and drown it, submerge it, threaten

to  immerse it under so much sea water

that the pain will stop

after a while

and the easy breathe of innocence, so sweet,

will fill my lungs with joy.

 

I smile

because the alternative is

I Smile. full post

(155 words, estimated 37 secs reading time)

Sparkle Unleashed (PS4/PS3/PS Vita), Game Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9 out of 10

Sparkle Unleashed is a puzzle game available for download from the PlayStation Store for the PS4, PS3 and PS Vita. The game had previously been released on many platforms such as iOS, Android and Windows since 2014 and is the latest sequel to the critically acclaimed Sparkle series with this latest version also earning such acclaim too, but how does the PS4, PS3 and Vita versions compare to what has went before them?

Sparkle Unleashed (PS4/PS3/PS Vita), Game Review. full post

(2654 words, estimated 10:37 mins reading time)

Judy, The Judy Garland Songbook, Theatre Review. Empire Theatre, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Even now there are few female stars that could hold a candle to the extraordinary all-round performer Judy Garland. A woman who was possibly the epitome of the saying of being born into show business as a famous old trunk in Grand Rapids, Minnesota, could attest if it could talk. She would become the ultimate star of screen as she made hearts melt in film roles such Love Finds Andy Hardy, Strike Up The Band, For Me and My Gal, Meet Me in St. Louis and of course as the young Dorothy Gale in The Wizard of Oz.

Judy, The Judy Garland Songbook, Theatre Review. Empire Theatre, Liverpool. full post

(562 words, estimated 2:15 mins reading time)

Whisper!

It is the whisper of uncertainty that growls

softly next to my ear and throws punches that strike

between my ribcage and pummels the heart

over and over again. The shouts of derision

of the fear and loathing in the back of my mind,

whispering slowly, the crescendo damning with faint praise

and the suffering of the crested rejection never far behind

the swell of the tsunami breaking itself apart

on the polystyrene rock of my thoughts;

the erosion of Time left ever scared on my scared

and fractious mind.

Whisper! full post

(409 words, estimated 1:38 mins reading time)

Muse, Drones. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Who is really controlling who? That may as well be the burning question as Muse release their latest album, Drones, onto Britain’s music lovers’ ears. A question that gets murkier day by day, that gets lost in the very society which at times is preoccupied with being shown the way rather than living it and making their own mistakes, to err is after all Human, to do nothing is be an echo of one’s former self, the whisper of a murmur wrapped in a drone.

Muse, Drones. Album Review. full post

(438 words, estimated 1:45 mins reading time)

The Hudsucker Proxy, Theatre Review. Playhouse Theatre, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * * *

Cast: Rob Castell, Nick Cavaliere, Tamzin Griffin, Sinead Matthews, Joseph Timms, David Webber, Tim Lewis, Simon Dormandy.

Power corrupts, absolute power corrupts…well not quite absolutely, especially when Time and the clockman are on your side.

However fleeting Time is, when naked ambition and naivety meet corporate greed and rank stupidity, Time is not adverse to having a laugh at the expense of the system so proudly held up as the shining beacon in which to chase a profit is seen as good. To knock someone the moment they have delivered that fortune seen as even better and in which some boardrooms up and down the country of late have saw fit to rival. It only takes one man though to make a mockery of it and The Hudsucker Proxy is born.

The Hudsucker Proxy, Theatre Review. Playhouse Theatre, Liverpool. full post

(476 words, estimated 1:54 mins reading time)

Dark Green Tree, Secret Lives. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Secrets are what define us, whether its personal or the thought of how we would truly like to be seen but the fear of rejection is too much to live with; secrets haunt us, spur us ever onwards and by keeping one close to your heart, can endear you to a friend for the rest of their lives.

Dark Green Tree, Secret Lives. Album Review. full post

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

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

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

Cast: Jude Law, Melissa McCarthy, Jason Statham, Miranda Hart, Raad Rawi, Jessica Chaffin, Sam Richardson, Katie Dippold, Jaime Pacheco, Romain Apelbaum, Rose Byrne, Richard Brake, Steve Bannos, Morena Baccarin, Carlos Ponce, Wil Yun Lee, Bobby Cannavale, Michael McDonald, Julian Miller, Adam Ray, Lukács Bicskey, 50 Cent, Nargis Fakhri, Peter Serafinowicz, Jamie Denbo, Zach Woods.

 

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

(509 words, estimated 2:02 mins reading time)

Doctor Who: The Defectors. Audio Drama Review. Big Finish.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * *

Cast: Sylvester McCoy, Katy Manning, Richard Franklin, Neil Roberts, Barnaby Edwards, David Graham, Rachel Bavidge, Jez Fielder.

One of the more interesting factors about Doctor Who is the ability to mix things up once in a while and play a different type of game, a game in which nobody except the writer really knows what’s going on and in which the vagueness, the small hints, of it all can be tantalising and fruitful. It can of course go horribly wrong or at best come out of the Tardis like a mixed blessing.

Doctor Who: The Defectors. Audio Drama Review. Big Finish. full post

(564 words, estimated 2:15 mins reading time)