Five Perfect Pavement Songs

I woke up with Spit On A Stranger this morning as an earworm and it’s both caustic and beautiful, so here’s that very song along with four other beauties. Don’t say I’m not good to you.

Skeleton Tree Is A Decade Old

How is it possible? Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds’ ‘Skeleton Tree’s a decade old. An overwhelming album scrutinising appalling loss, grief and coping through love, it was arguably the most personal album Cave had ever created at that pont. Andrew Dominik’s film, ‘One More Time With Feeling’ that came out to accompany the album,Continue reading “Skeleton Tree Is A Decade Old”

RuPaul’s Drag Race Series 8 Begins!

The winning franchise continues as- staggeringly- we find ourselves at series 8 of the UK version. And oh my, for the love of Saint Dolly, is it kicking off already. These queens do not hold back. In an extremely ill-judged moment backstage, young queen Paris Baby threw what I think she thought was shady banterContinue reading “RuPaul’s Drag Race Series 8 Begins!”

That Mitchell and Webb Look- Series 1(2006)

The first series of ‘That Mitchell and Webb Look’ is by far the best. It came along at exactly the right time, 2006, when sketch comedy shows seemed moribund. Melding their contrasting ‘Peep Show’ personas with outright absurdism, it was very silly and often inspired. There was ‘Numberwang’, the quiz show with no discernible rules;Continue reading “That Mitchell and Webb Look- Series 1(2006)”

The Generation X Problem

There has been a lot of discourse lately on us, the forgotten generation. We’re Generation X, late forties- mid fifties. We grew up with landlines, power cuts, Yuppies, Kylie in ‘Neighbours’, and the “me first” hedonism of Thatcherism and Reaganomics. We were only just becoming computer- literate and mobile phones were but a distant dreamContinue reading “The Generation X Problem”

Boom! An Explosive Farewell to River City

Angus and bestie Boab (Scott Fletcher and Stephen Purdon) Top: Frank Gallagher as Lenny Murdoch. Bawbags, burrrds, dysfunctional families and gangsters: few TV soaps cut to the heart of Glasgow humanity like ‘River City’. But alas, it is no more, and last night’s episode was the final, after twenty four crazy years. A few spoilersContinue reading “Boom! An Explosive Farewell to River City”

Should’ve Been A Hit: Addis Black Widow- Innocent

There was a period in the mid-nineties when De La Soul’s positive hip hop permeated through to other artists. There was the cheesy but loving (Arrested Development, Dream Warriors’ later era) and the more credible (Jurassic 5). They mined the sunnier side of funk jams and yet the lyrics were still spicy. So it wasContinue reading “Should’ve Been A Hit: Addis Black Widow- Innocent”

Tim Curry Was Hot

Said it before and I’ll say it again, the Rocky Horror film is overrated shit, but for Tim Curry, the naughty tomcat. RIP, TC.. Top Cat! The purr, the pout, the sass, the strut, the mangled RP pronunci… ation. No one could come close to his Dr Frank -N -Furter. Nobody would dare. Props tooContinue reading “Tim Curry Was Hot”

Dolly Forever

Dolly has left us. What can we say that hasn’t already been said? Singer, songwriter, philanthropist, icon, champion of LGBTQI rights, Grammy Award winner, Hollywood Star of Fame winner, actor, theme park creator. 100 million records sold worldwide, endlessly quotable, forever recognised, and not bad for a lil gal who grew up- the fourth childContinue reading “Dolly Forever”

Film Review : Bardot

Quelle desastre! Alain Berliner’s documentary on Brigitte Bardot, which traces her turbulent childhood in a straitlaced Catholic family, to becoming the ultimate French sex siren, to animal rights activist living in La Madrague, St. Tropez in her dotage, is an utter hagiography. You’d think she walked on water. Rushing through her childhood , where weContinue reading “Film Review : Bardot”