Love, love this comic strip by xkcd - the booping craze is really taking off and I’m here for it. Boop! Also love that these comics are creative commons and available to share so easily. Way to spread the love.

This is a great album, a short sharp burst of that Spandau Ballet new romantic sound. From the start, it’s all reminiscent of the main two singles - True and Gold - but when you get to those songs, oh, so familiar, so classic, so GOOD! The rest of it you tend to be enjoying but generally just waiting to get to the good stuff.

This album came out with little noise and fanfare a couple of months ago, and it’s hard to know what to expect from an album that follows the sad death of Taylor Hawkins last year. Of course, it is a 50 minute exploration of grief from the opening lines to the slow and ruminating closing song. It’s all layered through with raw emotions but it’s not maudlin, it still has that Foo Fighters fire. Even the ten minute penultimate track doesn’t feel drawn out but works well in situ. A really good album but potentially not one you’re going to reach for outside of specific circumstances.

Right I’m starting the final collection of Famous Five books, so three more stories to get through. On the one hand, I’m glad the end is in sight, but on the other hand, it’s always fun to see what this gang gets up to. The formula may be the same but the setting is always different. This time, we were in a lighthouse, which made for a really interesting location… I feel like the gang were too quick to panic when they were locked in but it was a lot of fun the effect the light and bell had on the village when they finally got them working.

I’ve been nervous about watching this because anyone who ever talks about it tends to say they end up in floods of tears - not my go to choice of film! But I’m patching up the holes in my Pixar back catalogue and this is one that had to be done. Actually, it was a lot better than I thought it would be… but somehow also a lot worse.

I have thought that with some of the latest Pixar movies, they’ve gone a bit off-the-rails and the ideas must have been drug-fuelled - the pair of trousers walking around independently being the prime example. I thought it was a recent thing but this movie made me realise it’s probably always been there at Pixar. In this case, we have a talented chef of a rat directing a young man to cook by using his hair as… a steering wheel? Very odd. But it’s a great movie, the animation looked incredible, the fur on the rats, the water, the food! And the underlying message that talent doesn’t care about your background is great.

I recently realised there are some holes in my Pixar back catalogue so started working through the movies that I’ve missed, starting with this one. It’s a really good movie, nice and original, good story, fun characters, great voice acting talent. The graphics are a bit dated now, it still looks good but there’s a noticeable lack of fur, the water is questionable, and most of the bugs look a bit like they’re moulded out of clay. But a lot of fun, and a happy ending!

I enjoyed this more than the previous one, mostly because it picks up where that cliffhanger left off and resolves it. It’s also a fun adventure that sees Hornblower as a prisoner, planning and executing an escape and ultimately facing the music for everything that went down in the last book. I liked the moments where Hornblower was questioning small things, like how etiquette works when there are just three people in the boat, and dealing with his feelings for the family left behind. A good one!

Oh I want to be mad at this musical - Professor Higgins is the actual worst and some of these songs really grind my gears. But I can’t help it, it’s a classic, the tunes are proper tunes, and now that I have a bit more knowledge about Audrey Hepburn, I can’t help but enjoy her performance more! Of course, the accents are terrible, the dubbing poor, and the society that she’s trying to join seems a lot worse than the one she left. Also, what an absolute nothingness Freddy is. It’s bad but somehow those tunes (some of them, anyway) just bring it right out of the gutter.

I’ve been fascinated by these minimalist movie posters I saw on Kottke. They’re by graphic designer Michal Krasnopolski and are a challenge to present a movie poster with the limits of using only lines in and around a circle… and different colours. Something about this really makes me happy - the challenge of it, the idea of summing up everything about a movie to make it easily identifiable with such a limited set of tools, just brilliant. Really showing off what graphic design does best.

As always, an artist tends to pop up that I can’t believe I’ve not already dipped into the back catalogue of and here we are again with the Bee Gees. I know a lot of their music but have never listened to a full album before - this is technically their third album but is their first international release having previously been focused on Australia. It’s great, that classic Bee Gees sound and the exceptional To Love Somebody, along with plenty that I didn’t know but still enjoyed. Great stuff.

For someone that’s been in country music for such a long time, Tim McGraw does a great job at adapting himself and rolling with the times. It’s not super duper modern country, and retains a traditional sound, but without sounding like old school country. I’m not sure a lot of it will remain with me but it’s a really pleasant listen.

After watching the film and being… bemused at best, a bit of googling suggested all the answers we were looking for would be in the book. I had a look at how much the book would cost and whaddayaknow, I already had it in my TBR. So, that’s how we got here. Actually, I don’t think it did answer anything but I have to admit the read was better than the watch because it had more to it and felt less drawn out. Still, gutted I’ve lived through this story twice now and am no further along.

It’s hard for me to put a number score on this movie because it’s a quality production - beautifully made and telling the story well, dipping back and forth in time at exactly the right moments to let the story unfold alongside the absolute insanity of the coast trail. Reese Witherspoon is fantastic in both grieving hedonism and intense introspection, and Laura Dern as the mother is so adorable. But there’s something about it that just didn’t grab me at all.

This is such a fun movie and you can just tell how much Audrey Hepburn is enjoying playing the part and jumping about through all the different movie genres. It’s a clever premise and really sweeps you up to start with, although I think it gets a bit repetitive towards the end, you sort of just want to know where they’re going to end up and to keep reversing in time ends up a bit frustrating.

Sequels are always tricky, and it’s even harder when you’ve written a beloved romance novel. The previous book took a while to grow on me, and the same can be said of this one. We’re picking up with Louisa as she deals with the fallout of what happened in the previous book and the death of Will. We get to meet new family members and new bosses, as well as reuniting with the old ones, and it’s nice to be in their company again, even though it feels like a sequel that didn’t need to be written. There’s a third book, and I’ll definitely be dipping into that to see what happens next.

I haven’t seen this for AGES and it was a bit of a revelation in lots of different ways. The variety of vocal abilities was the first thing that took me by surprise, that Clint Eastwood can pull off a tune whilst lead Lee Marvin is less talented in the vocal area but far more in the emotions and comedy of the piece.

This is, apparently, a huge classic of the Bogie and Bacall era, but I found it such hard work. A lot of people were introduced very quickly and the plot got convoluted quite quickly. Maybe it’s a reflection on me rather than the film, and that’s fine, I just didn’t have the patience to get fully invested.

This is a weird movie, really, it doesn’t feel like it’s by Hitchcock at all. The real suspicion and drama takes a while to get going, after all the contrivances of older films - people meeting and falling in love after a week and getting married after not much more, etc, etc. Once the mystery elements and various twists started, I was intrigued but then the end felt like such a cop-out - it really looked like he was trying to throw her out of that car.

I loved the previous Jenny Eclair book I read so had high expectations coming into this one. I don’t think it was quite as good but it still a really quality work. There’s something about the way Eclair writes that really sucks you into the detail, the human-ness of these characters, and really just how hideous most human beings are - both alone and to each other. The only thing that annoyed me about this book is that it felt like there was going to be a bigger connection between the two families than there was… or that is to say, that it would have more of an impact on the story. But still, a really good read.

I wasn’t as keen on this set of Hornblower adventures as I have been of the previous couple. Most importantly, it was left on a bit of a cliffhanger, as Horatio took on a battle finally too big for even him to conquer and was left to surrender to the French. But other than that, there was a lot of chasing ships and doing battle, which of course there always is, but there wasn’t much else, other than pining over the woman who isn’t his wife. It was fine, but I hope the next book is better.

This movie, wow, I have no idea how to describe it. You can’t help but be impressed by the advanced thinking for the time, and the amazing special effects, but that’s where it ends. It’s SO slow, painful, excruciatingly slow. Beyond the ’they had more time back in the 60s’ pace of other movies and into ’they’re just taking the piss now’ territory. And you could put up with the pretentiousness if it was actually going somewhere and telling a good story, but ultimately it goes nowhere and does nothing.

In this day and age of digital streaming and global access to content, it’s almost confusing when you can’t find something available. I have a short list of items that I want to watch, both film and TV, that aren’t available to me at the moment, and every now and then, I ask Siri to have a quick scout around and tell me if they’re available.

It’s a while ago I finished watching the sequel television series to the hit film The Full Monty - usually if I don’t get around to writing about something relatively quickly, then I don’t bother. But this has been living with me, at the back of my brain, thoughts that I have to get down on digital paper.

For two and a bit albums in the late 90s, early 00s, I absolutely adored Travis. This one was the second of the two and really just takes me right back there. The songs are a mixture of upbeat bops and more introspective pieces, but all of them have that telltale Travis sound with great guitars and Fran’s soul-searching voice. Love it.

The last Anne-Marie album was really good but I thought it felt more like a collection of fab pop songs rather than a coherent body of work. I think this is pretty similar, but perhaps a step more towards a body of work - and the songs are all still fab. It’s just some really great pop, perhaps a bit angrier, perhaps with a bit more emotion to work through, but ultimately, a good listen.

The murder investigation that runs through this book didn’t grab me as much as some of the other’s have recently, but I thought everything surrounded it was really interesting. Nick Dixon, who is still coming to terms with what happened to him in the last book, is considering whether his future is even in the police force, and when he gets involved in the investigation, finds that a lot of people are doubting him. Really good, roll on the next one!

I didn’t think I was going to like this, the trailer put me off rather than enticed me in. But I wanted a comedy and I do think Jennifer Larence is amazing, so it was always worth a go… and of course, it was great! The leads were great, the relationship between them believable even though it was a ridiculous situation, and pretty funny. It wasn’t a laugh out loud riot, but it was surprising and amusing, and drew itself to a satisfying conclusion. Good stuff!

I saw the stage musical of this relatively recently - reluctantly, I thought it wasn’t going to be any good, and left the theatre irritated at how brilliant it was, and in floods of tears. So, was very keen to see how the film version turned out, particularly with Aisling in the lead. It was just as good! Actually, very close to the stage version, and just as moving.

I think this must have been a free Apple book of the week, as I’m not sure it would have been my first choice otherwise. I was a bit skeptical going in, and whilst I do admit the writing style wasn’t quite my cup of tea, I sort of got swept up in the story and wanted to know what was going to happen. If you like Stratford, Shakespeare and the romance of the bard, you’ll enjoy it. The only unforgivable thing is mis-spelling Dame Judi’s name!

Another fabulous book by Matt Haig, I picked this one up after loving The Midnight Library. In this story, we follow the intriguing long life of our protagonist, who has a condition that means he ages about 1 year every 15 normal human years. It’s a fascinating way of telling a time travel story - it’s not about zippping about back and forth in time, but in living through the grind, experiencing societal changes over hundreds of years, and ultimately finding a way to live the best life possible. Loved it.

I really enjoyed this Nick Dixon pageturner, this time focusing on an attempted murder at a carnival. There are layers upon layers though, with the carnival being the first, then squabbling estate agents, spurned lovers, and at the back of it all, Dixon being arrested for previous activities! It felt like the stakes were really high, all the way through, and not just because of the active case, and that made it a really quick and fulfilling read. On to the next!

Meh, it passed the time, but it’s not good at all is it? Wouldn’t recommend it to anyone.

I continue to find the post-Top Gear careers of the three hosts fascinating, particularly as they diverge more and more into distinct personalities and making their hobbies their jobs. At the moment, James May is winning the battle for best-of-the-three for me, and not just because he makes very good gin.

I’ve ended up with mixed feelings about this album, although the predominant one was positive - I really loved it, there are a lot of classic tunes on there, and Kelis holds your attention well. What I didn’t like so much was some of the explicit stuff - I always try and listen to the Explicit albums to get the full experience, but this one was next level. Some of the lyrics were almost gynaecological! That aside, though, a good listen.

This was released a little earlier in the year and I overlooked it, but I felt like a nice bit of country music and that’s exactly what this is. Ward Thomas are British, and I liked that they didn’t try to be from Nashville in the same way the Shires do on occasion. It was just nice vocals, good harmonies, and strong country songs - an enjoyable listen.

Hooray for another Michael J. Fox movie and not only that, it was so good! I can’t believe it’s taken me this long in my movie-watching career to see it! This film was super funny, and although it had to tread that fine line of poking fun at but not bullying small town America, it did a pretty good job. Fox was great, naturally, but the supporting cast rallied around to really make this film what it was.

I listened to the audiobook of this and it was a bit of a slog to start with, I’m not going to lie. Sarah meets a guy, he disappears, and she pines about it for a significantly long time. I can understand the sentiment but oof, it dragged. However, once things do actually get moving, the mystery starts unravelling and THAT twist I didn’t see coming at all, well then it got good and has actually stuck with me ever since. Perserverence was the key to this one, but it was worth it.

This was a super quick read, following the adventures of Angie as she leaves her small town in Australia (really loved reading about Coober Pedy and googling it later), and heads to Italy to find long-lost family. There’s a love story along the way, too, naturally, and it’s well told, I’m just not sure I was that bothered about the pair of them - some of the actions felt a bit excessive to me, as well. But some very interesting layers to the story carried me through to the end.

The last few Eddie Flynn books have seen our protagonist in significant amounts of danger, or being forced to practice law because of danger to his friends and family. This time, it was a bit of a relief to find him (mostly) out of harm’s way, and the court case going ahead as normal… well, as normal as it can with a compromised jury. An interesting story, a terrifying villain, and a pageturning style - another successful read.

I’ve been amazed by the imagination and creativity of HG Wells across the few books that I have read and/or listened to. This one is another that has a great deal of imagination in it - but I have to admit I didn’t like it very much. Obviously, the experimentation on living creatures is distasteful but I also felt like the main character wasn’t particularly engaging so I wasn’t drawn in. Still, a good structure to the story and it’s well told.

I always sort of remember this movie as ’the other long one that’s not as good as Titanic’ but actually rewatching it after a long while, it was better than I remembered it. It is too long, really, it doesn’t need to be that drawn out, and you can easily see why it’s called one of the most inaccurate military history movies ever. And I’m not convinced of the chemistry between any of the three leads, really.

I hadn’t listened or thought about Duffy for a long time, but when I started this album, it was like pulling on a big soul-sound comfort blanket. Duffy has such a good voice and sound, and okay, it maybe doesn’t have the gravitas of someone like Amy Winehouse, but it certainly holds its own over the course of the album. And oh my word, Warwick Avenue has stuck in my head like nothing else!

I didn’t really know what to expect from this, I like Scissor Sisters well enough but not so much that following their solo careers would be a huge priority for me. This was great though. Proper dance tunes, and some great guest stars. I think the album starts and ends really well, with perhaps a dip in the middle, but ultimately a really listenable and bopping album.

I was looking forward to this book as I’ve been a fan of Davina’s for a long time - she’s bubbly and brilliant but real and down to earth at the same time. The book itself was good, some great wisdom and touching moments, although I did find it a bit scatty how it darted around between subjects and sometimes repeated itself. The only real letdown though was that I listened to the audiobook and there were a couple of errors and retakes left in by accident which took me out of the moment.

We’re working our way through the Bring It On series, now that the first film in the franchise finally became available on streaming. I really didn’t think this one was going to be any good, it has no one even recognisable in it, let alone famous, and the front cover leaves a lot to be desired. But actually, it was watchable. Not outstanding but certainly a lot better than I thought it would be. It does stretch the believability quite a long way towards the end - as if they could get that good that quickly… and where did they get the costumes from? But still, a good message that the ‘freaks’ and the ’losers’ should not be counted out.

There are a few different Timelines books, focusing on specific topics, but this one covers, as the title suggests, everything. It’s such a fascinating book, and each timeline is really well laid out to keep you interested - just enough pictures and text, and just enough detail to whet the appetite but not overwhelm. It’s too much information to take in if you’re just reading it, but to dip in and out of, it’s the perfect book.

This is an interesting book, HG Wells is such a legendary writer with such a great imagination for his time. I loved the description of how this adventure came to be - a chance meeting with a grumpy scientist, an explosion, a decision to fly to the moon and the instant regrets that come with it. The creatures on the moon are pretty far-fetched but still a fun adventure. I wasn’t so keen on all the post-script type stuff. Once home, then we hear lots of details about what we missed. But still, a great read.