In a further effort to reach out and communicate with fans and players of The Sims 4, the team behind the game started the first of a series of streams called Behind the Sims where they shared lots of sneak peaks and updates about what’s happening and what’s coming soon. I didn’t watch the video myself but have seen plenty of the news that’s been reported on since, and some of it is very exciting.

In my recent round up of movies to look forward to, I didn’t notice or consider 80 for Brady, which is a film about a group of older friends travelling together to see their idol Tom Brady do what he does best on the football field. It’s got a great cast and is bound to be one of those charming movies where a handful of brilliant female actresses gel together and have a bit of a riot.

I really enjoyed this Poirot story as the action kicked off straight away - our favourite detective is summoned to France but by the time he gets there the person who wrote him the letter has been murdered, and thus the investigation begins! There are many, many twists and turns in this story, not just because there are the usual cast of characters who full under the finger of suspicion by turn, but also in revelations. Just when you think it’s sorted, something else happens and the whole thing is turned on its head.

It feels like forever since there has been any news of Lara Croft and her tomb raiding business, so I was very happy to hear about a new TV show potentially in development for Amazon Prime. The names attached look good, particularly Phoebe Waller-Bridge who would be able to bring a great level of drama and humour that would fit very well with the character.

I’ve read this before, of course I have. There’s no way I would have gone through the whole series before and just stopped at book eight of nine. I remember eagerly awaiting seeing how everything panned out. So I’ve definitely read it but why I failed to review it, I have no clue. And having discovered that recently, I couldn’t remember enough about it to do a catch up review… I had to read it again.

February has arrived, and that means a fresh challenge, another chance to try something new. Actually, this isn’t something new to me but something I’ve tried my hand at a long time ago and since mostly forgotten: knitting! A lot of my previous experience was based on knitting rows and rows of just plain stitches, marvelling as the length of knitted material grew, then frogging the sort-of scarf I made and starting over again. Pretty basic.

Wired writer Amelia Tait published an article this weekend about the fact that recent cinema releases have focused on a new kind of villain - the tech giant gone rogue. The new Knives Out movie is heavily focused on a tech billionaire, the surprisingly good Santa Clauses TV show had an Amazon style delivery company at heart, and further back the animations Ron’s Gone Wrong and Mitchells vs the Machines are all about modern technology being misused.

I battle my way through the TV adaptation of this - certainly not enjoying it but somehow invested in the story and curious about what comes next. The book is such a modern classic but it’s taken me a long time to get round to reading it, I wish I had read it earlier. It’s only the early events of the TV show but the way it’s written is perfection. Short, sharp, to the point, but also somehow woolly, dreamlike, because you need to dream to survive that life, and your memory will start to wobble.

I’ve only been on Mastodon for just a couple of days but already been very curious about the discussion over ‘quote tweeting’. On Twitter, the quote tweet is a much-used feature that allows you to embed a previous tweet in your own and add thoughts. It was brought in to help users share other posts without eating too much into your own character count. This hasn’t been a feature on Mastodon (helped by the fact the character count is higher anyway!) but now more people are flooding to the service, it’s become a highly requested addition.

It’s not the best start for a new year of 30-day-or-thereabouts challenges to have given up halfway through the month, is it? Actually, it wasn’t so much giving up as realising it wasn’t working. Therefore I’m refraining from using the word fail because even though I didn’t do a full month like I hoped, I learnt a lot along the way.

This album inevitably came from the Carpool Karaoke episode featuring Wilco, a band I had never heard of but instantly took a liking too. They were very funny in the episode and the music was some nice middle of the road guitar stuff worth listening to. This is a long album, but it’s never boring, although I don’t know there were any huge stand-out songs either. It’s a good record that will be worth listening to again in the future.

I’ve not really been a fan of First Aid Kit in the past, mostly seeing them pop up on festival streams and usually switching over to another stage. But I figured it was time I gave them a proper go and a new album is always a good opportunity. It was actually pretty good - nice songs, good vocals, a sort of weird country-alternative hybrid. I can’t say it completely won me over but maybe next time they appear on a festival stage, I’ll give them more of a chance before reaching for the remote.

It took me a little while to get up the courage to watch the TV show Willow, based on the film of the same name. We’ve only just recently watched the movie - something we’d both seen before and yet could remember almost nothing about. So the world was fresh in my mind, but even so, I couldn’t see how a TV show would add anything to what is a beloved (although not really by me) universe.

Ah this was good. I’ve enjoyed Ben Elton’s writing in the past but that has usually been a satiric take on something more modern. This was a crime mystery fully focused on the first world war - in which a conscientous objector of sorts ends up on the front line. The characters were really well formed, the situations so well described it was like being there, and I thought the story was cleverly put together and executed. Loved it.

I mostly read this because of the title - it’s a great pun and why not learn a bit about music and science along the way? It’s long been understood that music is inextricably tied in with maths, but here we see how it also fits in with music. Using the analogy of a universe-long piano, we learn about frequencies from low to high and everything in between, how they have helped and hindered, aided scientific discoveries and made beautiful music. It’s well written and although I can’t admit I took everything on board, it was approachable and readable at every stage.

Wahey, I’m on Mastodon! You can find me here and I hope to be using it as a full on Twitter replacement and actually engaging with it rather than falling into the on-again-off-again pattern that I had with the bird one. My path to Mastodon has essentially been: Oh, something’s up with Twitter, it’ll probably be alright though, continue as usual All anyone talks about on Twitter now is the demise of Twitter. Check less often Third party apps have been switched off. You want me to use the website? Mm, no, that’s Twitter fully gone for me I know everyone’s talking about Mastodon but it sounds complicated and no one is really there and do I even need a Twitter replacement? Hmm, I am missing the discovery part of social networking - the news, the memes, the rabbit holes of film trivia, the jokes, the fascinating facts Ooh, Ivory (terrible name for it but great app!) is out which makes Mastodon as easy to use as Tweetbot was for Twitter! Okay, well, there may not be everyone here yet but if I don’t move, I can’t be sad no one else is moving across either. Let’s all move! And so, here we are. I wrote previously that I’d be blogging more because some of the little things I would previously just have tweeted now had nowhere to go. I’m still going to try and keep that mentality, because my blog is my castle, but I do think there’s a lot of benefit in having a functioning social space like Twitter was. Hopefully Mastodon can seamlessly fill the gap, but we shall see!

This is a lovely heartfelt memoir from Grace, detailing her life from childhood through family secrets to early career success and stumblings to a more comfortable but still difficult current situation. Everything is described brilliantly and as the memoir is grounded in the food that decorates each moment - from early spaghetti meals with the family to high art crafted meals in posh restaurants. It’s a really good read.

When Netflix announced they were making a documentary series about tennis, similar to their work focused on Formula One in Drive to Survive, I was intrigued. I didn’t watch the motorsport one, having spent too much of my time already watching that sport, but people seemed to think it did a good job telling the stories behind the races, and even non-F1 fans were raving about it.

Variety published a story yesterday detailing a walkout by the jury at the Sundance film festival from a film where closed captioning wasn’t available. They’ve been striving for greater accessability anyway, but in this instance it was a specific problem for the jury, which includes wonderful actress Marlee Matlin. The article suggests it was a dramatic walkout after a captioning device didn’t work, whilst the statement from the Sundance organisers was more muted, that the jury just decided to watch the film at a later date so they could do so together. The truth is probably somewhere in the middle.

I can’t remember why this album was next on the to-listen list, but whilst listening during the week, we then also watched the episode where Mavis Staples pops up on Carpool Karaoke and they sing I’ll Take You There. Amazing. That song is the standout of the album, but overall it’s a good soul/gospel album with some incredible vocals and some heartfelt themes.

There are some epic albums coming up this year but the early part of the year is always a bit of a slow one - I don’t think I would have picked this album at any other time. But I’m glad I did, it’s got some good songs on there. It’s short, sharp and to the point, mixing genres a little although strongly indie and guitar driven. A nice listen.

It’s no secret how much I love Kellyoke - the moment on Kelly Clarkson’s talk show where she covers a popular song, usually doing a much better job than the original! Another thing I love is behind the scenes info about music, tv and production, which makes this set of videos absolutely perfect. Called the Kellyoke Afterparty, this series of three videos features music director Jason Halbert and guitarist Jaco Caraco sharing a drink and some gossip after the live show.

This was a pretty quick read, it didn’t go to the thriller levels I was expecting it to but it was still a pageturner of what is happening and why. Midway through I felt like it was going a bit slowly for what was quite an obvious plot direction, but then there was a twist and the second half was really fascinating. A good story, well told, with an ending that was both shocking and sad, with just the right amount of hope to finish on.

I used to listen to the NPR Pop Culture Happy Hour podcast a lot and have loved Linda Holme’s opinionated but approachable criticisms of TV and film. I bought this first book of hers a long time ago but have only just got round to reading it - I wish I’d read it earlier! It’s a wonderful gentle rom-com drama story, the action is limited but the dialogue is wonderful and the relationships really well crafted. Friendships and lovers are investigated in detail, what works, what doesn’t, what people in smaller towns gossip about, and ultimately what you think about yourself. Gorgeous work.

I absolutely loved this, roared through it in double quick time. The consequences of decisions and ripples of changes are one of the best things about time travel stories that I love, and whilst this isn’t a time travel novel, it features those elements in the best possible way. It’s intriguing and heartwarming and leaves you feeling just a bit more positive about the world than before you read it. Which is perfect.

One of the easiest switches in the battle to reduce plastic is from shower gel and shampoo bottles to soap bars. Soap has, obviously, been around forever, but there’s been a real revolution recently in making it as eco-friendly as possible, as accessible as possible, whilst not being the skin-drying-boring-smelling compromise that some bars are.

I snapped this up the moment it came out, listened to the audiobook in almost one sitting. I loved that the action basically got going straight away, just the samllest of recaps and then straight into what turned out to be a deadly party. Our trio of friends work through the clues to solve the mystery, whilst also dealing with their own stuff - I like them thinking they can possibly hide stuff from each other… surely they know how good at detecting they are? But a great cosy mystery, another good read from Mr Thorogood.

The third series of For All Mankind started streaming on Apple last June. For something that I proclaim to be one of my favourite shows, it’s shameful that it’s taken me over six months to get round to watching it. But you know what it’s like, there’s always something shiny and new to try and more TV that its possible to watch, plus it’s always nice to have an old faithful waiting in the wings for when all else fails.

This was an interesting concept for a book but as I was reading, I could never decide if I was enjoying it or not. The hook for the book is following the history of London by means of the oldest house in the capital, and what historical events it has seen. I guess I might have wanted it to be a bit more domestic in places, whilst fully appreciating there’s only so much evidence out there. Even so it was interesting to think about what this house has lived through - plague, fire, various monarchs and religions, protests, rebellions, two wars, and plenty of rebuilding. Overall a decent read.

We’re halfway through January now so those who were going to set resolutions have no doubt done so by now. If anyone is still looking for something to get more active and get out there, the Walk 1000 Miles initiative by Country Walking magazine caught my eye. It’s a challenge to do exactly what it says on the tin, although really the goal isn’t necessarily the target but really to get outside and get more steps in than you have before.

I was nervous going into this album because a) hard rock and b) two hours long! But in the end, neither of those things were too much of a problem. It only occasionally gets too much into the hard rock category, otherwise it’s just regular rock with the ups and downs that are required in an epic double album like this. It is long and I would never particularly search out an album at this length but I was never bored during it or wishing it would end, so that’s a great sign. I don’t know how much of this is going to stay with me (1979 maybe), but I’m glad to have given it a listen.

This is a great album. It took me a minute to adjust to it because I was stupidly expecting something more like Halsey. But this is more dance, and I really like it. Grapefruit is such an important song. However, it’s not all perfect, I don’t enjoy the one that samples Popcorn because how annoying is that? There’s never a reason to put Popcorn in any music. But otherwise, a good listen, great beats, fab vocals.

I don’t think I can adequately describe how much I loved this. My knowledge of philosophy has only ever been ‘I think therefore I am’ and the trolley problem, and that’s even having watched and adored every series of The Good Place. But I remember listening to the podcast that accompanied the show and whenever creator Mike Shur was on, it was always fascinating. This book is basically an extension of those epiosdes.

I’ll be honest that I don’t watch a lot of stuff on YouTube, other than the memes and clips from talk shows that gain a lot of popularity. There are a couple of channels I keep an eye on (Pitch Meetings and Tom Scott have been mentioned here previously), but I never mind a new creator to add to the list - particularly when they have fascinating videos that teach you a thing or two. Step up, the Map Men!

This is a really nice, gentle book of family drama and rediscovering yourself. Martha finds herself always saying yes to people and drowning in a sea of helping others, but through a mixture of new friends and revealing old family secrets, she starts to come back to life and find her way. The book does fall into the trope of dipping back and forth in time to reveal a little bit more of the story each time, but it works very well, and I enjoyed a relatively peaceful read.

I don’t remember being particularly fond of the Mr Men & Little Miss books as a child or at any point in my lifetime, but they were certainly around. I potentially had an affinity with Mr Bump and was suitably horrified by Mr Tickle. I didn’t know they were still being created and books were still being released with new characters all the time, it must be quite the universe at this point.

Apple have released a comprehensive round up of their 2022 entertainment and services - inevitably happy about how successful they have been - with wisdom from VP of the sector, Eddy Cue. There are lots of facts and figures, as you might imagine, but I do like the summary from Mr Cue:

Overall this is a good read - the story of survivors after an all-too-believable escalation of nuclear war leaves them stranded in a hotel in Switzerland. It’s page turning, and it’s an intriguing cast of characters, but I do wonder if the book couldn’t quite decide what it was going to be. It’s part apocalypse thriller, part crime and mystery story, and part social commentary, and I don’t know how well those elements blend together. But I do like how it ended, which is always hard to do in a survival story like this.

The Guardian published an interesting post last week about audiobook narration and the impact artificial intelligence could have on it. The post talks to an author who was working with Apple on a secret project that allows AI voices to provide the narration on an audiobook - and evaluates whether it’s any good or not.

I was so busy watching Sam Ryder do his thing on New Year’s Eve for the BBC that I totally missed what was happening in other corners of the world - in particular Miley Cyrus pulling out all the stops and performing with a variety of guests for NBC. Dolly Parton was one of the featured friends, and the pair cruised through Wrecking Ball and Jolene and a few other hits. But it was I Will Always Love You that really made me sit up and take notice.

The first track of this album almost immediately put me off as it was just a lot of screaming. But then once that was out the way, it was better… some pretty standard 90s hard rock. I don’t know that it’s an album that will live with me or I will particularly remember in future but it was fine to listen to and was an energetic start to the year!

The way artists release music is continually changing and evolving and so I keep adapting the ‘rules’ of this album adventure to try and keep up. I don’t think in the past I would have even considered listening to EPs, but these two were branded as the first and second half of a singular album, so I’m saying it counts. In terms of the music, it’s just good solid nice country pop music - nothing hugely groundbreaking and not the big focus on storytelling like some of the other country singers, but enjoyable songs that are nice to listen to.

It’s a great film, combining humour and action in the best way and with Arnie doing exactly what he does best - marching around with either his muscles or his guns and somehow managing to keep hold of a beautiful wife along the way. It doesn’t feel like a James Cameron movie, too quirky for that really, there’s a car chase with a horse for goodness’ sake. And the end twenty minutes or so are just about as far-fetched as its possible to get. But it’s so likeable that you can’t help going with it and hoping for that happy ending.

While we’re talking about books, one of the new year resolutions I haven’t specifically talked about is the one about not buying any more books to take up space on my digital bookshelf. I don’t want to talk numbers because I’m embarrassed, but I’ve built up quite a collection of books for an excessive TBR (to be read) list, and it’s going to take some time to get through them. Instead, I’ll make good use of wish lists and revisit when I actually have made good use of what I’ve already purchased.

These live-action remakes are really asking for trouble when they are trying to re-invent such stone-cold classics, and this one sadly doesn’t live up to its predecessor. At best, this movie is okay, but it veers into irritating territory and Will Smith as the genie is a choice that I just can’t get on board with. The songs are the only thing that make this worthwhile and they are obviously straight from the original… except for the new musical moments which are then just jarring against the brilliance of the old ones. Overall, just meh.

I’ve seen Celia in plenty of film and TV over the years but didn’t know a lot about her life so this was an interesting read. It starts with a turbulent childhood, including a real struggle with eating disorders because of the body pressures on being a dancer, and then through a lengthy and varied career on stage and screen. Every moment is told with humour but there are the occasional reality checks and moments where Celia realises something about herself. It’s fun to hear about the moments behind the scenes of much-loved creations, the Exotic Hotel, working with Victoria Wood, and of course some of Britain’s best-loved TV. Not all of it is great but all of it is a lesson. A good read, this one.

I read a lot last year, in all sorts of formats. Along with the poetry and comics that I was trying out for the first time, there were the regularly scheduled books, audiobooks, reference books, shorts and a great mix of genres through them all. I’ve noticed a few more physical books creeping into my life, mostly as gifts but occasionally because that just is the best format for reading something in. Digital is still my go-to though, if only because having a book on hand to dip into at any given moment is a big driver behind how I’ve managed to read so much.

I’ve written about previously stumbling on Richard Hammond’s Workshop, the Discovery+ programme that follows Mr Hammond trying to get his new classic car restoration business off the ground. A second series just finished in December, and I enjoyed the second just as much as the first, although found it just as frustrating. Hammond still likes to throw money at a problem before actually sitting and thinking about the consequences but you can’t fault his enthusiasm. And to be fair, by the end of the series, business was picking up, so something must be working.

Thanks to a Halloween binge and the inevitable Christmas slush-fest of films, we just about managed to watch 100+ movies last year. That’s always the aim, but it was a close run thing. There just haven’t been many that really grab attention, aside from the regularly scheduled Marvel and Star Wars releases. But it’s always worth keeping an eye on what else is coming up and these are the movies that are due to be released over the next three months that I’ll give a second glance.

I have not been very good at following global news over the last couple of years, mostly because the news tends to focus on all those things that are, you know, the end of the world. I find it hard. But I’m maybe starting to lift my head out of the sand a little bit and do want to keep up with events where I can, so have been approaching news outlets that focus on more than just the obvious topics.