Okay, first recommendation of this month… I have no idea when I first discovered Anna Akana. I think I’ve always been watching her YouTube videos, in much the same way that Mr Grady from The Shining has always been the caretaker of the Overlook hotel. Actress, comedian, novelist, vlogger, musician, Mother of Cats, honest discussant… Continue reading Recommendation: Anna Akana
Category: Recommendations
Recommendation: Transgender Dysphoria Blues by Against Me!
A song I happened upon on Spotify. I thought the title looked good, and started the track, and thought… okay… kind of generic opening… and then a kind of generic riff… and then… one of the finest examples of songwriting I’ve heard in a very long time. Not everyone has the same tastes in songwriting,… Continue reading Recommendation: Transgender Dysphoria Blues by Against Me!
Recommendations: Dredd
The comic 2000 AD was ubiquitous when I was a child. Its principle character was Judge Dredd, an almost ridiculously exaggerated version of the Hollywood action man that was so popular in the 1980s: muscular, militaristic, ultra-macho to the point of sadism, humourless (apart from the occasional sub-James Bond pun). I found him a deeply… Continue reading Recommendations: Dredd
Recommendation: Tous Les Garçons Et Les Filles by Françoise Hardy
I’ve been meaning to check out Françoise Hardy’s music for ages, and finally took the Spotify plunge. There is plenty that I like the sound of, but I love this album. It is pop music (released in 1962, the same year as The Beatles’ first single) stripped right down to its barest essentials: catchy melodies, simple lyrics,… Continue reading Recommendation: Tous Les Garçons Et Les Filles by Françoise Hardy
Recommendation: T69 Collapse (video) by Aphex Twin and Weirdcore
In the mid to late 90s I felt that there was a lot of great music being created, but the most innovative and mind-blowing was in the dance music scene (although I got told off for referring to it as ‘dance’ rather than ‘electronic’). And of all the imaginative and influential musicians in that world,… Continue reading Recommendation: T69 Collapse (video) by Aphex Twin and Weirdcore
Recommendation: Steven Soderbergh’s Spielberg School
That is an article title that I defy you to say 10 times quickly. Director Steven Soderbergh (Ocean’s Eleven, Erin Brockovich, Magic Mike and many more…) put something on his blog in 2014 that I have only just discovered. It is a lesson in moviemaking. He took a particularly famous film by Steven Spielberg, put… Continue reading Recommendation: Steven Soderbergh’s Spielberg School