The Profound and Sometimes Malevolent Influence of Stopped Clocks in the Movies: The clock, it might be said, is the original supporting artist. They pepper the movie landscape like stars, although their presence is often overlooked as they stand, indifferent, while the more exciting action unfolds around them. Such is their ubiquity that in 2010… Continue reading Wrong Twice a Day
Author: James Robinson
The Six Most Bizarre Things Ever Found in a Freezer (That Aren’t Dead People)
This listicle was rejected by Cracked.com for being 'hella specific' but the facts unearthed are too alarming to simply be left forgotten on the slush pile: There’s always something lurking back there, in the very deepest recesses of the freezer unit. Usually it’s half-forgotten foodstuffs – leftovers in a plastic tub or a Sara Lee… Continue reading The Six Most Bizarre Things Ever Found in a Freezer (That Aren’t Dead People)
Nicotine – Nell Zink
Grasping for air: In Nicotine, Penny, the grieving 23-year-old daughter of a wealthy new-age healer, becomes involved with a gang of squatters whose devotion to smoking makes them pariahs even in anarchist circles. It's a typically offbeat scenario from Nell Zink, the satirist whose previous novels Mislaid and The Wallcreeper were as bracing as they… Continue reading Nicotine – Nell Zink
Cove – Cynan Jones
Madness in the meer: Welsh author Cynan Jones plugs directly into the reader’s nightmares with his fifth novel, an ultra-minimalist tale of an injured man adrift at sea in a wrecked fishing boat. The effect is heightened by his frequent and unusual use of the second person, putting ‘you’ right in the middle of the… Continue reading Cove – Cynan Jones
Six Four – Hideo Yokoyama
Trauma turns turgid in Tokyo: A former detective in Japan’s police force, with problems both at home and at work, finds his obsession with an unsolved case leading him ever closer to a conspiracy. It’s a hoary old premise, but delivered through the fresh eyes of Japanese crime writer Hideo Yokoyama, who imbues the narrative… Continue reading Six Four – Hideo Yokoyama
Declan McKenna – What Do You Think About the Car?
Bob Dylan in a bobble-hat: While most 15-year-olds would be forgiven for writing songs about micro-scooters or whatever else exercises teenage minds, Declan McKenna turned for inspiration to the lesser explored subject of Fifa's business ethics. The result, Brazil, became first a YouTube hit and then a chart sensation. A similar level of substance informs… Continue reading Declan McKenna – What Do You Think About the Car?
Denai Moore – We Used to Bloom
The modern sound of the past: Although only 23, in music industry terms Denai Moore is a battle-hardened veteran, having been operating at its fringes since her teens. Evidently this has left her with the maturity and confidence to create an album as ambitious as We Used To Bloom. She has the voice of a… Continue reading Denai Moore – We Used to Bloom
Zac Brown Band – Welcome Home
Cornball Country for those with a tolerance for the synthetic: 'Ain’t nothing like the real thing', sings Brown on his seventh album, but it is difficult to take him seriously. Welcome Home is sentimental and slickly produced, but overall a bit synthetic: the sort of radio-friendly country music that outsells even the biggest MTV hotshots… Continue reading Zac Brown Band – Welcome Home
Dunkirk
Christopher Nolan aims straight for the gut in this sensational account of the wartime evacuation. It’s a long time since Christopher Nolan made a ‘small’ film but Dunkirk, despite taking on such a significant historical moment, with a cast of thousands, on gigantic IMAX cameras, manages to capture the intensity and the valour of that… Continue reading Dunkirk
Blondie – Pollinator
The new wave pop pioneers are still rocking like it's 1977: Have Blondie caught up with modern pop or has modern pop caught up with Blondie? Certainly they've roped in all their hippest fans - including Charli XCX, Nick Valensi and Sia - to help ensure their new album has a contemporary gloss. However, it's… Continue reading Blondie – Pollinator
James JW Robinson 