A Coruña
My first attempt at poetry in about 20+ years.
Dreams Mean Nothing - The Sandman (2022)
I started to write this piece as a simple review of Neil Gaiman’s The Sandman, now streaming on Netflix; like the show itself, and the comic series at its origin, it turned into something far bigger, a historical narrative including random characters, with meanings and truths revealed as if from nowhere.
Like dreams, this review has become something more, an essay about writing itself, about narrative, about the consumption of art for both good and evil, and about its very effect on our lives.
Or maybe just mine.
Part Man, Part Spider, No Home - Spider-Man: No Way Home (2021)
Walking out of Spider-Man: No Way Home, I was struck by a lot of things.
With the film opening here in Ireland 15 December, I’m wholly aware that I’ll get to see it before a lot of people: there were signs up in the cinema’s bathroom asking visitors not to discuss the film because staff had not seen yet.
This…does not follow these rules. This is a blog post, from a writer and comic-book fan, talking about a film he’s just seen, dealing with emotion, with narrative, with story-telling…the things I write about.
Full Of Pop-Culture References, Signifying Nothing - Ready Player One
As a book that focuses on pop-culture references, Ready Player One was suggested to me as a delight to read, one that would be easy to get through and get me back in the right mood and headspace to read again.
At least some part of that was true: I forced myself to get through it in a matter of days so I wouldn't have to deal with it any longer.
The Historian: Book Review
As an English undergraduate, there were many (many, many, many) books that I picked up with the intention of reading...and never finished. A lot of them, I never even started.
I mentioned that a few posts back in a review on The Strain series and the connected TV show. After reading and watching that series, it seemed natural to continue dealing with the undead, It felt natural to remain on a path of vampires, and to revisit another failed reading attempt. Amazon tells me that I bought the Kindle copy of The Historian in August 2012, probably a similar time to The Strain: clearly, my brain was in that same vampiric world as I am now.
The Strain Or The Struggle
Somehow, I just couldn't (and still can't) find salvation in The Strain, either the books or the TV show.
I guess the clue is in the name, really?
Decadence On The 30th Floor - High Rise (2015)
Based on the book of the same name by JG Ballard, High-Rise is a project long in the making, finally brought to our screens by Ben Wheatley. This is easily the biggest project of Wheatley's career so far: the director behind Kill List, Sightseers and A Field In England, Wheatley has finally gotten his teeth into a much larger project (cast, budget, content, you name it.) He brought High-Rise to the ADIFF (Audi Dublin International Film Festival, for the uninitiated) and appeared for a Q&A after the screening.
Feminist, Moi?
I don't think about feminism a lot. Call it male privilege if you like. That's not to say that I haven't considered myself a feminist, I've just never really considered my opinion important.
Here's the thing: I'm a white guy living in a country in western Europe. I'm a gay guy with no sisters who went to a boys' school. There are questions about being a woman, about being a feminist that have never touched me, and I've never felt the need to address. Because here, on our little island on the fringes of the Atlantic, feminism is a weird scary thing that weeves in and out of legislation that I just don't want to go near.
The Hades Contract: The Soundtrack
I write to music: it's my whole ~thing~. Always have done, probably always will.
A few months ago, I wrote a post that was a long time coming. My first novel, Godhead had a soundtrack (in my head) and although I had shared it with a few people, it was really time to get my finger out and discuss it properly.
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