Days Of Futuramas Past

Here comes the sun, which means the rock festival season is already upon us. Young and old alike are turning up at football stadiums or muddy fields for the likes of Coldplay, The Stone Roses and, er, probably loads of people I’ve never heard of. And all in the name of ‘fun’. Apparently. Not me, though.

Guest Blog: Kent Adamson on After the Triumph of Your Birth

The superb directorial debut of Jim Akin, After the Triumph of Your Birth, breaks boundaries as a personal film. It is unmediated storytelling from the heart, brain, and hands of a director using digital tools as instruments to communicate in words, visuals and music. Carefully crafted, it expands form and content in truthful and intimate ways.

Guest Blog: Gary Widdowfield- The Anarchic Art of Hilary Lloyd

  If you have read the pages of certain of the British newspapers over the years of the TurnerPrize, you will have been confronted with an overdose of what Roland Barthes, called ‘blind and dumb criticism’ about it. The kind of criticism which mocks the work of the artist and offers its readers a guarantee

Guest Blog: LARRY WESSEL and ICONOCLAST: THE MOVIE By Kent Adamson

LARRY WESSEL and ICONOCLAST: THE MOVIE By Kent Adamson ICONOCLAST is a complex masterwork. A rare film, nearly four hours in length, that plays well in any format – on the big screen in a darkened movie theater, and also as a terrific 3 volume dvd set. I first saw it on the big screen,

Palookaville (1995)

  Taking its title from a quoted-to-death  line in ‘On The Water Front,’ Palookaville is  the  story of Jerry, Russ  and Syd – three friends who feel  so trapped in their  no hoper jobs and one horse town that they decide  to escape the rut by embarking on a life of crime, at one point

SWEENEY! BY HALCYON DAYS

I was in the band Halcyon Days  from 1981 to 1982. The band was Richard Sanderson (guitar/vocal), me (bass),Peter Ord (guitar) and Ronnie Burke (drums).   As Richard says: ‘One of the odder unfinished projects was “Sweeney!” from which these three tracks came. Influenced by the 70’s cop show of the time, we conspired to

Strutter : A film by Allison Anders & Kurt Voss

FYI: ‘Allison: film director/ screenwriter: “Gas Food Lodging” , “Mi Vida Loca” “Four Rooms”, “Grace Of My Heart” and “Things Behind The Sun” . Kurt: film director/screenwriter: “Delusion,” “Where The Day Takes You,” “Down and Out With The Dolls,” “Ghost on The Highway: A Portrait of Jeffrey Lee Pierce and The Gun Club” “Strutter” a

Recommended Read: Andy Warhol’s Dracula by Kim Newman

Andy Warhol’s Dracula (published in 2000)  kicks off in  New York’s  legendary  Chelesea Hotel – Room 100 – during the 1970’s. Romanian vampire Johnny Popescu is draining Nancy‘s corpse  while Sid sits in a druggy haze watching Josie And The Pussycats on TV. Leaving the building, Johnny flags down a taxi, driven by an edgy

SPOTLIGHT ON … Carole Parker – Screenwriter : Part One

SPOTLIGHT ON …Carole Parker – Screenwriter : Part One Carole Parker ‘I‘m a Noir/Pulp/Hard-Boiled dame. A chain-smoking, hard-drinking, screenwriting beach babe, and all-around dangerous chick. If you’ve got the crime, I’ve got the time …’ ‘Carole Parker writes some of the sexiest, sassiest, dirtiest, ball-busting prose around and one of these days I’ll finally persuade

Guest Blogger: Richard Godwin – Pablo Picasso

  “ Art is a lie that makes us realize the truth. ”   — Pablo Picasso                           The names read like an invocation of art: Pablo Diego José Francisco de Paula Juan Nepomuceno María de los Remedios Cipriano de la Santísima Trinidad

Judy Nylon/ Snatch – All I Want

   Judy Nylon – Snatch    There’s been a lot of booze under the bridge since then, but I do remember going to Newcastle buying ALL I Want by SNATCH after hearing it on the John Peel show in 1978. And I loved it’s glamorous  looking  embossed gold cover.   A little later I heard

This Impossible Night by Peter Ord

PETER ORD – SONGWRITER I’ve known Peter Ord for THIRTY years ! He is a songwriter and artist living in Hartlepool, UK. A self-taught musician (guitar, bass and keyboards),he has been writing music since his early teens. In the 80’s he performed with post – punk bands in the Middlesbrough area, including Halcyon Days, Oceans