2011 - Albums of the Year

And now, the end is near, and so I face the final curtain...What an excellent year it's been for music. As well as great new records from old favourites like Luke Haines, Elbow and PJ Harvey, I've also made some incredible new discoveries from the likes of Skint & Demoralised, The King Blues and Cosmo Jarvis. Many of the artists I've been championing don't get a lot of attention from the radio...

2011 - Movies of the Year

Let's start with the turkeys... click the links if you want to know just how much I hated them.Worst Five Movies of 20115. The Thing (2011)4. Immortals3. Season Of The Witch2. Transformers 31. Green LanternDespite those, it's actually been a really good year at the cinema and I could easily have filled a Top 20 with runners up including Never Let Me Go, The Adjustment Bureau, The Skin I Live In, X-Men:...

2011 - Books of the Year

The Best of 2010 Countdown continues with the best books I've read this year. No attempts to categorise them into books that were published in 2010 or not... instead, a short countdown of my favourite non-fiction reads before we get onto the main event.Click the links to read my full reviews. If you can be bothered.My Top Five Non-Fiction Books of 20105. Adventures On The High Teas - Stuart Maconie4....

2011 - TV of the Year

My annual countdown looking back on the best bits of the dying year begins here... with the magical tellybox. This year I've had to suffer the loss of Lost and 365 days without 24. So what's taken their places? Not The Walking Dead (or The Treading Water as we've renamed the lacklustre second series; inspired mid-season climax not withstanding) or True Blood (though the camp monstrosity of Denis O'Hare's...

Christmas Card From A Loser In Huddersfield...

...as opposed to a hooker in Minneapolis.Over at Nige's Page of Rage, Nigel is discussing the thorny subject of Christmas cards, specifically the quandary of wanting to send a card to some of your work colleagues... but not wanting to wee on the rest of them even if their Santa hats are on fire. Not a problem for me this year as I don't officially have any work colleagues. I did receive a card from...

Comic Review: West - Confederate Dead

I've been looking forward to this latest Jerusalem West adventure ever since the book began. Seeing how well Andrew Cheverton and Tim Keable mixed Deadwood-style Western with Romero-esque horror in the book's first few issues, and knowing what a fan of zombie films Chev is, a West / zombies face-off has always been inevitable. And here it is, every bit as juicy and dramatic and bloody and beautiful...

Comfort & Joy

I won't lie to you: it's been a rough year here at SOS Towers. Losing my job, crashing my car, having to watch Green Lantern, Transformers 3 and Season Of The Witch... that'll take the spring out of your step and right. I've had stress, sleepless nights and moments where I've just plain broken down and sobbed into my porridge. But no matter how miserable I've felt, there are some things which always...

Movie Review: The Thing (2011)

John Carpenter's The Thing is one of my favourite movies. It's the perfect horror film, full of isolation, paranoia, dread, shocks and a truly great monster. Well crafted characters, top note performances and a classic stalemate ending. Any sequel, prequel or remake was doomed to failure in my eyes then... and yet, I found myself inexplicably drawn to The Thing 2011. In truth, it was much less of...

Book Review: World War Z by Max Brooks

Subtitled 'An Oral History of the Zombie War', Max Brooks' novel offers a unique perspective - or many different perspectives - on what is becoming a well told tale. While zombie holocausts are ten a penny these days, Brooks gives us something I hadn't seen before: the global picture. There are no recurring characters here (except the unseen narrator), just a series of interviews which tell the story...

MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE - GHOST PROTOCOL (2011)

MyRating: YYYYDirector: Brad BirdCast: Tom Cruise, Jeremy Renner, Simon Pegg, Paula Patton, Michael Nyqvist, Vladimir Mashkov, Samuli Edelmann, Léa Seydoux, Josh Holloway, Anil Kapoor , Tom WilkinsonMPAA: Rated PG-13 for sequences of intense action and violenceMission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol is another action movie that will stun you with its high-octane and adrenaline-rush action sequences,...

Comic Review: Verity Fair #3

The latest issue of Terry Wiley's Verity Fair is another hugely entertaining slice of comedy and chaos in which Verity visits her psychiatrist to talk recurring nightmares, appears (twice) on Never Mind The Buzzcocks, shares curry with a cat and reminisces about a youthful romance with Billy Bragg (or is it?). It's just as crazy and funny and beautifully drawn as you'd expect from the wonderful Mr....

My Ronnie Corbett Story (minus any funny bits)

So I went to the bank...I went to the bank to pay in the cheque the insurance company had finally sent me in compensation for my written-off car. Getting that money has been a long and drawn-out process involving many phone calls of the "what's going on?" variety. I do hope I get the chance to score this company on their customer service at some point down the line because I'll happily rip them a new one. They were constantly telling me "you'll get...

Movie Review: Another Earth

I knew very little about Another Earth as I walked into the cinema, only that it was a low budget movie about the discovery of an identical earth in orbit around our own. I was intrigued enough to give it a go, and I'm glad I did. Hidden away, with no stars and a limited release, this proved to be one of the year's most engrossing pictures.As with all the best sci fi, the big ideas here take a back...

My Week On The Web

Over at The Mixtape Lives On, we're gearing up for 2012 with my favourite songs about the End of the World. This week, that's included classic offerings from Johnny Cash, The Clash, The Handsome Family and Barry Maguire. We also played another great List Song by The Jim Carroll Band (about all his dead friends), new music from Low Roar - with the sublime title of "Friends Make Garbage, True Friends...

Book Review: The Courage Consort by Michel Faber

The Courage Consort, "possibly the seventh best-known a cappella vocal ensemble in Britain", are holed up in a rural Belgian château to rehearse the most complicated piece they've ever had to perform: Partitum Mutante. Forced to co-exist under the same roof for the first time, egos begin to clash and minds begin to fray. Relationship break down, strange allegiances form and... is that a ghost wailing...

It's All About Meme

Stolen from Sunday Stealing...1) If the whole world were listening to you right now, what would you say?Buy my comic.2) If you could meet anyone on this earth, who would it be?Today, I feel like saying Stan Lee.3) You just got a free plane ticket to anywhere. You have to depart right now. Where are you gonna go?Los Angeles circa 1940, when Raymond Chandler and Philip Marlowe walked those streets.4)...

Comic Review: The Abnormals

When people talk about the most influential comics of the last 30 years, they often namecheck Watchmen or The Dark Knight Returns. Yet if the UK small press scene is anything to go by, I'd put Grant Morrison's seminal run on Doom Patrol high up on that list as well. That book certainly had a huge impact on me and I know Spandex's Martin Eden rates it highly as well. Now here comes Grant Springford,...

What's Another Year?

Sunset Over Slawit is five today, and it's been a pretty tumultuous year here at SOS-towers. This was the year I lost my job, crashed my car and fell foul of the local nutter.On the plus side, I began training for a new profession, launched a successful comic and started a new music blog. That last one seems a pretty crazy thing to do as the blogosphere itself continues to shrink (we said goodbye...

Top Ten Breakdown Songs

Ten pop and rock stars stuck on the hard shoulder (or, like me, in a hedge) waiting for a tow truck. Let’s hope they all have Breakdown Cover. 10. Dale Watson - Flat TireIf Johnny Cash had driven a truck, he might have sounded like Dale Watson. 9. Radiohead - Blow Out Radiohead don't have a lot of luck on the road. First a blow out, then they crash their fast German car and only an airbag saves their...

Gig Review: Frank Turner Live In Manchester

I only discovered Frank Turner last year but he's rapidly become one of my favourite artists. His songs are passionate, witty, outspoken and, at times, intensely personal. He mixes heartfelt rock 'n' roll with barnstorming folk like Bruce, Billy and Richard Thompson before him. He's the real deal.I've been wanting to see Frank live for ages but the last time he played Manchester the tickets sold out immediately. It was obviously time for him to move...

Even More Sex & Violence

Many thanks to Andy Oliver over at Broken Frontier for helping promote my new comic, TOO MUCH SEX & VIOLENCE. I've never been interviewed before... it makes me feel like a proper writer - at last!Read the Broken Frontier interview here. Meanwhile, feedback and reviews on the first issue continue to pour in... here's another selection of opinions..."If you are a fan of League of Gentlemen, then...

Movie Review: Immortals

I do so hate it when someone whose opinion I value and respect gets to review a movie on their blog before I do. Especially if they like it and I think it sucks wet ass through a straw. Who am I to disagree with Steve? His opinion is, I'm sure you'll agree, far more worthy than mine. He has the wisdom of age behind him, for one thing. Look, if you think Immortals is your kind of movie, stop reading...

My Top Twenty Teacher Songs

One of the things I've been doing over at The Mixtape Lives On for the past few weeks is playing songs about teachers. In preparation for my new job, it seemed wise to find out what my favourite singers and songwriters thought about their teachers. Most of them concluded they were a bunch of lecherous pervs, bullying ghouls or sexually frustrated stalkers. Still, what do pop stars know about anything?...