Remember Torchwood? A Doctor Who TV spin-off for grown-ups – dark, but often fun, and containing those post-9pm ‘adult themes’. Torchwood was a specialist government unit of attractive people, led by a Scot with an American accent (or is John Barrowman an American with a Scottish accent?), dealing with various alien creatures on the streets … Continue reading
The founder of legendary rock band The Kinks, and the DJs of Funky Sensation are among the names that have been added to the line-ups at two of the summer’s big jazz festivals. Continue reading
Faversham! Bicycle! False teeth! No, it’s not a strange word game, but some of the searches I randomly carried out at a major arts-meets-tech launch in Cardiff this week (March 31, 2015). The Illustration Archive is the world’s largest searchable archive of book illustrations, making more than a million old images from books freely available … Continue reading
‘Tribute’ acts don’t often cause much excitement, or top the bill at a serious festival. But what if the tributes are performed by multi-Grammy winner Dr John and Britain’s own Jazz FM award-winning Neil Cowley? Continue reading
Brecon Jazz Festival has just celebrated its 30th anniversary in style, with ticket sales up 20% and a high number of sell-out gigs. Even the weather – the tail end of Hurricane Bertha dumped a lake-full of rain on the mid-Wales town on the final day – couldn’t dampen spirits. Continue reading
As Brecon Jazz celebrates its 30th anniverary next month, it also acknowledges a (possibly) even more significant milestone in Welsh cultural history – the 100th anniversary of Dylan Thomas’ birth. Dylan Thomas 100 is a year-long celebration to mark the centenary of Wales’ greatest poet, and Brecon pays its own respects with a Dylan Thomas … Continue reading
One of the funniest gags in the Mel Brooks classic Blazing Saddles (and there are plenty to choose from) must be the running joke about the character Hedley Lamarr – that’s Hedley, not Hedy! Supposedly, the Austrian-born actress took exception to the unauthorised use of (almost) her name for the Harvey Korman character and threatened … Continue reading
The Monster carries his victim into a spooky cave, and a fake bat on a string flaps in front of him, just as real bats flit more convincingly in front the screen. Special effects? Nature can provide something much more special, when films are shown in unusual locations. In this case, it was the 1935 … Continue reading
It doesn’t have much of a plot, its songs were mostly recycled from earlier productions, and the star was suffering a fever when he had to film the title song-and-dance routine, getting soaked to the skin in a shrinking wool suit. Sounds like a recipe for disaster, doesn’t it? But this was Singin’ in the … Continue reading
Cardiff’s Chapter Arts Centre deserves a vote of fangs for a tricksy Halloween treat this week – a screening of Hammer’s classic Dracula in a real castle. Tuesday night’s (29th October) sell-out show in the spooky undercroft of Cardiff Castle gave us a rare chance to see this revered 1958 production as it was intended … Continue reading
PieceOf Pink Pie 