Category: Arts
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The Book of Mor(m)on
Went to see The Book of Mormon last night. I’ll be reviewing it on William Crawley’s BBC Radio show on Sunday morning, but thought I’d blog a few thoughts here too. Firstly, it’s a great musical. I’m no great fan of musical theatre to be honest [in mathematical terms, it’s non-additive 😉 music (fab) +…
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After Magic – Preview 2 – Tell All The Truth, But Tell It Slant
Very excited that After Magic will be available in the next few days now. It’s a compact read at around 25,000 words, but covers a lot of ground within that. As I’ve increasingly found with the books I’ve written, the source material that’s given rise to After Magic isn’t really the kind of stuff you’d…
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Better Living Through Chemistry? Love, Depression and Pharmacology
Last night I went to see The Effect at the National Theatre, a new play by Lucy Prebble, who made waves with her previous piece ENRON. (It ‘stars’ Billie Piper, who I’d not seen on stage before but – just as an aside – her performance confirmed so much that I’d heard: she’s a very…
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Copyrights Expiring on The Beatles | Mutiny and Music
Interesting piece here exploring the fact that today ‘Please Please Me’ – the hit that really made the band famous – has gone into the public domain, as its 50 year copyright period has expired. The article takes the view that this is a tragedy, one that leaves The Beatles’ music open to exploitation. Anything…
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The Master – A Beautiful Pack of Lies – Which Way Will The Wrecking Ball Swing?
Spoiler alert: there’s really not a great deal of fundamental narrative action in this film. No twists to reveal. But if you’d rather not know too much about the film before you see it, don’t read on. // I saw Paul Thomas Anderson’s new film The Master on Friday night. Here’s the thing: I sent…
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Advice for Writers: Don’t Read Too Much Advice for Writers
There always seems to be a steady stream of posts from literary magazine sites giving lists of advice for writers. Zadie Smith has a series of 10 points in The Atlantic at the moment, highlights including Don’t romanticise your ‘vocation’. You can either write good sentences or you can’t. There is no ‘writer’s lifestyle’. All…