Tag: reviews

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Portobello Film Festival  2026 – A Return to the Radical

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The 31st Portobello Film festival screens for free more than 200 new independent films, documentaries and music films from Thursday 3 to Sunday 20 September at the Muse Portobello, 6- 10:30 pm Exploding Galaxies, Pink Floyd, David Hockney, Collecting Art Making. For more than three decades Portobello Film Festival has been celebrating independent film making and Festival culture at the original epicentre of the British Underground. Free to enter and free to attend, the festival is an annual reminder of a time when Ladbroke Grove was to London what San Francisco was to America. The area has provided the perfect condition … Continue reading Portobello Film Festival  2026 – A Return to the Radical

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Freddie’s moustachioed “Castro clone” look

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One of the greatest showmen of the twentieth century Freddie Mercury, was a great pretender, a killer queen and a champion of the world with his searing on-stage energy with an unparalleled unique voice. Behind the musician, lyricist’s glamour and the creative force behind one of the most culturally significant and musically diverse bands the world has ever seen, his former fiancée and confidante Mary Austin recollects in A Life in Lyrics, Mercury could wouldn’t countenance the dreary wastelands beyond Zone 1 when buying a house for himself: “He didn’t want anything that felt suburban. It had to be London”.The … Continue reading Freddie’s moustachioed “Castro clone” look

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Life of Outcasts with tainted nobility who scrub and clean the stains of our consumer society

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Canadian writer, social worker, and sociologist, Simon Paré-Poupar who did his first round as garbageman in Montreal as a teenager in “Trash” writes “The Garbageman is the Sisyphus of our consumer society. My fellow garbagemen and I scrub clean the stains of our consumer society.” He says he has personally shifted nearly 70, 000 tonnes of junk, but he and his peers are given a wide berth by the households they serve, “people thank the courier… the mover, and the small carrier. But they barely see the garbageman. They wish we could be invisible, just as they hope their garbage … Continue reading Life of Outcasts with tainted nobility who scrub and clean the stains of our consumer society

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Reganomics effects on Harlem

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Colin Whitehead, two-time Pulitzer winner and #1 New York times bestselling author’s Cool Machine is an entertaining novel that brings to life 1980s New York in his Harlen Trilogy.  1918 New York City is beginning to emerge from financial ruin and decline, energized by rampant real estate development and a Wall Street unchained by Regan-era predatory capitalism. Up in Harlem, however, successful business owner/master fence  for stolen goods which keeps dragging Ray Carney violently into the criminal underworld which requires delicate balancing act, but this concept of “constant turbulent change”, has kept him moving. Just as Carney moves between different worlds, Whitehead … Continue reading Reganomics effects on Harlem

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How secrets come out in a dark story with purple passages and spooky scenes

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Jackalope(2026) Raindance Film Festival, The Vue Cinema, Lower Regent Street, London.Until and including June 26 , 2026. World Premiere. Bryce Hirschberg – Writer and Director. Independent horror/thriller. Stars Catherine Corcoran, Alex Mandel, and Bryce Hirschberg. The name Jackalope is a fictional beast – it combines a jackrabbit with the antlers of antelope or deer, rooted in American frontier tall tales and is a good choice of name for this dark film full of episodes to take our breath away. Jackalope indicates myth and mayhem and so the saga unfolds. It’s often fun to be watching a film which starts with … Continue reading How secrets come out in a dark story with purple passages and spooky scenes

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Transformation from pop icon to song craftsman

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George Michael, pop star who bleached his hair blonde, wore tiny shorts and at the same time, critiqued his own image mercilessly, wrote one of the biggest hits of our age in “about an hour” in his childhood bedroom and would go on to collaborate with some of the greatest musicians of all time from Aretha Franklin to Stevie Wonder. He lived through the AIDS crisis and one of the most homophobic periods of British history and yet when he finally came out, he did so boldly and unapologetically. Wham! Were the first Western pop group to play in Communist … Continue reading Transformation from pop icon to song craftsman

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34th RAINDANCE FILM FESTIVAL

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RAINDANCE FILM FESTIVALRaindance Film Festival: 17 – R26 June at host cinema Vue Piccadillyhttps://raindance.org/festival/nominees-2026/To celebrate the outstanding films screening at the 34th Raindance Film Festival (17 – 26 June), jury awards are presented to features and shorts. Raindance’s awards system honours features in 11 categories: Best International Feature, Best Documentary Feature, Discovery Award for Debut Feature, Best Debut Director, Best Performance in a Debut Feature, Best UK Feature, Best Director of a UK Feature, Best Performance in a UK Feature, Best UK Cinematographthe Spirit of Raindance Award and new for 2026 is Best Horror Feature. Raindance is BIFA-qualifying for British features. An Oscar® qualifying festival, Raindance honours the work of short filmmakers with 4 awards. The recipient of Best Live Action Short, … Continue reading 34th RAINDANCE FILM FESTIVAL

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Can a fox be tamed? 

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While some of us crave crime and violence or in depth factual books on politicsor finance as well as self help bibles, some of us feel enlightened and soothedby human interest stories which follow relatively ordinary people and their lifeexperiences especially if animals are involved.So if you want to take a side step and read about Wilf and his foxy friendtogether with elaborate characterisations of many people vital in the story trythis novel which is a debut for Richard Tyrrell who has a degree inPharmacology and has worked as a book reviewer for mainstreet papers andwas a finalist in The … Continue reading Can a fox be tamed? 

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Asha Bhosle, Bollywood playback singer dies at 92

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Popular Bollywood playback singer, music icon, and film industry’s last Mughal passed away at Breach Candy Hospital in Mumbai today leaving behind her works. a body of work. “Her voice carried timeless brilliance” PM Modi said.  “ I like doing extraordinary things, Music has been my life. It has given me so much. I decided to do a spectacular concert on my 90th birthday. I doubt if anyone in the world has achieved this feat” Said the legend, who remained defiant of age and expectation. “I was around 10 when I started my singing career in 1943,Over the decades, I have … Continue reading Asha Bhosle, Bollywood playback singer dies at 92

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The Globe Theatre at 21 Globe Walk

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Diving into theatrical history in the 21 st century Shakespearesglobe.com currently playing Shakespeare’s The Tempest and A Mid Summer Nights Dream, soon to be performed Romeo and Juliet (Shakespeare). It is a very popular venue, and don’t miss the details about the Sam Wanamaker theatre next doorand open all year round!The Globe Theatre at 21 Globe Walk, Bankside, Southwark, South London SE1 was in modern times the brain child of Sam Wanamaker who came to the UK in 1949, and who died in 1993. Buildingstarted in 1970 and finished in 1997 – they relied heavily on donations to complete the … Continue reading The Globe Theatre at 21 Globe Walk