How Does Your Garden Grow?

How Does Your Garden Grow?

Posted inContributed Posts, Gardening
Contributed Post We’ve all heard of the famous nursery rhyme, so how does your garden grow? Are you someone who loves to make it as bright and colourful as possible? Or are you one that has a garden so big you feel it’s pointless trying to do anything with it? Or does gardening just not interest you? Well whichever one you fall under, you need to try and make as much effort with your garden as possible. It is one of the first things any guest notices about your home, and gardening can be so fun if you make it.…
5 Ways to Make Your Songs More Interesting

5 Ways to Make Your Songs More Interesting

Posted inContributed Posts, Music
Contributed Post If the songs we made sounded as good to an audience as they did in our head, then we’d all be superstars. Alas, that’s a message that often fails to get through to the listeners of our music. If you’re finding that people aren’t engaged in your music, then it might be time to take your songs to strange new places. All the greatest bands in history pushed the boat out, and if it was good enough for them, it’s good enough for you! Below, we take a look at how you make your existing and future songs…
Writer who laments the lack of smart sci-fi like Blade Runner 2049 doesn’t understand smart sci-fi

Writer who laments the lack of smart sci-fi like Blade Runner 2049 doesn’t understand smart sci-fi

Posted inFilms, Geek Stuff
I'm not keen on attacking other writers, and indeed, this should not be construed as an attach. Still, I can't help but vent a little frustration at this piece from the Guardian, Has Blade Runner 2049's failure killed off the smart sci-fi blockbuster? The writer (who I'm sure is a terrific guy) has great praise for Denis Villeneuve’s unexpectedly astonishing sequel to Ridley Scott's 1982 science fiction cult classic, Blade Runner. I agree with him wholeheartedly about that. This was a visually stunning, thematically rich modern masterpiece of the genre, one that had me talking about it and chewing it on for…
I don’t want Amazon’s Lord of the Rings show

I don’t want Amazon’s Lord of the Rings show

Posted inBooks & Authors, Geek Stuff, Television
Earlier this week, Amazon announced it had struck a $250 million deal to produce a multi-season Lord of the Rings series. As a lifelong fan of all things Tolkien, this is not minor news. The name is a little misleading, of course, as this won't be a television adaptation of the famous book (which had already been adapted to film by Peter Jackson in a wildly successful trilogy). Rather, the plan, according to their press release, is to "explore new storylines preceding J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Fellowship of the Ring," along with a potential spinoff series. That's the part that gives…
The new Godspeed You! Black Emperor disappoints, until it doesn’t

The new Godspeed You! Black Emperor disappoints, until it doesn’t

Posted inMusic
I can still remember my reaction the first time I heard Godspeed You! Black Emperor (then stylized as Godspeed You Black Emperor!): "Sonofabitch, some bastards did it! Those crazy bastards did it!" And it was amazing. This was mid 1998. I had pulled some friends together for a semi-improvisational noise band called Slumbersigh. We played a few shows early that year, blasted some feedback at the audience, and called it quits before summer. During that stretch, I waxed poetic to the drummer about this sound I heard in my head, this musical thing I wanted to do but had no…