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Our protagonist Yeine lives in relative obscurity until she discovers she's an heir to the kingdom of, well, the whole world. It's a standard fantasy idea covering some big issues and brought to a non-standard conclusion in this beautifully written debut by N K Jemisin ( Read more... )

To everyone who's been bugging me to go see Avatar because it's shiny, your duty is done, I finally joined the herd ( Read more... )

Top Ten Albums of the Decade (Part 1)

Apart from the actual decision making, this has been a hugely enjoyable exercise. Inevitably, it's a surprise to find just how old some of these albums are, but pleasant to discover that a few old favourites have released new albums recently. I hope choosing my favourites will be just as hard in 2019.

( The Final 12 )

Top ten albums is a pretty predicatable subject as far as reviews of the year/decade go, but seeing the first of them before Xmas made me wonder what mine would be. Half an hour on iTunes and 45 albums later, I realised it would be like deciding what my favourite book or child was. Which is why there's 25 albums on the final list. I've always ( Read more... )

Third gig in four days... Both of Amanda Palmer's dates sold out to the disappointment of many, so she decided to organise an extra "secret" one on Sunday via Twitter. The idea was to start the show at midnight at the Underworld Club in Camden (cap. 500) and go on 'til she was too sleepy or too drunk. I was just in time for the release of the ( Read more... )

Two days after Tori, I went to my first Amanda Palmer gig at the lovely Union Chapel in Islington. It was an easy venue to find. All you had to do was follow the man pedalling an upright down Upper Street. And the fans' hair. I swear I have never seen so much pink hair in a queue for a gig ( Read more... )

It was a nervous May morning when tickets for Tori in Hammersmith went on sale. We planned a two-pronged attack and, while my brother couldn't even get on the website, my connection managed to crawl its way to four tickets ( Read more... )

Tegan and Sara are a Canadian indie pop duo who I fell in love with a couple of months ago. Which meant that on Monday night, I was standing in a queue of very keen T & S fans outside the Shepherds Bush Empire. The superfan behind me was getting ready to outtrun the giant group of emos, "they don't need to be at the front, they can't see through ( Read more... )

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