Jim Eaton-Terry is blown away by the pop art onslaught of John Wick: Chapter 2
All posts by jim5et
Life’s Short Talk Fast
Jim Eaton-Terry dusts off his percolator for the Gilmore Girls revival
#judelawpopeshow
Jim Eaton-Terry’s spirit is moved by Jude Law’s Pope Show
When I volunteered to review the Jude Law Pope Show it was, I admit, largely for comedy reasons. I’m not sure I’ve ever heard a more preposterous elevator pitch for a show. Jude Law, who will forever be the kid from Shopping, as the Pope? The idea, coupled with on set photos of Law in his papal robes and, even better, his special Pope Hat TM , has been making me laugh for months. Continue reading #judelawpopeshow
There’s no such thing as Mark Ruffalo
Jim Eaton-Terry kicks off a week of music-related articles with a review of John Carney’s follow up to the world-conquering Once.
The Umbrellas of Cherbourg
Jim Eaton-Terry is charmed by the 50th anniversary reissue of Jacques Demy’s classic New Wave musical
Welcome to MercuryFest 2013
By Jim Eaton-Terry
I love awards. Film, music or books, they combine the fun of a race with the joy of a list of things to work through. for years I’ve been holding my own private OscarFest every spring, trying to watch all the major nominees ahead of the ceremony. Given that I don’t like watching any sport, outside of an election year it’s my one chance to bet on something and cheer for the winners. Some years it’s a delight, some years it’s a trudge, and the less said about the year we ended up watching Cold Mountain, The Last Samurai, Mystic River, House of Sand and Fog and 21 Grams in a 48 hour period the better.
This year, though, I’ve gone a little further. With Spotify, YouTube, and a library card, I’m planning to plough through the whole Mercury shortlist and the Booker Longlist, and handicap each ahead of the ceremonies. Assuming I can get through it all, check back here in October for BookerFest.
Mostly Records, January 2013
By Jim Eaton-Terry
Obviously there’s only one story this week. Like everyone (OK, like everyone over about 35 with an interest in pop music) I woke up on Tuesday to find my Twitter feed melting with the news that Bowie had reappeared with a new single, something I’d given up on years ago. In the time since it seems that pretty much every music writer worth reading has held forth on the subject[1] so I’m not sure there’s much to add. The single is lovely, the video deeply peculiar, the cover is awful, and I’ve already ordered the album.
Mostly Records, June 2012
By Jim Eaton-Terry
After a few months of listening mostly to old hacks returning to form, I’m deeply tempted to devote this whole entry to Kitty Pryde, who takes the recent trend of soft-focus hip-hop somewhere really new and rather wonderful, but as everything she’s recorded is available free here why not head over, listen to it all, then pop back?
Swallows and Amazons Forever
by Jim Eaton-Terry
There are many great things about having small children and living in the country, but access to theatre productions isn’t one of them. The formula for touring family shows seems to be pretty well set; take a classic text, a bare stage, half a dozen recent graduates, and some inventive staging (a sleeping bag…is a dragon!) and you’re guaranteed a slot at the local arts centre. They’re almost always full of bounce and energy, but once you’ve seen one you’ve seen them all, and the songs are always awful.
So I was in two minds about the Bristol Old Vic production of Swallows and Amazons; on the one hand, another staging of a slightly fusty children’s classic, on the other hand, no matter how irritating Neil Hannon can be, he knows how to knock out a tune.
Mostly Records – April 2012
by Jim Eaton-Terry
One of the few certainties with Mostly Records is that, whatever date we schedule it, something absolutely fascinating will be released either the day before or the day after. That’s my excuse for not having more than a cursory “sounds great, more next time” about Jack White’s solo debut. He’s the single best rock star working today, though, and if you’ve not heard Sixteen Saltines, it could be the single of the year:
First, though, because this is somehow the first MR of the year, I wanted to rattle through some of the records I’ve missed in the first quarter of the year.
MostlyFilm 