Category: Multimedia

The secrets behind the greatest daytime TV show

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I’m not sure if Low Culture’s detailed look at ‘Homes Under The Hammer‘ is genuine, a tongue in cheek pastiche of geek-chic fandom, a disgruntled writer given the worst SEO assignment in the world, or a mix of all three. I’m sure that it’s a fabulously inventive piece of writing: Ridiculously, it’s unlikely that any of Hammer will ever get a DVD release. I know, right? Luckily, this does have a bright side – it means the show is covered by a blanket licence agreement for music, and they can play pretty much anything they like, so the researchers like

Who is buying new albums?

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My family tends to stream far more music from the mainstream than buying albums thanks to an Apple Music family subscription . My album purchases tend to be either ‘asking the band after the gig’ or physical orders from personal websites because iTunes doesn’t have a lot of Finnish new-age female-fronted power punk bands. Turns out that we’re not alone, with Chartattack reporting that 2015 saw ‘new’ US album sales beaten by back catalogue tracks. The term “catalogue” refers to albums released more than 18 months ago. According to Nielsen’s annual year end music report, catalogue albums outsold current releases

The X-Files goes British

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The real secret of the new ‘The X-Files‘ series is not that it’s a special event, not that it’s a limited run, it’s just that ‘The X-Files‘ is ahead of its time (again) and decided that the UK model of six-episode seasons is the best way forwards. Of course that’s not mentioned in The Hollywood Reporter’s ‘Oral History’ of the revived series, but it’s still a great weekend read on the world of television. When ‘The X-Files’ Became A-List: An Oral History of Fox’s Out-There Success Story

Disney’s Cowboy Bebop

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It’s taken me a while to get round to Disney XD’s Star Wars animation ‘Star Wars: Rebels‘, partly because I’d ignored the Clone Wars series, but also because there was another Star Wars episode to see last year all the focus was on that. So it was a delight to settle down with Rebels and discover a almost piratical crew led by rough-edged Jedi with amazing gun control and close-quarters fighting skill, a heavily muscular ‘Second Mate’, a feminine sharpshooter, a street-wise urchin, and a cute puppy-like droid that knows far more than it tells. That crew sound awfully familiar

The Back To The Future Hoax

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I know, I’m adding to all the mess of bandwagon-jumping today, but Buzzfeed’s article on the man who told the internet that Back To The Future Part 2 was July 5 2010… and the internet believed him. Being first to a juicy factoid like Future Day could result in a big tweet, and that meant new followers, new readers. Without resources, scoops at Total Film were rare, and we often had to rely on bigger publications to source news. I could have googled. I should have googled. But being first was more important. Sometimes when a mad professor turns up

From The Sublime… To The Cliffhanger

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I know there are a million ‘media/sci-fi/genre‘ podcasts out there, but here’s another reason to listen and subscribe to ‘From The Sublime‘… I’m making an appearance this fortnight! FTS (because every good show needs to have a good abreviation) is hosted by Iain Hepburn, and works on a magazine-style format, with discrete topics introduced and presented as monologues from Hepburn and his “finely honed fighting force.” Yes, it’s ‘Nationwide for Nerds’, with just a little bit more attitude than Frank Bough. Anyway, Hepburn asked if I would take a swing at a topic for the current episode, and I decided