Back in October, Fiona Apple – whose Fetch the Bolt Cutters, released in April, captured a particular early pandemic mood – was interviewed by Emily Nussbaum for The New Yorker Festival. “I think we women should be marrying our friends,” she told the journalist. “We have sexual freedom! We have dogs! We have fun! We […]
After eight months at home, and with a long winter looming, I realise how much of my life was based around a) going to work; and b) going to gigs. Work was the thing that got me out of the house every day: the reason I kept active; the reason I was in town for […]
A couple of weeks ago, I found something pretty cool: every mix CD I made between the years of 2006 and 2010. Oh, not the actual CDs – those were never lost, stacked as they are in reverse chronological order on the giant drum that sits in the back left-hand corner of the desk I […]
So, after getting all smug about nailing my Goodreads reading challenge for the year (because, apparently, I now live a lifestyle where 30 books in a year genuinely is a challenge), this month my reading all but slowed to a halt. At least, my quantifiable reading. Part of the reason for it was that, just […]
Lost City is the final book in Jay Stringer’s Eoin Miller trilogy and, if I have been remiss in bringing it to your attention, it’s not because it isn’t really, really good (I had declared it the best of the three by the time I finished the first draft, and now I’m re-reading it as […]
It’s been a funny wee year. Sitting on the sofa earlier, surrounded by two days’ worth of flu-ridden tissues, I was feeling even more dispirited than I normally do at this time of year. It doesn’t feel as if it’s been one of big, dramatic accomplishments or monumental changes. But then I realised that I […]
These are nominally in order, but with very little to separate many of them it would be tough going to replicate it – plus, the usual one-song-per-artist rule applies. Apologies for lack of listening facilities, but I hope you get a chance to check out something you may not otherwise have heard anyway! 50. The […]