For so many of us, our first interaction with a classic novel is through the movie adaptation: Pride and Prejudice, The Great Gatsby, and for me, The Painted Veil by W Somerset Maugham. This 2006 film starred Naomi Watts and Edward Norton, looked incredible, and featured a stunning soundtrack. Ultimately, the story was about the…
Read more
What has happened to the family pet? Dear Father Christmas, All I want is a puppy. I will love it and care for it and name it for its most redeeming characteristic…. My 1973 dog had a damp start to life, being the only pup that survived a dunking by gunny sack in the local…
Read more
Some Like It Hot (1959) is now seen as one of the greatest comedies in filmic history. It’s a wonder though why it isn’t seen as one of the most ahead of its time. Gender and sexuality are core themes explored in this screwball comedy with great quality and wit by the wonderful scriptwriter and…
Read more
Being a detective is supposedly synonymous with danger, glamour, devilishly handsome individuals and immeasurable intrigue. It may be a dangerous line to walk, but there is more than sufficient compensation available to those who choose to walk it. Taking this into consideration, why it is that anyone would consider the profession of a pet detective…
Read more
I didn’t know if I was going to like Titanic. I loved it when it came out; I saw it twice in the cinemas, and my parents wisely pre-ordered it on VHS from Target. When I tell people how many times I’ve seen it, I keep to the lower end of my estimate range (around…
Read more
John Waters, spokesman-in-chief for housewives, suburban boredom and Baltimore itself, is well known to us all as the cultural monarch of the weird and perfectly wonderful. Infinitely notorious, a large portion of his oeuvre remains inaccessible to our more ‘conscientious’ citizens but for those among us who apparently remain wanting as far as a conscience…
Read more
Despite any protest asserting the contrary, human beings are remarkably similar. Culture, appearance and whatnot may be paraded around as a supreme marker of difference, but the volume at which we object seems due to a very odd misunderstanding. Primary school tried to tell us we were all different, but fundamentally we were and are…
Read more
I started reading the infectious Sweet Valley series when I was little. I started out with Sweet Valley Kids, and graduated through to Sweet Valley University when I was about twelve. I remember reading a SVU book during a silent reading class, and my grade seven English teacher looking at me, sighing and saying, ‘Oh,…
Read more
Dragging Calvin to see Hanson at the Great American Music Hall in San Francisco resulted in his buying me an ‘I Heart Hanson’ shirt and demanding I wear it for the remainder of our stay in the U.S. as punishment. He was not the only disgruntled male at the gig, but he was probably the…
Read more
