The university lit up two of its most famous buildings this weekend – Kings College and The Senate House – with a lightshow created by Ross Ashton themed around scientific research. On the Sunday night there were several thousand people there, and it was a typically civilised Cambridge event. Alex and I loved it.
Here’s the [...]
I was disappointed enough that I couldn’t think of a single new album which excited me in 2009. But it was even more alarming to look at the pile of unread books by my bedside and realise that I’d probably read fewer books in 2009 than in any year since I learned to read.
But hang [...]
Thanks to @borborygmus for reminding me that my musical review of 2009 is constantly being written on my Last.fm page, and whatever I claim to find cool, there’s no escaping from what I actually listened to. And it turns out that what I actually listened to over the course of a year (other than when [...]
At last, you get to discover if it was worth the wait. Frankly, no, it wasn’t. If you missed numbers 10 to 6 yesterday, they were here.
5. The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers
(Peter Jackson, 2002)
My favourite of the three, if only because of the astonishingly unsettling scene where everyone was waiting before the [...]
OK, there was a lot of jostling to get into these coveted slots, but here are the lucky few which made it. The trophies are on their way to some doubtless pleasantly-surprised directors.
10. Children of Men
(Alfonso Cuarón, 2006)
Wow. Chilling tale, wonderful pacing, a relatively unrecognised gem. In 2027, in a chaotic world in which humans [...]
I liked these movies a lot. Just not quite enough to make my top ten of the decade. I’m sure the directors will be distraught.
20. Zoolander
(Ben Stiller, 2001)
Of course it’s silly. But very, very funny.
19. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
(Michel Gondry, 2004)
I had no idea where this was going to go, which was what [...]
A bit more fantasy in this bunch, and several selections from the many series of films (Potter, Pirates, Star Wars, LotR) which dominated the decade…
30. Bend It Like Beckham
(Gurinder Chadh, 2002)
Football! Keira Knightley! And very British too!
29. Kung Fu Panda
(Mark Osborne, John Stevenson, 2008)
My son watched this four times, back-to-back, on a plane. I think [...]
…in which the kids’ movies start to make more of an appearance. Who’d have thought, 10 years ago, this would have happened to me?
40. A Christmas Carol
(Robert Zemeckis, 2009)
Original Dickens text, a suitably scary ghost …who’d have thought it from Disney?
39. Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit
(Steve Box, Nick Park, 2005)
Utterly delightful throughout, [...]
You didn’t think I was going to leave you there with just my favourite 20 albums of the noughties, did you? Ooh no, there are loads more lists locked away in my failing memory, if I can only dig them out. So today, I turn my attention to the big screen, in the decade where [...]
Achtung Bono by Half Man Half Biscuit
“Act One, Scene One – Brenda Blethyn gets shot”
…in which Britain’s most consistently amusing lyricist, Nigel Blackwell, masterminds Half Man Half Biscuit’s most consistently amusing album to date. Achtung Bono was the tenth album from the band in 20 years, and it’s harder than most to select a highlight. [...]
