2024: A Year in Music
26 Thursday Dec 2024
Posted in Books, Lana Del Rey, Music, Non-Fiction
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26 Thursday Dec 2024
Posted in Books, Lana Del Rey, Music, Non-Fiction
≈ Comments Off on 2024: A Year in Music
13 Wednesday Nov 2019
Posted in Periodicals, Television, Updates
≈ Comments Off on Soledad 3: Twin Peaks, Blondie and More
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Blondie, Carol Lynley, David Lynch, Debbie Harry, Robert Forster, Soledad, Tara Hanks, Twin Peaks
The third issue of SOLEDAD Arts Journal is now available to order via Amazon, for £5.18 in the UK or a devilish $6.66 Stateside. The cover photo shows Carol Lynley, who sadly passed away recently, with Gig Young in The Shuttered Room (1967), to which editor Jeremy Richey pays tribute inside. This issue’s muse is Debbie Harry, with Blondie lyrics peppered throughout, and a profile by superfan Dave Stewart (no, not that one.) Debbie was my first pop idol, and her recent memoir, Face It, has brought me back into the fold.
Still on the music front, Jeremy has also interviewed Texan duo Teenage Cavegirl, and Steven Darrow from Sonic Medusa and Sister Midnight. There are short stories by Les Bohem and Robert Monell, poems by Emily Clare Bryant, and photography by Amy Pangburn. John Greco talks about his Noir fiction, and Marcelline Block writes about reading in the digital age. As always, the film world is well-represented, with a review of a new Scorpio Films anthology – including Obsessions (Hole in the Wall), co-scripted by a young Martin Scorsese – and an insightful essay by Laura Kupp Beerman, ‘Seen/Unseen: Halloween, Peeping Tom and Empire of Signs.’
And finally, the concluding part of my Twin Peaks trilogy is also published in this issue, which I’ll dedicate to Robert Forster, who played Sheriff Frank Truman in the revival. He had a long and varied career, from his debut in Reflections in a Golden Eye (1967), through to his comeback in Jackie Brown (1999) and Mulholland Drive (2001.) His surprise appearance in El Camino, the Breaking Bad sequel which aired last month, will now be remembered as his swansong.
22 Thursday Dec 2016
Posted in Amy Winehouse, Books, Brighton, Film, History, Lana Del Rey, Music, Non-Fiction, Politics, Witchcraft, Writing
≈ Comments Off on 2016: A Year In Non-Fiction
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A Year in Books, Amy Winehouse, Another Day in the Death of America, BFI Stars, Blondie, British Witches of Sussex, Elena Ferrante, F.A. Mannan, Frances Farmer, Frantumaglia, Gary Younge, I'm Not In the Band, Jean Rhys, Journalism, Julie Christie, Lana Del Rey, Letters, Lyndsy Spence, Margaret Lockwood, Melanie Bell, Natalie Wood, Nathalie Leger, Peter Shelley, Rebecca Sullivan, Suite For Barbara Loden, Sylvia Patterson

British journalist Gary Younge has a sharp eye for how political events impact on ordinary lives. While living in Chicago, he investigated the stories behind the blunt statistics of ten children and teenagers shot dead in a single day. Never intrusive, but quietly devastating, Another Day in the Death of America illuminates with rare power. Continue reading
16 Sunday Jan 2011
Posted in Music
≈ Comments Off on The Fame Monster
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Ace of Base, Alex Petridis, Alexander McQueen, Beyonce, Blond Ambition, Blondie, Born This Way, Bruce Springsteen, Caitlin Moran, Camille Paglia, Dance in the Dark, Don't Ask Don't Tell, Elton John, Grace Jones, Heather Chassils, Hedi Slimane, Kill Bill, Lady Gaga, Lissi, M.I.A., Madonna, Monster Ball, Quentin Tarantino, Steven Klein, The Fame Monster, Thelma and Louise, Tyrese Gibson
“I think re-releases are unfair,” Lady Gaga told Rolling Stone in 2009. “It’s artists sneaking singles onto an already finished piece of work in an effort to keep the album afloat.” So-called ‘deluxe editions’ of high-selling albums have become common in recent years, and Lady Gaga’s 2008 debut, The Fame, was indeed a self-fulfilling prophecy. Within a few months of its release, Gaga had topped charts worldwide with hits like ‘Just Dance’, ‘Poker Face’ and ‘Paparazzi’, transporting her from near-obscurity to household name.
With eight tracks, including three singles, and some rave reviews, The Fame Monster is a very different animal from most re-releases. It has been categorized as an EP, and not so long ago might have been classed as an album in its own right (Michael Jackson’s Thriller was only seven tracks long, while Madonna’s Like a Virgin ran to nine.)
In a press release, Gaga claimed that unlike its sister album, The Fame Monster contains “no songs about money, no songs about fame.” It was written “on the road” and deals with her fears: “my fear of sex monster, my fear of alcohol monster, my fear of love monster, my fear of death monster, my fear of loneliness monster, etc.” Continue reading
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