Flavours of the Month: July & August 2026...

The sardonic arm of the law, foul-mouthed kitty-cats, and baloney in a galaxy far far away is just some of what's been setting the tone of my July/August 2026...

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Flavours of the Month: July & August 2025...

In space no one can hear you being stupid, hunting drug lords, and post-apocalyptic gear-crunching is just some of what's been setting the tone of my July and August 2025...

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Flavours of the Month: July & August 2024...

Seventies sauce, humorous horror, and seeing how far the rabbit hole goes is just some of what's been setting the tone of my July & August 2024...

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Flavours of the Months: July/August 2023...

Tomes of Terror, a menagerie of monsters, and some rubber-burning donuts is just some of what's been setting the tone of my July and August 2023...

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Flavours of the Month: June/July 2022...

Chaotic car-nage, the perils of prequelitis, and a murder-filled motel is just some of what's been setting the tone of my June/July 2022...

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Flavours of the Month: June/July 2021...

Adventures in Nouvion, squealin' Italian wheels, and many a trip into the printed word are just some of what's been setting the tone of my June/July 2020, if you know what I mean and I think you do...

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Flavours of the Month: June & July 2020...

It's been a rough couple of months in the wake of a family health emergency, which has thrown our lives into the air - and then, as if in some act of the middle finger from forces of fate, it's just been nothing but problems to solve, paperwork to trawl through, and things to take care of around the house - hence the quiet time here on the blog. To put it bluntly it's a living hell, both physically draining and emotionally traumatic. Despite the sheer upheaval of it all, I've picked out time to just bleb out and lose myself in something else...

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Flavours of the Month: July 2019...

Caffeinated chuckleheads, spooky doings in the 1980s, and wheel-to-wheel action is just some of what has been setting the tone of my July 2019...

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Flavours of the Month: July 2018...

Crash by way of Ballard and Cronenberg, the 1970s and 1980s through Netflix's eyes, and trashy horror flicks are just some of what's been setting the tone of my July 2018...

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Flavours of the Month: July 2017...

Wrestling 80s style, "something weird and strange", southern hostility, and murderous molluscs - just some of what's been flavouring my July 2017...

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Flavours of the Month: July 2016...

Biting political satire, self-hating comedians, bullet-time, zombies, and a hefty amount of research - just some of the looks, sounds, vibes & flavours of my July 2016...

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Flavours of the Month: July 2015...

Brooding detectives, nerdvana, 'black out years' tunes, darkly comic tales, and a great big thwack in the ribs are just some of what's been flavouring my July 2015...

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Flavours of the Month: July 2014...

July 2014 has been dominated by GTA V's electro sounds, hard boiled detectives, and crime busting coppers. Horror rockers, horror soundtracks, and horror flicks - plus plenty more.

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Flavours of the Month: July 2013...

LOOKS:

The Returned - this 8-part French supernatural series (that's not about zombies, despite what numerous lazy news articles claim - hint: the clue's in the title "Les Revenants") has been a real joy to watch. Beautifully crafted in all regards, it's a mystery that keeps on giving - so many questions, and thankfully numerous answers. There's the big central mystery that will go unanswered until the very end - naturally - but there are innumerable medium-and-mini mysteries throughout, which are either answered, or brought further into focus by small pieces of new information in each episode. There's always a sense of forward momentum, so the mystery never becomes frustrating or stagnant. Bring on series 2!

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Flavours of the Month: July 2012...

LOOKS:

Futurama: Season 5 - or, as it is also referred to, the first half of season six. The Futurama folk consider the four movies, which were each in-turn split into four parts, to constitute a supposed 'fifth season', so when they triumphantly returned to TV via Comedy Central, they were onto 'season six'. Anyway - a couple of slightly weaker episodes in the mix (and some examples of ever-so-blunt socio-political commentary) may be present, but it's still wickedly funny a second-time-around. It's a bit bloody daft though, that 'season six' (the back-half of the 26 episodes, which were begun with these here 13 episodes) won't be out on UK DVD until March 2013! Season Seven is already underway, and the episodes have long-since been available in other territories - it's the same story with Robot Chicken's fifth season, which still hasn't struck the Region 2 market (despite being available in other territories for a long time now).

Alan Partridge - Sky Atlantic have clearly been doing very well, and have therefore set about bringing in a whole slew of brand new comedy (some of which they've produced). 10 weeks of new Alan Partridge content is one such example of Monday-based mirth - a chucklesome way to relive my old stomping grounds from my uni days.

Adam Buxton's Bug - I was (and remain) a huge fan of The Adam & Joe Show, which was on Channel 4 back in the 1990s, so I always take great interest in what the two of them have done since. This is a televised version of Buxton's live "Bug" shows, in which he shares weird and wonderful music videos, web content, and computer-based japes, and reads through some of the bizarre and hilarious comments left behind by everyday YouTube users. Now four episodes in, you can see that Buxton has relaxed into the televised setting of his show, and I look forward to the rest of the shows.

The Newsroom - Aaron Sorkin's new drama has kicked off in grand style. The second episode was a bit weak, but the first and third episodes have been stormers. His trademark machine-gun dialogue is in-place, with a wishful outlook on how television news should be, rather than how it is. Indeed, as someone who is decidedly fed up with modern television news (as well as various sectors of journalism in general), it's a good bit of wish fulfilment for me to boot.

The Angelos Epithimiou Show - it's hard to describe why this character is so funny; it has to be seen to be understood, and even then he's not going to be to everyone's liking. No wonder he first came to wide attention on the now-cancelled Shooting Stars. "What's in your bag Angelos? Tell me what's in your bag - ya bastard!"

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Flavours of the Month: July 2011...

LOOKS:

Futurama - season 6 is underway and it's great to have this hilarious and intelligent show back!

Carnivale - missed it entirely the first time around, but thanks to Sky Atlantic, I've just gotten into this show. I'm only a few episodes in to it, but it's slowly pulling me in. It's a very, very, very slow-paced show, but it's also surprisingly good at luring you into it's mysterious web.

Last Man Standing - I haven't seen this Bruce Willis actioner in well over a decade, so it was a bit of a nostalgia trip to see it again (and, at last, in the correct aspect ratio).

The League of Gentlemen - I missed the boat almost entirely when it was originally airing (I had only ever seen the Christmas Special before), but I'm glad I finally hopped on board (albeit more-than-fashionably-late).

Uncle Buck - this John Hughes comedy from 1989 is a beloved flick from my early years. When I was a kid I loved the mayhem that John Candy's titular uncle caused, and especially loved his bombed-out old car. While I still love those things, being much older I appreciate it in a whole new way - and it's a surprisingly sweet and touching movie.

SOUNDS:

Ringo Deathstarr "Colour Trip" - shoegaze music from a band I've been waiting for what seems like ages to release an album (admittedly I totally forgot I was waiting for their album, as it was taking a while, so it was a nice surprise to discover that it was already out so I could hop right into it). "Do It Everytime" and "Two Girls" would have to be my favourite tracks.

Foo Fighters - live performances on the telly and their brilliant new album "Wasting Light".

M83 "Echoes" (sample), "Midnight City", and "Saturdays=Youth", "Digital Shades Vol.1" - with news that a double-album is coming soon from M83 (with a sample track that debuted on YouTube), I figured it was a good time to get the French shoegazer back into my CD auto changer.

New Order "Age Of Consent" - I can thank the end credits of Skateland for this. What a spiffing track.

Mohr Stories Podcast - a new podcast on the SModcast Network from comedian Jay Mohr, and it's bloody good fun. Episode Four was especially hilarious.

This Mortal Coil "Song To The Siren" - as heard at a haunting moment in Peter Jackson's The Lovely Bones.

VIBES & FLAVOURS:

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 - it's a stupidly brief game (4 to 5 hours for a play through of the single player campaign), but nevertheless it's a wonderful action game experience, so it's not surprising therefore that this was my sixth play through.

Assassin's Creed Brotherhood - Assassin's Creed II kicked arse, but it wasn't without it's flaws, and it's follow-up - Brotherhood - is much the same. One thing to note - it feels overlong with padding, and the structure of a number of missions leaves a lot to be desired. Indeed there are many annoying little nuisances either within certain missions, or the game in general, that really (much like in ACII) start to spoil the whole experience. That said, you do get more of what you loved about ACII. Let's hope that they get rid of all the silly nuisances, that have so far been endemic in the franchise, in this year's Assassin's Creed Revelations.

Mark Kermode "It's Only A Movie" - my film critic of choice. I got this for Christmas, but with a stack of other books to get through, I've only just given this a look-see, and despite a couple of chunks that aren't hugely involving, the majority of the book plays well to a fellow film fanatic. Most specifically, the chapters on Kermode's event-filled trip to Russia, and his time interviewing Werner Herzog, make for fascinating reads.

The Walking Dead: Season 2 Teasers - as a huge fan of the zombie genre, The Walking Dead has been the best thing to happen to zombies since Day of the Dead, and with season two fast-approaching (it debuts in mid-October), the preview trailers have made for fervent excitement amongst us zed heads.

Flavours of the Month: July 2010...

July has been a generally muggy month interspersed with spells of fresh cool, and power cuts. It has also been a month of - By Any Means 2: Sydney to Tokyo - which I gave a second viewing on DVD, and which was a good step up from the slightly disappointing first By Any Means.

A few weeks back I got into the ruddy thrilling first season of Prison Break, and I've now caught up on the other three seasons. Season Two was a strong follow-up, even if it did tail off a smidge in the last episodes, Season Three was the weakest (clearly affected by the Writer's Strike at the time) and often drew out small events to fill entire episodes, and finally Season Four, was back to the usual thrilling form ... but once again it tailed off a bit in the final third once there was yet another double-cross and things took yet another detour to drag everything out again ... and while the ending is a smidge unsatisfying in more than one respect, it was still an affecting finish to a bloody good and rather enjoyable show.

I finally caught up on the latest Splinter Cell game ("Conviction"), which seemed to encourage you to not be able to sneak around and just get you into a firefight, and while I wasn't always following the plot, I always enjoy a bit of Sam Fisher shadowy goings on. At least the "Deniable Ops" portion allowed for classic stealth gameplay in "Hunter Mode".

I've also been thoroughly getting into The Walking Dead, in anticipation of the October premiere of the TV adaptation. I've done the first three "Volumes" (or "Trades") and while Volume Two was a bit hit and miss, Volumes One and especially Three have been tip top zombie fun ... but the dialogue could use some improvement at this stage to rid itself of too much exposition and on-the-nose bluntness. Good lord though, with all the snippets of info coming out regarding the TV adaptation (including a leaked trailer from Comic-Con), it's been an absolute zed-head nerdgasm!

Musically it's been a bit of everything, but a late entry would have to be the Alan Wake soundtrack - specifically the licensed tracks featured in the game (the full orchestral soundtrack comes out in August). Particular tracks would be "Young Men Dead" by The Black Angels, "Up Jumped The Devil" by Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds, "Haunted" by Poe, "War" by Poets of the Fall" and "In Dreams" by Roy Orbison. Alan Wake is such a well crafted game and as such the music chosen to play throughout is inspired and really supports and extends the overall tone and feel of the game.

I've also been having a Blade Runner kick with a return to the 5-disc DVD. It's one of those films that you like more, and think higher of, each time you watch it.

Finally, I've been cracking on with final touches to Summer Road. I'm looking forward to getting it finished and sent off to the BBC Writersroom. I've been working on this for seemingly ages now. Actual writing has taken place over three months in spare time, and before that I was slowly piecing everything together in the form of notes.

I'm really looking forward to getting onto Allen Bridge as well, for which I've got some considerable notes mapped out including entire scenes, and being that it's a totally different vibe (and genre) to Summer Road, it will come as a welcome change of pace for my writing - that said, I'm really quite proud of Summer Road ... I've invested a lot of time and self into it, and I think that is reflected in the almost-final (at the time of writing) product.

Flavours of the month (June/July 2009)...

I've been thinking of doing this for a while, a little blog now and then, to just give you a flavour of what's been flavouring my month(s) in retrospect ... so here's the first one of (as the idea goes anyway) many such posts over the coming months.

Bug Juice - I used to watch this during my summer holidays off from school, and I fondly remember watching the first season of this show during the summer of 1998. It was like going to an American camp, without having to actually bother or stump up the vast sums of money to go (I saw the camp's current rates online - bloody nora!). Anyway, nostalgia flashback overload is the order of the day with these episodes which I've been viewing online.

Cannibal movies - not just cannibal movies, but many down & dirty, sleazy exploitation flicks from the 70s and 80s, with a few newer ones thrown in. Aye, during my recovery from my hernia operation, I have been re-viewing a bunch of the exploitation horror flicks that I already have on DVD, but I've also been adding to that with a few cannibal-related horror adventure flicks that I didn't have. Very gross, very sleazy, very grindhouse ... brilliant.

Michael Jackson - the day I had my operation was when I found out MJ had died, kinda weird. Anyway, as a result the couple of music channels you can get on Freeview (the shitty signal of late is due to that sodding Digital Switchover bullshit that's now being conducted in our area for months) have been inundated with MJ videos. I'm not a huge fan - as in I don't listen to MJ albums, but I do enjoy many MJ singles, and those have been a sort of background soundtrack of sorts to my recovery over the last few weeks.

E.S. Posthumus - I discovered this group of experimental classic musicians through the soundtrack for Top Gear (which is, at the time of writing, in the midst of it's 13th series) - I've heard a bunch of their tracks now, and it's bloody great stuff. A really interesting mix of the classical and the modern, and very, very cinematic in its sound - no wonder it has become so ensconsed within the Top Gear soundtrack.

Pygmy - I'd forgotten that Chuck Palahniuk had a new book out, so back in June I nabbed myself a copy of Pygmy. At first I was struggling to get into it - it sounded like a kick ass story, one far fresher than last year's 'Palahniuk on auto pilot' "Snuff", but being that it was written in broken English spoken by the central, foreign, protagonist, I was finding it difficult to get a good flow going when reading. Fortunately, with a bit of perserverance, I've gotten into it quite a bit now and I'm thoroughly enjoying it.

Meat Loaf - I've had a brief return to a couple of Meat Loaf albums I got when I was about 12 or 13, back when my musical tastes were young and undeveloped. This isn't a slight against Meat Loaf, although listening to "Welcome to the Neighbourhood" more than a decade later, I dig it more fully than before ... although a couple of the tracks are a bit naff, the majority of that album is a pretty good listen. It feels like a 50s movie, which is cool too.

Friends blooper reels - being bed ridden, and only having limited choice on Freeview (which is missing several channels thanks to the Digital Switchover work that's going on around here), I got back into Friends (which endlessly repeats from start to finish on E4), and as such I found myself watching blooper reels from the show on YouTube - and laugh I most certainly did. Friends might not be ground breaking stuff, nor super deep or anything, but it's nice, familiar, friendly, and funny - and as a result, ideal for when you're feeling bloody crock (physically and mentally) after a hernia operation.

The Assassintion of Jesse James soundtrack - as I've said numerous times before, I absolutely love this film (it's in my Top 10 of All Time), and the soundtrack is superb, so I've been listening to that at nights before bed - and it's truly wonderful to listen to. It's just so bloody good - seriously, check it out.