Beyond the Wall of Sleep – H.P. Lovecraft

Beyond the Wall of Sleep is one of H.P. Lovecraft‘s greatest short stories. It begins with a quote from Shakespeare: “I have an exposition of sleep come upon me.” It then goes into a wonderful mini-essay on the nature of dreams. Whilst the greater number of our nocturnal visions are perhaps no more than faint and fantastic reflections of our waking experiences—Freud to the contrary with his puerile symbolism—there are still a certain remainder whose immundane and ethereal character permits of no ordinary interpretation, and whose vaguely exciting and disquieting effect suggests possible minute glimpses into a sphere of mental existence no less important than physical life, … Continue reading Beyond the Wall of Sleep – H.P. Lovecraft

The Gentleness & Vulgarity of ‘Crimes of Passion’

I only got round to seeing Crimes of Passion… yesterday. Yes, yesterday. My excuse – I was minus two when the film was released. Crimes of Passion moves between a seemingly confident prostitute and Bobby, a generic man whose marriage is failing. In order to make some more money to keep Amy (the wife) happy, Bobby takes on some extra night work conducting surveillance on a woman – Joanna Crane (Kathleen Turner) – at the behest of Joanna’s employer Continue reading The Gentleness & Vulgarity of ‘Crimes of Passion’

The Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band – top 5 strangest songs

Known for their odd comedy songs and surreal covers of rag-time tracks, The Bonzo Dog Doo Dah Band started out on the hit 60s show Do Not Adjust Your Set (a precursor to what would later become Monty Python’s Flying Circus), alongside Eric Idle, Michael Palin, David Jason (amazingly, the most popular cast member at the time), Denise Coffey and Terry Jones. The show even included cut-out animation from the wonderful Terry Gilliam in the second series. It basically consisted of a group of twenty-somethings having fun and being silly. Although these co-stars went on to become far bigger than The Bonzo Dog Doo Dah Band, many … Continue reading The Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band – top 5 strangest songs