Author: Ian France
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The EV infrastructure must improve
This afternoon, I decided to charge my car, in preparation for a long-ish journey tomorrow. I headed into Ormskirk (a small town near Liverpool) to find a charging port. According to Google, and my car’s app, there were several nearby. Except there weren’t. Every charging station that appeared in my searches was either private (no…
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Animal Farm [2025]
Film: Animal Farm Year: 2025 Director: Andy Serkis Rating: 0% Review: Abomination.
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But now…
Where once our fingers interlaced Now the bond is broken On this delicate plane The ribbon of my love unfurls Daily Daily daily And where once you would take your end And hold it to your muted skin Now it trails in the unforgiving darkness In which I must lie During brighter days Enraptured by…
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Stand By Me
Film: Stand By Me Year: 1986 Director: Rob Reiner Rating: 90% Review: Anchored firmly in the 80s, despite being set in the 50s, Stand By Me is a coming-of-age drama worth seeing. The four leads do an exceptional job in their roles, and Kiefer Sutherland is spot on too. It follows a small band of…
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Evil Dead Burn
Film: Evil Dead Burn Year: 2026 Director: Sébastien Vaniček Rating: 45% Review: For all the dramatic music and head-smashing glory, this is quite a dull film. The wafer-thin plot isn’t disguised by the overtones of domestic abuse, and the actual Macguffin is barely mentioned until the final 15 minutes. Sam Raimi could do so much…
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Year Of The Monkey
Title: Year of The Monkey Author: Patti Smith Rating: ★★★★1/2 Review: There’s a fine line trodden with stream-of-consciousness-type writing. It can seem indulgent, disjointed, illogical. Patti Smith falls the right side of the paradigm with this excellent set of memoirs and metaphors from the titular lunar year. It centres around a trip to a small…
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The Afternoon Slot
This playlist is taken from my Stylus radio station series, which deals in mainly alternative music. The Afternoon Slot is about avoiding that post-prandial slump with a mix of hard-hitting and uplifting beats. The Afternoon Slot / 1: After lunch can be tricky. Food weighing heavily, a little tired from your morning activities, hometime still…
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Crossing A Dark Bridge – Hint
Remember our intrepid explorers? They were trying to cross a rickety bridge with a run-down torch. If you need a reminder of the problem, find it here. If you’re struggling with it, here’s a hint to help you. Presumably you’re working on the principle that 2 people cross together and one brings it back for…
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The ArchAndroid
Album: The ArchAndroid Artist: Janelle Monáe Year: 2010 Genre: Progressive Soul Run Time: 1h4m Rating: 86.48% Review: A first class soul opera, featuring rap, strings, ambient noises, and classical piano. Beautiful, inspiring, and epic in scope. A fabulous album.
Centred 