Category: Music

(In the spirit of AW’s frequent summaries…)

I’m your fan, Kim Newman

Like many others, I got ‘into’ your books with the wonderful The Bloody Red Baron, an alternate history novel featuring a vampiric Richtofen. It is wonderful stuff, and the several sequels only showed its brilliance was far from a fluke. But your skill as a writer had been around for longer than I knew, as the reissued Genevieve novels showed me. I ate them all up and demanded more. And then came Richard Jesperson and your reimaging of Conan Doyles Diogenes Club. Only now it was a secret English society of espers (aliens and future men?) tasked with saving the commonwealth from all manner of outlandish threat. I recently read Secret Files Of The Diogenes Club and it was the best short story collection I have ever read. Not only did it contain the best Lovecraftian tale not written by the master himself (Richard Riddle, Boy Detective) and the best superhero story ever (Clubland Heroes) but the tour-de-force at the end, Cold Snap was an unbelievably complex balancing act of wild ideas (the villian, amazingly a Doctor Who reference!), outrageous characters (essentially everyone in it), unexpected twists (the professor is…!?!) and just plain page-turningly-good writing. I’ll never forget to expect that that your books, Mr Newman, are required reading, and I will continue to expect they continue to get better and better.

I’m your fan, Emily from Skins

Yes, we’re late to the party, but BBC America recently started showing the drama Skins and KLS and myself are completely hooked! We’ve always been suckers for (good) teen drama, but this one just destroys anything made on these shores. The language is bleep-a-minute (for USA TV) and the situations (frequent sex and drug use amongst underage teens) enough to surprise me BBC shows it at all but we couldn’t be happier. The tale of a 9 disaffected teens may be wild, crazy and even stereotypical, but the characters are real and likeable (even loveable) and the writing so good we were sucked in immediately. In my opinion Emily – both in character and because of her story – steals the show, and it’s a lucky bonus she’s so cute. Even better: she’s one half of twins, both on the show! The series is almost at an end, but we loved it so much we’re certainly getting the first two seasons (featuring a different group of kids) on DVD and keeping an eye on the listings in the hope BBC shows the upcoming season 4 as soon as possible after the UK.

I’m your fan, Supernatural

Best show on TV, no question. Season five is upon us, and what started as a monster-of-the-week drama about brothers hunting demons has evolved into a full blown apocalyptic tale involving the forces of good and evil and the aforementioned Winchester brothers (Sam and Dean), both of whom have pivotal roles to play in the apocalypse. This series representation of angels (such as Castiel, above) is unique and refreshing and just… clever, and the way they present the machinations of Heaven and The Principalities, coupled with the return of Lucifer and his armies is powerful and extremely watchable TV. One of the creators of this show (Eric Kripke) comes from the lineage that gave us The X-Files and Millenium and it shows. But he has honed his art well beyond those older shows, and created something of a modern-day classic here in Supernatural. Highly, highly recommended.

I’m your fan, Alphaville

25 years this year! And to think I got into this band as a fluke (a German cousin sent a cassette). Since then I’ve managed to get everything, including first issues of Dreamscapes (autographed!) and Crazyshow. You’ve been my go-to music for (literally) decades now, and I never get tired of any of your material. Other bands come and go, and while I have others I love dearly, it’s true for me there is no band quite like Alphaville. In fact, I recently told KLS I wanted a particular Alphaville song played at my funeral. If that’s not an endorsement, well what is?