STREAMING: Tomorrow is a big day for music. Huge. One out of the box. There are so many big albums being released, it's almost unbelievable. So I'm saving up all of my bandwidth for Big Boi's Boomiverse, the Outkast rapper's third solo album that's packed with guests stars. Then I'll move on to How Did We Get So Dark?, the second album from rowdy British rock duo Royal Blood. Love those guys. And then I'll delve into Fleet Foxes' delicate, deep third attempt Crack-Up and Young Thug's Beautiful Thugger Girls. But that's not all: 2 Chainz and Beth Ditto also have albums coming out, and even Nickelback fans are being catered to - but hopefully my bandwidth has run out by then. Is a smalltime artist from Devonport releasing something tomorrow as well? News to me ...
TELEVISION: Still wondering how Donald Trump came into power? Me too. It just seems so weird. That's why I turned on Get Me Roger Stone, the Netflix doco that attempts to explain the real reason we have a tyrant running America into the ground. Just 10 minutes in, I was seeing red. Stone has been trying to make Trump president for decades, and in 2016, he finally succeeded. The doco examines Trump's rise to the top at the hands of Stone, a controversial political adviser known for his no-holds-barred approach. They're like meat and gravy, two peas in a pod, a steaming pile of apple covered in crumble. In other words, Stone and Trump are basically the same person. This film made me so mad, I had to watch it over seven separate sittings, then go for a walk to calm down. I thoroughly recommend it.
READING: Preacher was one of those ah-hah moments for me. Garth Ennis' ridiculous, outlandish and thoroughly entertaining series of graphic novels grabbed me and refused to let go. I've never read anything like them, and ever since, every time a new Ennis comic comes out, I'm first in line. Like everyone else, I fretted over the TV adaptation. How do you convert something that's already perfect without mucking it up? Let's be honest: season one of the Lightbox show wasn't perfect, with loose threads and its weird tone leaving me cold. But they did get several things right: the ultra-violence and extreme levels of gore for one, and Joseph Gilgun is near perfect as drunk Irish vampire Cassidy. So I'm ready to give it another go by quickly racing through the source material before season two unfolds at the end of this month.
