Posts Tagged Review
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August 17, 2021 by Simon Sweetman
Belated Half-Time Report: Some of the Albums I’ve Loved This Year
These days I try not to write music reviews. I figure the world doesn’t really need them. Every Friday you can refresh your browser and get the new releases. Every Friday most of the new albums in the world appear on Spotify – and/or other streaming services. This is not a whinge – just an […]Archive
June 23, 2021 by Simon Sweetman
My New EBook: Wrestling Is Fake. That’s What Makes It So Real – Selected Grapplings (2005-2015)
I’ve just published my new e-book, my third. This is the first one that’s not about music at all. This is a selection of my various writings about pro-wrestling. I’ve fallen in and out with the “sport” over the last three decades, but I can’t quite shake my fandom, certainly don’t want to ignore my early […]Archive
June 10, 2021 by Simon Sweetman
Friends: The Reunion
Friends: The Reunion Director: Ben Winston HBO Max Nostalgia has always been the best marketing hook. Pop songs from the sixties singing about the “reflections of the way life used to be”. Pop songs from every decade since doing much the same. Why not remind people of the past though, you can sell them the […]Archive
May 2, 2021 by Simon Sweetman
Things I Know To Be True: Theatre
Things I Know To Be True Direction: Shane Bosher (written by Andrew Bovell) Circa Theatre; Circa One (April 30 – May 29) Andrew Bovell has here created the sprawling epic family drama that is a distinctly Australian version of the big theatrical experiences we so often associate with American playwrights – from Tennessee Williams on […]Archive
February 9, 2021 by Simon Sweetman
RNZ Reviews: February 2021
Once a month or so I have a chat on RNZ on their Afternoons show with Jesse Mulligan. I’ve been doing it for about five years now. Most months. This was my first time in for 2021. I didn’t review a whole lot of music over summer – but I did get hooked on some things, especially things […]Archive
January 28, 2021 by Simon Sweetman
It Was The Best Gig Ever # 21: Emmylou Harris, Wellington 2001
I’ve been revisiting the second-coming of Emmylou Harris lately – you know, everything from Wrecking Ball through the Spyboy years, the duet record with Linda Ronstadt and of course Red Dirt Girl. Though I knew about her before those records – and owned the two “Profile” Best Of compilations on vinyl (freebies that I took […]Archive
November 6, 2020 by Simon Sweetman
Dolly Parton – 50 Years At The Opry: DVD
Dolly Parton: 50 Years At The Opry Director: Ashley S Gorman Man Alive Entertainment / Madman It’s been a huge year or two for Dolly Parton – a range of celebratory docos, biopics and biographical stories including a brilliant podcast series. Dolly is always there. And for many of us she’s one of music’s true […]Archive
September 5, 2020 by Simon Sweetman
RNZ Reviews: September 2020
Once a month or so I have a chat on RNZ on their Afternoons show with Jesse Mulligan. These things start – randomly and stop in much the same way. I hope to keep doing this. For a while at least. I think I started in December of 2015, so now four years into it or so… For […]Archive
August 9, 2020 by Simon Sweetman
Stubs: # 271 – Switzerland, Wellington, 2018
Funny, I was just reminiscing about the play Songs For Nobodies and how great the writing of Joanna Murray-Smith was but actually the first things I saw by Smith was this play, Switzerland. I didn’t like it. And it was the writing that really let it down for me. The acting was superb – two […]Archive
July 6, 2020 by Simon Sweetman
It Was The Best Gig Ever # 18: John Fogerty, Wellington 2005
All my life I have loved CCR. I can’t remember first hearing them, nor making a decision to listen to them more – it was just music that filled my brain and my soul from when I first heard it. To begin with it was some version of the greatest hits – a tape in […]Archive
July 3, 2020 by Simon Sweetman