The Gaulish warrior Asterix has been a French institution since he first appeared in 1961’s Asterix the Gaul. He’s accompanied by his inseparable friend Obelix and aided by the druid Getafix’s magic potion that gives superhuman strength. His cunning defends…
When I was a teenager in the 1990s, the 1980s were often reviled as the decade that taste forgot. But I think this list is far less heinous than the 10 Worst Songs of the 1970s – the corporate vibes…
Belgian cartoonist Georges Remi, better known as Hergé, published the first Tintin adventure in the Catholic magazine Le Vingtième Siècle in 1929. The final, unfinished Tintin book, Tintin and Alph-Art, appeared in 1986, three years after Hergé’s death. During that…
I recently participated in an album draft, run by Hans from Like everyone else I picked 10 albums, but I used mine to also tell a story about music fandom. Here are ten albums that broadened my horizons about…
General elections are held every three years in New Zealand, and they’re due soon. Our electoral system is known as MMP – Mixed Member Proportional. Everyone gets two votes – one for a party and one for an electorate MP…
Music’s ultimately about the recorded product, but being handsome certainly doesn’t hurt when you’re trying to launch a career in entertainment. While a woman’s attractiveness might keep her from being taken seriously, a man’s handsomeness is nothing but an asset.…
A couple of weeks ago, we looked at when bands peak – I’ve always enjoyed band’s later albums where they are more confident and more diverse. My graphs based on my ratings bore this out – this graph was based on…
It’s easy to find lists of great debut albums, but personally I often prefer a band’s later records, where they stretch their wings, becoming more diverse and more comfortable in the studio. Bands’ debut albums are often the most pure,…
There’s a stereotype in popular music of youth and charisma, but not everyone fits the mould. Here are five very talented individuals whose personal style choices are more suited to the public library than to the pop charts. Lisa Loeb…
A game I like to play on my cycle commute from work is figuring out the best band of each ten year era. For instance, The Beatles and Bob Dylan are contenders for 1960-1970, while 1985-1995 has a few contestants,…
Ten worst pop stinkers ever I wrote this in response to a list published in a major New Zealand weekly magazine (The NZ Listener). It was published, despite its unusual format, in February 2002: Even though the enjoyment of a…
