scaryblog

Continuing my trip up Empire's top 20 TV shows of 2025 #12 : Dying For Sex A story about cancer, coitus and, well, lots of other words beginning with “c”, Dying For Sex summons heart and humour from the most morbid of situations. Michelle Williams stars as Molly, based on real-life writer and broadcaster Molly Kochan, whose podcast of the same name detailed her sexual awakening while being treated for cancer. The show begins with Molly leaving her overbearing husband (Jay Duplass) and moving in with Nikki (Jenny Slate), a scatty actor and fiercely loyal pal. What ensues is a deeply moving, tender, and sometimes raucously funny journey of self discovery that spotlights and celebrates sex in its many forms. Williams shines in a performance that requires her to rapidly pivot from deep-rooted vulnerability to BDSM-charged conviction. However Slate is right up there with her, as Nikki becomes a more grounded carer with struggles of her own. Emotional and erotic storytelling at its best...

Continuing my trip back through the 1981 album charts. 05/07/81 : Present Arms - UB40 This was my thirteenth birthday and I can assure you I didn't spend it listening to this album. I am however expecting it to be tolerable, unlike plenty of their later efforts. Yeah, it's at least tolerable with some nice bouncy reggae toons, although the lyrical content isn't always quite so upbeat. Easily the best track for me is "One In Ten" - they may have had three #1 singles later in their career (amongst SIXTEEN top ten singles in total) but this outshines them all because it sounds like they actually care about something. I think I'd go as far as saying as I actually like it - I wouldn't go that far for the album (I'm not really a reggae kinda guy) but I will say I'll be very surprised if I ever meet a better UB40 album. We're at #5 in the charts this week on their sixth week of a decent 26 week run, with it having peaked at #2 in its second week (anot...

Continuing my trip back through the 1981 album charts. 12/07/81 : Anthem - Toyah This is our first ever mention of Toyah the band, with Toyah the singer having had two mentions - both of which have her alongside her husband, Robert Fripp. One is for doing an amusing cover of " Summer Of '69 " along with Chesney Hawke (while dressed as dinosaurs) and the other for when I saw them live at Glasto (and they were considerably better than expected). It's not clear she even knew the man at this point in time (they married in '86), but she was definitely already amusingly barmy - I'm quite looking forward to listening to this. Yeah, it is pretty barmy but it's also better than I was expecting. The backing tracks are pretty well done (if not exactly going to change the world) and show more variety than I was expecting. But  I can see why the vocal eccentricity scared me off back in the day because she's just giving a bit too much uberBjorkness for my liking - ...

Some Northern parkrun tourism. 07/02/26 : Woodhouse Moor  Another one for me and my eldest, but it was only tourism for one of us - because the other one lived there at the time. Yup, Woodhouse Moor is in the mighty Leeds, making this the most Northerly parkrun either of us have ever done - a mere 283km away (amusingly, my next most Northern event is Letchworth). Woodhouse Moor is right in the middle of student accommodation land and so it is also the most populous parkrun either of us have ever done - there were people EVERYWHERE! And because my eldest was in her house and I was in a hotel, we had to arrange a place to meet, which could have been tricky. But fortunately my sartorial elegance always makes me easy to spot - I just stood in the middle of the park and waited! But it was a chilly wait because Leeds in February is not tropical - however, in a change from the last few days up there, it was at least dry (in the air, if not on the ground). The course starts in the middle o...

Continuing my trip back through the 1981 album charts. 19/07/81 : Kings Of The Wild Frontier - Adam & The Ants Our first multiple visit of the year - I wasn't very impressed last time we met this lot but have higher hopes for this one. Well. This is quite the album. The good news is that it's much, much better than our previous visit - it all hangs together pretty nicely with a pretty consistent sound. It's a most peculiar sound though being a strange combination of punk, art-rock, new romantic and tribal rhythms - I don't think I've ever experienced any album like it. I would also say it's conspicuously lacking a "Prince Charming" or a "Stand And Deliver" - "Ant Music" is probably the catchiest number but it's nowhere near the same league as either of those two. Did I like it? I'm not actually sure I formed an opinion on that because I was too busy listening open-mouthed at the oddness of it all and this could quite ea...

Continuing my trip back through the 1981 album charts. 26/07/81 : Kim Wilde -  Kim Wilde Our first proper visit with Kim, although we did meet her in passing with a new entry in '25 and it was a lot better than I was expecting. I've no real clue what to expect from this - Kim was never either cool or uncool, so it might have dated badly or just live in a strange timeless state. Hmmm - it's an interesting one. You get the feeling that she desperately wants to be the English Blondie (but there's a decent argument she's doing a better job than they did most of the time - particularly when we consider Debbie's recent offering ). But there are also definite 60s influences - quite probably because all the songs are co-written by her dad, Marty Wilde (as well as her brother Ricky). So I think it manages to be both of its time and timeless - I can't say I loved it (except for "Kids In America" of course, which is enjoyable catchy) and it's fair to say...

Continuing my trip back through the 1981 album charts. 02/08/81 : Hotter Than July - Stevie Wonder Our sixth visit with Stevie and, like the rest of them, I've never heard this one - but looking at some of the tracks that I already know on here, I think I'm gonna like it. Oh yeah - this has got some fine tracks on it. "Happy Birthday" is the one everyone knows, but I also really like "I Ain't Gonna Stand For It", "Master Blaster (Jammin')" and "Lately". I didn't know any of the rest but they all sound decent enough on first listen, so this definitely seems worth multiple listens - which is obviously true for most of the Stevie albums I've met (all except for Journey Through The Secret Life Of Plants ) and I've yet to relisten to any of them. There's no doubting he's an exceptionally talented lad though, and this is a joyful, celebratory, skilful bunch of tracks with some great hooks. We're at #8 in the char...