[rating=4]
192 pages • IDW Publishing Horse • March 15th, 2008 [PB]

The series Angel: After the Fall picks up where the television show left off. This collection starts with the 8th installment, the one in which the series found its way after a faulty start.

This collection takes the story right back to the beginning, to the very why and what of Angel. And the rest is … spoiler.

[rating=4]
188 pages • Minerva • 1985

Fast-paced, funny, and astute, Boating for Beginners is unlike anything else Winterson has written.

Boating for Beginners is, in a way, mythology for beginners. It is the process by which the everyday is transformed into the eternal that is its subject. The fact that Noah accidentally creates God out of a toaster and a Black Forest Gateau is Winterson’s comedic take on this very process.

[rating=5]
Released on November 23rd, 1976

Joni Mitchell at her finest in a road-story album that transcends the era in which it was written.

It is with Hejira, her ninth album, that Mitchell had reached a maturity in which her imagination and talent burst the banks of traditional song-writing.

Carved in Marble: An Interview with Gore Vidal.

Polari Magazine talks to the legendary author about his great character Myra Breckinridge, his 63 year writing career, and the turning point promised by the election of Obama.

My greatest achievement is that I’ve never killed anybody. Which reveals an awful lot of temptation. Because I have been visited.

[rating=4]
Released on March 23rd, 2009

The Pet Shop Boys return with a contemporary and accessible album.

If the album’s common sound is mesmerizing techno-pop, then the common subject matter is not unlike any other Pet Shop Boys endeavour. Yes sees Tennant and Lowe wax lyrical about excessive materialism, inane celebrity, climate change and love.

An interview with Nica Brooke

An interview with a new kind of star who is completely outside the world of the record industry.

I have my own studio, write, record, produce and engineer on my own, and so I don’t have any expenses unless I need a musician to play an instrument..

[rating=5]
UK: 90 min • BandStock.com • Heaven, London

The maestro Patrick Wolf delivers an electric performance.

Patrick Wolf has all the charisma of the great ‘70s glam rock stars with the sensibility of a troubadour, and like all troubadours he has a tale or two to tell.

Support for those with HIV

Peter Shapcott founded The Eddie Surman Trust after his partner Eddie following the suicide of his partner after he was diagnosed positive.

Positiveline has saved many lives over the years and that was the aim of the trust. I am also able to tell someone who is feeling suicidal, from my own experiences, that your loved ones will never be the same again.

Polari Facts on the FBI

The bureau had questionable dealings with homosexuality in the 1950s and ’60s. There were certainly a great many probes.

There were rumours that Hoover and associate FBI director Clyde Tolson were lovers. Hoover ordered a crack-down that was nothing less than vicious. The subject rather unhinged him.

On the theme of changing the guard.

Simon Savidge questions how progressive the West really is.

I have rights, I can have a civil partnership, can adopt children, and I can hold my same-sex partner’s hand in public … Well, I can in London, but take me back to the Derbyshire Dales and it’s quite a different story.