Michael Barrett

Featured in: Favicon

thestar.co.uk Favicon

conversationsabouther.net

Articles

Sheffield's Sensoria Festival of music and film confirms 2025 dates

Dec 2, 2024 | thestar.co.uk | Michael Barrett

Watch more of our videos on ShotsTV.com and on Freeview 262 or Freely 565Visit Shots! nowSensoria, the UK’s festival of film, music and digital media, will return in 2025 with performances at venues across Sheffield. Following a highly successful 17th edition of the festival this October, which attracted visitors from Hanoi to Illinois, Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Tallinn, Australia and, of course all over Sheffield, Sensoria organisers are already planning for next year.
Mercury Prize winner heads to Sheffield for Sensoria Festival

Sep 16, 2024 | thestar.co.uk | Michael Barrett

Watch more of our videos on ShotsTV.com and on Freeview 262 or Freely 565Visit Shots! nowLily Fontaine, front woman of Leeds band English Teacher, has joined the line up for this year’s Sensoria Festival of Film & Music, just a week on from the band’s Mercury Prize win. The singer and guitarist will be part of the festival’s SensoriaPro event, a unique gathering of artists, open to all, exploring the latest developments in music and creative media.
Sixties Sexy Italian Space Opera a Go-Go

Aug 11, 2023 | tinyurl.com | Michael Barrett

Raro Video, a company specializing in Italian cinema, graces us with what they’re calling Star Pilot, actually Pietro Francisci’s 1966 space opera 2 + 5 Missione Hydra. Their eye-popping 4K transfer is now on a Blu-ray distributed by Kino Lorber for our edification. Be warned, however: Star Pilot is nobody’s lost masterpiece. The package calls it “kitschy”, which implies bad taste.
Top 10 Forgotten Sitcoms You Wish You Had Seen

Jun 22, 2023 | tinyurl.com | Michael Barrett

In one sense, we live in a golden age of television sitcom history. We can buy remastered DVDs of most of the famous and long-running shows in handsome box sets. A few that haven’t made it to box nirvana, like The George Burns and Gracie Allen Show, can be found in good shape on certain channels like Me TV and Antenna TV. Many shows can never be properly gathered because they were broadcast live and exist only as scattered kinescopes.
Celebrating Sylvester's Greatest Hits for Pride 2023

Jun 13, 2023 | tinyurl.com | Spyros Stasis |Michael Barrett |Michael Nelson

Donna Summer is rightly considered the Queen of Disco, but Sylvester is a contender for the title. Like Summer, Sylvester brought artistry, a church-fueled power, and enthusiasm to dance music, injecting a spiritual passion to the dancefloor. His voice – an otherworldly sonic boom of a voice that climbed to dizzying heights – was a significant force in queer pop culture in the 1970s.
We Can Only Imagine: On Consciousness and Physics

Jun 13, 2023 | tinyurl.com | R.P. Finch |Spyros Stasis |Michael Barrett |Michael Nelson

The subtitle of The World Itself by Ulf Danielsson – Consciousness and the Everything of Physics – captures the notion at the heart of this book. Danielsson, a Swedish physicist, urges a “new way of understanding the physics of the universe”, arguing that physics is “a theory of everything, by definition”, and therefore physics must be broadened to include the “first-person perspective”, meaning consciousness.
Tinariwen Take an Outlaw Country Turn on 'Amatssou'

Jun 13, 2023 | tinyurl.com | Adriane Pontecorvo |Spyros Stasis |Michael Barrett |Michael Nelson

Geographic gaps notwithstanding, there has always been some stylistic proximity between the tichoumaren music popularized by Kel Tamasheq musicians and some of the most moving US American roots and country styles. Sparse, bluesy melodies, deeply felt lyrics, and nimble musicianship come together often in both cases, impassioned and often melancholy expressions of real life and the struggles that comprise it for the artists at hand.
Can the US Kick a Century of Drug Addiction?

Jun 12, 2023 | tinyurl.com | Michael Nelson |Spyros Stasis |Michael Barrett |Brian Stout

Despite balanced coverage of substances that either energize or dampen the human spirit, Professor Benjamin Y. Fong’s Quick Fixes: Drugs in America from Prohibition to the 21st Century Binge is a real downer.
Silent Film Comedian Raymond Griffith Knew How to Pull a Trickster Out of a Top Hat

Jun 8, 2023 | tinyurl.com | Michael Barrett |Brian Stout |Andrew Spiess |George James

Raymond Griffith: The Silk Hat Comedian, a new Blu-ray and DVD from Undercrank Productions, showcases a double helping of a largely forgotten silent films comedian. The two clever films in this set, Paths to Paradise and You’d Be Surprised, are funny and reveal examples of making a working-class hero out of an elegant upper-class toff in a top hat.
The 10 Most Memorable Non-Smash Hit Singles of 1984

Jun 8, 2023 | tinyurl.com | Marc Edelstein |Brian Stout |Michael Barrett |Andrew Spiess

Ah, 1984: George Orwell’s magic year and a time of runaway artist success. Prince‘s Purple Rain, Van Halen‘s 1984, and Bruce Springsteen‘s Born in the USA ruled the rock airwaves, while Madonna‘s lucrative Like a Virgin career was ramping up. New wave had achieved a semblance of maturity, primarily fueled by MTV, with acts like Culture Club and Duran Duran scoring #1 Billboard hits.