Whilst scrolling through TikTok, an intro video appeared for the Fourth Wall Bookshop - a new online bookshop that has a specific focus on movies, musicals and theatre. That's my idea of heaven! I immediately started browsing and curating a shortlist of titles I'd love to have on my coffee table. (Although I actually need to get a coffee table first.) The shop has a great backstory, from the about …

I will take any excuse to think or talk about Back to the Future, so seeing this post on the Guardian last week was another excuse to bring up the topic of my favourite movies. The premise of the article is just a revisit of the film trilogy on its 40th anniversary, recapping the history of it but also bringing it into context a little bit. It is arguably a …

I've been fascinated by these minimalist movie posters I saw on Kottke. They're by graphic designer Michal Krasnopolski and are a challenge to present a movie poster with the limits of using only lines in and around a circle... and different colours. Something about this really makes me happy - the challenge of it, the idea of summing up everything about a movie to make it easily identifiable with such …

Finally, I have managed to cross 'Watch Back to the Future: The Musical' off my to do list. There have been a couple of failed attempts and I've been worried that the universe didn't want me to see it, but I've thwarted the universe and seen the brilliance of this show. I went in with trepidation, of course I did. When they announced there was going to be a BTTF …

While dreaming up ideas for potential 30 day challenges, I pondered whether thirty days of Lego would be something that could work. I love the sets they do featuring elements from popular culture - a lot of fun and nostalgia all in a handful of plastic bricks. It didn't take long to drop the idea because have you seen how expensive these sets are? Maybe one day in the future …

Before I started building up a digital bookshelf with seemingly every book available via Kindle or Apple Books, I used to pick up most of my reading material from charity shops. There's usually a good variety to choose from and one of the great things is seeing the older books that are dropped off for re-use. One of the best genres in this category is movie novelisations - an author's …

In 2021, I managed to read and review about 150 titles in my Books section, which has to be an all-time record. I say titles, rather than books, because some of them were shorts, some reference, some audiobooks, there's a mish-mash of stuff I've enjoyed all year long. But even so, that's still a lot to have managed to get through. Partly that's because of the ongoing efforts to Hibernate …

A medium level spring clean uncovered this little gem in a dusty box tucked away in a random corner. I got super excited when I first saw the edge of it, because I thought it was the original part one book by George Gipe. Sadly that one is still missing in action. And I never did have a copy of part three.

One of the things keeping everyone going during lockdown is bonus quizzing from a variety of sources, and that has reminded me that I have been meaning to do a Mastermind update. I rarely pay attention to the quiz show, as good as it is, but just occasionally they pop up with a subject I love and then I can't help but share the questions. Previously celebrities have taken on …

It’s that time of year, when offices start going a bit crazy with decorations, Christmas lunches, office parties and goodness knows what else. A trend I have noticed is the Christmas jumper competition, and whilst your snowmen and santas are all well and good, I’ve found a couple of Christmas jumpers that might be slightly more fun to wear. There are loads of good Star Wars ones out there. “I …

So, you know that feeling when you've loved the soundtrack to a movie for years and years, and then you start listening to more albums and catch up with one that you probably should have already known about, that quickly becomes one of your top ten, and then you realise that one of the artists actually sings on that original soundtrack, one of your favourite songs? Happens to us all, …

You know, of course, that I'm an insane Back to the Future fan. However, it wasn't until we watched the incredible Back in Time) documentary that I realised I'd missed out on an important part of BTTF fandom - Michael J Fox's books. I picked up Lucky Man, his memoir chronicling his career and his Parkinson's Disease diagnosis, and how the two had to fit in his life side by …

I'm not one that particularly wants a Back to the Future sequel, even though I'm a huge fan of the trilogy. However, anything else we can get that allows us to spend time in Hill Valley is fine by me. I hugely enjoyed the Telltale Games episodic game series that thrust us straight back into the world of time travel and all its many consequences. I drooled over the BTTF …

TV and film does very well on Twitter. Besides live tweeting essential events and posting instant reviews to films you've just seen, there are also the endless accounts packed with quotes (I follow some Friends and some Simpsons ones), and those that go a little beyond that. In the past, I've seen a few "recreation lists" whereby someone sets up a few accounts to do the back and forth that …

There's a new Lego box about to be released, August 1st I think, and I suspect I might buy it. If I only managed to get my hands on the Flux Capacitor I would be happy, but oh how much fun to build a time machine. I really do think there should be more characters though. Biff, Lorraine, George and perhaps the dog, and we could do an actual re-enactment. …

Mr C showed me this Tumblr site a good few weeks ago now, and I was instantly in love. In a nutshell, the Movie Barcodes are all the frames of a movie squidged up to make a colourful (or not so colourful) barcode style image. In some cases, they're offered as prints, and I am sorely tempted to snap some up. Some of them are better than others, naturally, and …

I've been catching up on some RSS feeds recently (where I am getting down to a reasonable number of unlistened podcasts, my unread items has been creeping up), and I spotted this crazy little item earlier in the month. A DeLorean that is also a boat. It's cool, and fun, but I took umbridge with the concept almost immediately simply because of this, in the Engadget story where I saw …

Mmm, Back to the Future. I love to browse the branded t-shirts, but I never really buy them because once I start, I think I would become bankrupt quite quickly. However, I was looking at BTTF related t-shirts recently, I forget why, and these are my favourite five that I stumbled across. Dr. E. Brown Enterprises I like the ones that aren't supremely obvious, so whilst all Back to the …

Oh, how I have so loved having Back to the Future back in my life. Not that it ever went anywhere, but fresh material, and most importantly good fresh material has been brilliant. I have already blogged every episode of the TellTale Game revival, and whilst I do not have much more to add now I have completed episode five, it seemed only fair to have a farewell post to …

Lukeh alerted me to the breaking news that Michael J Fox will be making a cameo voiceover appearance in the final part of this five-part game series, and that made me realise that I hadn't checked for new episodes on the iPad for a while. Imagine my surprise, then, to find out that both 3 and 4 had arrived without me noticing. I got right on and started playing - …

Last time I discussed the Back to the Future game, I was only mildly impressed and mostly happy that they hadn't ruined everything. I wrote that first post after playing the game for about twenty minutes, and I may have judged it a bit harshly. After the post went up, I picked up the game again and played it right through to the end. I loved it! I couldn't wait …

I remember watching some Back to the Future extra features where a guy was going around the set finding answers to viewer questions. The final question was from a little kid who went: "Is there ever going to be a Back to the Future 4?" And the guy said no, but Back to the Future would live on in the ride at Universal studios. I was always very disappointed at …

Last night, there was a Celebrity Mastermind episode in which one of the contestants chose the Back to the Future trilogy as their specialist subject. Thanks to Alex for pointing this out to me, these questions could have been made for me! As is becoming a bit of a tradition when there's a subject we know about on Mastermind, I thought I'd gather the questions for others to see how …

Here's a video that my dad found mentioned in one of those computer magazines. It's always difficult to listen to someone moan about the trials and tribulations of being famous, but if it's got to be done, you'd want it done this way. I have to say, if I saw Biff and summoned the nerve to speak, I'm pretty sure my first question wouldn't be: Was it real manure? I'm …

I recently uncovered a site called 11 Points which compiles top ten lists, but with eleven items. Some of the lists are rubbish, and the site is very garish to behold, but there are some gems to be found. I have always liked top ten lists and similar. The first podcast I subscribed to was Top of the Pods, which is sadly no longer broadcasting. The idea was a simple …

It occurred to me recently that there are a few TV programmes I would like to go back and watch as if new. There are plenty of shows that I need to catch up on, but that's a different matter. These are episodes I have watched, but would do anything to wipe my mind clean so I can enjoy them all over again. Jonathan Creek. I had the biggest crush …

From Dan Meth: I love this. I don't watch films extensively, but I have seen quite a few of the above. I think Back to the Future should be all blue, Jurassic Park should start higher, but The Matrix is dead on. What do you reckon?