Category: Features

Sensory Deprivation Floatation Tanks

on By

First published on AOL Asylum.co.uk (September 5th 2011) //

Everyone from Olympic athletes to stressed bankers to Cheryl Cole have slowly cottoned on to the insular world of floatation tanks; an established therapy of mind and body gigglingly known as ‘floating.’ Touted as one of the ultimate relaxation techniques where your brain ratchets down to its most receptive and creative rhythms, it promises well-preserved, saline silence. But does it actually work?

Continue reading “Sensory Deprivation Floatation Tanks”

The best ever golden turkeys

on By

First published on Asylum.co.uk (July 12th 2011) //

So Jean Luc Godard’s new film is a turkey apparently. But is it a golden turkey. One of those films that’s so bad it’s good?

Some movies are good, some movies are bad. And there are some movies that are good-bad.

So good-bad, in fact, that you get an unwelcome tickly feeling that’s confusing, urging you to fire up your trusty old video player for one more look at its faded VHS glory.

After the break we’ve compiled for your viewing pleasure, some of those golden turkeys adored by fans, and panned by critics, though loved by anyone who has had a moment to enjoy these demonstrations of the endless possibilities the wonderful world of film has to offer. That means you.

Continue reading “The best ever golden turkeys”

Alan Moore’s Mammoth Opus and the Longest Novels in the English Language

on By

First published on AOL Asylum.co.uk (June 27th 2011) //

With the legendary Alan Moore putting the final (probably magical) touches to his second Northampton-focused opus, Jerusalem, which runs to a biblical 750,000 words, we’ve decided it was high time to collect 10 of the longest books in the English language.

Some are masterpieces, some are unsurprisingly, little more than two thousand page farts of dullness.

Continue reading “Alan Moore’s Mammoth Opus and the Longest Novels in the English Language”

San Pedro Prison on St. George’s Day

on By

First published on Spike Magazine (May 31st 2011) //

Declan Tan’s second ‘Letter from La Paz’ is a fictional account of a visit to Bolivia’s San Pedro prison

“A pint a-Carling yeah and whatever you’re havin’,” a white-spit mouth, mine, chums out familiar to the bar girl. I’m pointing at the tap and reaching my hand out as it pours, my fingers snatching at the half-filled glass. I can’t wait around. We’re in La Paz for 3 days. I’m counting pints in my head. We have to fit it all in somehow. I just been ridin’ down the World’s Most Dangerous Road on a borrowed mountain bike and I need a pint of England’s finest to savour the moment. Yeah I know. Top Gear did it in jeeps, the legends.

Continue reading “San Pedro Prison on St. George’s Day”

Peter Watkins, The Universal Clock and The Monoform

on By

First published on Spike Magazine (May 8th 2011) //

Writer and director Peter Watkins has dedicated his career to exploring the limits of docudrama filmmaking. After the BBC suppressed transmission of The War Game in 1965, most of Watkins work has been produced in Scandinavia and British interest in subsequent films has been curiously absent. Declan Tan investigates why

Continue reading “Peter Watkins, The Universal Clock and The Monoform”