Dean Spanley

Philip Reeve suggests you all rent Dean Spanley (Toa Fraser, 2008). This is a film that I came across by accident, knowing nothing more about it than that it stars Peter O'Toole and was set in Edwardian England.  We saw the trailer for it on another DVD we'd rented, and since we're always struggling to find things to put on our rental list we thought we'd take a punt on it.  Peter O'Toole; ...

Alien Swarm

Our computer-game and firearms consultant Jeremy Levett pits his wits against the gribblies in Alien Swarm (2010)  The Bee says, "Take off and nuke the whole site from orbit: it's the only way to be sure." Valve Software are known for three things: making near-perfect games, finding and hiring the best independent talent, and taking forever and a day to release anything. Alien Swarm, released ...

'Up The Bottom'

Roger Whale has lived and worked on Dartmoor for fifty years, both in agriculture and the holiday industry.  His self-published novels The Damson Tree and The Yellow Sapphire are filled with his knowledge of the moor, and sell in quantities that would make mainstream publishers envious.  Here he guides us on a short walk up the banks of the West Webburn. I consider myself very fortunate ...

The Ruins of Old Dartmoor: No.1

By Philip Reeve, with photographs by Sarah Reeve. Dartmoor is often described in guide books as a wilderness, and much of it does feel pretty wild, but when you walk or ride on the moor you can't go far without passing the signs of past human activity.  There are bronze age hut circles and stone rows, abandoned mediaeval villages, old boundary works, and tin mines and quarries which in some cases ...

Dear Esther

There must be a hole in the bottom of the boat. How else would new hermits have arrived? Jeremy Levett reviews the computer game Dear Esther (2008), with Helpful Footnotes for those of us who still aren't quite sure what a computer game is... There is some furore over whether a computer game can ever constitute “art”. I’m not really interested in the debate (a sort of Punch and Judy ...

At The Tone Leave Your Name And Number...

...and I'll get back to you.  Repelled by sport, CSI, and TV talent contests, the Bee has been seeking out telly from a bygone age. Dr Johnson observed that 'Every man thinks meanly of himself for not having been a soldier', and I suppose that there may still be a certain truth in that.  But he would have been on firmer ground if he had said, 'Every man thinks meanly of himself ...

A Sonic Youth

By our Beat Music correspondent, Philip Womack. I do not remember how, exactly, it was that I stumbled upon the American post-punk band, Sonic Youth. It was in the days before the internet, in 1995, before the rise of irritating computer programs that tell you what you may like (so softly imperious, that ‘may’); when I was in my first year at Lancing, a titanic, windy, cathedral-like place that dominated ...

Paradise (Losing The Plot)

The Bee's South East Asia Correspondent Justin Hill shares some impressions of his life in Thailand.  (The photographs are Justin's, too: you can see more of his work here.) Before I witter on with my thoughts, musings and experiences I'd like to make a statement. I adore the people of Thailand and am in love with the Kingdom itself. My first trip out here was way back in 1999. ...