Apple’s AirPlay and Google’s Chromecast have become the de facto standards for mobile device streaming. Yet, Windows 10 still lacks an inbuilt streaming system that is as widely available and easy to use. Microsoft’s latest OS will stream media to an Xbox or Miracast device but DLNA compatibility is a mixed bag and configuring a connection isn’t always straightforward. Moreover,...
DVD Review: Hidden (2015)
New to DVD from Warner Bros. Home Entertainment is the thriller Hidden. Written and directed by Matt and Ross Duffer, Hidden plays like an overextended Twilight Zone episode. And not a particularly clever episode, at that. Granted a very under-the-radar, direct-to-video release by Warner, one gets the feeling that even the distributor knew this was kind of a waste of...
Gadget Review: Insignia 8-inch 32 GB Microsoft Windows Tablet
Given that the cheapest brand-name tablets on the market currently retail for around $300, it’s hard to believe you can get anything half-decent for half that price. Hence, Best Buy’s $130 8-inch Insignia Windows tablet comes as something of a surprise. Like most tablets in the same price bracket, it’s chunky and has a low resolution screen (1280 x 800...
Bentley’s Bandstand: October 2015
Sam Butler, Raise Your Hands! Sometimes a new album comes from so far out in left field it doesn’t even show up on incoming radar. It just hits like a full force gale, and doesn’t stop making a stand and raising sand. Sam Butler has been the guitarist in the Blind Boys of Alabama for many years, and before that...
DVD Review: The Killers (1946 and 1964) – The Criterion Collection
The Criterion Collection recently issued a double-feature containing both the 1946 and 1964 versions of the film noir classic The Killers, loosely based on a 1927 short story by Ernest Hemingway. Each film is a classic in its own right, so kudos to Criterion for resisting any temptation to release them separately. On top of it, they’ve included director Andrei...
Shades of Grey: Interview with Indian Summers’ Nikesh Patel
You do not have to be an Anglophile or even a history buff to know that the British Empire’s influence once extended around the globe and to far more countries than it currently does, including India. Following its recent encore of the classic 1980s British TV drama Jewel in the Crown, PBS’ Masterpiece is giving its audiences a look at the...
Album Review: Plainsong – Reinventing Richard: The Songs of Richard Farina
Folksinger Richard Farina recorded three auspicious albums with his wife Mimi (Joan Baez’s sister) in the mid 1960s and, in 1966, issued one much-talked-about novel, Been Down So Long It Looks Like Up to Me. At the time, it looked like up for Farina himself—until two days after the book’s publication, when he died in a motorcycle accident at age...
The Beatles 1 To Be Reissued With New Audio Remixes… And Videos
In 2000, The Beatles collected all of their number one singles and put them into a satisfying collection called 1. It contained 27 classic tracks that encompassed their productive 1962-1970 years before internal strife led them all onto more or less lucrative but completely satisfying solo careers. If you’re a Beatles fan, there is more reason to be happy today...
Blu-ray Review: Once Upon a Time – The Complete Fourth Season
What has become of the ABC hit series Once Upon a Time? It’s still addictively entertaining, no suggestion otherwise will be found here, but it seems to be edging further and further into ‘guilty pleasure’ territory. Once Upon a Time: The Complete Fourth Season is currently available on Blu-ray and DVD well in advance of the upcoming season five premiere...
A Chat with Michael J. Bassett of Strike Back
How many people do you know who go to work and get paid to make their childhood fantasies come to life? Michael J. Bassett counts himself among such lucky individuals. Over the past 13 years, the award-winning writer-director has exercised his storytelling muscles for the small as well as big screens and in a variety of genres such as horror,...