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DJ Muggs recommended One For All by Brand Numbian in Music (curated)

 
One For All by Brand Numbian
One For All by Brand Numbian
(0 Ratings)
Album Favorite

"In LA, we had the gang culture. In New York, they didn’t really at the time because they had already finished with that in the seventies. Motherfuckers in New York was smarter than everyone else, because they had books on the streets. You would pick up the books and that’s where the Five Percent Nation came in, giving the street kids and the thugs knowledge. When they wouldn’t listen in the schools, they would listen in the streets. The Brand Nubians came from that place."

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40x40

Zuky the BookBum (15 KP) rated Dog in Books

Mar 15, 2018  
D
Dog
8
8.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
I enjoyed this short story more than it seems others did. I don't know anything about Mexican culture and so I cannot understand the inaccuracies in this book, but I wholeheartedly understand the difficulties people will have with this novella if they are aware of true Mexican culture. For me this was purely fictional, the comments about Mexico didn't settle in my head as correct or accurate, I'd only take things as true if this was non-fiction or a documentary, though I'm always still happy to be corrected and to learn!

A creepy novella that I found fun to read. I wasn't so keen on all the sudden turn of events. The beginning of the story was drawn out and really let you into the narrators life whereas it just seemed to get rushed towards the end.

Thrilling and different. It was a nice change to the things I'm used to reading.
  
DD
Don't Date Rosa Santos
8
8.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
The title does not do this book justice. It centers more around finding your place in the world between culture and family. The title would make you believe it is about love and breakups. I wish it had been called something else.
I feel like more people would pick up this book if it was called something else.
I enjoyed the plot and the story but it was not what I was expecting.
  
WW
What We Saw
10
10.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
Wow. All I can say is "wow" after finishing this book. I had heard some of the reviews as being "graphic" however, the book itself wasn't graphic in the description of the events but it was in the topic that was discussed. I felt as though it was a realistic depiction of things that have happened in our culture and it was hard to get through without shedding any tears of my own.
  
40x40

Amber Tamblyn recommended Unfamiliar Fishes in Books (curated)

 
Unfamiliar Fishes
Unfamiliar Fishes
(0 Ratings)
Book Favorite

"Perfect for a deserted island, since it is basically the history of the Hawaiian islands and its people. Sarah Vowell's morbid humor and tone make even the darkest and the saddest moments in Hawaiian history, dare I say, enjoyable. From its glorious days with Princess Ka'iulani to her culture-shattering dethroning under Western colonization, Vowell seems to know how to rip your heart wide open while suturing it back up at the same time."

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Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly
(0 Ratings)
Book Favorite

"You could argue that this book was the real moment of “the chef” as we know it today. I think before this came out, chefs were simply cooks hidden in the basement. This book sparked a new appetite for understanding how, and by whom, our food is prepared. This book (along with Marco Pierre’s “White Heat”) is one of the two books that propelled professional cooking into the pop culture phenomenon that it is today."

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Ready Player One
Ready Player One
Ernest Cline | 2011 | Fiction & Poetry
3
8.9 (161 Ratings)
Book Rating
Promising concept buried under clumsy craftsmanship
A great concept that should in theory be catnip to an 80s kid such as myself. However this is to pop culture junkies what Fifty Shades of Gray was to S&M enthusiasts: poorly written, drawn out fan fiction that is in dire need of a more competent editor.
The 80s pop culture references are so clumsily laid on, they lose any fun they may have held for me after the first chapter.
Sure, the author has done his research, but this reads as if it was written by a machine trying to approximate human emotion and interaction; technical pitches for gadgets yet to be commissioned in place of wit, story and heart.

Very disappointing.
  
This Unruly Mess I've Made by Macklemore & Ryan Lewis
This Unruly Mess I've Made by Macklemore & Ryan Lewis
2016 | Rhythm And Blues
(0 Ratings)
Album Favorite

"My favourite video of all time is actually for James Blake’s A Case Of You, the one that has Rebecca Hall in it – I can’t watch it without my entire body shaking. But, for what a video really, really should be, for pure Thriller-like entertainment value, you can’t get much better than the video by Macklemore and Ryan Lewis for Downtown. The dancing! The marching! The mopeds! The chariots! You have to give in to that video – how ridiculous it is. It played a lot with hip-hop culture – and I love hip-hop culture, I love the bigness, the grandness, the showing-off-ness of it, I appreciate it and I revel in it. But there’s something about these guys mocking the extravagance of it that I really responded to. It really made me laugh – I was in tears watching it. And actually I think you can see Macklemore pissing himself laughing at the end… Ryan Lewis, who produces the records, produced and directed the video. Epic."

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Ready Player One (2018)
Ready Player One (2018)
2018 | Sci-Fi
Lots of, "Hey, I know that!" moments (0 more)
Lots of, "Hey, I know that moments (0 more)
Contains spoilers, click to show
"Ready Player One" is a good, almost great, popcorn flick. There are visual jokes throughout the film, references to every 80s pop culture item you can think of, and characters that are likeable.

The vast majority of the film is animated, which is obvious given the subject matter. The animation, however, doesn't allow the actors to deliver nuanced performances. Everything in the film is turned up to 11. There's no breaks, no subtle moments. It's full throttle, pedal to the metal, all the way through.

Now, there are some very cute character bits that are blown away by the bombast, not the least of which is the film's villain uses a Superman avatar in the Oasis, and I'm pretty sure it's the Injustice Superman, which is fitting. Yes, we've all seen the Iron Giant in the previews, as well as the cars in the race sequence.

The most surprising inclusion in the movie, the best filmed and the most impressive story-wise, is the sequence involving the retrieval of the second key. It's pitch perfect and the film should have done more like that and less Where's Waldo. Speaking of, I didn't see Waldo, but I'm sure he's in the film.

Spielberg did as Spielberg does when he wants to make enough money to finance another serious film. He made a popcorn flick. Ready Player One should please audiences and in a year without Marvel's juggernaut would have been the geek culture film of the season.

Instead, it's playing second fiddle to Black Panther, Infinity War, and, to me, Incredibles 2. Still, it's great fun and as long as you're part of geek culture, you'll enjoy it. And then tear it to pieces on the Internet because that's what we do.
  
You Don't Know Me
You Don't Know Me
Imran Mahmood | 2017 | Fiction & Poetry
8
8.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
Very good idea, at times a little tedious
This is a well-written, dialogue based novel, constructed coherently highlighting the theme of gang culture in the UK and the pitfalls of being surrounded by it. While the premise of this novel is superb, after a while the protagonist's monologue becomes a little tedious and I ended up losing focus. It's heartfelt, no doubt, understanding the circumstances of how he ended up in the dock. Good idea but falls a little short.