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Stuart Braithwaite recommended Richard D. James Album by Aphex Twin in Music (curated)

 
Richard D. James Album by Aphex Twin
Richard D. James Album by Aphex Twin
1996 | Electronic, Pop
(0 Ratings)
Album Favorite

"I've been a fan of his since the start, when I heard ‘Didgeridoo'... At our age it was an interesting time, because it was the start of dance culture as we know it, but also I was young enough when I first heard it that I didn't differentiate between hearing a Mary Chain song or hearing an Orb song or a KLF song or a Loop song. I guess of all the bands or musicians that I heard around that first wave of electronic music, I think Richard James is the guy that's continued and kept a high standard and evolved what he did. I mean, that Richard D James record, if you went and listened to half of the brand new IDM vomit they'd be shitty copies of that. What makes his music is so special is that as well as being amazing at concocting interesting sounds and rhythms, he's also musically always doing something brilliant. The piano songs on the Drukqs album are unbelievable. Talking about that, it's completely irrelevant to this, but the most annoyed I've ever got at a music review is the review of Drukqs in Uncut where the journalist said there's no point in making solo piano music because you'd never do anything as good as Satie or Chopin. Well let's just fucking go home then! But anyway. To be able to marry the playfulness with the beauty and the melancholic element, that's just incredible."

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Lenard (726 KP) rated The Farewell (2019) in Movies

Aug 19, 2019  
The Farewell (2019)
The Farewell (2019)
2019 | Comedy, Drama
9
8.9 (7 Ratings)
Movie Rating Watch
In the West, families celebrate each other in death. If someone is dying, the news is shared and every one comes together to tragically revere their family member. In the West, they celebrate their family member in life. They do not let someone know that they are dying instead bringing a sense of joy by coming together. This culture clash between the New World ideas and Old World ideas populate Lulu Wang's new film "The Farewell." The family matriach has stage 4 cancer, but rather than tell her that she is dying, the two brothers and their families stage a wedding. One son emigrated to America and raised a liberal arts educated daughter who struggles to make ends meet. One son went to Japan and raised his son. Left behind, the sister and a niece took care of their mother. It is revealed how much the sister has sacrificed for this matriach, but she is happy to give her sister the joy to live. Is it wrong to tell a lie if it makes a person's life better? Which idea of death do you follow? Awkwafina gives a surprising performance as Billi, the Asian-American artist who loves her grandmother and struggles to understand how this lie is good. Shuzhen Zhao plays Nai Nai, the family matriach, with spirit and style, the kind of performance Oscar would notice if they gave notice to Asian performances.
  
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Kristy H (1252 KP) rated The Secret Place in Books

Feb 13, 2018  
The Secret Place
The Secret Place
Tana French | 2015 | Fiction & Poetry
6
6.7 (3 Ratings)
Book Rating
The fifth installment in Tana French's Dublin Murder Squad series reintroduces some familiar faces, notably Holly Mackey, Frank Mackey, and Stephen Moran from French's [b:Faithful Place|7093952|Faithful Place (Dublin Murder Squad, #3)|Tana French|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1291165900s/7093952.jpg|7350661]. Detective Moran is toiling away in Cold Cases, dreaming of joining the Murder Squad, when Holly shows up. She holds in her hand a card reading "I know who killed him," featuring a photo of Chris Harper, a handsome boy from a private school who was killed a year ago. Suddenly, Stephen finds himself inserted into the middle of St. Kilda's School, Holly's private all-girls' school, the neighborhood school to Chris', and the place where his body was found. Stephen joins up with the Murder Squad's Detective Antoinette Conway, one of the original leads on Chris' case, to find out what happened. But Stephen quickly realizes that Antoinette isn't a popular figure in the Squad, and that the girls of St. Kilda's are a tight-knit, complicated bunch whose interconnected relationships present Conway and Moran many obstacles in finding Chris' killer. Can they find the killer before the girls close ranks for good?

This was a typical Tana French mystery in many ways. This novel is compelling, as always, featuring thoughtful and reflective characters and a detailed, well-plotted mystery. The story is told in alternating chapters by Stephen (in the present-day) and then flashes back to various sections told by the girls of St. Kilda's, who are telling bits of the story leading up to Chris' death. It's an excellent technique because Stephen's portion covers basically 24 hours, as he and Antoinette rush to solve the crime before the girls can cover their tracks once and for all. But by going into the past, French effectively builds suspense and allows us to meet the various teens in her tale (about eight in all, which is a lot at times).

Overall, she does an good job of capturing teen culture: particularly, I'm sure, the culture of British teens in boarding school (shockingly, something I'm not too familiar with). While the descriptions of the girls gets a little tedious (a lot of blond, straightened hair), their personalities are clear and develop easily over the course of the novel. The commentary on the bonds of teen friendship is excellent. For me, Stephen wasn't one of my all-time favorite French protagonists, but I enjoyed the dynamic between him and Conway and how the window into their lives is basically less than 24 hours.

The mystery portion was a little less enjoyable for me than some of French's other novels and a bit of a let down at the end, but it was still a great read. One of my favorite things about French's books is how they easily transport you into another world while reading--you find yourself lost in the characters and their world--and this one was no exception. 3.5 strong stars. I'm looking forward to her next novel, which is supposed to feature Conway again.

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