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Justin Hawkins recommended Pump by Aerosmith in Music (curated)

 
Pump by Aerosmith
Pump by Aerosmith
1989 | Rock
8.7 (3 Ratings)
Album Favorite

"This came out when I was 14 and had just started learning how to play guitar, so that’s kind of the album that coincided with me wanting to go into music. No coincidence. The first album I ever bought was Run DMC’s Raising Hell and that had Aerosmith on it, so I was always interested in Aerosmith. I think Pump sounds really special, it’s my favourite Aerosmith album – and I like a lot of Aerosmith. There must be a technical thing about it, because it doesn’t sound like other rock albums. You know how a lot of metal albums have scoops of the lower-middle absent, but there’s a lot of bass and a lot of trebly stuff so it’s like an assault? Well, it seems like the Pump album has got some lower-mid presence, so it sounds like it contains a real drum kit – it sounds like you’re in the room with them. I love the ballad ‘What It Takes’ at the end. It’s just awesome. I loved the way Aerosmith would arrange their albums. You would have about 10 songs and it’s all innuendo and riffs and sex music, and then the last song is the cuddle. I think that’s brilliant. I thought it was timing at first. Kevin Shirley produced Nine Lives for them, and I thought that was a brilliant album too, and I love Permanent Vacation, but I was a bit young for that. I think it’s just a really concise record and even when it has the interval bits between certain songs… you just can’t listen to one track, you have to listen to the whole thing to get the vibe."

Source
  
40x40

Billy Gibbons recommended Changes by Charles Bradley in Music (curated)

 
Changes by Charles Bradley
Changes by Charles Bradley
2016 | Electronic
(0 Ratings)
Album Favorite

"Here we are in 2016. Having enjoyed a rather robust excursion through the ‘70s, it seems like yesterday. As the clock swings around, things tend to reappear – but in this case revisiting the ‘70s is certainly not nostalgic. The ‘70s was a period of style, statement and fashion that probably should not be repeated. It was horrible! The oranges and the browns, the suede combos. I think Charles is challenging a prospective buyer to see through it, to get beyond the repellent quality of the horrible ‘70s, saying, ""If you dare buy this, you probably know to avoid what you're seeing. Let's get into what you're listening to."" 

From the ‘70s what was salvageable on the musical side was truly good. Here in London on Greek Street there was a really cool spot named Madame Jojo's. It was closed up not so very long ago. There was a great northern soul DJ named Keb Darge on Thursday nights who I got to be friendly with. Seventies pop music was intolerable but what we can now embrace as northern soul was something you could really sink your teeth into with satisfaction. He had the deepest record box on those Thursday nights. Recently I tried to take my lovely sweetheart Ms Gilligan to experience it but Keb was absent and instead there was a celebration of transvestism. We had a great time, but the following weekend we were at Camden Market and I bumped into none other than Keb who was still on a quest, trading records. The vinyl game is still vibrant and it's mostly alive at second-hand shops and flea markets. Vinyl trading reigns supreme."

Source
  
The Wife Who Got A Life
The Wife Who Got A Life
Tracy Bloom | 2021 | Contemporary, Fiction & Poetry
6
7.5 (2 Ratings)
Book Rating
A hilarious look at the trials of life from a woman who is worrying about looming menopause. From two teenagers who seem to create chaos when in the same room together to an absent husband who just doesn’t listen, Cathy has her work set out with her home life.

We follow Cathy on her journey through one year after her sister gifts her a motivational diary, which Cathy decides to use for her own small targets like deciding who is going to clean her mum and dad’s loo to the far reaching targets like dancing with Hugh Jackman.

Every month she has a book club meeting, where more often than not, only a couple of the members have actually read the book. But they use it as more of a night where they can catch up and chat about their lives.

As a trained accountant, Cathy gave up working when she had her two children but did a little bit for some small local businesses, but that changes when she sees Tony one day (who she regularly meets on her dog walks) and he tells her he is in need for an accountant, she then ends up going to work in a hip, cool building which does her confidence wonders.

The book really did have some funny parts which made me giggle, and some that made me cry. The only reason for the 3 star rating was that I don’t think that I was the intended audience (a bit on the younger side and nowhere near menopause, I hope!) but I could still find the funny side in a lot of her worries and the situations that arise throughout.
  
Peace Talks (The Dresden Files, #16)
Peace Talks (The Dresden Files, #16)
Jim Butcher | 2022 | Fiction & Poetry
8
8.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
It was, what something like 5 years? 6? Between the release of the last book in the series (Skin Game) and this.

Long enough for me to go back and re-read the entire thing from scratch, anyway.

I'd also seen several reviews (on Amazon, mainly) bemoaning the fact that this is more like half a book: first impressions, upon receiving it, where that they were right: this was roughly half the size of that previous novel.

Having said that, there was also an argument to be made that those later novels (from around Changes onward) had themselves become too bloated, unlike the earlier entries in the series when Harry was (mainly) a detective.

Now that I've finished reading this, I can see where some of those reviews were coming from: more than any other I can think of in the series, this definitely sets up the next (Battle Ground, cutting off just as it 'tees up' the conflict to come and how the supernatural community is going to react to it.

After having conspicuously being absent in the previous, this also see's the return of Thomas Raith (and his sister Lara), both of whom play a large role in the proceeding within this, as does Harry's mentor Ebenezer McCoy, with the concept of family coming to the fore.

Did I enjoy it?

Yes.

Do I feel slightly cheated by the fact that it sets up but doesn't resolve the conflict to come, meaning I would have to buy the next book?

Also yes.

(I was going to anyway, having made it - and mainly enjoying them - this far)
  
Heart of Venom (Elemental Assassin, #9)
Heart of Venom (Elemental Assassin, #9)
Jennifer Estep | 2013 | Science Fiction/Fantasy
10
10.0 (3 Ratings)
Book Rating
Sophia, the goth dwarf who is the head cook at the Pork Pit, has been a bit of a puzzle throughout the Elemental Assassin series. How did she come to have the body disposal skills she uses to help Gin? Has she always been so diametrically opposed to her oh-so-feminine sister, JoJo? And what is the full story behind the trauma that ruined her voice? This book answers those questions.

We also get a little movement in the will-they-or-won't-they-reunite story of Gin and Owen, as well as a tiny bit of movement in the bigger story arc concerning Mab Monroe's heir. Thankfully, Finn is largely absent this time around. I find his whining about his clothes, cars, hair, etc. to be insufferable and cannot imagine what Bria sees in him, but there you go.

I feel like I should mention that this book gets brutal. I mean, if you've followed Gin Blanco this far, you aren't expecting flowers and rainbows, but I had to out this one down a couple of times. The details got to me. The descriptions were just too much, and the depravity of the villains was just too far out there. There haven't exactly been any shades of gray with previous bad guys, but I fully expected these to be roasting babies for dinner or some such.

It just occurred to me that I don't recall encountering any queer characters in this series. Or in any of Estep's other work. I've read several Bigtime novels, one or two of the Mythos Academy books, and everything she's published in this series, and everybody seems to be straight. Am I forgetting Something? How can an entire universe be heterosexual? Anybody?
  
Three on A Meathook (1972)
Three on A Meathook (1972)
1972 | Horror
4
5.7 (3 Ratings)
Movie Rating
The Porno 70's Soundtrack (1 more)
The Dad character
About a million gratuitous boob shots (1 more)
The plot is somewhat absent...ish
Huh.... Kinda cool...ish
Contains spoilers, click to show
When you review cheesy horror films for fun while your fiancee is alseep.... And you have to keep the volune down so you can barely hear the drivel that most scripted movies spew out... Captions are always an option.
When they work...
This movie is sorta bad to begin with. The camera work is sub par. Tue acting is all around shite. And lets be honest here.... The only good part about this film was the creativity of the kills for the time it was made.
The movie breaks down at the halfway point when it turns into Billy goes to tue city lookin for love and all he finds is a brunette skank who wants to come to his farm after knowing him for 15 seconds in a bar.... But its true love
Lobg story short... Billy's Daddy is a psychopath... Blood is spilt... Carnage insues... And boobs are flashed a plenty....
But not even glorious tan lined hooters can save this thing.... Only reason i rated it what i did... Is because i could see how modern day horror film writers and directors would use this as source material for writing their own slasher style scripts. Its groundbreaking... I admit that... It's just not... Well... It's not Black Christmas enough to be considered the first slasher style film of the 70's... Watch it if you want to.... I recommend it to those who want to go into horror directing or writing as both things to do and not to do.
On to the next....