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Laetitia Sadier recommended Halo by Juana Molina in Music (curated)

 
Halo by Juana Molina
Halo by Juana Molina
2017 | World
(0 Ratings)
Album Favorite

"I discovered this album quite recently and it transported me very much. I've had times in my life where I've wanted to go in a more electronic direction, and I find her work very inspiring because it's mostly electronic work, which she does a lot of on her own in terms of production and such, and at the same time it sounds very organic and connected to the earth. Not everybody can do that; to do electronics and make it sound like the earth. It's an art form. I just think it's perfect. The songs are incredibly creatively arranged and written; it's all there. It all seems very effortless even though I'm sure it's taken her a lot of work to get it that perfect. But it's seamless and you're transported from one song to the next. Some of the transitions are just so inspired; it's inspired and it's inspiring. It's rooted, and that gives it a sort of spiritual value which is lacking, and which we're losing. We live in a system that will seek to cut us off from our roots and cut us off from our connection with the universe. And that's our sense of direction, like the birds: they know when to migrate. They have this connection to the universe and that tells them, they have this sense that comes from the earth up, and we are losing this. But it's present in her album, this connection, in a very vivid way. And of course it's nourishing because it's pointing in that direction: this is where we connect to the earth, to our past, to our ancestors who knew so much. In the past 50 years we've unlearned so much. Our great-grandparents probably knew a lot about the land, where things come from and the cycles, and these are very important things so you aren't disoriented in this world. You have a sense of how things work in the natural world. There was probably less disorientation then than now, in terms of people consuming fewer antidepressants and things like that. Juana has this quality of being able to connect to ancestors and a whole knowledge that's been there for thousands of years and we're now cutting ourselves off from. I wouldn't blame it on the technology itself, but more on how it's being used, and to what ends. It's technology in the service of a system that will seek to disconnect, so we consume more and think less, creating desires for objects that we don't really need, and narcissism, and developing aspects of human traits that should really be kept in check."

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Wish You Were Here
Wish You Were Here
Jodi Picoult | 2021 | Fiction & Poetry
8
8.0 (2 Ratings)
Book Rating
I didn’t quite realise how much this book would resonate with me until I started reading it. It reminded me sometimes about the awful things that we have lived through the past 2 years but also reminded me how strong people can be.
Diana and Finn are living in New York as the Covid-19 pandemic is beginning, they have planned to go on a once in a lifetime holiday to The Galápagos Islands just as the world seems to be shutting down. Finn, being a surgical resident, has been told that he can’t take time off, even pre planned holidays. While Diana, who is an art specialist working for Sotheby’s, knows that she needs to take time off as a deal she had brokered for a painting has fallen through. Finn tells Diana to go anyway as he doesn’t want to make her sick since he’s working in the hospital.
We then follow Diana exploring the beautiful, scenic Isabela island, and meeting a family who take her in and look after her when she becomes stranded there. She explores the island and although she doesn’t speak the language she manages to get by because she needs to. She has no phone service and very limited access to the internet so she has no way to contact the outside world, but it doesn’t seem to matter too much when you’re in paradise.
The second part of the book was a complete surprise, but a pleasant one. It reminded me of exactly how we were at the start of the pandemic, wiping down anything that came from outside, not opening mail for days and for some of us stripping as soon as we came in from work for fear we’d brought the virus home with us. I am a support worker and so had no choice but to go into work and look after people that had Covid-19 because as much as I was scared, I knew that they needed me more. One line that sticks in my head is also one that I thought myself: “Well if I catch it, I catch it” and that became my opinion for a lot of the pandemic.
It was a nice change that not everything was tied up with a neat little bow at the end of this book, as that’s how life is sometimes. I really enjoyed this book and I feel like it will be one of those that helps us to remember the pandemic in years to come.
  
    Star Chart Infinite

    Star Chart Infinite

    Education and Reference

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    Buy Star Chart Infinite and get all the in-app upgrades of Star Chart included for free! Star Chart...

OI
Otherworldly Izakaya Nobu Volume 1 (manga)
Natsuya Semikawa, Virginia Nitouhei | 2018 | Comics & Graphic Novels
9
9.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
The characters are well-developed. (3 more)
The art is very nice, with the characters and scenery not being 'too cartoony', but still consistent and appealing.
Each chapter (at least in this volume) is a self-contained story, but very much part of the whole.
There are several notes right under the panels for translating food terms on the page the food is on, as well as a page of food vocabulary at the back in German and Japanese, which is very helpful.
Not necessarily bad, exactly, but there are three different languages for food in here (English, Japanese, and German), which is why we need the notes under the panels. (0 more)
Sitting down with a nice cold mug of Whatsontapp in another world
_Otherworldly Izakaya Nobu, volume 1_ is a quiet slice of life isekai manga about a Japanese eatery (Izakaya) run by a chef named Nobu and his staff member, Shinobu. Through supernatural means that aren't explained until a much later volume, the eatery somehow has a back door in modern Japan, but the front door is in a medieval Germanic country known as Eiteriach, in a world with two moons.

The eatery just 'suddenly appeared' in town and soldiers and locals, and eventually members of the nobility visit in the six chapters of the book, and Chef Nobu and Shinobu-chan are always up for creating something delicious for whomever is visiting at the time. Most issues that come up are taken care of in the chapter they're brought up, and while there are issues that could be explored, like the commander's refusal to eat fried squid tentacles which we end up finding out why in a later volume, they aren't cliffhanger material. The book is written in such a way that if there hadn't been a volume 2-9, it still feels like a complete collection of stories, yet each volume builds on the previous one.

That said, the art is very anime, by which I mean that it is somewhat realistic, but still very cute and a bit exaggerated. The characters are well thought out and slowly introduced one or two at a time, other than the first chapter where we not only meet the chef and Shinobu, but two members of the military, Nikolaus and Hans and eat oden. The second chapter, we meet Commander Bertholdt and eat kara-age chicken. Chapter three, it's Tax Collecter, Gehrnot with spaghetti Napolitan. Chapter four is Viscount Johan Gustav and his niece, Hildegard, enjoying Ankake Yudofu. In chapter five, merchants Ignatz and Kamil discover sashimi and Kaisendon. The sixth and final chapter for this volume brings us back around to Nikolaus and Hans experiencing Tonjiro for the first time.


This manga is all about food and community. So everyone who comes in eventually fits back into the story, interacting with various people in the community, with food very much a part of the interactions. So descriptions of the food and how amazing it is and how different it is from anything in Eiteriach and how well it goes with the draft beer they call "Whatsontapp" make up a good deal of the book. Somehow Chef Nobu always understands what they want, even though the words they use for what they want are German, For example, Commander Bertholdt asks for a huhn dish that goes well with whatsontapp. The chef knows he wants chicken and fries him up kara-age chicken, which is what he calls it. There is mention of schweinefleisch (pork), and mustard/karashi/senf... the translation notes underneath and in the back are very helpful.

It's not a manga to read if you want action, adventure, and excitement, but for a delicious little series to settle down with in between times, it is delightful. I recommend it highly.
  
    Overkill 3

    Overkill 3

    Games and Entertainment

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    8 environments with more than 60 battlefields, 4 game modes and over 30 guns to shoot your way...