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"This is the lone book that doesn’t touch upon textile arts, but I would be remiss to not mention Princenthal’s exploration of the rise of gender-based art, born of an era of increased sexual violence against women. From Yoko Ono’s Cut Piece to Emma Sulkowicz’s 2014 piece Carry That Weight, Unspeakable Acts: Women, Art, and Sexual Violence in the 1970s looks at how women artists create work in response to living with the constant threat of sexual violence"

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The Art of Vanishing
The Art of Vanishing
Cynthia Kuhn | 2017 | Mystery
7
7.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
Someone is Out to Destroy Arts Week
Every spring semester, Stonedale University puts on an arts festival, and Lila has been roped into serving on the committee. The big name for the week is author Damon Von Tussel, who has just released his second book decades after his critically acclaimed debut. Lila is sent to interview him before the big event to gain some publicity, but before she can talk to him, he disappears. Then everyone on the committee starts to get threatening e-mails. What is going on?

I don’t read too many mysteries set in the academic world, so I enjoyed changing that with this book. The internal politics of the college and Lila’s worries since this is her first-year teaching there overshadowed the mystery at times. The mystery itself is a little different than many of the books I read, and I found it a refreshing break. The characters are fun, especially Lila’s mother, and I am curious how some of these relationships will develop in the future.
  
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Awix (3310 KP) rated The Raid 2 (2014) in Movies

Feb 19, 2019 (Updated Jul 29, 2019)  
The Raid 2 (2014)
The Raid 2 (2014)
2014 | Action, Adventure
Astoundingly violent sequel to The Raid (hope that doesn't constitute a spoiler). Hapless but extremely handy cop Rama is obliged to go undercover in the Malaysian underworld and infiltrate one of the major crime families. The plot is complex and coherent, surprisingly so for a martial arts action movie, but it's all really just a pretext for jaw-droppingly lavish, inventive and brutal fight sequences. Film doesn't shy away from the consequences of violence - at one point the first time I watched this, someone pulled a claw hammer out of their bag and I found myself instinctively cringing down in my seat in anticipation of the crunching gore to come.

Nevertheless, the film is lifted not just by the director's grasp of pacing and camerawork, but by some surprisingly strong performances. I imagine many people will not be able to take the intensity and violence of this film, but that doesn't lessen its achievement. Not the greatest gangster movie ever, nor the greatest martial arts film, but almost certainly the most accomplished fusion of the two genres.
  
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Andy K (10821 KP) Jul 29, 2019

One of the best action films ever made!

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Awix (3310 KP) rated Chocolate (2008) in Movies

Mar 2, 2018 (Updated Mar 2, 2018)  
Chocolate (2008)
Chocolate (2008)
2008 | Action, Thriller
Mmm, Chocolate
Yet another film about an autistic girl with prodigious martial arts skills forced to beat the living daylights out of dozens of gangland thugs in order to pay for her mother's cancer medicine. But a really good one, by the standards of the kung fu movie genre at least. From the director of Ong-Bak, Prachya Pinkaew, who almost single-handedly seems to have put Thai martial arts movies on the map.

The plot is, as you can probably tell, somewhat eccentric and quite possibly in dubious taste (the final boss battle sees the autistic kickboxing girl facing off against a teenage capoeira expert with Tourette's syndrome), but this just adds to the distinctive flavour of this particular chocolate. Terrific performance, both acting and athletic, from Jeeja Yanin. The fight scenes are stupendously well-choreographed, especially the climax (a vertical fight up and down the side of a building). I don't know which is more surprising: that this movie exists at all, or that it's real and also really lives up to its potential.
  
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Dean (6925 KP) rated Shenmue in Video Games

Apr 25, 2018  
Shenmue
Shenmue
Action/Adventure
Amazing graphics (2 more)
Huge areas to explore
Very original
Ground Breaking Classic
The game that probably helped sell the Dreamcast. This was unlike anything else at the time. Almost an open world game where you were free to explore, train your martial arts moves or just pop to the arcade for some retro Sega classics or darts! Along with some 3D scrolling beat em up sections. Something few games have tried since sadly. You will spend days worth of hours playing this!
  
The annual arts festival is approaching in Paradise, Colorado, but a last minute switch of the person in charge doesn't make anyone happy. When the new chairwoman is murdered in the parking lot of Abby's candy store, things get even hotter. I love the characters, and the plot kept me guessing. As with the previous books, the ending was rather abrupt.

Read my full review at <a href="http://carstairsconsiders.blogspot.com/2013/04/book-review-peppermint-twisted-by-sammi.html">Carstairs Considers</a>.
  
Ashes of Time Redux (2008)
Ashes of Time Redux (2008)
2008 | Action, International
4
4.0 (1 Ratings)
Movie Rating
No doubt a well made film and with great cinematography. However it was a little confusing at times to follow the story and who were friends and who were enemies. The big disappointment for me was I had expected something along the lines of Hero or House of flying daggers. Unfortunately this is a different type of film altogether and barely has any fight scenes, and when there are they are a blur. Definitely more of a drama than a martial arts film.
  
Game of Death (1978)
Game of Death (1978)
1978 | Action, Crime, International
5
6.8 (9 Ratings)
Movie Rating
The last 20 minutes (0 more)
Some cool fights
Overall not a great film, pretty weak story, bit simple. Only has a short amount of Bruce Lee footage that was filmed before his death in '73. Most of this is in the final 20 minutes as he takes on various martial arts experts one on one to get to the syndicate boss. This part is clearly what inspired @Kill Bill: Volume 1 (2003) with Uma Thurman wearing a similar outfit to pay homage to Lee.
  
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Guy Garvey recommended Laughing Stock by Talk Talk in Music (curated)

 
Laughing Stock by Talk Talk
Laughing Stock by Talk Talk
1991 | Rock
(0 Ratings)
Album Favorite

"It's no more complicated than Spirit. It's interesting what happened after the war with music and arts… In Europe [during the war], arts and music were used to further ideals, that the artists and musicians didn't share. There were people forced to make state marches, forced to glorify ideals they didn't really hold true, and the power of bullying had its most epic day. Post that, the album saw everybody throwing all the rules out. In that period of experimentation, classical music went through a very interesting walk, and when it came back, it seized on a different kind of experimentation, all of western art became more generous, and the most generous music is the stuff that rewards the listener the most. And I haven't found the same heart in any record other than those last two Talk Talk albums. They need to be listened to loud and they need to be listened to over and over again. And I'm stunned every time. How they make me feel is because of the generosity of spirit, it's like weaving spiders' webs from scraps. So delicate, so precious, but not a note or tone is uneventful."

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Nasty Women
Nasty Women
404 Ink | 2017 | Essays
8
8.3 (6 Ratings)
Book Rating
An aptly-timed anthology amid political turmoil
It's a wonderful array of female voices from all walks of life, my criticism comes in the form of possibly too many perspectives from Scotland and not many other places. There were a few too many arts focused viewpoints with third person interviews, a little amateurish editing, and the compilation of women could be more finessed.

That being said - I'm over the moon about intersectional feminism being discussed. A joy to read and a bit of a relief. It's no Vagina Monologues, but's still fairly decent.