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Joey Santiago recommended Highway to Hell by AC/DC in Music (curated)

 
Highway to Hell by AC/DC
Highway to Hell by AC/DC
1979 | Rock
8.4 (5 Ratings)
Album Favorite

"My first concert! I rode my bike to the city, because I lived in the suburbs and I tried to meet Angus Young outside the tour bus, asking the security guy, [imitates younger self] "Can I meet Angus Young?" "No, he's not here!" "Hey dude! What the fuck?! Don't talk to me like that, I bought a ticket!" Also, it was my first experience of how loud - it was the loudest shit I've ever heard! And in the suburbs, they were a dangerous band. It was like, "Oh fuck, the devil", it kind of made Kiss look tame, and it just powers. And when Angus Young solos, it's just magic. I saw them on that tour when Bon Scott had died; he'd just died and Brian Johnson had just taken over, and I was totally sceptical, and then it was like, "Oh, he's fucking good!" And actually, when Kim left the band, and we're going, "Aw shit, we're fucked", and we're talking about what we're going to do, and then we're like, "Fucking AC/DC replaced the fucking lead singer! We can do this! [sombrely] We shall overcome!" And we thought about replacing Kim with a dude, and then we went, "What?! They replaced Bon Scott with a guy that sounds exactly like Bon Scott! Let's not break the plate! We're not broken, we're not broken at all. Give me a fucking break." So I was totally adamant [laughs]! Song two ['Girls Got Rhythm'], it's like: "SEX!" It's about "SEX!" It's not like Foreigner, where it's obvious but it's fucking stupid - come on, you can do better than that! It's like, "I want to have sex with you, what's the problem?" I think it's the ultimate way to get attention: "Come on, we're not here to meet up, let's cut to the chase. I'm not going to waste your time, don't waste my time! Let's fuck, come on, I don't have time for this!" [laughs]"

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Jerry Cantrell recommended Back in Black by AC/DC in Music (curated)

 
Back in Black by AC/DC
Back in Black by AC/DC
1980 | Rock
9.3 (4 Ratings)
Album Favorite

"I think I discovered that record when I was in seventh grade. It's like a perfect album, from beginning to end, which is a difficult thing to achieve. I've been a fan of AC/DC for years. Highway To Hell is another record I think is pretty perfect. That record was so huge and it hit so hard, it was a kind of bookmarker in your life, for me and millions of people. Oddly enough we went through a few things that they had to. Down the road we would go through the loss of a member and make a decision to continue on and do it successfully. I thought it was such a brave thing for AC/DC to triumph over that sort of tragedy [the death of singer Bon Scott in 1980], to continue to have their sound, and also to have Brian on such a fucking impactful record - it’s obviously charged with a ton of emotion from losing Bon. That process, it was a fairly quick change. Brian wasn't trying to sound like Bon, but it's still AC/DC. Our band is a kind of parallel in a way. When I started I was more of a rhythm player in whatever band I played in, so I really identified with Malcolm [Young], yet I was wanting to play lead like Angus. He's a phenomenal lead player, but I've always thought the backbone of band is the rhythm guitar. I guess a lot of the bands that I like are dual guitar bands. And I actually really wanted another guitar player in this band when we first started, but the other guys didn't want one, so I had to learn to play a little bit [laughs]."

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LeftSideCut (3778 KP) rated X2: X-Men United (2003) in Movies

Jun 20, 2019 (Updated Jun 20, 2019)  
X2: X-Men United (2003)
X2: X-Men United (2003)
2003 | Action, Sci-Fi
A strong follow up
X-Men 2 builds upon the first in pretty much every way possible - were introduced to new characters (Brian Cox as William Stryker being a stand out here) and some really thrilling set pieces.


Notable amongst them - the opening scene of Nightcrawler attacking The White House (set to Mozart's Requiem in D Minor) is honestly one of my top scenes in a comic book film ever.
The scene where the mansion is attacked at night - we see Wolverine a lot more feral here than in the first film, and we're introduced to Colossus.
And the almost everything on Alkali Lake - the glimpses into the Weapon X project, the hints at Dark Phoenix - are all comic book ticks (until they were a bit shat on in future sequels)


There are still faults - the biggest one here for me is Lady Deathstroke - second X-Men movie in a row that backbenches a classic Wolverine villain in favour of a fairly useless mute version.

I remember and appreciate X-Men 2 for what it was at the time - a movie for a young franchise brimming with future possibilities. It still stands strong as far as Marvel adaptions go.
  
I'll Give You the Sun
I'll Give You the Sun
Jandy Nelson | 2015 | Children
10
8.2 (13 Ratings)
Book Rating
I'll give you the sun follows twins Noah and Jude that are aspiring artists. They are both working on their portfolios to get into a prestigious art school in the local area when a tragedy pulls them apart and they start to live two separate lives.

I loved this book the writing was so poetic and beautiful. The story is written from two perspectives and at different times. Noah's perspective is written when he is 13. 5 years old and before 'said' tragedy struck and Jude's when she is 16 - two years later. At 13 years old the pair were close with sibling rivalries, respecting each others art and dividing the world up.

“I gave up practically the whole world for you,” I tell him, walking through the front door of my own love story. “The sun, stars, ocean, trees, everything, I gave it all up for you.”

At 16 the pair couldn't be further apart, they constantly avoid each other and barely talk. When lies start to unravel and they discover the truth, can they become two once more.

Noah is a painter, he's such a cute young boy, with his confusion of being gay and what it means to come out is so cleverly portrayed through this character. The frustration and tension is palpable between him and Brian. The want of your heart desires and the reality of doing and facing the backlash from the people around you is what stops him. Noah has never been perceived as 'normal' to his class mates and being bullied is a daily problem until he meets the new kid Brian who is a baseball player for his local school, with Brian by his side he becomes socially accepted, even though he knows that Brian is a bit of geek like himself with his meteorite collections.

Jude an ambitious sculptor is a young impressionable girl at the age of 14, however as she is telling her POV at the age of 16 she has had a lot of time to develop but also grieve at the same time. Jude is struggling at school, she hasn't made any good artwork for the past 2 years and believes there is someone out to destroy her pieces. She has one last chance to make it right and is sent to work with a local but famous sculptor. The sculptor has problems of his own and between the both of them they start to overcome their grief through the process of sculpting.

Oscar is not the typical cool guy, who has everything going for him with his distinguishable features, his past and present he is also on the road to self discovery. When we first meet Oscar in Noah's perspective he is a drunk, with ambitions to be a model. 2 years later in Jude's perspective he is a recovering alcoholic/drug user, going to college for photography and has a cocky side to him which covers up the true Oscar.

“It occurs to me that Jude does this too, changes who she is depending on who she’s with. They’re like toads changing their skin color. How come I’m always just me?”

There were only two things that stopped me from giving this book 5 stars and it's not much but I had to factor them in. I found the book a bit predictable in some parts. You could tell how it was going to pan out. Also the ending felt a bit rushed for me towards the end, I think it could have been a bit longer to make the ending a bit more bulkier. The thing I liked with Nelson's writing is your reading away and then BAM! She just lets you have this incredible fact like it's nothing major and I had to reread to make sure I hadn't read it wrong. The grandma's bible that Jude follows got a bit tiresome in the end.

I went in to this book blind, not knowing too much about the premise and I recommend it, I like going in to books not knowing much it is more surprising and enjoyable to read. There are references in the book to famous people and quotes such as Winston Churchill and E.E Cummings. This book deals with love, bullying, grief, growing up, self discovery and all the challenges of being a teenager.

I recommend this book to anyone that likes to read Young Adult and Contemporary novels.

Overall I rated this book 4.5 stars out of 5.