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A Woman Under the Influence (1975)
A Woman Under the Influence (1975)
1975 | Classics, Drama
(0 Ratings)
Movie Favorite

"The last film I would say — and I could pick many of his films, but I will choose Woman Under the Influence, by Cassavetes. I could also have said Faces, or I could have said The Killing of a Chinese Bookie, or Husbands, or Minnie and Moskowitz, or I could have said Love Streams, but — today it will be Woman Under the Influence. I love the structure of it; its two-part structure — it really feels like a film in two movements. Arguably the two greatest performances of all time, between Peter Falk and Gena Rowlands. You know, it’s a home movie, and everything I’ve been trying to make are home movies — movies that take place inside the house and the family. I love the spirit of Cassavetes’ films, in that he’s casting his wife and his best friend in the roles, and his mother and her mother are in it, and the kids. To me it’s a movie that changes, too, throughtout the course of my life. I know the movie isn’t changing, I’m changing; but when I watch it the movie seems to shape-shift. I remember the first time I ever saw it I thought she was crazy; I remember on the 50th time I watched it I thought she was the only sane person in the movie and everyone else was crazy. I love that about movies that are made with a certain openness — that the audience can kind of participate in the imagination of the characters, you know; of their lives and of the story."

Source
  
Nine Dragons (Harry Bosch, #15; Mickey Haller, #3; Harry Bosch Universe, #20)
Nine Dragons (Harry Bosch, #15; Mickey Haller, #3; Harry Bosch Universe, #20)
Michael Connelly | 2009 | Crime, Fiction & Poetry, Thriller
5
7.7 (6 Ratings)
Book Rating
Monumental Book but Average Entry
It seems like a normal case. In fact, if it weren’t for the fact that the South LA bureau is too busy, Harry and his partner would never have taken on the case. The owner of a convenience store has been shot and killed. Because the owner is Asian, Bosch quickly calls in the Asian Crime Unit, and the trail seems to lead to the Chinese triad. But that’s when things get personal, and Bosch finds himself heading to Hong Kong on a personal mission. Will he succeed? Will that impact his case at home?

Normally, I love Michael Connelly’s books, but this one felt a bit forced. The initial set up in Los Angeles was good, and as we traveled to Hong Kong, I was all in. Maybe it was the fact that I knew how the portions in Hong Kong would end, but I started to get frustrated there. While I bought the trail that Bosch followed, I felt that Bosch was too over the top in his arrogant behavior. I kept wanting him to slow down and listen to the advice others were giving him. The end of the book contains some twists that I might have bought elsewhere, but here, they felt completely forced into the story. Of course, even subpar Connelly is still worth reading; it just isn’t his strongest. Fans of the series will want to read this one since it will impact Bosch’s life for the rest of the series.
  
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Brazen (Gilded, #3)
10
10.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
<b><i>I received this book for free from Publisher in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.</i></b>
I love <i><a title="Gilded review" href="http://www.bookwyrmingthoughts.com/review-gilded-by-christina-farley"; target="_blank" rel="noopener tag">Gilded</a></i> and all (<i>Silvern</i> is my least favorite), but <i>Brazen</i> is either a tie or my favorite of the entire series.

The third and final book in the <i>Gilded</i> series takes off shortly after <i>Silvern</i> when Jae Hwa signs a contract with Kud, Lord of Darkness and Chaos, to leave behind her family and past life in exchange to save Marc's life. Under Kud's control, Jae Hwa finds ways to save Korea and possibly the world from Kud's potential rule.

There is never a dull moment in <i>Brazen</i> – the book is more action-packed and exciting than the first two books combined (those were exciting in and of themselves, but <i>Brazen</i> is so much more). Jae Hwa's seriously kick butt side also appears as Jae Hwa runs against time to find the Black Turtle orb and returning it to the Heavenly Chest before she loses her humanity or Kud finds the orb for himself. With the contract between Kud branded on her arm, Jae Hwa basically has no one on her side – the Guardians want her head on a platter, Marc is cold and indifferent towards her as expected from the Guardians, and Kud holds the constant threat of harming her loved ones on her head.

But even though almost everyone is against her, Jae Hwa is slowly losing her humanity, and Kud seems to be onto her act sometimes, Jae Hwa still manages to evade revealing her true intentions to the lord of Darkness.

Farley also introduces readers to a little bit of Chinese mythology and history on Jae Hwa's search for the final orb, with plenty of life-threatening trials and obstacles that consist of mercury, tombs, and skeletons (plus, drowning). It also promptly demanded me to suggest that Christina pull a Rick Riordan and collide Chinese and Korean mythology together in a spin-off series (I just read the Percy Jackson/Kane Chronicles crossover at the time...). Fangirl me squealed when Christina said she loved the idea. (Now I'm really going to start counting my lucky book stars for that to happen.)

In reality, the idea is partially for a selfish reason and I honestly don't want to be done with the entire series. Even though I had a few bumpy occurrences with the characters a few times in Gilded and <i><a title="Silvern review" href="http://www.bookwyrmingthoughts.com/arc-review-silvern-by-christina-farley"; target="_blank" rel="noopener tag">Silvern</a></i>, I've actually grown to like Jae Hwa and company. All of them have grown so much in the three books that it's really hard to let them all go and carry on with their happily fictional lives.

I also envy anyone who hasn't reached the final book yet. &gt;_&lt; (But I wouldn't have been able to "shove" the book in a friend's face if I didn't get introduced to the series.)

<a href="https://bookwyrmingthoughts.com/arc-review-brazen-by-christina-farley/"; target="_blank">This review was originally posted on Bookwyrming Thoughts</a>
  
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Andy Gill recommended Hold My Liquor by Kanye West in Music (curated)

 
Hold My Liquor by Kanye West
Hold My Liquor by Kanye West
(0 Ratings)
Album Favorite

"Definitely my favourite song on that record [Yeezus]. I think it's a great record, if you can get past the ""bitches"" and what's that about Chinese pussy? Kanye, fucking grow up man, you're not 15. I was talking to Michael Azerrad, 'cause he's got me to do a couple of podcasts for him. And his clever little thing is to get musicians to review other albums. In conversation, I mentioned this track, and he said he got Lou Reed to write about the record. He said Lou Reed was in tears listening to this track. It's a very emotional track and it's very clever. He switches between making jokes and sounding very desperate indeed. One minute he's being very flippant, and I guess it's like being drunk and not drunk. The drink and the comedown, the hangover, whatever. Really beautiful, but also powerful, and quite punk in a way. And the arrangement is so clever and unexpected and unusual. He'll give you one thing and then give you something quite different, but it all works from section to section. I heard this while I was making What Happens Next and I was really impressed with the synth bass sounds, so I ended up having Thomas [McNeice] in, and we worked out where there would be a mixture of his bass playing and some electronic bass. You know, Lou Reed's point is that Kanye is demonstrating what he can get away with, which is good. I think there's quite a few ""I can do what I like moments"", including talking about ""sweet and sour pussy"" [sic]."

Source
  
The Painted Veil (2007)
The Painted Veil (2007)
2007 | Drama, Romance
If there's one thing John Curran excels at more than anything, it's evoking emotionally gut-wrenching performances out of his actors over a gorgeous backdrop & score to deliver not-great-not-awful dialogue for a potentially stimulating premise that deserves more than just the okay execution he ends up giving it. An oddly specific trademark, now that I think about it. As decent a recreation of an Old Hollywood romance as the year 2006 probably could have offered, with as skilled and engrossing performers such as Watts and Norton (finnicky accent from the latter aside - they're tremendous) this is still more than watchable in spite of its lack of any nuanced bone in its body. Could have rated this even higher to tell the truth - it is quite sophisticated and well paced after all - though not only does it rush itself out the door in its final scenes, but the age-old "white people save misguided foreign nation" stuff really turns me off here. It's like it intentionally brushes off all its politics in favor of ensuring these two white people remain relatively happy. At one point the Mother Superior gives an entire lecture about how Watts saving her own ass and finding her husband is more important religiously than staying and helping all of the deathly ill Chinese people and the horribly undermanned staff overseeing them. Not the only time it does something like that either, but for what it's worth this does it much less aggressively than other films like it, I guess? Wouldn't watch it again but I liked it, it is what it is.
  
Disney Inspired Recipes
Disney Inspired Recipes
Thomas Beard | 2019 | Food & Drink
7
7.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
Try the grey stuff, it’s delicious!

Well now you can!

Have you ever fancied making Tiana’s beignets or Linguini’s soup? Then this is the book for you.

Thomas Beard’s recipe book contains 30 recipes inspired by…you guessed it…Disney!

If I’m honest it was the gorgeous cover that initially attracted me to this book but there are definitely so many recipes I want to try. Keep an eye on my instagram for any attempts – hopefully they won’t be a Pinterest fail!

The first recipe i am desperate to try is the iconic grey stuff from Beauty and the Beast. It’s actually an oreo vanilla mix which sounds like heaven!

I also want to try the honey cake (a la the silly old bear) and the cursed cake from Brave. Not that I have a sweet tooth or anything!

There are some recipes that are undoubtedly “padding”. I’m looking at you Lady and the Tramp Spaghetti and Meatballs and Tangled Hazlenut Soup. Nevertheless there are some others that I wouldn’t have thought of and it was these surprises that I really appreciated because it would be so easy to be lazy and fill a book of Mulan’s Chinese curry, Little John’s stew or similar.

Once you get past the disappointment of the Harry Potter style text on a Disney cover, this book is definitely worth a look. Like all recipe books there are some that I will probably skip past (corn dogs, cheese souffle) but the addition of recipes inspired by Big Hero 6 and The Emperor’s New Groove more than makes up for them.
  
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Awix (3310 KP) rated Geostorm (2017) in Movies

Feb 7, 2018 (Updated Feb 7, 2018)  
Geostorm (2017)
Geostorm (2017)
2017 | Action, Mystery, Sci-Fi
Gerard Butles With The Elements
It's a movie directed by the producer of The Day After Tomorrow and 2012, in which Gerard Butler is shot into space to have a fight with bad weather. If the description alone does not make you engage in fairly serious expectation-management, you must be new to this whole going-to-the-movies business.

Um, yeah: Gerard Butler plays a brilliant but maverick meteorologist (stay with me) who invents a global weather control system codenamed 'Dutch Boy' (possibly because the satellites are really high all the time), then gets sacked for being a pain in the neck. Years later, the system starts to go wrong (unimportant people like Afghans and Chinese meet spectacular weather-related deaths) and Butler is recruited by his brother (don't ask) to figure out the problem.

There is a lot of chasing about and a conspiracy and the world's most oddly designed self-destruct system, and the villain turns out to be the person you thought it was all the time. Butler spends most of the movie in space, which at least means Abbie Cornish can do more as a member of the Secret Service who ends up kidnapping the President (it's that kind of movie). Geostorm hasn't quite figured out how to handle having the President as a character in a movie in the current situation: Andy Garcia plays him in a very sensible, nondescript manner, quite divorced from reality.

I have to say a friend of mine said Geostorm was so bad it made London Has Fallen look like a Christopher Nolan movie, but it's not so much flat-out awful as simply very silly, obvious, and predictable, not to mention very much like all the other movies Dean Devlin produced for Roland Emmerich. I suppose the moral should be 'stick to what you're (reasonably) good at'.
  
Fruits Basket Another Vol. 1
Fruits Basket Another Vol. 1
Natsuki Takaya | 2018 | Comics & Graphic Novels
10
9.0 (2 Ratings)
Book Rating
Fruits Basket was my first Manga I read and I decided to try it because of Hannah over at The Rainy Reader. The Fruits Basket story is super fun and cute. I read the first volume of the Collectors Edition and although it took me a bit to get used to the way you read a manga. Read right to left and you flip the pages from back to front.
The story was what initially intrigued me to try reading it. The story is based around a young girl name Tohru Honda. Her mother has recently died and as a result she ends up living in a tent on the private land of the Sohma clan. The owners of the land discover her and Tohru quickly realizes the most popular guy in her school, Yuki Sohma, lives in a house on this land. The family decides to take Tohru in and she discovers their secret… Anytime a member of the Sohma clan is hugged by someone of the opposite gender they turn into the animals of the Chinese Zodiac.
I love all the characters Tohru, Yuki, and Kyo are my favorites so far. Toward the end of this volume you start to meet other members of the clan, and I’m super excited for that! The characters are easy to relate to and I find myself so engrossed in the story that I’m often turning pages without enjoying the art work so I often must go back and check it out. The art work in this story is stunning, the way the emotions jump off the page is brilliant.
My goal this year was to start reading different types of books and break out of my comfort zone a bit. Fruits Basket allowed me to do that! I hope you’ll give it a try.
  
WK
Winter King: The Dawn of Tudor England
6
6.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
There's an old Chinese curse that runs "may you live in interesting times". Penn throws some new light on an era that certainly can be described as 'interesting' and somewhere I'm sure I wouldn't want to be living!

The Winter King of the title is Henry Tudor. Although more a history of the reign than biography (his early life is described only in brief), Henry doesn't come across as particularly likeably - not someone you'd like to sit down to dinner with! His whole style of kingship seems to be based around control of everyone around him and control was often achieved through financial means rather than physical threat. The story unfolds as almost horrific where we see innocent people 'informed' against, imprisoned illegally, tried with 'packed' juries and presented with crippling fines! The wonder really is that such a king was not overthrown! We see here how the notorious Empson & Dudley really worked, and although in a way they were scapegoats for many in the old Henrician regieme when Henry VIII came to the throne, you can see how imprisoning and then executing this unpleasant pair would have been a great crowd-pleasing move!

This book also shines some light on other charaters; it goes someway to explaining the later behaviour of Henry VIII for starters! The insight into the relationship of Philip of Burgundy and Juana of Castile was brief, but enlightning.

Many Tudor writers go straight for the two obvious targets; the larger than life Henry VIII and his daughter, Elizabeth I, so here it made an interesting change to see the earlier Tudor world and how Henry VIII grew up in this; even if it was a place full of paranoid and insecurity!
  
Pride and Prejudice and Zombies (2016)
Pride and Prejudice and Zombies (2016)
2016 | Comedy, Horror, Romance
Unexpected and Inventive Mix of Drama and Zombie
Contains spoilers, click to show
This movie was surprisingly decent even with all the cheesy love drama and relationship plot mixed in from Pride and Prejudice. I liked the background for the alternate 19th century London and how it came to be full of zombies. I also really liked how the father of this family had his daughters train in Chinese martial arts and was more concerned with their immediate safety and how the mother was more concerned with them marrying. I was a little disappointed in how not all the sisters where featured prominently enough into the plot/story. I liked Lena Headey's character too but felt she was underutilized as well. The zombies in this movie were pretty unique. It said that they were zombies but they could still talk quite intelligently and also craved human brains and if they didn't eat brains then they wouldn't turn into full zombies. The full zombies were far more aggressive and faster. I also liked how the character Darcy was in charge of investigating possible zombie cases and wish they could have delved more into that part of the characters story. The action also surprised me for being a PG-13 movie there was quite a bit of blood and violence. There were some nice headshot scenes where the zombies heads were blown clean off their bodies. The fight scenes were pretty well choreographed and the girls kicked a lot more butt than most of the guys. Even the plot with the cheesy love triangle had me trying to guess which guy was going to get with which girl and kept the plot interesting enough inbetween the action. I give this movie a 6/10 and say it's an above average zombie movie.