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The Walking Dead - Season 10
The Walking Dead - Season 10
2019 | Drama, Horror
Some great episodes (0 more)
Overall one of the weaker seasons (0 more)
Good and bad
The Walking Dead has gone in an odd direction in the last series and this. I wasn't a fan of the big time jump last series and we have a lot of back and forth in the time line this series. The return of Maggie at long last goes by barely unnoticed, with no real explanation of where she has been during all this time. It carries on like she has never been away. There are a few episodes towards the end that feature mainly on just one or two characters, mainly due to covid filming. A couple of these episodes weren't great. The one truly saving feature of the season was an origin story of Negan. This was one of the best episodes for many series starring opposite his wife in real life playing Lucille. So a real mixed bag, some great individual episodes but overall as a whole it feels a bit disconnected and disappointing. Hope the extended final series is better.
  
The Devil's Advocate (Eddie Flynn #6)
The Devil's Advocate (Eddie Flynn #6)
Steve Cavanagh | 2021 | Crime, Thriller
9
9.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
Yet again, Mr Cavanagh has written a belter ... definitely one of my reads of 2021 so far and one I can't recommend highly enough and even though this is number 6 in the series, don't let that put you off because you can absolutely read and enjoy this delight as a standalone.

I am a fan of Mr Cavanagh's incarnation of Eddie Flynn having read a couple of his previous outings but, I have to say, this is the best one I have read so far - an absolute peach of a story that had me on tenterhooks and devouring the pages as quick as my little eyes could manage.

With excellent characters, fantastic plot and side plots, perfect setting and pace, the right amount of twists and thrills, I have no hesitation in recommending this to anyone who loves a great thriller.

What are you waiting for? Go get it!

Many thanks to The Orion Publishing Group and NetGalley for providing me with an advance copy in return for an honest, unbiased and unedited review.
  
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Gordon Gano recommended track Crazy Feeling by Lou Reed in Coney Island Baby by Lou Reed in Music (curated)

 
Coney Island Baby by Lou Reed
Coney Island Baby by Lou Reed
1976 | Rock
(0 Ratings)
Album Favorite

Crazy Feeling by Lou Reed

(0 Ratings)

Track

"I love that whole album, Coney Island Baby, I like the whole way that album was done. It’s got a cooler, very studio thing going on with all these ‘Oohs’ and ‘Ahh’s’ on the vocals all over the place. “With ‘Crazy Feeling’, I can’t be sure, but I think I heard it on the radio when it first came out. I think I was going to kindergarten somewhere; that was the ‘60s for me! I heard that ‘bum, bum, bum’, that sort of that chiming thing that goes on, and I really liked it and the sound of the guy’s voice singing. “At this point, it could’ve been a vivid dream that I’m remembering, but I think it actually was that song that I heard that on the radio and mixed in with everything else it caught my ear, at whatever age I was, whenever that song might’ve gotten a couple plays on a radio station. We would’ve been listening to a New York station at that time, living in Connecticut, or a Connecticut station"

Source
  
This Is Happening by LCD Soundsystem
This Is Happening by LCD Soundsystem
2010 | Dance, Rock
(0 Ratings)
Album Favorite Watch

"We've played with them quite a few times over the last couple of years, getting to know James Murphy and hearing that music in unexpected places. I love them now. I think I loved them too late, now they're broke up or whatever, but I love them. It's hypnotic, [like] we're going to grind away and discover the nuances. It's not about a big giant arrangement that takes you up and down, it's about being on the edge and going, and going, and going. They did that well, he had a great band. And their sounds are important, it isn't just guitars and keyboards. We'd see them play and they'd take a lot of effort to get these little sounds that all work together. We got to know that record by it being around all the time, which is great, because you're not just putting it on and going 'What is this shit?'. You're just hearing it and going 'What is that, that's cool?'. 'Dude, it's LCD Soundsystem.'"

Source
  
Fancy Blues & Rustique Novelties by Flipron
Fancy Blues & Rustique Novelties by Flipron
2004 | Rock
(0 Ratings)
Album Favorite

"The first thing I should say is that it's not necessarily in order of favouritism. It was purely just well, what can I put down, and then rifling through and changing my mind and then going on to something else. But Flipron are a band that when I had a recording studio they turned up and said something like we've got a hundred quid, how much time can we have. And I just really liked them and I really liked the songs that they'd got. So two years later they were in the studio and we became firm friends. I produced a couple of records for them as well. But it's a funny thing because I prefer the stuff I wasn't involved with, of which this album is one. My studio closed down and we all went off and did our own thing and then they turned up with their first two albums. And with this one I just really love the songs on it. Each one is kind of like a story."

Source
  
Crepuscular Hour by Maja Ratkje
Crepuscular Hour by Maja Ratkje
(0 Ratings)
Album Favorite

"One of my favourite contemporary new music pieces to come out in the past couple of years. She's been composing music for 20 years. This album came out last year so I've been sitting with it, going back to it this year as well. But what strikes me is how patient the music is; it develops very slowly. The ideas are really exciting. So when she marinates on a single idea for a while, it doesn't feel boring. The idea is so strong, you just want to hear it fold over on itself over and over again. And the marriage between the acoustic and the electronic in that piece is really seamless – the recording is so good too. She studied with Kaija Saariaho – another huge Finnish composer. I hear her maybe taking some elements of her way of working, although simplifying it, maybe drawing it out more. That might oversimplify what is going on here, because Ratkje does a vast amount of different kinds of music. But it was yet another element – you can hear that lineage within her work."

Source
  
One Taste of You
One Taste of You
4
4.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
Contains spoilers, click to show
I'm sad to say I didn't care for this story. It started out with clichés, insta-love, and cheesiness (and no, not the cute kind of cheesy). Everything felt forced, none of the scenes seemed to flow - Zoe and Zeke's first night together was awkward, not sexy. Then, of all things, Zoe finds out she's pregnant! *eyeroll* The author didn't make it feel like months had passed, so it literally seemed as if she found out she was pregnant just a couple of weeks after their first time. Another thing that really, truly grated on my nerves was how Zeke kept begging Zoe to not deny him sex. This is all he worried about! His words, "please don't ever deny me sex" went straight through me, for some reason. I can say the murderer was a surprise, if only because she's mentioned once or twice throughout the whole book, and the reason behind the murders is a bit farfetched. All in all, I was disappointed and I have no plans to continue reading this series.
  
If I Break (If I Break, #1)
If I Break (If I Break, #1)
10
10.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
Contains spoilers, click to show
**Possible spoiler alert**

Can I just say: OMFG! I read some of the other reviews and can't believe so many people only gave this 1 or 2 stars. I absolutely loved Lauren's story. I usually immediately hope for the couple to split if there are problems in the beginning, but something made me want Lauren and Cal to work things out. I was enraptured and confused with Cal's moods, which made me desperate to know why he acts the way he does. When he left, I felt Lauren's pain. Few books have made me hurt and cry over a goodbye, but I felt as if Cal had left me, too. I was emotionally invested in each of the characters. By the time I finished, I was amazed, shocked, and determined to immediately find the rest of the series. I'm intrigued by the thought of how Lauren and "Chris" will work things out. He seems like a good guy, but I want Cal back! It will be interesting to see what happens in the future - I have so many guesses!
  
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Awix (3310 KP) rated Threads (1984) in Movies

Sep 7, 2019 (Updated Sep 7, 2019)  
Threads (1984)
Threads (1984)
1984 | Documentary, Drama
Landmark BBC docu-drama depicting the effects on the UK of a nuclear war (implied to take place in 1988, not that it matters). A young couple plan to get married, not really paying much attention to the deteriorating international situation and rising tensions between the US and Soviet Union. And then events pass the point of no return and the world changes forever.

Not really something you watch to be entertained, Threads has lost very little of its power to appal and terrify. The first half, before the nuclear attack, has an almost kitchen-sink realism; the sense of foreboding is almost unbearable. Even the resources of the BBC can't quite bring the nightmarish aftermath to the screen in the same kind of the detail - or perhaps even the writer's imagination recoils from the sheer grimness of it all. Instead, Threads takes an almost impressionistic approach, providing snapshots of horror from the years following the collapse of civilisation. Distressingly convincing and powerful, and it still feels relevant; one would wish it were otherwise.
  
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Awix (3310 KP) rated Ad Astra (2019) in Movies

Sep 20, 2019  
Ad Astra (2019)
Ad Astra (2019)
2019 | Adventure, Drama, Mystery
Portentous sci-fi film takes some of the less interesting bits from Interstellar, welds them on to the basic idea of Gravity, and adds Brad Pitt and a couple of killer baboons in the hope that no-one will notice (this strategy seems to be somewhat successful). Cosmic rays from Neptune are threatening civilisation as we know it, and so Pitt is rocketed off to the Moon and then Mars in order to try and make contact with his long-lost father, who is in the frame for masterminding this. (This honestly is the plot.)

Visually stunning to look at, and I suppose the central metaphor of the film is well-executed (Pitt's journey into outer space reflects the way he is addressing some of his own internal psychological issues), but it is just a tiny bit dull - they keep having to insert arbitrary moon buggy chases and killer baboons just to pep the movie up a bit. The future world envisioned by the film is neither particularly original nor terribly convincing. Pitt's performance is better than the movie deserves.