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Amanda Palmer recommended Upstairs At Erics by Yazoo in Music (curated)

 
Upstairs At Erics by Yazoo
Upstairs At Erics by Yazoo
2008 | Rock
(0 Ratings)
Album Favorite

"I got this in sixth grade. First of all, the artwork, with those two mannequins sitting at a table, was so weird. That by itself puts it into a class of its own, because most of the other records in my collection just had pictures of pop stars. The songwriting was so beautiful and so simple and so strong, but I was also really compelled by Alison Moyet's voice. Still to this day, I generally don't like chick singers – their high squeaky voices irritate me! But Alison Moyet, sort of like Laurie Anderson, had this really beautiful, growly, rough, bluesy, believable voice. When she sang, I just bought every second of it. I believed her. And the tracks are catchy as all get out. 'In My Room' is one of my favourite songs of all time – the band and I are working on a cover of it. I'm tracing back the genealogy of my new record, and it's in those early Yazoo records, along with Soft Cell and The Cars... what they were able to do with a couple of synthesisers and really simple chord changes, great melodies and believable delivery."

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Eduardo Sanchez recommended Notting Hill (1999) in Movies (curated)

 
Notting Hill (1999)
Notting Hill (1999)
1999 | Comedy, Romance
6.5 (6 Ratings)
Movie Favorite

"One movie that’s always kind of a runner up, and I never really mention it because it’s so different than my other favorite films, is Notting Hill. It’s kind of a weird film to put in the group. But it’s such a perfect romantic-comedy and such a perfect vehicle. It’s like a fantasy, every man’s fantasy of meeting a beautiful movie star and being absorbed into her world and somehow making it work out. I love Julia Roberts, but that movie really made me fall in love with her, and Hugh Grant, he was such a likable guy in that movie. The supporting roles are so strong. And just the story of, just the world that… you know, I live on the very edges of this world, but just the world that Hollywood, that these people live in. It was just kind of a really interesting story. It wasn’t just a basic romantic-comedy; it had a lot of things going for it. But that’s definitely one of my favorite films. That’s one of those films that I watch every couple years. I just pop it in."

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His Girl Friday (1940)
His Girl Friday (1940)
1940 | Classics, Comedy, Drama
9.0 (2 Ratings)
Movie Favorite

"I’m desperately trying to find a way not to include His Girl Friday because it’s kind of been touted a lot. But it’s my favorite romantic comedy couple on screen. I think Cary Grant and Rosalind Russell in that picture are roughly as great as Beatrice and Benedict in Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing. That’s how great they are. It’s my favorite Cary Grant performance because it combines the leading man side of his persona with this crazy farceur. I just love hearing people talk as fast as most people think. And I love the fact that they condense this three-hour play into whatever the running time is — ninety, ninety-two minutes — and they basically didn’t cut anything; they just got it all in. I adore this film. That first scene… You watch that first scene when she comes back to the office, and it’s 10 of the greatest minutes of romantic byplay ever, and it’s beautifully performed. I revere Hawks more highly than I do John Ford, and that’s saying something. For me, if you don’t have a Hawks film on that list, you’re lying."

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Whiskey Beach
Whiskey Beach
Nora Roberts | 2013 | Fiction & Poetry
4
7.0 (2 Ratings)
Book Rating
It's taken me almost two months to read this, on and off because it was taking far too long to get anywhere interesting. I'd read every page up until about the 40% mark and then because it was taking forever for anything even remotely interesting to happen I just couldn't muster the want to read it.

It was only a couple of days ago when I was re-viewing my to-read list that I saw how many paperbacks I still had left to read and just decided to skim the remaining pages. It still didn't grab me as something amazing happening so I was a little disappointed. I loved the last book I read by her, The Witness, and really enjoy her J.D. Robb In Death series but this failed to get any good response out of me.

To put it bluntly, I was bored. So freaking bored!

Even the romance aspect of it didn't bring me any joy, though good for Abra for going after what she wanted.

I'm not in any hurry to return to a Nora Roberts book for a while after this.