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gabi (115 KP) rated Rumours by Fleetwood Mac in Music
Jan 26, 2021
A Classic Album That Still Holds Up Almost 45 Years Later
Rumors is truly an essential listen for any music lover. The magic of this album still holds up almost 45 years later. It’s no surprise that it was one of the fastest-selling LPs of all time. I’m ashamed that it took me until 2021 to listen to it in its entirety! “Dreams”, “The Chain”, and “Go Your Own Way” are some well-known favorites that draw you into the album, which then introduces you to lesser-known masterpieces such as “Second Hand News” or “I Don’t Want to Know”. Listening to this album is a delight and has a perfect mixture of upbeat and slow songs. Paired with amazing music, the lyrics are equally amazing, especially the lyrics for “Songbird”. I hope Rumors continues to hold the cultural impact it has well into the future. With a rise in popularity of “Dreams” thanks to a viral Tik Tok video, I hope future generations will continue to pass down their love for Fleetwood Mac.
Heather Cranmer (2721 KP) created a post
Oct 10, 2021 (Updated Oct 10, 2021)
Eilidh G Clark (177 KP) rated Sunsett Song in Books
May 14, 2017
there are better things than your books or studies or loving or bedding, there’s the countryside your own […] in the days when you’re neither bairn nor woman.’ I
Sunset Song by Lewis Grassic Gibbon, published in 1932 became the ‘cream of the crop’ in a poll organised by The Scottish Book Trust last year. Not only was it voted as Scotland’s favourite novel, First Minister Nicola Sturgeon described it as ‘timeless’ in an interview with the BBC, ‘ it said something about the history of the country I grew up in and it resonated with me very strongly as a young Scottish woman.’ I have to say that I am in agreement with the First Minister. Sunset Song is a beautifully written aesthetic novel that follows the life and internal conflict of the protagonist Chris Guthrie. By presenting Chris as a kind of cultural double, Gibbon is showing the reader the problems that result in Chris’s separation from the community and her parents conflicting interests regarding her upbringing. Chris’ father, hoping to enhance his daughter’s natural intelligence, is aware of the negative impact that the community might have on her progression, ‘Stick to your lessons and let’s see you make a name for yourself, you’ve no time for friends.’ John Guthrie, a progressive man, regards Chris’s peers as ‘servant queans.’ Whilst this may read as a cultural attack on the lower classes, John Guthrie, is simply reacting to his own working class conditions as a farmer. His motivation is to raise Chris out of the environment that he himself has struggled in and to give her better opportunities. Chris refers to her intelligent self as ‘English’ and identifies a cultural otherness between herself and those of her community. Chris’ mother Jean, on the other hand, has a view of the world that is from a much older time. Before marriage she was a free spirit, ‘there are better things than your books or studies or loving or bedding, there’s the countryside your own […] in the days when you’re neither bairn nor woman.’ It was Gibbon’s intention to create a heteroglossic view of education between Chris’ parents in order to create a protagonist whose future is a conflict between progression and an older unstructured way of life. It is through Chris’s thoughts, however, that her true self can be found. Her English self forms an escape, a place that is simpler, refined and an improvement on how she perceives Scottish culture as a result of her class, ‘the furrows went criss and cross, you wanted this and you wanted that, books and the fineness of them no more than empty gabble sometimes, and then sharn and the snapping that sickened you and drove you back to books.’ It is clear that Gibbon wanted to show the reader that Scottish culture does evaporate with progression. Culture lives in all of us, in the people, the land and in the struggles that we have faced and will face in the future. Chris Guthrie is the perfect example of hope, for a future which is rich in learning while still embracing her Scottish roots, I guess a future we can all identify with.
Mekkin B. (122 KP) rated The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms in Books
Sep 9, 2017
Worldbuilding (1 more)
Thoughtful and Engaging Characters
Tight, compelling story set in an amazing fantasy world
The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms has the kind of engaging plot and clear prose that makes it easy to get lost in. Jemisin's debut novel crafts a complex world that fans of traditional fantasy will love, while still being incredibly fresh and thoughtful. The worldbuilding engages in the complexities of colonialism and cultural difference in a way that makes the world feel alive and thrumming with conflict.
Yeine is a compelling protagonist and Nahadoth, her romantic interest, is sexy, dark, and tortured (like all good love interests should be.) It's 410 pages of pure fantasy fun.
The only nitpick I have is that I wish there was more of it. Seriously. The advice to writers is to start as late in the story as possible, but I wish more time had been spent building up Yeine's world and her relationship with her mother (who's death is pivotal to the plot), and with her own Kingdom of Darre. Instead the reader enters the story with Yeine already making her way to the city of Sky. This, for me, lessened the emotional impact of later reveals.
Yeine is a compelling protagonist and Nahadoth, her romantic interest, is sexy, dark, and tortured (like all good love interests should be.) It's 410 pages of pure fantasy fun.
The only nitpick I have is that I wish there was more of it. Seriously. The advice to writers is to start as late in the story as possible, but I wish more time had been spent building up Yeine's world and her relationship with her mother (who's death is pivotal to the plot), and with her own Kingdom of Darre. Instead the reader enters the story with Yeine already making her way to the city of Sky. This, for me, lessened the emotional impact of later reveals.
Awix (3310 KP) rated Yesterday (2019) in Movies
Jul 2, 2019 (Updated Jun 15, 2020)
Highly-anticipated high-concept collaboration between two of British cinema's biggest names doesn't really live up to expectations. Going-nowhere singer-songwriter falls off his bike during a mysterious black-out and when he wakes up discovers he is now living in a world where the Beatles have never existed. Fame and fortune naturally beckon, but will they come at the expense of The Important Things in Life?
It's a fascinating premise, but one the film largely ignores in favour of a very familiar rom-com storyline that doesn't do anything particularly interesting or engaging. You can't help wondering: what has happened to the world? How come (almost) nobody remembers the Fab Four? The whole point of this kind of story is surely for the absence of the Beatles to reveal, by implication, their greatness and significance, but the film suggests they can vanish leaving barely a ripple in terms of cultural or musical legacy. The results are intermittently amusing and occasionally interesting, but the film only succeeds at aiming low. Decent performances from the leads help; Kate McKinnon is good value as usual, but James Corden and Ed Sheeran are in it too.
It's a fascinating premise, but one the film largely ignores in favour of a very familiar rom-com storyline that doesn't do anything particularly interesting or engaging. You can't help wondering: what has happened to the world? How come (almost) nobody remembers the Fab Four? The whole point of this kind of story is surely for the absence of the Beatles to reveal, by implication, their greatness and significance, but the film suggests they can vanish leaving barely a ripple in terms of cultural or musical legacy. The results are intermittently amusing and occasionally interesting, but the film only succeeds at aiming low. Decent performances from the leads help; Kate McKinnon is good value as usual, but James Corden and Ed Sheeran are in it too.
Awix (3310 KP) rated Fiddler: A Miracle of Miracles (2019) in Movies
Dec 13, 2019
Somewhat digressive documentary comes to celebrate Fiddler on the Roof, not critique it, as the title probably makes clear. Various interviewees recount the creation of the show, while others reflect on its cultural impact and continuing and enormous popularity (apparently there has been at least one performance somewhere in the world every single day since it first opened in 1964).
The stories and insights are interesting enough to keep you from wishing you'd just watched a DVD of the movie instead, and they have hunted up some fascinating footage to illustrate the film, ranging from the Temptations doing a very funky version of 'If I Were A Rich Man' to Lin-Manuel Miranda's wedding video. The film addresses the central paradox about this show - that something so very specific in time, place and outlook has such universal appeal and emotional power - but doesn't really attempt to explain it. This is probably quite wise, as it is one of the mysteries of great art. Worth a look if you like the show, which everyone with a heart and a soul who's actually seen it surely does.
The stories and insights are interesting enough to keep you from wishing you'd just watched a DVD of the movie instead, and they have hunted up some fascinating footage to illustrate the film, ranging from the Temptations doing a very funky version of 'If I Were A Rich Man' to Lin-Manuel Miranda's wedding video. The film addresses the central paradox about this show - that something so very specific in time, place and outlook has such universal appeal and emotional power - but doesn't really attempt to explain it. This is probably quite wise, as it is one of the mysteries of great art. Worth a look if you like the show, which everyone with a heart and a soul who's actually seen it surely does.
Nick McCabe recommended The Pearl by Harold Budd in Music (curated)
Awix (3310 KP) rated The Farewell (2019) in Movies
Oct 2, 2019
Faintly oddball comedy-drama successfully pulls off that trick of looking like being about one thing but actually covering lots of ground. Chinese matriarch is found to have terminal cancer; in accordance with local tradition the family keep her in the dark about this but organise a fake wedding as an excuse to get together one last time. New York-based scion of the family Awkwafina, grand-daughter of the dying woman, is very doubtful of the ethicality of this.
You expect a film about grief, and to some extent this is one, although it's really a chronicle of grief foretold, as the characters anticipate a loss to come. It's also about cultural differences, family life, and the way in which people routinely tell lies to each other every single day simply in order to keep life livable. The film skates along over the top of all this and treats it all with a light and delicate touch. Not an absolute tear-jerker, I thought, but there are some very touching moments (then again, I may be emotionally atrophied, who knows). Not a huge amount actually happens but the film has clearly been made with intelligence and skill.
You expect a film about grief, and to some extent this is one, although it's really a chronicle of grief foretold, as the characters anticipate a loss to come. It's also about cultural differences, family life, and the way in which people routinely tell lies to each other every single day simply in order to keep life livable. The film skates along over the top of all this and treats it all with a light and delicate touch. Not an absolute tear-jerker, I thought, but there are some very touching moments (then again, I may be emotionally atrophied, who knows). Not a huge amount actually happens but the film has clearly been made with intelligence and skill.
Awix (3310 KP) rated Four Weddings and a Funeral (1994) in Movies
May 14, 2020
It's easy to forget what an unstoppable cultural juggernaut Four Weddings was for most of the summer of 1994: cinemas sold out for weeks on end (it was still playing in a few screens when it came out on VHS), careers were launched by it, sales of Auden soared, and the theme tune was number one for about three months. And watching it again it can be difficult to see just why it was such a smash: bits of it feel very dated, it sort of offers a tourist's eye view of England as inhabited largely by rich posh people, and Andie McDowell is a bit teaky in a crucial role.
However, this is to overlook how dire most British comedy films of the early 90s were and how fresh and funny this felt. The jokes here are frequent and good, but the characters are not cartoons and when the film skirts darker moments it does so with sincerity. It is neatly written and very well performed; the people who became stars off the back of this movie generally deserved it. Very watchable and entertaining even a quarter-century on.
However, this is to overlook how dire most British comedy films of the early 90s were and how fresh and funny this felt. The jokes here are frequent and good, but the characters are not cartoons and when the film skirts darker moments it does so with sincerity. It is neatly written and very well performed; the people who became stars off the back of this movie generally deserved it. Very watchable and entertaining even a quarter-century on.
ClareR (5608 KP) rated The Galaxy and the Ground Within in Books
Feb 1, 2022
I’ve held off reading this book, even though I’ve had it since the release date, purely because I just really didn’t want the series to end. I love The Wayfarers series, and this last instalment is no different in that respect.
The Galaxy and the Ground Within is another look into the lives of a diverse group of people. Apart from a technological failure that strands the Five-Hops guests, nothing much actually happens in this novel (ok, something does happen about 3/4 of the way through, but I’m not saying what it is!), but what I really love about these books are the characters and how they’re explored and developed. The fact that they’re aliens is by-the-by. They have their own hopes and fears, cultural expectations and taboos.
Oh how i adore these books - it’s everything that I love in literature, be it science fiction, literary fiction or ANYTHING!
If you haven’t read The Wayfarers series (lucky you!), I’d say that you need to. And if you have and like me, you’ve been putting off reading the final book, it won’t disappoint you.
The Galaxy and the Ground Within is another look into the lives of a diverse group of people. Apart from a technological failure that strands the Five-Hops guests, nothing much actually happens in this novel (ok, something does happen about 3/4 of the way through, but I’m not saying what it is!), but what I really love about these books are the characters and how they’re explored and developed. The fact that they’re aliens is by-the-by. They have their own hopes and fears, cultural expectations and taboos.
Oh how i adore these books - it’s everything that I love in literature, be it science fiction, literary fiction or ANYTHING!
If you haven’t read The Wayfarers series (lucky you!), I’d say that you need to. And if you have and like me, you’ve been putting off reading the final book, it won’t disappoint you.