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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"

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Au Hasard Balthazar (1966)
Au Hasard Balthazar (1966)
1966 | Drama
(0 Ratings)
Movie Favorite

"I’ll pair this with Mouchette, because they are beautiful, and if I remember right they were released only a year apart, an anomaly for filmmaker Bresson whose films often had many years between their respective release dates. I tried to go to college; in fact, I did go but did not come very close to completing a degree. The highlight of my attempt at formal higher learning was a seminar led by Michael Silverman on the movies of Robert Bresson. At the first meeting of the seminar, Silverman told us that he was still intrigued, confused, and puzzled by Bresson’s movies, even years into the experiences of witnessing them. So, he said, we would take this opportunity again to explore together their density and power. Balthazar and Mouchette slayed me, maybe Balthazar most of all because I identified more with the ass that was Balthazar than the angel that was Mouchette. Both movies are pitiless and intensely compassionate. They say, “This is how bad it is. Let us love until the end.”"

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Jeremiah Zagar recommended Time Bandits (1981) in Movies (curated)

 
Time Bandits (1981)
Time Bandits (1981)
1981 | Fantasy, Sci-Fi

"I love Time Bandits, and it obviously fits into the kids’-adventure-fantasy stuff that I’m into. The Adventures of Baron Munchausen was actually the first film I ever saw in a theater when I was eight years old, and I was euphoric. After that I rented every Terry Gilliam movie. In Time Bandits, he mixes animation and live action, which is an important aesthetic element in the movies I make. When I was twenty I had a short at the London Film Festival, and I was there with my friend so we were traveling from party to party, drinking and eating, because we didn’t have any money. At one party we saw Terry Gilliam, and I started talking to this woman about seeing Baron Munchausen and how it made me want to make movies, and she said, “Well, my husband is Terry Gilliam, you should go say hello to him.” So I went over to him and said, “I just need you to know that I’m here because you made me want to make movies,” and he said, “I’m so sorry.”"

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The Shawshank Redemption (1994)
The Shawshank Redemption (1994)
1994 | Drama

"That’s another one for me that, basically it’s stunning how — it’s an incredible watch. And I think it’s the performances, again, I find riveting. Tim Robbins and Morgan Freeman are just incredible. It’s just such a beautiful film, I think. The story is incredible, it’s so well made. I think Frank [Darabont] dialed in on the direction — I love all of his movies. They have a style that I really like. Anytime I think of this movie, it’s just a sweeping shot coming over the prison while Morgan Freeman is narrating his — it’s such an incredible sense of memories. I went to see it with my parents; I guess I was thirteen when it came out. I think I was — or fourteen — and I remember just being absolutely blown away by it. I mean I know it’s one that’s on nearly everybody’s list, but for me it was also — it was kind of like the first sort of grown-up movie that I went to see with my parents, and that we could have a proper conversation about."

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Ezra Koenig recommended Something Else by The Kinks in Music (curated)

 
Something Else by The Kinks
Something Else by The Kinks
1967 | Rock
8.5 (2 Ratings)
Album Favorite

"When I was 14 my family took a trip to London, which was the first and only trip we took together outside of the US. For some reason, we had to go to Waterloo station and my dad told me there was a song by the Kinks about people who meet there, then he played it for me when we got home. I associate it with this exotic feeling I had when I was there. At the time London seemed like a totally mystical place and lived up to my expectations of Englishness. I grew up in New Jersey, so mid-60s Kinks albums seemed like a pure fantasy world. The themes of this one are quite grown-up – it's wistful and sentimental. I also like 'Two Sisters', which is about a woman who is jealous of her carefree, single sister but realises that the stability she has in her family life is more valuable. That's such a different kind of song to listen to when you're 14, as opposed to the stuff on pop radio about love and sex."

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To All the Boys: P.S. I Still Love You (2020)
To All the Boys: P.S. I Still Love You (2020)
2020 | Comedy, Romance
6
7.4 (5 Ratings)
Movie Rating
The movie picks up where the last movie left off. Lara Jean and Peter are officially dating and life is good,but when Lara Jean receives a letter from John Ambrose - the final love letter recipient - she starts to reply but shoves her reply in a drawer and it's forgotten about. That is until John Ambrose shows up at the same place Lara Jean volunteers at and her old feelings come rushing back, she then needs to decide if Peter is the one for her or if it's John Ambrose she wants.
After the perfect ending of the last movie, I felt a sequel wasn't needed but I wanted to watch it anyway, and I was right, a sequel really wasn't needed. Don't get me wrong, it wasn't a terrible movie but I felt like it didn't have the same feel as the first one and a lot of the time I felt annoyed at Lara Jean. However, I did have to remember that she's only 16 years old and it shows what many teens that age are going through.
  
Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues (2013)
Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues (2013)
2013 | Comedy
On par with the first movie, with the added benefit of looking like an actual film production and not a basement eyesore. Maintains the loose schema but ups the joke consistency and jovial absurdity at least five, maybe ten-fold. So if you had to pull me on it, I'd say this one is better. My biggest quibble is that it needed to shave off around fifteen minutes, and truthfully I have less qualms about the actual length as opposed to the steam all but fizzling out in the last act. Also helps that this leans much more into its setting and subject matter, aiming for some admittedly broad satire but no less accurate. A way better comedy movie let alone sequel than it has any right to be, and you all scared McKay away to mostly dull-arrowed political farces because he had the heart to offer us this. For shame. Funny as fuck most of the time, and I just love how lived-in and learned these performances are by actors who know their characters inside and out.
  
Black Panther Vol. 1: A Nation Under Our Feet
Black Panther Vol. 1: A Nation Under Our Feet
Ta-Nehisi Coates, Brian Stelfreeze | 2016 | Fiction & Poetry
8
8.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
So what can I say? I liked it, yes. A bit dry in spots, felt like a bit of a slow burn in the very beginning, but really quite liked how Coates wrapped up the first arc of his run. Only thing not likable in this collection was the Jonathan Hickman-written material from NEW AVENGERS 18, 21, and 24 (if wasn't for this inclusion, I would have given it 5 Stars). Other than that, good stuff, great handling of the socio-political aspects of Wakanda. Looking forward to starting the 4th volume this week!

One concluding thought I want to put out there.. Don't go into Coates' BP run expecting a Marvel "paint by numbers" superhero book. This series is so much, offering a solid interpretation of the character. Coates has incorporated so much of what is going on in the world today, bringing into the comic, as well as stirring in Wakanda's rich historical background as well as the Wakanda pantheon of gods! If you go in with the approach I am recommending, you, too, will love Coates' BLACK PANTHER run!
  
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Erika (17789 KP) rated The Gallows Pole in Books

Dec 2, 2020 (Updated Dec 2, 2020)  
The Gallows Pole
The Gallows Pole
Benjamin Myers | 2017 | Fiction & Poetry
9
9.0 (2 Ratings)
Book Rating
This is the first book I got from my branch of the Austin Public Library when they opened up after quarantine. So, it'll always have a special place in my heart. The cover is super cool too.

I love historical fiction most of the time, and when I opened up this book, I was worried. It was written in the vernacular. It only took me about a chapter to get into it. The story is about clipping coins, which has always fascinated me. I live in a state that's very much 'stick it to the man', so I could relate to the attitude of the characters.

Obviously, it was predictable, and you knew how it had to end, it is based in historical fact, after all... and the title happens to be The Gallows Pole. The novel really benefits from the fact that the author moved to the area this took place in, and did all of his research there. It resulted in an amazing novel. I can't wait to read something else from this author.
  
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ClareR (5885 KP) Dec 3, 2020

I really need to read this - it has been sat on my bookshelf for AGES!!! 🤦🏼‍♀️

Midnight Sun (Twilight, #5)
Midnight Sun (Twilight, #5)
Stephenie Meyer | 2020 | Science Fiction/Fantasy, Young Adult (YA)
7
7.2 (6 Ratings)
Book Rating
Edward is darker than he’s portrayed in the 1st book. (1 more)
Stephanie Meyer is a much better writer than when she first started. I’d say that this is well written.
Edward is a prude (7 more)
I can’t tell if my boredom with the book was because I’ve moved on from this story emotionally, or if I just didn’t find Edward’s version of things compelling enough to care.
I almost dnf’ed it.
Wtf with that ugly cover?! I know why they used a pomegranate (it’s explained in the book) but it’s a bad choice IMO.
This book came too late. If this had come out at the height of the series popularity, I think I would have loved it. But it’s been what, 15 years?
It’s ridiculous that Edward is such a whiny, brooding virgin. His self righteousness about it is a huge turn off. What a d-bag
Can Rosalie just be written out of the series or something? Let her get eaten by a bear
I don’t love these characters anymore.
It turns out Edward is more boring and clingy than Bella