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Mark @ Carstairs Considers (2593 KP) rated Death at the Salon in Books

Mar 31, 2021 (Updated Mar 31, 2021)

Murder Hits too Close to Home

Daisy Thorne is closing up her hair salon in the small British village of Edgemead one Saturday when she finds the dead body of one of her clients in the alley behind the shop. Worse yet, Daisy’s scissors are sticking out of the victim’s back. Naturally, suspicion falls on her, so Daisy has to figure out what really happened so she can clear her name. The big question comes down to who had access to steal Daisy’s scissors. Can she figure out who did it?

I enjoyed the first book in this series, so I was looking forward to revisiting the characters. I’m happy to say I found this one just as engaging. Because the action focuses on the salon this time, we get to know her employees better, and I really enjoyed that. The rest of the cast is back, and the suspects are strong. I also appreciated the fact that it is obvious the characters’ lives were progressing between books, a fun change from most series I read. I’m not sure if it was just me, but I did feel like the pacing was a little slow early on, but once the plot really got going, there were more than enough twists and surprises to make up for that. The climax was wonderful and kept those twists coming. If you enjoy a cozy set in England, you need to check out this series.

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T Bone Burnett recommended Raising Arizona by Carter Burwell in Music (curated)

"And their next movie, Raising Arizona, came out and had this insane soundtrack. That crazy Pete Seeger “Ode to Joy” on the banjo with whistling and yodeling and it was totally mad. And every joke on it landed for me — one of the things about the Coens is there’s history in every shot. Some people say “Where do you want to put the camera?” but in the morning, they’ll draw up signs and give the actors with the lines and below a drawing from the storyboard of the camera angle they’ll be in when they have those lines. They have it all cut in their head when they do it. This is why they have control. Economy is the essence of art you know. I was looking at the detail in Raising Arizona and I thought, “We must have seen all the same films growing up because it was just speaking to me.” And it got to the part where John Goodman and his cohort come out of the ground and go into the service station to comb their hair and in the mirror you can see in spray paint OPE POE backward in the mirror. And I thought, “Really interesting this is how detailed they are.” They would take a quote from Dr. Strangelove like “Purity of essence, peace on earth” and put it backwards on a mirror and spray paint it on the wall somewhere backwards in Arizona."

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Wayne Coyne recommended Popular Songs by Yo La Tengo in Music (curated)

Popular Songs by Yo La Tengo

2009 | Alternative

(0 Ratings)

Album Favorite

"We've been around them quite a few times in the last three or four years. They have a way of doing this hypnotic, simple, grinding-away thing. The guitarist, Ira Kaplan - he's crazy with all these delay effects, the way he's layering them up. We would end up listening to them almost by accident. There have been a couple of times where we would do these long drives and we'd put on a record like Boris or Yo La Tengo, and they'll have songs that go on for ten minutes, and you're getting into these big soundscapes that just dig into oblivion. We've really embraced that in the past couple of years: to find this perfect goal, a sound you can play over and over, and not necessarily get to a crescendo and back, but to get to the edge and stay there. And they do that great. There's a lot of good qualities about their group. They're fucking weirdos, they're just not a typical rock group. A lot of times, I feel like The Flaming Lips are a typical rock group. I mean, we're influenced by The Beatles. It's a bunch of dudes with long hair that do drugs. We're pretty typical. I try to remind ourselves that we like weirdos, although I don't always believe that we're weirdos ourselves. But we love the weirdos, and we love when they get the keys to the house and they can have their party that night."

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Bex Heber (5 KP) rated Good Omens in TV

Jul 12, 2019 (Updated Jul 13, 2019)

Good Omens

2019 | Comedy, Sci-Fi

8.3

(72 Ratings)

TV Show Rating Watch

I'm a long time Terry Pratchett fan and whilst I haven't read the book, David Tennant and Micheal Sheen were enough of a selling point. They did not dissapoint; the dynamic they have throughout is both entertaining and endearing. However I think this is in large part a credit to the actors rather than the show.

The writing often missed the mark for me, sometimes only by hair but many of the characters never really managed to find their stride. What surprised me most, is that where this was most felt was in dialogue taken directly from the book. Even watching as someone who hadnt read the book I found it noticable and then later confirmed it by reading The Guardian's review. It appears Neil Gaiman was reluctant to take too many artistic liberties, perhaps in tribute to Prattchett but it seemed to hurt the show as a result.

It worked in places, the opening narration felt distinctly and enjoyably Pratchett-esque but even in this case the narration began to become over bearing as it continued to feature heavily in later episodes.

Saying this, I can't pretend I didn't enjoy the show, watching David and Micheal caper around with ridiculous CGI and yellow contacts to boot was always going to be entertaining and there are moments of brilliance, but given the potential of such a ridiculous plot and ensemble, I found the whole thing mostly forgettable.

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Leanne Crabtree (480 KP) rated Promises (Coda Books, #1) in Books

Sep 6, 2019

I got really into this yesterday and more or less read it in one sitting.

The first half, for me, was 5 star worthy because I was drawn into their story and I think I felt the same things that Jared did in regards to Matt. I wanted them to get together so bad and when something happened to stop it, I wanted to throw my Kindle. Seeing how Matt was determined to be straight while slowly spending more and more time with Jared and touching him in ways that a straight man wouldn't. It was lovely reading.

The second half, for me, was 3 star worthy because when they did finally get together after a lot of arguing, Jared turned into a bit of a hypocrite in regards to other people knowing about them in their little town. It felt like he'd pushed Matt into being with him only to be ashamed of him and it drove me crazy, making me want to chuck my kindle at the wall again.

Luckily, it was quickly resolved and it went back to being a really cute relationship.

I really liked both men but I think Matt was my favourite of the two; I think it was his gentleness with Jared--and the hair obsession--I just thought it was really sweet.

A 4 star review from me and I look forward to reading more books by the author.