Search

Search only in certain items:

Best Of The Capitol Masters: 90th Birthday Edition by Les Paul & Mary Ford
(0 Ratings)
Album Favorite

"Again, this song is totally inspiring from a production point of view. It’s hard to choose just one song from Les Paul and Mary Ford, but this stood out. It’s a great song, despite not being a Les Paul and Mary Ford original. When people think of Les Paul they tend to think of the guitar the Gibson Les Paul, but Les Paul basically invented multi-track recording and a lot of recording techniques that so many of us use today. The stuff that he did on ‘How High The Moon’ and anything from the early ‘50s is just so, so far ahead of its time. It’s all guitar, even the drums are just him tapping his guitar and not in a cheesy, Newton Faulkner kind of way, it’s serious musicality. He was basically recording in hotel rooms, using bathrooms as echo chambers and the like. The arrangement on this track is crazy. It is a bit silly, a lot of the stuff sounds silly because it’s all plinky-plonk, all very high-pitched, mandolin-like guitars, but you’ve got to remember this was in the ‘50s. It makes Rock ‘n’ Roll, which was often just three chords, sound very unimaginative. This kind of track was jazz chords and guitar orchestra, basically. I’ve definitely robbed some of Les Paul’s techniques over the last few years. On the new record there’s some sped-up guitar, half-time drums and things like that, where you basically slow down the tape and create a whole different instrument almost. If you haven’t seen [the Les Paul documentary] Chasing Sound, I highly recommend it. It’s about how he invented the first electric guitar, using a telephone microphone and putting it on a bit of old railway track, putting and stretching a string across it and amplifying it. That was literally the birth of Rock ‘n’ Roll."

Source
  
40x40

ClareR (5885 KP) rated The Sanatorium in Books

Feb 14, 2021  
The Sanatorium
The Sanatorium
Sarah Pearse | 2021 | Crime, Mystery, Thriller
8
7.5 (4 Ratings)
Book Rating
The Sanatorium is a chilling, atmospheric thriller, set in the Swiss Alps. Elin has been invited to her brothers engagement party in a 5* mountain retreat - a hotel in a converted sanatorium. Understandably (I think), I was creeped out by this whole scenario, and the opening chapter didn’t do much to put me at my ease - but it’s OK, I like being scared witless by a book! Frankly, if a book sells itself as being unnerving or potentially scary, and you can still go up to bed with the landing light off, then it won’t have fulfilled the brief. I sent my husband upstairs first to switch the lights on whilst I was reading this...
Elin is a troubled character, and clearly needs some help with past trauma. This makes her a nervy person who doesn’t have any self-confidence. She shuts her boyfriend out - and can I just say here that he seemed to be an incredibly patient person? I liked his character a lot. Most of the other characters are pretty unpleasant people if I’m honest, and I think any of them could have been the murderer. Some of the people reading along with me on the Pigeonhole worked out who the murderer was, but as usual, I merrily read on without a clue (this is OK by me - I’m in it for the ride and don’t feel the need to try and work it out).
I can’t quite believe that this is a debut, and I really enjoyed it. I would most definitely recommend it!
Many thanks to the Pigeonhole for serialising this. It was a great experience, as always, made all the better by sharing my thoughts with my fellow Pigeonholers! Oh, and thanks again for helping me read another book off my NetGalley list!
  
40x40

Greg Mottola recommended The White Sheik (1952) in Movies (curated)

 
The White Sheik (1952)
The White Sheik (1952)
1952 | Comedy, Drama
(0 Ratings)
Movie Favorite

"No other filmmaker’s movies have reached me as directly and deeply as Fellini’s. I’m very familiar with the criticisms that have been leveled at Fellini’s work—and they hold no sway over me. There’s far too much to say about the films on my list, so here are a few random things I love. The White Sheik: Alberto Sordi’s hilarious faux suavity while trying to seduce a naive provincial woman. I vitelloni: Franco Fabrizi’s pathetic lothario, Leopoldo Trieste’s deluded would-be writer, Alberto Sordi’s sad, daydreaming freeloader—Fellini sees all of these aimless young men with great honesty and tenderness. Nights of Cabiria: the heartbreaking final scene, a woman stripped of all physical and spiritual worth yet somehow still able to find consolation in the very innocence and joy that have been denied her. 8½: I can’t think of another black-and-white movie that has so much white. The high-contrast cinematography is breathtaking. In one flashback to childhood, Guido is being bathed and cared for by various aunts. It’s a child’s experience of maternal love that cannot be re-created in adult life—as Fellini later illustrates with a twisted version of the same scene in Guido’s absurd harem fantasy. Fellini always claimed the movie was a comedy, and I tend to agree. Amarcord: Fellini revisits the same territory as I vitelloni but in his later, color-saturated, theatrical style. It is provincial life described by a highly unreliable narrator, where the mundane transforms into the magical. A few indelible images: lonesome boys waltzing to music from a nearby grand hotel, townspeople carting their old furniture to the square for a massive bonfire, the immense luxury liner Rex, Gradisca’s sad little wedding, the floating dandelion puffs that mark the return of spring . . ."

Source
  
40x40

Greg Mottola recommended I Vitelloni (1953) in Movies (curated)

 
I Vitelloni (1953)
I Vitelloni (1953)
1953 | Comedy, Drama
(0 Ratings)
Movie Favorite

"No other filmmaker’s movies have reached me as directly and deeply as Fellini’s. I’m very familiar with the criticisms that have been leveled at Fellini’s work—and they hold no sway over me. There’s far too much to say about the films on my list, so here are a few random things I love. The White Sheik: Alberto Sordi’s hilarious faux suavity while trying to seduce a naive provincial woman. I vitelloni: Franco Fabrizi’s pathetic lothario, Leopoldo Trieste’s deluded would-be writer, Alberto Sordi’s sad, daydreaming freeloader—Fellini sees all of these aimless young men with great honesty and tenderness. Nights of Cabiria: the heartbreaking final scene, a woman stripped of all physical and spiritual worth yet somehow still able to find consolation in the very innocence and joy that have been denied her. 8½: I can’t think of another black-and-white movie that has so much white. The high-contrast cinematography is breathtaking. In one flashback to childhood, Guido is being bathed and cared for by various aunts. It’s a child’s experience of maternal love that cannot be re-created in adult life—as Fellini later illustrates with a twisted version of the same scene in Guido’s absurd harem fantasy. Fellini always claimed the movie was a comedy, and I tend to agree. Amarcord: Fellini revisits the same territory as I vitelloni but in his later, color-saturated, theatrical style. It is provincial life described by a highly unreliable narrator, where the mundane transforms into the magical. A few indelible images: lonesome boys waltzing to music from a nearby grand hotel, townspeople carting their old furniture to the square for a massive bonfire, the immense luxury liner Rex, Gradisca’s sad little wedding, the floating dandelion puffs that mark the return of spring . . ."

Source
  
Nights of Cabiria (1957)
Nights of Cabiria (1957)
1957 | Drama
(0 Ratings)
Movie Favorite

"No other filmmaker’s movies have reached me as directly and deeply as Fellini’s. I’m very familiar with the criticisms that have been leveled at Fellini’s work—and they hold no sway over me. There’s far too much to say about the films on my list, so here are a few random things I love. The White Sheik: Alberto Sordi’s hilarious faux suavity while trying to seduce a naive provincial woman. I vitelloni: Franco Fabrizi’s pathetic lothario, Leopoldo Trieste’s deluded would-be writer, Alberto Sordi’s sad, daydreaming freeloader—Fellini sees all of these aimless young men with great honesty and tenderness. Nights of Cabiria: the heartbreaking final scene, a woman stripped of all physical and spiritual worth yet somehow still able to find consolation in the very innocence and joy that have been denied her. 8½: I can’t think of another black-and-white movie that has so much white. The high-contrast cinematography is breathtaking. In one flashback to childhood, Guido is being bathed and cared for by various aunts. It’s a child’s experience of maternal love that cannot be re-created in adult life—as Fellini later illustrates with a twisted version of the same scene in Guido’s absurd harem fantasy. Fellini always claimed the movie was a comedy, and I tend to agree. Amarcord: Fellini revisits the same territory as I vitelloni but in his later, color-saturated, theatrical style. It is provincial life described by a highly unreliable narrator, where the mundane transforms into the magical. A few indelible images: lonesome boys waltzing to music from a nearby grand hotel, townspeople carting their old furniture to the square for a massive bonfire, the immense luxury liner Rex, Gradisca’s sad little wedding, the floating dandelion puffs that mark the return of spring . . ."

Source
  
40x40

Greg Mottola recommended 8 1/2 (1963) in Movies (curated)

 
8 1/2 (1963)
8 1/2 (1963)
1963 | International, Comedy, Drama
9.0 (2 Ratings)
Movie Favorite

"No other filmmaker’s movies have reached me as directly and deeply as Fellini’s. I’m very familiar with the criticisms that have been leveled at Fellini’s work—and they hold no sway over me. There’s far too much to say about the films on my list, so here are a few random things I love. The White Sheik: Alberto Sordi’s hilarious faux suavity while trying to seduce a naive provincial woman. I vitelloni: Franco Fabrizi’s pathetic lothario, Leopoldo Trieste’s deluded would-be writer, Alberto Sordi’s sad, daydreaming freeloader—Fellini sees all of these aimless young men with great honesty and tenderness. Nights of Cabiria: the heartbreaking final scene, a woman stripped of all physical and spiritual worth yet somehow still able to find consolation in the very innocence and joy that have been denied her. 8½: I can’t think of another black-and-white movie that has so much white. The high-contrast cinematography is breathtaking. In one flashback to childhood, Guido is being bathed and cared for by various aunts. It’s a child’s experience of maternal love that cannot be re-created in adult life—as Fellini later illustrates with a twisted version of the same scene in Guido’s absurd harem fantasy. Fellini always claimed the movie was a comedy, and I tend to agree. Amarcord: Fellini revisits the same territory as I vitelloni but in his later, color-saturated, theatrical style. It is provincial life described by a highly unreliable narrator, where the mundane transforms into the magical. A few indelible images: lonesome boys waltzing to music from a nearby grand hotel, townspeople carting their old furniture to the square for a massive bonfire, the immense luxury liner Rex, Gradisca’s sad little wedding, the floating dandelion puffs that mark the return of spring . . ."

Source
  
40x40

Greg Mottola recommended Amarcord (1973) in Movies (curated)

 
Amarcord (1973)
Amarcord (1973)
1973 | Comedy, Drama
(0 Ratings)
Movie Favorite

"No other filmmaker’s movies have reached me as directly and deeply as Fellini’s. I’m very familiar with the criticisms that have been leveled at Fellini’s work—and they hold no sway over me. There’s far too much to say about the films on my list, so here are a few random things I love. The White Sheik: Alberto Sordi’s hilarious faux suavity while trying to seduce a naive provincial woman. I vitelloni: Franco Fabrizi’s pathetic lothario, Leopoldo Trieste’s deluded would-be writer, Alberto Sordi’s sad, daydreaming freeloader—Fellini sees all of these aimless young men with great honesty and tenderness. Nights of Cabiria: the heartbreaking final scene, a woman stripped of all physical and spiritual worth yet somehow still able to find consolation in the very innocence and joy that have been denied her. 8½: I can’t think of another black-and-white movie that has so much white. The high-contrast cinematography is breathtaking. In one flashback to childhood, Guido is being bathed and cared for by various aunts. It’s a child’s experience of maternal love that cannot be re-created in adult life—as Fellini later illustrates with a twisted version of the same scene in Guido’s absurd harem fantasy. Fellini always claimed the movie was a comedy, and I tend to agree. Amarcord: Fellini revisits the same territory as I vitelloni but in his later, color-saturated, theatrical style. It is provincial life described by a highly unreliable narrator, where the mundane transforms into the magical. A few indelible images: lonesome boys waltzing to music from a nearby grand hotel, townspeople carting their old furniture to the square for a massive bonfire, the immense luxury liner Rex, Gradisca’s sad little wedding, the floating dandelion puffs that mark the return of spring . . ."

Source
  
40x40

Jenni Olson recommended News from Home (1977) in Movies (curated)

 
News from Home (1977)
News from Home (1977)
1977 |
(0 Ratings)
Movie Favorite

"The running themes of my top ten list are so perfectly combined in News from Home, which features the most exquisite first-person voice-over and a series of static landscapes of New York City. I had the incredible experience of watching News from Home on the night of October 6, 2015, the day after Chantal Akerman took her own life. I had awoken to this news from Paris on the morning of the sixth. Having spent the day trying to comprehend this incomprehensible fact, I found myself drawn to Hulu that night, choosing to process my grief by watching one of her films. After the first few minutes of News from Home, I realized to my amazement that I had actually never seen it despite thinking that I had (shameful confession: I realize now that it was Hotel Monterey I had seen long ago, and all this time I had somehow mixed up these two titles). Of course, I have seen many of Akerman’s other works and have always considered her a huge influence on my own—especially her formal approach to lengthy shot duration and the static camera and her affection for the mundane. But seeing News from Home, particularly at that moment in time, was such a revelation. It seemed so uncanny that my own cinematic style of mixing static, durational 16 mm urban cityscapes with voice-over would so resemble Akerman’s style in News from Home—and I make this comparison in the humblest way possible. As the final twelve-minute shot of a Manhattan skyline with seagulls unspooled before my bewildered and bleary eyes, I discovered that the conclusion of my new film, The Royal Road, which features a single seagull flying across the San Francisco skyline, pays uncanny homage to Akerman’s film."

Source
  
40x40

Vince Clarke recommended Hotel California by Eagles in Music (curated)

 
Hotel California by Eagles
Hotel California by Eagles
1976 | Rock
8.0 (4 Ratings)
Album Favorite

"I've never seen them live, but I've seen loads of footage of them performing live. 'Hotel California' is an incredible track, or at least I think so. It's like a best of American rock, or country rock or whatever you want to call it, it's the perfect example of that genre. It's got perfect harmonies, really good songs. I love watching them with their double necked guitars and shit like that, it's just really professional, really impressive, something that I could never do. It's an admiration thing. I got into The Eagles late, about 1990 or something. I started hearing them a lot on the radio, I'd known their songs but hadn't paid any attention to them in any detail. Then when I started listening to them properly, I thought, ""Yeah man, that's pretty damn cool"". Living in America it's been interesting to discover that there's a much bigger alternative scene here than I imagined there was. I live in Brooklyn and there's a big electronic scene here, lots of people doing experimental music. The whole thing started with electroclash really, I loved that [chuckles], it was so cheeky. Since I did that record [VCMG] with Martin Gore I've been listening to a lot of techno stuff, it's not one particular artist, but I'm on Beatport every day. It's quite a revelation, I was quite out of touch with electronic music, but now I'm finding loads of new stuff. I'm working on another collaboration record, with various DJs and mixers, it's quite a long project, but I thought that rather than work with an individual it'd be interesting to get different people, get different angles on the music. Hopefully when Martin comes off tour and has a bit of time we could do another record together, because I really enjoyed doing the last one."

Source
  
The Magic Square
The Magic Square
John Gaspard | 2020 | Mystery
9
9.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
Who Made the Body Appear at the Magic Convention?
Eli Marks and his uncle, Harry, are out of town at a magic convention. They’ll be spending a lot of time in the dealer’s room so they can sell Harry’s new two-volume book about his time as a magician, but they are hoping to catch a few of the panels, and the evening sessions. The entire convention is surprised when famed mentalist Gerhardt performs the first night. However, Harry’s friend Abe is less than happy since he’s had a running feud with Gerhardt for years. That feud is public knowledge, so when Abe returns to his hotel room that night to find Gerhardt’s body in the bathroom, the police consider him a strong suspect. Can Eli figure out what is really going on?

I always forget how much I enjoy these books until I am sitting down reading a new one. It was great to slip back into Eli’s world. Since we are out of town, I did miss some of the series regulars, but it did give us more time to get to know the new characters, who are quite strong. The story moves forward at a steady pace, with clues sprinkled into the talk of magic. I did finger the culprit a little early, but I wasn’t completely certain until we reached the suspenseful climax, and I was having such a good time I didn’t really care. While there is talk about magic, we don’t get any illusions spoiled here, but it might inspire you to try to learn a little on your own. If you are a fan of these books, you’ll be glad you picked up this volume. If you haven’t met Eli yet, you’ll be hooked faster than you can say “Abracadabra.”