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Power in the Darkness by Tom Robinson Band
Power in the Darkness by Tom Robinson Band
1978 | Pop, Rock
7.0 (1 Ratings)
Album Favorite

"""This one is like the mystery house on Escape to the Country, it’s a curveball. The point I wanted to make with ‘2-4-6-8 Motorway’ is that it’s not one of my favourite songs, the point is it’s always been there but I only really discovered it and fell in love with it in the last couple of weeks. That’s one of the most exciting and inspiring things about making music, discovering songs that have existed your whole life, even though you may have only been semi-aware of them. “I’ve always found it much easier to place my faith in songs that have existed my whole life than a new band or a new artist, you know what they are, you know they’re not going to let you down, they’re not going to do anything sexist or say anything racist or make a terrible second EP. “It’s also so exciting discovering things, I love all those reissue labels like Light in the Attic and finding these treasure troves of records and artists that have been there your whole life, like ‘How has this existed my entire time on earth and I’ve never stumbled upon it?’ ‘2-4-6-8 Motorway’ is a stone cold classic, it’s very British, it’s a big song."""

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Mothergamer (1568 KP) rated the PC version of The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim in Video Games

Apr 3, 2019  
The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
2011 | Role-Playing
I know. How is it that I had never played Skyrim until now? Many of my friends asked this. The only answer I have is that I had a ton of other games I was playing at the time so I just never got around to it. With the remaster, I figured this would be a great time to play it so I got the special edition for PS4 and I was excited to start my adventure.

 Having ten different races to choose from is very cool and I decided on Wood Elf for my first play through, but for my next one I do want to play as a Khajiit (cat race) because they sound quite interesting. I was a little disappointed while creating my Wood Elf that the faces looked rather harsh and every expression looked like she was angry and ready to smash your face. It wasn't a big deal, but I wondered about the idea behind that design. Having played Elder Scrolls Online, the character design for the Elves has improved a lot, so maybe it had something to do with their design engine.
I did manage to create my character the way I liked eventually and once I was satisfied, I decided it was time for Pirotess to start her adventure (yes, I'm a Record of Lodoss War fan so I'm always Pirotess) and start exploring the world of Tamriel.



My Wood Elf Pirotess, ready for adventure!

 There is so much to see and do in Skyrim. The game itself is huge and then you add the DLCs and there's even more to do. I got the initial introduction tutorial out of the way and the set up for the main story and then I ran around picking up quests. Between the radiant quests, side quests, and guild quests you never run out of adventures. I liked the Thieves Guild quests a lot because the story line for it was interesting. The Dark Brotherhood quests were also fun to do because of the great story content. My favorite armor was the Nightingale armor which was a reward for completing the Thieves Guild story line. I also liked my Dark Brotherhood mount which I jokingly called demon horse. His name was Shadowmere however and he was cool. He would go everywhere with me and he would even fight enemies with me which I thought was fantastic.



The Nightingale armor is the best!

If you want to take a break from adventuring, you can do things like crafting or build your own house with the Hearthfire DLC. You can also get married and adopt children with Hearthfire. This was one of the things that I found showed off the beauty of the gameplay in Skyrim. You can do as much or as little of the main story quests as you want. You can just run around crafting things, do side quests, or go hunting dragons. It's entirely up to you and gives you a vast amount of freedom for exploration and discovery. For me, it made the game a lot of fun and I just enjoyed running around discovering new places.

I also loved battling all the dragons and finding all the dragon shouts for my Dragonborn character. The battles are epic and the controls handle very smoothly. I love it when a game has great game controls and good camera angles. It definitely makes fighting a huge dragon easier. I enjoyed playing with all the different dragon shouts seeing what each one did. My favorites were frost breath and dragon aspect. Because of that exploration freedom level grinding was not a chore at all. I was just having fun and enjoying the game.



Taking down a dragon.

The environments are beautiful. I would find myself stopping often just to look around the different areas I was in because they are so well done. Whether it was a forest, snowy peak, or Dwarven ruin it always looked amazing and no two places looked alike. The musical soundtrack is amazing too setting the right atmosphere for each moment in the game.
 You get followers too, but you can only have one at a time with you. Unfortunately if they die, they're dead for good unless you have the mods. I learned that the hard way with a couple of mine as they suffered from death by dragon. Most of the time, I just wandered alone because sometimes the followers would do stupid things like step on a switch and set off a trap. Once in a while I would take a follower with me just to change things up, usually a mage because they were useful for fighting dragons.



A beautiful view in Skyrim.

I enjoyed the main story in Skyrim as well. The lore was intriguing and some of the reveals about certain characters made for a great story. I also liked that a couple of the dragons were allies of a sort. I thought the dragon Paarthurnax was very cool and learning a few dragon shouts from him was fun. I was also thrilled that Pirotess got to fly on a dragon also. It was quite a sight! I finished the main story and it was a great finish to a fantastic story.



Pirotess chatting with Paarthurnax.

While the main story is finished, there's still a ton of things for me to do. I'm currently playing the Dawnguard and Dragonborn DLC as well as more side quests. I'm also enjoying crafting and building my houses with the Hearthfire DLC. For me, Skyrim is a blast to play and I love that there's always something going on and I continue to explore and have fun. There's always interesting things to see and I can't wait to play as a Khajiit for my next play through. Skyrim is a great game and I'm glad I finally got a chance to play it.
  
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Kane Hodder recommended Monster (2003) in Movies (curated)

 
Monster (2003)
Monster (2003)
2003 | Drama

"Unfortunately, I keep saying ones that I had something to do with. I was the stunt coordinator on that, and I actually played the cop that arrested her at the end. If I have any kind of acting ability, it’s from watching people like Charlize Theron. I was on the set every day. I didn’t have all that much to do, stuntwise — just safety issues and a couple of little stunt things — but I could watch her work, and see how she got to certain places, and that’s the best possible training I think an actor can have. [Theron did] subtle things right before certain scenes, to get to a certain place. I think, even subconsciously, I’ve incorporated some of those techniques. It’s nothing I can really describe. For the violent stuff, it doesn’t take long. It’s just very easy for me to get from my personality to the murderously violent personality. I think I’m closer to that than most people are, so it’s a short trip. [laughs] But for the emotional stuff, and crying scenes and stuff like that, what works best for me is to use music that means something to me, that reminds me of something in the past that isn’t a good memory. Something like that. That helps me to where I can convincingly cry, because I’ve seen so many actors — and these are whom I consider good actors — who are not convincing when they’re crying. It’s just not believable, it’s too forced. I think that’s obviously one of the harder things to do. Take [Hatchet series’] Danielle Harris. Most often, when you have a character who has to have a lot of emotion like that, you start out as a regular character and become that, like Tamara [Feldman] did in the first movie. Starts out normal and then becomes emotional at the end. Well, because this picked up from the very last frame of the first movie, from the very beginning, Danielle has to be crazy emotional. She lost her whole family and found them dead. So, it’s one thing to be able to get to an emotional point, but to have to do it so many times is the hard part. Lots of people can make themselves cry once, but let me see you do it ten times in one day, and some of those times being after lunch, where you’re talking to friends, and then you gotta get back to that place. It’s not that you just do it one time and they film it and you’re done. You gotta do all the coverage and make sure the emotion matches. That’s the hard part."

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Bookapotamus (289 KP) rated The Intermission in Books

Jun 7, 2018 (Updated Jun 8, 2018)  
The Intermission
The Intermission
Elyssa Friedland | 2018 | Fiction & Poetry
8
7.0 (2 Ratings)
Book Rating
Clever Idea, Great Character Development, Fun and Fresh Writing (0 more)
A Little Dry, Wraps Up Neatly, but still worth it (0 more)
Interesting and Quick Read
This was such an interesting concept and I found myself wondering... if everyone was required to have an "Intermission" before having a baby, it might actually not be a bad thing! You hear so much about people thinking children will bring couples back together after a relationship begins to stale, when sometimes it's the wedge that eventually drives them apart ... hence skyrocketing divorce rates? It seems that people are finally waking up and realizing that just because its a social norm, does NOT mean you HAVE to get married, and it certainly doesn't mean that just because you DO get married, that the required next step is having children. Some people just shouldn't have them. No judgement - just reality.

OK rant over. :) Cass and Jonathan seem like a total power couple that shines like the golden twosome they emit on the outside. On the inside there seems to be some cracks in that gold, and we learn that the tarnish of that shine is just beginning. The seven year itch is creeping like a bad rash, and before they embark on the journey to become parents, Cass wants a break. Jonathan is dumbfounded at the idea and resents Cass's decision, but the Intermission is on.

The character development here is pretty good. We learn a lot of who these two are, where the come from, their insecurities, and their secrets as we go back and forth between the two during their split, on separate coasts and in equally separate mindsets. I found myself reading easily, and quickly, and eager to find out if the split has staying power, or if these two can find each other again.

Some of the decisions and paths these two take are pretty random and questionable, but any outsider looking in on a relationship that isn't their own, is always set up to be judgemental, "I would NEVER do that!" I certainly found myself thinking that quite often but hey, this story isn't about me!

Overall, I really liked the story, the concept and the characters were interesting and it was written pretty well.
  
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Wrigglezeus (511 KP) rated the Xbox One version of Fallout 76 in Video Games

May 4, 2020  
Fallout 76
Fallout 76
2018 | Action/Adventure, Role-Playing
Fantastic story adding to the lore (2 more)
Brilliant environments
Wastelanders Update
Broken gameplay mechanics (5 more)
Randomly kicked out or servers
Combat
Bullet weight
Other players
Pay for private worlds
Lackluster
As a lover of all Fallout, there isn’t much I can forgive with this game. Deep within the lore of Fallout you play a vault dweller leaving the vault 25 years after the bombs fell. Hence forth you are the first to venture out and hear from holotapes and letters, and thanks to the new Wastelands update, from characters as well telling their stories before and after the bombs fell.

However, whilst a fantastic lore, world story telling and brilliant story plot can be a saving grace, it’s the lack of gameplay performance that is its biggest downfall. The enemy spawn rate is chaotic, and I have often found myself walking down a barren wasteland to instantaneously become surrounded on all sides from enemies who have suddenly appeared in front of me. This has lead to my near death on several occasions. Furthermore in some dungeon, as other players fast travelled nearby I have found myself often fighting an infinite amount of enemies within one area. It’s not disappointing, it becomes frustrating.

Let’s talk about other players, as I found to my disappointed hunting and gathering throughout the world only to find out a story location has already been raided and looted, meaning those precious chems and materials required have disappeared as you’ve struggled through the enemies spawned as you enter the location. I still believe that Fallout should, and should always remain, a single player game. Now Bethesda have sorted a solution for this issue, after spending so much for a game we are then asked to pay a subscription to allow the use of private worlds, a pay wall behind a pay wall. Something that would’ve saved them face had it been offered to the public.

It’s due to this, that whilst the world is great, with much to do and the story is gripping. Excluding the other players, it’s the gameplay mechanics that brings the whole experience down. However the addition of the wastelanders update has brought to the game what it was severely lacking.
  
Her Last Goodbye
Her Last Goodbye
10
10.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
Contains spoilers, click to show
As with any mystery, it is amazing to have that suspense with a tad bit of danger. After all, the excitement is in the wondering who did what and what may have caused an event to happen. However, Her Last Goodbye is more than just that. It allows the reader to see into some of the worries and dangers it is to be a parent, how romance can lead to vulnerable states of mind (which we all know can lead to some acts of intimacy), as well as how some people have some complicated views on how a relationship should work. It was even more shocking and terrifyingly real than the first book in the Morgan Dane series. I found myself ridden with anxiety, fear, and concern through out the book. Having so many difficult situations to have to sort through and ideas, I found this book hard to put down, even when it got too intense to keep reading at the moment.



First of all, Morgan having three children is always nice to see. With her concern about her children's livelihood always about her, it wasn't hard for her to connect with the missing woman, Chelsea, who was a mother of 2 small children, and how she wasn't likely to leave her children that she adored so much. It was, however, rough for her to try to come up with clues and facts to prove that the woman just didn't run away from her family. To see Morgan struggle through that idea and then to end up having her own children threatened on multiple occasions by a variety of men, only made things worse. I found those parts exceptionally hard to read. Having a child myself, I don't think I would have been as rational or as brave as she was. Just the thought of the things she went through and the ideas of a mother just abandoning her children, has me shaken. Even though, as stated in the book, mothers sometimes do strange things like that, it still isn't easy to process or understand. Then to watch a mother go into Mama Bear mode to protect her own, kept my own mind whirling. I like to think I would do anything to protect my daughter, but my own problem with conflict would have been enough to make sure I got out of whatever situation that would put me in that rough spot. It had fuel Morgan even more though. She pushed harder to find and get rid of the person behind her own children's danger. This only makes her even more loveable. It is actually inspiring to have such a strong woman character, who would do anything to protect her loved ones. I can't help but feel more drawn to her in this book, and I feel that my admiration and love for her will grow in the future. Even so, I still found a lot of other disturbing things within the story.



We all know that there are people out there who believe women should be completely submissive to men, but it was still really hard to read and stomach a character who had this belief. To kidnap, condition, and even train another person seems extremely harsh, yet a they existed. I found it harder to read how they would torture another human being to break their mind and their spirit, just to train a woman to think and be something they weren't. Especially when said person was supposedly in love with their prey. I did find it inspiring on how, even being tortured, a woman can overcome it and try to escape and get back to her family. In fact, the thought of her family propelled her and kept her trying to get back home. It really made me happy to see that family was her motivation. Though, it was rough to get through, it made me wonder how many women could go through what she had and still find the courage and strength to keep trying to figure out a way to escape and get home. Even though, it was clear she was traumatized, it was clear she was more concerned with getting home to her children than how she could be caught and tortured and punished for trying. I found this to be a pleasant idea to have about someone who was captured. After all, wouldn't you end up within just a few days of being hurt over and over, give up and just conform to whoever was trying to condition you was ways? I probably would have. But this woman character definitely shed some light how nothing else mattered where your family is concern.



I found how strong feelings for someone and their family can really change how you view things to be a nice delight. I hadn't expected Lance to end up falling for Morgan's children the way he did to happen. It had been hinted that he loved and wanted a relationship with Morgan, but to see him fall in love with her girls and want to protect them as much as Morgan did, was really a pleasant sight. I know there are men out there like that, but its still rare and to see how his love for Morgan ends up extending to her children was just the right about of sentiment and love the book need to keeps things from going overboard. I enjoyed how he tried his best to make sure her girls were safe and even let them into his house to keep them protected, to be exhilarating and touching. It is always nice to have some wholesome love and concern to help break up some of the tension in a storyline and Leigh's way of adding this to Lance's character was a nice call. It helped keep the danger presented while showing a parental side to Lance and offering up how your friends and potential lover's can easily adore your children as much as you do.



Overall, I would rate Melinda Leigh's Her Last Goodbye 5 stars out of 5 stars for how well written and emotional filled the book was. It could stand alone as it gives refreshers on what happened in the last book, as well as had its own storyline. Though, the character developments increased and they continued to grow through out the story, the reader wouldn't feel like they missed a whole lot by reading this book first. I have to say that has to be something that is delightful. After all, wouldn't is just bite if you had to read the first book to even think about picking up the second. Sometimes you don't always realize what you are grabbing and having a series that has books that could stand alone if they needed to, makes it so much easier to start by whatever book you happen to pick up first. I definitely recommend this book to all our thrill seekers. Its not for the faint of heart, but is still extremely excellent to read.
  
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KittyMiku (138 KP) rated the Xbox One version of Destiny 2 in Video Games

Mar 23, 2019  
Destiny 2
Destiny 2
2017 | Shooter
Gameplay (0 more)
Needing other players to do raids. (0 more)
At first I could see why anyone would play this. The story lines seemed shirt and a bit grindy. However, I have found a lot of the multilayer modes to be fun, if not toxic at times. However, having started the game about a year late, and only because the husband wanted me to play with him, I find needing others to do the raids to be stupid. When trying to get people together they only wanthe others who know exactly what to do. This can frustrate anyone. But I still like doing all the little missions and events throughout the year. I just wish that they had more. Once you cap your light level, you lose interest in the daily and weekly missions and tend to just try to get all the triumphs, which is fine and all, but some of those need 1 of each type of cha raver. Which bites since I only have a high level hunter and just started running through the game with my second character, a titan. That means I would have to do it all over again with the third, a warlock. This can be repetitive and slightly annoying. But I have made quite a few friends to play with, which can make the game extremely fun and desirable. If the raid thing and needing to do all three characters to get all the achievements wasn't such a problem I would have rated it higher. Over all, a pretty fun fame.
  
Inherit the Wind (1960)
Inherit the Wind (1960)
1960 | Classics, Drama
I found this movie incredibly interesting. Not only is it based on a true story, I think it's a film that transcends time because of its themes. All of the issues discussed in this movie are ones that we still talk about today. We see all the time arguments for more religion in schools or less, and religion itself is argued and where its place is in our lives. I think this movie does a beautiful job of pushing those boundaries and causing you to question why it is we believe what we do and why we're so set on others believing it too.

As far as the cast and the acting, I think it's phenomenal. Obviously, with powerhouses like Gene Kelly, Spencer Tracy, and Fredric March, their performances are incredible. I find the women in the film to be less believable but I think it's more the time and the way women acted in the '60s and less to do with the women themselves. The overdramatic, falling after their husband or fiancé, in one case, is just played out - but that also might just be me speaking from my own experience.

Overall, I think this movie is great. It holds up 60 years after its initial release and I'm sure it will hold up for another 60 years. I think it pushes positive conversations and forces you to think outside of your own experiences and your own life and in general, I think that's what art (in any form) should do. Would definitely recommend this film.
  
Don't Look for Me
Don't Look for Me
Wendy Walker | 2020 | Mystery, Thriller
9
9.0 (2 Ratings)
Book Rating
I was provided with a complimentary copy of this book so I could give an honest review. The opinions are entirely my own, and any quotes are taken from the ARC and may be different in the final published copy.

Although I have Wendy Walker's novels on my "to-read list," I have not had the pleasure of reading any until now. Why have I waited so long to read any of her work?

I could not put down her latest novel, Don't Look for Me. Told from two points of view, Molly Harper and her daughter Nic, we discover a family broken by tragedy, an accident from years ago. Molly is wracked with guilt and struggling to keep her family together. Nic, broken by guilt and anger, lashes out at Molly. Later Molly's car is found abandoned on the side of the road. The police think she walked away from her life. Nic refuses to believe her mom would leave them when they are all still recovering from tragedy. If she did not just walk away, then what happened to Molly?

Walker's brilliant writing leaves you unable to put the book down. She creates hard-to-forget characters. Often when an author includes numerous characters, they are flat. Walker's are fully formed, and her writing style leads you to suspect many outcomes.

I am sorry I waited so long to read Walker, but I am going to make up for time lost.

This review was published on Philomathinphila.com, on 9/15/20.