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Joe Elliott recommended Aqualung by Jethro Tull in Music (curated)

 
Aqualung by Jethro Tull
Aqualung by Jethro Tull
1971 | Rock
8.5 (2 Ratings)
Album Favorite

"This was the same year as the Roxy record. Mott has split up by that point. They splintered: Mott the Hoople became simply Mott and Mick Ronson and Ian Hunter went off doing their own thing. You could follow them both. I saw Mott at the Top Rank and I saw Ian Hunter and Mick Ronson at Sheffield City Hall. This still sounds fresh today: it was raw, done in a month. His guitar playing here is as good as it was on any record. There was a solo on a song called 'The Truth The Whole Truth And Nothing But The Truth' - it's one of those things you'd play to a kid whose learning how to play the guitar. The way he winds it up; the sheer pain in the song. Apparently at the time he'd read a scathing review and was fucking furious. He went in and did the whole thing in one take. And I'm thinking 'in a parallel universe, this would have been the next Mott the Hopple record' you know? But my god did the other guys blow it; my god did they blow it. This would have been such a great Mott record. To this day, Phil Collen [Def Leppard guitarist] will say his vibrato is Ronson's vibrato. A lot of people can't do vibrato properly - Phil was definitely influenced by it, also by that beautiful open whammy tone. I'm not sure how it leaks into Leppard as a whole. I think the most logical theft we ever did was the 'Whooaah' section on 'Photograph'. The guys in the band are all great singers; they're arguably better than me. Put the four of us together and it's like Queen round the mike. Well: almost..."

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Erika (17788 KP) rated The Huntress in Books

May 4, 2019  
The Huntress
The Huntress
Kate Quinn | 2019 | Fiction & Poetry
9
9.0 (3 Ratings)
Book Rating
To start out with, I wish I could give this a perfect 10, but one of the main characters, Nina, was completely insufferable and easily, her chapters could have been cut out.
Alright, so, I don't consider books post WWI to be historical fiction, and I normally steer clear of WWII/aftermath fiction because bookstores and goodreads are inundated with hundreds of novels. But, I decided to pick up this book anyway.

Essentially, it's a Nazi hunt. There are three viewpoints from three different characters. As I mentioned, Nina was insufferable. Most of the reviews I read talked about their love of this character and the origin of the Night Witches (AKA female, Russian pilots). Ian was one of the other main characters, a former war correspondent who's a Nazi hunter, trying to find 'The Huntress', who murdered his brother. Then, there's Jordan, an American teenager whose father marries a mysterious German woman with a daughter.

I won't spoil the plot, but basically, you can work out the entire plot within the first few chapters. What kept me reading was the writing style, and every other character but Nina.
  
Zombie Tidal Wave (2019)
Zombie Tidal Wave (2019)
2019 | Action, Horror
A zombie film made for the SyFy Channel starring Ian Ziering you say? Sign me up.

While out fishing a group of friends catch something sinister. They haul a putrid looking dead body out of the water and very quickly realise that it isn't quite as dead as they'd have hoped. That body is the first in an army of the undead that takes over the town as an unexpected tidal wave gives them a helping hand.

Is this film bad? Yes. Is it an entertaining watch? Also yes, but on that SyFy Original movie level of yes.

Bless Ian Ziering and his movie decision. In Zombie Tidal Wave (I really love saying the whole title) he plays Hunter, a fisherman who's about to leave town for a fresh start. Hunter is everything you hope he will be. I also noticed on IMDb that Ziering has a story credit... well colour me surprised... it's a super-duper amazing tale about zombies by the sea.

I'm not going to insult you by saying that this would win any awards, we all know it wouldn't even without watching it. It wouldn't even win a Razzie, that's how good it is! Everything about this is in fact distinctly average, apart from the following...

That story... it's got a great idea with twists and turns that "make sense". It could almost have been a serious zombie film if someone at some point hadn't gone "You know what? We need more." "More what?" "Everything."

Those special effects... are terrible. I have never seen such badly CGId water, and that's something you should take seriously coming from someone who has seen as many made for TV movies as I have.

The consistency... there are facts about locations and objects that the film just throws out the window, there are some continuity errors as well... but while that sounds like a bad thing it's really an essential part of the enjoyment/

This couldn't be a typical review so to complete it I just want to share with you some of my notes/interactions with the film, I'll include some cryptic highlights to look out for too.

- The zombie that must have unnaturally long legs or be standing on a zombie pyramid.
- Synchronised swimming zombies.
- I snort laughed so hard at a big reveal point that I nearly choked on my breakfast.
- A stunning Bond girl moment that might have been the best shot of the film.
- The different densities of glass.
- The Sharknado reference.
- ... and the result of that reference.
- Douchebag and his girlfriend.
- Family banter with a zombie.
- "Reinforcements".
- Zombie's styling flip flops.

Originally posted on: https://emmaatthemovies.blogspot.com/2020/06/zombie-tidal-wave-movie-review.html
  
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LeftSideCut (3778 KP) Jun 13, 2021

I didn't know it had come out yet 😂 I need to see it so bad

Talented (Talented Saga, #1)
Talented (Talented Saga, #1)
Sophie Davis | 2012 | Dystopia, Young Adult (YA)
8
9.0 (4 Ratings)
Book Rating
3.5 stars.

*I received this copy via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review*
 
Yet again I was drawn to the cover. Then I checked out the synopsis and I thought, “This should be good!” So I requested to read it and got the go ahead several days ago.
 
I’ll admit it took me a good 20%-25% to really get into it, mainly because of all the description and back story that was thrown in, but once that was out of the way I got quite into it.
 
Character wise, I have to admit that for the first 40% or so that Talia annoyed me. She seemed rather whiney and didn’t like it when Donovan or others didn’t go along with what she wanted to happen. At the same time Donovan seemed off, himself, though the reason behind that soon came to light. One person I did like was Erik, one third of Talia’s Hunter team. I liked him from the start but there was one scene; one lovely scene involving him and Talia after a mission that made me almost fall for him. It was so sweet. Then there’s Henri, the last member, and leader of their team. He seemed like a pretty great guy, taking care of them on missions and making sure they were up to scratch with their mental and physical abilities.
 
The world building was pretty good, with lots of detail to help you picture it in your head.
I was waiting for Natalia’s showdown with Ian Crane for most of the book, since that was what the synopsis mentioned, and it was mentioned in the last 30%, though the mission itself actually started with about 15% of the book to go.
 
As usual, I choose books for the romance aspect and I wasn’t disappointed. The thing between Talia and Erik was really good when it got going.
 
Overall, I liked this but the information overload at the beginning and the annoying character traits knocked it down half a star for me. A good first book into the series, though. I’m not in any hurry to continue the series but I may read the second book at some point.