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Ian McCulloch recommended Berlin by Lou Reed in Music (curated)

 
Berlin by Lou Reed
Berlin by Lou Reed
1973 | Rock
7.7 (3 Ratings)
Album Favorite

"I don’t know what concept it was. Whatever the concept was that came out of his addled mind, to me, he’s just got a cob-on with someone and she’s probably shagging around, and obviously he’s set it in Berlin, where he’d probably never have been, and just gets stuck into the misery of it. I remember in an interview with Nick Kent in the NME Lou slagged it off and then changed his mind and said it was absolutely brilliant. At the time everything I played was always in the dark – and I’d tell my mum not to come out of the living room door, and I’d be upstairs and I could sense the light coming from downstairs and it would spoil my vibe. Playing that was just, “woah.” ‘Caroline Says II’, is like, “jeez…” - turning the tables on old Caroline, in a nasty way. I just loved the production. The atmosphere was so dense and the concept is just that the songs ran into each other and this gave it a sense of order. What he was singing about made me think, “hang on, am I really being allowed into this?” It was a bit weird. It’s like a psychopath’s night in, and it got me. Whenever I play that, it’s got a very German, emotive feel. And any emotional German, it’s going to be heavy emotions, bad ones. They’re not renowned for their joie de vivre. Obviously Hitler had emotions, but fuckin’ hell… So it does capture that weird European coldness. It’s weird because you don’t know if Lou really cares, he’s not exactly Sinatra or Lanza, you don’t know if he’s taking the piss. He probably thinks halfway through a song, this isn’t any good, I better sing it weirdly. “She looked like Mary Queen of Scots seemed very regal to me, just shows how wrong you can be". Pure Lou Reed that was. I couldn’t do that because I don’t do sinister. That’s someone who has a different kind of relationship – it’s not just sad, it’s weird. Big favourite with Jimmy Savile at the time, I heard."

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Daniel Boyd (1066 KP) rated Black Mirror: Bandersnatch (2018) in Movies

Jan 18, 2019 (Updated Jan 18, 2019)  
Black Mirror: Bandersnatch (2018)
Black Mirror: Bandersnatch (2018)
2018 | Mystery, Sci-Fi, Thriller
Will Poulter (0 more)
Everything Else (0 more)
The Illusion of Choice
Contains spoilers, click to show
I should preface this review by saying a few things. First of all, I don't like Black Mirror. I have watched a handful of episodes from the first season and always felt like it wasn't as clever as it tried to be. I do however like Charlie Brooker, I am a fan of his 'Wipe,' shows and I like his no bullshit personality. Lastly, I am not a fan of games or books where the audience is asked to choose the path they want to take. I believe that the writer of the movie/game/book should be the one to dictate where the story goes, not Joe Bloggs sitting on his couch covered in Doritos powder.

With all of that said, I decided to give Bandersnatch a go last night. I was intrigued by the whole choose-your-own-adventure concept and did go in wanting to like this thing. Unfortunately, following all the hype that surrounded its release a few weeks ago, I came away pretty disappointed.

As for my spoiler free thoughts, I thought that Will Poulter was the best thing about this film and that Fionn Whitehead's performance was okay, but felt forced and cheesy at times. However, in order to discuss why Bandersnatch ultimately left me disappointed, I am going to have to spoil the movie, so if you haven't went through it for yourself yet, you should probably look away now.


3,2,1... SPOILERS!


So, it turns out that the choices that you make while watching the film don't really matter for the most part. After spending 2-3 hours with it, I discovered that there are only really 2 endings. Either Stefan kills his dad or he goes to the therapist and she breaks the fourth wall. Every other ending is not really an ending and forces you back into the last situation until you make the choice that the filmmakers clearly want you to make.

As we are pretty much controlling Stefan during the course of the story, I chose to pick the best decisions for him, rather than choosing the more cruel, sick settings just to see what would happen. However Bandersnatch doesn't want you to do that and as soon as you make one of these more pacifist decisions, it punishes you by giving you an anticlimactic non-ending and sends you back to your last decision. Being forced to make these destructive choices forces you down the narrative path set out by the writers to the two endings that I discussed earlier and that's your lot. That's really all that there is to see here other than a few surplus arbitrary scenes.

The only things that you really get to decide on is trivial nonsense that has no impact on the narrative, like what cereal to eat or what record to buy. So, why bother making this a choose-your-own-adventure story in the first place rather than just a regular episode of Black Mirror? Because, if this was just a regular episode of a TV show, it would be extremely fucking boring, monotonous and trite.

The show tries to defend itself in these aspects. It insinuates the idea that just as we are controlling Stefan and forcing him to make certain decisions, Charlie Brooker as the writer is controlling us and forcing us to make certain decisions, hence the absence of any real choice for the viewer. I call bullshit on this idea, it's just down to lazy writing to be honest. When the therapist breaks the fourth wall, she also suggests that if this was a TV show that someone was watching for entertainment, it would have to be more exciting and less bland and dull. Pointing out that your show is bland and dull doesn't save it from being just as fucking bland and dull as it would be if you hadn't highlighted it in your script.

The show puts these elements in so that when it is questioned, it can respond saying that you as an audience member are just not clever enough to get it. Unfortunately the fact is that Bandersnatch, - just like Black Mirror - before it, isn't as clever or as cool as it thinks it is and works far better as an idea than it does in execution.

Overall, that's what this is; it's a cool idea executed poorly. I really wish that they had done more with it. It does seem to be a hit though, so for better or worse we can probably expect to see more and more of these crop up on Netflix. Will Poulter was the one saving grace of this thing and he inexplicably vanishes halfway through the story in most of the threads. It did get a reaction out of me though, which is probably what Brooker and his team wanted, it was just an extremely negative reaction due to the realisation that I had wasted my time going through this thing. If you like Black Mirror, you will probably enjoy this, but I'm afraid that it's just not for me.
  
La La Land (2016)
La La Land (2016)
2016 | Comedy, Drama, Musical
Not My Thing
I wanted to like this movie. I am a fan of the two leads, the director's last movie Whiplash was a masterpiece and the buzz surrounding the movie was immense. Unfortunately though, this wasn't for me. While I appreciate that this is a well made movie, it just isn't my cup of tea.
  
Rough Night  (2017)
Rough Night (2017)
2017 | Comedy
Good cast (0 more)
Decent comedy
Well this sounded like a female version of @Very Bad Things (1998) at first. Although the plot is similar it's no where near as dark in the humour element as that. It's pretty much what you expect but the cast helps raise it just above average with some genuinely very funny moments.
  
Bright and cheerful, this book is aimed at ladies of a certain age and is filled with words of advice in words and images. At times the images were all a little modern and didn't feel like they applied to me. A book that I am sure will find a market amongst women, just not for me.
  
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ArecRain (8 KP) rated Sodo in Soho in Books

Jan 18, 2018  
SI
Sodo in Soho
4
4.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
An interesting concept and one I am not opposed to, but I just didn't like the story itself. I felt the author could have done better in making the erotic scenes more...erotic. Everything went by so quickly I almost missed that it even happened. Not one of the best I have read, but not the worst.
  
Sex (Keatyn Chronicles book 11)
Sex (Keatyn Chronicles book 11)
Jillian Dodd | 2017 | Romance, Young Adult (YA)
8
8.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
This book has perhaps the best ending ever as it looks like a character I hate is about to dealt with.

Things are starting to come together in this book, however you are left a bit wary as there is still another book to go so you know that it will not be a happy ending just yet.
  
Velvet Underground & Nico by The Velvet Underground
Velvet Underground & Nico by The Velvet Underground
1967 | Experimental
Rolling Stone's 13th greatest album of all time
I wanted to love this album, but to be quite frank Nico's voice ruins it for me. Decent songs, and I can take Lou Reed's atonal voice to an extent but her voice just seems like a poor attempt to replicate his. Not all that enjoyable for me.
  
I gave this up at 47% because I'd been struggling with it from the start and it wasn't improving for me. I'm not sure what it was that wasn't working; maybe the characters behaviour, maybe just the storyline but it didn't pull me in like most other NA books. This seemed more YA if I'm honest :/