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Billy and Me
Billy and Me
Giovanna Fletcher | 2013 | Fiction & Poetry
6
8.3 (3 Ratings)
Book Rating
This is a very, very different genre than I usually read. It was romantic and contemporary and kind of cliche and gross. But I will admit that it was written well.

Despite the gooey topics, this book was easy to sit and read through. The writing was good, though some of the speech didn't feel particularly authentic. My main problem was how cliche this was. A young woman who loves classic literature andworks in a tea shop meets a movie star without realising who he is and falls in love... Yeah, it's kind of a stereotypical romance. I hate this sort of thing. It's tacky and just ugh. But there was more to it than just the romance, which was very good. Sophie had her own issues to deal with, stemming from childhood grief and caring for her mother. It even had a really tragic moment toward the end, that didn't involve the actor - Billy - much at all.

As I mentioned above, the language wasn't always particularly fluid. It sometimes felt like Fletcher was trying too hard to make it more romantic and emotional. Billy was pretty much 'perfect' and extremely romantic, probably extremely unrealistically so. He was likeable, still, just not very realistic.

Sophie herself was a bit... not annoying, but she's not my favourite protagonist ever. She was trying too hard to be unique and strong and independent and it just irritated me. I get what Fletcher was going for (I think) but I just didn't love Sophie that much at all.

Like most other contemporary novels (not that I've actually read many of them), Sophie's life comes together perfectly at the end. Well, not quite perfectly, but the ending was sickly sweet. But I'm a bit of a cynic. You might like this more than me.

Despite the genre and gross cutesy lovey stuff, I think this deserves 3.5 stars. The writing was good and I did actually enjoy reading it.
  
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Sean Astin recommended Patton (1970) in Movies (curated)

 
Patton (1970)
Patton (1970)
1970 | Classics, Drama, War

"With Patton, understanding the second World War is required spiritual learning for anyone born in the later 20th century going forward. You know, I could list 50 films, but that one… There’s something about the mantle of celebrity, mixed with a really good rendering of military tactics, and finally, George C. Scott’s performance… I mean, really, if you look at them, it’s Ben Kingsley and George C. Scott that have me put them on the list, because they make those portraits feel so authentic. This idea that, “I’ve been here in countless guises before,” this hint at reincarnation, if you will, and destiny. This questing for destiny is something I feel in my life. I’m put here at this moment, in this time, when social media is doing what it’s doing, and filmmaking has reached this kind of new zenith, and I feel like everything I’ve been born and raised and taught and experienced has put me here for a particular reason, and I just know it’s gotta be something. The fact that Patton feels that, this quest for destiny, that he’s supposed to be doing something… You know, the actual morality of war… Karl Malden’s character, who’s nowhere near the forceful personality and couldn’t probably whip a battalion into shape in the way that Patton does — you need both guys. But ultimately when it goes on, Patton doesn’t know when to stop, and I love that they dramatize that. He’s being interviewed and he talks about the Russians, that he should just keep going and fight the Russians — “We’re going to have to fight that war sooner or later” — and oh, guess what? In the news today is this Crimea issue, and you sort of go, “Boy, what does that mean? How are we going to relearn that lesson?” So there’s just so much stuff wrapped around it that’s relevant and interesting, and it’s a story well-told. Just the way they set up the conflict and everything, I love it, love it, love it."

Source
  
Welcome to Marwen (2018)
Welcome to Marwen (2018)
2018 | Biography, Drama
I went in to this thinking it was going to be lame but i truly enjoyed this movie. It was unique concept.
It gives a great perspective of the damage violence/bullying can cause and how one has to deals with violence afterwards.

I think this movie is great for adult but kids and teens might not get the real meaning of this movie and only take it at face value.

For example some people might think his collection of women's shoes is because he wants to crossdress but i believe it is just because he likes them like some guys like classic cars. To him they are art, he even mentions his knowledge about shoes when he was saying that they are the wrong time period. By not being in the mainstream like everyone else and doing what he feels comfortable with he is bullied to the max just for being different.
  
Champagne Holocaust by The Fat White Family
Champagne Holocaust by The Fat White Family
2013 | Alternative, Psychedelic, Punk
7.0 (1 Ratings)
Album Favorite

"I feel like this could be an old song but it sounds very modern as well. I love how sleazy and 70s’ it sounds. I picked it because I went to see Fat White Family a few years ago and before I went to see them I'd stopped playing guitar for a long time, given up on the idea of starting a band and had lost interest in music a little bit, I'd been in bands for years but nothing had ever happened. Then I started going out with a guy who was really into music and he took me to see Fat White Family and loads of bands actually around that time, but I saw Fat White Family play in The Macbeth in Hoxton. “It was so exciting! I hadn't really expected anything, I‘d just heard the name and I thought it sounded stupid. I felt like I walked in completely by accident and then I saw them and it felt how it felt and I just knew immediately that I wanted to start playing guitar again and make loud noises with people and have that feeling more. I knew that I wanted to start a band, basically. “I love the distortion on the vocals, on a lot of our earlier recordings I was putting distortion on the vocal, it's a little bit less now but it's still always there. I think it smooths everything over, or sands it down. I really love the tension and release in ‘Auto Neutron’, there's that moment halfway through where he screams and all the music gets loud and I've listened to it over and over again, trying to work out how that sounds so good. That exact moment is so perfectly timed and mixed. “Fat White Family are so guttural and thrusty on stage. It's passionate. It's hard to explain, but it's just really cool. As The Big Moon we really try to feed off the crowd and what they’re doing, you have the odd show where everyone's just standing staring at you and in those situations it feels really strange to be onstage at all and to be making noise, you realise how weird it is that you stand on a box and make loud music and people just watch. “It’s the shows where people let their hair down and have a crazy time that are the best. That's why we go to gigs, to have a physical experience and be there in a place with a load of people you'll probably never see again, but you'll have bonded by the fact that you love this music. You throw yourself into each other. It's so important that we have a reaction like that."

Source
  
21 Singles 1984-1998 by The Jesus and Mary Chain
21 Singles 1984-1998 by The Jesus and Mary Chain
2002 | Rock
(0 Ratings)
Album Favorite

"Around 1983 or '84, pop music stopped doing it for me. It was getting a bit clean. There was still a lot of good stuff, but I think it was The Smiths... I wasn't obsessed with them the way Sice was and a few other people I knew, but listening to them made you want to find something else. Then, when The Jesus And Mary Chain came out that was it. My brother brought their second single home and I wasn't sure at first. It was such a racket. It still is. But it was 'You Trip Me Up' that really did it for me - I was sold. This beautiful marriage of... it's not nice feedback, controlled feedback like you'd get off The Who. It's awful. But the core of what's going on - the song - is so lovely. And they looked fantastic, like The Beatles in Hamburg. They looked like a gang. It just seemed like they were blowing everything away and starting again. I went to listen to the Velvets after I'd heard this, and the Velvets did it... it was either noise or it was a great melody. They never really did the two together, whereas the Mary Chain managed to marry the two. The video is just fantastic. They're walking around somewhere in the Mediterranean, sitting on the beach in full leather gear with their massive guitars. After hearing the Mary Chain, that was all I wanted to listen to - bands who did that. They were a big band. They were in Smash Hits, which is hard to believe."

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The Dark Tower (2017)
The Dark Tower (2017)
2017 | Horror, Sci-Fi, Western
What the hell did I just watch...well at least it had Idris Elba
The Dark Tower is a really amazing book... I have no idea what the hell they did with this movie there was no character development and it felt like they through you into a movie that had already started so I felt like I was playing catch up most of the time and I've read the first three books in the series.

But hey it had Idris Elba and I could watch the man stand around and do nothing so 3 stars or rather bombs it is.
  
Titanic 2 (2010)
Titanic 2 (2010)
2010 | Action
3
3.0 (1 Ratings)
Movie Rating
One of the low budget late night films on the SyFy channel you know will be bad, but you just have to see how bad! It could have been a lot worse, but the minimum budget really effects a film like this that uses a lot of CGI. The effects for the ship at sea are very basic. It doesn't feature a great cast Brooke Burns is the most famous I think, and she is a model! It's a mix of disaster films including Titanic, Poseidon and The day after tomorrow. Only watch if you like cheesy films!
  
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Erika (17789 KP) rated Microsoft Outlook in Apps

May 19, 2019 (Updated May 19, 2019)  
Microsoft Outlook
Microsoft Outlook
Business, Productivity
6
6.7 (3 Ratings)
App Rating
So, I'm strange and don't use the email app through android for my different emails. So, I have both Outlook and Google Mail.
It's an alright app in general. The thing that takes it down to just ok is the stupid focused email folder vs the general inbox. I like when the focused email folder has the important things, like shipping confirmations and emails from family, BUT, for some unknown reason, Outlook also places weird junk emails into the folder. Because, you know, my focused inbox needs the weird spam emails in it about the keto diets and help with ED (EYE ROLL).
  
OverDrive: eBooks & audiobooks
OverDrive: eBooks & audiobooks
Book, Entertainment
6
8.2 (24 Ratings)
App Rating
Good selection and it doesn't cost a thing. (0 more)
Almost all the audio books are abridged (0 more)
Great for eBooks
Like having a public library in your pocket. I used it, primarily, for audio books. I burned through the unabridged selection very quickly and stopped using it.

The eBook portion of the app is really good though. You can port it to almost any ereader and again, it is free just like the library.

If they would have a better selection of audio books that were not abridged, I would be back on this platform in a heartbeat.
  
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Donna (1 KP) rated Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom (2018) in Movies

Jul 1, 2018 (Updated Jul 1, 2018)  
Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom (2018)
Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom (2018)
2018 | Action, Adventure, Sci-Fi
Chris Pratt (0 more)
I loved the film, the storyline was good, it just didn't wow me like the first one did. It seemed to me that it was trying to hard to beat Jurassic World. Bryce Dallas Howard, excels herself in it, but she is maybe not the beat person for it. It felt like she was trying to hard to keep up with Chris Pratt & everyone else.
I hope they do a 3rd and final one, and don't be money grabbing idiots and try and drain it. It would be nice to see how Blue ended up.