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Mad Punx and English Dogs by English Dogs
Mad Punx and English Dogs by English Dogs
(0 Ratings)
Album Favorite

"This was an EP. They're also from Grantham. Actually the the singer Wakey, he came to the Coventry gig on the tour last year. It was fucking incredible, and he was fucking pissed as well. Him and his wife were pissed out their heads. They live on a narrowboat and apparently that night they went home and both of them fell in the river. I want to get him on a record. I meant to but I'm quite selfish and I forget. But I thought he was a great singer. He did this EP and an album, called Attack Of The Porky Men. I bought that on CD and it cost me £30, an import from America, because it's not on CD really, I think someone just burned it. I didn't start listening to English Dogs until about 2006. I liked trawling through old punk stuff on YouTube. Discharge, GBH, Exploited: stuff I wouldn't have listened to as a kid even though I was never an English Dogs fan. And then I came across that EP and I thought it was brilliant. You can tell it's a Grantham accent. That was brilliant, mind blowing almost. And also the lyrics were just crap, ""Psychokiller rah rah rah..."" It's just rubbish. He's got this diluted Lydon-esque approach, but that's what I love about it. A lot of that new wave punk, around the 80s, it's all crap isn't it. It kind of reminds me of Roachee, it's all crap. People like them are similar in my eyes. So it was a really big honour when he came backstage. He was off his nut. He had a can of cider in his pocket and he came in and was talking to me and looking at all the beer on the side. I said he should just take it. He was like, ""You're joking, can I?"" And was putting all this beer in his pockets, him and his missus, ""Right, mate, mate, I'm going alright."" And the thing is, he knows. He knows. He said, ""When you went out there and you just looked at the crowd and went 'FUCK OFF' this is what I'm going doing, you know, don't you, you know."" Even though, on the hierarchy of punk he's like, down here, he believes in it and he can identify that kind of spirit. And I thought that was really quite touching. I've got his number, I should text him."

Source
  
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Juliette Jackson recommended track Lola by The Kinks in Kink Kronikles by The Kinks in Music (curated)

 
Kink Kronikles by The Kinks
Kink Kronikles by The Kinks
1972 | Rock
7.0 (1 Ratings)
Album Favorite

Lola by The Kinks

(0 Ratings)

Track

"I wasn't sure if I should put this song in, I was wondering if I should make weirder choices but then I was just like "fuck it!" It's one of the best songs ever, I go back to it again and again and again, and it always feels so good. There's something so satisfying about it – the way the chords change and the meaning of the lyrics. Isn't it about the Kinks' manager hooking up with a girl who was actually a guy dressed as a girl? It's such a cool thing to write a song about, but it's really subtle. Unless you listen carefully, you don't really notice that that's what it's about. I love songs that have a secret meaning. It's so simple, but so satisfying. It's also a very beautifully written song with the way the melodies go and the way the key changes. But because it's the Kinks it has this really cool ugly, rough sound that makes it feel so much cooler. The best songs are the ones that are beautifully written, but recorded in a dirty way. I'm always looking for ways to make our songs more interesting. If you just play all the chords and everything is perfectly in tune and in time, the music is whitewashed and comes out as a straight line. It's boring. Soph and I are always faffing around with guitar parts and trying to find ways to make them less in tune, or less pretty. You can have the most basic song, but if you cover it in stuff that's a little bit discordant or a little bit weird it makes it all so much more interesting. I couldn't really say when I first heard ‘Lola’. It's one of those ones where you're just born and you know it. I didn't go and buy it in a second-hand shop or anything like that. I don't know where that came from, I don't even know when that started but I've got a few Kinks records and I really love them. I got a big record dump from one of my best friend's dads when I was a teenager. He's been really influential actually, he gave me so much music. My music collection was just there suddenly, a big stack. There was loads of Motown stuff like Smokey Robinson, The Temptations, The Supremes and Marvin Gaye. He used to be a Northern Soul DJ in Yorkshire or somewhere and he's just a cool dude – maybe I first heard the Kinks because of him."

Source
  
MI
4
6.0 (2 Ratings)
Book Rating
I hate to say it but I just could not get into this at all. I tried numerous times (for many months) and finally had to call it quits on page 120. I really don't know what the problem is. This book had all the elements I enjoy: I really liked Loretta Chase's previous Carsington novel, Miss Wonderful, I loved the Mummy (and the Mummy Returns), not to mention anything that has to do with Egypt, archaeology, history, etc., I like strong female characters, but for some reason this book just fell flat. There's just something missing, maybe it was the two the leads; I didn't love 'em and I didn't hate 'em, they just weren't well-developed. I read the epilogue, which I was glad I did, because it gave a little info of the next book (although there's not much, but it was cute nonetheless). I'm sure there will be many people who will enjoy this even if it didn't mesh with me.
  
The Waiting Room
The Waiting Room
Emily Bleeker | 2018 | Fiction & Poetry
10
10.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
Great story, clever and keeps you on your toes! (0 more)
Super Twister Turny!
Somebody get my Chiropractor on the line! I think I have whiplash from all the twists and turns! What a ride!

Emily Bleeker can consistently weave a story like nobody's business and The Waiting Room is no exception!
Just when you think you have it all figured out - WHAM! Whiplash. I cannot even explain my love for her writing, and the way she crafts these incredibly suspenseful stories. Knocked this one out of the park. Totally out of the park and past the parking lot, and across the highway... It's so hard to give any synopsis of the story without spoiling too much. It's just that good. There were about 4-5 scenarios I had going on i my head as to the direction this was going, and I was wrong about them all!

Just after children's book illustrator Veronica Shelton's daughter is born, tragedy strikes. Her loving, smart, funny, doting-father husband is killed and her entire life falls apart So, so badly. It's so bad that grieving Veronica can't even TOUCH her own baby daughter. She thinks she's a terrible mother, is now having her own mother taking over most of her child's duties, and is clinging onto hope she can somehow get over this through a new therapist, and very carefully, slow, tiny baby steps. But then strange things start to happen - a break-in, weird figures in her book illustrations, and then - the unthinkable. Her daughter goes missing.

Incompetent police seem to turn the tables on her and she begins to feel like a suspect. Targeted because of her fragile mental state since losing her beloved husband. Veronica decides she's going to finally be the mother that Sophie deserves, and go out and find her daughter on her own. With some strange new friends and the shreds of motherly instinct that remain inside her - she sets off to do just that.

....and cue the whiplash. Just when you think you've got it figured out. Nope, try again. That person's a good guy? Sorry - not the case! Everything going to be OK? Um... hahaaaaa! Nice try. And that ending.. PHEW! Shocker after insanely clever shocker!

Now, I like to think I'm not totally dim, and can be fairly clever at figuring things out. But Emily Bleeker is SO good at making you feel so silly for even thinking you had ANY idea what was going on. She's definitely one of my favorite authors and I was totally thinking about sending her my chiropractor bill, but it just didn't seem fair seeing as how fun the ride was :)
  
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Dani (4 KP) rated The Umbrella Academy in TV

Mar 7, 2019  
The Umbrella Academy
The Umbrella Academy
2018 | Action, Fantasy
Contains spoilers, click to show
I must admit that I was not too drawn into this when I had seen the trailer. However more and more of my friends and family had started to watch this and their enthusiasm made me give this a go. I did not regret it! I found myself invested and entertained after only one episode.

The characters are distinct and unpredictable. My friends and I each have different favourite characters, which demonstrates the diversity of the characters offer. They are also flawed and this makes them relatable.

I like the unique plot and that the side characters are just as engaging as the main ones. I am definitely recommending this to anyone who will listen and I am eager for season two.

I will say, the only thing that set my teeth on edge was the treatment of Vanya. The family neglected and effectively emotionally abused her. This does not excuse her actions at the end of the show but rather irritated me when they got to swoop in and act like heroes for intervening in the explosion that they set in motion. I am guessing that this will be addressing in the second season however, and the fact that I am invested enough in the show that this annoys me, tells me that this is definitely done well.
  
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William Sadler recommended Unforgiven (1992) in Movies (curated)

 
Unforgiven (1992)
Unforgiven (1992)
1992 | Western

"With my friend Morgan [Freeman]. It’s so funny, these movies, the ones that I’m pulling out, they all have the same element. They feel perfect. I can’t find a false note, I can’t find a scene or a moment that you could lose and the movie would still be as good. There’s not a wasted breath. I think that Unforgiven is some of Clint Eastwood’s best work. I love westerns — I grew up on them — watching them and playing them around the barn in Buffalo. This is a different western, again, this is a broken guy who’s hanging on by his fingernails. He’s been a dirt farmer, he’s lost his wife, this is his last shot. That’s funny, it’s a little like The Verdict in that respect. None of it is pretty. It’s not slick, it’s not the balletic gunfighting that you see in some movies. It’s ugly and awkward and it’s not easy to kill a man. That was one of the themes that just stuck out like a sore thumb. This is not an easy thing to do, kill a man. For all the glamour and all the romance of the old west and the gunfights and so on, this is awful work, guns. They brought that to life. Gene Hackman can do no wrong. He’s sort of an acting god."

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Awix (3310 KP) rated Dark Star (1974) in Movies

May 31, 2018  
Dark Star (1974)
Dark Star (1974)
1974 | Comedy, Sci-Fi
Massively influential spoof of overly-solemn and pretentious 60s sci-fi movies looks like what it is - a student movie blown up to feature proportions. John Carpenter was known to comment that the world's greatest student movie would still only be a pretty unimpressive 'real' film and there is an element of truth in this, for Dark Star is often slightly primitive, especially in its visual effects.

But never mind that, just enjoy the way it deconstructs the likes of 2001 and their philosophical concerns - 'never mind all that intelligent life crap, just give me something I can blow up,' snaps the commander early on. Classical music is eschewed for a jaunty country tune, and so on.

Most significant is way the pristine interiors of other films' spacecraft are replaced by the squalid, utilitarian quarters of the Dark Star's crew - this is space bereft of novelty and glamour, it's just a boring and dangerous place to work. You can see the 'used universe' aesthetic of the late 70s SF boom and beyond being invented here. Plus this is the movie that directly led to Alien. Not the biggest or best SF movie of the 70s, but still one of the most significant in the history of the genre.
  
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Andy K (10823 KP) May 31, 2018

Love this film!

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Tammy (5 KP) rated The Husband's Secret in Books

Aug 16, 2018 (Updated Aug 16, 2018)  
The Husband's Secret
The Husband's Secret
Liane Moriarty | 2013 | Fiction & Poetry
9
7.7 (31 Ratings)
Book Rating
Strong female characters that are easily relatable in one way or another. I couldn't put this book down and when I did, I found myself thinking about it and unable to concentrate on anything else. (0 more)
Gritty, gripping with a perfect plot
I've read big little lies and knew how Liane Moriarty liked to base the plot around a number of strong female characters that captivate and draw you fully into the story. 'My husband's secret' was no different! This book kept me hooked from start to finish, I literally couldn't put it down at times and spent a couple of nights without much sleep as I kept saying 'one more chapter'. It took me three days to read this spell bounding novel. When I had to function in the real world, I found that I was thinking about what could possibly happen next in the book. I'm not going to give anything Away with 'spoilers' but let's just say that if you like a dark and gritty book full of twists and turns, strong relatable characters with passionate backgrounds, then this is the book for you. I've just started 'truly, madly, guilty' written by Liane Moriarty and I'm hoping it's going to be just as good. I have found a new great author!