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Omari Hardwick recommended Mean Girls (2004) in Movies (curated)

 
Mean Girls (2004)
Mean Girls (2004)
2004 | Comedy

"One is probably the biggest surprise for my fanbase. If they were to say, “What’s the movie that would most surprise someone that Omari likes?” it would be Mean Girls. I love Mean Girls. Freaking love it. I think she’s at an age where she can watch it. So, we had it on, days before we get on the plane to come back to New York, because obviously, this time of year, we keep coming back for the start of Power. She started kindergarten, so I thought she’s old enough to watch it. But that fight scene in the hallway, with the girls, when everybody goes crazy on each other. She ran out, into her playroom, and I looked at my wife, like, “It’s Mean Girls. It’s not that bad.” What I realized is, part of my daughter’s reaction was because it’s so… not necessarily over the top, but it is. Where it’s not over the top is, girls, as you and I know, that’s the way they fight. Whereas, in kindergarten, we punched each other in the face, and then the guy that you punched becomes your best friend for 35 years. So, it’s just the level of truth in it that makes it so freaking funny. The level of how mean girls can be to each other just makes it really, really funny. Also, I just find Tina Fey’s writing to be very subtle, and so good."

Source
  
40x40

Neil Hannon recommended Sketches of Spain by Miles Davis in Music (curated)

 
Sketches of Spain by Miles Davis
Sketches of Spain by Miles Davis
1960 | Rock
6.5 (2 Ratings)
Album Favorite

"Somebody gave it to me in the late nineties, just on a blank cassette and then yep, I was completely dubious, because when people mention Miles Davis or jazz in general, I would just think of those crazy funk-jazz things they did in the seventies, and I didn't know he was capable of this incredible orchestral soundscape. It helps that he's reading from an already fantastic piece of music but what he did to it was astonishing again, so I love it. It's just the most evocative record. Recently I had the pleasure of a train journey from Bilbao to Madrid and I put that on my headphones and it was like, "oh yeah, everything is cool". Actually, it didn't [unveil new layers to the record], as I think it was really cool to experience it on the train going through Spain and yet I always think that music is so powerful that the images that you have in your head if you're listening to it in your bedroom are as powerful, if not more so, than if you were in some incredible vista. After that I went back and bought the early Blue Note records, which are generally brilliant. I'm not a real jazz aficionado and if I've put on an old jazz record, it's mostly about mood, because I can't really understand what's going on. Whereas with Sketches Of Spain, it seems more orchestral, where I can understand what's going on better."

Source
  
Fight Club 2
Fight Club 2
David Mack, Chuck Palahniuk, Cameron Stewart | 2016 | Fiction & Poetry
10
10.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
I am Jack's emerging sense of Nerd Rage...

Firstly, WHY? Why on earth would you even think about writing a sequel to one of the best books ever written that spawned one of the best cult classic movies ever made?

Secondly, WHAT? I mean, I read it and all, but...

Thirdly, OH WOW.

This book will be polarizing for fans. You will either love it or hate it. Period. I doubt there will be any middle ground here. Some fans will argue that Palahniuk is spent creatively, or that this was a giant FU to the Tyler Durden fan club, or that it was just ill conceived all they way around.

Others will think it's the most beautiful messed up thing they've ever read.

At the moment, I fall very much into the later category, but I just finished this set, and the resonance of the final pages have left me a little shell shocked. I need to discuss this with friends, like NOW.

More to come as it unravels for me...
  
40x40

Ross (3284 KP) rated Blindspot - Season 3 in TV

May 23, 2018  
Blindspot - Season 3
Blindspot - Season 3
2017 | Action
This season should have been titled "really do we still have to bother with those tattoos?!". The series once again follows the FBI team, and Jane Doe in trying to solve mysterious tattoos on Jane's body, averting terrorist attacks as they go. Only this time, it is a whole new series of tattoos which have been ridiculously put on her in UV or something so were not obvious.
The tattoos are no longer solved in interesting manners, now there is 30 seconds devoted to that, the rest being rushing around with guns.
Some of the puzzles appear to have been solved by something like "so I took these numbers, rearranged them at random, converted each one to the letter of the alphabet, translated that into Dutch, then back into numbers and tried this as an IP address and found that a ship has just docked with the same name as your mother-in-law's maiden name, get over there pronto".
The overarching plot was fine and reasonably exciting, but there was so much deus ex machina that I just got really annoyed.
  
DD
Double Dose (Research & Desire, #4)
4
5.0 (2 Ratings)
Book Rating
I received a complimentary copy in exchange for an honest review.

Sorely disappointed in this book. I was hoping that maybe, just maybe I could escape the overbearing “Alpha” male trope. But alas I was sorely mistaken. From the very beginning Ari is a Alpha male through and through, and not in a good way. I am sure he was supposed to be dark and brooding, but I quickly lost patience with him. It was around the third time he picked Daphne up to carry her around that my mood turned sour and never sweetened. While Benjy was better, I found that, after a while, his playful antics seemed more childish than endearing.

I wanted to like this novel, but I just couldn’t get behind it. The chemistry seemed forced and though it actually had an in depth plot, it wasn’t one I could care about. The author does have a good writing style that flows easily. My problem was with the story itself, not the writing.
  
After The Cure
After The Cure
8
8.0 (2 Ratings)
Book Rating
A non-traditional zombie book that stays with you.
Contains spoilers, click to show
I loved this book. It had such a unique take on the zombie genre, rivaled perhaps only by M.R. Carey's The Girl with all the Gifts . Even compared to Carey's book, it's still in a league of its own. Just read the title. After the Cure.

Can you imagine what that would be like for the 'zombies'? To be cured, but have memories of all the horrible things they did while they were infected? To try to pick up again, to reintegrate into life? How positively horrifying.

Then there's the research to build a case against the jerks that started it all. There's intrigue, twists, horror, and discoveries, all told from the viewpoint of after the world almost ended, but humanity managed to save itself just in the nick of time. ...Right?

I haven't read the rest of this series, so I can't speak for it all...but I can speak for this book. This was, is, an awesome book that I highly recommend for zombie fans!
  
Underwater (2020)
Underwater (2020)
2020 | Horror, Sci-Fi
379. Underwater. A straight to the action, claustrophobic thriller. Story begins with scantily clad Norah getting ready to start her shift at the laboratory at the bottom of the ocean. And by the sudden alarms going off and the entire structure rocking back and forth, something went wrong. it's an earthquake, and its tearing the place apart. And so it's on to find others and to get to escape pods. Oh the earthquake also woke something up down there, and it's big. Who knows maybe its there just to say hi to the new neighbors, but it doesn't really look that way. Because the movie mainly focuses on action, we never really get to see Kristen Stewart make that awkward face, you know what I mean, so that was a plus. TJ Miller was in it, as some kind of odd man-baby scientist, so I thought that was pretty stupid. Overall it was a decent action sci fi flick. Just remember like a famous Jedi once said: "There's always a bigger fish." Filmbufftim on FB.
  
African Dub All-Mighty - Chapter 3 by Joe Gibbs & The Professionals
(0 Ratings)
Album Favorite

"This album is a huge record for me. African Dub Chapter 3 is a record that's beautiful and a work of art that's ahead of its time. It still sounds so modern today in terms of production techniques and imagination. It has so much space, with the songs being really deconstructed. But they're reconstructions and deconstructions of commercial singles that had been made avant-garde by just adding certain parts and dub effects. When I first heard this at 16 or 17, what with there being no West Indian population in Glasgow and just hearing this record, I immediately loved it. African Dub Chapter 3 is a record that has stayed with me forever, y'know? So when it came to working with Andy Weatherall, who remixed 'I'm Losing More Than I'll Ever Have' and then did 'Loaded' after that, to me, that's like a rock version of dub. So I completely understood it. Meanwhile, there were those who never quite took to it as much as me because they didn't have that art rock/dub background."

Source
  
Awkward
Awkward
8
8.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
So, I have a bit of a goofy grin on my face right now. That last page or so, the thing I've been waiting almost 150 pages for!!, finally happened. *grins*

I'm a happy bunny.

But back to the story. Admittedly the storyline is a little unbelievable--unless you live America, obviously--but I quickly got over that and just invested myself in the possible relationships of Mackenzie. I know she liked one guy and was a bit oblivious to most things around her with her wanting to be invisible but come on! I figured out about the other thing within 100 pages!

After the video of her CPR Fail went viral, her life went a bit national-news and I guess stuff like that does happen but again I struggled to understand that part of it. Some bits were cool; the band and Ellen but other bits just made me go "huh, really?"

Nevertheless, I did enjoy the story and wouldn't mind reading more by this author.