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Fire (The Six Elements, #1)
4
4.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
This is okay as a basic fantasy novel. One thing did bother me towards the beginning in that the main character classifies her and her friends as classes, like assassin, ranger, etc. and even in Dungeons and Dragons books they don't come straight out and name them like that, and it just seemed a little cheesy. Overall the concept is good, but the characters just don't grow nor did I become attached to them.
  
A Monster Calls (2016)
A Monster Calls (2016)
2016 | Drama, Fantasy
The acting (2 more)
The CGI
The tree was like a giant Groot
No closer with Dad and bully (0 more)
Imaginative, fun and emotional
This was a fantastic film. I did not know much going into this movie other then there being a giant tree monster. This movie took my breath away. From the acting to the CGI. The animation sequences made to look like water colors was just brilliant.

You just never new what to expect out of the movie which is always a good thing. You don't know if the tree is good or if it is evil. Something you think the tree is just a big jerk trying to pull one over on Conner. I like how they made it seem that the monster was growing inside of Conner, showing that Conner was the monster, even though I never thought that during the movie. I thought he was just a kid in trouble. Bully's at school, dad not there, mom sick and a Grandma that treated him like a baby. Eventually you new he was just going to act out. When he did there was no punishment. They just told him why bother. I thought this was either because he could learn from his mistakes or that everyone felt sorry that his mom was dying. I think he just wanted to be punished for acting out. But no punishment did seem like his punishment.


The water color stories in the movie were done really well, it felt like you were falling into the story. It showed there is many ways to take life or how to interpret life experiences. What you do is what matters most. In the end Conner just had to learn the truth.


There is a monster tree lurking in all of us, we just have to listen for it. See the movie and you will know why.
  
Sweet Smell of Success (1957)
Sweet Smell of Success (1957)
1957 | Drama, Film-Noir
9.0 (1 Ratings)
Movie Favorite

"Another movie I’m going to give you is the same thing. I mean, it’s just that the writing is unbelievable, and that’s Sweet Smell of Success. It was a movie I discovered a little bit later, like maybe in my teens. And that was another move that I was just like, “Jesus, the writing on this thing, it’s unbelievable.” The one-liners are so smart, you know? I loved movies like Sunset Boulevard and I loved the kind of Hitchcock films and all of these kind of things and then I saw Sweet Smell of Success and I was like, “Oooh, this is a little bit naughtier,” you know what I mean? There’s something a little bit darker about that movie. The performances in it are so priceless. It was a little bit more of a leap in the cinematography, I think, than maybe those of, like, Sunset Boulevard or something. The lighting, it was very harsh. They were doing things with the cinematography that I was like, “Ooh, this is naughty,” like, “You’re not supposed to do that.” You know?"

Source
  
40x40

Beth Orton recommended Kick Inside Soundtrack by Kate Bush in Music (curated)

 
Kick Inside Soundtrack by Kate Bush
Kick Inside Soundtrack by Kate Bush
1990 | Rock
(0 Ratings)
Album Favorite

"More so than any of her records, again, I just find it one after another songs that just particularly move me... I'm very moved by the song 'The Man with the Child in his Eyes' - I love that song. So, it's funny, it's a lot about having children and at the time I first heard it, I had no idea that I'd ever have children. I always loved her - she seemed like a kind of punk rock folk singer to me, with that punk rock attitude, and that extraordinary voice and such beautiful songwriting and very diverse musicianship. This record for me is something that, in my teenage years, I was just engrossed in. I can't really take myself back there and say why, what started that. It was very much part of my teenage years, but it's also very much part of my life now - fuck, this is so hard! 'The Man with the Child in his Eyes', 'L'Amour Looks Something Like You', 'Them Heavy People' - all of them, 'Moving'... often it's the way the songs start, as much as anything. It's a bit like Blue; as soon as they start, you know something amazing's coming, and then her voice kicks in and it's just like heaven. Ah, it's just heavenly!"

Source
  
Star Trek Beyond (2016)
Star Trek Beyond (2016)
2016 | Action, Drama, Sci-Fi
Great tributes to the late Leonard Nimoy and Anton Yelchin (1 more)
The cast and their interactions with each other are good
Like it's predecessors, feels more like a generic Sci-Fi action movie than Trek to me. (3 more)
Idris Elba wasted as another bland villain
Shaky cam
Story just didn't hold my attention
I tried, but I just do not enjoy this
I really wanted to like this, I watched it twice in hopes that I would enjoy it, but it just fell flat for me.
  
The Happytime Murders (2017)
The Happytime Murders (2017)
2017 | Comedy
Childish, ridiculous nonsense... and that's why it's fun.

Something that films like this can be guilty of is taking a joke too far in a single scene. Happytime tap dances down that line and looks like it might stumble clear over but it does managed to just avoid it. Just.

Much like I didn't know I needed to hear Nic Cage saying "anal beads" in Mom & Dad, I didn't know that I needed to see a muppet jizz silly string.

It's not muppets like you know them, but there are some nostalgic drops in there. The one thing that I can't judge is whether this will stand up to being watched more than once. What I do know is that I wouldn't turn it off if it came on the TV.
  
Sixteen Candles (1984)
Sixteen Candles (1984)
1984 | Comedy
Not so sweet 16
What can you say about a movie like 16 candles that hasn't already been said a 1000x. Like most of John Hughes 16 candles really just sums up what it's like being a teenager and no matter the decade he really just transcended time because this movie worked for my mom in 80's, me in the early 2000's, and teens now and honestly I feel like it will still be relateable for generations to come.
  
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Moses Boyd recommended Point of Departure by Andrew Hill in Music (curated)

 
Point of Departure by Andrew Hill
Point of Departure by Andrew Hill
2001 | Jazz, Pop
(0 Ratings)
Album Favorite

"I remember a group of us all went to this record store - FOPP in Covent Garden - and they were having a Blue Note sale, and every record was like three quid. And I remember all of us going in with like 30 quid and we’d just clean up on the catalogue, and that CD was one of the first ones I remember going home and listening to. I don’t know if you’ve had one of them experiences where you listen to a record and you just feel something change in you. Like, what's happening? How have I never heard anything like this? There's so many questions in your head. Even still to this day I’m like how did you even make that? How do you even begin to approach that and make a work like it, to this day it still stands that test of time; creativity, authenticity, sound, energy all of that stuff. Yeah man, shout out to Andrew Hill."

Source
  
Do the Right Thing (1989)
Do the Right Thing (1989)
1989 | Comedy, Drama

"First one on my list is Do the Right Thing. Spike Lee, man. I actually saw that twenty times in the theaters. That’s before VCRs; I mean, that was like right when the VCRs were kind of happening, and you had to wait a year for something to come out on VHS. It wasn’t the quick turnaround like we have right now. But Do the Right Thing changed my life in so many ways, because I had never seen… it was a movie that was comedic, yet so powerful. I didn’t really have a definition, because I’d never seen black people on screen like that, and it was just one of those things. It was my era; it was my generation. There was a lot of blaxploitation before that, you know, and you could see people on TV, and all this stuff. But I remember I was in college, and it was kind of like this empowerment. Spike had made She’s Gotta Have It, but then Do the Right Thing really broke it down. It changed my life. It made me want to get into the business like never before. Totally. I was like, I am a Spike Lee nut; I want to do this. I thought it should have won Best Picture that year; it just meant so much. It just meant a lot to everybody. There was a lot of race relations stuff, and just think of the stars that came out of that: Sam Jackson, Martin Lawrence, and Spike himself, and Rosie Perez, and John Turturro. I mean, it’s just… Whew! It just changed the game, changed the game."

Source
  
Americanah
Americanah
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie | 2014 | Fiction & Poetry
8
8.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
I think I’ve become too accustomed to reading plots designed for teenagers; I kept expecting this story to follow a traditional plot line, and while the evidence throughout was that Adichie was not following a typical narrative story line, I still found myself surprised at the end. I got to the end, and sort of thought, “Oh. That’s it?” Not in a negative way, like the author left me hanging (as many of these series writing author’s do, teasing me into reading the next book), but just in a sort of unexpected way.

I don’t know that I can even tell you my overall feeling about the book…it’s just too complex for that. I liked that the rhythm and pattern of the storytelling was like nothing I’ve read before. I like that it offered an unfamiliar (to me) perspective of race in America. I like that the book kind of was and was not all about race. (I know that last one is super confusing, but just read the book and then ask me what I mean if it’s still unclear.)

It’s a book that is just going to simmer a bit in my brain, and that is perhaps the very best sort of book.