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The Hunger Games (2012)
The Hunger Games (2012)
2012 | Drama, Mystery, Sci-Fi
So, the pop-culture behometh that was (is?) 'The Hunger Games'.

It's a trilogy of Young Adult (I hate that term! Us older adults can like them, too ...) novels, made into a quartet of movies.

This is the first in both the novels and the movie series.

While, yes, I have read those novels - I'm not sure, but maybe after originally having watched this film back in 2012 or so? - I can't really remember the full ins and outs of the plot - except the obvious! - although I am sure that, as always, liberties will have been taken, as movies and prose are two distinct mediums.

Set in the future dystopia of Panem (post apocalyptic America?), once every year the 12 districts are forced to randomly choose and send two teenagers - one boy and a girl - to The Capitol to participate in a televised fight to the death inside a giant man-made arena. Katniss Everdeen is one of those chosen from District 12, volunteering to take her sister's place when her sisters name is chosen during her first year of mandatory participation. The film (like what I remember from the book) draws a clear distinction between those from The Capitol - who view this all as a grand sport, and who are very definitely the haves of this world against those from the various districts (the have nots), while also taking the opportunity to make a point about how those in power can treat and abuse those without.

Yes, it's violent.

Yes, I'm sure some of the bloodier parts of the book were cut in order to get the PG-13 rating it does.

Yes, Jennifer Lawrence shines in the lead role

Yes, that *is* Chris Hemsworth's (otherwise known as the MCU's Thor) brother Liam.
  
Classic FM Presents... by Alfie Boe
Classic FM Presents... by Alfie Boe
2006 | Classical
(0 Ratings)
Album Favorite

"Last year I arrived in San Diego at the beginning of a tour, where I was playing the Thick As A Brick material. I ambled down to the theatre in the morning having arrived the night before, where the theatre manager said there was a note for me in my dressing room, left behind by Alfie Boe who they’d had a couple of nights before. I recognised Alfie Boe as a hotshot, super popular opera star who played at the Queen’s Jubilee Concert in Hyde Park. They crop up from time to time, these people who cross over from a more insulated music into wider popular culture, and Alfie Boe has certainly done that in the last couple of years with opera music. You might think he’s just another of the usual not-quite-authentic people who just find themselves singing the odd aria at working men’s clubs, and getting a record deal and a ton of money. But Alfie did his apprenticeship by studying at the Royal Academy of Music, worked with the D’Oyly Carte Opera and spent ten years of his life learning his craft. And he was a man born with enormous natural talent. Rather like Lou Gramm he has this very assured level of control – he knows what he can do. I read his note to me, wishing me a good show and leaving me a phone number. So a few weeks later in England I called Alfie and we had a few chats on the phone, and though we haven’t met we were due on two occasions to have lunch, but he had to cancel because of his mother’s illness. But I hope I do get to meet Alfie because I think he’s a very fine singer. I understand that while his desire is not to leave classical music, he wants to demonstrate he’s got the cojones of a Tom Jones or a Robert Plant or whoever - he wants to be a rock and roll singer. Far be it for me to say that might be mistake, you’ve got to give it a go. So Alfie’s branching out into rather middle-of-the-road pop and rock at the moment. As a classical singer, I think he has the gravitas and vocal expertise, perhaps more vocal expertise, than Pavarotti at his relatively young best. If you listen to Alfie’s ‘Nessun Dorma’, I think you’ll hear something that is sung with enormous technical ability, control, authority and with the right amount of gravitas, it has a weight to it that I think is really great. I hope he doesn’t sell himself short in the realm of middle-of-the-road pop music."

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Lee Ronaldo recommended Meet The Beatles! by The Beatles in Music (curated)

 
Meet The Beatles! by The Beatles
Meet The Beatles! by The Beatles
1964 | Pop
7.0 (1 Ratings)
Album Favorite

"I chose Meet The Beatles!, not With The Beatles, it was the first album (released by Capitol) in America. It’s mostly coming from With The Beatles, but I think there’s a few songs on there that are not on Meet The Beatles!. I’ve been talking about Sgt. Pepper and Revolver recently because those records are to the fore in terms of my new record but I chose this one because The Beatles are such an undying, unending influence and that’s the record I heard first. I was very young when it came out but for some reason my father brought it home and he brought home the singles that preceded it on these obscure little labels in America – Vee-Jay Records, Swan Records before Capitol took over, so I have all those records. I always cite Meet The Beatles! because I’m so very happy that, even though I was very young, I was able to experience the arc of The Beatles career in its time rather than coming to it afterwards. When Steve Shelley joined Sonic Youth, he’s a huge Beatles freak and we’d ask “What was your first Beatles record Steve?” and he’d say the red one or the blue one, the two doubles that came out after they dispersed and we’d be like “ok…” It doesn’t really matter where it starts, it’s not like an ‘I’m better than you’ sort of thing, but to have experienced that momentous change in music and culture in our society in its time is a very important thing to me in terms of who I am and how it shaped me. It all really started with that record. Pop music was always on the radio, but that record changed something in me. You never think when you’re a little kid that you’re going to grow up to be a pop musician, you never really think that it’s going to happen for you. But that record changed the things I found important in my life and it just made music such a central obsession and just showed how intelligent that process can be. It can start with something as simple as that record that’s got ‘I Want To Hold Your Hand’ on it, songs of that ilk, to go through to ‘Tomorrow Never Knows’ and ‘I Am The Walrus’ and all these super sophisticated musical compositions. So just watching that arc gave me a lot of inspiration on a lot of levels and it didn’t even have to be for music it could be for whatever you wanted to do in terms of showing how deeply and committedly you could throw yourselves into the work you were going to do."

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Insatiable (Insatiable, #1)
Meg Cabot | 2010
10
9.0 (2 Ratings)
Book Rating
I normally try to avoid Meg Cabot, simply because I've found some of her writing too teeny-bopper for me, but this book was written for adults and features an all-adult cast list. Now this is a book that could be made into a movie.
The book starts out as an anti-vampire book, and makes fun of the over-saturation in pop culture through Meena Harper's character. I love Meena's character right away, with her writing skills and passion for a decades-old soap opera, she is someone I can relate to. Her ability to predict others' deaths only makes her more intriguing. I also find it fittingly ironic when more and more of the people around Meena turn out to be vampires, as she eventually acknowledges herself.
Even though the book is written for adults, Meg Cabot still keeps the writing clean, skipping through the intimate bedroom scenes with only the smallest of hints at the sordid details. She also leaves many of the gruesome aspects of the plot up to the imagination of the readers, which I prefer.
Because this book is all about tongue-in-cheek irony, it is only fitting that the state of Meena's mind -- the jumbled mess of a writer -- attracts the prince of all vampires, Lucien, who happens to be a Romanian history professor when he isn't attending to his princely duties. I get the feeling that there is more to Lucien and Meena's attraction to each other than what Meg Cabot is telling the reader, but by the end of the book, this is still a mystery. Plus, a good-looking vampire slayer suffering from too much micromanagement and even less communication skills causes some interesting conflicts and obstacles for Meena and Lucien. His attraction to Meena is like water to a sponge, but Meena is less drawn to Alaric.
I wasn't crazy by how the book ended, but it made sense for Meena's independence. Still, I'm hoping Meena's choices will change in the next book, Overbite.
  
The Geek's Guide to Unrequited Love
The Geek's Guide to Unrequited Love
8
7.0 (3 Ratings)
Book Rating
The Geek’s Guide to Unrequited Love is a fandom-lovers dream, minus the unrequited love. The story takes place predominantly at New York Comic Con, the second largest convention of pop culture fanatics (myself included) in the United States. You can tell that the author is either very familiar with the area from personal experience, or questioned a con-goer to get every detail. She mentions things like the cell service being spotty in the Artist’s Alley (it is) and the atmosphere you experience on the way to the Con. It’s so fascinating to be walking the streets for a while when suddenly you notice a Spider-Man strolling out of a bakery, not too long after a group of wizards turn the corner and before you know it you’re surrounded by a horde of enthusiastic, frequently costumed, nerds, geeks and fans of all ages outside the Javitt’s Center, where NYCC is held.

The atmosphere was authentic and made me feel like I was attending the Con as well, although that may be in part because I’ve attended NYCC before I do believe that any reader will feel just as immersed. The world was the most enjoyable part of the book, as the characters were not as developed as they could have been. There were moments of clarity where you saw more into their motivations, but overall they weren’t memorable characters. That’s not to say there was anything wrong with them, they just didn’t affect me as a reader.

It was an easy, enjoyable contemporary read that I think is perfect for young adult/teen readers who are fans of something and enjoy books that they can relate to on that level. You don’t have to be a comic book or superhero fan to enjoy Comic Con, it is a refuge and a consolidation of all fandoms. If you love something, you will find something you can relate to at Comic Con and in this book.