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The Dukes of Hazzard: The Beginning (2007)

4.0 (4 Ratings) Rate It

Movie

The Dukes of Hazzard: The Beginning (2007) Larry B. In this prequel re-telling of the famous...

Pray the Gay Away: The Extraordinary Lives of Bible Belt Gays

Bernadette Barton

(0 Ratings) Rate It

Book

In the Bible Belt, it's common to see bumper stickers that claim One Man + One Woman = Marriage,...

Tom Chaplin recommended Tapestry by Carole King in Music (curated)

Tapestry by Carole King

1971 | Pop, Rock, Singer-Songwriter

9.0

(1 Ratings)

Album Favorite

"I’ve started writing a lot of songs recently; I’ve always written but I put my writing on hiatus because Tim’s such a great songwriter for Keane and I think I felt a bit deflated by how good he was, but recently I’ve got back into it. Carole King, I don’t know why, but something about the way that she talks about her emotional world, I find really engaging. It’s romantic, in a way, in a broader sense, and just beautifully crafted. Every time I sit down and try and write a song, I have her somewhere in the back of my mind. The great songs have a real sense of precision, there’s no dead space, you know every bit’s there for a reason. I like 'So Far Away'; I grew up in a small town and I always found it annoying, even though I did this myself, that people would leave! Because they felt that’s what they had to do - I’m not annoyed with them, I’m annoyed that that’s the way of the world, you have to leave your roots. I suppose I did the same thing, it’s a necessity of modern society, but it frustrates me. I used to sit around thinking, "Where are all my old mates who used to live down the road?" And that song, its wistful longing for people to stay put in a world that’s growing so fast. It’s a timeless record"

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Kudos

Jerry Cantrell recommended British Steel by Judas Priest in Music (curated)

"Many of the bands on this list are British. I was heavily influenced by British bands. At that particular time [Judas Priest, Black Sabbath, Led Zeppelin, etc. were releasing music] there was just an overwhelming amount of great music from across the Pond, from The Beatles forward. There was so much quantity and quality. All of these bands, in one way or another, either spurted out each other or inspired each other or created a split for somebody to go a different way. That sort of environment, using my own experience, with what happened in our small town with a handful of bands, it was a healthy level of respect and competition at the same time that kind of spurred the growth of all our bands. I'd assume it would be the same for a lot of these UK bands. To all metalheads, British Steel is one of the flagship records of all times. I dunno how many times I've been hanging with Dimebag [Darrell] and Vinnie Paul [from Pantera and Damageplan] and be cranking that record. You know, Dime always had a razor blade [pendant] around his neck and that's because of this record. These are some of the first riffs I started really learning how to play. K.K. Downing and Glenn Tipton are one of the all-time great dual guitars in metal, for sure, and Rob Halford is just the best. There's nobody like him."

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Kudos

Mark @ Carstairs Considers (2346 KP) rated Murder Most Sweet in Books

Sep 11, 2020

Sweet and Light, but Could be Stronger

After surviving breast cancer five years ago, Teddie St. John starting writing culinary cozies, combining her love and baking and mysteries. She’s moderately successful, and looking forward to meeting the highly successful Tavish Bentley when he comes to her small Wisconsin town for a book signing. However, the event ends early when Teddie finds Tavish’s fiancée dead in the ally next to the bookstore. The murder weapon was one of Teddie’s scarfs. Teddie needs to clear her name, but can she do it?

Since I love both culinary and booked themed cozies, I was looking forward to digging into this debut. Unfortunately, I found the mystery to be weak. It started well, but it wasn’t strong enough overall. On the other hand, Teddie does lead a cast of fun characters that I enjoyed meeting. I did find Teddie’s mother a bit much, but hopefully that relationship will grow as the series goes on. The suspects are just as strong and memorable as the main characters. As a man, I was a bit uncomfortable with some of the talk about Teddie’s breast cancer, but I am sure most people who pick up the book will be fine with that. If the book leaves you craving some Wisconsin sweets, you’ll be thrilled to find the six recipes at the back of the book. Hopefully, the mysteries will grow as the series progresses.

Kudos

LeftSideCut (3776 KP) rated Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem (AVP 2) (2007) in Movies

Jun 28, 2019

A shameless money grab

After the thoroughly underwhelming AVP, we are presented with Requiem, a film that's entices you with it's R rating (after the first films odd PG-13 rating), and it's clear to see why a lot of the advertising was centred around the R rating - because Requiem has little else to offer.

Both of these franchises are beloved, but unfortunately, the bad films have really started to outweigh the good - and Requiem is a film made purely to make money. There's no diving into the lore behind any of the past films, and instead the story is set in a small Colorado town, full of actors that I kind of recognise from various TV shows - which is fitting, because the film plays out like an episode of Dawson's Creek, just with lots of Aliens running around.

The staple violence of both series is present once again, however, it feels like the constant Gore is being thrown at you to distract you from the threadbare plot.

The (singular) Predator looks pretty good, however the Aliens are mostly shrouded in shadow, I don't recall seeing a full body shot of a Xenomorph at any point, and the Predator-Alien hybrid, again, is never really shown properly, and what we do see looks silly.

It's a pretty shoddy movie all in all, and this particular mash up is probably best left to books and graphic novels.