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Persian Surgery Dervishes by Terry Riley
Persian Surgery Dervishes by Terry Riley
2017 | Electronic
(0 Ratings)
Album Favorite

"That's like a bookend thing really, because it's one of the latest records I bought, only two months ago. Side one is the best side, sometimes he gets a bit busy, but the first track starts so sparsely, it's incredible. I saw Terry Riley recently when I was playing at the Primavera Festival. Everybody ends up staying in the same hotel near the site and a lift door opened and I saw him and he went 'hello Jarvis', and that was a very proud moment because I've only met him once before. Mark Webber, who was the guitarist in Pulp, he knew Terry Riley a bit and we actually did a performance of 'In C' with him at the Barbican years and years ago, and he remembered me from that. I was really touched. I think it's a really romantic record - none of these records have to be for any purpose but I have to say if you want to get it on with someone, it's a good one to put on. When Mark first introduced me to minimalism I thought 'there's not much happening here', but it makes you listen to music in a different way, you're listening to the actual sound of it. That expands your mind. Persian Surgery Dervishes is using that weird tuning, with loads more notes, it's questioning the idea of the Western scale, saying we can find notes within the notes. It's a long way from pop music, it's exciting, it's good to know you can be enthralled by music in which not very much happens. 
"

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Tobin Bell recommended The Firm (1993) in Movies (curated)

 
The Firm (1993)
The Firm (1993)
1993 | Drama, Mystery, Thriller

"The Firm, which was a film that I got a chance to be in, and got a chance to work with Sydney [Pollack] and really rub shoulders with Gene Hackman for the first time. Well, actually, I had been with Gene in Mississippi Burning. But I got to work with Gene Hackman and Tom Cruise and Holly Hunter and Gary Busey and Wilford Brimley. But Sydney Pollack had a great career as a director and I always admired his approach to things. Jeanne Tripplehorn was in The Firm also, did a great job as Tom’s wife. I love the music in The Firm. Dave Grusin wrote the music. I thought the film was very well put together, and when you take a novel, sometimes the film doesn’t match up, and I thought The Firm did match up. I read the novel and was very impressed with the scary Nordic guy who was sort of shadowing Tom Cruise’s character throughout the novel. He was just scary. And then, I’d say it was a year or two years later that my agents got a call from Pollack. I think he knew my work from the Actor’s Studio in New York, because Sydney was always very involved with the studio, and I think he was also a fan of Mississippi Burning and had seen that film. That took its own wings, and he just offered the role of the Nordic, and I thought, “Wow, that’d be great.” So I got to go to Memphis, Tennessee, the home of rock ‘n’ roll."

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Karl Hyde recommended Inside Out by John Martyn in Music (curated)

 
Inside Out by John Martyn
Inside Out by John Martyn
1973 | Rock
(0 Ratings)
Album Favorite

"It may seem like a change of tack, but it’s not actually. This is his most processed album. This is what I’m a fan of John Martyn for and something I don’t think anyone else has ever done before. It’s that sort of processed acoustic guitar that features a lot on my solo record, where the guitars are so heavily processed. John did this brilliantly. I saw him tour this album – it was one of the first gigs I ever saw as a youngster. It was astonishing hearing him making these beautiful soundscapes on a battered old Martin guitar through a delay line and a fuzz box. Not only was he a master of the guitar, he was also a master of processed sound. He used the voice in the way, again, that was like a tone generator. The words were barely audible but they made tones, in the way that Miles Davis might play his horn. Sometimes he’d sing in a completely different key. It was all about where he positioned the sound and the timbre. I don’t think he ever released another record that explored the acoustic process in the way that he did here. I know people that worked with him and had his effects pedals – I tried to get hold of them for this project (Edgeland) but they were long gone. It was a reference point for me for this album. I wanted to take that concept on, and Inside Out was my jumping off point."

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Sign of the Cross (Cal Donovan, #1)
Sign of the Cross (Cal Donovan, #1)
Glenn Cooper | 2016 | Fiction & Poetry, Mind, Body & Spiritual, Religion
6
6.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
This book is told from multiple perspectives and it has a very wide variety of characters to choose from. I really liked Cal (kind of the main character of this book), he is a very charming, intelligent and likeable character. Sometimes I used to get lost between who is who, due to a huge amount of different characters, whose names were not the easiest to pronounce. I am not very religious, but I really liked the way history and religion were combined in this novel, it was truly amusing.

This novel is very well researched, and it was visible, that the author loves history and knows how to present it to the reader in a fun manner. The narrative always keeps changing between different locations and different times. I really liked this constant change, it made the book lively and it kept me entertained. It is quite a short book, so every chapter brings something new and unexpected.

This novel has a lot of facts and information and wasn’t the easiest read, it requires quite a bit of concentration. The chapters have decent length and didn’t drag to me. The ending was interesting and rounded up the story nicely. So, to conclude, it is a fast-paced and educational novel, filled with adventure, amusing characters and always changing plot. If you enjoyed The Da Vinci Code or similar books, I think you would enjoy it as well. Give this book a try, and I hope you will like it as much as I did. 🙂
  
The Sandman (Audible Original #1)
The Sandman (Audible Original #1)
Neil Gaiman, Dirk Maggs | 2020 | Comics & Graphic Novels, Fiction & Poetry, Science Fiction/Fantasy
10
10.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
Well. Flipping heck. I’m a huge fan of the graphic novels, so I was both hesitant and wildly excited (it’s confusing to be me sometimes) when this popped on to my radar. Of course I preordered it off Audible, I’m not completely daft, and just in time for our holiday in Scotland. A nice, seven hour drive from Chester to the Black Isle (near Inverness - it’s beautiful there, by the way) and time well spent listening to this.

The cast was excellent: James McAvoy as Morpheus/ Dream/ The Sandman (they’re all the same person), Michael Sheen as Lucifer, and a host of other excellent voice actors: Rio Ahmed, Kat Dennings, Taron Egerton, Samantha Morton, Bebe Neuwirth, Andy Serkis and Miriam Margolyes. There are more actors, and they were all wonderful. It was ALL wonderful - it stuck faithfully to the original graphic novels, and Neil Gaiman narrated wonderfully ( I know I need a thesaurus, but ‘wonderful’ is THE word!). Whatever that man touches is golden, it seems to me.

Can you tell I liked it? Actually, I LOVED it. I usually fall asleep on long car journeys (I get terribly car sick, and I don’t drive 🤷🏼‍♀️), but I stayed awake for the whole time - and didn’t feel sick at all (even during the gory bits!).

The most potentially exciting part for me, is that it says ‘#1’. So I’ve set up my waiting post (I have to work out what that is exactly. I see it as a mental waiting room).
I can’t wait!!
  
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LoganCrews (2861 KP) rated For a Good Time, Call... (2012) in Movies

Sep 19, 2020 (Updated Nov 26, 2020)  
For a Good Time, Call... (2012)
For a Good Time, Call... (2012)
2012 | Comedy, Drama
Started out a little worrisome but thankfully this is every bit as funny, progressive, breezy, joyous, and woefully slept on as its cult supporters make it out to be. Miller and Graynor's chemistry is out of this world; and Nia Vardalos, Mark Webber, and of course the man Justin Long are smashing in their respective supporting roles. This was right around the start of that era where these raunchy sex comedies started to get not just really fucking obnoxious but also formulaic and near intolerable - so it's more than refreshing to see one that gives its characters an insane amount of both agency and dignity, setting up a commendable amount of their intricacies and quirks without ever pandering on the former nor judging them for the latter. The whole thing just has this infectiously delightful verve and bright personality about it, and it never seems like it's making any of the topics it finds humor in the actual butt of the joke. I admit that I'm sick of seeing just random montages of the city in opening credits sequences like this though, it adds nothing to the experience other than to remind you that this takes place in New York - and it does show its clumsiness in other areas too sometimes, but it's a damn good time as well as a reminder in how far some thoughtfulness and authentic care can go in elevating an experience like this. Ends a bit suddenly but otherwise the realization of that last scene is simply perfect.
  
Darkest Before Dawn (The Veil, #3)
Darkest Before Dawn (The Veil, #3)
6
6.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
Charlie is now working as an independent enforcer for the Institute; meaning she gets her own space and can be away from the series of warehouses that once held her captive. In her new place, she's getting over the fact that Stefan has pretty much shunned her when Akil comes knocking on her door bearing a young half blood demon, Dawn, that he tells her to protect before disappearing into the night.

Unfortunately, it seems that Dawn is hot property in the Netherworld and wanted by the Princes so they don't stay hidden away for long. She gets recaptured by Charlie's half brother, Valenti, and spirited back to the Netherworld. Charlie finally learns just why Dawn is being kept as a slave and it's because she girls demon is so scary powerful.

Then there's also Stefan who still hasn't regained control of his demon fully yet but is coming around to face the fact that Muse wasn't entirely to blame for what happened in the last book.

We also see a bit of a softer side to Akil in this one when, for a time, the world believes Muse to be dead. He doesn't take the news well.

It all gets a little more complicated and, if I'm honest, my attention has began to waver with this series. I still like Muse/Charlie and Stefan and sometimes Akil isn't so bad either but their complicated relationships are maybe getting a little TOO complicated for me to keep up with.

I'm not sure if I'll continue the series at this point.
  
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Sarah Paulson recommended Opening Night (1977) in Movies (curated)

 
Opening Night (1977)
Opening Night (1977)
1977 | Drama
(0 Ratings)
Movie Favorite

"I would probably say A Woman Under the Influence [for my fifth movie], although it’s a deep, deep tie between that and the movie Opening Night. And A Woman Under the Influence was, I think, more celebrated, but Opening Night might resonate more with me. It is a story about an actress coming to terms with aging and her mortality. I think I’m also really drawn to the way those movies were made, and you can kind of feel the hammer and nail that was used to bring the whole thing together in this way that’s sort of extraordinary and that you can just almost feel the effort made by everyone involved – which is what happens when you make any movie. But sometimes [it affects you] when you know that everybody’s friends were there and they’re all making food for people to eat while they’re making this movie, to make this movie, to tell the story, not to serve any bottom line, or anything other than their creative interests. [In Opening Night, writer, director, and co-star John Cassavetes worked with Gena Rowlands, his then wife.] You don’t always have that luxury. And I just am always very moved by the way they made their movies and what a family they were and what places they could go because of it, because of that intimacy, because of that ease and that history between them. They were able to do things that I don’t know that you could achieve or accomplish in any other fashion, you know?"

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After the War is Over
After the War is Over
Maureen Lee | 2020 | Fiction & Poetry
8
8.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
204
Book
After the war is over
By Maureen Lee

Liverpool, 1945.Three women, strong friends, return home from the war trying to fit back into their old lives after they've been demobbed.They've been thrown together by the war and shared all sorts of good and bad times. Now their old lives seem dull in comparison, but not for long... The younger women, Maggie and Nell, are both twenty-one and are full of hope and excitement; Iris, on the other hand, is feeling apprehensive about returning to civilian life. At the age of thirty her only wish in life is to have a baby, but sadly this wish has yet to come true. When one of the women falls pregnant, there begins a dramatic sequence of events so wide-reaching that the three friends' lives will become more intricately interwoven than they could ever have imagined. Over the next quarter of a century this story of three remarkable - and very different - women unfolds into an uplifting tale of how three ordinary families become extraordinary.


This is not normally a book I’d pick up from a shop or the library this was passed on by a friend and I always like to try different books. I really enjoyed it! It’s a gentle well told story of 3 women who’s lives take so many different twists and turns. You find yourself immersed into each of their lives. I will certainly be trying more of her books sometimes a girl needs a break from supernatural and crimes!
  
View the original review on my blog: https://bookmarkedreading.wordpress.com/2015/09/29/book-review-your-daily-brain-24-hours-in-the-life-of-your-brain/

I don’t usually read non-fiction books, but I’m a science geek at heart and couldn’t resist requesting a copy of this in return for my honest review.

It was definitely an interesting read. I loved the humour within the writing, and the combination of complicated scientific terms along with more simplified ones. It was easy to understand for the most part, and I hope I can truthfully say that I’ve learned something over the past two days from reading this.

Due to my habit of reading books at the speed of light, I don’t think the information in this book has sunk in as much as it could have. I personally found it a little hard to follow sometimes, though it was definitely better than skimming a textbook.

This is aimed at an older audience in my opinion, but I was still fascinated by what I read. A lot of it was information that I’d never even considered learning. The effect having a child has on a man’s brain? I can honestly say that it has never crossed my mind.

I did enjoy this book, even though I sped through it and am probably a little too young to fully appreciate some of the references. I’d say Your Daily Brain deserves a strong 3.5 stars, maybe edging up near 4.