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ClareR (5996 KP) rated The Hard Crowd: Essays 2000-2020 in Books

Apr 18, 2021

The Hard Crowd is a collection of essays about culture and politics. I had read Rachel Kushner's novel The Mars Room and loved it (even went on to buy it for a friend), so I was intrigued to read this collection. There really is a mix here - something for everyone.
The opening essay about Kushner’s participation in an illegal motorbike race on the Baja Peninsula was probably my favourite - it sounded terrifying and exciting all at once. She does seem to like anything to do with motors, as a later essay showed. This one wasn’t really for me, but this is a collection where there is something for everyone. The chapter on wild cat strikes was interesting, as were the ones where she describes her formative years in her hometown and the music concerts she went to (loved these too). The last essay in the book played out as though it was on a film in my head.
The essay about prison reform was really thought provoking, as was that of when Kushner visited a Palestinian refugee camp. I could easily have read more of this one - no matter how saddening it ultimately was.
Rachel Kushner really can write. As she did in The Mars Room, each of these essays really evoked a time and place and made this book pretty hard to put down.
Many thanks to Jonathan Cape for inviting me to read this via NetGalley.

Kudos

Colin Newman recommended Clear by Spirit in Music (curated)

Clear by Spirit

(0 Ratings)

Album Favorite

"They were in my opinion one of the best West Coast bands from the 70s. I got this album around 1970; I can't remember what year it came out, 68 or 69, something like that. It's got one or two unbelievable tracks on it: 'Ice' and the title track. Both are amazing instrumental pieces which are really like nothing I'd ever heard before. They're jazzy but they have a flavour, a rhythm of something else. Some of the songs are okay and some of the songs are a bit silly. I had a little square Dansette and a tiny room when I was a kid and the room was twice the size of the bed, and I used to lie on my bed with the speaker next to my ear. And I remember it being very hot and listening to that album and feeling like the music had captured the heat in a way that no other music that I'd heard actually did. So I always associate it with heat. And I always figure that if somebody knows about Spirit then they probably know quite a lot about music. And the guy who produced it is the guy who later went on to produce Carole King, and he was interviewed for the NME. At the time Carole King was regarded as being super unhip, and the journalist said oh, you produced the Spirit album; they were fantastic. And the guy said oh, I didn't really understand the music, which I thought was stupidly disingenuous, because actually he brought a really interesting touch to it."

Source

Kudos

Red Vengeance (Black Widow #2)

Margaret Stohl

6.0 (1 Ratings) Rate It

Book

Emotions are dangerous, which is why the graduates of Moscow’s famed spy school the Red Room are...

Amazon Echo Dot (2nd Generation)

7.8 (114 Ratings) Rate It

Tech Watch

Amazon Echo Dot is a hands-free, voice-controlled device that uses Alexa to play music, control...

Jesters_folly (230 KP) rated The Purge (2013) in Movies

Jan 28, 2021

The Purge (2013)

2013 | Mystery, Sci-Fi

6.4

(30 Ratings)

Movie Rating

Contains spoilers, click to show

I wanted a 'Killer in masks/home invasion' and that's what I got but there is a lot going on it 'The Purge' :

1) We have the purge itself, a new political party has come in and started titular Purge, one night a year where any crime is legal (although the emphasis is on killing and, via subtext, rape). There are a few exceptions stated at the start of the film and, although it's not directly stated, it seems that minors are exempt, in that they can be targets but not actually participate in the killing.

2)The 'Boyfriend' subplot. This could have led to the main plot but seems to be there just to keep us off track at the beginning.

3) The bloody stranger - ok he's needed as he's the main McGuffin

4) The Freaks, Yes the film needs it's antagonists and it's sometimes good to throw in a red herring but we have; The Freaks, Henry (the boy friend), The Bloody stranger who is suspected as being dangerous when he first arrives, even Janes Sandin looks like he could be the antagonist when he is going to throw the stranger out of the house, then we have...

5) The neighbours - even from the start of the film there is something off about them.

6) Add all of this together with a lot of politics and you have a very layered film.

The first half of the film is mainly set up, setting up the idea of the purge and introducing the characters, there are a few shots of violence in the beginning but the film starts off slow. Then it explodes in violence.

Although the concept is the same, The Purge is a different beast to something like 'The Strangers', both films spend time building up to the the action but, when the action starts, the Purge is much faster paced, mainly because there are more 'hunters' and they have guns.
The Purge is also a very political film but it doesn't go down the 'rich vs poor' root that a lot of films do, this is mentioned a bit but only to back up the thinking behind some of those who partake in the event. The film shows two sides of the Purge and mentions two more, you have those that want to take part in the event and those (like the main family) who don't, the Sandin's just want to get through the night where as the 'Freaks' happily take part in it. It's also mentioned that there are those who can not protect themselves (the poor) and those that object.

After watching it I am left with two questions:

1) what happened to Henrys body? We last saw it in Zoey's room, no one mentioned moving it and it couldn't have been taken out of the house but it was never seen when the Freaks were going room to room, they even went into the room where it should have been.

2) were the cookies poisoned? The neighbour said they saw the shutters come down (pulled off) and decided to take the opportunity to kill the Sandins but the hatred was already there so could the cookies have been another way to kill them off. It's true that they would have had to have been cooked before the purge officially started but, going by when they given, they would not have been eaten until either a few minuets before the start or after it had started and I doubt that anyone official would pay too much attention to the bodies after the purge. There would be too many even if they wanted too.

Kudos

The Marinated Meeple (1853 KP) rated Stay Alive in Tabletop Games

Apr 18, 2018

Stay Alive

1965 | Abstract Strategy, Kids Game

7.5

(4 Ratings)

Tabletop Game Rating

the satisfying drop of the other players marble into the chute (2 more)

Taking out your sisters pieces

Figuring out the patterns of the slides.

I loved this game as a kid.... not sure it would hold up now.

I'd love to get my hands on a copy of this game. I'd love to try it out now and see how it holds up. I imagine it would be pretty easy to memorize the patterns of the boards sliders, The real skill is in knowing how to move them, and the placement of the marble pawns. I think I would have a blast reliving my childhood for an hour. playing best out of three. I also think this might make a very cool retro art piece for my gaming room wall.