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Butch Vig recommended Violator by Depeche Mode in Music (curated)

 
Violator by Depeche Mode
Violator by Depeche Mode
1990 | Rock
8.7 (3 Ratings)
Album Favorite

"""I think I fell in love with this record when I first heard 'Personal Jesus', which was a big single in the US. I love the sound of this record. There's no band playing live, rocking out in a room; you can tell that they're sitting in front of their keyboards or drum machine and making the record one finger at a time. Yet somehow it's got this amazing soul, with a clean technical sound and the vocals are so powerful. It's one of those records for me. I used to always put it on in the car, particularly when it was raining and I had to drive somewhere and the window wipers were going back and forth. Till this day, whenever I put that record on, that’s what I can immediately think of: driving in the rain and listening to that record over and over again. I dunno if the rest of Garbage would necessarily put Violator on but we were playing it backstage at one of the shows the other night and Shirley was singing along. I think she said, ""I always forget how much I love these guys, they're a guilty pleasure of mine"". The same could be said about Duke and Steve too but I’m probably the biggest fan."

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Jason and the Argonauts (1963)
Jason and the Argonauts (1963)
1963 | Fantasy

"Jason and the Argonauts is the very first movie that I ever remember watching. My parents were living in New York and I was a very young kid. And I remember being in front of my TV all alone watching skeletons fighting with swords. For me it was magic. I guess the emotion was so strong that the memory of the room and the TV still piques my mind because maybe at that age you don’t really know what a skeleton is. But watching skeletons fighting was like, “Wooh-wooh, what the f— is this?” And I have a memory of that movie that sticks in my mind of the giant — there’s a boat that goes through the legs of a big giant. I have a lot of respect for those movies, like the old King Kong, which create a grand world with the tricks. I’ve always been respectful to all the people who do visual effects and special effects, because making movies is also making magic. You can also admire a man who pretends to cut a woman to pieces in a theater because he makes these images of horror that, again, don’t hurt. That was my very first memory of this film. And I was always going to see movies since then."

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Death of a Halloween Party Monster
Death of a Halloween Party Monster
Lee Hollis | 2023 | Mystery
10
10.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
Cold Costumed Corpse
This story features Lee Hollis’s series star Hayley Powell, who is hosting a Halloween party at her new restaurant. However, the night ends in horror when the body of the high school music teacher is found in the freezer. Is one of Hayley’s friends a killer?

I don’t read this series, just the novellas when they are part of an anthology I want to read, but I found myself feeling right at home partying with these characters from the beginning of this story. I did figure out one aspect of the story early on, but there were several more, including the identity of the killer, that I hadn’t pieced together until Hayley did. It’s a twist on a locked room mystery, which is always fun. The ending was great and kept me turning the pages. There are also some recipes to enjoy while you read or at a party you are hosting this Halloween.

NOTE 1: This is a novella, so expect something shorter than a typical novel before you pick it up.

NOTE 2: This novella was originally in the Halloween Party Murder anthology. If you’ve already read it there, you don’t need to buy it again here.
  
The Lego Movie 2: The Second Part (2019)
The Lego Movie 2: The Second Part (2019)
2019 | Adventure, Animation, Comedy
An average sequel
The original Lego movie (and the Lego Batman film) were surprisingly great films, so it's no surprise they decided to make a sequel. Sadly it's also no surprise that the sequel only ends up fairly average.

It looks visually stunning, and I loved how they've tied this in more with the real world. I think it's quite smart how they've managed to link the characters to the real life toys. The problem is the story itself is rather lacklustre and a little all over the place, and most of the jokes fall flat. There was only 1 or 2 things I laughed at during the entire film, which is a shame as the original and Batman film were downright hilarious. Even the music is pretty dull. There's no song that really matches up to the brilliant Everything is Awesome and the ones that almost do are the remix versions of that song. Although I did love the Lonely Island song over the credits. There's a great voice cast in this too, to the point where I spend most of the film trying to figure out who's who. But there are some who sound a little out of place - Richard Ayoade and Noel Fielding to name a couple. And also what was with Will Ferrell? He barely featured in this at all apparent from being a voice from another room, rather odd!