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ClareR (5589 KP) rated Sixteen Horses in Books

Oct 30, 2021  
Sixteen Horses
Sixteen Horses
Greg Buchanan | 2021 | Crime, Fiction & Poetry, Horror, Mystery, Thriller
8
7.0 (2 Ratings)
Book Rating
Sixteen Horses was a pretty gruesome thriller about a Forensic Veterinarian who is called in to investigate the discovery of sixteen horses heads, buried in a circle on farmland. If you find dismembered animals upsetting, then this won’t be the book for you, but I found the way that Cooper Allen undertook her investigation fascinating.

There is a really bleak, moody atmosphere throughout this book, that brought The Smiths song ‘Everyday is like Sunday’ to mind: this IS the coastal town that they forgot to close down, and everyday does seem to be grey - if not silent!

Ilmarsh is a town that has seen far better days, full of the unemployed and displaced, and even though it’s not a pleasant thought, it’s no surprise that it should be the setting for a series of disappearances, arson and mutilations. There is someone in this town with a lot of time on their hands. And no better way to spend it.

The writing is mesmerising - I found it hard to drag myself away, even though I found it profoundly unsettling. And that’s the big thing about this novel: I’m still not 100% sure who the culprit was, but I found myself not too upset by that. It was such a breathtaking journey (however, if anyone would like to message me with the answer to that, I wouldn’t be at all put out!)

Many thanks to the publisher who provided me with an e-copy of the book through both NetGalley and Jellybooks (because I forgot I already had it from NetGalley 🤦🏼‍♀️).
  
500 Days of Summer (2009)
500 Days of Summer (2009)
2009 | Comedy, Drama, Romance
This is not a love story. This is a story about love. The tag line sums of this movie perfectly. It’s a story of a boy Tom who meets a girl at work called Summer, He thinks she is ‘The One’ and after a little bit of a fling. Until Summer decides she doesn’t want anything serious, Tom goes on the roller coaster of emotions and we get to see how he gets though the 500 days of Summer. Tom gets help from his two best friends McKenzie, Paul and even his little sister Rachel who is surprisingly more adult than her age would show.

The Story is something a lot of people can relate to as it’s a dead-end job that Tom just filled even tho he dreamed of being something better. Can this doomed relationship give him the confidence to take the next step in his career? With some great chemistry between Tom and Summer that sparkles at the start but fizzles out as the relationship grew. Having great locations from an Ikea store to a hill-side park in the middle of the busy city. The music through out the movie are great classics from The Smiths, Morrissey and Beatles conversation keep the music lovers interested in the storyline.

Overall Movie Rating 93% it’s a rom-com that everyone will enjoy as it is a position everyone would have been in some when during their love life. Action junkies will not be interested that much but overall a very good romantic comedy that all will enjoy

https://moviesreview101.com/2010/01/26/500-days-of-summer/
  
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Rick Astley recommended Hatful of Hollow by The Smiths in Music (curated)

 
Hatful of Hollow by The Smiths
Hatful of Hollow by The Smiths
1984 | Rock
9.5 (6 Ratings)
Album Favorite

"Johnny Marr was quite young around this time, wasn't he? And Morrissey…some people are more lyrical than others and their conversation can use the language more [stylishly]. And he must have found that it came easily to him. But how does Johnny Marr play like that! Even people who hate The Smiths agree that Johnny Marr was a genius. To be honest, Andy Rourke and Mike Joyce weren't a bad rhythm section either. How did they do that quite young? I don't know. One of my older brothers was into The Smiths and we shared a bedroom so I heard a lot of their music. We would have been teens about this time. I loved the fact that they were from Manchester. I saw Andy Rourke around this time in town and it made me think 'fucking hell! It happens! I've just seen HIM! He's in this band that are totally credible, cool, has put Manchester on the map and I've just seen him walk out of the Arndale Centre!' And so yeah, we bought records and got drunk in Manchester and it felt like the town was happening at the time. The first time I saw them was on a north west television show and they did 'This Charming Man' and I was like [mouth agape]. We had had the Duran Durans and Spandau Ballets who looked great and were very glamorous and then you're confronted with these guys from Manchester – very ordinary in a way you might actually see them in Manchester but they weren't ordinary in their music. They didn't dress in clothes made by someone in Soho. It was like they got their shirts in Afflecks Palace! It was almost anti-glamour. And that felt very touchable. What do I think of Morrissey now? For me, lyrically he's still incredible. I can't say I know the last album well but I just think, like anybody who is an artist, you can tell a story a number of times and it has a freshness about it but we know Morrissey's way [by now]. I don't want to judge him but I don't really get into what he says off record because sometimes you wonder if he's taking the piss? But I don't know, I haven't really followed it. Is he doing that to create something going? Will he come back and say 'I didn't mean it like that'? Surely he must know [his recent comments around Britain First] are not a cool thing to do. But he's bizarre and thank God he's bizarre. I don't want him to be normal in any way, shape or form."

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The Hacienda Classics by  Various Artists
The Hacienda Classics by Various Artists
2006 | Compilation, House
(0 Ratings)
Album Favorite

"When Oasis first started, very early on we used to cover ‘Feel The Groove’ by Cartouche. There’s a tape of that live gig knocking about somewhere. I was the dance music head in the group. I was into indie music like everyone else, New Order, The Smiths and then one night in 1987 someone took me to the Hacienda because I’d been reading about this music and I just stood there, drinking Colt 45, thinking 'Well, this is shit…' But then someone else took me the week after and said, 'Have one of these.' And put a little pill in my hand. And within an hour I thought that this music was the greatest thing that I’d ever heard in my entire fucking life. It was a life changing experience. The thing about the Hacienda was it was a superclub before superclubs existed. Acid house only lasted two years and that was it at its best. If you go to a club now you might as well be listening to the same song all night. Back then they played everything, hip hop, electro, acid house, techno and it was all mashed up. It was on your doorstep and full of people who were skint. It was only two quid to get in, they sold Rizla behind the bar so you could skin up and acid and Es were just entering the cultural stream. They were the best years of my life and probably every other day since I’ve thought, 'I wonder what those tunes were called?' Then I heard this album was coming out, I put it on at home and I was instantly transported back into that nightclub. And I thank the people who put this album out. It reminds me of great days when I was young and enjoying life to the full."

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Focus (2015)
Focus (2015)
2015 | Comedy, Drama
8
6.2 (6 Ratings)
Movie Rating
Focus, a new film starring Will Smith, Rodrigo Santoro, Margot Robbie, and Gerald McRaney seems like it ‘should be’ predictable, but I didn’t find it to be predictable at all.

I only caught one of the tricky story line twists at the last minute, at the very end, and the whole entire movie, I really thought that the leading lady Jess (Margot Robbie) was up to something other than what she was.

The movie overall, after watching it, reminds me a bit of Oceans 11, with twists and turns and surprises and things I just didn’t see coming.

I felt Will Smith as Nicky Spurgeon did a great job, and portrayed his relationship, or the fact that he was bothered by his lack of a relationship with Jess very believably.

The story moves along quickly, flowing well, for the most part. We watch Jess try to con Nicky, and watch him school her on ‘how it’s done’.
This sets the tone for the rest of the show which follows Nickys’ path as a con man and him working with his crew in one job after another.
He is supposed to be the best of the best and we watch him successfully carry off con after con in the first half.

The second half of the movie takes place after a number of years have passed, and more closely details Nicky’s feelings or apparent feelings for Jess.
Without revealing too much, I can only say everything is not as it appears, but the action of what is happening is fast enough that it distracted me from being able to concentrate too hard on what the deceptions might be.

I think this might be Will Smiths ‘comeback movie’ after a series of recent films over the past handful of years with him as a headliner have been really, really bad.

I have already encouraged a handful of friends to see the film when it comes to regular release, and I would gladly see it again.

I would give this movie 4 out of 5 stars.
  
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Tom Chaplin recommended Bring It On by Gomez in Music (curated)

 
Bring It On by Gomez
Bring It On by Gomez
1998 | Rock
(0 Ratings)
Album Favorite

"That would have come out in 1998 when I was around 17. My record collection at that point was mainly made up of U2, Radiohead, The Beatles, The Smiths. I hadn’t really been an indie kid in that sense of going to see bands and being part of that kind of world, because where we all grew up as a band, there just wasn’t a music scene at all! So we just spent our time making music, we never went to see much. Gomez is one of those total, bonafide, university, indie bands. It’s such an inventive record for a brand new band to burst onto the scene with. I loved the fact there were two singers with such contrasting voices. They’re all great songs, 'Here Comes The Breeze', 'Tijuana Lady'… it chimed in with where I was at the time, just getting out of school, smoking dope for the first time and experimenting with drugs. The album has that sense of youthful abandon. You can tell they were just fearless; maybe that’s what stopped them in the end from going on. I always feel that Gomez should have been a much more important band. I remember being up at University in Edinburgh, I got the National Express down to London one night, it was so uncomfortable, I got off at every stop and was getting smashed on this very strong weed and then going back on, and I had a proper old school Discman, and I was just listening to this Gomez record, up all night. I got to London, full of beans and was like, “We’ve gotta be this inventive!”"

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ClareR (5589 KP) rated Winter in Books

Jan 27, 2018  
W
Winter
Ali Smith | 2018 | Fiction & Poetry
10
10.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
I think I'm becoming quite the Ali Smith fan
I absolutely loved this book. I'm becoming quite a fan, and I think I need to read more of Ali Smith's back catalogue. This novel is witty, current, heartfelt with a full-on family! Ali Smith has a lot of political dross and general misery in the news lately to find material from (unfortunately!), but she does so much good WITH it. In the blurb it says about this book that it's "The season that teaches us survival", and the characters in this certainly do just that.
There is a lot of jumping around in time: things that happened in the past that have a bearing on the presents of the characters, and the occasional toe-dip into their futures too. A lot can happen in the few days over Christmas. We're never quite sure if the mother in this is losing her mind or not (it would be a safe bet to say "yes", but then her son isn't particularly stable during the time period that the book is set in either).
I love the wittiness of Smith's writing. For the Brits reading this, you'll probably get this one straight away, but for everyone else, she's referring to Boris Johnson our current (2018) Foreign Secretary (although I think this would probably apply to any politician, regardless of political party or country! Call me a cynic!): "The man who wrote the dictionary. Johnson. Not Boris. The opposite of Boris. A man interested in the meanings of words, not one whose interests leave words meaningless."
And just a quote to finish with. One that represents both the season that the book is set in, and also one of the main story arcs:
"Cymbeline, he says. The one about poison, mess, bitterness, then the balance coming back. The lies revealed. The losses compensated".
Ali Smiths style can take a bit of getting used to (you'll probably have noticed the lack of speech marks - that's not a mistake on my part, by the way), but her books are so worth the effort.
  
Velvet Underground by The Velvet Underground
Velvet Underground by The Velvet Underground
1969 | Experimental
8.4 (7 Ratings)
Album Favorite

"""When VU came out in 1985, everyone I knew had absorbed the official Velvets albums from the late 60s and early 70s, and had listened to all the bootlegs they could get their hands on. We had heard in the press mention of lost recordings and there were a couple of those songs on bootlegs that were hard to get. So, when this album came out it was like finding The Commandments 11 to 20. I almost didn't want to get my hopes up too much as it promised amazing things. When I did get it, I couldn't believe how good it was. It has a particularly important part in my life, in that The Smiths were already going at that point and we were a successful band. To be hit by something as a fan of music when you are already number one in the album charts yourself - I think Meat Is Murder had just come out at that point - was an utterly brilliant thing. It dropped into my life like a ton of inspiration. I was obsessed with it and, in particular, the versions of 'I Can't Stand It' and 'Foggy Notion'. I couldn't understand why that version of 'Ocean' hadn't come out before as it was easily the best one. I played 'I Can't Stand It' so many times that it stuck in my subconscious and that came out as the inspiration for the rhythm part on the song 'The Queen Is Dead'. So, the VU album was what I was listening to almost exclusively before I started writing the album The Queen Is Dead. The earlier Velvets albums are so revered that to better them is quite a feat. I have been in many an argument with people who think I am insane for preferring this record. When you take away the reverence for the early albums - which are undeniably incredibly important - VU is my favourite listen."""

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E2-E4 by Manuel Goettsching / Manuel Gottsching
E2-E4 by Manuel Goettsching / Manuel Gottsching
1984 | Electronic, House
(0 Ratings)
Album Favorite

"Andy might have been cheating a little bit by picking two Pogues songs, and I might be doing the same with this, because it’s just under an hour long. I’m getting my money’s worth out of my three picks! “The first time I heard this track was when it was sampled by an Italian house band called Sueño Latino in the late 80s’. Their version had more of a four-on-the-floor kick to it, so you could dance to it and that’s where I first heard it, in Ibiza way back. It really spoke to me straight away; I couldn’t pinpoint any of the sounds and it felt as if it came from the future. It had this Balearic, soulful feel to it and yet it was electronic. It was about as far out a piece of music as I’d experienced and it seemed totally unique at the time. “I slowly unravelled it and got back to the original by Manuel Göttsching, which is just mind-blowing. It goes back to the days of those electronic concept albums. I read somewhere that it wasn’t ever supposed to be released, that he just made it for himself so that he had something to listen to on long-haul flights - which is the kind of self-indulgence you expect from a German electronic pioneer! “I love that it has so much soul and yet it still doesn’t sound as if it’s of this world. It’s a total shapeshifter and there’s still an intoxicating sense of escapism about it for me, which is something I’m always chasing in my own work. Like the Beck and Smiths songs, it was a track that had a profound effect on me, and made me think, “I want to learn how to do that, or at least try. I want to live in that world."

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TacoDave (3532 KP) rated Young In My Head by Starflyer 59 in Music

May 9, 2019 (Updated May 9, 2019)  
Young In My Head by Starflyer 59
Young In My Head by Starflyer 59
2019 | Rock
10
10.0 (1 Ratings)
songs (3 more)
instruments
vocals
vibe
Some song outros end too quickly (0 more)
15 Albums In and Starflyer 59 Still Rocks
If you've never heard of Starflyer 59, I have a treat for you.


What began as a "shoegazer" band in the mid 90's (think Smashing Pumpkins meets The Smiths) has progressed over the years through heavy, chunky guitars, to Brit-pop mixed with synth, to this new album which just ... rocks. With the release of the band's 15th full album (not to mention many EPs and collections), band lead Jason Martin has shown that he's still got it. "Young In My Head" is soothing, catchy rock that is perfect driving music.

I'll attach a Youtube link so you can hear the title song from the album.

The songs themselves are catchy in a way that makes you sing along without realizing it. The lyrics are surprisingly melancholy, dealing with growing older and realizing that you aren't the energetic kid you were when you started ("It's been 25/since I wrote/Blue Collar Love/Man, I had my turn/I need to go/Stayed longer than most"). But the music still has an upbeat groove to it that keeps it from feeling depressing. Martin walks that line between melancholy and depression like an expert.

My only complaint isn't really a complaint: Starflyer has some of the best guitar solos to end songs, and this album is no different, but they feel truncated - like they cut out too early. I would love longer outros like they used on older albums. Listen to the song "Cry," for a good example - the end of the song is amazing, beginning at 2:00, but it doesn't last long enough.

In the past 25 years Starflyer 59 has not released a bad album. Each album has a different sound and groove to it, but they are all undeniably Starflyer. I, for one, will continue to listen to their albums and hope they go another 25 years.