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Colin Newman recommended Discreet Music by Brian Eno in Music (curated)

 
Discreet Music by Brian Eno
Discreet Music by Brian Eno
1975 | Rock
(0 Ratings)
Album Favorite

"I don't really know what he's doing anymore musically and I haven't known for a long time, because it hasn't been his main focus for a long time, but Discreet Music is a very singular record. I'm just talking about side A: the other side is just something else. But you can play it on almost any kind of system and it works. It doesn't require hi-fi. I remember in 1978, around Christmas, my first wife and I went on a trip to Cadaqués in Spain, a place associated with Dali, and we rented a converted fisherman's cottage. It was three storeys high and an architect had worked on it, and what they'd done was they'd gutted the whole building top to bottom, and there was a staircase that ran from near the door up to the roof, which was a flat roof that you could sit on. And the floor seemed suspended. It was an amazing place. And we had a tape of this album and the kind of portable cassette player you used to have in the 70s, but you could put it on in the bottom part of the house, not even on full volume, and the room just filled. The music filtered through the whole space. I don't know any other music that could do that. He did other interesting ambient works and his early song records are good, but Discreet Music is such a singular piece. There really is nothing else like it that exists. It's just three notes. It's so simple. There's nothing to it, but it's completely musical."

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Staying Wet: A Southern Tale Told One Sip at a Time
Staying Wet: A Southern Tale Told One Sip at a Time
Jacqueline Schnitzer | 2014 | Contemporary, Fiction & Poetry
10
10.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
Staying Wet is written from the perspective of her bedroom companion, her best friend who has always been there for her, but you never get a name. It continues through the book as Caddy talks out her memories of her life to her friend.

This is not a cheery-everything-is-fine book. Caddy has dealt with some serious issues in her life, including the disappearance of her father and brother at a very young age, drinking to excess, and drugs. What this book is though is completely enthralling, a definite page-turner.

Instead of the timing remaining constant throughout, sometimes Caddy will follow that particular thread through to the conclusion. For example, she might be nineteen when the story starts, but in her forties when it concludes. You stay with the story until its conclusion, and then you go back to Caddy at nineteen where she recommences with the rest of her story. It can be off-putting to start with but stick with it, and I promise you'll be glad that you did.

The ending is perfect for the book. I can't say I liked it, but I understood it and thought it was exceedingly well-written. I loved the companion as it all made sense. This book was a complete surprise to me, not what I expected at all, but I loved it! Highly recommended by me.

* A copy of this book was provided to me with no requirements for a review. I voluntarily read this book, and the comments here are my honest opinion. *

Merissa
Archaeolibrarian - I Dig Good Books!
Mar 15, 2016
  
The Captive Heart
The Captive Heart
10
10.0 (2 Ratings)
Book Rating
There are a few times that I change-up my review schedule to accommodate a book. The Captive Heart is one such book. I kept hearing my friends praising Michelle Griep, and figured, I had better give it a try. WOW, I am so very glad I did. A compelling story of love and forgiveness. You will find a lot of adventure, mishaps, romance, and passion within these pages.

I found this story not only tender and passionate between our hero and heroine, but also filled with the love and forgiveness of our Lord. His fierce love for us and His undying forgiveness is portrayed through this story. No matter what we go through, the trials that we see, the heartache we endure, the choices we make, He will never leave our side. Yet we must make the choice to walk in the light. To walk in His forgiveness and forgive ourselves.

The minute you open The Captive Heart, you will find yourself transported back to Revolutionary America, and the tensions are high. With non stop adventures, you will find yourself unable to set this book down to you know, eat, cook, clean...With an excellent storyline and gracefully composed with an elegant hand, Michelle Griep has indeed captured my heart with this book.

I received a complimentary copy of The Captive Heart through NetGalley. I was not required to write a positive review. All opinions expressed are mine alone.
  
The Cotton Club (1984)
The Cotton Club (1984)
1984 | Drama, Musical
Richard Gere has made a lot of forgettable movies
Really. Seriously. If you think about it. The guy has been acting since the early 70s and he is mostly remembered for Chicago and Pretty Woman. Honorable mentions maybe to Officer and a Gentleman, Primal Fear or American Gigolo.

Director Francis Ford Coppola I'm sure was hoping to recreate the magic of the 1920s/1930s jazz club gangster era as he did with The Godfather in this film and it just didn't work. It seemed I just didn't care about the characters nearly as much and the case just wasn't up to it. Any time you have James Remar is your main bad guy in a film you are in trouble.

The highlight of the film for me was all the great jazz music, large vaudeville song and dance numbers and great tap dancing scenes with the great Gregory Hines. It was cool to see a very young "Larry" Fishburne and lots of other people you know from other movies, but it just wasn't enough. Nicolas Cage overacting (I know what a shocker) and over the top violence just to have over the top violence.

You won't find the caliber of Marlon Brando, Al Pacino, Robert Duvall or James Caan here.

I really wanted to love this film as it has been on my "to watch" list for a long time; however, I was ultimately disappointed.

  
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Tom Jones recommended Keb' Mo by Keb' Mo' in Music (curated)

 
Keb' Mo by Keb' Mo'
Keb' Mo by Keb' Mo'
2007 | Blues, Pop
(0 Ratings)
Album Favorite

"I was at my son's house in Henley, we were having dinner. Mark likes to play me things that he knows I'll like. So he didn't say anything, he just put it on. We were having dinner, and I hear ‘Am I Wrong' and I said, 'Who the hell is that?' He said, 'Who?' I said, 'What you're playing there!' 'Oh, a guy called Keb' Mo'.' So I said, 'Turn it up!' It's tremendous. [sings ‘Am I Wrong'] You just think, Jesus! Something that I haven't heard before, that first initial thing, is always the most exciting to me. I've heard him do other things since, but that, ‘Am I Wrong'... great. When I've listened to him singing, there's a similarity in our vocal tone and syncopation. When I was playing it in my house, funnily enough, back in LA - I play guitar, nowhere near as good as he does, but a few chords - so I'm playing it downstairs and my wife was up in the bedroom, and I said 'did you hear that thing I was playing?' She said 'you got your guitar out, right? It was you?' I said 'it's not me'. She said 'I heard you get your guitar out and start singing', I said 'no, it's not, it's a guy called Keb' Mo''. And she thought that it was me, and I thought, 'wow, that's great, that she thinks I can play as well as him'."

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TM
The Merciless
Danielle Vega | 2014 | Fiction & Poetry
4
6.0 (2 Ratings)
Book Rating
Also read my review here: http://bookbum.weebly.com/book-reviews/the-merciless-by-danielle-vega

<b><i>Forgive us, Father, for we have sinned.</b></i>

Well, well, well, what can I say? This thoroughly disappointed me, after giving it some more thought, I’ve taken this down to 2 stars.

So we have 3 beautiful and popular God-fearing girls who adopt the new girl into their secretive little gang and warn her against demon-possessed Brooklyn. To cure Brooklyn of her devilish ways they decide to kidnap her, stick her in a basement and torture her, or “exorcise her”… Sound like I’m giving too much away? Well yes, I probably am, but the blurb tells you the exact same thing, making the whole suspense element of this book completely useless and a waste of the author's time. <b>Don’t try to keep us on our toes when you’ve already told us what’s going to happen.</b>

Due to this being a novel aimed at Young Adult readers, the language, for me, felt simple and lack lustre. I can only read so much before it becomes laughable for me, and laughable it became. All the characters speech was so unrealistic and straightforward it was almost impossible to believe anyone would actually talk like that. This unrealistic speech really made it difficult to connect to any of the characters on a deeper level so I had no empathy for any of them.

The plot, overall, is just a little bit… completely… ridiculous and nonsensical. The blandness of the characters, scenes and speech make the whole thing feel like a pretty demented, but dumb dream. <spoiler>If Brooklyn had just been evil in a normal teenage girl way and didn’t rip out Riley’s fucking heart, maybe it would have been a better book</spoiler> I didn’t find myself shocked, scared or creeped out at any point in the entire book because it was all so juvenile and cheesy. The reasons the girls did what they did was childish and cringy and it just wouldn’t happen in the way Vega wrote it down. And let’s not get me started on all the loose ends...

Anyone up for reading one of the most predictable endings ever? My God, what an unexciting end to a pretty unexciting novel - at least it was consistent.

I did read this over the period of just one day, so it had me wanting to finish it, but not for any of the right reasons. I wasn’t reading it quickly because I wanted to know what was going to happen next, I was reading it quickly because it was getting stupider and stupider and I wanted to get it over and done with. Do I want to put myself through reading the second book in the series? I don’t know… I’ll give it some time first.
  
Newes from the Dead
Newes from the Dead
Mary Hooper | 2008 | Fiction & Poetry, History & Politics, Young Adult (YA)
8
8.7 (3 Ratings)
Book Rating
I stumbled across the blurb of this book while looking at the Totally Random Books website. It's really intriguing and, as I read around, I could see that the book is based on a true story. That was it, I had to buy it! It didn't disappoint, and I read it in a day.

While this is a YA book, it's worth pointing out that it deals with some really adult themes, which is something to consider if you're thinking of letting a teenager read it. I'll outline the main points in the next paragraph, so if you don't want any spoilers at all, skip this bit. The chapters flick between the events that led up to Anne's hanging, and what happens while she's laid on the dissecting table, apparently dead. Her downfall comes when the master's grandson promises her the world in exchange for him getting his end away, shall we say. As tends to happen, she becomes pregnant, which she manages to keep a secret until she miscarries. She has the 'audacity' to tell people who the father was, so never receives a fair trial, and is sentenced to death by hanging for the murder of her child. Her sentence is carried out, but she regains consciousness while on the dissecting table. However, she's unable to move a muscle, even to scream.

Anne is a nice girl with a promising, if humble, future, and I liked her. Even while I was willing her not to trust the father of her child, I could understand why she did what she did, and I felt really sorry for her as she lost a lot. The events of both storylines were fascinating, and in the dissection chapters I was constantly willing the doctors to notice what was going on. Although I knew they wouldn't cut into her and it was a little drawn out, some parts got quite tense, which I liked.

Being a sucker for history, I really liked the way everything was portrayed. [a:Mary Hooper|139257|Mary Hooper|http://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/authors/1310022486p2/139257.jpg], the author, made me realise how important it was in how you were perceived in those times - if you think gossip can be bad now, it was a million times worse in 1650, when holding someone's hand, even for an innocent reason, can potentially start a deadly rumour. I thought the book brought across everything that would have happened at the time really accurately and realistically. I know the author had true events to go on, but Anne's life before her hanging was all imagined. There's a note from Hooper at the end that specifies what records say about what happened to Anne Green after her hanging, which is also really interesting. I'll definitely be checking out more of Hooper's books!

If you liked this review please check out my <a href="http://www.a-worldofwords.com">blog!</a>;
  
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Thundercat recommended Musical Massage by Leon Ware in Music (curated)

 
Musical Massage by Leon Ware
Musical Massage by Leon Ware
(0 Ratings)
Album Favorite

"Leon Ware is one of those people, if not the main person, that taught me what it was to be a songwriter. I'm very happy and fortunate to say that I got a chance to tour with him at a very early age. He was my first experience with songwriting. When you go listen to Musical Massage, you can hear the spirit behind most of the things people were doing in the 70s; everybody that we know that Leon used to write with, like Minnie Riperton and Quincy Jones and Marvin Gaye, just to name the ones that are easily pinpointable out the gate. You can see his spirit through the music. Musical Massage is, I think, the perfect soul album. I'm not lying to you. In my opinion there's only a few that exist in that space. Leon Ware's album was the actual definition of soul. And you can hear songs that were copied from it; you can hear like 'oh, this is where this person did this' and 'This is where this person took this'. That's where I learned how to be a songwriter; Leon Ware taught me everything about songwriting. He taught me the emotion behind it, he taught me how to get to those emotions, he showed me what it was to not to ever quit, no matter what is getting thrown at you. One of my favourite songs that brings tears to my eyes, like to this day is 'Got To Be Loved' on Rockin' You Eternally – I know that's a big jumped from 1976 to 81, but let me say, every time I hear that song I can feel that whatever he was feeling when he wrote it, and I think it hit me at different points in life too. So this is all about Leon Ware's prowess as a songwriter and why he was the hit maker that he was. I get to spend some time with some quality time with him growing up, and I'm really grateful for that. So Musical Massage is a journey, man, it's a real journey. I remember telling Tyler, The Creator about Leon Ware, and Tyler's very much to himself, but you can see every now and again Tyler will say something about how important Leon Ware's music is, and I think even Tyler even went so far as to try to write some stuff with Leon. God rest his soul because he passed a few years ago; that was very difficult. He left me and us with a lot of music, and to this day when I think about my own songs like 'Them Changes' or 'The Turn Down' it's always was a reminder to say how you feel."

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