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Rick Nielsen recommended Beggars Banquet by The Rolling Stones in Music (curated)

"In 1968 I came to England and stayed at the Inverness Court Hotel in Bayswater. I bought a little hifi - hifi? Lofi! - in an electronics store, and bought Beggars Banquet and The White Album, and listened to them on acid. American acid. Then we went to the Roundhouse and took the guy we bought the turntable from and we never saw him again. American drugs and British drugs were different. Like the difference between American weed and the stuff you had here, mixed with tobacco, Smoke American weed and it was "Cuckoo!" - you're on the frickin' moon. Our acid was LSD from Owsley, the real stuff, and we brought it over. We were eating it like candy. And that's what we gave the to the guy who sold us the turntable. The Stones were the greatest rock'n'roll band ever. They were smart rebels, and you can't make up the stories about Keith, they're too good. They're the blueprint for every band there is."

Source

Kudos

Awix (3310 KP) rated The Great St. Trinian's Train Robbery (1966) in Movies

Sep 6, 2020

Fourth St Trinian's film is a knockabout farce which has not aged at all well. Crooks hide the loot from a train robbery (such things were topical at the time) in a disused building, which is then taken over by St Trinian's school as their new premises. Can the villains retrieve the swag without anyone noticing?

Notably pragmatic (to the point of ruthlessness) in pursuit of its gags: there is shotgun satire of politicians, civil servants, the private school system, and various topical issues (there are some very dodgy jokes about immigration and racial minorities). Even more cartoony than a Carry On film, and increasingly frantic as it goes on, it does have a remarkable cast of well-known faces from British films of its period, but the jokes are thinner on the ground than one might hope for given the talent involved. Has a certain historical interest these days but it's awkward to watch as much as entertaining.

Kudos

Leanne Crabtree (480 KP) rated The Island in Books

Jan 11, 2021

I enjoyed this.

I seem to be attracted to dark/abusive books lately, having just read the Dark Duet trilogy, and loving them.

This had me captivated from the start wondering where Shaw really came into the story. He wasn't like the others and his lighter side was a relief compared to the darkness of the others. It was how he reacted to seeing Lee being abused that endeared him to me.

I really felt for Lee at times, having to cope with the abuse he was suffering while trying to hold himself together and stay sane. And how he clung to the bits of kindness he was shown by Shaw.

P.S. Being British, I'm not sure we get sand dollars on our beaches (if I'm wrong, correct me by all means) but I have the urge to collect them now. I looked them up on Google and they look really pretty.

Kudos

AJaneClark (3975 KP) rated Sea Sick in Books

Sep 5, 2019

Sea Sick

Iain Rob Wright | 2013 | Horror

8.3

(4 Ratings)

Book Rating

Great writing and presentation (0 more)

Abrupt ending (0 more)

Groundhog? More like Groundzombie Day

Sent away to relax by work, British cop Jack is being punished after killing a drug dealer that murdered his “partner”. And punished he is indeed. Sent aboard a cruise ship heading around the Med, Jack believes he is going to read, drink and relax. However this is not the case. Jack finds himself faced by hundred of virus infected men, women and children who turn into ravenous, insane cannibals that want to tear people apart. Jack spends the day fighting for his life, trying to work out what’s going on, but then he’s caught! Just when he think he’s about to bite the bullet, Jack wakes up in his bed and the day starts again. This is a well written and well presented story. Pulls you in and entertains you. Not a massively long read but great for a nighttime story!

Kudos

Museum: The Macleays, Their Collections and the Search for Order

Ashley Hay and Robyn Stacey

(0 Ratings) Rate It

Book

When the first British visitors arrived on Australia's shores at the end of the eighteenth century,...

Otter Country: In Search of the Wild Otter

Miriam Darlington

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Book

Over the course of a year, Miriam Darlington travelled around Britain in search of wild otters; from...

Awix (3310 KP) rated The Avengers - Season 4 in TV

Aug 17, 2020

The Avengers - Season 4

1965 | Comedy, Fantasy, Sci-Fi, Thriller

7.5

(2 Ratings)

TV Season Rating

Difficult not to use words like iconic to describe this; the two seasons with Diana Rigg (this is the first of them) is what defines this series in the public recollection. Gentleman spy John Steed and his leather-clad friend Emma Peel investigate a wide range of threats to British society as we know it, ranging from the relatively mundane (attempts to assassinate visiting dignitaries) to the positively outlandish (man-eating Martian plants with mind-control powers).

Occasionally a bit tonally uneven, but still mostly a joy to watch even after all these years: the two leads are clearly enjoying themselves hugely and so are the characters (most of the time). The best episodes have a sort of intelligent silliness about them which is almost irresistible: they sustain a mixture of spy spoof, black comedy, and science fiction which many have tried to copy but few have achieved. This is the Avengers in its imperial phase.