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A Nightmare on Elm Street (2010)
A Nightmare on Elm Street (2010)
2010 | Drama, Horror, Mystery
7
5.7 (22 Ratings)
Movie Rating
Most of the cast (1 more)
Jackie Earl Haley
Rooney Mara (0 more)
Reimaging folk, not remake
I know I'm probably going to catch heat for this from self proclaimed horror movie God's. But, I enjoyed this movie.
With a few exceptions. ROONEY MARA WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU EVEN DOING IN THIS FILM!!!! Her dry and unimpressive portrayal of Nancy, a role made iconic by Heather Langenkamp, nearly destroyed this movie for me.
But along came Jackie Earl Haley. An amazing character actor who attacked the role of Freddy Krueger and honestly made him dark, destructive and truly demonic again. While he may not be Robert Englund, Haley made Freddy scary again. No more with the cracking jokes, no more fun. Just rage, destruction and murder.
And that's what you want in an iconic horror character.
Who cares if he's not 6ft 4.
Who cares if he's not funny.
That's the point of a reimagining.
Platinum Dunes did it well with Texas Chainsaw Massacre. As far as I'm concerned they did it fairly well with Friday the 13th.
And IMHO, they did it well with this movie.
Everything needs an update to evolve these days. And that includes even the most iconic horror movie characters.
  
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Awix (3310 KP) rated The Wicker Man (1973) in Movies

Feb 18, 2018 (Updated Feb 18, 2018)  
The Wicker Man (1973)
The Wicker Man (1973)
1973 | Horror, Mystery
British folk-horror film is part of the mini-boom in 'British civil servant travels by seaplane to sun-obsessed Christopher Lee's remote island in search of missing girl, discovers Britt Ekland waiting for him' movies that happened in 1973-4. Devout Christian copper (Woodward) visits Summerisle (off the Scottish coast) after receiving a tip-off about a vanishing schoolgirl, is appalled by what he sees as the immorality of the islanders. The lord of the place (Lee) assures him that there's nothing to be worried about, they just have different ethical standards (they're all Pagans), but Woodward is not convinced. Is something nasty lined up for May Day?

Books have been written about the tortuous distribution endured by The Wicker Man and its producers; rumours persist that the original much longer version is buried under a motorway somewhere in England. But all the available cuts are excellent, if not superb: the film is not particularly scary per se, more a queasy examination of how society, morality and religion intersect with one another; manages to make moral relativism seem more disturbing than devil-worship, somehow. Has one of the greatest non-endings in cinema history. Great performances, banging tunes, thoughtful and playful script; a film for all seasons, but goes especially well with a barbecue.
  
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Andy K (10821 KP) Feb 18, 2018

Love this one!

A World Full of Animal Stories: 50 favourite animal folk tales, myths and legends by Angela McAllister is a beautiful and interesting book of folktales and legends that celebrate animals and culture. These stories are brought to life as the reader travels the globe to Africa, Asia, North and South America, Europe, Australia and Oceania.

It is a book full of cultural stories, with strong messages and wonderful illustrations. Familiar stories such as The Billy Goats Gruff, The Nightingale, and The Ugly Duckling are in the book so the reader will learn where those stories came from. In the contents guide it has each of the stories listed under the continent they belong to, with the country that relates to the story in brackets next to its title, which is useful for finding a specific story or learning about a certain region.

The stories are not long, which makes it perfect for bedtime stories. One story a night will give your child something to think and talk about. This would also would be great for the classroom, particularly when learning about different cultural stories and traditions.

I received an ARC of A World Full of Animal Stories from NetGalley via Quarto Publishing Group and Frances Lincoln Childrens. 
  
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Manda (5 KP) rated Dead Until Dark (Sookie Stackhouse, #1) in Books

Jul 11, 2018 (Updated Jul 11, 2018)  
Dead Until Dark (Sookie Stackhouse, #1)
Dead Until Dark (Sookie Stackhouse, #1)
Charlaine Harris | 2001 | Fiction & Poetry
9
8.1 (36 Ratings)
Book Rating
Vampires, fairies, sex, magic, sexy people did I mention sexy people (0 more)
Nothing but goodness I love myself some Sookie (0 more)
Omg omg omg
Ok ok, so it’s been a few years since I devoured this series, yes I said devoured. Charlaine Harris became one of my favorite authors upon reading this book and the next thing I knew the series had been read and my life was never the same.

Say hello to Sookie, a good hearted, beautiful blonde belle that can hear the thoughts of others. The world she lives in is one where vampires are real and omg walk amount us “normal” folk! This first novel introduces us to Sookie and her family, her grandmother who we all end up loving and her brother who is a dumbass but a cute one, so I guess that equals out. Things get crazy for Sookie and her life and friends when their small little town gets their first vampire. Bill. Ahh Bill. Bill frustrated me but whatever. In attempts to not contain spoilers I’m just going say, if you enjoy crazy supernatural reads with gore and lust and magic with a dash of murder mystery and crazy turns this book (this series) is for you.
  
Sissala Goddess by Wiyaala
Sissala Goddess by Wiyaala
8
8.0 (1 Ratings)
Album Rating
Wiyaala is a charismatic singer-songwriter from Funsi, Upper West, Ghana. Not too long ago, she released a music video for her “Village Sex” single, featured on her second studio album, entitled, “Sissala Goddess”.

Wiyaala’s name means ‘the doer’ in her Sissala dialect.

Thanks to a musical mother, The Young Lioness of Africa dodged FGM and child marriage. Also, the patriarchal society which she grew up in made it very difficult for her to become an entertainer.

Since then, she has won over fans across the world. Also, the most remarkable thing is she’s from Ghana, a country with a notoriously conservative music industry, where any challenge to the norm is frowned upon.

Wiyaala’s “Village Sex” single contains a relatable storyline and ear-welcoming vocal. Also, the song possesses energetic instrumentation flavored with West African folk, Afro-pop, and world elements.

‘Sissala Goddess’ is a fascinating, often moving glimpse at Africa old and new through the Young Lioness of Africa’s eyes.

Wiyaala sings part of the album in Sissala—one of the world’s most endangered languages.

Also, she celebrates the love of those who have supported her as well as challenging traits of bigotry, jealousy, and greed.

https://www.bongminesentertainment.com/wiyaala-village-sex/
  
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Beth Orton recommended Kick Inside Soundtrack by Kate Bush in Music (curated)

 
Kick Inside Soundtrack by Kate Bush
Kick Inside Soundtrack by Kate Bush
1990 | Rock
(0 Ratings)
Album Favorite

"More so than any of her records, again, I just find it one after another songs that just particularly move me... I'm very moved by the song 'The Man with the Child in his Eyes' - I love that song. So, it's funny, it's a lot about having children and at the time I first heard it, I had no idea that I'd ever have children. I always loved her - she seemed like a kind of punk rock folk singer to me, with that punk rock attitude, and that extraordinary voice and such beautiful songwriting and very diverse musicianship. This record for me is something that, in my teenage years, I was just engrossed in. I can't really take myself back there and say why, what started that. It was very much part of my teenage years, but it's also very much part of my life now - fuck, this is so hard! 'The Man with the Child in his Eyes', 'L'Amour Looks Something Like You', 'Them Heavy People' - all of them, 'Moving'... often it's the way the songs start, as much as anything. It's a bit like Blue; as soon as they start, you know something amazing's coming, and then her voice kicks in and it's just like heaven. Ah, it's just heavenly!"

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Beth Orton recommended First Take by Roberta Flack in Music (curated)

 
First Take by Roberta Flack
First Take by Roberta Flack
1969 | Rock
8.0 (1 Ratings)
Album Favorite

"Someone made me a mixtape once of a lot of amazing folk and soul and jazz, kind of legendary songs, quite rare, and it had a lot of Pentangle and Fairport Convention and it had 'Compared To What' on it. And I went seeking 'Compared To What' because I thought ""what is that song?"", and that's what inspired the song 'Central Reservation'. It's just an amazing record. Come the last six years, I was just like, ""you know what, the sound of the next record is this record"". One of the reasons is that I love the fact that the drums and bass are ever-present and yet, at the same time, they're almost not there. I can't explain it; it's like all of the elements of the record are perfectly heard but each sound has so much space around it. It's got the most extraordinary rhythm, emotion and beautiful songs. When I started speaking to Tucker Martine [Sugaring Season producer], who produced the album, I said ""okay, here's a blueprint for a sound I love and a record that I love"", and that was it. We weren't being analytical; it gave us a starting place, and from there it grew out. It's just filtered through in different ways."

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Caribou recommended Silver Apples by Silver Apples in Music (curated)

 
Silver Apples by Silver Apples
Silver Apples by Silver Apples
1968 | Electronic, Psychedelic
8.0 (1 Ratings)
Album Favorite

"People who know my albums from ten years ago will have heard me trying to rip off Silver Apples. I think it was Kieran Hebden [Four Tet] who introduced me to their music. It's so remarkable - it doesn't sound like anything else that was happening at the time. This record was made before Can started recording - it was actually a toss-up between this or something from Can or NEU!, or something along these lines. If this record came out today people would still be flipping out over it. It still sounds like the sound of tomorrow to me, but it has those amazing folk melodies over the top of it. I guess most of my favourite music is both strange and familiar at the same time, and has some kind of melodic content you can hum along to and gets stuck in your head. The production and the musical ideas around it are totally otherworldly on this record. We booked Simeon for the ATP shows we curated a few years back, but I've never really read any interviews with him to try and find out how this happened - how they made a record that sounded like this in 1968. It didn't sound like anything else."

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Jon Cryer recommended All That Jazz (1979) in Movies (curated)

 
All That Jazz (1979)
All That Jazz (1979)
1979 | Drama, Musical, Sci-Fi
8.5 (4 Ratings)
Movie Favorite

"A great, great movie that was unjustly robbed of a lot of the recognition it would have gotten, but it came out in the year of amazing other movies, you know, like Apocalypse Now and a lot of other great stuff. To this date it is the most accurate portrayal of theater folk and what it’s like to produce and be part of theater. As a theater geek all my life, I was hoping that Smash would be like that, and boy it’s not. All That Jazz nailed it, just in terms of the reality of it. But again, it would go off into those fantasies that still totally worked, and worked as incredible dance numbers, but you know, were clearly fantasy numbers inside one of the most realistic portrayals of that subculture that had never been put on screen. It’s f—ing perfect. It’s just f—ing perfect. It’s great because it’s funny, it’s cynical about the theater but also clearly loves the subject matter. You know, I grew up backstage — my parents were actors — and it just captures that world absolutely incredibly accurately. Plus, it’s just a really ballsy, artistic movie from Bob Fosse in that it incorporates a lot of strange stuff, but all of it works."

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Grande Liturgie Orthodoxe Slave by Choer Bulare Svetoslav Obretenov
(0 Ratings)
Album Favorite

"Whenever I listen to this I find myself quite overwhelmed by it. There was an interest in the '70s in that Bulgarian folk singing, the kind of singing where they sing in 2nds. One of the harmonies they use a lot is a 2nd, which is a very unusual interval, and I remember that being around and there being a great album called Le Mystère Des Voix Bulgares, which is an amazing record, so I think I was aware that that part of the world had interesting music. I don't really remember how I got this one other than I bought it in France. The softness of the male voices is like softly blown flutes. If you grow up in England with the disgusting operatic tradition we have, where the men's voices have to be so manly, it makes you violently ill [laughs]. Hearing the softness of this was so touching to me. There's one section in one of these tracks that is too amazing, where the voices that are all woven together gradually separate out so that all the voices above a certain register keep on going higher and higher and the ones below keep going lower. It ends with this incredible chasm between the voices that is just startling."

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