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Wolfhound Century

Peter Higgins

8.0 (2 Ratings) Rate It

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A thousand miles east of Mirgorod, the great capital city of the Vlast, deep in the ancient forest,...

Tom Jones recommended Just as I Am by Bill Withers in Music (curated)

Just as I Am by Bill Withers

1971 | Rhythm And Blues

(0 Ratings)

Album Favorite

"I heard this on the radio in the States, and I loved the songwriting. He was coming up with something different, it was a soulful folk, so I went and bought the album in LA, I thought “I gotta hear what this guy does” and every bloody track on it is a gem. I’ve always loved the sound of an album, maybe as much as the songs themselves, you know the performance, the sound of it makes a big difference to me. And now you know you can get box sets with alternate takes, and you realise then how long it took them sometimes to get the final take. The first time they did it was good, but then all of a sudden - boom - and there it is. I think there’s a good learning process to listen to the ones they didn’t let go, where the producers said “not yet”, and they persevered until... there it is. When I’ve been in a club sometimes, I’ve gotten up [on stage] and they’ve been like, “Do ‘Delilah’!”, and I’ve said “Let me just do this, which I don’t normally do"". So it is, because when you’ve made big records - great onstage, the way you do your own show - but it’s great to do other stuff when you don’t have to do those things. Not that I don’t like them, you know ‘Delilah’’s a great record, but its nice to do other things. So when you hear someone like Bill Withers doing something like that and being successful, you think, “See, there’s room for that.” There’s room for all different kinds of records. They don’t all have to be the same, or in the same vein, or chasing some things just to get a hit record."

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Ed O'Brien recommended Led Zeppelin IV by Led Zeppelin in Music (curated)

"That said, I love the more ancient sides of British culture as well. This reminds of a really broody, Autumnal day years ago – when there was all this low, grey cloud – when I decided I was going to go to the Avebury Stone Circle. When I was first there, it was deserted and perfect.   A little while later, I heard a break in the quietness –someone else had arrived. Then I heard these big footsteps, and Robert Plant – Robert Plant appeared from behind a stone! It was an absolutely perfect moment.  I was too shy to say anything, of course, but when I was leaving, there he was at the car park, and, argh, his car was next to mine. I got into the driver's seat, I caught his eye, so I wound down the window…and I just couldn't think what to say, so I just grinned and gave him a big thumbs-up! We've met properly since, but whenever I think of Led Zeppelin, I think of him emerging from the mists like a druid.  I also didn't hear this until I was 27, and then I was all, oh, no wonder they're so popular, this is fantastic! Music was tribal to me when I was a teenager. I was a real indie kid who didn't listen to rock at all. Now I listen to it often, and I think of the house where they made this album, the other side of the mountains to where I live, and it really feels like this music comes from this very old, rooted place. And 'The Battle Of Evermore', with Sandy Denny's voice – I love how the whole of the end-of-the-60s British folk moment is caught up in the way she sings. I love the way those traditions connect us to something deeper.  "

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BookInspector (124 KP) rated Viper's Daughter (Chronicles of Ancient Darkness #7) in Books

Sep 24, 2020

Viper's Daughter (Chronicles of Ancient Darkness #7)

Michelle Paver | 2020 | Children, Fiction & Poetry, History & Politics, Young Adult (YA)

8.0

(1 Ratings)

Book Rating

The protagonists in this book were Torak and Renn, and the book was mostly told from their perspectives. Renn leaves Torak unexpectedly, when Torak finds out where and why Renn left, he follows her to the Far North, where everything is completely different from the forest, where he grew up. I adored the characters in this book, they are very mysterious to me. Reading their thoughts about hunting, offerings and general respect to the mother nature is so refreshing and new to me. I am not a very big fan of stories based on folk stories and spirituality, but this book really captivated me.

I really enjoyed the narrative of this book, it is set in the antarctic kind of place, where ice covers everything. It has plenty of adventure, wild and dangerous animals, spirituality and inner thoughts. I really loved the human-nature balance and relationship portrayed in this novel, I think it is a very important thing for us to remember because we do take nature for granted. Even though this book is a part of the series, I was able to read it as a stand-alone.

The writing style of this book is exquisite! The author portrayed the nature in this book with such great detail, I felt like sitting on the boat with Torak and witnessing everything with my own eyes, the experience was incredible! For some reason I really like books set in north and cold climates, people’s survival skills really amaze me. The chapters have a very decent length, and constant change of the perspectives doesn’t leave the reader bored. I liked the ending of this book as well, I think it rounded the story nicely.

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Kirk Bage (1775 KP) rated The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie (1972) in Movies

Jan 28, 2021

The self confessed king of cinema surrealism, Luis Buñuel has 15 feature films listed as 7.5 or higher on IMDb, proving his life’s work is more loved and respected as you might think. This title was the only one I had really heard of being talked about by serious film folk that stuck in my mind, so it was as good a place as any to start with. It is an odd beast that I had a little trouble getting onboard with. It feels entirely 70s and kitsch, and on the surface feels at times little better than The Confessions of a Window Cleaner, or some such bawdy farce. To say it is a comedy is to take comedy to mean intellectual absurdism that pokes fun at the conventions and habits that lurk inside humanity, and the sophistication that masks our base instincts and flaws. I got the “joke”, it just all feels very dated now.

The cast have a lot of fun in the dreamlike landscape of manners and appetites, and the symbolism that abounds is indeed quite clever and arch if you want to analyse it. What I did like is how it feels increasingly like an actual dream, where things done and said begin to lose true meaning, and events and places merge into one flow of madness. You can definitely see a lot of ideas here that have been borrowed by other films since, and I appreciate what it tries to do, but ultimately this one left me a little cold. It has a pompous and smug air about it that is not for me, although I totally understand why it is held in high regard. I will probably never choose to watch it again.