Smashbomb

"I love her words, I love her guitar playing and the tunings, and it’s just constant inspiration for me, especially in that very, very personal ‘writing about your own life as subject matter’ stuff. She’s the queen of it in a way. I’ve been talking a lot about that first record that some people call Song To A Seagull and the songs are beautiful on it, but it’s also got this great over-riding concept, there’s a side about the country and a side about the city. You could say Joni is this folk singer but at the beginning she had this whole conceptual side and her early records are very conceptual. Ladies of the Canyon I’ve just started listening to again recently. I feel like besides Blue it’s just one of those ones that’s so classic and overheard you just stop listening to it because you’ve heard it so many times. I listened to it again and realised it’s also this concept album about this place she lived at the time and it’s got all these great, heavy songs on it including ‘Circle Game’ and ‘Woodstock’ and its an amazing record. It defines this Topanga Canyon era as much as Neil Young’s After The Gold Rush does – it was one of those places in time like Athens, Georgia when REM was starting or Seattle when Mudhoney and Nirvana were coming up, it was a really special place with a really tight knit musical community and a lot of people sharing ideas and songs and lovers, whatever it was, and I think that record really defines it in such an amazing way. I’m kind of obsessed with this song on that record called ‘Conversation’ which is about a secret love affair. The way she tells her stories are so amazing, and on that record the guitar playing is exquisite and the way she uses these women’s’ choruses behind her sounds almost like it could be off a Meredith Monk record or something like that, so I’m always bouncing around her early records. Everybody always picks Blue as the classic and I fucking love that record so much, but I really love all of those early records, up through Court & Spark she could do no wrong. You could almost pick any one of them, and I felt like I’d been neglecting Ladies of the Canyon recently so it’s been on a lot in the last week or so. Every time I hear it I feel like it tells me new things about my life as well."

Source

Kudos

Emma @ The Movies (1786 KP) rated I Am Lisa (2020) in Movies

Oct 4, 2020

I Am Lisa (2020)

2020 | Horror

7.0

(1 Ratings)

Movie Rating

This caught my eye on the Fright Fest line-up for its intriguing idea, who doesn't love werewolves?

Lisa returns to her small town home where she's terrorised by local tough girl Jess and her friends. When Lisa tries to report the incident to the sheriff, Jess' mother, her report is dismissed, standing strong she persists and they decide on a different course of action. After brutally beating her they leave her body in the woods for the wolves, little fo they know that Lisa was rescued from the attack and has come away with a supernatural gift and a desire for retribution.

There's a female heavy cast in I Am Lisa and it works really well, the dynamics for the most part are really impressive. From friendship to family, love and hatred, you get to see some real talent on display. The outstanding performance for me was Carmen Anello as Jessica, every change of emotion was clear and expressive, very early on it was obvious just how talented she was.

I Am Lisa manages to convey a small town gone wrong vibe and shows the consequences of a family run dynamic, if that family happens to be corrupt. The town rundown, the dismissive manner, the muted colours, all create just the right atmosphere for the film.

The story itself was a great concept, it introduced the main theme with subtlety and leaves some intrigue to keep you going. The only real problem with it is that the link between the man in the woods and the Huckins family is a little on the vague side and could have done with being a little clearer.

It's always interesting to see how films handle transformations, and I Am Lisa is quite subtle about it. The main transformations blend well when used, it's definitely a good take on the werewolf principle until... the end... all I could think of was Buffy, and that undid some of the good thoughts.

My last comment would probably have to be about some of the violence, on more than one occasion characters slap each other and you can tell they hold back. If you're not going to go 100% then you need to cut the footage so that you can't tell.

Apart from the few little blips, this is a solid film and an enjoyable watch, I'm really glad I had the opportunity to see it.

Originally posted on: https://emmaatthemovies.blogspot.com/2020/10/i-am-lisa-movie-review.html

Kudos

The Chocolate Lady (94 KP) rated Nine Folds Make a Paper Swan in Books

Oct 6, 2020

Okay, so I didn't actually finish reading this book. You see, I really wanted to like this book, because I think that Gillian is a talented writer. Unfortunately, I was unable to finish reading this book. On the plus side, the contemporary parts of this book were very interesting, if not compelling. Aisling's slow discovery of the Jewish world, while fighting the urge to get more committed to it was very nicely done. However, the historical parts put me off most of the time. I didn't understand the characters - either their language, or their motivations. I realize that had I finished this book, some of these questions might have been answered, but I just couldn't get past the fact that I found myself wanting to skip over large chunks of the narrative.

I think the problem was that Gillian's inexperience made her try a bit too hard to impress the Jewish and Irish aspects of this book. I've read quite a few books by Irish authors, and I've never felt like I was overwhelmed with jargon and slang, some of which I didn't understand. Unfortunately, these interjections came far too often, and they were jarring, to say the least. Certainly, her editor should have realized this, and toned it down - unless that person too was worried that the book wouldn't sound either Jewish or Irish enough for the American public.

For me, the heavy use of Irish and Yiddish slang words feels pretentious. More importantly, if your story doesn't sound Irish or Jewish enough so that you have to throw these in at every turn, then maybe you've not chosen the right subject matter.

I might have continued on, doing my best to ignore this, but the final death knell for me came when she broke my #1 cardinal rule of writing Jewish characters - a glaring mistake on a simple point of Judaism. I am willing to forgive a whole lot, but when someone describes a strict Jewish household having lamb with a side dish of potatoes, dripping with butter in the same meal (i.e., she mixed milk and meat, and it is the most basic of all things that Jewish dietary laws forbid), that's a bridge too far. No one who goes to the amount of trouble she describes in this book to get their house Kosher and ready for Passover, would ever in their right mind put butter on potatoes for a meat meal.

If any of this can be fixed before publication, I would be thrilled to read a new version of this book.