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Kristy H (1252 KP) rated Broken Horses in Books
Aug 12, 2021
A great memoir for music fans
BROKEN HORSES is Brandi Carlile's story. She grew up poor in Seattle, moving constantly as a child. Her family was musical, giving Brandi a love of music as a young child. She knew was gay since she was a teen--something that wasn't always appreciated in her rural town. She tells her story from childhood, where her love of music began, to coming out, to her marriage and life with her two children, to her musical successes.
"I was a mean, scrappy little trailer girl with the wrong clothes and a very sensitive soul that I was hiding behind a bravado that I had developed performing onstage."
I adore Brandi Carlile and have for a long time. Having such a talented out singer in our community makes us all feel proud. "See her, she's one of us!!" Having followed Brandi's career from the beginning, I know a decent amount about her. Hence my problem with a number of celebrity memoirs I read: if I read a memoir about someone I really love and already know a lot about them, if they write a fairly superficial memoir, I only learn so much.
Don't get me wrong, Carlile has written a good and interesting book. She's a fascinating person, and I enjoyed learning about her rather wild journey. I didn't know much about her childhood, so I found those pieces to be the most intriguing. She was a wild and tough kid, who was so musically talented from the beginning. Imagine being one of the people who heard her perform in a pageant or talent show when she was a young kid or teen!
After going through her coming out story, Carlile talks about her musical career, and it's all really amazing, but sometimes feels fast and glossed over. I always love knowing the history of songs, but would have liked knowing more details about things. We skip over full albums, time periods, and more. And, as many celebrity memoirs do, it often feels a bit preachy and overly me-oriented at times (something she'll laughingly and freely admit to). When we get to her meeting her wife, it's a fun story, but also really quick. Still, it's so nice to see a queer woman's story so normalized, and to have someone talk about gay motherhood so matter of factly.
Overall, I'm so glad Carlile decided to share her thoughts on her life. She's such an amazing individual who has lived such an intense and fascinating life so far. I wish she had gone more in-depth with her stories at times, but this is still a great book and certainly worth your time. At some point, I hope to get the audio version, as she sings versions of the songs she discusses in each chapter.
I read this book as part of my new reading project--choosing books off my shelves based on their Goodreads rankings. This is my second book of the project, forcing me out of my comfort zone and to try books in genres I don't usually read!
"I was a mean, scrappy little trailer girl with the wrong clothes and a very sensitive soul that I was hiding behind a bravado that I had developed performing onstage."
I adore Brandi Carlile and have for a long time. Having such a talented out singer in our community makes us all feel proud. "See her, she's one of us!!" Having followed Brandi's career from the beginning, I know a decent amount about her. Hence my problem with a number of celebrity memoirs I read: if I read a memoir about someone I really love and already know a lot about them, if they write a fairly superficial memoir, I only learn so much.
Don't get me wrong, Carlile has written a good and interesting book. She's a fascinating person, and I enjoyed learning about her rather wild journey. I didn't know much about her childhood, so I found those pieces to be the most intriguing. She was a wild and tough kid, who was so musically talented from the beginning. Imagine being one of the people who heard her perform in a pageant or talent show when she was a young kid or teen!
After going through her coming out story, Carlile talks about her musical career, and it's all really amazing, but sometimes feels fast and glossed over. I always love knowing the history of songs, but would have liked knowing more details about things. We skip over full albums, time periods, and more. And, as many celebrity memoirs do, it often feels a bit preachy and overly me-oriented at times (something she'll laughingly and freely admit to). When we get to her meeting her wife, it's a fun story, but also really quick. Still, it's so nice to see a queer woman's story so normalized, and to have someone talk about gay motherhood so matter of factly.
Overall, I'm so glad Carlile decided to share her thoughts on her life. She's such an amazing individual who has lived such an intense and fascinating life so far. I wish she had gone more in-depth with her stories at times, but this is still a great book and certainly worth your time. At some point, I hope to get the audio version, as she sings versions of the songs she discusses in each chapter.
I read this book as part of my new reading project--choosing books off my shelves based on their Goodreads rankings. This is my second book of the project, forcing me out of my comfort zone and to try books in genres I don't usually read!
Connor Sheffield (293 KP) rated Wonder Woman (2017) in Movies
Jun 1, 2017
Beautiful visuals (3 more)
Gal Gadot is a strong and sexy Diana
A war film with comic book fantasy
The strong messages within the film
Bringing a God to a Gun Fight
So I may be a little biased as I am a huge DC fan, but that doesn't mean every DC film gets the top rating from me, because I know that most of the DC films, somewhat especially as of recent, haven't quite grasped the ability to merge comic book elements with great film elements....this film has nailed it.
Gal Gadot has brought the character of Wonder Woman, a.k.a Diana Prince, to the big screen with such power that is unmatched by any other female comic book character. She's strong, sexy, charming and innocent to the ways of the world outside of Themyscira.
The effects of this film bring to the big screen, stunning visuals, a dull colour overtone to add to the atmosphere of the effects of war on the world that really make you aware of just how important the situation of the world is, and why Diana has truly been sent to help. The team of brilliant minds behind this film have managed to bring the glowing lasso, the powers of Wonder Woman herself, and the deviating effects of war into a perfectly organized combination that makes you feel like you're watching a war film with comic book fantasy elements, not just a comic book film that contains a war.
There's humour that is brought forth via Diana's innocence of the world outside of her home on Paradise Island. She learns the deviation of the many deaths that the war has brought to the world, but through her companion, Steve Trevor, she learns of the joys of how life was before, and how it could be again, when there is no more war.
The film is full of moments that make you want to laugh, cry or watch in awe as Wonder Woman proves to the men in the war that women are not as weak and frightened as they thought at the time. It's hard for her not to in her own film, but she truly steals the show, and you want nothing more than to see her kick ass.
The choreography of the fight sequences are sleek and beautiful in themselves. The fight on Themyscira reminded me somewhat of 300, if the Spartans were all badass Amazonians with bows and arrows, and horses. The beautiful slow motion shots are used to portray the power of these beautiful warriors, and the best slow motion shot takes place in the war, at No Man's Land.
This scene is cinematic beauty! Wonder Woman steps ups the ladder and stands strong as she makes her way across No Man's Land, deflecting bullets and proving that whilst no man can cross, She can, and will! Gal Gadot's beauty shines through amongst the dim and dull overtone of the film and she truly portrays that she is a Goddess amongst the world of men.
Overall I highly recommend this film! You'll laugh, you'll cry (possibly...unless you're a robot), and you'll sit in awe of Wonder Woman as she kicks ass and proves that you shouldn't send men to do a woman's job ;)
Gal Gadot has brought the character of Wonder Woman, a.k.a Diana Prince, to the big screen with such power that is unmatched by any other female comic book character. She's strong, sexy, charming and innocent to the ways of the world outside of Themyscira.
The effects of this film bring to the big screen, stunning visuals, a dull colour overtone to add to the atmosphere of the effects of war on the world that really make you aware of just how important the situation of the world is, and why Diana has truly been sent to help. The team of brilliant minds behind this film have managed to bring the glowing lasso, the powers of Wonder Woman herself, and the deviating effects of war into a perfectly organized combination that makes you feel like you're watching a war film with comic book fantasy elements, not just a comic book film that contains a war.
There's humour that is brought forth via Diana's innocence of the world outside of her home on Paradise Island. She learns the deviation of the many deaths that the war has brought to the world, but through her companion, Steve Trevor, she learns of the joys of how life was before, and how it could be again, when there is no more war.
The film is full of moments that make you want to laugh, cry or watch in awe as Wonder Woman proves to the men in the war that women are not as weak and frightened as they thought at the time. It's hard for her not to in her own film, but she truly steals the show, and you want nothing more than to see her kick ass.
The choreography of the fight sequences are sleek and beautiful in themselves. The fight on Themyscira reminded me somewhat of 300, if the Spartans were all badass Amazonians with bows and arrows, and horses. The beautiful slow motion shots are used to portray the power of these beautiful warriors, and the best slow motion shot takes place in the war, at No Man's Land.
This scene is cinematic beauty! Wonder Woman steps ups the ladder and stands strong as she makes her way across No Man's Land, deflecting bullets and proving that whilst no man can cross, She can, and will! Gal Gadot's beauty shines through amongst the dim and dull overtone of the film and she truly portrays that she is a Goddess amongst the world of men.
Overall I highly recommend this film! You'll laugh, you'll cry (possibly...unless you're a robot), and you'll sit in awe of Wonder Woman as she kicks ass and proves that you shouldn't send men to do a woman's job ;)
Ross (3284 KP) rated Dark Forge (Masters & Mages #2) in Books
Jan 30, 2019
Another slog of a book but with a good overall plot
*** I received a free advance copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review ***
Dark Forge follows on from Cold Iron and sees the hero, Aranthur, travelling through the desert-lands battling against "The Pure", a group of magikal fundamentalists that believe access to the world's magik should be restricted to those of noble birth.
As a rare treat, the book starts with a lengthy prologue telling of a group of mercenaries working for the Pure attempting to storm an ancient site and gain ownership of a magical artefact. A few dozen pages break from Aranthur was welcome and this was an exciting part of the story. As with the first book, the narrative style is something of a barrier to me, all the mundane details of clothing, horses, weapons are expounded ad nauseum, but when something important happens, or some new magik is used suddenly it's all very vague and hand-wavey.
That brings us back to Aranthur. We pick up with him and his crew acting as messengers for the General's army, relaying messages back and forth across the divisions of the forces. At times this changes to acting as advance scouts, other times running messages through the middle of battles. Given the rest of the story is told from Aranthur's PoV alone, this means we can see a great deal of the action through his eyes.
At long last we are treated to something of an inventory from Aranthur, as he goes over the magik he currently knows and their purpose. This felt like a brilliant improvement over book 1, where he just did a magik thing somehow. However this is short lived as over the course of the book odd words are used, with little explanation (and always in italics, suggesting they are important words but for the life of me I couldn't remember what most of them were).
A major failing for this book for me was that despite all being from one character's PoV, and we hear plenty of his thoughts and feelings, we are not privy to his experimentation with magik or some of his suspicions and theories (he suddenly in the heat of battle tries something he had been thinking about and it works - would have been so much more effective if there had been any hint of this previously). Similarly, so much of it is all metaphysical nonsense which I can't stand and can only see it as a cheap way out for an author as you don't have to explain things if they're all mystical.
The book reads like maybe the 5th in a series, where all the magical aspects and parts and peoples of the world have been solidly embedded, rather than book 2 where the world-building is being done almost real-time and there is something of a making-it-up-as-he-goes-along feel.
The overarching plot of the book is solid, and while I would have liked to see more traditional combat like the first book, and less magical/mystical stuff the action was plentiful and reasonably well told.
As with the first book, its only about 400 pages but felt like so much more to me, and it really was a bit of a slog at times.
I will finish this series with the conclusion when it is released but have enjoyed other series a lot more.
Dark Forge follows on from Cold Iron and sees the hero, Aranthur, travelling through the desert-lands battling against "The Pure", a group of magikal fundamentalists that believe access to the world's magik should be restricted to those of noble birth.
As a rare treat, the book starts with a lengthy prologue telling of a group of mercenaries working for the Pure attempting to storm an ancient site and gain ownership of a magical artefact. A few dozen pages break from Aranthur was welcome and this was an exciting part of the story. As with the first book, the narrative style is something of a barrier to me, all the mundane details of clothing, horses, weapons are expounded ad nauseum, but when something important happens, or some new magik is used suddenly it's all very vague and hand-wavey.
That brings us back to Aranthur. We pick up with him and his crew acting as messengers for the General's army, relaying messages back and forth across the divisions of the forces. At times this changes to acting as advance scouts, other times running messages through the middle of battles. Given the rest of the story is told from Aranthur's PoV alone, this means we can see a great deal of the action through his eyes.
At long last we are treated to something of an inventory from Aranthur, as he goes over the magik he currently knows and their purpose. This felt like a brilliant improvement over book 1, where he just did a magik thing somehow. However this is short lived as over the course of the book odd words are used, with little explanation (and always in italics, suggesting they are important words but for the life of me I couldn't remember what most of them were).
A major failing for this book for me was that despite all being from one character's PoV, and we hear plenty of his thoughts and feelings, we are not privy to his experimentation with magik or some of his suspicions and theories (he suddenly in the heat of battle tries something he had been thinking about and it works - would have been so much more effective if there had been any hint of this previously). Similarly, so much of it is all metaphysical nonsense which I can't stand and can only see it as a cheap way out for an author as you don't have to explain things if they're all mystical.
The book reads like maybe the 5th in a series, where all the magical aspects and parts and peoples of the world have been solidly embedded, rather than book 2 where the world-building is being done almost real-time and there is something of a making-it-up-as-he-goes-along feel.
The overarching plot of the book is solid, and while I would have liked to see more traditional combat like the first book, and less magical/mystical stuff the action was plentiful and reasonably well told.
As with the first book, its only about 400 pages but felt like so much more to me, and it really was a bit of a slog at times.
I will finish this series with the conclusion when it is released but have enjoyed other series a lot more.
The Chap - A Journal for the Modern Gentleman
Lifestyle and Magazines & Newspapers
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Founded in 1999, The Chap takes a satirical look at the modern world through the eyes of an...
Sound Touch
Education and Entertainment
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OVER 600,000 DOWNLOADS! JOIN THE FUN! YOUR KIDS ARE GOING TO LOVE IT! Trumpets, Harmonicas, Trains,...
BankofMarquis (1832 KP) rated The Power of the Dog (2021) in Movies
Dec 7, 2021
Deep and Layered
If the movie you are watching has a long shot of wheat blowing in the wind, then you are watching a character drama. If that same film also includes a 5 minute scene of someone braiding rope, then you have THE POWER OF THE DOG.
Written and Directed by Jane Campion (THE PIANO) and based on the best-selling novel by Thomas Savage, THE POWER OF THE DOG tells the tale of 2 brothers, talkative and charismatic Phil (Benedict Cumberbatch) and quiet and contemplative George (Jesse Plemons) who are tending their cattle ranch in Montana in the mid-1920’s. As horses give way to horseless carriages, George falls for a widow (Kirsten Dunst) who has an effeminate son (Kodi Smit-McPhee) and this relationship makes Phil face his own feelings - and a changing world.
In the hands of Campion, this film is a quiet, introspective look at how a hard-drinking, hard-living Cowboy deals with a changing world - and his own pent up emotions - and it works well. She weaves a fascinating story that takes its time unfurling it’s pages and the time that the audience takes in steeping themselves in the story and the characters is time well spent, indeed.
This is because the great Benedict Cumberbatch (TV’s SHERLOCK) is on-screen for 95% of the film as Phil and he commands the screen every moment that his presence is known. It is a bravura - though eerily quiet and introspective - performance by Cumberbatch. Campion and Cumberbatch create a memorable character that fills the screen not because he is wide or high or showy, but because he is deep and layered and the film spends most of its 2 hour and 6 minute running time peeling back the layers and digging deep into this character. It is an Oscar-worthy performance and is a shoo-in Oscar nominee and would not be surprising if Cumberbatch finally wins his Oscar for this role.
Plemons and Dunst (who played a couple in the first season of the TV series FARGO) are the catalyst that set the film - and the discoveries - in motion, but, though they are good, they have very little to do besides react to Cumberbatch’s characters’ moves.
Surprisingly, the character that does stand-out and the actor who does go toe-to-toe with Cumberbatch’s Phil is Peter, the son of Rose and played by Kodi Smit-McPhee (NIghtcrawler in X-MEN:APOCALYPSE) who is (at first) befriended by Phil as a joke and becomes closer and closer to him as the film progresses. It is through Peter that we dig through the layers of Phil - and it is a fascinating journey.
This is a gorgeous film to look at - Cinematographer Ari Wegner (THE GIRLFRIEND EXPERIENCE) is a shoo-in for an Oscar nomination as well - and this is good, because Phil (and the audience) spend long stretches looking out in the wilderness, contemplating the world - and change.
Not the fastest moving film you will ever encounter, but if you are in the mood for this sort of thing and can get caught up with discovering the layers of Phil, then you will be rewarded with a layered and deep experience.
Letter Grade: A-
8 stars (out of 10) and you can take that to the Bank(ofMarquis)
Written and Directed by Jane Campion (THE PIANO) and based on the best-selling novel by Thomas Savage, THE POWER OF THE DOG tells the tale of 2 brothers, talkative and charismatic Phil (Benedict Cumberbatch) and quiet and contemplative George (Jesse Plemons) who are tending their cattle ranch in Montana in the mid-1920’s. As horses give way to horseless carriages, George falls for a widow (Kirsten Dunst) who has an effeminate son (Kodi Smit-McPhee) and this relationship makes Phil face his own feelings - and a changing world.
In the hands of Campion, this film is a quiet, introspective look at how a hard-drinking, hard-living Cowboy deals with a changing world - and his own pent up emotions - and it works well. She weaves a fascinating story that takes its time unfurling it’s pages and the time that the audience takes in steeping themselves in the story and the characters is time well spent, indeed.
This is because the great Benedict Cumberbatch (TV’s SHERLOCK) is on-screen for 95% of the film as Phil and he commands the screen every moment that his presence is known. It is a bravura - though eerily quiet and introspective - performance by Cumberbatch. Campion and Cumberbatch create a memorable character that fills the screen not because he is wide or high or showy, but because he is deep and layered and the film spends most of its 2 hour and 6 minute running time peeling back the layers and digging deep into this character. It is an Oscar-worthy performance and is a shoo-in Oscar nominee and would not be surprising if Cumberbatch finally wins his Oscar for this role.
Plemons and Dunst (who played a couple in the first season of the TV series FARGO) are the catalyst that set the film - and the discoveries - in motion, but, though they are good, they have very little to do besides react to Cumberbatch’s characters’ moves.
Surprisingly, the character that does stand-out and the actor who does go toe-to-toe with Cumberbatch’s Phil is Peter, the son of Rose and played by Kodi Smit-McPhee (NIghtcrawler in X-MEN:APOCALYPSE) who is (at first) befriended by Phil as a joke and becomes closer and closer to him as the film progresses. It is through Peter that we dig through the layers of Phil - and it is a fascinating journey.
This is a gorgeous film to look at - Cinematographer Ari Wegner (THE GIRLFRIEND EXPERIENCE) is a shoo-in for an Oscar nomination as well - and this is good, because Phil (and the audience) spend long stretches looking out in the wilderness, contemplating the world - and change.
Not the fastest moving film you will ever encounter, but if you are in the mood for this sort of thing and can get caught up with discovering the layers of Phil, then you will be rewarded with a layered and deep experience.
Letter Grade: A-
8 stars (out of 10) and you can take that to the Bank(ofMarquis)
Darren (1599 KP) rated The Ring (2002) in Movies
Nov 7, 2019
Characters – Rachel is a single mother and reporter that starts investigating the mysterious death of her niece, this leads her to a VHS tape which puts her in the same seven day warning, forcing her to investigate the tape, she uses her connections and skills as a reporter to unlock this truth, while become more desperate after her son watches the same tape. Noah is the ex-partner and father to Aidan, he is still dating college students, which is why they no longer date, he is however an expect on video, which sees him being used to help break down the tape, which does including him watching it, he doesn’t come off like a nice guy, but we get the scene which shows why he is the way he is. Aidan is the son of the two, he seems to be the most grounded of the three, he is always prepared for the day, knowing that his mother will be late, only he watches the video making him one of the targets for the curse within the video. Richard is the adopted father of Samara, his love for the horses as seen his life destroyed even with his connection to Samara being the reason for the curse.
Performances – Naomi Watts in the leading role is great, she gets to show us just how difficult being a single mother can be, while trying to face a life and death situation with trying to find the answers. Martin Henderson is solid enough in his role which sees him being a bad father that could learn over this week. David Dorfman does give us a creepy kid performance, while Brian Cox in his limited screen time makes a big impact.
Story – The story here follows a reporter that is investigating the death of a family member that is connecting a video tape which will give any viewer seven days to live. This story is a remake of Ringu and does fall into one of my favourite sub-genres of horror, the ghostly haunting investigation one, which is looking to solve a mystery and isn’t afraid to give us a moment of hauntings to push everything in the right direction. It is strange that part of this film has dated with the technology advances which could see the VHS side of the film going over people’s heads, but away from that seeing just how everything is connected, with glimpses of the video appearing through the film needing to be solved by both the character and audience gives this an interesting element for the audience to get involved in.
Horror/Mystery – The horror comes from the horrific imagines we see on the tape, we also know early on what will happen to anybody that watches the tape, by seeing just how the first opening kill looks. The mystery comes from just what we are seeing in the tape, it is a host of clues which will unlock the truth.
Settings – The film shows us the settings through the tape, each one has a connection to everything going on and makes us want to know just what the connection is going to be.
Special Effects – The effects in the film are fantastic to watch, with one of the greatest effects scenes in the closing of the film which will shock and wonder how it was done.
Scene of the Movie – The Horse on the boat is a horrific scene to watch.
That Moment That Annoyed Me – VHS has dated out now.
Final Thoughts – This is one of the greatest horror remakes, it remains scary through the years along with giving us the time scale everything is going to be revealed.
Overall: Wonderful horror remake.
Performances – Naomi Watts in the leading role is great, she gets to show us just how difficult being a single mother can be, while trying to face a life and death situation with trying to find the answers. Martin Henderson is solid enough in his role which sees him being a bad father that could learn over this week. David Dorfman does give us a creepy kid performance, while Brian Cox in his limited screen time makes a big impact.
Story – The story here follows a reporter that is investigating the death of a family member that is connecting a video tape which will give any viewer seven days to live. This story is a remake of Ringu and does fall into one of my favourite sub-genres of horror, the ghostly haunting investigation one, which is looking to solve a mystery and isn’t afraid to give us a moment of hauntings to push everything in the right direction. It is strange that part of this film has dated with the technology advances which could see the VHS side of the film going over people’s heads, but away from that seeing just how everything is connected, with glimpses of the video appearing through the film needing to be solved by both the character and audience gives this an interesting element for the audience to get involved in.
Horror/Mystery – The horror comes from the horrific imagines we see on the tape, we also know early on what will happen to anybody that watches the tape, by seeing just how the first opening kill looks. The mystery comes from just what we are seeing in the tape, it is a host of clues which will unlock the truth.
Settings – The film shows us the settings through the tape, each one has a connection to everything going on and makes us want to know just what the connection is going to be.
Special Effects – The effects in the film are fantastic to watch, with one of the greatest effects scenes in the closing of the film which will shock and wonder how it was done.
Scene of the Movie – The Horse on the boat is a horrific scene to watch.
That Moment That Annoyed Me – VHS has dated out now.
Final Thoughts – This is one of the greatest horror remakes, it remains scary through the years along with giving us the time scale everything is going to be revealed.
Overall: Wonderful horror remake.
Kids Song -Over 160 English Kids Song With Lyrics
Education and Music
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- Over 160+ English Kids Song. - 11 Disc Catalogue, 16 Songs each Disc. Over 160 Songs. - Random...