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Johnny Marr recommended Out of Our Heads by The Rolling Stones in Music (curated)

"It is the British version of the album I am talking about [the US release would include '(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction'] and mostly because of the cover, which I think is probably my favourite ever picture of The Stones. If we are on that subject, it says quite a lot about Mick Jagger as a frontman that he was secure enough to be only third from the front on the cover of the early records. When you look at Out Of Our Heads it looks like Brian Jones' or Keith Richards' group. Mick is just peering in from the side. That's how cool Jagger was - most singers are always pushing people out of the way so they can be at the front. Out Of Our Heads is often entirely overlooked within The Stones' catalogue. I love it because before that, on the previous albums, they were attempting to recreate the music of their heroes in an almost academic manner, with only a certain amount of success. What gave those early records credibility was that they were aficionados and experts and that was something, besides The Beatles, which was exciting to British kids. However, they hadn't really put their own mark on their music. Out Of Our Heads moved away from blues into what then was called rhythm and blues. They were much better at appropriating that style, than they were pure blues music. There are more chords, less rootsy themes and [the songs are] more about 'finding a girl and losing a girl' and so Jagger is more believable on that album. Overall, musically, the songs just suited their style better. Out Of Our Heads is a band just about to hit their stride and about to turn into their own songwriting machine. There is almost no other record like it. I think you could argue that if you want to really discover what The Velvet Underground were inspired by, it is probably Out Of Our Heads. Not just in terms of how the band look, but the evidence is there in the version of Marvin Gaye's 'Hitch Hike', which obviously the Velvets chopped on 'There She Goes Again' - and I used on 'There Is A Light That Never Goes Out'. There was a point where I was into The Stones more than any other band on the planet. I found out everything there was to find out about them - about the band, about Andrew Oldham and how they made their records. That investigation was really good for me. When I formed The Smiths, they were probably the biggest influence in terms of the politics and the blueprint for a band, including the dynamic between the guitarist and the singer. When I was trying to get The Smiths together, I took the behaviour of Andrew Oldham and Brian Jones in their resourcefulness, desperation and ingenuity as the MO of The Stones as a working unit, as a source of inspiration - which was a pretty unusual thing to do in 1982."

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Heather Cranmer (2721 KP) created a post

Jul 11, 2021

Read an excerpt from the self-help book INCLINED ELDERS: HOW TO REBRAND AGING FOR SELF AND SOCIETY by Ramona Oliver. If you like what you read, enter the giveaway to win either a signed copy of the book or a Kindle copy on my blog!

https://alltheupsandowns.blogspot.com/2021/07/book-blog-tour-and-giveaway-inclined.html

**BOOK SYNOPSIS**
THIS BOOK WILL BE INVALUABLE IF YOU:

· Have a desire to continue living a purposeful life, no matter what your age.

· Are interested in learning how to maintain a positive attitude from adulthood to elderhood.

· Want to learn how to create a living legacy and serve as a role model for future generations.

WHY EMBRACE AN ATTITUDE OF INCLINE?
For the first time in history we are not only living longer, everyone has an important choice to make: commit to a meaningful, purposeful life of "Incline" as we get older or believe that a new stage – one of steady "decline" – is inevitable. What is not helping is that in the media and society in general there continues the somewhat negative connotation surrounding the concept of aging. And while, at least not now, we cannot do anything about the chronological process of becoming 60, 70, 80 years and beyond, we can change the mindset for it. Embracing change and looking at life with a keener sense of curiosity will lead to living with increased courage to live life to its fullest.

Inclined Elders is a call to action for you to opt for Incline. Not only for your personal fulfillment, but also to help fuel a social "legacy" that increases the number of positive older role models in everyday life. I have written this book to inspire, inform, and challenge you. By the time you reach the last page, I hope you will have made a new choice: to become an inspiring example of a life of Incline so our society relinquishes – once and for all – the notion that aging is synonymous with "decline," "decrepit," "senile," and "over-the-hill."

In this book over 50 men and women ranging in age from 40 to 100 share their tips and techniques on how to live a life of Incline. Their strategies are supported by scientific evidence from the fields of Positive Psychology, Anthropology, and Sociology.

WHO ARE INCLINED ELDERS?
We are the women and men who have made a conscious choice to ignore society's negative mindset of "decline" and "over-the-hill" as we age. Instead we embrace a positive mindset of continuing to Incline and climb ever upwards.

Serving as vibrant role models, the Inclined Elders I spoke to for this book are leaving their own unique legacies of wisdom and inspiration for future generations. There needs to be more of us like them to effect real social change. So why not Incline too? There's an amazing view from up here. Come with us and see for yourself.

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Sarah (7798 KP) rated The Rhythm Section (2019) in Movies

Nov 29, 2020

The Rhythm Section (2019)

2019 | Action, Drama, Mystery

5.2

(9 Ratings)

Movie Rating

An average thriller

The Rhythm Section is a 2020 action thriller based on a book of the same name written by Mark Burnell. Directed by Reed Moreno, it stars Blake Lively as Stephanie Patrick, a young woman bent on revenge against the terrorists who orchestrated a plane crash that killed her entire family.

From the very beginning, you can see the influences and similarities in this to other films and stories.
This has obviously taken inspiration from the likes of John Le Carre and is a rather dark and gritty take on the action thriller genre, with a decent amount of physical (and well choreographed) violence. However in all honesty, the originality here is severely lacking. I’ve seen countless revenge films and this is no different. There is little in this to make it stand out above all those that have come before it and it isn’t helped by a limited number of action scenes either to help ramp up the interest.

It doesn’t start off very well, as we find out about Stephanie’s life and how the death of her family turned her into a drug addict and a prostitute. It’s so clichéd that even Jude Law’s character Boyd mocks her for this later in the film, which whilst fun, doesn’t change the fact that they actually used this idea in the plot. There’s also the sketchy almost nonexistent reason for journalist Proctor (Raza Jeffrey) to reach out to Stephanie to tell her that the plane crash was caused by terrorists rather than an accident. It just doesn’t make any sense as to why he’d get Stephanie involved and the film doesn’t even try to explain this rationally. Same goes when Boyd takes in Stephanie and starts to train her as an assassin. Whilst a reason is eventually revealed, it isn’t entirely plausible and again doesn’t make any sense as to why he does this with a woman who has no background or knowledge in espionage or assassination.

Aside from the sketchy plot, there are some plus points. Blake Lively performs well (despite the often hideous wigs), and you can see that she’s really giving it her all and could really make it as an action star. The scenes featuring her and Jude Law are also entertaining to watch and give the film a more relaxed feeling, especially the earlier training scenes. One of the most likeable things about this thought for me was the score. It’s tense and dramatic and full of excitement, with pieces featuring strings, piano and percussion to the point where you begin to wonder if the title ‘The Rhythm Section’ isn’t more appropriate for the music rather than the explanation given during the film.

Sadly The Rhythm Section is a fairly average thriller that whilst boosted slightly by a good performance and score, is unfortunately not particularly memorable, especially with such a lacklustre ending.

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Kirk Bage (1775 KP) rated Alita: Battle Angel (2019) in Movies

Jan 22, 2021

Alita: Battle Angel (2019)

2019 | Action, Fantasy, Sci-Fi

7.4

(95 Ratings)

Movie Rating Watch

Robert Rodriguez is not a good director. He isn’t an especially good writer or producer either. This is the guy responsible for four Spy Kids films, that start below average and downgrade exponentially into excruciatingly awful. What he is pretty good at is ideas, and seeing the potential of something visually arresting and exciting. That is what led to the success of Sin City, arguably his best effort to date, because he saw how the comic book creations of Frank Miller could become live action and he made it happen.

Alita: Battle Angel is a similar deal. This time Yukito Kishiro’s early 90s manga creation is the inspiration. With James Cameron as producer, and the considerable talents of Christoph Waltz, Jennifer Connelly and Mahershala Ali onboard, it would have been pretty hard for even Rodriguez to mess this up entirely. Although at times he does seem to try, mostly by doing too much and making certain sections too busy and too confusingly cross-genre, like he is frantically trying to colour within the lines whilst using every felt-tip in the pack. A habit that means every now and again something great happens, but you may have missed it in all the background noise.

Compare this film, that just falls short of qualifying for my Bad Movie Triple Bill list, to Spielberg’s superior yet similarly busy Ready Player One. Both involve high concept future realities that are very tech and AI driven. Both make extensive use of CGI and vivid colour palettes. Both are frenetic and demand an audience pays attention in order to fully appreciate the storyline. The difference is that one zig-zags back and forth in tone and momentum, and one is razor sharp in moving us from one idea to the next on a perfect learning curve towards a satisfying climax and conclusion. Guess which one is which? This is why Spielberg is Spielberg and Rodriguez is… a hack.

That said, Alita as a character and concept is charming, and you do therefore find yourself at least wanting to discover her story. The action scenes are also quite electric, and the visuals are often breath-taking. But the whole is less than the sum of the parts here, and we are left with something that can only really exist in the same box as dozens of admirable sci-fi B-movies aimed at teenagers, such as The Maze Runner, Mortal Engines and The City of Ember. It also continues to prove the point alongside Ghost in the Shell and Speed Racer that Anime / Manga into live action is a very tricky business.

There is definitely an audience out there for this movie, and I dare say at some point I will be tempted to give it another watch. What is definitely worth watching however, is how James Cameron uses this as a stepping stone to perfecting virtual humans on the big screen. I am sure everyone involved learned a lot in that respect, so all is far from lost.

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Darren (1599 KP) rated The Furnace (2019) in Movies

Oct 14, 2019

Characters – Mary starts this film married and about to go on a honeymoon the pair had been dreaming off, this goes in an instant, leaving her needing an oxygen tank to get through the day, with any hopes of running dashed. Angry at the world, she starts to close off, finding any attempts at returning to her passion ending in hospital trips, until she meets Coffin, here she learns about faith and new technology to overcome her odds to compete in the race that was her honeymoon plan, one that is a test for even the toughest runners in the world. Coffin is a gravedigger in America, even though he is trained as a doctor back in Africa, he offers to help Mary get back to her former self, teaching her to pace herself, preparing her for the impossible sounding race. He must watch from the side lines, with hope that she will make it through each stage of the race. Raphaella is a fellow runner that Mary meets along the way, one to help support her over the course of the journey.

Performances – Jamie Bernadette steps away from the action horror roles we have seen her in recently for a much more serious role, one that does play into her strengths, she deals with the athletic demand of the performance with ease, while bringing the emotional impact of her character’s journey through the film. Luthuli Dlamini does a wonderful job in his role too bringing the calmness to help make Mary strong through the film.

Story – The story here follows one woman that loses everything she had a dreamt off until she finds her faith and pushes herself to get back on the track and complete the race she was meant to do with her husband. This is a story that shows the inspiration of wanting to overcome tragedy and finding a way to achieve this in a world you wouldn’t normal consider. We do get a normal montage of training, while a large part of the story follows the race being competed in. we do get to see just how much needed to be overcome, though it could have given us more of a time frame and just what the injury Mary had, like how likely it is to overcome, or would it be something she was meant to be living with for the rest of her life.

Settings – The film uses the settings to show us just how her life changes in America, while it does get the beauty shots of the African wild reserve seeing the different animals around area.

Scene of the Movie – The race final leg.

That Moment That Annoyed Me – Not getting a full look at the time frame.

Final Thoughts – This is an inspiring story of overcoming tragedy to get back to the former strength, with powerful performances throughout.

Overall: Inspiring Throughout.