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Ben Watt recommended Blue Train by John Coltrane in Music (curated)

 
Blue Train by John Coltrane
Blue Train by John Coltrane
1957 | Jazz
(0 Ratings)
Album Favorite

"I bought this at university, mainly because of the cover art, I admit. I had a very small record collection then. You did in those days, and because you didn't have a lot, you'd play every record again and again. My dad, Tom, was a bandleader, so there was a lot of jazz in the house. He liked people like Count Basie and Woody Herman, but he stopped at Coltrane. He found the modernism of it difficult, but I loved it. It felt like a big thing for me, when I was a precocious teenager. The first jazz I had found for myself!

This is a real fork-in-the-road album for jazz, too, from 1958, a proper boundary between hard bop and the future. The three-part horn arrangements are something I tried to emulate on the first track of [Everything But The Girl's 1984 album] Each And Every One, too – in my own way of course. The album was only his second, and him early on as a session leader. There's so much life in it, and so many ideas. 
"

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Faris Badwan recommended Lysol by Melvins in Music (curated)

 
Lysol by Melvins
Lysol by Melvins
1992 | Alternative, Metal, Rock
(0 Ratings)
Album Favorite

"I suppose I always thought the Melvins were cool because they felt like a band that kind of came out of nowhere. They felt quite alien to me and I always like bands where it feels like the band are an alien product of a weird environment. It's like it was almost an accident that the band came about and made the record they made and that they weren't under any outside influence. When you hear about Can going to Cologne or living in some weird countryside village and making the kind of records they made, I think that kind of applies to Melvins as well. It's so warped. Although you can see how it came out of America, you can't as well. Because it seems like it's on another planet. I guess Josh would probably agree with a lot of the records on this list, he's into a lot of the stuff here and Melvins are one of his favourites. And I like anything that's got a hint of Black Sabbath in it really."

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The Upside of Unrequited
The Upside of Unrequited
Becky Albertalli | 2017 | Young Adult (YA)
8
8.2 (25 Ratings)
Book Rating
BECKY ALBERTALLI IS A GENIUS literally I will buy any book she puts out I love her so much, I didn't enjoy this one quite as much as I enjoyed Simon but I don't think I'll ever enjoy anything as much as I enjoyed Simon but that's just life isn't it (the best parts of this book were the parts with Simon just saying) All in all I enjoyed this a lot and I'm in love with Reid <spoiler>I'm so glad Molly ended up with him</spoiler> and I found I related to Molly in a lot of different things, unrequited love is my life.

my main criticisms are that it did take me almost 200 pages before I was super invested and I felt that although the representation was strong it was all just added in a little unnecessarily and was used just for the sake of having representation rather than being pivotal to the plot.

Anyway that said I'm SOOOO excited for Leah on the offbeat to come out like I'm so hyped.
  
Animal Kingdom (2010)
Animal Kingdom (2010)
2010 | International, Drama
8.0 (1 Ratings)
Movie Favorite

"This movie is still my favorite movie of last year, and I think I have to name it because I just thought it was an extraordinary film and I still think about it a lot. I saw it in the theater and it really hit me like a ton of bricks. I think he’s a really extraordinary director, David Michôd. Ben Mendelsohn and Jackie Weaver — every single performance in that I was so impressed with, but in particular just the direction. That’s a director that I appreciate the sense that he allows his actors to just act and have these really quiet moments, and he really just created this world — the atmosphere of that movie was amazing. For a first film, too. The way that he was able to create a level of tension with actors not really saying much or doing much, it was just what he did with the camera. There are not a lot of films where you can just appreciate the camerawork and what a significant aspect of the whole film it is. It was perfectly curated."

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Suggs recommended I Am...Sasha Fierce by Beyoncé in Music (curated)

 
I Am...Sasha Fierce by Beyoncé
I Am...Sasha Fierce by Beyoncé
2008 | Rock
(0 Ratings)
Album Favorite

"Haha, I was thinking, there are millions of bleedin’ classic albums I could have chosen, but that album came out when I was on holiday with my kids, and I bought it because I’d seen her on The X Factor. She came on singing ‘If I Was A Boy’, and I thought, fucking hell man, if there was ever an example of what real talent is… you know what I mean? You’ve got some quite talented kids on that show, but then she comes on and it’s like all the lights on the planet have been turned on. And I really loved that song, I don’t know why, it just got me somehow: girls imagining what boys do, and so on. Unfortunately I didn’t see her at Glastonbury 'cos I had to leave, but my kids stuck around and saw it, and I watched it on the telly, and I loved how she put a lot of effort in and embraced the whole thing. Somehow she doesn’t seem as fake as a lot of those other pop-soul artists."

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Jason Williamson recommended Illmatic by Nas in Music (curated)

 
Illmatic by Nas
Illmatic by Nas
1994 | Rock
7.0 (2 Ratings)
Album Favorite

"I got into that around 2008. That again was all about hopelessness, there was some positivity in there, but I think he had a lot to say on this album. He never bettered it. That second track, the line, ""Cuz you never know when you're going to go!"" Chilling, really. I haven't listened to it for a long time, but you have the sense of a cold afternoon in the projects, an afternoon spent doing nothing, walking up the stairs to your apartment, the hopelessness of being a young black kid. He wasn't really a funny guy, Nas. But brutal. He must have been educating himself. Books are a great source, aren't they. Some literature was held in some circles, myths about certain books, what I tend to find with a lot of rappers is this religious connection, even though some won't admit it, black culture is very connected to religion, more so than white people. It's kind of that as well, the fear of the wrath of god."

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Ginny &amp; Georgia
Ginny & Georgia
2021 | Comedy, Drama
7
7.0 (1 Ratings)
TV Show Rating
A lot of representation. (1 more)
Georgia's character is very interesting
Representation of minors in the show is a little bit off tbh (0 more)
I enjoyed it a lot.
The show in itself is a very fun watch, The adult characters are interesting, their backstories are gripping, they are relatable in many ways... and yet, somehow, they got the representation of teenagers very wrong. Ginny acts unlike any fifteen year old I have ever met.

I understand though that as a piece of fiction, it does not always have to be realistic nor does it ever state that it is. I just think that the teenagers in this show are not only annoying as all hell, they act like pretentious adults.

In my opinion the best character is Georgia. Knowing what we know by the end of the show all the mysterious puzzle pieces about Georgia's past and her present fall in place and it all makes a ton more sense.

I would recommend this show to people who like mysteries, purely because this show is drenched in mystery. I think it's worth a try,
  
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Sunny Suljic recommended The Conjuring (2013) in Movies (curated)

 
The Conjuring (2013)
The Conjuring (2013)
2013 | Horror

"My family, we only watch scary movies together. We do not watch comedy – anything – we just watch scary movies. The only other times that I have seen scary movies is when I’m watching Netflix in my room. And I think I’ve probably watched The Conjuring 100 times. I’m not exaggerating: I’ve watched The Conjuring a hundred times. I could recite the movie. A lot of scary movies usually just [feature] a bunch of pop-ups, which is pretty scary, but I don’t really think it’s that scary – it catches you off guard and you’re just shocked. But with The Conjuring it’s actually creepy stuff. And they have a lot of things that I have phobias of. It all piles up. It’s not just like, “Ooh that was scary for a second!” It’s like “Oh my God, that’s so scary!” and then it keeps adding on. It’s not a pop-up and then in another 20 minutes it’s going to be another pop-up. It’s: “Why is she still walking towards me? And why is it still getting more intense?”"

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Greg Mottola recommended The 400 Blows (1959) in Movies (curated)

 
The 400 Blows (1959)
The 400 Blows (1959)
1959 | Drama
(0 Ratings)
Movie Favorite

"One of the reasons this movie is important to me is that I’m a big fan of personal storytelling; people who tell their own stories and tell them vividly and honestly, and without sentimentality. It’s such a beautiful, naturalistic film, but unlike a lot of movies about children, it is devoid of sentimentality, but it’s also incredibly rich with emotion, which are two different things. It’s a painful movie in a lot of ways, but it’s just never cheap. There’s nothing cheap about the depiction of that young man’s life. It’s also one of the best child performances I’ve ever seen in a movie, because he’s a very specific character, but there’s nothing about him that feels forced, or that the filmmakers are trying to make you like him or pity him in a phony way. Jean-Pierre Leaud clearly had something special that is fascinating to watch; he’s really funny and charming, but also it’s strange to see a child character depicted so richly — he’s got flaws, there are sh***y things about him, but he captures all of it."

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Hands on a Hardbody: The Documentary (1997)
Hands on a Hardbody: The Documentary (1997)
1997 | Comedy, Documentary
(0 Ratings)
Movie Favorite

"I really like documentaries a lot; maybe more than film. I love this documentary called Hands on a Hard Body. It was made in the 1990s, I think. It’s about this annual event that takes place in Texas — it’s kind of like an endurance test of how long you can keep your hand on a truck. And if you are the last man standing, you get the truck. Literally, you just stand, day and night with your hand on a truck, and there’s like 15 or 20 people all standing there. And it’s such a well-done documentary. They feature each person before the program starts; the director comes in and he asks them questions like, “Why do you want to do this? Why do you want your truck?” and it’s just a real, unique look into people’s lives. It’s really powerful and it’s really moving and it’s kind of funny and odd and bizarre. It goes on for, I think, over 72 hours, and it’s really sad as you see this people dropping out. It says a lot about human endurance."

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