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Jeff Nichols recommended Hud (1963) in Movies (curated)

 
Hud (1963)
Hud (1963)
1963 | Drama, Western
9.5 (2 Ratings)
Movie Favorite

"This one — they’re just kissing cousins, really — but the last Paul Newman film I’ll talk about is Hud — just the greatest introduction to a character maybe ever on screen. You’ve got this goofy kid walking around town and he walks past the bar, and there’s glass on the sidewalk and the bar owner’s sweeping it up. And the kid goes, “Did you have trouble in here last night?” “I had Hud in here last night.” Such an awesome way to introduce the main character of this film. When you first meet him, he’s walking out of this married woman’s house putting his boots on and the husband pulls up, and he immediately blames his nephew. It’s this really incredible thing. I was lucky enough to work on a college professor’s documentary called The Rough South of Larry Brown. Which is about the writer Larry Brown out of Oxford, Mississippi. In that documentary Larry Brown talks about his writing, he says, “Yeah, you read my stuff and you read a little bit and you might think it’s pretty funny. And then you read a little bit more and you realize, it’s not funny worth a damn.” And that’s Hud. You start it off and you’re like, “Gosh, look at this rapscallion, this character,” and then you realize, “Wow, that’s not funny; there is some deep stuff inside that man that is hurt and angry, but is manifesting itself in very evil ways.” The complexity of that — it’s different than Newman’s character in The Hustler. In The Hustler, he’s doing pride, but there’s something deep going on in Hud that’s darker. It’s more about family and legacy and things that I think, because it’s attached to the family, I relate to very much. I had to deal with familial relationships that are complex."

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Velvet Underground & Nico by The Velvet Underground
Velvet Underground & Nico by The Velvet Underground
1967 | Experimental

"Whoever it was that said this album didn't sell a lot of copies but every person who bought it went on to form a band, I think there is probably some truth in that. It is such an influential record; such a truly unique, maverick record and it's one of the records I play more than anything else. I often go back to it now - I will just feel like needing to hear 'Venus In Furs'. It still sounds weirdly modern considering it was made in the sixties. I love the whole way The Velvet Underground went about things - John Cale playing viola, Nico singing on some of the songs and Lou singing on others. It has a feel to it that is unlike anything and nobody has really touched for originality since then. It sounds so strange - it was made in New York during a period that has the whole mystique of Andy Warhol’s Factory. It's also one of the great album covers of our time – Warhol’s peeling banana. I knew Andy very well throughout the eighties until he sadly died. That whole scene was so stylish and underground - they had the perfect name. I've been lucky enough over the years to meet John Cale a bunch of times and Lou Reed - I sat next to Lou at a dinner a few months back - and to me they are still great icons of modern music. We actually played with Lou onstage once in the late eighties. We did a charity show and he came and played 'Sweet Jane' and 'Walk On The Wild Side' with us, which was surreal. We have covered 'Femme Fatale' - we could cover the entire album but it wouldn't be nearly as good so there's no point."

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From the Double Gone Chapel by Two Lone Swordsmen
From the Double Gone Chapel by Two Lone Swordsmen
2004 | Electronic, Pop
(0 Ratings)
Album Favorite

"This was the basis for the baseline in Sleaford Mods, fucking great stuff. Stuff like 'The Lurch'. They did a cover of the Gun Club's 'Sex Beat', that's great. Most of Weatherall's work is bass heavy, it's solo stuff. Wrong Meeting, the album that came after this, that's bass-led. There's a rockabilly feel to it. But with From The Double Gone Chapel it's 80s synths, bass, car alarms. The inner sleeve, which is just a coffee stain and a packet of Marlboro Lights next to it, that really influenced me. Same with Mike Skinner's sleeve where he's just sat in his flat with a pint, it's just fucking brilliant. That's how it is, he's not pretending to be anything. Those things merge, all of it is a big melting pot. I think I've hit it good with the albums that I have chosen for you as far as my contribution to Sleaford Mods. I mean, Andrew, whatever he makes, I go with. Initially, when we started doing Wank, the album before Austerity Dogs, I would have said to Andrew that I want a big heavy bass and I want a dusty Wu Tang thing. He took that on board and made it his own, then he would bring these slices of music to me and I thought the sound wasn't something I'd really go for, but it was quite good. I don't tell him anything any more, he just gets on with it. This the band I've been trying so hard to get into. I think we've been very lucky, regardless of the hard work and the shit me and Andrew went through, it was luck as well. I feel quite grateful that it happened to us."

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Hawkeye, Volume 4: Rio Bravo
Hawkeye, Volume 4: Rio Bravo
Matt Fraction | 2015 | Comics & Graphic Novels
8
8.0 (2 Ratings)
Book Rating
So, this afternoon, I took it upon myself to nom-nom-nom on this nugget, instead of leaving it for my "pre-sleep time read". Let's just say that I have no regrets for this decision.

All four volumes of the Matt Fraction HAWKEYE run were a re-read for me. This volume, and the previous volume, Vol. 3: "L.A. Woman", were compiled slightly out of order. The issues in the Vol. 3 were all part of Kate Bishop's story, as she and Lucky went out to L.A. The issues in this final volume, while out of order, help continue the story, concluding with Kate's return for the series finale (not a spoiler, if you read Volume 3, which if you didn't, I am very disappointed in you. Tch!).

The volume, as a whole, flows like a well-crafted indie action-adventure flick. There is plenty of white-knuckle tense scenes, as well as some genuine "kick ya in the feels" moments. Heck, there's even a small amount of chuckles, too! All in all, a perfect ending to a perfect series!

In addition to Katie-Kate's return, it also brings back David Aja, whose art on the series' run, was nothing short of brilliant! Aja brought a pulp feel to the art, a style that suited Fraction's portrayal of Clint Barton.

All in all, the entire run is worth your time, not just this fourth, and final, volume of the series! In an era where Marvel thinks constantly rebooting series, as well as offering way too many meaningless crossover events, is how you put out quality material, it warms my nerdy comic lovin' heart to still return to good stuff like Matt Fraction's HAWKEYE run! Thank you, Matt, and thank you to all the excellent art choices you assembled for this run!
  
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ClareR (5916 KP) rated The Betrayals in Books

Dec 14, 2020  
The Betrayals
The Betrayals
Bridget Collins | 2020 | Dystopia, Fiction & Poetry, Mystery, Science Fiction/Fantasy
10
10.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
Firstly, I should say that The Betrayals is a phenomenal book. It opens up a whole new world to the reader. It brought to mind the type of society that I imagine we would have had under National Socialism: men in charge and better educated than women, women expected to know their place, only state sanctioned religion permitted, and those of other religions or schools of thought are ‘disappeared’. I really would have liked to have read more about this outside world, but I don’t feel short changed at only having read about what happens within the confines of Montverre. It is strange actually, that such a major part of Montverre, the grand jeu, is never explicitly talked about. We get the impression as a reader that it’s a performance consisting of maths, music, philosophy and state sanctioned religion. It’s held in extremely high regard: studying it is a sure fire open door to a position of power afterwards.

So what IS The Betrayals about? Well, betrayal, actually. Everyone is backstabbing and lying to everyone else in this book, and they’re lucky if they live to regret it. It’s the cloistered version of Dallas (with less sex)! I loved it. This was a hard book to put down, and one I steamed through far too quickly. This ticks a lot of boxes for me: historical fantasy (double whammy straight away), a mystery to solve, dystopian and a smattering of magical realism. I’m glad it looks like a book that could have a sequel - even if it never as one. It leaves the reader able to make up their own next moves (yes, I do that).

Huge thanks to the publisher for providing me with a NetGalley copy of this book - it was one of my reading highlights of 2020.
  
Resilience (The Demon and Shadows Duology #1)
Resilience (The Demon and Shadows Duology #1)
Kandi Vale | 2020 | Horror, Science Fiction/Fantasy
9
8.0 (2 Ratings)
Book Rating
132 of 200
Kindle
Resilience ( The Demon and Shadows Duology book1)
ARC copy
By Kandi Vale

Ok folks strap in it’s a bit of a long one!!

*** The books do include scenes of BDSM and scenes of a sexual nature. Adults only ***

I was extremely lucky and privileged to be given the chance to read the ARC of Kandi vales new book Resilience which is the first book in a Duologly featuring Joro and Mattheus from the slivered souls trilogy. I was first introduced to this author in February 2019 and I absolutely fell in love with the world she has created. This new book tells the story of Joro and Mattheus, we get to see how Joro came to be the person she is now. It is full of action and some of the hottest sex scenes I’ve read, now don’t let me mislead you with the sex scenes they are also some of the best I’ve seen written. If BDSM is not to your taste I’d still recommend reading this book as they are done so well in my opinion (and I can only write from my opinion so don’t shoot me). This book had me hooked from the prologue and it was one of those books that kept you hooked! It answered so many questions and brought every emotion you can think of.
I can not wait for book 2 to see how this ends! I’m a huge fan of supporting authors like Kandi these writers put their heart and soul into the worlds they build and you can definitely see it in her work!

So I highly recommend you check this book out when it officially releases Tuesday 28th July!!

In the meantime go find slivered book 1 of the slivered souls trilogy

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/40901021
  
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Hazel (2934 KP) rated Cry Baby in Books

Aug 9, 2020  
Cry Baby
Cry Baby
Mark Billingham | 2020 | Crime, Thriller
8
8.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
I am a huge fan of Mark Billingham and of his character, Tom Thorne, and have avidly followed the series and so I was absolutely thrilled to see a prequel was available which went back to the beginning in 1996 when "portable" phones are a novelty, smoking in pubs was the norm and England weren't doing too badly in the Euro's!

Tom is a young Detective Sergeant going through a bit of a rough patch after separating from his wife and experiencing recurring nightmares of an old case when along comes every persons worst nightmare ... the abduction of a little boy from a local park. The book follows the investigation into the abduction where everyone is a suspect and the mystery deepens when the body of one of those suspects turns up, quickly followed by the body of the boy's father.

This is a tense read written mainly from the perspectives of Tom, Cat (mother of the abducted child) and Kieron (the abducted child); the pace built up as the investigation progressed and I loved it. I particularly enjoyed meeting the characters that I have grown to love at the beginnings of their relationship with a particular highlight being the first meeting between Tom and Phil Hendricks which made me literally laugh out loud.

I would most definitely recommend this book and you don't have to have read any of the others in the series as this makes a really good starting point for those of you who haven't discovered the delight that is Tom Thorne and who have clearly been living under a rock!!

I was extremely lucky to have won a copy of this book via a Facebook competition but thanks also to Little, Brown Book Group via NetGalley for an e-copy in return for an unbiased and honest review.