Cynthia Nixon recommended The Band Wagon (1953) in Movies (curated)
Amen Dunes recommended Everyone is a Door by Panorama in Music (curated)
New York Noise: Art and Music from the New York Underground 1978-88
Book
Downtown New York during the mid-70s to mid-80s was a hotbed of musical and artistic ideas. The area...
Prince and The Purple Rain Era Studio Sessions: 1983 and 1984
Book
Featuring insights on even more groundbreaking recording sessions, rehearsals, and sound checks,...
Paradise Valley by John Mayer
Album Watch
Paradise Valley is the sixth studio album by musician John Mayer. Musically, it is similar to his...
The Courtyard of the Ballads (1942)
Movie
This classic of Portuguese cinema depicts the friendships and rivalries of the inhabitants of a...
A Song of Lisbon (1933)
Movie
After flunking in medical school, the young and bohemian Vasco need to trick his aunts, the main...
Renaissance by Beyoncé
Album
Beyoncé Giselle Knowles-Carter was always destined for stardom. Never mind the two Number 1 singles...
Hazel (1853 KP) rated Musical Mayhem (Totally Twins, #1) in Books
Dec 14, 2018
Musical Mayhem</i> is the first book in the <i>Totally Twins</i> series aimed at ten-year-old girls. Subtitled <i>The Fabulous Diary of Persephone Pinchgut</i>, the series is about the life of identical sisters from one twin’s point of view. Portia and Persephone may look the same, share friends and borrow each other’s clothes, but inside they are polar opposites. Starting a diary is the only way Persephone can have something that is entirely her own, where she can write about how she really feels.
The main storyline revolves around the upcoming end of term musical at the twins’ school. Persephone only joined the drama class at Portia’s insistence, whereas in reality she is a shy girl with absolutely no singing ability. Persephone writes about her dread of the auditions and the hurtful teasing from her perfect sister.
Many young girls (and boys), like the author herself, wish at some point to have a twin. Portia and Persephone may have a special connection that other siblings do not, but as this diary reveals, having a twin is not all sunshine and rainbows. Persephone also writes about her parents’ divorce, her alternate therapy obsessed Mum and her hopes and dreams for the future. There are many things for young girls to relate to.
Illustrator Serena Geddes completes the book with her simple drawings. <i>Musical Mayhem</i> is not a children’s’ picture book; it is a step between child and teenager novels. For an adult reader the storyline is uninspiring, however a child of ten would enjoy the characters, humour and the issues expressed.
<i>Totally Twins: Musical Mayhem</i> is a great start to a unique series of short books for girls. It is something that junior school children will love to collect to build up their own personal library. The book jackets are attractive and will look great when all together as a set. If you are looking for a present for a young girl, I recommend considering this book.
Daniel Boyd (1066 KP) rated Hamilton: An American Musical Soundtrack by Lin-Manuel Miranda in Music
Dec 31, 2018 (Updated Dec 31, 2018)
Back before Cracked.com dissolved, I was a loyal listener of their weekly podcast. Each week the host, Jack O'Brian would play songs throughout the podcast from an album that he had been listening to that week. During an episode that they dropped back in early 2016, Jack explained at the start of the episode that he had been to see a musical called Hamilton the previous weekend and he would be playing songs from that through the episode. I rolled my eyes, expecting to be bombarded with cheesy broadway show tunes and was unbelievably pleasantly surprised by what I heard.
Right away, these songs grabbed me, to the point that I actively seeked out the rest of the soundtrack to listen to the rest of the songs. The following summer, my girlfriend and I were planning a trip to NYC and I was dying to go and see Hamilton live, even though Lin-Manuel Miranda had moved away from the title role, as had a lot of the other OG cast, I still wanted to experience the soundtrack live. However, after seeing that the price of 2 tickets equated to an amount equal to a deposit for a house, we had to let the chance pass us by.
Last week, while on a trip down to London, we finally got to see the play live and it was most definitely worth the wait. Seeing the songs play out live only enhances the genius of Lin-Manuel's writing and the cast that we seen were absolutely stellar, (even though they were apparently mostly the understudy cast.)
Hamilton is one of the greatest things ever written and if you ever get the chance, I implore you to do everything that you can to see it live - and this is coming from someone who hates musical theatre.