Smashbomb

"This well known 1968 album is a pun on the fantastic expedition of Lewis and Clark, the famous leaders of the USA's 'Corps of Discovery' who were the first east coast Americans to successfully negotiate the north west passage to the Pacific Ocean in the early 19th century. Of course this ties in beautifully to the John Evans story featured in American Interior - Lewis and Clark used the maps he created between 1795-7 (whilst searching for a mythical tribe of Welsh speaking First Nation Americans) for the first year of their expedition. There's a keen sense of the rhythm of exploration on this fantastic record. Dillard's peerless banjo picking could easily power a steam boat up the Missouri River and Clark's melancholic musings on songs like 'Train Leaves Here This Morning' give a clear sense of long distance travel and loss. Meanwhile a team of proto Country Rock greats including Bernie Leadon, Sneaky Pete and Chris Hillman play away busily in the background, setting the benchmark for the mellow mountain sound that would dominate the airwaves the world over in the following years."

Source

Kudos

LoganCrews (2861 KP) rated Underwater (2020) in Movies

Sep 21, 2020

Underwater (2020)

2020 | Horror, Sci-Fi

6.5

(26 Ratings)

Movie Rating

Decent, what is essentially 𝘌𝘶𝘳𝘰𝘱𝘢 𝘙𝘦𝘱𝘰𝘳𝘵 meets 𝘋𝘦𝘦𝘱𝘸𝘢𝘵𝘦𝘳 𝘏𝘰𝘳𝘪𝘻𝘰𝘯 without the fun, tantalizing lore of either. First 15 minutes and last 15 minutes are fucking banger (and terrifying, case #5,000 on why I'll never so much as dip a toe in the ocean), though everything sandwiched between is a mixed bag - I'll give it credit that it gets right into it with maybe only 30 or so seconds of exposition; but it isn't always intense enough to be this brisk and the editing can be a bit of a mess, so much is easy to miss. I'll credit Stewart acting the house down for saving this movie, while the rest of the cast... exists. Occasionally falls into your conventional modern horror movie traps but not nearly as much as you'd expect. Looks way better in the interior environments as opposed to the actual underwater stuff, but otherwise it does what it should - definitely has some scary as hell parts but never truly coagulates into a whole. Not sure why this was put on hold for so long, but it is nice to see T.J. Miller return to disaster movies.

Kudos

Kristina (502 KP) rated A Very Large Expanse of Sea in Books

Dec 7, 2020

A Very Large Expanse of Sea

Tahereh Mafi | 2018 | Religion, Romance, Young Adult (YA)

5.0

(3 Ratings)

Book Rating

I figured with today's current events, I'd give this a read. I can't say I've never seen (or heard) acts (or words) of racism, but I will admit that, for the most part, it hasn't truly been directed at me. Reading this hurt my heart and made me angry in a very violent way. Stupidity is everywhere. Unfortunately, racism is everywhere. However, as someone who's been privileged enough to not have true, memorable experience with it, I was shocked and disgusted by the acts of the people in this fictional community. And while the story itself, characters included, may be storybook fake, the feelings and harassment within are likely based on true acts. Hatred is a horrible thing and Shirin is literally so used to it that she feels it's safer to assume everyone is after her, everyone hates her, everyone is wilfully ignorant and therefore deliberately prejudice towards her - it's her coping mechanism; see the absolute worst in others, keep your distance, and maybe it'll hurt less. We need more people like Ocean, who was so adorably awkward and sweet, and genuinely interested in learning more!