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The Distance Travelled
4
4.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
Just how this book ended up on my iTouch is something of a mystery to me, but it was there and I'd read everything else, and it was the middle of the night and I couldn't sleep, so I figured what the heck.

A few minutes later, I stopped, looked back at the title and author, and tried really hard to figure out where this book could have possibly come from, because, um, wtf? A guy is sitting in his kitchen, minding his own business, and a pig comes sailing through the window? A live pig? Right. Then he starts checking the thermostat and it is pretty clear that he must live in hell. Oh, and the pig sits down and helps itself to his cereal, sitting upright in the chair and using the spoon.

That's before things really get odd.

I have no objection to a few fnords, but I generally know what I'm getting into. I suppose that when a novel apparently puts itself onto your e-reader, you just deal with whatever happens.

So maybe I shouldn't be complaining about the fact that there isn't exactly a happy ending, because the ending isn't as unhappy as it could have been. But I LIKE happy endings. In fact, I have a thing about them, in that I tend to choose my reading with a very strong preference for them. That's one reason I'm unlikely to be reading any more Neil Gaiman (I know, I know, he's such a good author - but he's depressing as hell, too).

Let's be honest here: Savory is not Neil Gaiman, and there wasn't a really happy ending. The ending didn't wholly suck as much as it could have, but there wasn't any goodness and light. Or redemption. Or reward. No love. Just - blah.

So I don't know what else Brett Alexander Savory has written, but I probably won't be looking too hard at any of it. The book did keep me reading for about an hour and a half, though, so Savory did better than many other authors could. Kudos for that!

I know he put this novel, at least, out under a Creative Commmons license, according to the copy on my e-reader. I don't know if any of his other material is licensed that way or not, but I give him thumbs up for being part of the CC movement.
  
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Mark Arm recommended Hendrix In The West by Jimi Hendrix in Music (curated)

 
Hendrix In The West by Jimi Hendrix
Hendrix In The West by Jimi Hendrix
1972 | Blues, Psychedelic, Rock
(0 Ratings)
Album Favorite

"I picked this mainly because most people are probably familiar with the regular three studio records that came out. I would hope they are. This record, Hendrix In The West, is a compilation of live versions. I think four songs are from this San Diego show in 1969 and shortly after that tour Noel Redding was out of the band so it was the last part of the Experience. There's a version of 'Spanish Castle Magic' on the record that is just so incredible, and the bass is distorted and driving. That song alone is worth the whole record. And if you can get your hands on it, there's actually a bootleg of that whole San Diego show and I recommend that, but Hendrix In The West is a little more accessible. My friend Darren who was the drummer in Mr. Epp, we were in high school and he had one of those portable eight-track players. I think he pretty much only had three eight-tracks I can remember, and one was Jimi Hendrix's Smash Hits and another was The Who: Live At Leeds and we would play those constantly. I've always been really impressed by Mitch Mitchell's drumming. It spoke to me. I think he's maybe the best drummer in rock & roll. I just love that kind of loose, fluid feel. It's not stiff, there's sort of a jazz thing going through it. It's really propulsive. Have you ever seen 'Message To Love', the Isle of Wight set that Hendrix plays? It's weird what happened to Mitch Mitchell over the years he was playing with Hendrix. In the early days he's sitting upright and playing like he does on the records but by that almost last performance he's got a double kick drum which he's just slumped over and his back is hunched and he's really low. It's like he isn't playing the beats at all, he's just playing around it. It's like he's become a rock version of Elvin Jones - it's crazy. Rock & roll has taken its toll on a lot of people. There's a bit in the Isle of Wight thing where a couple of songs in, Hendrix just goes behind the speakers and you can hear his guitar hitting shit. And he comes back out and he's on fire. The song ends and he says "I just woke up two minutes ago!" I was like: "Gee, I wonder what he was doing back there?""

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Mom and Dad (2018)
Mom and Dad (2018)
2018 | Comedy, Horror
Nicholas Cage (2 more)
Great idea
Superb dialogue
Some damn fine fun with Cage and Blair
Contains spoilers, click to show
Two people who you should be able to count on for your safety as a child are your Mother and Father. But that doesn' ring true in this amazing little film by writer/director Brian Taylor.
The film's opening sequence shows a woman in a minivan with a baby in the backseat. The radio plays some strange static and out of nowhere she looks back to the infant and exits the vehicle. Leaving the baby and the van to meet their demise via an oncoming train.
What follows is pure genius and insanity that is topped by Nick Cage doing what Nick Cage does best. Losing it onscreen with a fever that only my he can provide.
Selma Blair holds her own as Cafe's seemingly mild mannered wife who turns on a dime and joins him in the craziness with a certain flair comparable to Cages insane bravado.
The kids, played by Anne Winters and Zachary Arthur, fight their parents with some Home Alonish antics that prove to serve them well.
No one can fully say what it is that officially makes the parents around the world turn on their kids. But it has something to do with white noise and static on televisions and radios across the planet. Parents instinct to protect their young like a bear is replaced with the feeling off ultimate anger and insanity.
In one scene, Blair is at the hospital coaching her sister through birth. The the is born and handed to the mother and a monitor goes all static filled and noisy. The sister clutches the baby tightly, beginnng to cut off the airwaves and choking the child. Blair rips the newborn from her sister in an attempt to protect her. But something driving her sister forces her to stand upright and destroy the baby. She ultimately fails and is sedated.
The best performance in this film goes hands down to Nicholas Cage. Who freaks out like only Cage can. And even though his appeaance resembles a slightly bloated version of Marilyn Manson. His ability to use his expression and booming voice to command insanity is off the charts amazing.
I recall a scene where the kids are locked in the basement trying to escape their folks. And Blair and Cage are looking for a way to break down the door. Nicholas bangs on the door, shaking and screaming a line i will never forget "Your motherfucking Mother said to open this goddamn door, Motherfuckers!!!! Youre going to open this motherfucking door!!!!". Cage goes one way Blair goes another... she gets a reciprocating saw and brings it to the door. Her line, while simple, is unforgettable. "It's called a Saws all because it saws all,".
She begins hacking and at the door as Cage is upstairs looking for his gun... he hears shots and runs downstairs, finding Blair sitting on the floor nursing a fresh gunshot to the arm. He freaks out and explains the gun to his wife who quotes some stats about kids hurting themselves and others with handguns. Irony at its finest.
All in all, this movie never gets boring after the parents begin to try and kill their kids. It's only better when Cages character Brent's folks show up and attempt to kill him. Lance Henricksons performance as the father is extreme and awesome.
Watch this movie if you have a spare 90 minutes, i promise you it will motherfucking not disappoint, Motherfuckers:)