Smashbomb

"I remember hearing a PJ Harvey song, it might have been ‘Down by The Water’, and thinking ‘this is wicked, I’m gonna buy some of her music!’ At that age I had pocket money, about five pounds, so I went to this music shop in Exeter, found the PJ Harvey section, and all they had was this cheap cassette of 4-Track Demos. I was learning the drums around that time, and listening to the drums in a way I’d never done before, getting obsessive about it. I bought this PJ Harvey record, I put it on and thought ‘OK, the drums are gonna come in soon!’, but of course they never come in, it’s all demos. It was insanely disappointing! But I’d payed the money for this record, so I listened to it, and it became this educational thing for me of understanding that this was part of writing a song. Comparing the demos to the finished tracks, it was an interesting thing to hear and I think the most important thing I’d take from it is investing in something that deprives you of the one thing you were really excited about. It’s a good lesson, but completely unplanned, an interesting exercise to realise that the thing I feel is the most important thing, is not."

Source

Kudos

Awix (3310 KP) rated Dune (1984) in Movies

Jul 21, 2021

Dune (1984)

1984 | Sci-Fi

8.0

(14 Ratings)

Movie Rating Watch

David Lynch's crack at the famous novel buckles under the weight of the sheer amount of exposition the director feels compelled to include; it's not even especially good exposition as the story remains sluggish and bafflingly impenetrable (even if you've read the book). A young man is caught up in the power-politics of a galactic empire and rises to become a superhuman, messianic figure - not that any of this would be at all clear without the voice-overs which keep explaining what's actually going on; scenes themselves are usually windy affairs with characters talking bafflegab about Gom Jabbars, the Water of Life, the Shai-Halud, the weirding way, and the Kwisatz Haderach. All that's wrong with the film is summed up by the fact the final line is someone declaring 'He is the Kwisatz Haderach!' when it is still unclear why this is important and what it even means.

Fine actors like Patrick Stewart, Max von Sydow and Sian Phillips stand around doing their best with the material; some lavish sets and interesting costumes, and the music is rousing and imperious; you always know when something important is happening even if you don't really understand what it is or what it signifies. But it's all basically form without content on a lavish scale; a relatively simple story drowns in background details.

Kudos

LoganCrews (2861 KP) rated Inglourious Basterds (2009) in Movies

Sep 20, 2020

At the risk of sounding cliché, this was rigorously badass. Has a couple holes but honestly this is still as tightly constructed as this story could possibly be. Just as personal preference I would have liked some more Basterd Nazi killing but there isn't a single wasted line of dialogue in all its still magnetically elongated digressions. Speaking of which, it's been nearly six years to the day that I first saw this film and I still remember so many little, seemingly insignificant lines of dialogue (for instance, how much Landa loves milk and pastries). Saying every performance is an idiosyncratic knockout would be redundant, it's Tarantino after all but it needs underlining here as well: Pitt's wondrously imitatable drawl, Waltz's schoolboy-esque glee in fucking with people, the way Laurent reacts as if she'd just imbibed a pound of broken glass after her nerve-wracking conversation with Landa, so on and so forth. The last half hour ranks among some of the finest Tarantino you'll ever see - the blistering retaliation(s) in the theater, the numerous sharp story surprises that hit like a pot of boiling water to the face, the unfiltered confrontational nature which some find to be a - er - controversial choice today? (Fuck you if you're one of them, by the way). Imagine seeing this and still thinking 𝘖𝘯𝘤𝘦 𝘜𝘱𝘰𝘯 𝘢 𝘛𝘪𝘮𝘦... 𝘪𝘯 𝘏𝘰𝘭𝘭𝘺𝘸𝘰𝘰𝘥 is better.

Kudos

Rikki Hammond (33 KP) rated Mapominoes Europe in Tabletop Games

Jun 27, 2019

Mapominoes Europe

2007 | Card Game

6.5

(2 Ratings)

Tabletop Game Rating

Quick to play (1 more)

Learn some facts whilst playing

You can get stuck laying cards in some situations (0 more)

It's Dominies, With Countries

Mapomi ies is a very sinple card game, where the aim is to get rid of all your country cards before anyone else.

Each card has a country in the middle, with the countries that border it around the edge. To play a card, you have to lay a card down that borders another country already laid down. For example, the UK borders Ireland, so you can only lay one down next to the other

Some cointries have no bordering countries, so a transit card has to be used. These can be used to represent bodies of water, or other countries (even ones that are out already) and can be used to lay a country card down, that is otherwise impossible to play

There are additional rules you can use, like forcing people to lay their cards down in geographical accuracy, but I find this needlessley overcomplicates the game. There may also be times where you physically can't play a card, due to someone else not laying one of their own, thereby shutting you out of the game for a bit.

Overall, Mapominoes is a very simple card game, which can be combined with other packs, to create an even bigger finished product.