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Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children
Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children
Ransom Riggs | 2013 | Children, Young Adult (YA)
7
7.9 (128 Ratings)
Book Rating
This book was not what I expected it to be, but I don't think that makes it deserve the many negative reviews.

 This book is not a "horror" book, with the exception of the "evil" characters who created the reasons for the plot to go where it went. It IS a weird book. I love weird, or should I say "peculiar".

The best thing about the book (and why so many thought it was different than what it was) is that the story was written completely around these found vintage, sometimes creepy, photographs. None of the images were altered with "modern" photoshop, but no one actually knows the real stories behind them or how much they were actually a trick of the camera.

This is Young Adult and so a fairly quick read, but it's also a different kind of fantasy story that is worth the read. Beware, however, the ending does NOT allow you to leave this book without needing to read the sequel.
  
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Awix (3310 KP) rated The Prisoner in TV

Mar 5, 2018  
The Prisoner
The Prisoner
1967 | Fantasy, Sci-Fi, Thriller
Famously cryptic cult TV show still has things to offer anyone willing to enter its peculiar world. Title character (McGoohan) is whisked off to a very strange prison; subsequent episodes revolve around either his attempts to escape, or the Village masters' schemes to force him to reveal his secrets (things get progressively more outlandishly weird as the series progresses).

Visually striking; the plots represent a weird mashing together of typical ITC action-adventure tropes and something altogether more avant-garde and cerebral: typical episode contains both existential pondering of the nature of society and/or the individual self and at least one punch-up. No-one seems entirely sure what it's all supposed to mean - is it about the conflict between the individual and the collective? The divided self? Patrick McGoohan's frustration at the state of his career? Nevertheless, the show's reputation is deserved - the weaker episodes are simply peculiar, the best ones absolutely mesmerising.
  
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Baxter Dury recommended Blond by Frank Ocean in Music (curated)

 
Blond by Frank Ocean
Blond by Frank Ocean
2016 | Alternative, Pop, Soul

"My son listens to Frank Ocean, so I started listening to this through him. I started with listening to Channel Orange and I thought that was fucking amazing. At first I was displaced by the thin-sounding R&B American-ness of it, but when you get into it you realise it’s brilliant. What I like about it is the nature of what Frank Ocean’s singing about, his little introspective vanity subjects. He doesn’t go outwards, like ‘the big wave’s gonna crush us, save the animals’, he just talks about vain things. It’s good. It’s brilliant actually. He’s just a really weird guy singing about weird subjects. There’s that tune ‘Super Rich Kids’, which is just fucking brilliant. ‘Too many bottles of this wine we can’t pronounce’, there’s little moments of discomfort like that, turned into a chorus. I much prefer that to someone’s big treatise about, I don’t know, Assad. Or the coronavirus."

Source
  
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Sean Lennon recommended Crossings by Herbie Hancock in Music (curated)

 
Crossings by Herbie Hancock
Crossings by Herbie Hancock
1972 | Rock
(0 Ratings)
Album Favorite

"There's at least 10 Herbie Hancock albums that would be in my top 100 of all time, I listen to a lot, but the thing I like about Crossings is how dark it is. The opening of the second song, 'Quasar'… it's one of the darkest moments in Jazz history, this horn line that sounds more like a dark planet in a sci fi movie. It's so moody, it's mysterious and sexy. Me and my girlfriend like to listen to this record when we sit and maybe get down… we like to listen to really weird shit… I notice that if we're at a party and we put on a song we'll clear the floor. Those dark, mysterious melodies really turn us on. We get off on it, maybe it's because we're damaged. I get most excited about music when it's dark and weird and sad, like I prefer Mozart's Requiem to his symphonies because it's so sad and devastating."

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Kate Nash recommended track My Name Is by Eminem in Slim Shady LP by Eminem in Music (curated)

 
Slim Shady LP by Eminem
Slim Shady LP by Eminem
1999 | Hip-hop, Rock
7.7 (7 Ratings)
Album Favorite

"I remember my sister bringing The Slim Shady LP home from school and I’d never heard anything like it. The lyrics were so fucking cool, he was so weird and dark and it was so different. He just tells these fucking creative stories and I think that’s what really appeals to me, I’m such a storyteller with my songs. “I love him as an artist because he represented the struggle of being a fucking teenager, being misunderstood and being like ‘Fuck you, fuck everyone.’ There’s so much aggression in it and I felt that in my hormones as a teenager. He gave a voice to all the ways that you’re misunderstood and the hardship of being a fucking adolescent. There’s anger and there’s ‘I’m an outsider’ and ‘fuck everyone.’ “It’s weird because even though there’s so much aggression in there, there’s also the humour and the sarcasm. He said things that no one else was saying and he created characters and stories and I liked that."

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Jaws 3 (1983)
Jaws 3 (1983)
1983 | Action, Horror, Mystery
4
3.9 (10 Ratings)
Movie Rating
Jaws 3 is without a doubt, one of those films to file away in the "so-bad-it's-good" section.
The special effects are so awful that they are part of movie legend in this day and age. I must admit to only watching the standard version, but there's a huge part of me that wants to see this in 3-D, just for those shitty effects to hit different. Everything about this entry is corny and cheap to be honest, but its premise is pretty fun. The idea of people getting stuck in SeaWorld with a gigantic shark on the loose suits the overall tone, and the cast embrace the stupidness of it all, even Dennis Quaid doing a weird Han Solo impression for the whole runtime.

Jaws 3 is inherently shite, but I would absolutely watch it again, just for the weird slow motion shot near the end where the shark breaks through that window at 0.2 mph. Chefs kiss.
  
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 (2017)
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 (2017)
2017 | Action, Comedy, Sci-Fi
can a second adventure starring Marvel’s most bizarre band of misfits retain the same quirky charm, sense of freshness, and overall weird and cosmically comedic tone of the first movie, while pushing the franchise forward? The answer is both yes and no.
Critic: Don Kaye - Den of Geek
Original score: 4 out of 5

Read review: http://www.denofgeek.com/us/movies/guardians-of-the-galaxy-vol-2/264108/guardians-of-the-galaxy-vol-2-review
  
Children of the Corn (1984)
Children of the Corn (1984)
1984 | Horror, Thriller
I'm very disappointed with this! After hearing of it for so long and from a big Stephen King fan, I couldn't believe how poor this is! Looking very dated, thought it was an early 70's film not mid 80's! It's drawn out way too long even at 90mins. It's not scary, just weird. There was a re-make recently not to mention 7 sequels!! Hopefully they are a lot better!