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Aaron's PicksBooks, Music, and Movies Photo: Sculpted SandIPv4You are not logged in. Click here to log in. | |
Welcome to Aaron's Picks!This is my chance to share some of the things I enjoy with the rest of the world, books I love to read and reread, music I enjoy listening to, and movies I love to watch. There are three sections to this page. I highlight one item from each category. If you want to browse all the items in a category (books, music, or movies), scroll down to the category and click in the link right above the highlighted selection. Since this web page is generated dynamically from a database, each time you visit, a selection from each category is randomly chosen as the highlighted item. Featured Book:The Stainless Steel Rat Joins the Circus
Harry Harrison
The latest Stainless Steel Rat book keeps up the spirit of the other nine. Chronologically, it follows The Stainless Stell Rat Goes to Hell and involves the entire DiGriz family, Slippery Jim and his lovely wife Angelina, and their two sons, James and Bolivar.
While no one will ever accuse this book (or any other in the series) of even pretending to approach high literature, when you're in the mood for a light, fast, action-packed sci-fi adventure where the criminal is the good guy, look no farther. Just like the other books, this one is full of fun and makes me laugh aloud. Just as an FYI, here is the list of Stainless Steel Rat books in chronological order (not the order they were written in, but in order of the stories' chronology):
This latest in the series earns a rating of 3 1/2. It's a fun, quick read, well worth the trouble. Featured Music:Nickel Creek
Nickel Creek
I first heard Nickel Creek when they were guests on Prarie Home Companion on public radio. I like acoustic strings to begin with (the group consists of violin/fiddle, guitar, mandolin, string bass, and vocals) and their bluegrass folk sound.
My sister, whose musical tastes overlap mine considerably, let me borrow her Nickel Creek CD. I'm addicted! I love the instrumentals and the vocal selections. I didn't want to have to return her CD. Fortunately for me, we worked out an arrangement whereby she gave me the CD in exchange for my picking her up from the airport in Las Vegas when she gets back from her trip to Colorado later this month (February 2001). I think I got the better end of the bargain. My favorite vocal tracks are probably track #2 (The Lighthouse's Tale), #5 (Reasons Why), and #11 (The Fox). These guys are good! Nearly perfect, in fact. I'll give 'em a 4.5 out of 5. Featured Movie:The Kid
Bruce Willis
I missed this one when it was out in theaters. I probably wouldn't have seen it so soon after it came out on video if it wasn't for a friend of mine bringing it over one evening. So we watched it with some other friends.
Prior to my seeing The Kid my sister, whose opinion I value and trust when it comes to things of the cinema, told me that yes, it was a good movie, but she and her friend had fixated on the music soundtrack all through the movie and so described the music as distracting, the "circuis-like" music never seeming (or very rarely) to stop. So I had mixed expectations that evening. What a pleasant and delightful surprise, then, to discover that this was indeed a good movie, a funny movie. I liked it. A lot more than I thought I would. The music wasn't distracting to me at all. Sure, like many Turteltaub movies (While You Were Sleeping comes to mind), the music is a bit much, but not unpleasantly so in the least. Not every movie can will find the balance of background music that I thought God's Army (see http://www.zionfilms.com/) found. This is a good show. A good family film. As I watched, I knew I would have to add it to my DVD collection. I haven't yet (as of this writing), but I expect to buy it this very evening. I give this show a very enjoyable 3 1/2 rating. | |
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