This is just brilliant. Most albums tend to have a few tracks that are quite similar, but here every piece is unique. It is such an eclectic album, with upbeat rythms contrasted with the serene, meditative music on the second half of the album. The best thing about Moby for me is that he is an intelligent, thought-provoking individual, as his essays on the cover indicate. It's refreshing to know that what you're listening to is by someone as self-aware as Moby rather than some cheesy boy band. The music is high quality stuff, although it works better as background, mood music than something to sing along to when getting ready for a night out. This is one of the few albums where every track has been sold for use on adverts, TV etc. X-Files connection: two incredibly poignant, tender scenes have been made even more wonderful by The Sky is Broken (all things) and My Weakness (Closure).
I know you won't believe me, but I'm not just picking this because of David Duchovny's input (although I will say that he looked very hot;-). This film is very entertaining. I had read some good reviews beforehand, but the general feeling was that it was mainly toilet humour. I don't usually enjoy films like that very much, so I didn't expect to laugh as much as I did. It is inevitably cliched, and Julianne Moore's character got on my nerves a little, but the effects are brilliant and both David and Orlando Jones displayed excellent comedy timing. I'm really looking forward to it coming out on video.
Not something I would normally read, this one. I don't like period dramas that much, and if I had the choice I would be reading more horror and science fiction. However, I'm trying to broaden my horizons, so I gave this a shot and really enjoyed it. It has more action than other works of the time that I've read. What sets it apart from the rest is that it is a suspense thriller. Deception, violence, corruption, all are evident as the reader struggles to uncover the dark secrets being hidden. There are also undertones of the supernatural. I particularly appreciated the style of narrative used by Collins. Most of the major characters (and several minor ones) take over the tale, filling in the gaps left by others like a giant jigsaw puzzle. This shift in story-telling and therefore technique kept the momentum going, it stopped it getting boring. The only downside for me was the portrayal of women as pathetic, which is not really the writer's fault, merely a sign of the times. In his defense, the character of Marian is quite refreshing in her strength and intelligence, which I believe is unusual for this type of work. If all period dramas were this entertaining, I would probably read many more of them.
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