Monthly Archives: October 2013

Review: ‘When Hollywood was Right: How movie stars, studio moguls and big business remade American politics’ by Donald T Critchlow

5th November 2013
Cambridge University Press

Donald Critchlow describes the history of Hollywood from a political perspective, a conservative Republican one. Hollywood hasn’t always been a liberal place; in the first half of the twentieth century the Republican party was very strong among actors and studio bosses. This is the story of the vacitudes of fate that took the Hollywood Right from repeated decline to success between the 30’s and 80’s. The political careers of key players such as Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan, Cecil B DeMille, Barry Goldwater, and supporters like John Wayne and Hedda Hopper are interwoven in this account pf the changing fortunes of the Republican party not just in Hollywood, but in California as a whole.

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Review: ‘The Fifth Estate’

Featuring Benedict Cumberbatch as Julian Assange in the film adaptation of Daniel Berg’s book ‘Inside WikiLeaks: My time with Julian Assange’, The Fifth Estate is a fascinating look at the website that exposed they secrets of governments and businesses the world over from someone on the inside.
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Review: Donny and Ursula Save the World by Sharon Weil

2013
Passing4Normal Press

Ursula has never had a orgasm, she has drank an awful lot of wheatgrass juice though. She belly dances badly and keeps bowls of mushrooms all over the house.
Donny lives alone with his comic book collection, and has never touched wheatgrass. Until he meets Ursula.

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I like this. Another! *Throws Tablet on floor a la Thor*

I have recently acquired a Tablet from my Dad so that I could work while traveling. The laptop is quite heavy to carry around on my dodgy back so it’s easier to take the Tablet. Except that I have no way of transferring photographs from my phone to the tablet, so I end up taking my laptop anyway, but in my suitcase rather than on my back.

I promise there’s a point to this rambling.

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I’ve been so neglectful recently…

But I do have a good reason. My phone – and thus my internet access – has been out of order for over three weeks now. This week I’ve been at home so I haven’t even got a WiFi connection to get my laptop on line with. It’s very frustrating.

But I’m back, at least for this evening. I’m visiting a dear friend of mine, who puts up with all sorts of nonsense from me including half finished sentences which become incoherent babble, complete inability to read body language, amazing ability to put my foot in my gob and my tendency to get distracted easily. I can’t imagine why, but there you go. I’m told I have one or two redeeming features though I don’t know what they are – my tea making skills are not among them, I know that for certain.

I may have been away from the blog but I haven’t been neglecting my reading. Or writing reviews. Unfortunately I can’t post two of the reviews yet;I have to wait until publication date. Such a pity as I would love to share my excitement about the two books with you all. I will be posting a version of a review for the third book I finished this week, a poetry collection I have reviewed for Book Hub, called Soaring on Wings of Word by Terry Michelsen. I shall post it just as soon as I’ve finished writing the version that you will read; I’ve already sent a review to Book Hub.

Coming up in October:

  • Several book reviews – I’ve got six e-books on the go at the minute as well as a couple of ‘proper’ books
  • I’m off to Nottingham again at the end of the month so another hotel review and gig review –
  • HIM at Rock City!
  • Possible review of ‘Fifth Estate’ – Benedict Cumberbatch as Julian Assange and the whole Wiki leaks affair, should be interesting
  • A post about my new addiction to e-books since I got my hands on a Tablet.
  • Frankenstein – A recording of the play is being shown in cinemas at halloween – I am going!
  • Work and other irritations  – I’m doing a shedload of overtime to pay for my trip to Nottingham 😦
  • More prep for NaNoWriMo next month.

Hope you’re all well and had a good weekend, I’m going to finish that review.

Bye

Rose

Nottingham Castle Museum and Galleries

I took advantage of this afternoon’s unseasonably warm sunshine to go for a walk in to Nottingham and explore a little bit. I have found the place I’m going for breakfast tomorrow and a shop I want to go in on the way to catch my train. Today however I eventually made my way to the Castle and spent a couple of hours exploring the grounds, museum and galleries. I thought some of the exhibitions were very interesting – ‘Threads’ especially – and clearly curated with children in mind.

http://www.nottinghamcity.gov.uk/article/22225/Visiting-Nottingham-Castle

 

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Review: The Strathdon Hotel, Derby Road, Nottingham

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I found this hotel on bookings.com, and for two nights I was pleased with the price. Unusually enough I was able to get a single room. It was an easy hotel to get to from the train station, once I got to Maid Marion Way, and very close to Rock City which was a bonus.

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