I’ve always loved the song Androgynous (1984) by The Replacements.
Here’s one of many terrific cover versions.
The Happy Hippie Foundation, founded by Miley Cyrus, “is a nonprofit organization that rallies young people to fight injustice facing homeless youth, LGBT youth, and other vulnerable populations.”
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If you like Jack Reacher, you’ll like war veteran Peter Ash.
This is the 7th book in the series. The best, I’d say. But the bloodiest.
In this one, Ash is driving through northern Nebraska when he encounters a young pregnant woman alone on a gravel road, her car dead.
Peter offers her a lift, but what begins as an act of kindness soon turns into a deadly cat-and-mouse chase across the lonely highways with the woman’s vicious ex-cop husband hot on their trail.
The pregnant woman has seen something she was never meant to see . . . but protecting her might prove to be more than Peter can handle. …
NickPetrie.com
One of the great rock songs all time.
Released 1973, it refers to a brothel on the outskirts of La Grange, Texas.
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If anyone has ever done it better, it MIGHT be Classic Rock Show. A fantastic cover band.
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I was looking for a remix to use as a YouTube video soundtrack.
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Elly Griffiths’ third Harbinder Kaur mystery.
I like Hardbinder. A 38-year-old detective inspector who’s still living with her Sikh parents — and still hasn’t told them she’s a lesbian.
BUT in this book, Hardbinder finally moves out because she has accepted a new position in the Big Smoke, London.
Her first case is a murder at a school reunion: Garfield Rice, an eminent MP.
Sadly, I came away disappointed. I want to know more about Hardbinder — but chapters are told from the point of view of different suspects. Some unreliable. I didn’t care about any of them.
Agatha Christie would have been disappointed in the resolution of the murder mysteries, as well. It really isn’t very brilliant.
Hopefully book #4 will be better.
Just excellent.
Excellent in every way.
I saw it described as a “finely crafted feel-bad treat“.
A dark comedy.
Set on a remote island off the west coast of Ireland in 1923, lifelong friends Pádraic and Colm, who find themselves at an impasse when Colm unexpectedly puts an end to their friendship.
The most memorable performance is Barry Keoghan as Dominic who steals every scene.
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The Empty Chair is a crime novel by Jeffery Deaver, published 2000.
It is the 3rd novel in a series featuring Lincoln Rhyme; the first of which was made into a movie, The Bone Collector.
Lincoln Rhyme is in North Carolina with his aide Thom and his companion and partner Amelia Sachs in order to receive experimental spine surgery, which may improve or further worsen his C4 quadriplegic disability.
Whilst there they are approached by a local police sheriff and asked to help in a local case of kidnap and possible rape. They believe the kidnapper to be a local orphaned boy ‘Garret’, the ‘insect boy’.
I have to admire Deaver for being able to write a successful crime scene investigator who is confined to a chair. How does he come up with these plots?
It is well written, interesting, and well researched. Many plot twists as I’ve come to expect from Deaver.
Quite good. Better than I expected.
I’ve not yet cancelled J.K. Rowling though her legacy won’t be Harry Potter — it will be her weird transphobic attacks on transgender people.
I say weird because for most of her life Rowling has advanced philanthropic causes. The charity Lumos. She worked for Amnesty International documenting human rights issues.
In fact, 95% of her works have been for the greater good.
Why ruin that attacking transgender people?
Weird.
I’ve read some of Rowling’s complicated statements claiming she’s not attacking and harming trans people. Clearly she is ➙ Is J.K. Rowling transphobic? Let’s let her speak for herself.
I thought the book Troubled Blood was least good of the first five.
But the 6th book — Ink Black Heart — was dreadful. I didn’t finish it.
So … how is the TV adaptation of Troubled Blood?
Dark. But quite watchable, actually.
Strike is marginally less annoying. Robin is lovely, as always. Nobody can understand what she sees in Strike.
There is some good acting from the rest of the cast, many of them elderly.
Some touching moments.
The cold case murder mystery didn’t do much for me. Though the ending was well done.
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Independent – Strike: Troubled Blood review – This drama should be cherished. It’s the BBC at its best
The Bone Collector is a 1997 thriller novel by Jeffery Deaver introducing Lincoln Rhyme, a quadriplegic forensic criminalist.
HOW does a quadriplegic solve crimes?
He has to be a genius.
This is an excellent book. It was fun to see how Rhyme first meets his future partner, Amelia Sachs. She’s a bit of a disaster as a NYPD Patrol Officer — but Rhyme sees potential.
The killer is well written, as always with Deaver.
And there are plenty of twists and turns to the plot.
It was adapted for Hollywood in 1999, starring Denzel Washington and Angelina Jolie.
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NBC had a TV adaptation, as well, that I haven’t seen. It looks even better than the film though it got low ratings. They’ve changed the book to be more entertaining. But only lasted 1 season.
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I’m not a fan of reality TV — but this show is good.
10 amateur climbers competing for a cash prize of $100,000 and $100,000 prAna sponsorship.
Less hype, more reality than similar shows. Plenty of respect. Not much faux outrage. No phoney drama.
No psychological warfare or sabotage.
The elimination round each episode is entertaining.
If you can only watch 1 episode, watch the last ➙ #10.
It’s upbeat and positive. I recommend it even for those who have no interest in rock climbing.
This show is presented for the non-climber. I learned a lot.
In fact, as I hiker my tendency is to dismiss climbers — especially mountain climbers — as egomaniac masochists. They get far more media attention than hikers.
Jason Mamoa is 6 ft 4 in (1.93 m) — 250 pounds. Not really the right build. But the man loves climbing anyway. He makes celebrity appearances. And this show is Jason’s baby.
Host Chris Sharma is legend in the sport. And they brought in another legend, Meagan Martin, to assist him. Meagan’s famous for American Ninja Warrior, Pole Vault, and Climbing.
Cat Runner, one of the competitors, is small. Light is good. But short doesn’t help in climbing. Cat identifies as transgender, one reason he’s a climber — an activity where gender doesn’t matter.
I was cheering for him before finding out he was trans. I was cheering for Cat because he was shortest in a sport where it helps to have long limbs. Reach.
Cat’s from Kentucky, one of the many U.S. states where ReTrumplican politicians are proposing anti-LGBTQ and/or anti-trans legislation in an effort to prove they are more horrible human beings than their next GOP primary challenger. Intolerant A-holes all.
Cat organized the Queer Climber’s Network.
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related:
Recruited to help the FBI and the Immigration and Naturalization Service perform the nearly impossible, Lincoln Rhyme and his partner, Amelia Sachs, manage to track down a cargo ship headed for New York City carrying two dozen illegal Chinese immigrants, as well as the notorious human smuggler and killer known as “the Ghost.”
But when the Ghost’s capture goes disastrously wrong, Lincoln and Amelia find themselves in a race against time: to stop the Ghost before he can track down and murder the two surviving families who have escaped from the ship and vanished deep into the labyrinthine world of New York City’s Chinese community.
Rick McCharles 