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Picture of a musician: David Bowie
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David Bowie

David Robert Jones (8 January 1947 – 10 January 2016), known professionally as David Bowie ( BOH-ee), was an English singer-songwriter and actor. A leading figure in the music industry, he is regarded as one of the most influential musicians of the 20th century. Bowie was acclaimed by critics and musicians, particularly for his innovative work during the 1970s. His career was marked by reinvention and visual presentation, and his music and stagecraft had a significant impact on popular music.

Bowie developed an interest in music from an early age. He studied art, music and design before embarking on a professional career as a musician in 1963. "Space Oddity", released in 1969, was his first top-five entry on the UK Singles Chart. After a period of experimentation, he re-emerged in 1972 during the glam rock era with his flamboyant and androgynous alter ego Ziggy Stardust. The character was spearheaded by the success of Bowie's single "Starman" and album The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars, which won him widespread popularity. In 1975, Bowie's style shifted towards a sound he characterised as "plastic soul", initially alienating many of his UK fans but garnering him his first major US crossover success with the number-one single "Fame" and the album Young Americans. In 1976, Bowie starred in the cult film The Man Who Fell to Earth and released Station to Station. In 1977, he again changed direction with the electronic-inflected album Low, the first of three collaborations with Brian Eno that came to be known as the "Berlin Trilogy". "Heroes" (1977) and Lodger (1979) followed; each album reached the UK top five and received lasting critical praise.

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Picture of a movie: Galaxy Quest
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Galaxy Quest
2000
The sci-fi television series "Galaxy Quest", which took place aboard the intergalactic spaceship NSEA Protector, starred Jason Nesmith as suave Commander Peter Quincy Taggart, Gwen DeMarco as sexy communications person Lt. Tawny Madison (a role which consisted solely of repeating what the computer stated, much to Gwen's chagrin), Shakespearean trained Sir Alexander Dane as alien Dr. Lazarus, Fred Kwan as engineer Tech Sergeant Chen, and Tommy Webber as child pilot Laredo. Eighteen years after the series last aired, it lives on in the hearts of its rabid fans. However, it lives on in infamy for its stars, who have not been able to find meaningful acting work since. Their current lives revolve around cashing in on however those roles will afford, which usually entails attending fan conventions or worse, such as electronic store openings. Only Jason seems to relish his lot in life, until he finds out that his co-stars detest him because of his superior attitude as "the Commander", and much of the public considers him a laughing stock. Their lives change when Jason is approached by who he thinks are convention fans asking for help. They are in reality an alien race called Thermians, led by Mathesar, who have modeled their existence after the series, which they believe to be real. When Jason and then the rest of his co-stars (along with Guy Fleegman, who was killed off before the opening credits in only one episode) go along with the Thermians, Jason's co-stars who believe they are off to yet another paying gig, they learn that they have to portray their roles for real. Without screenwriters to get them to a happy and heroic ending, they have to trust that their play acting will work, especially in dealing with the Thermians' nemesis, General Sarris. Guy in particular fears that he will go the way his character did on the series. But when they run across technical issues that they as actors didn't care anything about during the filming of the series and thus now don't know how to deal with, they need to find someone who should know what to do.
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Picture of a book: The Raven Boys
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The Raven Boys
Maggie Stiefvater
“There are only two reasons a non-seer would see a spirit on St. Mark’s Eve,” Neeve said. “Either you’re his true love . . . or you killed him.”It is freezing in the churchyard, even before the dead arrive.Every year, Blue Sargent stands next to her clairvoyant mother as the soon-to-be dead walk past. Blue herself never sees them—not until this year, when a boy emerges from the dark and speaks directly to her.His name is Gansey, and Blue soon discovers that he is a rich student at Aglionby, the local private school. Blue has a policy of staying away from Aglionby boys. Known as Raven Boys, they can only mean trouble.But Blue is drawn to Gansey, in a way she can’t entirely explain. He has it all—family money, good looks, devoted friends—but he’s looking for much more than that. He is on a quest that has encompassed three other Raven Boys: Adam, the scholarship student who resents all the privilege around him; Ronan, the fierce soul who ranges from anger to despair; and Noah, the taciturn watcher of the four, who notices many things but says very little.For as long as she can remember, Blue has been warned that she will cause her true love to die. She never thought this would be a problem. But now, as her life becomes caught up in the strange and sinister world of the Raven Boys, she’s not so sure anymore.From Maggie Stiefvater, the bestselling and acclaimed author of the Shiver trilogy and The Scorpio Races, comes a spellbinding new series where the inevitability of death and the nature of love lead us to a place we’ve never been before.
Picture of a book: The Sailor on the Seas of Fate
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Books
The Sailor on the Seas of Fate
Michael Moorcock
Holy crap! I, Mark Lawrence, have read an entire book in 4 hours! Admittedly I picked it up after discovering that it was only 24,000 words long, or 1/2oth of a George Martin epic.EDIT: over the long grind of this summer holiday I've been writing a "short" story that I'm being paid to write to inspire an Xbox game. It's nearing the end and has just passed 40,000 words :o Somebody stop me!Still, the copy I have is a hardback, 40 years old, and at 169 pages, not an exceptionally slim novel. Admittedly the font is HUGE!I gave this a 3* from memory and now I'm revising it down to a 2*. It's OK. There are good things in it, and bad things.The 33 Moorcock books on my fantasy shelf speak to the love I had for his work 30-40 years ago. I've been having trouble recapturing it on recent reads though. I have been avoiding my favourites ... so that might be it.http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-tMqSP3wcsL4...Anyway, good and bad.Most of the good things are an irrepressible imagination and Stormbringer.The bad things ... are many. It's not much longer than a short story and even so is divided in to THREE books. The whole thing has a dreamy misty feel to it (and is literally described in those terms). It's full of people making vague doom-laden statements and refusing to explain anything "until the time is right". Everything is pre-ordained / fated, and it's basically three short stories with no connection, all of which are really about fights and magic rather than having anything to say.In the first story four aspects of the eternal champion are brought together, Elric, Corum, Hawkmoon, and Erekose. This proves to be bad idea as it leads you to suspect that the eternal champion is a handy excuse for writing the same character over and over, with the suspicion being that Moorcock is just better at weird fantasy stuff than characters...My son saw me picking the book up and said something along the lines of "But that's old, why are you bothering?" To which I responded with exasperation, "Fantasy doesn't have a sell by date! What ... are the swords going to be old fashioned? Will the enchantments be dated? Will the demons be wearing period dress?"And he said, "If you pick up any old book you'll find it's rubbish. The writing style has changed. They're too slow. The characters don't feel real.""Nonsense!" I said wittily, and walked off with my 40 year old book.But the thing is. He was right, a bit. Every Moorcock book I've tried in the past few years has seemed terribly dated. The characters really don't feel real. The conversations are always overly pompous/grand or just turning the handle on the plot.The only thing that struck me as quite 'modern' was the level of visceral violence on display. I don't think today's books that are accused of grimdark have any more blood or guts splattering the page than Moorcock did in the 70s.The other two stories were ... OK but really didn't shine, and over all I was disappointed. On the flip side, it's not a Moorcock book that I have fond memories of, so perhaps it was only ever OK and my fanboying was all from the individual Elric, Corum, and Hawkmoon tales. Join my 3-emails-a-year newsletter #prizes.....
Picture of a book: The Queen of the Swords
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Books
The Queen of the Swords
Michael Moorcock
Moorcock’s second Corum book, published in 1971 is reminiscent of Jack Vance’s writing, more so than in the first book. This is high fantasy, something that Edgar Rice Burroughs could have written.The ongoing theme, actually quite ubiquitous in Moorcock’s canon, of Law versus Chaos made me think a lot about how influential he was to Gary Gygax and the other makers of Dungeons and Dragons. Gygax and Dave Arneson first put out the TSR game in 1974 and Moorcock had already published some Elric stories and Corum by then. The anointed few who have sacred knowledge of D&D will be familiar with the alignment of the characters, being a combination of either lawful, chaotic, neutral, good or evil. He must have had some influence as the Deities & Demigods: Cyclopedia of Gods and Heroes from Myth and Legend edition from 1980 has a Melnibonean section that includes Elric and Arioch (though Corum is absent). Check out Wikipedia for some behind the scenes litigation about competing copyright claims.** Reviewers note – in the AD&D alignment, yours truly would be Neutral Good.Finally this very cool 1971 fantasy reminded me of the understated but groovy work of Black Sabbath bass player Geezer Butler on Nativity in Black. The Sabbath mythos is very much akin to Moorcock’s minimalistic but wildly fantastic narrative and is an under current of his edgy writing style. I recommend Black Sabbath to play in the background as you read and enjoy.
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