Times Tables to Pop Music (Video Class)

August 2, 2008 | By Doug In Pop Music |

Flying visit to Brest - Guardian Unlimited
The Brittany city freaks out at the Astropolis dance music festival ( astropolis.org ) on August 13-16, celebrating 20 years of rave with DJs and electronic maestros in clubs and open air party spots across the city, but also arts bashes and

Sub Pop: Patient Zero
List Price: ?5.99
Amazon Price: ?5.99
Used Price: ?1.98
Customer Review: Great compilation at a great price!
Everyone knows that Sub Pop were the label to “launch” Nirvana, and although the buzz around the label has reduced, they are still releasing albums by some great artists, perhaps the most famous from this compilation being Postal Service and more recently, the Shins. But thats not to say the other tracks on the comp. are weaker, indeed there are some that manage to outshine their more “well-known” counterparts. Tracks by the likes of Rogue Wave, Iron and Wine and in particular the Helio Sequence (probably the best track) really stand out. For anyone on a tight budget, or for those who like to explore lesser known artists, this is definitely the compilation for you. Although it lacks the continuity of a single artist LP, its certainly great to chill out to.

Exit Music
List Price: ?10.99
Amazon Price: ?6.98
Used Price: ?4.00
Customer Review: A Generally Good Book
This book, like many of the previous books by Ian Rankin, focuses on Detective Inspector John Rebus, an alcoholic policeman who lives and works in Edinburgh. When the series started Rebus was a detective sergent. As the series progresses Rebus gets older (and, like many older people, stroppier and more opinionated). This book focuses on the 10 days before his retirement. This book sees a Russian poet-cum-exile-cum-emigre seemingly killed in the street in the city center, after a night on the tiles. Rebus, and his sidekick D.S. Siobhan Clark, investigate the circumstances of his death. Was it a mugging gone wrong, or something more serious? The entirety of the book is spent trying to discover whether or not the character was killed in a mugging. Rankin uses the real life death of Alexander Litvenenko in London as a tool to keep you guessing as long as possible about the real motive in this book. The attempt at balance works for a while, but if you’ve read mysteries you’ll know whether the use of these real life events is relevant after about 70% of the book is read. The book is probably the most linear thriller that I’ve read by Rankin in years. It has a clearly defined beginning, middle and end, and has fewer asides about Scotland and the Scottish than I’ve seen in ages. This makes the central story flow better, but if you like your Rebus books with “colateral colour,” you might not enjoy it as much as you enjoy some other books that Rankin has written recently. In short, if I were made to sum up this book in one sentence, this is a generally book which continues the improvement in the series that we have seen over the last few books in the series. It is much better than The Falls and Resurrection Men.
Customer Review: Say it ain’t the last one!
I was almost apprehensive about reading Exit Music, because it means it really is the end of my relationship with DI John Rebus (aside from a massive re-reading effort). I became hooked on Ian Rankin’s flawed hero back in 2003 when I was stuck in the boyfriend’s flat one hot afternoon and was looking for something to read. It’s been fun watching the characters in the Rebus novels grow, to learn about their lives, and to see some resolution in Rebus’s obsession with Big Ger was almost disappointing - it can’t have ended like that (or does it really end like that - we don’t know for sure)! As a true blue Ian Rankin fan and recent daytime resident of Edinburgh (where the jobs are), I really did enjoy Exit Music, but not quite as much as some of the earlier Rebus novels, probably because it is the end of Rebus’s career. This was the first time I managed to figure out who one of the perpetrators of the crime was before Rebus himself found out. I think this was a fitting end to the Rebus story, but this is not the book for someone new to Rebus to start - there’s too much history to make up.