Setken
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Poor Artists
- By: The White Pube, Gabrielle de la Puente, Zarina Muhammad
- Narrated by: Gillian Kearney
- Length: 6 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
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Poor Artists follows aspiring artist Quest Talukdar as she embarks on a surreal journey into the creative industry, where she must decide whether she cares more about success or staying true to herself. Featuring dialogue from anonymous interviews with real people who have all had to ask themselves the same question – including a Turner Prize winner or two, a recluse, a Venice Biennale fraudster, a communist messiah, a ghost, and a literal knight – The White Pube tell the story of art like never before.
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If you are an artist, you must listen to this
- By Setken on 12-31-24
- Poor Artists
- By: The White Pube, Gabrielle de la Puente, Zarina Muhammad
- Narrated by: Gillian Kearney
If you are an artist, you must listen to this
Reviewed: 12-31-24
I was unsure about getting this book at first. I was aware of the podcast but had not listened to it.
My trepidation was soon swept aside as I listened to - and resonated with - a story I was all too familiar with as a "poor artist" myself.
This is not a "how to" or an outright biography, but a clever work of art itself that really puts creativity and the need to be a genuine artist in in the spotlight.
I wish I heard this earlier in my career.
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Talk Art
- Everything You Wanted to Know About Contemporary Art but Were Afraid to Ask
- By: Russell Tovey, Robert Diament
- Narrated by: James Corden, Jerry Saltz, Robert Diament, and others
- Length: 5 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
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When launching the Talk Art podcast in 2018, actor Russell Tovey and gallerist Robert Diament had one clear aim: to make the art world more accessible. Since then, the podcast has grown to be a global hit, featuring exclusive interviews with leading artists, curators, gallerists, actors, musicians and fellow art lovers such as Lena Dunham, Sir Paul Smith, David Shrigley, Noel Fielding, Edward Enninful, Rose Wylie and Sir Elton John.
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Great intro and re-intro to the world of art
- By Setken on 12-08-24
- Talk Art
- Everything You Wanted to Know About Contemporary Art but Were Afraid to Ask
- By: Russell Tovey, Robert Diament
- Narrated by: James Corden, Jerry Saltz, Robert Diament, Russell Tovey
Great intro and re-intro to the world of art
Reviewed: 12-08-24
The next time someone tells me that they don't get art, don't understand it, feel like it's beyond them, or simply out of their league, I shall refer them to this book.
The two men have captured a sense of how the greater population feels out of touch with art and this is a great remedy and solution to fix that. I found it valuable as an artist and art lover, and learned a bit even though I am immersed in the art world of which they speak.
The positive references to Instagram aside (this may date the book and ultimately I wager will be edited out) this is a great starter book AND guide for those that have already commenced their art loving journey.
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The Man Who Designed the Future
- Norman Bel Geddes and the Invention of Twentieth-Century America
- By: B. Alexandra Szerlip
- Narrated by: B. Alexandra Szerlip
- Length: 16 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
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Before there was Steve Jobs, there was Norman Bel Geddes. A ninth-grade dropout who found himself at the center of the worlds of industry, advertising, theater, and even gaming, Bel Geddes designed everything from the first all-weather stadium to Manhattan's most exclusive nightclub to Futurama, the prescient 1939 exhibit that envisioned how America would look in the not-too-distant 1960s.
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An overlooked icon remembered
- By Setken on 12-03-24
- The Man Who Designed the Future
- Norman Bel Geddes and the Invention of Twentieth-Century America
- By: B. Alexandra Szerlip
- Narrated by: B. Alexandra Szerlip
An overlooked icon remembered
Reviewed: 12-03-24
This biography of a truly underrated genius and artist is delightful. Exhaustive and covering all aspects of Bel Geddes' career, it does not at any time lapse into a lull.
I am not always a fan of authors reading their own works for the audio version of their books, but this reading was superb and added more to the narrative. Highly recommended.
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Pan - God of the Woods
- By: Lawrence R. Spencer
- Narrated by: Alicia Rose
- Length: 9 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
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Pan, the Greek god of forests, shepherds and fertility, has long represented the pagan gods in general. With the advent of the Christian church communication with the pagan gods was very heavily suppressed by priests who have a vested interest in eliminating religious competition, by any means required, including, but not limited to lying, stealing, cheating, murder, mayhem, extortion, torture and blackmail. As a result, general public attention to the pagan gods disappeared about 2,000 years ago.
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Mixed feelings
- By Slade on 05-02-18
- Pan - God of the Woods
- By: Lawrence R. Spencer
- Narrated by: Alicia Rose
Primary school level narration let's it down
Reviewed: 11-15-24
The narration of this story is so bad that it renders writing an honest review impossible.
Horribly mispronounced words, irritating dialects, wandering voice characterizations and ultimately inexperienced renderings of the text (I am aware the narrator has multiple books to her credit on Audible) makes me doubt most will make it through to the end. Spoiler alert: if you do, you can enjoy the word deity being pronounced as diety (sic) numerous times.
I persisted because the germ of the idea that I think the author wanted to convey was intriguing. It sadly deteriorates into a manifesto for greening up our world, and the story idea becomes secondary. Childish names for characters (Kissweiner - are you kidding me?) do nothing in attempts to take the story seriously as a work of art.
The idea of world Pantheons making a comeback is an excellent one, and marrying it to an eco-consciousness message should work, but in this case it does not. Maybe a focused rewrite, restructure, and most definitely a competent narrator might make a future version palatable.
The survey at the end is ridiculous.
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Born with a Tail
- The Devilish Life and Wicked Times of Anton Szandor LaVey, Founder of the Church of Satan
- By: Doug Brod
- Narrated by: Jonathan Yen
- Length: 11 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
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When Anton LaVey burst onto the San Francisco scene right before the Summer of Love, he parlayed his eerie obsessions into a philosophy and lifestyle that capitalized on a New Age rage. With his signature cape, horn-studded hood, and Ming the Merciless beard, LaVey was a media-savvy provocateur who took what he did seriously, but was always in on the joke. From a spooky old Victorian house, he founded the Church of Satan, where young women squirmed nude on the mantel of his ritual chamber as he delivered a doctrine of self-deification and indulgence.
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Another POV, and interesting at that
- By Setken on 11-07-24
- Born with a Tail
- The Devilish Life and Wicked Times of Anton Szandor LaVey, Founder of the Church of Satan
- By: Doug Brod
- Narrated by: Jonathan Yen
Another POV, and interesting at that
Reviewed: 11-07-24
This is a different perspective on LaVey and his circle of players that I found engaging and intriguing. There was a lot I had not heard before, and it captures a unique period in history that is not terribly well chronicled.
The narrator was great - unwavering, enthusiastic and didn't miss a beat.
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Angels in America
- A Gay Fantasia on National Themes
- By: Tony Kushner
- Narrated by: Andrew Garfield, Nathan Lane, Susan Brown, and others
- Length: 6 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
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Presenting an original audiobook performance of the Pulitzer Prize-winning play, starring the cast of the National Theatre's 2018 Broadway revival.
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Cast of Angels
- By Dan B. on 05-22-19
- Angels in America
- A Gay Fantasia on National Themes
- By: Tony Kushner
- Narrated by: Andrew Garfield, Nathan Lane, Susan Brown, Denise Gough, Beth Malone, James McArdle, Lee Pace, Nathan Stewart-Jarrett, Bobby Cannavale, Edie Falco
A powerful tale with powerful performances
Reviewed: 10-18-24
I saw the play ages ago in Adelaide, South Australia. I don't recall being as moved by it as I was by this production.
It's not easy going. Tragic, despairing and bleak at times, there is also joy and hope. But wonderful nonetheless.
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The Cleopatras
- By: Professor Lloyd Llewellyn-Jones
- Narrated by: Professor Lloyd Llewellyn-Jones
- Length: 14 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
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Cleopatra: lover, seductress, and Egypt's greatest queen. A woman more myth than history, immortalized in poetry, drama, music, art, and film. She captivated Julius Caesar and Marc Antony, the two greatest Romans of the day, and died in a blaze of glory, with an asp clasped to her breast - or so the legend tells us. But the real-life story of the historical Cleopatra VII is even more compelling. She was the last of seven Cleopatras who ruled Egypt before it was subsumed into the Roman Empire. These extraordinary women keep a close grip on power in the wealthiest country of the ancient world.
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A mammoth tale befitting the sunset of Egypt
- By Setken on 09-27-24
- The Cleopatras
- By: Professor Lloyd Llewellyn-Jones
- Narrated by: Professor Lloyd Llewellyn-Jones
A mammoth tale befitting the sunset of Egypt
Reviewed: 09-27-24
This entertaining yet scholarly audiobook brings in to view the complex and extraordinary history of Egypt's last pharaonic dynasty, the Greek Ptolemies, with emphasis on its ruling queens.
There were 7 Cleopatras, and each is discussed along with the other queens (the Arsinoe's and Berinike's) as well as their Ptolemaic husbands / brothers / nephews.
The author takes the time to articulate which queen or king he is discussing throughout so as to avoid confusion, and let's us know the nicknames they were given by their Alexandrian subjects. Cleopatra Thea's is the best.
Read by the author with surprising vigour - it has been my experience that academics are not always brilliant storytellers / readers of their own works - this was a great ride through the final days of pharaonic history and the women who ruled.
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Imminent
- Inside the Pentagon's Hunt for UFOs
- By: Luis Elizondo
- Narrated by: Luis Elizondo
- Length: 9 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
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Luis 'Lue' Elizondo is a former senior intelligence official and special agent who was recruited into a strange and highly sensitive US Government program to investigate UAP incursions into sensitive military installations and air space. To accomplish his mission, Elizondo had to rely on decades of experience gained working some of America's most sensitive and classified programs. Even then, he was not prepared for what he would learn, and the truth about the government's long shadowy involvement in UAP investigations, and the lengths officials would take to keep them a secret.
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Essential listening
- By lukas on 08-29-24
- Imminent
- Inside the Pentagon's Hunt for UFOs
- By: Luis Elizondo
- Narrated by: Luis Elizondo
Compelling, engaging and scary
Reviewed: 09-03-24
The newly renamed UFO phenomena (now we say UAP) has had a resurgence of interest from the media owing to the events of 2017 when some New York Times reporters did stories on the topic. They were serious and matter of fact, sans the histrionics that usually go hand in hand with reports of the phenomenon.
The author of this book – a government employee with high level clearances who had been secretly dealing with the subject as part of his job – has now come forward with what he knows. The story is told in a surprisingly eloquent manner and read in a heart felt manner by the author himself in the audiobook.
Mr. Elizondo injects enough of himself into the narrative and the reasons he felt he needed to come forward so convincingly that it was almost a nonstop listen. So that covers the “compelling” and “engaging” part of my headline – what was scary?
The fact that something so important as this has been left in the hands of people that claim the secrecy is for “our benefit”, and who do not possess the tools to properly assess what is occurring. This self-appointed “elite”, untouchables in government who have all kinds of reasons for their position, do not seem to want to shed any light on what the phenomena is. The reasons for this are covered in the book.
Curiously, Mr. Elizondo criticizes other whistleblowers whilst making his own claims - and don’t get me wrong, I am glad he has done what he has – but I can’t help but get the feeling there is another narrative going on with him. Does he have a messiah complex? He did posit himself as an avenging angel at one point of the story.
The author is a soldier, and apparently a very good one. He is to be commended for this. But I don’ t think he has worked out that using army goggles to view the phenomena will yield nothing but the war / attack data that the lenses are attuned to. This is why we need anthropologists, all areas of physics, chemistry and the sciences as well as shaman, artists, and the group of people we call psychics, intuitives, and healers on the case too.
Don’t get me wrong, the threat assessment of UAP presented in the book is real I believe, based on his accounts and years of my own research. (Interestingly, he mentions the flat top mountain from “Close encounters” and it made me recall my own experience near a similar looking mountain close to Dalby in Queensland).
When I first learned about the To The Stars Academy when they began all those years ago (Elizondo was a member) I was not as impressed as I probably ought to have been. But the combination of privileged information from politicians and higher ups in the US Whitehouse, along with an ex-rock star and other rich folk was off putting. Even though I regard Luis Elizondo as a brave man and am truly grateful for his book, there was still the whiff of this even in his authentic storytelling of the whole affair.
Is it because he seemed dismissive of encounter witnesses? He did state he wanted the book to have a military focus, but by leaving the abductees / encounter witnesses out of the equation, I think he is missing a vital point. And after all, is he not a witness himself? He saw orbs in his own home.
Listen for the curious list he gives of the US presidents that he states have had briefings on UFO’s / UAP. There is also the report of how the government attempted cancelling him when he resigned his position. We should reexamine Bob Lazar’s claims in this light.
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Mel-Khyor
- An Interstellar Affair
- By: Malcolm J. Brenner
- Narrated by: Malcolm J. Brenner
- Length: 7 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
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An investigative reporter tries to figure out if his new wife's story of an affair with a crashed alien space pilot is true, or simply her imagination.
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A gem of a tale in the age of "disclosure"
- By Setken on 08-03-24
- Mel-Khyor
- An Interstellar Affair
- By: Malcolm J. Brenner
- Narrated by: Malcolm J. Brenner
A gem of a tale in the age of "disclosure"
Reviewed: 08-03-24
This book was an unexpected surprise. I had only recently come across the author, and frankly out of the 3 books he has written this one was of the least personal interest to me.
That said, if you look through my reviews it is easy to see that I do in fact have an interest in the UFO phenomenon (I think every book Whitley Strieber has written on the topic is in my collection) and this story took me by surprise.
Perhaps because it is read by the author himself, the authenticity of the story - presented as fiction - shines through. The author turns out to be a very good narrator as it turns out also.
There is a lot to unpack about the book, and I don't want to give away any spoilers. The celestial narrative is juxtaposed with a very earthbound one that seems to balance the whole thing out in a strange, compelling way.
Mr. Brenner is not the first to link cetacean consciousness with ET business, but there are elements of this story - especially the nature of the space craft - that are unique.
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The Mastery of Good Luck
- Master Class Series
- By: Mitch Horowitz
- Narrated by: Mitch Horowitz
- Length: 1 hr
- Unabridged
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Can luck be learned? The answer is unquestionably yes. In this vibrant and surprising program, historian and New Thought scholar Mitch Horowitz walks you through "The 13 Rules of Good Luck." These hands-on principles guide you to a life of maximized luckiness.
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Agree
- By SEB24 on 11-16-24
- The Mastery of Good Luck
- Master Class Series
- By: Mitch Horowitz
- Narrated by: Mitch Horowitz
Concise, clear and vital
Reviewed: 08-02-24
This short and direct piece is a great treatise on the concept of luck and how to utilise it.
Are luck and magick related? That question is not answered, but the book points you in the direction of finding out for yourself.
Words to live by.
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