JD and Aric = bluest balls in the A.F. For real.
924823
I've been team Jack, but it's just heartbreaking the way Aric is written, and he's written very well. I love how Cole has made Jack a leader, but come on, it's absolutely ridiculous that he would leave with the army before she makes her decision. The cliff hanger in this last one is literally unbearable, my exact words were ****ing bitch when I turned the page and saw that that was the end (one of the only things that sucks about reading on kindle is you can't "feel" or count pages to the end.) what a freaking triangle!! Loved the dynamic between Jack and Aric. I vote: Some kinda threes company in Death's mansion in the AF.. You know kicking slaver ass on weekdays and bringing it home on the weekends... Sigh, I guess we just wait. Just make something happen because JD and Aric have the bluest balls in the AF.
3310927
I began reading JA Huss' books years ago when Rook and Ronin's story began. I was a fan at the time, but was never blown away. I always felt like something was missing from the stories. But, I saw all of the 5 star reviews for 3-2-1 and knew that this would be the one that knocked it out if the park for me. I was wrong.

I get that this is fiction. I get that we read far fetched stories of hot men and lust and steamy sex because we want to escape from vanilla land for a minute. This book definitely had all of that, but Jesus, Ray was the only redeemable character in the whole book. He was the only one that was up front and honest about being a porn king and unashamed. The rest were painted as dishonest secret keepers, and for a very good reason. I am amazed at the number of folks that found this storyline appealing. 2 men meet a scared, drugged up girl on a street corner and take advantage of her from day 1? She's attracted to JD instantly and her traitorous drug ridden body just comes alive and trusts these 2 shady figures for a couple of bucks? Not just for a day, but for over a month. Where was the true connection? Where was the rest of JD's story? Where was the rest of Michael's (Ark's brother, thrown in almost as an afterthought)  story? What was this poly amorous relationship based on, other than lust? Did anyone notice the plot similarities between this book and the Rook and Ronin series? If we didn't know that sex sells before we read Huss' books, it is clear now.

I'm not saying it was poorly written. It wasn't. But the plot read choppy and the insta love is ALWAYS a turnoff for me. Needed a lot more meat, in my humble opinion.

2 stars for the scorching hot sex scenes and the ending.
3235245
I used to So Love the Buddha Lounge series... You know the ones... Where they had songs, and words, and went places?
 This is a similar recording to the Second Hotel Tara (which I was fantastically disappointed in after the first) where it's just ...good for background tasks & nothing special in the bunch.
  What I've come to request of the Gordon Brothers is... If you want to put out lovely, melodic, go-nowhere items such as Buddha Lounge 6 & Hotel Tara 2, that's Fantastic!  Do it!  But Don't mislead us (and by now lose my trust all together) by calling it the same names as others & then offering a Completely Different project.
 It's SO misleading and disheartening to get musically (& financially) sucker-punched.  Seriously.
  I can not believe with ALL the artists out there, the Gordon Brothers have run dry of options that would actually Continue the vein they started with the Buddha Lounge (& Hotel Tara, for that matter) series in the first place.
 I'm not suggesting they Stop making compilations such as these; they're perfectly satisfactory.  But just create a Whole New series for them so we know what we're getting when we purchase.
814267
The revelation in this latest installment of Renaissance's top-notch series would be just how much superstar-DJ dance music has altered course since 1999. Running from the "T" word as fast as vinyl crates will allow, top jocks Nick Warren and Danny Howells now offer up alternately spaced out and festive house sets for the masses.
The days of Nick Warren delivering blistering, acid-fueled trance tunes have apparently gone way out west, each subsequent commercial mix since Global Underground Budapest draining in energy while at times struggling to maintain a heady atmosphere. His contribution to Revelation proves no different, with the added trial of covering a lot of ground in little time.  It's at times buoyant and infectious (the fanciful drum hooks of Jay Tripwire's "So Horny For Your Horn"), at others coldly calculating (the Quivver remix of Warren's own "Stealth"). Getting to Mavi's rich Eastern "Sufi" or Iio's full-length cut of "Rapture" takes some trial. Namely, Dirty's "Dirty', an acappella loop chanting "obscene, dirty, filthy, immoral, oh yea" that continues over three tracks for six minutes.
Better is Howells' effort, led off by an outright deep disco workover of "Always" from Ashley Beedle, plying straight 4/4 with string stabs, piano, and trembling vocal. It's a corker. Howells sets his prog tendencies aside today for tripped out floor shakers, glamorously oft-kilter yet enjoyable. "Shake your booty?" Yup, it's on Reset's "Runaway." Hipp-E spirals Ubu's cheeky "Pixels" out of control, Indaba doesn't let up, and Nebulus "Blueless" just plain wierds out to orchestral swoons. When the moodier elements start calling at last, via Lexicon Ave, you're certainly ready to be carried off the deep end.
Revelation's a solid addition to the Renaissance series; too bad they only release about half their output domestically. And if these two chaps return for a sequel, I suggest they flip the billing.
Nick Warren: 3 stars  Danny Howells: 4 stars  Final: 3.5 stars
1002669
This book does not sound like the original author in style or quality of writing. Thumbs way down! Come back Nora!  JD ROBB where are you! At least, please!  find a better ghost writer who gets what it was all about! The exceptional interaction and relationship of the characters within the context of a good mystery crime drama made this series such a page turner and so much fun to read in the past. Whoever was hired recently to write the last few books does not yet get that and has written these wonderful and beloved characters as if nothing more than a backdrop to sell substandard police procedural stories. Don't understand why any reviews would be positive or encouraging  of this sell out!
3373558
Bad Ass blues splittin' the middle between rockin' blues, and laid back soul blues.  This one sizzles and drips simultaneously.  yurgonnadigit !
3022696
I'm sure that most of you know Ja Rule these days: the r&b singer with a tiny amount of rap influence. This album is his only decent one, but it is so ... good! If you listen, you will notice how much more grim and violent his music is here as opposed to that "evry lil' thin' dat we do" nonsense of today. There is no pop music or attempted singing. Songs like "Worlds Most Dangerous" or "Kill Em' All" emphasize the true hardcore gangsta coming from the scratchy voice of Ja. It's kind of a toss-up between DMX and 2pac. Ja Rule is probably makes more varied song lyrics ("Daddy's Little Baby") than DMX, and certainly beats 2pac when it comes to lyrics (I never thought 2pac was a good lyricist). He is a lot more emotional than both of them, and some songs truly show that. While his lyrics aren't the best I've heard, the rhymes all fit perfectly, guaranteeing satisfaction. Plus, the verses are long enough. All the guest appearances are perfect in my eyes. Especially "It's Murda" with the combined forces of DMX and Jay-Z. There is even a very funny skit with Ja Rule in his own church!!! Just listen...
Here's the story: While DMX was tearing up the scene back in 1999, MTV ... and radio were pressuring him to make more radio-friendly songs and music-videos and commercial appeal for everyone (A lot of his songs talk about brutally killing people and afterwards). Fortunately, X wanted to stay true to himself and refused (good work!). Along comes Ja Rule (who was underground at the time). He offered to do make the videos and songs for the radio. Well, "Holla Holla" was a great single, and it had some hardcore appeal (they had to edit the chorus). It got huge rotation for the summer of 1999. This made him popular. The song did somewhat cover up the darker elements to this album. The other songs had stories of a nihilistic drug-dealer/killer. Naturally, no one cared....
The fame eventually when to Ja Rule's head and he decided to go deeper into commercial territory. On his next album, he made pop songs with these horrible hip-hop girls like Christina Millian. He completely ruined his style. He sold-out so horribly. But I'll save that for the next review.
If you want to hear Ja Rule before the aliens replaced him with the character you see now, get this. It is really good. It may seem like a 2pac or DMX rip-off, but I think that this is better than both of them (Although DMX is better nowadays). He is far more emotional and lyrically equipped (at least then he was). The beats aren't all that bad either. Check this out along with anything from Nas or Biggie and stay away from his new stuff. Peace...
Standouts: Every track
3029115
The House Select Committee on Assassinations came to the conclusion in 1979 that there WAS a conspiracy. So much for Posner's insistence that Oswald was the lone assassin.

OSWALD WAS "SHEEP DIPPED"!!!

Remember what Ruby said, "Consequently, a whole new form of government is going to take over."

I'm amazed that apologists for the Warren commission still exist. The MAGIC BULLET, people!! This guy, Posner, works as a commentator for NBC. What does that tell you? I wouldn't be surprised if he's a Federalist. As Garrison said, "The killers still possess the throne." And apparently, they're still trying to cover it up.

This book was written in reaction to Oliver Stone's masterpiece, JFK. Obviously those in power got worried. Read Garrison. Read some other research besides this. There's a plethora of it out there. Anything but this garbage. Or if you're too lazy to read, see JFK. There's more truth in 5 minutes of that film than in this whole smelly book. AMAZING!!

CASE IS STILL OPEN!!!
1501107
There is one crucial detail in this Blu-ray release that will probably leave many fans bored out of their minds, yet its one of the things they have always wanted most. The commentary track of Jamie Lee Curtis and John Carpenter. Thats right, the brand spanking new commentary track. These two ramble on about stuff the average fan already knows, and a few new things we have never heard before which is only a few things. That is the only thing good about this track. You would think they would have interesting conversation though right? WRONG! Jamie pretty much spells out the movie scene for scene and is almost as if she is high on drugs with how many times she says "Wow..., Beautiful..." etc. She pretty much is commentating as if its her first time ever watching the film since she made it. Its funny though because John interrupts her several times and says, "Thats right!" Almost as if the poor guy just wants to do his commentary for the fans (finally after all these years), but Jamie pretty much ruins the whole thing. Its almost as if they should have both written notes on what to talk about before doing the track, or at least watch the film once all the way through so they can jog their memories before recording the commentary. Its a shame because many fans, myself included, have waited for a long time to hear a new, (uncut) commentary track. Especially from these two. Yet all you get is pointless blabber from Jamie nearly 90% of the commentary and John only puts in his two cents every once in a while.

OTHER than that, its perfect. The picture quality is way better than before, and the new little documentary, "The Night She Came Home" is AWESOME! I even saw my friend who went to the event in there!

This would have received 5 stars if it weren't for that terrible commentary track that we all waited years for.
142260
Was at the recording of this album. If you consider Juniors priorities, first an entertainer, second a singer, and third a harp player, than you'll realize this is junior at his prime. Rumor has it that Junior was aware of  his illness at this time, and it appears that he is going out with a bang.  from the openning tracks to the final note this album cranks. It will live  in your C.D. player. This album is currently in my top ten of blues picks.
4438045
Jazzy Joni fans, if you go to jmdl.com you can find an incredible world of Jonism, from lyrics to the meaning of lyrics to bootlegged concert videa and DVD to every imaginable scrap of marketing junk connected with her and her label. An artist has to eat, you know? And fans need round the clock access to all those goodies. Why, you can even look up the crazy alternate guitar tuning for any of her songs, (and learn her special tuning codes) and sit there, if, for instance, you are stoned to your crack on heroin, and play along with "Cold Blue Steel and Sweet Fire" until the neighbors start throwing their coffee table at the ceiling to get you to stop. But when you buy this album, my little Jonettes, you are going to sit in rapt silence and let the absolutely overblown  orchestrations wash over you. Is this Aaron Copeland? The Mormon Tabernacle Choir? Rod Stewart? No, it's Joni, alternate-tuning an entire orchestra so she can slop it around like a Guild 12-string at Woodstock, and straining her larynx to impersonate a Billie Holliday voice (with the baby breathy rasp, without the precise articulation and phrasing) because she  has those celebrity Fears of Mortality all of a sudden. Who knows, the music world being such a fickle place, maybe she had already achieved immortality for the basso ad lib and giggle at the end of "Big Yellow Taxi." Well, fans, you don't know what you got til it's gone, eh?
2425561
THESE TRACKS ARE OFF THE HESSHOUSE iT IS WORTH THE CHEDDAR WHEN DMX IS SPITTIN OUT HIS LETTERS.  WHAT A MASTERMIND TO BAKE A CAKE AND CHEW A HOLE THROUGH IT AND PRETEND ITS A WHOLE CREW.  AFTER LISTENING TO THIS CEZ DEZ, I HAD BLOOD ON D*CK CAUSE IN FACT i F*CKED A CORPES.  "COME ON."  NUST HAVE. UHH COME ON ARFF ARFF.
1252725
Great title, and so appropriate. There is no excuse for these blues! Holy cow....can old white guys quit pretending that they are actually comparable to REAL blues artists? Yuk!
824712
Right from the get-go you know your in for a personnel treat from JD. ITs headphone music at its best. This isn't anything like meat beat or "Hello Friends". This is Jack hard at work in his studio, or lab, which one, its doesnt matter.

"Zxero" is my personnel favorite as it really gives the vision of jack tweaking electronic music in the "lab coat" vision i think he'd intended.

Pick this up, you won't be dissapointed. can't compare it to anything else
3141425
Once in a while I come across a writer who is so dexterous, so acute, that I am willing to follow him to whatever depths of depravity to which he chooses to descend.

Tim Willocks is such a writer, and in Bad City Blues, he has elected to visit a deeper place than I have gone before.  The setting is a Louisiana hotter, dirtier and uglier than the one I have visited and it is peopled with demons disguised as policemen, addicts, thugs and men of the cloth.  These creatures are violent and vengeful, heaping pain and indignities upon one another with an abandon that should chill and repel the reader, but the spare beauty of the language keeps us hanging on through the worst of it.

There are only seven characters in Bad City Blues and in lesser hands such paucity of interaction might seem cramped and claustrophobic, but it's clear that Willocks requires every one of the books 245 pages to bring them to life and could probably have done with another hundred or so.

As with most of stories of human nature, Bad City Blues is about two brothers.  It is a logical way for a writer to start - two men who have had the same upbringing and background should turn out roughly the same way, yet one goes bad, the other goes worse.  Cicero and Luther Grimes (Grimes - dirty, besoiled, low - even the names are evocative) are white trash who haven't spoken in years due to an unnamed wrong committed by Luther on Cicero.  Luther spends most of his time in South America, training death squads and dealing drugs, while his brother elected to go to medical school.  Cicero could have been a successful doctor, but instead now lives in a broken-down firehouse in a broken-down part of town and tends to the afflicted, often free of charge.  Does this make him a good man?  No, not really.  Violence and retribution boil just below the surface of his calm demeanor.  Though the "good" Grimes does not uncork his rage, the bloodlust surges through him and is as ugly as the acts perpetrated by the other characters.

Separated by years and miles, the brothers are pulled together by Callie Carter, a former hooker and current addict, who is on the run with a million dollars stolen from the bank where her husband is a Vice President.  The husband, Cleve Carter, is also a television evangelist who sparks through his brief appearance in this book like a high-voltage wire chewed through by wild nutria.

Clarence Jefferson is a crooked cop who destroys or befouls everything he touches, including his sweet and unassuming Baptist wife.  He catches wind of the million dollar heist and sets out to claim his piece of it, leaving a wake of bloodied and broken humanity behind him.

Bad City Blues is a ferocious and extraordinary book that will be enjoyed by fans of Chuck Palahniuk and James Lee Burke and burned in horror by fans of Agatha Christie and Joan Hess.
1133466
Ohhh where should I start??? My sweetie Pavie is out like a light! Please tray bring him baaaccckkkkk! Gouch is trapped in a cage by Shelli and until he can complete the mission he's not going anywhere. GANGSTA and PAYBACC are on some serious revenge and I can't predict how many fallen soldiers are going to feel the effects but it's on! Paybacc did Daniel soo bad! I hope his daughter knows her Daddy is nuts! Creeper please do the ultimate on Arsenagger..That cop did Puppet and your girl soo wrong, It is time for some serious retribution because a few officers have just been getting away with this brutality too long. Killa Dre is my new love and he needs some love interest. I enjoy the relationship between Gangsta and Black Jesus's relationship. Ding Dong one of the Monsters have fallen!! Whose NEXT!!! Love THIS SERIES!!!
4079793
Wow. How hard up are these guys now that Dennis DeYoung is out of the band? Unlike the previous poster, I have actually listened to Big Bang Theory and if you like listening to poor imitations of the real thing, this is your CD. It is painfully obvious that these guys have no creative juice left in them - I mean they have now put out a half dozen live albums, 4-5 re-released packages, and now they put out an album of cover tunes - including covering one of their own (the much overrated "Blue Collar Man" which these guys refuse to let die - even though it didn't even crack the top 20 when it was out in 1978. If you doubt this, look how many times it appears on "Arch Allies" with REO Speedwagon). Combine this with there tour schedule that has them playing at airport fields and rinky dink carnivals and you have to admit that Styx has gone the Spinal Tap route.