Epinions Recent Reviews for Benjamin

Three hours in a bookstore

Thu, 19 Jul 2001 22:12:47 GMT

rating: 5/5 by: Epinions Author Benjamin - I read Marion Winik's insightful, entertaining, and sublime little advice book straight through in the bookstore where I first saw it yesterday. The book cover was the first thing that attracted me. It has a sea of identical light bulbs on an orange...

Swarthmore College: Sat. November 11, 2000, 10:25 PM: Swarthmore Tonight

Sun, 12 Nov 2000 00:51:08 GMT

rating: 4/5 by: Epinions Author Benjamin - This is not a traditional review of the social scene at Swat (as we affectionately refer to it). The scene is very difficult to characterize. I thought social life would be my biggest peeve about Swarthmore, but it turned out to be one of its biggest...

Netscape 6 Preview Release 2: Worse than the last preview release

Fri, 29 Sep 2000 23:23:47 GMT

rating: 2/5 by: Epinions Author Benjamin - This second preview release (of Netscape 6, from now on referred to as PR 2) destroys almost every good quality that the first preview release hinted was coming with the full version. Gone is the slim, lithe preview mozilla. PR 2 reminds me of...

A Kid and His Turntables

Mon, 7 Aug 2000 19:42:31 GMT

rating: 4/5 by: Epinions Author Benjamin - You look at the album.

$14.95? For a vinyl album?

It's worth it for Kid Koala's Carpal Tunnel Syndrome, even just for the 7 inch brown paper self-drawn comic inside. The comic is pretty much just visual panels-- nearly no words...

(The Who) Holds up

Tue, 30 May 2000 01:44:21 GMT

rating: 5/5 by: Epinions Author Benjamin - I bought this album a week ago and it has not let me down. I got an original vinyl edition- two records, a fat black and white booklet, heavy cardboard-- used but in good shape. Although it's a rock opera concept, like tommy, it's much more...

On Point (usually)

Tue, 18 Apr 2000 14:18:21 GMT

rating: 4/5 by: Epinions Author Benjamin - Counter to its title, Same As it Ever Was is actually a very different style from House of Pain's first release. The whole tone is much more earthy. Even though the same growling choruses (Instead of "You know it's Danny Boy", it's...

Netscape 6 Preview Release 1: I'll get it when it's no longer pre-release

Mon, 17 Apr 2000 13:43:10 GMT

rating: 3/5 by: Epinions Author Benjamin - I was initially really excited about Netscape 6 coming out. I had been complaining for a couple of months because Internet Explorer (from now on referred to as IE) was so far ahead of Netscape, that I might be forced to buy it, despite my despising...

God Likes To Stop and Smell the Roses

Sun, 9 Apr 2000 17:53:10 GMT

rating: 3/5 by: Epinions Author Benjamin - I liked Clerks, Mallrats, and Chasing Amy. However, Dogma is tepid compared to Kevin Smith's other films. The dialogue is poppy, but with actors like Matt Damon, Ben Affleck, Janeane Garofalo, and Chris Rock, who are capable of making great dialogue...

The Brooding Sexual Post-Apocalyptic Funk

Wed, 5 Apr 2000 11:24:39 GMT

rating: 4/5 by: Epinions Author Benjamin - It took me a while to understand what is happening on Tricky's "Maxinquaye". The album is touted to be the perfection of trip-hop. However, I don't think that any single genre can define the music here.

The term...

Coming Down from the Club

Mon, 3 Apr 2000 22:26:52 GMT

rating: 5/5 by: Epinions Author Benjamin - It's 4 AM 5 AM. Still dark. You've been dancing to trance or hard house, perhaps in a club. Physically drained, you drink water and slowly come down from trance world to the strange reality which confronts you at this strange hour.

...

A Focused Barrage of The True Hip-Hop

Mon, 27 Mar 2000 17:42:18 GMT

rating: 5/5 by: Epinions Author Benjamin - It is rare to come upon an album this good. Have you ever heard a sample loop that is simply exquisite in the way it melds with the lyrics and beat of a song? Almost all of the seven songs on Blackalicious' A2G EP ("Deception," "Making...

The House at Pooh Corner - Full: I Can't Believe that I had to ADD this to Epinions!

Sat, 25 Mar 2000 19:55:10 GMT

rating: 5/5 by: Epinions Author Benjamin - I received a boxed gift of four audio cassettes with Carol Channing reading A A Milne's Winnie the Pooh and The House at Pooh corner and also included the paperback books. The tapes are almost all warped now-- I listened to them hundreds of times...

Beautifully

Sat, 25 Mar 2000 19:20:12 GMT

rating: 5/5 by: Epinions Author Benjamin - I bought this for my father on fathers' day when I was thirteen, on the advice of the local music store salesperson. I was told that it was the quintessential jazz album. But it didn't sound the way I expected a jazz album to sound.

This is...

woe to those who must listen

Tue, 21 Mar 2000 21:45:08 GMT

rating: 1/5 by: Epinions Author Benjamin - There is no excuse for Sugar Ray's making this album. All the instruments (including vocals) are being used so limitedly that they really lose any semblance of music. That's basically the situation with everything on this album: completely mediocre...

every detail is distorted and magnified by the sea

Sun, 19 Mar 2000 04:48:50 GMT

rating: 5/5 by: Epinions Author Benjamin - The United States recovered a German U-Boat intact during World War II, as well as the decoding device which allowed the US to know all of the Germans' plans, just as Hitler was sending out more and more crews of them. The entire boat, as well as...

I'm a male model, not a male prostitute!

Wed, 15 Mar 2000 01:38:07 GMT

rating: 4/5 by: Epinions Author Benjamin - Prince Paul, complete with a new makeover as the Handsome Boy

School for Male Models' co-founder Chest Rockwell, has moulded something fly. This album, like the Chemical Brothers' "Surrender", is the work of two artists who know exactly...

"But yo, the Wu, the Wu got something"

Tue, 15 Feb 2000 21:55:37 GMT

rating: 5/5 by: Epinions Author Benjamin - "But yo, the Wu, the Wu got something that I know that everybody want to hear, because I know I've been waiting to hear it" --from the Intermission (the epinions track listing is wrong- it's actually at the end of track five, not a separate...

I've memorized the whole thing

Thu, 10 Feb 2000 01:56:56 GMT

rating: 4/5 by: Epinions Author Benjamin - I think I have a more personal connection with this album than with nearly all the others in my collection. There's something about "Off the Deep End" that makes it much more than the sum of it's parts. A perfect example is "Polka Your...

brazil, london, havana, and new york city collide!

Sat, 5 Feb 2000 06:50:51 GMT

rating: 4/5 by: Epinions Author Benjamin - If you liked Buena Vista Social Club and are interested in further exploring Cuban music as well as expanding your horizons a bit more into Brazilian sounds, this is the perfect album to get! Frankly, if you're at all interested in Latin music, but...

Stunning

Fri, 4 Feb 2000 19:05:50 GMT

rating: 4/5 by: Epinions Author Benjamin - This album surprised me enough lately that I'm motivated to write about it. I got it used, after seeing it in a friend's cd collection. Initially, I was happily shocked by the intensity and dissonant, free-wheeling riffing of the first track, "Sun...

More and Better

Thu, 3 Feb 2000 19:55:03 GMT

rating: 5/5 by: Epinions Author Benjamin - This cd starts off with "Scuttle Buttin'", which lasts one minute, forty-eight seconds, and I think would just by itself justify this cd's purchase. It's almost to obvious to say, but no one could play like Stevie Ray Vaughn and Double Trouble...

The yardstick for any decent rap album

Tue, 25 Jan 2000 16:17:31 GMT

rating: 5/5 by: Epinions Author Benjamin - "Bizarre Ride II" by the Pharcyde is the prototype, the standard, the measure of a good rap album. It's not the greatest album of all time, by any stretch of the imagination. But it's good enough and un-self-conscious enough that it is simply...

Gemini XL-400II Turntable: Basic Record Playing

Sat, 22 Jan 2000 05:46:57 GMT

rating: 4/5 by: Epinions Author Benjamin - I just got this turntable to round out my component stereo system. So far, everything's peachy. It came with a 3 year warranty. It plays 33 1/3 and 45 rpm. It has a sliding pitch adjust, a pitch bend feature, and anti-skating. For the price, it's as...

Sweet Surrender

Fri, 21 Jan 2000 21:40:56 GMT

rating: 4/5 by: Epinions Author Benjamin - If only every artist could respond to high fan expectations with an album like this. Surrender is the result of the Chemical Brothers fine-tuning their art to what can only be called mastery. I got the album on vinyl and am reaping the rewards. A...

Archived Computer Hardware Reviews: Ditch The Imac Hockey Puck Mouse and Get This

Fri, 21 Jan 2000 19:58:32 GMT

rating: 4/5 by: Epinions Author Benjamin - The XLR8 (by Interex) Point & Scroll mouse is perfect for any owner of a new mac with USB inputs (me). It has two buttons, a scrolling wheel for web pages (or any other page which you can scroll up and down), and a shape which is infinitely better...