Epinions Recent Reviews for Nathanael73

American Woman Vomits On Sacred Site!

Wed, 19 Sep 2001 21:36:36 GMT

rating: 5/5 by: Epinions Author Nathanael73 - During my childhood and youth in Australia, Ayers Rock, or Uluru as it is now more commonly called, was ever-present in my consciousness. I'm not suggesting that I thought about Uluru all the time, only that its presence and importance could never be...

Welcome to the Saving Grace

Tue, 5 Jun 2001 00:54:02 GMT

rating: 5/5 by: Epinions Author Nathanael73 - A Little History

Ninety-nine percent of you reading this review are probably thinking, “Who or what on earth is Powderfinger?” The short answer is that Powderfinger are a 5-man rock band that formed in Brisbane, Australia in 1992,...

Kolya and the Bachelor from Prague

Fri, 18 May 2001 14:00:34 GMT

rating: 5/5 by: Epinions Author Nathanael73 - I have been fascinated by Prague ever since I first read Milan Kundera’s The Unbearable Lightness Of Being. I spent a week in Prague and other parts of the Czech Republic in 1998 and became even more enamored with all things Czech. So naturally...

Beautiful B-sides

Mon, 14 May 2001 15:10:02 GMT

rating: 5/5 by: Epinions Author Nathanael73 - I am one of those U2 fans that feels compelled to buy everything the band releases, and I’m not just talking about the albums. I’m talking about singles, videos, soundtracks, side-projects etc. Friends have often asked questions like, “Why bother buying...

Jeff Buckley: The Keats of Modern Music

Thu, 10 May 2001 14:21:56 GMT

rating: 5/5 by: Epinions Author Nathanael73 - I must admit that I came late to Jeff Buckley. I heard him for the first time in December 1997, after he had tragically drowned in Memphis. I was in my homeland of Australia for a seven-week visit after two and a half years away. A friend and I were on a...

A Wonderful Film For Lovers of Beautiful Images and Music

Mon, 7 May 2001 14:21:37 GMT

rating: 5/5 by: Epinions Author Nathanael73 - I literally waited years to see The Million Dollar Hotel. Somewhere back in the mid-nineties I read that U2's Bono had penned a screenplay set in a rundown L.A. hotel that he had visited while on tour. Naturally I was eager to see what form a...

Views On Tipping Food servers: Don't Be A Cheap Bastard (or Bastardette)!

Thu, 5 Apr 2001 18:57:07 GMT

rating: 4/5 by: Epinions Author Nathanael73 - Let me give you my 15% on tipping food servers. As a server at a popular and well-known Italian restaurant, I have come to see the tipping issue from the other side of the fence. As a customer, I always tipped generously because it was in my nature to do...

A Southern Catholic Dysfunctional Family Drama

Wed, 21 Mar 2001 20:28:19 GMT

rating: 4/5 by: Epinions Author Nathanael73 - The cover of Rebecca Wells' Little Altars Everywhere is extremely misleading. It depicts a pretty young girl in a summer dress jumping rope against a pink-sky background. I had noticed the book several times in Barnes & Noble and assumed it was a...

Fat, Rich and Lazy American Writer Visits Australia and Disparages National Heroes

Thu, 15 Feb 2001 15:56:57 GMT

rating: 3/5 by: Epinions Author Nathanael73 - As an Australian and a big fan of Bill Bryson I began reading In A Sunburned Country with great excitement. Upon finishing the book, however, I felt great disappointment. One of my favourite authors had taken upon himself the gargantuan task of...

Cannery Row: "Saints and angels and martyrs and holy men"

Tue, 6 Feb 2001 01:48:40 GMT

rating: 5/5 by: Epinions Author Nathanael73 - After the great triumph of The Grapes Of Wrath, Steinbeck sought to deconstruct the novel. In 1939 he wrote a letter to a former college roommate, Carlton Sheffield, in which he declared, “I’ve worked the novel – I know it as far as I can take it...

Morocco: There Are Much Better Ways To Spend 90 Minutes

Mon, 5 Feb 2001 16:54:52 GMT

rating: 2/5 by: Epinions Author Nathanael73 - Browsing through the aisles at our local video mega-store last night, the Missus and I decided to do something different and rent a classic. Our eyes were drawn to the cover of Morocco, starring Marlene Deitrich and Gary Cooper. We quickly...

There's More to Fitzgerald than The Great Gatsby!

Tue, 23 Jan 2001 18:10:51 GMT

rating: 5/5 by: Epinions Author Nathanael73 - This Side Of Paradise, F. Scott Fitzgerald’s debut novel, has undeservedly been kept in the shadows by later works such as The Great Gatsby and Tender Is The Night. Fitzgerald composed most of This Side Of Paradise while a...

Whose Line Is It Anyway?: The Funniest Show On TV!

Fri, 19 Jan 2001 01:13:43 GMT

rating: 5/5 by: Epinions Author Nathanael73 - It has become a weekly ritual for my wife and I to watch Whose Line Is It Anyway? on Thursday nights on ABC. We are not big TV watchers, in fact, we would much rather read or rent a foreign film, yet the TV takes precedence over all else on...

Ride: The Greatest Band You've Never Heard Of

Tue, 9 Jan 2001 01:04:37 GMT

rating: 5/5 by: Epinions Author Nathanael73 - Ride were one of the very greatest English bands to ever set foot in a studio. I rank them in the premier league along with The Cure, The Stone Roses, and The Smiths (let's leave The Beatles out of this as they deserve their own league). During the early...

Kaplan's The Coming Anarchy: The Ugly Truth

Sun, 7 Jan 2001 22:43:50 GMT

rating: 4/5 by: Epinions Author Nathanael73 - After reading Kaplan’s brilliant Balkan Ghosts (http://www.epinions.com/book-review-6334-46582E93-3A4E2280-prod3) I sought out The Coming Anarchy: Shattering The Dreams of the Post Cold...

Villette: The Most Tedious Book I Have Ever Read

Sat, 30 Dec 2000 21:46:24 GMT

rating: 1/5 by: Epinions Author Nathanael73 - I have read literally hundreds of books in my lifetime, perhaps thousands, and I do not hesitate in making the claim that I enjoyed every one of them infinitely more than Charlotte Bronte’s tedious Villette, even the ones I can’t remember. There...

Balkan Ghosts: History Can Teach Us Everything

Sat, 30 Dec 2000 17:05:28 GMT

rating: 5/5 by: Epinions Author Nathanael73 - Whoever said, “History can teach us nothing” is a fool. Robert D. Kaplan’s Balkan Ghosts is a convincing argument that in fact the opposite is true, and history can teach us everything. Subtitled A Journey Through History, Kaplan’s work...

Billy Bob Thornton and Matt Damon Lose The Plot

Tue, 26 Dec 2000 17:15:36 GMT

rating: 3/5 by: Epinions Author Nathanael73 - I must admit that I took some pretty high expectations with me in my saddle-bag when I rode over to the cinema to watch All The Pretty Horses. After all, the film is based on Cormac McCarthy’s highly acclaimed novel, it stars Matt Damon and...

St. John's Wood: Radiohead, Liam Gallagher, Kate Moss and Me

Wed, 20 Dec 2000 00:59:49 GMT

rating: 4/5 by: Epinions Author Nathanael73 - I lived in London from August 1997 through to July 1998. I had visited London at least five times before living there, usually for two or three days at a time, and I must stress that being a resident rather than a visitor gives one an entirely different...

The Insider's London Pub Guide

Thu, 7 Dec 2000 17:20:48 GMT

rating: 5/5 by: Epinions Author Nathanael73 - London has literally thousands of pubs (short for Public House), ranging from 500 year old historical treasures to large modern venues to expensive tourist traps and dingy working class dives. There are Elizabethan pubs, Victorian pubs, Irish pubs,...

An Eastern European Road Trip: Dresden to Prague

Tue, 5 Dec 2000 22:17:37 GMT

rating: 5/5 by: Epinions Author Nathanael73 - I drove from Dresden, Germany to Prague, Czech Republic in early August 1998 with my brother and my best friend. It is one of the most interesting road trips I have undertaken, and thus I feel compelled to share the experience with you.

The...

U2 On The Edge of Mega-Stardom

Sun, 19 Nov 2000 14:39:02 GMT

rating: 5/5 by: Epinions Author Nathanael73 - On June 5, 1983, U2 were poised on the brink of superstardom. With their first two albums, Boy and October, U2 had made quite an impact around the world, especially with songs such as I Will Follow and Gloria. But with the 1983 release of...

Spanish Is The Loving Tongue

Sat, 11 Nov 2000 22:12:21 GMT

rating: 5/5 by: Epinions Author Nathanael73 - Fernando Trueba directs this wonderful 1993 comedy from a script by Fatima Ribiero. Jorge Sanz delivers a wonderful performance as Fernando, a young deserter from the Spanish army who has the good fortune to be given refuge by a gentleman named Manolo...

Hot Springs: Where People Get Naked!

Sat, 11 Nov 2000 14:38:11 GMT

rating: 4/5 by: Epinions Author Nathanael73 - This is the second-half of a two-part review. The first half is entitled A Mecca For Sensual Delights.

People have been going to Hot Springs for well over a hundred years to "take the baths". Located in the beautiful Ouachita Mountains,...

Hot Springs: Part One - A Mecca Of Sensual Delights

Sat, 11 Nov 2000 13:46:18 GMT

rating: 4/5 by: Epinions Author Nathanael73 - This review will be in two parts, as I have quite a lot of information to pass on.

For our first wedding anniversary, I decided to take my wife to Hot Springs, Arkansas. That may seem like an odd choice to some, but I had a few good...