Saturday, February 27, 2021

Swinging Saturdays #89: Spotify ABC ~ E

Swinging saturdays is a musical meme hosted by Ice Cold Passion, to share our passion for music. The goal is to make a top 5 (or Top 10) for whatever genre or artist you like or get creative and share a theme based music top 5. For example a bookish soundtrack, funny songs, song to listen to on a rainy day top 5.
Hi Everyone, I am back again for a new Swinging Saturdays! 
It has been a bit quiet I know, I am still trying to find the balance between blogging, work, reading and family. And we have had some hectic weeks, Brexit is taking it's toll, I have been busy trying to get our orders to the Netherlands, finding ways to get anything out the UK, it has been a challenge. 

It feel good when after lots of phone calls and emails the goods finally got delivered to our warehouse late Friday last week. Saturday we sorted everything out, and by the time I got home I was to tired to do anything else. 

So yeah no Swinging Saturdays last week, I am hoping to get back to weekly posts on the blog, but I know I am not quiet there yet. Anyways, today we take a dive into my Spotify list again, this week it is going to be E's. Let's see what is there. We have Echosmith, Eaves, Evanescence, The Eskies, Epica, The Eagles of Death Metal. Wow, a small category. What will I choose?

Eagles of Death Metal ~ I Want You So Hard

I just came to the conclusion that Jack Black and David Grohl are in this video. So how could I not post this one, come on it is Jack Black and David Grohl. And as cherry on top Josh Homme. Goddamn, this video is hilarious and just what you would expect from the Eagles of Death Metal. I thought is was funny that in the comments of the this video on Youtube it says: They tricked me, this is no black metal. I thought that was really funny.


Ed Sheeran ~ Thinking Out Loud

So I guess we are doing videos today instead of live preformances, not only is this a beautiful song, but I absolutely love this video. It is breathtaking. I have nothing more to add to that I guess. By the way there is also a making off this video, if you are interested in that it's out there on Youtube.


Elliot Brood ~ Northern Air

The first concert I went to with the love of my live, before we were together. I loved this! And it has some amazing memories attached to it.


Evanescence ~ Good Enough

I lived the first 2 albums of Evanescence, I remember playing it in my room on repeat when it came out. I love the cover art of the album, and I knew every song by heart. This is the other side of Evanescence, this is a beautiful ballad. I had forgotten how beautiful it is.


The Eskies ~ Jesus Don't Save Me

I worked this show,that means I was behind the bar pooring drinks, these guys bring something great to the stage. On top of that they are very nice fellas. Not likely to forget that evening, hope they will visit with Hedon once this shit called Covid is finally over and we can get back to normalcy. So let's finish this on a funny note. Hope you enjoy this video.

Any artists starting with an E I should add to my list?
Let me know in the comments!
Want to host Swing Saturdays next week? 
Send me an email: icecoldpassions@gmail.com. 
I would love to hear what kind of music you like!

Saturday, February 13, 2021

Swinging Saturdays #88: Ice Ice baby

Swinging saturdays is a musical meme hosted by Ice Cold Passion, to share our passion for music. The goal is to make a top 5 (or Top 10) for whatever genre or artist you like or get creative and share a theme based music top 5. For example a bookish soundtrack, funny songs, song to listen to on a rainy day top 5.

It is cold in the Netherlands, we have snow, which is pretty unique, we don't get a whole lot of it. And it has been freezing, we have natural ice, which means everybody in the Netherlands has the skating fever.
For my family it definitely means we are going skating, I am part of a famous skating family here in the Netherlands, my uncle is very famous in the skating world, he won the 11 city race 2 years in a row. It is the biggest event we have an gives you fame forever if you win it. It is a race over 200 km through the province of Friesland. There hasn't been an 11 city race for a long time, last time it got that cold that it could proceed was in 1997. My other uncle placed fourth back then. Anyways yes today will be another skating day for me.   Below a video of me and my sister yesterday.


No for today,  we are staying with the cold, for an ice cold Swinging Saturdays.

Red Hot Chilli Peppers - Snow

Let start with the peppers, this guitar riff is very addictive. Stadium Arcadium is one of those albums I have listened to too many times to count. I still very much enjoy this song.


H.I.M. ~ Join Me In Death

Yes the title is very dramatic, and this may not seem like a choice to fit in to this top 5 of snow and winter but look at that music video! If the woman in this video isn't the perfect snow queen then I don't know what is. This is the thing with HIM they always have lovely music videos to go with the beautiful music. If you want to watch another snowy video by this band, Funeral of Hearts was my second option for this one. Again a very pretty video.


Snow Patrol - Run

Now for an obvious choice, Snow Patrol! My favorite song is not Chasing Cars nor is it Just Say Yes, my favorite one of Snow Patrol is Run. It gives me goose bumps every time, it is so beautiful, such a powerful song.


Within Temptation ~ Ice Queen

Yes this had to be here, Within Temptation's ice queen, it was their biggest hits, made it in the Dutch charts. A metal band in the Dutch charts that was very unique. I have seen them at least 5 or 6 times live, they are still around and kicking. All though I did not really keep up with their music.



Idina Menzel ~ Let It Go

How could I not end with this one! Ofcourse this has a place in my top 5. Yes for who have read this earlier, I was in a hury to get to skating and I forgot to post it, but it is here now! So enjoy!


Well that is it for today's top 5 I am going to change now and put on my skates! Enjoy your saturday, and for all Dutchies, enjoy the ice!

Any Ice cold suggestions for me? Let me know in the comments!
Want to host Swing Saturdays next week? 
Send me an email: icecoldpassions@gmail.com. 
I would love to hear what kind of music you like!

Thursday, February 4, 2021

Books: Iron Kissed ~ Patricia Briggs

Title:Iron Kissed
Author: Patricia Briggs
Series: Mercy Thompson Series book #3
Publisher: ACE Books
Publishing date: January 2007
Number of pages: 292 p.
Language: English, Dutch a.o.
Age Category: Adult
Other Books In This Series (currently):
Moon Called #1
Blood Bound #2
Bone Crossed #4
Silver Borne #5
Rivermarked #6
Frost Burned #7
Night Broken #8
Fire Touched #9
Silence Fallen #10
Storm Cursed #11
Smoke Bitten #12

About Iron Kissed

Mechanic Mercy Thompson can shift her shape - but not her loyalty. When her former boss and mentor is arrested for murder and left to rot behind bars by his own kind, it's up to Mercy to clear his name, whether he wants her to or not.


My thoughts on Iron Kissed

The longer I think about this book, the more dissappointing it actually was. Don't get me wrong, I still very much enjoyed it but I have some issues with this one as well. When I saw the title I knew immediately that this would be about the fae, and I got really excited as I have been curious about Zee for a long long time, and would have expected that we would get his backstory, where he came from.

However as it turns out, the fae are far more secretive than I had expect and so we are still left guessing about the fae and their history. We get a little bit of insight into their world but it feels more like a teaser. We never really dive into deep in the fae history. I could ofcourse pretent that I was not dissapointed but honestly, it was.

Another disappointment was that Stefan was not present, allthough we get an explaination why he is not there, this also felt as a disappointment to me, he is one of my favorite side charaters so it is a pity that we don't get to see him in this story. This story has a large build-up than the other ones, I felt that it was a bit slower.

I enjoy the time we spend in the fae world, the walking stick, and most of all Fideal's true form, that was very impressive and he is now one of my favorite villans. The story itself is very well thought out, and as with every book we get around story, Zee was in the end released from prison, so the mystery got solved.

I liked the bit where Mercy see the ghost of Austin Summers, and the conversation Mercy has with his brother. I thought this was very well done, and thoughing. I don't want to spoil this for everyone so I will leave you with this today, what did you think of this 3rd book in the Mercy Thompson series? Is it your favorite? Or did you have such high expectations of this one as I had? I think my expectations let me down with this one, I will be continueing the series, as I really enjoy Mercy's character, I have no idea what the next book will hold and I am not going to read the synopsis before I will start reading, I am going to go in blind, curious how that will turn out, I will let you know when I have finished it.

Conclusions

My expectations of finding out everything there is about the fae got squashed, which left me a bit dissapointed. This book is centered around the fae world, we get a little peak into the reservation they live in, we get a litlle peak in Zee's history. And we are getting a mystery, a crime to solve. All in all not a bad story, I was just hoping for so much more, this is why the rating will be lower than the previous two, so three stars.