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Kylie & Kendall Jenner's Ghostwritten Novel

I've been trying so hard to read, read more than I usually do. It took me an entire year to read Pachinko which was an incredible read and if you want to read about that I wrote an entire review on it. But after I finished reading it, I jumped straight into the Jenner sisters odd YA dystopian novel, which also took me a long time to get through because it was an absolute culture shock to go from a novel that is historic and well written to,,, uhm an entire ghost written novel I guess.

So the idea of this novel is, there are two girls and one is called Lex and the other is called Livia. They are training themselves up, one is training to figure out what their job will be after these simulation trainings they do, think Divergent core. The other is taking etiquette classes to become a proper woman who will go to a ball, find her husband and then gallop off into the sunset with him. They are both designed to be like 'I'm not other girls' and 'I'm so different and nobody likes me because I'm different'. The two characters are very much like this;

There is also a guy that Lex meets before her final simulation thing, his name is Kane. He is weird and quirky and likes to steal pills from the offices to experience some kind of legal high which would get him sent to the bottom of the pile if anyone found out about it. Also did I mention like two sentences before that he is weird? Not like other people and that he doesn't like to spend time with anyone else that is considered normal. So Kane is like;

Honestly, if anything I am so glad that Kylie and Kendall Jenner didn't write this book because the basic character premise is trash actually.

The whole time these girls are training up in their dystopian islands which work differently across Indra kind of goes over my head because the ghost written author tries to go far too much into detail to the point it does not make any sense. The author is very much like oh so Lex got to use this cool weapon and then she took drugs so she could cheat her final simulation and everyone around her was like the shocked emoji because they never thought she could do this. It is all very 'I'm the main character' which is what makes me dislike the two girls so much.

Later in the novel Kane decides to leave Lex because he's going on this mission which he can't talk about and when he promises Lex he will meet her in a simulation and he later doesn't turn up, Lex does everything she can to find out where he really is. It turns out he shows up to Livia's emergence ball where he tries to assassinate her. Like she's supposed to be JFK or something, as far as I was concerned she was some orphan lady with a famous surname, but she's never met her famous dad because he is, well dead.

So he gets taken away and Lex is fuming because she kissed Kane before he left and now she's found out through a simulation she can't hear that Livia kissed Kane and then beat him up (because he tried to kill her). Also can I just add in that Kane is supposed to be about 10 years old. Which is?????

So Livia is basically on a dystopian house arrest since she was nearly killed and her government want to protect her, but Lex decides to go along to be the second person to attempt to assassinate her because she is convinced that Livia murdered Kane and that's why she can't find him. Lex of course arriving on such sacred ground and attempting to kill Livia sets off all of the PCF guards to then hunt the two down as they run away, arguing, crying, trying to kill each other in hopes to both find Kane. I'm honestly not sure why you would try to kill someone and then gallop off into the distance with them 5 minutes later because you think they're going to help you find the guy you want to slam, but here we are. On their quest they meet the riggers which are government hating little guys who live in holes off the main ground. They remind me of the Goron's in Zelda with the way they mostly dig for things, do construction in their hobbit land and are left alone by everyone else in society.

One of these riggers in the book give themselves up to the PCF which Lex and Livia agree that he did it in order to protect them so they could not only get away, but to also ignite a real life war with these government officials. Though I'm not sure that's a good idea at all given the rest of the complicated circumstances. There's a whole chapter dedicated to their weird zapping weapons and screaming sword which I switched off to because it's lame and it's the type of fight scene that exists within every YA book to ever exist. Thankfully when I was reading this chapter on the train I tuned in even less because there was drama happening between one of the train conductors and someone pretending to be asleep, this was of course more interesting than the book at this point.

I think it's been a good 6 chapters more and Lex and Livia are still trying to escape Indra, to think in the books time it's probably been around 2-3 hours, but it feels like a lifetime for the reader. In this time, they have found Kane who was laying face first on the floor basically pretending to be dead ??? He's in a lot of pain with body wide injuries and he's also flirting with Livia in front of Lex which of course makes her jealous. Livia decides to get him to take some fun dystopian drugs so he can't feel how much his body hurts so they can rescue him. One of the worst lines though, on page 245 reads [from Livia's point of view]; 'I gently lift his shirt, trying not to cringe at the sight of his injuries. He watches me, still smiling. 'If you wanted to see me with my clothes off, all you had to do was ask.''

Guys he is literally TEN YEARS OLD.

After reading that, I just wanted a black hole to open up underneath me and swallow me up because why are these characters supposed to be literal children? Anyway....

They then run into more PCF except they look like they haven't washed their uniform in 40 years, only to find out they are actually 'Rebels' and they have also been sent out by a character called Vip to rescue them. The crazy thing to me is that Vip is so insignificant that I forgot who she was so for the author to make an entire statement on her return was insane to me. On top of that, the other girl from Lex's orphanage also returns as a rebel???? I kind of remember her, but still confused as to why every small character has been rewritten back for the end of the novel. They then remove Lex's microchip from her brain so the real PCF won't be able to track any more movement. I also forgot to mention that it was revealed Lex and Livia were actually twins and they tried to kill each other another three times since finding this out, as you do. They then find Kane again later on in the journey, have an entire Divergent style sequence when they are found by the enemies again where they then choose to go through a tunnel and start their next adventure. That's where the novel ends, it leaves you on an entire cliff hanger hoping and begging it will make you want to read the second book. It did in fact make me not want to read the second book, in actual fact, I wanted to burn the first novel when I was left like that.

Truthfully the book is simply not enjoyable enough and not written well enough to make me want to read more. It's not the genre, it's not the characters, it is just a badly written book and alarmingly clear that this was not written by either of the Jenner sisters.

#kylie jenner #kendall jenner #ghost writer #writing #rebels city of indra #book review #book club #literature #ya

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Grace Lau's Portraits In a Chinese Studio

I walked into the gallery a couple of days ago. One singular painting caught my eye immediately. There were two dogs. They were sat on chairs. They were looking directly into the camera as if they were little divas who wanted to be seen. They were placed on these two seats with an entire traditional Chinese portrait background behind them. I couldn't look away.

During the Victorian times, western people would often include Chinese people in their portraits, presenting them as 'exotic beings' and unusual creatures. Lau's project Portraits In a Chinese Studio is something that portrays the narrative, but also reverses the roles for 21st Century subjects.

The project has been something of major interest to Lau for years. It all began in the turn of the 21st Century where Lau was studying archival images and documents of a variation of different cultures in East Asia as well as the West to figure out the way in which people communicated with each other through images during the 19th Century as well as the early 20th Century. Lau teamed up with art historian Lynn Pan to publish the book Picturing The Chinese: Early Western Photographs and Postcards of China.

Below are two images taken from Lau's website, highlighting some of the images she found in the archives.

In terms of times when the camera was first invented, many Westerners would travel to the East, places such as Shanghai, Beijing and Nanjing where they would take photos of these people, displaying them as exotic creatures. These photographers did not capture someone from the East the same way that a painting of the Royal Family would portray. Instead they hyperfocused on elements such as bound feet, opium smokers, beggars' things that would make these people appear different and exotic.

The photographic project launched in the summer of 2005 when Lau arrived in Hastings, setting up a backdrop and inviting people to come along to have their portrait made. It blended all of the research created for the book and put everything on a practical scale. It brought in a huge selection of people. Families, friends, lovers, all who have walked the planet and created so many of their own stories. It was made like a celebration of culture, but asked so many questions simultaneously. What were we all doing in these images posing in front of very traditional Chinese backdrops? The whole project is essentially parodying how ethnic minorities were captured in historic paintings and wanted this to be shown the other way in these portraits. The way in which people don't really think about things unless the role is directly reversed and suddenly they are the people finding themselves in that particular place. The studio space is created as a 'mock' which features a selection of traditional Chinese furniture from its choice of chairs to the stuffed panda toy which is later replaced with a cow print rug on its rerun of the project. The original project was named '21st Century Types' in which it was focused mainly on the artists research into 19th Century and early 20th Century photographers.

In 2023 Lau once again set up a reboot of the project, this time basing it in Southampton. She once again had people book in to have their free portrait made and that everyone would have their image emailed to them. She encouraged people partaking in the project to bring their modern contemporary items with them into the space such as their iPhones or Prime fidget spinners. In one of the images, a bubble tea was perfectly placed in the centre of the table to add a layer of confusion over initial first look.

The project itself is also something that feels personal to her. Lau frequently speaks of her past and how people find it unbelievable that she speaks English and how many of these people will ask her where she learned the language. She studied at a girls grammar school in Highgate. It was these situations that also influenced Lau to create the mockup of a Chinese studio, in which she would be able to spin it the other way round, that it would be a concept which would make for conversation among others.

The project went live to the public for the Lunar New Year with a new collection on show at John Hansard Gallery in Southampton. I think the project is fantastic and a deeper dive into the history of it is even better. It's something which is easy to understand, but can easily be enjoyed from every aspect. I really love this set of work, I love the rich colours of the studio used for the 2023 images. The second I saw them on what would otherwise be a dull gallery wall, I couldn't look away. I wanted to be stood there for hours viewing the images across that wall.

As an extra little footnote for this piece, I found a really interesting interview with Lau where she discusses that project, but also some of her background in more detail here

#writing #art review #john hansard #grace lau #portraits in a chinese studio

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Hyperfixations 002

I love Autumn. I love October. I love when those leaves begin to fall and that crisp autumn air starts to breeze in through the window and it gets me all excited to put my fluffy pjs on, drink pumpkin spice lattes and go pumpkin picking. lol nevermind it is literally still 22 degrees outside !!!

I've zipped around London, Southampton and [some more of] Bournemouth over the last couple of weeks which means I've got to see lots of different art. Starting off with Arts By The Sea festival; the yearly free festival that takes place across the lower gardens and the beach usually showcasing a ton of work.

Arts By The Sea (Bournemouth)

Portal by Lucid Creates was to be honest, the only piece of work in the entire show worthy of talking about because the rest of the show was once again mostly aimed towards children and some of it was just,,,, well whelming. I saw lots of pieces of work dotted around the garden which had just been abandoned for half the day, a bunch of staff members sat on benches doing nothing and a LOT of negative reviews of the show from our beloved local tax payers. They really hated Portal because it's 'such a waste of us taxpayers money. Boring. Unimaginative. Crass' Bare in mind these pieces of art are commissioned by the artists themselves as well as Arts Council England.

Also there was a whole statement with this entire piece being torn to the ground because it was in a certain part of the beach which displayed the area were two people had died a few months ago. Their parents decided they wanted it down, but the council decided not to since it would already take two days to take the whole thing down so they may as well keep it up. Their parents failed to mention the entire Air Show Festival taking place on the same part of the beach last month by the way.

A is for Artist by Ayo Akingbade (Southampton)

4 minutes and 56 seconds running time filmed on 16mm.

The film itself features a young woman assembling images from her fathers archive after a tragedy which inspires her on her pursuit to become an artist. The short film itself features a selection of images placed together which reference her interest in portraiture and printmaking.

A short clip from the film can be viewed here.

I am gutted I didn't have enough time to be able to see the other accompanying films for the exhibition space, but me and my boyfriend had to shortly after get to the other side of Southampton. But the rest of the gallery space included 'The First' which is filmed outside the very first Guinness brewery outside of the UK, which was on the outskirts of Lagos. It was finished in 1962 after Nigeria's independence from Britain and discusses labour and industrialisation colliding. On the other hand, Faluyi explores their personal relationship with Nigeria and features shots and panoramic images of hills and forests.

Evelyn Hofer @ The Photographers Gallery London

'The most famous unknown photographer in America' is the statement given to German-American Evelyn Hofer. The exhibition in London was her first ever solo UK show and it was a hoot to view. Confusing at times since there were SO many layers to explore and so many things to see, but I really felt like I got to see how her mind worked by her photography alone.

Hofer chooses to shoot between both colour and black & white, she says for her it really depends on the subject and what she thinks is fitting for it. Her subject could be anything. People, places, buildings, anything. It feels like a fancy form of scrapbooking, I love it. It reminds me of those old Stephen Shore books where he would go along the States photographing petrol stations, motels and things he ate while he was travelling state to state. Got to be one of my favourite genres of photography.

Left: Springtime, Washington 1965. Right: Queensboro Bridge, New York, 1964.

Films

I said to my bf this month, it's October and I've barely seen any of those classic horror movies so I'm trying to swiftly make my way through as much classic horror content as possible, but it was very difficult for me because there is just so much. I finally after over 23 years managed to watch The Shining, however I was in such a food coma and was so exhausted because I once again had Covid that I managed to sleep through the first 20 minutes of the film, but not to be controversial here I don't feel like I missed much of the film anyway. I really wanted to like the film, but knowing of Shelley Duvall's treatment on that set I can't bring myself to do it. I watched HAUSU (1977) which has to be one of the most camp psychological horrors I've ever seen. I am obsessed with the class trip being cancelled and the girls managing to convince their teacher into coming to a haunted house except by the time he gets there, he's been turned into a pile of bananas and all of the girls have been eaten by Gorgeous, their bestie.

I watched Twilight again and I'm also hoping to get through all the movies at the end of the month, but who knows. I am always busy. Of course, I also saw the 4k edition of Stop Making Sense and I am simply one step away from becoming a Talking Heads stan account I fear.

Speaking of Talking Heads, I cannot stop listening to their music either, I'm pretty sure they're beginning to overtake my most listened to genre, 'slay the boots mama vroom vroom'; but essentially their music is just a more theatrical version of slay the boots anyway???

And of course, Tom Tom Club's Genius Of Love. I had no idea they had any affiliation with Talking Heads, but it somehow makes sense that they do. The song of course is a classic, the amount I've videos I've scrolled past on TikTok where they play the low quality beat is astounding, when I saw it in the cinema I genuinely thought they were simply doing a cover. I tried to find a link to it on YouTube, but it doesn't seem to exist so here's this instead.

Lastly, I seem to be hyperfixating on food, I don't really think that's something you can do, but going out, trying new meals, cooking whatever is left in the fridge and making it into one of the best creamy pastas you've ever had, that kind of thing.

I was feeling too sick to cook the other day and so I ordered some takeout from the Thai restaurant my bf works at. I ordered kimchi fried rice, it was SO GOOD. I didn't take a picture of it because I was sicky, but believe me when I say it was really good thanks. I had a seafood linguine earlier on in the week too, though I did have to sit there Googling how to remove mussels out of the seashell without looking too awkward in such a public space. I think it worked, nobody gave me dirty looks.

Creamy pasta with everything I had left over. Spring onions, tomato, mushrooms, tofu, half a bag of spinach. There were some other things, but I can't remember. Having a veggie breakfast from my favourite coffee shop and trying hash browns from an air fryer for the first time was an experience, and also LOOK AT THE SIZE OF THE COOKIES in the picture on the bottom left. I liked the look of them, but I am old now so that is too much sugar for me to have in one sitting now. Maybe one day.

#writing #misc #hyperfixation #evelyn hofer #arts by the sea #ayo akingbade #hausu 1977 #twilight #the shining #stop making sense #talking heads #food #food porn

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Stop Making Sense (1984) Review

About 5 years ago, I went to visit my hometown after a long 2 weeks of being a fresher. I was just so exhausted from eating dry cereal and drinking a bottle of wine at every fresher pre-drinks before not going out because I didn't have a valid ID, so I went home. I'm sitting in the back of my grandparents vintage car, one so old it only has a cassette player. My grandad pulls out a handful [of tapes] and goes, this one is a classic I'm going to put it on. Below and behold, it was a cassette of the live recording of Talking Head's Stop Making Sense. I had never listened to the band before then, but I fell in love with the recording of Psycho Killer immediately. Flash forward to October 2023 where my boyfriend has taken me to the cinema to see the the 4k restoration edition of Stop Making Sense; the film begins with David Byrne on the stage. 'Hi, I've got a tape I'd like to play' and the exact version of the song I had heard on my grandad's copy of the cassette starts to play.

I know that sounds silly, but as someone who has been familiar of the band for years, but never really knew them enough to consider myself a huge fan, I was in shock. I spent most of the concert movie watching in awe, footage that had been taken originally from 4 days of playing Pantages Theatre in Hollywood in 1983. The first 5 or 6 songs have stage progression, it starts with Byrnes and his acoustic guitar and as every song plays, you watch as the stage men roll across new instruments, more equipment and more band members take to the stage to play their role in the show. It is like watching a pantomime in real time. The stage presence of every person involved was electrifying, there was constantly something to look at.

When the curtains finally fall to create a full set design, you know we're finally in the zone, the next segment of the show begins. David Byrne rotates between slim fitting to super baggy extra large grey suit, you know *the* grey suit. He swings his arms and legs around in directions that doesn't make sense, he constantly looks like a drunk man about to topple to the ground after a few too many and uses a lampshade as a swing during the film.

As far as the character of Stop Making Sense goes, it is the perfect analogy of an autistic person after three cups of coffee, I love it. Ednah Holt and Lynn Mabry, the backing vocalists for this particular tour bring in strong complimentary vocals and bringing in two big personality characters to jump along in time to David Byrne being David Bryne clamouring across the stage in all directions at once.

Jerry Harrison became every man through the film rotating between guitar and the keyboard. I remember that one part of the film where he lifts his arms up after playing on the keyboard and seeing the sweat stains the size of a country, it was so real. I was sweating just from watching them all bundle around the stage in a hot theatre with variations of lights beaming on them for an hour and a half straight. There were no breaks, there were barely time for costume changes and there certainly wasn't an encore, but it just made sense.

The closest we had for a break was when Tina Weymouth and Chris Frantz became centre stage, performing Genius Of Love by Tom Tom Club, their side project. A song which I also knew of, but had no idea it had anything to do with Talking Heads, I felt flummoxed. After this song was when Byrne came back to the stage in the two piece suit which seemed to consume him.

Towards the last couple of songs is when the whole band are finally introduced to the audience, to which they then play one of their best hits and pan to the crowd dancing, laughing, having the time of their lives. Half of the audience looked like a Chad, a typical jock character you always see on the 80s cult classic movies, but the guy that stole the show was the child with the unicorn stuffed toy in his hand, standing up and watching the show.

It was impossible to take my eyes off the screen for a second and I wouldn't dare think of going for a quick toilet break during this show. You truly never knew what David Byrne was going to do next on that stage, he was unpredictable, like a child after too many blue sweets containing e numbers. He did laps around the entire stage the way I used to as a toddler after a slushie. The whole band gave a show that didn't feel like a concert itself, it felt like a theatrical show and it is very fitting that this was also filmed in a theatre.

I would also like to note that there are definitely times where David Byrne reminds me of Cillian Murphy and I also think that when Byrne was in the big suit, that he looked like a larger than life Oppenheimer.

Like I really hope this makes sense.

Also, much to my boyfriends disgust, when Jerry Harrison first came out on stage I said he looked like Nick Jonas.

And as for Tina, she really reminds me of Stevie Nicks. I think it's mostly something about the blonde hair and her eyes.

#writing #movies #movie review #stop making sense #stop making sense review #talking heads

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Stuart Semple's D.A.B.A & The Destruction of the Destroyed Work

Stuart Semple seems to be a subject I've covered a lot within my short time writing this blog. Mostly because of the gallery space he has in the town centre which I almost always write a review on and I get to pick out the pieces I really like as well as the pieces I did not like so much. That's art though. This piece is a bit different because it is actually about Stuart Semple and his recent and 'controversial' exhibition which was set to be open until the 25th in Soho.

The concept of D.A.B.A (Destroy All Bad Art) started with Semple destroying some of his older works, pieces he felt it was ready to get rid of, to perhaps even upcycle it into something different. The controversies began when he revealed this information, especially considering some of these works are worth hundreds of thousands of pounds. Most people can't seem to understand the idea of getting rid of something that is worth so much money and why would they? Why would someone destroy something of so much worth when they could sell it and never have to work another day in their life? In art world terms, that's boring. There simply isn't enough drama anymore to simply sell old works onto the next person so someone rich with an ugly home can hang it in the midst of their all marble multi million pound mansion in Beverly Hills.

Performance in art has always been very prominent and controversial, but I once again feel as though we have seen it all. We need to see something new, something so crazy that the next artist wants to come along and do more. We remember the banana piece taped to the wall selling for millions and then being consumed by another performance artist right? Nobody could fathom why 1. a banana was suddenly worth so much money and 2. why another artist would come along, destroy it and somehow make the original piece worth even more money.

But wait there's more. Not only was Semple destroying his own old artwork, he was also encouraging the public to come along and destroy pieces of art that they deemed to be bad. It could be anything, a terrible record, a book, anything. I want to see a whole piece which is hundreds of copies of Twilight all ripped up and created into some form of sculpture. Upon arrival at the gallery with your bad art, you could watch as Semple's gallery minions would destroy your item and reform it into something else. It was all focused around how watching someone destroy a piece of work started to become more interesting than the actual piece of art (or bad art) itself. While it is being destroyed some aspects of it is then crushed into the B.A.P (Bad Art Pigment). This was then accompanied with a room of paintings designed to look more like a traditional exhibition in retrospect.

However 6 days ago, the show itself was targeted by an art protest. For once, it was not Just Stop Oil who are notoriously known for causing havoc in gallery spaces and attempting to ruin paintings worth millions. This unknown group however decided to throw Semple's pinkest pink paint over his own paintings in the space before supergluing themselves to the wall in the gallery space. Semple took to social media to say the fact these people are using his own paint means that this is an attack at him personally.

It seems the protestors took the entire show to a different level of misunderstanding due to the nature of them gluing themselves to the wall and then flip off the CCTV in the gallery space. It seems like a strange unprovoked attack to me especially considering that Semple had invited members of the public into his space to destroy items they deemed not worthy of being art just for new scale anti-art paintings to be destroyed with Semple's own materials. It seems like a lazy waste of money and an odd way to react to a show that is already so controversial. The protesters seemed to treat the show as if destroying these items were criminal and that the activities in the gallery should not be happening. But it is simply just a performance art piece that prides itself and incorporates itself to focus on the general public's view of art.

The girl in the white t-shirt has an all caps slogan reading SAVE ALL ART, but at what cost are they saving the art if they are destroying it all at the same time? Was it simply just a ploy to go against the performative structure of the work?

#writing #art essay #art discussion #stuart semple #Instagram

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Hyperfixations 001

Usually I try to keep myself busy as much as possible, cherishing the time I have before I need to clock into work and also be busy for another 6-7 hours. I like to go for walks in the afternoon before work, I enjoy going out for coffee and reading, doing spots of shopping and calling family members. This weekend on the other hand, has been tough for me. Where I live, we have an air show that always takes place from the last day of August until around the 3rd September (so today as I'm writing this), but these days always feel a little bit like more of a quarantine to me. Having a sensory issue with loud noises is so difficult for me, especially being sat at home waiting for these planes to pass by. Some are bearable, others are a lot more difficult to cope with. So I've essentially done nothing for the last 4 days before work and it is driving me crazy. So I had this grand idea to perhaps use some of my free time to discuss other things I have done in my free time, things I am consuming and enjoying in the hopes to sway others to look into it and enjoy these things too.

Sims 2

First of all, I have been playing a lot of Sims 2. I dip through phases where I choose between if I like Sims 2 or Sims 4 and at the moment it's definitely 2. I've had the Ultimate Collection for years on my laptop and it truly feels like a fever dream playing this game, the options really are endless, you can drive a car and you can even spawn in burglars who run away because Bigfoot is also living in my house and he likes to go out and scare them. Last night I came back from work at 3:30am and the first thing I thought to do was get my laptop out so I could squeeze in one more hour of Sims before I went to sleep, it is getting bad. My insomnia is returning and this game is perhaps rotting my brain.

With the option of three whole towns in the base game alone, how could you not want to play the game? I still think Seasons and the Night Life packs are the best in the series and without them I'm not sure I would know where I am. The University expansion is also lots of fun and a lot more versatile than the Sims 4 edition of the game (I've never played it, but I saw enough reviews to know I never need to play that one).

Kylie & Kendall Jenner's Rebels: City of Indra

Second of all, I am still very slowly trying to read my way through the Kendall and Kylie Jenner book. I mentioned a few months ago on my Instagram that I had purchased a second hand copy of the book since I could not comprehend spending nearly 20 British pounds on a book that is written by a ghost writer. It's been hard trying to read this book, really hard. I am about 100 pages in so far and knowing that I am going to write a review on this at some point does pain me because I'm not sure how I'm going to do it. The basic premise of this book is about two orphan girls who are very much like wow I'm so quirky and different from everyone else, but they're really not. Many aspects of this novel are not particularly captivating or in depth, but I am also beginning to enjoy some of the story.

If you're really interested, MTV were so kind to produce a chapter for free online here.

The Simpsons

I've been watching The Simpsons with my boyfriend, we are watching it all chronologically and I'm not sure how long it will take to watch a show spanning about 33 seasons and over 20 episodes per season on average, but I think it's going to take a while. I'm very much enjoying it though, I think everyone needs to go and watch the first season so you can watch as all the voice actors really immerse into their character over time. The show is streaming on Disney + so you have plenty of time to watch it since Disney own nearly everything these days.

On that note, speaking of Disney, let's quickly discuss their rival, Nick. Remember the classic movie Good Burger? Please say you do, it's one of my comfort movies. Well after all these years, it seems the movie is getting the sequel that literally nobody asked for thanks to Paramount +, they've even posted a teaser trailer for the upcoming film on social media. If anything, I think it's pretty cool that the original cast still speak to and like each other enough to even think about rebooting a 25 year old film.

Film Breakdowns

I've been spending quite a lot of my free time watching movies, going out for dinner in places I've never explored, and listening to the same music that I've been listening to for the last three years. But as for movies, here is a quick roundup.

Was feeling down the other week so I ordered a strawberry and white chocolate waffle from Creams and watched Asteroid City. It might be one of my favourite Wes Anderson movies to date, and I was obsessed with the little alien guy. I want to write a full scale review though so I won't go into detail.

*This is Mikes Mic by the way.

I finally watched Freaky Friday in full, I'm truly not sure why I hadn't sat down to watch this before, but it was a perfect no thoughts head empty movie. Jamie Lee Curtis spends the entire movie serving MILF and I think that is a very important thing to note. I watched this because I watched Blue Valentine first, which features Ryan Gosling not driving much, but instead being a drunken and horrible boyfriend. There were lots of layers to uncover with this movie and it was a dreadful movie to even think about releasing on Valentine's Day and I can see why people were so mad about it. I watched the original Blade Runner with the intention of watching Blade Runner 2049, but haven't got round to it yet. I think I'm just having a bit of a moment with Ryan Gosling, kind of just want to watch every film he has been in ever.

Music

Music wise, there are lots of little pieces of music I am currently listening to on repeat. First and foremost, Olivia Roderigo's sophomore album GUTS finally came out on Friday. The album is full of fun singalong hits, lyrically more in depth and tune with the current affairs of her life in comparison to SOUR and overall a really enjoyable listen. I see where the critics are coming from in terms of 'but it sounds the same as her last album' and I do see characteristics of it, in some places it does sound like an extension of SOUR, but I don't think it always has to be a bad thing.

Secondly, for all my house music people. I need everybody to spend just under an hour of their time listening to Cherry by Daphni. I feel as though it has changed my life. There are elements of city pop which has been revamped to sound modern with its bass and vibe and in other places, it sounds like something Mount Kimbie would have dropped 5 years ago. It's a wonderful piece and has a song on the album for everyone.

#Youtube #essay #misc #hyperfixations #sims 2 #kendall jenner #kylie jenner #the simpsons #good burger #asteroid city #blue valentine #freaky friday #blade runner #olivia rodrigo #daphni

[wroteonedad]

Songs for Early Autumn

Look, LOOK, I know that it is literally still August, but the weather this summer has been so bad that I am ready for all the leaves to fall off the trees and to go to a pumpkin patch again. I am writing this as a storm starts and the rain falls heavily over the garden beneath the balcony. The thunder begins to rage louder and that starts to scare me because I hate hearing loud noises that I am waiting for. I put my noise cancelling headphones on to drown out the noise. At first, I started to listen to a Podcast. It was Emma Chamberlain's Anything Goes series where she's discussing the concept of living in Los Angeles. The thing is I hear all the time about how good Podcasts are when you need background noise while you focus on something else, but I found it unbearable to listen to. It made my brain fog up, as if hearing someone else speak meant I needed to focus all my attention on what they're talking about, even if they are essentially saying nothing. So I swapped back to listening to music and I already feel so much clearer ??? I feel like I want to listen to Podcasts if only they weren't so distracting for me.

Anyway kinda back to my point. This selection of songs that I wanted to feature is very much directed for the girlies who watch Gilmore Girls (or maybe not I have actually never watched the show), adore the aesthetic of the Autumn and perhaps enjoy a pumpkin spice latte. I promise this list will not simply contain Sweater Weather by The Nbd; but let me just create a visual representation for the type of vibe I'm trying to go for here.

I took all these pictures from Pinterest btw, even made a whole new account just so I didn't have to Google search stuff like 'autumn aesthetic we heart it'

Without any further ado, here are the songs:

Reaper - AS YOU SOW (2018)* The Cardigans - My Favourite Game (1998) Francis Lai - Un Homme Et Une Femme (1966) Miley Cyrus x Stevie Nicks - Edge of Midnight (2020) Kate Bush - The Wedding List (1980) MOTHXR - Touch (2016) Mareux - The Perfect Girl (2021) Rendez Vous - Sentimental Animal (2018) High Sunn - Ramen Waitress (2017) Nicolas Jaar - No One Is Looking At U (2015) Shygirl x Bjork - Woe (I See It From Your Side) (2023) Still Corners - Midnight Drive (2013) Jeff Buckley - So Real (1994) Eleven Pond - Watching Trees Bedroom Mix (2012) Gang Of Youths - What Do I Do If The Fire Goes Out? (2017) Weyes Blood - Andromeda (2019) Boa - Twilight (2001) Twin Peaks - Making Breakfast (2014) BLOXX - Novocain (2016) Anika - He Hit Me (2010) Bat For Lashes - What's A Girl To Do? (2006) King Krule - Dum Surfer (2017) Wolf Alice - Sadboy (2017) Moses Gunn Collective - Dream Girls (2016) Le Tigre - Phanta (1999) Chargaux x Soft Glas - Lullaby (2014)* BLAISE MOORE - Yyz (2016) Crystal Castles - Year of Silence (2010)

*A couple of these songs mentioned in the list are no longer available on streaming platforms and upon further search, it seems the two artists whose music is not online anymore is due to removal of all of their music. However, I have found some Soundcloud links to the tracks and they are also still available on YouTube.

Happy listening to my playlist for the season and hopefully I will remember to do things like this more frequently.

#SoundCloud #misc #music #autumn #reaper #the cardigans #francis lai #miley cyrus #stevie nicks #kate bush #mothxr #mareux #rendez vous #high sunn #nicolas jaar #shygirl #bjork #still corners #jeff buckley #eleven pond #gang of youths #weyes blood #boa #twin peaks #bloxx #anika #bat for lashes #king krule #wolf alice #moses gunn collective

[wroteonedad]

Interstellar (2014) Is A Barry 63 Film

Barry 63: A man photographed with a pint of lager in his hand, the type of man you would see in your local racist pub with the England flag on one wall and the dartboard across from it.

I have never seen a Christopher Nolan film in my life, I think that is one of the most important first things I have to say on this matter. I know nothing about him or his real niche in film, but I think I'm starting to get it. I watched this film on a whim; I had spent my afternoon browsing videos on YouTube from different people discussing the House Oversight video that has just come out of former U.S Intelligence Official David Grusch vaguely confirming that aliens are real. Before he gets pressed into further questioning and he's all like oh lol I can't talk about that part publicly,,,, as if the guy didn't just tell the entire planet that the U.S are storing 'non human' items and living beings somewhere. Anyway. The point is through these videos, a lot of YouTuber's then began to comment on their fascination with space and the idea of other life on other planets, and this went onto another tangent where Interstellar had been vaguely referenced as a point of reference for interest in the galaxy and further out. I guess this is what originally drew me to wanting to watch the film.

Furthermore, there is a lot about Nolan in the press right now, especially with the recent release of Oppenheimer; a movie I literally could not go and see in the cinema because I would so have an autistic meltdown over *that* atomic bomb scene. I've seen the scene anyway since a wonderful person on TikTok decided to film just that one scene in the cinema and post it online. So I decided to do some delving into Interstellar. My boyfriend told me to the best way to consume the film was to not keep turning the volume up and down (something you need to do a lot) because I would get jumpscared by the sudden loud noises, usually of rockets and space explosions. It was easier to instead turn the subtitles on and really listen because if there's anything about Nolan, it's that he loves to mess around with the sound mixing to the point you have no idea what the characters are even saying just so Nolan can make the film more 'realistic', he doesn't need to. I know for a fact I'm not in space.

The film starts off in a post apocalyptic timeline; the crops are starting to run out, your teachers are encouraging you to run a farm in order to survive while also debunking any theories that working with NASA is a terrible idea while you run for your life wearing goggles and facemasks every time the dust storms begin to rage from afar. Life on Earth is doomed, there isn't much time left and scientists are scrambling to find a way to fix that. Cooper is an ex NASA pilot who spends the early plot tending to his farm and looking after his son Tom* who seems to be failing his classes and Murphy, his daughter who follows the same interest in space and figuring out theories and morse code. Murphy is convinced there is a ghost living in her room, a ghost that knocks particular books off the shelf and as a child she tries to discover what is being communicated to her. Cooper on the other hand is convinced that this is actually a gravitational anomaly.

*did I mention that young Tom is played by our favourite Timoji Chalamat, but I feel like people kind of forget that because this was pre Call Me By Your Name? Slay

One night Cooper and Murphy take off to discover where these anomaly's are coming from, discovering some coordinates that end up taking them to a top secret NASA facility; they are stopped and snatched by some robots. The facility is run by Doctor Brand and it took me a good 5 minutes to realise that it was the Michael Caine. So Doctor Brand reveals to them that he is currently searching for an exoplanet, that a wormhole has opened up by Saturn and that he is organising a group to fly into that wormhole and to discover a planet that humans can move to with the apocalypse riling up in a matter of years. Cooper takes off with Romilly, Doyle and Amelia (Brand's daughter).

On the day of the departure Murphy has a massive strop, begging her father not to go even after he convinces her that he will be back, but she gets even more upset when she learns that even he doesn't know when he will come back.

When the gang get to the other side, they discover three different planets that are orbiting a supermassive black hole (Gargantua). The gang take their craft to the surface of the first planet; it has calm shallow waters and Amelia discovers some debris fairly quickly. She decides to run towards the mountains to collect more data before Cooper realises that those are not mountains, they are tsunami sized waves. It's not a tsunami okay I am just using that for the size reference. Anyway, he makes everyone hurry back to the craft so they can get out of there alive, losing Doyle to the large waves. The craft also nearly gets flooded due to the size of the waves and being thrown all over the place, but it does dry out with little damage over a short period of time. They return back to the base in an hour, which actually turns out to be 23 years in human time due to the time dilation from Gargantua's gravity. Is this sounding simple enough? I am trying to use as little science words as possible even though this is a science fiction film because I always found science so interesting, but yet I was always so bad at it. Back to the plot of the film, during Coopers time on the first planet which is travelling around the supermassive black hole, Murphy begins to work with Doctor Brand in order to help him with the investigation. Iconic considering she wouldn't even speak to her own father when he left.

So the crew (minus Doyle rip girl) travel to the second planet. This one is theoretically the ice age and the gang wake up Dr Mann, a very well respected scientist who has been in a state of cryostasis for however many years. The future looks brighter with this one because it would seem that Mann had collected a lot more data which could suggest this planet is more than capable of being able to contain human life. We've always wanted to live in the ice age on a different galaxy haven't we? But as it turns out Mann was a big fat liar and he faked the data in the hopes that Brand would see it and would send somebody out to rescue him, which clearly didn't happen. At the same time (well not really because of time dilation but you know what I mean) Dr Brand is dying in the hospital and he requested for Murphy to speak to him. When she arrives to see him, Brand also admits he's a big fat stinking liar. He was not even close to the answers for the gravity equation thus meaning he has sent out Murphy's dad and Brand's own daughter on what is basically a suicide mission.

As it turns out after this, Mann becomes even more problematic. He sets up a booby trap in his base and blows up Romilly and then goes out of his way to attempt to kill Cooper. Something very iconic about watching a space dude smack his helmet against another space dudes helmet until suddenly Cooper is running out of air and he is left to die. Except he doesn't the absolute mad lad. I'm starting to think at this point that Cooper might just be one of those people who can never die no matter what obstacle you throw their way.

In the process of Mann trying to hijack the Endurance and make it about him, he manages to blow himself up because he decides to be a bloke and not read any of the instructions or safety steps. Cooper somehow manages to control the now heavily damaged spacecraft. But wait, there's more...

Time is running out swiftly, the rocket no longer has enough fuel for the two to finish the job and they are trying to rack up ways on how they are going to get what they need from the third and final planet. Cooper decides that he is going to execute a fuel burn to be able to reach a speed where the spacecraft would actually arrive to the planet. The problem? Cooper would need to sacrifice his own life in order to carry out the task. The spacecraft detaches and Cooper quite literally falls through a black hole. Being sucked into such a thing, you would die right? RIGHT? No.

Cooper ends up in a five dimensional tesseract where he comes back into contact with Murphy trying to figure out the Morse code or in other lives, trying to get him to convince himself not to go onto this trip into space where the whole operation is ran by a big fat stinking liar. Basically he manages to communicate with Murphy in Morse code in one life while basically being in the walls. Theoretically coming up with the idea that humans have the ability to communicate with people in the past through time-travelling techniques. Does that make sense? Probably not, I think even for me this is all starting to feel a little bit too technological with lots of big words. Cooper manages to communicate what Murphy is looking for so she is able to save the dystopian hell she is living in where humans are now on the verge of being wiped out.

These future beings then transport him close to Saturn where he wakes up at the ripe age of 124 years old. He is taken to see Murphy who is now elderly and in the hospital; she has managed to use the gravity equation to enable human's to safely live on a planet that isn't Earth. She feels satisfied and tells her father to seek out Amelia who is seen on another planet taking off her helmet for the first time, ending on a note where she has found another planet that is capable of human life.

I think it's really cool for a film to actually end on a nice positive note, I feel like any movie that isn't pushed for the child audience usually means that the film will end up being depressing with a horrible ending. It's also weird because I feel like Nolan makes movies that all have over dramatic depressing endings. Especially considering that this movie is marketed to blokes, absolutely nobody else. The people who think Elon Musk is the most amazing man to live are the same people to say this is the best film to ever exist. It is full of loud rocket noises for the Musk wet dream, but I do actually think this is a good movie. I very much enjoyed it and it was a nice introduction to Nolan,,, and no I am not going to watch Oppenheimer in the cinema because I think how loud the movie is will literally kill me off.

#writing #movies #movie review #christopher nolan #interstellar #interstellar review

[wroteonedad]

Discussing 'Pachinko' (2017)

Reading. One of those things that I love the idea of doing, but ultimately also the one thing I never really getting round to doing. Reading has been the one thing where I have always said, 'I'll read tomorrow' and then tomorrow just never comes. When I do read, I usually forget everything that had happened prior to when I picked the book up which is usually about 6 months before. Pachinko, the second novel by Min Jin Lee, did not have that effect on me. I hate to say it, but I have been reading this novel for over a year, and all of a sudden I am obsessed with it, near to the point that I simply cannot put it down.

It was one of those books that I'd picked up on a whim while visiting the bookstore, a book with a cover that I was visually drawn to straight away. I knew nothing about any aspects of Korean and Japanese history featured and I knew nothing about the author. I think I understand now.

Pachinko is theoretically three novellas within one book. Each section of the book represents the next generation of the family or a whole new branch of family life. As the novel begins, it feels more focused on Sunja, the daughter of a crippled fisherman in a boarding house which resides near the sea in South Korea in the early 1900s. It feels like for this section of the book, Sunja is carrying all of the hard work and caring that comes with the boarding house. Her back must hurt from carrying the weight of this boarding house on her shoulders. So during this section, Sunja ends up meeting Koh Hansu as a blooming adolescent to which she ends up falling in love and falling pregnant with his child. Hansu is a rich fluently Japanese speaking man and later in the novel, it is revealed he is actually part of the yakuza and that is how he has managed to make his fortune. The yakuza is the Japanese version of the mafia.

Sunja quickly finds out after making love to Hansu that in his eyes she is nothing more than a mistress and finds that he is already married to a woman in Japan and has daughters with her, not slay. She quickly asks him to no longer be apart of her life and she is left with the devastating realisation that she now has to disappoint her family, falling pregnant and not being married. This of course is a huge deal in the early 1900s and is enough to be deemed not good enough to be a part of mainstream society.

Baek Isak then visits the boarding house on his way to Osaka where he is visiting his brother. Yangjin discusses with the tuberculosis ridden man how Sunja has fallen pregnant with another man's baby and Isak decides to marry Sunja because he believes that he will die soon from all of the illnesses he has had in his short life. He promises to care for Sunja until the very end. The only problem with Isak is is that he is like a Victorian street urchin and is constantly sick with something,,, this is something that Yangjin considers that could be a problem for Sunja in the future. The newly wed couple then move to Osaka where they live under the same roof as Isak's brother Yoseb and wife Kyunghee.

Sunja gives birth to her firstborn with Koh Hansu, Noa. She is also working a job and sold a watch that Hansu had given her in order to make enough money to survive, much to Yoseb's disapproval.

Book 2

The novel jumps further in time to a world where Sunja now has Noa and Mozasu (Isak's birth son). Noa becomes the more academic of the two brothers, spending much of his time learning Japanese and reading.

Not long after Mozasu is born, Isak gets caught reciting The Lord's Prayer when everyone is supposed to be worshipping the emperor and he is quickly thrown into prison; which is absolutely insane by the way. They leave the guy to rot away in prison for quite a chunk of time and only release him when he is on the brink of dying so he is able to see his family for a short period of time before perishing.

In the time that Isak is in jail, Sunja and Kyunghee open up a stall at the market where they sell their own homemade kimchi. The business does well and the two are approached by an owner of a restaurant who pays them to cook for their place. In a time where Japan gets struck by World War II and everything begins to become scarce very quickly.

A few years later the restaurant is forced to close due to the War, which is also conveniently the time that Hansu decides to re-enter Sunja's life.

That night he tells Sunja that he is actually the owner of the resturant and that he has been manipulating their family all of these years as well as tracking them all down. He knew that Sunja had sold the gold watch that he gifted her all those years prior. The absolute fiend for controlling people then decides to send the entire family over to a country house in the middle of nowhere where they would spend the rest of the time in the war working. He makes a bunch of accusations and false claims to Sunja telling her the family need to leave straight away because their home probably wouldn't be there by tomorrow. He also decides to reunite Sunja with her mother Yanjin and pretty much drops Yoseb back off to the house later in the war after he becomes horrifically injured from all the bombings.

When the worst of the war passes, the family returns back to Osaka where Noa and Mozasu continue studying. Noa ends up leaving to go to university in Tokyo where he studies English Literature while Mozasu ends up dropping out of high school where he gets relentlessly picked on for being Korean to the point he was fighting all the time and after the night of being picked up by the police over it, he then begins to work in Goro's pachinko parlour,,, to which he ends up getting promoted. He falls in love with Yumi, a seamstress who wants to live the American Dream, except they have a child together and Yumi ends up dying in a car accident shortly after.

Noa on the other hand, is sleeping with a girl who makes comments about how she finds it weird that Hansu is Noa's mentor and is paying for everything, she accuses Hansu of being the real father of Noa and that is how he finds out Isak was never his father after all. The same night, he goes for dinner with Hansu where he learns everything, as well as all of his history in the yakuza. Noa is ashamed of this, he is honest with the way he feels like he can't live with himself knowing that his own blood is corrupt. He returns him to have a go at Sunja for not being honest with him, drops out of university and runs away. He sends both his mother and Hansu money every single month to go towards lifestyles and to pay back for his university experience, he feels as if he owes it.

Book 3

The main synopsis of this section is to discuss Noa and Mozasu now that they are both adults in their 40s with children. A school friend of Mozasu, Haruki ends up having the most insane plot twist in the story. The man works as a policeman and has an entire gay plot, despite him being a well beloved man as well as having a wife and children.

Hansu being Hansu decides to hire private investigators so he can locate where Noa is residing. At this point he has one son and three daughters with his wife, he is now considered a Japanese resident and also runs his own pachinko parlour in Japan. When Hansu tells Sunja about this she wants to find him immediately. They drive all the way to the correct area where Hansu tells Sunja it is not a good idea to speak to him and that they should wait longer before making any form of physical contact. As soon as Sunja sees her son, she comes rushing out of the car to speak to him. Noa tells Sunja about his family, the disgust that comes with being Korean and how he has to lie to everyone about who he is because his boss hates foreigners and his wifes mother would not allow him to be around if they found out he was Korean. He promises to call Sunja that night and when he doesn't, Sunja innocently thinks it is because Noa no longer has the home phone number anymore. In actual fact, he took the whole seeing his birth parents again very, very badly.

Mozasu becomes a rich man, rich enough to literally hire famous singers to attend his son Solomon's birthday party, so if you're looking for a fictional sugar daddy then you've come to the right place. Sunja's mother Yangjin passes away after giving Sunja one last mouthful about how awful Hansu was and that Noa deserved his fate because he was born 'a bad seed'. At her funeral in the following chapter, it was revealed that Mozasu's partner Etsuko has a daughter who had had an abortion a chapters prior had then moved in with the family and spends the entire funeral trying to make a move on Solomon? I think that Hana is a character that needs to be studied in the history books.

Fast forward a few years after Yangjin's funeral and it feels like Mozasu, Sunja and Hansu simply don't exist where the book begins to revolve around Solomon's blossoming from adolescence into early adulthood where he shags his future stepsister ???? Many a time, moves to New York for university, falls in love with Phoebe and then moves back to Japan with her to begin his post-grad job. He becomes a major gambler and tries to save not like other girls Hana who becomes an alcoholic and flees from everybody she ever knew until she tries to rekindle her flame with Solomon over the phone when he's still in New York. I've said this before in the paragraph above, but Hana NEEDS to be studied. Other than her complicated relationship with her mother, how did she end up like this? Every time I read about what she's doing, I end up feeling like that picture of Ben Affleck looking stressed out and smoking.

As the end of the book hits, Solomon's life literally falls apart. He ends up working for a big banking company where his boss Kazu wants to buy a property from a Korean woman so he can demolish it for the land he wants for a golf course. She refuses because she doesn't want to sell to a Japanese person so asks Solomon to do it for him. He approaches his father where he can get a guy who knows a guy help to achieve the deal he wants. Ironically two days after getting the land, the 93 year old lady passes away peacefully from a heart attack, however Kazu places the blame on Solomon and the yakuza and fires him from his high up position.

Meanwhile Hana is dying in the hospital in Tokyo from a disease passed on from a man which is never really fully disclosed. I imagine it would have been from her years of hostessing and battle with alcoholism. She tells Solomon how she was always in love with him and that after being sacked from his job that he should pursue his fathers pachinko parlour and run that because fuck what any Japanese person thinks of the yakuza background basically.

At a family weekend, Solomon's family are asking him about when he is going to marry Phoebe over a home cooked Korean dinner, but discusses with his father how she couldn't get a job in Japan and he couldn't work in New York without a visa. The relationship between the two shortly ends up breaking apart when Phoebe ultimately decides that they both want very different things and packs all of her bags. She leaves the next day. The night before she was in tears and angry, but the next day? A confident girlboss ready to conquer the world.

The end chapter discusses how Mozasu has been using the same desk for over 30 years and ends up as a well respected tax payer, Sunja visiting the grave of Isak to speak to him and deliver gifts and confirming that Noa had killed himself because he wanted to be 'normal'. His father Hansu is under 24 hour hospital care with good doctors over his cancer.

There were a lot of things that I felt towards this book. I feel sometimes with books, especially when a lot of the background is focused on major events in history, they can feel very focused on that rather than the characters. This was not the case with Pachinko, rather it was made apparent that all of these historic events were happening and this is what all of the characters were doing in response to all of it. Every character represented had strong developments and it felt so wonderful to grow up with them, for things in their past to haunt them, but also for them to look back at things they could have changed if they went back to that time period. The book is a super easy read, there weren't many words I didn't understand too which feels like an added bonus. It does not feel like it is over 500 pages long (which it is) and what I am most upset about is that Hansu didn't die after all of the torture and trauma he left for the family.

#min jin lee #writing #pachinko #book club #book review #literature

[wroteonedad]

Songs for the Summer

Summer. The time of the year where all of your drinks become iced, when you over hydrate on water because it's too hot. The time of the year where you spend more time in the beer garden than ever before and you spend your whole time at work fighting for your life because there's no working air con. I always find that the genre of music I listen to drastically changes once the temperatures hit 20 degrees and I'm walking across the now tourist filled beach. The type of music that I would sip a can of Thatchers Gold to in a friends back garden at 10pm in July. I wanted to share some songs that make me feel that way.

Toquinho - Carolina Carol Bella (1970)

Rim Kwaku Obeng, KASA - Love Me For Real (2015)

HAIM - 3AM (2021)

Washed Out - Get Up (2009)

Electric Guest - Oh Devil (2017)

Bjork - Human Behaviour (1993)

Blood Orange, Yves Tumor, Ian Isiah - Smoke Remix (2018)

Niko B - Who's That What's That (2020)

GUM - Summer Rain (2014)

Kindness - SEOD (2012)

Macross 82-99, Yung Bae - Selfish High Heels (2017)

Paradis - Toi Et Moi (2016)

TOKiMONSTA, Channel Tres - Naked (2021)

Orion Sun - Mirage (2020)

Mount Kimbie - T.A.M.E.D (2017)

Manu Chao - Me Gustas Tu (2001)

Tourist, Ardyn - We Stayed Up All Night (2017)

Ross From Friends - Talk To Me You'll Understand (2017)

Patrice Rushen - Remind Me (1982)

architecture in tokyo - SUMMER NEVER ENDS (2013)

Rochelle Jordan - DANCING ELEPHANTS (2021)

BADBADNOTGOOD - Time Moves Slow (2016)

Jain - Makeba (2016)

Tyler, The Creator - Peach Fuzz (2018)

Unknown Mortal Orchestra - Multi Love (2015)

piri & tommy - beachin (2022)

Hotel Ugly - Ballad Of Eddie Jabuley (2021)

Makala - Algenubi (2017)

#writing #misc #music

[wroteonedad]

Movies My Dad Would Like

I am writing this as if it isn't still a good two weeks until it's even Father's Day, but I have compiled a list of movies I think my dad would enjoy. Last week when I was home, I forced him into watching Into The Spiderverse and then showed him the trailer for Uncut Gems (we didn't have time to watch it after our movie marathon though). He really liked the Spiderverse one and he seemed to find the trailer for Uncut Gems interesting enough so it only makes sense to compile an entire list of films I think he might enjoy, right? Right? Also I am feeling extra erratic as I write this post because I am currently on the phone waiting for HMRC to answer so I can finally fix my messed up tax code. I love England.

To add to that note of HMRC I have been on hold for 20 minutes already and I dread to think the size of the phone bill I'm going to receive, but my tax code will be fixed and my brain can stop going brrrrr... Let's discuss movies.

Whiplash (2014) directed by Damien Chazelle

This film is about a dude who goes to a music school and is quickly noticed by scary bald jazz enthusiast Fletcher who recruits Andrew onto his team. This team is the prestigious lot, incredibly gifted at what they do, but this gift is brought to the extreme over the way in which Fletcher teaches them. The relationship is abusive and the lengths of punishment that Fletcher would go to in order to have every student sound perfect all the time,,, well it's terrifying. He scares me through the little screen.

It's a proper bloke film. There is a lot of action, but not really in the conventional guns bang bang bang way. Andrew bangs his drums until he physically cannot anymore, he endures a concussion and still shows up to rehearsal. It is the ultimate indie drama movie for every bloke and I think my dad would enjoy it because it is not slow burning and you grow to hate every single character in this universe.

Tag (2018) directed by Jeff Tomsic

The ultimate man film about friendship, truly. This film is all about 5 friends who compete one month per year for a big game of tag. Run into work, at your mates wedding, you name it, you're getting tagged. Except in this movie one of the friends is getting married and he is the only person who hasn't been tagged ever.

The cast for this film include Jon Hamm, Jeremy Renner and Jake Johnson which is the holy trinity for any dad casted line up really. Though when I watched it, I was especially excited for Hannibal Buress being in it, love that guy.

Mid 90s (2018) directed by Jonah Hill

This film follows the life of 13 year old Stevie trying to find the community and lifestyle that he thinks he belongs to. He finds this through the downtown skateboarding community. His mother isn't very attentive to his life and his brother is as the movie synopsis pretty much puts it, a big fat bully. This is visually very pleasing, but I don't think the film is as deep as it was trying to be.

As the film is directed by Jonah Hill, it is the perfect example for a dad movie to enjoy.

Dune (1984) directed by David Lynch

Not the Dune that's just come out, the original one where the budget ran out towards the end of the movie and things start to look crazy to the point you can see the literal green screen clear as day.

It's literally just an action movie about a man in a different universe finding and looking after the rare spice without an entire war breaking out. But the David Lynch version is incredibly goofy, for example Leto is a fun little worm man. I added this version specifically to the list as I've been trying to get my dad to finish watching Twin Peaks and I think this adds to the multiverse of madness.

Boiling Point (2021) directed by Philip Barantini

I want you to imagine Hells Kitchen, but if everyone was British and it was being aired on Channel 4. It follows the story of a head chef who has to deal with many personal problems as well as the balance of professional crisis, especially when the man he owes money to drops in at the end as the restaurant is on flames (metaphorically). A slow burning, but beautifully dramatic piece.

Pearl (2022) directed by Ti West

Pearl is the prequal to X (2022), but it still feels important to watch X before delving into Pearl. Pearl is living on her isolated farm with her family where she has to overcome fears, concentrate on relationships and also figure out how to become one of the most famous people in the world. All while the influenza is spreading and the war is raging. Her dad has to be extra cautious with this as him catching it could kill him.

The whole movie becomes an ironic downfall into how Pearl loses her marbles and becomes a mass murderer instead of the dancer she so badly wanted to be.

Battle Royale (2000) directed by Kinji Fukasaku

If I had to explain this movie in simple terms for my dad, this is the original Hunger Games. This is the movie adaption of Fortnite. But it's a lot better than that because you can't beat the original.

The film revolves around a futuristic land where the Japanese government forced a ninth grade class to travel to an island on a class trip where they are forced to kill each other until there is a crowned winner. Each student receives a package containing a map and a weapon of some form, some better than others and they are left to fend for themselves, receiving announcements at set times every day by their teacher to tell them who has died and which spots of the island to avoid at specific times.

Dad if you watch this movie, I found a dubbed version for you on Amazon.

You Don't Mess With The Zohan (2008) directed by Dennis Dugan

They stopped making comedy movies like this shortly after this film dropped. This film is awful actually, but has the type of irony to it that makes it sort of funny in places.

Zohan is a terrorist. He stages his own death so he can travel to New York so he can pursue his lifelong dream to be a hairdresser. That's it, that's the movie. It's dumb, there are many points of the film that feel like they've aged like a sour milk, but it still maintains some level of dad humour that just makes sense.

At the end of this post I just wanted to add an extra note about me being on the phone to HMRC when I started writing this post up yesterday. It is all fixed, I'm getting a nice rebate. Cheers

#writing #movies #movie review #whiplash #tag #mid 90s #dune #boiling point #pearl #battle royale #you don't mess with the zohan

[wroteonedad]

We Need to Talk About Katy Perry & The Sims

Listen, I think I am throwing myself down some form of rabbit hole when it comes to Katy Perry and the Sims, but this is something that needs to be studied in the history books. The whole Katy Perry franchise stuff in the Sims 3 specifically feels like a fever dream, I really thought my brain had just made it up. I was watching one of those videos about celebrities and their random endorsements and how they just end up doing the most random things, like all those apps inspired by Kim Kardashian: Hollywood all those years ago. Then there was the other rabbit hole on how celebrities will just end up doing the most random things; this was a video posted by Mike's Mic which I'm going to drop below in case you want to see it all. I mean think about it,,, does anyone remember when Ariana Grande had a skin available to buy on Fortnite and when Travis Scott performed in Roblox? A literal fever dream I fear.

But Katy Perry feels like a literal social experiment to me. She went to the other side of the world in order to pump out the Sims 3 franchise with all this content heavily inspired by the California Gurls music video, but for what reason other than to be extra? I still don't know if these packs were anything more than a cash grab, but alas. Let's delve into the history of Katy working with the franchise.

The Sims 3 Showtime, the expansion pack without Katy Perry was released 6 March 2012. The expansion pack featured a brand new town to live in, new jobs that you could go along with your Sim to, and of course a bunch of new objects and outfits. It introduced the concept of being famous in the Sims franchise through being different types of performers where you could earn money through busking, attending people's homes for private performances and ultimately haggling with event managers to ask them if your Sim can perform a set at their venue. Depending on your celebrity status, it can effect if the manager will say yes or no. I know this pack like the back of my hand because I would always make my Sim become a singer and had to deal with every form of rejection for the longest time before I got my Sim up to a 4 star celebrity (and then the laptop with that save file on died so I don't remember what happened after that).

The Katy Perry collectors version of Showtime was released on the same day and included the 'Ultimate Stage' venue to perform at. The collectors edition also came with Katy Perry style objects, hairstyles, costumes and performance props all using the concept art from Katy's second studio album Teenage Dream.

The trailer for the collectors expansion pack is insane by the way because it is literally just an animated version of Katy on the 'Ultimate Stage' as she ironically performs The One That Got Away which shows items from the pack and some other relationships happening. It all feels very glorified and perhaps a little bit icky. However, did I own this collectors edition pack? Of course, and I did love it.

On 5th June 2012, Katy Perry then decided to go further into the lore of The Sims and release Sweet Treats, which wasn't an expansion pack and it wasn't a stuff pack, it was just a pack. The pack featured a bunch of different types of items to the point it never went under a theme as to what type of an expansion pack that really was.

Despite this pack not featuring a town, it did on the other hand feature three new venues which you could add to your Sims town. The first example is The Bonbon Lawn Park which you guessed it, is completely filled to the brim with huge cheugy pieces of candyfloss surrounding the area and gingerbread themed park items for the children to play on.

Next up is Patty's Natural Baths which is also ironically the most natural looking premade lot to use for the town. It is just a public pool which is decorated with a couple of gingerbread home frames to spruce up the area a little bit. I think it's cute, it's not over the top and is more just themed with more pastel colours which I think makes the area look more inviting and exciting.

Lastly, the worst building of them all. The Cake Pleasure Dome which makes me feel sick just from looking at it. The walls and floor covered in sickly colours, giant lollipops placed around the entire lot and a lot that is so spacious, but with so much empty space around it. As if the lot was not used to its full potential, the vision was there, but it gives me nothing but the ick.

The outfits for the pack feel more like they are made for the expansion of Showtime, but were items that simply didn't make the cut maybe because there wasn't enough room on the disc to include it, I'm really not sure. As if that wasn't enough, but you have the choice to completely bulldoze your home and recreate it into a real walk in gingerbread house.

The pack states that there are 28 different types of clothing and hairstyles with only two of these pieces being for male Sims, perhaps this makes sense or it really doesn't. The hairstyles I kind of get, my Sims just wouldn't be slaying in the right way with giant cupcakes in their hair.

I am not kidding one bit when I say that every piece of furniture is also all ice cream, gingerbread, diabetes infused pieces and just an eyesore to the eyes, but when discussed in the context of Teenage Dream then it does start to make sense, a little bit.

Further into the lore of Katy Perry,,,

The literal in game Sim of Katy Perry featured which comes with no personality traits, hot pink hair and was created just for promotional purposes in the game. It feels as though the game simply created an empty skin NPC character which someone could tweak with if they chose to do so. Studying these packs, I feel like I have come up with more questions rather than the answers. Apparently, going deep into the lore, Katy Perry has said that she loves The Sims franchise, and she did record an entire simlish cover of Hot N Cold for The Sims 2, so I do believe her but I do feel like her involvement with The Sims could have simply stopped there.

Actually no I'm lying, she even came back to record Last Friday Night in Simlish for Sims 3 too. You are so welcome.

In terms of The Sims and celebrity lore, while Katy Perry put her whole pussy and more into pushing the franchise, there are actually a ton of other celebrity endorsements and appearances in the game that I really just need to talk about at the end of this post;

The Black Eyed Peas have an ENTIRE storyline in The Urbz: Sims In The City, please don't ask why but they do. In one version of the console game, you gain yourself reputation and have Will.I.Am as your mentor to help you become the coolest person on the street, don't believe me? CallMeKevin has an entire segment about his gameplay on YouTube.

Andy Warhol has an entire NPC which is made in tribute to him in The Sims: Superstar,,,, but as it turns out the expansion pack features many tributes to different celebrities both living and dead.

The pack also featured Marilyn Monroe, Avril Lavigne and Christina Aguilera ??? I'm just as stunned as everyone else here.

Millie Bobby Brown has a Sim which can be downloaded from the gallery in The Sims 4, but she also appeared in the game as the events coordinator for the Positivity Challenge. Her Sim would give your Sim a box of kindness and you could gain more decorative rewards by being nice to your neighbours.

Thanks for coming down this rabbit hole with me, I hope we all learned something new and fun today.

#writing #misc #gaming #sims 1 #sims 2 #sims 3 #sims 4 #katy perry #andy warhol #the black eyed peas #millie bobby brown #mikes mic #callmekevin #youtube #Youtube

[wroteonedad]

Songs for oddly specific occasions

I love listening to music. I love to play the same 10 songs over and over again, each for different walking situations whether that be the I'm running late for the train or I need to go to the shop and buy some more mushrooms, I will always have my headphones on as I complete my silly little daily tasks. I figured I would compile a little list of songs to listen to for those oddly specific occasions. You're welcome.

Songs I listen to rushing to work to pour Doom Bars for Dave

New Bottega - Torren Foot & Azealia Banks. (2023).

This song has a hard fast beat. Kind of the way that drum and bass makes a person feel after taking drugs, but you get the same effect on the way to your minimum wage job.

GOT UR NUMBER - v2 - bugcried. (2020)

A quite frankly poorly produced song that makes me want to run a mile with its harsh elements of hyperpop. Love it.

Buzzkill - Take Van. (2022)

Another song with a harsh hardcore beat. Feels fun in the same way it does when a family member would go 2mph over the speed limit.

Songs I listen to when I'm cooking up my mackerel fillets in sweet chilli sauce

Alien Crime Lord - The Voidz. (2020)

When I'm cooking I love nothing more than fun jumpy genres of sound and this is the one song by The Voidz that makes chopping a spring onion a fun experience

Why - Carly Simon. (1982)

What is so good about this song is that I can still hear it even if my extractor fan is on full.

Unconscious Melody - Preoccupations. (2014)

No thoughts, head quite empty music. A personal favourite.

Songs I listen to walking across the pop up bars on the beach

Do the Astral Plane - TOSHIO MATSUURA GROUP. (2018)

Nearly 10 minutes of jazz and funk bliss. Added bonus, a Flying Lotus cover.

Estrelar - Marcos Valle. (1983)

Heard this playing from the pop up bar last summer and became a favourite straight away.

Summer Madness - Kool & The Gang. (1974)

I think anyone who says they don't like this song are simply lying to themselves actually

Songs I listen to when I'm reading the book I've been trying to finish for a year

Audrey's Dance (Instrumental) - Angelo Badalamenti. (1990)

This song is simply the goated song on the entire Twin Peaks soundtrack and is so soothing

CHANCES (INSTRUMENTAL) - KAYTRANADA. (2018)

KAYTRANDA makes some of the most wonderful beats to grace the nation, any instrumental makes me concentrate.

No - Nicolas Jaar. (2016)

Nicolas Jaar has so many songs I could sit and be quiet to, but this is one of my favourites to simply unwind.

Songs I listen to when I'm getting ready to feel disappointed and whelmed in a club

Two of Hearts - Stacey Q. (1986)

Fun. Girly. Makes me feel like I'm in a time capsule of some form.

NEW MAGIC WAND - Tyler, The Creator. (2019).

If only the clubs around here played this instead of Drake.

Clear Air - Sevdaliza. (2015).

This was recommended to me by a Tumblr mutual over 5 years ago and still continues to be one of my favourite hype songs.

Songs I would listen to cleaning the glass washers at work if I was ever brave enough to play my music out loud

Babooshka - Kate Bush. (1980)

This song makes me feel like the most powerful woman on earth

Perseguido Por El Rayo Mixed - Pegasus & Peggy Gou. (2019)

I feel like I'm a character in a Mario game whenever this comes on

Shambala - Beastie Boys. (1994)

Mike Ehrmantraut I am looking at you

Songs I listen to as I walk by screaming babies in clothing stores

Bruce Lee - Underworld. (1999)

The song is so loud that it'll drown any loud noise out

Hallways - Grimes. (2010)

Grimes squeaks so much in this that the crying would blend in well

Atopos - Bjork. (2022)

Industrial sounding in a fun out of this world way

This is how I feel when I am walking around listening to any of these songs in any of these situations. Hope everyone enjoyed it :)

#misc #music #Azealia Banks #bugcried #take van #the voidz #carly simon #preoccupations #toshio matsuura group #marcos valle #kool & the gang #angelo badalamenti #kiaytranada #nicolas jaar #stacey q #tyler the creator #sevdaliza #kate bush #pegasus #peggy gou #beastie boys #underworld #grimes #bjork

[wroteonedad]

Scream (1996) Slayed

I feel as though this is something that I have probably mentioned a million times before which is that when I was growing up, I never had the attention span to be able to sit down and watch a movie. It feels my entire adult life is me playing catch up on the millions of cult classic movies and TV shows for me to finally be able to pick some favourites. I can finally say that I have watched enough movies that I am starting to notice that certain actors do keep popping up in many different franchises though.

Here is where the me watching films thing gets worse. While I was bedridden and sick with the flu last week, I decided that it would be a great idea for me to watch Scream, as in the new reboot of it with Ms Wednesday Addams that came out last year, but it was the second one she was in. I decided it would be great to miss a whole 25 years of the franchise and just delve into the brand new film as if I really knew anything about it. But oddly. I did end up quite enjoying that film too??? Anyway, to the point. Scream (1996) has to be one of the most camp horror cinematic masterpieces I have ever seen.

A movie that I simply decided I wanted to add to my list on Netflix as I was endlessly scrolling through my feed and looking for those no thoughts head empty types of films that I can revisit whenever I feel like it, which by that point half of those films already are not available on the platform to stream anymore. Scream however, is close to its Netflix execution as I opened the film and it reads 'last chance to watch 31 May', devastated, I accepted it and delved into the movie.

The opening scene of the movie is all for our favourite 90s girlie, Drew Barrymore as Casey. She is seen in her large American home situated in what looks like the British countryside as she is waiting for her boyfriend to arrive and is cooking popcorn ready to watch a horror movie when she receives a mystery call from Ghostface. Casey quickly hangs up, assuming the incorrect number has been dialled when he calls again, saying he just wants to talk to her. He flirts over the phone asking what her favourite horror movie is and that he'll tell her his name so long as she tells him hers before announcing on another phone call that she needs to answer some questions since her boyfriend is tied to a chair on the patio. When she is asked a trick question, Ghostface proceeds to gut him alive and then kill Casey. What is really iconic about this is that for the promotional means of this movie, it was Barrymore that was featured on all of the movie posters in order to hype the movie up, even though she is only in the film for an average of 6 minutes. But that's okay because Courtney Cox and Shaggy from Scooby Doo are also in the movie.

Cut to another home, also situated in this countryside area is where we meet Sidney. The same evening as the murder of Casey, we learn that Sidney's dad is going away for the weekend and we also meet her boyfriend, Billy. Billy gives off the energy of a bad popular boy from school and is quickly noted as an important main character for the duration of the movie.

It seems that news of the murder has spread around the highschool like wildfire, the following morning the place is swarming with news reporters and the authorities, who are viewing every person in the school as a suspect and quickly roll out a curfew across the town. We then meet Sidney's friends, who are all the important characters of the movie. Tatum, the pretty popular girl with the bubbly personality. Stu, the goofball of the group, though I'm sure I think that because he is literally Shaggy and despite him having such a range of roles, I cannot see him as anybody else ever. Then we also have Randy, the friendship groups loveable loser. This guy works in the video store and is a huge horror movie buff, which of course makes him the most meta character in the movie.

I just want to add to this that the other main character worthy of any note is of course Gale Weathers (Courtney Cox), the lady that is hyperfixated on the supernatural, the life of Ghostface and writing an entire conspiracy theory book on the murder of Sidney's mother Maureen. Gale is the most slay character of this entire movie even if she always finds herself in the worst situations (being punched in the face, murdered like 4 times in this movie alone etc, but she is the most girlboss of them all).

Ghostface then decides to target Sidney, he is the killer of her mother a year prior. Sidney slates him, claiming that he is full of empty threats and how embarrassing it is to be the protagonist in a horror movie where you are nothing but a bad actor with huge boobs running up the stairs away from the bad guy. Sidney is also targeted by a fake Ghostface at school, which to be honest I was convinced it was the real guy the whole time. I also forgot the part where by this point in the story, Ghostface had already attempted to kill Sidney once where he disappears and Billy shows up within seconds of Ghostface leaving. Suspicious? I think so too.

Sidney ends up staying over at Tatum's place where we also meet Dewey Riley (Tatum's brother), the local police officer who becomes more of as welfare officer to Sidney during this time. Except for when Sidney literally leaves the room for one minute, she is once again being contacted by Ghostface.

Shortly after in the story, the principal decides to suspend all classes with immediate effect. 5 minutes later, he is also murdered by Ghostface. There is a scene of him wandering around the office area of the school, as if sensing the presence of Ghostface and instead scaring himself every time he caught a glimpse of himself in a mirror, any mirror. His murder is forgotten about for a little while in the story as Stu decides to plan a big house party to celebrate all class suspension while his parents are also out of town. Truthfully I think all of these parents just don't care what happens to their kids while there's a literal killer on the loose.

Let's flashforward to the main event, Stu's party. Officer Dewey decided to drive Sidney and Tatum to the party which is weird because I thought the town had a curfew and all of the students at the school were considered to be suspects in the murder of Casey and her boyfriend (I'm really sorry, I forgot his name because he was nothing in the movie to me).

Ironically, this party is also the place for Ghostface to really unleash themselves.

Tatum goes down to the garage to fetch some more beers out of the fridge. Sadly for her, Ghostface appears, trapping her into the garage. At first, she tries to leave through the garage door before Ghostface abruptly closes it in front of her. She looks at him dead in the eye before saying the one sentence that stole the entire movie, 'No, please don't kill me Mr Ghostface, I wanna be in the sequel!'. Spoiler alert, she isn't. After pelting him with bottles of beer, she then decides to try and escape through the cat flap at the bottom of the garage door. She maybe gets about a fifth of her body through this before Ghostface decides to open up the door, crushing poor Tatum's body and killing her.

Downstairs Randy (remember him) is showing the rest of the party horror movies, explaining the three things you should never do in a horror movie. A, never have sex. Sidney and Billy have decided to make up at this point of the film and she is upstairs losing her virginity. B, never drink alcohol. This causes the whole party to cheer as they then shortly after find out the principal was killed and they all decide to leave the party so they can see that which is so ???? And C, never say I'll be right back because you will not be back at all. This is the line that Gale Weathers says to her news guy before going for a walk with Dewey. Randy then proceeds to watch horror movies featuring a young Jamie Lee Curtis in them where he is seen saying 'BEHIND YOU' where Ghostface is also behind Randy.

It then ends up with Ghostface locating Sidney, killing Billy and then chasing Sidney around to kill her too. There is a wild goose chase scene, she finds Tatum hanging from the garage door and locks herself into a car without the keys before running into the newscasters van where he is also killed by Ghostface in front of Sidney. She then manages to escape where she finds that Billy is still alive and opens the front door to a hysterical Stu and Randy. I forgot what happened to Randy because he just seemed to disappear for a good portion of the end action scene for whatever reason. Randy claims that Stu has gone mad when Billy slams the door on Stu's face to which he reveals 'we all go a little mad sometimes' revealing him as one of the killers. It is quickly revealed that Stu is the other Ghostface and since Gale has been filming everything in the living room, she has the whole scoop that she needs to cover the whole reveal.

To summarise, Billy dies another three times before finally apparently dying, Gale keeps dying but the girlboss also came back to life so she could shoot Billy. I think the best way to describe the very end of the movie is with this.

I loved how self-aware this movie really was. To be a first movie from the franchise and parody itself well is one hell of a skill to have and I enjoyed every minute of this film. I think that Randy was done so dirty considering he essentially carried how meta this film was and I would like to hope that I see him come back in the future films. I haven't actually seen them yet so I need to spend some time getting through the whole franchise here. It's also fun to see a character like Sidney who is portrayed as the strong smart woman, I feel like this is something that was rather uncommon for a film in the 90s and so that was fun. No matter what happens too, Gale Weathers is the ultimate girlboss and there is nothing anyone can say to me that could possibly change that. It just makes sense to me that this movie is a cult classic.

#writing #review #movie review #scream review #scream

[wroteonedad]

Blue Velvet (1986) Review

Watching anything by David Lynch is truly an experience. I never know what is going on, though I don't think Lynch does either and I'm never sure if I should start watching his movies high or something.

Personally I am a huge fan of this film because it is essentially a giant Heineken advert; not mad about this because it is a goated lager. At the same time, I have no idea if was supposed to be product placement or just a typical deeply ironic Lynch joke.

Back to the main point of this review, the plot. Blue Velvet is one of the many films part of the David Lynch multi-verse of madness. The story follows Jeffrey who finds a severed ear on the ground thus leading him to a club where he becomes enticed by a woman and finds out a group of men have kidnapped her child. That's it, that's the plot. There is also a character named Frank who says the word 'fuck' so many times that you could make an insane drinking game out of it. IMDb claims that he says the words 55 times out of the 56 times it is mentioned,,, that's a lot of shots.

Watching anything by Lynch can sometimes be quite difficult for me to get into, especially when it starts off as slow burner into the main plot. Blue Velvet is no stranger to this, I'm not sure I fully connected with the film for a good 15-20 minutes. I don't know if it comes down to the lack of attention span that exists now due to the rise of different forms of media, however when I got into the film I couldn't look away. Lynch has once again used this film to perfect the master of cinematography and has crafted a beautifully framed movie throughout. The over contrasted red flowers over the white fence against the bright blue sky as the film begins made me feel as though I'd entered an American suburbia, an area full of endless roads and homes that all look the same. The red flowers perhaps used to portray the pureness that will be tainted as the movie goes on.

Jeffery arrives back into his sleepy town and rekindles with the life around him, especially after his father's sudden stroke in the front garden. Curiosity begins to get the better of Jeffery when he finds a severed ear and takes it to Detective Williams. As the film progresses, Jeffery furthermore delves deeper into what the meaning of the severed ear is and ends up entangling himself with dangerous drug lord Frank Booth to which Jeffery ends up meeting Dorothy Vallens, a woman desperate to flee from Frank who has captured her child and has decided that he owns her.

Dorothy is one of the most captivating characters in the movie and really demonstrates her desperation and the fear and loathing she lives with. It seems the only time she really comes to life is when she sees her child and when she is singing in the late night bar. A complex character with many layers of trauma surrounding her, you are left hoping nothing but the best for her.

The film as a whole subverts the typical notions that Lynch is most famous for, it is actually a mostly linear tale, simply making it difficult for a person to not understand. It is simple and yet so David Lynch all at the same time.

#writing #review #movie review #blue velvet #david lynch #blue velvet review

[wroteonedad]

The Whale (2022)

In a short statement of this film, I told everyone around me that I wanted to watch this film, however I had to watch it by myself. This was because I knew I was going to bawl my eyes out the entire way through. *contains spoilers*

It felt as though everybody was going to watch this movie whether they were interested in the movie or not. At the end of the day, this is the comeback movie for our beloved Brendan Fraser. He manages to play the part with such grace and raw emotion that I find it difficult for somebody to not like the film. It's hard to say enjoy the film because this is not a film made to be enjoyed, if that makes sense.

The plot follows Charlie, a morbidly obese man who teaches an online English class. He spends the vast majority of his teaching time telling his students that the camera doesn't work on his laptop when in reality it comes down to him not wanting to be seen by anyone. In the movie, it follows Charlie's last week to live. He spends this time teaching a couple of classes, meeting new people and attempting to reconnect with his daughter whom he had lost contact with. On the other hand, Charlie is so depressed due to the love of his life committing suicide that he also spends a lot of his time binge eating and theoretically trying to kill himself faster.

I think for me, I have always found it so hard to watch someone binge eat; I can't bring myself to watch mukbangs and I also become ashamed of myself if I ever eat too much in one sitting. Perhaps it is closed minded for me to say this, considering I am a very healthy weight and have never had to deal with any emotional turmoil close to what Charlie was living through, but for years I feel as though I have had a weird relationship with food and to watch a person on a screen destroy themselves like that is heart wrenching to me.

For this film to be Fraser's return to the big screen after years, it is incredible. I don't think it would be possible to cast anyone else who would be able to play the role to the standard that he does. Despite the piece being completely fictional, I really believed every word that came out of his mouth during the movie and for that, I was left a sobbing mess for a good portion of the film. Of course, this film isn't close to having the best dialogue. Many of the lines feel like a half empty glass, as if there was supposed to be more emphasis on it, but there just wasn't. It felt as though Aronofsky was hoping that the actors would make it better by putting more emotion into their voices and into the way their bodies would move across the small living room set. I think it worked for the most part.

I have read many reviews in regards to this movie and it has to be one of the most mixed bags I have ever come across. Words shouting out claiming that it is simply a movie about a fat man written by a skinny man or that it 'sucked', written by a journalist trying to reach Amy Schumers level of ironic (that is what sucks if I dare to say it). Others remark that Frasers performance is passionate and poetic. I think sometimes when watching a movie, it is not always best to overthink the movie and instead just simply take in what is happening as it's happening.

#writing #review #the whale #the whale review #movie review

[wroteonedad]

#MOOSIC 6

My little list of songs I’ve been listening to the most this month. (March 2023). Another month of me simply not listening to a vast collection of new works since I've taken the month off writing on hiatus.

(from left to right)

Eartheater - Supersoaker (2019)

Empress Of - Hat Trick (2013)

Myd - The Sun (2017)

Cutting Crew - (I Just) Died In Your Arms (1986)

Charli XCX - Unlock It (Lock It) feat. Kim Petras & Jay Park (2017)

The Garden - Thy Mission feat. Mac DeMarco (2019)

Marina - How To Be A Heartbreaker (2012)

Arlo Parks - Hope (2021)

Jamie xx - KILL DEM (2022)

(it seems I was supposed to publish this about 2 weeks ago and forgot, sorry)

#misc #music #eartheater #empress of #myd #cutting crew #charli xcx #the garden #marina #arlo parks #jamie xx