New film #23 and #24: How do some films get made?

On Friday night my friend Rachel and I watched Richard Linklater’s first film. He’s the director of the Before trilogy and recently Boyhood which are all great films. We wanted to see where his career began and so we watched his first film Slacker. Rachel’s view on it was she was half enthralled and half bored. I thought it was the most pointless, bizarre film ever made. How it even got on the screen is beyond me. For anyone interested, it’s about a day in Austin, Texas and the people in it. Some people are normal; others are oddballs and others you see for a fleeting moment.

Speaking of bad films, I continued that theme on Saturday night when I watched The Room with my friend Coops and his girlfriend Fran. Now this is a film that every knows that it’s bad. It’s so bad, it’s actually good. Coops had wanted me to see it for a while, because they show this film which is a cult classic at the Prince Charles Cinema, where seeing it there is like watching a pantomime.

                    Coops and Fran doing their best impersonation of Johnny in The Room.

The film is about a guy called Johnny and his fiancée Lisa is sleeping with his best friend Mark. The dialogue is clunky and terrible, making the performances wooden. Because it’s so bad and you know that before you watch it, turns out to be quite funny. We all had a good time watching it, and I wouldn't mind seeing it at the Prince Charles Cinema.

New Film #22 and New book #6: Can the book play on film?

I’ve got back into reading mode again, and managed to read Silver Linings Play Book in a week! It was the type I fiction where it gets straight to the action. The characters were in depth, and although Pat’s character ruined quite a few American classics for me, you got see some real emotion from a male character which makes a change. I read the book before I saw the film as it’s easier that way.

The film was a solid film, but there were a few main differences from the book, and I think that’s because of the casting. For example Robert De Niro’s character of Pat’s dad is fleshed out, and has more interaction with Pat. In the book though it isn’t until about halfway through that he makes an effort with his son. The motives of Tiffany in the book are slightly different as well. She doesn’t meet Pat’s family until much later on in the book. Again I think it’s because of the casting of Jennifer Lawrence and the director seeing that the role could be Oscar winning that he gives her more scenes with Pat’s family. The one where she reels off American football stats is particularly impressive.

The book to film adaptation is pretty good, there hasn’t been anything that has been missed out, rather the character dynamics just changing slightly.

Reconnecting #10: Pole sisters

I’ve been going to pole for a few years and friends at pole come and go. With pole lessons you don’t get a pole to yourself, you share it with 2 or 3 others. And when I first started pole classes on a Thursday I shared a pole with Linsey, Alex and Jo. They become your pole sisters. Alex became a mum and so stopped going to pole classes, so we’d still try and stay in contact.

Before you know it over a year has passed since me and Alex last saw each other. We’d been trying to meet up before, but our plans never aligned.

Alex messaged me and Linsey out of the blue as it turns out she’s moving back to Jersey this week! And she wanted to have farewell drinks before she left. So last Wednesday we did just that, and it was as if no time had passed, which is often the sign of a good friendship.

So good luck in Jersey Alex! You know me and my fellow pole sister Linsey will becoming over for a holiday soon!

New Films #19-21: 50 shades of an exotic hotel in the future

I’ve been to the cinema 3 times in the past few weeks; the first was with my friend Hannah on the last Orange Wednesday. Hannah doesn’t watch films that are certificate 15 or above, and the only film that was a 12 or below was one called Project Almanac, so we saw that. I barely knew anything about, but its always good to see films you barely know about once in a while. The film was about a group of teenagers who make a time machine. It was okay, but I felt by the end that it was a film where nothing really happened. But the end credits song was amazing and immediately downloaded.

I then went to see 50 shades of grey with my guy, and what was interesting was we were against the norm. For audiences of the film, it’s usually the woman whose read the book and the men haven’t. My guy has read the book and I haven’t, I went along to see what all the hype was about. It was an okay film and very overhyped. All I could think throughout the film was how nice Anastasia’s jackets were throughout the film; she really did have good fashion sense!

The final film I saw was The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, and I saw this with my family one Saturday night. It was a good film to escape with, and it had some funny lines from Maggie Smith. And any film with Bill Nighy and Judi Dench is always going to be good.

New Comedians #2: Round 2

On Friday, me, my guy and a few of his friends went to the Last Minute Comedy Club in Hitchin again to see a couple more comedians. The first guy was Jeremy O’ Donnell  who was quite funny and had to contend with a few audience members thinking they were funny…..when in fact they weren’t.

The main act was Duncan Oakley and he was a bit random. Most of his routine was song based which was good to see something different, and some of his jokes took a while to get funny. But what was most impressive was at the end of his set when he did a song, using himself as a drum, and he kept hitting the beat way longer than anyone else could. Neither comedian set me alight, but with comedy everybody has a sense of humour and not every comedian is going to get your sense of humour.

As usual I didn’t get a picture, but here’s one of me and my friend Alice laughing about something really funny.

New activity #20: I got 99 problems….

Charlotte my flatmate and I like to bake, and the other week she baked some tai chi cupcakes. She gave one to me and offered one to my guy, but he was away on business so he said that I could have it. I said it would be a challenge, but one I’d gladly accept.

To make things funny I decided to film eating the cupcake to rap music, as he likes rap music. And this is the result. I sent it to a few friends as well who found it random, but funny. So thinking of the challenge and trying new activities, I decided to put it on YouTube. Who knows whether I’ll upload anything else?!?!

New activity #19: Jump starting

I’ve had my car Jimmy since August and apart from a little scratch he’s been doing fine. At the beginning of last week though, I’d left an inside light on and as a result the battery ran flat.

My dad didn’t have any jump leads and as I wasn’t using Jimmy to get to work, I waited till the weekend to use my guy’s jump leads that he has. For some reason I thought jump starting a car would take ages to, well it seemed that way on films, but it takes about a minute. All I had to do after was drive around for 30 minutes or so, and then Jimmy was back to his old self!