A good movie is great comfort to the soul. I remember that Glee episode where it is revealed the Mr Schuester watches Singing in the Rain every time he is sick and I know I am exactly the same. When I am sick, tired or drained there is nothing quite like revisiting a story with familiar faces and reassuring promises that good will triumph over evil in the end.
Here are five movies that are on the top of my DVD pile:
For Romance: Down With Love
This is my favourite romantic comedy of all time. It is delicious eye candy from start to finish. Overly stylized with superb sixties outfits, fake and romantic back drops and a score that punctuates every joke in this zany farce. It’s sweet, funny and bright. Perfect for when you need cheering up, not so good if you are on a diet; chocolate is heavily featured.
Oh and it has the tightest script, not a single line is wasted and they pack so many jokes into 90 minutes that the time will fly by!
For Blockbuster Fun: Jurassic Park
I can recite this movie, word for word by heart but if it comes on the telly I will watch it again. It is all so perfectly done. The T-Rex attack, the build up of the raptors as the most deadly animal, the beauty of the special effects that are so good that you accept the dinosaurs as they are. Not to mention the brilliant characters who nearly all get a proper character arc. And that music score that lifts your heart as the helicopter sweeps over the island. Pure Blockbuster perfection!
For Sci-Fi: The Fifth Element
The day after our wedding Rob and I checked into a hotel at Manchester Airport so that we would be ready the next morning for our flights to our Honeymoon in Turkey. I was very happy, but also very tired. My mind was still in ‘to-do list/organisational/event planning’ mode even though there was no more event to plan. I just couldn’t switch off. Then Rob turned on the TV and the Fifth Element was on, we both collapsed on the bed and with the help Bruce Willis, Mila Jovovich and a flying ball of dark matter heading straight for Earth, we gently came down out of the wedding buzz and began to relax.
For Creature Feature: Lake Placid
Lake Placid borders somewhere between tongue-in-cheek horror and outright parody of creature horror movies. It’s funny more than it is scary but it will give you second thoughts about paddling in the nearest lake. I have strong memories of watching this with my friends as a teenager and I still think it is hilarious today especially the cranky old lady mouthing off to the police!
For Old Style Hollywood: High Society
Bing Crosby, Grace Kelly and Frank Sinatra singing and lounging around a millionaire’s palatial home. They exchange sharp barbs and cool wit over coffee, drink cocktails by the pool, and misbehave in a the most glamorous pre-wedding shindig you will ever see. I love every minute of it!
Rob and I are both happily geeky. By that, I mean that we have unbridled enthusiasm for a number of TV shows, films, games, comics and stories. We like Science-Fiction, Fantasy and Action and Adventure. We collect Lego mini-figures, transformers and we quote Adventure Time at one another all the time. (You have poo brain, I diagnosed it like five minutes ago!)
Now that our duo has become a trio one of the things I am looking forward to is sharing our geeky love with our little one. Here are my top ten parenting geek goals that I one day hope to fulfill:
Read The Hobbit to Orla as a bed time story. My Dad read the Hobbit to me when I was a little girl and it is what started my journey with the epic Lord of the Rings. Surely, by the time that Orla is old enough to read it there will be a reboot of the movies?
Give Orla our extensive Lego collection as a Christmas present. Rob and I have collected a substantial amount of Lego sets over the years. It is all now in a big box in the loft, complete with a ring binder full of instructions. When Orla is old enough not to eat the pieces I want to give the set to her as a big present one Christmas.
Support her in a toy collection. Collecting is a staple part of Geekdom. When I was little I collected a set of little crocodiles from Kinder Surprise Eggs. Mum would let me buy one chocolate egg a week with pocket money. I can’t wait to see what toys Orla falls in love with when she is older!
Watch Star Wars together for the first time. Starting with A New Hope of course. She will be much older before we have The Talk about the prequels.
Watch her play her own make believe games. Imagination and story telling are central to geek culture, I am so excited to find out what games Orla will want to play when she is older, and where her imagination will lead her.
Do comic con as a family. The one in Manchester is great, just need her to be big enough not to be overwhelmed by the crowds.
Do comic con as a family in group costume! Am thinking Han, Leia and a little Wookie! Or maybe Jake, Marcelene and baby Princess Bubblegum! So many options!
Buy her books. Lots of books.
Play Mario Karts with her. And let her win at least once!
Encourage her passions whatever they turn out to be. Seriously, Orla might not be interested in any of my geeky hobbies, and that is OK. But whatever she likes, I want her to know that it is cool to be passionate about things, whether that is sport, stories, gardening, cooking, or making mud pies. I want her to know that enthusiasm is good and that she should run with whatever makes her happy. That, my friends, is the true geek spirit!
I have been thinking about the good Doctor lately. I was so excited to hear that Maisie Williams will be guest starring in the new series this autumn. It seems a casting dream too good to be true and it got me thinking about other things I would love to see happen in Doctor Who.
So if you are out there Steven Moffat and you are taking requests please can we see…..
A King Arthur Episode I loved the Robot of Sherwood episode last season; it was silly, fun and neatly contained as a great stand-alone episode. I think it would be great to delve more into Britain’s extensive legendary past with the Doctor. I could see him competing with Merlin and showing off with silly tricks. I can see Lancelot being all dishy and trying to flirt with Clara. Also this would be a great excuse to throw a dragon in the mix! Dragons improve everything!
A quest to restore Gallifray. I know, I know they are meant to be war-bent madmen too powerful to trust but after ten years of moping around ‘I am the last one left’ I think it would be really interesting to bring the Time Lords back. There could be a series long arc of trying to save his people, and then a happy reunion and then the conflict that would definitely follow. The Master has always been one of the strongest villains, so I wonder what would happen if the Doctor had more than one Time Lord to deal with?
A happier Doctor. I know each incarnation of the Doctor is different but I do miss Ten and Eleven’s joie de vivre. I honestly did think Twelve might be a bit happier – after all he knows now that he probably did not commit genocide of his own people, you think that would cheer him up a bit, and yet Twelve is somehow grumpier than Nine. I know Capaldi is great at grumpy but I think he could be equally good at joyous if he gave it a go.
Another bottle episode. Midnight is one of the most chilling and dramatic episodes of Doctor Who. Effects-light and claustrophobic this episode feels like one exceptional short story that lingers on in the mind long after the you have finished reading. I have come to realise that Doctor Who episodes are most exciting when they are on a smaller scale. Trying to contain one Darlek in an underground bunker is scarier than seeing an army try to take over 1930s New York. Saving the world is all very good but in the end I think I prefer the episodes where the Doctor has to just save one family, or one person, like Van Gogh. Bottle episodes are great at shaking up the story telling, and I would leave to see more contained unusual stories.
A ginger Doctor. Ever since Ten lamented his lack of red-haired locks I have shared the conviction that a ginger doctor would be amazing! Not that I am in a hurry to lose Capaldi, I hope he sticks around for a long time, but when the day does come to hand over his sonic screwdriver I think a ginger doctor would be magnificent. Damian Lewis anyone? Or better yet…Eddie Izzard!
Watching the new trailer for The Force Awakens this week gave me serious nostalgia waves. It’s the last two seconds of the trailer that does it. You know what I am talking about!
It’s amazing to think how many people around the world have such a strong connection to this Sci-Fi universe. I thought it would be fun to share my earliest experience of Star Wars, in the form of a blog tag!
Any other bloggers with a love of Star Wars are welcome to take part. Just link back in the comments!
What is your first Star Wars memory?
I am at Blockbuster with my Dad and I maybe am around 6-8 years old. We were looking for a film to watch that weekend and as we were looking my Dad reached for a video from the top shelf and passed it to me and said that one day we would watch this film together.
He pointed out the people on the front cover and said this is a boy called Luke and this is the bad guy and she is a princess. Having a collection of Disney movies already I remember being interested in watching a grown up princess movie! I also liked that this princess had brown hair like me!
We didn’t watch A New Hope that weekend but from then on whenever we went to Blockbuster I was waiting for the time when Dad would decide that it was time to watch ‘the movie’.
What is your favourite Star Wars film?
Return of the Jedi. Ewoks and Jabba the Hutt made this the most fun film of the trilogy when I was a kid and my affection still holds for it. Plus I loved everything Leia, my princess, does on the moon – she races on those rocket things, becomes queen of a tribe of teddy bears and then takes part in a cool battle and kisses Han!
I know Empire Strikes Back is meant to be the fan favourite but when I first watched the films I found it hard to follow and used to get bored…plus it is miserable, all our good guys lose out and everything feels black and white. But watching it now as an adult I appreciate it more, but Return of the Jedi is still my favourite!
Did you ever have any Star Wars toys?
My brother had a modest collection of toys including the Millennium Falcon which I played with. I remember a time when Josh really wanted a Jabba the Hunt figure that was to scale with the other toys we had so that we could play out Return of the Jedi. This was before we really used the internet for shopping. It took Mum and Dad months to find one. We looked in toy shops in every town we visited and were even on the hunt when we went on holiday. Eventually they found one and Josh and I could play out our favourite film!
What was your first reaction to the prequels?
Bearing in mind that I was 12/13 when the Phantom Menace came out…I actually really enjoyed it! I found Jar Jar Binks hilarious and even started squeling ‘exqueeze me!’ to my friends. I’m so ashamed of this now!
As I grew up and as the other films came out I found them increasingly dull and disappointing but yeah, can’t deny it at the time I liked the Phantom Menace. Sorry, Star Wars fandom, 12 year old me did have the finest taste!
Favourite line?
C-3PO: Just you reconsider playing that message for him!
[R2 beeps a question] C-3PO: No, I don’t think he likes you at all.
[R2 beeps again] C-3PO: No, I don’t like you either.
I just like the idea that R2D2 is asking: Does Luke like me? Do you like me?
I really think that someone needs to put together a translation of what R2D2 must be saying based on the responses people give him because I have a sneaking suspicion that he has the best lines!
Scariest moment?
I always found it quite disturbing when they took of Darth Vader’s helmet and he is just an old ill man underneath. It was not what I was expecting and I found it quite scary. Now I think it is very moving!
Character you would most like to meet in a pub?
Han Solo. As long as I wasn’t chasing him for a bounty, that is!
Place you would most like to visit in the Star Wars universe?
The Ewoks city! I really do love those oversized teddy bears! Plus everywhere else is either too hot, too cold or too swampy!
And finally how do you feel right now about the Force Awakens?
Cautiously optimistic. They can hardly be worse than what we have been through and I am interested in seeing a fresh and unknown story. I never followed the books so I don’t really know what to expect!
OK so as we all know, The West Wing is one of the best TV shows ever made. It was clever and funny and hopeful about the nature of humanity. My Dad says that watching West Wing is like a shower for the mind; you come away feeling all clean and fresh.
It was also very creative in it’s direction and storytelling. Their ‘walk and talk’ scenes are famous, as is the fast-rhythm of the dialogue that often is only a couple of syllables away from being actually poetry.
Today I want to do a post dedicated to one of the West Wing’s less talked about storytelling flourishes; I call the technique ‘The Final Note.’
Most West Wing episodes ended like many other TV shows, with a poignant scene, a slow fade to black with some gentle music tinkling in the background. But in some episodes, often when there is a discord or an uneasy ending, the audio noises of the scene would linger on just a second or two after the scene faded to black. It often gave a chilling disquiet to the close of the episode that at times literally gave me shivers.
Here are the five best examples I could find….
1. The State Dinner, Season 1 – ‘Hold On’
I think this is the first time they use the Final Note technique in the show. A hurricane that was heading to Florida suddenly changes path and heads back out to sea. Relief is short lived as President Bartlet is informed that the hurricane is now bearing down upon a fleet of Navy ships.
With no other way of helping or supporting the ships, a radio link is set up between the White House and a single ship in the fleet. President Bartlet speaks to the only person available, a young officer who reports that the engine room is on fire, that he is on own. His speech is disjointed and confused. We learn that he has hit his head.
The shot slowly zooms in from a wide group shot to take us closer and closer to the President as he says to the boy, ‘listen, I’m going to stay right here until the radio cuts out…’
The screen fades to black and just before the credits roll, President Bartlet says:
‘Hold on!’
2. What Kind of Day it has Been, Season 1 – ‘Who’s Been Hit?’
The famous shooting scene at the end of the season one finale was a dramatic change in tone and action for the series. We are used to the tension in West Wing to be played out in dialogue and uncomfortable meetings, but in the last two minutes of What Kind of Day it has Been our beloved characters come under a very real danger as teenage terrorists begin shooting into the crowd as the President walks the rope line.
We see and hear chaos unfolds, car windows smash, secret service agents man handle the President, guns are blasting. In the midst of the noise we can hear the secret service agents shouting down radios to one another. As the screen fades to black we hear one of them yell down the line:
‘Who’s been hit? Who’s been hit?’
Our thoughts exactly but we have to wait until Season 2 episode 1 to find out.
3. The Portland Trip, Season 2 – Coming in to land
A change of pace for this final note. In The Portland Trip President Bartlet, Sam, Toby, Charlie and CJ are on a late night flight. Whilst they are up in the air the President is inspired to try some zero-gravity thinking, and Sam is on the same page.
The script says explains it better than I can:
President Josiah “Jed” Bartlet: A long flight across the night. You know why late flights are good? Because we cease to be earthbound and burdened with practicality. Ask the impertinent question. Talk about the idea that nobody has thought about yet. Put it a different way…
Education is the main theme of the night, and they latch on to the idea of sending 10,000 teachers to college on scholarships. The idea is fantastic except, as Toby points out, they have no money to fund it. The whole episode is about the tension between the big ideas and the practicality of life. As the episode is coming to a close, the staff have to put away the big idea for something more reachable…a pilot programme for 100 teachers. It’s a start but you feel that our dreamers wanted much more, they lean back in their seats, the screen fades to black and we hear the plane come into land just to reinforce that idea of coming back down to earth.
4. Noel, Season 2 – Sirens
I really hope as I write this that there aren’t any West Wing newbies reading this because the last thing I want to do is to spoil the episodes for you, especially this one. Noel is one of those episodes that comes back to you when you let your mind wander. Josh is struggling with the impact the shooting has had on him and is set down in a meeting with a trauma specialist who asks him to recall the events of the past couple of weeks.
By the end of the episode…and please stop reading now if you haven’t watched it….Josh realizes that the sound of music is triggering panic attacks where he relives the night he was shot. The reason? In his mind whenever Josh hears music it reminds him of police sirens.
After the meeting Donna takes Josh to hospital to fix up his hand. As they walk out of the White House they pass by some carolers at the gates. They stop to listen for a moment before walking on.
The carolers sing on as our screen fades to black and then when all is dark the singing gradually melts into the wailing sirens and we hear the same thing that Josh has been hearing all along.
5. 17 People, Season 2 – Da-Thump,
Even though Noel gives me shivers, I actually think the West Wing’s best use of the Final Note is in 17 people. The episode begins with a montage of Toby thinking through a puzzle over the course of a few days. He spends a lot of his thinking time in his office bouncing a ball repeatedly against a wall….da-thump, da-thump, da-thump.
Eventually he solves his puzzle and asks Leo why it is that the Vice-President believes the President Bartlet isn’t going to run again. Seeing that the truth will have to come out, Leo sits Toby and President Bartlet in the oval office and the President reveals that he has MS.
They have a heated and tense conversation throughout the evening, whilst in the other room Josh, Sam, Donna and Ainsley are working on jokes for the Correspondence Dinner. Oblivious to the meeting in the Oval Office they are teasing one another and laughing and generally having a good night.
At the end of the episode Toby weighed down with thoughts of a difficult future ahead and disillusioned with his President, enters the joke-writing room. The others are bubbling over with lines they want to run past him. Someone throws him his ball as he sits heavily in a chair. The camera pulls close to him, we can hear the laughing noise of the staff but Toby’s face has the same seriousness it did at the start of the episode. The screen fades to black and talking fades away too, but just before the credits roll we hear the ‘da-thump’ of the ball. Letting us know that Toby has more long nights of thinking ahead of him.
Hello, I have completely stolen this idea from the hilarious toberziegly blog on tumblr, and once you’ve read my version you should go and check it out to see how it should be done properly.
The game is to answer the following questions about characters in your chosen fandom:
How I feel about this character:
All the people I ship romantically with this character:
My non-romantic OTP for this character:
My unpopular opinion about this character:
One thing I wish would happen / had happened with this character in canon:
I think you are supposed to ask readers to submit characters in the comments and then answer the questions but I am too impatient for that so instead I will look at the Geek board on Pinterest and go for the first few characters that belong in one of my many fandoms.
Ok here goes…
Sherlock Holmes (BBC New Version)
How I feel about this character: I love watching him think, and plot and be impolite to random people!
All the people I ship romantically with this character: Molly
My non-romantic OTP for this character: John Watson, of course!
My unpopular opinion about this character: His reasoning behind faking his own death don’t quite add up. If so many stage hands were needed to pull it off then he should have been able to trust John too.
One thing I wish would happen / had happened with this character in canon: I would like him to do the mystery with the goose and the diamond which I only just about remember from the stories.
How I feel about this character: Like we never got to see the best of him.
All the people I ship romantically with this character: Lily Evans
My non-romantic OTP for this character: Sirius Black
My unpopular opinion about this character: His tormenting of Snape feels a bit forced in, and doesn’t fit with everything else we knew about him.
One thing I wish would happen / had happened with this character in canon: I would have liked to know more about how the Potters resisted and fought against Voldemort.
Amy Pond from Doctor Who
How I feel about this character: I liked Amy, especially the childhood scenes but I never fell madly in love with her, although that Van Gough episode was perfect.
All the people I ship romantically with this character: Rory
My non-romantic OTP for this character: River Song
My unpopular opinion about this character: That we would have had more fun with young Amelia Pond as the Doctors Companion.
One thing I wish would happen / had happened with this character in canon: I wish that she would have had a bit of a happier life: 12 years waiting on the Doctor, baby kidnapped, stuck in a different time zone from your friends and family…it’s a bit depressing really.
Pippin from Lord of the Rings
How I feel about this character: I adore Pippin, he’s funny and brave when he has to be.
All the people I ship romantically with this character: I have no romantic ambitions for Pippin, I just want him to run around, cause mischief and sing beautiful songs on request
My non-romantic OTP for this character: Merry!
My unpopular opinion about this character: No idea, I think my opinion goes with the general consensus that Pippin is awesome.
One thing I wish would happen / had happened with this character in canon: I wish that we could have seen him tell Frodo and Sam everything he had been up to, oh and that he had more of a confrontation with Saruman.
How I feel about this character: Batman is cool, twisted, the original dark hero of brooding detective vigilantism.
All the people I ship romantically with this character: Catwoman
My non-romantic OTP for this character: Alfred
My unpopular opinion about this character: I prefer Tim Burton’s Batman movies to Christopher Nolan’s, except for Heath Ledger’s performance as the Joker.
One thing I wish would happen / had happened with this character in canon: That he would solve more crimes and mysteries without just having a gadget do impossible science for him. He’s a clever guy and we should see more of that side of him.
I think that is enough for now, if there are any other geeky bloggers out there please feel free to take these questions and do your own version! I would love to see other people’s answers!
I’ve done craft fairs, Christmas Markets, 1940s weekends and Comic-con but until last Saturday I had never been to a Steampunk event.
I have been an admirer of the Steampunk aesthetic for some time. It has a lot that appeals to me; pretty clocks, ruffles, earthy colours, fitted silhouettes…
Home of my favourite high street, Haworth held a Steampunk Weekend last week and Rob and I decided to go along and to try and create a Steampunk look of our own.
Here we are on the steps of the church:
I am very pleased to say that I didn’t spend a single penny for my outfit, I put it together out of what I already had and borrowed a belt and buckle from Rob to make it a bit more unusual.
The pocket watch belonged to my Great-Grandad. I love wearing it as a necklace, it’s beautiful and has a good weighty feel.
My boots need a special mention because I adore them! They are from River Island a few years back and are the most beautiful boots that I own. Unfortunately they are also very heavy and slightly big for me. I am wearing a thick pair or purple socks underneath to help pad them out!
Rob bought the goggles from Amazon and the nerf gun that he transformed into this steampunk weaponry, but everything else was already waiting in his wardrobe. He made the shoulder piece using cardboard and covered it in some pretend leather material. A lot of people stopped to take Rob’s photo during the day, I think it was because most of the other men were in top hats and tails; Rob was like the working class engineer of the Steampunk world!
I was really happy with our outfits, they were fun but actually quite tame compared to many of the other Steampunkers that were out on the town. I loved watching people walk up and down in their amazing costumes, pretty much all homemade.
Haworth always seems to be a friendly town no matter what time of year we come by. As we wandered up and down the high street we said hello to people, stopped to take photos and to pose for other photographers! That was fun, it was like everyone was a celebrity but without all the cringy fame stuff! We stopped and chatted about cosplay with people and generally there was a lot of smiling and goodwill about the place.
We chatted to this couple for quite a bit, the level of detail in their outfits is outstanding!
Oh and this couple were fabulous!
And this girl made her own wings!
There was just a huge amount of creativity and inventiveness on display, which I think you can appreciate whether you are into steampunk or not.
There was this great band playing at the top of the street, and later on this Scottish group paraded up and down the street. Live music makes such a difference to a town and it was nice to mill around, listen to the music and chat with people.
In fact we got so caught up on the high street we forgot to go to the craft market and missed more of the Steampunk stuff! Oops! We realised when we got back to the car that there was more to see but by that point my feet were in desperate need of slippers (high heeled clunky boots and steep cobbled streets do not mix well).
