Over the Easter period, I watched one of my favourite films 'Gone With The Wind'. It tells the story of Scarlett O'Hara, a spoilt woman who will stop at nothing to get the man she wants and Rhett Butler a man of a very similar nature. The story is a lot more involved than this, but it's hard to condense a film that lasts approximately 3+ hours. All I can say is that I would definitely recommend this film. Have you seen this film? What's your favourite film?
It's Tuesday again (I'm very confused as to what day it is at the moment, due to the Easter break), which means 'First Chapter Tuesday' in conjuntion with 'Bibliophile By The Sea'.
I'm coming to the end of 'The Kasmir Shawl' by Rosie Thomas and here is the opening paragraph to the book:
'Mair made the discovery on the last day at home in the old house. The three of them were upstairs in their father's bedroom. They had come together for the melancholy business of sorting and clearing their parents' furniture and possessions, before closing up the house for the last time and handing over the keys to the estate agent. It was the end of May and the lambs had just been taken away to market. Out on the hill the sheep were bleating wildly, loud, incessant and bewildered cries that were carried in with the scent of spring grass.'
A few weeks ago I was at the cinema and saw a trailer for 'The Host'. Apparently this has something to do with Stephenie Meyer, the writer of the 'Twilight' saga. I'm not a fan of the 'Twilight' films, but this looks interesting.
After finishing (and thoroughly enjoying) 'The Green Mile' by Stephen King, a friend of mine gave me a copy of 'The Kasmir Shawl' by Rosie Thomas. So far, it's one of those books that I had never heard of it before reading, but it's turning out to be a bit of a gem of a book. It's lovely.
What I have been watching:
Anyone British will have heard of 'Ant and Dec'. They are presenters that have hosted such programmes as 'I'm a Celebrity Get Me Out Of here', 'Britain's Got Talent' and other successful weekend television shows. The duo actually started off in a children's programme called 'Byker Grove' but following that, they had a short pop career ('where is this going?' you might ask, well bear with me,!) and last night on their show 'Saturday Night Takeaway' , they performed one of their well known hits 'Let's Get Ready To Rumble':
I love 'Saturday Night Takeaway'. It's a silly programme, but great fun.
What I've been listening to:
I've recently discovered a new artist called Laura Mvula and I love her latest single 'Green Garden':
Even though I'm in my Thirties, I still like to watch the occasional Disney/Pixar filmand last weekend, was no exceptional. 'Brave' is set in the Highlands of Scotland and tells the story of Merida, a young girl destined to marry one of the first-born males of three other clans. Merida rebels against her parent's wishes and seeks the help of a witch, to try and change her mother's mind about the arranged marriage, but then disaster strikes and Merida has to try and reverse the spell the witch has cast, to save her family.
Being a bit of a Disney traditionalist, I didn't think this was the best Disney/Pixar film I have seen. I found that instead of being a strong character, Merida was actually quite an annoying brat and possibly not a great role model for young children. Also, although the underlying story running through this film was good, I felt that it was lost with the rather strange story of Merida and her mother.
There are some great actors/comedians cast in this film (Emma Thompson is Queen Elinor,Billy Connolly as King Fergus and Julie Walters is The Witch), but I don't think that they were used to their full advantage.
One good thing about this film, is that the animators have done a great job capturing the beauty of the Scottish landscape.
Overall, 'Brave' doesn't have the charm that a lot of the 'old skool' Disney films have, but if you don't have anything else to watch, then consider watching 'Brave'.
This week's 'First Chapter, First Paragraph' as hosted by 'Bibliophile by The Sea', is taken from my latest read 'The Green Mile' by Stephen King:
'This happened in 1932, when the state penitentiary was still at Cold Mountain. And the electric chair was there, too, of course. The inmates made joles about the chair, the way people always make jokes about things that frighten them but can't be gotten away from. The called it Old Sparky, or the Big Juicy. They made cracks about the power bill, and how Warden Moores would cook his Thanksgiving dinner that fall, with his wife, Melinda, too sick to cook. But for the ones who actually had to sit down in that chair, the humor went out of the situation in a hurry. I presided over seventy-eight executions during my time at Cold Mountain (that's one fifure I've never been confused about; I'll remember it on my deathbed), and I think that, for most of those men, the truth of what was happening to them finally hit all the way home when their ankles were being clamped to the stout oak of "Old Sparky's" legs.'
So far, 2013 hasn't been a particularly good reading year. At the latest count I have abandoned 3 books:
'The Casual Vacancy' by J.K Rowling 'Les Miserables' - Victor Hugo 'Wolf Hall'- Hilary Mantel
All of these books I did try and plough through, but with all of them I found the writing to be a problem. Now I'm reading 'The Green Mile' by Stephen King and I'm already half of the way through ths novel, which is better. Although I must say that I have been a big fan of Stephen King's since I was a teenager, so I'm biased.
What I have been watching:
Some of you may know, that last Friday saw the 25th year of 'Comic Relief' where people (famous or not), raise money in wacky, crazy ways, to help people in Africa and in the U.K. So far, the total stands at a staggering £75,107,851 and one of the highlights of the evening, was when Jessie J shaved her hair off for the cause. Here's a video, I'm sure you will agree that she looks great, even with no hair!
What I've been listening to:
Well mostly the cannons and explosions waking everyone up at stupid o'clock because it's the Fallas Festival at the moment! I love the Fallas festival (more of that in the week), but wish that the cannons and children throwing firecrackers in the street would not be part of this! Argh!
However, here's the anthem that most of the bands play during the Fallas festival. Don't ask me to translate, I just spend the whole Fallas weekend humming the tune:
Regular readers of my blog will have noticed, that it has had a bit of an overhaul lately. Today, I thought I would start a new segment called 'Friday Film Talk' in which I will (unsurpringly), talk about films I have seen or post trailers for upcoming films I'm interested in seeing.
For the first 'Friday Film Talk', I thought I would post the official trailer for the new Sam Raimi film 'Oz the Great and Powerful'. In case you didn't know, this new film is a prequel to the 1939 classic 'The Wizard of Oz' , starring Judy Garland.
I love the original 'Oz' film and I'm worried that the new film will not live up to expectations of the classic. However, seeing this trailer gives me some hope. See what you think.....
Will you see this film? Do you think it can live up to the original film?
I'm not much into doing Meme's, but I saw this on 'Bibliophile by the Sea' and thought that this would be interesting.
Every Tuesday, I'm going to host First Chapter First Paragraph Tuesday Intros,
where I share the first paragraph or (2) of a book I am reading or
thinking about reading soon.
This week's opening paragraph, comes from a book I am currently reading: Across rhe Narrow Sea, Putney, 1500
'So now get up.' Felled, dazed, silent, he has fallen; knocked full length on the cobbles of the yard. His head turns sideways; his eyes are turned towards the gate, as if someone might arrive to help him out. One blow, properly placed, could kill him now.'
'Wolf Hall' by Hilary Mantel
From this paragraph, would you continue reading this book?
