Song of the Week #5 Album Special #1

UPDATE: Now with added favourites list!

So one idea I had for this song of the week thing is if every 5 songs I do an entire album I love. Hmm, maybe every 10 would be better so theoretically the next one after this would be week 15, that might work better.

So the album I am choosing this week is 'The Greatest Showman' soundtrack!

The Greatest Show

Ever since seeing the film I have been obsessed with this soundtrack! So much so that I couldn't pick a single favourite to showcase.

This Is Me

These two are probably my top favourites but every single song is amazing! If I had to pick a least favourite it would possibly be either 'Tightrope' because I'm not as big a fan of Michelle Williams' voice or 'Never Enough' because that whole plot point is supposed to be about Jenny Lind, the world's most talented opera singer or something along those lines yet 'Never Enough' is definitely not opera, it's a lovely song but it misses the mark genre-wise. It kind of cheapens the moment slightly in my opinion. That's really my only criticism of the whole album though.

After another listen of the album I have done an order of my most to least favourites:

1. The Greatest Show
2. This Is Me
3. From Now On
4. Come Alive
5. The Other Side
6. A Million Dreams + Reprise
7. Rewrite The Stars
8. Tightrope
9. Never Enough + Reprise

I just noticed that on the default graphic for these YouTube videos Keala Settle's name is omitted from the header and I think that does a great disservice to her and her fantastic voice, seriously people she is epic!

Anyway I must fly for now, I will be back soon with another book review (just got to finish the book first) and I might do another little life update thing.

Stef Out x

Book Review: Only Ever Yours by Louise O'Neill

DO NOT READ IF YOU HAVE A HISTORY OF EATING DISORDERS AND BEING TRIGGERED BY TALK OF NUMBERS, WEIGHT, APPEARANCE OF CERTAIN BODY PARTS.

Other concerns are extreme body image issues and body hatred (related), misogyny, misogynoir, homophobia, fatphobia, self harm, suicidal thoughts, suicide, racism, child abuse, domestic violence, physical/emotional abuse, drugs and addiction, hatred of sex workers, sexual assault, brainwashing, gas lighting, grooming/pedophilia (minor mention.) < copy-pasted from my friend Sian's review on Goodreads.

It was hard to know what to rate this book. Undeniably awful especially in it's language but compelling, sinister and extraordinarily well-written in it's execution.

Set in a dystopian future where genetically perfect women are created in laboratories to be the companions to men, both in marriage to bear sons, and as concubines purely for sexual pleasure. A select few are kept as chastities to run the schools where the 'eves' are raised. The society claims to have eradicated organised religion (along with animals and much of nature - it is mentioned they live in some kind of walled bubble) yet the chastities bear a resemblance to nuns and there is an eponymous Father who rules over everything and is referred to as 'He' and 'Him'. There are also passages throughout the book that could be read as being from a bible.

The format was a little jarring at first as all the eves' names were in lowercase format e.g. freida. freida is our narrator and she's an interesting character. Flawed among perfection she seems to obsess more deeply than the other girls. Except isabel who seems to distraught that she manipulates her body to the extremes - first to overweight (this book as mentioned is very fatphobic and weight and weight loss are discussed to extremes) and then to severely underweight. It is only at the end of the book you understand her motivations and it is fascinating.

This whole book is an intriguing look into the psychology around body image and competition in the extreme. Interesting but not one I want to read again in a hurry.

3/5 stars.

Stef Out x

Book Review: Heartbeat by Elizabeth Scott

An intriguing moral dilemma lies at the hear of this book - whether to keep a person who is brain dead alive for the sake of their unborn fetus. In this particular case it is Emma's mother Lisa who is being kept alive by machines for the sake of her unborn son by her husband, Emma's stepfather Dan. You could debate for hours about the moral and ethical sides, personally it's all a no from me, just let me die.

I loved the characters, I completely understand Emma's anger and I feel that it was well-written. Emma and Olivia's relationship was amazing, perfectly balanced. I wanted to know more about Olivia though and in particular her aversion to technology. I liked that Caleb was a slow-burn type of character and that Dan wasn't the stereotypical evil stepparent. I wanted more from the ending regarding the baby and the future.

4/5 stars.

Stef Out x

Song of the Week #4

So it's time for another song of the week and it's the turn of the song that was meant to be up last week. 'Fox on the Run' by The Sweet.

Originally released in 1975 it actually did pretty well charting in the top 10 in multiple countries and number 1 in Australia, Denmark and Germany, however like many songs from the era it has been largely forgotten, failing to capture people as much as bands such as Queen from a similar time period. However some genius decided to use the song for the trailer of Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 and later the official soundtrack causing the track to go to number 1 on the iTunes Rock Chart in late 2016. Unfortunately the song isn't in the film itself, instead we get about three clips of 'Brandy (You're a Fine Girl' by Looking Glass. A great song and it does fit the theme of the film well but they could have trimmed it a little for 'Fox on the Run' surely?

Anyway it's a fantastic, uplifting song that never fails to put me in a good mood. It's a particularly good one for walking home from work, it gets me in a good rhythm and I find I'm a bit faster while listening to it. I think I marginally prefer Vol. 2's soundtrack to Vol. 1's although Vol. 1 did have the gems that are 'Hooked on a Feeling' by Blue Swede and 'I'm Not in Love' by 10CC, it's generally slighter more light-hearted and sometimes you want a little more darkness (so she says while listening to the Beauty and the Beast soundtrack).

That's it for today. I've got another book review coming up at the end of the week and then it'll probably be another song of the week.

Stef Out x

Book Review: Fans of the Impossible Life by Kate Scelsa

A fascinating book with some excellent characters. You have your main three: Jeremy, Mira and Sebby, each with alternating points of view - Jeremy first, Mira third, and Sebby second. The secondary characters also hold up well, Rose, Talia and the grey Peter.

While I related to Jeremy and Mira's chapters the most I found Sebby's fascinating in their lack of clarity. It touched on things that maybe I could guess but to have it spoken would have been a very brave move.

I felt that the book dealt with mental health and sexuality issues very well and I loved the fact that things weren't just fixed at the end and that Mira had a relapse - recovery isn't linear. The thing that knocked off the half star was that the ending was very abrupt with no solid resolution.

4.5/5 stars.

Stef Out x

Song of the Week #3

So this week's song of the week is a little late. Despite having a week off work (yay!) I haven't been on the computer much. Also I had ideas of doing a different song - a much happier, lively one, but it doesn't exactly fit my mood this week. Stupid accusations at work - somehow a semi-private conversation becomes bullying if your colleague/supervisor happens to overhear, what? It's just become shit lately. Also the tumble dryer and washing machine both decided to break at the same time... Yeah. Also my dog was attacked by the snarly terrier down the road today. Luckily she only got away with fur - he's got enough of it.

Anyway onto the song: Disturbed's cover of 'The Sound of Silence'. While the original is kind of fantasy, spooky carnival in the dark the cover wouldn't be out of place in a horror film in my opinion. Great if you're having a bad mental health day: "Hello darkness, my old friend, I've come to talk with you again..." It's a song that really draws me in and let me feel, it feels real.

Sorry it's a short one today. I'll hopefully be back in a day or two with a book review and then another song of the week next week, hopefully on the right day this time. LOL.

Stef Out x

Book Review: Ally's World by Karen McCombie

So today I've decided to do a little review of the Ally's World series of books by Karen McCombie. I've no idea how to age categorise books but these are probably classed as middle grade and suitable for approximate ages 8-14. A series of 14 books plus separate Christmas and summer specials, the Christmas special taking place before the main series and the summer special after the main series.

The series is told in letter format by 13 year old Alexandra (Ally) Love to her mum who left the family 3 years prior to the books starting. With her mum gone that leaves Ally, her older sisters Rowan and Linnhe (pronounced Linny, prefers to be called Linn), younger brother Tor, their dad, Martin, and countless pets. 2 dogs, 5 cats and many other odds and ends including a tortoise, a pigeon, a lumpy goldfish and a mad hamster, no prizes for guessing his name (it's Max, as in the Mad Max films of old - the new hadn't even been though of at the point of publication). I don't know if it counts as a spoiler for a book series this old (publications between 2001 and 2006) but their mum Melanie does return in book 10 where it's revealed she hasn't been travelling the world (as everyone in the family thought) but living in Cornwall with their surprise sister Ivy after leaving in the midst of prolonged post-natal depression struggles. All the kids have this interesting quirk of being named after the places where they were born/conceived/discovered: Loch Linnhe in Scotland, a Rowan tree (can't remember the exact location), Alexandra Palace in London, Glastonbury Tor and St. Ives in Cornwall.

The series is a light-hearted look into the day-to-day lives of the Love family, their shabby but cosy home, their mis-matched personalities - in particular neat, organised, blunt Linn vs colourful, creative, sensitive Rowan with Ally often the peacekeeper in the middle, whereas Tor is often referred to as 'spook kid' by Ally's best friend Billy due to him being an 8-year-old boy of few words and a major obsession with animals - and their assorted friends and family. Notable extra characters are Linn's best friend Alfie (a lifelong crush for Ally), Rowan's older goth friends Von and Chazza, Grandma (Melanie's mum who knew of her whereabouts the whole time) and her boyfriend, later husband, Stanley with the hairy ears. Then of course Ally herself with her best friends Billy and Sandie and the rest of the gang: Kyra, Chloe, Salma, Kellie and Jen. Kyra is Ally's newest friend and a constant source of stress with her blunt ways and forceful personality, highlights include smuggling a kitten into her house before taking it to school in a sports bag upon being discovered.

While these are light, fairly fluffy books they do dip their toe into a few issues: mental health, divorce, alcoholism, later life pregnancy, bullying, theft, jealousy. Also there are a couple of things I ought to mention, at the time neither of these were issues but times change and things come to light. First the lesser, barely mentioned issue, in one of the last books, possibly book 13 it is mentioned that Rowan has a Johnny Depp shrine - which accidentally causes a minor fire due to faulty fairy lights - personally this doesn't bother me but I know that many people do not wish to associate themselves with Johnny Depp at all due to his accusations of spousal abuse. The other issue is far more prominent and far more serious even affecting a character's name. I have mentioned that Tor is animal obsessed, one of his favourite programmes on TV (and once upon a time one of my favourites too) is Animal Hospital. Brits reading this will already see where I'm coming from, for those not from Britain and therefore not knowledgable on our pop culture Animal Hospital was presented by an Australian artist, presenter and musician Rolf Harris. Rolf Harris was beloved by all until his revelation some years back as a sexual predator. He was tried, convicted and imprisoned for 12 counts of indecent assault on teenage girls. He was released from prison last year. Rolf Harris is mentioned numerous times throughout the series as being one of Tor's heroes, their dog Rolf is even named after him (the other is Winslet after Kate Winslet - also problematic after her recent supportive comments of Woody Allen). Just something to be aware of if you are letting your kids read these. Or even better let your kid read them and if they pick up on the name and ask, use it to open an important discussion about consent, although seriously you should already be talking to them about that.

On that note this is long enough so I will leave you now.

3/5 stars overall.

Stef Out x

Film Review: The Greatest Showman

The story of circus ringmaster PT Barnum's early career and his journey from poor boy on the streets to 'The Greatest Showman'.

Before the film even starts and the producer logos are showing you get the chorus opening to 'The Greatest Show' alongside synchronised foot stomping. This opens into a magnificent group performance before the camera zeroes in on Hugh Jackman as PT Barnum before the scene fades to reveal a young boy looking at a ringmaster's outfit in a shop window before the camera pans down to show the open flap of the boy's shoe before his stern father calls him away.

This opening perfectly sets the scene for the story to come. A true rags to riches tale with genuine romance and a brilliant cast of characters. The soundtrack is perfectly matched too and no song feels out of place, every one moves the action forward or aids characterisation and will be a must buy for me. Personal favourites are 'The Greatest Show' and 'This Is Me'. Keala Settle's voice is absolutely stunning and her performance as The Bearded Lady is fantastic for only her third official acting credit, I foresee great things for her future. It would appear most of the supporting cast have very limited acting experience yet all were so impressive. I was also stunned to read on IMDB that Zendaya (Anne) did all of her own trapeze stunts, watching her sequences I was sure that it was a stunt double!

I also loved the fact that Barnum is a grey character. The relationship he has with his upper class born wife and daughters is brilliant to watch and while he has given the 'oddities' a chance he also easily forgets them when something shinier - Jenny Lind, the only cast member not to do their own singing - comes along. He also fakes some of the acts and I wonder how fair their wages were but it all comes good in the end and they become a true family. There's also a humorous rivalry between Barnum and a newspaper reporter.

It's also interesting to note that the descendant of Barnum's circus the Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus announced in January 2017 that their doors were closing forever, due to decreased attendance and protests by animal rights activists. Their last shows were in May 2017. I also recently watched a David Attenborough documentary about Jumbo the elephant who was purchased by Barnum's circus, a move that led to his eventual death in a train accident while on tour. Jumbo was cited by Barnum to be the largest elephant in the world, a claim which owing to wild elephants being impossible to measure was unlikely to be true. However the documentary did state that Jumbo was large for his age and was far from fully grown. His life did not sound pleasant though, a diet of sweets leading to toothache which was dulled with copious amounts of whiskey, which was also used to calm his notorious rages, likely stemming from musth, the surge of hormones in male elephants. For anyone interested Attenborough and the Giant Elephant is available on BBC iPlayer. And probably other avenues...

5/5 stars

Stef Out x

Song of the Week #2

Hello and welcome to another round of Song of the Week... Not sure why I'm trying to sound like a radio host here... I have a crap voice for radio, too lispy. I have a YouTube thing/account so sometime I might do a little video, that Accent Challenge that goes around or something like that. Maybe. Then you can hear my lispy Southern English accent. Heck it's probably a more authentic Bristolian accent than Sarah Lancashire's appears to be in those radio adverts for her new drama Kiri, and I don't even live in Bristol, just next to it.

Today's song is...

'Sing' by My Chemical Romance. It's my ultimate power song and I just love the lyrics, especially the chorus:

"Sing it for the boys

Sing it for the girls
Every time that you lose it sing it for the world
Sing it from the heart
Sing it till you're nuts
Sing it out for the ones that'll hate your guts
Sing it for the deaf
Sing it for the blind
Sing about everyone that you left behind
Sing it for the world
Sing it for the world"

If I'm having a bad day I put this on, crank up the volume and it instantly makes me feel better. To me it's about embracing the underdog and basically fuck the system, it's crap and we know it but if we stick together we can power through and good will win. A recent example is Australia's same sex marriage vote. After so many years and lagging behind traditionally less progressive countries (*cough*USA*cough*) love won through popularity and that is awesome!

Anyway that's it for this Song of the Week. I will be back soon with a book review, well series review anyway.

Stef Out x

Song of the Week #1

So it may be an ambitious plan that will surely fail but I had the idea of this year doing a song of the week feature on this here blog to hypothetically go up on a Wednesday, technically I'm writing this one on Tuesday and will schedule it. I didn't want to bombard people too much, although this will end up being posts three days in a row. A good start to the year I'd say, now if only I could get around to updating my real life journal - I keep forgetting about it for enough time that my fountain pen dries up and needs swishing in water before I can use it again. Ha ha!

Anyway today's song of the week is the second song in one of my current favourite films, and the first one on the soundtrack. It is: 'Mr Blue Sky' by Electric Light Orchestra (ELO)!

This is a really complex and interesting songs in terms of lyrics and musical flow. It starts off kind of rock and roll, then you bring in some electronic stuff and then you have this random almost operatic section and it's just such a feast for the ears and I love it.

At work they get a music license for the month of December so they can play Christmas music (normally it's a silent environment) and then once everyone is back at work Boxing Day (oh yeah, where I work Christmas Day and Easter Sunday are the only two days of the entire year that we are closed) they play a random selection of pop music. A lot of it is crap, too repetitive and loud or with annoying long notes but one of the few decent ones they played is 'Mr Blue Sky', it didn't seem to come up in the rotation much though. One shift I heard multiple songs more than once yet you're lucky if 'Mr Blue Sky' plays at all.

Of course a brief mention to the awesome film it's part of: 'Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 2'! It feels like an opening scene sort of song but it's technically not. You get an opening prequel of sorts with Peter's parents which as cute as a seen as it is it kind of takes away the guesswork later in the film. Grey the hair and add a beard and mystery dude isn't really a mystery because you've already introduced him at the beginning. I personally feel like it should have been more of a surprise, although saying that I think the actor and his role had already been revealed before the film's release so it was always out there I guess. 'Mr Blue Sky' is the opening scene for the main characters though and you get a great sequence of Baby Groot dancing around the battlefield among the other characters and it perfectly matches the group's collective personalities.

So that was 'Song of the Week #1'. I'll be back in a few days with a book review maybe and next week for 'Song of the Week #2' which is as yet undecided. I have a few in mind though and they will surely all get covered at some point.

Stef Out x

Film Overview 2017

One of my New Years Resolutions that I make and DO stick to every year is to watch 100 films not counting re-watches e.g. I could watch Frozen 10 times but it can only be counted once.

This year I thought I'd do something new and do a bit of a breakdown by month. If I was that sort of person I'd probably do genre related pie charts but I am rubbish at maths and numbers and all that jazz so I'll just do a mini breakdown.

Year Total:109

January:18 of which 6 were animated, 4 were superhero, 3 were fantasy, 2 were action, 1 was sci-fi, 1 was horror and 1 was a musical.

February: 15 of which 8 were animated, 6 were fantasy and 1 was romance.

March: 7 of which 4 were animated, 2 were fantasy and 1 was action.

April: 8 of which 3 were animated, the other 5 were superhero.

May: 6 of which 3 were animated and 3 were superhero.

June: 14 of which 12 were animated, 1 was superhero and 1 was comedy.

July: 16 of which 11 were animated, 3 were fantasy and 2 were comedy.

August: 2 and both were animated.

September: 5 of which 4 were animated and 1 was comedy.

October: 8 of which 6 were animated, 1 was sci-fi and 1 was a musical.

November: 3 of which 2 were fantasy and 1 was animated.

December: 7 of which 2 were animated, 3 were fantasy, 1 superhero and 1 thriller.

So out of 109 films 62 were animated. I guess that's my favourite genre... Of course I re-watched 'The Land Before Time' this year and there's 13 films in that series. Well 14 last time I checked but I don't own the most recent one yet... Need to rectify that sometime.

Total Cinema Trips: 4
Beauty and the Beast
Logan
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 2 - went twice.

For 2018 I have picked the same number to watch - 100 - but I have also added the extra goal of going to the cinema 5 times. Checking my local Vue cinema website I would like to see (in alphabetical order after films that are currently airing):

• Pitch Perfect 3
• The Greatest Showman
• Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle
• A Wrinkle In Time
• Ant-Man and the Wasp
• Avengers: Infinity War Part One
• Black Panther
• Coco
• Deadpool 2
• Hotel Transylvania 3
• Incredibles 2
• Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom
• Love, Simon
• Mamma Mia: Here We Go Again
• Monster Family
• Peter Rabbit
• The Darkest Minds
• The New Mutants
• The Shape of Water
• Wreck-It Ralph 2

The sequels are pretty much automatic based on their predecessors. Animated films are almost a guarantee although there were a couple listed that I'd like to see trailers first. Some like 'The Darkest Minds' I hadn't heard of but the synopsis sounds interesting. Superhero is another genre that's almost guaranteed but 'Spiderman: Into the Spider-Verse' confused me in it's title. Is it a proper film? More information needed there, but also why do they need so many spidermen anyway? Just pick an actor and stick to him.

Another thing I want to try and track through 2018 is re-watches. How many times in a year do I watch Moana and the Guardians of the Galaxy films? Probably too many according to some but whatever. Anyway this has gotten pretty long so I will say goodbye and see you next post.

Stef Out x

New Years Resolutions 2018

So I thought last year's resolution list of 22 was more manageable but I still only achieved 6 and a bit. The bit was to read 'A Song of Ice and Fire' and I did start it but I'm on book 3 part 1 so I've put on this year's list to finish the series. The one thing I failed that shocked me was that I didn't read my 100 books! That's something I do every year without fail. I guess puppies take up more time than you realise... So here goes:

1. Lose at least two stone.
2. Get at least one piercing.
3. Get at least one tattoo.
4. Refine my clothing style, focus more on quality pieces.
5. Learn to drive.
6. Buy a new car.
7. See at least one stage show.
8. Got to Longleat Safari Park.
9. Get a second dog.
10. Read 100 books.
11. Finish 'A Song of Ice and Fire' series.
12. Watch 100 films.
13. Watch at least 5 films at the cinema.
14. Complete NaNoWriMo.
15. Finish the first draft of a novel.
16. Learn to draw dogs.
17. Improve my equine anatomy.
18. Buy a tablet.
19. Buy an iPod Classic.
20. Find a new career.

The trickiest things are going to be seeing a stage show, that depends on if there's anything decent on. The annoying thing is Wicked is on from pretty much now until March but we don't have the money for tickets at the moment and if we get the money then they'll probably have sold out so we'll see what happens. Shrek is on later in the year so that's a possible, as is the Take That one they did the TV show for.

NaNo is always tricky (this time I burned out and only wrote about 9,000 words) but I have a different plan in mind for 2018. Google docs or something similar on a tablet with a keyboard case. Hopefully that combination will fix the problems I have with speed and portability/ease. I can type faster than hand-writing but my laptop is a bit big and clunky to be bothered with and slower to start up whereas tablets are pretty much instant.

The other troublesome one is likely to be finding a new career. The thing is I'm starting to hate my job more and more. Retail is killing my soul and I don't know how much longer I can stick it. I'm 27 for Christ's sake this is not where I saw my life being, the thing is I've never had any clear idea of what I want to do. The only possible thing I did think of recently was dog grooming but I don't know if the market is too saturated where I live, are there too many? Are there any jobs? I need to research what's available locally in general - next town over is also possible once I learn to drive - and then see if there's anything that will suit me aka not retail, cleaning, office or reception (I struggle with telephones and 'perky face') that doesn't require masses of expensive training.

I'm shocked that I haven't already learned to draw dogs anyway but this year an idea for a project came to me themed around dogs, and then my brain literally just spoke and said why not do a series and include cats and horses too so that'll keep me busy for a few years hypothetically. Equine anatomy always needs improving in my art, I want dynamic, realistic poses!

I know an iPod Classic is an odd thing to want especially as Apple don't even make them any more but the storage size has always appealed to me. I debated just putting a super large SD card in my phone since my Nano died but the music app on my HTC phone is crap and some songs that I know are on the SD card just won't show up in my library which is weird. I even downloaded a music player thing from the app store and even that's not showing them. I don't get it.

I've already lost some weight but recent health crap at the doctors means that losing some more would be a good idea, also I want more freedom of clothing. I don't want to cross-examine a top or dress and debate whether or not it's going to fit me. I also want to buy more things that suit my rainbow goth style. As for piercings and tattoos they're a constant that keep getting pushed each year. Although saying that I did get a tattoo last year, even if it was only because a friend of mine is an apprentice and was doing them for free, I still love it anyway. It's a mandala style moon on my right shin.

Oh something I didn't put on my resolutions list but want to do is figure out a direction for this here blog. I'm thinking maybe more of a book/film review type thing with occasional writing bits thrown in. I originally started it with the intentions of it being a fashion blog but most of the time I'm in a t-shirt and skinny jeans or jogging bottoms because of walking the dog. I did try and take an outfit photo with my new camera a while back but I couldn't get everything in focus so I'm not sure how people who do it solo manage...

Anyway I've written enough for one day so I will leave it there for now.

Stef Out x