Forgotten Music

After a complete phone memory card malfunction the other week which resulted in me losing all my music from my phone, I had the arduous task of putting all the music back on there. It took a very long time of searching through my external hard drive judging which music was good enough to grace my phone, but it was also entirely worth the time and effort.

My external hard drive is probably not used by me as much as it should be even though the phrase, 'Yep, completely backed everything up...' runs off my lips more times than it should due to sheer embarrassment. Anyway, I digress. The great thing about my external hard drive is it contains hundreds of songs that I had downloaded or copied on to my dad's computer when I was about 15. Going through the hard drive I discovered songs that I completely forgot existed, songs which at the time were probably my favourite songs, in the world, ever.

This is one of the joys of the digital music age. You can have song that lies dormant for years then find it on some old device and fall in love all over again. Over the last few days I have been enjoying the sounds of Milburn, The Rapture, The Bravery, The Departure and all the other bands who I adored when I was 16 (to my shame I also found LMC and U2 - Take Me To The Clouds Above. We can't all be musically perfect)

So I thought I would share with you some of my forgotten youth, the music that shaped how I am today, and also probably annoyed my mum a great deal due to it always being played on repeat.

Enjoy!

The Bravery - Honest Mistake

Milburn - Lipstick Lickin'

The Departure - Be My Enemy

I'll Tell You A Secret...

Everyone has one. You have one, I have one, we all have a TV programme we feel guilty about liking. If you say you don't then I simply do not believe you.

I have a few of these guilty little pleasures, one of them being Bad Girls. Judge me all you like, it's not like I don't already judge myself for watching this awful programme, but I simply can't stop myself. It is addictive. They hook you in by showing you highlights from the next episode at the end; ''YVONNE CALLS SOMEONE A NONCE AND PUNCHES HER IN THE FACE', 'CRYSTAL AND JOSH NEARLY GET CAUGHT DOING IT IN A CUPBOARD', 'HOLLAMBY MOANS AT SOME PRISONERS'.

I get excited to see what tragic event will happen next. This is when I realise how sad my life really is, that the highlight of my day is going to bed and watching an episode of a drama set in a women's prison. There are never any real stories, just a lot of angry women either copping off with one of the prison guards, or a prison guard going insane because men don't fancy her, (for anyone interested, I couldn't believe that Di slept with Gina's boyfriend, and now Gina's just found out she's pregnant AND that her boyfriend cheated on her, poor love).

But still I simply cannot stop watching. I want to see the two Julie's dithering about finishing each others sentences, and Babs finally getting out of the nick, and to see Crystal and Josh go off and have a happy life together outside of prison. I think as long as you admit to yourself that a programme is rubbish then it makes it just that bit more acceptable.

Now if you will excuse me, I need to go and finish series 3...

Topshop, February

New month, and some beautiful new dresses from Topshop. As you all know, I am a HUGE Topshop fan. Their dresses are to die for, both being elegant and simplistic. They're not afraid to use denim which I like, as denim is never used enough in my opinion. I have found from experience that it is possible to wear a denim dress and not look like a 10 year old girl..

Keeping with this seasons fitted dresses, as well as more smock type dresses, pulling inspiration from the fifties and sixties, the new lines added to this seasons collection are lovely. I am still trying to find the mystery man who will purchase all these beautiful clothes for me but have so far failed. Any takers, please let yourselves be known.

So here are my favourite new dresses for this month. I've also thrown in a pair of beautiful black leather shoes. They will be placed on my ever growing wish list (a list that is never ending).

Globophobia, it's real..

If I was a cat, this photo would be me..

Boys Who Like Girls

I will never understand why a man dressed as a woman dancing around is so funny, but it really really is. First it was Robert Webb, then Rufus Hound and now Russell Kane. There is something weirdly sexy about it.. No? Just me then..

The Robert Webb one is my absolute favourite. I don't think any other video on YouTube makes me laugh as much as this one. God bless you, Robert Webb.

Ehlers Danlos Syndrome

Ehlers-Danlos is a group of inherited disorders that affects the bodies soft tissues. People with the condition suffer from lax joints, bruise easily, have stretchy skin and many other more minor side effects.

As someone who suffers from the condition, I know first hand how savage the condition can be. Although many people who do not know about it find it funny, it is anything but. The daily pain, which can be managed with pain killers, can disrupt those with the conditions daily lives. Frequent subluxations can make walking and running difficult (luckily for me I hate running anyway..).

Although it can cause severe embarrassment, it is a genetic disorder, something which the suffer has no control over. As it is a relatively uncommon disorder there is a bit of a stigma attached to it. I tend to find people laugh as they don't know what else to say. I also make jokes about it, but mainly because if I didn't I'd spend my whole life letting it get me down.

In a parallel world I would not have been born with this condition, but I did and I have to accept it. It gets me down and hinders my every day life but there is nothing I can do. I can either moan about it, or keep living. It is one of the reasons I have done so many things with my life. It is like a big black cloud following me, but one day the cloud will disappear and it will be sunny again.

The Ehlers-Danlos Support Group has been set up to help those with the condition, and gives medical advice and support on how to not let it bring you down. I hope that one day I will have millions of pounds to pour in to research about the condition, and one day there will be medical advancement in to better treatment. Here is the website, go check it out (and if you want a laugh, youtube videos of bendy people with Ehlers-Danlos..)

http://www.ehlers-danlos.org/

La Vita è Bella

La Vita è Bella, or Life Is Beautiful, is a film set in Italy during World War Two. The film focuses on a Jewish family who get taken away to a concentration camp and separated. The father who is named Guido does all he can to protect his small son from the true horrors of what a concentration camp holds. Guido decides to make it in to a game and tells his son that if they get 1000 points they will win a tank. 

The first half of the film is more of a slapstick affair, whereas the second half, although still funny, has parts that completely pulls at the heart strings, or rather rips them out. I have never had a film that has made me cry so much from both funny and sad parts. 

Some people judged the film for taking away from the horrors of the Holocaust. I personally believe the film to be not necessarily about the Holocaust, but more about the love a father has for his child. Guido will do anything he can to protect his son and this eventually leads to tragedy. 

This film is one of the best films that I have ever seen. The characters all gel so well together, and I think it helps that the writer Roberto Benigni has his real life wife Nicoletta Braschi playing his wife in the film. The child actor who plays their son Giosuѐ is also superb. As a small child who wouldn't know the traumas of the Holocaust, he acts beautifully. 

I would recommend this film to anybody. It is best to watch it in Italian with English subtitles as the dubbed version of the film takes away from some of the amazing acting. It is one of the saddest, but also one of the best films, and it is easy to see why it won so many Oscars. A must see. 

Broken Heart

One of my favourite lines from Skins, a line that is very true indeed.

Red Riding

Last year I was introduced to the programme Red Riding. Originally screened in 2009, I managed to miss it while it was shown on TV. Luckily due to the greatness of 4oD I was able to catch up with it on there.

The programme is split in to three separate stories that are all interlinked. Based on the Red Riding Quartet by David Peace, the stories revolve around the West Yorkshire Police Force and the corruption that runs rife there. Each episode is set in the year of its title; 1974, 1980 and 1983.

The first episode is based around the story of Eddie Dunford who is the new crime correspondent for the Yorkshire Post. Just as he gets his new position, a girl goes missing from a village nearby. Dunford becomes obsessed with trying to show police incompetence and also try and highlight the corruption in the force. He also begins a relationship with a woman who's child had gone missing a number of years before. The whole story is full of drama, sex and guns, the perfect combination.

The second episode focuses on the Yorkshire Ripper. Peter Hunter is brought in to the West Yorkshire force to try and re-evaluate the case, and to go over evidence to try and find out who is committing the murders, and why he has yet to be caught. Hunter faces problems from the start, with many of those in the force not liking or trusting him (he is given a very unsavoury nickname). He to can see the amount of corruption in the force and aims to also get to the bottom of it without becoming involved himself. He, like Dunford, gets on the wrong side of the force and faces the consequences.

The third episode ties together the events of the first and second episodes. This story focuses on a number of characters including a member of the West Yorkshire force, a local lawyer and also a local rent boy. Another girl has gone missing, but the man originally charged with the murders is in a secure hospital, but the similarities in the cases seem to be striking. Lawyer John Pigott tries to help the man accused of the crime, local man Michael Myshkin. At the end of the episode all three stories get resolved and it is not an ending you expect at all.

This was one of the best British dramas I have seen in a very long time. The cast is superb, and features a number of very talented actors including Andrew Garfield, John Henshaw, Sean Bean and Paddy Considine. At times it can be highly confusing, but all the viewers questions and confusions are eventually answered. I do not know if the force was as corrupt as the programme makes out, but the corruption that runs throughout the station is huge. I like to have some faith in the British police and like to think that now there is no such thing as corruption, I could be wrong.

I would recommend this programme to anyone, well apart from those who don't like seeing blood.. or sex.. or guns. If you don't like those three then maybe you should give it a miss.

Guns Don't Kill People..

"A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed"

In the coming months a number of states in America will decide whether or not guns should be allowed to be carried on college campuses. As it stands, most states allow a person to carry a weapon as long as it is concealed. These laws though currently ban the owner from carrying their guns in schools, colleges, hospitals, churches or bars (unless with the owners permission). America has a problem with guns, this is well known, but is allowing people to carry guns in more places the wisest decision to help with America's gun problem?

As the saying goes, 'Guns don't kill people, people kill people', and many American's see this to be true. However, events from recent years have seen a steady rise in gun related incidents and there have been a number of high profile mass shootings such as Virginia Tech and Columbine. Therefore is it wise to let students carry a gun to class? The argument is that if someone does come onto campus with a gun, if someone else has a gun they can stop them with their gun. Confusing I know.

When I was studying in America I was genuinely scared of someone shooting me whilst I was learning about the student movement of the sixties, or what happened at the end of the Cold War. I once am pretty sure I did see a boy with a gun in his bag. So what did I do? Smiled at him a lot so if he decided to go crazy he might spare me because I smiled at him a few times. Genuinely.

Many colleges have their own campus police. These are proper police with proper powers, not like campus security you see in England. They carry guns. Surely if there were to be an incident it should be the police who are fully trained in firearms who should try and stop a potential shooter, not a rogue student?

It has only been in recent years that a Supreme Court judge has ruled that he interprets the second amendment to mean an individuals right to own a gun. This is a new step, and will make it even harder now for federal or state governments to bring in any form of gun control legislation. The NRA, the most powerful lobby group in America, is right behind expanding the laws for where individuals can carry guns. If  recent history is anything to go by, once the NRA are on board a campaign it is like an express train where the breaks don't work. They go full steam ahead and will probably achieve what they set out to as they have a huge pool of money to draw from.

So, in the coming months we will have to wait and see if individual states expand the laws. I personally hope that they are kept as they are. America already has such a complex and dangerous relationship with guns and there is no need to muddy the water further.

The Beatles

"Turn off your mind, relax and float down stream"

The Beatles, arguably one of the biggest bands to have ever existed, with John, Paul, George and Ringo, four of the most famous names in the entire world. 

Each new year a new album by the band gets churned out by their record label, people went crazy for them all over again when their songs were finally released on itunes, but what is their appeal? 

Having been brought up on The Beatles I am a superfan. I live and breathe The Beatles, listen to them at least once a day, read books on them and watch documentaries based on their story. I love them. To me one of the strangest sentences a person can say is, 'I've never really heard The Beatles'. A look of shock registers on my face, and all I want to do is pull out my ipod and shove the headphones in their ears.

The early albums feature a mix of covers, mainly of Motown songs. These would then be combined with songs written by Lennon and McCartney. As the years go on, and with each album, they get their own unique sound, one the world came to love. 

My Dad and Aunty were lucky enough to see the band in the 1960s and my Dad said that even though he was in the first few rows he couldn't hear a thing. This was a combination of tiny amps being used, but mainly the hundreds of screaming girls fainting and crying due to the fact they were in the presence of the band. 

The Beatles have the ability to make me laugh but also make me cry. I think I have only ever got through the entirety of Let It Be once without shedding a tear. They are a unique piece of British musical history. They may be imitated, but to me they will never be bettered.

Here is a photo of The Beatles looking like a cross between some Hasidic Jews and some Amish people.

After All, In The End, Just Pretend

A few years ago my sister introduced me to this beautiful song. I didn't know much about The Bens but after hearing this I had a listen to a few more songs and loved them. I had heard Ben Lee whilst living in Australia (he wrote one of the most catchy songs of all time called Catch My Disease, look it up) but did not know anything about The Bens as a collective.

The lyrics sum up probably most people's lives. Life is unpredictable, bad things happen, but just make do and mend. Make do and mend is my personal motto. Parents break up, people die, you lose friends and things go wrong. Things will be bad for a while but will eventually pick themselves up. Just pretend in your mind that things will be OK. Your brain is the most useful tool that you have. In recent years I have been able to train myself to not take things as read and also to be able to not over analyse when things go wrong.

So here it is, Just Pretend by The Bens.

Melbourne, I Love You

In 2006 I made the brave (or some would consider stupid) decision to move to Melbourne, Australia. Originally my gap year plan was to move to Canada, but then my brother's wedding got in the way and I changed my plans and off to Oz I went.

The only people I knew who lived in Melbourne were my sister in laws family. I had met my sister in laws parents briefly and was scared about moving to a country I'd never been to before, as well as living with people I barely knew. I needn't have worried. Olivia's family are the most welcoming people I have ever met. The evening I got there I was told, 'You are not a guest, you are part of the family'. This meant as part of the family I got to be fully involved for wedding preparations. In turn this meant I ground walnuts for a week to make cakes.

After a few weeks I began looking for places to move to. I got extremely lucky and found a lovely house in a suburb called Clifton Hill. I also got a job working for a market research company. This was when my trip really got going.

Melbourne is one of the best cities I have ever been to. If you're young, free and single there are a wealth of cool bars and trendy boutiques to visit. There are exhibitions on, free concerts, art galleries, museums. It is like a more compact, dare I say it, better version of London. I have never felt as free as I did when I lived there.

My favourite bar was called Section 8. It was down a side alley in Chinatown, and consisted of a caravan acting as the bar, and crates standing in for chairs. I have never been anywhere like it, and am sure I will never  go anywhere like it again. I recommend it to anyone who visits.

If I was given an opportunity to go and live in Melbourne again, I would in a heartbeat. I really think you can fall in love with a city. I have fallen hook, line and sinker in love with Melbourne.

MELBOURNE, I BLOODY LOVE YA!

Superbowl

Last year I was lucky enough to be in America to watch the Superbowl. A huge American tradition (they look at you like an alien if you say you're not watching it), advertisers spend millions of dollars buying advertising space during the ad breaks. People watch the Superbowl sometimes just for the adverts, seeing the actual game of football in the middle as a bit of an inconvenience.

As an outsider I found them fascinating. Advertisers really step up their games for the Superbowl, and it is clear to see. I thought I would share some of my favourite adverts from the 2010 Superbowl. One is for Audi Cars and focuses on the issue of being environmentally friendly. The other is for a company called ETrade. This advert still makes me laugh, mainly just for the last line (they actually got sued for this advert.. you will guess why).

                        

The One

Recently I have been thinking about soulmates. Well no, not necessarily, more of a musing over whether there is a certain person for everyone, and how do you know when you've met them.

I am the type of person who can't make an impulse decision. If I go out to buy a pair of jeans I will go in one shop, try some on, then go to about five more shops before returning to the first. I always wonder how I will make that decision over a man. Will I know I have met 'the one', or will I panic, go somewhere else and wish I could return to the first? My Mum claimed that sometimes you just know, but I'm not so sure. I know how my brain works, and I know that as much as I'll want to stay with someone I am totally in love with I will always be thinking, 'What if?'.

By the time this happens I hope that I will use my brain, make a decision, and then stick with it. I am a big romantic at heart. I look forward to a time when I can happily devote myself to one person, and will hopefully know when that right time is. I guess only time will tell...