Halloween

You may think it's too early to think of your costume choices but, oh how wrong you are. Halloween is a time where you can dress to the nines as a character of your choice - these characters show off your creativity and taste. Any number of Mighty Boosh characters are appropriate here, mostly because of the cheapness the Boosh created them with and the appreciation from Boosh fans. Let me say "Boosh" one more time. Tee-hee. It's also a good time to brace cigarette holders between your teeth, in a bright Hawaiian shirt, shouting about bat country. Go wild kids.

Even though Halloween seems a very American celebration (and most people dress up as cheeky cats, nurse uniforms that don't pass regulations and the like) and no longer about scaring spirits, it doesn't mean you have to make a fool of yourself with an awkward showing of too much skin or have to egg or TP a house - Cool your boots. Lets have fun. I'll bring glow sticks, you're in charge of cups. I'm getting a little carried away...

[Clears throat and carries on]

I myself have been thinking of my costume for sometime, since the beginning of summer in fact, as Halloween my 2nd favourite day of the year (after my birthday and before the first day of summer).

There are many places you can get costume pieces from, including the often overlooked charity shops - good cause, good items. Though the good items can be a bit frustrating sometimes, as I wanted to find black lace gloves, and could only find white ones. That was a tense ten minutes. Though my attention to detail for my costume is becoming ever so slightly like that of a Parisian woman, just think of the amount of photographs - precision is everything.
Incase you think I'm being cheeky-rude, Parisians are known for their attention to detail - they wouldn't have chipped nail varnish, and are subtle with their detailing, not garish.
And hey, you can even get random items of clothing from shops down t' street, like the skeleton ribcage from Primark - if you can find the trousers, you're dandy.
 

List of potential characters
/ = awkward

Skeleton - Donnie Darko style
Mexican Day of the Dead
Rico the zombie
/ sexy Mexican Day of the Dead
Vyvyan Basterd
Twister Costume - For this costume to work, you need to love your fellow party-goers - no one wants "right foot, red" and to see your mate kicked in the balls.


The Mighty Boosh
Old Greg
The Hitcher
Spirit of Jazz

When gifted with a beard
The dude, with a White Russian and a roomy cardigan. "I like your style, dude". - Always a winner.

/obviously fake beard
Zeus
Bearded lady - for love of carnivals and AHS Freak Show

My Bleach Story

I started dying my hair noticeably unnatural colours, starting off with a light turquoise, and carried on for about five months.


 

To get my hair light enough I used L'Oreal Féria Super Platinum Power- though this got my hair light enough, it was really quite yellow-y. Even with the brass correcting chemical solution, it remained yellow. As I already had Bleach London's Blullini, I applied it onto my yellowy hair. It stayed pretty blue, but got progressively a more green after washes.
 

(All lovely colours used, including Blullini, are semi-permanent.)
To jazz it up, I also tried using Crazy Colours' Candy Floss (which was a very nice pink, though was very weak and didn't last for very long) and Bubblegum Blue (which lasted a lot longer than the pink and was a really rich blue. Though this also faded after a while into a greenie colour, which I rocked for a week or so).
 

After this, I experimented with Directions, mixing Cerise and Violet together in varying ratios as well as mixing it with white hair conditioner. Melonlady and ScarletSaint where saviours in this department, as mixing your own colour took more brains than applying the bottled colour.
 

To redo my roots, I used Bleach London Bleach Kit, which was the best - even though I only saw the work it did to my roots, I feel like it would have done a better job than the L'Oreal not-bleach-stuff I used at the beginning of the whole process. My roots weren't at all yellowy or brassy, but a quite brilliant white - which, of course I covered in even more dye.
 

Being called Ramona Flowers was funny at first, as I did change my hair colour every week or so, but when the same person says "hey, you're like Ramona Flowers" every week, it does feel overdone.
 

Even after all the dying of purple and pink and blue and purple and pink yet again, the overall remaining colour was a kind of green with cheeky Swedish blonde areas poking through.
 

Even though a lot of colour was put onto it every week or so for about six months, my hair stayed fairly sturdy and didn't snap off as was feared, and even before I attempted to bleach it it had been dyed several times. Part of this I owe to the fact that to get my desired colour with Directions I mixed it with a lot of conditioner. Another part is the fact that I try to hardly ever, and I mean never use a hair dryer (unless late for lectures) and never straighten my hair. And lastly, to the powers of the Bleach London moisturising, life restoring elixir that came along with the bleach kit.

 

At the end of my bleaching days, I cut my hair an awful lot and grew my roots to try and regain control of my now fairly dry, battle wary yet still vaguely healthy hair.
That is my bleach story.

Otello at London Coliseum

3.8/5 stars. Great production, though still not completely sold in the English.


London Coliseum - English National Opera.

Though the tickets may be sold out by know, it's good to look out for either the same cast members or creative team in other productions.
Otello - Stuart Skelton
Desdemona - Leah Crocetto
Iago - Jonathan Summers
Conductor - Edward Gardner
Director - David Alden
Designer - Jon Morrell
Movement Director - Maxine Braham
(Other cast and creative team members here)
When I bought the ticket, I didn't check to see if it was in Italian or not, which I should have done. Only wen checking cast members did I see that there was a translator of the libretto. If I saw that the opera was in English before buying the ticket, I would probably have been less hasty, as the seats were selling fast.
I shouldn't have worried at all. Even though I didn't need the surtitles to understand the singers, the language change wasn't nearly as annoying as I'd expected. I'm a bit picky when it comes to librettos - like when choosing wines, you go for what you love, and I would normally always picks Italian operas.
One other thing is rather strange about this production, and that is the fact that Skelton isn't in fact black, so when Iago curses "the moor", it isn't actually him being a racist bastard, it more like an obscure curse word we don't know the meaning of.
Set in Cypress, the set had a very tidy array of props, with a few chairs and tables dramatically thrown and quickly cleared from the stage. The only constant stage prop was an icon resembling the mother Mary. And there was some very interesting placements of this icon - when Iago is talking with Cassio, they throw darts, using the icon as a target. I took this as Iago being a nasty schemer of dastardly plans. When Otello is being particularly manipulated he picks up a chair, which was being used to prop-up the icon, letting it fall on the floor. There really were some clever minds behind this production.
The story itself was well performed and just as captivating as ever.
A thing to check when buying tickets is whether or not the opera is sung in English or not, as other operas such as La Boheme and La Traviata are sung in English.

Guardians of the Galaxy

4.5/5 stars. Who knew a talking racoon (Bradley Cooper) could be hilarious, a tree-man (Vin Diesel) could be endearing and cute, and that a kickass soundtrack could work with both awesome dance moves, random bursts of singing, and references to Kevin Bacon.


This film really is wonderful. With it joining all the easter-eggs of other Marvel films, such as The Collector (Benicio Del Toro), and Thanos (Josh Brolin). The Collector must be the easiest halloween costume out there, but still awesome. And to see Thanos (Brolin) again is really quite exciting, hopefully foreshadowing future Marvel films.

The film opens with the heartbreaking introduction to Peter Quill, who as a child is shown to be abducted from Earth in the late eighties (cue awesome soundtrack) after his mother’s death (cue the tears). It then cuts to twenty-six years in the future where we see a masked figure wandering around a deserted planet (cue awesome dancing). Having the ability to change from tears to heartfelt joy even in the opening twenty minutes set the vibe for the film, proving early on that it wasn’t just bunged together, but really well written and thought through.

Chris Pratt is awesome. This role really shows him off for those who haven’t seen Park and Recreation, or any other work of his. He really bloody encapsulates a cheeky guy with a great taste in music - just an über funny chappy amongst people of the Galaxy.

Saldana pulls of green extremely well, with her ninja/assassin moves. What’s fun is that her character Gamora is the love interest of the film without cheapening her character - she’s too ninja to be boring. Whoever knew they could pull this off along with the caring tree-man Groot (Diesel) and swearing, bomb-making techno-racoon (Cooper) should give himself a pat on the back. Bravo sir.

Seeing Lee Pace all robed up, as Ronan, in an awesome costume and supercool makeup, blue-marble skin is in folks, was quite something, especially after just seeing The Hobbit trailer before the film started. His villainous vibes were pretty strong whilst strutting about the place with Karen Gillan as Nebula was awesome. Lets just use that word again. Awesome.

This film managed to pull in so many characters and jokes without overdoing the superhero, super-gifted, “ooh look shiny” effects, and without feeling über gaudy. (cue “Hooked on a Feeling” - Blue Swede).

Drax’s (Dave Bautista) bright red tattoos on his blue skin look so cool, along with his hilarious unfamiliarity with metaphors. Though not a protagonist, he steals all screen time in fight scenes.

Though the easter-egg wasn’t much of a clue, and was more like a bit of fun for waiting fans, the whole film feels like a foreshadowing for the next instalment. According to the wonders of the internet, another Guardians of the Galaxy film is scheduled for release in 2017. (Even later than the next series of Sherlock).

The Guest 2014

"I'm going to have a drink. David, Do you want one."
 
4.5/5 stars. Just loved the way it was filmed, the music, and general thriller/mystery vibe.
Rated 15
Bloody loud weapons, scenes of a sexual nature, and flashing lights at one point.
 
The first few seconds of the film are Dan Stevens running with the camera directly behind his head, with the scene then jumping to the title in purple on a black background. For some reason, I feel sure that the typography was highly discussed - it had the old school thriller feel about it, which was the setup of the film. A man, David, introduces himself to a family by saying he served with their son, but passed that there is no more information about him.
 
It opens like an old school thriller, and goes into hilarious scenes, having cheeky glances at topless las and topless lad, quick dialogue, and well played fight scenes. - It's not that the fight scenes are particularly original, but the way they were performed and filmed made them really good to watch. They also really enjoyed putting sounds over the top of someone being hit, such as awkward squelching as someone face-plants the floor.
 
This is exactly the role which will set the mark for Stevens as someone who can act past the legacy he created on Downton Abbey. And holy shite boys, does he move on. As David, he manages to seamlessly portray a sincere smile followed by death stare void of emotion. Bravo.
 
Maika Monroe, who plays Anna, was really quite good - I haven't seen her in anything else, but according to the wonders of the Internet, she's also in Labor Day (2013) and The Bling Ring (2013). Anna is distrustful of David for the longest, everyone else is slowly won over by his winning smile and muscled physique. She's the character who really sets things in motion.
 
The relationship between David and Luke, Brendan Meyer, is that of an older brother looking after his younger sibling. Though, seeing as this is David, a highly trained soldier-man who no one knows anything about, he's not exactly the best role model.
 
What wasn't present in any of the trailers I watched, was the father of the family, or even many scenes with the mother. Embarrassingly enough, I can't remember their character names so can't find the actors names. Other than this, I did find the dynamic of each character rather interesting, and it adds the the story without introducing too many characters.


Joel David Moore makes a small appearance in this film as a drug dealer, or, in fact, a dealer of pretty much anything. Nothing like his character in Bones, but equally well portrayed.
 
This film was much better than I thought it would be, with its use of soundtrack (much like Hanna (2011)), and the story is on point and doesn't feel like an overdone plot. Remember to beware the flashing lights, crazy-loud sound effects, and all that.

Eddy Atlantis

"Who you gonna be tonight ?"

You may know Eddy Atlantis from his work with rapper Xander Ghost - now we can hear his solo work.

After taking his album off of SoundCloud for a while, Atlantis is back with $affire and $ymbol.



Both $affire and $ymbol are taken from his upcoming debut EP "Boxroom Mansion".
Exciting shit.

He's also released the accompanying music video for $affire, as well as short description of its meaning and vibe. - With its flashes of text, permanent flag-barrier disguising the background

[Free download of $affire from SoundCloud]

There is no real visual accompaniment to $ymbol as of yet, but a much simpler video with the kanji for "water" and "flowers", which combined make the word "splashes" or "spray", which I'm not sure of the meaning of.

Why there's Japanese is beyond me.

水花

 

If his album is finally becoming available, there are good vibes to come - With its oozing/permeating voice and synths.

 Now we just need to keep our ears peeled and eyes to the ground for gigs.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Sin City: A Dame to Kill For

"This has turned into a long, bad night"

3.7/5 stars - Originals are hard to live up to, but still worth a watch.

One of the stories is set a few years after Sin City (2005), with Alba's storyline. Sin City: A Dame to Kill For tries to up its game with more crazy violence and gritty story lines.
As part of the game up-ing, there is a lot more cheeky cheeky dancing from Jessica Alba, as she monologues her thoughts on the city and how she feels after the death of her man (Willis).

Devon Aoki is replaced by Jamie Chung as Miho, again with no dialogue, but her action-ninja vibes are strong in this film. I didn't even realise they were different actors, but I haven't seen Sin City '05 in a while.
Rosario Dawson is back as Gail, with many a wig and leather clothing. Her acting is also on point, but oh my those outfits.

Manute, played by Michael Clarke Duncan in Sin City '05, returns this time played by Dennis Haysbert. This part of the film is in fact a sequel to the '05 film, as we see how Manute got his golden eye. Manute is the guard of Ava (Eva Green), whose storyline is actually a prequel to one of the stories in Sin City '05. (Ava is the character who's poster was banned from being shown on billboards as it was too racy. My gosh, if they thought the poster was too much, what did they think about the film!?)



Josh Brolin is Dwight - what? That's another recast !? Okay. When watching the film you won't feel like people are getting recast because of the full-on storyline. Dwight was previously played by Clive Owen. - Brolin does a bang-up job.
In this same storyline we see Mickey Rourke return as Marv (all the familiar faces). You've got to hand it to them for getting the same actors in for the roles (all but Clarke Duncan, rest his soul. Oh yeah, and Aoki). Juno Temple also makes a small appearance in this storyline, rocking around the place in either a corset or less - if memory serves, a character of Old Town, Sin City.

Joseph Gordon-Levitt has the shortest storyline of the lot, playing Johnny, who comes to Sin City to make it big - though of course this goes from bad to worse - you don't play poker and take all the winnings from the heavy hitters without repercussions. Kudos to him for acting abilities and his character's guts.

Like its predecessor, A Dame to Kill For is heavy with the bloodshed, gore and black and white vibes, saving the colour used for Ava's green eyes and red lips, and Marcie's whole form is colour - maybe this is because of all the people in the city, Marcie seems to be the most innocent.

For the particularly gruesome parts, the players are either all white, no definition, on a black background or vice versa. This does help keeps the gruesome bits graphic and interesting rather than "I've just thrown up in my popcorn out of terror".
All in all, I enjoyed this film a little more than Lucy - probably because I new what I was getting into. Even though the first film was really interesting and intriguing, this installment has bravely tried its hand.