Livin' La Vida Loki

To keep track of the new films I've watched this year (new as in I've never seen them before - not necessarily ones that have been released in 2013).

( Film list )

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Total so far: 12
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To keep track of the books I've read this year.

( Book list )

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Total so far: 15
Total new books: 7
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Currently reading:
The Rise & Fall of the Third Reich - William Shirer


Books waiting to be read:

All prices include postage within UK (which is basically daylight robbery now, so if you think any prices are a little high, chances are it isn't entirely my fault). I always get proof of posting but if you want the extra security of recorded delivery then that'll cost extra. No trades. Prices are negotiable.

( NEW: wigs, makeup (Benefit, Nails Inc), clothing (sizes 4-8, including lolita stuff & Dir en grey T-shirt), bag, headbands & bows, bras (30D, 34B) )

( REPOSTED: Makeup (Mac, Rimmel, Barry M, Dior, Sephora, L'oreal, Lancome, Calvin Klein, Stargazer), jewellery, art magazines, Tokio Hotel merch )

SCREAMING

GUYS! I’M GOING TO A SPECIAL PREMIERE SCREENING OF IRON MAN 3 TOMORROW EVENING! NOT THE PREMIERE, BUT IT’S SCREENED SIMULTANEOUSLY & THERE’S A SATELLITE LINKUP TO THE RED CARPET OF THE ACTUAL PREMIERE IN LONDON.

Basically Cineworld Cinemas did a thing where they would hold 5 regional premieres at whichever cinemas got the most votes & mine came third. There were various giveaways to get hold of tickets (you couldn’t just buy them). I got mine through the local paper.

Me right now:


I still have to find someone to go with me though, as I have won a pair of tickets. Being antisocial sucks when it comes to producing a friend at short notice.


PS: We're specifically instructed not to bring phones in with us, which sucks, as while I'd never keep my phone on during a film (I despise people who do - either sit & watch the film or stay at home & download it or wait for the DVD, you twats) but I doubt people would care about someone tweeting the red carpet stuff.

I'll definitely do a review when I get home afterwards though.

So, former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher has died.

Appropriate music:


Have been rolling my eyes at the sanctimonious 'we shouldn't speak ill of the dead' types on Twitter & Facebook. Those people can fucking BITE ME. I've waited years for this. IDGAF that it's not 'classy' to gloat. To hell with being classy about the woman who destroyed the country. If people want to take the quiet & respectful route, they can go ahead. But acting holier-than-thou about those expressing some pleasure that someone who had such a severe negative impact (one which is feeding current efforts by the government to fuck the country over further) has gone is stupid considering the mainstream media is falling over themselves to give a rose-tinted summary of her. I was speaking ill of her while she was alive & I don't see why I should suddenly start pretending she was a good person. Don't even get me started on the people who think she's some sort of awesome feminist icon purely because she is female.

To anyone saying 'But it was a long time ago & she was old & she had dementia so couldn't remember it anyway!', here is my response.

Also: Useful reminder to pay attention to the news as this sort of shit is a perfect cover for anyone wanting to sneak some bad news under the radar.

The LiveJournal Expat Friending Meme

Been up for a few days, but it's slower moving than most friending memes because it's dealing with the latest influx of LJ refugees.

Saw Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters this afternoon. Quite fun, though I had to readjust a little, as I was expecting something like Van Helsing, but this took itself more seriously & lacked the latter's comic elements. Also a few inconsistencies - like it goes from day to night randomly depending on the needs of the plot (Hansel is knocked unconscious but wakes up close enough to town that a townsperson finds him yet when night falls he's still wandering in the woods, the Super Important Witch Ceremony is held under the light of a special rare type of moon, yet 5 minutes after Hansel & Gretel crash the party the sun rises just like *that*) & the DIEBEETUS plot element just seems really awkward. Still it was enjoyable & the 3D was pretty good.

But it was far surpassed by one of the advents preceding it.

( Best advert of all time - under cut as DW is doing that weird thing with displaying the wrong videos on friends pages again )

I mean it's slightly ruined by the fact that there's no way 3 has decent phone coverage in the Shetland Isles, but hey, that concept is only slightly more outlandish than a moonwalking pony.

Also, Argo came out today, & I bought it on bluray. I really should be saving my money but I caved as the film is fantastic & the special features are awesome. And it was even cheaper (by 99p) to buy from my local game store than it was on Amazon, which was nice. It comes with a UV copy of the film, which I have no idea about, so that'll be something to figure out.

OK, I'm going to rant about reactions to the Oscars. Because I need to vent & I'm wired on the coffee I was drinking to get through the ceremony. Since I reset my sleep cycle for the Oscars, am on a caffeine+sugar buzz, & it's stupid o'clock in the morning here & I suck at getting my thoughts down, I'm using bullet points in the likely vain hope that helps with coherency (haha).

- Firstly, THE BOOBS SONG WAS INTENTIONALLY BAD. That was the joke. The whole fucking point of that skit was that people were expecting MacFarlane to be crude & offensive & ruin the integrity of the ceremony blah blah, & Shatner shows up as Captain Kirk saying he's come from the future to warn him that if he doesn't shape up he's gonna go down as the worst Oscar host ever. In other words: That song was bad & you should feel bad. MacFarlene then proceeded to break out some classier material, & Kirk reports back that the reviews are getting better, going from "worst" to "pretty bad" to "mediocre", etc. He might as well have had a large neon sign as a backdrop saying 'I AM LAMPSHADING THE FACT THAT MY HUMOUR IS CONSIDERED TACKY'. I kinda found it annoying as I was watching it, as I'd rather have had an opening that was funny in its own right for being good & funny, rather than funny for being bad, but after watching the reactions throughout the ceremony it became funny for being epic trolling. As a side note, the song seemed to me to be making a point about how Hollywood had a sexist attitude towards actresses ('I've seen pretty much every woman's tits because you guys are all expected to get them out at every opportunity!') rather than perving.




I genuinely honestly think that if anybody other than Seth MacFarlane had made those jokes the same people howling about sexism would be fawning over them highlighting the problems inherent in Hollywood.

- Gifs of Jennifer Lawrence on the red carpet saying how she was starving & asking if there was food = haha so funny cos actresses starve themselves to fit into their Oscar gowns but this girl gives no fucks which is awesome. MacFarlane makes crack about actresses conveniently getting the flu to lose weight = OMG HOW DARE U MOCK THEM U PIG!!!1

- The Kardashians are basically a joke & constantly the butt of humour = no problem. MacFarlane makes a crack about how Ben Affleck might get mistaken for one of them because of his scruffy beard = OMG BASTARD!

- While I agree that the crack about George Clooney & Quvenzhane Wallis was a little close to the bone, the point was that older guys in Hollywood have a tendency to go for younger women - something that often been pointed out. People are also taking it to suggest that MacFarlane is basically pimping her out. He said in 16 years she'd be too old for Clooney. That's a big leap to go from '25 years old is considered ~past it~ in these circles' to 'he should totally bang her right now'. Like I say, still a little skeeved by making this joke about a 9 year old who is sitting in the audience, but he's not exactly advocating paedophilia as some people are suggesting. And if that is what he is going for, surely it's also pretty skeevy that he is accusing Clooney of something like that, as that's not really the sort of accusation that should be flung around as a joke - if anything that supports rape culture (unless he has been genuinely accused for going after underage girls & I haven't heard this, in which case yeah that gag is really beyond wrong).

- Then there's the convenient picking & choosing. People are raging over how MacFarlane said it didn't matter that nobody could understand Selma Hayek because she was attractive so they can just look at her. Completely failing to mention that he listed a couple of examples of Hot Foreign People, one of whom was Javier Bardem, but mentioning that a man was included in this list ruins the argument so shhhh! And never mind that the butt of the joke here is himself & the American audience ('Haha we're are so ignorant & monolingual!').

- And it's somehow mean of him for implying that Jennifer Aniston was once a stripper. Except that the joke was "of our next two presenters, at least one is honest about being a former exotic dancer", which was in reference to the fact that Channing Tatum (who was presenting that award with her) had actually been a stripper. So if the gag is about how stripping is something to be ashamed off, then he's as much the butt of the joke as she is. If the joke is about how she might not be being truthful about her past career... so what?

Look, I do get that there are times when a gag can sometimes come across differently if it's aimed at a woman rather than a man, due to the context of how women are viewed & societal pressures etc, but when the gag in question includes a bloke as the punchline then that doesn't really apply.



On a different note:
YAY ARGO WON BEST PICTURE!

I LIKE THE NEW TUMBLR UPDATE.

There. I said it.

Placed an order with Jacc's Coffee. They have a multibuy offer - 4 for £10, so I picked:
- Blackberry Brandy
- Caramel Fudge Twist
- Chocolate & Raspberry
- Danish Pastry


Anyway here are some links:
- 12 Letters That Didn’t Make the Alphabet - This is absolutely fascinating.

- London Underground: 14 alternative Tube maps - Some good ones. My favourites are the Daily Mail Hate, Doctor Who, & the one in Mackintosh style.

- The inside story of how David Bowie made The Next Day - How one of the most famous people in the world managed to record an entire album in secret in an age of leaks & social media. "The industry assumes that to get what marketing departments call cut-through or mind-share for music you have to bombard people: artists are supposed to be in a constant dialogue with their fans, via Twitter or blogs or Facebook. It's a timely reminder that mystique is a valuable commodity. You can perhaps give people more by giving them less." PLEASE CAN EVERYONE TAKE THIS ADVICE.

- White House responds to petition demanding the US government build a Death Star - "Why would we spend countless taxpayer dollars on a Death Star with a fundamental flaw that can be exploited by a one-man starship?"

- Brian Blessed Alarm Clock (Android) - I still need to install this & give it a try.

- Local Record Shops Collaborative Google Map - Find independent record shops near you, & add ones that are missing.

- Why you should by Dredd on DVD/bluray - I resent the finger-wagging on display here over box office takings (of course they're low - it was only out for like a week & some of us wanted to see it but BLINKED & FUCKING MISSED IT - but the sentiment (buy it on DVD/bluray & hopefully ensure a sequel) is a good one.

- Tom Hiddleston wins 'sexiest man alive' poll, which is apparently a surprise to some people... - HOW IS THIS A SURPRISE AT ALL?