Friday 11 July 2008

Summer Mix Tope volume 2

Well it me and mines 9 year anniversary tomorrow, and we are having friends around for a summer BBQ (weather permitting)

Here are some of the tracks we will be listening to. I love summer music!



Arrested Development - Tennesse (wow do I miss these guys. Groovy music with a message, should all rap be like this?
The Killers - When You Were Young - Jacques Lu cont mix (Stuart Price is a f*cking genius)
Gossip Folks - Missy Elliot (just love that groove)
Beats International - Dub be Good to Me (Such a classic)
En Vogue - Give it Up Turn it Loose (Driving around in the car with the top down good)
Bloc Party - Flux (Dancing drunk in the sun good)
Sister Sledge - Thinking Of You (Disco good)
All Saints - Pure shores (they never topped this)
Imani Coppola - Legend of the Cowgirl (This should have been MASSIVE)
Nelly Furtado - Powerless (Better than anything she did with Timberland)

The girls of "Sex and the City"

I love that show with a passion. It is simply wonderful and really captures the complexity of friendships. The bad times and the good times, the arugments and the laughter. What I also like is although the show is all about Carrie, you get to see how the other three women interact with each other, how there own relationships with each other work.

there are so many defining moment for each character, but there are some that speak to me so much, making me like them even more.

Charlotte was always the weakest character for me. I could never understand how she would be friends with the other three. That was until the episode in season four "All The Glitters". Charlotte's marriage is practically over and it hits home with her as she gets ready to have home and Garden come and photograph her 'perfect' life.

As much as I loved Samantha, she always seemed like the comic relief gimmick of the show. I could understand her friendship and there were so many touching moments with the rest of the girls, but it wasn't until season six "Let There Be Light". Sam leaves her boy toy Smith in the lobby as she goes upstairs with Richard for a good ole root. When she comes down, feeling awful, Smith is there waiting for her and she looks at him and cries "I don't know what's wrong with me" the most vulnerable moment for Sam and did it bring on the water works for me too.

Everyone loves Carrie. She is so pesky and fun, and so so flawed. But the episode that defined her for me was "The Drought" in season one. Carrie farts in bed with Big. Not only was it so funny, but watching someone so confident completely fall apart at the thought of a fart is so touchingly sweet, especially the hurricane she makes out of that tiny little 'ferp'.

My favorite will always be Miranda. She is probably the most complex, and funniest in the show for me. you can understand why she is friends with each of the girls and she always stays Miranda, even as she softens. The moment that she became a fully rounded person for me was in "Ex and the City" season 2. After running away from Steve on the street she has to confront him when he shows up at her apartment calling her shitty. She admits how she misses him and cries. The hard edges of her soften.

Thursday 10 July 2008

SLUT PRIDE!!

I recently had a conversation with someone about gay mens attitude to sex, They were very negative about it, which still surprises me. People are still so hung up on sex.

Why?

It's fun....and isn't life about having fun.

In these months of various pride celebration there is going to be a lot of gay men and women having loads of sex. Some people look down on it, even within our own communities, using phrases like "low self esteem".

To quote a woman who I think should f*cking run the world.

"What I love most about gay men is the way that they are about sex. There is a kind of fun and frivolity that surrounds gay men and their sexuality that is not there for straight men and sex. I think if you're oppressed over who you want to sleep with, when you actually go and do it, you're gonna have a really good time. If you are hated for who you like to f*ck, you are gonna kick up your heels and f*ck...and it is such an inspiration to watch."


Thank you Margaret. I love you.

Just use protection

Wednesday 9 July 2008

Challenge yourselves.

I was having an email conversation with a friend about a certain actress who has lately been seduced into the action/thriller/tough girl type films. While she is still appealing and in some instances very very good, it does nothing to really impress.

Of course I am talking about Jodie Foster.

I loved her ever since my Mum rented me "Freaky Friday". Oh those were the days.
Sure she has a great life with a woman she loves, and children, so she probably doesn't need to pick any really challenging roles, but please Jodie... for me.... challenge yourself.

I would love to see her play a villain in something. She was so good as a soulless corporate type in "Inside Man" but the film was a little let down in the premise of it all. It would be good to see her succeed at playing a more romantic role (perhaps being in a same sex on screen relationship could give her freedom to be honestly intimate) as I have always felt when it can to intimacy with men on screen, it always felt a little forced.

Perhaps this is a problem with actresses who are know for playing tough characters. Sigourney Weaver has not had a lot of success playing softer women. As much as I loved her in "Snow Cake" I can see how people would never be convinced with Ripley playing someone with Autism who likes to eat snow.

Is it us the viewers? Julia Roberts can do relationships with her eyes closed. "Erin Brockovich" showed that you can be hard and loving, but Julia has never ventured into the Action/Thriller genre.

Probably, for me anyway, the role that stands out as beautifully balancing tender romance with tough girl action would be Yu Shu Lien as played majestically by Michelle Yeoh in "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon". This is a role where the performance consisted of amazing action sequences with tough girl attitude, but was also able to break your heart with its tender longing for love.
Just look at this clip of her as she watches the man she loves with all her heart, but cannot be with. Her eyes say so much.



Perhaps with the Jodie's and Sigourney's of the world men are not something they need to be defined by, especially with the roles they choose, but still I would like to see some tenderness that is not directed at a child, but a partner.

Clarice Starling and Ripley are icons of cinema. Uma Thurman's The Bride is up there too, but her screen success is iffy to say the least (She should work with Tarantino all the time). And yes Michelle Pfeiffer high kicked throughout "Batman: Returns" and was fantastic, but that was more tongue in cheek then serious ass kicking.

Perhaps as western viewers need their women to be either Madonnas, Mothers, Bitches or Whores. Why can they not kiss ass and love tenderly at the same time?

Tuesday 8 July 2008

How do you say FIERCE!