A film that you know all the words to: HACKERS

NOTE This film could have belonged in so many categories. Jeez if someone died in it I’d probably play it at my funeral and get the full house. But I had to make a decision and “A film I know all the words to” seemed appropriate as, well, I do

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Norman? This is Mr. Eddie Vedder, from Accounting

From the opening scenes you realise that Hackers is not taking itself too seriously, and that the film is going to be littered with pop-culture references. I like that – for the first time in my 36 years on this planet suddenly it’s OK to stay in all night playing on your computer. I got a strange stirring inside when I KNEW that the characters name Emmanuel Goldstein was not random, and them hacking “the Gibson” – well that’s just Geek 101.

Ok – so this film is hardly Shakespeare, it’s clunky and badly edited and the scene sequence is so to cock that you wonder if they dropped all the bits on the floor at the last minute. However, an easy script is – by default – pretty easy to remember – like a small shopping list or your nieces and newphews names.

The soundtrack kicks ass and the plot is fast-paced so it’s easy enough to digest.

However, there is more.

They’re cool. Angelina Jolie’s character Acid Burn/Kate Libby has to be the worlds hottest hacker (I’m straight but I’m not blind). She’s all body con sportswear, elfin harcut, beestung lips and a kick-ass (or should that be Hit Girl?) laptop.

The Big Clear Out

Recently I had a revelation

Whether it’s down to me having a birthday, and hence a jot more sensible than I was 12 months ago, or I’ve simply hit saturation point – but I’ve been having a huge clear out recently.

I am an incurable hoarder.

My flat is a veritable library of DVDs. VHS tapes, cassette tapes, vinyl records, books and boxes and boxes of what would generally be termed bric-a-brac.

A few years ago I would have spent hours slaving over eBay getting rid, but as most are not valuable, it’s simply not worth the effort nowadays.

I like having stuff – its as simple as that. I have books I haven’t read because … well I didn’t really know why – until several things happened

• I realized that I had a lot of what I would call outdated media (VHS tapes, cassette tapes) because they represented my teenage years, and I simply didn’t want to forget about those albums and films I enjoyed.
• I realized I was keeping a lot of books and DVD’s simply because I liked having a lot of things. In my head, having lots of books make me a reader and that was  good thing. Same for DVD’s, the collection made me a film fan.

Having recently acquired an iPad, another factor in this purge I believe, I can now get access to books easily via Kindle. Half the VHS tapes don’t even work (pesky tracking issues) and with HMV on permanent sale many of them are a couple of quid on the high street, if I did ever have the urge to watch them (unlikely).

When it comes to the cassette tapes, there is a different issue here – investment. Not financial, but time. Many of these are home recordings of songs I loved as a teenager (NME in one hand and the pause-record button in the other during John Peel). But they have to go – so I’ll make a list of all the songs I have rediscovered through my tape collection  - try to track them down elsewhere – and wave goodbye to the tapes. (In addition a work colleague has a car with a tape player, but no tapes – so I’m letting him rummage through them to find something useful!)

All of this clear out has been helped in some way by the discovery that The British Heart Foundation collect furniture (of which I have several pieces) and smaller items as well.

So currently, waiting in my hallway is the following

• 1 kitchen table
• 1 waist height bookcase
• 1 standard lamp
• 10 carrier bags of books
• 1 black bag of clothes and shoes
• 1 box of bric a brac

So one this miraculous collection has taken place my flat will feel about 3 ton lighter, I will be able walk down my hallway without brusing my shins and I can get on with buying more crap

Maybe …

Relocation relocation relocation

Exciting times …. this blog is making a move to pastures new

http://carolinethinks.com/

See you there …

25 Films … a variation on a theme

Right, so people are sparking their inner-blogger by working through something called 30 Days of Music – where you knock out a post about a song that falls into a particular category. A nice idea, and tempting – but as I write about music all day every day, I feel I need a different subject area. So here goes …. 25 Films …

day 01 – your favorite film
day 02 – your least favorite film
day 03 – a film that makes you happy
day 04 – a film that makes you sad
day 05 – a song that reminds you of someone
day 06 – a film that reminds you of somewhere
day 07 – a film that reminds you of a certain event
day 08 – a film that you know all the words to
day 09 – a film that you can dance to
day 10 – a film that makes you fall asleep
day 11 – a film starring your favourite actor/actress
day 12 – a film starring an actor you hate
day 13 – a film that is a guilty pleasure
day 14 – a film that no-one would expect you to love
day 15 – a film that describes you
day 16 – a film that you used to love but now hate
day 17 – a film that you hear often see on telly
day 18 – a film that you wish you saw on the telly
day 19 – a film from your favorite genre
day 20 – a film that you watch to when you’re angry
day 21 – a film that you watch to when you’re happy
day 22 – a film that you watch when you’re sad
day 23 – a film that you wish you could screen at your wedding
day 24 – a film you would like screened at your funeral
day 25 – a film from your childhood

Insults and compliments: a 2 way street?

Are insults and compliments given or received?

If someone makes a comment that insults me, is it an insult, even though it wasn’t intended as one?

Similarly, if someone gives me a compliment, but I don’t feel it, is it stll a compliment?

Do they have to be BOTH given and received, or can it be one or the other?

Surely an insult that is actually taken as a compliment, is neither? Or both?

Help?

Bunny beware: Fatal Attraction comes to the West End

Cover via Amazon

As a woman who has has the odd “bunny-boiler” moment, I was pleased to see that the film Fatal Attraction is being turned into a theatre play.

Originally starring Glenn Close and Michael Douglas – it showed the pitfalls of playing around, and Douglas’ married character gets in way out of his depth with single, biological clock-ticking Alex (Close). I loved the film because, lets be honest girls, whilst we may not have got to such lengths, we’ve all fallen for a boy in a big way. Plus is nice to see a cheating husband get caught out!

However, when the film was released the feminists weren’t happy that a powerful successful woman was actually a dangerous stalker. I wonder if the play will cause a resurgence in that anger? I hope not, although it will all help to promote the play, plus we hear that the level of Alex’s stalking has been pared down a little this time round.

And of course the animal rights lobby MAY get on board to complain, as we hear the notorious bunny boiling scene IS being left in the film. Of course it is – I’d be furious if it was taken out.

Pots at the ready girls.

Part 2 of the mysterious pink ballet shoe … the reveal

In my last post I explained about the mysterious pink ballet shoe that was sent to my house … well would you like to know what it was all about?

It transpires that Urban Ballet is the latest in the new craze of combining flash mobs and dance … flashmobs being seemingly impromptu gatherings of people who have arranged to meet in a certain place to carry out a particular stunt or activity.

So in this case, come 11am in the walkway between the 2 Bullring Buildings, it was just a normal day …

But hang on, those 2 guys sitting outside Starbucks don’t have any coffee and that girl leaning against the billboard looks kinda suspicious. Is she … and those 2 in Starbuck? and hang on .. there are 3 young athletic types lurking over her by Urban Pie …. are they?????…

Yes, there were more than 20 ballet dancers going incognito, just waiting for the strike of 11, and the music to start.

The mysterious pink ballet shoe

The other day a jiffy bag arrived for me in the post. This is always an exciting time as jiffy bags hold something interesting – a CD maybe, or some random late night drunken Ebay purchase.

This time … THIS was inside …

Now, I may not have been one of those girlie girlie kids but even I know that that is ballet shoe. One of them. A very odd thing to find inside an envelope addressed to me.

A tiny pink ballet shoe, with a pink ribbon around it.

On paper this is the recipe for me to run screaming for the hills and dig out my Doc Martens to redress the karmic balance … but this had me intrigued.

The ribbon around the shoe had the following message:

“Something is happening at Bullring …. 11am Friday 9th April St Martins Walk lifefeelsbetter.co.uk/urbanballet”

To quote a certain nosy little girl who fell down a rabbit hole, curiouser and curiouser.

So what is Urban Ballet?

http://www.lifefeelsbetter.co.uk/urbanballet/

Now I’m guessing this means there will be ballet, at the Bullring.

The last time I saw ballet was when school took us to watch The Nutcracker. We spent the whole time using the binoculars to star at one of the male ballet stars who had a large hole in his tights. The name of the ballet took a whole new meaning.

Today I am older, wiser and interested to see what this is about … I will report back …

Pre-Easter Malaise

Everyone seems stupidly excited about Easter weekend .. is it because we’ve all been working stupidly hard since Christmas and we all need a few days off and some serious partying?

I know, in these ‘ere parts, there is a LOT of excitement about the notorious Headphone Party at the Actress and Bishop…. sounds like a really stupid idea, a pub full of people with headphones on, but it is seriously good fun.

Oh, and it’s always carnage. Look at these losers, they don’t even know how to wear their headphones.

How about you? What are you looking forward to this weekend? Binge drinking and vomiting, or like a normal person ,are you just happy to have a few days off work?

The sad things is, that ahead of weekend like this:

1. there is the obvious feeling that it will be one hell of a let down
2. there is that impending malaise that sets in, as you are so keen to get out that you resent everything in between now and then.

There is only one answer: start NOW!!!

And I’m feeling old …

For some reason today I am feeling very very old indeed .

First, I am not old. Well, ok, age is relative and to a 14 yr old I’m practically a grandmother, but in the big scheme of things I’m not old. I am 34. This is not old.

But boy do I feel it today.

There could be several reasons for this …

• a friend of mine turned 30 over the weekend so I welcomed her to the 30-40 age tick box with open arms. I think she would have preferred to stay in the 20-30 box. However I am still the oldest of all my Birmingham friends. I am the mum of the group so I am the responsible one, apparently.
• I had quite the party week last week so I am suffering from the old skin, tired eyes and aching kidneys this week
• People keep asking me about what I want to do when I leave uni. In fact, so many people that  am now starting to seriously think about it.

So responsibility, aging friends and a hangover is all making me feel very old indeed