Claudia Winkleman

I really dislike *Claudia Winkleman, I'm not sure when I started to dislike her, or when it became an over whelming desire to eradicate her from my television but I do.

I don't remember hating her back when (in fact I used to like her), but right now, I really dislike her and whenever she comes on the radio or tv, I want to remove her orange face and over khol'd eyes from said item. It's not personal, it's more that she seems a bit pointless. She currently hosts 'Film 2011' and yet they employ an film expert to tell her what the film is about and why it's good. I've never seen such a pointless situation in my life?! God, it makes me so so angry!!! I guess it's Film 2011 fault and not her's but I've some how morphed my issue on to her.

I bet 'Film 2011' ratings have declined massively since Jonathon Ross left, why not just have the film expert host it, or James King from Radio1 host it. Or launch a new face, who is charismatic and obsessively informed about films.

I saw her host "Nevermind the Buzzcocks" a while ago and she was pretty rubbish on that also. Unable to banter with the teams and bad timing with jokes but in an unfunny way. I'm sure she's a lovely person but couldn't she open a flower shop or a cake shop instead of hosting everything I want to watch!



*I dislike her so much that I considered linking to her Wikipedia page, to help identify her for you but couldn't be bothered, because I dislike her that much!!!

Blonde Moment

I always thought that an "airstrike" was when other countries forced your country to not fly planes or helicopters. No shit!

And I've always wondered why that would cause such disruption to civil war, etc. I knew it was wrong but never really thought about finding out what one actually was. I now know, it's all cool and it makes loads more sense, obviously!

Laurence Olivier

I'm not sure why but this is one of my favourite photos. It's by Terry O'Neill and I think it's perfect in every way!

Community Blogging

I'm trying to start a community blog with some female friends, who I think highly of.
I'd like it to be a collection of thoughts, feelings, desires, reviews, etc. that is what I'm aiming for. I've asked numerous friends to join me and I'm hoping eventually it'll pay off. It could be very interesting, if it works out.
Here's hoping for the future of This Bar / That Bar.

The Wire

I'm 28 minutes away from the end of the final episode. I'm going to lay my cards down and declare Bubbles "Reginald" the winner of the show. He's the only decent one out of the lot of them. Bloody hell, I'm going to miss it, it was a slow burning love but it is bloody great!
If you haven't seen it, do so!


- Posted from the pit of despair

Thank fuck for the NHS

I read this article today and it makes me thank god that we in Britain have the NHS. You may snipe, bitch and criticise it for how slow everything is and how crap it is run, but without it, we would all be having to pay huge bills for simple things like: doctor appointments, dentist check ups, operations, birth control, STD tests, etc.

We are one of the lucky countries, where most of this is, or can be free. And we should free privileged to have such an infrastructure. One that also will help tourists and aliens within our borders, without prejudice.
No, it's not perfect and a lot of the time it's dealing with twindling finances and constance 'round the houses' to get new policies in place. But it is something that we all take for granted and don't appreciate enough.

Maybe if we lived in a society where to get an abortion (a simple, private procedure), you have to face ignorant people, who feel it's their right to tell you, you'll burn in hell for killing a baby, regardless of considering there might be other issues at stake. Or if we had to pay for all of our birth control, or every visit we made to the doctors just to get a sick note, maybe we would then start to appreciate it?

PS I recommend the article above, it's well written and interesting to have an "abortion provider" talk openly about there profession. Especially from within a country where abortion can be seen as a huge taboo.

Kristen Schaal

I love love love Kristen Schaal, she's 100% amazing! If I was gay "hell yes"! Ever since I first saw her as Mel in "Flight of the Conchords", I've adored her. She's funny, intelligent and oh so adorably cute!

Here is a rather entertaining moment of her on "The Daily Show with John Stewart"!

Corinne Vionnet

Thoroughly enjoying her current project

An open letter to Hollywood...

Dear Hollywood,

Unless you have a magnificent computer generated film with a shit storyline, or an action packed film. There is no need to use 3D! I know it's all the rage at the moment and you can charge an extra £4 per ticket at the cinema, and make your film less interesting story wise, but it doesn't mean you can abuse this effect. Certain films are better with it and without it, pretty rubbish. Others have their own merits and should just stick to good old classic, silver screen style film making!

Kind regards
Pipsywoo

Drunken Countries

Here's a map of the drunkest countries. I like to think that I'm helping Britain stay dark purple!

Tom Waits

I do apologise if I've written about him before, I've spoken for years about my theory but am pretty sure I haven't actually written about it:

I've had a theory about Tom Waits for a while, not only is he awesome but any film he cameos in, will inevitably be awesome too.
He is the golden seal of, not only creditability, but also a certain fantastic level of "Indie", which no one else can do. I've started to watch films due to his cameo only and every time I'm more than pleased.

There is only one film on his imdb list that I'm unsure about "Domino", but I think my apprehension is the idea of Keira Knightley playing a bounty hunter?! Which I'm pretty sure most people would agree is a little hard to comprehend.

A mini list of Mr Waits' cameos:
Mystery Men,
Wristcutters: A Love Story,
The Fisher King,
The Outsiders,
Dracula,
Coffee & Cigarettes...and the list can go on and on and on...

I've got lots of him on my iPod and I've been meaning to get to grips with him more than I have, I've listened too and enjoyed "The Bone Machine", but that's it really.
Here's to my listening to his back catalogue and his future cameos. I salute you Mr Waits!

If anyone has any suggestions, please feel free to tell me...

- Posted from the pit of despair

Sorry, a five letter word!

"Sorry" it's a simple word. A simple five letter word. That to some means very little, but to most means a lot.
I learnt quite early on to not be flippant with this word, otherwise when you really mean it, no one will believe you. It was a relatively valuable lesson. Due to that lesson, it's now a relatively important word to me also.

I think it's such a shame that there are people in this word who still haven't learnt the value of this word. Saying "sorry" doesn't make you weak, or make you responsible for a situation you're not comfortable with. It generally makes you stronger, and means you value the person you say it to, or at least you value their feelings. I know one person in particular who has spent most of their life throwing this word around and has never really meant it and now, the one time it would have been nice to hear it, it's no where in sight. I guess they haven't learnt the lesson yet, which is a shame.

Also, isn't it weird how there is a time limit that comes with "sorry". It's so bizarre that if you haven't heard it within a certain time of when you'd hope you might, you start to give up on that friend entirely. Who would have thought a five letter word could represent so much?

Birthday present dreaming already...

I've my fingers crossed for these for my birthday, as well as an exciting 500gb back up drive for my computer (life sometimes is far too exciting) and Lost Season 6.

The people of Washington State must be lonely...

Bangable dudes in History!

This is a great site!!!

Frozen

I also watched this, my friend and I were looking for an extremely shit horror film to watch, the kind where you side with the killers. Now we knew there were no killers, but we wondered how you could stretch out sitting up on a ski lift for an hour and a half. We were pleasantly surprised, randomly?!
The film wasn't as bad as it could have been and I think it was a wise idea of the director to actually stick the cast up on the chair, instead of using poor/cheap special affects.
If you want to be mildly entertained and horrified by a genius use of sound affects, watch it. But please, do not get your hopes up. In fact, do as we did and believe it's going to be horrendous, that way you'll end up pleasantly surprised.



When I imdb the director, I found he'd made a film called 'Cheerleader Camp', now doesn't that sound like an awesome film!

Grizzly Man

I watched this last night and can't make my mind up about it at all. It's a very sad story of Timothy Treadwell, who lives with grizzly bears in Alaska every summer in a make shift camp. Unfortunately, during the 13th season of his doing this, he gets attacked by a rogue bear and dies. His girlfriend who had gone to visit him, also died. It's an extremely sad story and is very interesting, due to most of the film using his original footage that was recovered from his camp.



The film also interviews his friends, one of whom found his remains while searching for him, another being an ex-girlfriend, who runs a charity for the conservation of grizzly bears with him. The coroner who dealt with their deaths and his parents, among others.

I think my issues started when the coroner starting to appear extremely dramatic, it seemed unprofessional and creepy, the way he talks and deals with the interviews, left me feeling like I was watching a Christopher Guest style mockumentary. There are various factors to why I felt this way, not only the coroner, but Timothy's ex-girlfriend/colleague seems uncomfortable in front of the camera, this in turn makes me feel awkward. And I guess mainly, Timothy himself, there is a period where he has obviously been alone for a while and has a bit of a Wilson moment (Castaway with Tom Hanks), he also has this persona who he uses when he's filming, which makes me feel as though I was watching a film, rather than personal homemade films (there is no awkward voyeuristic feeling, as there normally is when watching other's home videos). The whole thing just made me feel indifferent and unsure about it.

I would recommend it to others, purely to gather other people's perspective on it. I just can not place how I feel about it. I loved how passionate Timothy is, that was truly inspiring to see and yet how he shelters from humanity and blames humans for all the wrong in the world, made me feel he was deluded for all the wrong reasons. The film maker Werner, is as considerate as he can be about such a tender subject and portrays Timothy in a very compassionate light, with Timothy's original ideals as the main focus of the documentary.

I just couldn't wrap my head around it and still feel indifferent!

Plus, I don't think it helps that I saw this film a few days before and this clip kept on popping into my head, when Werner talked.

127 Hours

I really want to see this and I'm not a huge fan of big blockbuster Oscar nominated/winning films. I normally picket them for as long as possible, then watch them and love them, due to them generally being very good, hence the award nomination, etc. But I really want to see this.
I read a bit about Aron Ralston and loved that he wanted to make more of a documentary style film, than hollywoodesque flick.
I was thinking this morning about how the conversation between Danny Boyle and Aron went, I imagine similar to this:

Aron: Hello
Danny: Hey Aron, it's Danny Boyle, I'm a film director, I'd like to do a film about your time stuck in a crevice in Utah.
Aron: Oh right, well what type of film would it be, I'm really looking to have it documented, rather than Hollywood.
Danny: Well I'm mainly an indie director, I like to get down and gritty with the storyline and make the audience feel the characters pain.
Aron: That sounds good, what other films have you done?
Danny: I did 'Trainspotting', that is probably my biggest film. It's about heroin addicts in Glasgow. I also did a little film about the slums of India. I like to get to the real heart of the project and depict it as best I can.
Aron: I've just IMDB'd you and it says you did 'Slumdog Millionaire', didn't that win lots of awards?
Danny: Well yes but the main point was never detracted from and it was never my intention to get awards, I just wanted to portray the book as best I could.
Aron: That's understandable. Send me a script and I'll see what I think.
Danny: Thanks Aron. I really think your story is amazing and I'd love to be involved.

Jan 2011

I found this mildly interesting:


I want to see this, Bridesmaids:


And I'd love to be involved with this project, I find her photos fascinating!

Rare Exports: A Christmas Tale

This looks great!