Tuneful Tuesdays

Hey guys,

I haven't been listening to that much music this week - been trying to catch up on my Mark Kermode podcasts instead! (Really great film review podcasts - recommend downloading them). But I eventually decided on Mad World, which featured in Donnie Darko but is actually by a band called Tears for Fears who my dad introduced to me a long time ago. The film is great and the band have a few good songs, so here it is!:

Will try to post some doggy cuteness tomorrow! Goodnight all and hope you're having a good week :)

Election Night!

Hey people,

I'm staying up tonight waiting for the London mayoral elections to be declared and I'm really hoping it's soon. At the moment it's kind of got boring, but earlier it was cheering up my revision since Labour were practically sweeping the floor with constituencies and Nick Clegg being completely ousted as a result of the coalition!! But anyway, I'm sure not everyone is interested in UK politics so I'll stop.

I just thought I'd write a post while I was waiting the results. I went to see the Avengers movie on wednesday and although the tickets were a bit of a rip off, the film itself was pretty good actually. I don't know anything about the comics/background of any of the characters so I was kind of going oh that guy is the Hulk or whatever throughout the film. The story was pretty straightforward though and once I got the hang of it I really enjoyed it! I still don't know what ScarJo's character's power was, or who the crossbow guy was and what his special power was. He seemed to just run around with a crossbow? Any ideas? Robert Downey Jr is always good though, so that kind of made up for it and has encouraged me to see Iron Man. It wasn't the best movie I've ever seen but it was good fun and despite some people's comments, I do quite like 3D

 This weekend I came home to vote and tomorrow we're going to visit my grandmother who has a puppy (although it's grown up now) so expect a whole lot of cuteness on this here blog really soon! Meantime, I can show you pictures of the English breakfast me and the boy went for at an American diner like restaurant in Leamington, some flowers and a nice bar in Leamington as well:

Outfit from the weekend - quite boring maybe but I do love this jumper so much!

One of the walls of the Diner shows a map of the famous Route 66!

Dockers 'Big Breakfast". The bacon is the best in the world!

Pic of what some of the Diner looks like

Pub/Bar in Leamington - I think it's called the Duke.

Hope everyone has a good weekend!!

Tuneful Tuesdays!

So yeah I'm ten minutes past 12 and therefore it's technically wednesday but whatevers. I can't miss tuneful tuesdays! Today I'm going to post something that I have always loved and it's from the classical side of the music I listen to. I was brought up on classical music (I don't think that's the right term because it's all so different anyway but I just go with it) and I used to be very ashamed that I loved it and knew nothing else. I completely by-passed the 90s music scene - while everyone was listening to the Spice Girls, I was listening to Tchaikovsky and others.

But now I don't care about that anymore - if people are going to judge me then they're obviously not my true friends and not worth the time of day. I always try to encourage people to listen to 'classical' music because I think that it makes you feel something - it's not about words, it's just pure emotion and it can just tap into you in a way that more modern music can't (for me anyway). It's not elitist and it's not boring - it's beautiful if you listen to the right stuff.

Anyway, I bring you something from the Finnish composer Sibelius. He's somewhat of a Finnish hero since he is the only famous composer to come from there and he wrote a piece of music to his homeland, which is called Finlandia. He's not a Classical composer, more of a Romantic one (there are four categories - Baroque, think Handel, Classical, think Mozart, Romantic, think Debussy and Modern, Stravinsky).  I suggest you all check Finlandia out if you want something shorter to listen to, but what I'm going to choose for today is one of the best pieces of music of all time - his fifth symphony. I really do urge you to listen to the whole thing. I'm not going to tell you what it's about, or give some kind of musical criticism because that's not really that important - as I said it's about emotion and stuff. If you want to listen to the whole thing on youtube then you have to click and load each movement - it's a shame but it's worth it. It's also on spotify and iTunes (though obvs you have to pay for it) where you would not get the breaks.

Getting up

Anyone who knows me, knows that you generally won't see me before 11, or even 12pm since I sleep lots and feel like I need about 10 hours. It's an unfortunate trait that I received from my father, who can sleep through screaming alarms. My sister used to punch my mother every morning in thanks for waking her up for school. My mother dealt with this by grabbing the duvet and running away. I can honestly say that I have never punched anyone for trying to wake me up but I am extremely grumpy in the morning and can't stand any cheeriness. I have become well known for this issue and am laughed at constantly by my mother, boyfriend and friends.

I really do want to break this habit - it's not a serious one like an addiction or anything, but I feel like I am losing a lot of my life by just sleeping all the time. I have tried to break it several times but it doesn't help at uni when lectures start at 12 or 1 and you don't have much structure to your day. Next year I'm starting a PGCE and will be teaching in primary schools so I will have to be getting up at 7 (if not 6) everyday. But I don't want it to be the huge, cruel shock that I feel like it's going to be and have been looking up tips on how to get up, which I am going to attempt in the next few weeks. So here are the ways that I am going to tackle this thing:

1) My alarm will be across the room (I tried this once and I just jumped straight back into bed, but still).

2) A glass of water by said alarm to drink (apparently it makes you feel more awake).

3) Wind down in the evenings by turning off all electronic stuff half an hour before bed.

4) Try going to sleep earlier (maybe 11/half 11).

5) Getting up at a consistent time every day, regardless of whether it's the weekend.

6) This is the last one - I will have a to-do list of things so that I HAVE to get up and do them during the day.

With the last one in mind, I made my own to do list, based on this tutorial here, I didn't have a ruler and I made mine on paper, but I kinda stuck to the picture, rather than following the tutorial:

Sorry for the poor quality - I've only got my iPhone camera at the moment. I can't afford a new camera at the mo and my last one died a while ago! The good quality photos on here come from the boyfriend's DSLR. Anyways, how do you get up in the morning? I'll be posting pics from my weekend soon.

Classics and Mary Beard

I'm writing this while waiting for my boyfriend to turn up this weekend. I'm too impatient to actually do any work, besides now I've finished one section of revision I really don't want to start another!!

After hearing about the hullaballoo about Mary Beard's appearance on her latest programme on the BBC and also being a Classicist, I thought I'd check out the series. For those of you who don't know, Mary Beard is one of the known faces of Classics - she's written several books and lectures at Cambridge University (I think at Newnham College). Along with Bettany Hughes, she is doing a great job at reminding the world why Classics is such an important subject to study and how much they affect our lives even now.

Not sure if I'm allowed to put this up - Mary Beard in her documentary on the BBC.

I'd like to say I actually do like that red coat.

Anyway, instead of criticising the documentary itself, some reviewers have turned on her appearance and many have said that she is too 'ugly' for TV, while I know that she can fight her own battles , I still have something to say about this subject. I watched the programme and was shocked to find that she looks absolutely fine, I mean, sure she's no fashionista, but that's not her job description. Instead of her appearance, what came across was her love for the subject she was talking about and her enthusiasm to make the general public understand the culmination of her life work. I think it's time to stop judging these people for what they look like and actually listen to what they're saying! She is NOT too ugly for TV and even if she was, I wouldn't care. I'd listen to her words, enthusiasm and review the content of her documentaries.

Being a Classicist myself (although I'm obviously nowhere near her stage of intellect) I knew quite a lot of what she said already, but this is not the point. A lot of people wouldn't know this stuff - sure we've heard about the gladiators, the bloodthirstiness and the Empire, but the question that this series is tackling is what was the everyday Roman like? That is something that IS an interesting question and one which isn't explored as much. To me, Mary Beard looks like a perfectly lovely, enthusiastic and mature woman whose programmes make the Classics available to the average person.

Documentaries, not hers in particular, was one of the reasons I took up Classics. I remember watching a programme with my mother about Alexander the Great, which made the whole expedition seem extremely exciting. Now that I'm actually studying him, I've come to realise that I enjoy writing about the literature way more than the history. I love Greek Tragedy in particular and would recommend anyone to go and see one if they can because you don't need to know anything intellectual about them to make them move you. Oedipus Tyrannus at the National Theatre was one of the saddest and most moving things I've ever seen.

We made a promise, we swore we'd always remember

As you can see I'm still listening to Springsteen - the Born in the USA album! I know that everyone is doing pastels/colour blocking and whatnot, but I don't really care. My 'fashion aims' are not to be ground breaking, I just want people to comment and say that I have a good fashion sense (because I think I do - though you can feel free to disagree!). You can have a good fashion sense without trying to be different all the time. The whole point of fashion, for me, is to look nice and feel comfortable in my own skin. I don't like having masses of attention so if I like an aesthetic or something that everyone is doing at that moment I won't not do it just because it's everywhere. I will still be wearing these jeans in a few years time, when people are less bothered. I'm really good making good use of my wardrobe and making sure things I generally only buy stuff I like! (That said I have bought things that are lying at the bottom of my closet...oh dear). Anyway, the point is to have fun and not let stuff get to you!

H&M jeans and sunglasses, Charity shop shirt

Tuneful Tuesdays

I was in Oxford at the weekend, visiting the lovely boyfriend. We did a lot of drinking, hanging out and watching Game of Thrones and Mad Men. Mad Men is literally the best thing on TV right now - everyone should watch it!! I have more issues with Game of Thrones than the boyfriend does, at least in the last season, but this season is actually going pretty well so far. We also went out for dinner last night at a pub called The Red Lion, near the station, which does good mojitos and good food.

Anyway, this week, music wise, I'm going for an old American favourite by the name of Bruce Springsteen, but I didn't want to one of the songs everyone knows - like Born to Run, so I've decided on a  track from his new album. The whole album is pretty great (me and the boy are obsessed at the moment) but I thought I'd go with Jack of All Trades, which is a bit melancholic but then Bruce does tend to go from being proud of being American (with Born in the USA) to criticism of the USA. It's a weird dichotomy that seems to exist in America - patriotism mixed with frustration or maybe that's just me being judgemental or whatever? The English are much more cynical, sure you get patriots but generally we like to moan about everything, which means that patriotism is less of a trait.

I also find it interesting that Americans see the road and driving as being synonymous with freedom (like in Born to Run for example, sticking with the Springsteen theme) because it's such a huge country so you can just drive and drive. Here in England you are always surrounded by people, towns, houses etc, so it's not really a thing. Enough of my rambling though, I'm sure I'm the only one who finds it interesting! Here is the track:

I hope you enjoy it!