Music Monday # 7: New York – Frank Sinatra

There's no surprise what this week's selection for Music Monday is! I arrived in New York yesterday afternoon and obviously I would choose Frank Sinatra singing the theme from New York, New York. I absolutely love this song and we even played it at our wedding at the moment when we entered the reception after taking photos.

I have dreamed for so many years of going to New York and I am finally here!

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TV: Merlin on the way back this autumn

[Photo source]

My lovely friend at Electric Bunnies reviewed Merlin season 1 the other day and I went online to see whether it had been renewed for a new season. The excellent news is that yes, in fact, it has been renewed and we can expect the second season of Merlin on our screens this autumn.

[Insert total tangent here] Is it just me or is it annoying when they say "back this spring" or "back this autumn"? US television begins with a big bang around September each year and seasons are an average of 22 episodes long. You know when a show is starting and you're also looking out for the new offerings on the various networks. Announcements are also really clear about what shows have been renewed or not and there are no 18-month hiatuses between shows. In the UK, they never give you a clear idea and shows can start any time from August to October or February to April respectively it seems. I also find that the start is often quite sudden with little advertising beforehand. I know I am often surprised to find that Doctor Who or Robin Hood is starting that week. If I didn't subscribe to TV Today at The Stage, I'd be completely lost. Maybe I need to pay more attention or buy trashy TV magazines? [end of useless tangent]

The excellent news was released on 26 May - once again, maybe I need to pay more attention? This is a really exciting, well written press release and gives an exciting glimpse of some of the guest stars we can expect to see in season 2 of Merlin.

From left to right, guest stars on the new show include Sarah Parish, Charles Dance, Adrian Lester, Santiago Cabrera and Mackenzie Crook. Let's hope this is a good one!

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Book review: Full Moon Rising – Keri Arthur

Full Moon Rising is the first book in the Riley Jenson series by Australian author Keri Arthur.  This is an urban fantasy set in Melbourne featuring Riley Jenson, a werewolf/vampire hybrid, and a host of other vampires, werewolves and other creatures.  This is not a young adult book by any measure and is suitable for adults only.
I’ve found it hard to rate this book because I kept having to restart the book and figure out what had happened before.  There could be two possible reasons for this.  The first is that I took out several “urban fantasy” books from the library (including the dreadful Guilty Pleasures by Laurell K Hamilton) and I didn’t like any of them except for this one.  I was still waiting for the third instalment in the Georgina Kincaid series at that stage.  So I had started about three other books without finishing them and was starting to get confused.
The other possible reason is that there was so much action in the book and the characters are rushing about exploring so many leads in their investigation that I just got lost at times.  There are also quite a few racy scenes which were great but also added to the distraction after a while.  I had to wonder if they were all necessary or if they were adding to the story. 
In the end though, I did enjoy the book and I found Riley to be a really likeable character.  The fact that the story is set in Australia also gives the story a cool, unique twist and I enjoyed reading the book with an Aussie accent in mind.
I’ll definitely read the next book in the series and I might look into Keri Arthur’s other series too.  The Spook Squad series in particular looks good.
Given my positive overall experience but taking into account my being lost for most of the book, I give it three-and-a-half stars but I do think it will get better as the series progresses, as we get to know the characters and as the author settles into her style.

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Music Monday # 6: Grace – Will Young

I love Will Young and I absolutely love this song. Those mornings when I’m struggling to get out of bed and I just want to hide under my covers for the rest of the week, I think of this song and it just makes me happy.

This is an angry yet empowering song and it fits Will Young’s proud, self-assured style perfectly. The song has been featured in the latest Natwest television adverts.

Grace lyrics

More Music Monday posts at Lady Java’s Lounge.

Come join Music Monday and share your songs with us. One simple rule, leave ONLY the actual post link here. You can grab this code at LJL Please note these links are STRICTLY for Music Monday participants only. All others will be deleted without prejudice.

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TV: 90210 season 1

We've come to the end of the first season of the new, revamped 90210 and it has been one of the best surprises I had of the 2008/2009 television season.  I very nearly didn’t bother at all to watch this show as I went through loving the original series at first and then getting very, very bored with it towards the end.  I’m so glad I gave it a chance though – this is the one show of the season that had me hooked and looking forward to Tuesdays so that I could get my fix on the latest episode of the show.

The first sixteen episodes, up to the hiatus in February / March were the best and I came to love the characters and the storylines.  In order of how much I loved them, my favourite characters were:

Ryan Matthews [played by Ryan Eggold]

I wrote a post once about how I always seem to fall for the grumpy, jaded characters in shows (and in real life) and Ryan Matthews is no exception.  He plays the role of the English teacher at West Beverley Hills High School but he takes dark moods and petulance to a whole new level.  What’s surprising about this is that he’s not even playing one of the teenage leads but is supposedly ‘mature’ and ‘grown up’– he’s great!  I guess he was justified in some of his responses and he was put through quite a ringer by the other characters; I just hope that we see a lot more of him next season.

Adrianna Tate-Duncan [played by Jessica Lowndes]

I love Adrianna.  I love everything about her from her beautiful eyes to her fashion sense to her storylines and character.  Naturally, she’s not a drop-dead gorgeous man like Ryan Matthews, so that is why she is second on this list.  While I thought some of the screen relationships and storylines went downhill after the February / March hiatus, I continued to enjoy the storylines with Adrianna and I like her relationship with Navid too.  That said, I think Jessica Lowndes is a strong actress and I think she can fare perfectly well on her own in season 2.  I just hope she gets some suitably challenging and worthy storylines.

Ethan Ward [played by Dustin Milligan]

There you have it again, brooding, dark and grumpy, all the things I like in a leading man.  I liked Ethan because he reminded me of some of the popular guys I used to know; his confidence and self-assurance was dazzling.  The problem with guys like that is while they aren’t as shallow as people think, they do often see the world in rigid black and white terms and that was certainly true of Ethan. 

Oh!  I see that the change in direction after the winter hiatus was down to new producer Rebecca Rand Kirshner Sinclair who used to produce Gilmore Girls.  In March it was announced that they were not bringing back Ethan in a full time capacity in season 2.  WTF? That sucks. 

Liam Court [played by Matt Lanter]

Oh my greatness.  This man is ridiculously hot.  In the same article where it was announced that Ethan would not be back in a fulltime capacity next season, it was confirmed that Liam would be and that is a real consolation.  I prefer it when they allow him to show depth in his character as opposed to the mindless, rebel-without-a-clue storylines and it will remain to be seen if they continue to write decent stories about him.  The absolute shocker in the final episode was great and should result in lots of fun in the next season.

Rebecca Sinclair has said that she doesn’t usually check the internet for reactions on her shows but that she might be looking now.  I hope she does look and I hope she doesn’t ruin this series.  I think the new revamped 90210 really has potential and there are some really good actors in the cast.  She took Gilmore Girls to absolute success, I hope she can do the same with this show.  Whatever they do, they have to avoid the bland, one-dimensional, ridiculous mess that the original 90210 series became.

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Film Review: They Call Me Trinity (1970)

For a self-professed film addict, I have seen a scandalously low number of classic films in my time. In fact, I haven't seen any of the classics such as Casablanca or Breakfast at Tiffany's. Obviously, this is something I would like to correct over time and so I conceded when my friend Patrick suggested we watch They Call Me Trinity.

My biggest concern regarding old films had always been the quality. Grainy black and white pictures or garish Technicolor simply wasn't to my liking and that was often compounded by bad sound or a dodgy television signal (anyone who ever tried to tune in to SABC 2 knows precisely what I'm talking about). The best thing about the digital age is that these concerns are a thing of the past. We watched They Call Me Trinity on DVD on a giant flat screen TV with surround sound and the whole experience was fabulous. The film has been digitally remastered and the sound was brilliant. I am definitely going to try some of the other old classics now, starting with everything with Audrey Hepburn in and all the old Hitchcock too.

Terence Hill plays Trinity in a hilarious satire of the spaghetti western genre. This is the first film that Hill starred in with Bud Spencer and it shot the two to stardom in Italy and in the US. Trinity is a drifter who comes into town and finds his outlaw brother, Bambino, is posing as sheriff of the town. The film has all the hallmarks of a good western - the scenery, the bad guys (in the form of the ruthless landgrabbing Major) and fantastic music. But what makes this film special is the humour and the fabulous partnership of Terence Hill and Bud Spencer. I can see why they cashed in on their winning formula and made so many more films together. I would certainly recommend this film and will be trying ot get my hands on the sequel.

Wasn't Terence Hill gorgeous? I would have been crazy about him if I was around at that time. He has his own website at http://www.terencehill.com/ and it is full of great photos and stills from his film locations like the one below. I just love his irreverent style and can't wait to see more of him.

 

For entertainment, eye candy and introducing me to a whole new world of classic films and the spaghetti western genre, I give the film 5 out of 5 stars.

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Music Monday # 5: Muse – Butterflies and Hurricanes

 

This week's Music Monday is brought to you by a very sad Emm. Tickets for the Muse concert in London in November sold out in 9 minutes and I was unable to get a ticket. How very sad!

This is an exciting, dramatic song about chaos theory and the effect of one butterfly.

If one fangirl in London doesn't get tickets to the Muse gig, will the effect be felt the world over?

By the way, I am so not going to buy tickets for double the price they were available for on Friday. I did that twice with Glastonbury tickets and Pixies tickets and I won't do it again. There will be other Muse concerts. I used the money to buy new Sennheiser earphones for my iPod which made listening to my iPod today a very pleasurable experience.

More Music Monday posts at Lady Java’s Lounge.

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TV: Ghost Whisperer season 4

***MASSIVE SPOILER ALERT*** Do not read further if you have not seen seasons 3 and 4 of Ghost Whisperer

Ghost Whisperer used to be one of my favourite TV shows.  In fact, I used to count myself lucky that there was all this paranormal, fantastical fare on TV like Heroes, Supernatural and Ghost Whisperer, not to mention favourites like Prison Break and Grey’s Anatomy. 

So what went wrong?

First, I have to say that I am such a fan and this was such a huge favourite of mine that I will give it a chance next season and I am glad it has been renewed.  [Here comes the but…] But, this was the worst season in Ghost Whisperer so far and I absolutely hated the storylines and character development.

I miss Professor Rick Payne (played by Jay Mohr) and I really, really hate Jamie Kennedy in his role as Eli James.  I think he comes across as insincere and the guy cannot act.  Also, the fact that Jennifer Love Hewitt ended her relationship with her fiancé to be with Jamie Kennedy just makes me ill, quite frankly.

Then the whole idea of Jim dying and refusing to cross over was bad enough but then Jim’s ghost jumped into the body of a dying man (how convenient) but then Dead Guy Sam didn’t actually remember Melinda (is my writing starting to confuse you?  Don’t worry, I felt the same about the writing of this season’s storyline).  So where were we? Oh yes.  The gorgeous David Conrad was kept around because even though Dead Guy Sam thought he was, well, Sam, Melinda knew he was really Jim and so we kept David on our screens.

Now it is no secret that I am a complete wench and often sanction the sacrifice of a plot in the pursuit of good eye candy, but even I have to draw the line at some point.  This went far beyond the suspension of disbelief and dramatic license – the storyline was getting ridiculous and we were willing to lose the gorgeous David if it just meant wrapping it up.

Alas, no.  Dead Guy Sam bumps his head or nearly drowns trying to rescue Melinda or something and suddenly he is Jim again.  How truly convenient!  Then, wonder of wonders it seems that Melinda is pregnant (and the baby is Jim’s, how vanilla!)  Yawn.  I can’t be bothered to go on about this – I hate this storyline and so did most fans.

Unfortunately, in the lamest season finale in television history, we have a hasty story about some colleague of Eli dying and some book is introduced to the plot and Melinda is having a boy and Dead Guy Sam / Reborn Jim and Melinda quickly get married in the town square with the whole population of ghosts in attendance… and yes, my long, unpunctuated sentence is meant to reflect the protracted, contrived, badly sequenced experience of the season finale.  It was terrible.

So, for season 5 of Ghost Whisperer, I have a couple of requests:

- Teach Jamie Kennedy to act or better yet, arrange some freak ‘paranormal’ accident on set and have him killed off.

- Camryn Manheim (who plays Delia) used to be a good actress.  Please use her and make her onscreen son, Ned, interesting.

- Clean up the Dead Guy Sam / Reborn Jim story.  Please, please, please.  Make it a bad dream, make it a miracle.  Whatever, just stop showing me his ugly reflection the whole time.

- And try not to steal from Charmed / Rosemary’s Baby / the Bible / Breaking Dawn too much with the whole baby storyline.  I get that he will be special but let’s not lose the plot completely.  Please.  That means no more kittens, no super powers, messiah complexes or saving the mother from within the womb.

I think that about wraps it up then.  I really hope I’m not sitting here in a year’s time conducting a sticky post-mortem on the show.

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Film Review: Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian (2009)

We went to see Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian on Saturday. Considering the grilling I gave Pink Panther 2, Stephen was massively surprised that I agreed to see this film but I have to say, I quite enjoyed it! The general consensus out there seems to be that people have been pleasantly surprised with the film.

As a rule, comedy is not my genre of choice but I laughed a lot during this film and I really enjoyed myself. I was impressed with the costumes and effects and while it didn’t have the strongest plot, it was a fun film.

I loved Hank Azaria as Kahmunrah. I’ve been a fan of Hank’s for a while (and was gutted when Huff was cancelled) and he was just great in this film.

Amy Adams (Giselle from Enchanted) was surreal as Amelia Earhart and Owen Wilson was brilliant as a thumb-sized Jedediah Smith.

So the verdict is this: it is not exactly a film of Oscar winning performances or script but it was fun and entertaining and visually appealing. It is a film I would recommend seeing at the cinema because of the visual effects and costumes.

While the critics slated the film on Rotten Tomatoes, the RT community gave it 65% and I concur. I give it 3 out of 5 stars.

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Book review: Across the Wall: A Tale of the Abhorsen and Other Stories - Garth Nix

I have never been a fan of short stories but I had to read this collection by Garth Nix because it includes the final epilogue, if you will, of the Old Kingdom series. 

The first story in the book is the novella ‘Nicholas Sayre and the Creature in the Case’ which takes place about 6 months after the events of Abhorsen.  I really enjoyed this story – it was brilliantly written and conceptualised and was a great conclusion to the Old Kingdom series. The best thing about it was that it finally answered the one question I had once I finished Abhorsen.  I won’t spoil it for you but it was great.

This is a worthy collection because before each story is told, Garth Nix gives the story behind why he wrote that particular story.  He is such an inspired, talented author and I really look forward to reading more of his work.

Across the Wall contains a good mix of fantasy and fictional short stories, including two Arthurian interpretations (even though Nix admits to not being a fan of Arthurian legend). Apart from the Nicholas Sayre novella, my favourite stories were ‘Charlie Rabbit’ and ‘Lightning Bringer’.  Like Garth Nix, I too have a fascination for lightning and once watched as Stephen was very, very nearly struck by lightning. 

I give the collection four out of five stars because despite being a Garth Nix collection, I still don’t like short stories much and I didn’t like all the tales.

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Music Monday # 4: Ambient Dub

I wasn’t going to do Music Monday today because I was in a bad mood and generally don’t play well with others at the best of times.*  However, I have been inspired.

My friend Bas over at themixfiles.com uploaded an excellent cosmopolitan tribalism mix.  He thought I might like it and he was absolutely right.  It took me back over the past 15 years or so to some of the music that has touched my heart.  He called it ‘cosmopolitan tribalism’ which is an excellent term actually but the genre it matches the closest to on my iMandy is ‘ambient dub’.

1.  Banco de Gaia - Last Train to Lhasa

One of the first overtly political dance acts that I encountered, Banco de Gaia have done so much to raise awareness of the situation in Tibet.  The album “Last Train to Lhasa” contained much information on Tibet and this is the amazing title track off that album.

 

2. Radar – Running Away

From the amazing album Nothing is Real.  Radar is made up of Francis Peyrat and Christophe Goze and they have only made one album so far.  I absolutely love the haunting Arabic vocals and sounds and this albums takes me back to the one night we spent in a bedouin desert camp in Dubai.  If you’re reading this Francis and Chrstophe, please for the love of all things holy bring out another album.  I have just about burnt a hole through my Nothing is Real cd.

 

3. Rhythm of Space - Celeste

Taken from the 1996 Return to the Source album The Chakra Journey, this wasn’t my favourite song RTTS son but it was just about the only one I could find on YouTube.  This song reminds me of the mornings after long, long nights and I must have listened to it thousands of times before.  I think I have every RTTS release on cd and must upload a playlist of my favourite songs one day (when I have resolved the playlist issue).

 

More Music Monday posts at Lady Java’s Lounge.

*I generally don't like doing memes or such posts on my blogs but I thought this particluar one would fit well on this blog, being a media blog. I also thought it would force me to blog about music on a weekly basis which is a good thing. But it can't ever be an excuse for writing crap posts, which is why I wasn't going to post today unless I came up with something good.

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