A random breakdown of the current tube strikes that are happening... again.

Guess what? There's only 10 days left until a new book hits the Amazon stores!! It's book 2 in this little known series called The Utopia Series. It's called A World Reborn and will be available on 9th May 2014!! A link to book 1, Utopia, might be available somewhere around here... say the right hand bar... it's a little small, so good luck finding it... *wink*

In other news, there are strikes happening once again in London on our underground... yes, you are correct, this has only just happened... remember? I got all melodramatic and "epic" with my tale of that time...

Well, it's happened again. I haven't checked the leaflets so far on their reasons for it this time, although I think it's safe to say that there are very mixed feelings about the strike this time. It basically means that, for three days, the lovely commuters of London have to rely on their expert knowledge of London to find alternative routes to and from work.  This is something that can be incredibly annoying when you live on the other side of London to where you work and are very much reliant on the underground system to get you places.

We're into the second day of the three day strike and, so far, I have identified three main reactions to this particular action, these are:

1. The "Why the hell are they doing this to us again? *Rant rant, angry words, shouts at random strangers*" people. 

These are the people who are probably most reliant on underground and find that, without these trains available, they are having to leave the house a whole couple of hours earlier than they would do normally, just to ensure that they get to work only half an hour later than they should be in. Therefore, the strike has the biggest effect on them.

I should add a disclaimer that I probably mostly fall into this category. I have a very simple journey into work nowadays, the station nearest my house goes directly to the station nearest my work. Easy peasy. But when that train is taken out the equation, suddenly my journey becomes a complex combination of buses and other trains that are so packed that everything slows down to a snails pace. I also then find myself becoming almost carnal in my need to get on said trains and buses, along with the rest of the commuters around me. Let me tell you, once you have found yourself on a packed platform with about 300 other people, all trying to get on the same already packed train, you soon realise your true self. All common courtesy and overall British politeness, when it comes to commuting, is forgotten; old ladies are thrown to the wayside as they are considered too weak to survive, ribs are broken as everyone elbows everyone else in the fight for the last spot on the train, and, let me tell you, if you ever feel the need to be felt up by a random stranger in public, just go out during a strike... you will be heaven.

Naturally, after spending 2 and a half hours in this kind of environment, all sympathy for the reasons as to why these strikes are taking place, tends to get lost on people. It doesn't matter how legitimate the reasons might be for the strike, hell even if the result of the strike would cause world peace, it wouldn't be a good enough reason. Now people are just flustered, hot, sweaty and smelling of not just their own personal fragrance, but that of about 15 other people. That, right there, will inevitably result in shouts and anger and a need to rant at whoever it was who forced them into this situation in the first place.

The real brave people in these situations, I find, are those who are striking and have situated themselves right outside a busy station to advertise the fact that they are the cause of the strike. These are the people who have to face the anger of a mass of annoyed commuters, which is not a pretty sight, let me tell you. I have walked past a fair few of these arguments and rants taking place and it is absolutely terrifying.

I'm fairly annoyed at the whole thing, but I also hate confrontation, so my way of letting out my frustration is to write a strongly worded tweet or facebook status, and then feel happy that I have said my part. I also will inevitably forget my irritation the moment the trains are back to normal, as I can't hold onto a grudge to save my life.

2. The "How dare you complain? If it wasn't for Union strikes, we'd all have been working down the mines since the age of 12!" people.

Valid point. Union strikes have done good in this world, and are a way for people to fight back against what does tend to be a fairly corrupt group of rich people who are calling the shots. I'm not saying they're always corrupt, but I think we can all safely say that corruption is something that is taking place. There have been many a reason for strikes in the past, and some of the biggest achievements in this world have come out of said strikes. I have had a quick look at the reasons behind this strike,  and I have my opinions on them, but I also acknowledge that these reasons are based on very limited knowledge of the whole thing, so I'm not going to go into detail on them here. I'm just going to say that, in a world where technology is causing things to change, we may have to find a way to adapt and change with it. (This being around the need for less people on the station front due to having ticket machines to do the work instead in a more efficient manner.) Therefore, I'm not totally sure if I'm completely on board with some of the strike reasons, but please don't shoot me! Just a small insignificant opinion from a self-professed newbee in the world of Underground train politics.

3. The rather bizarre "I'm not going to blame the Underground staff for my nightmare commute, but rather all the other commuters who are trying to get to work as well as me" people. 

Tuesday morning, as I set off on my dreaded journey, I text One-And-Only-Daniela to see how she was doing on her travelling. One-And-Only-Daniela only needs to take one bus to work, a nice simple journey that she normally enjoys. This was the conversation that we had:

One-And-Only-Daniela has been shortened to OAOD

Me: About to start my "strike travel" grrrr
OAOD: There's a lot of traffic. I think people who normally get the train should walk and not inconvenience the original people that get the bus lol!
Me: Hey! That's me! How else are we meant to get to work?
OAOD: Walk
Me: I should walk to the other side of London? Sounds fair.
OAOD: Exactly right.

Shortly after this, I come across a facebook status that complained about the people who normally take trains into work but have now decided to take their cars, thus making the roads a nightmare. Apparently it wasn't fair on the rest of the "normally driving" commuters that these people were finding alternative routes. Again, I wondered, how else are these people meant to get into work? Believe me, if I drove, or had a car for that matter, I would be all over that driving shizzle.

At the bus stop yesterday, I overheard two people complaining about the increase of people trying to get on their usual bus, saying it wasn't fair that they were choosing this route instead... not really a choice, but I didn't know them, and they were twice my size, so I decided to stay out of that particular topic so as to keep my face intact.

This, somehow, has become the most popular groan and opinion during these particular strikes. I'm not sure how it happened, but the people who appear to be receiving the blame for the strike are not the strikers, nor the government, but the other commuters who normally get the train. I'm sorry, what? That logic is completely lost on me.

However, as I'm not really a fan of upsetting people, I would like to offer my sincerest apologies to all those blaming us, as a representative of the 'underground tube takers', for all the inconvenience we have caused. I know it has been insensitive of us to think that we deserved the same chances as you to get to work over the past couple of days. But I realise now that this was inconsiderate of us, and we should have realised we are lesser people who should have known better than to pick a route to work that solely relies on the underground system. To make it better, I will engage in conversations with my fellow people on finding alternative routes, once the strikes are over, so as to ensure that we become one of you guys. We will all take cars and buses from now on. We will realise the error of our ways, strike against taking the tubes, and become as sensible as you. That way, you won't notice the difference when the strikes occur because every day will be a strike day!

Yup... I think that well and truly solves the problem.

Peace out my lovelies.

I've done it again... I've gone all sickeningly happy and motivational... you're welcome?

So, life is going very much in my favour at the moment. Apparently this week is the week that everyone and everything decided to send nice things my way. Unfortunately, I can't list all the good things, because one is still pending and is only the start of good things but here is my list of awesome:

1. I made my book Utopia free for 5 days and "sold" over 400 copies.
2. I have completed book 2, after a year of writing. (Have I mentioned that A World Reborn will be available on 9th May 2014? Yes? Huh... I wonder when I did that...)
3. I weighed myself on Saturday and somehow have managed to lose half a stone in a week, officially putting me in the 'no longer overweight, just curvy' column. Awesomeness in a bag.
4. My payslip this month is so beautiful, I could cry with happiness...
5. Pending thing, which I can't talk about, but is my most exciting news, I will keep you posted.

It's only Tuesday and this is my best week so far. I am beginning to think that there is nothing I can't do this week. So much so, I might try my hand at flying... I've always suspected that I can do it, but have never actually tried it. So I've begun to formulate some form of plan involving feathers and a lot of flapping... also happy thoughts... of which I have many at the mo.

I don't mean to get all sappy and hippy and jazz, but I do honestly believe that this has begun to happen due to the outlook I have changed in my life. By thinking of positive things and doing things that are good for me, I have managed to start to actively change my life for the better. Remember at the beginning of the year, when I said that things weren't that great in terms of where my life is but I'm choosing to be happy in it? That act, right there, has caused more positive things to happen to me than my previous lifetime of wishing for my life to change. By being happy with what you have, I honestly believe it puts your brain into a place where you are more comfortable to work at making things better, even without realising your doing it.

It gives you confidence to strive for other things, hope that good things will come your way, and a self belief that you are worth these things, no matter how out of reach they may seem.

I see this as the beginning of something. I decided that 2014 would be the year where I would stop waiting for the world to change for me and actively work at changing it instead. By doing this, I worked at myself, being happy and going forward. I found things that I enjoyed doing, and I started doing them. I socialised more, I gained control of my money situation, I worked out my limits and I found a way to enjoy life within them. Through that, my limits have expanded and I am now finding I can do more now than I could before.

The above things might not seem that significant to many other people, but they're massive for me. They bring a smile to my face and make me hopeful for new things. Each of those things are accomplishments of personal goals that I set myself, and to see them begin to come into fruition is the most exciting and inspiring thing in the world.

So I want to take some of that positivity and inspiration and send it on to you lovely people. You all come onto this thing and read my rambles, and I know that they aren't gems every day. I know that sometimes they are even half arsed and boring. But you keep on coming back, and for that I'm so grateful. I want to inspire you to come up with your own goals. That thing that you always wished you could do, but haven't ever gone forward with? Try it out, just take one little baby step into making it a reality. It doesn't have to be much. Assign yourself an hour a week, to devote to that particular dream... then maybe expand on that hour. Those things that you might be invited to and you always come up with excuses not to go to, how about saying yes this time? You know what? Sometimes you might not even like it and decide never to do it again, that's fine. At least you can say you've done it once. I've done that a couple of times this year. I've had moments when I did something and realised it wasn't for me. I may have even regretted doing those things. But at least I know now, and I can move on and adapt for the future.

Life is going to be full of happy and sad moments, annoying and excitable moments, and everything else in between. Each of those are as important as each other, so each should be celebrated and marked as a learning curve. I know this year, since my recovery from all that shizzle, I may have begun to seem a little over the top in my happy words, so much so, that it's causing some of you to vomit, and I'm sorry for that! I am trying to keep the motivational 'look at how wonderful things are!' posts down to a minimum, as I appreciate not everyone wants to hear it. But I want to make clear that I'm not telling you all this stuff to rub your noses in it, if your lives aren't that great, but to encourage you all to see the greatness that already exists in your lives.

As I said, the above stuff is actually minimally exciting, if you look at it in the grand scheme of things. But they're a step in an awesome direction, I am very happy to be taking. There are things in my life that still need a lot of work, there are things that are even crappy, but I don't care. Because, I'm focusing on the other things instead. And, in the risk of sounding repetitive, I encourage you all to do the same. Take your life as it is, make a list of the good things in it, make a list of the things that need improvement, and then create (and this is important) realistic goals to get you there. Small things at first and work up from there.

Go forth people, and be happy! You all deserve it!

Peace out my lovelies

Official announcement for release date on A World Reborn: Book 2 in the Utopia Series by Lisa J Harries

Hey guys,

Yeeeaaaah, so if any of you caught my previous post on Saturday night about my big news, you might have noticed I'm the teensiest bit excited about the whole thing. You'll be pleased to know that I have calmed my excitement down a little to now only include small bursts of happiness when it pops into my head. These bursts tend to cause me to spontaneously seize up every muscle and then let it all out in a massive giggle. It's cute and understandable when I'm around people who know me, not so much when I'm on a train packed with strangers...

So, in case you missed it, my exciting news is that I have officially finished the writing section of A World Reborn, which is book 2 in the Utopia series. If you don't know what the Utopia series is (hint: It's not the Channel 4 British TV Show) then look no further than my right hand bar. There you will see lovely links to my first book, which is available on Amazon as an ebook. If you don't have a kindle, but you do have a smartphone or tablet (the electronic kind, not the one made of stone for writing of commandments) then the kindle app is a free download and you can go ahead and read it on there! I thoroughly recommend you read this one first, before you try A World Reborn, I would even say that it is integral to the maximum enjoyment to be had on reading Book 2.

If you have read Utopia, however, then you are ready to read the second installment. I am currently undergoing an intense amount of editing at the moment to get this book ready. I've been editing as I've been going along, hence the reason for the long period it has taken me to finish it, but there's still more to do. As such, it's not quite ready for official publication. I can confirm a date for which it will be ready, however, and I will tell you this now.

A World Reborn: Book 2 in the Utopia Series, will be available on Amazon on Friday 9th May 2014. 

If you would like a taster of the book, then please follow this link to a post I did a month back, where I uploaded the entire prologue for you all. If you would prefer to wait until the full thing is ready, then I will leave you with the blurb for the book, just to wet your appetite. 

(Also, One-And-Only-Daniela is, at the moment, the only person who has read the book and she has officially given it her stamp of approval... Although, she is already bugging me to start Book 3, which exhausts me to even think about... I'm going to take at least a month or two off after this, before I start up again... you know, to avoid mental breakdown and so forth.)

**POSSIBLE SPOILERS FOR THOSE WHO HAVEN'T READ BOOK 1. IF YOU HAVEN'T, DON'T READ FURTHER AND HAVE A LOVELY DAY. YOU'RE AWESOME.**

100 years have passed since the world, as everyone knew it, ceased to be. A new community has been built in its place and, with it, a new way of life. Utopia has become the bustling metropolis it was always designed to be, but at what cost? How far does everyone need to go to adapt to the life that had been created for them by their ancestors? And just what will people do to ensure survival to continue?

Peace out my lovelies. 

HAPPIEST AND MOST EXCITING POST EVER TO BE WRITTEN ON A SATURDAY NIGHT WITHOUT BEING DRUNK!!!!!!!

If I am drunk, I'm drunk on LIFE!!!!!!!!!!!!

No, seriously, completely sober. Haven't had a drink in a week... there's no way that shizzle is still in my system.

My reason for happiness is:


I HAVE FINALLY FINISHED BOOK 2: A WORLD REBORN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Sound the trumpets, do the dancing thing. Have a skip... hell, break out the champagne!

My reason for the 'out of schedule' impromptu post is that I chose to finish said book at 1am on a Saturday night, when everyone else is either:

A. Sleeping
B. Too drunk to care
C. Too busy trying to get too drunk to care
D. Passed out from being too drunk

Therefore, I have no one to share this monumental news with. No one to celebrate and shout huzzah with! What makes things worse is I'm around Oldest-Friend-Cafrin's house at the moment, thus having a best friend under the same roof as me and within clear celebrating distance from me. HOWEVER she is sleeping!! I can't wake her... as much as she loves me, she's not going to think this is news worthy enough to warrant waking her from her sleep.

So now this leaves me laying on her sofa, attempting to sleep, but too wired from the exciting thing to actually be able to carry out the act of sleeping and, instead, desperately trawling facebook in the off chance that someone is up and I can instant message them with the exciting news for them to then ignore me because they are probably busy with B or C of the above options. I even tried texting One-And-Only-Daniela with the news, but I don't even know why I bothered, she probably fell asleep around 9pm...

WHAT DO I DO WITH ALL THIS PENT UP EXCITEMENT AND JOY???????????????????????

My answer is to come on here and try and get it all out via the means of a long and incoherent excited ramble on my blog, but I fear it's not being effective enough! Why did I choose to wait until 1am to finish this? WHY????????????????????????????//

Excuse me whilst I go and do a solitary jig around Oldest-Friend-Cafrin's living room in a vain attempt to get rid of some of this energy.

Peace out my lovelies.

Fancy Things Friday: Film Parodies on Youtube... you make my life

Welcome to Fancy Things Friday, where I talk about things on a Friday that I think are fancy!!

Today's Fancy Thing is something that makes me laugh and lightens my heart and fills me with such glee that I sometimes I literally don't know what to do with myself. This thing is the area of youtube that focuses in on film and tv show parodies. 

There are many different channels on youtube who do this. Today, however, I will be focusing on three in particular, because they have all been responsible for making me pee from laughter at least three times each. (How's that for imagery??!!) These beautiful and very clever channels are the following: 

1. Bad Lip Reading

Bad Lip Reading is a channel that does exactly what it says on the tin. They take clips from our screens and dub over the voices with what it looks like they are saying... It is almost always ridiculous but, more often than not, makes you wish that the film had used these lines to begin with. 

Now, I'm aware that the channel does Bad Lip Reading for more than just the TV shows and films, however it seems to be all sports and American Politics which just goes over my tiny little head, so I'm focusing on the the fictional parodies only. 

The first video I ever saw them do was their Bad Lip Reading of Twilight, the first film. As far as I understand it, this is also how most people in the world, who are already aware of them, found out about them. Since then, they have done New Moon (film 2) and, breaking news just in, they have now done Eclipse! (Film 3). Words cannot express the love that I have for these videos. So much so, I have placed all three below for you to peruse. Once again, you are welcome. 

I won't say anything else about the above apart from "Keeeevin" and "That cake's my most bestest creation, why did you eat it?" These are moments when the above peeing may have happened, although I can neither confirm nor deny this...

They have a lot of different videos, such as Game Of Thrones (simply immense) and The Amazing Spiderman (I can't even...), go check them out. I will leave you with one more clip... The Hunger Games, which is freakin' awesome. 

2. Screen Junkies: Honest Trailers

So Channel recommendation No 2 is Screen Junkies. I'm not going to lie, both  this channel and the third one are fairly new to my radar. I have binge watched them this week, which has taken up most of my evenings, and they are freakin' awesome. However, due to still being a newbie to this channel, I have only got as far as watching their Honest Trailer series. If this is anything to go by though, the rest of the channel is no doubt just as awesome. 

So Honest Trailers basically take a film or TV Series and create a trailer whereby the voiceover man just says exactly what the rest of us are thinking. You might have noticed that I added the Game Of Thrones Honest Trailer to my Monday post, so, even though it is funny AS, I won't repeat this video today, just go back to Monday and check it out... or just visit their channel as I'm pretty sure they have it there too...

With Game Of Thrones being already advertised on this blog, I will focus on some of the other trailers that have caused the spontaneous urination this week. 

Frozen

The Notebook

The Avengers

Need I say more? Nope, because the videos speak for themselves, thus I am redundant. 

3. How it should have ended

This is a channel that, once more, does exactly what the title says. It takes movies and changes the ending to fit what 'should' have happened at the end, via the medium of animation. Once again, what a laugh I have had at this channel. I shall give you just one example for this one, and then let you check the rest out all for yourselves. 

So that's my recommendations for you, this week. Go forth, buy yourself some nappies, and settle in for a night of incontinence. Once again, you are welcome. 

Peace out my lovelies.

A random look at self image...

I have a spot forming on my bottom lip. Look:

Can you see it? ... Actually, the question should be "How could you miss it?"

As you can imagine, it hurts like a bitch. And because it's irritating me, I have been pressing and prodding at it all morning, naturally. This, of course, means that it is going to grow into a really nasty big spot, right there in the middle of my face and I'm going to look like I've caught some nasty disease, which of course is not the case... just in case you were wondering... Ah, the wonders of life.

In other good news, I am losing weight!! Huzzah!!! Since I decided to lose the weight, back in October, I have lost 2 1/2 stone. For all of you who measure in pounds, that apparently is 35 lbs... which, I'm sorry, doesn't sound nearly as good. Especially as, when I initially read it as 35lbs, I totally read the letter L in lbs as the number one, and I was all "351 lbs!! That's absolutely INSANE!!!!!!!!!!!" Now that I know it's actually just 35, I'm a little disappointed... Additionally, In Kg, it's 15kg, apparently... which is a number I don't really have an opinion over.

Overall, we can take from this that I am feeling incredibly proud of myself and have finally got to that point where people are saying "Woah, Lisa, you look like you've lost weight!" and "Lisa! Your uniform looks like it's drowning you" etc and so forth. (Note to self: Order new uniform).

This is all in a vain attempt to ensure that I look fabulous for my brother's wedding in July, and also because I was officially being classed as overweight by doctors and all that shizzle, which is apparently bad for your health, blah blah blah.

Generally, however, I don't particularly have an opinion on weight or image. I am very much a believer that, if how you present yourself makes you happy and isn't damaging your health in any way, then let your freak flag fly! Wear what you want and be who you want and... wait, have I just turned this post into an after school special? Damn... I'll just leave you with a clip that sums up my entire view on the subject with one 31 second scene from the TV Show, Miranda...

If you guys haven't checked out her show yet, I say to you again... Go, go now and watch it. I can't stress this enough, she's the epitome of British and, also, completely hilarious.

I didn't really set out to talk about self image today, it kind of just popped up when I let my fingers do the talking for me on the keyboard. However, now that I'm on the subject, I just wanted to take a moment to say the following:

Dear Reader,

Might I just say that you are looking fabulous today. You are beautiful, as is everyone, regardless of the media and all that shizzle. You have awesome things going on for you, and even if you can't see it, I guarantee you do. Just think about, think of one thing in your life that you like. Now fixate on that thing and let the happiness from it fill you, because that thing is awesome.

Love Lisa

Okay, now I definitely have gone after school special on your arse, but that's fine, because sometimes a good bit of cheese is needed in this world. Especially if you have crackers.

Peace out my lovelies

Talking to myself again.

I had this sudden surge of inspiration last night. I had been watching The Office: USA (I'm now up to Season 6), and I got sleepy. I turned my computer off, snuggled into bed and attempted to fall asleep.

However, despite it being 11pm, thus way past my bedtime, the moment I hit the pillow, my brain came alive. It resorted in the following conversation to occur within myself:

Brain: Lisa, you have been slightly blocked for the final chapters of your book over recent weeks. You have attempted to write something, but have been unsuccessful, because I have been stubborn and lazy. But, guess what??? I've decided now is the time that all the ideas will come to me and I must insist that you write them down, immediately.
Me: But Brain! I'm sleepy and I need to work tomorrow. Can't we do this tomorrow?
Brain: We could... but I can't guarantee that I won't be sleeping myself.
Me: Why would you be sleeping, when it would be a far more convenient time for us both?
Brain: I don't know what to tell you, Lisa, I'm a complex individual who can't be tied down to normal social conventions.
Me: I have another word for what you are...
Brain: Fine! Do what you want... If you're prepared to risk not having this second book published in time.
Me: ...
Brain: Night, night.
Me: ... You suck. Suddenly sits up and grabs her computer. 

And that is why I didn't get to sleep until 2am this morning, am knackered, but am incredibly satisfied with myself for the four additional chapters that suddenly poured out of me. As exciting as this is, if someone could figure out a way to tell my brain to get inspired at a time that isn't inconvenient to the rest of me, I'd really appreciate it.

Peace out my lovelies

Next On Netflix: Stand by Me

It has come to my attention that I've been a little lazy with my posts over the past week... just giving you links to videos and other people making an effort, but not creating any form of effort myself. It's appalling, I know... I'm not saying that I'm going to do anything about it, but I thought I'd let you know that I am aware of my laziness... it's within my radar.

Today, however, I am going to launch my new Feature! Huzzah! Hooray! And other slightly posh exclamations that show I'm very much from the land of the Brits. Pip pip!!

So, the Feature I'm going to try is Next On Netflix. Guys, it has become an obsession of mine. I pretty much only ever watch things that are on Netflix nowadays. Yes, that means that I also find myself stuck watching absolutely awful films amongst the few good ones, as this post demonstrated, but I figured, if you wanted to watch something, and you weren't sure about it, you could just come and see what I thought about it. And if you don't have Netflix... well, that's just a little bit bizarre. Just get the month's free trial already and see your obsession grow.

Now, there are a large selection of movies and shows to review on this site. My main problem is working out where to start. As such, I thought that I would just go on there and find the first one that sparked my interest... This is what I will begin with. After a while, if you guys like this, then please do offer suggestions of movies on there you would like a review on, and I will accommodate. I will take a request, watch it, and then tell you whether it's worth watching... because everyone knows my opinion is the only one that counts... ahem.

So, today, I'm going to kick it off with a movie that I have heard about all my life, but never actually watched. It was getting to an embarrassing point, so when it was introduced to Netflix, I was all over that shizzle. Today's review is over a movie from the 80s, called Stand By Me.

Okay, so here's what I knew about the movie going in:

1. Will Wheaton is in it. (Side note: I love Will Wheaton)
2. Of the people who have seen it, I have yet to meet a person who didn't love it in some shape or form.
3. Most of these people who have seen it, tend to be of the male variety, which suggests to me it's one of those movies that guys get all emotional over.

So, with that in mind, I knew I wasn't going to hate it. And I didn't. It was well written and had some very, very good dialogue moments, especially between two of the boys, Gordie (Wheaton) and Chris (River Phoenix).

The overall, no spoilers, premise of the plot is thus:

It's about four friends, Gordie, Chris, Teddy (Corey Fieldman (seriously, was this guy in every successful kids based movie of the 80s?)), and Vern (Jerry O'Connell), all with some form of screwed up background within their families. Vern overhears his older brother talking about how they had found a dead body and were too scared to do anything about it, so left it in the middle of the woods. The four boys therefore take a two day camping trip to find this body, and inevitable bonding occurs.

It's a simple concept, but a very effective one. It proves that you don't need massive plot turns and action to create a good movie, all you need is good writing, and this movie had good writing. It's my favourite kind of movie, and the type that always inspires me. There is nothing more beautiful than a powerful conversation between two characters. There are plenty of areas where it almost suggests that something more dramatic is going to occur, but then it pulls it back at the very last minute and keeps it within the 'realistic' vibe.

Overall, it is a movie about boys on the cusp of growing up. They're all 12 years old and the whole feel is like, although they have all been best friends for a long time, this was probably the last time they would ever hang out before they ended up going their separate ways. This underlying theme gave the movie its beauty. That, coupled with the fact that these boys predominantly spend the movie acting their age, but occasionally provide mature insight into each other's lives that comes out of nowhere and blows you away.

I do recommend this movie. Not that I really need to, as its reputation speaks for itself. If you're looking for an easy, yet incredibly enjoyable movie to watch on Netflix this week, then check this one out. It's definitely worth the time.

...

I will try and do one of these reviews a week. Although the day might vary... If you have a movie that you've seen advertised on Netflix but aren't sure if you will enjoy, so would like an opinion first, then please do mention it in the comments/twitter/facebook. I have no problem watching crappy movies, so I'm happy to take the bullet for you, should it turn into a bad one.

If I don't hear from any of you, then I shall pick another at random for next week. NB: I am equally willing to watch a TV show, but you might have to wait a little longer for me to get a review out for that, as it's a teensy bit more time consuming.

In case you were wondering; yes, this idea definitely came out of the guilt I was feeling over all the procrastination time I had spent on Netflix recently, and my need to justify it somehow. I think it's worked, I feel far better about myself.

Peace out my lovelies.

The Internet is a funny thing...

Dudes, I've only just realised it's Monday. I am bad with my days at the moment!!

Truth is, I have spent the last two days lazing in my bed. It's been nice! But, as such, I haven't really got much to talk about... I've tried to come up with something, but my brain is blank. I am very sleepy at the mo. So I'm just going to put a link up for my favourite youtube videos of this month and let someone else bring you joy today.

CONTAINS SPOILERS OF SEASONS 1-3 of Game of Thrones... but also really funny, so if you've seen those series then watch the shizzle out of this.

Gravity alternate scene

 Graham Norton messing with my girl, Emma.

And Superwoman explaining the exact reason why we all suck at naps

Speak to you all tomorrow, when I am much more awake and in control of my own thoughts!!

Peace out my lovelies.

Fancy Things Friday: A cheeky one this week...

Welcome to Fancy Things Friday, where I talk about things on a Friday that I think are fancy!!

Okay, so I'm going to be really cheeky with this week's Fancy Thing. What is it that's cheeky, I hear you ask? Well, there's a massive chance that the Fancy Thing for this week is something that I may have had a hand in making... and "by a hand" I mean, I made it. 

I've talked about it before, although not for a while. Today, I'm going to try to do my best at actually selling myself to you... in a non prostitute way, of course. My Fancy Thing this week is my book, Utopia. 

My reasons for bringing this up again are the following:

1. I am trying to create something that the kids are calling 'hype' about the fact that Book 2: A World Reborn will be being published very soon.

2. I have made, over the period of 5 days, Utopia free on Amazon. That's right, ladies and gents, you will not need to spend a penny to buy this book. All you need to do is click on one of the links in the right hand column and then click on Purchase. It will be all yours, at no cost to you at all. The period for which this offer stands is Friday 18th April - Tuesday 22nd April 2014. Go nuts.

If the above reasons haven't already convinced you to buy this book, I'm now going to tell you a little about the book. No spoilers, I promise.

Utopia takes place in a world, not unlike the one we all live in now. It's London, in the not so distant future. It focuses on four characters predominantly, and the people involved in their lives. These characters are Christiana, Jason, Adam and Daniela.

These people are thrown together in a life altering situation. They all receive an invite to a swanky restaurant and join together on one fateful day. Whilst they spend their day enjoying the food and drink provided for them, a disaster of epic proportions happens outside. Without any of them realising, the world they love and know, and the people they love and adore, are all wiped out by a deadly toxin. Now, they are left as a select few of the thousand survivors from an apocalypse they hadn't even realised had happened.

The book continues from this point, showing their different ways of adapting to a new world and underground community that they have suddenly become a part of, with no way of going back. It takes you through their journey and the reasons as to why they were lucky enough to be saved above everyone else.

It is book 1 of a series. The amount of books in this series is still undetermined, but there will be at least 7. I am putting the final touches to book 2 as we speak and will be out soon. It has been the focus of my life for a very long time... in fact, I can't remember a time when I didn't think about a character development or plot turn for one of them within my day. The story is very special to me, and has been a lot of fun to write.

I'm not going to say much else about it, except to recommend that you go check it out in the links to the side. It really is free over this time, I'm not kidding. Also, and this is the bit that makes me uncomfortable, so I'm going to go through it as quickly as possible, but it has received amazingly good reviews. I am so grateful for the people who have read it and liked it. So far, people have only had nice things to say about it, so... you know... there's that.

Reviews so far have been: 

By 

Melanie Dalzell

For a new author I thought this novel was great! The morals included are brilliantly thought through and the author clearly has imagination! I ll be waiting for the next book :-)

By 

rubysrustyroots

I loved this book. I love how it flicked between characters to give their point of view, and yet it flowed so well between them. I was constantly on the edge of my seat! You really feel like you know the characters. Great story line. Can't wait for the next book!!!!!!

 

By 

Mr Matthew Williams

This is a wonderful first book from an author with a wonderfully vibrant imagination. The main apocalyptic theme of the book is a fantastic concept for a story that hooked me in and made me want to keep reading from the very start. The characters are introduced rapidly but all have their own personalities and backgrounds that separate them from each other and really bring them to life. With the exception of one individual, the entire cast is likeable and you'll find yourself sympathising with them all at some point(s) as the story unfurls.

The first book is clearly setting up a universe and cast of characters that could spawn a whole host of other stories and with the ending of this one fresh in my mind I can't wait to read the next!

By 

arron laverty

Just finished reading this book. It is certainly one of the best books I've read of late.This book had me gripped from page one to the end. The characters are portrayed in a way that allows you to build them in your own mind without even thinking that your doing it. The story line is well structured and thought through developing as it goes along bringing in the characters in a way that leaves your mind wanting to move on and see where things go. When you hit that last page all you will want to do is find out when the next one in the series comes out, as it leaves you wanting more so many questions unanswered so many possibilities is it the end or not..... I guess only time will tell I certainly can't wait for the next book

By A Navy Vet...VT town TOP 500 REVIEWER

***CONTAINS SPOILERS***

Without reservation this is one of the best books I have read in a long time. Not only does it cover ethics and morality, it skillfully interweaves the question of love versus duty. And more.......much more....

The cast of characters is superb. People were selected for Utopia based on their accomplishments to society. There are some, however, that volunteered so they could be tested with a new "toxin".

Jason, the bartender, has been promised that his partner will be able to join him. Michelle, his boss, doesn't come through on this one and it leads to near hysteria on his part and dissension within Utopia .

Lots of interesting people in this one - Connor and Christy, Adam, the actor, and Kelly, the one-in-charge - just to mention a few..

The scene that unfolds outside with the lady and her baby is heart-wrenching.

And, then there are the pods... These were developed by a genius, Daniela, who knows how to control them. When a person is placed in them, they are telepathically linked to metal which turns into statues. The "Walkers" are ready to go outside.

How much killing of innocent people could you do before you snapped?

How long could you stay inside a protected environment?

Just an outstanding twist at the end of this story... I just shook my head and said "WOW"!

Most highly recommended and I notice it says series so am hoping....

If nations knew that the end was coming, what do you think they would do?

By JennyG

Utopia (Utopia Series)It didn't take me long to get into the story - fiction that takes one to another way of thinking - what if the world was going to end? Who gets saved and why? The people in this story have all been picked for things specific to what they can do and the whole place is run by a woman! As you get into the story, you learn about each main character and actually feel like slapping some of them! A bit of a twist at the end, but I really am looking forward to the next in this series. Please, Lisa, move your fingers and get the next one out. I was quite disappointed that I couldn't just buy the next one and carry on reading.

Okay... so, you know, it's free. Might as well, right??

And that's about as good as I get at advertising my shizzle. Feel free to tell your friends.

Peace out my lovelies.

A random ramble. Seriously, I just sat here and let my fingers type... I don't even really know what it is that I've written. So... yeah. Obviously that's going to mean it's awesome... (Insert sarcasm, where needed)

Last working day of the week! Huzzah! Apparently not the case for my American friends across the pond. Apologies for the gloating, in that case. I'd organise a meet and greet with Obama, if I were you, to sort that one out. There's nothing better than a random four day mandatory weekend to break up your April month. Plus, because Easter is always changing each year, it's totally a surprise as to when it's actually going to happen! As yesterday's post showed.

Today, I have managed to balance my coffee intake just enough so that I am being the queen of productive, whilst also not feeling that 'spaced out and shaking' feeling I usually get when I OD on the stuff. As such, I'm taking that as a win for the day and have already congratulated myself with a little song when my work colleague left the office. I'd sing it for you now, but there are people around and I don't want them to hear, the song is for you guys exclusively... yes, that technically includes them, as all they would have to do is to read this blog and then they are allowed to listen, but the point is they haven't and so they will not listen to it... also, I'm pretty certain they don't want to hear it.

I know the above ramble might suggest that I have, in fact, not balanced my coffee intake very well and I am slightly manic at the mo, but you guys need to realise that manic works well for me in terms of productiveness, without the manic then there's just the sleep, and apparently sleep during work time is frowned upon by employers.

For those of you who are now thinking: "But Lisa, what you're doing now isn't working, thus you are probably being frowned upon anyway" I will say, it is my lunch break. I don't eat food at lunch, due to a mix of no money and trying to be able to fit into a bridesmaid dress for July, as such I blog instead. It is the only way that I can force my brain to pick writing in this blog over procrastination, as if I waited until I was home, there would be nothing for you to read... unless you count the random tweets and facebook updates, informing you of all the different modes of procrastination I am currently involved in.

My main form of procrastination at the moment has taken the form of rewatching the American Office. It is one of the series collections I awesomely found on my computer. I've completed 30 Rock and had to suffer the heartbreak of watching the final series of that show, (something that I had avoided until now) thus solidifying for me the fact that there will be no more episodes. This saddens me, and the only way I could find a way of getting over it, was to find a rebound series to hook my claws into, and thus the rewatching of American Office was born. I'm up to series 2 and I had forgotten how beautiful the office romance is between Pam and Jim. At the moment, they're still in that "longing looks across the room" phase. My heart melts every time.

Being British, and therefore a built in fan of the original Ricky Gervais series, I had convinced myself that I would not like this version. I had never been so wrong. I freakin' love it. And, although I can't find a single thing to fault about the original, despite how many times I buried my head in embarrassment whilst watching it, I have grown to love the American Office almost as much. This time round watching it, I'm still in the "imitating the original series" phase of the series, but soon they will begin to blossom into their own thing and I am, dare I say it, giddy at the prospect.

Yes, once again, I am confirming that I don't really have much going on at the moment. But, you know what? Even if I did, even if I was a millionaire with a husband and 6 adorable, yet slightly annoying, children and I had everything I ever wanted... I would still sit down with my TV and movies and treat them like they're real people... It's the wonder of fiction. It's the reason I spend so much time in the lives of the make believe, not just those I watch, but those I create as well. In those worlds, anything is possible. And that, people, is beautiful.

Sorry for lack of promised feature. Next week, I promise!! Fancy Things Friday will be up tomorrow, however!

Peace out my lovelies.

Wait, what? Easter's this weekend?

Sup my lovelies.

So I just had the nicest shock of the week. Up until about an hour ago, I was convinced that Easter weekend wasn't until the end of next week. But lo and behold!! It's Good Friday this Friday! Which means that I don't need to come into work on Friday, like I had assumed. Man, am I glad I found this out, I would have gone in otherwise...

Thinking this over, I really should work out what to do for this weekend. Every year, I have always had pretty immense plans for the Easter weekend that span the entire four days, oooh yeah, I'm hardcore with my my mandatory holidays.

This year, I have only planned something for Saturday night. Mind you, it's with the same person I went out with and ended up staying out until 6:30am the following morning, so I'm pretty certain that we could drag the festivities out for the rest of the weekend, I shall have to get in touch with him regarding this...

With that being said, I'm struggling to find much else to talk about today... you can always guess I'm having one of those days when I start talking about mundane things like, "Oh, it's that day? I thought it was another day!" And that happens to be the most exciting thing that has happened to me in the past 24 hours... Yup, you can't make up the things that happen in my life, they just happen and we all marvel at how it occurred.

The annoying thing is there are quite a few really exciting things happening in my life that I am dying to share with you all at the mo, but I can't because none of them are certain and I don't want to say anything prematurely! Just trust me when I say I am fairly excited about the next few months. Also, I've just created intrigue! Oooh, aaah, you'll have to come back to find out what it's all about!!

Oh, you know what? I'm going to give this up now. I really don't have much to say and I fear I'm just embarrassing myself, pretending I do. So, with a short but sweet(?) post, I shall go. I'm posting something tomorrow that could be a potential new feature. I won't say what it is yet, but I can confirm that I told Both-Brothers and New-To-The-Family-Amy on Saturday and they all said "That sounds fairly good" and "I would imagine people might possibly read that."

So... you know... look forward to that.

Peace out my lovelies.

A need for Speed... not the movie, but real life.

So this Saturday just gone, I spent another awesome day in the heart of London. Marmie had been instructed by Younger-Brother-Daniel to get us all "outside of the box" Christmas presents last year, and she didn't disappoint. I received a Popcorn Machine and both brothers received a speedboat ride around the Thames.

Within this boat ride, they both had a plus one they could take. Older-Brother-Glyn, being engaged to the lovely New-To-The-Family-Amy, naturally had his plus one automatically built into the present, Younger-Brother-Daniel had free reign to pick who he liked... at first. However, this only lasted for about an hour after receiving the present, as soon Marmie was quietly suggesting that it would be really nice of him if he took me. Apparently, she had found this trip around the Thames after she had bought my Christmas present and so now felt guilty that she was giving her two sons a really nice day out and leaving me to sit on my own.

I did try to explain to her that it was fine, as I had already received another present from her, but she was having none of it and continued to say to Younger-Brother-Daniel phrases such as "Of course it is your choice who you pick, but it would be nice to involve your sister, don't you think?" As such, Younger-Brother-Daniel felt suitably inclined to invite me.

He also got it into his head that, although I had made it clear I was perfectly happy not to attend, I was doing the female thing where I say I'm fine but secretly making plans to kill him in his sleep for his betrayal should he not take me (apologies for the dramatic example, I have just finished with a particularly long Game of Thrones marathon and everything in my head is slightly warped towards betrayal and murder plotting... Disclaimer: This applies to examples only, I have no intention of actually acting out on any murders. I am not that way inclined... anymore... joking!... or am I?)

Anywho, to cut a long story short, this resulted in me taking this speedboat trip with Both-Brothers and New-To-The-Family-Amy on Saturday. Which was very lucky on my part as it technically meant I received two Christmas Presents instead of one last year. Both-Brothers are expecting their Popcorn Machines in the post any day now... ha! dream on! I've always known I was secretly the favourite...

So we went on the speedboat, which was fun. Lots of boating with speed involved, believe it or not. New-To-The-Family-Amy appeared to have chosen the seat that got the most wet. She put on a brave face, but we could all see the fear behind her eyes.

Can you see it? It's there...

After the trip we went for Vietnamese food. Something none of us had ever eaten before but Older-Brother-Glyn is pretty insistent that when we are in central London, we will eat at new restaurants and not constantly find ourselves in places like Garfunkels. We obliged. The food was actually really nice and I'd probably do it again. Although I wasn't massively hungry, thanks to a mix up at McDonalds earlier in the day where my purchase of one double cheeseburger (to tie me over until food came) turned into me somehow having 3 double cheeseburgers. Don't ask me how it happened, I don't completely know myself. I did try and give at least one away to my family, but they were having none of it and I can't waste food, I just can't... so... I had to do it. I had to eat all of them. It was my duty as a person who values food and doesn't believe in wasting any of it... you can agree, my reasons are solid.

The day was fun, it was also what led to my marathon of Game Of Thrones as it was all they wanted to talk about, but couldn't due to my insistence that no words would leave their mouth until I had watched it. Which I now have, by the way. I am fully up to date. I went through a range of emotions that I can't even begin to explain and one panicked phone call to Older-Brother-Glyn last night, whilst doing it, but I survived it and managed to move on. That's all I will say on the subject, other than... If you have resisted thus far, don't anymore. Not for any other reason than if you don't watch it soon, someone will tell you what happens and you will cry and stamp your feet like a child with a temper tantrum at the injustice of it all. Don't allow that to happen people, fight against the spoilers and see it for yourself.

My day ended with a trip home that will scar me for eternity. I am very aware of the family friendly tone that I try to give this blog, and as such fear that I can't relay my experience in full, due to the horribleness of it all. Let me just say this... there is a certain thing that men should not be doing in a public space and should be reserved for private time only. This certain thing should particularly not be done whilst sitting next to me on a packed underground train because I will melt down and feel incredibly violated at the experience... It is not what I want to see when I am trying to play Bubble Witch Saga on my phone... also, when this happens, and this particular man's friends start laughing and urge me to elbow him to get him to stop; do not be shocked when I don't go ahead with this request. I can't ignore it if you make me touch him whilst it's happening...

...

Traumatised people... traumatised.

And now that I've shared it with you, in a round about way, I will love you and leave you. You are very welcome for the image.

Peace out my lovelies.

Game of Thrones: The official no spoiler post... because I haven't seen it.

About 18 months ago, I was introduced to the world of Game of Thrones. I got through the first series in one night and then proceeded to watch them a second time with One-And-Only-Daniela on New Year's Eve, seeing in 2013. I got her suitably hooked, as was I, and we both went off to watch the rest of the series.

Unfortunately, this is where our stories part. You see, One-And-Only-Daniela went on, with the rest of the world, to speed through all the episodes and gasp and sigh and laugh and scream out "Did you see that!" with the entire population of Earth. I, on the other hand, got about 4 episodes into Season 2 and, for no reason at all, stopped watching it. 

Don't get me wrong, I totally get what all the hype is about and I'm a massive fan of the show, but for some reason I was unable to bring myself to watch any more. So I didn't. My family insisted on talking about it at every get together, I covered my ears and sang to myself to not give anything away. My brothers are pretty good at the whole 'keeping spoilers away from conversation' tact. One-And-Only-Daniela is not. She has spoilt pretty much every series that we've both watched where she was ahead. Grey's Anatomy was the biggest one. Yes, ladies and gents, I am referring to the particularly intense nail biting end of Series 5 and the open question that was left. I came in to work, after watching that, I gaped and shook my head. One-And-Only-Daniela turned to me and said, in one simple sentence, the entire answer to the open question. She RUINED it for me. I did not speak to her for about a week after that. That was not cool. 

So with that in mind, One-And-Only-Daniela has become a ticking time bomb around me recently. I am all but aware that something immense happens in Game of Thrones Season 3. Although I hadn't watched it for a while, I had every intention to, thus I had to keep One-And-Only-Daniela away from all conversations to do with this particular show. Usually, I get away with it. Usually, we can talk about other things and if there's a hint of Game Of Thrones coming into the conversation, I steer that shizzle away from the topic so fast she wouldn't even realise we were going to talk about it. 

However, last weekend, both One-And-Only-Daniela and No-Nickname-Yet-Tshepiso got onto the topic and, being fully up to date, continued to talk in very obvious clues about possible spoilers. I'm not kidding, I had no idea what they were talking about but I now know loads about what to expect from certain characters. Thing is One-And-Only-Daniela seemed genuinely perplexed when she realised I had cracked the code she was speaking in... mainly because her code was simply the 'instead of saying it, I'll just mime it' technique... not exactly subtle.  

As such, and in the light of the new series starting and everyone now becoming obsessive over it again, I decided the only way I was going to get through watching it without finding anything out was to watch it as soon as possible. So Sunday I sat in my room from 6am to 11pm and marathoned Game Of Thrones hard. I am currently only up to the 5th or 6th episode of Season 3, but I am back in the game in terms of falling in love with it all over again. I've been really reluctant to post this, for fear of anyone being evil and posting a spoiler on here. However, earlier today, someone posted on my facebook page an "I can't believe that..." post about Game Of Thrones that has devastated me more than anything in the world. 

WHY CAN'T YOU UNREAD SOMETHING ONCE YOU'VE READ IT???? WHY????????????????????

I got so close and someone just pulled the rug out from under me and now I know something, I don't want to know this thing. Now that I do know this thing it's left me flat and lifeless. It's not even the thing that One-And-Only-Daniela was hinting at. It was a new thing, and I know it. 

I'm close to caught up. I will go home tonight and watch as many episodes as I can. I will also not go near facebook for a while. I am so angry at the world for knowing this thing. People might say too angry, but I say; look at this in context. Look at how hard I Fan something. Look at how fiction is becoming my life. Not cool people. Not cool. 

I realise that I'm now setting myself up for people to throw spoilers at me in the comments. As such, I shan't be reading anything from the comments until I am caught up. I will get through this without any more nasty reveals. I WILL!

Peace out my lovelies

Fancy Things Friday: Film scores that have me Hooked

Welcome to Fancy Things Friday, where I talk about things on a Friday that I think are fancy!!

You guys don't know it yet but I totally punned the hell out of that title. So much so, I'm giving myself a little pat on the back right now. 

Okay, so this week I'm going to talk about another thing that I have found fancy for quite a while now. This is Film Scores. It's my top genre of music to listen to, I have stupid amounts of scores on my personal playlist, and I am that very sad person who will go to a movie and make everyone sit through the end credits until we reach the film composer so that I can jot it down for further purchases. If the film composer is announced at the beginning of a movie, I tend to be the one in the cinema who will mutter a quiet cheer of celebration if it happens to be a personal favourite of mine. It is an obsession I have, and one that I love. 

It started when I was 17 and studying music for A Levels at school. Film scores were part of the syllabus. We were studying James Horner's "Take Her to Sea Mr Murdoch" from the film Titanic. However, I found myself searching through the other songs on the list of possible music to study and getting lost in all the different ones on there. It was then that I heard the full version of the ET theme from the film score God; John Williams. After hearing that piece of music, I knew my life would never be the same again. I became a woman on a mission, I had to hear everything this man had done, and after I had exhausted all of these, I began to venture into the world of other composers such as Hans Zimmer, James Horner and Dario Marianelli. Since then, I have never looked back. 

When we went to see the new Star Wars movies, whilst my friends were making comments throughout about the canonisation of the characters and the special effects, I was turning to them and going "Did you just hear what Williams did there? It was Anakin's theme but intermingled with Darth Vader's because he was tempted to dark side. That is GENIUS!" 

One of the only successful first dates that I have ever encountered happened to be on a trip to the cinema to see The Boy In The Striped Pyjamas... I know what you're thinking, and yes, I do like to keep it light and fun for a first date... Anywho, as I was reading the opening credits, I was doing my usual look to see who had composed the music. As it was, the style of music I had heard so far sounded very similar to one particular composer I had in my head, and I wanted to see if I was right. I was aware that I didn't want to come across as some weird geek person at the time, first impressions and all that, so I had made an internal decision to only congratulate myself, if I was right, silently and to myself so as to not freak my date out. 

However, when the composer's name came up, and I saw that it was James Horner, (the man I had totally guessed, by the way) all I heard from my date was "Yessss! I knew it!"

I turned to him then, my mouth agape in wonder and my eyes wide with amazement. Not wanting to believe that he was, in fact, geeking out over the same thing as me, I asked what it was that he was so excited about. 

He gave me an apologetic look and said, "I have this little thing about film scores. I love them. When I heard the opening music, I was convinced this would James Horner, and when they announced it, I got a little excited. Sorry, I know that's a little weird."

I had no words. All I did was shake my head in disbelief. When I eventually did find my voice, I do believe I just began uttering all of Horner's work to him to let him know that I did not find this weird at all. It was at that point that I knew this date would go well, despite the emotional rollercoaster of emotions the movie was about to take us on. 

Anywho, I think I've made my point. I am a fan of the film score. In this light, I thought I would give you a quick rundown of some amazing scores you need to check out, if you want to see exactly what I mean. Good little tip is, this music is absolutely amazing for any kind of accompaniment with work based activities. If you're studying, or working or just want something in background whilst you're procrastinating, this is the best genre of music. After all, it was designed to go in the background of stuff. It makes sense. I, myself, can't write fiction without it. If you get the music right, it can stir just the right emotions to get in the mood of a particular character. I have a film score playlist for emotional scenes, big dramatic scenes, angry scenes, major world disaster scenes, you name it, there will be a film score for it. Again, it's what it's created to do!

Okay, so here goes my recommendations: 

1. John Williams

John Williams is the daddy of film composers. Mainly due to the fact that he is mainly in partnership with Stephen Spielberg. I think Spielberg has occasionally gone for other composers, but never very often and certainly never for any of his big films. The main reason for why Williams rocks when it comes to the things he composes, is that his music has that elite quality to it whereby you could play it and everyone would automatically know which film it was from. I don't know any other composer who can boast that. An example of this is in the list below. In fact, you could probably work it the other way, you can see the films and automatically be able to sing the score. Try it. 

1. Close Encounters of the Third Kind

2. Star Wars

3. Superman

4. Indiana Jones

5. ET

6. Home Alone 

7. Hook

8. Jurassic Park

9. Harry Potter

10. Jaws

11. Schindlers List

Those are just a few of the many, many films he's done. My favourite of his, and possibly my favourite film score of all time, is the Hook film score (I'll wait for you to now get the pun in the title and laugh accordingly)... In my humble opinion, that score is the epitome of perfection. It has so many different themes to portray; Hook, the Lost Boys, Peter Pan, and the children, and then on top of that, has the most beautiful piece of music for the ultimate "You can fight, you can fly, and you can... *queue crow*" moment. It's called You are the Pan. Here it is. 

Beautiful right? Just keep that playing whilst you continue to read. You'll be glad you did. 

I recommend you check out all the themes from the above list. In particular, Hook, Indiana Jones, ET, Home Alone and Star Wars. All amazeballs. 

2. James Horner

James Horner is king of the emotional gut wrenching music. He too has a very impressive repertoire. Although, once you've heard a lot of his music, you will begin to notice similarities in his work. This is mainly because he favours a particular key in his music, which I really can't remember now but totally studied the hell out of when doing my A Levels. Although it is samey, it is still beautiful. He also tends to bring out one kick arse song for each movie... as he did Titanic. Ladies and gents, I can confirm that he is responsible for My Heart Will Go On, but please don't hold that against him, he's done a lot more impressive songs in other movies. My favourites (and ones you should definitely check out) in his list of movies are: 

1. An American Tail 

2. Titanic

3. Braveheart 

4. The Mask of Zorro

5. A Beautiful Mind

6. Troy

7. Casper... I know it sounds unlikely that this would be beautiful, but trust me on this! ... In fact, screw it, listen to this. It's called Casper's Lullaby:

Of all of those, my highlight is a piece of music called "For The Love of a Princess" from Braveheart. Find it below:

3. Hans Zimmer

Hans Zimmer has a particular style of movie that he writes for. He will mainly write for the big epic style movies. As such, if you need a piece of music that will really get you going and energised, he is the man for you. My favourites of his are: 

1. The Lion King (film score not the songs, which we all know are Elton John)

2. Gladiator

3. Pirates of the Caribbean (In particular 'At World's End')

4. Da Vinci Code

5. Angels and Demons

6. Inception

Again, he does have the tendency to be a little samey with his music. For example, if you listen to the Gladiator soundtrack and the Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End soundtrack, you may get confused on which score belongs to what. There are so many to choose from for an example of his work, but I've decided to go with the main theme "Time" from Inception. But check out any of the above, they're all golden. 

So they're the main beasts of the film score industry. You don't really get more well known than them in that genre. However, there are some composers who aren't as well known that I love equally, if not a little bit more. I've continued with them here: 

4. Rachel Portman

BIG composer for British films. Really laid back and easy listening type music. My favs of hers are: 

1. Never Let Me Go

2. The Duchess

3. One Day

My highlight has to be a piece from One Day called "We Had Today."

5. Dario Marianelli

Again, very popular with the British films, or certainly my favs of his are mostly from the British ones. These are: 

1. Pride and Prejudice

2. Atonement 

3. The Soloist

My highlight for him was hard, because I couldn't decide between two. I've gone for a piece from Atonement called "Elergy for Dunkirk" which, for those of you who have seen it, is the amazing scene where they do a sweep of the whole beach after the battle of Dunkirk in one shot... SO good. 

The rest I'm just going to list in songs, rather than composers as my favourites are rather sporadic. They are: 

"Together we live forever" by Clint Mansell from the movie The Fountain

The entire album to Forrest Gump by Alan Silvestri. This is a piece called "The Feather Theme."

The entire album of Edward Scissorhands by Danny Elfman. Check out Elfman's other stuff as well. He usually collabs with Tim Burton movies but does others as well. My favourite piece from this album is a piece called "The Grand Finale."

"Simon and Alisha Forever" by Vince Pope from the British TV Show; Misfits

Anything that Murray Gold has ever written for Doctor Who. I will of course put in the most popular one, followed by my personal favourite (at the mo, this changes regularly)

"I am the Doctor"

"The Enigma of River Song."

And my most recent love, the soundtrack for the latest Sherlock Series by David Arnold and Michael Price. I will select "The East Wind" for this post. 

There are so many more, I have over 12 years of collections that I could share, and I know I'm going to read this back tomorrow and kick myself for not adding something. But I have well and truly reached my maximum length of post and need to let you all go. Just trust me and start listening to this shizzle, it is so awesome. 

Have a lovely weekend 

Peace out my lovelies.