My Blog’s June 2016 Recap

Happy Independence Day to my American followers! I suggest you all celebrate by not going to see Independence Day: Resurgence. (Because it’s meant to suck) 🙂 Well, it’s now July so here’s a quick recap of the stuff I posted in June.

It would’ve been Adrienne Shelly’s 50th birthday on the 24th of June so I decided to review five of her movies that week. I adored her film Waitress (for which she was the writer, director & co-star) so had been meaning to check out some of her previous acting work. It was great to see her in other roles but Waitress remains my favorite. She was clearly a very talented filmmaker & it’s a shame we’ll never get to see what else she would have made. The links to my five Adrienne Shelly movie reviews are all below.

Other than that, I had a pretty lazy blog month & plan to cut back even more in July. I did at least manage another Blind Spot movie review (for THX 1138). I still had a few fun posts that got some comments, though, and I was very surprised to see what became my most popular post…

POSTS

My Most Popular Post: Sweet Valley High Covers Artist Takes Commissions. Wow! I didn’t expect the response that I got on this post. I guess I’m not the only pre/early teen girl who read this series in the 80s! I loved reminiscing over the books’ cover art & even got a couple of comments from another artist who worked on the cover art for the later books in the series. Very cool!

My Favorite Post: My review of Waitress & my list of My Top Ten Video Game Movies were probably my favorites this month. And the Sweet Valley High post, of course.

MOVIES REVIEWED

My Most Popular Movie Review: It was a tie view-wise between Waitress & Warcraft: The Beginning. Huh – You can’t really get two movies that are more different!

All Movies Reviewed (ranked best to worst):
Waitress
THX 1138
The Unbelievable Truth
The Dead Pool
Warcraft: The Beginning
Trust
Heavy Metal Parking Lot
Money Monster
The Conjuring 2: The Enfield Case
Sleeping With Strangers
Factotum

MOVIES WATCHED

In Cinema (ranked best to worst):
Warcraft: The Beginning
Money Monster
The Conjuring 2: The Enfield Case

At Home (ranked best to worst):
Paul
Dope
Sleeping With Strangers
San Andreas
Factotum

TOP TEN LISTS

Top Ten Clint Eastwood Movies
Top Ten Video Game Movies
Top Ten Movie Presidents

SEARCH TERMS

My Top Search Term: “Gorillaz videos“. Well, that makes sense as I’ve posted Gorillaz videos in posts for my Clint Eastwood Week & in my review of the Tank Girl comic. Love Gorillaz! Great music.

My Favorite Search Term: Most definitely “carrot blow job scene“! And, yes, I know why that search led to my blog. I’m so proud. That’ll be thanks to My Top Ten Movie Fruits & Vegetables list & the scene in question is from Fast Times At Ridgemont High starring the lovely Jennifer Jason Leigh.

I’m also happy that someone searched for the movie D.A.R.Y.L. Cheesy 80’s goodness! 🙂

Here are my top search terms for the month:

BOOKS

Book Reviewed: The Colour Of Magic by Terry Pratchett

Book I’ve Just Finished: The Death Cure by James Dashner

Book I’m Currently Reading: The End Of The World Running Club by Adrian J Walker

BLOG PLANS FOR THE COMING MONTH

Oh my god that baby polar bear is adorable! Anyway, I don’t really have any blog plans for July. My plan is to “chill”. I’m tired. I’ll do some lazy Top Tens & reviews of movies I go to see. Other than that, I’ll post stuff only if I’m in the mood. Maybe summer will finally come to the U.K. this month?!?! Fingers crossed! If the sun is actually shining, you’ll be seeing less of me here. 🙂

Upcoming Movies:

Finding Dory!!!! I’m so annoyed at the long wait for this one in the U.K. (it comes out on July 29th). I’m a massive Pixar fan & desperate to see it! Other than that, I’m very curious about The Neon Demon but plan to avoid the new Ghostbusters movie like the plague. Oh yeah – I almost forgot that Star Trek Beyond is out in July (I’m actually not impressed by the trailer) and The BFG looks like it could be a bit of family fun. At home, I seriously need to catch up on watching my Blind Spot movies & haven’t yet watched the one I’m hoping to review in July (Battle Royale).

Let’s see… I always end these with a music clip related to something I posted or watched. Well, I finally watched Dope last week after badly wanting to see it for ages. I’m sorry to say that I found the movie to be a huge disappointment. However, the soundtrack kicked ass! Here’s Juice (Know the Ledge) by Eric B. & Rakim:

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Music Video Friday: Gorillaz – Clint Eastwood & Dirty Harry

Today’s videos are Clint Eastwood & Dirty Harry by Gorillaz to end my Clint Eastwood Week here at Cinema Parrot Disco. I spent the week reviewing some Eastwood films that I’ve just watched for the first time this year. These films are:

Play Misty For Me
A Fistful Of Dollars
For A Few Dollars More
The Dead Pool

Plus I also previously reviewed Unforgiven, Escape From Alcatraz & The Good, The Bad And The Ugly. I think I’ve now seen far more Clint Eastwood movies than any girl really should. 😉 Oh, and I also did a list yesterday of My Top Ten Clint Eastwood Movies HERE.

So! I’m Eastwooded out for a while. Instead of forcing myself to finally watch Million Dollar Baby to review today, I’ve decided to just stick with my Music Video Friday series and post these Eastwood tribute songs by the Gorillaz. Because I love them! Fantastic songs from a band that should have been far bigger.

I’m not going to say a lot about Gorillaz as I already did that HERE in my review of the Tank Girl comic collection that I read since Tank Girl’s co-creator (Jamie Hewlett) also helped create Gorillaz along with Blur frontman Damon Albarn. I love the virtual band’s style and, more importantly, they have damn good songs. Of the two below, I’d have to say that I like the Dirty Harry song slightly more but the Clint Eastwood video is better. They’re easily my two favorite Gorillaz songs, though. Funny how they have that Clint Eastwood link. That’s why I just had to end my Clint Eastwood Week with these videos…. Enjoy! And have a lovely weekend. 🙂

Tank Girl by Jamie Hewlett & Alan Martin (Book Review)

I did a long post at the end of the year with mini-reviews of everything I’d read in 2015 (you can see that post HERE). I posted it New Year’s Day so it got very little action as I suppose everyone was hungover. 😉 I plan to re-post a few of those mini-reviews of my favorites from that list. I’ll post the original but will add a little more as some were only a few sentences.

In the case of Tank Girl, I’ve since seen the movie. Um. Urgh…. The film is, shall we say, not as good as the book?!? (Unlike Tank Girl, I’m being really f*%king polite by saying that). But I’ll be posting a review of the movie tomorrow – for now let’s talk about the Tank Girl graphic novel.

Tank Girl by Jamie Hewlett and Alan Martin

What It’s About: (via Wikipedia)
The eponymous character Tank Girl (Rebecca Buck) drives a tank, which is also her home. She undertakes a series of missions for a nebulous organization before making a serious mistake and being declared an outlaw for her sexual inclinations and her substance abuse. The comic centres on her misadventures with her boyfriend, Booga, a mutant kangaroo.

My Thoughts:

This is the second (of two!) graphic novels that I’ve read (the other being Watchmen). Wait – is this a graphic novel? It’s more of a collection of several comics… I think?? Is there a difference?

This sort of thing is something I have NO knowledge in but I have to say that I did enjoy Tank Girl. She’s a cool character and I really appreciated the (inappropriate) humor (it took me a while to read it all as I had to keep putting it away someplace where my young daughter wouldn’t grab it). I mean, Tank Girl has sex with a kangaroo. Whaaaat? It’s pretty damn bizarre but it’s fun and I was entertained.

What I didn’t talk about in my mini-review was why I decided to read Tank Girl. My hubby bought it years ago and it had always been sitting in our bookcase (with that exact blue cover up there) but it wasn’t until last year when I’d run out of things to read that I decided to ask him about it as I did like the look of that image on the cover.

To be honest, although I hadn’t seen the movie, it looked really bad & was trashed by critics so I never gave the comic much thought. Well, hubby was all “you know why you’re drawn to that cover? Because its co-creator (Jamie Hewlett) also created Gorillaz with Damon Albarn”. That convinced me to finally check it out as I LOVE the band Gorillaz! I’ve always thought their virtual cartoon band was a brilliant idea (helped by the fact that the music was equally as cool as the band members Hewlett designed) and I’ve never understood why they weren’t absolutely huge in every country. Here they are:

Anyway, as for Tank Girl, I loved its “attitude” and the fact that the title character does NOT give a fuck. She’s violent, irresponsible, alcoholic, surprisingly dumb, and her boyfriend is a kangaroo yet you can’t help but like her. The “storylines” are all over the place (kind of like the inside of the character’s mind, I suppose) but I didn’t care as it was, overall, a funny & enjoyable read. I don’t exactly know if I can recommend it, though, as it’s not for everyone. It would really need to be your type of thing if you’re going to check it out but I’m glad that I finally did.

My Rating: 3.5/5

Music Video Friday: Blur – Coffee & TV

Today’s Music Video Friday selection is Blur’s adorable anthropomorphic milk carton video for Coffee & TV. 

Every once in a while I do an “Anthropomorphic Cuteness” post (you can see my very first post explaining my obsession with inanimate objects being given human characteristics & cute smiley faces HERE). I haven’t actually done one of those posts in a while – I should get back to doing them again! Just like these Music Video Friday posts which no one ever looks at, I selfishly post those for myself because it’s something I enjoy. Someday I’ll find someone who shares my love of anthropomorphism! 😉 But now let’s talk about Blur & this video…

I do like Blur but I totally missed out on that whole Blur vs Oasis thing since that happened before I moved to the UK. Well, I’d have most definitely been on “Team Blur” since I hate Oasis (but I actually prefer Gorillaz, singer Damon Albarn’s other band). Coffee & TV is good but isn’t exactly my very favorite Blur song. However, the video would very likely make my list of Top Ten Music Videos (which is a top ten you know I’ll be doing at some point). It’s a classic. 

The video was directed by Hammer & Tongs (aka Garth Jennings and Nick Goldsmith). They did a lot of other great music videos also worth checking out (such as Pumping On Your Stereo by Supergrass and Right Here, Right Now by Fatboy Slim). What I didn’t realize is that they also made the movies The Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy (which I found very disappointing – I actually liked the BBC adaptation more) and Son Of Rambow (which I always wanted to see but never got around to). But Coffee & TV, in which a “missing person” milk carton goes off in search of the guy in the photo (Blur member Graham Coxon) is the very best in the fairly long list of Hammer & Tongs videos. 

Check it out if for some strange reason you missed it: 🙂

Now take my poll which is only almost 20 years too late! 

My Top Ten Songs Where The Title Isn’t In The Lyrics

I get really annoyed when a song isn’t named what it should be. Such as: Why the hell isn’t Baba O’Riley by The Who called Teenage Wasteland?! They don’t mention the words Baba O’Riley at all in the song but they sing “Teenage Wasteland” over & over again!

Okay, it doesn’t REALLY annoy me all that much – there are bigger things in life to worry about. 😉 But I did think it would make a fun top ten list! Like last week, though, I’m going to be annoying & make this a Top 20 (there were too many!). Feel free to add any you think of – I admit that with this list I’ve only looked through what’s on my iPod so there will be loads of songs I’ve not thought of or not mentioned.

So here are My Top Twenty Songs Where The Title Isn’t In The Lyrics (ranked roughly according to how much I like the song – I don’t think the order is important with this one):

20. MGMT – Kids (Should Be: Take Only What You Need)
19. Massive Attack – Unfinished Sympathy (Should Be: Really Hurt Me Baby)
18. Led Zeppelin – Immigrant Song (Should Be: Ah Ah Ahhhhhhh AH!)
17. Death From Above 1979 – Black History Month (Should Be: Dunno. Maybe “Hold On”. But that’s a Wilson Phillips song…)
16. Blink 182 – Dammit (Should Be: This Is Growing Up)
15. Red Hot Chili Peppers – Brendan’s Death Song (Should Be: I’m Almost Gone)14. Bob Dylan – Subterranean Homesick Blues (Should Be: I have no idea… How about “Mixin’ Up The Medicine”!)
13. Interpol – Evil (Should Be: Rosemary)
12. New Order – Blue Monday (Should Be: How Does It Feel?)
11. Daft Punk – Instant Crush (Should Be: We Will Never Be Alone Again)

Top Ten:

10. Public Image Ltd – The Order Of Death
Should Be: This Is What You Want, This Is What You Get

I adore John Lydon & this Public Image Ltd song, which is used prominently in the shower scene in Hardware. Yes! I’ve managed to once again mention the movie Hardware on my blog! Anyway, it’s an awesome song title even if it’s not said – most of the titles in this list are better than my “Should Be” titles.

9. Blur – Song 2
Should Be: Woohoo!

Such a fun song! It’s apparently named Song 2 because it’s two minutes long plus I think it was also the second song on the album? I sometimes play it when timing my kid’s toothbrushing (because kids are meant to brush for two full minutes, right?). Well, it’s a fun way to brush teeth!

8. The Police – Synchronicity II
Should Be: Not sure – maybe “Many Miles Away”

I used to really be into song lyrics as a teen/early twentysomething – you know, the age when you have time to waste on that kind of shit. But I never looked into the lyrics to this one at all until now. Pretty deep stuff with this one! And pretty bleak. This is quite possibly my very favorite song by The Police, who I don’t think really got the credit they deserved. An excellent band & I think I now like this song even more after reading the lyrics but I have to say I still don’t understand the title. I’m too old to think about these things.

7. TIE: Gorillaz – Dirty Harry & Clint Eastwood
Should Be: I Need A Gun & Sunshine In A Bag

I love Gorillaz!!! Do any Americans here know their songs? I think they were far bigger in the UK. I’m actually reading Tank Girl at the moment because it was created by the same guy (Jamie Hewlett) who created this “cartoon band” (one member of the band being adorable Damon Albarn from that picture of Blur I posted for Song 2). These are my two favorite songs of theirs & it made sense to put “Clint Eastwood” & “Dirty Harry” together for this post. The titles are cool. The look of the band is cool. The songs are cool. They should be even bigger than they are!

6. Grandmaster Flash And The Furious Five – The Message
Should Be: Don’t Push Me

Seriously. Don’t push me. I’m close to the EDGE! 

5. The Who – Baba O’Riley
Should Be: Teenage Wasteland

I’ve not researched all of these songs but did of course look into this one. Here’s a bit about it from Genius.com:

Initially part of an idea (later thrown aside) of a follow up rock opera — Lifehouse — to Tommy, Pete Townshend wrote it after his experience at Woodstock. The name of the song is a combination of Meher Baba – an Indian guru that kept silent from 1935 until his death in 1969 who inspired Townshend spiritually, and Terry Riley — a musician and classical composer that also inspired him.

There’s actually a lot more to it if you want to read about it at Wikipedia – it’s an interesting read. But whatever the reason for the title, it’s a damn good song.

4. The Cure – Lullaby
Should Be: The Spiderman

I just really really like this song. 😉 Love The Cure.

3. David Bowie – Space Oddity
Should Be: Ground Control To Major Tom

Well, okay – I assume this title is a play on words after 2001: A Space Odyssey. I looked this one up too. Turns out this song is actually about alienation. I thought it was about a guy going into space! I’m so damn literal. This song has now gone up even more in my estimation. And I already loved it like crazy before. Because: Bowie. 🙂

2. Black Sabbath – Paranoid
Should Be: Not sure but any excuse to get Black Sabbath into a list… How about “I Am Frowning All The Time”

Black Sabbath have quite a few songs where the title isn’t in the lyrics (except Iron Man, of course). I almost used Black Sabbath but the word “black” is said, so – close enough! I do love the lyrics to Paranoid – you can tell that Sabbath come from dark, grey, dreary England… 😉

1. The Clash – Train In Vain
Should Be: Stand By Me

Okay – clearly The Clash couldn’t use Stand By Me as the Ben E. King song was such a huge hit. I’m thinking I like The Clash even more than I realized – this song also topped my list of My Top Ten Happy Songs. I love it! And Train In Vain is an excellent title even though I’m sure most people can’t name it.

Almost Mentions:
(I considered these but in looking up the lyrics, I ruled them out as at least one of the words was mentioned)
Harvey Danger – Flagpole Sitta
The Rolling Stones – Sympathy For The Devil
Black Sabbath – Black Sabbath
The Smiths – How Soon Is Now
Radiohead – Paranoid Android (how can I have not noticed that in this song, one of my absolute all-time favorite desert island tracks, there’s a voice saying the words paranoid & android in the background the whole time?!)