Musical Magic: Mumford&Sons

I discovered that this band even exists a few days ago and I honestly love every song they have ever sung. Their influences include some of my other favourites: Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young, as well as Kings of Leon and I just find their music to be such a breath of fresh air and sincerely beautiful. They write inspiring songs whisch one can identify with... Here is the music video of Winter Winds, but do yourself a favour, check out their website and listen to their other songs (especially Awake my Soul, After the Storm and Little Lion Man).

The band consists of Marcus Mumford (vocals, guitar, drums, mandolin), Ben Lovett (vocals, keyboards, accordion, drums), "Country" Winston Marshall (vocals, banjo, dobro), and Ted Dwane (vocals, string bass, drums, guitar). The band formed in October 2007, rising out of what some in the media labelled the "West London folk scene."



The Harry Potter Generation

I was eleven when the first one came out and every subsequent year, there has been another one: another Harry Potter film to accompany my journey to adulthood. I believe this makes me a part of the Harry Potter Generation, so with the last film, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part II, being released on the 15th of July, it is bound to get sentimental at some point and it starts with this, a video "summary" of all the films...

Enjoy!



Hilarious Noel Fielding

To me, this guy was and still is "Richmond", the interesting goth who listens to "Cradle of Filth" and points in random directions while delivering Shakespeare-like monologues about his musings in the brilliant British sitcom, The IT Crowd. He's a comedian too and here he does the weirdest, yet strangely apt impression of Kate Bush's Wuthering Heights (weird just by itself). His name? Noel Fielding! I hope this makes your day...

Watch the original first if you want to get an idea of his inspiration...

And here is the crazy Noel Fieding!

Happy Friday!!!

"Weekends don't count unless you spend them doing something completely pointless."

~Bill Watterson

Autumn

Even though Summer has arrived in the Northern Hemisphere and I envy those who live there, over here it's the end of Autumn and I feel cold to my bones. However, it's not the end of a new script I wrote, titled "Autumn" about a girl, a guy, a saddened father, a burnt-down, charcoal barn and a beautiful greenhouse on a farm. You'll find out more about the story in due course, but here are some inspirations I drew from to write the script. I hope you agree that they are beauty itself!

To Autumn

by John Keats

Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness,
Close bosom-friend of the maturing sun;
Conspiring with him how to load and bless
With fruit the vines that round the thatch-eves run;
To bend with apples the moss'd cottage-trees,
And fill all fruit with ripeness to the core;
To swell the gourd, and plump the hazel shells
With a sweet kernel; to set budding more,
And still more, later flowers for the bees,
Until they think warm days will never cease,
For summer has o'er-brimm'd their clammy cells.

Who hath not seen thee oft amid thy store?
Sometimes whoever seeks abroad may find
Thee sitting careless on a granary floor,
Thy hair soft-lifted by the winnowing wind;
Or on a half-reap'd furrow sound asleep,
Drows'd with the fume of poppies, while thy hook
Spares the next swath and all its twined flowers:
And sometimes like a gleaner thou dost keep
Steady thy laden head across a brook;
Or by a cyder-press, with patient look,
Thou watchest the last oozings hours by hours.

Where are the songs of spring? Ay, where are they?
Think not of them, thou hast thy music too, -
While barred clouds bloom the soft-dying day,
And touch the stubble-plains with rosy hue;
Then in a wailful choir the small gnats mourn
Among the river sallows, borne aloft
Or sinking as the light wind lives or dies;
And full-grown lambs loud bleat from hilly bourn;
Hedge-crickets sing; and now with treble soft
The red-breast whistles from a garden-croft;
And gathering swallows twitter in the skies.



Two lines from Keats's original manuscript.


Paolo Nutini - Autumn



You Are Beautiful

Pirates, Pirates and more Pirates

The fourth instalment of the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise, Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides definitely lives up to the Pirates legacy. One would think that with a different director and some cast changes it would loose its touch, but Rob Marshall stayed away form making a "Pirates: the Musical" and stayed true to the well-timed comedy and overall chaos of the other films.

The story deals with different groups of pirates and officers searching for the legendary "fountain of youth". The Spanish fleet do not even bother to take out pirates on their quest for the fountain; Barbossa (the incredible Geoffrey Rush) has worked (or bribed) his way up in the English ranks to take control of a ship and some willing King's men to find it; a new addition in the form of the tyrannic Blackbeard (Ian McShane) and his "Sparrow-corrupted" daughter, Angelica (Penelope Cruz) are using brute force and zombies to get to the goal and Jack Sparrow (you know who), as always, messes up the day to ultimately save it with his wits, skills and extensive common knowledge on everything "pirate." With two chalices and a beautiful, but very dangerous mermaid, they all set out to find the fountain for different reason: ranging from eternal life and revenge to the destruction of a misinterpreted belief system. Many interesting characters make their first appearances and comedy is more prominent than ever!

What I missed was the spectacular Gore Verbinski effects (Marshall was a bit more subtle, but still very effective) and the two crazy pirates with hilarious views on life and a rolling eye (Ragetti played by Mackenzie Crook and Pintel played by Lee Arenberg).

Jack Sparrow: Have you been there?
Captain Teague: Does this face look like it's been to the fountain of youth?
Jack Sparrow: Depends on the light.



Blackbeard: Bring the mermaid!
Philip: You're killing her.
Blackbeard: I'm a bad man. 

Barbossa: You can sleep when you're dead!


Jack Sparrow: [Standing on a cliff edge]

You know that feeling you get when you're standing in a high place... sudden urge to jump?... I don't have it.

Angelica: That's hardly appropriate for the first mate.
Jack Sparrow: Was I the first?

Where I Want to be Today: a Ballet Studio

I've been working from 6am to 10pm on a film shoot every day for the last two weeks and have been missing my ballet classes. I wouldn't exhange the film industry for anything, but I need and crave my ballet. It's the only thing that can truly relax me and it's soemthing I can just get lost in and enjoy. It's beautiful, it's fun and, most importanlty, it's challenging and pushes me to my limits. I'm also going to the Romeo & Juliet ballet at the end of the month and cannot wait!

“Ballet is the one form of theater

where nobody speaks a foolish word all evening

nobody on the stage at least.”

- Edwin Denby



Once Upon a Time in a Little Fantasy Shop

Once upon a time, there was a tall, bright-eyed man who owned a tiny, yet filled to the brim shop in a magical place called "the Firs" in Rosebank. His little shop was not a shop you would find just anywhere and it did not contain objects and pieces that could be seen wherever you went.

When you stood outside the door, you looked into a dark space that did not scare you, but intrigued you. There was a wire doll that welcomed you at the door wearing a white lace creation that made her look like a creature from a different world. The rows of fabric pulled you in, because you wanted to know more, you wanted to explore this treasure chest.

"Down the rabbit hole," is what crossed your mind as you tried to place where exactly you were, because here you were surrounded by full flowing dresses, jackets made out of zippers, a long, black coat with Victorian detail and a crisp white shirt you could immerse yourself in.

Luckily this little shop with the bright-eyed genius of a designer is a reality and is there for you to get lost in. The website (http://www.cliverundle.com/) explains the master of South African fashion’s designs incredibly well: “A Clive Rundle garment is not only an ultimate statement of taste and style, but also an intensely sensuous experience. You are stroked and kissed with exotic fabrics and garments of extraordinary beauty. The Clive Rundle woman is modern, chic, elegant confident and comfortable in her second skin. Her beauty is not only skin deep.”

Once upon a time in a little fantasy shop there was you. You falling deeper and deeper into the rabbit hole, into the fairy tale that is Clive Rundle fashion, but know you knew you would find something enchanting.

Adventure or Nothing

Happy Weekend!

To one who has been long in city pent,
'Tis very sweet to look into the fair
And open face of heaven, - to breathe a prayer
Full in the smile of the blue firmament.
~John Keats, Sonnet XIV

Happy Weekend!

Remember to Breathe...

To Touch, to Move, To Inspire

"To touch, to move, to inspire. This is the true gift of dance."

-Aubrey Lynch

A Classic Film you can’t Miss: La Vita é Bella

Do you remember the 1998 Oscar ceremony where a charismatic Italian man jumped over chairs and sprinted to the stage when Sophia Loren announced the winner of the Best Foreign Language film award? That man was director, writer and actor, Roberto Benigni and that film was La Vita é Bella or “Life is Beautiful”.

I saw this incredible film for the first time in the 9^th grade when we were studying it for English. I appreciated it then, but when I watched it just a few weeks ago, I realized just how magical this film treasure truly is.

To sum it up, it is about love and the extreme actions people will take to protect the ones they love. Guido (Roberto Benigni) is an Italian bookkeeper and later waiter in 1940’s Italy. With to his witty nature and humorous luck, he courts Dora (Nicoletta Braschi), an Italian schoolteacher from an affluent family. They marry and have a son, Giosué (Giorgio Cantarini), who steals the hearts of audiences with his “Buongiorno Principessa!” cry when he sees his mother after hiding in a closet.

However, both Guido and Giosué are Jewish and when German forces occupy Italy, they are sent to a concentration camp and Dora joins them by pretending to be Jewish. In the camp, Guido makes up an elaborate story and convinces Giosué that everything is a competition and he will win a tank if he completes all the games successfully. This includes hiding from German officers and playing hide-and-seek with German children. The first person to reach 1000 points wins the game. Guido also finds intelligent ways to communicate to Dora that they aren’t in danger.

When the war draws to its end, the camp is in chaos and Guido has to make one last sacrifice to ensure both Giosué and Dora’s safety.

It’s a romantic comedy, a war-drama and so much more, but the overall film? Pure magic!