WOW Festival 2016

WOW Festival 2016

A couple of weeks ago I attended the WOW (Women of the World) Festival on the Southbank and it was bloody marvellous. I'm not going to lure you in with words right now as I have gushed about the festival for a whole 11 minutes on my YouTube channel - HERE.

If you went, pop my a comment with your opinion on the festival, atmosphere and speakers below :)

Trainwreck, A Run Down

Trainwreck, A Run Down

Firstly, I adore Amy Schumer - I think her comedy, her mentality and general outlook on life is spot on. It shouldn't be the case at all, but when somebody comes along who is willing to be bold, speak their mind and ultimately be themselves, it's overwhelmingly refreshing.

Which is precisely why I was beyond excited for Trainwreck. I watched the trailer repeatedly, giggled madly and told everyone I came across about how good this film was going to be. Now, I get it, I built this film up to the top of the top - the rom-com to end all rom-coms.... and it kills me to say that I was disappointed...

I liked the character Amy's attitude - she was successful, had a great flat, great friends, a great job and  was single - and not sad single, not a single girl constantly on the look out and pining for a partner to make her life complete... she was single, happy and content enough in herself that she could date, call the shots in her own life, have sex freely with exactly who she wanted and be happy with it.

I enjoyed the fact that Amy went on a few dates and didn't (in standard rom-com behaviour) fall at his feet - there was no last name squiggling in her diary, no mooning conversations to her mates just pure, realistic pessimism.

The film diverted from that direction slightly... There were parts of the film that made me laugh out loud (yes LOL, but writing LOL makes me feel nauseous) but parts of the film were just a bit uncomfortable and not in a good, self realisation way. There was a lot of emphasis on the fact that her sister got married, her sisters husband was portrayed like an oddball for following 'the well trodden route', there was an intervention and a dance scene, oh god, a dance scene - I get that this film was designed to mock the standard rom-com story lines and stereotypes, but there was something just slightly 'off'.

I have been partial to a Judd Apatow film in the past and that is exactly what this feels like - Apatow rather than Schumer, should have been Schumer.

Have you seen it? Am I talk a load of bull? Tell me..

What Happens When you Break up?

What Happens When you Break up?

Everyone has experienced a break up at some point in life and everyone knows that they are just a bit shit...

I have uploaded a video on my YouTube channel discussing what happens when you break up and ways to make the process a little less dire :).

My New Hero

I have a new hero, and that new hero comes in the form of an elderly lady who travels the tube, taking on and batting down idiotic opinions everywhere.

It is ridiculous that anyone feels like they have the right to comment on what somebody else chooses to wear, but to actually try to humiliate someone, make them feel inferior or shameful for what they have chosen to wear is downright ridic.

This suit on the tube must have a huge sense of entitlement to believe that his opinion and ideals have any effect whatsoever. But still, he felt his opinion was so important that he found it was completely necessary to utter "Have some self respect when you dress yourself" to a young girl in a dress he deemed inappropriate... what a champ eh?

I am so glad the elderly lady unleashed her opinion on him, his attitude and outlook on life is cracked, to assume a stranger has no self respect because she choose to wear a short dress in kinda dangerous. You can see the full, amazing run down here. One of my favourite nuggets from the exchange has to be "now fuck off back to your bored wife". Hear hear.

At the end of the day, I’m siding with my hero – if you want to wear a short dress, bikini, short shorts or a mankini, man or woman - own it and wear it.

Jude's Giant

Jude's Giant

If you ask a small person to draw something, they just draw it. 

You ask a person over the age of 16 to draw something and you witness something entirely different, I think it can be described as panic. Sheer panic, anxiety and a sprinkle of stress.

There is the stress that it won’t look good, that somebody can draw it better, is it anatomically correct? Have I researched into the subject? Has somebody drawn something like this before? How do I start? I think I need to clean the house before I start... Do I have the correct tools for the task? 

But children just draw. I miss that. I miss the sheer enjoyment of just drawing without thinking about it or feeling like I need reference images to use so it looks 'correct'. When you are small you approach drawing armed only with your imagination, if you are asked to draw a dinosaur, you draw a dinosaur how you think it looks rather than worrying about if it is correct. You draw a dinosaur with three heads, a colander for a hat and a smaller dinosaur for a necklace, just because. 

This is what we should still be doing, not just in drawing but in every situation. We need to enter a situation armed only with our own ideas, voices and choices - there is no need to let what other people think or what other people would do cloud the situation.

As Roald Dahl once said ‘Growing older is no excuse for growing up’. Hear, hear.