Sweeney Todd and Life

We got the house! 1 Kittiwake Mews is miiine! A kittiwake is a seagull apparently, thats not quite so exciting as it sounds but heh. So yeh after a ew hiccups involving a certain housemate ot knowing for sure whether she wanted to get the house or even stay at uni at all, we signed the contract yesterday, and I wrote a cheque for £600! Ouch! Thankfully Alice is giving me her £300 back on monday, so its not too much of a blow!

I've had such a successful organised few days actually, I booked my interview for BUNAC (an America summer campo scheme), so looks like I'm dedicated to going to America this summer! February 17th is the date, I have to find two references before then which is the hardest part, I've emailed my personal tutor and my head of sixth, and I'm hoping to talk to my managers on monday morning at wor because obviously they are the best reference I can get, as I've worked there with kids for three years and loved every minute of it. So at th moment its just a case of waiting, I started tying to fill in the application form, but I need to go through it with my mum and she's majorly stressed with ofsted atm so I'll have to wait for the weekend for that.

Lectures and stuff started again this week, and they look really interesting, I'm quite excited. But I won't bore you with my nerdiness.

Anyway last night Kayleigh and I went to see Sweeney Todd. I really wanted to go and see it, mainly out of curiosity I think. I'd heard really good reviews and really crap ones. But for me it was just one of those films that I had to see, everyone would be talking about it etc etc. My brief review I gave to my dad was 'bizarre and bloody'.

One of my friends told me 'depp was crap, the story was crap and the ending was crap'. So in response:
1. The cast - With a cast including Johnny Depp, Helena Bonham Carter and Alan Rickman (as well as supporting roles by Timothy Spall and Sacha Baron Cohen), before I went in I questioned how a film could be bad with a cast like that. Depp was far from crap, I would agree that maybe it wasn't the best I've seen him, for me Chocolat remains his best film, but he played the part well. And his singing was good. Helena B-C was as entrancing as ever, I love that woman, and the relatively small role played by Alan Rickman, was him at his normal high standard (irrelevantly, how sexy is his voice?). For me though, the person that stole the show was Toby, the kid whoultimaely becomes he hero f the story in a twisted way. His acting was brilliant, and if that was his singing voice, he will go far.

2. The Story - I have to admit, the story wasn't the greatest. The general idea of it was fine, Judge kills wife, Barber wants revenge with the side story of his friend falling for her daughter. All fairly standard, obviously in a twisted way, and I don't even object to the human pies aspect of the story. What got me was how, to my mind at least, the story stalled, after the judge got away the first time, the story semed to come to a stand still, and all the other deaths, and the growth of the pie shop, were although necessary in setting the scene, drawn out for far too long to the extent it seemed the film stopped, then restarted.

3. The Ending - Yeah, I think my friend was justified in this. I got confused for a start, where the hell did his wife appear from? And although maybe unnecessary I think they should have tied up the love story, but maybe thats me just looking for a happy ending. I don't know how I would have ended it, and I can't really criticise it sensibly, I was just left feeling a little empty. I think Todd did need to kill Mrs. Lovett, and should have ended up dead himself, but still . . .

Other than that my other criticism would be that it was rather unnecessarily bloody. Granted the blood did look like ketchup but it didn't add anything to the film, other than maybe stamp Burton's authority on it. To me, it would have made more sense to reduce the blood and make it fifteen opening it up to a larger audience.

Having said all that, I did enjoy the film, and I'm really glad I saw it. I wasn't aiming to give it a negative review. I think the musical aspect of it worked really well, I wasn't convinced to start with, but it grew on me, I particularly liked the number where Depp and B-C were at the shop window describing types of meat (lawyer, priest, vicar, poet etc.). The two of them were also incredible opposite numbers, I didn't expect anything less to be honest. But the chemistry between them was perfect.

I also loved, this is me being a geek I expect, but how London was painted in its dark, dingy light. Don't get me wrong, I love period dramas, but too often, its all seen so perfectly, clean etc. When in reality this wasn't the case. I think it painted the picture perfectly, refelected in Todd's little song, which unfortunately I can't find the quote for, going on about how shit London was.

But for me the best bit of the whole film, was how beautifully it was shot. I'm not good with technicalities but it reflected the mood and atmosphere of the story perfectly.

So yeh, I'd definitely recommend seeing it, I don't think I'll ever watch it again, but I enjoyed it for a one off.

What a week!

Sorry its been an absolute age. I went away for a lot of last week, and have spent the rest of it either drunk/hungover/not at my computer. Anyway absolutely tons has happened in the intervening time and I'm not actually sure you'll want to hear it, so here are the highlights.

1. Finished my exams -went alright I think, hard to tell really.

2. Got drunk post exams - fairly self explanatory.

3. Went to Penrith on the train. And had a stalker!
Well I arrived on the platform at Nottingham station, a platform I'd never been to as well (which given there's only 6 is moderately surprising) and there was Adam, my hockey captain, off home! Anyway we were on the same train all the way to Manchester Oxford road, then ended up on the same train north of there, but he got off in Bolton and I carried on to Penrith.
Much excitement!

4. Spent a few days in Penrith
I accidentally gatecrashed their refreshers week, so there was loads to do. Was awesome, we went to Emma's (my best friend) SU on the Tuesday night, dressed as cowboys. It was a bit insane, their SU is tiny, it reminded me more of a pub than anything, it was really cosy and cute though. And their drinks were £1 a pint, or a bottle before half eleven, so no complaints there!

The on Wednesday day, I went climbing! Emma and her boyfriend Craig took me climbing in Keswick. I thought I was going to be really dreadful because I have no upper body strength. But I was really impressed wit myself. I eve did a lead climb, and eventually defeated the pink and black spotty route! (Even if Craig did pull me up it)

On the Wednesday night we went to Lancaster on a coach, which took about an hour. we went to the Cumbria uni SU bar on the campus there, then to a club called Sugarhouse. It was actually a pretty classy nice place. But it was a bit empty really, I don't know if thats just in comparison to the always packed Nottingham student nights, but a few more people would have been nice. Still it was good fun because obviously there was a big group of us, and I got a little bit tipsy! Emma took about a bijillion photos. We got back at about four in the morning and sat around in the kitchen for a while, so needless to say . . .

On Thursday we didn't get up very early! Anyway we eventually made it to Carlisle which was cool, it had proper normal shops!

5. Missed my train home!
Yeh, I couldn't find the station. Emma had practicals first thing Friday so I had to walk to the station, which would have been fine, but I went the wrong way at a roundabout, and carried on walking, thus getting slightly lost. Anyway I eventually found the station 20 minutes late. And then had to wait another hour for the next train. Thankfully my ticket covered it which was a relief. I ended up going through Crewe and Derby, I had no idea where Crewe was, so I looked in WHSmith in the station for a map because I was curious. (Apparently this makes me a Geographer, which given I've always hated geography doesn't make a lot of sense). Anyway I got back eventually, and it was all a bit of n adventure really, I love trains so I didn't really mind. I ended up missing hockey training cos I was knackered but Kayleigh and I had takeaway Pizza and Strongbow, so no complaints really!

6. House hunting!
We found a house! Kayleigh and I went hunting most for the day on Saturday and we've found one we love. This morning we went to the letting office and they are writing us a contract as I type! I'm so excited! Its such a nice house, on the edge of Lenton, which seems a bit more secure, and its walkable to uni easily and to town. I love it already! I'm just excited about having my own house to be honest! Here is the beauty!
It even has a garden! And a garage! Wow.

And yes that was my last week. We're going to Cock Soc tonight (cocktail society). So that should be messy! I'm so poor, but never mind! And lectures start tomorrow, yay! I apologise for this rather boring step to step guide of the last week, I don't really have much else to write about today. Oh except one thing . . .

MY ABSOLUTE HATE of underage drinkers, but not all underage drinkers, the ones that just can't take the alcohol, or think they are really hard because of it. Its really not cool to be falling all over the place and throwing up on the street. However, it did provide an entertaining incident on the bus the other day. These two girls, about 15/16 I'd guess got on the bus obviously tipsy. Chavvy, talking really loudly, I was knackered so they were really pissing me off. Anyway, the driver pulls up at a roundabout, not particularly sharply, just as buses do. And they went flying forward, and one of them cracked the windscreen, WITH HER HEAD! I had to laugh into my hand. Unfortunately ours was the next stop so I don't know what happened but it amused me greatly. And the moral of the story is don't drink if you can't handle it!

Two cows

Firstly I have a little (well long) joke kind of thing to share with you that I saw on my friends blog earlier, made me laugh . . .

I have two cows

SOCIALISM:
You have 2 cows.
You give one to your neighbour.

COMMUNISM:
You have 2 cows.
The State takes both and gives you some milk.

FASCISM:
You have 2 cows.
The State takes both and sells you some milk.

NAZISM:
You have 2 cows.
The State takes both and shoots you.

BUREAUCRACY:
You have 2 cows.
The State takes both, shoots one, milks the other, then throws the milk away due to possible risk of lead contamination from the shooting.

SURREALISM:
You have two giraffes.
The government requires you to take harmonica lessons.

TRADITIONAL CAPITALISM:
You have two cows.
You sell one and buy a bull. Your herd multiplies, and the economy grows. You sell them and retire on the income.

AN AMERICAN CORPORATION:
You have two cows.
You sell one, and force the other to produce the milk of four cows. Later, you hire a consultant to analyse why the cow has dropped dead.

A FRENCH CORPORATION:
You have two cows.
You go on strike, organise a riot, and block the roads, because you want three cows.

A JAPANESE CORPORATION:
You have two cows.
You redesign them so they are one-tenth the size of an ordinary cow and produce twenty times the milk. You then create a clever cow cartoon image called 'cowkimon' and market it worldwide.

A GERMAN CORPORATION:
You have two cows.
You re-engineer them so they live for 100 years, eat once a month, and milk themselves.

AN ITALIAN CORPORATION:
You have two cows, but you don't know where they are.
You decide to have lunch.

A RUSSIAN CORPORATION:
You have two cows.
You count them and learn you have five cows. You count them again and learn you have 42 cows. You count them again and learn you have 2 cows. You stop counting cows and open another bottle of vodka.

A SWISS CORPORATION:
You have 5000 cows.
None of them belong to you. You charge the owners for storing them.

CHINESE CORPORATION:
You have two cows.
You have 300 people milking them. You claim that you have full employment, and high bovine productivity, and execute the newsman who reported the real situation.

AN INDIAN CORPORATION:
You have two cows.
You worship them.

IRAQI CORPORATION:
Everyone thinks you have lots of cows.
You tell them that you have none. No-one believes you, so they bomb the **** out of you and invade your country. You still have no cows, but at least now you are part of a democracy....

AUSTRALIAN CORPORATION:
You have two cows.
Business seems pretty good. You close the office and go for a few beers to celebrate.

WELSH CORPORATION:
You have two cows.
The one on the left looks very attractive.

A SCOTTISH CORPORATION:
You have two cows.
You put a fur coat on one and claim a new breed; you shove a scaffolding tube up the behind of the other one, blow hard and try to make music, ...well sort of...

AN ENGLISH CORPORATION:
You have two cows.
The Government says you have to buy a license to milk them, but first you have to do a risk assessment, which only the government is allowed to carry out. They charge you 5 times the cost of doing it. They find that the three-legged stool is a risk under health and safety. You have to buy the EC(tm) approved 5 legged stool that is designed to support a milkmaid of up to 250 kilos. It is too heavy to carry. The stool exceeds EC(tm) weight lifting limits for workers by 4 kilos, which just happens to be the weight of the fifth leg. To shift the stool from one cow to the other you therefore need a special (EC(tm) approved) trolley . (To book and purchase training for accreditation to the stool moving trolley operatives charter please click here). The new stool and trolley are so expensive that you have to mortgage one of the cows to pay for them and pay for the mandatory training course you must take to get your icense to milk the cows.

You sell your milk to the supermarket chain that pays you peanuts for it, and then they sell it to their customers for four times what they paid you. Then they release a press statement about how wonderful they are to suport British Cows.

The rest of the world thinks your cows are mad; but you, and your cows, know that it is not true, and anyway, the rest of the world have no intention of identifying and counting their mad cows; so people in other countries don't know their cows are really, really, barmy, do they?

You sell your cows to a Polish itinerant worker, and your farm to a Russian 'investment bank', and then you leave to buy a villa by the sea in a country where it is sunny and the cost of milk is a tenth the cost of milk at home. They don't have a National Health Service ......but you are so happy and relaxed your health improves and you live to be a hundred.




Ah, makes me laugh. Stereotypes are always fun!


Anyway I was thinking earlier, I can't remember the last day it didn't rain. Always at really inconvenient times, or just all day. It's beginning to get on my nerves, walking with an umbrella is one of my pet peeves and running with one is impossible. Worse than this though, is the smug middle aged businessmen, who come out of their conference hop into their BMWs then proceed to go through campus, over the speedlimit, spraying up water in a 5 mile circumference around then splashing the poor miserable students who are already soaked thhrough and have spent 10 hours straight in the library. I am not impressed.

I genuinely have little else to report as I have spent all day revising, and slowly going mad. I think I have left you quite enough to think about with the cows to be honest.

First entry and the joys of Central Europe

I hate (and I mean absolutely loathe) starting new blogs or diaries, particularly when other people are going to read it. I never have any idea how to start, how to introduce myself or anything. My friend and fellow revolutionary Matty (who in fact inspired me to write this blog in the first place, as he started one - yes I'm a copycat, I'd link you to his, cos its actually pretty good, but there's this twat we 'know' who likes to stalk dear Matty, and thus I can't link you to it, in case said twat finds the link via my own blog) said start on the second entry, but then continued to tell me he would destroy my blog before it even started if I copied the idea. That was a hell of a long sentence. The point is however, I plan to leap straight into it.

But first a quick note on both the url of this blog, its title and the elusive mentions of revolutionaries. I'm a history student, who is IN LOVE with communism as an idea (yes I know it doesn't work) and with the history of revolutions. This love first occured, fairly obviously with my study of the Russian revolution at A level. As a result, I have always wanted to have a communist revolution of my own. And when I met Matty about a year ago, I met a similar mind, and since that date we have been planning our revolution, down to the date, and the tactics of the day (storming Buckingham Palace, The Houses of Parliament and then meeting on Tower Bridge to raise our flags). Anyway in true revolutionary style, we've adopted Southern American surnames, so I, henceforth will be known as Clare Quartana, but that's just Ma'am to you.

And finally, the url is in reference to the wonderful website that is http://www.leninade.com/ which I was linked to by someone a while back. I have fallen in love with it. Unfortunately its only available in the US and as such I haven't managed to get my hands on a bottle, yet . . .

And now onto the source of interest for this entry. Well I find it interesting, I doubt many will. Central Europe. My last exam is on Saturday, Nationalism and the State in Central Europe, 1848 - 1914. And so much of today was spent in the library trying to establish whether it was even possible to define Central Europe. Obviously modern history, particularly post 1945, clearly saw two blocs Eastern and Western (not Central), but looking back its not that clear.

Anyway I won't bore you with the logistics. The point is, its fascinating, a real mix of cultures and nationalities, I'd love to visit (I was originally planning to this summer, but now it looks like I might be heading to America instead). It also highlighted the amazing quotes you get in history. Like this one, which pretty much summed up my desire to visit,
'Central Europe is not a region whose boundaries you can trace on a map - like, say, Central America. It is a Kingdom of the spirit.' - Timothy Garton Ash

Doesn't that just sound magical? I have to admit, I kinda feel he's a bit of a frustrated novelist, as elsewhere he talks of squabbling ghosts, but despite that, I want to go, so badly. I have the travel bug, it bit me at a young age, and didn't let go.

ANYHOW, that is the end of this the first entry of my blog, I think in all likeliness that will have scared off all readers for life. As was more a rambling of my thoughts than anything coherent, and more importantly it was to the majority of people DULL AS FUCK I imagine. But it made me smile to write it, so that's something.

Oh and before you go, just to prove I'm not a pretentious git, I enjoy immaturity too
(00:15) Now, Billy Boy's: I wish you could see farts
(00:15) Now, Billy Boy's: Like when someone farted there was a visible little explosion then a cloud
(00:15) Clare//These are: hahah
(00:15) Clare//These are: that would be awesome
(00:16) Now, Billy Boy's: I'm sure with a thermal imaging camera it would look like that