Lopez Blogs

Hello everyone. What a lovely weekend I have had, and it's not even over yet. This situation is 84.2% marvelous in the very extreme. Darren and I took ourselves down to London (a place i like in principle but can't wait to leave once i'm there) to visit our ever so lovely friends Simon and Mark (who score extra points for hating Katy Perry and thinking Lady GG sounds like a constipated robot) - and of course to see the new stage version of the ace movie Priscilla Queen of the Desert. More on that tomorrow. The weekend was marred somewhat by a trip to Thorpe Park this morning to go on the hugely hyped and advertised Saw The Ride, only to find it was broken. Aces. Oh well, on with the week...

• I do enjoy Comic Relief. You get to see lots of pop stars perform things and comedy sketches. Out of the performances, I thought the Take That were rather aces with The Garden (above), but Alesha Dixon also excelled with her new single Let's Get Excited as did Annie Lennox who seemed the most genuinely moved and may even get top 40 this week. Oh and when Just Can't Get Enough played over the montages of fundraising across the country, it seemed to make perfect sense as a Comic Relief single choice. Tidy.
• French and Saunders (and Patsy!!) were also amazing with their Mamma Mia pisstake :) (which is best viewed at Phil's site). Now I love mamma mia the movie, but i'm comfortable enough in my love for it to rip it to shreds. Love that in the sketch the director says its about a slut who doesn't know who her daughter's father is :P (I also love Titanic but it only took me one viewing to know which bits would bug me forever - the whole Fabrizio character, Billy Zane regularly chewing the scenery with lines like "i put the diamond in the coat" (flails arms ridiculously) "I put the coat on the girl"; that daft old lady chucking a priceless artifact into the ocean with a feeble "eh"!!). PS, no one is ever allowed to make fun of Love, Actually. That movie is off limits. Ditto Stardust.
• BTW that was a bit of an edited The Garden from Take That wasn't it? Talking of edits and single mixes Untouchable has leaked and will be seen by millions tonight on Dancing on Ice. The edit isn't entirely horrible - a little less Nicola than I would have liked and Cheryl sounds a bit screechy in the chorus. I am concerned though that with them appearing on the UK's current top rated show they will get people snapping up the song 5 weeks before release. This is good because they will have to buy the album version. This is bad because it will probably affect their overall chart position.
• Horne and Corden (from my beloved Gavin and Stacey) debuted their sketch show this week. It was a little bit hit and miss, but I liked it overall and chortled out loud at least three times.
• The Saturdays performed Work on the increasingly baldy Ant and Dec Saturday Night Takeaway. I'm hoping this means it IS the next single :) Oh. It does mean that. Skill.
• I am off to Gran Canaria with the Pants next saturday, which means I am ploughing through my latest book - CJ Sansom's Revelation (see I can be classy!) I want to finish it before next Sat because it is vair intruiging and I do not like taking half read books on holiday. I like to start something fresh. I will probably take this (though was disappointed with book 2) and this (destroyed all classiness). And a back log of entertainment weeklies. Tidy.
• Finally congrats to XO on 5 years of blogging. He celebrated with one of his brilliant mixtapes. And curse Adem for being the latest blogger to make me spend money - his brilliantly written Coldplay live review had me feverishly downloading their back catalogue now I am a Viva convert. Can't wait to see them and GA live this summer :)

TOP 21 SONGS OF THE WEEK:

(I have to say that since my original review I have become increasingly smitten with Deborah's Already Gone, including the high bits - and the video was just the icing on the cake. Blows If You Seek Amy out the water!)

21 ~ Marit Larsen, The Chase
20 ~ Jason Mraz, Dynamo of Volition
19 ~ Lily Allen, The Fear
18 ~ William Young, Let it Go
17 ~ Alesha Dixon, Breathe Slow
16 ~ Deborah Gibson, Already Gone (NE)(VID)
15 ~ The Days, No Ties
14 ~ Take That, Up All Night
13 ~ Simon Curtis/Victoria Justice, On The Wings of a Dream
12 ~ The Saturdays, Just Can't Get Enough
11 ~ Lenka, Trouble is a Friend
10 ~ Same Difference, All Roads Lead To Heaven (NE)
09 ~ Alcazar, Stay The Night (NE)
08 ~ Kelly Clarkson, My Life Would Suck Without You
07 ~ Kevin Borg, With Every Bit of Me
06 ~ Sugababes, Every Heart Broken
05 ~ McFly, The Last Song
04 ~ Mans Zelmerlow, Hope and Glory
03 ~ Taylor Swift, Love Story
02 ~ PSB, Love, Etc.
01 ~ BWO, You're Not Alone (2 Weeks)

Coming mon ~ Priscilla: The Review

It's very easy (and lazy in my opinion) for newspapers and magazines to label the latest film likely to draw in a large female audience as "the best chick flick since Bridget Jones" or "the perfect summer movie" and then pontificate about how surprising it is that women will respond to a film en masse when it does well!! However, it has to be said that the cinema was filled with menopausal women all enjoying their free hormone replacement patch with every ticket sold to the ridiculously fun, entertaining and brilliant Mamma Mia. And a jolly bloody good time was had by all.


The transferral of the popular stage show to the big screen has only enhanced the appeal of the flimsy plot and characters. Contained in celluloid magic, they now seem larger than life, engrossing and all the more loveable. And the songs?! Every single note, harmonised melody and brilliantly constructed middle 8 was amplified, magnified and celebrated into a sweeping wave of joy, hilarity, melancholy and heartbreak. But of course, it's Abba so the film makers would have to be pretty uninspired to mess it up (For example Waterloo and I Do I Do I Do I Do made Muriel's Wedding). Bringing these songs to life were the solemn responsibility of a uniformly excellent cast led by the always delightful Meryl Streep (and ably supported by the godlike Julie Walters and lovely Christine Baranski - who always has such amazing legs!). Colin Firth was the most likeable of the likeable potential daddies (I love how Wikipedia states "it is subtly suggested his character Harry may be gay" - if that is subtle then Wikipedia has just successfully rewritten the definition of the word!) and Amanda Seyfried is just perfect as Sophie. Special mention deserves to go to the islanders who inhabit Donna and Sophie's world and bring a new dimension en masse to each song. And of course, Dominic Cooper solidifies his position as my second favourite Dakin ever (after Ben Barnes of course) with his sculpted abs and delicious portrayal of lovestruck Sky. Dribble. I don't want to write too many spoilers so here are the best interpretations of the songs on the screen:

• Dancing Queen is the moment when the film just lets go and launches into a whirling dervish of merriment, joy and encourages the audience to become part of the experience. Used by Julie Walters and Christine Baranski as a means to cheer up Meryl Streep after her realisation that she is a bit of a slut after nobbing off 3 boys in as many weeks in her youth, it becomes a celebration of all things Abba. In it's original format, this flawless four minutes of pop is addictive from the first swoop of strings. On screen, it brings together Meryl's gang into full on party mode and as they dance around the island, the womenfolk 'cast off their daily shackles' and join in the celebrations. And if that isn't a visual representation of the power of Abba music, then I don't know what is. Meryl Streep jumping up and down on the bed must be the most carefree glorious moment in film since Tracy Turnblatt shimmies her way onto the Corny Collins show singing "you can't stop a river as it races to the sea". Magnificent.
• Lay All Your Love On Me (butchered by my beloved Steps in 2000) is the perfect song for Sky and Sophie as they prepare for their stag and hen parties respectively. I'm not sure why it stood out to me so much, but I do remember the "From Here to Eternity" moment where Sophie and Sky roll and romp together in the sand. A nice lusty busty romantic moment, but lets face it - on a practical level, no-one wants to spend the best part of their wedding night pulling weird sandy crap out their crannies do they?
• Voulez Vous - another ace pop song that they did some visual magic with. It's practically transformed into a tribal, intoxicating, exotic, rave experience as Sophie's confusion over her possible daddies intensifies and greek dancing surrounds her. It's a kalediscope of colours, whirling one way then the next as the question of the song infuses the cast and takes on a life of it's own. It's incredibly intruiging to watch and apparently took bloody ages to film. I'm not surprised. One step or twirl out of time and it ruins the whole effect.
• Bring on the heartbreak - the double impact of Slipping Through My Fingers and Winner Takes It All for some reason had me silently sobbing away (i'm having an emotional week!). Meryl does a rather brilliant job of capturing the whole "trying to hold a memory in your hand" as she prepares for her daughter to start a whole new life, and then goes right out and proves you don't need a particularly brillo voice to bring gravitas and heartbreak to a song as well written as Winner Takes It All. Excellent.

This jubilant film ends with the cast breaking the fourth wall and inviting the audience to party along with them. And the cinema did! Brillopad. Best feelgood movie since Hairspray and bound to be in faves of the year. Lets have a gratuitous piccie of Dominic to round things off...

Back soon with more abba, weekly round up, a tabloid scandal, the arrival of that fucking Ciccone book and McFly!