Lopez Blogs

In the words of Georgia Nicholson, I nearly had a nervy b today. First of all I was walking to work (viva saving the environment, etc) sans umbrella in the misty early morning glow, when half way to the office it starts pissing it down with rain. I tried to run to shelter in a bus stop (shudder) only to end up tripping and going flying over a pigs head! I kid you not! A pigs head! Just lying on the pavement! Then of course the rain got worse, my shoes smelt of butchered pig's head and by the time i got to work, my shirt was so drenched my nipples were positively shining through. When i texted photographic evidence to DazPecs, his response was "now the pigs head - that's funny!" Charming. Then i had a call from one of my original ace gang, Kirsty (25 years as friends this September! Marvy) requiring a jolly good evening out, so I abandoned my plans for the Red Blooded Women showcase with bobbypops & Mike PTA and heeded the call. So for the second night in a row, a jolly good chinwag and an uplifting movie was required (last night was the call of Burn-Ice and therapy known as Mamma Mia). So Angus Thongs and Perfect Snogging it was then...


As this is really a series of books (by louise rennison) for 11 year old girls, the cinema was packed with them. I made Kirsty go the cashier to buy tickets so I could stand there and "comedically" roll my eyes as if to make out I had been dragged there against my will. However, the film was quite charming and although the style of chat from the book is a little grating on the big screen, the film makers managed to pull together the real heart of the book which is selfish Georgia's relationship with her friends and family. There are funny moments (saliva kissing is hilarious but repulsive) touching moments (that teenage moment when you realise your parents were young once too and maybe not so bad as you like to think) and moments of maturiosity (where Georgia realises she's a bit of a cow actually and does something about it). Sadly some of the books weird and wonderful characters are pruned down for this film to mere appearance (a fleeting glimpse of the bummer twins; a rather morose Dave the Laugh; barely a mention of Sven) but as a novel adaptation it wasn't too bad. Plus it bought back fond memories of my youth as a 14 year old boy crazy fool and had a brief but ace snippet of Pull Shapes. And the Brideshead Revisited preview on before it, looked lush. Is it XO?!


Onto the band in the film, who I've mentioned before here. The Stiff Dylans (which IS a great name) rather laughably cite Radiohead as their major influence in the film but the fictional band become flesh (or something) charted at 41 this week in the UK with their indebted-to-Mcfly debut single Ultraviolet. It's not the world's best debut single ever, but after seeing it in the film, it does add a certain charm to it's pop rockiness and the actor who plays sex god (the film's words not mine!) Robbie (the film's bands bassist but not the real bands! Confused?) would be perfect as a boyfriend for a young man I know (forever the matchmaker i'm afraid). Of course, I'd much rather hear the song muted in the film as the band's "fictional" debut "Bitch in a Uniform" but hey, I'm already confused by the blurring of fiction and reality with this band, so I'll just wait to hear what they got in line for their debut album...

• Check out an MTV video-terview with the "real" band
• Listen to the poppy goodness of Ultraviolet...

Oh how i so frequently worship at the altar of georgia nicholson. And more particularly the author Louise Rennison who puts her often hilarious adventures into print for slavish fans like me to lap up on the day of release. Stop In The Name of Pants is the 9th in the continuing story of red-bottomed boy entrancer Georgia and her "ace gang" ~ all the ace gang now have boys: vole lover Jas is still besotted with Tom (brother of Sex God who Georgia dates in the first few books); Rosie and nordic Sven still have the Viking Horn for each other and wear matching fur running suits to the school discos; Ellen is looking forward to getting up to number six on the snogging scale (lip nibbling and some outside the bra action) with her latest snare. Georgia is on the rack of luuuurve trying to choose between her latest gorgey to the power of 12 fella Masimo (Italian luurve god) and Dave the Laugh who her thoughts keep turning to mid snog with Masimo who may or may not be an Italian lesbian. It's bonkers in the extreme, and extremely brilliant. And there is a rather off kilter but just devastating heart rendering bit in the middle of the story that gives some much needed gravitas to the story and adds a layer of likeability to the hilarious but self centered Georgia. I'm slightly ashamed that the reviews on amazon state that this book is ideal for 11-15 year old girls. But then so much of the music i like is for pre-pubescent virgins also :) And look! There is lot of georgia nicholson stuffing coming up. Hurrah!!

I think it was a tribe called quest that wisely but incorrectly once said "Rapping is fundamental". I've never been a rapper, but i do love writing. My novel is now finished and undergoing some harsh revisions (critical friends can be so brutal!) to improve "narrative flow" and "character development". Which is all good obviously, as much like people in the army, I want it to be all it can be. The problem is, obviously it has to be typed up on the computer and I just love actually writing. With a pen. Til my wrist aches. I love to see all the little notes i've scribbled in the margins referencing plot points and necessary changes. And i know you can do all that in Word, but it just doesn't seem the same. And when I'm famous, a word document won't fetch a charity millions on ebay :P So the actual novel is all typed up and lovely in word, but I somehow treasure my scrapbook of thoughts, paragraphs and character resumes. I particularly like the page where I had writers block so in frustration i scrawled FUUUCCCCK in massive letters, which led to an entirely unexpected train of thought which totally changed the last few chapters of the book. Weird. Writing to order, by the way, based on feedback and suggestions is freaking hard. I rewrote the prologue for about the 25th time, sent it to some friends and then realised it was the worst draft yet. Nothing better than a bit of public humiliation!! Anyway, for more expert writing on writing, you could do far worse than visit Heidi's (Mrs Dan) always brilliant blog...

Anyway, that random rant was inspired by some decluttering this weekend. I'm amazed at how much the look of a room can change just by adding a few things here and there. Our living room had a big clunky cabinet at the end of the corner sofa with a big clunky stereo on. Ditching that completely, adding a fancy white end table and some cushions and rug with a splash of colour has totally changed the look of the room! And in the kitchen - gone is the pine dining table and a black and white dining set takes it's place. Oooo i feel like i live in a show home now. It's all very lovely and aces. The house seemed such a mess after we'd assembled everything, so Darren went into full Bree (Desperate Housewives) mode to make it look spiffy. I've been to paradise but i've never been to Bree...

Anyway, here are some essential things, blogs, upcoming happenings and random occurences you should all definitely, maybe, probably, if you can be bothered check out....

• Darren and I have just finished watching the entire series of hilarious Aussie comedy Summer Heights High. Not only have I found a totally new way to pronounce "homo" but I've been singing "she's a bad girl with a bad habit" all the live long day. The last episode was strangely touching - i nearly wept at the conclusion to Jonah's storyline.
• Now that Kirsty from Location x 3 has gone shrill and annoying, I find myself warming to Nicky Hambleton Jones (NHJ) from 10 Years Younger. Not only does she have the most amazing glasses collection, but she actually pronounces off as "orf" which is very lovely in this chavvy day and age. Plus she regularly berates people for constantly wearing black. Nothing wrong with black, but as NHJ says ~ "every day?!" Right on sister.



• The ever adorable Same Difference have some new pics up and a new blog which mentions more about recording the album. Enough already (though i adore their blogs) - bring on the music! Their video concept sounds so cheesy, i can eat it right up...
• The remnants of potential to be massive boyband Digital (RIP) live on. I've kept in touch with Dean and Ian over the past year as both of them launch their solo careers, and both have some VERY exciting stuff coming up.
  
  
• Woo hoo! Maroon 5 release a special edition of their "sophomore" set It Won't Be Soon Before Long. The bonus tracks are already available (and have been for a while if you are a fan) but the disc comes with a dvd of concert and all their music videos. Adam Lefine. Sigh.
  


• Not a week after writing about the vair vair marvy Stiff Dylans comes news of their non McFly cover new single - and lead off track from the Georgia Nicholson film. It's called Ultraviolet and you can listen to it on the widget thingy above. Enjoy mon pallies.
• Wicked fans like myself can rejoice. Following on from my well thumbed copy of Wicked I bought in 1998, and Son Of A Witch (the sequel) there is now a third book coming out in October (just in time for Halloween!) called A Lion Among Men. It's a trilogy now! Only there will be a fourth book, so to borrow a term from the hideously titled Alien and Die Hard box sets - it's a Wicked Quadrilogy!!! Oh my dayz.

More sometime this week!

Ooo, i was on the train to Prestatyn today for work, and decided to listen to some mp3s from new boybands that are hoping to be the next big thing. Seeing as the last HUGE boyband was probably the A1/Blue era, and pretty much all England is left with is manband pop with Westlife and Take That, once again the time is ripe. Of course i've been saying that for ages so what do I know?!


First up is the brilliantly tragic and tragically brilliant summer disco pop of Swedish boyband StarPilots who totally embrace their inner (and outer?) gay on the dance chic fabulous of In The Heat of The Night. Forerunners of pop goodness Popjustice and Poppostergirl have already recognised it's anthemic floorfilling genius, acknowledging that it's no faceless dance act but an actual boyband with personalities that could go on to big things. Granted they are pretty shy at the moment and haven't really revealed themselves, but that is clearly because they have been busy watching William Young in Switch It On video and learning how to homage Top Gun properly. Grab your dancing shoes and boogie on down, people.


Part Six have probably been around for bloody ages. It's hard to tell as my GCSE German was over 18 years ago, so i'm limited to listening to the music and deciding that on the whole Part Six are of the category where most boyband members are quite ugly (see Blue; Another Level; East 17 et al). In fact only the skinhead one is marginally attractive (Maxim - fancy being named after a lads titty mag) and really apart from the music, that is the main allure of the boyband concept. Luckily, the music is rather poplicious, as is the increasing norm for Germany (see No Angels, BeFour et al) and their album - What's That Sound - is full of addictive pop and r'n'b "jams". Granted, they occassionally try a little too hard to come across as uber-cool, but it's mostly forgiveable, particularly on sing a long songs like Want Ya and swoony Drive So Far. Makes me long for songs like It's Gonna Be Me, but these will - on the whole - do me, especially if a second album is around the corner...


Finally, there is a band that was created for a film that is now actually a band. It's all very fourth wall, but I don't care as The Stiff Dylans are from the ever hilarious and brilliant books about Georgia Nicholson and will be a movie later this summer. I am assuming the second from right is sex god boyfriend Robbie, but who knows nowadays? Anyway, they are quite the contrast to the more dance routine orientated bands above - more McFly than Mercury4. Still I am looking forward to seeing their strumming ways in the movie, and tra la la-ing along to the inevitable tie in single and soundtrack release. Marvy...

Other bits:

• The Feeling unleash their new video and it's as lovely as ever - but in true sex and the city fashion, digital spy asks "are we bored of the feeling?" (No is the correct answer)
• Lee just won The Apprentice Uk. He was pretty consistent - i love it when my choices win. Though Claire probably deserved to win more, Lee needed it more. For elocution lessons, one imagines...
• The Camp Rock soundtrack is ridiculously enjoyable in a "ssshhh don't tell anyone what i'm listening to way..."

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