Top 5 best music related DVD’s ~In my opinion anyway~

Some days you don’t want the high drama of a fantasy movie or a chick flick. Some days you want to sing along and have a blast; maybe even learn stuff.

I understand people have said to me in the past that my musical tastes run from the sublime to the ridiculous, with more emphasis on the ridiculous, but putting that aside, here from my own DVD collection, I give you my top 5 best music related DVD’s, in no particular order.

#5 VH1 Storytellers Meat Loaf ~ The Storytellers series is brilliant, even if you’re not so much a fan of the artist’s music. It gives insight into the writing process of songs and Meat Loaf is hilariously blunt; to the point he has a chalk board and a willow switch when pointing to the lyrics on the board. This was quite entertaining as well as educational. Though he didn’t get a great write up after his performance at the football here recently, the man can sing like an angel.

#4 Celine: Through the eyes of the world ~  I managed to see this one on the big screen when it was released. For $20 a ticket it would want to be really good. As is the norm for Celine Dion, it didn’t miss a beat and with a combination of behind the scenes footage of the Taking Chances tour, media footage and onstage performance. You feel like you are part of the audience when they are at a live concert and a part of the family when they’re in private. I had goose bumps and there were bits that had me doing the ugly cry; mainly her tour of Auschwitz. If you can fast forward through My Heart Will Go On, the rest of it is well worth your time.

#3 Metallica S&M ~ Before they sold out and went completely rubbish, Metallica combined their brand of heavy metal with classical music with the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra.  If your family has an impressive home theater system, this DVD is fun to play a little louder than a movie. The DVD contains 2 and a half hours of the S&M concert and a 41 minute documentary. You get a behind the scenes look at the making of S&M.

#2 The Go Go’s in Central Park ~ You haven’t lived until you have sung along with Belinda Carlisle. I’ve seen her live twice but never with the Go Go’s.
This is about as close as I’m ever going to get I reckon, and it’s a fun concert to bop along to. The disc also has 30 minutes of behind the scenes footage, which is a nice little bonus.

#1 P!nk The Funhouse Tour ~ I was in the front row for one of the Brisbane shows on this tour and the DVD is as thrilling as being there. You don’t miss a beat and her performance is the best, bar none. Between aerial high flying and the fabulous costuming, you tend to forget that there is anything else happening in the world for as long as she is onstage.  There are bonus tracks and a brilliant behind the scenes extra of the tour. I cannot wait for her to tour again.

Top 5 best fantasy movies of all time ~ In my opinion anyway~

With the school holidays heading our way like a runaway freight train; I thought I’d do a few lists of movies you can use to kill a few hours. Maybe you’re baby-sitting some tweens, or just want to escape for a while.

With the help of IMBD, here’s a quick rundown of each of my personal choices for the top 5 best fantasy movies, in chronological order.

#5 The Dark Crystal (1982) –  Another planet, another time. 1000 years ago the mysterious Dark Crystal was damaged by one of the Urskeks and an age of chaos has begun! The evil race of grotesque birdlike lizards, the Skeksis, gnomish dragons who rule their fantastic planet with an iron claw. Meanwhile, the orphan Jen, raised in solitude by a race of the peace-loving wizards called the Mystics, embarks on a quest to find the missing shard of the Dark Crystal which gives the Skesis their power, and restore the balance of the universe.

Jim Henson, Frank Oz and David Odell are the genius behind this oddity. As the fame of the name Jim Henson suggests, this movie is almost purely puppets and large puppet like creatures. Probably wouldn’t show this one to anyone under about the age of 7 as it is a little trippy.

#4 Legend (1985) – A demon who seeks to create eternal night by destroying the last of the unicorns and marrying a fairy princess is opposed by the forest boy Jack and his elven allies in this magical fantasy.

Ridley Scott and William Hjortsberg brought this amazing movie to life. Starring Tom Cruise, Mia Sara and Tim Curry, it’s hard to believe that this movie isn’t better known than it is.

#3 Labyrinth (1986) – Young Sarah is left home alone by her parents and she has to babysit her little brother Toby. But the baby keeps crying and Sarah, while telling him a story to make him sleep, inadvertently conjures from a fantasy world the Goblin King, who steals the child and brings him to his castle in the middle of a labyrinth.

Sarah has to rescue him before midnight, or the baby will became a goblin.

Jim Henson, Dennis Lee and Terry Jones worked meticulously to create this luscious fantastical world. The cast include one very primped and preened David Bowie, a young Jennifer Connelly and Toby Froud as Toby.

David also did the memorable soundtrack.

#2 Willow ( 1988) – Willow, a small farmer/apprentice magician, meets Mad Martigan, a great swordsman, and together they journey through a war-torn land of magic and monsters, to save a baby princess from death at the hands of an evil queen.

Ron Howard, George Lucas and Bob Dolman blew our minds with special effects that had never been seen before in this movie. Morphing is something to see in the special features if you get the right version of the DVD release. Val Kilmer, Joanne Whalley and Warwick Davies top the cast list and carry you right into the storyline… again probably not for the really young kids as there is a little blood and the evil queen is REALLY evil.

#1 The Princess Bride (1988) – A kindly grandfather sits down with his ill grandson and reads him a story. The story is one that has been passed down from father to son for generations. As the grandfather reads the story, the action comes alive. The story is a classic tale of love and adventure as the beautiful Buttercup, engaged to the odious Prince Humperdinck, is kidnapped and held against her will in order to start a war. It is up to Westley (her childhood beau, now returned as the Dread Pirate Roberts) to save her. On the way he meets a thief and his hired helpers, an accomplished swordsman and a huge, super strong giant, both of whom become Westley’s companions in his quest.

Ron Reiner and William Goldman did a wonderful job making this film melt into our hearts. The cast is one to be seen, but the highlights in my opinion are Billy Crystal, André the Giant, Mandy Patinkin, Peter Fralk and Fred Savage.

Most people are more afraid of public speaking than they are of death; and in the words of Jerry Seinfeld, ‘That means that people would rather be in the casket, than giving the eulogy.’

Really! Really? Seriously? Why?

Okay here’s a bit of history; I figured out in about grade 2 that during school, any oral presentations are perfect opportunities to make the other kids suffer really enjoy my speech, because they are a captive audience. They can’t go anywhere and nobody liked detentions, so they’d shut up and at least look like they were listening.

I can remember making over half the class come up and help me do my movie review of Return to OZ. We were allowed to do a ‘quick’ reenactment, which would have been fine but nobody else had ever seen the movie. (If YOU haven’t, why not?) Nothing like making Amanda and Joseph crawl around on all fours making a squeaky noise like the wheelers. HA!

Anyways what I am trying to get at is that the worst thing that happened was the teacher pulled the pin and suggested perhaps picking something a little less involved for my book review the following week. I wasn’t given a bad mark either, even though it really did suck as far as presentations go.

I got top marks in grade 11 by flinging old Girlfriend magazines around and playing a Little Pattie song, – He’s my blonde headed stompy wompy real gone surfer boy – (Yes, that’s the name of the song) The argument I made was the negative impact of the objectification of women in the media. I made the other kids sit up and take notice, right up until I played that song. *evil grin* then the suffering element came into play. I LOVED it.

Then we move into the cover band days when there was no teacher, there was no one there to smooth over any nerves I may have had before a gig. There was however alcohol, swearing, heckling and walk outs. But even when I was stepping out of the way from some drunken screwball slipping in the mud onto the stage I still remembered that I can make them all suffer… with the first line of the Offspring song, Pretty Fly For a White Guy. The collective moan was music to my ears. But they sang along.

I have taught craft classes with varying degrees of success, and I judge my success by the enjoyment of the participants… and their ability to laugh when I let them know I was about to make them suffer. (Trying to teach them how to make chain mail or a dream catcher)

So I guess by now you’ve worked out that my brand of making people suffer is to get them to smile, step outside what they would normally do, have no shame and to try something new, or just to be happy being a dag.

Sure I still get nervous, I shake like a leaf in the middle of a cyclone, and you know what though…? As long as I have the ability to make people suffer with a smile I’m happy. There is nothing to it.

Commiserations for the last episode of Doctor Who for this season. We can either wait to buy the DVD’s and mope until next year, or we can celebrate by making everything into a Who-niverse of our very own. Want to exterminate a Dalek? Here’s a tutorial on how to make Dalek cupcakes thanks to TheTofuGuru. We’re not supposed to play with our food, but how difficult will it be to avoid it when they look this convincing. Om Nom Nom.

~ httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8DNgB3-ii-Y&feature=related ~

Want to look a little like Amy? Here’s a make-up tutorial by SuperBeautyNerd. How much does she really look like Karen… creepy much.

~ httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5jfDSBLbdh4 ~

But after we’ve eaten a double battalion of Dalek cupcakes we need to work it off. Here’s a little inspiration to get moving from Matt and Karen from Comic Con this year. Thanks to BBC America’s click to watch for this one.

~ httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-WKDULWP7Fc ~

This should help us all get through until the Christmas special at least. See you all back in the Tardis for next Season!

1. Watch out for his little sister; she’s powerful enough to do stuff, but young enough to still want to do naughty things. Unless you like spending time as a frog, I wouldn’t ping her off.

2. When meeting his parents there’s a chance they don’t want to let you in on the family secret. So even though you know, don’t let on.

3. Ask for a list of special dates for him and his family; if you’ve gone well with the meeting of the family, then perhaps they won’t mind allowing you to attend some of the more celebratory evens on the calendar. Additionally, knowing these special dates will allow you to know when he’ll need to not be called or asked out on a date.

4. Probably best not to go buying your guy a merlin costume for those Halloween parties. Pointy hats do actually hold some symbolism, so even if your heart is in the right spot, be aware and be warned.

5. Wizards usually have an animal familiar. So you might want to find out what his is before you start getting too serious. It would suck to be allergic to his cat, rat, owl, or crow. Even worse would be for your pet to hate or eat his on a visit.

6. He may be a bit of a messy wizard, so be sure to look where you’re about to sit. You wouldn’t want to break his wand.

7. Find out his favourite TV shows and movies. He’s probably got a good sense of humor about the way Hollywood portrays his fellow magic wielders. Try box sets of Sabrina the Teenage witch for those dates when you’re both baby-sitting his little sister. It may also teach her why it isn’t a good idea to turn you into a frog.

8. If you ever see a random and old-looking hard cover book lying around, perhaps open, keep your nose out of it. It could be his book of shadows, which is like a diary, but with slightly more sensitive content.

9. No matter how tempting it may be, never ask him to work any magic that may be classed as being for personal gain. Getting your math teacher sick on the day of a big exam, or fudging results will only end up in tears one way or another.  Better to not tempt fate.

10. His fellow coven members are likely to be a tad on the geeky side. They will most likely have hearts of gold and find it hard to get the girl. So be kind and introduce your friends to them. It’s always better at gatherings between friends if you actually know some of the people who’ll be there.  Happiness is best when it’s shared.

Blessed be!