Her style is like early Gwen Stefani, and you will have heard her songs on adds on the telly. Make no mistake, if rap is your thing and you haven’t discovered her, you are missing out.

23 year old Amethyst Amelia Kelly AKA Iggy Azalea, that’s who we’re talking about.

At 16 this vibrant young lady moved from the New South Wales town Mullumbimby to the USA, taking YouTube by storm with her songs Pussy and Two Times. She’s not only an award winning recording artist but a model to boot.

I guess the easiest thing would be to let Iggy speak for herself, so here’s her Vevo introduction Who the F**k is Iggy Azalea

Her biggest hit to date is Fancy which parodies Clueless. *Explicit Language warning*

She’s not my cup of tea, but I can respect her artistic style, both musically and visually.

It would take some real determination and heart to make it in the Hip Hop music industry, especially if you come from a small town in NSW!

Let me know in the comments what you think of Iggy Azalea?

**Marianne adds: ‘I love her!’

It’s that time of year again!  When all us weirdos, oldies, and lovers of extreme dagginess gather in front of our tellies and switch to SBS; and for 3 nights we are completely glued to the Eurovision Song Contest.

This year Jessica Mauboy performed in the half time show of the second semi final. This is because SBS and Australia are one of the biggest viewing audiences outside of Europe. Yep, that’s a lot of dags. Doesn’t it make you want to hop on board?

Here’s the link to their previews of the acts that  made it through to the semi finals this year. You can watch the official videos of the song entries and view the profiles of the performers.

Now for my top 4 best examples of why Eurovision is must see TV.

In 2011 Jedward who appeared in 2009’s X Factor wowed us with their song Lipstick in Eurovision’s Second Semi Final. Alas the song wasn’t enough to get them any higher than 8^th.

In 2006 Lordi became the very first heavy metal band to win Eurovision with their song Hellelujah. They rocked it hard core.

My personal favourite entry of all time, Cliff Richard, in 1973, with a song called to Power to All Our Friends

Then, the most iconic entry of all time, Abba, with Waterloo from 1974.

The Book

“She turns to face the future in a world that’s falling apart.” Veronica Roth has set the bar high for film makers, creating extreme scenes that will lend themselves really well to the big screen. The storytelling is gritty and dark and the settings are typical of the dystopian genre, including the almost communist flavour.

The characters are delightfully flawed and I love the journey Beatrice, ‘Tris’, takes when discovering the truth about herself. There is a small amount of romance and I think it adds a much needed silver lining to the thundercloud doom and gloom of the struggle to survive.

The insane risk-taking that is the norm for the The Dauntless faction includes jumping from trains, jumping from buildings, and facing your fears head on. I look forward to seeing how the director, Neil Burger, approaches the task of making the viewer empathise with the characters in a way that is equally as gut-twisting as how Roth has written the scenes.

There are a few fight scenes that are extremely graphic in the book, and I’m already cringing at the fact that they’re integral to the plot, so they really must be shown in the film.

Whether or not the actors will match what I had in my head… I’ll let you know.

Paperback, 487 pages

Published February 28th 2012 by Katherine Tegen Books (first published April 25th 2011)

original title

Divergent

ISBN

0062024035 (ISBN13: 9780062024039)

The Film

I don’t know where to start with the gushing and positivity I want to express here. This film was based on the book and the fact that they had Veronica Roth in on the script helped enormously, especially with consistency and authenticity.

From the plain yet stunning Shailene Woodley, who was a spectacular Beatrice (Tris), to the deliciously chiselled features of Theo James as Four, Venus Kanani and Mary Vernieu got the casting spot on.

Neil Burger took the book and brought it into reality so well. The zip line sequence was enough to have my heart pounding and my fear of heights going crazy. Hats off to the visual effects team (officially the longest credit list I think I’ve seen so far) for blowing my mind for two and a half hours.

The fight scenes perhaps weren’t as brutal as what was happening in my head during the book—thank goodness—though the stunt crew were top notch and also deserve massive kudos for making me cringe and wince so many times.

If we don’t see Divergent in award nomination lists next year, I think I’ll give up on listening to ‘critical acclaim’ in future.

The Wrap Up – Even if you were to read the book after the film, I think you’d gain something from it. This is not one of those glaringly obvious moments of ‘the book is better’. The book has more wiggle room and your imagination is the only boundary. There are differences, but they are not enough to make one better or worse than the other.

If you have the chance to see the film in the cinemas, go do it. On the big screen it is just wow. You’ll be blown away.

Thanks to Divergent’s later Aussie release date I’ve had to scramble and slip in another movie for March. *pouty face* Boo to the pewpy release date. Boo!

The Book

There are so many fan-created book trailers out there, but I had trouble finding an official one.  I also ‘read’ the audio book this time around, though I did read the entire series by Stephenie Meyer in paperback before the books were made into movies.

This version has the original artwork on the cover, is in MP3 format, and is on one disc. Yes, an entire unabridged book on one disc. It was lovely to just flick it over to my MP3 player and listen to Ilyana Kadushin do her thing. Considering the running time is 13 hours (yup, thirteen hours) you’re certainly going to be getting your money’s worth.

From what I can remember from reading the books, Bella in my head wasn’t anything like she was in the films, and apparently Ilyana felt the same when she was narrating the story for Bolinda Audio. She brings dimension, emotion, and drive to the story that you may not have had in your head, or found in the film.

For anyone who wouldn’t necessarily touch the series with a ten foot barge pole (VAMPIRES DON’T SPARKLE DAMN IT) give the Bolinda audio book a try. Who knows! Maybe you can like the books and just not tell anyone. *wink*

TWILIGHT CD

TWILIGHT MP3

TWILIGHT WEBCLIP

The Film

I saw this film twice in the cinemas in 2008 and I bought it on DVD for the sake of this series.

I’ll quickly mention the things I love about this film. The locations are breathtaking, most of which are around Washington, Oregon, and British Columbia. Silver Falls State Park in Oregon is magical.

The song Decode by the band Paramore never fails to give me goose bumps. 

The giggle factor was the other thing I adored. Now I know this is supposed to be a totally serious film, but I cannot help but see the funny side of bad hair, one-dimensional acting and vampires that sparkle.

I have taken into account the lack of funding and that the director wasn’t as high profile as the person who took over the rest of the saga, so in that respect they did amazingly well to get it up to that standard.

So the verdict: If you haven’t seen, read or heard Twilight yet, go with the audio book first. Ilyana does this story justice and makes it extremely consumable. If and only IF you can view it as a totally separate entity should you watch the film; don’t take it seriously and walk in ready for all the characters to take themselves way too seriously. I dare you not to laugh.

I’ve been going back through some movies set in the early-to-mid-1900s, and noticed how women have really been trail blazing for their sisters since long before Germaine Greer popped her head onto the scene.

Here are five movies that leave me feeling empowered and make me proud to be a woman. These movies span the most formative 50 years of women’s liberation and all before we burned our bras and the word Feminist became a dirty word.

Fried Green Tomatoes – The earlier plot line is set in the 1920s. A mixture of self-discovery and storytelling, this one makes me bubble with pride. TO WANDA!!!

The Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood

If you think you have nothing in common with your parents, think again. Set in the late 1930s, we follow the Ya-Ya’s on their journey into womanhood, while flipping into modern times and having a blast as relationships mend and grow. YA-YA!!!

A League of Their Own

While the men were fighting the war in the 1940s, women were called upon to keep up morale on home soil by creating a baseball league. Go PEACHES!!!

Mona Lisa Smile

The story of a teacher in the 1950s who changes her student’s lives by asking them to expect more from themselves than just being a housewife. Be yourselves.

The Help – This film is not only about women’s rights, but also shines a light on 1960s apartheid in living colour. This movie is fabulously entertaining and shows things from another point of view. (There’s a quote in here about poop…but you’ll have to watch the film or read the book to get it.)

If you know of any other good films that give you goosebumps, leave a comment below. I’m always on the search for the next brilliant feminist movie.