BLACKOUT OVER

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Yes!!

My self imposed, one month, Adam Driver blackout has ended.
It’s been an entire month.
I can safely say that I won’t be doing that again.
I honestly felt like I had a missing limb.

Right, what’s been happening in Adam’s world?

It looks like he will have yet another film premiering at Cannes in May (Corona virus not withstanding!!).
Annette has been in post production for a while now, so a May premiere is highly likely.

I am becoming more and more intrigued by this film.
It is, apparently, a musical, and the kind of musical where the story is entirely told by song.
I have said before, that this kind of musical is really not my cup of tea.
I much prefer a script that is interspersed with songs.

However…… Remember these guys?

Ron Mael is the keyboard player and principal songwriter for the band ‘Sparks’ which he founded with vocalist younger brother Russell Mael in 1971.

Ron and Russell have written this film and the music for the film and after hearing Adam belt out ‘Being Alive’ at the end of ‘Marriage Story’, I have no doubt that this film is going to be very interesting.

Anyway, after a bit of a break back home in New York with the Missus, the kid and the pup, and hosting yet another SNL show, Adam is now just a short train ride away in France, where he is filming his next movie, ‘The Last Duel’. (As of today, it’s possible that he is stuck in France for the forseable future, as Donald Trump has just halted travel from Europe to the US because of Coronavirus!!)

The film is set in 14th Century France and tells the story of Knight, Jean de Carrouges (played by Matt Damon) who is ordered to settle a dispute with his squire Jacques LeGris (played by Adam Driver) by King Charles VI. It is the last judicial duel ever held in France.

Some leaked on set photos recently, showed Adam’s co-star, Matt Damon, in costume.

Some photos of Adam supposedly arriving for what is thought to be costume fittings and a hair cut, were also leaked, and to say that Adam was looking a little pensive is an understatement.

I was so worried they were going chop off those luscious locks and give him a bowl cut, and if they had, I would have been seriously pissed off!!

Anyway, a couple of days later some more photos were leaked of Adam on set, and it looks like I didn’t need to worry. The luscious lock are still there, and if anything, it looks like he’s had some extensions! Adam is looking quite intriguing.

Anyway, filming continues amidst the Corona Virus hysteria.
To say, I’m a little concerned by the travelling that Adam has to do is an understatement, but at the same time, he’s a healthy man. Adam will be fine.

Other than this, it’s all been a bit quiet on the Adam front.
I still enjoy trawling the net for new pictures and news, but this time of year is a little quiet for anything like that.

I have noticed a few more GIFs from ‘The Rise of Skywalker’ appearing.

Credit for the GIF goes to driverdelight.tumblr.com

This one is one of my favourites. Adam tackling some wire work is possibly the most ‘physical’ Adam has had to get in ‘any’ movie so far and I absolutley want to see more!!
I love his little Indie movies but I’d LOVE to see him get his teeth into something with a little more action!!

The Last Duel promises to have some good sword fighting, but being set in the 14th Century, I can’t see there being much need for wire work or special effects!
No, I want to see him in something requiring a bit more physicality. He’s an imposing figure and can obviously handle physical stuff during filming.
Maybe even see a ‘nasty’ side to one of his characters.

Don’t get me wrong… Rick, Allan, Jude, Jamie, Phillip, Sevier, Paterson, etc…. ALL fabulous characters, but…….

……ultimately ‘NICE’ characters.
After seeing Adams ‘physical’ abilities in Star Wars, I want to see more!

But then, Adam is ultimately a ‘NICE’ guy in all aspects of life.
In fact he’s an absolutely hero to Ben Affleck!

He also has a comical side and this is quite evident when he appears on SNL.
So I’ll end this blog with a few of his appearances from January’s outing as host on SNL.

Adam has a wonderfully dry sense of humour.
This is hysterical. You can see the inner Kylo slowly emerging!!
Adam in leather….. nuff said!!

It’s good to have him back on the blog!!

STILL ALIVE…BUT ONLY JUST

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It has not been a good week.

I survived work on Monday, but it was a really odd day. I never felt like I was on top of anything and my brain was all over the place.
I would walk into a room and forget why I had gone in. I would sit at a computer to do something and then completely forget what. I thank my lucky stars that my patients got all their medications as prescribed and I handed over at the end of the shift with a huge sigh of relief!

Tuesday was a day off and I felt completely drained and didn’t do much. Looking back, it was probably a precursor to what was to follow.

I had a relatively good night’s sleep and woke up at 05:30 to start my usual routine before heading off to work.
I wasn’t feeling particularly great but just put it down to the fact I am not an early bird.
I had my coffee, did my morning trawl through Tumblr, Twitter, IG, BBC news, etc, but there were rumblings…. literally.

As I arrived for work, I realised that my tummy wasn’t well. I didn’t even get into my uniform. I informed my manager and I came home again, where I curled up on the sofa and that is where I have spent the last two days (excluding a quick trip out for supplies) because apparently, you can’t be a Mother and be sick at the same time!!

Today, I’m still not 100% and I’m feeling completely wiped out, but at least it appears to be getting better.

It has at least given me a chance to binge some movies.
I’ve started keeping track of them again. Something I literally gave up on during my Uni course.
So far this year I have watched 70 movies. Only 6 of them have been at the cinema so far, and to put a little perspective on it, we are only 66 days into the year!

Anyway, 6 more days before my self imposed ban on mentioning a certain actor is over, watch out!

I am going to continue chilling this afternoon and taking things easy over the next few days. Thankfully my days off this week are bumped right up next to my days off next week, so I’m not actually back at work until Weds!!
Time to totally re-charge the batteries…. I hope.

DISH OF THE WEEK # 82 – SANTIAGO CABRERA

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Dish of the Week number 82, is Santiago Cabrera.

Over the last few weeks I have been getting caught up in the new Series ‘Star Trek: Picard’
I have to say that it’s been getting better and better each week.

One character has stood out for me (OK two, but we’ll get to the other one in a bit). Cristobal Rios, the Captain of the ship that Picard commandeers to help in his quest, and played by Santiago Cabrera. He also plays all the emergency holograms on board the ship, which gives Santiago and wonderful playing field.

Mr Cabrera has been on my radar since 2006 when he was one of the ‘original’ heroes in the TV Series ‘Heroes’.
He played Isaac Mendez whose super power was being able to paint visions of the future. The only downside was that he could only do it while he was high!
It was one of his paintings that helped to coin the phrase ‘Save the cheerleader, save the world’.

Since then, he keeps cropping up in things that I watch from time to time, like, ‘The Musketeers’, where he played Aramis, and I have to say that this look was extremely hot!

He also played Lancelot in ‘Merlin’

Anyway, I look forward to seeing more of his character in ‘Picard’
It’s going to be fun to see how many emergency holograms they can come up with!!

I can’t leave this blog without a special mention for another character in ‘Picard’.
Elnor, a Romulan played by Evan Evagora.

Evan Evagora is just a baby!!
At 23, and much like Timothee Chalamet, he’s a little too young to be on my radar. So he will just get a special mention here and also, much like Timothee Chalamet, I will watch his career with interest.

BIT OF A WOBBLE

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So far, so good.
The challenge I set myself in my last blog, to not blog about a certain Actor, is going OK……. mainly because I haven’t blogged since the 12th!!

I have to say, it’s been harder than I thought.
Little things (stupid things really) keep cropping up that I desperately want to get down into a blog, but I will stay true to my word.

So, I have to think about something else to blog about.

The last week of work has been filled with highs and lows.
For anyone who doesn’t know, I work in Paediatrics. Long story short, I found a job in paediatric clinical support 11 years ago, loved it so much I am now a Nurse Associate.
It’s been a pretty depressing week at times, to the point where I had a good cry when I got home, but I’ve also had some good laughs. Some out of the ‘norm’ patients this week had me in hysterics.
Crying to hysterics! Can’t get more high and low than that!
Let’s see what the next week brings.

It’s been a lazy weekend so far.
I had a lovely afternoon out with Daughter number one, Murron, as we attended ‘Rainbow Heads’, an event the she was singing at to promote the launch of #RainbowBedfordshire
A service designed to highlight, help and support ALL areas of the LGBTQ+ community and their mental health. It was a wonderful mix of singing, poetry and discussion, and I wish them every luck for future events.

After this event, we went to Wetherspoons with some of Murron’s friends.
I have to admit, I had a really good laugh with them, but I also learned a lot more about Murron than maybe a Mother should know!!

Anyway, after posting our table on FB, 2 Fireball Bombs, 1 Fireball shot, 1 Whiskey and coke and a couple of Long Island Ice Tea’s later, I decided to call it a night while I could still walk and talk!!

Thanksfully, I’m feeling just fine this morning, which is just as well, because I am going out with Ian, Marji and Dharma at lunch time, but only for a couple of hours. We are meeting some other family members at a local pub to celebrate Auntie Jackie’s birthday.

After that, it’s home to do some housework and cook some dinner.
Hopefully, there will be a little time to put my feet up this evening.

Let’s see what the next week brings.

A PERSONAL CHALLENGE

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Right, we are almost 2 weeks into February and I have been finding every excuse under the sun to not start my diet!

You never start in the first couple of weeks of the year because there’s still too much temptation in the cupboards post Xmas.

I’ll just get this weekend out of the way.

I’ve got a few days off so I’m going to enjoy them.

I’ll start at the beginning of February.

The local LGBT pub is having a grand re-opening, I can’t go to that and not have a drink!!

Ooh, I’ve got 3 days off, I’ll make the most of it and eat and drink what I like, and then I’ll start my diet.

I could go on and on, but the fact is, I really do not have any willpower at the moment. I look at my wardrobe and it is full of some beautiful tops and trousers that I wore when I went to Italy 3 years ago.
I can’t wear any of it at the moment.
I look at photos of myself back then and I see a happy, fresh face. I had lost about 3 stone for that trip and I was feeling great. I lost all that weight in the 3 months before the trip, so I know that If I knuckle back down to it now, I can easily do it again for this summer.

The hubby is not helping at the moment.
He’s had some serious orthopaedic problems in the last couple of years and piled on a ton of weight because of it.
He’s got into a really bad habit of sitting in his bed ALL day on days off, and doing absolutely nothing.
I’m lucky if he’s actually out of bed before midday. He’ll get up, get something to eat and go back to the bedroom and sit reading or watching TV for the rest of the day.
Trouble is… he’s dragging me down with him.
He PROMISED me that he would start to exercise after his operation last year and so far, that hasn’t happened. If anything, he’s getting worse.
Apart from the occasional trip to the cinema, we don’t do anything together anymore.
He’s going to hate me for posting this but I really don’t care. I plan to be active into my retirement, even with my knee problems. I certainly will not be a wife who stays home taking care of a husband who won’t help himself.
If he was making any effort, it would be a different story, but right now, he just seems to have given up on living and I’ve had enough.
He’s had plenty of warning from me, and when he reads this, I’m hoping he’ll realise exactly how I feel, because he doesn’t listen to me any other way.

So! decision has been made.
There’s no more crap in the cupboards.
I have a bottle of wine to finish today and then, unless I go out, the drinking stops at home.
No more crisps and snacks. No more cheese and crackers and salami. These will now be occasional treats.
I will drag myself away from this computer and start my walking and exercise again.
My aim will be to get back into those lovely clothes by July.
The husband will follow suit or he’s on his own.
I’m certainly not looking after him if he becomes bedbound.

With awards season out of the way, I am also challenging myself in another way.
I challenge myself to NOT mention either Adam Driver or Domhnall Gleeson in any of my posts for the next month!!

I CANNOT BELIEVE I JUST SAID THAT!!

No, not a word or photo will be posted for an entire month!
That pledge ends on 12th March.
Right in time for Peter rabbit 2!! on the 27th.

Shouldn’t be too hard.
After the extremely busy last year Adam has had, he currently has one film in post production and one in pre-production.
I’m hoping he’s taking a well earned break and just chilling with the family for a while.
Domhnall will be starting the promotional run for Peter Rabbit soon and he has filmed for a new TV series called ‘Run’, but there is no date on it’s release yet. I’m not even sure who will be airing it!

So, with a bit of a lull in in movies and TV shows on both parts, the next month ‘should’ be a doddle! We’ll see.

I’M NOT CRYING….REALLY!!

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I won’t deny I’m a little disappointed, but I knew, deep down, going into these Oscars that the Best Leading Actor Trophy would be going to Joaquin Phoenix.

So, disappointment over….. Adam’s time will come. I have NO doubt about that.

It’s time to look at my predictions and in my last post I said…..

‘My prediction for tomorrow evening is that the ladies will continue to disappoint with their ugly choices, Billy will steal the show with something fabulous and Adam will again be in black!’

Well, I was right about Adam. He’s been recycling this suit all awards season, but that’s Adam. He still looks gorgeous though, and Joanne looked stunning!

Next, Billy Porter.

I have to admit, his red carpet look fell a little flat for me.

BUT…….. His after party look ROCKED!!!

I was pleasantly surprised by the women.
Considering some of the horror creations I’ve seen this season, there were some truly stunning dresses on show last night.
In my opinion, Regina King ruled the evening in this stunning gown.

So there you have it. The movie calendar resets and starts all over again.
Roll on next awards season!

MAGIC MOVIE MOMENTS #3 – A Kirk Douglas tribute.

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With the passing of the legend that was Kirk Douglas at the age of 103 this week, I have been sitting here pondering what movies mean to me and the way I used to enjoy them growing up.

Way back in March 2016 I wrote Magic Movie Moments #2, and I haven’t written once since.

In that blog I wrote about Sunday afternoon movies being something to relish. With only one TV in the house and only 3 channels with no video recorder, if you missed a movie, you were lucky if it was shown again in the next year or two.

That blog consisted of 4 magic movie moments from ‘Seven Brides for Seven Brothers’, ‘Ben Hur’, ‘The King and I’ and ‘Oliver’
If you want to read that blog you can by clicking HERE.

I then started to think about how a film schedule would be changed at the last minute when a reputed actor passed away. There would be an afternoon of ‘tribute’ movies. Something that we just don’t seem to get anymore.

So here are some of my favourite Kirk Douglas movie moments.

Running the oars in ‘The Vikings’
I am ‘Spartacus’
‘The List of Adrian Messenger’
‘20,000 Leagues Under the Sea’
‘Gunfight at the OK Corral’

I have to say that ‘The Vikings’ is my ‘go to’ Kirk Douglas movie, I mean, c’mon, just look at this scene of the vikings arriving home and that incredible piece of music!!

This truly was the Golden era of movies. We will never see their like again and Kirk Douglas will be forever immortalised within them.

NOT HOLDING MY BREATH

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Right, tomorrow night is the BIG ONE, the Oscars. The royalty of awards shows.

For the second year in a row, Adam Driver has got a nomination.
Last year it was for Best Supporting Actor in BlacKkKlansman and this year it is for Best Lead Actor in Marriage Story.

He’s up against Antonio Banderas, Leonardo DiCaprio, Joaquin Phoenix and Jonathan Pryce.

Predominantly, the actors who win both the Golden Globe and the BAFTA, usually go on to win the Oscar. This year, they have gone to Joaquin Phoenix.
However, there are rare instances when the Academy surprise us with bucking the trend and going for the underdog.
So, I suppose I am still holding out a little bit of hope for Adam.

If you read my blog regularly, you will know that Adam’s competition throughout this awards season has been Joaquin Phoenix for his performance as The Joker.
I have done some number crunching today and as of today, the 8th Feb, the statistics for this years awards season look like this.

Adam has 59 nominations.
Joaquin has 49 nominations.

Adam has 38 wins.
Joaquin has 17 wins.

So, not only does Adam have 10 more nominations than Joaquin, he also has a 64% win ratio as opposed to Joaquin’s 34% win ratio.

In my eyes, this is quite telling.
The industry quite obviously rates Adam’s performance above that of Joaquin’s, but sadly, when it comes to the Academy voters, they will quite often take into consideration, past history of nominations and back catalogue of work. They quite often think… ‘it’s about time this guy won’ and will brush aside new talent that probably deserved that win more, simply because they haven’t ‘done their time’ in the industry yet.

They might surprise us this year, but I’m really not holding my breath.

So I am going to concentrate by efforts on the red carpet instead.
Everyone concentrates on what the ladies are wearing, and to be completely honest, the fashion choices this year have been very dubious, particularly at the Golden Globes.

Lucy Boynton looked like a badly wrapped Xmas turkey and what the hell was Gwyneth Paltrow thinking?!! She seemed to have forgotten her dress altogether and turned up in her petticoat, a poo coloured petticoat!

Anyway, bitching aside, the men have started coming out of their shells a little bit and we are occasionally getting and little more colour and a little more daring showing up on the red carpet.

Now Adam ALWAYS looks good in a suit, but he has played things very safe lately with the simple black tuxedo’s and last week’s BAFTAs was no exception. It may have been Louis Vuitton with Louboutin shoes, but it was still just black.

Such a shame, because when he wears a little colour, it really makes him shine!

There is of course, only one KING of the red carpet at the moment, and that is of course, Billy Porter!

He broke the mould at the Oscars last year by just being himself, and it was the most glorious suit/gown on the carpet by far. (and a finger to the haters)

Image result for billy porter oscars 2019

He has proved, time and time again, that the ladies have some fierce competition.

Billy Porter in a white tixuedo with feathered train on the Golden Globes 2019 red carpet
Image result for billy porter bafta 2020
Image result for billy porter bafta 2020
Image result for billy porter 2020

My prediction for tomorrow evening is that the ladies will continue to disappoint with their ugly choices, Billy will steal the show with something fabulous and Adam will again be in black!

Watch this space (I will try not to be too disappointed)

BAFTAS

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Finally, an awards show I can actually watch!!

Being in the UK really sucks when it comes to awards season.
The big American awards are never shown here in the UK and if they are, it’s usually just highlights the day after.

So here is one set of awards that belong to us Brits. The BAFTAS!!
They will air on UK TV at 21:00 tomorrow evening.

As much as I have my hopes up for Adam Driver to win the Best Actor award, I feel, deep down, that this is going to Joaquin Phoenix.

Now don’t get me wrong, Joaquin’s performance was amazing, but Adam’s was hands down better, and when you consider that out of all of the awards that have been given so far this season, Adam has had just under 58 nominations and around 35 wins, and Joaquin has had just under 50 nominations and only around 15 wins, I think the industry believes that too.

My problem with the two big ones, BAFTAS and Oscars, is that they don’t just vote on the performance that an actor has been nominated for.
They quite clearly will look at the back history and previous number of nominations, and on the back of that, because he’s had more nominations in previous years, I can pretty much put money on Joaquin winning both the BAFTA and Oscar titles.

TBH, that’s a shame, because out of the two performances, and without trying to sound biased, I believe Adam’s performance is the more worthy winner.

You want to Netflix and chill tonight?, you like a good tearjerker?, then go and watch ‘Marriage Story’.

NEVER UNDERESTIMATE…..

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Never underestimate what a difference watching a film on the big screen can make.

Tonight I went to see a film I NEVER thought I would get to see on the big screen because of all the legal wranglings it’s had to go through in the last year.

Image result for the man who killed don quixote

I have managed to see it on a German released DVD that I had to scrabble around until I found the English version on the disk, and because this preview showing with a recorded Q+A with director Terry Gilliam and Actor Jonathan Pryce was showing at a cinema that is a 45 minute drive away, in the evening, and between two 12.5 hour shifts at work, I very nearly didn’t go!

I am so glad I did!

I loved the film on DVD, but it takes on a whole new life on the big screen.
It is absolutely stunning, and crazy, and if you are a Terry Gilliam fan, you are absolutely going to love this film.