TV & Media obsessed Teenager, Who fan, News lover and more, communicating from an iPhone or Macbook about anything and everything - hi there! Occasional eccentric, generally interesting and regularly fresh.
All you need is Love..? (Pt. 1)
Has anyone else ever realised how weird love can be?
Says I, typing away madly and almost depressingly at these black & white, simply-lain keys on a Dell laptop in the middle of the night (11:55 PM, to be exact), enlightened by my low-key lit, notably unenthused bedroom that’s currently situated in the middle of London.
South London, to be ever-so-slightly more precise. I’m tired, sad and lonely, clinging to my small number of blog followers and twitter for comfort. I don’t want to be a pathetic, grim, dull but oddly interesting rant-proclaiming teenager like many other teenagers I know. But seriously, why can’t love just be regular and straightforward?
Boy meets Girl. Both fall madly in fully requited love with each other. Boy & Girl are inseparable. Friends cheekily but lovingly take the piss, mocking their friends obvious true love for one another. Family are over-enjoyed that their respective son/daughter is honestly in a genuine love-adorned relationship and celebrate many years of entertaining eager and cute grandchildren for the rest of their lives. Well, maybe not that last part yet. But other than that, all fairly simple really. Yet I’m diverging from my proper, true emotional point - why can’t love always be fun and beautiful, yet most of all, straightforward?
The time’s now 11:58 PM - one of the last achingly slow seconds of what quite honestly appears to have been the worst day of my life. I’m incredibly hung-over, rough-looking, shit-feeling and in general existing in a rather foul mood.
Strange yet intrigued reader, you are viewing the musings of a man just dumped by the love of his life - Juliet Trumpton, in my case. Alright, she’s got the surname of a 1970’s Children’s Television show that was a spin-off of the slightly better-known Camberwick Green, and she’s a bit of a chav (high-class, though still the bittersweet truth); but the thing is, she’s beautiful. Not just through looks, no, but her mind, her opinions, her interests, her humour, it’s just amazing. Sorry, I’ve gone from slight snob to lovey-dovey teenager. But that’s love. I love. We all love. “Love is real; real is love” - true words from Mr. John Lennon himself. Sorry, I’m going weird again, but I’m hoping you can see what I’m trying to say to you, fair reader.
So here I am, typing this mixture of love, brilliance and rubbish. Right now, aside from considering what I’ve done to deserve this loss, I’m reflecting on how it all began, 4 months ago now, and exactly why I fell head-over-heels in love with her in the first place. Here goes…
What was so amazing and special about this girl I’m lovingly rambling about, really? Where should I start; she was the woman that made extra GCSE Physics bearable. She was struggling, I was winning. By winning I mean in a Charlie Sheen sort of way. I.e. achieving a new heightened state of popularity but at the same time doing the rest of my life no particular favours. She was confused, I was doing pretty well. She’d come from a lowly-rated school somewhere “in the middle of fucking nowhere” (her words exactly. It was a Grammar school, yes, but not exactly thought of as the best around town…). Me? I came from the Maths school. Sir John Hague’s Mathematical School for Boys. It sounds like a place for big-egoed toffs and young smart-arses, but in general it’s quite nice really. But back to the point - she delighted me from the moment I first saw her. She was stunning. In looks, and mind. She might not have known how to calculate the maximum velocity of a car traveling on the M25 in the middle of a Friday rush-hour, but she was classy.
So I caught her name. Within half an hour of leaving the after-school, extra Physics lesson organised by the local, unique and slightly eccentric independent school based only a couple of miles from my house, I’d added her on Facebook. 2 hours later, she’d accepted my friend request. “Result!” was now repeatedly echoing through my head, until the realisation came that the chances of her not adding me were very slim, considering I’d spoken to her (albeit briefly) the same day, and that it would be a bit rude for her not to reply positively. So, with the revolution of Social Networking in mind, I hurriedly began a conversation on a platform barely possible 15 years ago. This is what happened next… *Continued in Pt. 2!*.
This is my piece of fiction I’ve ever published online, so please be gentle. It’s not a real account, but at the same time it’s based on real experiences by myself and others, which I’m hoping lots of people can relate to. I hope everyone who’s taken the time to read it to this point has enjoyed it, or either way can offer some constructive criticism. And if you really like it, please feel free to reblog the piece!
BTW, I realise this is uncooly long for Tumblr, I just thought I’d share it here first as it’s the place most likely to gain a positive interest and from my target audience - teenagers, such as myself. If you’d prefer to follow me in future on Blogspot or Wordpress, feel free to subscribe to me at said locations - EJRSmyth.Wordpress.com and EJRSmyth.Blogspot.com.
Thanks, and most of all right now, Merry Christmas everyone!
Kindest Regards,
Edward Smyth.
That awkward moment when you discover a shop sign in Blackpool has made a bit of a pathetic albeit hilarious cock-up:
FUDGE*
They totally fail at spelling shop signs correctly in Blackpool.
Brilliant parody of the infamous Conservative promotional billboard posters from 2010 -
Via jasminamelia:
True. True. True.
An excited, passionate report on Much Ado About Nothing, currently on at the Wyndhams’ Theatre in London starring David Tennant & Catherine Tate. I saw it myself a few months back and was really impressed, most particularly by the fantastic chemistry between the billed pair and their various hilarious antics on stage. Enjoy this review, and trust me, it’s definitely a play worth seeing this Summer!
THIS IS HOW FREAKING CLOSE TO DAVID TENNANT AND CATHERINE TATE I was last night!
Someone take me back? I was at the stage door and I jumped up on one of the bike rails so I could see and his eyes went up with me and I actually thought he was going to say something to me because of the way he looked, Also they came out of the stage door no more than 3 minutes after the performance I had to run! Catherine also as normal as she is ran through the lobby of Wyndhams with her dog as we all waited, not many people seen her as she did it so sneakily but how could I miss that ginger hair and she ran right past me, her dog stood on my Dad’s foot. Jealous.
The show was amazing, the audience laughed all the way through especially when Catherine went up on a harness and visibly couldn’t unclip herself which caused the audience to errupt into laughter. She finally alone on stage unclipped herself and went on to ‘try’ to perform, firstly miming to the audience ‘No it’s not the time (to laugh)’ which caused us all to laugh even harder, she waited laughing herself and as the laugheter died down a man at the front let out the most ridiculous laugh causing Catherine to look down herself and laugh and once again the audience laughed hysterically this happened about 4 or 5 more times untill the audience and Catherine pulled ourselves together by the time she had halted her next words for about a minute (She is such a comedian) so that she could finish her speech and get the best round of applause of the night!
Meanwhile David’s singing made everyone die (well I died) He sings, he dances and he acts! what more can anyone want? He seriously means more than this earth to me and he saved my life in 2009 in so many ways, so to be so ridiculously close to him was crazy. I hope one day I’m up on that stage with him or get to meet him properly and speak to him so that my life will be complete or possibly fuel an already raging obsession but either way go and see Much ado about nothing!
I just had to retype this after EVIL tumblr deleted it. EVILNESSS.
Space-Time Lawyers - always happy to help, whatever time, whatever place, whichever species. Except for Vervoids. Mainly due to their surprisingly odd dislike of anything related to a Fez.
I couldn’t resist.
EDIT: YOU GUYS. YOU GUYS ARE AWESOME. I LOVE YOU ALL.
The (’80s) History Boys
Hi Tumblr, I’m back, after a short time of, erm, basically not posting anything. I didn’t forget, I just became really busy early on and then sort of lost the feeling of needing to rapidly post something I had and get whenever I do post. So, now, anyway - onto the main part of this post!
‘The History Boys’ is best known as a stage-play, marketed as a Comedy, by Alan Bennet, who none of you may previously of known as an “Author, Screenwriter & Playwright”, most recently seen on Television in shows including ‘Bennett on Bennett’, as diverse as ‘Mark Lawson talks to Alan Bennett’ and the truly unmissable ‘Being Alan Bennett’. Sarcasm aside, he is a well respected man in the industry (Theatre particularly), who arguably reached his peak with his script for ‘The History Boys’ back in 2004. The story’s set at an undisclosed point in the 1980s, mainly set in the fictional Cutlers’ Grammar School in Sheffield. It centers around a group of different, interesting and surprisingly clever A-Level, working-class Teenagers who are un-debatably doing rather well, who are being entered for Oxbridge Universities. The film follows their lives as they gradually reach their final exams, albeit keeping their home lives mostly private and, although with good characterisation, for many of them not delving too deeply inside their lives. Which mostly works, if I’m honest.
The cast for the original play, Worldwide tour and the film include actors such as Russell Tovey (George the Werewolf in ‘Being Human’, and a main character in BBC 3’s ‘Him & Her’), Dominic Cooper (the young groom in ‘Mamma Mia’ (the film)) and some bloke called James Corden. Later casts included actors like Marc Elliot (Syed in Eastenders) and a man by the name of Matt Smith. Whatever happened to him?
Their 3 main teachers are a fascinating mixture of characters - their favourite, and the one taking centre stage is (Douglas) Hector, originally played on stage and in the film by Richard Griffiths, also known as the posh perv in ‘Withnail & I’, the original Headmaster in ‘Episodes’, Uncle Vernon in the majority of Harry Potter films and also, apparently, as a character currently unknown in the new Pirates of the Caribbean film, out in Summer 2011, entitled ‘On Stranger Tides’. Morest to the point, his character in ‘The History Boys’ is an eccentric, traditional, slightly posh and soon to retire English & ‘General Studies’ teacher, teaching his students subjects that don’t exactly fit the national curriculum. Like French music and random, emotion-full Poetry. One of his mottos is a quote by A.E. Housman - ”all knowledge is precious whether or not it serves the slightest human use”. He’s the figurehead of the show, being at times the accomplished school master, world-lover to the weirdo that touches up boys on his motorbike. Weird but true.
Now, anyway, the other 2 teachers are Mrs Lintott, a calmer/saner, similar-aged teacher to Hector, but more straight-forward and factual, being a bit more professional, but still perfectly likeable. The final member of the trio is the young Irwin - a History teacher brought in to specially coach the students to guarantee their success into getting to Oxbridge. Supposedly being an ex-student of Oxford, he forces freshness and intrigue into the students work, as well as controversy, including such statements like “Hitler was a misunderstood man” and similar words relating to Stalin. His modern and different approach helps get every single one of the students into Oxbridge, so whether popular or not, he turns out to be an important part of their success.
In terms of a film review, which is what the majority of this post is being based on, considering I’ve never seen and quite possibly never will see it on stage, I’m now focusing on the effects of the transitions of the script from Theatre to Film. It’s fairly obviously got a significant amount of scenes and sparse locations that make the film seem all the more like a film based on a slightly expanded version of the script for the stage, which is pretty much what the film is. It’s not bad, no, but I’d much rather of seen a less theatre-esque, more stand-alone film, more heavily expanding the story and seeing a more diverse set of locations, rather than the same old School-ground shots and scenes of Richard Griffiths driving around on a motorbike across village hills in bright, lovely-weather days. One scene that, though brilliant still, has a particularly stage-like feel, is the final scene, set inside the school hall, featuring, without going into too much detail, a discussion of what happened to the characters post-Oxbridge. The way the scene is shot, with the light going from a brightly lit room to a dark, atmospheric feel reflects a downbeat, poignant set of moments, but to me feels very theatre-like. This is exemplified with the motion-less stature of one character who is revealed to of died while working for the Armed Forces, being fatally injured by friendly fire. Other characters have seemingly uninspiring careers, including a dry cleaner/weekend druggie and builder (who apparently get’s quite a lot of sexual action..), whilst one has become a TV Presenter (apparently based on Niall Ferguson..), while another, most beautifully & warmingly, a Teacher, following in the footsteps of Hector (Richard Griffiths) himself - the whole scene being a clever, fantastic showing of how teachers can shape the lives and therefore destinies of their students.
All-in-all, a decent film, with good acting and a generally good script, but one better suited to a Theatre environment. For the film itself - 6/10.
