The Brilliance of the Hillywood Show

I am a huge parody lover. Half of the Youtube channels I am subscribed too create parodies on a regular basis, and I love all types. I will probably spend some time on more of them later, but for now I want to spotlight some of the most talented people I have ever seen: Hilly and Hannah Hindi of the Hillywood Show.

The parodies that Hannah and Hilly create are not your typical parodies. They are so much better! What these lovely ladies do is take popular works of television and film, and then spoof them. They do so with perfectly executed cosplays, spot on set replicas, dance numbers, scene reenactments, and popular songs. They pair the show or film that they are parodying with a song or several songs, and act out actions from the story perfectly in sync with the music. I know that my explanation is not really doing their parodies justice so I ask you to watch some of my favorite parodies of theirs as examples: Harry Potter Parody, Doctor Who Parody, Hunger Games Parody, Pirates of the Caribbean Parody, Hobbit Parody.

The amazing thing about these two sisters is that, on top of the awesome acting and dancing, is that they put on these top quality productions almost single handedly. They direct, act in, choreograph, produce, edit, and write these parodies, and do most of the costuming, makeup, set building, and photography themselves as well. Though their number of helpers does grow on some of their bigger shoots, and they have a number of performers who work with them, they usually only have their parents and some of their friends to help them with these amazing productions. They put a lot of time, energy, and love into each and every one of their productions, and I cannot recommend them highly enough!

My Ever Growing Love for Marina and the Diamonds

I am certainly not the biggest expert on music. My fields of study tend to be literature, film, and television, while my sisters are the big music lovers in my home. Both of them sing and play instruments and know hundreds of bands, artists and songs. I am not in this boat, but I do have a pretty diverse range of musical tastes that incorporates everything from 80’s rock to show tunes, and when I find music that hits me a certain way, I have to talk about it.

I became familiar with the artist Marina and the Diamonds a few years ago after seeing this amazing video called I am Not a Princess a couple years ago. The video mashes up a number of Marina songs from her first album The Family Jewels and uses them as a soundtrack to some fairy tale re-tellings. The video itself is fantastic and I encourage you to watch it, but I really loved the music as well and follow though and ended up getting myself some Marina music and getting my sisters addicted to her as well.

Now when Marina’s second album was released, my sisters memorized the track list immediately, but me being me, I only heard a few of the songs. Then about a week ago I was listening to my iPod at work and threw Marina’s track list on shuffle. Now I had probably heard several of the songs previously, absentmindedly while my sisters were playing them down the hall, but I never really listened to more than a couple of them until I had them on at work, and while I was listening, I was struck again by just how brilliant Marina is as an artist.

There is a song on her second album Electra Heart there is a song called “Sex Yeah” and I thought that it was a song that was literally about having sex, which I now realize was foolish. Here is the thing about Marina, she is totally tongue–in-cheek. If her songs are not straight up scolding the stupidity of different aspects of society, they are mocking them. “Primadonna,” for example, is told from the point of view of a Kardashian-esque rich girls, mocking them for thinking that they are entitled to something. “Oh No” and “Iam not a Robot” talk about how we thrive to emulate celebrities and the people in the public eye instead of being individuals. After listening to it a few more times, “Sex Yeah” is actually now one of my favorite Marina songs because it talks about how sex should not rule our society and how women should not have to feel either like their sexuality is evil or like the only way to feel liberated is to walk around half naked. It’s a very interesting song, and like all of Marina’s music, really makes you think.

  Like I said, I am not a huge music expert or anything, but I highly recommend Marina and hope you check out some of her music.

Why You Should Read “Ensign Sue Must Die”

 

Most fiction readers, writers, watchers, or anyone that has ever experienced fanfiction in any sense probably recognized the term “Mary Sue”. For those of you that don’t recognize the term, a Mary Sue, or the male equivalent Gary Stu, is a character that is usually on-dimensional, with little or no character flaws, who never seems to be capable of failing at anything, and is in every way, annoying! Such a character is also commonly an insertion of an idealized version of the author themselves, that allows them to live some sort of fantasy through the character. I realize that this is not the best explanation, but if you were to see a Mary Sue in action, you would understand exactly what I am talking about, and even now perhaps, you are remembering a character rubbing you the wrong way because of these reasons. If you have had such an encounter with a fictional character, or have had repeat run-ins with the Sue, I insist that you check out the webcomic Ensign Sue Must Die by Kevin Bolk and Clare Moseley, and its two sequels Ensign Two: the Wrath of Sue and Ensign Three: Crisis of Infinite Sues.

To give a brief overview of the series without spoiling much, the series is initially set in the Star Trek universe that has been established in the new J.J. Abrams films, so it is also a treat for Trekkers! The series follow the crew as they come into contact with a Mary Sue and have to deal with the resulting problems that come with having her on the Enterprise. As the series progresses, the crew travels into different “dimensions,” which are naturally other massive pop-culture franchises, and comes into contact with other kings of nerd culture including the X-men, Sherlock, the Justice League, and The Doctor as the threat of the Sues grows. The result is a series that is hilarious for multiple fandoms and is also well illustrated and brilliantly written.

If you are geek in anyway, you should go read the series now, and if you aren’t you should give it a look anyway. Kevin Bolk’s other webcomics are equally funny and nerdy and I encourage people to check those out as well. You can find all of them in the links provided below. I hope you all give them a look and give this guy the fans that he deserves!

The start of Ensign Sue Must Die: http://interrobangstudios.com/comics-display.php?strip_id=989

Kevin Bolk’s Deviantart Page: http://kevinbolk.deviantart.com/

Kevin Bolk’s other Comics on Interrobang Studios’ Page: http://www.interrobangstudios.com/webcomics.php

Well Hello There!

So the last time I posted anything on this blog about two years ago, and that wasn’t because I was disinterested, but because college was probably one of the most time consuming experiences of my life. Even when I wasn’t in class, I was thinking about class. That isn’t to say that I didn’t like college, or that I am not grateful for the experience, but when I finished school I was more than ready to move onto the next stage in my life and luckily I am off to a good start. I’m getting ready to move away from home to go live with my fiancé, and I started a great new job literally the day after graduation, a job where I actually get paid to do what I am good at. On top of it all, I have managed, with the help of my wonderful writer friends, to put together a great little writing group that is actually keeping me motivated in my fiction writing. So all in all, I am feeling pretty dang good.

I know this isn’t a very fun post, or really all that interesting, but I wanted to give a little update on where I have been, and so hopefully anyone new coming in and reading this blog understands why I have been gone for years. Even with the new job and the move, I actually have a lot more free time than I have in forever, so I am really truly hoping to get stuff posted on here more often and I am going right now to write some more blog posts so that I can get in the habit of posting on here more often.

Well that is all I have for the moment, so I wish all of you a lovely day and success in any endeavors you are currently invested in!

Happy Hunger Games!

And may the odds be ever in your favor.


Yes ladies and gentlemen it is true. I finally got around to reading The Hunger Games, and though it took me FOREVER to get to reading them, I will have you know it only too me a couple days to devour them once I started because I could not put the damn things down. That trilogy was absolutely amazing, and though I am a little late to realize this, I wanted to share my thoughts on the series.


First I will admit that I saw the film first, which is a bit of a no no in the nerd world, but I had my reasons! Maybe if you are nice I will tell you them some time. Anyway, I saw the film on my birthday and I was absolutely blown away, so much that I was wrenched out of my no reading coma and picked up the first book just a few days later and obviously loved it.


I must say that The Hunger Games trilogy is probably the best young adult series I have read since Harry Potter (I know it's technically a youth series but I don't care). Hunger Games is a beautiful piece of science fiction. Like many classic pieces of the  genre, such as 1984 or Brave New World, it presents an all too possible reality in which a crazed government has taken away the rights and freedoms of the everyman to feign an utopian society. But unlike those books, the story is not told by old men, its told by a 16 year girl. And that girl, Katniss, is kinda completely badass, which is always a plus.


I thought that these books were really clever, and each of the three is very different than the other two in the style, a trait that I loved because it really helps the story evolve and keeps the reader interested. In addition the characters were brilliant. Each of character was very rounded with both flaws and strengths and they were, and all very true to human nature. Despite the fact that it is set in the future and there are all kinds of crazy things that people do with technology, the characters are all still very real, and even though they are in fantastical situations, they still react like any human being would. And the characters are also very likable, even drunken Haymitch (who I thought Woody Harrelson played magnificently) is likable in his own way. Oh and then there are Peeta and Finnick. In the interest of not sounding like a 13 year old fan girl, I will not go on and on about how much I love these two, but I do love them. And as per usual I think like 6 of my top 10 characters ended up dead by the end of the series, which always happens to me. But even with the deaths I still loved this series, and when I got to the last page of the last book I badly wanted more. That is what good books do, make you want more of what the author will probably never give you. But that, my dear friends, is why Fanfiction was invented!


I would have to say that Catching Fire (2nd book) is my favorite, Mockingjay (3rd book) my least favorite just because it was so sad, but it was still a really good book. The story is brilliant, Suzanne Collins is brilliant, and since she also co-wrote the screenplay, it is not hard to see why the film was also brilliant. I thought that it kept very close to the book, and the things that they changed, deleted or added were completely justified in the translation to film, which is not something that I think can be said about a lot of films based on books. If they continue to let the author write the screenplays then I believe that they will continue to be good, especially since they have decided to pull this 2 part final movie thing that Harry Potter started. That and if they keep whatever casting people they are using because I thought that Jennifer Lawerence and Josh Hutcherson were both perfectly cast, and I have no complaints about anyone else in the cast either. Stanley Tucci was amazing as always and hilarious as Ceasar Flickerman and I thought that Lenny Kravits was great as Cinna (another one of my favorite characters). And as I mentioned before Harrelson was great. Now I just wanna see who they get as Finnick, cause if they mess him up I will be very unhappy. Did I mention that I love him?


So that is just a basic rundown of my feelings for the series in general, both the books and the film. I may (and probably will) write again on Hunger Games later, I already have many in depth character analyses going in my brain that I would love to share, but those are for a later time. If you haven't read the books go read them, same goes for the movie! I recommend both unless, like my boyfriend, you are just going for the kid on kid violence, in which case then you may be a bit disappointed. If that is not the case, drop whatever you are doing and GO!!!!!!!!!!!!

Writing on Writing

So a couple of weeks ago I was talking my friend Amber about how I have been feeling lost lately when it comes to my writing. I had to admit to her that as much as I want to write, I am having trouble getting started on anything. This is mostly because I do not know what I want to write about (this is especially true of this damn blog)! But after talking about it for while we both agreed that I need to just keep pushing myself to write, so in the interest of getting a blog done this week, since I haven’t done one in like a month, and with a lack of a better topic at the moment, I am going to write about writing! 

I decided a few years ago that I wanted to write for a living. I have always loved literature and storytelling and I have devoured book after book since I learned to read.  English classes have often been my favorites, and writing and reading have always been my strong points in school. Granted I have my fair share of grammar problems, but for the most part I have always felt really good about my writing, and that is what made me decide that I wanted to pursue writing and what made me think that it was the right choice. 


I still believe that becoming a writer is the right path for me, but lately I am having trouble getting on that path.  I think that my biggest problem is that I really only have decent amounts of experience in academic writing. I have always excelled at academic writing but I do not want to spend the rest of my life writing essays. My real passion is fiction. I love stories, and I really love developing strong characters. But because I have less experience and less practice with fiction, I am also less confident in my ability to write it.  That lack of confidence mixed with extreme writers block has left me with very little of my own fiction. I often feel like my ideas are too cliché, boring or incomplete and almost none of them have ever made it past the outline stage. In fact I think that the last time I actually finished a piece of my own fiction was about four years ago and it was weak at best. So in my pursuit of a writing career I have an awful long way to go.

So right now I am trying very hard to improve my writing and to gain experience in fiction. I have not been able to take any writing classes in college yet but things on that front are looking up. Next semester I will be taking one class on scriptwriting and another on writing for publication so I am really hoping that those will not only help me improve my writing, but will get my creative juices flowing again too! Until then there are several ways that I have been trying to help myself that have been working to an extent. I’d like to share some of the things that do help me so that any of my fellow writers that are reading this can try them out for themselves, and maybe they can gain from them too.

           
First for the inexperienced fiction writer I really think fanfiction can be a good start. It has some great advantages. Writing fanfiction has allowed me to gain experience with story telling, character development, and my writing style. Also, posting my fanfiction on a website like Fanfiction.net allows me to gain feedback from fellow fans that leave me comments. The problem with fanfiction is that you are using characters, settings and plots from established series and just expanding on them. It is a good way to start but you do not get as much experience with creating your own elements. So I suggest that fanfiction is a starter or side project in your writing if you are trying to be a legitimate writer. However you can’t make a career out of writing fanfiction so do not over devote yourself to JUST fanfiction.   

As far as looking for good writing tips I have found a few really good sources for those. My boyfriend Daniel turned me onto a podcast called Writing Excuses. This podcast is made up of several professional writers (including Daniel’s favorite author Brandon Sanderson) who address different aspects of writing and different steps in the writing process every week. The podcasts each have a different topic, but they are not too long and they are very helpful. Basically what I do it listen to the ones that address my biggest problems in writing. I really recommend them. Also one of my favorite authors, John Green, has a vlog on YouTube with his brother (they are called the vlogbrothers). John often talks about his writing in his vlogs but not nearly as often as the writing excuses podcast, so unless you want to devote time to watching a lot of their videos you might not be able to find what you want. Or you could just watch all their vlogs like I did if you have the time since they are all good no matter the topic. Anyway back to writing tips!

           
My last and newest writing trick is a writing playlist. I have started going through my iPod while I am working on a writing piece to then add all the songs that remind me of that piece to a playlist. It really helps the creative juices flow and if you are a person who needs noise to work like I do, it is just the right amount of noise to work with. I also really like to make a playlist of random songs that just make me want to create or that get my imagination going. Music really helps me get creativite and it is the best way I have found to fight the writer’s block.

            
Even with these tricks though I think the most important thing to do when you want to write is make time to do so. Set aside an hour every day or a couple every week or weekend to just write. Something like a blog that you are making yourself post once a week or once every two weeks will help you push yourself to actually make the effort. That is what I am discovering. That is going to be my biggest goal to work towards, making my time to write and making myself write. I need to do that because if I can’t do at least that then I doubt that I can handle the pressures of a writing career. So wish me luck I guess.

            
Thank you all for reading this week! I hope that some of my fellow writers will take some of my suggestions, and please leave me your suggestions as well. I am always open to new ideas as to how I can improve my writing. In the interest of keeping up my writing I am really going to try to update this blog every week, but sometimes I have trouble coming up with topics, so if you have any ideas as to what I can write about please do not hesitate to share. So that is all for now, thanks again for reading!

Thoughts on Harry Potter!

Time is a strange thing. It seems to have two distinctive speeds: too fast and too slow. When the last days of summer vacation are passing by it seems way to fast and when you are patiently waiting for something big to happen, perhaps a big birthday or a holiday like Christmas, it seems like each day is three times longer. There never seems to be much of an in-between. Right now, however, time seems to be doing something strange. It is going both too slow AND too fast. How is this possible? Easy.  The last Harry Potter movie comes out in 8 days. Being the nerd I am, it was inevitable that these blogs would at some point end up on Harry Potter and with Deathly Hallows part 2 coming out in about a week, it seemed appropriate to talk about it now.

Right now I am absolutely dying to see this film. I got my tickets as soon as I could and much of my free time these past weeks has gone towards making plans for the midnight premiere. The anticipation of this event of course makes the days until it comes out go by painstakingly slowly. But all at the same time things are moving far too fast, because this is it. When then credits roll early that Friday morning it will not just mark the end of a film, it will mark the end of one of the greatest series of all time, or at least of my lifetime. It will be the end of an era, and that is what is coming much too quickly.

Like most people that will be attending the midnight showing, I have been a long time Harry Potter fan. I saw the first film and started reading the books in the third grade. I was about 11 years old, the perfect age to start Harry Potter since it was the age of the boy wizard when he began his first year at Hogwarts. Ever since then I have passionately followed the books and the films. When the seventh and final Harry Potter book was published it was very sad to know that there would not be another, but I took comfort in knowing that I had a few more films to look forward to. Now that the last film is coming out it truly feels like the series is done. Yes there will always be Harry Potter merchandise to spend money on. Yes the films and books will always be around to re-experience. And yes, now there is even a theme park, which I am sure will be amazing to see if and when I ever make my way to Florida to visit it. But despite all that, I feel like seeing this last movie is like saying a final goodbye to an old friend.  The morning of July 15^th will be filled with many, many tears.

That being said I am very much looking forward to my final Harry Potter midnight premiere. For those of you who have never been to one of the Harry Potter premieres, they are an event! People dress up in costumes and line up outside the theater hours and hours beforehand. They play games, read, and watch previous films to help pass the time until the moment comes when they finally let us into the theater, (to wait a couple more hours until the film actually starts). It may sound boring to some, but to a Harry Potter nerd, it is heaven. By 10 pm, the hours of waiting prompt sudden wand battles and sing-a-longs of Potter inspired tune while waiting for the film to finally pop up on the screen. And when the movie does finally start the theater breaks out into applause. There are a hundreds other people in that theater with you, people you have probably never met in your life, but you have something in common with every single one of them, and that is your mutual love of the series. Everyone laughs when you laugh, cries when you cry. And then you realize that the same thing is happening in theaters around the United States, maybe around the world. All these strangers have a connection to each other, and to you. It is a strange feeling, but a wonderful one. It is an experience that I have loved in the past and I am so excited that I get to feel once again. I am so excited that I decided I needed to share that experience.

For this midnight premiere, the last one ever for a Harry Potter film, I will be bringing along my 10 year old little sister. She is at the prime Potter age, and over the last year or so, she too has gotten sucked into the wizarding world. We have begun reading the books together, and she loves the movies as much as I do. So when I see this film at midnight my little nerdy sister will be sitting right there watching it with me, loving it as much as I do, and she will be doing it in her own costume with her own little wand. It will be a once in a lifetime experience for her and she is extremely excited about it, probably even more than I am! Being able to share this with her makes me love Harry Potter even more. It gives me a way to connect with her even though she is 8 years younger than me and has grown up a bit differently than I have.        

What I love most about Harry Potter is that it is universal. People all around the world love it for different reasons. I love it, my friends love it, and so do my mother and my little sister. So do all those strangers that sit in that theater to see the movie at midnight, no matter what walk of life they are from, how old they are, or where they are from, they have found something that they connected to and loved in that little fantasy series. These books have impacted them, just like they have impacted me. Harry Potter has inspired so many: musicians, actors, and writers. It has even spawned The Harry Potter Alliance, a charity organization that saw connections between the problems in Harry’s world and our own and have set out to fight those problems. I love that Harry Potter has done this to so many people, and my hope are that it inspires my little sister just as much.

So that is what I have to say about that. I am very excited about the premiere next week and I am looking forward to sharing it with my little sister more than anything. I encourage all my fellow Potter fans to share your love of Harry Potter with a little one that you love, a sibling, a cousin, even your own children if you are of the age. And hey if Potter isn’t your drug, then share whatever story it is that you loved growing up with, because when they see how much you loved it they will open their little hearts to it too and you can share that love. Hope that you are all as excited about the last film as I am, and I can’t wait to see you all at the premiere. This is one series that will go out with a bang. Hope you enjoyed reading. Until next time.

-MK

On a slightly less serious note I leave you all with some random facts about The Harry Potter series (may include spoilers). I have also included some pictures of my adorable little sister Monica in her Harry Potter garb!

Random Facts:

-The first character to appear in the Harry Potter books is Mr. Dursley. This is not true of the films however. The fist character to appear in the films is Dumbledore, most likely meant as a way to establish the importance of his character.

- Both actors that play Dumbledore, Richard Harris and Michael Gambon, are Irish.

-The books and the films were each released over a 10-year period. The books were released between 1997 and 2007 and the films between 2001 and 2011.

-Daniel Radcliffe and Harry Potter were both born in July.

-Harry in the books has green eyes but Radcliffe has blue. The opposite is true of Ron Weasley and his real life counterpart Rupert Grint. Weasley has blue eyes and Grint has green.

-At the beginning of the filming for the movies, actor Alan Rickman was the only other person told the complete story line and ultimate outcome of the series by the author so that he could better portray Snape. 

-American witches are mentioned on page 82 of the Goblet of Fire. So they do indeed exist J

Now for some pics of the kid!