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!