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.