Film Review | The Expendables (stuff blows up!) August 31, 2010
Posted by Lauren Cooke in Media, TV & Film.Tags: action films, film review, Films, media, the expendables
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First, a disclaimer. I have a bit of a penchant for things blowing up. Until I finished uni, I had only ever really had an interest in intelligent films. Films that make you question life, or which raise huge life issues. You know, poncy films. I do, of course, still have a strong affection for these films. However, recent years have seen me develop a new list of favourite films alongside my intelligent list – a list of films that I wildly enjoyed in spite of the fact that technically they are… awful.
The Expendables is one of those films. I went to see it in a state of hyped up excitement, aware that what I was about to witness was, without a doubt, going to be one of the only films like it ever made. When again would such legends come together on one screen, with throw backs to their past performances and teasing comments to boot. Thanks to Stalone, Willis, Schwarzenegger, Rourke, Statham, Jet Li, Lundgren, and probably more that I have forgotten, I was bound to witness a historical moment.
The film didn’t disappoint. It was historical. It was also, predictably, utterly terrible. The plot, what little there was of it, started off optimistically enough, but then was ignited and forgotten in a blaze of petrol bombs and bullets. The dialogue was awful, with just enough witty one-liners to pull it up into the “bearable” category. Some of the acting, of course, was like watching a wooden puppet attempt to prove that it is a real boy. It was awful.
Perhaps because of this shameless crapness, I adored this film. I laughed out loud, I jumped. I watched as pretty much every cast member and every prop got exploded, shot, or otherwise destroyed. Massive mansions were raised to the ground, trucks engaged in car chases through tiny winding streets, and at one point Stallone is hanging from a plane. Oh, and there is a gun that effectively tears a torso in half.
Don’t go into this expecting brilliance. Expect explosions, however, and you will be very pleased indeed. And maybe, like other action junkies, you will reluctantly admit that you loved it!
The Complexities Of Friendship August 26, 2010
Posted by Lauren Cooke in Rants.2 comments
I understand how relationships work. I understand how families work. But when it comes to friendships, I have to admit that I draw a bit of a blank.
Friends are wonderful people. They, hopefully, look after you when you are down, and they are there for you when you are lonely. They make you laugh, they mop up your tears, and they still like you after that really drunk night when you argued with them over some non-sensical issues for four hours straight. They are, in short, the people that keep us going from day to day, and I owe them a lot.
However, sometimes a friendship falls through. You realise, after years, that the person you knew has long disappeared, and been replaced with a new person whom you aren’t particularly fond of. You simply slip out of contact with someone, with no reason other than distance and the passage of time. You let them down, or they betray you.
The thing is, you see, that friendships are so complicated. They are like a web, all interweaving and interlaced. On friend knows another. An ex knows all of your friends. They have their own set of relationships, and no single friendship exists in isolation. Priorities, preferences and the depth of a friendship seems to be pretty darn hard to pin down.
Recent events have brought this home to me. I have tried very hard to ensure that Ben’s friendships with my friends don’t get damaged by our break up. And, I think, they generally haven’t. I have even gone to the effort of ensuring that I don’t discuss the traumatic ups and downs with them if I can avoid it – because it is only going to make things harder for them. However, recent events have messed all this up. A betrayal in my friendship group has meant that my friendships are fragile now – I am having to avoid a certain person and the unfortunate people in the middle have had to bear the brunt of it. It isn’t fair on them. I don’t know how a friendship is supposed to deal with that. Other friends have thought they were being cut off from Ben – and have responded at me accordingly. This isn’t the case.
Does anyone have any idea about friendships? How on earth do they survive?
Semi-Daily eBay (Etsy!) | Stunning Rainbow Diary August 25, 2010
Posted by Lauren Cooke in Inspiration, Semi-Daily eBay.Tags: Crafting, eBay, etsy, leather
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You can tell my mood is starting to pick up when I start online shopping again. It is hard currently, as I have to do it in my lunch hour, but never mind! Anyway, today rather than eBay I have been trawling Etsy. I didn’t get very far, as there on the first page was this stunning leather diary cover. It is, quite frankly, gorgeous! The leather looks stunning, and as for the hand-crafted design?! Well, if I was the type of person who would spend $120 on a cover, then I would buy it. But I am tight – so one of you guys will have to buy it instead!
Stunning Leather Diary Cover
Looks For Autumn August 24, 2010
Posted by Lauren Cooke in Fashion.Tags: a/w fashion, Fashion, fashion blog, winter fashion
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I am becoming more Americanised than ever. When I first wrote the title of this post, I wrote Fall. It must be all the US blogs I am reading!
Anyway, because it feels like autumn is definitely here, I have decided to see what sort of looks people are going for. Polyvore have launched this new -mini-editor for bloggers to play around with. With this in mind, I have pulled together a simple collection of some A/W staples, for you guys to use to create some amazing outfits. Every outfit you create gets me an entry into a blogger competition too, so go wild.
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Go Ink Yourself August 23, 2010
Posted by Lauren Cooke in Advice, Fashion, Graphic Design, Life, Chatter & Politics.Tags: Fashion, Graphic Design, ink, street art, tatto art, tattoos
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As I tend to when I get a new topic in my head, I have spent most of this week thinking about tattoos. I have had to rethink my opinions on some people’s tattoos and replace a certain sense of fear with one of respect over the design and the workmanship. It may not be to my personal tastes, but who gives a s**t?!
My thinking about tattoos has led to me spending many hours browsing through pages and pages of some of the most beautiful tattoos in the world. Many are horrible, yet brilliantly done, whilst others are purely beautiful. The range of styles (I tend to lean towards eastern inspired images, natural subjects, tribal patterns and solid black work) is incredibly, and you would never believe how many different ideas there are out there. I have become a little obsessed!
3D stone seal tattoo
One of the cool ones I came across on the website was this amazing stone tattoo. It is incredible, and although I would never have a tattoo like that it has to be respected for the artistry! The 3D effect in particular is worth mentioning – it reminds me of Edgar Mueller’s stunning pavement art!
Stunning Portrait Tattoo
In a totally different style is this portrait. Whilst usually I am not a fan of colour in tattoos, this one made it look like a water colour. The combination of Japanese and Art Nouveau styling is also beautiful, and I actually find myself wanting a tattoo like it! So stunning!
Amazing Gothic Tattoo
More astonishing than anything else I found, however, was this full back tattoo. Now, I would never have anything like this. However, ignore the overall tattoo and look at the detail. There is depth, texture. Creatures clamber from the base of his back, whilst muscled beasts strain against the stone wall above. Centrally, a terrifying figure enters the room. All this, in ink, on someones back. Wow. Loving the bum crack though!
There were, of course, many other tattoos that were stunning. Gentle maple trees. Stunningly realistic roses (not my favourite subject matter though). Deep black patterns and shapes. Confusing visual illusions. I am a total tattoo convert!
Now, of course, I have to decide where to have mine. It seems I won’t be able to have it on my hairline on my neck as previously planned, so I have to think of somewhere else. Somewhere only I and particular chosen people can see it, which isn’t cheap or tacky.
The tattoo itself is a stylised art deco treble clef, designed by Tom at my work. Check out his portfolio, it is pretty cool! Alongside show casing the really stylised art style that I love, this is also meant to represent my love of music, and more importantly the significance that music has had in my life. It has saved my life, many times over!
My future tattoo
Where do you think I should have it? Serious suggestions only please! Now I am not having it on my neck I am willing to have it a little larger than the 50p piece it was originally going to fit on, so the possibilities are varied!
What a long weekend! August 23, 2010
Posted by Lauren Cooke in Crafting, Life, Chatter & Politics.add a comment
Well, that was a long weekend. Some emotional hell went down on Friday, so that set the whole thing off on the wrong foot. Luckily I have lovely friends for the most part, and they all rallied round to look after me. I consequently had a nice night at the pub on Friday, and had a lovely evening chatting with all my friends at my housewarming on the Saturday. It was even sunny yesterday, and these are all the things I am trying to focus on right now! Having thought long and hard about the situation, I am not going to blog about it. It doesn’t seem fair to anyone involved, and just draws out something that was nasty, but which is now done with and should probably be gotten over.
How were your weekends?
Some things to look forward to this week:
- Exercising lots (who would have ever thought that would make a list like this?!)
- Making a button necklace
- Seeing Nommi (it has been soo long, and I can’t wait!)
- Seeing The Expendables!
- Foraging and making as much Sloe Gin as I can!
- Planning for my Berlin trip.
- Getting excited about Malta!
- PAYDAY!!!! Finally!
New Shoes from Rubber Sole… Crocs! August 18, 2010
Posted by Lauren Cooke in Fashion.Tags: crocs, Fashion, reviews, rubber sole, sandals, Shoes
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I feel quite dirty writing this. I really do. However, I was contacted by online shoe store Rubber Sole to see if I would be interested in becoming a shoe reviewer for them. Obviously I said yes (just mention shoes and my eyes glaze over in excitement, let alone when they are free!), and with my £30 voucher in hand I set of to see what to choose first.
For most of the day I planned to buy some Iron Fist beauties, graphic horror inspired heels with plenty of attitude. In fact, I have been wanting these for ages, and the option to get them for essentially just £9 was very tempting indeed. However, then it crossed my mind that as I was reviewing, maybe I ought to get something different to the norm to challenge my perceptions. So, I set off to get some practical shoes, which is how I ended up ordering a pair of Crocs.
Yes. Crocs. I know. That brand name is as close as you can come to a dirty word in the shoe industry, thanks to their famous and utterly ugly holed sandals. However, the ones I picked were sensible little slip on Sandals, the Alice model, and they neatly ticked the boxes in my “needed shoe list” for jelly-style waterproof shoes, and sensible flats. With more than a hint of trepidation, I clicked the Order button, and awaited their delivery.
Rubber Sole’s delivery was fast, so having ordered on Friday with free delivery, the shoes turned up on Monday. On unpacking them I was surprised to find that they weren’t actually ugly at all. Sure, they aren’t smart, or super-fashionable, but they are sleek and surprisingly elegant. However, it wasn’t until I slipped them on my feet that I became a convert…
They come up a little small, so my toes almost touch the end, but even with this slight limitation these shoes were comfy. Incredibly so. I actually felt, as I strutted around the office, like my shoes were actually doing something positive for my feet. And with as many high heels as I own, that is a rarity! In fact, they have quickly become my go to shoes for nipping to the shops, and I am looking forward to being able to wear them on the beach whilst on holiday. I keep recommending them to people, and although recommending Crocs goes against my very nature, they are definitely good enough to warrant it!
I may not like the Crocs brand in general – but the Alice sandals have been a bit of a seminal life experience! And to think, if Rubber Sole hadn’t tempted me I would never have owned them.
[Disclaimer: Rubber Sole provided me with a £30 voucher for the shoes of my choice. This was in exchange for a review, which I have conducted honestly and without influence. It just so happened I loved the shoes, even though I felt I shouldn't!]
What I like about me… August 17, 2010
Posted by Lauren Cooke in Depression, Inspiration, Life, Chatter & Politics.Tags: confidence, Depression, Inspiration, Self-esteem
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On the advice of the beautiful Sharon from Queen In Heels, I am taking a break from the maudlin ponderings of my life to think about what I like about myself. Because, well, there must be some things, and one of the main annoying characteristics of feeling sad is that you tend to forget them!
So, what do I like? Apparently I have to list 10 things…
1. My sense of humour. It is remarkably silly, and fluctuates between making the most immature jokes known to man, and actually being quite witty. It makes me laugh, enough so that I don’t actually care what other people think of it!
2. My bum! I have always like my derrière, it fills out trousers and can give a sexy pencil skirts a run for their money. Essentially it is eminently grabbable, and it is the one piece of me I wouldn’t ever change!
3. My brain. My brain is one part of me that rarely lets me down. With the exception of the fact that it can’t get its chemical balance right, and consequently can’t deal with normal life stresses, it is pretty damn good. It gives me room for facts and figures, politics, useless knowledge, and shoes. I love that it can fit everything I need in, apart from names, which it clearly deems unimportant…
4. My eyes. They are a dark grey blue colour, and I really like them. I have received complements on them in the past, and I generally feel that they are just different enough to the crowd to make them worthy of praise.
5. My confidence. This is a reasonably new addition to my personality, but nowadays I am actually quite confident. I can laugh, joke and hold quality conversation with total strangers, and I have the balls to network in a room full of people I don’t know. Knowing that I can hold my own in life is a great feeling!
6. My attitude. I am very liberal, very left wing, and very accepting of others. To me this is something to be proud of, although with right wing repressive conservatives I may not be very popular…
7. My shoes. OK, so they aren’t technically me, but they are a representation of my personality and my confidence. I own a pair of shoes for every mood, and I think they are pretty enough to be proud of!
8. My talents. I used to think I had no talents – other people were there with their blinding abilities, whilst I just pottered along. However, I have realised that I do have talents – I can write really well, I can paint, I can draw, I can take photographs. I do have abilities!
9. My arms. Once upon a time I would have preferred my legs (see photo below for why! Oh, how I miss those days!), but they aren’t as good now. My arms, however, generally don’t go pudgy and saggy, thanks to muscle memory from the days when I exercised lots! Woop!
10. My craziness. It makes people uncomfortable and awkward, but the fact that I am a little bit bonkers has always been something I like about myself. After all, there is no bullshit - I am who I am, and I never bother to pretend otherwise. So there!
Well, this post took a long time to write – I got stuck at about 6! But I thought of 10, in the end, and that has made me feel a bit better! Woo! I thoroughly recommend this to anyone – give yourself some love!
How long can I hate myself for? August 16, 2010
Posted by Lauren Cooke in Depression.Tags: Depression, Life, relationships, sadness, suicide
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Please feel free not to read this. It isn’t fun, it isn’t exciting, it is just what is going on in my head that I need to get out.
When you are depressed, it often feels like you are the only one who has ever felt like this. You whine, and grump, all the time assuming that you are the only person who knows exactly what it feels like to be this low. When you peer over a high drop and catch yourself thinking about how much easier it would be if you jumped, you forget how many other people have felt like this. Are feeling like this. Still, selfish and self-obsessed as this may be, it is so hard to break yourself out of the routine. You find yourself blogging about it more and more, because only when you get it out of yourself do you feel like you can go on. You worry that if you stop paying attention to the depression, you will be nothing. You will fade gently out of existence, and no-one will notice you disappear.
I don’t know why I can’t get out of this negative groove. I don’t even really know what set it off, although I expect the fact that I am single and have been living a stressful life has something to do with it.
When I think about it, I don’t know why I was so OK when Ben and I broke up. I think I plunged myself into a deep sense of denial, and I happily skipped through life trying my hardest to ignore just how much my life had changed. Despite the fact that in essence I had lost the best friend I had ever had, I tried to pretend I was fine. Then, against my friend’s advice, I ended up getting involved with someone. Despite the fact that I was probably far too vulnerable to be doing that to myself, I got wildly excited, and somewhat over-enthusiastic. When that ended, as everyone could have predicted it would, that was when my well-constructed barriers fell down and I tipped neatly over the edge. It wasn’t the situation itself, more that it functioned as a trigger, the one last thing that left me alone in my new house, sobbing, scared, and hating myself.
You see, that is the thing. I tipped over into full-blown self-hatred. Of course it wouldn’t have worked – I am a hyperactive idiot, ugly, over-reliant. I’m shallow, unintelligent. I am a bore to be around, none of my friends will ever want to see me, people feel like they are wasting their time by being around me. Why would a funny, good-looking man want anything to do with me? I have always been a drain on a relationship, Ben is probably better off out of it, I am stupid and foolish and far too loyal. I hated my attitude, my beliefs. I looked in the mirror and wished I didn’t have a reflection staring back at me. This degree of self-hate is the sort I only ever experience when zooming headlong into a full bout of depression, and I reiterate that this is almost definitely the backlash from the end of a long and lovely relationship.
The self-hate has slowed now. My inadequacies, many failings, and aesthetic let-downs (i.e. my face!) aren’t constantly running around my head at a million miles an hour. However, what has been left behind is a thoroughly battered shell of a mind. I am thinking about suicide far more often. I keep catching myself thinking about how easy it would be to be out of life. Sometimes I see the silliest things, and it makes me cry.
The question is, how long until I can respect myself again? How long until I am disappointed with every tiny little quality that makes me the individual I am? How long until I stop Facebook stalking people and believing I am the idiot they are discussing on their walls? How long until I stop feeling unworthy of anyone liking me, let alone loving me?
I was going to end this post with a few things about myself that I do actually like. A booster of sorts, designed to remind me of my good qualities. There must be something about me that I admire and respect, there must (theoretically) be something about myself that others like. I presume I am not an entirely repellent human being? I presume Ben, and Piers, and all the other men who have ever been interested in me must have seen something to encourage them to get involved at all? The problem is, I can’t think of anything. I am chubbier than I ever used to be, I am irritating, I am uninteresting. Perhaps people are better off not knowing me, silly and melodramatic as it sounds.
Going for a run: Time to get fit August 16, 2010
Posted by Lauren Cooke in Foodiness, Life, Chatter & Politics.add a comment
I went for a run yesterday. I pulled on my Reebok kit, and I headed out of the door in a blaze of enthusiasm and energy. The trigger behind this was that for so long I have been talking about getting fit, yet there I was eating chocolate and lazing in front of the TV. It was depressing to say the very least, and I am nothing if not easily depressed. Whilst feeling disappointed with my pudgy belly and complete contrast to how I used to be, I realised that the only difference between then and now was how much I exercised – and that was all it took to force me off the couch.
One day, one day, I will have those stunning legs back, and I hope that I will be slender and toned, and bursting with the kind of energy that only being truly fit can give you.
The path I ran!
So, there is the path I ran. And walked, if I am honest. With my fitness levels, it was more walking than running, but there was still a decent amount of heart-pounding breath-taking jogging! I essentially ran along the canal in fits and starts, then up through the footpaths along the river bank, where I admit I walked! Then a stroll through the park, and back home! In total it was 3.42 miles, which is a good amount even if I walked the whole thing! In total yesterday I covered about 6 miles – good going!
And so, without further ado, so begins my getting fit. Swimming, running, and callanetics. And eating healthier, which means chopping out the ice pops and the chocolate bars… and tracking my attempts over at my getting healthy blog!
Wish me luck!
