Lie to Me

I was talking to my friend about the fact that studying Drama improves the way you relate to people and suddenly I became aware  that fact also makes it easier for Drama students to be able to read people better than others. We are constantly forced to be voyeurs so that we can emulate what we see on stage. In a way a Drama student has to be constantly aware of what is going on around them. For those who know me well you can see where my problem comes in. I can sometimes be quite absent minded and sometimes I can completely miss events happening around me…

This made me think about the Fox series Lie To Me. Lie to Me has been cropping up more and more lately in many conversations around campus and in conversations with my friends back home. Now I started watching Lie to Me last year already when my friend Yvonne asked me to watch it, but it was only this year that I finally got more into it. 

Then quite a cutie on campus made a reference to the Lie to Me theme song and I knew I was hooked.

(PS the theme song is called “Brand New Day” by Ryan Star)

  

Lie to Me follows the story of The Lightman Group, run by the brilliant Dr. Cal Lightman, who try to find the truth through interpreting micro-expressions and body language. Known as deception experts they try to find the truth behind the lies. Lightman uses any psychological technique he deems necessary to reach the truth, however elaborate or confronting. He is divorced, and has shared custody of his teenage daughter, Emily who he loves very much despite always harassing her boyfriends.  He cares deeply about Gillian Foster (Kelli Williams), his co-partner and there is clear chemistry between them.

Tom Roth is truly amazing in the role of Lightman and the British accent and charm also adds quite an interesting spin to a very complex character. The other characters in the show are just as amazing with, just as many goosebump-inducing performances. Ria Torres (Monica Raymund) a is a protegé of Dr. Lightman's, who was recognized as a "natural" and quite a feisty young women.

Brendan Hines plays Eli Loker, an academically educated individual who in Season 1 adheres to Radical Honesty, and thus rarely lies, even if that makes him appear rude or undiplomatic. I personally thought that Loker was very attractive and likeable, but he became less likeable as the show went along and by the end I was just frustrated by the fact that he and Torres didn’t end up together.

Speaking of, I was seriously upset by the fact that the show was cancelled before Cal and Gillain’s relationship could develop.

Anyway I just thought that this concept was cool and it’s a shame that the show was cancelled after a mere three seasons. A person’s face and gestures can tell you a lot of what they are thinking so keep your eyes open and spare yourself a lot of grief! Despite the paranoia that I develop concerning other people’s smallest expressions I recommend watching this show!

http://www.fanpop.com/spots/lie-to-me/images/8199007/title/official-fox-wallpapers-wallpaper

Sad post again (Sorry)

I know I said that I wouldn’t blog about something sad again for a while, but recently my university has been rocked by the shocking news that one of the students had committed suicide. At first I was wary of writing a blog post about it, because I did not want to devalue his life by simply using it as a blog topic, but it didn’t feel right to write anything else at this point.

This is going to be a short post, because I honestly don’t know what to say. Anything I say will come off as being insensitive or unsympathetic. First I have to say that I didn’t know him well. We had all the same subjects; he was friends with many of my friends and we had chilled together once or twice, so a part of me feels like I should say something, but at the same time I feel like I don’t have the right to form any type of opinion about the situation. Many people who didn’t know him at all seem to think it’s ok to make judgments or assumptions about it. The thing I hate the most is everyone’s bizarre way of spreading rumours. But what I’ve learnt is  also that often the rumours are less horrific than the truth.

What scares me is that our lives in university are often so rushed that we don’t always know what is going on behind locked doors. People hide their emotions so well and there are times when our lives simply go by each other.

I walked into the dining room after the news of his death broke and a close friend of his sat quietly crying into her meal. I walked to her and hugged her tight for a few minutes and in that moment I realized that we often undervalue the connections and friendships we make at university. Whether we like it or not we are connected to these people 24/7. Even though we all come from different backgrounds we share a home with them. Whether it’s a res, a dining hall, a lecture hall or even a favourite club/ pub we are connected by this crazy little town. That which affects one affects us all. We should never forget this...

At this point all I can do is pray and be there for his friends… RIP Matty

Happy thoughts:

While re-reading my last few blog posts I realised that I have been seriously negative in many of them and I really think it’s time I brighten up. I’m young and healthy and I have the chance to live my life fully. While unpacking after the holiday I found a note that a friend wrote to me quite a while ago and it made me smile. That small note made me realize that the small things in life are the things that matter the most.

So I’m making you a list of small things that have made me happy in the last month:

·         A message from an old friend

·         Peanut butter in the dining hall

·         A Harry Potter reference/joke

·         Libido shots

·         A song about hugging cats

·         Youtube

·         That feeling of when a crush says hello

·         Reading a book for pleasure.

·         Putting a flower in my hair

·         Dancing in my room

·         The smell of fresh laundry

·         A phone call from a family member, particularly a sibling!

·         Praying for someone who truly needs a prayer

·         Laying in the sun with my friends for hours

Flowers in the Bot-Gardens

So instead of focusing on the negative side of things I just look at these things and the darker times seem to fade away. This might seem like an idealistic notion, but it’s all we got to get us through the tough times.

Oh Life and Death

The concept of death has been haunting me a lot lately and I figured that if I wrote a blog post about it, it would help. So let's see how it goes... A dear friend of mine lost a loved one recently and all I can do is be there for her, because, honestly, I know that whatever I say will not be the right thing.I could trty to say:“It’s understandable”-, but how can I say that? I won’t be able to fully understand her pain so that’s a fail and the phrase: “It’ll get better in time” is also a tough one, because it might not get better, so how can I possibly say that to her. So I pray and try my best…

During the span of the last three years I’ve witnessed the death of six loved ones, family members and friends so I experienced enough sadness to last a while.

Death makes you question everything you thought you knew about the world. I first experienced death when I was only 5-years-old when my great-aunt died. At the time I didn’t know at the time what death meant. I knew that there had to be a certain degree of sadness associated with it, since my whole family was sad about her death, but did know what it MEANT.

I fear death. I think that any person whether you are religious or not fears death to a certain degree. Death scares me, because death seems like the end of existence; of consciousness; of being. I fear the dark emptiness; the sense that my thoughts are feelings will suddenly end.

One day about a year after my grandfather had passed away my paternal grandmother, one of my most loved relatives, started getting hiccups. We didn’t think anything about it at the time. I mean they were just hiccups. Everyone gets hiccups from time to time. But they never stopped. Pretty soon my grandmother couldn’t eat anything without hiccupping. After that she struggled to eat at all.

I was a hard time in my family’s life. A 14-year-old friend of my brother had just been killed in car accident. On the way home from the funeral we got the call that my grandmother had Pancreas cancer. For those of you that don’t know Pancreas cancer is on the most untreatable of cancers, since the pancreas lies below many of the other organs, thus the cancerous tumours cannot be surgically removed. My grandmother was an extremely strong women and to watch her begin to fade way and grow weaker day by day was one of the hardest things I’ve ever experienced. It’s been more than a year later now and every so often I end up thinking about her and the amazing life she lived.

A part of me is sad about it and another part of me is really proud that I was privileged enough to have had a grandmother like her. She lived a very amazing life and she helped my become the person I am today. I miss her everyday...

Death affects many people and families, but that is why my parents remind me every day that we have to appreciate our loved one while we can. That is why we have to live life to the full, ‘cause it could end so quickly…

Life is a gift from God- Treat it that way…

Actor of the week: Jon Cryer

I decided that because I have such an obsession with actors and actresses that I will be doing a kind of an Actor/ Actress of the week analysis every week just to inform you about the actor/ actress who I admire. Naturally I’m quite busy with you know having a life and, you know, getting a degree and such so I might have to miss a week or two, but I will try to get one out every Sunday ro Monday morning.

This week’s Actor of the week is the talented Jon Cryer. Lately to catch up with Charlie Sheen’s departure I have been watching a lot of episodes of Two And a half Men and even though Charlie is supposedly the main character in the show I find myself laughing more at Alan’s weird and wonderful antics. Jon Cryer seems to fully embody Alan’s pathetic and quirky attitude.

Jonathan Niven "Jon" Cryer (born April 16, 1965) is an American actor, screenwriter and film producer. He made his motion picture debut in the 1984 romantic comedy No Small Affair, but gained greater fame as "Duckie" in the 1986 John Hughes-scripted film Pretty in Pink. In 1998, he finished writing and producing the independent film Went to Coney Island on a Mission from God... Be Back by Five.

Jon Cryer is best known for his role as Ducky in the 80’s classic John Hughes movies “Pretty in Pink” even then his potential of phenomenal comedy was evident. In “Pretty in Pink” Cryer does a scene in which Ducky impersonates Otis Redding by singing his famous song  “Try A Little Tenderness.”

His performance in Two and a Half Men has earned him six consecutive Primetime Emmy nominations and one Emmy win in 2006! Well deserved!  The man has the ability to do accents unlike any other actor!

Let’s hope that when the ninth season of Two and a Half Men that Jon Cryer can hold up the comedy of the show.

The tragic life of Draco Malfoy

As I’ve said Draco Malfoy has always been one of those characters in the Harry Potter series which has fascinated me.  He started off as a snide little boy who thought that he was much better than everyone else, but as the story progressed his insecurities began to show. Particularly in Prisoner of Azkaban when Hermione punched him in the face for making fun for Hagrid or when the Griffin attacked him for being cheeky to it.

In a way I felt sorry for him, because he didn’t know any better, since he was raised to be a hater of Muggle-borns and a Pure-blood fanatic. Later on it’s clear that his love and loyalty for his family over-rides all his prejudices and hatreds. This fact is particularly true for the whole Malfoy family, who during the Last Battle of Hogwarts were so preoccupied with protecting each other that they didn’t even get involved in the battle.

By the sixth book my heart bleed for him. He had been given an impossible mission of killing Dumbledore by the Dark lord himself and the pain he felt about not being to go through it was also heart-breaking.

Draco’s confrontation with Harry in the bathroom when Harry uses the Sectrumsentra curse on him is one of the moments of the whole series which has stuck with me due to the intensity and graphic description of it done by Rowling. Even now I can just see all the blood mixed with the overflowing water in my mind. *Shudder

 It is clear that even though Draco comes off as an evil character Rowling wrote many hints to point out the fact that underneath that hard exterior he has a heart. By the end of the series we can see that he has completely changed his attitude towards the other characters. Even though we can see that Draco will never be close to his school rivals they seemed to have earned a grudging respect for each other.

A common mistake by made fans of the series is that many female are only fans of Draco, because they have a crush on Tom Felton, the actor who plays Draco in the Harry Potter movies and I must say that even though J.K Rowling pointed out that making this mistake is very faulty, because in her eyes Draco is not a good guy and he should not be admired. I think that, personally, Rowling did not see the potential in Draco quite like how the fans saw him.

A part of me wishes we could have learnt more about what happened to Draco after the battle at Hogwarts. Sure we find out that he turned his life around to eventually marry and have a son named Scorpious, who looks oddly like him, but I want to know more. I guess this will have to be a common trend of not knowing enough the rest of the characters stories. Draco Malfoy will always be an enigma in the Harry Potter world and I will still love him later on…

And Harry realised, with a shock so huge it seemed to root him to the spot, that Malfoy was crying - actually crying - tears streaming down his pale face into the grimy basin. Malfoy gasped and gulped and then, with a great shudder, looked up into the cracked mirror and saw Harry staring at him over his shoulder.

'SECTUMSEMPRA!' bellowed Harry from the floor, waving his wand wildly.
Blood spurted from Malfoy's face and chest as though he had been slashed with an invisible sword. He staggered backwards and collapsed onto the waterlogged floor with a great splash, his wand falling from his limp right hand.
'No-' gasped Harry.
Slipping and staggering, Harry got to his feet and plunged towards Malfoy, whose face was now shining scarlet, his white hands scrabbling at his blood-soaked chest.
'No- I didn't-'
Harry did not know what he was saying; he fell to his knees beside Malfoy, who was shaking uncontrollably in a pool of his own blood. Moaning Myrtle let out a deafening scream.
'MURDER! MURDER IN THE BATHROOM! MURDER!'
The door banged open behind harry and he looked up, terrified: Snape had burst into the room, his face livid. Pushing Harry roughly aside, he knelt over Malfoy, drew his wand and traced it over the deep wounds Harry's curse had made, muttering an incantation that sounded almost like song."

Tri-varsity!!

Here at Rhodes University the student are quite infamously known for being quite heavy partier and Tri-var , unfortunately, seems to prove that. Despite the fact that there are actually four universities involved instead of three and despite the fact that the sport isn’t even being played in Grahamestown this year Tri-var was one of the best weekends of my time here.

Rhodents, as we are commonly called, wear purple painted overalls as our official uniforms so the whole of last week the purple paint came out and the painting began! The Beit girls gathered together in our common room and we decorated our overalls together.

Friday night the party began and despite having to wait in the queue at Friars for about 20 minutes it was so worth it. (Those of you whose who have ever been in Friars will know that this statement is true.)  Friars may look like a lone wooden cabin on the outside, but on the inside it is pumping! And Friday night they decided to play 80s’ Classic rock for most of the night. It was amazing!! And I got to go with some of my new Beit House friends and with Jessica, one of my best friends from back home which was soooo special. I thought that rocking out to “Eye of the Tiger” was awesome, but it truly blew my mind when Journey’s “Don’t Stop Believing” came on!! I think that has to be the greatest song ever written.

In the words of one of my dearest friend Lisa Holtzhause: “Somewhere out there right now there is a group of drunken girls singing along to Journey’s ‘Don’t stop believing.’ ”

When you get so many students together you are bounded to hear some crazy stories, but I won’t delve too deeply in all our scandals. What happens in G-Town stays in G-town!

So as the dust cleared that Sunday morning and the fast food places were buzzing with hungry students who had crawled out of bed for some nourishment, it dawned on some of us that we haven’t done any work yet and as a way to punish us for all the fun we had during Tr-Var the university has doubled the amount of work for this week!!

But to address Rhodes’s bad reputation for being a university for drunks and stoners; all I have to say about that is that even though we do enjoy a good MARE* now and again we are also known for being one of the top notch universities in the country. If you don’t work+ party too hard= they kick you out, if they kick you out= Then you can’t PARTY! Rhodes envy is a scary thing!  Off to prepare for another night out!

(* The word MARE refers to a good night out.)

Harry Potter

One night during the vac, after a lot of begging I managed to make time to convince my friends to go watch the last Harry Potter movie. For some reason I was more excited than the rest of my friends, despite the fact that we are all fans. I jumped out of my skin; I got goosebumps; I laughed and I cried as it ended…

Now as a lover of the book series I naturally don’t love the movies as much as I love the books. I KNOW the acting is not that great! I KNOW that they changed things from the book, but I DON’T care. It’s more about the story than the movies.

Harry’s world is beautiful, filled with amazing creatures, interesting spells and heart-racing adventures. I wanted friends like Ron and Hermione; I wanted to be in Gryffindor; I wanted to play Quiditch and as the years went on I even developed a crush on bad-boy wimp Draco Malfoy and brave-hearted Neville Longbottom.

The story of Harry Potter is about loyalty, love, friendship, bravery despite the odds and the fact that good always over comes evil. A little magic in air is exciting…

 When I was 11, I read the first Harry Potter when Harry himself was 11. I grew up with Harry and I was 18 when the last book came out. I remember how, before I had read the books, my friends laugh at me for messing up the details. I remember racing my sister to the door when they delivered the latest Harry Potter book to our house. I remember sitting in the living room reading one of the Harry Potter books while my mother and my sister each read another one. These are parts of my childhood that I’ll never forget. Even to this day my mother will burst into my room with one of the books in her hand; reading a piece to me that I’m already very familiar with just so that we can enjoy it together again. 

J.K Rowling was just a poor, struggling housewife with a great imagination, who changed the lives of so many children across the globe. It’s going to take many years for another book series to make such a huge impact to young readers. Thank you Jo for my childhood. Harry Potter played such a large part in my childhood and now it’s over. What now?

So as the last few seconds of the last EVER Harry Potter movie faded to black so did the dying embers of my childhood fade to ash… From this point on there is no going back. I am official no longer a child. We spend most of our teen years trying to act older than what we actually are, but a part of me still wishes that I was still that little 11-year old hoping that I might one day get my letter from Hogwarts…

(PS I watched it again the other night with a close friend of mine here in Grahamestown and for those who don’t know, Grahamestown has a tiny cinema which can accommodate about 30 people and only three movies at a time. People may complain about this small cinema, but when you get so many students and Harry Potter fans together in one room hilarity ensues. We clapped when Neville killed the snake, laughed with joy when Ron and Hermione kissed, cheered when Harry conquered Voldemort and choked up when it ended. Jess and I got to nerd out and it was nice not to be the only ones. Wow, I love living in a student town…)

(PSS- I'll be doing character anaysises over the next couple of blog posts so watch this space...)

My own Taylor Swift songs

So while I was listening to my Taylor Swift playlist the other day I thought about the way in which Taylor Swift songs that are so personal and that any girl could actually write songs about their lives.

If I were Taylor Swift the songs on my album would be called:

1.     Why did you pick her instead?

2.     I wish I could cry about you

3.     I thought I didn’t need you

4.     Why don’t you see me?

5.     Love from afar

6.     Not ready for you

7.     Always remember the first love

8.     Trying to get over you

9.     So close to a kiss

10.  Flirt failure

11.  Where are the good guys?

12.  Waiting on my Hero

13.  I’m not Damsel in Distress

14.  Family first

15.  Don’t what to hear about your new girl

16.  Jealous much?

17.  Green-eyed bitch

18.  Man up!

19.  Always a bridesmaid

20.  Hate missing you

21.  Missing what you never had

22.  Hope you’re happy now…

23.  I know you’re out there

24.  Romantic loser

See anyone can write Taylor Swift-like songs titles; you give it a try…

Taylor Swift

The last couple of weeks I’ve seriously been trying to remember what young women used to do to get over emotionally hard times before Taylor Swift stepped onto the scene. Seriously, this girl just gets it. Her music has strong country music undertones with a pop-like nature. At the age of 22 Taylor Swift has been extremely influential in the world of country and modern popular music.

What makes Taylor Swift unique is her daring, yet still innocent, honest approach to song writing. She writes about things she, herself, has experienced and that way her songs become relatable, because truth be told at one point in her life a young women will go through something similar to what is described in one of Taylor Swift’s songs. All young women have faced or will face rejection, heartbreak, desperation or hopelessness and sadness at one point in their lives. In her songs she tackles universal themes such a unrequited love, forbidden feelings, cheating boyfriends, abusive relationships, growing up and that feeling of finally meeting the right person for you. I used to sing “You Belong with Me” loudly throughout most my pre-teen and young teenage years…

 I also find Taylor’s approach to song writing clever and witty in some songs. It’s often been said that men should not mess with Taylor Swift, because she’ll write a song about them. She has become known for directly addressing guys who have wronged her in her songs. For example in her song “Teardrops on my Guitar” she mentions her friend Drew you she had a crush on, but he was in love with someone else and never knew. This song was one of her songs that I related to the most…

 In her latest album she as a song called “Dear John” which is clear address to her older ex-boyfriend and known ladies’ man John Mayer. It is also a known fact that her song “Forever and Always” is about her famous ex Joe Jonas and Taylor’s song “Better Than Revenge” is about Camilla Belle, the girl Joe left her for.  One of my favourite Taylor Swift songs is called “Back To December” in which she talks about how she wishes that she had never broken her ex-boyfriend, Taylor Lautner.

Many of her songs speak about hope and standing up for what you believe in, even though you sometimes go through hard times. She sings all the things we want to say. I think she is an amazing role model for the modern young women… and I will always enjoy her music!!

(PS I cried like a baby while watch her “Mine” music video. I really don’t cry for music video often so that says something. PSS  Toby Hemingway is in it… <3)

It’s Friday! Friday! Gotta get down on…

If you have been living under a rock for the last couple of months it’s time for you to brush off the moss and reconnect with the world. Now unless you are one of those people you have most likely heard of Rebecca Black and her song about Friday. Friday has often been labelled the worst song ever written, which, at first, might sound a bit harsh, but once you hear the song then you’ll understand. Understandably it was written by a 13-year-old whose voice has been viciously auto-tuned, but seriously wasn’t there an adult there to jump in and save this poor girl who clearly thought that she would be the next Justin Bieber…

The video and songs start off when Rebecca wakes up in the morning and the proceeds to describe the process of getting up in the morning, but doesn’t seem to get to it in the video. Then she walks to the bus stop urgently, but when she sees her friends cruising she simple ignores the fact that she rushed to the bus stop and then decides to join them. Firstly I would drive around with a group of kids who don’t look old enough to drive and secondly during this whole scene Rebecca seems to have this big crisis about where she has to sit when there is only one seat actually available. There are kids in Africa who don’t have an education and Rebecca’s biggest worry, while missing school is that she doesn’t know where to sit.

Patrice Wilson, a co-producer at ARK Music Factory, also randomly shows up and begins to rap and this rap really baffled me. Firstly why would a grown man be following a school bus?! AM I the only one seeing the potentially paedophile-like nature of this?? Not only that is disturbing, but the lyrics to his rap are so bad that I can’t believe that an adult actually wrote it. 

The whole video hints to the fact that Rebecca’s parents are most-likely stinking rich and bored and thus pushed her into doing this video…

BUT there is another side to the story, even though it is most-likely the worst song ever written* so many LOVE it due to the comic aspect of it! Seriously it is hilarious to watch and the brilliant spoofs and cult references that have emerged, because of it have been truly amazing. Katy Perry’s little homage to Rebecca Black in her music video for “Last Friday Night” is proof of that…

Benedict Townsend from the Youtube comedy duo “CupofTeam” did the funniest analysis of the Friday video and his video actually inspired me write this blog. Please go check it out:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tz0F5q5XBx0

(*This blog post was written before I even heard about Jenna Rose and her terrible song “”My Jeans” and I must admit that any Jenna Rose song is ten times worse than “Friday” , but not as entertaining or worth writing about.)

Another day at the Office...

So I have been really bored lately, when I should have been studing, and have acquired The Office Seasons 1 to 7 and I have been watching them diligently every time I got bored. The Office is such an amazing show and it’s dry humour has been making me laugh so loud in my room that I think the people who live around me must think that I'm insane or something... 

I think the Office is like a fine wine; improves with age, because the first season feels slightly uncomfortable and offensive, but from then on it gain momentum and has been consistently entertaining. The Office is made up of numerous brilliant features and there are many different factors involved in making it so hilarious. I have broken down the show’s most important features into five parts from the least important to the most important.

Firstly let’s start with the extra characters. Those behind the scenes character, like Stanley, Kevin, Oscar, Meredith, Kelly, Phillus and especially Darryl have some truly amazing moments. I really can’t state how many times they will do something subtly funny! Their interactions with Michael and each other are soooo classic! (Like the time Michael kissed newly-outed Oscar.)

Secondly: Michael!  So many times I’ve had to look away as Michael makes a fool of himself or when he insults or offends someone in the office and his treatment of Toby gets quite disgusting and disturbing after a while, but Michael is the life-blood of the show! His over-exaggeration of emotion is the thing that gets me every time! And, shame, he does have his moments. He also does seem to care too much… Steve Carell is prefect for the job!

Thirdly Andy Bernard…The Nard-Dog! Sure Andy only entered the show in the around Season 3, but Ed Helms is a great addition to the cast!  Those who have seen The Hangover know that any time Ed Helms begins to sing then it is pure genius. He may have some hectic anger issues which often erupt rapidly out of him, but that fact that he really tries to be a good guy and fails is painfully delicious to watch.

Next I have to talk about Ryan! From the beginning for the show I have, like Michael, had a crush on Ryan! Truth be told in the beginning you feel sorry for Ryan, then you hate him and then you love him again and it’s been amazing to watch his process through the years, because by Season 7 he really has the geek chic, badass yuppie look down!

Of course the legendary Dwight K.Schrute gives the show some of its best moments. Dwight is a delusional, paranoid and intense beet farmer/competitive paper salesman who doesn’t seem to understand social interactions. Dwight has harassed and manipulated almost every character in the show and even though he’s disjointed loyalty to Michael is confusing and disturbing Dwight still manages to gives us many laughs.

Lastly I wouldn’t even think about mentioning The Office if I didn’t talk about Pam and Jim! <3 The flirty and longing looks between the two of them in the beginning on the show was driving me crazy. From the first moment they pulled a prank on Dwight together you knew that they were meant to be together. Pam and Jim had many factors playing against them, but despite all those things they still ended up together. Not forgetting the most romantic wedding ever and a really adorable baby! Jim, Pam and CeeCee are the ultimate white-picket fence family!

So all the Seventh season of the Office end so does Steve Carrels time with the Office. It’s a real shame to see him go and Will Farrel will never be able to live up to his legacy, but hopefully the rest will still keep us entertained…

Back to another day at the office