sometimes life is such a joy :-)
ahhh the delight that is Ms Tunstall. I am so glad that this is the first concert I have been to since being back in the UK.
I went with a friend that I made at my Spanish Intercambio group earlier this year and havent seen since the summer, so it was great to catch up. She's never before experienced the privalge of Disabled entrance to shows before. We of course got to que jump and see some of the backstage area, as well as walking through the after party bar. We also got to choose where to sit.
Before we went in, we had a quick scout around for food as I was starving. Ended up buying a sausage roll and some chocolate to see me through the night.
I have forgotten how cold the bloody Shepherds Bush Empire is and for a while I really wished I had bought warmer clothing. We ended up sitting next to some seats that had "Reserved Tunstall" on them (!)
The concert was - as always - simply breath taking. She played most of the stuff off her new album and, as I had yet to recieve my copy from Amazon, I had the chance to hear them live and I have to say I immediatly fell in love with them. For me this album is much stronger then Drastic Fantastic, which in some ways took me a long time to get into compared to "Eye to the Telescope"
KT also used her "wee little bastard" pedle, which in essence she uses to loop sounds and make her music sound so amazing when she's just on her own - no band. She also couped amazingly well with the several odd hiccups she had with wayward machinary. She's just a star like that and like a good Scot, she managed the heckles perfectly. I loved that she told the story behind some of the songs, as it's interesting to get an insight into the thought process of writing.
Seeing her live again made me just fall in love with her, all over again, and made me really connect with the artistry side of my personality. Not that I can sing mind you, just the whole writing aspect of it all. Caroline also loved it because she plays the guitar and is in love with artists of KT's calibre. I think she got an awful lot out of it.
Randomly the people sitting in those reserved seats turned out to be KT's parents and in-laws!! Her father in law introduced us and asked what we thought of the show. He was so proud of her and Luke (KT's drummer and husband) It was very cool.
After the show, we headed to the merch stall where (for once) the merchandise was amazing. I bought a fab t-shirt and print poster, which if I describe wont do either justice, so I may have to just take photos. I also bought Caroline, KT's album because I found out that she's broke and no sign of a job on the horizon.
The show was just brilliant and I think I may have to fork out on seeing her again next year ;-)
Along with the KT Tunstall album, I bought my first blue-ray movie; "A Room in Rome". I'd been waiting for this movie to come out for ages, ever since I saw it reviewed on AfterEllen. However it seems to have never graced UK Cinemas and instead come out to rent/buy. I opted for the later
RIR is a movie by Spanish director Julio Medem (director of "Sex & Lucia" and "Lovers of the Artic Circle" both of which I have seen. The first earlier this week and the second back in the days when I was dating Celia. She took me to see it) Anyway this movie tells the story of two women, who meet one night and spend a passionate night together in a hotel room in Rome. Hence the name of the film. One of the girls is Spanish and the other Russian, which means we get a film that has dialogue in both langugaes as well as Italian and main dialogue in English.
I do like that he got two actress from both countries and didnt dub their voices, so you got the English both with a Russian and Spanish twinge. Also interestin was that the Spanish Actress had also been in Sex & Lucia. She's a very, very good actress (though that not to take away from the Russian)
Although this is a snapshot of a night's sexual adventure, to leave it with such a description actually does a diservice to the movie. It's much more then that. It's a study of love at first sight, what constitues the definition of love and also just how brave are we prepared to be for true love. The characters originally start by agreeing that this is a one off and that what ever happens will stay in the room but as secrets are reveled and trust forged, things shift in the lives of both characters.
Thinking about it, I see that actually these two actress' are amazing because essentially they carry the story. Bar the odd and thankfully limited intrusion of the Italian Housekeeper, the two actress are on screen all the time and thus have to play off each other to move the story forward.
Because at first we are not given any background to the characters, it makes you hard to feel anything for either one or to really understand their motives. However, as the movie goes on and the stories are told, you really start to identify and root for the characters.
There is no denying that the sex scenes are intense - this is Julio Medem at the end of the day (if you don't get what I mean go see any of his movies, he likes to depict "realistic" sexual scenes) - they have a real sense of realism to them, that made me feel we'd almost walked back into Bound territory of realism. Although sometimes treading that fine line of soft pornography Medem seems to enjoy balancing on, this time I felt the scenes weren't as "shocking" and no that's *not* cause it was Lesbian sex being portrayed. It just felt that the scenes fitted and occured in the right beats of the movie. Not gratious but impotant to plot drive.
I did find it midly amusing that Medem stuck to types with his character. The Spanish character Alba was definately the "butch dyke" - something about lumberjack shirts that just screams "DYKE" - quite predotary in places and not ashamed of who she is. It was later in her "breakdown" that we saw a much more softer femine side to her. The Russian character - Natascha - was very much the femme, in her long silky blue dress and high heals. Also the fact that she had never slept with a woman before Alba said a lot, helped to give this impression. Though she too had some "masculine" scenes later in the movie.
The whole story was believable and very thought provoking. I almost wanted a more ambigous ending but enough to say it ended well. I loved this movie and recommend it to all. Seriously go rent this, you wont be dissapointed.
I went with a friend that I made at my Spanish Intercambio group earlier this year and havent seen since the summer, so it was great to catch up. She's never before experienced the privalge of Disabled entrance to shows before. We of course got to que jump and see some of the backstage area, as well as walking through the after party bar. We also got to choose where to sit.
Before we went in, we had a quick scout around for food as I was starving. Ended up buying a sausage roll and some chocolate to see me through the night.
I have forgotten how cold the bloody Shepherds Bush Empire is and for a while I really wished I had bought warmer clothing. We ended up sitting next to some seats that had "Reserved Tunstall" on them (!)
The concert was - as always - simply breath taking. She played most of the stuff off her new album and, as I had yet to recieve my copy from Amazon, I had the chance to hear them live and I have to say I immediatly fell in love with them. For me this album is much stronger then Drastic Fantastic, which in some ways took me a long time to get into compared to "Eye to the Telescope"
KT also used her "wee little bastard" pedle, which in essence she uses to loop sounds and make her music sound so amazing when she's just on her own - no band. She also couped amazingly well with the several odd hiccups she had with wayward machinary. She's just a star like that and like a good Scot, she managed the heckles perfectly. I loved that she told the story behind some of the songs, as it's interesting to get an insight into the thought process of writing.
Seeing her live again made me just fall in love with her, all over again, and made me really connect with the artistry side of my personality. Not that I can sing mind you, just the whole writing aspect of it all. Caroline also loved it because she plays the guitar and is in love with artists of KT's calibre. I think she got an awful lot out of it.
Randomly the people sitting in those reserved seats turned out to be KT's parents and in-laws!! Her father in law introduced us and asked what we thought of the show. He was so proud of her and Luke (KT's drummer and husband) It was very cool.
After the show, we headed to the merch stall where (for once) the merchandise was amazing. I bought a fab t-shirt and print poster, which if I describe wont do either justice, so I may have to just take photos. I also bought Caroline, KT's album because I found out that she's broke and no sign of a job on the horizon.
The show was just brilliant and I think I may have to fork out on seeing her again next year ;-)
Along with the KT Tunstall album, I bought my first blue-ray movie; "A Room in Rome". I'd been waiting for this movie to come out for ages, ever since I saw it reviewed on AfterEllen. However it seems to have never graced UK Cinemas and instead come out to rent/buy. I opted for the later
RIR is a movie by Spanish director Julio Medem (director of "Sex & Lucia" and "Lovers of the Artic Circle" both of which I have seen. The first earlier this week and the second back in the days when I was dating Celia. She took me to see it) Anyway this movie tells the story of two women, who meet one night and spend a passionate night together in a hotel room in Rome. Hence the name of the film. One of the girls is Spanish and the other Russian, which means we get a film that has dialogue in both langugaes as well as Italian and main dialogue in English.
I do like that he got two actress from both countries and didnt dub their voices, so you got the English both with a Russian and Spanish twinge. Also interestin was that the Spanish Actress had also been in Sex & Lucia. She's a very, very good actress (though that not to take away from the Russian)
Although this is a snapshot of a night's sexual adventure, to leave it with such a description actually does a diservice to the movie. It's much more then that. It's a study of love at first sight, what constitues the definition of love and also just how brave are we prepared to be for true love. The characters originally start by agreeing that this is a one off and that what ever happens will stay in the room but as secrets are reveled and trust forged, things shift in the lives of both characters.
Thinking about it, I see that actually these two actress' are amazing because essentially they carry the story. Bar the odd and thankfully limited intrusion of the Italian Housekeeper, the two actress are on screen all the time and thus have to play off each other to move the story forward.
Because at first we are not given any background to the characters, it makes you hard to feel anything for either one or to really understand their motives. However, as the movie goes on and the stories are told, you really start to identify and root for the characters.
There is no denying that the sex scenes are intense - this is Julio Medem at the end of the day (if you don't get what I mean go see any of his movies, he likes to depict "realistic" sexual scenes) - they have a real sense of realism to them, that made me feel we'd almost walked back into Bound territory of realism. Although sometimes treading that fine line of soft pornography Medem seems to enjoy balancing on, this time I felt the scenes weren't as "shocking" and no that's *not* cause it was Lesbian sex being portrayed. It just felt that the scenes fitted and occured in the right beats of the movie. Not gratious but impotant to plot drive.
I did find it midly amusing that Medem stuck to types with his character. The Spanish character Alba was definately the "butch dyke" - something about lumberjack shirts that just screams "DYKE" - quite predotary in places and not ashamed of who she is. It was later in her "breakdown" that we saw a much more softer femine side to her. The Russian character - Natascha - was very much the femme, in her long silky blue dress and high heals. Also the fact that she had never slept with a woman before Alba said a lot, helped to give this impression. Though she too had some "masculine" scenes later in the movie.
The whole story was believable and very thought provoking. I almost wanted a more ambigous ending but enough to say it ended well. I loved this movie and recommend it to all. Seriously go rent this, you wont be dissapointed.