cleaning and The Breakfast Club

Tags

80s, cleaning, Don't You Forget About me, home, music, Simple Minds, The Breakfast Club

After a nice ling lie-in my Saturday will be filled with mops, brooms, cleaning products and a duster. My little home needs some TLC and the only way to achieve this is to roll up my sleeves and give it some elbow-grease.

And if I find a moment I would like to complete my window-sill project that I started yesterday. But of course I still have  to work on my book to do and as it is a sunny Saturday I would love to carve out an hour to sit on my bench and read.

However I may need to consider a disco nap as I am going to be out late tonight, not dancing but returning the 80s. A friend and I are going to a late night screening of The Breakfast Club, one of my favorite films.

I didn’t see it in the Cinema when it first came out, 29years ago, but saw it a few years latter when i was in my mid-teens. I fell in love with the rebels and nerds alike and just loved the music. There was (and possibly is) just no one better than John Hughes to capture teenage dreams and insecurities and capture the authentic spirit of an era.

So even if my day will be filled with unpleasant scrubbing, polishing and cleaning I do have a lovely night to look forward to. So maybe I should just turn up the stereo, play Simple Minds and boogie my way around the house to “Don’t You Forget About Me”

 

 

 

Film Review: Guardians of the Galaxy

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80s, Bradley Cooper, Chris Pratt, Dave Bautista, Djimon Hounsou, Film Review, Film Review: Guardians of the Galaxy, Films, Guardians of the Galaxy, hulk, interstellar bounty hunters, James Gunn, Lee Pace, Marvel, Marvel Studios, Marvel Super-Heroes, Michael Rooker, movies, Peter Quill, Star-Lord, Super Heroes, Vin Diesel, Zoe Saldana

Launched in 1969 in the January issue of ‘Marvel Super-Heroes’ Guardians of the Galaxy has been reinvented several times over the decades. This summer director/writer James Gunn and Marvel Studios bring the motley crew of intergalactic misfits back to the big screen with a brilliant 80s soundtrack in tow.

In a universe far, far away treasure hunter Peter Quill, aka Star-Lord, (Chris Pratt) hops from planet to planet scavenging for loot and dancing (literally) his way through life. Mentally, and dance move wise, stuck back in the 80s he justifies his wayward and selfish behaviour on the fact that he was abducted from earth as boy.

But when he stumbles on a mysterious orb the true adventure begins as it puts him in the crosshairs of the feared Korath (Djimon Hounsou) and the fanatic Ronan (Lee Pace). Soon he has a whole slew of interstellar bounty hunters on his heels, one is even his ‘mentor’ the bandit Yondu Udonta (Michael Rooker).

Of course Quill isn’t left to defend himself, and the galaxy, on his own and finds help in the most unlikely, and strangest, of guises: the stunningly red Gamora (Zoe Saldana), Drax (Dave Bautista) a cross between the Hulk and Forest Gump, a hyper genetically engineered raccoon (voiced by Bradley Cooper) and the gentle living tree Groot (voiced by Vin Diesel).

Saving the orb is their main job but things are never simple, so with a sturdy walkman and a tape filled with 80s classics the Guardians dance and quip their way out of any danger hurdling towards them.

Guardians of the Galaxy is another Marvel movie that relies on clever writing and big effects. However why Gunn uses 3D is a questionable as he doesn’t really utilise it, however this may be a good thing as the fast-paced filming works better without.

Pratt is well cast as the self-obsessed, but loveable rouge, Quill, aka Star-Lord, and his dancing and love for all things 80s gives Guardians of the Galaxy a much needed infusion of originality.

Saldana is a tightly leather clad nerds wet dream, however she is a little bit bland even if red. But the secret hero of the film is Groot, even if Vin Diesel really doesn’t have much to say.

Guardians of the Galaxy is a fun-filled film, predictable but entertaining and brimming with visual oddities and auditory delights.

 

 

 

 

retro passion

Tags

80s, coffee, collecting, hoarding, mental health issues, mental-health, miscellaneous, OCD, photography, psychology, retro

I am a collector, always have been, probably always will be. As a little girl my collections where stationary, pens and cats, as a teenager I had a passion for flavoured teas, multicolored scarves and fairy-tales. Now I don’t really have any one collection, although my shoe ornaments seem to be sprinting ahead, but I love a good find in a charity shop or a flea market rummage. Anything retro or a little off-beat can make my heart beat faster,  a smile spread involuntary from ear to ear and a warm glow steep  throughout my body. I think they call it a buyers rush, but for me it’s the joy of finding something with a story attached to it.

So when I was searching for an 80s inspired dress for my Pretty in Pink night out, I couldn’t believe my luck when I spied a bright red coffee pot and jug of the same era. The white Nescafe logo on red and simple lines are true to it’s early eighties origins and even though I don’t really drink coffee I think it is the perfect accessory for any breakfast table.

But while I was looking for the perfect place to store my newly washed crockery a thought occurred to me, when does collecting become hoarding? At what point does your attachment to things grow too strong, leaving you helpless and unable to part with the inanimate?

A British study from 2012 showed that a third of all adults collect something, but only  between 2-5% are actually hoarders. And while the world seems fascinated with this phenomenon, Hoarding, Buried Alive (my guilty pleasure) is now in its third year and 5th series, not many of us know very much about the condition.

The American Psychiatric Association is currently revising their  Diagnostic and Statistical Manual, renaming it DSM-5 when it is published later this year. In it the association will name six criteria to help diagnose hoarders, hoping that this will create more awareness for the illness and encourage people to come forward.

Since many of us seem to have a passion for collecting here is a boiled down list of the newly defined hoarding criteria:

• Hoarding leaves the workplace and home so cluttered that it is rendered unusable and unlivable.
• No matter what the actual value of an item the afflicted is unable to discard or part with it.
• Discarding items causes extreme stress and persistent anxiety, encouraging the afflicted to save items.
• The individual experiences clinical stress and impairment in social, work and other areas of functioning, including maintaining a safe home and work environment
• Dementia is not the cause of this impairment, nor or any other medical conditions
• The hoarding is not part of another psychological disorder such as major depression or OCD

Through this list hoarding is now a stand-alone disorder, no longer attached to OCD. The authors of DSM-5 believe that hoarding can occur even without the obsessive compulsive side.

However since there is still no “diagnostic” criteria for collecting, making it hard to see when it begins to overlap with hoarding, I think for now I will just hope that my passion for retro is still within the boarders of ‘normal’. And as long as I can still see my floor and have space to put things away I think I am safe.

 

time warp

Tags

80s, 80s movies, beauty, Cindy Lauper, converse sneakers, fashion, Girls want to have fun, John Hughes, Madonna, miscellaneous, movies, Prettu in Pink, prom king, random, spiked punch, style, The Breakfast Club

I am typing this with orange fingernails and puffed-up hair, leftovers from my trip back in time. Last night friends and I traveled trough the years and landed in an eighties themed prom-night and a midnight viewing of Pretty in Pink.

A true child of the eighties, just twelve when the film came out, I am a big fan of John Hughes and his films have probably helped form a lot of my worldviews in general and idea about love in specific. My all time favourite is The Breakfast Club, a big crush on Judd nelson was a given, but I think it was the music and fashion that had a long lasting impact. And while I still love the music, the fashion just leaves me amazed at the collection of bad tastes the eighties managed to assemble.

So last night I searched for my inner Cindy Lauper and Madonna (the good one of the eighties) and got all dressed up. A big scarf tied up into my curls, an array of long pears and necklaces dangling around my neck, a stripy fingerless glove (of course just the one) bangles jingling on the other wrist, leggings and a pair of green converse sneakers adorning feet.

The evening was perfect with all guests looking worse then the last, Dallas and Denver inspired puff-sleeve dresses competing for who was the biggest Joan Collins look alike, power shoulder-pads forcing people to enter doors sideways and lots of puffed up hair, freaky colours and polyester perfecting the eighties allusion. And yes there were balloons, a prom king and queen and even some grotesquely coloured spiked punch.

We danced, laughed and suffered along with Andie, cheered Duckie and booed Steff. But sadly it was time to leave the eighties behind and return to the now but since I can’t quite give up those happy days, brilliant tunes and ugly fashion. I have decided to watch Girls Want To Have Fun this afternoon,  a large cup of tea and some chocolate at hand to watch Sarah Jessica Parker chase her dream and dance.