Panti Noble gives this excellent talk on public displays of affection, homophobia, equality and same-sex marriage at TEDx. Watch the video below:
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I’d add that marriage as a concept as evolved over the centuries and continues to do so. You can learn more about The History of Marriage in the UK in an article I wrote here.
Blog soon,
Antony
 Jurassic World Logo Copyright © Universal |
Jurassic World is fantastic, epic and this year’s absolute must see.
Jurassic World is set in the near future, a zoo/theme park has been set up on the original Jurassic Park Island with real dinosaurs. Claire Dearing (played by Bryce Dallas Howard) is the Operational Manager, responsible for the over twenty thousands guests in the park at any one time. |
Her nephews Zach and Gray Mitchell are coming to the park to experience it and spend some time with their aunt. But she’s too busy and instead arranges for her assistant to take care of them.
Then a new dinosaur created by merging the DNA of two species, named the Indominus escapes from its enclosure. The Indominus is bigger than the T-Rex and scarier than the Velociraptors. It was created by Dr. Henry Wu and was intended to be the next new attraction.
Owen Grady (played by Chris Pratt) is a Animal Behaviourist and general hero hot guy. When Claire’s nephews disappear after the Indominus escapes, she enlists his help to find her nephews and to try to save the other guests in the park.
Here is the trailer:
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The plot was captivating, imaginative and followed a similar formula of the original Jurassic Park. All of which worked well. The plot left an opening for a further film. Personally, I hope they do another trilogy, especially if they are all up to the same standard as this one. The directing was good and effects were superb. The length of the film was perfect.
I didn’t mind the Coca-Cola product placement, Owen is working on his bike and takes a refreshing gulp of Coca-Cola. I did mind the Starbucks product placement. Claire is in the control centre, asking about visitor numbers and then the camera cuts to her and suddenly, out of no where, she has a Starbucks cup in her hand. From what I could see there wasn’t even a Starbucks store on the island.
I liked the little nods to the original Jurassic Park film including a statue of Richard Attenborough in one of the buildings.
I never, ever expected to write this, and I warn you that what I am about to write is controversial and only my opinion. But in my opinion Jurassic World was better than the original Jurassic Park.
I’ve already pre-ordered my Jurassic World DVD, which is released on 19th October 2015.
Review soon,
Antony
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A Million Little Pieces by James Frey is addictive like crack cocaine. Once you pick it up and start reading, you’ll find it near impossible to put back down.
From the cover:
Frey takes the reader on his rollercoaster of a journey to recovery from alcohol and drug addiction. It starts with him waking up on a plane with no memory of how he got there, what happened to his face or where he’s going. |
is set during Frey’s stay in rehab; is well paced and has plenty of tension, conflict and resolution. Both internally and externally. He recalls memories of his dysfunctional and chaotic alcohol and drug using past.
Stylistically A Million Little Pieces lacked speech marks, but this was possibly deliberate. Not having speech marks was a noticeable stylistic change to the normal layout of a book. Frey was probably using this to subtly hint that his story wasn’t like the story of most people. Frey’s lack of dialogue tags was generally acceptable, but on the odd occasion where Frey had written a scene with a group of people, it did get difficult to establish who had said what.
Towards the end of A Million Little Pieces it began to feel fictional. As I was coming to the end of the book and had enjoyed reading it, I decided to look into other books that Frey had written.
After doing a Google Search, I discovered the story of A Million Little Pieces and understood why it felt fictional – because parts of it were.
A Million Little Pieces was commercially hugely successful both in the US and internationally after being featured on the Oprah Winfrey Show. But then The Smoking Gun revealed in an article titled ‘A Million Little Lies’ that some of Frey’s claims around his criminal past didn’t match up with court records.
Oprah had to respond to these revelations and interviewed Frey on a few occasions. The most recent, a few years after A Million Little Pieces was exposed as being in part fictional is available to watch below:
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I can understand while some people felt lied to, as A Million Little Pieces was promoted and marketed as a memoir.
But I wasn’t in the slightest bit surprised that some of A Million Little Pieces was fact and some was fiction. Because that’s how it read. Who wouldn’t change some of their past if they had the chance? Don’t we all do that all the time? Change things to make them sound better or worse than they actually are with the aim of making our stories more interesting to our friends, family, co-workers, etc. Can we really blame Frey for doing the same for the reader?
Regardless A Million Little Pieces is still a great read. Worth reading if you are interested in addiction, crime, alcohol, drugs, rehab and recovery. Just hold on is a phrase often repeated in the book and was a phrase that I adopted when I was suffering from severe clinical depression.
My Friend Leonard is the follow up book and picks up where A Million Little Pieces ended. I’m currently reading My Friend Leonard and enjoying it just as much as I did A Million Little Pieces.
A Million Little Pieces by James Frey is available to buy on Amazon.
Review soon,
Antony
Here are five brilliant TED Talks about mental health:
1. Ruby Wax: What’s so funny about mental illness?
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2. Elyn Saks: A tale of mental illness — from the inside
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3. Eleanor Longden: The voices in my head
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4. Mark Henick: Why we choose suicide
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5. Kevin Breel: Confessions of a depressed comic
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What’s interesting is that none of these speakers is British. I think we are too worried about the stigma. I’ve wrote a series of Mental Health Focus blog posts to help to #EndTheStigma around mental health and to encourage others to talk openly and honestly about their own mental health. Each week in January, I’ll be posting one of these Mental Health Focus blog posts.
How do you manage your own mental and emotional health? Leave a comment below.
If you are experiencing an episode of poor mental health, two useful websites are: Mind and SANE. If you are feeling suicidal please visit your nearest A&E Department for crisis support.
Blog soon,
Antony
Antony Simpson - Author, Blogger, Nurse & Witch.
Author of eight books.
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