Movie Review: Knocked Up

In Judd.Apatow’s latest flick, Knocked Up. The 40-Year Old Virgin director tackles the worst nightmare for the single man – having a one night stand with a girl and then finding out that you’ve knocked her up. It’s a simple enough concept for a story, but thanks to Apatow’s delightfully complex characters and hilarious approach to the subject matter, Knocked Up makes for a brilliant comedy

Seth Rogen, who was one of The 40-Year Old Virgin’s highlights, takes center stage for Knocked Up, playing the epitome of irresponsibility and young male foolishness. Ben Stone (Rogen) lives in an apartment with four of his friends, smoking pot and insulting each other. His only prospective income is from a website he and his friends are putting together that lists when celebrities get naked in movies. For someone like Alison Scott (Katherine Heigl), a successful up and coming reporter for E! Television, Ben would be the last choice for a boyfriend, let alone someone to have a kid with. Yet after the two hook up after a drunken meeting in a nightclub, that’s exactly the position they find themselves in.

The idea of suddenly and surprisingly being pregnant has been done before in movies like Nine Months so it’s not the most original concept. In Apatow’s capable hands, however, the plot becomes a way to shed some light on the male psyche. Rogen’s character is joined by a host of previous Apatow actors, including Jason Segel, Jay Baruchel, and Martin Starr, as they make stupid wagers and carry on pointless conversations stoned out of their minds. Before the stoner humor can wear too thin, Ben starts buddying around with Alison’s brother in law, Pete (Paul Rudd), who Apatow uses this to reveal some of man’s biggest fears and problems with being married with children.

Considering the nature of Ben’s personality, crude humor is prevalent through the movie, but somehow it’s an endearing trait for the character. Between pranks, there are some poignant moments about how these characters view life; moments audience members will be able to connect with. Rudd’s Pete compares life to an endless episode of “Everybody Loves Raymond” without the humor. Ben goes off on a tirade about how women have been giving birth to babies for centuries without the damn “how to” books out there he’s being harassed for not reading. Apatow shows an absolute mastery for balancing humor and drama, never letting the weight of the story become pervasive, but always keeping the idea in mind that the subject matter is serious. These are people bringing another life into the world after all.

The only thing keeping Knocked Up from becoming an instant classic is how dated the movie already is, even in its release. Still, Knocked Up is the strongest movie from Apatow so far.

Knocked Up - Movie Trailer

Connor dropped his iPod touch...

So I got a phone call from my son today, sobbing his heart out. He accidentally dropped his iPod touch that I bought him for his Christmas, and the screen is all cracked.

I had him feeling a bit better when I explained his dad dropped his iPhone 5S and smashed the screen after only having it a week, he laughed...I wasn't when I had to fork out £125 for a new screen, I wonder what repairing this iPod will cost me????

Shock Question Today...

So my local Doctor came out to visit me at my home today to fill in forms sent out to him by the Hospital after my recent stay there.

It was noted that when i was in hospital my mood was very low, i mean no one likes being in hospital anyway but through a lack of wi fi and TV in your room...no surprises on my mood then.

Well he asked me a question that was on the form that shocked me...if i was to die would i want brought back if possible.....WOW i can't get this out my mind.

Bob Hoskins Died today

R.I.P Bob Hoskins...sad news.

Pharrell Williams: Frontin - Song Meaning

I think this song is about a guy who usually doesnt fall for girls, more of a one night stand guy. Until he meets this one girl who likes him but is afraid to show it perhaps she already has a bf or is afraid to show how she really feels. He's telling her to stop hiding it and come out with how she really feels.

Pharrell Williams: Frontin - Music Video

A Great Big World: Say Something - Song Meaning

For me, this song is about two people that were in a relationship. For the one singing, he is really in love with whoever he is singing about. It's the kind of love that, to him, would have been forever. He tries so hard, constantly giving his love to this person. He has finally given his complete heart and soul, all invested in this person, but the other person hasn't even given him half of that. He would go to the ends of the earth with or for this person, but he would not receive the same treatment. Eventually, it's too much. Giving everything you have to someone and receiving very little in return has consumed his thoughts, so he just wants something. Just for the other person to say something, maybe that they really do love him and can't live without him or just a simple "please don't go, I need you." For the whole song, he's waiting, drawing it out just to give them more chances. Finally, he knows that he will never be as loved as he loves this person, so he swallows his pride, swallows that gut feeling that he's doing something wrong and should turn back, and instead says goodbye. Once a fighter, he has now admitted defeat, he has now given up on this person.

A very sad song :-(

A Great Big World: Say Something - Music Video

David Guetta ft Sia: Titanium - Song Meaning

This song stands for a lot, and it's message is how I'm now going to live my life....I even bought a Titanium ring online there (I'm always doing crazy shit like that lol), so from now on this song will be  like my anthem...No matter the obstacles, keep going, life is hard, but only if you let it beat you down. It's a real self esteem booster of a song!!

I think this song is about building a protective shield around yourself and refusing to fall down. I think this song was meant to try to ignore the desperation and fear you are feeling and daring someone to bring it on.

"I'm bulletproof nothing to lose' You feel as if you have nothing left to lose, and are scared to keep moving on, but you have made yourself bullet proof in your mind. Let's do it!!!!!

Titanium - Music Video

Movie Review: Videodrome

A usual David Cronenberg affair, Videodrome is a weird, wonderful and downright crazy movie. I have never seen this fully from start to finish, instead catching parts of the film countless times over the years.

The film follows Max (James Woods) who is the CEO of a small television company that is slowly going down the drain.  Max is looking for new sleazier programming to reel in the audiences.  He hired a man to pirate television signals and de-scramble them so he can find new programming.  The man was able to find a snuff show where masked men in rubber water suits torture and kill young women.

The show is called Videodrome and he wants to find them to use on his station.  Max shows the show to his sadomasochistic girlfriend (Debbie Harry) who is turned on by the act and travels to Pittsburgh to be on it.  When she does not return to Toronto he speaks to an art director with ties to the porn industry.  She does some digging and discovers that Videodrome is actually fake and begs him not to pursue it any further.  He does not heed her warning and pushes further.  He starts to hallucinate and his body starts to mutate.

The closer he gets to the the source of the fake video feed he discovers that it was a conspiracy by the tech that found the fake footage and a huge corporation that works for NATO manufacturing weapons.  They brainwash Max in to killing the board members at his station but his next target reprograms him.  Max then sets his sights on on the man behind the company responsible for all this.

This is one of those movies that bores the living shit out of you until the 30 or 40 minute mark before completely mind-fucking you. About half way in I thought I was going to be giving this one a bad review but it finished with a bang…literally.  The acting is great by Woods but lacking by the majority of the cast.

The story seems complex but it is very simple when you really think about it.  Deep down this is just an experiment getting out of hand and killing it’s creator.  The same storyline as thousands of 50′s and 60s drive-in flicks.  The story is very effective and crafts one hell of an 80s flick once you make it through the 30 to 40 minute mark.  A little trimming at the beginning of the film would have helped this one out a lot.  Finally, this film boasts some impressive practical effects making it a solid 80s flicks.  Sadly, we don’t get a lot of those special effects until the very end.  I would have loved to see more of that throughout the movie.  Overall, this film is a great watch that does not seem that appealing to the eye at first.  You will have to force yourself to watch it and you will thank yourself when you do.  I highly recommend it.

Videodrome -Movie Trailers

Diet Details - Must Read

I found this online:

If you suffer from MS or have a loved one with multiple sclerosis[1], you’ll love what this next post is about. It features the inspiring story of Dr. Terry Wahls[2], who reversed her multiple sclerosis after seven years of deterioration — simply by changing her diet. That she did it within 8 months and went on to complete an 18 mile bicycle tour is nothing short of miraculous.  No drug has ever been able to claim the same results. Coming across her story late last year was the best Christmas present ever.

Dr. Wahls is a professor of internal medicine at the University of Iowa, where she teaches, and does rounds in a traumatic brain injury clinic. This conventional medical doctor had the courage to step outside the medical paradigm and persisted until she found a way to literally get out of her chair. Initially diagnosed with relapsing-remitting MS in 2000, she went the conventional route and was taking chemotherapy drugs and other immune suppressants in an attempt to slow the disease.

By 2003, Dr Wahls transitioned to ‘Secondary Progressive Multiple Sclerosis’ (the more advanced form), and had to begin using a tilt-recline wheelchair because of weakness in her back muscles. In MS, the immune system becomes sensitized to and attacks proteins in the myelin sheath that protects the axons of the central nervous system.[3]

Like anyone with a degenerative condition, she wanted to forestall further deterioration as long as possible. Because of her medical training, Dr. Wahls knew that research in animal models of disease is often 20 or 30 years ahead of clinical practice.  She stayed up late each night to scour through peer-reviewed research on www.PubMed.gov and read the latest articles on multiple sclerosis research.

She knew that most of the studies were testing drugs which would take years for FDA approval so turned instead to the research on vitamins and supplements important to mitochondrial and brain health. As she continued to research late into the nights, she came across studies showing that over time, the brains of MS patients tended to shrink. This spiked her curiosity and led her to research other diseases that share similar brain shrinkage, namely Huntington’s, Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s diseases.

One thing that was common to all these degenerative conditions was poorly functioning mitochondria.  Mitochondria are like little ‘batteries’ in your cells that manage the energy supply to the cell.  If you forget to feed them the correct foods or nutrients, your cells wither and die.  Muscles shrink, brain volume drops. All the other cells in the body are also compromised.

Getting Better but not Quite There

In doing her research, Dr, Wahls discovered that three nutrients in particular are essential for proper mitochondrial function: 1) animal-based omega-3 fats; 2) Creatine (a compound that is involved in the production of energy in the body); and 3) Coenzyme Q10 – preferably in the ‘reduced’, best-absorbed version known as Ubiquinol. After taking these supplements, her decline slowed somewhat but she was still in a state of declining health.

The Big Change – Getting Nutrients from food

By the fall of 2007, Wahls had an important ‘aha’ moment. She wondered what would happen if she changed her diet so that she was getting these important brain nutrients not from supplements, but from the foods she was eating.  Dr. Wahls wanted to eat all the foods that helped to make myelin – notably B1 (Thiamine), B9 (Folate) and B12 (Cobalamin). For her mitochondria to thrive at their peak efficiency she needed B vitamins, sulphur and antioxidants.

To accomplish all of this, she adapted a standard hunter-gatherer diet (basically eating what a caveman would eat) included roots, seeds, nuts, oily fish, grass-fed meats, organ meats and natural iodine from sea weeds. Iodine is good for many things including myelin repair.  She also ate 9 cups of non-starchy vegetables and berries each day (3 cups each of greens, sulphur-containing vegetables, and colourful vegetables).  

In case you are wondering, sulphurous vegetables include kale, broccoli, cabbage, Brussels sprouts, cauliflower, garlic, onions, chives, leeks, mushrooms, asparagus, etc. Starchy vegetables such as potatoes or grains such as rice were not eaten unless her 9 cups of other vegetables were eaten first.  Tips on eating ‘the Wahls way’ can be found on her website:http://www.terrywahls.com/eating-the-wahls-way?EID=18923451&CID=3395727 You can also purchase Wahl’s  book, Minding my Mitochondria, to find not only research but recipe and menu suggestions.

She called this way of eating ‘Intensive Directed Nutrition’ and it is easy to see why. She soon found she had more energy and felt better. Within 3 months she was able to get out of her wheelchair and walk down the halls at work using one cane. Later, by adding exercise and other therapies she progressively got better.  

Why Cruciferous Vegetables and Sulphur?

Sulphur is responsible for hundreds of biochemical reactions in the human body. Together with antioxidants, sulphur helps the mitochondria to survive. By weight, sulphur is one of the most abundant minerals in the body – the average person contains about 140 grams of it at any one time. Sulphurous vegetables also help with creation of a potent antioxidant – glutathione – which could help prevent further damage to neurotransmitters. Sulfur is also necessary for the synthesis of Taurine, an amino acid needed for proper functioning of the muscles and central nervous system.  

Foods to Avoid

The diet of the typical North American is so poor in nutrients that they do not have the building blocks to feed the mitochondria or to make/repair myelin, a protective covering on nerves that becomes destroyed over time in people with multiple sclerosis.  

It is very important to remove from the diet all refined or pre-packaged foods and Omega 6 oils and fats. You find Omega 6 fatty acids in corn fed meat, corn oil, safflower and vegetable oils, soybean oil, margarines and fried foods. That does not mean that one must remove all fats and oils from the diet however. ‘Healthy fats’ such as fish oils, flax seed oils and extra-virgin coconut and olive oils are encouraged.  

Anything inflammatory and processed must be removed – so no sugar, high fructose corn syrup, aspartame, allergens, dairy (including raw dairy), grains, or legumes, including soy beans.  Dairy, grains and legumes, especially, are implicated in auto-immune reactions for people with MS.[4]  Small amounts of high-antioxidant raw cacao beans, and raw honey are allowed occasionally.  Those who cannot manage going grain-free are encouraged to try going gluten-free first, but faster results are expected when the guidelines are strictly followed.

MS and Eggs

Organic, free-range, antibiotic-free eggs (if tolerated), are recommended because they contain choline – which together with inositol – is critical for myelin sheath repair. Synergistically they work to create natural lecithin in the body. Making it this way means that one does not have to rely on soy-derived lecithin.  

Generally, people with autoimmune diseases should not have egg whites due to a problematic protein in the egg white called ‘lysozyme’. Usually it is harmless, but it can bind with some proteins and inhibit trypsin and prevent it from doing its job to digest protein. Some of its compounds can pass through the gut wall and aggravate damaged guts. Avidin, another substance found in egg whites, binds to a B vitamin called Biotin, which is responsible for fatty acid synthesis and blood sugar regulation.  Even when well-cooked, Avidin continued to inhibit Biotin absorption by about 30 percent.  

So how do you know if you are sensitive to egg whites? One way to find out is to eliminate eggs at first and add them back after a few weeks. They may be eaten if there is no reaction to them. The same thing can be tried with tomatoes and eggplants, which cause joint pain in some people. If you find you cannot get your choline from egg yolks, food sources of choline include beef liver (highest source), chicken and turkey, scallops and shrimp, salmon, collard greens, Swiss chard and cauliflower.[5] You will also find choline in sesame and flax seeds. Inositol is found in high amounts in legumes (not allowed in this diet), however you can find it in high amounts in grapefruits, oranges, mandarin oranges, cantaloupe, rutabaga, blackberries, artichokes, okra, kiwi fruit, and nectarines.

How else can you Rebuild Myelin and prevent its Destruction? The term ‘balanced diet’ is the key.   The myelin sheath is composed of about 75 percent fats and cholesterol and the rest is protein[6]. The first building block needed to make myelin is Omega 3 fatty acid, which you get from pure fish oils, wild fish and grass fed meats.  The 3 cups of greens daily provide B vitamins and folate, which you need for your brain to keep it from shrinking.  (Indeed, many people on this diet report marked clear-thinking and removal of the ‘brain fog’ they had earlier).  

Vitamin B1 (Thiamine) helps to get energy into the muscles but it also helps with myelin repair. Organ meats – which traditional societies have always eaten – are recommended once a week to get natural cobalamin or B12 into the body. Organic liver is very good for that. Natural iodine from sea vegetables not only helps with myelin repair but would also aids the liver and brain to clear out mercury and other heavy metals from the body.

Bone broths are also recommended daily because they are full of minerals and help to heal any loose ‘tight junctions’ in the gut, which might be contributing to auto-immune reactions generally. Another way to rebuild lost myelin is to submit the muscles to the ‘stress’ of daily exercise – more on this later.

The Use of Fats and Oils with Multiple Sclerosis Unlike others who suggest drastically reducing saturated fats in an MS diet, Wahls is saying that healthy fats -  from cod liver and salmon fish and oils,  walnuts, chia seeds, ghee from a grass-fed, pastured animal, extra virgin olive and coconut oils … and even lard… are fine.  Ghee, or clarified butter, by the way, has had the milk proteins poured off. Keep in mind that you need trace amounts of copper to activate these healthy fats so that they can go to work repairing the myelin. Food sources of copper include dried oregano and thyme, pumpkin seeds and sesame seeds.  

Cod liver oil is high in vitamin D. A study published in The Journal of the American Medical Association in 2006 found that Vitamin D significantly reduced the risk of demyelination. Wahls believes that Vitamin D should be over 50 ng/ml but under 100 ng/ml to obtain the best benefits – lowered risk for autoimmune disease, cancer, cardiovascular disease and high blood pressure.  How do you know how much you need to get there? Take a test every 1- 3 months and take 4000 IU vitamin D3 daily, or more if needed.  At levels over 150 there is an increased risk of excessive calcium in the blood, hallucinations, psychosis, and kidney damage.

For some unknown reason, the concentration of oleic acid (a type of healthy saturated omega 9 oil found in olive oil and avocados), is lower in the myelin of people with MS.  Oleic acid promotes the production of antioxidants in the body and slows the development of heart disease.  In other myelin-destroying diseases, oleic acid is used to formulate ‘Lorenzo’s oil’, which helps patients with adrenoleukodystrophy.  

Creation of New Neurons and Synapses plus More Energy

With properly functioning mitochondria, Dr. Wahls hoped that her body would also get maximum energy from glucose, a key factor in reducing or eliminating the fatigue so common with MS.  With more energy you can exercise and do more. She also wanted her diet to be high in antioxidant capacity because that would not only increase protection of her neurons but also increase production of neurotrophic factors – a family of proteins responsible for the growth and maturation of new neurons and synapses.[7]

Antioxidants from spices such as turmeric were also added because of the wealth of animal and human studies showing that its curcumin component helps to prevent oxidative damage.[8] Just how curcumin might work to prevent demyelinization remains unclear, but researchers at Vanderbilt University believe it may be interrupting the production of IL-12, a protein that plays a key role in the destruction of the myelin by signaling for the development of neural antigen-specific Th1 cells, immune cells that then launch an attack on the myelin sheath.[9]

A Synergistic Approach: Hitting MS with many things at once With her intensive daily nutrition foundation in place, Dr Wahls continued to do research into additional supplements that might help to feed the mitochondria. Supplements, she points out, can be helpful, but a nutrient-intense diet must always come first.   There is wisdom in this — brightly coloured vegetables and berries may contain beneficial cofactors and compounds not included in supplements which scientists may not discover or name for years, even though they work.

This is what is referred to in research as ‘efficacy’.  It works because it works, and waiting for ‘evidence-based research’ to prove they work is not always helpful since experience tells you there is little risk in eating vegetables and fruits, together with a myriad of benefits.   Today Dr. Wahls uses 200 mg B complex, 200 mg of Coenzyme Q 10, 1 g of Alpha Lipoic Acid, 600 mg of Acetyl L Carnitine, 120 mg of Gingko, 2 g of N Acetyl Cysteine, 2 g of Taurine, 2 g of Glutathione, 200 mg of Resveratrol, and enough Lithium Orotate to yield 13 mg of elemental lithium, on a daily basis.  

Putting it all together By December 2007 she had combined intensive directed nutrition with a program of progressive exercise, electro-stimulation of muscles[10], and daily exercise.   Daily exercise, even for those who cannot walk, is excellent because any ‘stress’ to the muscle causes the body to produce new myelin and development of new neurological pathways. Exercise also leads to decreased production of inflammatory proteins. Various animal experiments have shown that exercise increases ‘neurotrophins’, a family of proteins induce the survival, development and function of neurons.  

The results stunned her physician, her family, and even herself.  Within a year, she was able to walk through the hospital without a cane and even complete an 18-mile bicycle tour. Instead of becoming dependent on others, Wahls regained the ability to commute to work on her bicycle, and to do her rounds on foot without the need for canes or a wheelchair.

Up from the Chair and Helping Others Grateful to have her energy back, Dr. Wahls has spent the last three years researching, lecturing and speaking about her journey to wellness and shares how others may help themselves with intensive directed nutrition.   Dr Wahls now has enough energy left over to start writing up research grants again.  She has brought together an interdisciplinary team to conduct clinical trials using intensive, directed nutrition and neuromuscular electrical stimulation to combat advanced Parkinson’s disease and both secondary and primary progressive multiple sclerosis. 

This time she is conducting a randomized intervention clinical trial onNutrition and Neuromuscular Electrical Stimulation and Secondary Progressive Multiple Sclerosis.  You can read about it here:http://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT01381354?term=wahls+sclerosis&rank=1

To help raise awareness and funds for her research and her non-profit foundation, Dr Wahls has recorded many of her public lectures.  Fifty percent of the profits from the sales of the lecture DVDs and audio CDs are used to support clinical nutrition in the area of nutrition, massage, exercise, and neuromuscular stimulation. These resources are available on Dr. Wahl’s website:  http://www.mindingmymitochondria.com/  

In the meantime, here are a few words from Dr. Wahls:  

“There is a lot we can do to restore our health without needing a physician.  Here are ten suggestions for how you can help spread the word.

1. Talk about Minding My Mitochondria on Facebook and Twitter.

2. Tell your friends that you have read this fabulous book that is changing your life.

3. Tell your co-workers the reason you have so much more energy is due to Minding My Mitochondria.

4.  Tell your family that Minding My Mitochondria is changing your life and could change theirs too.

5. Write a review for Amazon.  It is easy.  Just a paragraph, written from the heart, will be fine.

6. Write a review for your local paper.  Or a letter to the editor.

7. Buy the book for a friend or a member of your family whose health you’d like to see improve.

8. Interview Dr. Wahls for your local newsletter, club, or paper.

9. Follow the suggestions Dr. Wahls makes in Minding My Mitochondria.  As you become a healthier, more vibrant you, others will ask what your secret is.

10. When others ask what led to your looking 6 months younger than the last time they saw you, tell them why.  That your mitochondria are healthy again, thanks to Minding My Mitochondria. Be healthier, more vibrant, more energetic.”     

---

[1] Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a chronic, degenerative disease of the nerves in your brain and spinal column, caused through a demyelization process. Myelin is the insulating, waxy substance around the nerves in your central nervous system. When the myelin is damaged by an autoimmune disease or self-destructive process in your body, the function of those nerves deteriorate over time, resulting in a number of symptoms, including:  muscle weakness, imbalance, or loss of coordination, astigmatism and vision loss, and muscle tremors.  

[2] Dr Wahls is a clinical professor of medicine at the University of Carver’s College of Medicine, where she teaches Internal Medicine. She has published over 60 peer-reviewed scientific abstracts, posters and papers and is currently conducting clinical trials on how a nutrient-intensive diet can help to reverse MS symptoms.  

[3] Research has shown that fragments from foreign proteins (i.e., from infectious agents and foods) can activate myelin-sensitive immune cells through cross-reactions.  Many new foreign proteins were introduced into the human environment by the agricultural revolution, 10,000 to 5000 years ago. Some new proteins have crossed over to humans from domesticated animals (e.g. Epstein Barr virus) and from completely new food types such as dairy, grains and legumes. Humans have been around a lot longer than 5,000 years, and our gut flora has not evolved enough or become sophisticated enough to know what to do with some of these grains and legumes.  

[4] The role of lectins and legumes in MS is interesting. According to Dr Loren Cordain PhD, a top nutrition researcher, lectins from grains, legumes and tomatoes may be involved in activation of the myelin-sensitive T cells.  It has been long known that protein fragments derived from various foods such as milk and from gut bacteria can activate myelin-sensitive T cells through molecular mimicry. For this to happen, however, the foreign protein fragments must get across the intestinal barrier. One possible way for this to happen is by way of disrupted cell junctures or a “leaky gut”. Even if one does not have a ‘leaky gut’, various lectins will still attach themselves to various protein fragments in the gut from foods and gut bacteria and then transport themselves across the intestinal barrier by means of the Epidermal Growth Factor receptor. In this way they act like a “Trojan Horse” by bringing the “enemy” past the protection of the gut wall. Epidermal Growth Factor was discovered by Stanley Cohen of Vanderbilt University along with Rita Levi-Montalcini. Both received the Nobel prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1986.

[5] See: World’s Healthiest Foods: choline. http://whfoods.org/genpage.php?tname=nutrient&dbid=50  

[6] Schmidt, Michael A, PhD., Brain Building Nutrition: How dietary fats and oils affect mental, physical, and emotional Intelligence. Frog Books, Colorado, December 2006.  

[7] In the brain these factors are important for learning, long-term memory as well as regeneration and growth of nerves. Studies suggest these brain-derived factors play a protective role against amyloid beta toxicity – a type of plaque that seems to build up in the brain as we get older.

[8] Natarajan C, Bright JJ. Curcumin inhibits experimental allergic encephalomyelitis by blocking IL-12 signaling through Janus kinase-STAT pathway in T lymphocytes. J Immunol 2002;168;6506-6513. Available at:http://www.jimmunol.org/content/168/12/6506.full.pdf Researchers gave injections of 50- and 100-microgram doses of curcumin, three times per week over a period of 30 days, to a group of mice bred to develop the experimental form of MS known as EAE, and then watched the mice for signs of developing MS-like neurological impairment. By day 15, the mice that did not received curcumin developed EAE to such an extent that they developed complete paralysis of both hind limbs. By contrast, the mice given the 50-microgram dose of the curcumin showed only minor symptoms, such as a temporarily stiff tail. Mice given the 100-microgram dose fared best of all; they appeared completely unimpaired throughout the 30 days of the study.

[9] Natarajan C, Bright JJ. Peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor-gamma agonists inhibit experimental allergic encephalomyelitis by blocking IL-12 production, IL-12 signaling and Th1 differentiation. Genes Immun2002;3(2):59-70. 2003. Available at: Natarajan C, Bright JJ. Genes Immun. 2002 Apr; 3(2):59-70J Immunol. 2002 Jun 15; 168(12):6506-13. J Immunol. 2002 Jun 15; 168(12):6506-13.http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11960303.

[10]Neuromuscular Electrical Stimulation involves the application of electrodes and electrical input to various muscle groups over the body with goal of strengthening the muscles. The technique was pioneered in the Soviet Union to improve athletic performance and is still commonly used by athletes, especially for healing muscle damage. Today portable NEMS machines are available and it is a do-it-yourself therapy.

Movie Review: Fright Night Part 2 (2013)

It’s always fun when you head into a picture expecting the worst and walk away with a little something positive. In the case of Eduardo Rodriguez’s "Fright Night 2: New Blood" the positives are indeed few and far between, but for a film that is essentially a remake of a remake, it could have been a hell of a lot worse. It could have been like Lost Boys: The Tribe really bad, but somehow this movie steers clear of total and complete failure. It doesn’t necessarily work wonders as a whole, but if a film of this nature can deliver at least a few enjoyable sequences it’s hard to be too riled up about it.

First, we need to take a quick glance at the movie’s synopsis per imdb.com: By day Gerri Dandridge is a sexy professor, but by night she transforms into a real-life vampire with an unquenchable thirst for human blood. So when a group of high school students travel abroad to study in Romania, they find themselves ensnared in Gerri's chilling web of lust and terror. Charley and "Evil" Ed must stop Gerri from drinking and bathing in the blood of a "new moon virgin," which just so happens to be Charley's ex-girlfriend, Amy. They enlist help from Peter Vincent, the vampire hunting host of a reality show called "Fright Night," to drive a stake through Gerri's plan and save Amy from a fate far worse than death.

Now, if that breakdown doesn’t convince you that the film is a near carbon copy of its predecessors, nothing will. We’ve got the same lineup of characters featured in Tom Holland’s original 1985 flick as well as Craig Gillespie’s 2011 reboot – even Evil Ed surfaces, who’s now been offed twice in the past. Our antagonist, though female, is named Gerri Dandridge, and she just so happens to be staying in an apartment directly across the street from Charley Brewster, and guess what? He spots her, through his window making out and eventually biting the neck of some attractive young lady. You know, exactly what happens in both renditions of Fright Night. The setting is Romania, and while that works to bring something a little different to the table, there are just a few too many rip-off moments to ever become fully engrossed in the picture. We’ve already seen it, more than twice!

But for all of the misfires presented by "Fright Night 2: New Blood", there are some things that do indeed impress. First off it’s easy to argue that the film looks marginally better than Gillespie’s revival. The enormous amounts of nauseating visual effects have – for the most part – been done away with. We see plenty of practical FX work and some of it is rather impressive. Second off, Jaime Murray does a stellar job of portraying a super sexy psycho vampire bitch. Her effort isn’t without hitch, but it is quite convincing overall. Will Payne plays Charley Brewster, and while he’s got a haircut that’s sure to take you back to Edward Furlong’s Terminator 2 days (did someone actually think that looked cool, or trendy... in 2013?!) he doesn’t do a terrible job in the shoes of the lead protagonist. Chris Waller tackles the role of “Evil” Ed Bates and he’s animated and comical enough to stand in as a memorable supporting character while Sacha Parkinson is serviceable as Charley’s love interest, Amy. All in all, the cast really isn’t too shabby.

The film fumbles most in the originality department, as we’ve now discussed, but there’s also a positional shift within the characters that doesn’t pan out. Charley and “Evil” have basically switched roles. Charley’s the beta male while oddly enough Ed is clearly the alpha of the two. Ed lacks the appropriate personality to squeeze into heroic shoes, but his presence is so powerful that he nearly mutes Charley’s complete existence. I’ll go on the record now and say it, if Chris Waller opts to move stateside and really pursue some major roles, he’ll do big things. But, distancing ourselves from Ed, Amy’s character needs addressing. She and Charley are on the rocks in the film, so they have very little affectionate moments. As viewers we’re not even entirely sure how much this young lady does or doesn’t dig Charley. It’s a weird that Amy is introduced as a disconnected character, and remains such throughout the entire picture. And finally, what’s a Fright Night review without discussing good old Peter Vincent? To be honest, I can’t quite decide whether this was a quality character or not. Sean Power’s work as the now iconic “vampire hunter” follows the design of Gillespie’s character, to an extent. He’s a reality ghost hunter show host who’s got a taste for booze and women, but there’s some good in the man and we can see it. I’m partial to Roddy McDowall’s depiction of the character, and that’s obviously going to sway my opinion of anyone to approach the role. But in truth, McDowall, Powers and David Tenant have all offered some fairly decent renditions of Mr. Vincent.

Fright Night 2: New Blood certainly isn’t a classic in the making. It probably won’t be remembered in a decade, but for a flick with all the chips stacked against it, it’s decent enough. Before you check this one out, understand that it’s a seriously different type of Fright Night feature delivered in an obviously familiar format. A few characters are going to win fans over, and a few are going to have franchise followers going nuts. Diehards won’t dig the flick. They just... won’t! If you’re out for a killer vampire flick or you hold high expectations you may want to just steer clear of the movie. If you’re okay with a so-so bloodsucker tale, go ahead and give it a go. You may discover something that surprises you.        

 Fright Night Part 2 - Movie Trailer

iPod Song Disaster

Well I signed up to iTunes Match the other day and somehow I have lost over 3,800 songs...arrrggghhhb!!!!!!! Totally gone, missing....what a mare :-(

Movie Review: The Theatre Bizarre

In the tradition of movies like George Romero’s Creepshow, Creepshow 2, Trilogy of Terror and Body Bags comes The Theatre Bizarre, a collection of six short films with plenty of blood to fling around. The film opens with a woman who enters an abandoned theatre and encounters Udo Kier, playing an automaton host who introduces these six stories to an audience of just one.

Mother of Toads is the first story, about a gypsy who entices a young man with the promise of getting his hands on a copy of the fabled Necronomicon. He takes the bait, leaving his girlfriend behind at their hotel and discovers too late that he must pay for his curiosity. The actors portraying the young couple do what they can with fairly bland roles, but it really is MacColl’s piece.

I Love You tells the story of a married couple, of which the husband is a bit obsessive. Basically a two-hander, the film is a fifteen minute argument about why their relationship is ending and it’s about as exciting as it sounds. I respect this conceptually, but it’s in dire need of some emotional shading and depth. There is no reason why this man loves this woman so much when she is so terrible to him. The two actors who carry the short are fine, but the problem lies in the script, and the “twist” ending is unnecessary.

Wet Dreams follows with a similar tale of a disintegrating relationship that is drowning in dreams, deception and deceit. Tom Savini who directs and stars alongside B-horror queen Debbie Rochon are fine in their respective roles. However, the story of a man plagued by nightmares of his wife is muddy and is let down by some bad audio and fairly flat photography outside of the dream sequences, which aren’t very creepy or inspired. For gore fans though it there.

The Accident is the real standout in this collection. A young girl witnesses a fatal motorcycle accident while on a drive with her mother. Naturally, she is curious about the hows and whys of death and what follows is a really nice meditation on life, death and a child’s natural fascination with the unknown. There is some great acting on display in this segment, it has a nice style about it, and is the most relatable in terms of its story.

Next up, Vision Stains follows a young woman who murders homeless people to extract the vitreous fluid from their eyeballs in order to tell their stories so they are not forgotten by time. This interesting concept is lost among its focus on shocking scenes. While the story is fascinating at the start, they should have exploited the concept in a more meaningful way.

The film’s last segment is Sweets, yet another tale of a crumbling relationship. The stylized flashbacks into the relationship are nice and tell an odd story, but it tries too hard to be quirky. However, I can respect it for its concept and the style it exhibits.

Because a different director helms each segment, this creates a disjointed feeling that doesn’t do the film any favors. The format begs for some cohesion when you don’t have a continuous narrative to follow. A few of the stories are thematically too similar to have much impact after the first, and by the time you’ve seen the same story for the third time, I don’t see the point. However, The Accident is strong and Udo Kier is interesting as always.

So there you have it, not as shocking as "The ABC's Of Death" but can still pack a punch when you least expect it.

The Theatre Bizarre - Movie Trailer

Paleo Diet

I am still sticking with my diet but have decided to stop writing about it because I can appreciate that it must come across as quite boring.

If anyone out there is interested, get in touch with me and I will give you full list of foods I eat and what has also has been recommended to eat by Dr Wahls.

I will still concentrate on my blog with movie reviews and song meanings etc...I hope you all out there enjoy it???

Movie Review: We Are What We Are

Upon hearing the premise for the new horror film "We Are What We Are," many people will no doubt assume that it will be some kind of grisly dark comedy combining jet-black humor with gruesome imagery designed to keep viewers from making any visits to the concession stand in the immediate future. Instead, it treats the concept in a quiet and deliberate manner throughout and while such an approach may prove disappointing to anyone hoping for a broadly drawn bloodbath, the serious and respectful tone helps to make for a genuinely creepy moviegoing experience that will attract both serious fans of the genre and those viewers simply looking for a well-told story. (A story, it should be noted, that is probably best experienced knowing as little about the details, such as the ones I am about to reveal, as possible.)

Set in a remote small town outside of the Catskill Mountains, the film centers on the Parkers, a fairly reclusive but otherwise normal-seeming family that, as the story opens, is marked by tragedy when the matriarch dies in a tragic accident brought on by a massive rainstorm. This is horrible enough but to make things worse, it is just about time for them to go through a religious ritual that has been performed in the family for a couple of centuries and which can only be done by the woman of the house. Oh yeah, the ritual in question involves cannibalism.

Reeling from his wife's death, domineering father Frank insists on pressing ahead and goes out the night of his wife's death to bring back a not-so-willing volunteer to chain in the basement in preparation for the ceremony. On the other hand, teenage daughters Iris and Rose are not quite as enthused with the responsibilities that have suddenly been forced upon them. What the Parkers don't realise is that their ghastly secrets are in danger of being revealed by the police, a curious neighbour and a local doctor whose daughter was a Parker house entree. Even Mother Nature gets into the act, as the torrential rains begin to uncover skeletal evidence of unspeakable crimes.

If this plot sounds slightly familiar to you, it may be because "We Are What We Are" is a remake of a 2010 Mexican film that received a bit of acclaim among horror film fans. I never got a chance to see that film but from what I understand, co-writers Jim Mickleand Nick Damici have taken the basic premise and then played around with it in a number of ways. The key change, so I hear, is that the genders of the key characters have been switched around—in the original, it was the father who died, the mother who encouraged her brood to carry on and a son who found himself forced to carry on the unspeakable tradition. 

Although I am curious to see that version now, I must say that this remake is a more than satisfying experience in its own right. Most filmmakers might have taken this basic premise in order to play it as grisly black comedy, however, by taking the decidedly lurid material seriously, Mickle and Damici have attempted something far more challenging and the risk pays off. From a tonal standpoint, the whole thing is a high-wire act in the sense that if there is one dramatic misstep or bad laugh, the whole thing could collapse in an instant.

Aside from a couple of moments where things could have been tightened slightly, the film never stumbles and the result is one of the more remarkable horror films of late—one that does not rely on sudden shocks or outrageous gore to get under the skin of its viewers. This is not to say that the film can't pull off such moments—there is one scene in which a moment of rare tenderness is brutally interrupted in a genuinely shocking manner and the similarly out-of-nowhere grand finale will raise eyebrows. However, it creates an atmosphere of dampness and dread that is genuinely convincing and is far more unnerving in the end that any amount of fake blood.

Intelligently conceived, beautifully executed and filled with surprisingly convincing performances all around (Sage creates an aura of quiet menace that is impossible to shake and Childers and Garner are both heartbreaking as the daughters), "We Are What We Are" is that rare horror film that could play at both arthouse and grindhouse theaters without seemingly out of place at either one. Genre fans will eat it up—no pun intended—but it might prove to be a harder sell for viewers who aren't necessarily jazzed with the idea of watching murder and cannibalism. To those people, I assure you that in terms of smart and serious filmmaking, I would put this film up against any "serious" movie that has come out so far this year and I implore you to give it a chance. Just don't make any plans for dinner 

afterwards.

We Are What We Are - Movie Traler

Movie Review - Alyce Kills

Alyce works in a dead end job with a bitch as a boss. She lives in a shithole apartment with her landlord breathing down her neck. Her only friend thinks she has a Single White Female complex. Yeah, Alyce is a postage stamp away from going loco.

When Alyce and her friend Carol go out on the town for a night of drinking and partying, they find Carol’s boyfriend cheating on her. Distraught and looking to forget, they score some drugs, nearly have a lesbian tryst and end up on the roof where Alyce accidently, maybe, possibly pushes her friend off. Presuming she is dead, Alyce makes up a story to the police that Carol committed suicide. But Carol isn’t dead. She’s just seriously messed up and in the hospital.

This bit of information sends Alyce into a semi-delusional state where she buys drugs from a sleazy drug dealer with sex, sees her friend in a dead state at her kitchen table, loses her job and does even worse deeds to her friend than before. Unfortunately, that’s the extent of the majority of the film with little to no horror elements happening until the last act.

Obviously, the trouble with Alyce Kills is that it moves slow. Painfully slow. Alyce’s decent into madness, which is the focus here, is plodding along with little interest, zero scares and a host of psychedelic imagery or weird drug-related illusions. Plus there are just random bits of oddities scattered throughout such as:

Necrophilia.
War masturbation.
Random Russian roulette.
Hugging the dead.
Bat phobia.
Nipple biting.
Weird sex fight.
Chopping up dead bodies.
Arm in a microwave.
Arm in a blender.
Arm in a garbage disposal....

When the final act arrives, we finally get the payoff that we were expecting from the outset of the movie – considering the title you’d think it would be more prevalent. However, Alyce Kills has moved at such a snail’s pace that at this point we don’t care and it seems like an easy way out to have her go full blown mental in the last 15 minutes – despite the fact from the get go that’s where we knew it was going.

Had some of this violent aggression been shown at the beginning or at least hinted at, instead of spending two-thirds of the movie with strange imagery and Alyce trying to deal with the accident involving her friend, then maybe it makes sense. Again, it is an easy out.

While the acting is decent, the production is pretty good, the storyline leaves a lot to be desired and probably makes it a Netflix option at best.

Alyce Kills - Movie Trailer

Suzanne Vega: Luka - Song Meaning

A very sad song about child abuse of all time. I always thought this song was about a battered woman but 'Luka' is Slavic for 'Luke', the song is about a 7 or 8yo boy.

I do understand that this song is about a little boy being abused, not a battered wife. The line "They only hit until you cry" means that more than one person is abusing the narrator. Of course she could be making a generalization about men or abusive people in general, but within the context of the song, I think that it sounds like it's a child talking about their situation.

Suzanne Vega: Luka Music Video

U2: With Or Without You - Song Meaning

My favourite song in the whole world yet gets me upset nearly every time I listen it....go figure huh???

This song is one of the most meaningful songs i've ever listened to. The message is fairly simple, but the way that Bono expresses himself throughout the song is so real, and so full of emotion that you can't help being drawn into the song. Maybe its just because i have been in exactly the same situation myself and i can empathise with the lyrics, but the hopelessness of his situation is depicted with the great contradictions. "You give it all, but i want more". "Nothing to win, nothing left to lose". The basic problem is that being with her is too hard to bear because he wants her so much, and being away from her is too much for the same reason. "On a bed of nails she makes me wait". "You give it all but i want more". He is showing his mixed feelings. He is sad that she is letting him stay in this situation, yet he knows that she is doing all she can. Hrmmm...i've gone on for a bit haven't i?...it's just that this song is the story of my life, so i kinda could talk about it for a while...but i guess i'll just leave it here...

U2: With Or Without You - In Concert

Coldplay: Every Teardrop Is A Waterfall - Song Meaning

I think you really get to understand what the song means towards the end.

" So you can hurt, hurt me bad
But still I raise the flag "

It's definitely a very you-are-better-than-this song. and how he sings about growing as a person and growing from the problems and becoming better. singing about how much potential he has. And the line "i'd rather be a comma than a fullstop"....love it!!!!

I think the title "every teardrop is a waterfall" taking it literally apart, teardrop is usually what we associate with sadness. when you think of waterfall we usually think of how nature's so beautiful, and all that, so i guess every teardrop is a waterfall would probably mean there's also beauty within the ugly????

Coldplay: Every Teardrop Is A Waterfall - Music Video

Movie Review: Contracted

Eric England, who is best known for Madison County (2011), has created in Contracted a great commentary on the fears of sexually transmitted diseases.
The film opens with an unknown man, who we learn from the credits is Simon Barrett (writer of You’re Next, A Horrible Way To Die, Autoerotic, and segments of ABC’s Of Death, V/H/S and V/H/S 2) committing an act of necrophilia in a morgue. From here we go straight to our star, the complicated Samantha played perfectly by Najarra Townsend. We learn quickly that Sam and her girlfriend Nikki (Katie Stegeman) are experiencing turbulence in their relationship. Sam’s friend Alice (Alice MacDonald) is throwing a bash and wants her to cut loose, but as the party progresses and the alcohol kicks in Sam falls prey to the unknown man who provides her next drink. The next thing Sam knows she is waking up with what she believes is the worst hangover of her life, but soon it becomes clear that it is something far worse.

Eric England achieves his grotesque vision without the use of CGI, and as a result Contracted will live on while so many other low budget horror films will fall to the wayside. Abject horror and body horror seem to always find their target audiences. These films cater to our fears of something ravaging us from within. From Invasion Of The Body Snatchers onward, the terror of transformation or mutation has captivated viewers.
The king of body horror is, of course, David Cronenberg, and many will liken Contracted with him and more specifically The Fly – which shows the slow and disgusting mutation of Jeff Goldblum into Brundlefly. England uses the disintegration of The Fly while also the sexuality found in Cronenberg’s Shivers and Rabid. Both of Cronenberg’s earlier films feature a parasite created by science that is passed via a semi-sexual act. In Shivers once someone is infected with the phallic parasite they become a sexual zombie. In Rabid there is a carrier who uses her phallic parasite to draw blood and thus infect her victims with a variant of a fast acting form of rabies. By combining these elements, Contracted could be considered as a mere tribute film paying homage to Cronenberg, but there is a lot more to England’s film.
Samantha is a product of a narcissistic generation, and while she does seek medical attention, she does not want help from anyone else. She cannot even fully admit the cause of her illness, so she chooses to bear it alone. In doing so, her naivete offers moments of humor in the face of her transformation.

Julia Kristeva (philosopher, critic, psychoanalyst, feminist, novelist) writes at length about the abject in her article “Powers of Horror.” The abject in terms of horror relates to the fear of what is physically inside us – i.e. blood, bone, guts, excrement – coming out and how it forces us to contemplate our own mortality. “A wound with blood and puss, or the sickly acrid smell of sweat, of decay, does not signify death… These bodily fluids, this defilement, this sh*t are what life withstands hardly and with difficulty, on the part of death. There, I am at the border of my condition as a living being.”

 Kristeva speaks of death infecting life. When we are witness to the physiology of our own fragile bodies, we experience both fear and joy. We are drawn to the abject as a way of cathartically coping with our own inevitable decay.
By infusing a degree of melodrama into the narrative, a layer of comedy also emerges. England allows us to experience the abject while at the same time he relieves us from the guilt of taking pleasure in it. This is the brilliance of Contracted.

Contracted - Movie Trailer

Movie Review: Friday The 13th Part II

Some counsellors start getting a camp down the road from Crystal Lake ready for the Summer season, but a couple of pesky kids can't help but nose around the old camp where all those kids where killed 5 years ago. Guess what they find there?

Friday the 13th Part 2 starts with Adrienne King, uninspiring final girl from the first movie, on the phone to her parents. She reassures them she’s fine, and then tells them about the ordeal, accompanied by a set of budget appeasing flashbacks, including the infamous decapitation of Mrs Voorhees (and why not?) But what’s this? Whose workman like trousers and boots are those? Eh, oh, what’s that, a swift ice pick to the temple and it’s goodbye Adrienne?

This immediately raises a bunch of questions - questions which are never truly answered, but are theorised upon later in the film, mainly by new final girl Amy Steel. She’s a psychology student and later discusses that Jason must have lived in the woods and watched his mommy die at the end of the first movie. But if that’s the case, how come she thought he died of drowning? If he didn’t die of drowning and he watched her killing people in the first movie, why didn’t he, you know, say hello? Who was that boy at the end of the first film in the water? Surely, the boy grabbing the last survivor in the boat paved the way for the sequel, but that was just a boy and this is a grown man we have here offing her? And if all that is true, is one of the most famous movie franchises in history really the story of a wild deformed hermit killing campers in revenge for them killing his mother, which in itself is revenge for the campers letting her son die, who didn’t really die? Um, how many movies?

Well, in 1981 nobody seemed to care about that technicality so there’s no point worrying about that now. Despite that hiccup, the first Friday sequel is actually a great little slasher movie with much more going for it than the original. Doing away with the kooky “Oh it’s you!” POV shots in favour of what we now know as a more conventional stalk and slash style, Friday the 13th Part 2 whips along at a much neater pace.

The cigarette packet plot is simple but effective. It’s 5 years since the massacres at Crystal Lake and, while that’s closed down, another camp is opening up just down the road. The usual bunch of camp counsellors arrive filling all the stereotypes nicely and they get to work, until one of the girls talks her boyfriend in to checking out the closed Crystal Lake down the road. They’re caught by the local cops and bought back, but they inadvertently lead a hungry for revenge sack head wearing Jason Voorhees with them. After taking out the sheriff and Crazy Ralph (the “You’re doomed!” guy from the first movie) he sets to work stalking the counsellors, and it all pretty much comes to a head a couple of nights later when half the group head in to town to a bar, and the rest get sliced and diced by our man Voorhees, until final Girl Amy Steel and boyfriend are first back, just in time for a final confrontation with Jason, followed the inevitable jump scare final scene.
As with all things though, the devil is in the detail. The characters in this one are a little more fleshed out than in the original, meaning you’re more engaged watching them and consequently it’s not just a case of when they buy it but if, and rather than waiting to see how they go, you actually hope some of them don’t. Amy Steel, turning up late in her old VW Beetle, only to jump straight in to the arms of the head counsellor, is way more charismatic than our previous final girl and is more immanently watchable. Similarly, you’re intrigued to see if that girl ever gets off with the smug wheelchair guy, and whether the ginger haired guy ever actually cracks a funny joke. Ultimately though, it comes down to having just enough pleasing padding before we approach final night, where the majority of the deaths occur.

And the deaths are, surprisingly considering Tom Savini’s absence, up to the quality of the original, albeit with subtle differences. Whereas the original was littered with POV shots, the sequel tidily usurps that convention, catching you off guard. A character will wander outside, the camera will follow them, then they’ll turn around and, not startled, you as the viewer will realise they’re not being stalked by a POV shot, only for a machete to suddenly fly on screen stage left split the counsellors face. And all the while, that ”ki… ki… ma… ma…” score is used to haunting effect.

So that’s that - Friday the 13th Part 2 hits its stride much better than the original, and cements the slasher template in the process, boding well from the next in the franchise.

Some counsellors start getting a camp down the road from Crystal Lake ready for the Summer season, but a couple of pesky kids can't help but nose around the old camp where all those kids where killed 5 years ago. Guess what they find there? Friday the 13th Part 2 starts with Adrienne King, uninspiring final girl from the first movie, on the phone to her parents. She reassures them she’s fine, and then tells them about the ordeal, accompanied by a set of budget appeasing flashbacks, including the infamous decapitation of Mrs Voorhees (and why not?) But what’s this? Whose workman like trousers and boots are those? Eh, oh, what’s that, a swift ice pick to the temple and it’s goodbye Adrienne? This immediately raises a bunch of questions - questions which are never truly answered, but are theorised upon later in the film, mainly by new final girl Amy Steel. She’s a psychology student and later discusses that Jason must have lived in the woods and watched his mommy die at the end of the first movie. But if that’s the case, how come she thought he died of drowning? If he didn’t die of drowning and he watched her killing people in the first movie, why didn’t he, you know, say hello? Who was that boy at the end of the first film in the water? Surely, the boy grabbing the last survivor in the boat paved the way for the sequel, but that was just a boy and this is a grown man we have here offing her? And if all that is true, is one of the most famous movie franchises in history really the story of a wild deformed hermit killing campers in revenge for them killing his mother, which in itself is revenge for the campers letting her son die, who didn’t really die? Um, how many movies? Well, in 1981 nobody seemed to care about that technicality so there’s no point worrying about that now. Despite that hiccup, the first Friday sequel is actually a great little slasher movie with much more going for it than the original. Doing away with the kooky “Oh it’s you!” POV shots in favour of what we now know as a more conventional stalk and slash style, Friday the 13th Part 2 whips along at a much neater pace. The cigarette packet plot is simple but effective. It’s 5 years since the massacres at Crystal Lake and, while that’s closed down, another camp is opening up just down the road. The usual bunch of camp counsellors arrive filling all the stereotypes nicely and they get to work, until one of the girls talks her boyfriend in to checking out the closed Crystal Lake down the road. They’re caught by the local cops and bought back, but they inadvertently lead a hungry for revenge sack head wearing Jason Voorhees with them. After taking out the sheriff and Crazy Ralph (the “You’re doomed!” guy from the first movie) he sets to work stalking the counsellors, and it all pretty much comes to a head a couple of nights later when half the group head in to town to a bar, and the rest get sliced and diced by our man Voorhees, until final Girl Amy Steel and boyfriend are first back, just in time for a Friday The 13th Part II - Movie Trailer

Lana Del Ray: Summertime Sadness - Song Meaning

Lana is kissing goodbye "the best" she ever had. She has to move on and this brings her sadness. For whatever reason, she still remains the one person that's hung up on love, and this might be unrequited love, forbidden love, impossible love or her love is moving away and or leaving for unknown circumstances. The red dress could be an indicative that she is still "dressed up with passion", meaning her feelings for this person are still alive and they are tormenting her in a good way. Regardless, she still wants to have a little bit more; maybe because when you are captured by such passion, you just can't have enough.

Pretty sexy and sensual way to say, I miss you, I still want you, I know you are leaving, I'll carry on but I can't forget you.

Lana Del Ray: Summertime Sadness - Music Video

Hole: Celebrity Skin - Song Meaning

It's talking about how fake and glitzy Hollywood is and how everyone is selling themselves out ("Oh Cinderella, they aren't sluts like you"). I also think she is telling everyone to fuck off because she refuses to give into what the media wants her to be, hence "Oh make me over, I'm all I want to be...You want a part of me? Well, I'm not selling cheap."

Hole: Celebrity Skin - Music Video

The Fray: All At Once - Song Meaning

I’ve been listening to this song and singing it in my head all the time these past few days. Here is my take on it:

“There are certain people
You just keep coming back to
She is right in front of you.
You begin to wonder
Could you find a better one
Compared to her now
She's in question.”

Theres those certain people that you keep liking, even though you won’t get them. Maybe they are taken.. maybe they just aren’t right for you. You are so obsessed with those types of people.. that you don’t even realise that the person for you is right in front of you. You could have them, they are perfect for you… they just might not be the typcial person you would like. You are afraid.. you wonder, if there is a better one out there. You think you could do better. But really.. you can’t. Not that you can’t do better, it’s that, this person is great, there is no need to do better.

”And all at once the crowd begins to sing
Sometimes the hardest thing and
The right thing are the same.”

It would be hard to give this person a chance, because people would think it was weird. And you are afraid.. it would be so hard to give it a try. But, it’s right.

”Maybe you want her
Maybe you need her
Maybe you started to compare
To someone not there.”

Maybe you do want them. You probably need them. But you keep comparing them to the person you think you want. All the things you want in someone. But that person isn’t there. They aren’t real. This one right in front of you is though, so stop comparing them to people who you don’t even have a chance with, because you can have this.

”Looking for the right one
You line up the world to find
Where no questions cross your mind.
But she won't keep on waiting for
You without a doubt
Much longer for you to sort it out.”

You are looking everywhere for that person where you don’t have to question if you like them or not. You don’t want to have to question.. you aren’t sure about this person. But, they sure aren’t going to keep waiting for you while you make up your mind wether you are going to give them a chance. They will move on if you don’t make up your mind.. and you will be missing out. 

”Maybe you want it
Maybe you need it
Maybe it's all you're running from
Perfection will not come.”

You are scared of what this relationship might bring. It’s so different, that you are scared. So you are running from it. But, nothing is perfect. You aren’t going to find a perfect love.. go for it. Stop running away from them.

”And all at once the crowd begins to sing
Sometimes
We'd never know what's wrong without the pain
Sometimes the hardest thing and
The right thing are the same.”

If you weren’t capable of feeling pain, you would never know anything was wrong. I don’t really understand this one though. I want to…

”Maybe you want her
Maybe you need her
Maybe you had her
Maybe you lost her to another
To another.”

If you don’t go for it, if you don’t stop being scared of what people are gonna think, if you don’t stop running from it.. they are going to give up on you and move on to someone else.

The Fray: All At Once - Music Video

The Sunshine Underground: Borders - Song Meaning

I think the song is basically this guy has tried to have a relationship with this girl but its got to the stage where they should be close and he doesn't feel he can ever really get close to her because she keeps her borders up.

Its him trying to explain that some people have it worse off and she can't cling onto her past and keep shutting people out. The last verse thing, I think is him saying that he has to say it because otherwise they will just be tip toeing round the subject and he just wants to let her know because he wants to help her lower her borders and let him in. And the end bit is him giving up, he believes that she never cared and thats why she wouldn't let him know her better.

The Sunshine Underground: Borders - Music Video