What is this blog all about?

The main purpose of this blog is to give an overview of the things I do, in my everyday life, in order to improve my English. Since I am a very lazy person, I mostly read, and watch movies, and do things which make it possible for me to improve my vocabulary, my grammar and my accent without getting bored... So this blog is going to be about the books I read, the movies I watch, and some other things which I find relevant (or not)...

I hope you'll like it! Don't hesitate to leave comments if you have any suggestions concerning what I should write about!!

mardi 29 janvier 2008

How wonderful life is...

Well, reader, now that Sweeney Todd is out, I can write my post about my five favourite cinema musicals. Indeed, now, musicals are hype, and I have no reason to be ashamed. At least not right now, because you haven't read my list yet. Wait a second, and you shall see... Anyway, I thought it would be important to write a post about musicals, because they are one of my favourite kinds of movies. Make them sing, and I'll like the movie, it's nearly a guarantee. Even if they don't sing well, even if the music is terrible and the story even worse, I'm going to like it. Or at least to sit through it. It's just that it makes me wish my life was the same way...

You know, as in that Buffy episode (Once More With Feeling). The whole town is possessed by a demon who makes everybdy start singing random songs. I love it. I wish we were allowed to start singing random songs all the time for all kinds of pretexts, and no one would look at us as if we were weirdos. I never tried, but I can imagine what it would look like if I got up on my desk in the middle of my french-to-German translation class and started bellowing "girls just wanna have fun" at the top of my voice. Or "lonely, I'm so lonely", on the street at night, coming back home from the train station... Supposedly, Johnny Depp would start singin the same song in L.A. and we would end up making a wonderful duet without even knowing it... Hmmmm... I wish...

5. Grease. Ok, now I'm ashamed. But come on, it does rock, doesn't it? They dance, and they sing, and they're very good at improving my mood, and their dresses are actually coming back into fashion nowadays! The return of dotted fabrics and yellow leather jackets (!)... I would actually give up the terrible "sad" love songs by Olivia Newton John. They are terrible. Like yellow leather jackets.

4. Might well be "Music and Lyrics". That was god fun too. I liked the fun part. I'm a fun-loving person, actually. And also, I must admit, I like Hugh Grant. I know, I know, that's not very original, as 50% of the population likes Hugh Grant (the other 50% are male). So yeah, Music and Lyrics would come 4th.... here comes the backside tag... :D
3. Once, I guess. I really loved that movie. But I already wrote a post about it, so I'm going to leave it at that. It was really great, though...

2. Number two would be Singing in the Rain. A classic, with Gene Kelly and Debbie Reynolds (she's Princess Leïa's mother, in real life, how could anyone not like her??). Even now, when I watch the "Make them Laugh" sequence with Donald O'Connor, I just can't help laughing. And also that blond gal who keeps saying "What do you think I am, dumb or something?" (Well, it really doesn't sound as good when it's written down). Anyway, it's really good fun, and the music's nice, and it makes you feel like tap-dancing. Besides, when it's grey outside and it's been raining for days on end, you can think about that mythic sequence with the post light, and it helps cheering you up.

1. Incontested first would be, of course, Baz Luhrman's incredibly great musical Moulin Rouge! with the greatest music ever, without which I might never have known Ewan McGregor's incredible talent and beautiful set of teeth. He's got such a voice!!! But apart from him, the movie is really great, the music is original (even though nearly all songs are remixes (if you can call them that))... Incredible people are involved in the soundtrack, by the way, like Bono, Beck, David Bowie, Fat Boy Slim... and also it makes you cry, and cry, and cry rivers. That Baz Luhrman, really... I which he would shoot more!!

Anyway. As you might have noticed, I have not included any Indian movies in there, though I'm a huge Bollywood fan. I wouldn't have known where to put them, in my top five. Would have made everything too difficult to rate, and besides, it would have been unfair competition. Well, reader, I'm going to have to get back to work, now, cause I'm such a good girl. I wish you a very nice day! The hiiiills are aliiiiiive....

lundi 28 janvier 2008

Hello hello... I don't know why you say good bye, I say hello...

Ah, reader! How weird! It's still my blog, but it's not my blog anymore! The adress has changed! (you might have noticed, I suppose...) Yeah, I figured, after a while, it would be a good idea to be a little more anonymous, so now, in case you don't know me personally, you're not allowed to know my surname.

I'm sure you're broken-hearted, imaginary reader who doesn't know me personnally. My huge fan club is going to be really sad. I hope the suicide wave induced by the sudden disappearance of my previous adress won't be too terrible. I'm already feeling guilty...

Anyway. So here we are, now, on bloodyblunder.blogspot.com. I thought it would be a good idea, as it is a reference to something silly but not too much, and still has to do with my learning English and hunting all these Bloody Blunders...

Well, that's pretty much all I have to say today, so I'm just going to stop writing now, and start working, for a change...
:D Here you go. Something I could not really write on my previous adress...

Have a nice day!

lundi 21 janvier 2008

We will rock you

Well, reader, yesterday was my second day back at the university! Nice to be active again, nice to have to wake up for a purpose!

Well, I'm not going to lie, of course, I curse my alarm clock in the morning, and I'm sick as well, which did not help, but well, still, it's nice to get back to some work! I went to the university by car by the way! I'm so glad I got my driver's licence, really! It's weird, driving when you're sick... I don't quite hear things in the same way as usual... and trying to blow my nose on the highway ended up to be pretty... well, OK, that's gross, let's change the subject...

I had a little accident coming today, by the way... I drove into the sidewalk, lost a wheel-cover, and drove on it, so as to be REALLY sure we could never use it again. Then I felt really silly. Anyway. So much for my very interesting adventures...

I'm writing this post today, because, big news, I am going to change the adress of this blog, in order to be a little more discreet about who I am (even though I am aware of the fact that NO ONE cares about who I am...) The only problem is, I have ridiculous ideas about what to choose, before the .blogspot.com. And yes, I am also aware of the fact that NO ONE cares what the exact adress is. But still.

I thought about "muchadoaboutme.blogspot.com", which is a little magalomaniac, and already taken anyway. So I tried muchado.blogspot.com, but it doesn't sound to good, and it's already taken too. I guess I must have an un-original mind...

So I'm writing this post today, reader, so that maybe you can give me some ideas! I'm at a loss, really, so if you have any, feel free to comment. Besides, it might happen that I absolutely don't ever change my blog's name, because it's MY blog, and I don't want it to change, but well, you never know, I'm always stressed out about someone googling my name and ending up on my post about how I can't get to work because I'm lazy and things... You never know. (I always day-dream about people googling my name, it's weird... Maybe it's because I looove googling people's names myself...)

Have a nice day!!

PS: This post was originally suposed to be about A Knight's Tale, but I got the news of Heath Ledger's death this morning, and it all suddenly seemed ironic. I don't feel entitled to speak about it, but I feel bad about not mentionning it, so I settled for these few lines: I feel really sorry, and wish I could have seen plenty of other movies with this very good actor.

samedi 19 janvier 2008

Almost Happy

Well, reader, I did it again. I've got a weird curse on me, I think it's related to the one that makes me eat everytime I watch CSI... I know it's going to make me pukey, and I still decide to eat, generally gross things like broccoli with tomato sauce or anything vaguely brain-looking... It's weird. Maybe I should write a book, like "Lose Weight With CSI"...

K's Choice is a brilliant Belgian group, about which I don't know much, but that they wrote one of the best albums currently on my player (Yeah, I know, reader, it did not have much competition, what with Abba Gold, the Spice Girls, and Shakira, har har har... it's easy to make fun.)

As I was saying, it's one of the best albums I have, but it's also one of the most depressing. And everytime I'm blue, I listen to it, and it makes everything even worse. I know it's going to make me sad and depressed, and yet, I can't help it.
But I still wanted to tell you about it, because it's such a brilliant album. Besides, it's not really depressing, if you look at it properly. Some songs are actually all the opposite. But those songs which are depressing REALLY get you down. (-I refer here to "Shadowman" and the bonus track -which should be delivered with a pack of Lexomil...)

Anyway. I don't think I'm making such a good advertisement for the album, but really, it's beautiful and you should listen to it. The "Almost Happy" one is the only one I've ever heard, but I know there are others, maybe more rock'n'roll, I guess. Oh, and they wrote the great "Virgin State of Mind" song, which is also in the soundtrack of Buffy the Vampire Slayer.
There we go, reader ! That's about it for today! I hope that you're doing good, and I'm going to the kitchen see if I find a truckload of chocolate... Dream on... Well, I guess I'm just going to keep pestering Bernie till I find something to cheer me up ! YouTube, here I come !!

jeudi 17 janvier 2008

Here you are...

Wouhou, reader!!

Guess what? Wonderful news today!! I'm writing this post live from Bernard! Bernard is my brand new computer, he's beautiful, he's glamorous, and after undergoing a weird voodoo ceremony orchestrated by the Orange-preistess, he's connected to the World Wide Web, the most beautiful invention since the toasting of humanity's vert first marshmallow. (Bernard's real name is Vostro, he actually comes from another planet, with state-of-the-art technologies, but where people don't have teeth and only communicate by making puking noises. He's so pretty that he really needed to escape his own planet, and I changed his identity so that he'd never have to go back.)

So here's a thank you post to all who contributed to the arrival of Bernie here on my desk, which include Vincent, Marion, Françoise, my parents, and my grand-parents. Here's a special word for Vincent, who tried very very hard to save Bernie's predecessor, without success. It seems she did not survive the many hours of blogging and series-watching she had to endure while I was in Graz. Did I mention to you that I could use her as a microwave ? It got so hot sometimes that I could defrost bread with it. Anyway... Thank you for trying, and for helping with the choice of the newcomer, which is extremely cool.
Apart from that, there's nothing new, but this is already BIG news as far as my blogging career is concerned. I have to go now, because as usual, I should be working instead of writing posts, but this one really couldn't wait... So thanks again, to all concerned, and to you, reader, for reading this post until the end!

Have a really nice day!

dimanche 13 janvier 2008

Fly High

Still not much to talk about, no passionating movies, still reading the same book, still no classes, still bored... But well, at least I catch up on my sleep, which is just as well. Might help me start a brilliant second semester !

I just wanted to tell you a little about my cousin's blog-s (I already wrote a little about one some posts back)... she openend a brand new one to tell people about her new project, (she's brilliant, and things are just getting better and better, so I thought I'd tell you to go have a look!!)

Well, here's the link, and it's in my blogroll too (Black VelvetProject), so I hope you'll enjoy!! (No illustrations for this post, for a change, since you'd better just go and have a look for yourself!!)

Have a nice day!!

PS: I don't even know the song of today's title, so I suppose I'm not entitled to use it (ha ha, reader, how funny... not entitled to use this title... no? Not funny? All right then. It's just getting late is all...), but well, we'll call it a "clin d'oeil", and pray for forgiveness.

mercredi 9 janvier 2008

Bloody Blunder

I'm kinda bored, reader... I've been on holidays for two weeks now, and it's going to go on till the 21st of January. I know I shouldn't complain, because I'm going to complain again about having to go to the university pretty soon, but however, I'm young and healthy, and I think I should be doing something else than sleeping until noon and watching TV. Depressing. Besides I should be a little solidary and think about my poor friends who have exams everyday now. Good luck everybody! I'm sure you'll do great!
Anyway, I thought about telling you about Invasions today, because I watched the two first episodes and it's got a cute heroe, and it's kind of interesting, but it's a bit bland, really, so I thought I'd better write the answers to the books-questionnaire my sister answered a few weeks back. I hope that you'll like it.
Sooo... Let's start with 4 books from my childhood...
-Homecoming, by Cynthia Voigt. Brilliant. Still one of my favourite books in the world, even though I read it when I was little.
-Little House in the Prairie. Had a fancy to Laura Ingalls and her blind sister. That is more difficult to explain today, but still.

-"Ma vie a changé" by Marie Aude Murail. A book about a divorced woman and her son who adpot a house-elf. That was before Harry Potter, so the elf is beautiful and winged. Really good, funny and... well, really good.
-Lassie. Yes. The book about the dog. I read it a lot when I was a kid. I don't think this book list is going quite as well as I would have wished, really...
4 books from my teens...

-Jane Eyre. Oh yeah.
-Pride and Prejudice... Yeas, I know, no points for originality, but hell, I was asked for the truth, raised my right arm and said "Je le jure"... (Do they actually say "I swear" in America? Sounds really weird...)
-The Princess Bride. Already told you about this one, again and again. Brilliant book. Not overly clever, but really really good.
-Monsieur Malaussène, by Daniel Pennac, mostly because it's so funny. And because of the characters.
4 books I read recently (Yeah, It's supposed to be 4 books from when I was a student, and then 4 books I read recently, but as I am a student now, I guess I'm entitled to make little changes...)
-The Cider House Rules (John Irving). Might well be the best book I've ever read, though it's probably not my favourite.
-Dracula. Did not like this one much either, but it still prevented me from turning the lights out, which hasn't happened too often with other books. I read it in Dublin( did you know that Bram Stoker was Irish, reader? He seemed not to like the fact much, and did not advertise it, but still! He's from Ireland! Doesn't that make a big change in your life??), and I kept checking under my bed and stuff, and I had to wait until I was nearly asleep before I turned the lights out, otherwise I started thinking some stuff was after me, and it was terrible. Whatever.
-A Suitable Boy, by Vikram Seth. "Read it once, and it will keep you company for a lifetime", it said at the back. Very accurate description. But you do need a lifetime to read it once...
-Devdas, by Sarat Chandra Chatterjee. One of my biggest shocks, litterature-wise. Still haven't gotten over it. A FISHING ROD!!! A FISHING ROD!!! He HITS her with a FISHING ROD!!!!!!!!! (That's a bad shock, by the way, as well as a bad book, and you should not read it. Watch the movie. Watch the movie. It's a much better move.)
There you go. A list of books. I guess I forgot more than half of what I wanted to put in it, and if you ask me tomorrow, you'll have a different result. But well, there you go! My book list! A movie lst would be waaaay easier... I'm going to think about it... I haven't been making many lists here lately...

Have a nice day, reader!!

jeudi 3 janvier 2008

Aaja Nachle \o/

I love Bollywood, Reader, it makes it so much easier for me to find titles for my posts...

Anyway, as you might have guessed, this post is (once again) going to be about the latest movie I watched. The said movie being a Bollywood musical, called Aaja nachle (come on and dance), and starring Madhuri Dixit and Kunal Kapoor (also sometimes called hmmmmmm Kapoor, and filling at least three of my most important criteria for getting my phone number: he's three feet tall (at least!!), very very handsome, and he probably likes curry. He has been seen with a golden cape, but I must say his use of it was not nearly as impressive as Gerard Butler's mastery in The Phantom of The Opera. Besides, he plays in Rang de Basanti, which is morally wrong (I'm not kidding, there). He still deserves his picture here, however. And the "backside" tag for this post... It must be mentioned however that his pet-name is Kunnu, which is ridiculous as such, but even more ridiculous if said with a French accent (double backside tag for this post.) I'm going to stop talking about Kunal Kapoor, now. Promise.

So, Aaja Nachle... It's a movie about a woman who's trying to save an old monument in her indian hometown of Shamli, by winning a bet she made with a man who wants to build a mall in its stead (in stead of the old monument.) (Following, Reader? I have a feeling this post is not quite as clear as it should be...) (maybe I should stop using brackets, really, I don't think it helps...) Of course, it works, of course, it's not very original, but the soundtrack is really good, and the dancing is amazing, and the actors are... (CRAP! I said I wouldn't!!!)
Let's start again. The scenario would not win any originality prize. Nor would it win any prize at all, now that I come to think of it. It is, however, a really good movie, with cool dialogs, and as I said, Madhuri Dixit plays in it, which is a sufficient condition to make me watch it twice. You might remember Madhuri Dixit from Devdas, if you have seen it. If you haven't you should be watching it now, not reading some stupid blog. Except if your name starts with an MAR and ends with an ION, cause then you have the DVD.

Madhuri Dixit, in Devdas, plays Chandramukhi, the prostitute. She's the one that looks like she is alive. As opposed to Aishwarya Rai (Paro) who's the one who looks like she's unbearably beautiful and must come from another planet. Madhuri Dixit, on the other hand, is impossibly beautiful, and the most expressive dancer and actress that I've ever seen. She's really amazing, dancewise, and she can talk with her eyebrows. I wish I could.

Anyway. Aaja Nachle was a good Bollywood movie, the first I've seen in a little while, and really, if you have a chance, watch it. Kunal Kapoor will be grateful... And so will you, for the sight...

mercredi 2 janvier 2008

Glad tidings we bring...

Happy new year!!! Happy New Year! Love, health, money, fame, glory, riches, and anything you might wish for!! I don't know if you have made any resolutions for the new year, as far as I am concerned, I stopped trying, because I never keep them anyway. But good luck with them if you have, however!!

Today, I wanted to tell you a little bit about what I watched on TV yesterday, i.e. Dr Who. OK, reader, Dr Who is far from being perfect. For one thing, it might well be the ugliest TV series since "Xena, the warrior princess". Which is really really ugly. I watched some pieces of an episode of Xena today, and it's amazing how big a percentage of the dialogs is actually composed of screams and yells. You nearly need subtitles to explain what she really means... "Yaaaaah!" means "Don't touch my sweet Gabrielle, but "Waaaargh" means, "don't you touch my sweet Gabrielle". It's all very varied. Anyway. This post is not about "Xena the warrior Princess", even though there is a lot to say about her, it's about Dr Who. Where was I. Oh, yeah, bad things about Dr Who.
I never understand what's happening, and I never have any doubt that things are going to be OK, so the suspense is a little wasted. Also I hate his name, because when I try to talk about the show in French, I never know how to pronounce it. Comes out kinda like "docteur ouh" which is ridiculous.

But, even if I only saw three episodes so far, and never any one of them from beginning to end, I must say that Doctor guy, whichever weird-looking Englishman he's played by, has got something for him. I don't know if it ever happens to you reader, but sometimes, you watch something on TV, or at the cinema, and you think "I could fall in love with that character." Well, it was like that with Dr Who. Even though I hardly know him, and stuff. By the way, if you are a guy, and thinking about Scarlett J. right now, please, write me an e-mail, I have some stuff to tell you, about her naming her breasts and... well anyway, this post is not about Scarlett J. either (thank God for that). It's about Dr Who.
He was there yesterday (in my TV set, I mean, I'm not that crazy...), asking two different girls in two different episodes to follow him to the end of the world and stuff, and had it been me, I would have said yes, both times. Even though he's likely to be half my size and weigh less as me. Less than 5 movies-or-TV-characters spring to my mind when I think of people who have made me feel like that... Paul Bettany in Wimbledon, Nathan Fillion in Firefly (all episodes), Spike in Buffy the Vampire Slayer (can't remember the names of the episodes, there are too many of them) and also Denzel Washington in Much Ado About Nothing. It's not just about being good looking, and stuff, it's not even about the movie being great (as has been demonstrated by Dr Who), it's just some kind of feeling that I get sometimes. Weird.

Anyway. I have to go now, and annoy my sister, who's trying really hard to get some work done in spite of her being sick. It's my holy mission. Or maybe I'll just go bake some bredalas in the kitchen (weird how no one ever bakes bredalas in the bathroom...) in order to keep it up with the indigestion. Ah, the blessed post-Christmas days... That sweet taste of... no, OK. Well, reader, let me once again wish you all the best for the new year, truckloads of happy events, beautiful days, party and enjoy every 525 600 minutes of it. (Thank you, Rent, for sparing me the good half hour it would have taken me to actually count those...)