What I'm Loving This Week

I haven't posted in a little while, due to exams and laziness. Exams are now over and I'm back in the blogging spirit. Hoping someone wants to read it. Hello?! Is there anyone out there? Calling all sentient beings!

Mmmmm'kay. Things I am loving this week. I might do this every week. If I remember. And find things to love.

The Shadow Line (BBC2 - Tuesdays)

I love this programme. The weird thing is, I'm not even sure why. There are times when I have absolutely no idea what's going on (lots of times, actually) and, 5 episodes in, I still don't know most of the character's names (I still call Gatehouse 'that guy with the hat'). But there's just something about it which pulls me in, and I've found myself on more than one occasion looking forward with excitement for the next installment in this 7-part series. Perhaps that can be chalked down to me not having a life, or maybe it's because this show is actually superb. More likely it's a bit of both.
The Shadow Line, in a nutshell, is about the blurred boundaries (okay, the shadow line) between good and bad, the police and the criminal underworld, et cetera, et cetera. After a drug lord called Harvey Wratten is murdered hours after he and his nephew Jay (a mental Rafe Spall) are mysteriously released from prison due to a Royal pardon thingy, both the police and Wratten's guys want to know who did it. Chiwetel Ejiofor is a copper who is more mixed up in all this drug business than he'd like to be, especially after finding a briefcase full of money hidden in his wardrobe - and to add to his frustration, he can't remember anything because there's a bullet lodged in his head. Christopher Eccleston is Joseph Bede, a guy who worked for Wratten but is pretty much the most likable character in the series. Having invested everything in Wratten's business to make it look legit, Eccleston wants to do one last big deal with another big drugs guy, Bob Harris, and then he's out because his wife is dying from early onset Alzheimers. Problem: there's a rumor that Bob Harris ordered the hit on Wratten. So poor Joseph has to deal with all this, the emotional stuff regarding his wife, and control the wild and unpredictably mental Jay Wratten. Oh, and there's a mysterious and sinister man in a trilby wandering around killing people - Gatehouse.
That is the short version, believe it or not. And some of that's probably wrong, it's hard to keep up.
I decided to watch the first ep of the show because the review in the magazine sounded good and I'll watch anything with Christopher Eccleston. I kept watching because the first scene hooked me (two coppers looking at Wratten's body, one not very pleasant - he turned out to be a bad cop - and no music in the background, giving it all an eerily silent feel). Then Gatehouse came along and got me even more hooked - I thought he was good, helping the driver of Wratten's car evade the police and the crazy Wratten Jr. who wanted to question him, and then he went and shot the poor guy and his mother and pregnant girlfriend too! Since then he's gone around killing all sorts of people - in a beautifully orchestrated and restrained scene in the last ep, he killed the motorbike-riding journalist poking around Ejiofor's character. You don't see the killing since both Gatehouse's car and the motorbike just disappeared into a dip in the road, then Gatehouse drives calmly away and the journalist is left sitting in the road beside the wreckage of his bike, looking almost alive until the trickle of blood down his face. Superb.
All in all, it's a convoluted, intelligent and tense thriller which is hard to keep up with, but who cares? The beauty is, you don't need to. You just need to enjoy the ride and assume everything will eventually become clear.

Music-wise, I'm all about Lady Gaga's latest album Born This Way this week. I love her, I absolutely adore this woman. Born this Way has nary a dull song. Yoü and I is my favourite track, at least in part due to the wonderful Brian May on the guitar. It's passionate, heartfelt, and one of the least messed-with (I don't know how else to put it) songs on the album, almost raw, a bit like Speechless on the Fame Monster. Judas and The Edge of Glory have me dancing around like a maniac and belting out the lyrics, and Born this Way and Hair make me feel all warm inside. All in all, it's a fab album and this week inspired an impromptu saucepan-dance from me while washing the dishes. Love it. What I hate, however, is the lazy comparisons people are making about Gaga's work. Like saying she copied Madonna. Why? Because they both had songs about the same theme, are both singers, and are both women? If people are going to criticize, they should at least do it well. Rant over.

My guilty pleasure this week has been chocolate waffles from Aldi. Had one for breakie this morning, stuck it in the microwave for twenty seconds and oh my god was it good. A zillion calories perhaps, but SO GOOD.

Finally, I'm all about the zarking amazing TV series on CBBC - Horrible Histories (Tuesdays, 5:15pm). If you are not watching this, why not? Don't tell me it's for kids. I'm seventeen. My little brother got me into this after the first series (it's now on it's third) and I know all the songs by heart and never miss an episode. IT IS AMAZING. Children's TV series tend to be... Well, let's face it, they usually suck ass. Especially ones trying to be educational. But Horrible Histories is an amazingly rare breed - in fact, I think it's in a league of it's own: a children's TV show which is both educational and more entertaining than most adult shows put together. It has
Horrible Histories, based on the best-selling series of books by Terry Deary (who features in every episode somewhere), is a mishmash of sketches, quiz questions, and impressive songs teaching you history with all the gory, weird and unbelievably true bits left in. I have learned more from this series than I ever did in 4 years of high school history. Sketches include historical takes on modern TV shows and adverts - Come Dine With Me, Wife Swap, a Gok Wan style 'Fashion Fix', Masterchef, and countless Cillit-Bang style item-promotions starting with 'Hi! I'm a shouty man!'. Pure genius.
I could talk about this show all day, and sometimes I do. Okay, so it's not always entirely historically accurate, and some of it is just speculation (but then again, so is a lot of the stuff in the history books). But it's amazing, and I dare even the most mature adult not to titter at it. You know when things say 'bringing history to life'? This is one of the rare things which achieves its promise. And in spectacular style.

LADY GAGA!!!!!

So.......... First thing you should know about me, I am a HUGE Gaga fan, a real little monster. I think she appeals to me so much because she's so individual, something I adore, and anyway her music is great. I LOVE GAGA!!!

Hero worship aside, the new album 'Born This Way' is out on Monday (!!!) and I'm in a real Gaga place right now. Expect more posting of this calibre on Monday btw. Anyway, I've been listening to songs from the new album all week, watched her fabulous set at Radio 1's Big Weekend on Saturday and was enthralled by her performance on the Graham Norton show last week. Let's face it, we love her as much for her crazy costumes and outlandish stunts as we do for her music right? Gaga is the whole package. So here is my countdown of my

TOP 5 FAVOURITE GAGA MOMENTS (so far):

5. Meat and Greet

At number five is the notorious "meat dress" Gaga wore at 2010's VMA's. Probably her most famous outfit to date, the outfit included a dress, headpiece, shoes and purse made of raw meat. My first reaction was disgust but then I came to appreciate how gutsy this outfit was (literally). People still talk about it months later (just look at me now!). And if Gaga was brave enough to walk around all night smelling like a slaughterhouse, she certainly deserved the publicity. Although I wouldn't have wanted to sit next to her!

4. Graveyard Shift

Gaga certainly made an entrance at Radio 1's Big Weekend last Sunday night. After arriving on stage half an hour late, by which time I was almost through the roof with excitment, she emerged froma coffin carried on stage by her dancers. As if that weren't crazy enough, when the lid came down, Gaga was wearing a pregnancy suit to perform the title track from her new album, Born This Way. An interesting juxtaposition of life and death - and definitely worth the wait.

3. Egg-cellent

At number three is another interesting stunt ahead of the release of the new album. Gaga arrived at this year Grammy's encased in a giant alien-like egg, which she was reported to have been 'incubating' in for THREE HOURS before 'hatching' on stage to perform her single Born This Way. The egg was carried down the red carpet by attendants. Gaga was nominated for 6 awards and scooped 3, but if there was an award for the best entrance she would definitely have left the other hopefuls with egg on their faces.

2. Bloody Good

I think the moment I realised how much I loved Gaga was when I first saw her performance at the 2009 VMA's. Mother Monster did a stunning performance of Paparazzi, towards the end of which she threw herself down at a piano for a frenetic bit of playing. Beautiful as that was, it wasn't until she rose from the instrument that the full effect of her perfomance was appreciated - a gasp eminated from the audience as they saw that Gaga was 'bleeding'. She stumbled across the stage, blood pouring down her bare stomach and staining her white outfit, clutching at the 'wound'. She fell down, and was encircled by her white-clad dancers who, after a bit of screaming, hoisted her into the air hanging by one hand, and the cameras clicked away until the very end. A stunning performance with a meaning - sacrificing yourself for art, the media 'eating people up' like hungry vultures, etc etc. Poignant, powerful and utterly amazing.

1. Ring-a-ding-ding

I love all of Gaga's video's but Telephone takes the biscuit. The day after this video was released, I was sat in Higher English when my teacher (a man who was a few months from retirement I might add) was talking about suspended disbelief or something like that in Kafka's 'Metamorphosis' when he said, as an example: "Last night I was watching TV when the new music video from a singer called Lady Gaga came on. She was in a female prison, and she and the other prisoners were dancing about in heels and lingerie. And I thought... I buy this." Aside from that, it's a fantastic video - if you haven't seen it (and why not?), it features Gaga going to prison where, after a quick lesbian kiss and an ingenious use for old coke cans as hair rollers, she is bailed out by Beyonce. They drive through America in a bright yellow Pussy Wagon, poison Beyonce's nasty boyfriend (and everyone else in the diner as well) and have a little dance amongst the corpses. It's genius. The costumes are fab, the song itself is pure Gaga-tastic, and the video features some real gems you'll be repeating for days to come - Beyonce: "You know Gaga, trust is like a mirror. You can fix it if its broken." Gaga: "But you can still see the cracks in that mother-fucker's reflection". Ring ring, it's for you Gaga - we love you!