Christmas Tunes and Freedom

College broke up for Christmas today and words cannot express how happy that makes me. It's getting to the point where I really cannot stand to be in the place and the thought that I finally have some time to myself and don't have to get up at stupid 'o'clock is simply heavenly. There are so many people that I cannot stand to be around and I don't have to see them until next year!  Glorious! 

But anyhoo. This is supposed to be a cheery post full of Christmas joy and Yuletide happiness.

I really am looking forward to Christmas this year. The entire family is going to be home which consists of Mum, Dad, the sister, two brothers and the fiancée of a brother. It's all very exciting even though there will be precisely no room to move.

Here's the Ruddy household crimbo tree. 

Now, when it comes to Christmas shopping (or anything for that matter) I am rubbish. I always have so many ideas except that they never really materialise. I'm one of those people that have the very best of intentions and then never seem to get around to making them happen. Or I manage to get my Crimbo shopping done a week or two before christmas with a relieved sigh that I managed to finish it in reasonable time. But this year I have done precisely.... nothing. Not a single present has been brought or wrapped (which is the best part of Christmas shopping. I love me a good wrapping session) and I'm feeling pretty shame faced. 

Apart from the fact that I haven't brought anything, I have very limited funds to buy anything with. So I'm sorry if you're a member of my family/friend. You won't be getting anything lavish this year. 

But that doesn't matter. Christmas isn't just about the presents and one of the main things that I love about Christmas is the songs. Speaking of which, I  found an absolute gem this year from the Supereme Fabulettes with the video being directed by Boy George. Campness, scorned drag queens and christmas cheer. What more could you possibly want?! 

At my house, the musical selection at christmas isn't just your typical songs that are overly played around this time of year, I love the littler known ones. Stop the Cavalry by Jona Lewis is played and known, but I personally don't think that it's well known enough. It's such a good song and always gets me bobbing along. Jonas voice is so flat and deadpan that it just works even though it probably really really shouldn't. 

One of my all time favourite songs isn't really known at all. Hard Candy Christmas by Dolly Parton is a song from the 80s musical "The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas" (an incredible film, by the way. Dolly Parton running an old-timey whorehouse? Be still my beating heart) So technically it's not actually a christmas song and it's not the cheeriest of tunes, but it definitely reminds me of christmas and I only hear it at this time of year so to me, it is offically a crimbo tune. It's a slow and beautiful country ditty and Dolly sings it flawlessly. I love it. 

There really are a lack of good christmas tunes being released these days. Gone are the cheesy tunes that everyone pretends that they don't love but then belt out with the best of them. So I say down with cheap X factor covers.  Let us go back to the 80s and whack out some classic tunes that will be played in 30 years. Lets go all Wham! and have our 10's equivalent to Last Christmas.

I hope that you're all enjoying your build up to christmas! And if you're not then there really is no hope for you. Change your name to "Grinch" and go live in a mountain. 

M x 

Bitch Form

I am currently an 18 year old (19 on the 4th of January!! Don't forget it!) that is back at sixth form and officially a "year 14". I'm redoing my final year because I needed two more qualifications to get onto the course that I want to do at university - Public Relations. For those of you who don't know the English schooling system, sixth form is for those aged 16 - 18 and is called Year 12/Lower Sixth and Year 13/Upper sixth. I've probably not explained this very well but stay with me. Because I'm redoing a year and am (nearly) 19 not 18, I'm that little bit older and have had three years in sixth form, not the usual two. 

Now, I really like sixth form. We have a reasonable nice common room complete with kettle, microwave and pool table. We have (semi)comfortable seating and it's warm, which is the main thing. We no longer have to hang around outside like strays when it rains. That's always nice. I don't have a full timetable anymore so I have time to catch up on work or, more often, relax with a cup of coffee. But there is a big downfall to being cooped up with a load of people who very often don't get on; 

Sixth Form turns into - in the words of a friend of mine - "Bitch Form". 

In my year group, there were never really too many arguments. There was the occasional spat that kicked off, but it was never really anything big. People bitched about eachother - you're always going to get that - but I think that most of the time the bitching was about people that didn't go to the school any longer. We were a pretty harmonious year that got along as well as a group of people have little in common except that they just so happened to be born in the same year can.  What I've noticed in the year below me - the now year 13s - is that there isn't often a day that passes that someone's not bitching about someone else. I admit, I'm all for a little bitching and I'm not claiming to be a saint who never gossip, but I have never seen anything like I have this year. A group of people will be sat together perfectly happily and then one will walk away and be completely torn apart. Can someone please explain to me how that works? It feels as if you have to stay in your seat from the start of the day until the end or you're risking being absolutely slated because of what you're wearing/your weight/who you're friends with/what you did at the weekend. I know that's the nature of teenagers, but it was never like that in my year group so it's not very pleasant to hear. 

And then there are the intergroup wars. So-and-so hates so-and-so. He hates her because she hates him because he hates her because she said something about him three years ago. I just don't understand it. Different 'groups' sit acrosss from eachother and just stare eachother down despite never really talking to any of the people that they apparently despise. Whatever happened to don't judge a book by its cover? Or don't judge someone until you've walked a mile in their shoes?? Apparently it was thrown out the window along with love thy neighbour. 

Personally, I can't be bothered with the ridiculously petty arguments, name calling and mumbled insults that are dished out on a daily basis.

It's nearly Christmas. Let us spread some love, not rumours. 

In other news, my darling friend had her first exhibition of her uni work today (Good Luck Jess!!), my sister sent me some rather amusing photos that brightened up my day an unreasonable amount (see below) and I booked my driving test!! Word of warning : stay off the roads on the 31st of January 2013, people!! 

M x

Such larks. 

And for the love of god, does anyone know what this makeup brush does?! What's its use?! How does it work!? It's a flat fan! How is that productive?!

There's a Starman waiting in the sky...

This song has been stuck in my head since the moment I woke up this morning and because of it, I have done quite a bit of reading on the Ziggy Stardust story. For those of you who don't know, Ziggy Stardust was David Bowie's alter-ego in the 70's whos lifestory was (sort of) told through his 1972 album "The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars". 

In an interview with Rolling Stones magazine, Bowie expanded Ziggys story, explaining : 

The time is five years to go before the end of the earth. It has been announced that the world will end because of lack of natural resources. Ziggy is in a position where all the kids have access to things that they thought they wanted. The older people have lost all touch with reality and the kids are left on their own to plunder anything. Ziggy was in a rock-and-roll band and the kids no longer want rock-and-roll. There's no electricity to play it. Ziggy's adviser tells him to collect news and sing it, 'cause there is no news. So Ziggy does this and there is terrible news. 'All the young dudes' is a song about this news. It's no hymn to the youth as people thought. It is completely the opposite. [...]

The end comes when the infinites arrive. They really are a black hole, but I've made them people because it would be very hard to explain a black hole on stage. [...]

Ziggy is advised in a dream by the infinites to write the coming of a Starman, so he writes 'Starman', which is the first news of hope that the people have heard. So they latch onto it immediately...The starmen that he is talking about are called the infinites, and they are black-hole jumpers. Ziggy has been talking about this amazing spaceman who will be coming down to save the earth. They arrive somewhere in Greenwich Village. They don't have a care in the world and are of no possible use to us. They just happened to stumble into our universe by black hole jumping. Their whole life is travelling from universe to universe. In the stage show, one of them resembles Brando, another one is a Black New Yorker. I even have one called Queenie, the Infinite Fox...Now Ziggy starts to believe in all this himself and thinks himself a prophet of the future starmen. He takes himself up to the incredible spiritual heights and is kept alive by his disciples. When the infinites arrive, they take bits of Ziggy to make them real because in their original state they are anti-matter and cannot exist in our world. And they tear him to pieces on stage during the song 'Rock 'n' roll suicide'. As soon as Ziggy dies on stage the infinites take his elements and make themselves visible"

Bowie did actually "kill off" Ziggy with a final performance of Rock 'n' Roll Suicide in 1973.

I adore the lyrics to Starman and the whole idea of it. So beautiful. 

I'm a massive Bowie fan and regularly have a new favourite song of his, but for the moment it's definitely Starman. 

Just look at all that fabulous!

M x