Lana Del Rey

So this track blue jeans - I was not a fan when I first heard it and now I can’t get enough of it.  This song has grown on me so much and I think if they speed this track up and put it on a ‘bad’ house music beat this track would be a killer.  I heard a ‘Filthy’, ‘Dirty’ dub step mix of it on You Tube but I really think they need to make it a lot faster.   

It could be like the Nancy Sinatra track 'Bang Bang you shot me down' - that track on a house music beat was so amazing and I think they could have the same success with this.

It’s not just the track Lana Del Rey has also grown on me (no pun intended).  When I first heard her music, I didn’t understand what all the fuss was about but now I’m like a super fan (over-exaggeration but a fan).  Amazing how one track can change your opinion of a artist.

Here’s Blue Jeans;

This is the dub step track - wait for it to kick in; 

Bol

Recently I have rekindled my obsession with Bollywood movies and started watching all the new releases.  I was pleasantly surprised when I came across a film which was actually not from the Bollywood world, but from Pakistani cinema.  

The film was called Bol and is a must see for fans of Pakistani or Bollywood films.  This film is unlike old Pakistani movies and competes with best of Hollywood and Bollywood cinema. This film had me hooked from start to end and delved into many issues which affect not just Pakistani communities, but are big issues in Pakistan.  

The film revolves around a family who live in Lahore, a family mainly made up of a group of sisters and a son who is born with a boy’s body, but a female inside.  It starts off with all the sisters and their mother in jail and the eldest sister about to be hung to death for a crime.  She has asked for one last request before she is hung and that is to be able to tell her story to the press and her wish is granted.  She could possibly have saved herself if she had told this story earlier in the courts but she remained silent, there is one journalist who is trying to save her and the question is will she be successful? 

The story begins with her introducing her family background and the fact that she had left her marriage because she did not want to have children until her husband was financially stable.  A crime in the eyes of her in laws so she had moved back home, her father is not happy and rules the house with an iron rod.  The father battles to feed all his daughters and the thought of having a son who is not actually a son. The family go through a vast amount off issues which test them and in the end the father commits some dreadful crimes and before he commits another, his daughter kills him.  The final crime he was about to commit after killing his son and having an affair with a prostitute for money to pay off debt he had accrued was to kill a baby.  The baby was his daughter who he had with the prostitute.  

The story touched on so many issues wrong a right in modern day Pakistani including the role of women, the cast barriers we have, the war between Shia and Sunni Muslims, education for girls, love stories and should families keep trying for a boy when they can’t financially support the family they already have .  

This is a thought provoking film and even had me thinking where do i stand on these issues.  Check out the trailer below;

Joy Denalane

This song is so deep, I love every lyric and feel her everytime.  I am going to write all the lyrics so you can read them and then listen to this masterpiece.

Stranger In This Land lyrics

I was the daughter
Of a little known king
When they came
And put me in a castle
My eyes had never seen
They spoke in tongues
I've never heard
They took me to the sea
At the edge of the earth
I journied tempest waters
Reached these distant shores
My clothes are tattered
And my soul is worn
I bore a daughter
In captivity
They came late one night
To take her away from me
I cried and I cried
Oh, Lord have mercy on me
Can't they see
That little girl
Is royalty

[Chorus:]
I held my ground
And took my stand
Can't help
Feeling sometimes
That I'm a stranger
In this land
In this land of mine

My mother used
To cook and clean
For the rich folks
On the hill
Made sure
I got an education
And could hardly
Pay the bills
I studied
Schools of thought
And philosophies of man
Started questioning
The contradictions
In this land
I left the classroom
Joined the rallies
In the street
Marching hand in hand
In the Mississippi heat
I spent so many years
Of my life on the move
That confrontation
Was the only thing I knew
Talking unity and how
We gone push on through
Can't even say no more
If anything's improved

[Chorus]

I'm a family man
With a wife
And two kids to feed
I dedicated my life
To seeing we succeed
The way I sought to make it
I learned to follow the rules
So we can make sure
Our children visit
The finest schools
Grandmas on the weekends
Going on about the good old days
When decent black folks
Be trying to make a change
My parents used to tell me
To live my life steadfast
But some may ask me
What it is that I have

[Chorus]

My Birthday!

Yes that day is almost here again!!

Not long left now until I am another year older, I'm almost 27! The last few days of me being 26 are disappearing and this makes me sad :(

Other people get so excited when their birthdays come around and want to arrange big parties and gatherings.  I want to curl up into a corner and not leave my bed for the whole day, I dislike this day and have done since after my 21st birthday.  Before then I was one of those 'lets all get together its my birthday' type of people.

What is it that occurs after your 21st birthday that makes you hate the day? Before then I think your mind says to you that you will be young forever and your in this wonderful world of pre-adulthood.  Then after 21 you finish university and end up in the horrible real world (why isn't there a red pill like the one from the matrix which keeps you in the pre-adulthood world).  You have to get a FULL TIME job, leave you parents house, PAY BILLS!!!! (at birth i didn't sign up for this) and turn into one of those adults who told you; what are you wearing, why are you doing that, your friends are no good, you call that music, what is this film and why were you out so late.

Cut a long story short I'm 27 soon and I'm not looking forward to almost being 30!!

Brandy and Monica

The other day I was just skipping through TV channels and I saw two singers I used to listen to when I was younger.  These two very talented young ladies sang 'The Boy is Mine', which was played everywhere when it was released and was a really big track back in the 90's. To be fair the track is still big now and I still play it, yes you all know I'm referring to Brandy and Monica.  Now the ladies are back with their new track 'It All Belongs To Me', which can I say is awesome.  Check it out;

Both of these ladies are still very talented and their voices seem to have grown with them.  I always loved Monica's voice and I was a big Brandy fan.  I have Monica's tracks to don't get me wrong, but i have all of Brandy's albums and was a big fan of her show 'MOESHA'.  Me and my siblings used to some home and watch it on Nickelodeon everyday after school right after 'Kenan and Kel' and 'Sister Sister'.  I apologise, I loved Brandy in the show, but Kim was my favourite person because she was funny.  Please checkout a clip of the show below and the track 'The Boy is Mine'.

Rise Up

Got tweeted about this track and I must say I do like it - RISE UP - Check it out

Checked out some of his other tracks to - this guy is deep! The track below is emotional man, this boy talks truth!!

My Murder

So I missed this show when it was on TV, but some of my friends told me I should watch it.  I watched it on the internet on catch up and I must say it was one of the saddest things I have seen on TV in a while.

Firstly because of the innocent young life that was lost, to boost a ego.  I feel sorry for the mother who lost her son and now must live missing him forever.  I was shocked at the actions of the girl who lead him to be beaten up by her boyfriend, when the boy had done nothing wrong.

I was also saddened by the lost group of boys and the girl who committed the crime, it was sad to see so many young lives wasted and now these kids were going to have to spend the best years of their lives in jail.  Like poor Shaki these kids were going to miss so much for committing a senseless crime, but unlike Shaki they were still alive. 

The more I look around where I live the more groups like this I see forming.  I don't know where the aspirations for young kids have gone, where the thirst for education and desire to be better have disappeared to.  Don't get me wrong there are far more young kids who have aspirations and crave education than these kids who have joined this gang culture lifestyle, but they are put to a side and not celebrated.  These kids who cause trouble are given all the attention and all young kids a labelled with the same label.  We need to start celebrating our kids and making them realise they are special and more than just a number.  What they could become needs to be taught to them so they can look to the future.  These kids from deprived families need to see light at the end of the tunnel or we might lose a generation of good, bright, able teenagers.

Daniel Bartlam

Today much of the media headlines were referring to the case of Daniel Bartlam.  He has been convicted of murdering his mother with a hammer and setting alight to her body and the house.  He has been sentenced to 16 years and a judge has decided to lift the media ban of reporting the case.

Also many tabloid newspapers have labelled him the ‘devil child’ and said he is evil.

What I want to know is why did he plan to kill his mother?

Why would a 14 year old boy get the urge to kill his mother and cover his tracks?

If this child was so evil and such a horrible person why did he save his brother and the dog from the blaze he started?

I don’t agree with the judge’s decision to let the media report this case because if he did commit this crime because he was evil he is still only fourteen.  There is obviously a mental condition that needs to be addressed as a happy loved fourteen year old in my eyes would not commit such a crime.  Also he is only fourteen and I know the crime is awful, but still he is a child or a young adult.  This might be the ‘leftie’ in me coming out but still that’s my opinion.  There was media speculation that it was due to the violent TV and video games he was exposed to, but so are many other children and they don’t get up and kill their mothers.  It’s also true that this could have had a psychological affect on him which would also mean he had mental issues.

The other theory is that he was abused by his mother, in the guardian article I read it did say he ‘tried to say his mother was a bad parent’, so maybe there was systematic mental abuse he was receiving at home.  It says that other people said that she lived for her children and was a great person but no one knows what happens in the house.  The only people who will ever know are Daniel and his mother.  Because why would a child kill the one person who loves him the most in the world… ‘His mother’

I grew up in a happy house where my mother loved me more than life and I love her more than life and would never even think of committing such a crime.  Especially at 14 I was out playing with my friends or playing computer games, it was probably one of the happiest times in my life, I was care free and had dreams of becoming everything I wanted to be.

Also if this child was so calculated and evil at the age of 14, why did he save his brother and dog from the blaze surely he would have killed them to.  Surely there is some good in this child?

I don’t know if it is the optimist in me who searched for good in all people or my stupidity, but I can’t see a happy fourteen year old that has no issues mentally or with his mother killing her.  I am sorry I just won’t believe it, there must have been a reason. 

On the other hand he could be a killer, re-enacting what he saw on TV…