59 Day Countdown

As of today, it is officially 59 days until I leave for the big trip. You might be thinking, why 59, such an unusual number? Well I wish I had a cool reason but really it is just because I didn't have time to write this post yesterday when it was the 60 day countdown... so here we are at 59.

I am currently going at full speed getting everything organised; booking shows and tours,  buying adaptors and thermal underwear (I'm a practical traveller not a fashionable one), researching vegetarian places to eat, listening to artists playing the Austin City Limits Music Festival I am attending, and of course the most important thing, earning more money to pay for this massive holiday. 

But there is no amount of research I can do on the cities I will be visiting that will be as helpful as personal accounts and recommendations from people who have already been (or live) there. 
Whether it be restaurants, public transport tips, shows, museums, parks, tours, nice neighbourhoods or even areas to avoid, I would appreciate anything you can offer!

And it doesn't matter if you're a local or a traveller yourself, tips and suggestions for any of the places I am going to visit will be very useful.

Here are the cities (in alphabetical order) that I will be visiting on the big trip:

Austin
Amsterdam
Boston
Chicago
Florence
The Hague
Las Vegas
London
Los Angeles
Memphis
Nashville
Natchez
New Orleans
New York City
Paris 
Reykjavik
Rome
San Francisco
Seattle
Venice

If you have been to any of these places and have some wisdom to share, please comment below, I would love to hear from you!

Here is an interactive map of my journey:

5 Things

These past few weeks I have been feeling less than great. Between the incessant coughing and the rate that I go through tissues, it's safe to say that I am sick of being sick. 

As I have been spending most of my time holed up in bed/on the couch there have been a few things that have kept me entertained, as comfortable as possible and managed to put a smile on my unwell little face.

Here are five of those things:

1. This interview with Samira Wiley and Danielle Brooks from Orange is the New Black.

2. This book 

 3. Hot drinks: everything from hot chocolates, coffee, hot water and lemon, chamomile tea, English breakfast tea...

4. Warm, fuzzy socks: these are my Yankees socks that I got from New York

5. This song: A work colleague recently reminded me of Jose Gonzalez's brilliant cover of The Knife's Heartbeats and this remix is wicked.

~ Sophie ~

New Video: Orange is the New Black - Stay Alive

My life is made up of a series of obsessive phases. 

At any given stage I'll be obsessed with something; a movie, book, tea, cafe, song... right now it is a particular TV Show.

Orange is the New Black. 

And what comes with any of my obsessions is the desire to creatively express it; so here it is.

Enjoy!

TV Show: Orange is the New Black

Song: Stay Alive- Jose Gonzalez

June Ramblings

June is the month that officially marks the middle of the year. It is also the month when I start my senseless worrying, “What the heck have I done for these past 6 months?"; "Am I going to achieve anything in the next six months?"; "Why is life going by so fast?"; "What am I doing with my life?"... et cetera.

On a less depressing note, on the 15^th of June it was 3 months until the big trip, which is an equally scary and exciting thought. 

The rest of June was spent working and babysitting (what else is new?), catching up with pals and staying in my restorative niches (*a new term I learnt from a book listed below) which included writing, watching movies and TV shows and reading.

 
 
Movies

• The Seven Year Itch- A very funny Marilyn Monroe classic (i.e. subway grate, white dress), I found the humour to be almost ahead of it's time.
• The Woodsman- Colin Firth said that he believed Kevin Bacon's performance in this film to be the best performance in the past decade, so naturally I had to see what he was talking about. He is phenomenal.
• The Graduate- I have listened to Mrs. Robinson for as long as I can remember but never watched this film, safe to say I loved it.

 TV Shows

• Orange is the New Black (season 2)- Obviously I binge watched... and regretted it as soon as the last episode finished. Such an incredible show, this season did not disappoint.
• The Big C (seasons 1 and 2)- Who thought a show about a woman with terminal cancer would be so lighthearted and funny?!
• Final episodes of Game of Thrones (season 4)- I found the finale to be underwhelming but nevertheless enjoyed the final few episodes.

 Around town

• Dinner @ Jamie's Italian
• My mother and I had some serious bonding time over multiple morning teas @ The Espresso Room Tuggeranong
• Breakfast @ Local Press Cafe

  
 
Listening 

 

• Sam Smith's album In the Lonely Hour
• Lost- Leo Stannard
• Girls Chase Boys- Ingrid Michaelson
• Tomorrow is Gonna Be Better- Joshua Radin
• Don't Say- Hannah Cohen

 
 Sipping

•   RealChai

 
 
  Reading

• Quiet- The Power of Introverts in a World that Can't Stop Talking- Susan Cain (*mentioned above, restorative niches are described by Cain as places introverts can go to be themselves)
  
• The Picture of Dorian Grey- Oscar Wilde
  

Cooking

• Vegan Chocolate Chip Cookies- my favourite recipe
• June marked my first attempt at poaching an egg, and I have to say, it actually wasn't terrible. I served it on a toasted Turkish roll with feta, tomato, pomegranate and a balsamic reduction.

The Big Trip

•  My parents and I booked our train travel throughout Italy (we're visiting Rome, Florence and Venice, with a day trip to Pompeii somewhere in there)

Happy snap

 

Looking out over Tuggeranong at dusk after a day of rain.

Mantra

“If you can find a path with no obstacles, it probably doesn't lead anywhere.”

- Frank A. Clark

Until next month...

~ Sophie ~

Feature Movie of the Week: Funny People

I really was not expecting to like this movie.
I know that's not a very optimistic opening sentence but I feel that I need to emphasise how pleasantly surprised and quite frankly, shocked, I was as the credits rolled at the end of Funny People. I had loved it.
Don't get me wrong, I am a Judd Apatow (writer & director) fan, but sometimes his movies go a little bit too far for me and cross a line from the hilarious to the grotesque, but there was a very serious undertone and element of profundity to Funny People that I believe really sets it apart from his other films.

Adam Sandler plays George Simmons, a successful but very lonely comedian who finds out he has leukaemia. This discovery and the high chance that he is going to die soon leads him to return to the stand up comedy scene where he started out. This is where he meets Ira Wright (Seth Rogen) an aspiring stand-up comedian who, like most other comedians, idolises Simmons. George is impressed with Ira's routine and soon hires him as his assistant; someone to write jokes for him and basically just keep him company. The two form a very sweet friendship as Ira is one of the few people George tells about his illness and he consequently takes care of him through his treatment. It is through their friendship and Ira's influence over him that George re-connects with his estranged parents and lost-love Laura (Leslie Mann) who he never really stopped loving, although she is now married to Clark (Eric Bana) and has two kids. 

George Simmons

Am I not allowed to be happy 

or something? I've been living 

alone and alone and alone. 

That's my life. This is the 

only girl I've ever loved 

and I'm not supposed to do 

anything about this? When am 

I supposed to be happy? 

Why does everyone else get 

to be happy?

At it's core, Funny People is still a Judd Apatow comedy so expect plenty of hilarious moments, profanity and penis jokes throughout, but at the same time, the film does not shy away from it's dark subject matter. Cancer comedy films usually venture into cliched attempts to be inspirational, but Funny People isn't a cancer comedy. It is a film about a man's journey and transformation to be a better, happier person, about how illness changes people, about friendship, about unrequited love and about comedy and it's importance in our lives. 

And that is what makes Funny People a standout amongst modern comedy films.

Standout Performances

• Adam Sandler- Adam Sandler is a funny guy. Despite some questionable film and character choices in the past few years, he is ultimately an actor who can be very funny. But, despite this film's title, there is so much more to his performance than just 'funny'. It was so enlightening to see Sandler play a much more serious and concerted role that allowed him to flex his comedic muscles whilst concurrently showing off his dramatic acting chops as well. I was supremely impressed with his performance and I hope to see him to do more films like this in the future.

• Seth Rogen- I just love this guy, I don't know exactly what it is about him but I am captivated whenever he is on the screen. Despite his frequent performances in comedies, particularly Apatow comedies, Rogen has proven with some of his other film and role choices that he is a very versatile actor and can play both dramatic and comedic roles. Funny People is no exception to this as he is funny enough to keep up with Sandler, Hill and Schwartzman, but at the same time there is a softness and loveability that he brings to the character in the more serious moments.

• Jonah Hill and Jason Schwartzman- Playing Ira's hilarious buddies, Schwartzman an actor on the cheesy sitcom "Hey Teach" and Hill also an aspiring comedian. They give perfect doses of comedic relief throughout the film and their riffing off each other is incredibly entertaining.

• Eric Bana- Bana's accentuated Alpha male Aussie performance as Clarke is pretty  much what Australian's have come to expect from American scriptwriters, but I have to admit it really is a very funny performance. From showing off his Mandarin skills at the dinner table to explaining AFL to George and Ira, Bana does a splendid job at making this hyper-masculine, intimidating Aussie very loveable and hilarious.

Memorable Scenes

• When George's doctor (who has a thick Swedish accent) is telling him about his illness; it is too funny to explain so here is the clip:

 

• When Ira plays George some of the songs he is including on an iTunes playlist he is making for him because he says "Sometimes when I'm upset, music makes me feel a little better" (also a music moment, see below)
• George and Clarke's hilarious 'fight' towards the end of the film when Clarke finds out that George and Laura slept together. I say 'fight' because it is a pretty pitiful effort on all parts but it makes for very funny viewing. I also love the more dramatic moment after the fight when George asks Laura who she loves more, him or Clarke, and her response is Clarke, which was unexpected but I appreciated it because it was far more realistic.
• The final scene when George comes to see Ira at work and the two sit down at a table and make amense, it is a very sweet and cathartic moment

Music Moments

• James Taylor- Carolina on my mind 

• Keep me in your Heart- Warren Zevon

I would say this was the moment when this film struck a chord with me. The moment Keep me in Your Heart starts playing (the final song in the clip) it is so powerful purely in comparison to George's reactions to every other song, he isn't joking around anymore. George switches from messing around and making fun to being very contemplative and serious, and the looks on his and Ira's faces immediately grabbed my heart.

• Watching the Wheels (Acoustic)- John Lennon