February

I know we're nearly at the end of March now and this post is rather delayed but February is something worth talking about.

It was definitely one of, if not the most, busiest months of my life.

Mostly, that came in the form of the film festival. This is what the whole point of my film group has been - preparing and getting ready for the festival.

We had the youth film festival, and the full festival followed on after that.

As a member of the group, I was lucky enough to receive free tickets for most films and over the period of both festivals, I saw 24 films. 23 being festival films, and one outwith that (The Woman in Black)

This was over a period of about 2 weeks. Was really emotional at the end having to say goodbye to everyone because I really came to love the group in the final few months. Will hopefully be going back next year, though!

But honestly, by the end of the festival, I was exhausted. (Did I mention that the festival took place at the same time I was sitting my mock exams in school?) Going into town every day was mad. Kinda lonesome as well since I didn't really go with anyone. I did meet a lovely, fellow film-goer called Simon however who I went to see a few films with.

My highlights would have to be: The Muppets, our premiere, that I actually introduced dressed as Kermit the Frog; a day I saw In the Family (a lovely LGBT film) followed by Wild Bill where I met director, Dexter Fletcher and actor, Will Poulter who you may know from Son of Rambow; and finally, a screening of Billy Connolly's Big Banana Feet. A 70's documentary on the man himself and only 1 print exists in the world.

Was the strangest seeing that. It coincided with Liverpool's Carling Cup final so I was sitting for the first part of the film on my brother's phone following the text commentary. Thankfully, we won (on penalties!) and the film was great. Went with my dad and brother.


It wasn't just the film festival that kept me busy, though. Still had a concert at the end of the month. Our Advanced Music class; another event we had been building to over the past few months.

It went great. We played 22 songs, hired a professional sound engineer and got to play some cracking music to a great crowd. We pretty much sold out the school. About 200-250 people.

I've never heard my bass playing sound so huge. It was routed through two sub-woofers and the sound engineer told me that he made it only a fraction of what it could have been o__O

I played bass for 19 of the 22 songs but started on guitar, although a few songs in, we played Sultans of Swing by Dire Straits (back on bass) and since only 5 of us out of the 20 people in the class were required, we stood up to play it (sat for the rest) The odd thing is that I wasn't really that nervous... we had only started practising it a few days before as well and there we were, just the five of us playing it live to such a crowd.

Maybe I just knew it would go well. Josh was on drums and he's a fantastic drummer so I knew he wouldn't mess up. He knows the song inside-out as well. Alex was on guitar and he's fantastic as well. Pulled off Mark Knopfler's solo with ease. It just went really well, as did the rest of the concert.

I've definitely caught the bug of performing live. That's only the 5th time I've played live music to a crowd, the previous 4 also being with my music class before Christmas, but this was the biggest and I loved it and I really want to do it again. Just don't know when or if I'll get the chance.
That's why the concert was so monumental.
There are a fair amount of people in the class who do perform live and will again on a fairly regular basis, but a good chunk of us knew this could be our one and only time so we all gave it everything and it was an absolutely wonderful experience. It gives me such a strange pleasure that I've never felt before. Just really something else. Here's the set:

Last Friday Night - Katy Perry (On guitar)
5 Years Time - Noah and the Whale
True Colours - Cindy Lauper
Sultans of Swing - Dire Straits
I Wish I Knew How It Would Feel to Be Free - Nina Simone
Set Fire to the Rain - Adele
Someone Like You - Adele
I Don't Feel Like Dancin' - Scissor Sisters
Everybody Hurts - REM (On guitar)
Swallowed in the Sea - Coldplay
One and Only - Adele
(Interval)
Walk of Life - Dire Straits
Brothers in Arms - Dire Straits
Fix You - Coldplay
All Bets Are Off - Narina Pallot
Dog Days Are Over - Florence and the Machine
Knocking On Heaven's Door - Bob Dylan (On guitar)
She Belongs to Me - Bob Dylan
Make You Feel My Love - Adele (Bob Dylan cover)
One Day Like This - Elbow
(encore)
Hey Jude - The Beatles
With a Little Help From My Friends - Joe Cocker (The Beatles cover)



February was, in many ways a culmination of months of build-up. In both the film group and the music class we had been working towards this month since about August of last year. I'm glad it's over because it was hectic but I'm sad at the same time because it was like nothing I've ever been through. It was magic. It's a month that I will look back at in many years and just remember so clearly and vividly as being one of the best of my life.


Rowan <3







I think Joe Cocker's version is a fantastic cover (hardly a cover really) and I'm honestly quite surprised we managed to pull it off since it's pretty difficult to perform as a group - 6/8 time signature. Lots of concentration required but such fun to play and a true concert closer :P

The Muppets

This evening, I had to introduce an advanced screening of The Muppets!

For US folk saying it's already out - It comes out in the UK on Friday but the lovely cinema I attend for my youth group managed to get a showing of it early as the start of our youth film festival.

Now, I'm not a great speaker so when we were being asked to speak before films I just asked if I could do the first one to get it out the way with. Just so happened that the first film was a sold out screening of The Muppets :P

It's been on the cards for a few weeks now and I'd have posted sooner but I've been busy and broken laptop so yeah...
Got to credit my mum though. We were asked to dress up and since I was one of the speaker's, I had to be Kermit the Frog, whose costumes aren't great online and are quite overpriced. So my mum put a lot of effort into making a Kermit head and getting green gloves and socks (just did black suit Kermit, not full green) and it would seem that everyone loved it. We walked on to rapturous applause.

The speeches went well according to my mum. Three of us spoke and apparently, I only sounded nervous at the very start although i know for a fact I mixed up my words towards the end but whatever, the speeches were mostly to show off the costumes :P
Forgot to mention, I brought my banjo along for added Kermit effect ;D

Now the film. I can't honestly claim to be a massive Muppets fan. Obviously, I know of the Muppets (who doesn't) but I've not watched a lot of them. Although, I have watched their first three films in preparation of this and I've seen Christmas Carol years ago but I really enjoyed this new one.

Basically, their old theatre is getting knocked down and a new Muppet (Walter) goes out of his way to get The Muppets back together to save it while some soppy love story between Jason Segel and Amy Adams goes on in the background. Well, I say background but the pair are in it far too much for such an average story. It would have been a lot better had it just been The Muppets trying to save the theatre without the two.
Honestly, at times I thought the movie could have been called Jason Segel + The Muppets.

But The Muppets themselves redeem it, of course. It's great to see all the old, loved characters back. Every scene that's just The Muppets is great, funny and charming. The new Muppet is fine as well. Nowhere near as annoying as Segel or Adams (who remind me of Seth Rogen and Zooey Deschanel, respectively. Bleugh)

One thing that's always a fantastic extra to The Muppets is the cameos and they don't disappoint here at all. Apart from one, and I'm sure you'd agree if you've seen it. I won't give away the rest, though.

Anyway, anyway. There's much more to love than hate about the film and I would definitely recommend going to see it. Just try and pay more attention to The Muppets than the human actors, which is what The Muppets should always be about! The same applies to Muppets' love plot being between Kermit and Miss Piggy, too.


But yeah, I'm mostly glad my speaking is out the way. I don't have to introduce any more films, I can just sit back and enjoy the festival itself and damn, I have a lot of films I want to see!


Rowan <3