New Moon Fever

I love that the whole Western World seems to have gone crazy for New Moon. Our local cinema sold out all the

showings a week before the film opened and added double the screens on opening night and sold them out in hours. Everyone I know is talking about it.

We’ve blogged the books and the first movie, Twilight, so it seems only right that I continue the tradition. And it helps that New Moon is epic.

This time around we have a new director, a hotter, buffer Taylor Lautner (playing Jacob Black) and a now world famous Rob Pattinson. It helps that both of these gentlemen spend a good portion of the film with their shirts removed. Thank you. I would also like to add that this blog entry is merely an excuse to post hot pictures of the aforementioned gentlemen.

Twilight has its moments of being good, but New Moon is genuinely exciting. The moment that Jacob (spoiler alert!) goes from being all goofy, long haired kid to super hot, intense werewolf man is very hot. Almost everyone I know is now Team Jacob which would have meant nothing to anyone a year ago.

Don’t get me wrong, guys will hate this film; but if you’re a female who is easily sucked into the latest fad (such as myself), then you’ve probably already seen New Moon, and are probably seeing it again. Soon.

Posted By: Cat

Battle Studies

Finally, after three years of messing about with famous women and popping up everywhere from Fantasy Factory to the Oscars, John Mayer has remembered that he’s actually a musician and he’s made an album!

When Battle Studies arrived on my doorstep last week, I was excited. I’m a big Mayer fan and I’d been following the process of recording and putting the record together through his website, twitter and some leaked live shows. I already knew a few songs on the album but the majority of the ten tracks were fresh to my ears.

And...I hated it. No, hate is too strong; I was disappointed. It was a departure from the blues/pop/rock that I’d grown used to the last few years. Instead, it sounds like a California, laid back rock record. Considering I’m currently in rainy, flood ravaged England anything that sounds like it should be accompanied by warm sunny breezes was a bit of a stretch. Plus it’s a concept album on heartbreak. Concept. Album.

Then I gave it some time. I felt it out, listened to it over and over and now...I love it. Now I can feel that warm sunny breeze and I like the laid back feel. I like that I don’t have to pretend to appreciate long guitar solos and can enjoy the lyrical quality. I still hate the cover art though. So. Bad.

My favourite tracks are Half of my Heart with our favourite Taylor Swift (although really, she should’ve had a lot more to do on the track than the measly three words she was given), Assassin is the coolest song I’ve heard in ages and Heartbreak Warfare makes me excited to see him live next year.

Welcome back Mayer. Let’s not make it such a long wait next time okay?

Posted By: Cat

Charlie Brooker

My lovely friend Adam who is quite possibly the only reader of this blog is a big Charlie Brooker fan. I’m ashamed to say that I didn’t really know who he was until one day; Adam told me he’d watched a show called ‘You Have Been Watching’. You Have Been Watching is a tv panel game where the contestants and host – Charlie Brooker – pretty much just rip television shows to shreds.

Brooker started life as an internet site editor where he used his wit and humour to express how much he didn’t like things. It was such a hit, that he was asked to create his TV show, NewsWipe which was followed by ScreenWipe. He also writes for the Guardian and created the Dead Set television series.

Back in September I wrote about the Media Guardian event I went to, and we were lucky enough to have Charlie Brooker come and do a masterclass for us. He was hilariously dour and miserable. I liked him a lot.

A few weeks ago, Adam bought me ‘Dawn of the Dumb’, a book which is a compilation of Brooker’s Guardian columns. The articles are bascically an attack on anything pop culture at the time of writing and they’re greatly entertaining. I don’t know why, but I love when people complain about stuff in a dry, witty manner. I sometimes think it would be so much easier to write a ‘It annoys us when...’ blog.

So if you feel like revelling in a little bit of misery and agreeing that really, a lot of stuff is shit, go and buy Charlie Brooker's book and join in with his disdain.

Obviously he would hate this.

Posted By: Cat

Ear Muffs

After some unseasonably warm weather, we’ve now hit winter in the UK. I love the sunshine, but there’s something lovely about getting wrapped up in a coat, gloves and a hat and braving the cold.

I’m a big fan of hats, but sometimes you don’t want to go into class or work with hat hair. This is why this year, I will be rocking the ear muffs. They’re cute, kitsch and you don’t have to worry about messing up your perfectly styled (or in my case not) hair.

My ear muffs are the ones above. They are from accessorize who have a great selection this year, although they’re a little pricey at £16 a pair. I had mine as an early Christmas gift so I didn’t feel so guilty. I think that a lot of high street stores in the UK are running their own selections though – ear muffs are in!

Posted By: Cat