Rose Leone: Kitchen Nightmares

Rose Leone

Kitchen Nightmares

I loved this woman from the moment that she hit on Gordon within minutes of meeting him. She was just so funny, and clearly was a passionate and determined woman. She was focused and clear sighted about what was wrong. I just felt so sorry for her, that her son had let things get so bad in the business that she had spent the past fourteen years building.

Episode that Rose featured in

The revisit episode featuring Leone’s uploaded by MrShowsUploader

My favourite quotes

“The more I see, the less I know for sure.”
― John Lennon

My favourite songs

Picture taken from www.metrolyrics.com

Who’s laughing now?

Jessie J

‘Thank you for the pain, it made me raise my game’

I love this song because it’s all about being able to triumph over those that bully you. Jessie J details some of the things that people said to her in school, and for all those that experience similar things, name calling and in some cases physical abuse during their school days, it’s a realisation that if she can do it, bypass the worst of the self doubt and achieve such high levels of success then why can’t they?

Official music video

Kurt (Glee) fan video created by Silver Malfoy

Flowers in the window: Travis

Flowers in the window

Travis

‘I am here to help you with the load’

This song is basically about how the love of the right person can change someone at the core. The lyrics talk about being emotionally closed off, ‘I was cold a melting snowman’ and then meeting someone who can inspire you to show more of yourself, and be there for them.

Official music video

Fan videos

Rory and Logan (Gilmore Girls) video created by PollyGreen

George Orwell

George Orwell

Down and Out in Paris and London

The first time that I picked up a copy of this book, I had no idea just how many times I would re read it. I still have no idea what grabs me so powerfully about it. I just know that I used to take it every time that I caught the train into Liverpool during the time that I spent at Edge Hill. I went nearly every weekend, drawn by the Beatles, another favourite that I will never tire of.

Anyway, Orwell’s unsympathetic and truthful sketching of some of the people he met, has a hold on me. I don’t get the impression that he looked down on anyone, revealing both the positive and the negative in all the people that he encountered, and there are a lot of people referenced, throughout the events that happened to him in both cities.

I found the characters fascinating, especially Boris, and Bozo. Bozo’s ability to see humour in situations that would have made most despair, is a truly admirable quality, and one that I wish I possessed more of. He is able to laugh, after selling his razor while unshaven, although Orwell reveals ‘he had not eaten since the morning, had walked several miles with a twisted leg, his clothes were drenched and he had a halfpenny between him and starvation’.

Orwell shares the ordinary experiences that he undertook, while living in Paris. He lived, worked and drank alongside some of the poorest people in the city at that time, and didn’t try to manipulate or create situations in order to make things more exciting. He just showed the wider world, what life was truly like for the poorest in those two cities, at that time.

I think that Orwell’s descriptions, are in part what drive me to continue to write. His skill at never displaying things in a false light, is remarkable. I want to one day be able to do the same, show the negative and the positive that exist within people, as well as making the ordinary seem remarkable.

Authors beginning with the letter I

JW Ironmonger

The notable brain of Maximilian Ponder

I picked this book up, drawn by the unusual premise. Ironmonger has created a most unusual character in Maximilian, as he decides that he wants to record every memory that he has ever had. He attempts this for thirty years, and then passes away, leaving his friend Adam with a most unusual dilemma.

I wanted to read this, in the hopes of seeing how different writers would tackle the issue of how people grieve. I'm working on my own novel, which uses different characters' perspectives and memories of a certain person, in a bid to illustrate who the lead actually was.

I did really try, to complete the novel but despite the fact that the concept is different to anything else that I've come across, and Ironmonger is a very good writer, I just was not able to maintain a interest in Adam's dilemma or Maximilian himself.

The Life and Death of Sophie Stark: Anna North

Anna North

The Life and Death of Sophie Stark

Synopsis: Sophie Stark is a filmmaker, famed for her unflinching truthfulness in her films. She is viewed through the prism of the memories of the six people who loved her the most in her life, and also the reviews of her films.

I was intrigued by this book before I started reading, wanting to know how different authors handle the challenge of changing viewpoints, and voices. North delivers each of the six viewpoints in the first person and manages to make them all distinct from each other by more than the mere changing of situations.

Sophie’s not an easy character to understand in general. Her devotion to making good films drives her to hurt people, and in some cases, hurt herself. She is subjected to having her head shaved on camera, during college, by a vindictive girl named Cece for sleeping with Cece’s boyfriend Daniel, and made to say ‘My name is Sophie Stark, I am a worthless nobody. Nobody gives a fuck about me or my ugly rotten cunt’ but instead of taking the route that other people might have done, of taking the film to the police, or the university staff, Sophie opts to include it in the footage she has collected of Daniel, and make it into the ending of the film.

Her devotion to making truthful films is in part what drives a wedge between her and the three people who express romantic love for her, in their memories. She still has a strong hold on Daniel at the time of her death, despite the fact that he is involved with another woman, and hasn’t really known Sophie since college.

She manages to develop a relationship into the marriage stage but then opts to make a film about her mother in law, which shows the older woman in a way that her husband Jacob was unable to accept. The memories that Jacob shares, include a rather touching episode in which he teaches Sophie to swim.

It’s one of the few times that North has Sophie show a vulnerability. She is often portrayed as speaking with a very level almost monotone phrasing, and doesn’t seem to understand how her behaviour might affect others.

North has created a memorable character in Sophie, but ultimately I’m not sure that I like her. She’s fascinating but unknowable, which I guess is the point. North is a talented writer, producing some interesting viewpoints, such as Allison, the actress that Sophie uses most often in her films.