ELVIS is electric!

Elvis has entered the building!

A few months ago I was excited to hear that Baz Luhrman was directing a new Elvis movie. I've always been a fan of his over the top stylised film making (Romeo + Juliet with Claire Danes and Leonardo Di Caprio being one of my favourites) with mix up of moderns soundtracks with classic stories making for a massive cinematic experience.  I was nervous though that an Elvis film by Baz may turn in to a parody of the greatest performer in the world.

I need not have been nervous. In actual fact I think Baz may have toned down his style or perhaps it was naturally overshadowed by Elvis Presley's showmanship and style. 

*Spoilers Alert*

Read no further if you haven't seen the film and you don't want to know anything about it (of course, we all know how this story sadly ends) but in my opinion, Luhrman made the film about one of the oldest storylines - good vs. evil. Elvis being the good of course while his manager was cast as the villain in this story. The evil of Colonel Parker was to be proven after the death of Elvis Presley through the courts where it showed that he took advantage of Elvis and mismanaged his affairs. 

Austin Butler

The star of the show was Austin Butler who plays Elvis from his late teens to his death age 42. How this is achieved is through costume, make up and acting of the highest calibre. Butler exudes charisma and he develops effortlessly in to "The King". His singing performances are electric and capture the energy of an Elvis show on the big screen.

In comparison, Tom Hanks' Colonel Parker is portrayed as an unlikeable manipulative character who abused his power and position and coerced Elvis in to particular contracts and ultimately brought about the death of Elvis through overwork and keeping him drugged up through the shady "Dr Nick". Through the film you can see the manipulation by Parker as he plays on Elvis's fear of not being able to take care of his mother and father and the rest of his family in Graceland.

Director Baz Luhrman

I tried to just go along with the movie and not to analyse it too much, however, I did notice certain elements that I think  Luhrman took artistic licence in these parts. For example, I think he put the song "Trouble" in too early in Elvis's career as I am sure that the first time this song was sang was in the film "King Creole" which was probably after his army career......but maybe it was put in to this film in an earlier sequence in order to facilitate a particular storyline. Anyway, I may be wrong but it was just something that jarred with me when I was watching the film. It was also news to me that Elvis's mother Gladys had a drinking problem, but it was something that was played up in this film so presumably it is something that is true.

Omniplex Rathmines

All in all the total film is a spectacular story of the legend that is Elvis Presley and I recommend you make a night of it and head to the cinema to see this movie (we had planned to see it in the amazing Stella in Rathmines but it was all booked out so had to go to the Omniplex to see it - this worked out fine as the showing we selected was in the big Maxx screen). Both my husband and I were in agreement about the excellent perfomance of Austin Butler but we had a differing opinion on the Priscilla character. I felt she was more believable as an older Priscilla in the later years of the 60's and 70's while Ciaran thought she was more believable as the younger Priscilla. There is so much to tell of Elvis Presley that a lot had to be left out, I was surprised to see that there was no mention of his relationship with actress Ann Margaret but I guess it may not have been something that Luhrman wanted to focus on and may have taken away from the story of Elvis being a "family man". I say family man in a way to emphasise the pressures on Elvis to take care of family and friends with lots of people relying on his pay cheque to be supported. I'm not saying this in a negative way but just more as fact. Elvis liked to surround himself by particular people and presumably needed to have them work for him in order to facilitate this. 

So all in all, it's a 10 out of 10 from me for Elvis - let me know if you have seen it, and what you thought of it! It's a pure delight to watch with all of the usual Baz Lurhman "spectacular spectacular" elements (a scene that stood out for me was where Elvis went to his gun store, grabbed a gun and shot up the TV in Vegas - I had heard of this happening and had seen it in the Kurt Russell Elvis biopic, but I thought it was pure "Baz" in the cinematography and making the guns appear shinier and larger than life - it was reminiscent of the way he featured guns in his Romeo + Juliet film too). In my opinion it did justice to Elvis the world's most successful performer and perhaps the biggest star I will ever see in my life time, even though he was dead by the time I was born......which is saying a lot!

Anyway it's a "go see" for sure!

Wild Weekends

Wild weekends.....or maybe not!

Here's some of the things that I've got up to over the past two weekends.

Alice and I went to Dionne Warwick two weekends ago, which was a lot of fun. The concert in the Bord Gais Theatre was great and afterwards we got to meet up with our good friend Todd (and his fellow band member Danny) and had a few drinks in The Ferryman. Todd is a professional musician and you can follow his Tik Tok here - he does a lot of traveling and is currently in Europe touring with Dionne Warwick.

Fun fact! Alice and I turned up wearing the same outfit!!!  Can you believe it?! It's a black jumpsuit from Mango - luckily in two different colours so we didn't look quite the same.

Another fun thing was that we saw the musicians walking over from their hotel in to the venue while we were having a drink before the concert. I ran over to take a pic to show to Todd. Too funny!

And then this weekend I arranged to meet Ciaran in Dublin city where we went on a "Critical Mass" cycle.......or as I joked and called it a Critical "Mess".

It was another fun event, where we got to take over the streets and cycle around the city with the music blaring.

It's held every month on the last Friday and hopefully we do it again next time.

And then on Saturday night we minded Cleo the dog!

She is such a good dog, lovely personality and easy to mind. On Sunday before she got picked up, we went for a walk in the park - but we kept her on the lead as seemingly she is prone to jumping in to the pond!!

Shoutout to Supervalu Ranelagh for the most amazing Tomahawk Steak that was our Saturday night dinner. Seriously tasty and went well with a glass of malbec along with sides of sweet potatos and onion rings. Having eaten out for the last few Saturday nights it was great to stay in and enjoy some home cooked food!

And so that was our Wild Weekends!!  Hope you have been enjoying your weekends as much as we have been enjoying ours!

New PIGSY video!

 Squash Soldiers

The latest PIGSY art focus is out and it features me discussing PIGSY's largest artwork "Squash Soldiers"

Click below to watch the video

Coffee time!

One of the things I really enjoyed doing every morning on my holiday in Florida was making a pot of filter coffee first thing in the morning. Filter coffee is not hugely popular here in Ireland, with many people having Nespresso or Tassimo coffee capsule machines while when growing up coffee was either instant or made in a percolater.

So when I returned from Key West, I decided to buy a filter coffee machine and ordered one last Thursday and then it arrived by courier from the UK today.

I had bought coffee in preparation for when the machine arrived. Over in the States,  I had been enjoying Tim Horton's coffee which is not available in Ireland - so Starbucks and Bewleys coffee will have to do instead.

I brewed the Starbucks today but found the coffee to be a bit weak for my taste. I plan on adding more coffee tomorrow. I look forward to figuring how much coffee I should use to make the perfect cup.  If you have any tips, let me know in the comments!

What's growing in the garden.....

 Wildflowers in the garden

When I came home from holidays I discovered that my wildflowers that I planted from seed had really grown a lot (although it is June, it has rained a lot here in Ireland). 

I was really pleased to see how bushy and green the border bed is, and they will eventually flower and bloom but perhaps not until next year as perennials can be slow to bloom. You can see how the border looked a few weeks ago here.

And what really made me happy to see was a bumble bee on one flower and a butterfly on the other. It was exactly the reason why I made the decision to grow wildflowers in my garden!

Hols over - back home in Ireland

After a great trip to Key West, I am now back in Ireland.

It's always strange how in the last days of your holidays, time seems to speed up and the days fly in. Happily, I got to do a few things on my list of definites that I wanted to get done. These were, get out fishing, have a Dairy Queen Ice Cream and visit the Green Parrot for a drink.

So on Sunday I went fishing on the Salty Goat Boat.  This was probably one of the highlights of my holiday. I had a great day fishing (it's a long fishing trip from 9am until 2pm) and caught 4 keeper yellowtail snappers and 1 keeper grunt with a fair few throw backs including two small strawberry groupers. As usual there were some people on their boat not taking their fish so I was able to walk away with extra fish which made for a great fish dinner in Amy's house. 

And then on the last day I crammed in my other must do's with a stop off in the Green Parrot after a visit to the Gap Store (pictured above) and Banana Republic on Duval Street. The Green Parrot is a chilled out bar with cool air flowing through the open doors and windows and it was great to sit at the bar and listen to music and the general chat of others at the bar. Of course there was also the quintessential experience of a chicken walking through the bar!!

After the Green Parrot, I cycled home for a shower and then met my mother in the Southernmost Cafe on the beach for Happy Hour eats and more drinks. The food was good and the view was incredible. I was glad that we made such a good choice for our last day's happy hour!

And after HH I made a diversion to Dairy Queen on United Street. It's a seriously cute building which has been there since the 1950's and I got in line along with other families and couples who were waiting to order their ice cream. For my selection on this visit, I chose a Small Royal Ultimate Blizzard with Brownie and Fudge sauce.  Boy was it good but I paid for all the sugar with a bad night's sleep!!!

Unfortunately there was one thing I wanted to do that I didn't get to do and that was to swim in the sea. With stormy rainy days the opportunity ran away from me.  

Guess I will need to plan a return visit in order to ensure that I get my swim in the sea done soon!!!

Stormy days in Florida - Hurricane Season 2022 is here

 June 1st is the start of Hurricane Season in Florida and so I shouldn't have been surprized when a tropical storm made it's way to Key West on 3rd of June.

Amy was catching a flight to Ireland from Miami on the 4th of June. However, as a precaution she caught the bus to Miami on the 3rd - this turned out to be a good thing with the bus getting cancelled on the 4th which would have meant a missed flight. She got up to Miami yesterday afternoon and checked in to an airport hotel close to the airport and hunkered down and waited out the time til check in today.

And down in Key West, my mother and I, along with Amy's cat Buddy hunkered down and drank wine and waited out the storm. It was a little sureal having to sand bag the doors in preparation for the rain and wind but luckily it turned out that they were not needed.

This morning the end of the storm passed through with heavy rain til about 11am with it gradually clearing up by the afternoon and the sun coming out then.  

With the change in weather I plan to go fishing tomorrow.  I'll see if I the Salty Goat are going out and will go out on this half day boat trip.

Here's a few pics of what we got up to before the storm, with Amy and I taking a visit to Effusion Gallery on Duval Street to see the PIGSY art on view.