My main feelings about this week is that it has been far too hot!! On Monday we went to town to start Marianna off on the summer reading challenge at Cwmbran Library. The prize this year is a £100 Smyths voucher so I'll be making sure she completes it and has a chance at winning. :D We also went to look around Tiger, The Entertainer - Marianna wanted the Bo Peep doll from Toy Story 4 - and Smiggle. Anthony even bought me a new shiny purse with unicorns on. It must be love.

Tuesday was another full council meeting - you can watch the webcast HERE. I tried again to go paperless but it still wasn't much of a success. I knocked my tablet on the floor at one point, and at another couldn't get to lock to tablet mode rather than laptop. Sigh. It'll get there.

Wednesday was the start of Council recess which runs concurrent with the school holidays. On the one hand it's amazing if you have kids. On the other, by the end of summer you feel like you haven't had an adult conversation in years... Still, out came the paddling pool and the bubbles and the play-doh, etc, etc.





We've already watched what feels like 12 hours of Barbie Dreamhouse Adventures too. We did manage to see Hotel Transylvania 3 on Friday night though which was pretty funny, and last night I watched The Haunting of Sharon Tate with Hilary Duff as Tate. It's kind of weird seeing her outside a rom-com and the reviews weren't lying - it's bad. But, maybe not as unremittingly awful as they make out. It had a plenty passable made-for-TV vibe and at least we get the satisfaction of seeing what we all wish had happened: the Manson family getting their evil asses handed to them...

On the blog this week I've written about Mattel's WWE Superstars Fashion Dolls, July's Japan Candy Box, my favourite 1920s films, and how you can watch a ton of movies this summer without paying a penny.

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Song of the Week -

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FIVE FILMS OF THE 1920s

Here are five must see films from the roaring 20s!


#5. Nosferatu (1922)

Classic!


#4. The Sheik (1921)

Roller Mania; Bieber Fever; Directioner, er, Whateverer - none of them have a patch on the obsessive love of Rudolph Valentino's fans. His death in 1926, aged just 31, heralded mass hysteria. Up to and including an all day riot requiring 100 mounted officers and the NYPD police reserve to control. Add that to the sex sensation that was Edith Maud Hull's best selling novel and you can't help but have a winner.


#3. Metropolis (1927)

The storyline, depending on cut, can be overlong and unwieldy but the cinematography is so cool you end up not caring anyway!


#2. Sex in Chains (1928)

This one sounds like it's going to be really hardcore and, I suppose, by 1928 standards it is rather shocking. The original German title is Geschlecht in Fesseln - Die Sexualnot der Strafgefangenen, which literally translates into something more like 'Sexuality in Custody - The Sexual Distress of Prisoners'. Or, in other words, dudes have to turn to each other in prison because of the lack of conjugal visits. Most modern critics aren't keen on its generous helpings of melodrama but, if like me, that's your kind of thing, this is a gem of a film. Lots of emotion, tragedy, and close-ups of William Dieterle's wonderful bone structure as he angsts over Alfred (Hans Heinrich von Twardowski)...


#1. It (1927)

Until I hit my late teens the only silent films I'd ever seen were early Laurel and Hardy shorts which didn't do much for me at all. I never was a big fan of slapstick. It wasn't until I started seeking out vintage horror that I attempted to actually sit and enjoy silent film. And I found it hard work. I'm of a generation used to multitasking all day, every day. Normally I'd listen to a movie, look up occasionally, and write / draw / read / browse as applicable.

It was the first silent film that managed to hold my attention the whole way through. It was also the first silent film that felt like a modern movie to me. I laughed, I cringed, I hoped for a happy ending. If you have a secret - or not so secret! - soft spot for a rom-com, you'll love It just as much as I do. :)





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Anthony is 30 today! It's all downhill from here - or so he's been telling me ever since I turned 30 last year. When we first got together I said that I wouldn't go out with anybody younger than me, not entirely seriously, so for like the next three years he pretended he was born in '88 and so was the eldest by a few weeks. It was only after Marianna was born and we had to fill in all the paperwork that he finally 'fessed up!

He went to some business dinner last night then went out in Newport. Marianna was already staying with my parents-in-law for the weekend, so I had a double win when Anthony decided he would stay there for the night rather than getting a taxi home. :D

Work-wise it's been a fairly standard week. We had a special council meeting on Thursday [webcast] on the poor state of education in Torfaen. The opposition put forward a motion to have Cllr Dave Yeowell, the cabinet member for education, removed from post. I voted against because I agree with what the Leader said on the issue - if Cllr Yeowell was the problem he would have already been replaced. Being on education scrutiny has just highlighted to me how desperately we need the Donaldson curriculum reform; we've got ourselves into a system where, at secondary level, teachers have next to no autonomy and a child's success is only 'worth' something if they hit the L2+. It's no wonder we're seeing disengagement.

The worst thing about the meeting was that I pulled my back somehow on my way to the bus stop that morning. I had to beg and borrow some painkillers, and then had to give my apologies for Bron Afon board in the evening. It was a struggle just to walk from the bus stop home. :(

In cheerier news my mum and dad bought a new puppy this week! Molly is a chihuahua / jack russell cross and is destined to be a non stop bundle of mischief. She has already figured out how to get up on the sofas, up the stairs, and out of her pen in the garden.

I also stumbled across a comic somebody had made based on some fic I wrote last year. It's so cute!

fanart for tunglo's make me smile fic bc i love it a lot #Reed900 pic.twitter.com/4sSkB557CN

— ellu (@tuherrusart) May 19, 2019

On the blog this week I've written about Zombie Girls dolls, 50 Places to get Free Wallpaper Samples, and free things to do in Torfaen every day this summer holidays. For my Friday Five I wrote about my five favourite films from the 1910s.

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FIVE FILMS OF THE 1910s

My top five films from the 1910s!


#5. In Nacht und Eis (1912)

Titanic sank on April 15th - and by May 14th the first film based on the sinking had been released. Saved from the Titanic starred actress and survivor Dorothy Gibson, wearing the same clothes she was rescued in. Sadly the last known print was destroyed in a fire in 1914, which leaves In Nacht und Eis - released in August 1912 - as the oldest film about the tragedy.


#4. The New York Hat (1912)

It pulls at your heartstrings in the way only a Mary Pickford picture can.


#3. A Fool There Was (1915)

Theda Bara is one of the most fascinating stars of early cinema. Born Theodosia Goodman of Ohio, the Fox studio publicity machine presented her as the Egyptian born daughter of a French actress and - at differing points - an Italian sculptor or an Arab Sheik. Bara was the first 'sex symbol' of the silver screen and typically played the 'vamp': aka 'the other woman'.


#2. Snow White (1916)

This is the film that convinced a 15-year-old Walt Disney that Snow White should be the subject of his animated masterpiece.


#1. Broken Blossoms (1919)

This had a big impact on me the first time I saw it, and the tragedy of the thing still gets to me even now. Lillian Gish shows why she is considered one of the all time greats, and the contrast of her treatment at the hands of her abusive father with her chaste romance with Cheng Huan (Richard Barthelmess in yellow face because 'progressive' was a flexible sort of term in 1919...) is really powerful, especially given the prejudices of the time.

For a more in depth review, check out my scanned copy of Picture Show from April 1920 when the film hit UK cinemas.




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FIVE FILMS OF THE 1900s

Following on from last week's post on movies of the 1890s, this week we have five favourite films from the 1900s...

#5. Scrooge, or, Marley's Ghost (1901)

#4. Le Voyage dans la Lune / A Trip To The Moon (1902)

#3. The '?' Motorist (1906)

#2. A Trap for Santa (1909)

#1. Les Résultats du Féminisme / The Results of Feminism (1906)

I love this comedy short directed by Alice Guy-Blaché: it's all comedy stereotypes, for sure, but beneath that it's pretty hard hitting about the place of women in Edwardian society. Alice started out as a secretary at a camera company; when the company changed hands - becoming film pioneers Gaumont et Cie - Alice stayed on as Léon Gaumont's secretary. From there she moved into directing, eventually being directly involved in the production of over 700 films at both Gaumont and later at the company she co-founded, Solax Studios. Unapologetically experimental, Alice tackled all kinds of topics, and had a go at just about every special effect the 1900s had to offer.



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I was off a few days together this week so I finally got around to the housework that needed doing. Which was, yeah, just about all of it. I spent the whole of Tuesday gardening too - half of my nemesis, the hedge in the front garden, is now gone! Only the other half left to get rid of... Still, the end is in sight at last.

Monday and Wednesday were punctuated by school governor meetings at Croesy Secondary. I've been asked to give a 15 minute speech as part of their lower school writing festival next week too and I'm already nervous. Just, gah, a whole hall full of teenagers. Fingers crossed it will be fine! The only problem is that the more I go there, the more weird dreams I have that I'm back at school myself. I dreamed I had to sit exams the other night and no amount of explaining that I already had a job and a baby could get me out of them...

Yesterday we went litter picking in Upper Pontnewydd before advice surgery. Marianna was her usual wilful self, determined to wield the picker. It was quite sweet watching her though, and her chest was all puffed out with pride when some passersby told her what a good girl she was being. :)

With @Torfaen_Labour litter-picking and knocking doors in #Pontnewydd this morning with @David_R_Daniels @jess__powell @landdodger @realanthonybird - great to be out speaking to people #labourdoorstep pic.twitter.com/Np3lFRhPaf

— Nick Thomas-Symonds (@NickTorfaenMP) July 6, 2019

After that it was an afternoon of laundry and suffering through Barbie's Dream House Adventures. *sigh*

On the blog this week I've posted about the new Wild Hearts Crew dolls from Mattel, the Co-Op crisp recycling scheme, 100 places you can get free tile samples from, and my top five films of the 1890s. Moving into the 1900s I don't know whether to do five for each decade or each year. The latter could keep me going forever...

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FIVE FILMS OF THE 1890s

Following on from last week's post on movies of the 1880s, this week we have five must see offerings from the 1890s...

#5. New Pillow Fight - Siegmund Lubin (1897)

#4. Come Along, Do! - Robert W. Paul (1898) This is one of the first examples of two separate scenes being used to create a narrative.

#3. The X-Rays - George Albert Smith (1897)

#2. Pauvre Pierrot - Charles-Émile Reynaud (1892) Some incredibly early animation!

#1. Le Diable au couvent - Georges Méliès (1888)

Méliès is the king of early cinema, end of story. He was an incredible innovator, an incredibly prolific producer, and the special effects he was able to pull off are still effective today. Sadly, many of his films are now lost... but that still leaves a catalogue of over 200 shorts!



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