Saturday, 24 May 2014

So... I like Lost Girl

This is what my post 'I Am' was in preparation for. This post has been in draft stage since I started up my blog but I came to a sudden realisation which has given me the last push to finish it and publish it. This realisation I will reveal at the end of the post.
I want to talk to you about Lost Girl which is a TV show I watch but every time I begin to talk about it I get this conversation:

Me: I like Lost Girl
Person: what's that?
Me: it's a TV show about a succubus.
Person: a what?

Every time -_-

A succubus is like a sexual demon. In a female form it has sex with people and feeds off their energy. A male form is called an Incubus.
 

But don't freak out. Bo, the protagonist in Lost Girl is far from a demon (atm). Her story is that she was adopted as a baby into a Christian family and all was fine until she hit puberty. She went against her parents and had sex with a guy she was dating...only to wake up in the morning to find him dead. Finding out even her kiss can kill she was cast out by her parents and ran from place to place with a new identity each time because she kept killing people. Sometimes she was just hungry and sometimes she was in love. She is lost because she doesn't know what she is and has no home. Until the day she meets Kenzi (this is when the show begins).
 

Bo saves Kenzi from a rapist but coz the rapist spiked Kenzi's drink, Bo takes her to where she is staying hoping to be on her way to somewhere new by the time Kenzi wakes up. Except Kenzi wakes up early and it turns out she filmed Bo doing her succubus thing to the guy. Kenzi isn't scared as such she just wants to talk to Bo. We get this cute scene in a milkshake bar where Kenzi writes on a napkin a multiple choice question for Bo to answer because it would be weird to say it out loud: "I am...a) a demon, b) an alien" but Bo doesn't have an answer to that. When the bill comes up Bo shows how she can make the waitress seriously attracted to her so they don't pay. But as they are leaving, in an alley two cops turn up. One knocks them both out with his siren whistle and they take Bo!
Bo is taken to a nice manor of sorts where another guy called 'the Ash' questions her about killing on their territory and whether she is light or dark and loads of other stuff she hasn't a clue about. Then the other guy who abducted her threatens her and growls while baring his animal teeth! A woman walks in with her goons demanding the same things off Bo but the other guys aren't having any of it. Turns out the Ash is the leader of the light fae and the woman is the Morrigan, leader of the dark fae. Fae are creatures like we know from mythology and folklore. A lot of them blend in to society (this shows makes a lot of them able to do this) but some, called under fae, don't. After some tests by a human female doctor for the fae, everyone finds out Bo is a succubus. But all fae are aligned with either dark or light, but Bo being under the radar hasn't got a side.
They make Bo do this really old challenge. If she kills two under fae then they'll let her pick a side. Meanwhile Kenzi wakes up and uses her contacts to find where Bo is. Bo easily defeats the giant under fae with a little hint from Dyson (the cop who isn't a siren) but struggles with the other under fae - a pain eater. Kenzi fortunately finds her and tries to get to her but she is held back. Bo stills hears her voice though and breaks free. Challenge over Bo decides to pick the side of humans, making her known as the infamous unaligned succubus to the rest of fae-dom. So we then see her and Kenzi solving crimes committed by fae sometimes for a client and sometimes for the cops. Because she is unaligned she can mingle with both light and dark and step into both territories.

Throughout the show we see plenty of character development, especially for Bo trying to find out who her parents are, managing her love life and her increasingly growing power.
 
 
The main characters we have (from left to right are):
 
Trick - he is the bartender of the local way station who is very knowledgeable but also very mysterious, he has secrets constantly seeping out.
 
Hale - the siren who is a fae cop. He is very laid back and is of fae noble blood but he doesn't like his family. He always plays sidekick with Kenzi as Bo and Dyson do their own thing.
 
Dyson - he is a wolf-shifter and Bo's love interest, though he is usually competing with Lauren. He is another fae cop and works with Hale.
 
Bo - already explained her. She loves both Dyson and Lauren.
 
Kenzi - street smart and a survivor. She would do anything for Bo and always stands by her even though she is considered second class among many fae because she is human.
 
Lauren - the human doctor who works for the light fae. She is also Bo's love interest but also has secrets.
 
We also get introduced to other prominent characters one of my guilty favourites is Vex. He is a dark fae Mesmer which means he can control people like a puppet with his hands. When we first meet him I didn't like him but he grew on me. He's like Russell Brand but better. He still can make me go eww though, especially when he dresses up.
 
Then in season 3 we are introduced to Tamsin who is a Valkyrie. It is hard to explain her character as it changes so much but she is awesome and played by a Christian actress so I like her very much.
 

This show is underrated and fantastic. I find it the perfect show to chill out to and the characters are so good. I often don't mind telling people I like Lost Girl but hardly anybody knows what it is about. There is a little shame I have from liking it being a Christian but I realised the other day that it is really no worse than Game of Thrones which is far more explicit yet so popular, I even know some Christians who like and watch that. There should be no shame from liking a TV show or film that is explicit if it has quality writing which I believe both Lost Girl and Game of Thrones have. Lost Girl is in no way slutty, it is written too well to be that.
 
Lotty
xx

Sunday, 18 May 2014

Cathy's Book et al

First of all just take a look at the first edition cover.
 

 
This is what first attracted me to this book. I know people aren't meant to judge a book by its cover but I always do that with book as they help to set the tone of the story. The fact that it is hardback is because it is used to hold the evidence for the story. Yes you heard me right I said EVIDENCE! How freaking cool is that?
 
So as you might have guessed by now the Cathy books are mysteries. Cathy is an average girl living with her mum who is a night nurse so they hardly interact. She likes her art, as you can tell from the illustrations, and her best friend is a computer whizz called Emma. When drawing one day she meets Victor who she is really attracted to and they date for a while but one day he breaks up with her then disappears. She takes it upon herself to find him but she gets caught up in things way over her head. Things she really didn't want to know not only about Victor but also about her dead father are unearthed. I didn't see the direction this mystery was going in right until the end. Even the following books in the trilogy, Cathy's Key and Cathy's Ring, dish out surprises.
 
 
The books are also interactive, not that I've tried it because it's American produced, and you can ring up the numbers and check out Emma's website. The websites for the books are quite cool too, though they might give away some plot details, and you can do an interactive mystery with Cathy herself through the website and using your email, though again do it after you have read all the books. The books don't take too long to read especially the last one which wraps everything up.
One of my favourite things is that the books spawned a song sung by Cathy herself called Lost (Cathy's Song). I really love it and you can listen to the song without it giving away anything but the video to it might give some details away.



 

Lotty
xx

Thursday, 8 May 2014

Eurovision: Soundtrack to my Life

Since 2009, I started enjoying and watching the Eurovision Song Contest. I'd seen it in passing before but didn't really appreciate it for what it was. Since Dad moved to Sweden I've enjoyed the cultural exchange and my brother was listening to Swedish music, therefore we enjoyed the European music of Eurovision. It has helped me to be more adventurous in my music tastes too. So as the next contest is on Saturday I thought I would share with you my favourite songs between 2009 and 2013. For a contest which rolls out between 26 and 30 songs every year it's very difficult to narrow it down to a certain number of favourites. So I'm afraid it's a top 25...
 
  1. Shine - Natalia Kelly (Austria 2013) Didn't qualify for the final but an AMAZING song.
  2. Ljubav je svuda (English: Love is All Around) - Moje 3 (Serbia 2013) Didn't qualify for the final but an AMAZING song.
  3. Only Teardrops - Emmelie de Forest (Denmark 2013)
  4. Angel in Disguise - Musiqq (Latvia 2011) Didn't qualify for the final but an AMAZING song.
  5. Crno I belo (English: Black and White) - Kaliopi (Macedonia 2012)
  6. Constigo Hasta el Final - EDSM (Spain 2013)
  7. I Feed You My Love - Margaret Berger (Norway 2013)
  8. Aphrodisiac - Eleftheria Eleftheriou (Greece 2012)
  9. Get You - Alexej Vorobjov (Russia 2011)
  10. Gravity - Zlata Ognevich (Ukraine 2013)
  11. Rockefeller Street - Getter Jaani (Estonia 2011)
  12. Satellite - Lena Meyer-Landrut (Germany 2010)
  13. Love in Rewind - Dino Merlin (Bosnia and Herzegovina 2011)
  14. OPA - Giorgos Alkaios and Friends (Greece 2010)
  15. Something - Andrius Pojavis (Lithuania 2013)
  16. Euphoria - Loreen (Sweden 2012)
  17. La Noche es Para mi - Soraya Arnelas (Spain 2009)
  18. This is Our Night - Sakis Rouvas (Greece 2009)
  19. The Balkan Girls - Elena (Romania 2009)
  20. Drip Drop - Safura (Azerbaijan 2010)
  21. Na inat - Poli Genova (Bulgaria 2011)
  22. What About my Dreams - Kati Wolf (Hungary 2011)
  23. Run Away - Sunstroke Project and Olia Tira (Moldova 2010) Saxophone guy!
  24. Igranka - Who See (Montenegro 2013) Not one that I would usually listen to but I like it. It didn't qualify for the final.
  25. Hero - Charlotte Perrelli (Sweden 2008) OK so this one sneaked in because my brother liked it and I found he had it and liked it myself.

And here are the top 5 in case you would like to listen :)

Lotty
xx