Love, Simon (movie review)

I drove a round trip of 370 km to go see this movie yesterday.

I got to see the movie yesterday thanks to Corks RedFm and the Gate Cinema in Cork city. If you haven’t read the book, check out my review here.

The film is amazing, beautiful, powerful, funny, poignant and relate-able. If only this movie were out years ago, what a different world we would live in. I brought my hubby who doesn’t watch rom-coms and he loved it. There were tears, laughter and joy. We left the movie theatre holding hands. But, I just can’t put into words, let alone write a review until I have seen it again so instead, here is a tiny snapshot of what the Twitter-verse is saying. Did you make the list?

Orion Corloto hits the nail on the head @orionnichole

Just like Love, Ari, I want everyone to see the movie too. Seriously, don't be tempted to download it, pay to see it and show the studios we need these types of movies @FinalJudgement

 Well Done Anthony @anthony_pichacz

As the tagline goes, everyone deserves a love story and love wins always Anthony @AndrewGhai

It's such an empowering movie and book, well done Logan @LoganBallge

Thanks and hopes to all the community from Josh @JoshRadwell 

I agree, it means so much, but on top of that, it's a brilliant story with amazing actors and a fab soundtrack. @PJandThomas

And it wasn't a halfhearted snog either. Glad to find another Paddy. @greenwordsmith

Beautiful is one of the most used words to describe the movie Justin. @JustinCrumpler7

Life changing doesn't even describe it. Congrats Kai @marvelusholland

After beautiful, important representation is the next most popular comment, thanks Jill @amesLy30

You go girl @_catwashere

One of my fave quotes from the show and probably the most relate-able for people when they come out. Kudos Zach. @zach_craymer 

Yep, I agree with you Johaunna, great writing and acting @johaunna37

For me, watching the movie reinvigorates me to continue the fight so, yes, the excitement and empowerment for older gay people is immense. @OvaThrone

Energy, Joy & Life. Hell ya! @MarleyTeter

Again, one of my fave quotes. @TheRobSandlin

We cannot thank Becky enough for this awesome story. (ps Ryan, I'm a Ryan by surname) @rantryan

And finally, this is an amazing sentiment and if anyone cannot afford a ticket let me know also. Huge shout out to Danielle and all the others offering the same. @DanielleRogland

The more I think about it, I don't need to write a review, these tweets cover it all. See it. See it again. Buy a ticket for someone who cannot afford it. Tell everyone about it.

Without a shadow of a doubt this movie gets 10 out of 10 planets.

John the Captain Ryan

Always Use Protection

With the recent revelations about how your information can be used on FACEBOOK here are a 3 things you can do to protect yourself, your family and friends.

ONLY allow your friends to view your full profile. Change your settings now, seriously, this is the one thing you should always do. Apart from reducing unsolicited friend requests, it stops strangers stalking your page, stops strangers learning things about you and stops strangers commenting and copying things on or from your profile.

Go into the privacy check-up in the help centre menu and go through the 3 steps that are prompted.

1. Only allow friends to view posts

2. Delete out all those apps you have allowed access to your page (remember that quiz you took to find out your favourite animals and colours)
3. Ensure ONLY your friends can see any personal details.

ONLY allow your friends to view your friend list.

Click on your friends, click the manage button as shown below:

And change the drop-downs to FRIENDS only.

This especially stops anyone viewing your profile, gathering information about your friends and then approaching you with a message like “OMG, can we be friends, I see you went to the same school as me with Joe Bloggs” etc...

When you have made your profile more secure, don't be accepting friend requests willy-nilly. Only accept them if you actually know then or if you actually have friends in common.

Also do regular purges of your friends list. I use the birthday reminder to help, when I get a notification and if I don't know who the person is without clicking into their profile they are toast.

Stop putting information on facebook divulging stuff about yourself.For example...

My first dog, Henry died yesterday and we are all heartbroken...

Hang on, a popular security question is “name your first pet”.

Look at this lovely picture of my little girl (Mary) first day at school, her teacher Miss Murphy is soooo nice

Wow, big mistake on so many levels...

a. There are any number of freeks out there that can use the photo (especially with geotag if you have it turned on) to find out where she goes to school (crest on jumper)

b. They now know her name, approx age,what she looks like (their type...ooohhhhh on so many levels) and could even approach her on the street.

“Hi Mary, I was talking to your mum the other day, she is so proud of you starting school and I'm so sorry Henry your dog died! My son is in your class and loves Miss Murphy, what do you think of her”

Getting the idea people!

Stop telling your life story and divulging your whereabouts. For example...

Advertising you are going on holidays (your house will be empty for 2 weeks)

Talking about your friends and family (allows stalkers to collection information about you and also those you love)

Anyway, that's just three things you can do. Have a private account. Protect you and your friends and don't be telling your life story on the internet.

John The Captain Ryan

Pray the Gay Away...Let me hear you now...Amen!

“Change the use of the word THERAPY and instead use the word TORTURE”.

(Source: https://www.nashvillescene.com)

Fair warning, this is going to be a bit of a rant but I have to put these thoughts down into some kind of coherent message.

But before I go down that winding route, I first want to give a huge shout out to Senator Fintan Warfield (Sinn Fein) who this week has introduced a bill to prohibit conversion therapy, as a deceptive and harmful act or practice against a person’s sexual orientation, gender identity and, or gender expression. It also aims to stop people being brought out of the state for such therapies. (proposed legislation HERE)

If you believe the Earth is flat, that God created the World in 7 days (a few thousand years ago), that dinosaurs are not real and that it is possible to Pray the Gay away...well by all means keep your opinion but you can stop reading now. If however you are a person of strong faith and believe in the love and understanding of your God(s) stay with me. Put it this way, I can respect you have a strong faith if you can respect the knowledge, study and opinion of medical professionals, or, look at it another way, if you need a heart transplant, you and your family and friends will probably say a prayer to God to keep an eye on you but you will still go to the heart surgeon for the operation. Any-who...

I want to talk about gay conversion therapy and why it should be banned in Ireland. I ask everyone to pester their elected representatives and ask them to support this new bill. Even using the term THERAPY is misleading. According to OED, therapy has two definitions:

1. Treatment intended to relieve or heal a disorder. Example: “a course of antibiotic therapy” &

2. The treatment of mental or psychological disorders by psychological means. Example: “he is currently in therapy”

Being gay is not a disorder. When discussing this barbaric practice we should change the use of the word THERAPY and instead use the word TORTURE. Across Europe and the World, medical professionals are condemning the use of conversion (therapy) torture. Malta became the first country in Europe to ban these therapies

(You cannot switch being gay on and off.)

In the EU’s latest report on Fundamental Rights, there are many statements about the rights and freedoms of LGBT people (including Trans people being allowed to officially change their gender) and the Intergroup’s Sirpa Pietikäinen (MEP) says “The UN Committee Against Torture, the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women and the Human Rights Committee have already condemned the practice of conversion therapy in several countries.”

In the UK, medical bodies including the NHS have signed a voluntary Memorandum of Understanding that disavows gay cure therapy. British health minister Jackie Doyle-Price said “The Government rejects utterly the notion that sexuality is something to be cured, and condemns gay conversion therapy. 

It has been condemned in the US by groups such as the American Psychological Association and the American Medical Association. At home in Ireland, the practice of conversion therapy has also been condemned and discredited by the Irish Council for Psychotherapy.

(Irish National LGBT Federation)

The National LGBT Federation (NXF) Board Member Adam Long commented: “The National LGBT Federation is very pleased to be working with Senator Warfield to ensure that harmful and abusive so-called gay ‘conversion therapy’ is prohibited in Ireland. A ban is all the more pressing in light of comments by Mary McAleese recently, which highlighted the prevalence of this practice in Ireland, and also the very firm resolution passed by the European Parliament last week calling on all member states to implement a ban. We therefore call on all parties and members of the Oireachtas to support Senator Warfield’s legislation.”

The NXF also says: "This so-called 'therapy', which has been condemned by all reputable health organisations, is not only ineffective but deeply harmful to LGBT individuals subjected to such 'treatment'. It is rooted in homophobic assumptions and ideologies and has no place in any civilised society”.

So, I hope you are still with me. Summary so far, it is not therapy, it is torture and many professionals around the World condemn the use of such “therapy”. A complete list of professional opinion is here.

Ok, so we can agree this (therapy) torture never did and never will work. There is nothing medically wrong with not falling into a hetronormative role and there is nothing to be cured. There is no medical evidence to back up the practice of such therapies. But, you think, sure this isn’t happening in Ireland so it doesn’t matter...

Oh, darling you are so wrong. I heard it was happening a few years ago – back in 2010 Cormac O’Brien investigated and reported in GCN about it - https://gcn.ie/gay-conversion-therapy-brand-new-ireland/

In December 2017, Hot Press did a similar expose - http://www.hotpress.com/features/reports/Exclusive-Report-The-Shocking-Truth-About-Gay-Conversion-Therapy-in-Ireland/21558195.html

And now former President Mary McAleese revealed that an international Catholic group run by Courage was operating a chapel in Dublin where priests sought to help “persons who experience SSA [same-sex attraction] to grow into their true identities”.

So this is happening in Ireland. HERE and NOW.

  

Leo Varadkar is visiting Mike Pence this morning and he says he hopes there will be time to discuss gay rights. However, Pence has barred the press from the meeting and I can only imagine how "unfortunately" there will not be time to discuss these issues. Of course we already know that Pence is an advocate of such therapy. In reality, Varadkar probably cannot sway either Trump or Pence’s opinion anyway.

But here’s what we can do, we can keep tweeting and posting about the issue. We can keep asking our elected officials their opinion & educate them about the damage these therapies do. We can ask them to support this new bill. We the people are the only ones that can make a difference. Love is Love. 


John The Captain Ryan

Queens of Geek by Jen Wilde (Book Review)

“You can’t pick and choose whose equality you support. That’s not equality.” 

Three Friends, Two Love Stories, One Convention

This is a young adult book about a group of young people (nerds) going to a Sci-fi convention, all with different interests & hobbies. Queens of Geek follows Charlie and Taylor, two teenage girls who travel from Australia to America to attend SupaCon (sort of a fictionalized Comic-Con) along with their mutual friend Jamie. Charlie is a vlogger-turned-actress who’s at the convention partially to promote a film she’s starring in and partially to indulge in some fangirling—some of which involves Alyssa, a vlogger she’s had a crush on for ages. Taylor is Charlie’s best friend, a huge fan of fantasy novels, who came to SupaCon to hang out with her friends. Of course, things don’t go as planned, and Taylor and Jamie—whom Taylor has had a crush on for ages—end up spending most of SupaCon without Charlie. This and a cosplay contest whose prize is meeting the star of Taylor’s favorite movies push Taylor to move out of her comfort zone, but is she ready?

You can find out more about the author Jen Wilde on her website HERE, facebook HERE and she is on Twitter HERE. I will be checking out what else she has on offer next month including the popular Eva Series

This book has a little bit of everything;

·       Shy geek recently diagnosed with Aspergers (aka Aspie) with dreadful anxiety.

·       Dealing with breakups and navigating a new relationship.

·       Bi storyline.

·       Deals with important issues like biphobia, fatshaming, sexism, and toxic relationships.

·       Multi-national and multi-cultural.

·       A story of friends supporting each other.

This is a nice, light-hearted easy read that deals with real issues in a good way. Whilst there are a few hiccups along the way, everything gets resolved and it’s a happily lived after story.

It deals with so many important topics really well and this is no mean feat considering there is so much covered. Another author might have been tempted to downplay some of the subjects but I’m glad Wilde didn’t do that, because let’s face it, in reality there are always multiple things going on to screw up your day. Think of it, anytime you had a crap day, was it one thing that went wrong, HELL NO! It was the fifth thing in quick succession that made your day unravel and go downhill. This book emulates the real life helter-skelter of life. 

As I was reading the book, I was constantly thinking of people that would enjoy it and probably get something from it. Being a bit of a geek myself, I could visualise myself, or some of my friends, in some of these situations. The LGBT community has always felt at home at comic cons, so it’s really nice to read a book aimed at that market. In fact, it's common place to have LGBT workshops and talks at cons these days, I always love listening to Nana Visitor with the Gays in Space (Listen here)

(Nana Visitor with Gays in Space in Las Vegas in 2017)

  

The only negatives I can say about this book is that it’s a bit simplified and nothing works out that perfectly in real life. But, the book is supposed to be an easy light-hearted read so it wouldn’t be fair to criticise the content because of this.

My fave quote in the book is “You can’t pick and choose whose equality you support. That’s not equality.” I would recommend this book to YA and adults to read, it’s also a good read for parents and teachers and would make a good class read. I give it an 8 out of 10 planets.

Other LGBT books I have reviewed are

Boy Meets Boy by David Levithan HERE

When Everything Feels Like the Movies by Raziel Reid HERE

Noah Can't Even by Simon James Green HERE

Simon vs, The Homo Sapiens Agenda by Becky Albertalli HERE

John the Captain Ryan

Exclusive – Irish Premier of The Lodgers (Movie Review)

I was so lucky to win a pair of tickets to see the Irish Premier of the Lodgers in The Arc Cinema in Wexford and my luck didn't stop there because I got to see an amazing movie.

The Lodgers is a story about Anglo Irish twins Rachel and Edward that share a strange existence in their crumbling family estate. Each night, the property becomes the domain of a sinister presence (The Lodgers) which enforces three rules upon the twins: they must be in bed by midnight; they may not permit an outsider past the threshold; if one attempts to escape, the life of the other is placed in jeopardy.

When troubled war veteran Sean returns to the nearby village, he is immediately drawn to the mysterious Rachel, who in turn begins to break the rules set out by The Lodgers which leads to the twins relationship crumbling and things start going bump in the night.

The three main characters work really well together; Rachel - Charlotte Vega, Edward - Bill Milner & Sean - Eugene Simon my favourite was Eugene Simon. Most might recognise him from playing the role of Lancel Lannister in Game of Thrones, although his Irish accent needs a little but of work (but no way as bad as Tom Cruise).

The standout thing about this movie is the screenplay written by David Turpin – a fab original in a World of mediocracy and sameness. In the burgeoning market of supernatural thriller/horror it's quite difficult today to create something new. Thankfully, we have not one mention of those regular lines like “I'll be back in a minute” and not a notion of a stupid, large breasted teen running upstairs to trap herself in the bathroom, trying, unsuccessfully to hide from the axe murderer. The three rules are told to us in song at the start so you understand the movie straight away. Again, another unique storytelling style, normally supernatural films keep you guessing right up to the end, trying to figure out exactly what is going on. That's not to say the movie is predictable because it isn't. 

The special effects were also very good, with a tiny budget and a 4 week shooting schedule, it's amazing to see what can be created and this is due to a great story, choice of lighting, choice of locations and fantastic cast & crew. Brian O'Malley has done a fab job with only his second movie. It's a delight to see such a great film coming from Ireland. I'm actually writing this review with a documentary on in the background on the making of Excaliber by the legendary John Boorman. What a coincidence.

Based in rural Ireland of 1920, the whole movie was shot in Wexford. As a Wexfordian myself, it was brilliant to continually recognise locations around the county but of course one of the main stars of the movie is Loftus Hall. To locals, it's a well known place, the most haunted in Ireland, learn all about the story – https://www.loftushall.ie/about/. 

When you see the interior parts of The Lodgers, the closest movie I can compare it to is Crimson Peak. Seriously, the visuals and feel of the crumbling building stack up against the multi-million-dollar creation of recent Oscar winner Guillermo Del Toro. 

(Internal - Real Life - Loftus Hall)

(Screenshot in The Lodgers)

(Screenshot in Crimson Peak)

It's lovely to recognise other locations like Johnstown Castle and Tintern Abbey, but to the eye of a non Wexfordian, you wouldn't guess that the 3 main locations are quite some distance away. Again, this is achieved by having a distinct look, feel and lighting at all the locations. I suppose that's the magic of the movies to some degree. The next time I visit these places, I will do so with a completely different eye (and bring my camera of course).

For me, the only thing that didn't stand out is the music and score. Leaving the Arc Cinema, we were excitedly talking about the story, special effects and good ending but I can't remember any part of the music or scoring, which for me is unusual. I normally pay attention to this, of course, I was so inraptured by the movie as a whole, it didn't matter and it's not enough to lose any marks over, maybe the music and score was really good and just blended perfectly. I am delighted to give The Lodgers a 10 out of 10 planets and I will be going back to see it again.

John The Captain Ryan

Reflective practice – Thing 22

This is it, I have just about finished the Rudai23 course and this is the final reflection on what I’ve done and learnt.

Description.

The last three exercises have been about:

Thing 19 -  Podcasting

Thing 20 - Advocacy in the Library 

Thing 21 - Library Professional Groups.

Feelings & Evaluation.

I loved Thing 19, podcasting and will definitely continue to do them. It would be fun to do some podcasts with other people, discussing movies or books. It is probably a bit boring for the listener to listen to just one voice. Audacity is an awesome tool and to think it's free is crazy. I managed to create a fairly good sounding podcast without even a microphone or special equipment. I just used the standard mic on my laptop and played the music on my phone (holding it close to the laptop). After watching a few youtube how-to videos I was flying with the whole editing process. I used Soundcloud without any problems to host and share my podcast.

Thing 20 was a struggle and took me a few days to get through it. There was a vast amount of information to assimilate and understand about Library advocacy. I had to read the lesson on my iPad as my work computer kept blocking the many images that were included. I have never been in a position to advocate for the Library, I would feel a bit more comfortable doing it now, but I don't think I will be in a position as a library assistant to do it anyway. On a further reading of my Thing 20, I realised that by exercise 7 (of 9) my blog had morphed into an exercise of how the library could better provide a service to the LGBT community; although by virtue of this I could then advocate to the LGBT community the benefits of the Library. This of course was not intentional, just due to the fact I have advocated for the LGBT community for 15 years. 

Thing 21 was quite easy and interesting. This was a Thing of doing rather than learning. Once I had followed three professional groups I started learning more about them as I was seeing content from them on my Facebook and Twitter feed.

Analysis & Conclusion.

Thing 19. My podcast has been listened to 9 times and I was delighted to be able to give some tips to another Rudai23 student (via tweeting). The blogpost has been viewed 46 times. As already said I really enjoyed podcasting and am looking for some people to talk about movie and book reviews.

Thing 20 was brilliant, a struggle but really enjoyable. My blogpost was viewed an amazing 123 times so was quite popular. I think the content (if I do say so myself) was also fairly good, although did go in the wrong direction towards the end. This redirection however has given me some ideas for work this year. I hope I’m not marked down for this redirection! The only negative I would have is that there was a vast amount of information in this Thing so maybe next time it could be split into two exercises.

In regards to analysis of Thing 21, a particular part of this exercise was to see what kind of response I would get. The LAI liked my post on Facebook but the other 2 had no reply. On Twitter, the ALA liked my Tweet and Rudai23 liked my Tweet on the LAI page. I made 2 new friends on Facebook. I hope to join the LAI shortly and it is great to keep in contact with other groups and professional bodies to keep up-to-date with what’s happening, as, to paraphrase “What happens to one will happen to us all”. This blogpost was viewed 35 times.

Action Plan.

I really enjoyed doing the whole course, obviously there is not much action needed for the rest of the course but I will continue blogging and keep in contact with other library professionals and bodies. I really enjoyed this style of CPD, it’s the first I’ve done in work for many years and am currently looking to see what I will do next.

I probably had a different approach to most other participants; I’ve been doing the course in conjunction with blogging in general and it actually helped to jump around, doing different things and approaching them in different ways. Variety is the spice of life. The course has been a great learning process, not only learning how to blog, but also how to get your information across in many different ways & formats and to consider your online presence. Ultimately, it’s learning by doing, which for me anyway, is the best kind of learning. I’ve done 73 blogposts and have had over 12,300 page views since 12^th September 2017 so am over the moon with those stats.

An act of general reflection for me (outside of the course) was to evaluate how my blog was doing, what was working, what wasn't, what actions to take and to set myself goals. I actual wrote two blogs about doing just that:

Blogging so far, 77 days in & First 100 days of Blogging 

So not only are the exercises of reflection good for the course, they were also good for my blog.

Anyway, toodles for now

John The Captain Ryan.