Why I Feel Sorry For England

Much like the now stereotypical English condiment, you either love or hate the English football team when World Cup time comes around. Not being from England, my level of interest towards them peaks when they face my (half) home team of Italia. (Vivo Azzurro!).

What's not to like?

Now onto the title of the post, after all, this is what it's all about. When England played their first game against Italy, I have to say I didn't feel too bad at their 2-1 loss. In fact, I was quite pleased to say the least. But after their defeat to Uruguay, my feelings changed.

It's the same cycle every four years for the World Cup, and for the Olympics with "Team GB", which needs a whole new article.

English media hype around the games comes to a head a few months before opening day. They swarm around the topic like it's going out of fashion, and put tonnes of undue pressure on the players. They heighten expectations to monumental levels, boosting a false morale among the supporters, who's expectations rise twice as high, because it's the most exciting tournament ever!

"This is our year," they say. However, for 3 years previous virtually nothing is heard, or said of the national team, discounting the Euros, of course.

The team is made up of good players - players who make up the top teams of English leagues. Yes, it's possible that against the likes of Messi they aren't going to fare so well, but media pressure has a lot to answer for.

So much pressure is put on the team in such a short space of time, and when they don't live up to the wondrously high expectations, it is the greatest failure known to man. Even now, newspapers are commenting with a lot of "but's" - "...but if this happens and this happens, they can scrape through!"

No wonder fans go mental and lash out at the players, and it's not hard to imagine how the players must be feeling...



And so it will be until next time...

Image Credits to: Nationale di Italiana di Calcio Facebook page, Various Tumblrs

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Jennifer Lawrence hearts Damian Lewis.

Homeland. It's one of the best television series of recent years. I have been hooked from the first episode; is Brody a terrorist? Awk, he's alright. NO! He's totally a terrorist. Will Carrie ever stop making really stupid, spur-of-the-moment decisions that have us screaming at our TV sets? Is Saul the terrorist!?!? There were many questions and my biggest question at the minute is when is the next season gonna be out!?

Aside from my obsession with Homeland, there was one video that sparked fury and sympathy among Jennifer Lawrence fans everywhere. As someone who has gone through the intense twists and turns of all three seasons, anyone who threatened to spoil an episode for me were immediately put on a high risk list; meaning that until I had watched a particular episode, I did not communicate at all with said person.

Unfortunately for Jennifer, she had no idea that she would be interviewed (I use that term lightly because she did not ask Jen any questions but just led her round the red carpet of the SAG Awards spoiling life) by the spoiler Queens of entertainment TV.

Anyway! This video got me thinking about Damian and my current reading project, The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand. The book is a maze of metaphors and philosophical theories, but the main character is a man named Howard Roark. The book begins with Roark as a troubled youth, expelled from college but possessing more natural talent and passion than most of his classmates. Upon falling further down the rabbit hole that is this novel I wanted to research it more. This led me to the IMDb page of the film; made in 1949 starring Patricia Neal and Gary Cooper as the two leads, so to speak. As a fairly unknown film, it was a flop at the time, mostly due to many production problems and the fact the book is far quite racy at times and deals with difficult subjects which definitely couldn't have been handled back in the '40s.

Then it hit me. A remake of The Fountainhead with Damian Lewis as Roark and Jennifer Lawrence as the unyielding, scary and stunningly beautiful Dominique Francon (a kind of love interest, but a character in her own right). It's perfect! Lewis fits the character profile of Roark, and Lawrence gets to work with Brody! Which begs one question....

Just because I'm a Princess, doesn't mean I'm an idiot.

I recently read an article which eviscerated the collective group of Disney Princesses. As an avid fan of Disney for 22 years now, I was slightly peeved. Well, a lot peeved so I had to voice my opinion.

The article in question labelled Disney princesses as "brainless". This was the particular word that lit a fire in my Mickey-shaped heart. Using this word to describe Disney princesses told me a lot about the writer; they have obviously never watched a Disney film, because who can't help be utterly enchanted by that magical castle, or the theme from Pinocchio that builds to a crescendo which brings you to tears before the film has even begun. They are obviously Captain Hook (although not really cos he was a really cool and funny villain) and they seem pretty jaded, but that's nothing a good ol' Disney film couldn't fix!

So...

We'll begin with the first ever Disney princess; Snow White. Fine, she cooked and cleaned up after seven men and woodland creatures did help her out, but she was largely a product of her time. It was the 1930s; society has moved on from that perception of women...a bit, so give her a break.

Cinderella fought day in, day out against an evil stepmother and horrible step sisters who treated her like a slave in her rightful home, and to top it off she just lost her father whom she loved more than anything. Not to mention he was the only family member she had. She was always pleasant despite the torture she went through and never gave up her dream no matter what, and found time to make really cute outfits for all the mice in the house.

Pocahontas (both real and Disney) was said to have wisdom beyond her years and brought two warring clans together. Ariel did something similar in helping her father understand humans instead of hating them. She also saved Eric  from drowning like a whole bunch of times.

Jasmine was the girl every guy wanted to be with and every girl wanted to be. She was beautiful, feisty, rebellious and crazy smart, and that hair....and although the film wasn't centered on Jasmine, she helped Aladdin realise he was worthy of her affections.

Mulan, although not a princess, fought to save her father and ended up saving an entire nation from destruction. The man she got at the end? An unintended, very welcome bonus. Belle was incredibly intelligent and to quote the film, she always had her "nose stuck in a book" and she refused the most gorgeous man in town and instead chose Beast - teaching kids it's not always looks that makes a person beautiful.

Yes, the more modern princesses such as Merida, Rapunzel and Anna and not forgetting to mention Queen Elsa, do bring a stronger female character to the Disney world but that doesn't mean the older ones can't teach us anything. And it certainly doesn't mean they're "brainless!"

Source: F***YeahDisney Tumblr, Oh My Disney, Disney's Frozen on Tumblr

Welcome!

I know what you're thinking. The last thing the world needs is another down-beat, ironically funny, sarcastic, Jack Dee-esque blog about a girl fresh out of university with no prospects and nowhere to go: disheartened by the job market and weary from life at the ripe old age of 22. And you'd be right. 

Welcome to The Eternal Intern, your source of news on everything local, national and global to beauty and fashion, to animals (yes, you will see a few pictures of cute baby animals from time to time), music and film reviews and maybe a little sport. 

Hope you stick around for post number two. It'll be amazing...probably. 

M.