International Womens Day Tribute Seven

As the more enlightened of you might know the 8^th of March is International Women’s days. In honour of this, I will be writing a small article about 7 women whom I believe should be celebrated more for their achievements, and then posting one article each day in the week proceeding the 8^th of March. Now some of you might know a lot more about the subjects then I do, which is all well and good, remember these are women I believe should be more celebrated because I haven’t heard about them a lot. As the articles will be brief I ask you to look up more on these extraordinary women yourself.

Name: Claudette Colvin

Born: 5 September 1939

From: United States of America

Should be known more for: Civil Rights Activism

Born in Montgomery, Alabama, Claudette was an orphan who was adopted and raised by a couple called the Colvins. At the age of 15 she was an A-grade student, living with Segregation. In 1955 while riding home from school on a bus, Colvin was ordered to move to the back of the bus to make room for white passengers who had just boarded the bus. Colvin refused to do so, the police was called and the young Colvin was handcuffed, arrested and removed from the bus. She kept insisting that it was her constitutional right to sit wherever she wanted. She was charged with disturbing the peace and violating the segregation law. Although only given probation, (even though she had pleaded not guilty in front of the court), Colvin was branded a troublemaker. She had to leave college and couldn’t find work.

The NAACP thought about using Colvin’s case to challenge the segregation laws, however they ultimately didn’t go through with this as they found Colvin to be unsuitable. She was young, pregnant at the time and not married. This was not someone they thought would be a good face to front their cause. Luckily for them they found someone more suitable a little less than 9 months later in Rosa Parks. Now how much influence the Colvin case had overall on Rosa Parks, we don’t know. They were both living in Montgomery at the time and Parks was a member of the NAACP, so she would most definitely have been aware of Colvin. No matter how much influence the Colvin case had on Parks, it does not take anything from the courage that she showed when making her protest.

Even though going through a hard time in 1956, not being able to find work and having a new born baby to look after, Colvin became one of four plaintiffs in the case of Browder v. Gayle, (the others being Aurelia S. Browder, Susie McDonald, Mary Louise Smith), The case contested that the Alabama bus segregation laws were unconstitutional. The courts found against the law. The State of Alabama appealed to the Supreme Court, who found the ruling sound and ordered the State of Alabama to discontinue bus segregation. This was huge victory for the civil rights movement at the time. Colvin then moved to New York, finding work as a nurse’s aide. 

International Womens Day Tribute Six

As the more enlightened of you might know the 8^th of March is International Women’s days. In honour of this, I will be writing a small article about 7 women whom I believe should be celebrated more for their achievements, and then posting one article each day in the week proceeding the 8^th of March. Now some of you might know a lot more about the subjects then I do, which is all well and good, remember these are women I believe should be more celebrated because I haven’t heard about them a lot. As the articles will be brief I ask you to look up more on these extraordinary women yourself.

Name: Valentina Tereshkova

Born: 6 March 1937

From: Russia

Should be known more for: First Woman in Space

When people generally discuss the space race, one name that usually doesn’t seem to get mentioned on many TV shows or films is that of Valentina Tereshkova. This is surprising considering that Tereshkova was the first woman in space, (20 years before the Americans put a woman in space), at the time she was also the youngest person in space and the 12^th overall human in to leave the confines of our planet, but more about that later.

Tereshkova was born in Maslennikovo, a small village in central Russia, Her father died as a soldier in World War two when Tereshkova was 2 years old. Miriam’s mother, who was a factory worker in a textile plant, had to raise Valentina and her 2 sibling on her own. Due to the financial constraints on the family Tereshkova was not able to start school until the age of 8 and from 16 had to continue via correspondence courses when she started working to help out her mother. At the age of 22 she joined the Yaroslavl Air Sports Club to pursue her interests in skydiving. Sergey Korolyov the genius Chief Engineer behind the Soviet Space programme after putting Yuri Gagarin in space came up with the idea of putting a woman in space. Tereshkova put her name down and was chosen for the programme. On the 16th June 1963 just over 2 years after Gagarin, Tereshkova became the first woman in space. Orbiting the Earth 48 times.

Upon returning to earth and after receiving top honours from the state. Tereshkova toured the world as a goodwill ambassador. She married Fellow Cosmonaut Andriyan Nikolayev and continued to work as an aerospace engineer, before entering politics and fighting for women’s rights within the Soviet Union.

International Womens Day Tribute Five

As the more enlightened of you might know the 8^th of March is International Women’s days. In honour of this, I will be writing a small article about 7 women whom I believe should be celebrated more for their achievements, and then posting one article each day in the week proceeding the 8^th of March. Now some of you might know a lot more about the subjects then I do, which is all well and good, remember these are women I believe should be more celebrated because I haven’t heard about them a lot. As the articles will be brief I ask you to look up more on these extraordinary women yourself.

Name: Irena Sendler aka Jolanta

Born: 15 February 1910

Died: 12 May 2008

From: Poland

Should be known more for: Saving almost 2500 Jewish children from the Nazis

Irena Krzyzanowska was born just outside of Warsaw in the town of Otwock, to a local doctor who died when his daughter was merely 7 years old. Though little is known of her early life we do know that she studied at the University of Warsaw and was a member of the Polish Socialist Party. When World War 2 broke out, the now married Irena Sendler was living in Warsaw working for the Social Services. From the start Sendler worked hard trying to protect the Jewish people of the city from the occupying Nazis. Providing them with necessities and sheltering them, under false names and often marking them down as suffering from diseases to prevent inspections from the gestapo.

When the Nazis started rounding up the Jewish people and imprisoning them into the Warsaw Ghetto, Sendler joined the Polish resistance movement Zegota, taking the code name Jolanta. Using her position in the social service Sendler would enter the ghetto and see the appalling conditions first-hand.  Knowing that she had to do something about this, Sendler recruited help from within and without the social services, to help rescue children from inside the ghetto and then have them placed in safe locations outside. She also kept meticulous records of the children, so that hopefully they may one day be reunited with their families. She buried the records (almost 2500 of them) in a jar, as not to have them fall into the wrong hands.

In October 1943 having caught onto her, Sendler was arrested by the gestapo and tortured severely, so severely in fact that it would cripple her for life. She did not break however and neither revealed any of her associates nor the locations of any of the children. Due to be killed by firing squad Sendler was rescued by the Zegota who bribed the guards, and had her reported as executed. She spent the rest of the war in hiding but still working with Jewish children. After the war she passed all her records to Zegota so that the children could be reunited with their families.

International Womens Day Tribute Four

As the more enlightened of you might know the 8^th of March is International Women’s days. In honour of this, I will be writing a small article about 7 women whom I believe should be celebrated more for their achievements, and then posting one article each day in the week proceeding the 8^th of March. Now some of you might know a lot more about the subjects then I do, which is all well and good, remember these are women I believe should be more celebrated because I haven’t heard about them a lot. As the articles will be brief I ask you to look up more on these extraordinary women yourself.

Name: Elizabeth Jane Cochran aka Nellie Bly

Born: 5 May 1864

Died: 27 January 1922

From: United States of America

Should be known more for: Pioneering Journalism and Circumnavigation

Elizabeth Jane Cochran aka Nellie Bly was born in Pennsylvania in Township of Burrell. At an early age her father passed away leaving the family in financial hardship, meaning that the young Cochran had to leave her boarding school after only one year. At the age of 16 her family moved to Pittsburgh. There upon reading a sexist column called "What Girls Are Good For" in the newspaper The Pittsburgh Dispatch. Elizabeth wrote a scathing rebuttal of this to the editor of the paper. Impressed by the writing, the editor sought out Cochran offering her a chance to write an article for the Dispatch and upon reading that a full time job. As it was custom at the time for women working in journalism to pick a pseudonym to write under, Cochran did the same and Nellie Bly was born.

Originally focusing her articles on the lives and suffering of working women, Bly grew sick and tired of being pushed by the higher ups, toward more traditional subject of Female Journalism i.e. the fashion or society pages. She decided to go to Mexico and report from there as a foreign correspondence. She was 21 at the time. She spent six months in Mexico reporting on the lives and culture of every day Mexicans. She was forced to leave Mexico after writing an article about this mistreatment of a local journalist by the dictator Porfirio Díaz. Returning to the Pittsburgh Dispatch Bly was again pushed towards more “womanly” articles and decided to seek her fortunes elsewhere.

That elsewhere was New York City; Bly made her way to the offices of the newspaper The New York World and pitched an idea for an undercover expose on the working of a women’s mental asylum. She pretended to be mentally ill, fooling several doctors and was placed inside the asylum, 10 days later the New York World helped facilitate her release and published her article. The article caused such uproar that it bought forth many changes to the treatment of the mentally ill.  For her next adventure Bly was inspired by the novel and decided to try and go Around the World in 80 day. A rival newspaper decided that it make a race by sending their own reporter Elizabeth Bisland in the opposite direction. During her trip which took her through Europe, South and South East Asia, Bly would send progress reports back to the New York World. She completed the trip in 72 days, beating Elizabeth Bisland by just less than 5 days. After leaving journalism to get married and to run her husband’s steel container factory, Bly would return to journalism later in life, and would cover world war ones eastern front and the women’s suffragette movement.

International Womens Day Tribute Three

As the more enlightened of you might know the 8^th of March is International Women’s days. In honour of this, I will be writing a small article about 7 women whom I believe should be celebrated more for their achievements, and then posting one article each day in the week proceeding the 8^th of March. Now some of you might know a lot more about the subjects then I do, which is all well and good, remember these are women I believe should be more celebrated because I haven’t heard about them a lot. As the articles will be brief I ask you to look up more on these extraordinary women yourself.

Name: Sarah Emma Edmonds

Born: December 1841

Died: 5 September 1898

From: Canada

Should be known more for: Serving in the Union army and Spying

Sarah Emma Edmonds grew up reading the novel ‘Fanny Campbell, the female pirate captain’ by Maturin Murray Ballou. Where the eponymous heroine dresses up as a man and has many adventures. This must have had a profound effect on the young Edmonds. At the age of 16 escaping her abusive father and an unwanted arranged marriage she immigrated to the United States, where she disguised herself as a man called Franklin Flint Thomas and found work as a travelling bible salesman.

Then the American Civil War broke out and Edmonds chance to shine came. She enlisted into the Union army, under her alias of Franklin Thomas. Originally working as a male nurse Edmonds or Franklin took part in many battles in her capacity as a nurse. However it was her later career as a spy that would allow her to fully fulfil her inner adventuress. Infiltrating confederate camps in a wide range of disguises, such as a black man named Cuff, an Irish peddler woman named Bridget O’Shea, and a Black Laundress who bought back a packet of official papers she found in a confederate officers jacket and was congratulated for her fine work.

Edmonds career as a soldier spy came to an abrupt end when she contracted malaria and had to leave without permission to get treatment. She did not want to be treated by the army doctor out of fear of being found out as a woman, and an official request to leave had been denied. Upon return after her recovery she found out that her alias Franklin Thomas had been listed as a deserter, and that she would face harsh punishment if she came back. Instead she returned to working with the Union army as a female nurse until the end of the war. After the war she published her memoirs and was later granted an army pension for her service.

International Womens Day Tribute Two

As the more enlightened of you might know the 8^th of March is International Women’s days. In honour of this, I will be writing a small article about 7 women whom I believe should be celebrated more for their achievements, and then posting one article each day in the week proceeding the 8^th of March. Now some of you might know a lot more about the subjects then I do, which is all well and good, remember these are women I believe should be more celebrated because I haven’t heard about them a lot. As the articles will be brief I ask you to look up more on these extraordinary women yourself.

Name: Augusta Ada King aka Ada Lovelace

Born: 10 December 1815

Died: 27 November 1852

From: United Kingdom

Should be known more for: Advancements in the fields of Computing

OK this lady I am told by two of my obviously more learned friends, is very widely known, though truth be told I really didn't really know anything about her until I started researching this project. Augusta Ada King aka Ada Lovelace (she was the countess of Lovelace) was the poet Lord Byron’s only legitimate child. Being the daughter of quite possibly the most (in)famous man in British society and raised by a cold mother, the young Ada was constantly observed for any signs of delinquency, in fact it was the fear that her daughter would turn to the bohemian ways of her ex-husband that led her mother to push the young Ada towards pursuing mathematics and logic.

Ada studied under a number of tutors, most notably Mary Somerville a mathematician and astronomer from Scotland. At the age of 17 Ada was introduced by Mary Somerville to the eminent Inventor and mathematician Charles Babbage (often referred to as the father of computing). Ada being of keen mind became intrigued by Babbage’s difference engine and even more over with his plans for a more powerful ‘Analytical Engine’. It was in fact her translation of an article in Italian by Federico Menabrea, relating to the proposed Analytical Engine, (a translation to which she added so many of her own thoughts that it was three times the length of the original), which first bought to light, many of her great ideas (including the idea of looping code), ideas that have led her to be considered the first computer programmer. Later she would use her vast intellect and work in the field to attempt to come up with a system for gambling, with little or no success.

International Womens Day Tribute One

As the more enlightened of you might know the 8^th of March is International Women’s days. In honour of this, I will be writing a small article about 7 women whom I believe should be celebrated more for their achievements, and then posting one article each day in the week proceeding the 8^th of March. Now some of you might know a lot more about the subjects then I do, which is all well and good, remember these are women I believe should be more celebrated because I haven’t heard about them a lot. As the articles will be brief I ask you to look up more on these extraordinary women yourself.

Name: Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz

Born: 12 November 1651

Died: 17 April 1695

From: Mexico

Should be known more for: Being a Pioneer for Women’s Education

Born the illegitimate child of a Spanish Captain, Juana Inés de la Cruz, raised herself from her humble beginnings to become a preeminent scholar of her time. In a time when there was a severe lack of both formal education for women as well as an desire by the powers that be to provide any such formal education, de la Cruz was mostly self-taught using books from her grandfather’s library. According to Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography by her mid-teens she had mastered Latin, Accounting, Greek Logic, The Aztec language of Nahuati and had written several poems in different languages.

Her thirst for knowledge was so great that she asked her mother’s permission to disguise herself as a boy to be able to study at the University in Mexico City, this request was denied. She then entered the court of the Viceroy of the colonies as a lady in waiting. Here the viceroy decided to test the young de la Cruz, by bringing in scholars of various subjects to ask a variety of questions for which she would not be prepared. Everyone was dazzled by her intelligence and poise. With her fame growing Juana received many offers of marriage, but turned down all of them, to become a nun, primarily so that she could continue to study without distractions.

The now Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz continued her studies and also produced some of her most famous works of poetry (Hombres Necios and Primero sueo) and play (El Divio Narciso) . Criticized by the church for not concentrating on theology, Sor de la Cruz continued to fight for the rights of girls and women to study, going as far as standing up to her male counterparts, using the bible as evidence to support her arguments. Unfortunately In the end after some of her private letters criticizing members of the clergy were published without her permission, she was forced to give up her writing and her vast library of books, to prevent censure by the church and the attention of the Inquisition. She died two years later helping the poor and afflicted during a plague.

My Top Ten Films of 2014

After a years absence I again bring you a list of my top films of the past year. You are welcome. Please be aware that this post will probably contain spoilers

Notable mentions

These are the films which I really enjoyed and were the closest to being in my Top Ten:

Captain America: The Winter Soldier – Now you all know (or should know by now) that I am a comic book geek. I am more of a DC guy but even taking that into account I have never been a fan of Cap. The Winter Soldier however tried to deal with the serious issues of comparing traditional American Value (not in the right wing Fox news way) with the security obsessed police state America is becoming (in between great action sequences of course)

Noah – Now this was obviously not everyone's cup of tea. However Darren Aronofsky has produced a thought provoking film which has a lot more to say about our current environmental issues and man's relation with the planet, than it does about the bible. Russell Crowe provides another powerhouse performance.

The Angriest Man In Brooklyn – Losing Robin Williams last year made me remember all the joy he had bought me through his work, and his performance in this star filled film is excellent, both funny and moving as a man, accidentally told by his doctor that he only has 90 minutes to live and trying to make the most of the time he has left.

The Lego Movie – What else can be said, a super fun film which can't help but make you smile. Also it gave us another Batman, which is always a great thing.

The Monuments Men – I have read the non-fiction book that this film was based on, and though the film cuts out a lot of historical details to make a more compact narrative I still enjoyed it. True that thematically it was all over the place, going from comedic (a lot of which was down to Bill Murray and Bob Balaban), to action to semi-melodrama, still it was a compelling story with great performances throughout. 

The Top Ten

10) John Wick
OK lets get this out of the way to begin with. I have a soft spot for Keanu Reeves. I'm not sure what it is, maybe it's because I only hear good things about him, maybe it's because he tries a wide variety of projects, or simply it might just be because he was Ted 'Theodore' Logan. No matter what it is, I was glad to see him back in a great film. The premise of the film may be a bit flimsy. Russian mob hit-man retires to get married, His wife dies leaving him a puppy, a couple of hoods kill said puppy, Russian mob hit-man, kills pretty much everyone seeking revenge. It's not the story so much that makes this film top ten worthy but the the world that it creates with it's organised underworld full of unwritten codes and of course the excellent Gun-Fu. Here's hoping for a sequel.

9) What We Do In The Shadows
A brilliant comedy mockumentary film from New Zealand about a bunch of vampire house mates of different ages (8000, 862, 379 and 183) living in modern day Wellington in the build up for The Unholy Masquerade a get together of vampires, witches, zombies etc. Into their strangely ordered post-lives comes the chaos of a newly sired vampire who is more in tune with modern life then the older quartet.

8) The 100 Year Old Man Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared
An adaptation of the best selling Swedish novel, this film runs two stories in parallel, it follows the adventure of Allan Karlsson after he escapes his retirement home on his 100th birthday, as well as showing the proceeding 100 years of his fascinating life where he wandered the world, affecting world history meeting and partying with world leaders. Think Forrest Gump without the exaggerated sentimentalism (sorry Tom Hanks, you were still Great)

7) The Imitation Game
Following the real life and tragic story of a true British Hero, who may not get as much recognition as he deserves. Benedict Cumberbatch portrays Alan Turing during his high successes during World War 2, and his subsequential heartbreaking fall. This is another film with fantastic performances throughout, most notably from Cumberbatch himself. 

6) Edge of Tomorrow
When I heard that Tom Cruise had been cast to be the lead in this film, I was surprised I had read the Japanese novel 'All You Need Is Kill', that the film was based on (yes I read a lot), and in the book the protagonist is a young fresh Japanese recruit (the action also takes part in Japan not Europe), which Tom Cruise is not. However I was happy with the result. The changes made in the film (including a better ending than the novel) made this an extremely enjoyable film. Tom Cruise was his usual charming self and had real chemistry with Emily Blunt, who was playing against type as a hard as nails soldier.

5) Pride
The little known story about a group of Gays and Lesbians in 1980's London who band together to support and raise money for another oppressed group, the striking Miners may not seem like it will make a feel good film, (especially if you know the outcome of the strikes themselves), however Pride does the seemingly impossible and at the end you leave feeling quite positive. Full of lots of great moments, including possibly the best dance scene in any film this year (Sorry Starlord)

4) X-Men: Days of Future Past
Bringing together the two halves of such a huge movie franchise as the X-Men would have seemed to be near impossible, especially as there were a lot of discrepancies between the original trilogy, the Wolverine films and the First First Class film. However the returning Bryan Singer, with all the major X-Men returning for this time travelling adventure which sees Wolverine being sent back from a dystopian future into his own body in the 70's to try and fix what once went wrong (yes that is a quantum Leap reference), he was able to do so and with the extra added bonus of wiping out the events of The Last Stand. 

3) Interstellar
A big budget film that is as full of big ideas as it is of huge special effects. It also pulls of the trick of being a very personal story about a father and daughter, separated by time and space, both on a mission to try and find a new home for humanity as our world slowly dies. Trust me it is not as depressing as I just made it sound. We haven't had a thought provoking science fiction film about space and our place in the universe for a while, but it was well worth the wait.



No I have not made a mistake. There were two films that were vying for top spot in my top 10 and I kept changing my mind between them, Then all of a sudden It occurred to me, it is my list and I set my own rules so why not have both as my no. 1 film. If you have a problem with that, please write a letter and then throw it in the nearest bin.

1) The Grand Budapest Hotel
The Grand Budapest Hotel is possibly the most Wes Anderson a film can be. Quirky characters [check], Gorgeous colour palette [check], Fun soundtrack [check], Brilliant ensemble cast [check], Bill Murray [check], you get my meaning. Now I hope you understand that I don't say this in a disparaging way, (or you should understand, I have just made this my joint number one film of 2014), I am a huge fan of all of Wes Anderson's work (a bit iffy on Bottle Rocket but then nobody is perfect, scratch that I am perfect), and this is my favourite film by him. What gives this the edge over all his previous films is Ralph Fiennes' incredible comic performance as Gustave H, the concierge of the titular hotel. This is a side of Ralph Fiennes' talent that we have only briefly witnessed in 'In Bruge', so to see him fully spread his comedic wings, was a joy to behold. Not to say that the other performances in this film are to be sniffed at, everyone is great especially the villains of the piece. So All round a must see film.

1) Guardians of the Galaxy
As you should all I am comic book fan (if you don't then either you skipped my paragraph on Captain America, or have something seriously wrong with your memory and should possibly see a doctor), anyway having said that, I have to confess that I was not that familiar with the Guardians of the Galaxy title (mainly a DC guy remember), I was aware that they were a team of heroes in space, one of whom was a Tree and one was a Racoon, and they had something to do with Thanos, but that was about it. And in a way I'm glad about that, you might not know this but some comic book fans can be a bit nitpicky when it comes to story lines and character changes, I have been guilty of this myself from time to time. So coming into this film without any major background allowed me to enjoy this fantastic romp in all its glory. With the exception of Ronan the Accuser, all the characters were fully filled out, all the performances were fantastic, including the mocap Rocket and Groot, (there was this one scene that if I was capable of normal human emotions I may have cried). Added to that was the amazing soundtrack of fantastic 70's tunes, which was a wonderful surprise. Trust me people this film was 2 hours of fun, and I for one can't wait for the sequel.

And my worst film of the year for 2014 is.........

Transformers: Age of Extinction
As if there was any doubt. Now I grew up with the Transformers, I wasn't into them that much (I always preferred He-Man or Thundercats), but they were part of my youth growing up. When the original Transformer film (live action) was announced I was like 'OK could be fun', which it wasn't, and every subsequent film had gotten worse. So when I heard that the quite awful Shia Labeouf had left the franchise and been replaced by Mark Wahlberg I got my hopes up a bit. Wahlberg is OK, he has a bit of charm and can act, (and to be honest he is not the worst thing in this film), but again the Michael Bay has gone for big bangs, special effects, attractive (questionable in this case) talentless actresses instead of plot and character development, and the entire film suffers for it. In the right hands, for example Christopher Nolan, Bryan Singer, Joss Whedon we see that even with big budget blockbusters, plot and character development are the foundations that the films are built on. Not here unfortunately, this is a lowest common denominator of big budget films.