The Post i had to write (Please RT & READ)

This is a post I never expected to write, mainly because I am the type of person who keeps a lot of my problems in and just puts on a brave face. But tonight you could say I have been inspired to just put it all out there and finally open up a bit more.
I’ve never had what you would call a perfect life, I have had issues, I’ve never been popular, I’ve never been someone a guy would go out of their way to meet or ask out & if they did it would simply be a joke to use as fun later on. The older I have got the more I have closed myself off from people and I have simply just gone through the motions of life.
I have been bullied so badly over the years that there were times I just never wanted to leave my room and my nature to put others before myself got used so badly I was at one point doing other peoples homework or helping others just so I could be talked too. I’ll admit looking back at it now I was a silly naive girl but it was either this or nothing and I am not someone who deals well with having no-one.
A few people knew that 2008 was a year id rather forget but it was worse than that over the course of 12 months everything went wrong to the point where by the end where I tried to commit suicide. It was only an accident where Delta’s album fell on my head which stopped me, I spent most of the night listening to Mistaken Identify and I credit Delta as one of the people who saved my life. Delta slowly helped drag me out of the hell that 2008 had become and gave me a small ray of hope. Fast forward to the 16^th June 2012 and here I sit on my bed on a cold and rainy evening typing this trying to stop myself stressing over my Tafe course. There are good days now and then there are bad days but I try my best not to let myself slip to where I have been. What I do to stop myself is use my music and in the last few months 3 new artists have been added to a small list which keeps me from making any mistakes. Danni Da Ros, Glenn Cunningham & Rachael Leahcar all from The Voice have voices that can evoke the soul & Rachael in particular has brought me to tears on more than one occasion. Less than a month ago my mind was swirling and I cracked, causing me to feel as bad as I did in 2008 but I used all 3 I mentioned earlier to give me a kind of inner peace & now I listen to them daily.
People may have their opinions when I read this saying I possibly need help, but I’ve already had plenty. Music is my drug now and that keeps me sane, it inspires me and Delta, Glenn, Danni & Rachael have been a big part of that & I can never thank them enough.

And then there were 4 (The Voice)

And here we are the final 4. For the last few months we have been leading up to this point on The Voice and to be honest I am sad to see it coming to an end. I am not surprised by who was chosen by the coaches because nearly 6 weeks ago I made the call and said Rachael, Sarah, Darren & Karise would be the last ones standing and I was proven right. But what disappoints me is with the decision less than 2hrs old the hate has already begun.
Each one of the four finalists deserves to be there on their own merit. I knew the moment Karise opened her mouth at that blind audition that she would be hard to stop and her performance of Hallelujah tonight once again showed how remarkable she is. Sarah has a voice that could stop anyone in their tracks and has been one of the strongest performers from day 1. Darren has a smile and a love and joy for singing that warms the hearts of everyone who listens to him. And of course Rachael the girl who stunned all four coaches when they heard the emotion and power in her voice back at the blind auditions. The sad thing is each one of these four remarkable people is already getting some form of hate, more so than others. Rachael in particular has copped the brunt of this hate and I think this is more to do with her coach than her. To say Rachael only made the grand final out of sympathy is an absolute joke does that mean Glenn deserved it instead? I know full well that if Delta had chosen Glenn over Rachael the same people would have been shouting it was favouritism and so no-one would have been happy.
This show though has taught me something, there is no point in being depressed about seeing your favourite leave. After seeing one of my main favourites Danni leave the previous week it just made me want to support her even more. And that goes for all of the contestants. So I say there is no point hating the contestants or the coach, if you don’t like their music simply respect the fact that others do and leave it at that. We all came into this with our favourites and we leave with those same favourites and in my case a few extras. Depressed fans who are worried their favourite shall drop off the face of the planet shouldn’t worry either; most of these contestants won’t leave the public eye for too long after what they have gained from this show.  So in my opinion no-one has lost, in fact Australia has won, it shone a bright light onto some of the best talent in this country and gave them the shot they all deserved, and we should all be thankful for it.  So don’t hate the contestants, respect peoples choices and let us enjoy what we have..... some incredible musicians.

A reply to some of the Sanctuary negative press

On one of those rare days that I have had free in recent weeks, I spent most of it in front of my computer or phone checking tweet updates from the Leo Awards. These awards hosted by Amanda Tapping & Robin Dunne were the icing on the cake for Sanctuary. It pains me then when I read negative articles about the shows cancelation such as that written by Brody Gibson for boomtron.com (http://www.boomtron.com/2012/05/no-sanctuary-season-5-for-syfy). I didn’t want to write this reply and the chances of Brody actually reading this is slim but I thought it was necessary to point out a few things. “The Canadian-made series hasn’t been the most talked about science fiction program” What exactly do you consider most talked about? And where? When Sanctuary was at its height it was the only TV show of its kind that I saw people talking about. But not by the traditional means either, people would tell one person to watch it and then tell their friends to watch it and so the show spread. By originally starting on the internet before progressing to television it didn’t exactly have the same level of press traditional shows would either. But it had the fan backing from the beginning and that is all the actors & producers/writers ever cared about. Which brings me to the second point: “lacking the fan-support of such shows as Warehouse 13 and Dr. Who” Lacking fan support? Are you kidding me? Clearly this guy doesn’t look at the world wide fan support this show has. Not only that the two examples he has listed are completely ridiculous for a number of reasons.
Sanctuary would never be able to compete with a show like Dr Who in particular because that show has had nearly 50 years to develop its fan base. Of course Dr Who went off the air for a very long time before restarting in 2005 but even so the show had entered popular culture and was already a household name. I had never seen an episode of Dr Who in full till 2005 but I already knew what it was, which was always going to give the show the kick start it needed. Warehouse 13 heavily promoted by Syfy and is a mainstream show. It has a wide appeal but so does Sanctuary, & unlike Sanctuary Warehouse 13 never was moved from its timeslot, giving it a fair chance. On a global scale this show is highly popular; to give an example from here in Australia when Amanda, Robin & Agam all came to the Armageddon expo in Melbourne in October 2011 they were some of the most popular guests at the event. The show was screened and is still screened in many countries around the world and long after the show has ended its fan base still grows. And thanks to DVD sales the word of mouth from fans will still keep this show well and truly alive.
“Sanctuary should feel great pride for having lasted four seasons when by any stretch of the imagination they shouldn’t have even gotten one”
How are you to judge? Sanctuary pushed the boundaries of what you could do in television. The amount of awards and nominations this show has received especially in the technical side proves that it was a show that more than EARNED its 4 seasons. And to add to that the awards that it won today.
“You beat the odds” When I read this I thought of a saying my mother always uses “You create your own luck and forge your own destiny” And you know what? Sanctuary certainly did that.

Fandom Wars are Pointless

Sometimes you overhear the most random things when you are travelling on public transport. Two high school girls, no more than 16 got on the bus and sat in front of me. I wasn’t intending to listen but their conversation; well actually they were having a debate. But the fact was it was so loud I couldn’t help myself. Their debate was and probably is one of the biggest problems for anyone who loves their TV and that is fandom wars.
For anyone who doesn’t frequent the internet a great deal or simply avoids social media, a fandom war is where people on two sides fight for the TV show/book/movie etc, they love. In some cases it’s simply to prove their show is better than another or in another case where one group of people will be little another because they believe the rival show is a copy. Sadly for people like myself when you love more than one show it can be hard to take one side or another.  So instead you stand on the sidelines watching as friends become enemies and internet and social media forums destroy each other. Both these girls though were making valid points, one could see a value in debating differences and similarities in shows while the other could not see a point at all, and I tend to agree. Too many times over the last 5 years have I seen a show fans attack another when they see one minor plot similarity and claim it as their own. Too many times have I lost friends when they try to drag me onto one side of the fight or another and too many times have I just sat back and shook my head simply asking why?
What I have noticed is that the attacks have become a lot more personal in recent times, and no clearer example of this is during the Bones vs. Castle fandom war.
Now before I go any further I am not saying all Bones fans are bad, far from it. But there is a small minority who are giving the rest a bad name. This war has bothered me from the start, I’ve always liked Bones, I used to religiously follow the show for 5yrs until the show fell off the wagon a bit with the infamous dream sequence sex scene (could have been earlier but my memory is hazy). I still watch the occasional ep now & I still love many of the cast members but the show is not the same for me. So by default I have found myself on the Castle side of this war and have copped a lot of flak from people because of it.  But this is my thoughts on it, I cannot see how these two shows are similar, even my mother who watches both shows can’t see the similarity. The only thing that is similar is the chemistry between the two leads, nothing more. My mother last night gave me a different view point, she said Castle was more similar to The Mentalist and I can see that more than Bones.
The bus debate ended when one of the girls got frustrated & ended up getting off at her stop clearly disappointed that the other girl had not relented in her opinion at all. And that’s the thing about these wars, they frustrate, they annoy and in the end will make it impossible for people to remain friends. But like anything they are a by-product of the internet & TV and probably will never stop but sadly increase.  

Thank You Sanctuary

When I decided to write this post today I had planned a totally different subject. But when I woke up to the news that the Syfy network had officially cancelled Sanctuary that all changed.
I will admit I was late to the party somewhat when it came to Sanctuary I started watching the show after both the first two seasons had been released on DVD here in Australia. At the time when I bought season one I wasn’t sure what I was getting myself into, but it took all of 15mins for me to realise I had started watching a piece of  genius. I had always been a fan of science fiction style shows but Sanctuary took that to another level in the creativity it showed. It was a show that pushed the boundaries and could keep people guessing at any moment and that was one of the main reasons I loved it so much, you never knew what to expect next.
This show won’t die though; it shall live on for many years to come if nothing else for the legacy it’s created. Helen Magnus is going to go down as one of the best TV characters in history and not only that, Helen is probably one of the strongest female characters to grace TV screens in the last 5 years. It’s sad though, with so much depth and so many layers to the character we will never get to see them all. The acting on this show was incredible, Amanda Tapping stole every scene she was in, Robin Dunne took my emotions from wanting to hug him to wanting to slap him and back again. Ryan Robbins played Henry perfectly; Agam Darshi gave the show an extra dynamic it needed from season 2 onwards. Christopher Heyerdahl of course in his dual role as John/Bigfoot was outstanding and then of course there were Emilie, Jonathon, Robert, Peter & Ian who all played their part over the 4 seasons and without them the show would not have been what it was.
Of course the writing & direction made a huge impact, Damian & Martin and everyone else behind the scenes deserve all the credit for giving this show an air of quality that many shows on TV lack these days. And it makes you wonder how a quality show like this can get kicked to the curb while others live on.
I sometimes wonder what must run through the heads of the executives of Syfy considering this isn’t the first time they have killed one of their top rating shows. Eureka one of my other favourites was cancelled unjustly and even as its draws to a close it is still one of the highest rating shows on their network. I have lost all faith in television networks now; it’s going to be hard for me to get enthusiastic about any new show knowing that there is a strong chance it could get cancelled before we get an ending. Warehouse 13 is one of the last decent shows on Syfy left standing; let’s just hope it doesn’t suffer a similar fate.
But finally I say to everyone involved in Sanctuary thank you for giving me so much joy over the last four seasons. Through all the highs and lows, the smiles, tears & laughter you shall remain in my heart for everything you have done. A show gone but certainly never forgotten, you shall be sorely missed.  

Stop Hating on Delta!

Ever since The Voice Australia started & Delta Goodrem returned to our screams as a coach I have slowly watched as the steady stream of haters has increased. To this point I have held my tongue hoping against hope that once the show had hit the live rounds that there would be more focus on the contestants rather than Delta herself. But alas I was wrong and instead the hating has got to the point where I can’t take it anymore. I am not ashamed to say that I have been a fan of Delta’s ever since I heard “I Don’t Care” by accident in a music store back in the early 2000’s at the time I thought she was a breath of fresh air that the Australian music scene was in desperate need of.
From that point on her music has gotten me through a lot of personal turmoil and even now listening to her music puts a smile on my face when I badly need it after a long day. At the time of her own personal hell this country proudly embraced her and gave Delta all the love and support she needed to fight through her darkest hour. Yet where has all that love gone now? Sadly the other night I was stupid enough to troll through some of the hash tags on Twitter and what I found appalled me. Delta being called all the stupid and horrible names under the sun, yet she has done nothing to deserve any of them.
One of the things that has always annoyed me about Australia is our love of tall poppy syndrome, cutting someone when they are down and once they are down stamping them into the ground until there is no way they can come back. Sadly I am seeing people right across the social media space sharpening their knives trying to cut Delta down at any opportunity. Some claim she can’t sing, well if you don’t like her music simply don’t listen. Some comment on her choice of clothes, so she isn’t allowed to be an individual now? Others say she is full of herself, Have you even met her? Actually sat down at had a conversation with her? For god sake. The last one particularly irks me because to judge someone on what they see on TV is ridiculous. I may have never met Delta myself but I know plenty of people who have and what they all say is the same thing. Never has anyone been more willing to give their time & appreciate you coming to see them than Delta. After all how many musicians with her star power would stay signing autographs & chatting to people long after the shops had shut their doors? None that come to my mind. The woman has a bigger heart than many celebs I have ever seen and has changed so many lives, including mine that I think she deserves a little more respect than she has received.
The point of this post is simple; bullying a celeb on any of the forms of social media is pointless and stupid. How would you feel if someone you loved and admired was attacked and then stopped answering tweets or closed their account altogether? You wouldn’t like it. And I certainly as hell can’t stand the bullshit that Delta has been copping. If you don’t have anything good to say keep it to yourself and don’t ruin it for those people who consider themselves fans, because none of us can take it anymore.