How are you?
Welcome to the second in my "Best of" series. Last year I talked about books, beauty and Bits'n'Bobs, but this year I have decided that I am going to stop talking about beauty on my blog as I have no interest in it. I have decided that I am going to start talking about culture as culture is a huge part of my life.
I know that culture is a very vague word, but on here it means theater (plays and musicals), art exhibitions, films and tv, travel etc. I am now going to start featuring culture in my favourites every month.
Theater
I am very fortunate to be able to go so many plays and musicals with my parents. Most people I know would rather go on sunny beach holidays, but we would rather go to the theater. I get to see a lot of plays and musicals and it was very hard to narrow it down to my favourites. I will be honest I am only talking about plays and musicals from June onwards as I can't remember lots of what I saw before June because of exam stress.First on my list is getting to see The Book of Mormon for the second time. I had already seen it in 2015 with my Dad and my Mum was desperate to see it. So the weekend before my birthday we went and saw it. It was even better the second time. I highly recommend you go and see it as it is hilarious. It is written by the people who created South Park. I will warn that it has lots of swear words and if you get easily offended, this musical isn't for you. I can safely say that The Book of Mormon is my favourite musical.
Next on my list was my trip to Edinburgh with my Dad to the Edinburgh Fringe for the 3rd year in a row. If you are ever planning to go to Edinburgh, then this is the time to go. There is so much to see, I can guarantee that you won't be bored. My Dad and I only went for a day and we managed to fit in 5-6 pieces of theater.
In mid June, my parents and I went to Glyndebourne Opera House near Brighton as part of my Dad's present to my Mum for her birthday. I had never been to an opera, so I didn't know what to expect but I really enjoyed myself. I believe the opera we saw was called The Little Vixen. The costumes the singers wore were amazing, as was the set. I don't know if they do this at all Operas, but at Glyndebourne the interval was longer than the performance. In the interval, you have a picnic! The food was really nice and it felt very posh. I hope at some point in my life, I can go again as I really enjoyed it.
My final theater favourite is the Winter season at the RSC (Royal Shakespeare Company). I've been going to the RSC since I was 6 years old and I have always enjoyed it, but this season was the best thing I saw. Obviously, I enjoyed everything else at the RSC, but these plays have stayed in my mind. I particularly enjoyed the plays in the Swan Theater. If you ever visit Stratford Upon Avon, you have to go to the RSC and see something.
Films and TV
There were a lot of amazing films that came out in 2016, as well as a lot of TV. I think I have narrowed it down to my ultimate favourites, otherwise the list would be endless. I will warn that I am rubbish at describing why I like films because I am not a film reviewer.
Films
My first film favourite is Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them. You guys know that I love the Harry Potter series, so I was both excited and skeptic when they announced the Fantastic Beasts films. I do have a review on here for the film, you can read that here. My review goes into loads of detail about why I like the film.
My next favourite film was Moana. I have always been a fan of Disney, so every-time they release a new film I get really excited. Moana was very different from the other Disney films as it shows that you don't need a man by your side. I've noticed that Disney is branching away from the "a princess always needs a man/prince to save her" recently and I couldn't be happier. I loved the songs as they were written by Lin-Manuel Miranda, so they were in a similar style to Hamilton.
My final favourite film was Stark Trek Beyond. It is quite possibly my favourite of the 3 Star Trek Films. It was very funny, but it also had some more serious scenes. I loved the opening scene. I was really happy that the film paid tribute to Leonard Nimoy and Anton Yelchin as both died before the films release.
TV
My favourite TV series of 2016 were:
- Lucifer
- Poldark (series 2)
- The Living and The Dead
- Game of Thrones (I know I'm really behind, I only just joined this fandom)
Travel
My favourite place I traveled to in 2016 was Brighton. I visited Brighton when I was very little, so I don't really remember much about it. It was nice being in a seaside town that felt a bit old-fashioned (it has the huge pier). The Lanes were really fun to visit and the weather was mostly good. I hope in the future I can go back to Brighton and spend more time exploring and take more photos.So that is it for my Best of Culture for 2016. Next weeks post will be Best of Bits'n'Bobs and I have a feeling that this is going to be a really long post.
Love,
Carenza x
