Here is my latest five video suggestions to watch this week on YouTube.
Social Issues/History
First up we have episode six in Crash Course’s incredible Black American History series. In this episode Clint Smith talks about the Stono Rebellion which happened in South Carolina in 1784. Clint also looks at how black people fought back against the ugly behaviour they faced in a general sense. It is brilliant to see how black people challenged the cruelty, discrimination and adversity they faced. It obviously took such strength to do so under the circumstances they faced.
Social Issues/History/Dance
In this amazing Tedx Talk entitled Ballroom Culture: the Language of Vogue Ronald Murray talks about the history of ballrooms and voguing. Really, really interesting and filled with so much information. There is also demonstrations of some voguing moves and a gorgeous dance by three dancers Major, Skye and Lamont.
Music
This is such a brilliant vocal and performance by the incredible Patti LaBelle with Lady Marmalade from 1975. Enjoy! 🙂
Sylvester’s You Make Me Feel (Mighty Real) is one of my favourite songs to get up and dance to. Sylvester is amazing and I adore everything about this song and music video.
To end today we have a beautiful song and a great music video. Here is the amazing Chaka Khan with Angel.
Here is my latest Beauty On A Budget look. Hope you all like it. 🙂
First Steps
Use Miss Beauty London’s Flawless Matte Foundation – Translucent on your face and neck. Brush eyebrows and put the black colour from Max & More’s 12 Color Eyeshadow Palette on your eyebrows. Highlight cheeks gently with the right colour on the top row in the highlighter palette from the Golddigga 24 Carat Glam Set. Use the Bronze Metallic Eye Pencil from the Golddigga set on your eyelids and extending out at the outside corners of your eyes. Put the Gold Metallic Eye Pencil under your eyes and in the inside corners of your eyes. Put Max & More’s Mascara With Argan Oil – black on your eyelashes.
Final Steps
Put reddish-pink lipstick from Cosmetic Connections on your lips and cover with Miss Beauty London’s Lipstick Sealer.
Here is my latest five video suggestions to watch this week on YouTube.
Social Issues/History
First up we have episode five in Crash Course’s incredible Black American History series. In this episode Clint Smith talks about the Germantown petition against slavery which was one of the earliest attempts to abolish slavery. Very informative and interesting episode about people who fought early on against racism.
Next up we have this very intriguing video by Matt Baume where we learn about ballroom history and look at the history of documentaries about ballrooms like Paris Is Burning, The Queen and Kiki. Amazingly interesting video about the lives of Queer people, especially Queer people of colour, in the ballroom scene throughout the years.
Poetry
Next up we have five amazing poems by Langston Hughes: Theme for English B, Madam’s Past History, The Negro Speaks of Rivers, Night Funeral in Harlem and Dream Variations. Beautifully read too by PoemsBeingReadALOUD.
Relaxation
Thirdly we have a very relaxing video specifically done for Pride Month by Whispering Gentleman ASMR.
Music
Finally for today we have an amazing track from Luther Vandross called Your Secret Love. So brilliant and a really great music video too.
Here is my latest Beauty On A Budget look. Hope you all like it. 🙂
First Steps
Use Miss Beauty London’s Sweet Touch powder on your face and neck. Brush eyebrows and put Miss Beauty London’s 2 In 1 Clear Mascara and Brow Gel on your eyebrows and eyelashes. Put Miss Beauty London’s Eye Crayon – Cappuccino on your eyelids.
Final Steps
Put Nivea Original Care Caring Lip Balm on your lips. Put Miss Beauty London’s Lipstick Sealer over it.Â
Here is my latest Beauty On A Budget look. Hope you all like it. 🙂
First Steps
Use Miss Beauty London’s Flawless Matte Foundation – Translucent and Miss Beauty London’s Sweet Touch powder on your face and neck. For a contour put some of the powder down the sides of your nose and on the tip of your nose and wipe it in well. Brush eyebrows and put Miss Beauty London’s 2 In 1 Clear Mascara and Brow Gel on your eyebrows and Max & More’s Mascara With Argan Oil – Black on your eyelashes. Put the black colour from Max & More’s 12 Color Eyeshadow Palette on your eyelids and under your eyes. Put on OG Outdoor Girl Blusher on your cheeks.
Final Steps
Put on deep pinkish-red lipstick from Cosmetic Connections and put Miss Beauty London’s Lipstick Sealer over it.
Here is my latest Beauty On A Budget look. Hope you all like it.  🙂
First Steps
Use Miss Beauty London’s Sweet Touch powder on your face and neck. Brush eyebrows and put Miss Beauty London’s 2 In 1 Clear Mascara and Brow Gel on your eyebrows and eyelashes. Put the light grey colour from Max & More’s 12 Color Eyeshadow Palette on your eyelids. Put on a light bit of the pink colour from the same palette on your cheeks as a blusher.
Final Steps
Put Simple Pleasures High Shine Lip Gloss in a pale pink shade on your lips. Put Miss Beauty London’s Lipstick Sealer over it.Â
Here is my latest Beauty On A Budget look. Hope you all like it.  🙂
First Steps
Use Miss Beauty London’s Sweet Touch powder on your face and neck. Brush eyebrows and put Miss Beauty London’s 2 In 1 Clear Mascara and Brow Gel on your eyebrows. Put the purple-pink colour from Max & More’s 12 Color Eyeshadow Palette on your eyelids and the black colour from the same palette under your eyes. Put on a light bit of OG Outdoor Girl Blusher on your cheeks.
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Final Steps
Put Royal Cosmetic Connections red lipstick on your lips. Put Miss Beauty London’s Lipstick Sealer over it.Â
Here is my latest five video suggestions to watch this week on YouTube.
Social Issues/History
First up we have episode four in Crash Course’s amazing Black American History series. In this episode Clint Smith talks about the very ugly slave codes. Another very informative episode.
Music/Social Issues
Secondly we have a wonderful documentary/concert by the Boston Gay Men’s Chorus. Really amazing video which was a treat to watch this Pride Month.
Music
Here is a gorgeous version of House of the Rising Sun performed by Nina Simone. This is just such an excellent match because I adore the song and I adore Nina singing so of course this is all perfect. The performance is from a recording session which took place in 1968 at The Bitter End in New York City.
Next up we have Sly & The Family Stone live at Tokyo Jazz Festival 2008. You will certainly be up dancing and feeling all joyous. So excellent.
True Crime
Finally we have the first episode in Buzzfeed Unsolved True Crime with Ryan Bergara and Shane Madej. The case this week is about the death of Superman actor George Reeves. A really interesting watch.
Career Of Evil (2015) is the third book in the Cormoran Strike series by Robert Galbraith which is a  pseudonym of J.K. Rowling.
First up there is a huge amount of transphobia in this book but I think that deserves to be gone into in more detail later in this review. I will start with other aspects first.
The book is very well-written which is not unexpected from Rowling as despite everything she has a gift for storytelling. With mysteries not been what she is known mostly for she does a very good job of creating a list of possible suspects and suspense. The two main characters Strike and Robin are however not very likeable. Strike is aggressive, egotistical and controlling. There was potential for Robin to be actually a really good character. She has some excellent qualities. She is very strong and does not let herself be talked down. She is determined and keeps fighting her way to where she wants to be, she likes to help people out of difficult situations and she has a lot of good principles which she is not scared to say out. But talk about destroying a character with so much potential because as the book goes on we see that she has not good principles in certain ways. She is transphobic and heteronormative. It doesn’t really fit with the rest of her character’s principles and kindness to people so it seems a bit strange really, kind of out of the blue, which doesn’t make her seem very realistic to be honest.
There is very important topics spoken about in the book like child abuse, sexual assault and mind control. I think the author writes about the first two issues with sensitivity which is how they should be written. Both of these topics are clearly written about in a very heartfelt way. The third issue I would say is written about well to an extent. Matthew, Robin’s fiance, is controlling and it isn’t left up for debate that he is. Maybe it isn’t gone into too much but it is clear. There is other instances of controlling men in the book too and that is made very clear too. However Strike is also controlling and he is portrayed as a hero. That is very dodgy. Mental health is also an important topic which is covered a lot in the book and it is done so with mixed results. Robin is compassionate to those with mental health issues but Strike is a nightmare. Both types of people do exist so it is realistic that they appear in the book as that is life but it is not really addressed that Strike’s comments are not normal to be making and his comments are often made to feel like just that, normal. And remember he is supposed to be the hero of the book.
In terms of the mystery I do think it is well done. I didn’t guess who it was and the twist at the end was quite a good one and I think there is a lot of red herrings in there to throw people off the scent. With the love story I do not find any chemistry between Strike and Robin and I don’t particularly care about them enough to care if they get together or not. In fact the only reason I would not want them to is that Strike is controlling and that wouldn’t be good for Robin but other than that their love story is underwhelming and I am not really that bothered.
When I started reading this book I didn’t know that Robert Galbraith was a pseudonym of J.K. Rowling. Therefore when I was reading the book I was unsure what the author’s motives were. On one side I thought they may have researched people who wanted to be amputees. I hadn’t heard of that but I was willing to keep an open mind that maybe the writer had and that was what they had based the story on. But I also was worried that there was a cruel motive from the author. As I was reading more and more I was seeing that the word trans was becoming part of some of the words surrounding this topic and certain things characters were saying about wanting to be amputees are things I heard trans people say about their experiences. To be very clear though it is most certainly not the way Rowling described it in this work. It was like Rowling observed how trans people spoke about their experiences and then took parts of what they said and twisted it into dialogue clearly written from a very bigoted lense. The part that sticks in my mind from this book is when Strike and Robin meet with Tempest and Jason who are two people who wish to be amputees. Strike is an amputee from an accident that took place at war. If you were to take the scene as just that you would understand why Strike was angry but with Rowling being the author I think it is very obvious that she was using that as a smokescreen to run down trans people. It is a part in the book which really plays up and attempts to give credence to all those horrible and disgusting stereotypes which people say about trans people: that being trans is attention-seeking, that it isn’t real, that it is a way of looking for special treatment, that trans people are inconsiderate and worse of all that they are mentally unwell and not to be treated equally as humans. Nearing the end of the scene Strike says that Jason should get help with his head and outside Strike and Robin laugh about how at least Strike didn’t punch Tempest. He was made out like a big brave man. Reading it without the smokescreen he just seems like a dickhead and a loser and Robin is not much better applauding his behaviour. They are been cruel to and trying to make a mockery of trans people and that is not on. It is a disgusting scene and there is quite a lot of that in the book. It is a very transphobic book and the only thing that saves it is that people may not realise that it is or are unsure that it is. But when you know what is been put across you realise it is just ugly. In addition the idea that Rowling would use disabled people as a way to put across her anti-trans sentiments is really awful. She attempts to make out trans people are inconsiderate of people with disabilities when in reality she is being very inconsiderate of people with disabilities to use them in such a way as to get her agenda across in this book. It is very twisted. Finally there is trans people who are disabled and I do not even think that crossed her mind when she was writing this book and if it did she may have pretended it didn’t in order to put across her agenda.
In short to end it is a terrible book. There is some good writing in it sure but the way she writes about trans people and the way she uses disabled people I found very hard to stomach.
To purchase Career Of Evil by Robert Galbraith go to:
For more about Robert Galbraith/J.K. Rowling and her work go to:
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