Author, Bambi Smyth has traveled the world, looking for love, dating men, and matching their qualities to the local cuisine.
In her book, "Men on the Menu" she writes about her 75 blind dates with an Italian Prince, a Spanish Gigolo, Russian Billionaire, and a Vatican Priest and more.
She thought she'd found The One in Rome. Tall, dark and handsome, charming.....
Magic
Mike XXL and Channing Tatum...and a little bit of imagination goes a long way...
There
was a few sizzling surprises in the movie that I didn’t see coming until I bought
my ticket, and sort of sunk down in the cinema seat, forgot
about life...relaxed, and fixed my eyes on the mambo action. Woah!
Dancing
wise - Magic Mike XXL moved on from the original movie where the buff guys
danced at a club twirling umbrellas in their hands, and wearing raincoats, army uniforms,
cowboys, firemen etc, fellas imitating fantasies to turn on the ladies.
The
second time around, MMXXL had some refreshing ideas about whooping it up on the
dance floor. How to burn out female brain cells and roast the pleasure centers of
the body, particularly down low…like the chocolate sauce on the inner thigh…
Foreplay
and female desire, are two words that come to mind from an article written about
the movie by the Huffington Post. Here’s the link if you’re interested;
Youtuber, Laci Green has also made a video
called; “The Female Gaze is Real in Magic Mike XXL”. See it here; https://youtu.be/FdHJG67xmsQ
So
what was the story about besides the obvious – Channing Tatum + Hunks stripping
off their clothes? Not every woman needs a plot for this movie so I’ll keep the
premise short!
MMXXL
is about a group of adult male entertainers who go on a road trip to attend the
stripper convention at Myrtle Beach where they plan to give their final
performances.
The
guys travel in an ice cream/yogurt truck, which doesn’t have enough seats for them to
sit down on, or any beds for them to sleep in. They aren’t too worried about what
they eat or where they sleep…or who they sleep with. Seems a freedom-loving,
“make it up as you go” movie guy thing to do.
There’s
lots of bro-talk during the journey about their past dance performances, failed
relationships with women, and wanting to change their lives.
It
was the different groups of women they meet at the stops along the road who
were the catalysts that challenged the bro thinking. To the story hunks’
credit, they were open-minded and receptive to the influence of the women. I
had some hot-faced moments watching the guys getting their re-alignment to
female pleasure.
There
were 2 scenes in the movie that short-circuited my female brain;
Rome’s
Club at Savannah.
Actress,
Jada Pinkett-Smith played the character of Rome, who was the boss lady of a private,
sexy club. Ladies payed a subscription fee to be part of the club. I know about
book subscription services but Rome’s type of club…still learning
about that one.
So
in this dimly lit, classy old house, there are male entertainers performing in
different rooms. We see women of all races, ages and sizes coming for the live,
ooh-la-la action. A largish lady wearing a short dress has a good time lying on
her back getting a massage, or was it being teased by one of the entertainers,
(think getting in the mood/foreplay here). Lots more happening in the house but
I don’t want to give the movie away.
I
couldn’t resist including the featurette;
The Dance Finale at
the Stripper Convention.
The
mirror dance routine by Channing & Stephen “tWitch” Boss was spectacular by
movie standards, maybe even brilliant. But I couldn’t imagine myself being
bodily tossed around Channing’s hard physique like I was a pole dancer. (I
don’t have the flexibility in the joints – ha-ha!) Maybe I should try to imagine it!
My
big brain fry came from Joe Manganiello in his traditional bride and groom
scene. He escorts his new bride (from the audience) to the stage, to the sex
sling…gulp…all of sudden there’s red lighting, bass raunchy music…what is he
going to do to her now!
Arrrr…freaking
out!
Honestly,
my pelvic floor muscles squeezed tight and dropped to the carpet. I’m not
joking, it was a real, physical reaction. I think I also held my breath. OMG
were the only words, my brain could understand at the time.
Before
I go, I’ll leave you with some more positive take-aways from the movie.
There’s
a stripper who theatrically paints the portrait of an everyday woman from the audience, and her
image turns out to be a silver, glittery goddess. Aww…loved it.
In
two scenes, Rome (Jada) proclaims to all of the women around her, of every
size, race, and age that they are “Queens”, who are deserving of pleasure and
worthy of getting what they want from men. Jada made Rome a captivating
character, she was a cat, grrr to feline growl.
She can be a spokeswoman for orgasm equality any night.
Thanks
to the hunks and the amazing women who made this provocative movie. My last
thought from the movie is- foreplay can be mind-blowing, exciting, surprising,
fun, and you can be an everyday woman and enjoy the skin you’re in.
I found a write-up of some upcoming movies that might be
worth seeing on the New York Times, Woman in the World website.
I thought I’d
share a brief low-down of what’s on offer;
Trainwreck– ROM-COM
With Amy Schumer, comedian, playing a gender-reversed
role - a commitment-phobic, career woman who works at a men’s magazine and doesn’t
believe in monogamy. (Eyebrows shooting upwards right now!) What a classic
trope about men spun around for the female view.
Ricki and the
Flash
With Meryl Streep, multi-talented actress. Is there any
role, this woman can’t play? Like a leather-clad rebel who leaves her family
behind to join a band and become a rock star? Decades later, when there’s a
problem with her daughter, she returns home to confront her past decisions and
the consequences. But the rock chick from
the 1980’s still has something worthwhile to offer her troubled daughter.
The Diary of a
Teenage Girl
An independent film. A coming of age story about Minnie,
that’s based on a graphic novel. After Minnie has sex for the first time, her
life looks different, and she becomes crazy distracted by sex and men. The
movie looks like an interesting mixture of animation and 1970’s themed-action.
Mistress
America –Comedy
Two young women are drawn into a friendship by the marriage
of their parents. The story tells of their adventures in New York City and
dealing with the enemy.
Grandma– Comedy
With Lily Tomlin. Grandma needs to help her young granddaughter
who is in "the family way". They need money, and Grandma persuades the reluctant, young
father-to-be to hand over the cash by taking his hockey stick, and whacking him
in between the legs. Some old-fashioned encouragement happening there! The
movie looks like fun with Grandma taking matters into her own hands, saying
the wrong things at the wrong times, some wit and cleverness.
To read more of the reviews and watch the movie trailers,
here’s the link to the website;
We’ve done a test bake of the cake in the kitchen. In one
of those strange twists of parenthood, the kids mostly made up the recipe but I
didn’t get to taste it. Huh? I had chores to do afterwards and forgot about the
chocolate cake until it was too late. It was gone.
We did some innovating with the recipe. Tripled the
mixture to make 3 serves of cake but only added 2 eggs (instead of 3) to the
batter. We made the mixture in a bowl, and poured it into soup dishes to bake.
Why…soup dishes? So there was plenty of room on the top to add a scoop of
ice-cream and dollop of whipped cream…and they could melt a little bit over the
hot cake before they slid down into the tummies.
We also used a conventional, fan-forced oven instead of a
micro-wave. It took about 20 minutes at 180º Celsius/356º Fahrenheit but this
depends on the size of your cake baking container. The kids didn’t mind
checking to make sure the cake didn’t burn and their recommendation is— the
cake is best eaten warm.
During the
month of July, you can grab yourself a special deal for your kindle—8 beach romances for
under $1.00 at Amazon (maybe Apple iTunes store as well).
I was reading
about the boxed set in the RWA (Aus) newsletter.
The authors took their own
initiative and co-operatively put together the collection of
beachy/feel good romances that are set in either New Zealand or Australia.
Priced at just under
$1, and split 8 ways, each author will earn a tiny amount of money. I couldn’t
resist the bargain or helping these ladies get the word out about their
stories.
Love Down Under:
Eight New Zealand & Australian Feel-Good Beach Romances Kindle Edition
Escape
to the Land Down Under, where the sky is bluer, the living is slower, and the loving
is sweeter.
This summer, dive into eight heartwarming
feel-good beach romances by bestselling Australian and New Zealand authors.
And
because size matters, they’re all novel or long novella
length! We’ve got cheeky, sexy, funny, steamy, sweet—and all with heaps of
heart. Enjoy with a tall pitcher of iced tea or a bottle of chilled white
wine—we’ll never tell!
Eight standalone novels (NO cliffhangers!) spanning 1,500+
pages Over 95% off retail for the individual books sold separately
Only available through July--get your copy today!
