After all that exctement last Saturday on finally finding a label for Saturday, my work has taken its toll. Because of the FYP and essays that are still being finished as I write, I haven't had any time to take on my story writing challenge. Much hanging of head in shame. I hope to impress you all with both better writing and better time keeping skills next week!
Laters.
Saturday 19 April 2008
Friday 18 April 2008
And The Work Just Keeps On Coming...
So this is officially the maddest fortnight in my entire educated life here at the University of Winchester in terms of the workload. The deadline for the Final Year Project is getting ever closer, and the deadline I set for myself for the Final Year Project is getting ever more closer!
What hasn't helped this week is the two essays I have somehow had to find time to write and hand in over this last week. But I'm not complaining too much, especially about the first one (finished and handed in on Wednesday). You see, one of the modules I'm currently studying is American Crime Fictions, which is not actually an English Studies module - it's American Studies. However, to cut a long story short, this essay was really more of a film studies essay than anything else.
Now for those who don't know - which may be all of you, I can't remember - when I started learning here at Winchester I started doing a fifty/fifty degree with a combination of English and Film Studies. Obviously, English was a subject I've had a lot of experience with, but Film Studies was, at the time, incredibly new and incredibly exciting to me. And, to a certain level, I wasn't disappointed. I got to watch some fantastic films, most of which I doubt I would have ever watched if it weren't for the course.
But the work was another matter. I found the essays, though interesting to research and write, tough going, and the marking incredibly strict, much stricter than English. Another thing that really got me annoyed was the level of competence in some of my lecturers. Not that they didn't know their subject - man, there are some smart people teaching here- but I do remember writing in my notepad during one lecture that it was taking three grown men ten minutes to work out how to use a DVD player. Erm, ok, maybe a Film Studies teacher should be up to date on the simple aspects of today's technology?
For those reasons I decided that Film Studies wasn't for me, and so dropped it in my second year to concentrate on English full time. And yet, it was really refreshing to go back to Film Studies this week in order to write this essay on crime films properly. I can't help wondering that, maybe, if I had a had a bit more experience with university work before staring the course, I might have done better on it? I guess I'll never find out. One thing's for certain, though: it never, ever killed my passion for film. I wonder what's on tonight?
Laters.
What hasn't helped this week is the two essays I have somehow had to find time to write and hand in over this last week. But I'm not complaining too much, especially about the first one (finished and handed in on Wednesday). You see, one of the modules I'm currently studying is American Crime Fictions, which is not actually an English Studies module - it's American Studies. However, to cut a long story short, this essay was really more of a film studies essay than anything else.
Now for those who don't know - which may be all of you, I can't remember - when I started learning here at Winchester I started doing a fifty/fifty degree with a combination of English and Film Studies. Obviously, English was a subject I've had a lot of experience with, but Film Studies was, at the time, incredibly new and incredibly exciting to me. And, to a certain level, I wasn't disappointed. I got to watch some fantastic films, most of which I doubt I would have ever watched if it weren't for the course.
But the work was another matter. I found the essays, though interesting to research and write, tough going, and the marking incredibly strict, much stricter than English. Another thing that really got me annoyed was the level of competence in some of my lecturers. Not that they didn't know their subject - man, there are some smart people teaching here- but I do remember writing in my notepad during one lecture that it was taking three grown men ten minutes to work out how to use a DVD player. Erm, ok, maybe a Film Studies teacher should be up to date on the simple aspects of today's technology?
For those reasons I decided that Film Studies wasn't for me, and so dropped it in my second year to concentrate on English full time. And yet, it was really refreshing to go back to Film Studies this week in order to write this essay on crime films properly. I can't help wondering that, maybe, if I had a had a bit more experience with university work before staring the course, I might have done better on it? I guess I'll never find out. One thing's for certain, though: it never, ever killed my passion for film. I wonder what's on tonight?
Laters.
Tuesday 15 April 2008
Decade Of Success
Recently I've been reading a very revealing book entitled Easy Riders, Raging Bulls by a guy named Peter Biskind. It's all about Hollywood in the 1970s and the big filmmakers who emerged in that decade - Spielberg, Lucas, Scorsese, Bogdanovich, and so on. If you're at all interested in the inner workings of Hollywood studios at this time I can't recommend this book highly enough. It is incredibly open and honest about the goings on that took place behind the scenes of some of the greatest movies ever made: copious drug abuse, lots of bed-hopping, much, much swearing.
Today on the IMDB's daily poll they list a large chunck of the 70s films of a selection of films that the famous critic Roger Ebert lists as the Greatest Movies ever. It's an incredible chunk if you think about it. Some of these films are the most timeless, exciting, re-watchable films. Annie Hall, Apocalypse Now, Chinatown, The Godfather, Star Wars, Taxi Driver, etc.
Which leads me to wonder - was the 70s the greatest film decade? It seems to me that the decades after haven't exactly thrown up as large an impressive list as the 70s did. Don't get me wrong, there were some great films made in the 80s, but for some reason I feel that most of them are incredibly dated, something you don't really notice in the 70s films. And, yeah, thanks to the technology boom of the 90s we've had some incredible blockbusters to rival films like Jaws or Alien, but they don't have the same atmosphere as these films still constantly do.
Maybe its just a time thing - not enough time has passed by to recognise the true merits of the 80s. Maybe we need to wait another decade. In a way it would be quite interesting to find out which of the films that have been made in this decade will be remembered as well as the movies Ebert lists. Only problem is I have to grow older to see it. Dang.
Laters.
Today on the IMDB's daily poll they list a large chunck of the 70s films of a selection of films that the famous critic Roger Ebert lists as the Greatest Movies ever. It's an incredible chunk if you think about it. Some of these films are the most timeless, exciting, re-watchable films. Annie Hall, Apocalypse Now, Chinatown, The Godfather, Star Wars, Taxi Driver, etc.
Which leads me to wonder - was the 70s the greatest film decade? It seems to me that the decades after haven't exactly thrown up as large an impressive list as the 70s did. Don't get me wrong, there were some great films made in the 80s, but for some reason I feel that most of them are incredibly dated, something you don't really notice in the 70s films. And, yeah, thanks to the technology boom of the 90s we've had some incredible blockbusters to rival films like Jaws or Alien, but they don't have the same atmosphere as these films still constantly do.
Maybe its just a time thing - not enough time has passed by to recognise the true merits of the 80s. Maybe we need to wait another decade. In a way it would be quite interesting to find out which of the films that have been made in this decade will be remembered as well as the movies Ebert lists. Only problem is I have to grow older to see it. Dang.
Laters.
Monday 14 April 2008
D'oh!
I found it slightly interesting when I first heard of the plans of the government in Venezuela to drop The Simpsons from their regular television schedules. The reason for this move was that they felt the programme was "inappropriate" for young viewers, and that it contained "messages that go against the whole education of boys, girls and adolescents".
Fair enough. After all, over here in Blighty The Simpsons (normally) doesn't start until 6pm which is the very start of the watershed, which is the period of time where the more adult themes can start to be presented or referred to in programmes a little more than during the daytime stuff. And sometimes an episode will contain a risque subject or two. One only has to remember Homer's sexual harassment accusation, or the rather racy episodes involving his and Marge's attempts to "snuggle".
And yet, what have the Venezuelans decided to put on in its place? Baywatch. Yes, the same Baywatch with Pamela Anderson and Carmen Electra running around a beach with very little on, while David "The Hoff" Hasselhoff stands around spouting lines whilst secretly stealing them for lyrics for his next best selling album in Germany.
Am I missing something here? Yes, The Simpsons does have its faults but at the end of the day surely it's about family values? Homer, though an idiot, is a lovable idiot, and genuinely loves his wife and kids. Marge, though possibly stereotypical as the stay-at-home mother, does have a tendency to go out into the world and make a stand for her beliefs. Bart is a rebel, but anything he does that has serious repercussions are dealt with, and he occasionally feels sorrow (check the episode Bart the Mother) . Maggie's a baby - okay, so she occasionally attacks her father with a mallet, and okay she nearly murdered Mr Burns, but the former was a good laugh and the latter was an accident (we think)! And what the flippin' heck's wrong with Lisa? Grade A student all the way, smart, intelligent, funny - possibly the only truly sane one in the family.
Now look at Baywatch. Don't look too hard, mind, else you might get hypnotised by the slow running, the meaningful stares of the Hoff, the jiggling...the endless jiggling...
The point is, Baywatch, if you think about it, is ten times worse than The Simpsons. Not just in its content, either, but in its writing. The Simpsons has always been one of the best written shows in the history of television, give or take the odd slip-up and the boringly mandatory "clip shows" that the Fox network force upon them. Baywatch? Oh no, a cute guy/girl is drowning, we'd better send out two even cuter guys/girls to rescue them and then perform mouth-to-mouth throughout the rest of the episodes. Please, any show where Pamela and Carmen can pull off convincing acting has got to have something wrong with it.
There is, however, evidence to suggest the amount of state control that Venezuelan television currently must answer to. One of the only new shows that is being made at the moment is a chat show, presented by a man called Hugo Chavez. And he only just happens to be the President of Venezuela. Ah, the perks of the job, huh?
Laters.
Fair enough. After all, over here in Blighty The Simpsons (normally) doesn't start until 6pm which is the very start of the watershed, which is the period of time where the more adult themes can start to be presented or referred to in programmes a little more than during the daytime stuff. And sometimes an episode will contain a risque subject or two. One only has to remember Homer's sexual harassment accusation, or the rather racy episodes involving his and Marge's attempts to "snuggle".
And yet, what have the Venezuelans decided to put on in its place? Baywatch. Yes, the same Baywatch with Pamela Anderson and Carmen Electra running around a beach with very little on, while David "The Hoff" Hasselhoff stands around spouting lines whilst secretly stealing them for lyrics for his next best selling album in Germany.
Am I missing something here? Yes, The Simpsons does have its faults but at the end of the day surely it's about family values? Homer, though an idiot, is a lovable idiot, and genuinely loves his wife and kids. Marge, though possibly stereotypical as the stay-at-home mother, does have a tendency to go out into the world and make a stand for her beliefs. Bart is a rebel, but anything he does that has serious repercussions are dealt with, and he occasionally feels sorrow (check the episode Bart the Mother) . Maggie's a baby - okay, so she occasionally attacks her father with a mallet, and okay she nearly murdered Mr Burns, but the former was a good laugh and the latter was an accident (we think)! And what the flippin' heck's wrong with Lisa? Grade A student all the way, smart, intelligent, funny - possibly the only truly sane one in the family.
Now look at Baywatch. Don't look too hard, mind, else you might get hypnotised by the slow running, the meaningful stares of the Hoff, the jiggling...the endless jiggling...
The point is, Baywatch, if you think about it, is ten times worse than The Simpsons. Not just in its content, either, but in its writing. The Simpsons has always been one of the best written shows in the history of television, give or take the odd slip-up and the boringly mandatory "clip shows" that the Fox network force upon them. Baywatch? Oh no, a cute guy/girl is drowning, we'd better send out two even cuter guys/girls to rescue them and then perform mouth-to-mouth throughout the rest of the episodes. Please, any show where Pamela and Carmen can pull off convincing acting has got to have something wrong with it.
There is, however, evidence to suggest the amount of state control that Venezuelan television currently must answer to. One of the only new shows that is being made at the moment is a chat show, presented by a man called Hugo Chavez. And he only just happens to be the President of Venezuela. Ah, the perks of the job, huh?
Laters.
Sunday 13 April 2008
Tough Challenges
Sometimes, we are faced with options that could change our lives forever. This isn't necessarily a religious path. It could be a new job, moving to a new home or country, deciding to get married etc. Sometimes the changes that occur from these choices that we make will be so tiny, so minute, that it will take a while for us to realise they've happened. But once in a while the changes are so obvious it's as if we've shed our skin and become a completely different person.
This is what happened with the twelve men who were chosen to follow Jesus as apostles. There were many disciples, but these twelve were special - God had something incredible lying in store for them. They were to become Jesus' closest friends, his confidants. They would play a significant part in both his death and the spreading of his message to the world. But it wouldn't be without cost. The Bible tells us on many an occasion that, when Jesus told them to follow him, they simply stood up and did it. No goodbyes, no worries about their homes or jobs or families. They got up and followed Jesus without any thought.
You can take this as you like. Were they being irresponsible? Were they brainwashed? I don't believe they were. I believe that Jesus was such a completely different person that they instantly knew in their hearts who he was. It would take a while for their heads to get round it - about three years in fact - but their hearts knew it from the moment they lay eyes on him.
The passage of the week comes from a section entitled "The Would-be Followers of Jesus", Luke 9: 57 -62, which can also be found in Matthew 8: 19-22, (though interestingly the week's passage isn't in the latter). A couple of people claim that they want to follow Jesus, but first one must say goodbye to his family and another needs to bury his recently deceased father. It's a seemingly reasonable request, surely? Strangely not to Jesus. "Let the dead bury their own dead," he tells the bereaved man, and gives our passage to the family man.
There is a danger that people may think Jesus was being cold, uncaring here. But what he's actually doing is setting us a huge challenge. If something or someone comes into our lives that has the potential to make us completely new, to make us better people than we already are, what would be the point of taking the opportunity to change if we just go back to our old lives? We have to take that change wherever we go immediately. In the case here its the work of God, who should always come first before family, friends, career, etc.
It's not an easy challenge, though to be honest it wouldn't be much of a challenge if it were easy. But if we keep the desire to change first and foremost in our minds, it will eventually filter through into our lives until we wake up one morning and look at ourselves in the mirror and find that we have changed - completely and for the better.
Laters.
This is what happened with the twelve men who were chosen to follow Jesus as apostles. There were many disciples, but these twelve were special - God had something incredible lying in store for them. They were to become Jesus' closest friends, his confidants. They would play a significant part in both his death and the spreading of his message to the world. But it wouldn't be without cost. The Bible tells us on many an occasion that, when Jesus told them to follow him, they simply stood up and did it. No goodbyes, no worries about their homes or jobs or families. They got up and followed Jesus without any thought.
You can take this as you like. Were they being irresponsible? Were they brainwashed? I don't believe they were. I believe that Jesus was such a completely different person that they instantly knew in their hearts who he was. It would take a while for their heads to get round it - about three years in fact - but their hearts knew it from the moment they lay eyes on him.
The passage of the week comes from a section entitled "The Would-be Followers of Jesus", Luke 9: 57 -62, which can also be found in Matthew 8: 19-22, (though interestingly the week's passage isn't in the latter). A couple of people claim that they want to follow Jesus, but first one must say goodbye to his family and another needs to bury his recently deceased father. It's a seemingly reasonable request, surely? Strangely not to Jesus. "Let the dead bury their own dead," he tells the bereaved man, and gives our passage to the family man.
There is a danger that people may think Jesus was being cold, uncaring here. But what he's actually doing is setting us a huge challenge. If something or someone comes into our lives that has the potential to make us completely new, to make us better people than we already are, what would be the point of taking the opportunity to change if we just go back to our old lives? We have to take that change wherever we go immediately. In the case here its the work of God, who should always come first before family, friends, career, etc.
It's not an easy challenge, though to be honest it wouldn't be much of a challenge if it were easy. But if we keep the desire to change first and foremost in our minds, it will eventually filter through into our lives until we wake up one morning and look at ourselves in the mirror and find that we have changed - completely and for the better.
Laters.
Saturday 12 April 2008
Why Didn't I Think Of That First?
Ah, Saturday. Saturday's are usually pretty lied back for me. Apart from shopping in the morning (because I need food to live) I generally don't have that much on. Sunday's are usually quite busy with church going and friend meeting, and obviously the weekday seems to get busier and busier every week. So Saturday has been my little rest bite. Until now.
You see one of the readers of this blog and sometime commentator on it, Crystal, set me a challenge the other day. She is a somewhat more successful writer than I am, as you will see if you click the link in this paragraph to her own blog. Recently she wrote an interesting and funny piece on television addiction, a subject that I must ashamedly admit to having a fair share of experience of.
But the other day she set me a challenge which set the creative parts of my brain ticking again, blowing away the mental cobwebs that have formed there surprisingly quickly. She gave me a sentence to kick me off and told me to write a page to follow from it. Now, I haven't been able to find the time as yet to make a proper start on it due to my continuing FYP work, although I have formed a few rough ideas in my mind.
Maybe I'm taking it all much too seriously, but writing is (mostly) incredibly important to me. I don't think I care completely that I may never be a published author, as long as I can keep writing, and keep using it as an escape from reality, that's all that should matter to me. So thanks to Crystal I now have a label for the Saturday edition of my blog. It shall be known as Story Saturday. If you're at all curious or interested, then come to this site next Saturday and see what I've got in store for you.
Laters.
You see one of the readers of this blog and sometime commentator on it, Crystal, set me a challenge the other day. She is a somewhat more successful writer than I am, as you will see if you click the link in this paragraph to her own blog. Recently she wrote an interesting and funny piece on television addiction, a subject that I must ashamedly admit to having a fair share of experience of.
But the other day she set me a challenge which set the creative parts of my brain ticking again, blowing away the mental cobwebs that have formed there surprisingly quickly. She gave me a sentence to kick me off and told me to write a page to follow from it. Now, I haven't been able to find the time as yet to make a proper start on it due to my continuing FYP work, although I have formed a few rough ideas in my mind.
Maybe I'm taking it all much too seriously, but writing is (mostly) incredibly important to me. I don't think I care completely that I may never be a published author, as long as I can keep writing, and keep using it as an escape from reality, that's all that should matter to me. So thanks to Crystal I now have a label for the Saturday edition of my blog. It shall be known as Story Saturday. If you're at all curious or interested, then come to this site next Saturday and see what I've got in store for you.
Laters.
Friday 11 April 2008
Guess Who's Back...Back Again?
So this week I returned to Winchester for the remainder of my last semester studying English within these hallowed halls...or something like that. The term actually starts up again next Monday, but I needed a week back here to get my head together around my FYP and the other wonderful essays I have to write for my lovely subject. Plus I had run out of food. And I need food to live.
Not to sound too melodramatic, but I am getting sick and tired of English. Not writing - that's a different matter. Last term for instance, as a break from essays, I used the opportunity given to me by the director of a production the my local young theatre group are doing to write a scene for their new play, called This Bird Has Flown. Basically, it's all inspired by the songs that John Lennon wrote whilst he was in The Beatles. My scene was set in this asylum where some of his weirder creations - the Walrus, the Egg Man, Mean Mr Mustard, etc - are "residing". It's all a coma-induced dream of our hero, of course, but it was great fun to go totally mad with it. As a reward, I've been given both the cameo roles of the Walrus and John Lennon - both times I get shot, the former with a tranquiliser dart, the latter re-enacting Lennon's murder. I bruised my knees a lot falling on the hard wood stage. Ah, the things I do for my art.
The FYP is, as it so often has been, coming along slowly but surely. I'm writing this blog entry whilst sitting in the university library at the moment, as I intend to make the most of the fact that there's only two other people in here besides me...make that three, someone else has just walked in. But still, what freedom! Don't get me wrong, I love people. I do - people are great. But there's something about a nearly empty library (make that four and counting) that just screams of perfection. Ask my mother - she's a school librarian, she'll agree with me!
It's the same at my house. We're not really all together at the moment, though this will probably change over the weekend. But still it's nice to sometimes be the only one in the house. It gives you time to relax and unwind. Don't get me wrong, as soon as term starts, I'll be back to doing all the work I love to do with my CU, with other people, making sure I have time for my housemates. But sometimes it's just good to be alone. Yeah, there's a danger that the loneliness could kill you eventually, but I'm more than an expert now at this to know my limits. It's great that I can say that, isn't it? makes me sound like a regular party animal.
Laters.
Not to sound too melodramatic, but I am getting sick and tired of English. Not writing - that's a different matter. Last term for instance, as a break from essays, I used the opportunity given to me by the director of a production the my local young theatre group are doing to write a scene for their new play, called This Bird Has Flown. Basically, it's all inspired by the songs that John Lennon wrote whilst he was in The Beatles. My scene was set in this asylum where some of his weirder creations - the Walrus, the Egg Man, Mean Mr Mustard, etc - are "residing". It's all a coma-induced dream of our hero, of course, but it was great fun to go totally mad with it. As a reward, I've been given both the cameo roles of the Walrus and John Lennon - both times I get shot, the former with a tranquiliser dart, the latter re-enacting Lennon's murder. I bruised my knees a lot falling on the hard wood stage. Ah, the things I do for my art.
The FYP is, as it so often has been, coming along slowly but surely. I'm writing this blog entry whilst sitting in the university library at the moment, as I intend to make the most of the fact that there's only two other people in here besides me...make that three, someone else has just walked in. But still, what freedom! Don't get me wrong, I love people. I do - people are great. But there's something about a nearly empty library (make that four and counting) that just screams of perfection. Ask my mother - she's a school librarian, she'll agree with me!
It's the same at my house. We're not really all together at the moment, though this will probably change over the weekend. But still it's nice to sometimes be the only one in the house. It gives you time to relax and unwind. Don't get me wrong, as soon as term starts, I'll be back to doing all the work I love to do with my CU, with other people, making sure I have time for my housemates. But sometimes it's just good to be alone. Yeah, there's a danger that the loneliness could kill you eventually, but I'm more than an expert now at this to know my limits. It's great that I can say that, isn't it? makes me sound like a regular party animal.
Laters.
Thursday 10 April 2008
Trouble Ahead
Three things have come to my attention fairly recently which no doubt spell an uneasy future for the next couple of years. Two of these things most of you will be aware of. The third...eh...not so much.
The first of these is obviously the growing crisis in Zimbabwe, which, lets be honest, has been "growing" for a fair few decades now. I always knew that Mugabe would never go without a fight, and though he may have lost the elections, he can always pretend to have been asleep over that week and woken up none the wiser to the results, meaning I don't care, I'm still in power and I've got these nice men in uniforms and holding a variety of deadly arsenal to back me up. It's going to end in horrible bloodshed - sorry to be morbid, but I believe this could be the turning point where simple protesting goes too far. The opposition will try for a peaceful solution, but they're not going to get it. It's a sad, pathetic example of how power so easily corrupts, and how equally as easy it is to use violence to get what we want. Could we condone the bloodshed if it meant the end of Mugabe? Of course we could, but it would throw up a large number of interesting, though perhaps nervous, debates on morals and beliefs.
The second trouble maker in our ranks is the Beijing Olympics. Now that Gordon Brown has put his clunking iron fist down on the table and said he will not be attending the opening ceremony, others will follow. Brown insists he will attend the closing ceremony and it has nothing to do with the continuing saga of protests against the situation in Tibet which has made the Torch Relay such a shambles. Yeah, right. Someone tried to grab it off ex-Blue Peter presenter Konnie Huq here in Blighty on Sunday - Konnie Huq! That I'm not impressed with. Couldn't they have tried to grab it off of someone more important, someone to do with sport? How about Sir Steve Redgrave or Dame Kelly Holmes or Little Theo Walcott? (He's not that Little, I just wanted to give him a title...The-o, The-o!) Will we get this in 2012 in London, with Commonwealth countries protesting against their "imprisonment"? Will Canadians or Australians be trying to grab the torch off of a wheel chaired Sir Steve, a walker-assisted Dame Kelly, or Lord Walcott? Actually, that might be fairly amusing.
The third and last thing that spells trouble, and the lightest of the three, is the decision by Roger Wright, the new head of the BBC Proms Season, to have a Doctor Who Concert in this year's season. On my signal, unleash hell. Purists will no doubt argue that the Proms have gone too far, bowing to the demands of popular culture in an attempt to be with it and street like with the kids, innit. Personally? Yay! Doctor Who Music! Bring it on!
Laters.
The first of these is obviously the growing crisis in Zimbabwe, which, lets be honest, has been "growing" for a fair few decades now. I always knew that Mugabe would never go without a fight, and though he may have lost the elections, he can always pretend to have been asleep over that week and woken up none the wiser to the results, meaning I don't care, I'm still in power and I've got these nice men in uniforms and holding a variety of deadly arsenal to back me up. It's going to end in horrible bloodshed - sorry to be morbid, but I believe this could be the turning point where simple protesting goes too far. The opposition will try for a peaceful solution, but they're not going to get it. It's a sad, pathetic example of how power so easily corrupts, and how equally as easy it is to use violence to get what we want. Could we condone the bloodshed if it meant the end of Mugabe? Of course we could, but it would throw up a large number of interesting, though perhaps nervous, debates on morals and beliefs.
The second trouble maker in our ranks is the Beijing Olympics. Now that Gordon Brown has put his clunking iron fist down on the table and said he will not be attending the opening ceremony, others will follow. Brown insists he will attend the closing ceremony and it has nothing to do with the continuing saga of protests against the situation in Tibet which has made the Torch Relay such a shambles. Yeah, right. Someone tried to grab it off ex-Blue Peter presenter Konnie Huq here in Blighty on Sunday - Konnie Huq! That I'm not impressed with. Couldn't they have tried to grab it off of someone more important, someone to do with sport? How about Sir Steve Redgrave or Dame Kelly Holmes or Little Theo Walcott? (He's not that Little, I just wanted to give him a title...The-o, The-o!) Will we get this in 2012 in London, with Commonwealth countries protesting against their "imprisonment"? Will Canadians or Australians be trying to grab the torch off of a wheel chaired Sir Steve, a walker-assisted Dame Kelly, or Lord Walcott? Actually, that might be fairly amusing.
The third and last thing that spells trouble, and the lightest of the three, is the decision by Roger Wright, the new head of the BBC Proms Season, to have a Doctor Who Concert in this year's season. On my signal, unleash hell. Purists will no doubt argue that the Proms have gone too far, bowing to the demands of popular culture in an attempt to be with it and street like with the kids, innit. Personally? Yay! Doctor Who Music! Bring it on!
Laters.
Wednesday 9 April 2008
Is There Hope Yet For You, Britters?
Okay, so first off, apologies to any readers out there - and I mean any readers out there, if there are any apart from my mother - as I haven't written anything on my blog for quite some time now. I went home for the Easter holidays and subsequently took a holiday from my "Trials". But I'm back in Winchester now and, as you can see, ready to start writing again.
In the middle of all the work I had to do I found solace having various music channels on in the background whilst I wrote my FYP. This does mean that I have no announcements as to what song's coming up next, but then I treated it as a nice surprise.
There have been a few songs that have got me tapping my foot recently, but a surprising one was the latest from a certain Miss Spears. Now I am not the biggest fan of the more recent stuff that Britney's done, and would probably be the first one to say that she needs to get some help, seriously needs some therapy or counselling or something.
But her latest single, "Break The Ice", could, I feel, show a little spark of positivity. Although not nearly as good a pop record as "Baby One More Time" or "Toxic", one feels that, had it a better backing track it could actually rival those two songs which we instantly relate with her now. The video is an interesting one to watch too, done in a manga/anime style, no sign of our real life Britney anywhere. But maybe that's a good thing. See for yourself.
In the middle of all the work I had to do I found solace having various music channels on in the background whilst I wrote my FYP. This does mean that I have no announcements as to what song's coming up next, but then I treated it as a nice surprise.
There have been a few songs that have got me tapping my foot recently, but a surprising one was the latest from a certain Miss Spears. Now I am not the biggest fan of the more recent stuff that Britney's done, and would probably be the first one to say that she needs to get some help, seriously needs some therapy or counselling or something.
But her latest single, "Break The Ice", could, I feel, show a little spark of positivity. Although not nearly as good a pop record as "Baby One More Time" or "Toxic", one feels that, had it a better backing track it could actually rival those two songs which we instantly relate with her now. The video is an interesting one to watch too, done in a manga/anime style, no sign of our real life Britney anywhere. But maybe that's a good thing. See for yourself.
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