Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha - fooled you!

Went to London yesterday to surprise my Mum and Dad with their silver wedding anniversary present from my sister and I. We got them tickets to go and see Spamalot in the West End. They enjoyed it immensely.

However I am going to have a tiny little rant here...okay, maybe two tiny little rants. The reason I had to go to London was because I had to look after Mel while Mum and Dad went into the theatre. If the tickets had been slightly cheaper, and I didn't have to pay an online charge for them, then we might all have been able to go in and see the show.

Secondly, how rare are hole-in-the-wall machines in London? It's like trying to find a needle in a haystack. Mel managed to spot one for me down an alley somewhere - oh, yeah, that's a really helpful spot to put an hole-in-the-wall machine.

Weather is gorgeous at the moment; it was so hot in London yesterday, the tube journeys were a nightmare. Still, I had my trusty MP3 player to amuse me, and amused I was.

Today will be a mixture of shopping - groan - football - nail biting - and worshiping - hallelujah - with a little bit of Where Wild Things Grow editing thrown into it - hopefully.

Laters.

Weekend's Nearly Here!

Not that anything exciting is happening in the next couple of days. It's just nice to know I don't have to get up for anything major. Though I do have to go shopping. That's pretty major. Then there's church. That's pretty major too.

Damn it, the weekend tricks us. It masquerades as a couple of work free days and then bam hits you right where it hurts with jobs to do, like buying food and washing clothes and saying, "Sorry Sorry Sorry Sorry!" till you think you've said it enough times to know you're safe from the fiery depths of hell for another week.

Just kidding.

Today was semi-eventful - just the usual lectures, though I did have to watch My Beautiful Laundrette before it. Honestly it wasn't anything fantastic, and I'm not the hugest fan of Daniel Day-Lewis it has to be said. Have no idea who's in the presentation group for this module, so need to contact them at some point - another thing to do in my "uneventful" weekend - hah!

Am writing this whilst pausing from heavy work I am currently doing to my mp3 player; it's time to put some new stuff on it rather than most of the old stuff. I don't listen to it enough and when I do most of the time its to the radio. But at least I have the option, don't I?

Laters

Presentation Groups

Just got back from 19th Century Dramatic Texts where we chose our groups for the presentation we have to do. I'm with my good friends Steph - who turned 21 today, yeah! - and Rosie. We're doing Oscar Wilde's sinister play, Salome, though the pronunciation of the title leads a lot to be desired. (It's Sa-lo-may, but you'd be surprised how many variations we got out of it!)

Spent a large portion of yesterday editing, re-editing and even re-writing parts of Where Wild Things Grow. I'm trying out a chapter structure this time, though some of them are very short. I may have to group some together. this will help because I'm not very good at thinking up names for chapters - mind you, I'm not very good at thinking up names full stop.

Just read that Jessica Alba has been voted FHM's Sexiest Woman Of The Year. All I can say is, I didn't vote for her.

Am going to spend the rest of today doing a mixture of watching Family Guy, continuing my work on WWTG and starting to write the basic outline for my FYP - the Final Year Project which is basically my 8000-10,000 word thesis. I want to do it on the effects of 9/11 on culture, which gives me a really broad range to choose from. Some have a problem with too broad a range, but I think that as long as I spend the time on it it will work out okay.

Laters.

It's been a loooooong time....

...since I wrote anything here. And that's bad, I know. I just wonder if anyone else is actually reading this - apart from my mother that is. Hi, mum.

Anyhoo, over the Easter break I discovered a terrific series of children's books known as the CHERUB series - if you haven't read them and you're into Alex Rider and Young Bond I urge you to go out and buy them! But they gave me a serious kick on the bottom and made me realise that Where Wild Things Grow - yes, that's right, the first book in the series - needed a major re-write. So, after I had made sure all my essays were out of the picture, I began it. I can't believe I left it for so long. Reading back all the stuff I had written down made me realise just why my manuscript has been rejected so many times (well, okay, only two times, but you get the idea). I'll let you all know how things are going soon.

The break was an incredibly busy one, because my dad turned 50 and my parents also celebrated their 25th wedding anniversary. The party they had for it was amazing - the band were brill and I even got to sing "Sweet Home Chicago" with them whilst Dad played the drums. It felt so good singing in front of a band again - the last time I did that was in year 10 doing my GCSEs in Music.

Tomorrow is my friend Steph's 21st birthday and in a few eeks I will be turning 20; the only word I can say to this at the moment is "HELP!"

Laters.

I Predict Success!

So over here in Blighty the Kaiser Chiefs have scored their first Number One with their song "Ruby". Upon hearing it, I was ecstatic. having heard samples of other songs that will be on the Kaiser's long awaited second album, Yours Truly, Angry Mob, I think we've got a real winner here.

Mind you, I am incredibly biased. Their first album, Employment, was what I like to call a "Dido album". This means that, just like Dido's first album, No Angel, there was not a song on it which I did not like, and it is a very rare occurrence when this happens, particularly for me as I'm such a picky listener. So there was obviously a lot of anticipation towards this second album, often referred to as the "difficult" one.

I have been let down before, not least by the aforementioned Dido. Life For Rent has its moments, but it just doesn't fill me with the sense of inner peace and wonder that No Angel does. Hopefully her third album will be a bit more to my taste.
What the Kaiser Chiefs seem to have done, however, is started to get a bit darker and rebellious in some of their songs. Sure there was some sinister undertones to songs such as "I Predict A Riot", "I was Born To Be A Dancer"and such, but the title track of this second album culminates with a rather chilling chant:

"We are the Angry Mob,

We read the papers every day,

We like who we like, we hate who we hate,

But we're also easily swayed."

I admit it doesn't look particularly chilling, but under a strong drumbeat and bass line it truly has an awesome effect on the hairs on your neck.

I don't think the Kaiser Chiefs are going to have a problem with this second album, despite the fuss of the "difficult" status attached to it. Reviews, though somewhat mixed, have only gone down as far as three stars. Possible reasons are that bands such as Arctic Monkeys, who have truly pushed the idea of "city music" to the next level, have done just that. But the Chiefs recorded every song in Leeds - hell, they even wrote every song in Leeds. I'm looking forward to this album immensely, and will be back in probably a few months time to give my actual verdict.

By the way, I'd like to point out that I'm rather proud of the fact that, despite the label of Music Wednesday I have not once mentioned Britney Spears. Until now. Damn.

Laters.

It's The Oscars!

So, here it is again. The Oscars. And were they predictable this year? You betcha.

Helen Mirren winning Best Actress - could have put money on that, same with Forest Whitaker taking Best Actor. The Supporting categories were a little harder to place, though how stpid do three judges of American Idol feel after Jennifer Hudson won, huh?

No, where I was surprised was in the Best Director and Best Film categories. Sure, Scorcese's Oscar was long overdue but I felt that Paul Greengrass' incredible United 93 would get the nod. In fact, I was a little puzzled as to why the latter was not up for Best Film either. Could it be that Hollywood is beginning to get tired of films to do with 9/11? Has Michael Moore bored the whole of America with his rantings?

Sod's law says that Scorcese doesn't win another award now until his honary one, which will no doubt be handed to him in the next decade. Perhaps this is a LOTR award. What I mean by that is that no awards were given to Lord Of The Rings until the final film came out - a sort of ultimate recognition for the work done. Perhaps this is how the Academy feels about Scorcese, though heaven forbid he should stop making films.

So that's it for another year. Now we've got the summer to look forward to really for the next big movies, the ones which will not stand a chance of being nominated because they are Summer Blockbusters and nobody nominates these films for an awards other than sound and visual effects and animated feature and what not. Still, it would be pretty cool to see The Simpsons Movie up for Best Film - oh no, wait - they changed the rules, didn't they? It would only be able to win Best Animated Film, just like Pan's Labyrinth was only able to be up for Best Foreign Film, which it undeservedly lost. Thought I'd just put that rant in to keep Kermode happy.

What I was pleased to see was that Babel or Babble as the Americans pronounce it only won one award. Good, because the less pretentious nonsense that is made just to win awards the better. The same happens with literature and the Booker Prize over here. I am a strong believer in the idea of "story for story's sake", but every so ofetn you read a book so utterly pretentious, so mind-mubingly boring, that you just know it's been written just to win some fancy pants award. That is not what good entertainment is at all, and taht's why we watch movies and read books, isn't it? For entertainment.

A Right Royal Knees Up

So, Prince Harry (the short one) has decided that he's going to go over to Iraq and fight for his grandmother and country. The press have been screaming their way through the pages about this subject. Then Tony Blair (Not Yet, Gordon) decides to pull at least 5000 troops from the United Kingdom States of Iraqiland by May. Coincidence? Probably not, but it's fun to speculate!

Let's face it, Harry is the black sheep of the Royal Family at the moment. Edward seems to have quietened down a lot recently - it's probably his wife thats doing that - and so for the last few years Harry has been the one courageously volunteering to slander the Royal Family's reputation even more in the Brittish Press. Whether it's getting rather tipsy with a couple of very attractive women or dressing up as aNazi, Harry has always steered the press well clear of the only other thing they're interested in - his mother.

But now, enough's enough. Time to go and grow up, to be a man, to kill a few innocent Iraqi civillans. That's the spirit, Harry - show them what the Brittish are made of. And why should he be worried? After all, the last royal to be killed was Richard III at the Battle of Bosworth in the very early 16th Century, and even then, if Bill Shakespeare is to be believed, he wasn't a particularly nice man, murdering his young nephews and giving hunchbacks a bad name.

What I want to know is how long he plans to be over there for. Will he be one of the 5000 troops called back in May? You can picture it now: "Oh, look, a rifle, spiffing, I'll just shoot a few ruffians..." "Sorry, your Highness, but the Prime Minister has said that it's time to put the toys away and come home because it's past your drinking time."
But seriously, will he be away in Iraq during August? Because, of course, we have coming up the tenth anniverary of Diana's death, need we be reminded. Is this a ploy to stop him from ballsing the whole thing up? Probably not, but like I said, it's fun to speculate.

On a final note, the last royal to go into combat was Andrew in the Falklands War, another era of battle for us that, in all fairness, didn't really come off that well until he was involved. Could Harry inject some posh charisma and optimism into the formula? Time, as ever, will tell...