Saturday, 31 December 2011
2011
With the same lead playing the young protagonist as he works from his first year into his second year of college, not much action is seen by way of big changes in this young man's life.
He gains some friends, particularly in the second half as the new students arrive. However, he is portrayed as a very gentle, passive character, who gently lets people drift away from him, rather than a more dramatic stand-off leading to a brief make-up before falling out for good. It's like this throughout the whole year, and makes for viewing better suited to a sleeping audience who don't want to be disturbed rather than an audience looking for excitement. Or anything at all.
There are a few major twists and surprises. Not to spoil the plot, but several characters played up as major villains in 2010 are suddenly killed off in this installment, much to the credit of President Obama making several return appearances, still played warmly by a wonderful Morgan Freeman. However, these big political characters are often kept in the background, having little impact on the protagonist. It's a wonder why the writers decided to kill them off so early in the franchise.
Overall, 2011 is a well acted, solid year, although the cracks do begin to show, for what it lacks in plot it fails to make up for in action. But promise for the much anticipated and long since announced remake of Roland Emmerich's 2012 is very high indeed, the rumours that the apocalyptic elements have been removed entirely (and leaving open grounds for a possible 2013?) only adding to the intrigue.
3/5 stars
Friday, 30 December 2011
December
Hang on, no, let's do this properly.
Ahh, the end of the year. These last few months spent winding down from the stress and excitement of ending what we laughingly call a summer holiday and rushing back to work and school and college like headless chickens on tranquilizers (the 70s has been coming back into fashion, right?). And then the past month is spent winding up for Christmas, then the spring broke.
A strange thing: it normally isn't 10 degrees. That's double digits in December. Are you drunk, December? Thanks to major slacking from you and January we didn't get any snow this year. Not a flake.
This month saw me visiting Birmingham's the German Market for the first time. It's exactly what it says on the cardboard sign indicating what it is, which is undoubtedly a good thing otherwise the sign wouldn't be doing it's job. It invades the city centre every year selling souvenirs, beer, food, pretzels, stollen, beer, stollen and beer for no less than £3 per thing. It also gets bigger every year. Birmingham is regularly vaccinated against it but it keeps coming back.
I didn't buy anything. Not out of sheer defiance of its existence to make a statement of shunning the masses to somehow look cool, but because I wanted to save money to buy my family Christmas presents this year. I didn't even go on the helter skelter. I've never been on a helter skelter.
Moneysaving didn't stop me from spending six quid to see the famous Scarlet Creek supporting a Strangle Kojak gig. Followed by a two hour DJ set of dubstep. I was late home.
I think I actually lost several important possessions inside one of the drops.
A bit later on, The Dying Light happened.
That play wot I made with my drama group and stuff. We performed it in the colleges' performance theatre. It went pretty well, apart from when I fluffed my lines and stabbed myself. Except that was part of the play in one of the bits I wrote.
What I'm really proud of is how the script called for "copious amounts of blood", but due to other college related commitments, I didn't have chance to work out a method of making copious amounts of blood. Until the very night before performance when I noticed Dad kept a box of Capri Sun's in the garage. I grabbed one, drank it, grabbed a plastic syringe, painstakingly filled the packet with water, put the straw back in and gave it a good whack, watching to my delight as water spurted out violently.
A plan happened, and all it needed was some of Riess' fake blood -- watered down, so that it would behave like water, like how I tested it -- and some sellotape. Which didn't work, so my tutor provided some gaffa tape and black cloth instead, but I still put a strip of sellotape over the straw hole, so no blood would come out before it needed to.
You had... you had worked out the blood-filled Capri Sun packet was strapped to me under my costume at this point, right? Right.
Naturally, I forgot to take the strip off right before the appropriate scene, but I undid it a bit while the lights were down and most of it came out in the end. It was a one-shot thing at this point, so I'm glad it did. I bent the (plastic) knife, which broke later on (but it was one of the actors who fucked up scene 7 when it was needed on stage, by helpfully carrying its' remains offstage. Brilliant.) And the costume? A pristine white formal shirt. Which I'll never wear again. But the whole experience was the perfect excuse to buy a bowler hat. That's in fact the only reason I bothered with any of this. And now I own a bowler hat.
In fact, fuck Christmas, a bowler hat'll do me. But my parents -- sorry -- Santa got me a HTC anyway, which is exactly what I asked for, so thanks Santa.
I'm gonna go off on a tangent here: Christmas is meant to me a time of sharing, of giving, of family and charity and peace and wine, etc. Giving is said to be more important than receiving. So why, for the love of Blitzen on a spit, why do we hide all the hard work of parents, the weeks of preparation and stress and the hundreds of money spent, behind the facade of a mythical fat bloke in red who'll simply give you presents for nothing? What the hell is that about? And Santa's even sponsored by Coca-Cola!
Anyway.
I ended up buying the annual round of CDs for my family. Coldplay for mum, Machine Head and Turisas for the Brothers. A blu-ray of Banksy's Exit Through the Gift Shop for dad. Brilliantly, in an act of sheer inadvertent perfection, dad also brought me Banksy's Wall and Piece book. It's fucking brilliant.
The Grandparents came round for Christmas, and it was lovely. Despite them having separated many decades earlier, they seemed to get on like old friends. We woke up in time for the afternoon. We opened presents. We had a three hour lunch. We played musical crackers (the Christmas crackers were crazy this year). We watched Doctor Who. We played with our toys. We ate chocolate. We went to bed. Yes, the same one.
No, not the same one. Jesus.
And Boxing Day wasn't bad -- oh wait. It was two days after Christmas instead of the orthodox one day, because of Bank Holiday Monday or some shit. So I spent the Bank Holiday not-Boxing Day playing with my HTC, and we still did our traditional family thing of visiting our dad's side of the family at one of my uncle's houses. We arrived late. We ate lunch. We gave gifts chocolate (for the kids -- I still count as a kid. Which is fine, my Heroes'll do just fine), alcoholic stuff in bottles (for the men), and plants (for the women). We played Pictionary. We lost. We ate dinner. The Brothers played with our cousins recording equipment. We said goodbye. We went home.
And now the new year looms. I've got the end of college to look forward to, with a generous helping of exams, and then a foundation course studying fine art at the Birmingham Institute of Art and Design, and then, if ludicrous Hollywood films and idiots who don't understand Mayan history are to be believed, The End of the World. I think I've lived through at least six prophesied apocalypses now, this'll be seven. Roll on 2012.
-
For those who've read since my January blog this year, well bloody done. Have a biscuit.
Also, I did get round to using Photoshop that my dad brought me last Christmas. And I definitely got drunk this year. Not that it's cool, or impressive, or something to aspire to, kids. Sam, I'm looking at you.
Hella fun, though.
Friday, 9 December 2011
November
Not to worry! Not to worry! Come in, you must be freezing! Lets get your coat off.
I know, I know! It'll be much worse when it snows!
Oh, of course! That's December's thing, isn't it?
Isn't it? Well it was last year! Anyway, December's actually fun... No offence!
Good! Good! Can I get you a cup of something?
Oh you are funny! "I've never tried this 'something' before, is it nice?" Oh you're quite the comedian aren't you! Well I've got coffee or tea, I'm making tea.
Sugar?
How are you anyway? How's the wife?
Oh that is a shame! I'm glad you're holding out though.
Me? Well not much. The usual, you know.
Oh, you know. This and that.
Well, I completed the soundtrack on my play - well not strictly my play, you understand, we're in a group you see - and that took me a week, it's really good, it's got Massive Attack and weird samples and everything, you'd really like it.
Mhmm. And speaking of my play, we've finally thought of a title! I didn't come up with it, I'm not sure who did actually... Rhiannon told us on Facebook, Raj talked about it... Anyway, it's a really good title. It comes from the Dylan Thomas poster that inspired the play. It's called - shall I put this here? Hang on. There, that's it, now you've got a coaster - it's called The Dying Light.
Mmm, I know! We've blocked most of it as well! We've worked out the lighting, the stage, and my costume came the other day as well! It's freaky!
A bowler hat and a white mask.
No not at the same time! It would be great if I did though, wouldn't it?
Well perhaps not, no. It's a bugger to put on though.
The mask, not the hat! Especially since I've got to do it in ten seconds between scenes but there's also a black cape to go with it.
Yes, yes, the mask not the... Speaking of buggery I got a bugger load of art work done over the past couple of weeks or so. I was literally awake all through the weekend doing it.
Well no, not Friday evening.
I woke up at about two on Saturday, but I didn't sleep again until three o'clock on Monday, so bugger off. And I finished the written coursework that goes with it. Five thousand words it is, no exaggeration!
No, really!
I've been doing lots of work! Why do you think I haven't been going out this past month?
Oh well that's just hurtful.
Well I did go out once actually!
I'm doing this film thing for a friend of mine. So there!
I play a dead character.
I'm strangled, apparently.
Yes, the make up is very convincing. If I wanted to look like Gary Numan.
He doesn't wear make up?
I'm not sure either.
What are my plans for December? Well, more of the same I imagine. Except there might be snow and we'll be having Christmas and there'll be no work to do.
Yes alright you've made your point. Shopping, decorating, wrapping, etc,etc. But at least we actually make something out the numbing cold and constant dampness.
Rich coming from you!
Oh, well, I suppose you're right. It must be tough being November. Chin up, eh? Look, I'm really not the person to see about these sorts of things, I'd really rather a nice chat.
Well if you feel that's what you need. I suppose I've got things I need to be getting on with too. Do pop around next year won't you?
Good. Nice to see you then, goodbye!
Friday, 11 November 2011
October
It was a Saturday, and it was shite. I was in towns, I was late. I was panicking slightly about being late. It was kinda cold, unpleasantly so. I had just brought a mobile top up voucher from Tesco (it took a lot of guts to admit that, guys), and, naturally, it decided it didn't want to work for me. So I didn't have a phone with which to text one of my friends to see if they were meeting anywhere for this gig, this thing I was late for, so I didn't have to go on my own.
Alas, I went on my own.
This fuck up on Tesco's part made me later, and more anxious. And it started to rain (it might not have started to rain, then again I might be hyperbolising some of this).
Little did I know it, but this gig would change my life.
As a result of that gig I went back to Cadbury's inspired. I immediately wrote the entire script, soundtrack and technical notes for my drama groups production (if by 'I' I mean me and Raj with input from the whole group, and by 'soundtrack' I mean the one we have yet to decide on). I know for a fact, even as we have yet to fully block or rehearse our scenes (or even title it), that it will be more groundbreaking than Waiting for Godot, more memorable than Hamlet.
I also researched, planned, trialed and created a mixed-media-video-sound-botanical high-concept installation masterpiece for my Art class, accompanied by an eight thousand word illustrated essay exploring my chosen subject matter through the work of other artists (none of this has happened yet, except the researching bit).
As for my English class, I've written a four thousand and fifty three page novel, of which my English tutor Mr Green has said is "more adventurous than than Homer's Iliad or Odyssey" and "more complex and linguistically challenging than Finnegan's Wake" (both of those quotes may have been paraphrased, and said paraphrases paraphrased, repeatedly, to the point of each letter being replaced or reordered) (and by 'written a novel' I mean looked at Waiting for Godot).
Perhaps most satisfying; my social status has sky rocketed and my private life hella more interesting. Having nearly impregnated twenty of the girls at my college, I eventually settled down with one, and we're now happily married with two kids. We hit it off proper at a party we went to for a friends eighteenth. At Go Kidz Go (The bit about the party's true, it was the best thing).
I couldn't be happier right now (I'm sure I could be if I tried), and it's all thanks to that gig I went to.
I got there, a pub called The Flapper, right next to one of Birmingham's canals, just in time, picking my way through the crowd of literally some people, to see the band finish one of their songs that I can't remember and fuck up a cover of 'Reptilia'. They actually stopped half way through so they could sheepishly ask the crowd if they could start again. The set picked up though, they delivered an awesome song called 'Vultures' and a pretty cool alt-rocky version of 'Stand By Me'. More people came. The room got sweaty. They left with a whole five pounds more than the headline act. I left enlightened.
So it was pretty all right, all in all. They've got another gig at Birmingham's O2 Academy tomorrow, which I'll be going to. Buzzin'.
The band, by the way, are made up of friends from my college. They're called Scarlet Creek. They're pretty good, lots of potential, I reckon.
They've just released their latest album 'I'm With You' to critical acclaim, and have pledged to perform their now infamous twenty-four hour song, in its entirety, live at their gig tomorrow. They've just announced a world tour throughout next year, and collaborating and playing with the likes of Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, Lightning Bolt, Neon Indian, Kesha and McFly, it's gonna be a busy as fuck year.
You should check them out here.
Good night.
-
"Vultures circling my head
Vultures circling the dead
something something
Rob's dad's a paedo" - 'Vultures', Scarlet Creek, Nevermind(1991)
Friday, 14 October 2011
September
So my dad's arm has been in a cast for most of September. Thus, I've started doing some housework, a concept that until recently was alien to me. It's actually quite liberating getting it done initially (as long as you don't inhale the fumes of the all-purpose anti-germ spray, apparently it also works as anti-lung spray), but the novelty almost immediately wears off.
I've also been busy going back to college with all my fwiends, all towering over the gleaming, hot-off-the-factory-floor and freshly polished brand new AS students. They're, erm, they're an interesting bunch. They're excited, and fairly excitable, about being in college and not school and they're moving on in life and ready to build a career and be famous and meet new people and smoke weed and go to college parties and like, totally do loadsa' girrrrls and it's gonna be totally awesome and we're gonna meet all sort'sa new people and then we'll go on to university and it'll be the same but better like OMG!!!11
But then they realise that actually, you do still do work, and you do get tired. As in: on a comedown from a high as high as Mount. Everest. But they're still totally excited about being in college, man, and all these parties are definitely gonna happen!!1 So they mope around zombie-like, frequently show public displays of almost entirely platonic affection and collapse onto the comfy chairs (The Squish: a large area full of comfy chairs in-between the canteen and the north block, in the absence of common rooms) complaining about having to move.
So pretty much what we did.
What we're doing now? Growing beards, apparently. My friend Michael's started combing his.
What am I doing now? I've got a new English teacher. He's called Mr Green. He wears his hair in a long, dark grey pony tail. He has a goatee to rival Lucifer's. He drives a Harley Davidson. His classes introduced me to 'Waiting for Godot'. That's pretty much all you need in a person isn't it?
My drama classes are currently consisting of me beating my group of six (me plus five) into line while I yell how to make a theatre production at them. Or not, but I am working in a group of five plus me to make our very own theatre production. We've come up with a neat little story: a guy sells his sole so he can be immortal, but after a while it all goes to shit. We've called him Doctor Fau - wait.
Oh, and we also invented a game about penguins which is literally the most fun you can have without playing the game about penguins while taking your clothes off.
I'm supposed to be doing my UCAS stuff for universities. But I'm writing this. Maybe this could help? Stick in the back of the application or reference?
Oh, and I bloody dropped photography. In hindsight, it was a bit crap, really. I learnt the basics of camera usage, but then the rest was photoshopping and artist research. A more apt title would have been photo-editing.
And that folks, was my first month in college as an A2 student. My AS brother seemed to enjoy it too, he might even have written about it in detail in his won blog.
I've just started typing things wrong.
I should go to bed.
Good evening.
Monday, 5 September 2011
August
Aaaand bam. Summers over. Back to school. Bugger off. Go on. Be miserable. I get to go to college again. And this time I'm dragging my brother with me. And he's having to go through stuff like enrolment and inductions. So ha!
Anyway, casting my mind back to the month just past...
Cue the wavy memory thing with the glittery music. You know what I'm on about? Yeah, that...
"Ah, home. After a decent holiday and a buttnumbing trip, I could really use a-"
"You're going to your mum's."
"But I've-"
"Pack yer bags. Again." [Boots kids out of front door straight into mothers ford focus.]
Well not quite, but nearly.
Once again, we visited our mum in Somerset, in her cottage on an old farm, which she lovingly refers to as The Funny Farm.
She seems to like naming things, our mum. Her and John's cottage is now entitled 'Rawshack 42'. I'm sure there is a reason.
The title might have something to do with the cottages somewhat shackish nature. Less of a shack, mind; more like a dump for John's old art projects, which have now been cleared out and dumped into the 'Shed', which is as big as the cottage is. And what I mean by 'old art projects' I mean tables covered with strange, strange objects which in turn were covered in cobwebs and dust. A shame that they've been moved, really, I feel I missed out on a rather good photo opportunity.
But it's good because now, apart from floor, there's a dining table - the one from our old house! - with chairs and candles and everything. That, with the bare stone walls and the high wooden roof with the exposed beams... we were seriously considering putting up tapestries.
And speaking of floors; the floor boards in my mum's cottage - sorry, Rawshack 42 - used to be shelves where cheese was kept after it had been made. They're wider than your average floorboard and you can even see the faint circles where the cheese sat. People used to make motherfucking cheese on the floor of my mothers cottage! Well... it wasn't really a floor back then, whenever 'then' was, but still! Oh, and these 'floorboards' are exposed, I didn't vandalise my mum's carpet or anything.
Now I know you're all just itching, itching your face off, to know what kind of cheese used to be made upon what are now the floorboards of its humbleness, Rawshack 42. Well, itch no longer, because it was goddamn mother fucking cheddar.
Yeah!
Speaking of cheddar, we went to visit the Cheddar Gorge nearby, which is totally where all cheddar comes from. We went into a cheese cave where everything was made of cheddar, except for the skeleton, which just so happened to be the oldest intact skeleton in Britain. What a bugger. I imagine it's bad enough being the last of your family. Poor sod probably just tripped and fell and happened to be conveniently conserved in cheese. Ah well.
The rest of the place was beautiful.
There were great halls of cheese, some stretching off into other halls that you couldn't get to because they're just too high, leading off into strange places.
There was stone-age graffiti; the shape of a mammal carved into the cheese, evidence of ancient life, ancient human life. Might have been the bloke to whom the skeleton belonged to, you never know.
Then there were stalagmites and stalactites, growing a few millimetres per thousands of years, reaching to touch each other. My mum had visited this gorge when she was younger, apparently one of the stalagmites was mere centimetres away from one of the stalactites. And we came only to find said stalagmite/tite/the-one-that-goes-down-from-the-top had been cut off, needlessly vandalised by vandals who never amounted to anything because no-one remembers they're names, the pathetic sods (unless they were foreign and that's how you pronounced one of them). This did happen in the seventies mind, so they've probably grown out of cutting things. One can hope.
After that, we visited the cheese museum, which was mind blowing, because everything there was made out of cheese too.
Well it wasn't, but everything in the above paragraphs is true if you stop imagining cheese and start imagining rock of brilliant golden beige that seems to gush out of every high opening like water from Niagara Falls, still and rock solid as if frozen.
I think my mum did have pictures, but I don't know where they've gone.
Another thing we did was go swimming, after buying shorts and goggles from 'Clarkes Village' and getting changed at the pools 'Changing Village'.
My mum didn't name either of those:
Clarkes Village is like a shopping centre, but it's where all the companies sell products that are deemed not to have a viable market, so they send them there, because it's Somerset and Somerset is full of mad people, so it's fine. Apparently people from all over the country flock here just for the few rare products you can get. I don't know what rare products. Glow in the dark... oh I don't ruddy know. Glow-in-the-dark plimsolls? It's fucking Clarkes.
The Changing Village of Wells' Leisure Pool is not a village going through constant technological and economical advances, neither is it half as dangerous or strange as it sounds. It's just a bunch of unisex changing cubicles, set into a labyrinth beside the pool. It's not even all that unisex; there are still separate toilets.
The pool itself is awesome. It describes itself as a leisure pool, and as such it doesn't have a serious deep end, more of a slight incline, which leads to a kids section (read: paddling pool) at one end. On the other end, there's a couple of jacuzzi areas, which are awesome, and, get this, a goddamn current, which picks you up gently, carries you out of the main pool section, into a sort of pool corridor (I guess that would be a river, really) that curves round and deposits you back into the pool, right next to where the current is, so you can unwittingly step into it and have the most fucking fun you've ever had in your life. Then they switch it off at four so all the kids'll get out and piss off and let the adults have some nice relaxing leisure time.
The pool is awesome.
What isn't awesome is how my ear canals somehow mistake pool water for the ear equivalent of fucking SARS and goes into quarantine, shutting down all systems by clogging them with earwax, all systems including not-being-deaf. Luckily, my mum's a teacher for the deaf, so I think I'm sorted in that department.
Oh yeah, my dad had a birthday the other day. I brought him a book by Stephen Fry and a book by Hugh Laurie. Happy birthday dad!
Thursday, 4 August 2011
July
And have I really started most of these recent blogs by talking about the weather? You must be so far on the edge of your seats you've accidentally mastered the power of levitation.
But seriously, because this is relevant, how do you spend any length of time in Wales without getting rained on? Because that's about as likely as what I just described in the paragraph above. But it happened. Yeah, okay, I only went to Wales for four days, it probably rained on the fifth (or would have done if I'd stayed that long), but then you've got scenarios which are unheard of. Scenarios which are often relegated to the realms of facetiousness and sarcasm, or sheer myth and legend. Scenarios such as snow in Hell, polite company in Birmingham. Or someone coming home from a holiday in Wales with sunburn. Which also happened.
You wouldn't believe it unless you were there, and I was, so there. It was a trip organised by the English department of my college; a bunch of English students and a couple of tutors would go stay in the Aberystwyth University accommodation for several days, where we'd have lectures, days out exploring the beach and a castle, get drunk, and be inspired enough to write some mind blowing poetry which will be put into an anthology later on.
It was sunny there, constantly, so I bought some shades, some beers, we hung out on a beach, we built the Best and Most Epicest and Bitchingest Sand Castle Evar (seriously, it had a bridge, a gate house, a flag, a frigging fire on it and a moat with a crab in), we played drinking games, I passed out on my bed in my box of an apartment with my ipod on, we went to a castle place, we had a poetry slam, we played non-drinking games with the tutors (whilst drinking), it didn't rain once, we caught a goddamn taxi... everything went better than expected. Except for those hills. The uni and its accommodation was planted neatly atop a whopping great hill, which naturally, being English, people complained about.
I did also write a couple of poems, and snap some pictures, and I did plan on writing a poem intoxicated, but I'd left my notebook in the kitchen/common room that night and could only write on the back of a letter about the schedule and info for the trip, and it was rubbish anyway.
But that was just Wales.
When I got back home, term had ended and the summer holidays proper loomed, and what better way to start it than with an epic Saturday up town? An epic Saturday up town with a Zombie March, that's what. And also the chance to see a band a bunch of guys I know at college formed, who were gonna play a sort of free outside venue.
Instead I get whisked away up to Northhumberland. Ah well. We stayed at a nice cottage there, where the furniture and TV didn't look like they were from the 1970s, the weather was often nice and me and my brothers didn't spend all the time sleeping, so it could have been worse. We walked along beaches, we saw castles, we ate at The Official Hairy Bikers Best Fish n' Chip Shop in the Country (good god it was better than Jim Morrison), so it could have been worse, i.e. not worth it.
And we met up with our cousins in Edinburgh. It really is the sugar on the shortbread, the cake in the oatcake, irn in the bru. That whole sentence was awful, but you get the idea. You should really visit Edinburgh some time, or, indeed, go again, it's a wonderful place.
We round the trip off with a stop at my auntie and uncles flat, and end up coming home with a shopping bag full of CDs. So yeah, definatly worth it. I'm on Led Zeppelin's Presence right now.
Right, now if you'll excuse me, I've got an episode of Torchwood to watch.
Friday, 1 July 2011
June
I mean, let's see...
Almost right away, off the bat, right when I cared, you gave me the answer, finally, of who River Song was. It was... well, not that game changing or consequential. The Doctor's already [SPOILERS n' stuff] been shot, we've already seen the child regenerate and we know Amy and Rory are her parents, and now we just know that she survived the whole ordeal the Doctor's going through now. Huh.
And the episode managed to be a bit mad while most of it happened in the first fifteen minutes or so. But anyway, June, you took it away before it could get any more insane and convoluted, and start to piss us off a bit like Russel T Davis did. (The only way it could be more insane is if the next episode was called 'Let's Kill Hitler'. Oh.)
Then you took me through that English exam, and made it so that it was the last exam that I had, and I thought this to be good. Also, you eventually cleared by cold up. That cold was a bugger.
Then it was off to a Chinese place, possibly called Ming Moon (but possibly not), which was £8 for an ALL DAY ALL YOU CAN FUCKING STUFF DOWN YOUR GULLET BUFFET OF PURE CHINESE AND THEN ICE CREAM AND SWEET BITS AND CHOCOLATE FOUNTAIN FOR DESERT of which my friend had at least for four portions of main course. I had only two.
And following that it was back off to college. And then you had to fuck it up, didn't you June? You really tried to fuck my shit right up there, didn't you, by giving me a timetable full of three hour lessons. Three. Hour. Lessons. Oh, so I'm in A2, upper sixth now, so that's all well and good. Three. Hour. Fucking. Lessons.
But, y'know what June? It's cool. One of my art sessions was dedicated to an artist who does some cool landscape stuff. By going right up to the landscape and slapping that paint right on to the side of his motherfucking van. It's art, Bear Grills style (I'm running out of light for the hills, better drink my own piss. Good God I hope he never reads this). And my photography sessions introduced me to Pete Ashton. I think Pete Ashton is a pretty cool guy; he shoots pictrues through viewfinders of cameras and doesn't afraid of anything (Oh look! Two meme culture references in one paragraph! I am on it). Also, he got the entire class using Tumblr and Flickr. So I use those now.
And d'you know why else it's cool? Cos I got to see mah fwiends again. So yeah, tryin' ta' fuck up mah' month, June, cos' it failed. Even when it rained, there were some days where it was hot as fuck, so there.
But, June, what's really sweet about you is that you still felt the need to make up for it again by giving me a really awesome past week.
On Saturday, I went up to town to visit some friends, all innocent like, when suddenly Tomska and Bing turn up for a YouTube gathering in Birmingham. Y'know, like the ones they never have in Birmingham. Cos' it would be shit. Cept' this one wasn't, cos' me and my brother went and chatted with Bing, then I went and sat with him in a big, posh, grown ups pub that was too hot, where we discussed why in my old blog post about youtube going a bit wank I was totally right, and how offensive Lady Gaga is to, well, most things. (But I still kinda like Paparazzi. But it's that her music keeps getting worse and worse, and she's rehashing her old and tried ideas, and it's all getting more and more hyped by media and critics, as if she's someone who stands out amongst artists for being anything other than a MASSIVE BEG.)
And then I pulled my brother up from his mates hanging spot at the canals, and we hall had a chat with Tom and Jamie about being too young for things, and how freaky it is that your dick is as old as you are (my dick is 17 years old. That's older than... than Slipknot. Or the 21st Century. Or your cat. By the time it's 20 I'll be wandering how it still works) and we basically had a jolly old time.
And the following day was insanely hot and so I sat in my garden under a parasol, drinking a glass of Pimms, reading Things the Grandchildren Should Know by Mark Oliver Everett, or Mr E off that band Eels, and it's a book literally everyone should read, even if you think by 'eels' I mean slippery creatures that live in the sea going all Pikachu on their preys asses.
On Monday I met up with some more friends, which I definitley have and are completely real and not imaginary or anything, on Tuesday I did some stuff looking at the daunting, looming shadow of the great castle in the distance just on top of the hill, aiming all it's arrows and catapults squarely at us, as we charge right at it armed only with bits of reading matter and knowledge of things we've been told not to worry about (and some dead poultry), that is the prospect of going to University. After which, I went to an epic house party.
And, apart from the Wednesday whereby I did some more looking-at-uni stuph, it's been pretty chillaxed since then.
So thanks June. It's been good, no, great. It really has. And I'm not just saying that. All those other months, this is what they've been building up to. Aw, look, you're blushing.
I can only anticipate to see what July has install for me, just around the corner; a trip to Wales, a trip to Island... s'all gurd.
Wednesday, 1 June 2011
May
Sorry. Didn't you hear? The world's ended. Rapture happened. The universe 404'd.
Happened a little while ago actually. If you haven't already been taken up to a higher plane of existence then, well, I hope you've got suncream handy is all I can advise. Clearly I haven't. Gone to Heaven that is, obviously I've been stockpiling on suncream for a while now. I mean, I could, of coarse, be typing this from Heaven, but if thatweruhf; were the case then why would I want to communicate with mere mortals like you? And you, of coarse, could in fact be reading this from Heaven, in which case why? I had assumed that Heaven would have transcended from such things as the blogoshpere, then again that's only assuming.
So naturally, what with this Rapture thing happening, Gay Pride went ahead as planned last weekend. It was... loud. Didn't really do much to dispel the stereotype that gay people listen to euro-trance and electro-pop, whereby the only thing to differentiate between such genres is the tempo (referred to as 'bpm' to ward off intelligent folk) of the sheer repetitive thuds that pass for a beat, as that was all that was coming out of the various white tents that had been set up behind Birmingham city centre. Apart from the odd stage where local indie bands and 'singer songwriters' (see, the only thing more impressive than lgfyttftheir music is the fact that they wrote it) would desperately try to be heard by turning the amps for their electric acoustic guitars up to 11 and bashing their drum kits as hard as they could. Individual people who might have wanted to talk to each other? No chance. fjiewoa Hence why everyone simply got pissed off their balls, danced like it was the early nineties and made out with each other, regardless of gender or sexuality. And those who weren't dancing or making out with people, where either throwing up or looking after their mates who were throwing up. Just in case you're starting to think I might be cool and hip to be able to make out with random people at events like these, I was the latter. Did meet some new people thoughweif;ohj. So that was nice.
And that was Gay Pride, pretty much. Thing is though, I would consider the whole thing fairly homophobic. Read that again if you need to, it's not a typo. If people really wanted to defend or display their homosexuality, they could just do it by going out, not hiding it, acting like any other couple and just not giving a shit what anybody thinks cos' it's none of their business and if they don't like it they can fuck themselves. Just like any heterosexual couple. What Gay Pride seems to do is to put homosexuals in a niche that shouldn't exist and only does so because it's a remnant of an old fashioned, and quite probably much fwuiey more religious and right winged society which in this day and age should be dead and buried, and what that does is make the homophobic minority feel like they actually have something to rally against. Having a Gay Pride event is akin to having a Disabled Person's Pride event where these people are being put into a class where the non-disabled heterosexual of western society can feel like they are somehow above them, and it's okay to think this way because society says it is, when in fact they should be treated no different from anyone else because to do so is stupid and ignorant and low and on the same level as racism. Surely singling out homosexual couples as different from everyone else, in whatever manner, whilst also providing cannon fodder for homophobes and potential protesters, is homophobic?
Except, to look at these Gay Pride events like that is kind of missing the point.
Gay Pride is just an excuse for a party. One great big massive street-wide party, full of noise and music (noise) and booze and day glow clothing (awesome skirts and necklaces you could buy) and gay guys with matching haircuts marching around shirtless and gay girls making out with anything female and straight guys trying to make out with anything that moves. Some smart alec even put fairground rides up, the kind that are covered in Christmas lights and cost a ridiculous amount if money and a limb to ride on. And any promoting of 'gay' as differenthvuieal from anything else is just the general style and attitude of it all. If society's going to drop all same sex couples into a niche where they're judged then why the hell not hit back with a giant fist with the words 'AND PROUD' scrawled across the back of it? It's their right, and who the hell would turn down a massive party?
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Meanwhile, when I'm not in gay pride events and pretending to have a social life, I'm at home, on study leave, doing what could only be described as 'studying' in the loosest possible sense.
I've already done what was my General Studies exam, which is exactly what it says on the tin and since you don't know what might come up as a topic in the exam, requires exactly nil amount of studying, unless you want to try and study every topic in the known universe (won't be much left of it by October, unless you're in Heaven, but we've had this discussion), in which case you'd better start early.
What is my final exam, cos' I'm a smug bastard who chose mostly practical topics, is for English Literature and Language,w;eiofh which isn't two topics rolled into one but rather the best of both, that is if you really like writing stories and stuff, and varying degrees of analysis of spoken language features and other peoples writing (Angela Carter, is who I've been studying. She takes elements of fairy tales and works them into stories about girls who shag werewolves, girls who are werewolves, girls who get created, loved, killed and fucked by some guy within two pages, basically what you can find a lot of on 4chan. Except really, bloody good, uniquely and brilliantly written).
And that's on Monday. Which is a mixed blessing since I don't have any other exams to look forward to but I'd better kick my arse into studying gear. Or not. Might wing it.
Also, I've got a cold. And yes, I'm sneeswfhuiewazing. I can barely see what I'm typing for layers upon layers of snot upon my screen and the mountain of tissues that used to be my bedroom, which is also obscuring the backspace key.
Yes, I'm exaggerating. I'm a male, what do you expect?
Atiwefiu;hychoo.
Friday, 20 May 2011
Rapture's Delight
Erm... bit late innit? Ah well.
Saturday, 30 April 2011
April
It's wonderful, of course, except that I reckon it's fairly safe to bet money on the fact that come July we'll drowning in all the rainwater that didn't happen this month. My brother now refers to the summer months as 'monsoon season', without a trace of irony.
So we've got that to look forward to. Meanwhile, we have been making the most of the weather. Me and my brothers and my dad had a barbecue yesterday evening. I mean sure, we all wore hoodies and such, and the disposable barbecue dad bought from Sainsbury's was as about as effective as using a hairdryer to combat a flood (it was from their best buy range or whatever they do as well) and thus we transferred to meat onto the cooker (so not strictly speaking a barbecue then, but we ate it outside), but if it was any other time of year, the mere consideration of the thought of a barbecue, in the evening no less, would have got you sectioned.
I also visited my mum in Somerset for a week in Easter. Somerset has an odd habit of calling all its towns 'cities'. Wells for example, where they filmed Hot Fuzz (which makes it infinitely cooler than anywhere), is the second smallest city in the world and is about the size of a high street. Glastonbury doesn't seem to be much bigger. I didn't visit long enough to deliver a proper verdict, but it is small. And interesting. Lots of shops with the word 'magick' on them.
Mind you, while enjoyable the stay in Somerset wasn't overly helpful. I still haven't fully learnt my script for Blackout. It's being performed on May 17. I did get plenty of photo's of trees for my photography project though. The eight hour exam I completed on Thursday this week, now I have to finish my final evaluation and attend my lessons 'till study leave in May and I'm done. I'll have finished all but two of my exams by then anyway, since most of my subjects are practical. Speaking of which, art work is impending.
Thursday, 31 March 2011
March
1) this blog will consist entirely of monthly posts about the month gone past if I don't post moar.
2) this blog is incredibly boring.
Ah well.
So, March.
I'm well into my first year at college, and it's going pretty well, thanks for asking. The dust has settled, things are no longer up in the air in regards to OMGWE'REINCOLLEGEwhatthehellarewedoing??!!!11/??!11 And they shouldn't be, it's been seven-odd months now and I've even finished a whole unit of coursework for each subject.
In Theatre Studies, I'm rehearsing a play called Blackout by Davey Anderson. It's about a Scottish lad who, like many Scottish lads (or lads in general, really), feels alienated and isolated amongst his school mates and family. So he does the logical and sensible thing that surprisingly, most teenagers don't do; he becomes a Nazi. He shaves off his hair. He buys a bunch of knives and posters with swastikas on them. He listens to music. SPOILER ALERT he strangles his mother. This ain't no high skool shit. Foo'.
Imagine. You wake up in a jail cell. The guard comes up to the door and accuses of you of murder. You'd remember what happened. You'd remember why you did it. Imagine you had no friends and you were tired of it. You remember shaving your hair and people looking at you weird. Imagine being beaten up by them and taking it. Imagine remembering that you'd tried to kill your own mother. Remember imagining what it would be like to be Bob Geldof's character in Pink Floyd's The Wall. Remember. Imagine.
Yeah, there are a lot of 'remember's and 'imagine's in the script. Thing is, this actually happened. Davey Anderson wrote it after interviewing a Scottish kid who did this. "Blimey." is what you think, perhaps in broader terms. Pretty deep stuff. So of coarse Mr Anderson decided to do it justice. And he did. By writing a script with no characters or stage directions. If you've ever read a script, you'll probably know that these are quite important, and without them the actors become about as useful as outdoor air conditioning. Until they realise it's not a traditional script but rather more of a performance piece where the actors portray the emotion, feeling and action of the words in the script through choreographed movement vocals working as an ensemble instead of playing individual characters. Or something.
So the costumes are all black (probably skin tight and slightly see-through) clothing, the props are, well the actors, and the stage is empty apart from a set of steps at the back (upstage centre, to be all proper about it). I think it's a nice way of doing it to be fair, if a little artsy-fartsy, it feels unique. I was sceptical at first, but only 'cause it was something completely different, just needed time to warm to it. Also, it'll probably have this music in it.
Also also, the play itself is set in Scotland, about a Scottish boy, written about a Scottish boy irl, and written by a Scottish person. Yeah, it's a Scottish play, and I just hope it doesn't have the levels of bad luck Macbeth's meant to have. I played Macduff once. I was eleven, and ever since I've taken starring roles in plays. It's a bloody hassle. Too many lines to learn. And you're on stage most of the time so no pressure at all. I've even got the fucking lead role in this play. Blackout doesn't even have characters! Except one called James, the boy who turns Nazi. Typical.
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Other events in March; a band released an album; a season of sport that I actually watch started; a trailer for a tv show appeared; I got pissed while my friends got high. Feels like build up to April really. I wonder if every month is going to feel like build up for the next, now that I think about it.
Sunday, 27 February 2011
Februrary
Is that it?
Already?
Blimey. Well that lasted.
So, yeah. I guess I was right about February; nothing much happening, weather's not much better, pretty much the same as January. Is it though? Or is it more like a calm before the storm of March kicking us in the face?
It normally does this. I don't have any exams to worry about this year but last there was that + sport I actually watch + telly I actually watch (or at least nyooz of it) and it was all... a bit meh.
If you look in my archive, my entry this time last year, I was raving about how Michael Shoemaker was coming back to F1 as if it was the second coming of Christ. It wasn't. And the first race in Bahrain is always about as exciting as watching grass grow. In a desert (Bahrains been cancelled now hasn't it? Not that that'll make any difference). Also Doctor Whooharr never starts till April, and Top o' the Gears ter you sir ends early March.
So lots to look forward to.
Ooh! Except Radiohead's nyoo album comes out physically on March 28th. I do like Radiohead. Have you seen the new video? It's how I'm going to dance in future.
Monday, 14 February 2011
luvvy duvvy wuvvy
Sunspots - Nine Inch Nails
Maps - Yeah Yeah Yeahs
I Froze Up - Thom Yorke
I Love You - The Dandy Warhols
Nancy - Thomas J
Angel Echos - Four Tet
Let Your Love Grow - Modeselektor
Just Like Heaven - The Cure
Pigs on the Wing (Part 1) - Pink Floyd
Yesterday - The Beatles
Love Will Tear Us Apart - Joy Division
I Wanna Be Your Dog - The Stooges
Closer - Nine Inch Nails
There Is a Light That Never Goes Out - The Smiths
Unravel - Bjork
All I Need - Radiohead
iluvya - Thom Yorke
Merry valentines and such.
Monday, 31 January 2011
January
Strange though, normally there's more snow.
So anyways, this month involved me turning 17, getting coursework done for today, I mean literally, today was the deadline for several things... aaand that's about the size of it. I did get a rather fanciful some of money for my 17th celebration of birth, but coursework got in the way of me spending it.
Which I'm sure is something you've been biting your nails over.
Also, I still haven't bloody installed Photoshop my dad got me for Christmas. Nor have I, so far, got drunk this year.
On my priorities list.
Meanwhile; February. Probably be more of the same; cold, not very interesting. Nothing really kicks off till March. Roll on March.
Saturday, 29 January 2011
Tuesday, 18 January 2011
Happy Birthday!
Right. Well.
My birthday was also about a week ago. My parents bought me some acrylic paint.
Well I hope that information overload satisfied you for the day, I'll see you whenever.
Thursday, 6 January 2011
Resolutions
-Get all tonked up n shiz.
-Overthrow the government
-Cash that £50 cheque your granny gave you in September.
-Learn2grammar
-Learn2english
-Learn2drive
-Win the lottery, go abroad, marry some Thai woman, get lost, end up in Uzbekistan, do it all whilst drunk.
-Take over the world
-Choose a job
-Choose life
-Choose a fuckin' big television...
Saturday, 1 January 2011
It's the start of the year as we know it
I'm ashamed to admit right now, that I've done very little this decade other than sleep and eat fish. Oh well, it'll pick up. That was actually kinda cheap wasn't it?
Anyway. I'm considering joining tumblr, joining the masses, ba'a'a'ah, me'e'e'eh, and whatever other noises sheep make.
I haven't decided whether it'll render this blog obsolete. I did want this blog to last more than a year, and perhaps eventually get a bit less pointless, but hey ho, we'll see what happens I guess.
Evening.
