Matthew Hoare's Personal Blog

I want to go back to New York!

2012-02-13T08:00:00.011Z

So last week me and my girlfriend went to New York for 4 nights...and it was beyond amazing.

We arrived on Sunday afternoon around 1pm local time after our flight had been delayed for two hours in Heathrow due to the snow. Soon as the plane landed we headed to your hotel, dropped off our bags and went straight back out into the city, heading over to Times Square.

Leaving the subway and entering Time Square was an incredible sight, and I instantly feel in love how busy the area was packed with the locals and of course tourists. I could not get enough with how crazy the area was with amount of advertising boards scattered around flashing their lights onto the street below. And of course we bumped into the Naked Cowboy doing his thing.

Throughout the whole trip we visited the tourist sights of the city; Empire State, Statue of Liberty, Rockefeller Center, Central Park, Grand Central Station, Macy's, Ground Zero. To my surprise we didn't partake in some serious shopping, only casual looking around here and there on the way. Which of course I was totally fine with. Before we headed out to New York I searched up some other sights we could visit which aren't typical to tourists, one of these sights was Alice's Tea Cup, where we had a nice pot of tea and cake.

Alice's Tea Cup

My highlight on the trip would have to be the time we spent in Central Park, where we took a horse and carriage right around a small section of the park (due to the ridiculous price). Then finished off with ice skating, it was such a nice few hours spent in that location. Plus the weather was perfect, nice and sunny.

Coming back to London I of course want to back to the city already, I am tempted to look into going every year. Maybe explore different sections every time I go, but of course there is always the issue of money.

Have you ever been to New York?

MH x

NYC Day 1

2012-02-07T02:24:00.001Z

So yesterday me and my girlfriend arrived in New York! We were extremely tired, but managed to plough through and see some of the sights, including Times Square & the view from The Rockefeller Center.

Today we're going lower west side to see things in SOHO, Greenwich Village and Chelsea.

Yep all places you can find in London :-/

MH x

Off to the 'big apple'

2012-02-03T08:00:00.004Z

One of my 10 resolutions this year was to post a new blog entry every day throughout 2012. From the start of January this was of course lowered to every week day, still keeping a big task. With great surprise I have managed this throughout January, however next week (beginning 5th February) this may be a difficult task.

Myself and my girlfriend are heading off to New York for a few nights, and we cannot wait. We have both been over excited since we booked the holiday back in November 2011.

I am sure you can understand the idea of making sure I blog everyday whilst I am out there would be a mad idea, I want to spend the time relaxing and enjoying myself.

However I will be attempting to find some internet access at some stages, to post a picture on here each day with a few words so you can see what I have been up to. No doubt this photograph will be taken from my Instagram profile (I have fallen in love with this app lately).

You can also follow me on Twitter to get more out of me, as may also try and post a few things on there whilst I'm sightseeing/shopping.

Of course all these small ideas are in the maybe category of importance, were only out there for 4 nights, so I don't particularly want to waste time finding Wifi hotspots.

Also....why is it called the 'big apple'?

MH x

Week 4 film review [I'm Not There, 2007]

2012-02-02T08:00:00.009Z

This weeks film choice was my girlfriends, so that only means one thing. Her time to review....

I've probably owned I'm Not There for a few years, but have never found the time to watch it. I was very aware of the fact that watching it might take quite a bit of brain power so I think that's why I hadn't seen it until last week.

I'm Not There was made in 2007, and is focussed around 6 characters who embody a different aspect of Bob Dylan's life. The characters weren't meant to be Bob himself, which confused me at first, because I thought it was going to be a film in the style of Control, a biopic about Joy Division's Ian Curtis, just with more actors playing the role of Bob at different stages in his life.

I was impressed by the great actors that were on board for the film (Christian Bale, Heath Ledger etc) but my favourite just had to be Cate Blanchett. I must say, I had doubts of how she'd portray a man successfully on screen, but she absolutely blew me away. She had Dylan and his mannerisms down to a tee, and actually looked very much like him as well. Her character was definitely my favourite, closely followed by Heath Ledger's, which was also pretty interesting, I found. I also really liked the way the film was shot, especially when it was in black and white documentary style.

I think, to fully 'get' the film, I'd probably have to watch it again because I spent most of the film completely confused. But it's definitely an interesting one to watch, just make sure your brain is switched on before you press play!

Week 3 film review

Pulled Apart By Horses 'Tough Love' [REVIEW]

2012-02-01T08:00:00.001Z

In 2009 I was on work experience with Rockfeedback TV and was lucky enough to be cameraman on a Pulled Apart By Horses viral video shoot for XBOX Reverb. Since the shoot, I have been a huge fan of these lads, and have seen them live a number of times. Which will also include seeing them at London, Electric Ballroom in February.

I love and have never got bored of their debut self titled album. So its understandable I was happy to hear they were back in the studio last year and was eager to get hold of the release of 'Tough Love'

Just like their debut album, I don't think I will get bored of this second album. They have developed a new sound, and I will be hesitant to say its a little softer than the first album, but it's still amazing and hard hitting. The album is full of punching riffs which you can't help but nod your head in sync with the rolling drums from Lee Vincent.

Going back to the new sound, its clear to hear Tom Hudson has changed his raw vocals from the rock/gothic/punk sound of the first album. However I think I love these new vocals more, they compliments well with the big riffs from the guitars, with their now more metal influence which is a nice development for them. Better still you can hear Toms vocals more clearly, which is great. As you can hear some for comical vocals.

At the moment my favourite track is 'Wolf Hand'. Its a good example of the all the new developments of the band; new guitar, vocals and drum sounds. Concluding the bigger beefier sound from the band as a whole, and of course the bands comical vocals. Finally like the first album, there are still segments of songs you find your rewinding back to hear over and over again. Reinforcing how you can not get bored of the album.

It just fantastic, don't hesitate and buy the album now.

MH x

Blowing my own trumpet

2012-01-31T08:00:00.003Z

I have been working at the th1ng offices for just over a month now, and last Friday the opportunity had been given to me to work on a pitch with the founder of the company, Dominic Buttirmore. Straight away I stepped up to the offer, as I have been aching to help on pre production work since starting, and I thought this would give me a chance to show off what I can do.

The pitch was half way through completion when I was set to take it over, therefore included a few errors, which resulted in him flipping his lid from the get go. I shrugged off this early encounter and carried on through regardless, I understand and aware he could react like this. After all its his company, and his pitch for an important campaign. Therefore its got to be perfect.

He would return back and forth throughout, with of course making amends to sections here and there. Once the pitch had been completed, and everyone let out a huge sigh of relief, Dominic was kind enough to pass on some praise to me; 'Your good and quick are this aren't you'
It was only a few words, which he could have said to anyone. However I was still very thankful to hear that after all the stress from making the pitch.

I felt as if I was thrown in the deep end, having my first pitch for the company to be for the CEO. But then I took this on as a positive thing, as I believe it is better to start from the extreme end of the scale. Because I think moving forward, working on other pitches with the other producers will be less of a daunting task. As I have already experienced the stressful process with the up most important person of the company. Perhaps this would boost my confidence, with making suggestions with the producers. To show my interest in this industry, and interest to move up the career ladder.

That Friday evening I went home very happy.

MH x

The Weekend [28/29 Jan]

2012-01-30T08:00:00.000Z

My weekend was relaxed on both days, Saturday evening began very successfully with the selling of my guitar on eBay. After all the dumb messages from the bidders, I was very pleased with the winning bid, as it turned out to be far more than I anticipated. This means I can fully pay off my credit card (as I had originally planned) and purchase a new bike. As you may remember my bike was stolen a few weeks back, and unfortunately the Police were unable to help. With the small debt cleared and bike purchase, I will still have some money over. So again, very happy with the winning bid.

The Saturday evening was completed with me and my girlfriend consuming a tub of Ben & Jerrys Cookie Dough ice cream whilst watching the film, 'I'm Not There' - This weeks film choice was hers, so expect the review from her later this week.

Sunday started off with massive excitement from me and my girlfriend, as it is now only 7 days until we head off to New York for a few nights. We can't wait for this, as we booked this back in November 2011.

I'm still looking into ideas we can do whilst out there, please help if you have any suggestions.

eBay members are dumb!

2012-01-27T08:00:00.023Z

I have been buying and selling things on eBay for around 5 years now, and I have only been encountered with one issue in the past when a purchased item disappeared (but thats another story).

On Saturday I listed my Gibson SG Special on eBay for auction, due to me never using the guitar anymore. It has been sat in the corner of my room collecting dust. Since listing this item I have been bombarded with ridiculous questions from eBay members who amongst the bidding. Clearly my in-depth description for this item was not good enough for some eBay members.

I am sure a majority of people would think the same as me, in not wanting pay for postage in the UK or even worse oversea. Therefore I decide to make the item collection only.

However, some eBayers are insisting on asking whether I would consider posting the item to them, I feel like responding with a simple 'read the description!'

Then going further I have been asked if I would consider posting it to Europe.... clearly if I have stated 'Collection In Person' I don't want to be posting overseas.

Now to go even further, don't get me started on people sending messages with appalling attempt at grammar, I know is not always good. However some of these massages have taken me at least 5 attempt of reading through to understand the question.

I am probably just moaning for no reason, and just being horrible. But whenever I log into eBay and attempt to purchase or place a bid on an item, I do read the description, and take note on the eBayers reputation from past sales.

Its just common sense.

What encounters have you made on eBay?

Week 3 film I haven't seen [Blow, 2001]

2012-01-26T08:00:00.001Z

The true story of George Jung, the man who established the American cocaine market in the 1970s.

I picked up this film for two reasons; I heard of it before and been wanting to see it for a while, and I am a fan of Johnny Depp's work. From the opening scene and then throughout the film I was shocked and surprised to see Johnny Depp in such long hair that looked too fake for my liking. However, I managed to not let this distract me from Johnny's performance which of course was spot on.

Throughout the film you believe every piece of the performance, feeling for Georges (Johnny Depp) fortune and then miss fortune, and then naughty mischief. You know some decisions he is making are going turn out bad, but you go along with him as you know its going to be fun along the way, even if there are consequences. You feel as if he has become your friend on screen.

The visuals are also impressive, complimenting with the performances. Some scenes made me feel like they were influenced to or from Oceans 11's visual. Either films could of taken these visual elements as they were produced the same year, whatever the case may be Blow is still great work.

Week 2 film review

MH x

The perfect homemade chips

2012-01-25T08:00:00.004Z

For a while now I have been trying to cook the perfect homemade chips, and during the weekend (I guess could have added this to Mondays post) I finally cracked them.
So if you are currently failing at homemade chips, follow these instructions and you are on the road to success.

What you will need:
Potatoes...obviously (1 large potato for each person)
Mixed Herbs (Optional)
Oil
Baking Tray
Saucepan
Oven (obviously)

1. Turn the oven up to its highest setting and leave the baking tray in there to warm up nicely.

2. Peel the potato(s) and wash off the excess starch that is left. Then cut the potatoes into slices of about 1cm thick. Then cut these slices into smaller 1cm pieces that resemble your typical chip.

3. Place all the potato pieces into a saucepan of water on the hob. As soon as the water starts boiling, leaving them to boil for 3 minutes. Soon as the 3 minutes is up, remove the saucepan from the heat.

4. Remove the baking from oven (with oven gloves!). Drain away the water from the potatoes in the saucepan and throw into the baking tray. Smother the potatoes with the oil, making sure all the potatoes are covered, sprinkle on top mixed herbs if desired. Then throw all back into the oven, do not lower the heat. Leave potatoes for 10 minutes, after this remove and shake them about, return them to oven and leave for another 10 minutes.

5. Remove your now, chips from the oven and enjoy :)

MH x

Gil Scott + Jamie XX

2012-01-24T10:01:00.000Z

Last week at work I was able to give a helping hand on a small shoot down at the studio in the basement of our office. They were filming bubbles and ink in water to make particles to add into an animation.

I was interested in helping out as I have always wanted to film this effect to music. So I took home the remaining ink and syringes, and this is what I came up with.

I was quite happy how the video turned out, and I'm thinking of making this a monthly thing. Perhaps add a new video to my Vimeo account once a month, just to see a develop in my shooting and editing skills.

The Weekend [21/22 Jan]

2012-01-23T08:00:00.000Z

Saturday I made the short journey into London to see the 'Yul Brynner: A Photographic Journey' exhibition at The Little Black Gallery. However for some reason was not able to find the damn place, even though I was using Google Maps on my iPhone. I was standing right over the spot where Google Maps was telling me the gallery was, however the gallery was not in my point of view.

At least 15 minutes went by consisting of me walking around in circles trying to find it, eventually stopping my frustration and leaving the area. To brush off my frustration I treated myself to a Boddeans for lunch. If you have never tried Boddeans before, I strongly suggest you do so the next time your in central London and craving some meat for lunch / dinner. Of course if your a vegetarian...stay clear. Next few weeks I'm hoping to try out Meat Liqour which I believe has recently opened up just a few streets away from Boddeans.

The evening was completed through putting my Gibson SG on eBay, as I realised I never use the guitar anymore. And I am need of the quick cash, it could come in handy as spending money for when I head off to New York with my girlfriend in just under 2 weeks time. Following this I found myself watching far too much trash TV for a Saturday evening.

The same followed on Sunday, along with watching the final episodes of Diggnation which I have been a fan for a good year or so, and will definitely miss the show. I need to find a new way to find out my tech news, any suggestions?

And if you know where The Little Black Gallery is please do tell me, I want to go this exhibition before It finishes.

MH x

The Kingston Road Runner

2012-01-21T08:00:00.007Z

Today is Saturday, which of course is a day to do whatever. The majority of the time that involves entertaining yourselves, so here is a piece of online entertainment you may enjoy.

Me and my housemate are easily amused.

The Maccabees - Given To The Wild [QUICK REVIEW]

2012-01-20T09:37:00.002Z

This week my hands were finally in the possession of The Maccabees third album 'Given To The Wild'. I have have lost count how many the album has been played through since transferring it onto my iPhone.

From my first two listens I was a bit undecided whether the album was really enjoyable listen for a Maccabees fan. I couldn't help feeling the true Maccabees sounds had be lost somewhere amongst the 13 tracks. Thinking the stand out upbeat sing-a-long guitar riffs and unique vocals from Orlando were being lost behind the ambience of the album, therefore dear I say it; making the album sound the same the whole way through.

Of course I was just being nuts and this was only my first few listens. After this hurdle was succeeded the album really stands up as a fantastic third album from the guys. The albums pace goes up and down, continuously grabbing you. Hearing different things here and there along the journey.

I really believe this is a perfect third album from The Maccabees everyone knew the album was going to be a tough challenge after the success of 'Wall Of Arms' but I do believe they have succeeded. The development from 'Wall Of Arms' to this album has raised the bar from them all. Their new sound is very mature and additive, you can all tell their talents have been lifted so high over the last 9 years. And I can't wait to hear the songs when I get to see them at Brixton Academy on the 26th January.

If you haven't heard the album yet, just go out and buy it. You will not be disappointed. And if you haven't heard of The Maccabees, well...get all three albums.

Tourist

2012-01-19T10:21:00.000Z

On Tuesday around 12 o clock I had to leave the office, and set up an account at a storage unit centre in St Johns Wood.

Making the short journey and arriving back out into the open from the underground I find straight infront of me a coffee shop simply called, 'The Beatles' full of their official merchandise, I think to myself that its pretty odd and carry on regardless. Whilst getting closer to the center and constantly looking at Google Maps on my iPhone I notice Abbey Road is approaching. Instantly I clocked what should be near by.

I stop for a moment and Google search the location for where the famous front cover was taken, whilst doing so I walk up to a crowd of people taking photos of a zebra crossing. Instantly a slight smile spreads across my face from the realisation of what is infront of me.

The zebra crossing gets another photo taken from my iPhone, then I move onto the store center. Walking back from setting up the account I of course walk back across the crossing with again a smile of my face.

The very small experience for me was a quick bit of fun, and I thought to myself one day I should spend one day during a weekend travelling around London visiting famous locations. It would be an enjoyable and different day out.

I need to make a list though first, any suggestions?

Week 2 film I haven't seen [UP, 2009]

2012-01-18T08:00:00.004Z

This weeks film choice came from my girlfriend, so I thought it was only fair to have her review the choice. I think I may make this a regular thing, I review the films I chose, and she reviews hers.

Before I watched the film, I didn't really know what to expect. I had no idea of what the storyline was, I only knew that the old man (Mr Fredrickson) attached lots of balloons to his house and flew away. As a girl who has a habit of crying during films, I was assured that I would definitely cry at UP.

They weren't wrong! I really didn't expect to be welling up only 10 minutes into the film, but hey ho, it was to be expected really! This sadness was short-lived though, and I was soon engrossed in the story. It was nice to see that the Pixar humour that we all know and love was still present; Mr Fredrickson was the perfect grumpy old man, and I couldn't help but chuckle at little Russell. He really was adorable. The only thing I wasn't sure about was the talking dogs! I did find them funny, I just thought it was a pretty random part of the story. Although, take the dogs out of the story and it wouldn't have been half as entertaining!

I really enjoyed watching UP, it's a lovely story, but it's definitely not Pixar's best work. If you haven't seen it - I would still recommend it! Despite the random talking dogs.

Week 1 film review

A late Christmas dinner

2012-01-17T09:34:00.000Z

Last night I attended my late Christmas dinner party with my former colleagues from when I worked at Superdry in Kingston.

The evening started at the shop with some hilarious secret Santa gifts getting exchanged amongst everyone. Luckily my present was a really nice one from my manager. And of course to some people's disbelief were left without a gift (I guess that's the beauty of secret Santa)
It was quite odd experience being back at the shop, I was expecting a lot of changes as I left the job just over a month ago. However it felt like I left the job only yesterday. There were a few new products here and there, but the shop as whole looked entirely the same.

Before arriving I had the impression it could be awkward to walk back into the store and chat amongst my former colleagues, but again that was totally fine. It was like I had never left.

After the shenanigans of Secret Santa at the store were over and dusted. We headed to Pizza Express, as Superdry offered everyone vouchers to eat there including myself, as I left the company just after the vouchers were handed out to each store. (I have excellent timing)

At Pizza Express the fun continued with a good helping with the flow of drinks. And again it felt like I had never left. Which reminded me how great of friendships I had made whilst working at the store for just over a year and a half.

I don't think I'll ever loose contact with them, It would be a waste to loose these friendships. But of course it will always be easy to keep in touch with the help of Facebook and Twitter.

MH x

The Weekend [14/15 Jan]

2012-01-16T08:00:00.042Z

Saturday

I was asked to be on camera for a short film with a few of the guys from work. I was more than happy to fill this role, purely because I was going to be using the Canon 5D MK2. I have always wanted to use this certain camera since I started making my music videos back in 2010.

The camera was amazing to use, the quality of picture was just spot on. Even when used in low light the camera was outstanding. This was helped further with the high quality choice of lenses I had on offer, thanks to the equipment from work.

The shoot was for a short film to promote our talented crew, and to enter into film festivals in the coming months. The producer had acquired two actors from the site, mandy.com, this was the first time I have worked with genuine wannabe actors, and I was more impressed. One of the actors had a small monologue for the films climax. The actor delivered his monologue with real emotion every time we asked him to do so. I was blown away each and every time we asked him to deliver hese lines, I am looking forward to this final edit, because it should turn out to be quite a powerful piece of work.

Also I am looking forward to seeing my camera work edited together by someone else, and not me. In the past I have always edited my camera work, so this should give it a different angle and hopefully give me ideas on where I could improve my camera work.

Sunday

I wont go into too much detail for Sunday, it was not productive. It was a general day of relaxation and sorting out things here and there.

MH x

Dreams

2012-01-13T08:00:00.003Z

So last night, I had one of those dreams which you know are odd whilst in your dream state. Then when you wake up, your laying there thinking 'wtf mate!'

In a nutshell my dream simply consisted of a family event at someones house, where one of my aunties turned up with a new man she was dating.

Little did we all know, this new man of hers was going to Mr John Major - However for some strange reason everyone in my family amongst ourselves were insisting on calling him John Prescott. Which of course look nothing alike.
On top of all this strange goings on, John Major had a fake arm, which of course when i went to shake hands I shock his fake hand....and that was it for my dream.

Dreams like these really baffle me, I have no idea where these ideas came from. I have a tendency to have these odd dreams when I'm drunk, however I was stone cold sober.

I have not yet looked up what this dream could mean, but I would love to find out.

Have you had some strange dreams lately?

MH x

SIDE NOTE
With regards to the bike situation, I had phone call from the Police yesterday explaining they had a man in custody who had stolen some bikes around Kingston. However, none of them matched my bike description. I went ahead and asked about the CCTV footage, the woman on the phone was a little vague with this. But I think the outcome was that nothing was spotted, therefore I think my bike is gone. Which really sucks.

But I still do not want to give up, I will still attempt to find out if people can help find it. The internet can be a powerful tool!

STOLEN BICYCLE

2012-01-12T08:00:00.000Z

On 10th January 2012 between 10:45 - 21:00 my bike was stolen from outside Kingston station. Here is photo courtesy of Google Street View to where my bike was locked up in the morning.

My bike was locked up to the right of this photo, right infront of the blue railings outside Costa Coffe.

My Bike Details;
* Fixed Gear
* Dark blue frame
* Black spoked wheels + black tires
* One rear brake
* Black handlebars (with paint peeling off on the right side)
* Brake leaver on the left of the handlebars

So far I have reported it to the Police who will look at the CCTV as soon as possible. Luckily there is a fair amount of cameras in the location, so I can only hope.

Along with this I have just been putting out Tweets about the incident on my Twitter profile to help get the word out to people in the local area.

If you saw anything suspicious happening in that area during this time period, then please get in contact. I would like my bike back!

Week 1 film I haven't seen [El Topo, 1970]

2012-01-11T08:00:00.001Z

Here is my first weeks entry in my New Years Resolution to watch a film me and girlfriend both haven't seen once every week.
I already had El Topo in my DVD collection as I purchased it for a university module. However, never got round to watching it.

El Topo is known to be a 1970 cult classic from Alejandro Jodorowsky. The film tells the story of lead character, El Topo. Who decides on confronting various Masters across mass deserts, accompanied by his 6 year old son. Who is shown naked throughout this boys entire screen time, I undoubtedly found difficult to watch. Early into the film El Topo ditches his 6 year old son for a woman called, Mara. Taking her for the rest of his journey to confront and fight these Masters in the desert.

To be brutally honest I was not impressed with the whole film, I understood how the film was a cult classic. Due to the film looking, cheap, unpleasant, strange and many more ways to dislike the film, which ticks all the boxes in the cult classic category.

I do enjoy watching and discovering cult films, however this one failed to capture men. In a quick review I felt the films running time of 120 minutes was far too long. Due to their being around 45 minutes of dialogue spread across the film. Therefore making lengthy scenes (that I tend to enjoy in other films) looking less interesting, and more boring to watch. This may be due to the cheap and strange look to the film. Making me struggle to engage and enjoy the film throughout. I found the lengthy scenes looked like the script and storyline was made up on the spot, due to their to be no sense of journey. With the added unnecessary cuts of other action adding confusing.

I can see how this is a cult film, as these type of films tend to look bad. Making the audience work hard at trying to see the beauty out of it. Which I often find what is great about cult films, however I couldn't quite do this with El Topo.

If you have seen the film, please let me know what you thought of it. As I want to see why people would love it. If you haven't seen it, then do watch it. We should all watch a cult film, simply due to curiosity.

I'm hoping my girlfriends choice for next week is better than my choice of this week.

Jean Teulé - 'The Suicide Shop' [SHORT REVIEW]

2012-01-10T08:00:00.080Z

For my birthday back in October my housemate gave me Jean Teulés 'The Suicide Shop' as a present. Judging by the blurb and the quotes I instantly thought it would be an entraining read.

Even though the book is a very short read at under 170, I managed to stretch it out over a staggering two months (takes me a while to get through books, but not because I'm a slow reader).

The book tells the story of the family owned business, 'The Suicide Shop. Selling various interesting and quirky items to assist the local people of the town to kill themselves.

The book plays out as a dark comedy, describing how deranged the family is. Being constantly negative towards life, never wanting to show positivity amongst themselves. Apart from their youngest song who was a mistake to the parents.

The story does have some comical moments, with how descriptive the selling of the items kill their customers. And the whole concept of the shop helping to kill people is of course a comical concept.

However, I was not fully gripped with the story, this may be due to me reading the story over a longer period of time than I should of (due to a number of reasons). Feeling like I was just reading a book about a families daily routines running a shop, with some comedy aspects to help me not get bored.

There is a nice twist in story which I wasn't able to predict (I never can) which improved the story for a moment. However I still didn't find the book engaging, finding myself wanting to get through the book and move onto the next read.

If your interested in a quick read one weekend then pick this one up and enjoy it, but maybe do not decide to read the book over a month like myself.

MH x

The Weekend [7/8 Jan]

2012-01-09T12:28:00.001Z

For the moment I have decided to not post new blog entries at the weekends. For obvious reasons, I would like to keep my weekends free to take advantage of them with productivity and of course more important relaxing time. The weekend just gone consisted of both this;

Saturday

This was my day to chill and complete personal errands, which was to pay all bills that were due. That gave a nasty punch into my bank account. I also attended the gym which I have been a member of since my 23rd birthday. It was a terrible work out, but at least I went. However, I have had thoughts of leaving, simply because I may not be able to afford it soon. Plus I don't like how I have to keep making time for the gym, I like to have long evenings to relax after work. I have a bike which I ride every day, therefore I may choose to have long bike rides at weekends to wake myself up and give me a boost of energy.

Sunday

Like Saturday this started off as a relaxed day, but in the evening productivity was strong. I met up with Kid Champion, where we chatted over the music video. Which was a successful meeting as we now officially have a final edit. The next stage is just to look into getting a colour grader and some censoring to complete it. If you are a colour grader or know anyone who would be willing to work with us on this zero budget video, then please get in contact; us.fenixx@gmail.com

To complete my Sunday I cooked up a beef wellington for the first time for me and girlfriend. It was a decent attempt I thought, we both had cleaned plates at the end so that is a good sign.

MH x

Stupid Customers

2012-01-06T10:04:00.000Z

Throughout my three years at university I found myself being interested in social media and the industry on the internet. I was fascinated with people who had careers thanks to the internet.

I would always think to myself that one day I will too work down this path and own a website which is regularly updated and perhaps gave me an extra bit of income, this of course was a blog of some sort.

I started up this one your reading right now, with the intention of regularly updating it about my life. And if you looked back at previous posts I managed this quite well in the first and second year, however declining last year. Thats why I am determined to work it back up to scratch this year (and so far this has been successful). But anyway I digress.

Whilst I was working in retail throughout my final year at uni I had a lot of free time where my mind would often wonder whilst on the shop floor. This resulted in the thoughts to have my own real blog of some sort creeped back into my mind. Until one day I realised I should create a blog based on my experiences in retail, and this is when Stupid Customers was created and went live.

The blog is a simple one, It will only contain stories about funny customer situations where ever the work place may be. The blog started mainly with my own entries but gradually more people have been submitting their own. The blog is still in early stages with a very small audience, but with it being one of my new years resolutions I am hoping to improve this throughout the year. With more regular submissions and a larger audience.

At the moment I post a new story every Monday, Wednesday and Friday leaving me the weekend free, which of course is always needed.

I hope you are interested in this blog, and if you are then you can find it here;
stupidcustomers.blogspot.com

And to keep up with the blog you can follow the profiles I have created;
facebook.com/stupidcustomers
twitter.com/StupidCustomer_
gplus.to/stupidcustomers

If you have your own submissions then please do send them in. Like I said the blog is in early days so I am always asking for content. Send your stories here;

submit.stupidcustomers@gmail.com

Sorry if this sounds like me selling my own stuff, but I enjoy this blog a lot. So I want to keep it going.

MH x

The Separation - 'Our Lives In Cinema'

2012-01-05T13:06:00.000Z

Back in February I shot two music videos over a weekend with Matthew Connell under our independent production company, Fenixx Productions. The videos were for Call Off The Search and The Separation.

Unfortunately due to a couple of reasons the release for The Separations video was delayed until a few weeks back. We are pleased to finally show you this particular video so far it is our most technically produced music video.

Our next video release from Fenixx Productions will be for the Twickenham based band, Kid Champion.

We have been working on this video over the last few months, so expect a release very soon. However, we don't have a teaser trailer for you like we had for previous videos. But expect to see a lot of genitalia, champagne, a certain page 3 model and partying. With the added bonus of a Go Pro!

AVOID SCAMS, Especially Fake Accreditation

2012-01-04T13:00:00.037Z

A few weeks ago a member of my family was a victim of cold calling leading to a scam. My family member received a call from a man claiming to be a Microsoft employee warning her about viruses on their home computer. Luckily she didn't think twice of going through the steps this man was attempting to give her down the phone whilst logged into the computer.

I hear of these type of scams are happening all the time, and I realised I have been a victim of such thing. Until the other night.

On my phone a receive and email from HM Revenue claiming I have a tax rebate to claim of a significant sum. Instantly I think 'Great...I need some quick money'. Without thinking I click the link, directing me to HM Revenues website with the steps to receive this rebate. I was reading through and I happened to glance up at the URL for this site, and this what I see;

Instantly I stopped what I was doing, and realised what a stupid mistake I was about to make. However, I was then curious to how this scam was going to carry out.

The fake HM Revenue website was asking who I bank with for the transaction, I clicked on my bank in the drop down menu which directed me straight to a page that looks identical to my online banking. Which of course asks for my 12 digit card, again I look up to the top of the page and staring at me was the previous strange URL.

From there I halted my proceedings, closed everyone down and deleted the original email.

I just wanted to post this entry to let you know that these scams can be easily received and even people like myself who would think to have a good knowledge of the internet can be caught up in them. Although I was just being curious whilst being fully aware what was occurring.

Scams come in all shapes and sizes. Accredited online colleges and resources that are legitimate are posted just as easily as those which were created by developers, not educators and are illegitimate. They are hard to identify and have been steadily increasing over the past few years - in the last ten years investors have lost $23 billion in scams. Especially aided by social networks and the ability to correspond on the internet. Relationships that once took years to build are now fostered over days and because of this, many have placed their trust in the wrong hands and found their pockets empty.

Whenever you receive an email which makes you think "how did they get my email address" read everything over before clicking any links. And perhaps decide whether the internet is the best way to follow up this email.

I have just attempted to view that URL and luckily the site has been taken down. But of course there will be more out there being created.

MH x

Weight Watchers advert/music video

2012-01-03T13:00:00.003Z

On the 1st January 2012 Weight Watchers aired an advert at 6:30pm on multiple terrestrial TV channels, including Channel 4 and ITV. This was the longest British TV commercial, setting the bar at just over 3 minutes.

I only knew of this happening from catching the end of a short advert a week before mentioning this date of airing. Straight away I took note of this happening, as I remember a few years back stumbling on a live TV commercial broadcast from Honda aired on Channel 4, which I thought was a great piece of clever advertising.

Like the Honda advert I was impressed with what Weight Watchers offered us. The advert consisted of genuine people (mainly women) who had been on the Weight Watchers scheme and succeeded in their goals. The women walk around the streets singing to the camera with Stritcly Come Dancings, Alesha Dixon.

The whole advert is constructed together with continuous sequences giving you the impression of their being no cuts throughout (of course there are cuts hidden with camera movements). This impressed me from the get go, as I always enjoy this technique in video. Like the music from Goldfrapp 'Happiness' and I especially enjoy these scenes when they are stretched out for a long period of time, for instance in Goodfellas when 'Henry Hill' enters a restaurant.

I had a quick searched on Google for a copy of the advert to embed into this blog post, however there was no result. I was hoping to show you if you didn't catch the advert, because If you missed the advert, well...you did miss out a nice clever piece of advertising (apart from the song). And If you did catch the advert, leave a comment telling me what you thought of it.

MH x

My New Years Eve 2011

2012-01-02T13:00:00.012Z

2011 was my third year in a row to attend New Slang at the Hippodrome to celebrate new years eve. I have always chosen to attend New Slang to celebrate new years for the last 3 years due to a variety of reasons.

1. The club only plays indie & alternative music, which is ideal for me. As I would rather not spend a night listening to shit repetitive easily forgettable music thats released in the charts.

2. No hassle with wrong crowd of people. Everyone attends New Slang on new years eve for the intention to have a good time. I don't think I have ever seen a fight break out. I imagine this is down to the genre of music being played, linked with the crowd of people who would listen to it.

3. It is a cheap ticket for new years eve. The night only costs £10 in advance, or £12 on the door. Personally I think that is a bargain for new years eve, as some people can spend a lot of money to just attend a local pub....Or the other idea is a house party.

New Slang isn't only for new years eve, the venue is open every Thursday at the Hippodrome hosting the latest bands breaking into the indie & alternative circuit. If you have never attended New Slang and interested in this music, I recommend you do. You wont be disappointed.

More information on New Slang here, banquetrecords.com/newslang

MH x

Bonjour 2012

2012-01-01T13:00:00.054Z

Welcome to 2012, I hope you are not too hungover. However, I know I am...!

These are going to be my resolutions for 2012.

1. USE THIS BLOG MORE!
2. Enter Fenixx Productions work into film festivals
3. Increase the audience for my second blog, Stupid Customers
4. Move closer into London for work (Zone 2 or 3)
5. Use my camera more often to take photographs for my neglected Flickr page
6. Watch a film I have not seen once every week
7. Try to be less predictable
8. Drink the suggested pints of water a day
9. Eat more fruit and veg
10. Try to get back into the routine of flossing my teeth

I think 8, 9, 10 will be on my resolutions list every year from now on. I start the year well with these, but neglect them towards middle and end of year. So having them every year may embed them into the back of my brain in years to come.

My blog WILL get used more often this year, I know I can do it as I'm working where I want to be for once at th1ng. Therefore I am more willing to do other things, like this blog. I may even look into blogging every day for a year. So therefore I HAVE to blog.

Fenixx Productions and Stupid Customers are side projects I work on, and this year I am hoping to improve on these to make them feel more beneficial. I haven't explained Stupid Customers all that well so far, so maybe this week I shall explain this in more detail.

Moving into more central London is an essential must for me, it will be cheaper to travel, and less traveling time to and from work.

I have a nice camera, so why wouldn't I use it more often, again working where I want to be now has opened me up to hobbies. This could can include using my camera for my Flickr account.

My and my girlfriend have decided on a joint resolution for a bit a fun this year, to watch a new film we both haven't seen before once a week. We will take it in turns getting these films, and perhaps another incentive for me to use the blog as I shall post on here a short review on the film, and maybe ask for suggestions on the next film.

I have realised in the last few years I have quite a predictable personality, where that might be what I say or how I act. This year I am going to try and change this for the good, and be less predicable. I haven't thought about this too much, so it may or may not happen.

Tomorrow I shall enlighten you how my new years eve went down.

MH x

Another year down.

2011-12-27T15:06:00.001Z

So again, I have neglected my blog for the last 6 months this year. This would be down to a number of reasons I'll try and explain later in this post.

For now, lets recap on my New Years Resolutions for 2011. This is all 10 that I produced on January 3rd 2011, The ones in green I managed to complete, and the ones in orange I half completed.

1. Graduate from university with a respectable grade
2. Break into my ideal career path, where I can generally see a future ahead
3. Move into a house/flat closer into London
4. Use my camera more often to take photographs for my neglected Flickr page
5. Drink the suggested pints of water a day, whatever that may be...
6. Try to get back into the routine of flossing my teeth
7. Aim to produce 5 music videos by the end of the year (already have 2 in the making...)
8. Eat more fruit and veg
9. Use this personal blog more often!
10. Get partnered on Youtube ;) - My Channel

I would call that 6/10, which I would say is a nice achievement.

Graduating from university was a fantastic achievement, and the ceremony was such a wake up call for me, for the future ahead. Straight after I went into full time employment in retail to only pay the bills in order for me to still live in London (Kingston). Whilst of course apply for jobs left right and center in the media.
For a while I thought this was not going to happen until next year. However luckily enough 2 weeks ago I started full time work at th1ng as a office runner. I still can't believe how lucky I am to get out of retail and practically get my life on track. 2012 is going to be very eventful for working.

My other achievements would second to my new employment, but of course still happy to have achieved them, for instance 5 music videos. We didn't quite make this mark, but 4 was a good enough for me. We could have released 5 this year, only the 5th music video is not 100% complete...so coming soon!

The rest of the unachieved goals are to be taken forward into my 2012 resolutions, however my Youtube page will have to be left aside until whenever, due to time constraints. But for certain I am going to force myself to use this blog more in 2012, now that I have the job I have been looking for and still making music videos. I can focus on other things in my schedule, like this blog, because I wont be worrying about applying for jobs.

Also I can concentrate on my second blog, Stupid Customers - More on this in the new year.

Well that is all for now, the next post will be my resolutions for 2012.

MH x

First Great Western train service is far from great.

2011-06-24T22:09:00.000+01:00

Friday 24th June was my mums birthday, which meant I was to make the two and a half hour journey back to hometown of Fareham. Every time I embark this journey I use South West Trains. Unfortunately this time round I was to use First ‘Great’ Western, which succeeded in increasing my journey time to around 3 hours plus.

My original plan was to arrive in Fareham by 19:45 however from the get go this was scrapped as delays were to make me arrive in Reading and miss my connecting train by 3 minutes, which of course gave me a large knock on effect to follow connections.

The delayed train to Reading eventually arrives and I climb aboard with already low hopes. This low expectations were then made greater with a strong aroma of the trains public toilet throughout the unfortunate packed out carriage I decided to sit in.

The train journey continues to spiral down hill when I eventually arrive at Reading. There I board the connecting train to Basingstoke which was not my original connection and had to wait 30 minutes for this train to leave, thanks to the Reading train being delayed. The train is sitting at the end of the line at Reading station to leave at 18:41 - However, for some unknown reason the train decides to eventually depart at 18:55. Which again means I was going to miss my next connecting train at Basingstoke.

I finally arrive at Basingstoke at a time that doesn’t matter from now on, as it seemed the time table just didn’t matter anyone at First Great Western, it seemed to me they enjoyed just making it up as they went a long.

Due to being delayed again at Reading my connecting train from Basingstoke was of course missed and meant I had to wait another 30 minutes for my final train to Fareham.

Throughout this whole journey I could not believe the shear volume of bad organisation First Great Western were giving to their passengers. So much so that one of the train drivers came over the intercom to inform us with; ‘Apologies to the delays there seems to be some problem at Reading...’ - That is clearly not very informative.

At the end of my journey I was of course unhappy with my whole experience spent with First Great Western that I went ahead and sent feedback to their website simply explaining their service is, shit.

I will also use this blog post to inform them further how bad their service is.

Let me know of your own experiences with First Great Western train service.

M x

Returning To Youtube

2011-06-16T18:28:00.002+01:00

For over a year now I've had a channel on Youtube called WatchingMatthew. Where I post videos every Wednesday about anything and everything. During the end of my studies at university I found it difficult to commit to this deadline I gave myself. And didn't make videos for a while.

However, now that I have completed I am back into the swings again, and my returning video was released yesterday. Here it is, I hope you enjoy!

M x

FENIXX NEWS UPDATES: The Separation Edit Process

2011-06-13T22:38:00.000+01:00

With Fenixx Productions I have been working very hard in the 'Fenixx offices' (ahem) after finishing off the 'Call Off The Search' video I am now well underway editing 'The Separation's - Our Lives In Cinema' this is possibly one of the technically strongest videos to date and I will soon tease you with a little trailer once I've come close to my first Edit!

For now check out these teaser stills.

M x

Hangover Part 2 [Brief Review]

2011-06-11T14:37:00.000+01:00

The other night I watched Hangover 1 to refresh my memory for what to expect to see in Hangover Part 2. To be honest, the refresh was not needed.

The Hangover Part 2 of course contains the same cast, plus a clever monkey and a few other characters to accompany the 'new' storyline. This theme of similarity follows throughout the film.

The storyline practically follows the same twist and turns from Hangover 1. Which at first I thought was a good idea, as it reinforces the comical element of the 'worst hangover ever!' as they have to run through the exact same situations. This can be looked upon in reality, we always have hangovers which you feel are just always the same.

However, this idea of similarity or in fact identical story brings the film down. You can't help but think, you could have just purchased the first one and saved yourself a fair bit of money from the overly priced cinema tickets. Part 2's only difference is the small selection of extra content which could have been used in the first one to improve the story line and grab more gags. And of course the location setting for the film is different, Bangkok.

Ultimately if Part 1 and 2 would have been merged together into perhaps a 2 hour film, you would witness a genius piece of comedy. Which would have you laughing from start to finish.

Having said that, Part 2 is still good and has its laugh out loud moments. I just wished they changed the idea of hanging exactly the same hangover a small bit. It simply shows laziness.

3/5

M x

Why Superdrys 20% weekend was a let down in my eyes...

2011-06-05T18:37:00.000+01:00

It is close to a year since I started working for clothing brand, Superdry and I have just recently started working full time after completed university.

Since the company started they have never offered their customers discount or sales, even during the January sales period. I have always thought this idea is great. As it keeps the customers loyal to the store and the brand, no matter what the price. We still received good numbers of sales through January, defeating what some people may think Superdy would loose out on customers.

However, this weekend the company offered everyone who is signed up to the mailing list to receive 20% through simply showing this voucher/coupon at the till when purchasing their items. They simply had to print off the email that was sent to them on Friday 3rd June at 12pm.

Myself included and the rest of the staff who worked on Friday were expecting a huge rush of customers clutching the printed voucher in handed from 12 onwards, however this was not the case. I hear this carried on throughout Saturday, then onto today which I worked. Where I was on the till for about 3 hours in the morning and processed only 3 discount vouchers.

I just find it strange how this could have happened. We always break our targets, and the amount of people we had sign up to the mailing list, well I couldn't even begin to give you an estimate to how many. Furthermore you only have to walk the streets surrounding the store to see the Superdry bags everywhere, and not to mention the public wearing the brand head to toe.

Giving it some thought, I believe the promotion of the event and the days leading up to the event could have been more forward. For instance the Facebook and Twitter page of course promoted the offer. Then the important email at 12pm Friday, but I think that was it. The rest of the promotion was down to word of mouth. I see what they were trying to achieve with this, keeping their customers loyal as they would have to work to find out when the sale started and ended.

But maybe putting a simple poster up in the store would have helped attract the customers and raise the already high profit margins of the weeks takings.

I guess that is just my opinion in the whole situation, I imagine It was in large still a success and the company will probably do it again. As I hear it was a tester to see how the customers would take it.

I just think may next time more promotion would have helped the great offer given to their customers.

M x

Flickr Update 1

2011-06-04T22:22:00.001+01:00

Today I was at my mums celebrating my brothers 18th birthday! Which isn't till next week, but we just decided to this a little early, so he can of course get drunk on his actual birthday with his mates!

I had to take my camera with me to this occasion. I took quite a few photos, but I thought only two were good enough to be uploaded to my Flickr page.

Have a look and tell me what you think, I would love to hear some feedback.

http://flickr.com/photos/matthewhoare

M x

A random Flickr update of random

2011-05-30T21:08:00.001+01:00

I set myself up with a Flickr account a few years back to try and get into the field of amateur photography. However I managed to neglect the site 100%

I picked up the account again last year through uploading one or two photos. Then again, the site was put aside like all mums tend to do when they have the 'great' idea to purchase an exercise bike in the new year.

This has again been turned around today, where I randomly decided to add a few random photos I randomly took on a train journey on Wednesday.

So go have a look, you may or may not like them. They are nothing special, this is still a very early stage of me trying to do some amateur photography.

http://flickr.com/photos/matthewhoare

Who knows when the next update on this site may or may not be.

M x

Call Off The Search - Train Yourself To Drive In Colour

2011-05-30T15:41:00.001+01:00

FENIXX PRODUCTIONS: Shot on Canon 7D

Director/Producer Matthew Connell
Camera/Editor: Matthew Hoare
1st AD: Niall Highgate
Runner: Ellen Ogilvie
Runner: Joe Mulligan
Runner: James Gear
Commissioner: David Gamage
Record Label: ENGINEER RECORDS engineerrecords.com/

With thanks to: Alex at 'Mangos and limes' and Peter Reeve

(2011)

http://twitter.com/wearefenixx
http://facebook.com/fenixxproductions

New Era

2011-05-22T22:23:00.000+01:00

So it has been far too long since my last post on this blog, I thought I better bring you to speed with my happenings.

I started this blog during my first year of university, and unsurprisingly my time at university has quickly come to a close. I officially finished all my university work just over 2 weeks ago, and I could not even begin to explain how strange this feeling is, how quickly the 3 years have gone, so I shall leave it at that.

Of course now that I have finished university the question of 'future?' has been heavily on my mind. Well so far I haven't looked too much into. My first step completing university has seen me go into full time employment at Superdry, which I was working part time during my studies.

My idea is to work at Superdry full time to give me a nice steady flow of income to basically pay the bills, whilst I work on my days off working on gathering together what I need to break into my choice of future career path.

This of course would be some sort of media involvement, which I am still undecided with. I am hoping it will fall into place from working on things as I go along.

So for now I will inform you of so far small production company has been given a nice rebrand from being Iconic Creations to now being called Fenixx Prodcutions with a nice fancy logo;

So of course me and Matthew Connell will be continuing with projects under the name of now Fenixx Productions. You wont have to wait too long as we have one video from the guys, Call Off The Search which is very close to be released, and the trailer can be viewed now;

Then another music video set to be released from, The Seperation in the next month or so. Both music bands come from the excellent label, Engineer Records.

For now you can 'like' and follow us on the typical social networking sites, Facebook & Twitter
Please continue to check back on this blog of mine, as now I have completed university I will have more time to update this blog with my goings on. Due to their being no worry about getting distracted from coursework and essays through logging onto this site.

Speak again soon,

M x

Start For Ten

2011-03-11T22:59:00.000Z

A few weeks ago I finished reading the book 'Starter For 10'. Whilst I was reading the book someone mentioned to me on Twitter that the book was made into a film. This intrigued me a lot, as I have never watched a film after reading the book first. So of course after finishing the book I went ahead and purchased the film.

To be honest I was definitely disappointed after viewing the film, things were changed, a lot was left out, the whole film seemed rushed. Personally I would like to know if the director actually read the entire book before writing the script for the film...

It seems to me the film was only set to represent the interesting parts of the book, and parts that would make the film a hit in the cinemas and on DVD release. It felt like there was a complete lack of a good background to the film, which you certainly got from the book.

However, I'm glad I watched the film. Its made me appreciate even more what you can get out of a book that you cannot get from a film. This isn't me saying I wont watch the film version of a book ever again, because I will. I think its a good thing to do, as it makes you realise even more how good the original book was.

Book 8/10
Film 4/10

M x

Mikee J Reds - Living Well - Engineer Records

2011-02-25T13:35:00.001Z

The music video is finally here!

http://facebook.com/mikeejreds
http://engineerecords.com
http://facebook.com/iconiccreations

The Making Of: Mikee J Reds "LIVING WELL"

2011-02-11T17:17:00.000Z

So on Wednesday I showed you the teaser trailer for music video. Well now watch and enjoy the making of :-)

Also if you be so kind to post this around, help create the buzz for the video!

M x

Mikee J Reds 'Living Well' [Teaser]

2011-02-10T11:49:00.001Z

So the edit for this music video is coming on nicely, I just had to put something together to get everyone ready for the final edit.

I'm a little tease....

And please help spread this around by clicking here

M x

Music Videos

2011-02-07T20:59:00.001Z

A slight gap of dead space between now and my last post on here, so here is a little update of my projects with regards to music videos.

I mentioned in my new years resolutions posts that I was off to Paris for a music video shoot for the acoustic artist Mikee J Reds. This did happen, and the outcome was fantastic. I don't think I could be more happier with the productivity myself and the others had spent over in Paris for the 24hours. On the shoot we were using my new purchase of a Canon 7D. Which is a glorious piece of equipment, and accompanied with the beautiful lens I hired from lenspimp.com made the footage on location look superb already. The return journey from Paris was spent looking over the rushes, and already I was overly impressed with our work.

So far I don't have a final edit to show you guys as a little teaser, however I do believe the final outcome is going to be fantastic, and will set the bar for our next shoot.

Quickly I would like to thank Bennycrime for hosting me in his office on the first day of editing this video. I do plan on returning over the next few weeks to receive some second professional opinion from him (his work is also excellent, check him out!)

Once this video is over, we are not stopping there. The next band we will be producing a music video for is the The Separation. We already have some nice ideas floating in the air of creativity, which will be set to film at the end of February.

But wait there's more!

After we shoot this video, it will be on to our next video with the guys Call Of The Search during mid March. Again we are looking forward to this shoot.

So the next few months for me are going to be extremely busy. I can't wait to get these videos finished and show you guys. And just for the record all these bands are under the label Engineer Records

For now you can keep up to date with the proceedings for these shoots through our Iconic Creations Facebook or Twitter page.

No wait, here is a little teaser for you!

Ta ta for now, M x

Resolutions so far...

2011-01-19T12:24:00.001Z

I'm on a train traveling into London, to meet someone and then onto a test shoot for my next music video project. Therefore I think I would pass the time by writing this blog post as a little update to the resolutions I set myself this year. it may or may not become a thing...

So as mentioned earlier the music goal is going well. I should hopefully be doing the next one after this in mid February.
Things are already looking up for this year.

Flossing??? To be honest I haven't kept this up that well so far, but I'm going to force myself to get back to it in the beginning of next week. This will be the same for drinking water goal. Slow start but hopefully will pick up.

Graduating? This will happen, not sure what grade, but I started my second semester on Monday and so far the new modules seem Interesting.

That's a little update for this year so far, probably a little boring.

However the music video I'm shooting next will be in Paris!

So this will be an amazing experience, a good way to push the envelope.

I will let you know how that goes next time.

M x

New Years Resolutions 2011

2011-01-03T13:17:00.001Z

I know I'm a bit late to be posting this, however I have been giving it some thought this year. So I wanted to make goals I can generally try and stick to.

Most years I never stick to the few I make, therefore this year I went ahead and thought 10. That way I can stick to a few and still be proud of what I achieved at the of the year.

Here is the list in no particular order:

1. Graduate from university with a respectable grade
2. Break into my ideal career path, where I can generally see a future ahead
3. Move into a house/flat closer into London
4. Use my camera more often to take photographs for my neglected Flickr page
5. Drink the suggested pints of water a day, whatever that may be...
6. Try to get back into the routine of flossing my teeth
7. Aim to produce 5 music videos by the end of the year (already have 2 in the making...)
8. Eat more fruit and veg
9. Use this personal blog more often!
10. Get partnered on Youtube ;) - My Channel

I think that list os pretty resemble... lets hope I can stick to at least 6 of them to make me feel like I've made good achievements in 2011.

Hope you all have a great 2011, and your new years resolutions get completed!

M x

Merry Christmas

2010-12-29T12:12:00.003Z

A few weeks ago I ordered a cheap Steadicam, the days have past and I still not go round to use it properly. Of course, christmas day was the ideal time to use it.
So here is a piece of video I put together on christmas day. I hope you enjoy it.

I'm hoping to write a blog entry about my christmas holiday as well, so look out for that soon.

Hope you all had a wonderful christmas and a great new years!

M x

Matt Cardle wins Xfactor 2010

2010-12-12T21:22:00.003Z

Congratulations Matt Cardle!

Well done, I generally think your actually quite decent. You have great character and come across as a genuine guy!
I reckon in the next few years you will become a decent singer song writer. But I do hope the recording company don’t ruin your image and create you into another forgettable artist.

Well done, and good luck with your future Matt

M x

iTunes Quiz

2010-12-08T12:38:00.003Z

iTunes

Open your iTunes and fill this survey out, no matter how embarrassing.

Sort by time.

Shortest song: These New Puritans - 4 (0:08)

Longest song: The Black Keys - 240 Years Before Your Time (34:22)

Sort by album.

First album: The Academy Is… - Almost Here

Last Album: !!! - Strange Weather, Isn’t It?

Top five most played songs:

Evening / Morning - Bombay Bicycle Club (78 plays)
Magnet - Bombay Bicycle Club (74 plays)
Cancel On Me - Bombay Bicycle Club (66 plays)
Dust On The Ground - Bombay Bicycle Club (64 plays)
Always Like This - Bombay Bicycle Club (61 plays)

you can see what my favourite band has been for a while!

First song that comes up on Shuffle: The Wombats - Backfire At The Disco

Search the following and state how many songs come up:

Death: 54
Life: 108
Love: 258
You: 691
Sex: 43

M X

1st December!

2010-12-01T22:47:00.000Z

Of course today means it is 25 glorious days before christmas, meaning I have to get my but into gear and start my christmas shopping. However, the more important news is that I have completed one strong month in the #beardoff.

But what is this beard off you may be asking, well I'll tell you...

It is a little competition that has been put together by a Youtuber under the name of ckXcore (http://youtube.com/ckxcore)
The competition consists of around 15 people participating on growing the best beard for 2 months.

My beard growing has been pretty successful for the first month. I've managed to keep a rather neat beard which has resulted in a few compliments from some people, for instance my hairdresser today.

So the competition has another month to go right up to New Years day on the 1st January. Judging by the size of my beard so far its going to be mammoth and horrible when the two months are up.

I'm just looking forward to my mums reaction when I go home for Christmas holiday in the next few weeks. She's yet to know of this #beardoff. Its going to be a ineresting reaction to say the least.

Watch my latest video where I mentioned this competition.

M x

Meet The Parents, E4

2010-11-25T22:07:00.000Z

Over the last few weeks I've paid attention to the marketing campaign for the new E4 show 'Meet The Parents'. My expectations from these advertisements have been positive, I had the idea in my mind that this show will be highly amusing to watch on a chilled Thursday night.

The advertisements briefly explain how the show is constructed; there is a set of family members who are actors, and there is a victim who comes into the household unaware of the actors, and a series of comical actions from the actors are played around the victim.

Tonight I have finally find the time to sit down and watch the show. And from the outset I was quickly disappointed with how the show is actually produced.

My thoughts from the advert were that the program would consist of a guy coming into this household (as explained) and live there for a while for perhaps a month. And the episodes will sum up each week to viewers the amusing and subtle practical jokes being played on to the victim.

However, this was not the case. The show is based on a guy coming into the household and given just 5 hours to survive. If he does, then himself and girlfriend win a holiday. I don't think the idea of turning the program into a game show works all that well.
The comical task being pounced on him are really extravagant and makes me wonder how thick the 'contestant' must be to carry out these tasks whilst his girlfriend looks on with a straight face and clear not fit in what so ever with her fake family of actors.

Basically I think the show is a complete shambles, and would be far more enjoyable watch if it was based around the idea of Big Brother where actors surrounding one chosen person for a longer period of time than just 5 hours. And of the course the comical task were far less extravagant.

But thats just my opinion, take it or leave it.

M x

The Lion King musical [REVIEW]

2010-11-25T17:40:00.003Z

On the 13th November I was lucky enough to go and watch the musical 'The Lion King' for a very late birthday present for my dad. Before the arrival of this day my expectations were sky high for this musical as everyone who I had spoken to before the day would smile and say how much they loved the musical as soon as the words 'I'm going to see the Lion King' left my mouth. So I was entering through the theatre doors and sitting in my seat expecting to see something truly amazing - And I was not wrong to think this.

Everyone had been telling how fantastic the costumes were and I couldn't wait to see how good these were. This statement was shown in all its glory from the opening scene to the musical. Every animal you could possibly think of living in an animal kingdom took to the stage made from various organic material were draped over the cast members whilst they sang the first song to the musical. The sight was truly breath taking as some of the cast memebers walked down the isles behind us and onto the stage. One animal caught my attention due to the shear size of the costume was a huge elephant appearing from the rear doors to the theatre. This elephant could have easily been at least 20 feet tall.

As the curtain dropped after this first act, the theatre arrupted with applause and you could sense the anticipation of what was going to appear next infront of our eyes was felt around the whole theatre.

The rest of the musical did not dissapoint one bit. Every scene was beautifully constructed, the dances incorporated with the songs were fantastic. The cast members would practically float across the stage whilst singing their lines. Another costume really grabbed my attention was several cast members dressed as antelopes. They would effectively gallop across the stage with large constructions of antelopes on their arms and with the cast members motions the constructions actually looked as if a group of antelopes were galloping across the stage.

I could go on for many more paragraphs explaining why this musical was so good. But I think you just have to witness the musical for yourself to understand what I am trying to explain.
Every cast member played their part perfectly and all the costumes just looked wonderful moving around the large stage in front of us. The two children playing young 'Simba' and 'Nala' were great, their singing sounded perfect together. I'm sure their parents would be ever so proud of them.

I think I shall stop boring you now with how good this musical was. I shall let you swith to another website now and order your tickets to the next showing of The Lion King. Because I know I shall be doing the same right after I click send.

M x

Tweet this blog entry

NME cool list 2010

2010-10-20T19:48:00.000+01:00

This is of course NME's cool list for 2010. Personally I don't think its a great list.

Let me know who you think should of been in there, or you would take out!

I really don't understand how Laura Marling got to No.1...

1. Laura Marling
2. Janelle Monae
3. Kanye West
4. Beth Consentino, Best Coast
5. Romy Madley Croft, The XX
6. Paul Weller
7. Jonathan Pierce, The Drums
8. Jack Barnett, These New Puritans
9. Carl Barât
10. Darwin Deez
11. Marcus Mumford, Mumford & Sons
12. Simon Neil, Biffy Clyro
13. Hayden Thorpe, Wild Beasts
14. Zola Jesus
15. Robyn
16. Yannis Philippakis, Foals
17. James Murphy, LCD Soundsystem
18. Theo Hutchcraft, Hurts
19. Kele Okereke
20. Ritzy Bryan, The Joy Formidable
21. Jay-Z
22. Jack Steadman, Bombay Bicycle Club
23. Dee Dee, Dum Dum Girls
34. Marina Diamandis, Marina & The Diamonds
35. Jonathan Everything
26. Giggs
27. Jenny Lee Lindberg, War Paint
28. Jamie Reynolds, Klaxons
29. Skream
30. Nicky Wire, Manic Street Preachers
31. Akiko Matsuura, The Big Pink/Comanechi
32. Dan Devine, Flats
33. Willow Smith
34. MNDR
35. Win Butler, Arcade Fire
36. Gerard Way, My Chemical Romance
37. Alex Hewlett, Egyptian Hip Hop
38. Lee Spielman, Trash Talk
39. Orlando Weeks, The Maccabees
40. Ariel Pink
41. Ethan Kath, Crystal Castles
42. Nicki Minaj
43. Honor Titus, Cerebal Ballzy
44. Andrew VanWyngarden, MGMT
45. Jack Donoghue, Salem
46. Dave Sitek, TV On The Radio
47. Alexis, Sleigh Bells
48. Plan B
49. Katy B
50. Lady Gaga
51. Josh Homme
52. Tim Harrington, Les Savy Fav
53. LoneLady
54. Julian Casablancas
55. Rose Elinor Dougall
56. Gucci Mane
57. Daniel Blumberg, Yuck
58. Jack White
59. Cee-Lo Green
60. Eva Spence, Rolo Tomassi
61. Ryan Olson, Gayngs
62. Glasser
63. Ernest Greene, Washed Out
64. Tom Hudson, Pulled Apart By Horses
65. Elizabeth Sankey, Summer Camp
66. Cher Lloyd off X Factor
67. Avi Zahner-Isenberg, Avi Buffalo
68. Nathan Williams, Wavves
69. Matt Bellamy, Muse
70. Soulja Boy
71. Bradford Cox, Deerhunter
72. James Blake
73. Caitlin Rose
74. Lewis Bowman, Chapel Club
75. Rivers Cuomo

Three Mifi [REVIEW]

2010-10-13T16:15:00.000+01:00

Recently I was introduced to Threes new mobile broadband device - Mifi. And was given a trial run for a few weeks. I've always heard of the mobile broadband devices you can get that plug into your USB slot in a laptop for traveling. But yet to hear about this concept for mobiles devices, as well as laptops.
So to say the least, I was very interested in trying the product.

Most days I have a long commute on the bus to work, so this was of course my first point of call for testing the device. I charged it up the night before, and I was on my way the next morning.

Straight away I was impressed with the device, it was light weight, meaning I could keep it in my pocket, and simply forget about it being there. Whilst the device gave me full Wifi signal the whole time on my 25/35min bus journey.

Soon as I realised the device was giving me Wifi signal, I straight away tested out some apps on my iPhone. I have recently got hold of the BBC News 24 app (where you can watch live stream of the channel). However this option is only available on Wifi. So of course I thought 'is this really going to happen?'
Without any trouble I was instantly watching live coverage of BBC News 24 stream straight onto my iPhone whilst traveling on my bus journey. This impressed me greatly.

Because I was getting my internet through Wifi I could turn the 3G off and enjoy the luxury of a longer battery life, which I thought was a great added bonus. Then, I realised if I had the iPhone 4, then the task of using 'Facetime' on the move would be a reality (as its only available on Wifi). Which in my opinion would be hilarious on a commute.

Throughout the day the device worked perfectly, and the battery life lasted a good day and a half. However this was from minimal use from the device.

Few days later, I went ahead and tested the device at my university. I wanted to do this because my university is a rather dead space for phone signal as well as 3G.
To my surprise this device again worked perfectly throughout the day. Of course there were a few places where the signal was rather weak.

But the most thing that impressed me, was the speed of the device. I'll be honest I wasn't sure on the speed of broadband I was getting with this device, but it was still impressive....

I would highly recommend this product to someone who commutes to places daily, and hates the struggle of receiving 3G in sometimes, and wishes they had Wifi instead to control their battery life on their smartphone. Also for people who need to use the internet on their laptops whilst communting. Because this device can connect up to 5 devices!
So you could have your smartphone, laptop and any other devices that needs to suck up some Wifi... iPad?

Great product!

4/5

M x

The Startover - 'Worst Case Scenario' [OFFICIAL VIDEO]

2010-10-08T21:31:00.003+01:00

Enjoy!

Comments will be more than welcome!

M x

Thought

2010-09-18T23:36:00.001+01:00

So I've seen a few more followers have appeared on my blog. I think I may start this thing up properly again.

What do you think?

M x

Apologies + Goodbye

2010-08-20T13:42:00.000+01:00

I do apologies for not posting anything on this blog for a very long time!

However, I turned towards a new blogging a site - Tumblr!

I have created myself an account, and I'm going to post my blogs on there from now on!

So all of you who have been reading my entries on here, why not hop over to Tumblr and follow me on there;

http://matthewhoare.tumblr.com

Thanks,

M x

Credit, credit, credit!

2010-07-14T13:04:00.000+01:00

In my last post I spoke about how my overdraft had been canceled, meaning my account was ridiculous overdrawn meaning I could not spend a penny.
I can now happily say my account is now sorted. My overdraft is back, the account is restored to how it was, and I can now start spending again (wisely of course)

The procedure was remarkably easily to achieve, I simply walked into my back waited (which seemed like a century). Eventually got seated with the lady who appealed for the over draft the week before. She said it was now accepted and simply clicked a few buttons, and as if by magic, the overdraft was back on my account.

Now, I am very pleased its back on, but did the process really require me to go into the bank myself? I believe this process could have easily been done over the phone...I guess it will put the employees in the bank out of work if it was all done on the phone.

Whilst I was there, I made a big step in my life and applied and was accepted for a credit card. I know, its a dangerous thing to have. However, I believe my money handling is in good order and I can control myself to not use the credit card on stupid purchases. Its only there for emergences.
For now I will be using the card to pay for my rent over the next two months. The credit will easily be paid off once I start university again In September as my student loans will be going back into my bank, so that money will easily help pay off the credit.

I'm looking forward to having the loans back again, it always puts me at rest. Because I'm forever worrying about my money, making sure I always have enough to keep me going.

M x

Rant!

2010-07-12T13:46:00.000+01:00

I have been a customer with Santander practically all my life, and for the majority of this time I've had no problems with the bank. Up until now.

From starting my second year at university I applied for an overdraft which was accepted, and helped me out greatly during my summer break when I was working for free on work placements. I of course dipped into the overdraft heavily in order to survive and pay for rent.

Now times are even more harder this summer break, so I went ahead and applied to get my overdraft extended in order to pay rent. Unfortunately the overdraft was declined, and now for some reason my whole overdraft has been cancelled, leaving me overdrawn by a considerable amount.

The is very infuriating as I can't be dealing with this sort of hassle right now. I went into to my local branch to find out my overdraft had been taken off by the staff simply saying "You don't have an overdraft" which of course my response was "er, yes I do, i've had one for over a year now...!"

She carried on telling me I don't have one. However she was kind enough to help me out and appeal for my declined extension.

After going home and phoning up Santander, and getting transfered which seemed like all over the car department. With some people claiming they can't deal with my request even though I was transfered to this person from someone else claiming they would be able to help.

I was eventually given the final conclusion that they believed I was not a student no more.

I am now patiently waiting for the bank to sort out this mess and get my overdraft back. I imagine I will be charged for being overdrawn, however I hope I can appeal for this as well, and not have to be charged. As I'm sure thats not right to simply delete my overdraft leaving me ridiculously overdrawn!

I think after this is settled I shall look into a different bank,

Any suggestions?

M x

Employment feels great!

2010-07-05T19:29:00.000+01:00

A few weeks ago after great deal of searching I finally snapped myself a job with the company Picture-Pal. My duty is a photographer (which is great for my interest) and I work in the club, Oceana in Kingston Upon Thames. The role is simple; I make my way around the club for a few hours, ask to take photographs of people, take a great photo of them and ask if they would like to purchase the photograph to take home with them at the end of the night.

The job is great fun, and I have found it very easy to fit in and build my confidence to ask practically every person I walk past if they would like a photograph. I would say around 80% of the time people agree and have their photo taken.

I have been to this club many times as it is a only a quick bus ride from my house in Twickenham. Of course everytime I've been to this club I've been nice and drunk .

Therefore having to work in this club instead and be sober each time every week gives me a new experience inside. Firstly being sober gives me the great opportunity to watch what people get up to in the club, for instance; Its good fun to see the guys (or sometimes girls) trying their hardest to give it their best moves on the dance-floor.

Then there's the strange sites when you see some odd couples who can't help but just think 'How on earth are they together?'. For example the couples where the man is extremely tall, and the girl is the complete opposite and tiny, it just looks so odd. Along with the odd looking couples you of course get the couples who are having a bad night and they are having an argument in the corner, or you see the boyfriend trying to comfort his girlfriend which ends up getting nowhere. Its gratefully entertaining to witness when I'm having a little break from taking photographs.

The best site in the club though is the regulars, I've already clocked a few people who go to this club every single Saturday. I've yet to find them in the club wearing an outfit I recognise from a previous night, I look to this night so I can tell them. 'Hey! You do know you wore that outfit last week...!'

At the moment I'm only working 1 day a week, therefore the money isn't helping me out too well. However on Wednesday 7th July I have an interview for Superdry. I have my fingers crossed this will go well, as I will then have shifts at this retail store during the week, giving a nice contribution at the end of each month.

I shall let you know how that interview turns out.

M x

2010-07-01T16:38:00.003+01:00

Today I listened to Kanye Wests new track 'Power' and I was surprisingly very impressed!

I've always been a fan of him and have always accepted his change in sounds between albums in a good way. However his previous album '808s and Heartbreak' was personally not my favourite!

Which leads me to this track which has impressed me' straight away!

I just hope when the album is released the rest of the tracks live up to 'Power'

Give the track a search on YouTube and let me know what you think.

M x

All this time and nothing to do with it!

2010-06-18T18:50:00.000+01:00

Last night I attended a meet up at STA Travel over in Victoria, which consisted a selection of travels brought together by the team over at STATravelBuzz, the evening was known as the #STAMasterclass, and focused on traveling around South America.

I have never given traveling a real thought, however I have now finished my second year at university meaning I have a lot of time off before I start my final year in September.

After chatting to a few interesting people which resulting in proving the phrase "its a small world" does exist. I realised this time I have a lot of free time that needs to be used up wisely and I should grab to this opportunity given to me and explore some places.

In particular I've always wanted to explore around American, simply because I love the country and would easily move over to live there after graduating. In particular I want to go back to the city that never sleeps.. AKA New York.

I have been pointed in the direction to the site Couch Surfing due to me having a next to nothing budget due to being the typical student.

So in the next few weeks I shall look into this site properly to see if there any genuine opportunities for me out there in New York. Perhaps I may stay out there for only a month or so. Which will be fine, as this would be the perfect quick and easy getaway for me. I would go out there to engage in some culture, take some photographs, or even make some good friends as I would again love to live in New York some day for a year or so.

Let me know if you have any plans for the summer. Any exciting plans for traveling, or looking into a small getaway like myself?

M x

iNQ Chat 3G [REVIEW]

2010-06-16T13:41:00.001+01:00

During my time at the Isle Of Wight Festival I was asked from 3Mobilebuzz to take along the iNQ Chat 3G on Three to give the mobile a real test run of its functionality. Throughout the whole weekend the phone held up extremely well and managed to do exactly what I wanted it for, however there was of course some high and low points.

As a typical guy I tend to not read instructions and simply dive in at the deep in with new products and work them out myself from the ground up. Due to my learning capabilities of new technology fast and efficiently, there was no change with this phone.

As soon as I took the phone out the box and switched it on, I quickly understood the functions the phone had to offer. Straight off I was impressed with the full keyboard on the phone, however it took me a while to realise you can use a key on the phone to use symbols, due to this key not be clear in its function. Maybe if it had the same icon as a shift key on a regular keyboard. However this icon is already used as the Caps Lock. Once I understood where this shift key was, I was away typing out text messages and Tweeting, quick and efficiently as if using a typical PC keyboard.

The signal on this phone was excellent I never seemed to loose signal throughout my time at the festival, which I did found surprising due to us being a wide open field practically in the middle of no where. On top of this I never had problem finding 3G with the device, it always seem to pick up the signal to access Twitter and Facebook.

However there was a downside, even when I did have good signal and 3G I found the phone seemed to function rather slow during certain tasks, for instance refreshing Twitter or Facebook, and posting comments etc. Further still the most surprising was the simple task of typing out a text message I found the mobile seemed to have a lot of lag when typing fast on the efficient keyboard. I would type out my message and wait which seemed like forever for the text to catch up on the screen with my typing.

Looking aside from this the mobile is great, and functions well (when the device decides to not function slowly). The design of the phone impressed me a lot, with the deep red cover on the back and the red keys, it gives off a nice modern design and feel to the phone. One extra function in particular impressed me was having status updates from Facebook show up on my home screen, It was a good idea to quickly catch up with your Facebook friends from simply unlocking the phone. However I thought this was the culprit for slowing down the phone.

I would give the phone 4/5, It works perfectly, however I do like a phone to respond quickly and efficiently. This may just be my opinion, mobiles should really work well with the user and respond efficiently giving a good experience every time.

M x

Have you seen Gary?

2010-06-15T23:18:00.002+01:00

In 2008 I was luckily enough to snap up a ticket to attend the Reading Festival, this was my first festival and it was such a good experience throughout the whole weekend, making me want to go again the following year. However due to money problems (typical student) this was not the case, resulting in me watching the highlights on TV with a depressed look on my face. Therefore this year I was determined to attend a festival, and after some hunting around, the decision was to grab tickets to the Isle Of Wight festival, with a few friends from university. This decision was spot on resulting in another enjoyable time at a festival.

Albeit there was less bands playing on the line up compared to Reading Festival, meaning there was less bands I really wanted to see. Looking past this I still had a great time due to the general festival atmosphere. Just the same as Reading there was a lot of people who make festivals that extra bit of a 'different' experience.

For instance, around the campsites there are always a lot of expected drinking, fun and games happening. Added to this you get lines/quotes which just happen out of no where. For instance this year, if anyone shouted out the name "GARY" everyone around you and further afield would repeat you and also shout "GARY" eventually if it worked well enough the whole campsite would be shouting the name for about 10 - 20 seconds. The inside joke being we were all looking for the same man. I found this great every time it happened, even though it kept happening it never got boring. The joke went so far that you would walk past people and ask whether they have found Gary.

I wont go into how good the band performances were, because I'm sure you have seen some highlights on the not even half decent broadcasters that is ITV2. However I will say my highlight to the weekend was Jay Z's performance. Personally I thought his show was outstanding, you could tell anyone there at the time would appreciated the show, even if they didn't follow the music. I knew he would put a show for the crowd, the outcome happened to be far higher than my expectations.

The festival as a whole was fantastic, and I think it couldn't be compared to my experience to Reading Festival due to there being a different crowd. Generally there seemed to be more families and older people, resulting in a more relaxed atmosphere. Of course you still found the youngster off his head on cider around 12pm.

I would give the festival 8/10 and advise anyone who wants to go to a festival and has never been to one to certainly give Isle Of Wight festival a consideration. However be prepared to spend a long time leaving the Island on the Monday (if you choose to leave this day) the large crowds leaving all at once to get on the ferries takes up a lot of time.

M x

[11 - 11] Is the audience for popular music created by the music industry?

2010-06-15T16:27:00.011+01:00

When a boy band such as Boyzone enter the music industry and produce a Number 1 single, the industry occasionally sets trends by bringing out similar boy bands, Westlife. Theodor Adorno suggests that recordings generally sound the same. Which I personally disagree with, however you can argue Boyzone and Westlife do sound similar.

As a consumer your in control through choosing singles you buy with preference, the music industry cannot force people to listen to certain music. On the other hand the music industry can over publicise through playing a chosen song on TV or Radio regularly.

Technology is developing and consumers now have more control over the music industry. When an album is successful from artists the record companies attempt to sell something similar to the previous album, while the consumer expects something different. They can go and search for what they want, which can sometimes lead to illegal downloading.

[10 - 11] NME Review

2010-06-15T16:27:00.010+01:00

On the shelf you can see NME are including the latest next big thing in their issue. You may not know the band yet you still go on and pick up the magazine due to the colourful front cover grabs your attention.

First page includes a band index, letting you know they are dedicated to the bands. Turn to the page of the band you have recently falling in love with, and read up on what they have been up to.

Reviews look reassembly short. However the use of language can be heavily description, resulting in the reviews being quite difficult to reach an outcome.

NME is packed with latest band news, to an outsider it could be difficult to buy, the bands featured are not always known in the mainstream. People may think you would have to be in the know to pick up this magazine, as the articles are written with the assumption you already know them, and whatever they say goes.

[9 - 11] Are blackness and whiteness useful concepts in the study of popular music?

2010-06-15T16:27:00.009+01:00

The concepts of blackness and whiteness in popular music is useful, as these concepts allow a starting point for theorists and other people when identifying of where music into categories. However when looking deeper into the categories of music, it is actually linked to class and location, not simply dividing between black and white artists.

On top of this the line of blackness and whiteness in music can be blurred with white and black artists covering each others music. “Pop music has always depended upon the interaction between white and black traditions” (Hatch 1987)

The issues of studying popular music are made easier when categorising music into blackness and whiteness. However you can argue this categorising could maybe classed link to stereotyping music. Consumers aren’t always the same race as the music performers. Concepts are put in place as guidelines to help address underlying issues within types of music.

[8 - 11] Can popular music achieve genuine political change?

2010-06-15T16:27:00.008+01:00

There are countless examples over the years of how music has tried to change the world politics. Live aids music concert is undoubtedly the most famous example of music being involved in an attempt to change world politics. It was a very successful campaign and since the 1980s there are now people in third world countries who may not have be alive today if the event did not happen.

This happened because the event raised awareness around the world of what terrible things are happening in third world countries, resulting in people wanting to help. This proves music can achieve genuine political change.

Live aid got one of the highest viewing figures in television in history, billions of people watched it worldwide, and it helped the problem. This was achieved through a concert of music, therefore music can make a difference in the world and influence politics to make change.

[7 - 11] Does the emergence of the digital download signal the end for the music industry?

2010-06-15T16:27:00.000+01:00

In February 2010 since the iTunes music store first launch in 2003 10 billion downloads had been bought. This gives the impression digital download market is not the end of the music industry. Music industry must take notice of the digital download, as a majority of music devices like iPod’s are entirely digital.

Digital downloads are simply more convenient to the consumer, uploading the tracks straight to their MP3 players. Giving them large amount of tracks on the go.

January 2009 saw record labels agree with iTunes to remove DRM. Making downloading appealing to consumers, now being able to download a track and not have the restrictions they once had.

iTunes provide a better alternative to illegal downloads. Consumers are choosing to pay for the tracks they download. Meaning digital downloads are helping the dying music industry evolve with technology more specifically the internet which is the future for music.

[6 - 11] What is world music?

2010-06-15T16:26:00.001+01:00

In my opinion ‘World Music’ describes a type of music genre which ‘belongs’ to a certain country or its origin of where the music started. For example Ireland with Irish folk music, and further a field to Aboriginal music in Australia. If you were to categorize these genre as a whole you would class them ‘World Music’ and you tend to take these genres of music exclusive to their part of the world.

However the modern day term can be used in a less forgiving way.

Take HMV for example they would include music from all different genres around the world in their store. Therefore there is going to be genres that do not sell as well as other genres from places such as America and England.

HMV decide to place these genres all together in a ‘World Music’ category so they condense and allow more space for popular music.

[5 - 11] Is popular music a mass produced commodity of a genuine art form?

2010-06-15T16:26:00.000+01:00

Art: "The expression or application of human creative skill and imagination, typically in a visual form such as painting or sculpture, producing works to be appreciated primarily for their beauty or emotional power"

When applying this definition to popular music it is not an art form.

The majority of “artists” of popular music don’t write the meaningful lyrics, come up with the dances routines (if applicable) or the riffs to the music.

The only creative skill of art to the performances is their ability to stand on stage and deliver the lyrics to the audience. Their songs have been created for them. They are merely part of the product of the song.

I believe when the performer creates the lyrics, choreography and music it is then to be classed as art.

This is rare to happen, which confirms the genuine art form because of it being so rare to witness.

Jumping the gun!

2010-06-08T14:46:00.001+01:00

A few months back, I finally upgraded my contract with Orange to the iPhone 3GS. I was more than happy to finally get my hands on the product, and I have loved it ever since.
Upon purchasing the phone I knew the rumors about the new iPhone 4.. or some people back then were calling it the iPhone 4G... but I thought nothing of it!
Now last night the iPhone 4 was finally announced, even though we knew all about it a month or so earlier after that employee left if in a pub/bar (we all know the story)

At first I still thought the phone was not that much of a jump from my 3GS. However after giving the phone a more detail look, I am starting to regret not waiting for this one to be released giving myself the option to chose whether to pay the extra money or stick with the 3GS.

The things that most impressed me was the well needed improvement to the camera now being able to produce 5 mega pixel images and with a flash which has been needed since the first phone back in June 2007.
Then another feature which convinced me further was the capability of filming HD video (well 720p or something, which is still fantastic for a mobile!). This will be perfect for capturing these moments, or beneficial to the new wave of Vlogging which is happening where YouTubers are simply uploading their content straight from their iPhones.

The video calling, or 'Facetime' did not bother me too much. however after realising how many other phones on the market have this "gimmick"this of course is the way we are heading towards in the future. However only being able to use the video calling through Wifi is bit of a set back in my eyes.

To sum up after looking into detail what the iPhone 4 has to offer is outstanding, I still believe the 3GS perfect for a smart phone. As it still has an outstanding display for text and images, but of course once I witness the iPhones 4's display I will of course be convinced to get my hands on the iPhone 4 as I am one of the many people who are the 'purchase anything made by Apple kinda guy'

Therefore I am now looking around to see how much I can sell my 3GS for and see whether an upgrade is available, I am sure this will not be possible as I had the same problem after purchasing the new Macbook 13" last year, which then got discontinued and turned into Macbook Pro 13" base model, trying to upgrade was not possible which has ever since pissed me off.

I'm just hoping I can simply purchase the iPhone 4 handset on its own, after selling my iPhone 3GS.

Let me know what you think, are you going to be first in line to purchase the new phone!?

M x

[4 - 11] How useful is a production of culture perspective in understanding the birth of Rock ‘n’ Roll?

2010-06-06T14:10:00.001+01:00

Numerous facts and myths have explained the birth of rock and roll during the 1950s.

In particular Richard Peterson’s discussion explains how the economy, cultural and social, and technology factors produced the platform for the birth of something new.

His discussion has strengths and weaknesses due to certain parts not being addressed. For instance his technology factors do not go into the development of the electric guitar of amplification.

He does not go on to explain why rock and roll was successful.

There was not just rock and roll during the 50s. Jazz, blues and hillbilly emerged during this time. This gives the question. Why weren’t these genres the something new?

In my opinion Peterson’s discussion effectively explains how rock and roll became the something new.

However the discussion would improve if there was reasons addressing why it was successful.

Perhaps he wasn’t interested in the music he was addressing.

The Startover - 'Worst Case Scenario'

2010-06-03T18:07:00.003+01:00

A finished project I started a while back last year. I hope you enjoy!

Feedback is more than welcome!

M x

[3 - 11] Is it reasonable to consider that rock music is gendered male?

2010-05-30T12:15:00.000+01:00

Rock music you listen to is dominated with males. However on the rare occasions you hear a band which includes a female. All these occasions the female included is the the lead singer, or other cases backing singers. When you hear a band consisting of females playing the instruments you tend to take it on board as a novelty or gimmick.

This is due to a number of reasons; Instruments tend to be associated with genders. For instance the guitar associated with males, and a flute or piano associated with females. This happens because its the way we are brought up into society.

“lead guitarists are made, not born. The reason for women’s absence are entirely social” (Bayton, 1997)

Females are simply not brought up to be playing the electric guitar, whereas males are. If females pick up the guitar they’re known as “One of the Boys” and not taking seriously.

The Future

2010-05-22T20:48:00.001+01:00

Today I had an extremely long day working at Twickenham Stadium, In total I have worked 12hrs, and I will be doing the exact same tomorrow, all because I am desperate for money! During my long day of working there, my mind (as always) wondered and got me thinking about the future and other things.

I have recently finished my 2nd year of university with a great sense of relief, along with the sense of wanting to just graduate and earn myself a living with a respectable career. To be frank, I'm slowly getting fed up on completing essays. During this mind wondering, I was standing thinking how mad it is for me to work there. It really is not a type of job I am looking for (even if the pay is good). I of course don't plan to work there for the rest of my life. However there are people who have indeed worked there for many years, so I am praying this wont happen.

During this mental thinking came around, I was in the players tunnel seeing the rugby players run around. When I look over and see a guy walk out of the massage room. I recognised this guy, not personally just from around my university. From my own conclusion I thought he must have graduated recently and this is his first 'real' job. At this point the light bulb went off and I realised it is worth it to be doing my degree, and I will now work my but off during my 3rd year to give me the grade I deserve to get myself my dream job... and I can't wait!

Heres to the future!

M x

[2 - 11] Can popular music ever really be unplugged?

2010-05-20T11:36:00.000+01:00

The term “unplugged” literally means to disconnect from all source of electricity. In able for an artist to produce unplugged music they would have play the instruments without the aid of amplifiers and sing without the use of a microphone. Which is difficult for popular music of the 21st century,

'without electronic technology, popular music in the 21st century is unthinkable' (P. Theberge)

If the artist were to perform with the correct procedures to class the music as unplugged, the performance would have to be only for a small audience in order to make the audience hear the music.

Having this music heard by such a small group of people means this is not technically “popular music”. In order for the artist to become popular they would need the aid of technology, ie. Recording the song, to reach wider a audience. Which of course does not make the performance unplugged.

[1 - 11] What is popular music?

2010-05-17T17:19:00.002+01:00

Popular music in some respect can be referred to music that is popular and current in the chart's. Being purchased and listened to by the mainstream consumer. However popular music doesn't have to be stuck in that bracket of the mainstream music scene.

Popular music can be broken down into practically any music genre, artist or band. Whatever music that has been produced and released to the public. Has a following of people who enjoy the music can be classed as popular music in that certain bracket of music genre.

For instance Opera music can be classed as popular music. Even though this genre of music isn’t releasing hit singles in the top 40 chart, making it un-popular to the mainstream consumers.

It is still popular to people to who actually listen to Opera music, therefore making this genre of music popular in that section of consumers.

"And now the end is near, And so I face the final curtain"

2010-05-13T22:40:00.001+01:00

On Monday I reached the light at the end of that very long tunnel and finished my second year at university. It brought on two feelings; The great feeling when a whole load comes off your mind, and you can finally relax. The second was the sense of scare, realising how quick this year has gone by. To think how quick my final year will be, when I exit university and enter the unknown territory of the working world.

That last few months have been rather stressful, due to the amount of work load I had to complete in such a tight schedule, but I've done it, and it feels great. I speak quite a bit about my university work on my blog, and I never have the time to share some of the work with you. After finishing this year I thought this is the time for me to finally do it.

One module I studied was to do with Music Technology and Culture. One of the assignments was to post a weekly blog entry, obviously this task was great as I have my own blog already. Each week I had to answer a question related to the lecture in no more than 150 words, the whole assignment was quite fun as some of the questions were interesting. Therefore I think I shall use this blog and post these entries every few days, In total there are 10. It should be quite interesting If you decide to post your own comments to the questions I answer as they're are quite open for discucssion.

So I look forward to this outcome,

For now its time for me to start some celebrating the completion of my second year.

Bye for now.

M x

I found this from a typical surf round the web.

2010-05-13T00:09:00.003+01:00

Short Neurological Test
Please do not use any cursor help.
1- Find the C below..
OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO OOOOOOO
OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO OOOOOOO
OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO OOOOOOO
OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO OOOOOOO
OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO OOOOOOO
OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO OOOOOOO
OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO COOOOOOOOOOOOOOO OOOOOOO
OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO OOOOOOO
OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO OOOOOOO
OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO OOOOOOO
OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO OOOOOOO

2- If you already found the C, now find the 6 below.

9999999999999999999 9999999999999999 9999999999999999 99
9999999999999999999 9999999999999999 9999999999999999 99
9999999999999999999 9999999999999999 9999999999999999 99
6999999999999999999 9999999999999999 9999999999999999 99
9999999999999999999 9999999999999999 9999999999999999 99
9999999999999999999 9999999999999999 9999999999999999 99

3 - Now find the N below. It's a little more difficult.

MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM MMMMMMMMMNMMMMMM MMM
MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM MMM
MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM MMM
MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM MMM
MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM MMM

This is NOT a joke. If you were able to pass these 3 tests, you can cancel your annual visit to your neurologist. Your brain is great and you're far from having a close relationship with Alzheimer.

Congratulations!

____________ _________ _________ _________ _________ _________ _________ _________ ____
part 2
eonvrye that can raed this rsaie your hnad.

To my 'selected' strange-minded friends:
If you can read the following paragraph, forward it on to your friends and the person that sent it to you with 'yes' in the subject line.
Only great minds can read this
This is weird, but interesting!

If you can raed this, you have a sgtrane mnid too

Can you raed this? Olny 55 plepoe out of 100 can.

I cdnuolt blveiee that I cluod aulaclty uesdnatnrd what I was rdanieg. The phaonmneal pweor of the hmuan mnid, aoccdrnig to a rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it dseno't mtaetr in what oerdr the ltteres in a word are, the olny iproamtnt tihng is that the frsit and last ltteer be in the rghit pclae. The rset can be a taotl mses and you can still raed it whotuit a pboerlm. This is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the word as a wlohe. Azanmig huh? Yaeh and I awlyas tghuhot slpeling was ipmorantt! If you can raed this forwrad it

Such Tweet Sorrow

2010-05-01T14:05:00.002+01:00

Recently I have been a little slap dash with my blog, due to my large work load hitting me at university. Which shall all be completely on the 5th May, can't wait for that day of course.

I thought I would use this post to inform you of a great project I have recently been informed of happening on Twitter.

The project is Such Tweet Sorrow which is being sponsored by 3 Mobile. The projects involves a selection of actors from the Shakespeare's Globe Company to Tweet out a modern version of the fantastic story of Romeo Juliet.

Everyday new tweets are added to the story which you can follow through with the hashtags of #suchtweetsorrow, If your feeling up for it you can also add to the story. For instance start rumors between the characters.

The project is going to last for 5 weeks, and so far its been a big hit. I've heard this is the first time this has ever happened on Twitter, so would be great to of course get involved, with maybe adding your own spin to the story.

If you want to follow up what has happened to the story far you can do so through visiting http://www.suchtweetsorrow.com

As well as this you can find a TV screen outside the Shakespeares Head in Canarby Street. This is a live feed of the Tweets, so you can walk by and watch the story unfold in real time. Genius!

I suggest you check out this original project.

M x

INQ Mini - Review

2010-04-21T14:17:00.000+01:00

For the past week or so have been asked to use the new INQ Mini from 3 Mobile. To say the least I have been impressed and unimpressed with the phone.

The phone is small and lightweight which is always good for mobile phones for obvious reasons. However when it comes down to the function and the apps on the phones its lacks and brings down the phones over all outcome.

Facebook, Twitter, Skype and Msn Messenger are already installed into the small with their own app. However this apps are rather basic.

Facebook has the typical view of status updates, however the text format is not quite right in my opinion. Peoples names are in the same font style as the statuses. Therefore its hard to distinguish between the names and the actual statuses. Perhaps having names in bold would improve it. Maybe this is just me being picky.

The twitter app is again rather basic, although there is a good display of the peoples status updates and you get to see the photo of the person, where the facebook app doesn't include. However the app is let down when you can't look at your @ replies or look at your Direct Messages. Perhaps I didn't look properly but I couldn't find this function.

I only used these two apps on the phone as these are the apps on my personal phone I use most frequently, and to be honest I was not impressed with the both of them.

On the side of the phone there is a scroll function where you can scroll through your apps, which works well. You can use the scroll whilst in the apps to change between the tools and apps you looking for, which I thought was quite useful.

The actual menu screen itself is quite impressive, as they use some eye catching pictures for each menu icon which I thought was reassembly impressive. The style of the menu screen is also in key with the phone itself as the eye catching red just looks great on the back of the phone.

The overall outcome was rather a low note for me, I thought the phone was a bit slow with response even from the simplest task of going through the menu.

I think the phone is perhaps note aimed for my market as I prefer to have a phone with a big screen and fast performance for reading e-mails, using the internet on the go. Which works all perfectly well on my iPhone.

I think this phone is aimed at the younger teenage market, which I think this phone would be perfect for as its compact and lightweight therefore perfect for teenagers to catch up on the their friends when they are out and about.

I would give the phone 3/5

If the performance and the apps improved then I would think the phone would easily be a 5/5, being perfect for the teenage market.

Windows 7 TuneUp Suite

2010-04-19T15:37:00.003+01:00

Windows 7 TuneUp suite is your all-purpose tool for better PC maintenance and security. Plus, it protects your computer from system crashes, repairs and maintains your PC health, removes unneeded Internet clutter, regains valuable disk space, cleans your registry and tweak windows to perform better.

Main Features:

* Support Windows XP/Vista/7
* Eliminates system crashes, freezes and slowdowns
* Automatically identifies and repairs common Windows problems
* Eliminate BSOD (Blue Screen of Death)
* Speeds up boot up time
* Repairs defects by building a fresh registry
* Compacts registry by removing gaps and unused space
* Removes fragmentation with a linear and sequential registry
* Improves system performance due to faster registry load/read
* Finds and deletes duplicate files of any type
* Saves space on your hard drive
* Extends internal system uninstaller with features to find and delete left traces (e,g registry keys, folders etc.)
* Improves your Windows PC's overall performance and stability
* Question based services and drivers tune up
* Automatically tweaks system services and drivers for better performance
* Recovers CPU & Memory usage taken by unneeded services and drivers
* Full control of the programs that are loaded during Windows startup
* Add/remove/edit startup items
* Task scheduler configurator
* Cleans Browser History
* Cleans history index.dat file content in Internet Explorer.

Click here for more information about product.

Comedy Store, London

2010-04-14T16:54:00.004+01:00

During the weekend, I was luckily enough to witness my first experience of stand up comedy at one of England's comedy clubs. The Comedy Store in Leicester Square, London.

The night was to celebrate my cousin turning 18 a few days before hand.

We arrive at the venue nice and early so we could get front row seats. I was not up for getting taking the piss out of from a comedian however to not spoiling the fun, I went ahead and sat there with my cousin, auntie uncle and a friend of there's.

Of course we get a round of drinks in from the bar, which came to a surprise of how cheap the drinks were! (I suppose they wanted people drunk, to get the laughters from the crowd) I receive my drink, and work my way through the pint as I was quite hungover from the night before seeing Foals live at my local club.

During this time the crowd start to thicken out, and to what seemed like quite a small venue began to have a real buzz to it, as the sold out night was close to starting after every had taken their seats with a pint in hand.

The comedians come onto the stage, and throughout the whole 2 hours or so of them performing I was laughing none stop. We laughed through flawless sets from; a real cockney Londoner, a Canadian, someone who turned up on the night from Brighton to show 10mins of his talent get more gigs, a man from Yorkshire, and to finish another Londoner.

Each comedian had their own certain style of humor each pulling out their jokes perfectly, in particular I was laughing most with the first Londoner. I loved his way of delivery and timing. He had the don't care, ignorant to everyone else attitude, with added sarcasm. Which I just love as humor, specially when the comedian comes across as a real asshole, and sarcasm always makes me laugh. To top it off the London accent just made things sound funnier.

The Canadian seemed to just shout, and tried to add in some political issues in. His set kinda of worked, but you could tell the crowd weren't lapping it up as much with the previous performance of the Londoner.

The guy who turned up from Brighton was very funny, and had everyone laughing continuously throughout his 10 minute set. I imagine this was meant to happen as his chose his best parts from his set to cram into the 10 minutes to get the most of the short set. Of course after the Compare announced why he had turned up on the night, the audience gave him a big cheer and a well deserved round of applause as he left the stage.

The Yorkshiremen then appeared with some wacky hair do which reminded me of Sideshow Bob from The Simpsons. This comedian was a good laugh, as he would make jokes out of himself. Making it fine for people to laugh at him. He also incorporated jokes about family, which I always find funny as these jokes are always true home stories.

They are always true to the comedian and perhaps relate to audience members. These jokes seem to always come across more funnier. As the audience understand where the comedian is coming from.

The final comedian which was again a Londoner came on to the stage, and as soon as he delivered his first joke, the audience were in uproar with laughter and enjoying every minute of his set. Like the Yorkshiremen he made jokes about himself, which went down a treat with the audience. And not like the other comedians he made the effort and took the piss out of some of the audience members this of course worked well and got the audience including myself laughing even more. As the comedian was now thinking on his feat and coming up with comedy there and then, showing off his talent to the max.

The last comedian left the stage with of course a large applause, and I generally wanted more. The 2 hours or so, were a lot of fun and I would certainly go again

I would persuade anyone to go, if they want to enjoy something different on a night out.

M x

Easter Weekend - Jersey Boys

2010-04-06T12:14:00.003+01:00

This Easter Weekend was a packed one for me. For Christmas I bought 2 tickets to go see the musical Jersey Boys, one for myself and my mum.

I arrived back to my house with my mum in Twickenham on the Saturday (I had stayed at my mums back in Fareham a few days when the Easter Break started) Our plan was to spend the night at mine, then go off into London the next day (Sunday) spend some time around the shops, then make our way over to see Jersey Boys to see the Matinee performance.

However we of course didn't take into account it was Easter Sunday, therefore practically all the shops were shut. I have never seen Oxford Street so quiet before, it was quite surreal. Everyone seemed to be quite baffled with the experience as well, people were seeing the shops were shut from a distance. But still went ahead and walked up to the shop to pear into the shop windows just to make they were close. It was if they could not believe the whole situation! "The staff have a day off today???"

We made sure this didn't ruin our day as we found some shops that were still open and spent sometime looking around then. This also meant we were able to take our time at arriving to the theatre, as we had all this time on our hands so we didn't have to rush. Perfect!

We arrive at the theatre around 2:30 (show started at 3pm), by this time my mum was starting to get real excited! We walk into the venue, I grab my tickets off the lady, after a little confusing with someone having the same surname as me (this rarely happens) We find our seats and sit down, show time!

The whole 2 hour or so performance was jam packed with hits from the group the Four Seasons, and they performances was unreal, the guy playing the singer Frankie Valli was spot on. His singing just sounded perfect, it was as if we had gone back in time to the 60s to when this group was big.

A part of the show which caught my attention was when the act was the group achieving their first live TV performance. They had the band performing on stage along with some 60s style cameras surrounding them and "filming" them. Above the stage were large TV screens projector the image that was being recorded on the cameras on the actual stage. Of course these cameras were in black and white, and with all the costumes being spot on along with the hair, it all seemed so real. The group acting as the Four Seasons came across as the actual band. I thought this idea was very effective.

I was also impressed as the singers were also playing their instruments, and running around the stage not missing a note and staying in time. This really did show off the talent this show had to offer, and made you realise why the show is so popular and how the theatre was near to sold out!

After the show I was just blown away by the whole performance, I took note at how talented these guys were and I thought they must go home everyday being so proud of what career they are undergoing.

I hope one day I shall have the same feeling when I go home from the career I set myself after I finish university.

To be honest I can't wait till that feeling happens.

M x

People

2010-03-31T11:20:00.004+01:00

Last few days I have been witnessing some strange sets of people and I thought I would take this time to share these experiences with you, and perhaps hear your thoughts on them.

I am like most people out there tend to judge someone from first meeting them, and perhaps 50% of the time I get this judgement wrong. I particular I really dislike people being rude, take the other night for instance.

Back at my house at university I live next door to a news-agents, and at times I have craving to eat some crap. It being downstairs is real convenience.

Now on this particular time I approach the shop with another woman who has just parked up outside to enter the shop at the time at me, we look and acknowledge each other (all is fine). We arrive at the front of the shop, to find another lady getting read to leave the shop. The entrance is quite some so we decide to wait and let her leave before us, in a polite manner. She eventually leaves the shop, opens to the door to find us both standing there, and simple lets the door shut behind her and walks on her way regardless of anyone else. The door practically closes in my face.

I get what I wanted and leave the shop thinking how much of a rude this person was, I know its nothing. But little things like that tend to get on my nerves even when I know it shouldn't be.

Another incident happens in a town I haven't been to properly - Bognor Regis.

This is where one of my housemates live, and we come back to here as she is back home for the Easter break and it is close to my hometown, so of course I blag a lift, and spend a few nights at her house. During this time I experience some interesting set of people.

We went out on the first night to Bognor town to probably their only club called Sheiks. Before we go in my housemate warns me the people I will be witnessing in there will be quite a shock, I thought nothing of it and went on in.

Now I am going to be honest, she was not wrong.... I couldn't believe the site I was seeing there. The same day there was a thing called the "Bognor Beer Race" happening therefore a lot of students were dressed up in fancy dress for the pub crawl, which is fair enough. However the people that were left over who were simply residence of Bognor town looked ridiculous. Some people I actually thought were in fancy dress... orange face, white big hair, could easily be pulled off as a cave girl outfit. Of course I was making false judgements, but my housemate reassures me its normal and these people have no clue. I couldn't believe what I was seeing. I tend to see programs on TV about people going out dressing in stupid clothes thinking they're looking good, and I always watch them thinking, "thats stupid... no one would actually go out like that"

In this club I was actually witnessing this and I could no believe it! I hope no one is offended, and perhaps defend themselves if they like in the comments.

My final encounter with people ends on a small thing, but links in with people again being rude.

I was on the train back home from Bognor, during one stop a guy gets on the train and sits next to me (fair enough). Until he pops in some chewing gum into his mouth. The noises coming from his mouth was ridiculous! Every single bite on the gum I could every single, squish, squeak, pop and chew he made in his mouth. I really wanted to turn round and tell him to shut up. Fortunately he got off after a few stops.

So that concludes my unfortunate run ins with a few strange and rude people. I think I will continue to make false judgements, but hey... everyone does it.

Leave some comments on experiences you've had with people.

M x

Rag Week!

2010-03-10T16:00:00.004Z

Every year my university has a week of events in the Student Union to raise money for charity called Rag Week (Raise and Give). To best honest last year was not that great, I guess it could be because I didn't really know much about the event. Resulting me not attending much of the nights.

This year however was a real hit, I was out every night of the week and enjoying every minute of it!

Monday evening was like every other Monday evening at my university, we went to the local club Oceana in Kingston. However this night was slightly different as we went to the Student Union before hand, and got drinks there and a ticket to get on the coach with everyone else to the club at a discount price. This was a lot of fun as I haven't done this since my first year at university. So the memories of the coach journeys came back, and the usual banter on the coach was there, a lot of fun.

However I did manage to get myself rather drunk whilst In in the club, resulting in my friend to take me home! He was drunk himself, so I don't know why he was made to do it! And leaving the club we nearly forgot to pick up our coats from the cloak room (idiots)

Then on the bus back to my house I had just finished my cheesy chips, then straight away throw the whole lot up again into the chip box that was carrying the chips in the first place. My mate tells me the next day he wanted to be sick himself after watching me do that! So as expected the next day with the hangover was eventful!

After my day of recovery Tuesday evening came round. This again was a great night, it was the pub crawl around our town of Twickenham. We had to dress up as super heros, my initial response to this was that I wasn't up for wearing tights and looking an idiot. However one of my housemates had the genius idea of me dressing up as Superman, but not with pants over my trousers, as Clark Kent a simple Superman T-shirt under a unbuttoned white shirt. I thought the outfit looked great, however I wasn't the only one with this genius idea. There was around another 10 guys doing the same thing. Of course I think I looked the best!

The night was a lot of fun, as this was my first pub crawl since I started university. The turn out was great, there was at least 100 people on this pub crawl, and everyone running round the town looking like idiots was a great site to see.

Wednesday evening was very successful evening and not only myself but I am sure other people would agree was the best night of the week. This night was the School Disco. This is of course an easy costume to make up, and gives some girls the excuse to wear the shortest school dresses as possible. The Student Union was rammed, and the dance floor was packed out, making it hard to move around. Everyone was loving every minute of it. And to top it off the music being provided was amazing. It was one of my housemates, who Djs most Fridays in his hometown. His choice of music for the music was spot on, resulting in everyone continuously dancing the night away.

I had never seen our Student Union this packed before, and I was chatting to some 3rd years and they tell me the place used to always be like this on a Wednesday night. The reason for it to change now is due to a new club opening last year called McClusky's which has of course taken customers from our university which is a real shame on a Wednesday night because it takes away the real university spirit of spending a cheap night out with your mates where you should be at your university. Such a shame.

Thursday night to be honest wasn't a huge hit, it was a few bands performing. One of my friends bands performed and due to their guitarist being rather resulted in a quite average performance. The night didn't have anywhere near as much people as previous nights, and I think its due to our University simply not being big enough for a crowd to form to enjoy a band. As the isn't a large crowd enough to enjoy different types of music.

Friday night was a pub quiz, which unfortunately I didn't win with my friends. But was good fun. This was surprisingly quite successful as it was a Friday night, the turn out was good. During the pub quiz there was an interval of some dancers who were okay, but of course far better than what I could do.

To sum up the week was a lot of fun, and I don't think I have been out every night of the week like this before. And doing it in the Student Union made me feel part of the University again like I was in my first year. As now I am in my second year with my own house away from University I do feel a little detached, so I am glad I made the effort to attend each night.

I would just like to say congratulations to the organiser of the week Juliette Baldwin. I think she did a fantastic job!

Thats it for now.

M x

NME Awards Tour (review)

2010-02-21T17:06:00.006Z

Last night I had a great evening at the NME Awards Tour. With the cracking bands The Maccabees, Bombay Bicycle Club, The Big Pink and The Drums.

I bought the tickets for my myself and my brother for christmas (my first nice gesture as a brother) back home before the night I heard my brother was a bit excited for the evening.

Anyway enough about the background for this event, back to the review.

We arrive at Brixton Academy just after 7pm which meant we were missing the opening few tracks of The Drums. Fortunately I wasn't missing the tracks I really knew from their album "Summertime". We get inside and they were finishing off a track kicking onto which I think is their new single "I Felt Stupid".

Then for their second to last song Jonathan Pierce (singer) introduces it by simply saying "this song is about surfing"

Of course at this point the crowd let up in an uproar of exciting as the track "Lets Go Surfing" kicks in. The crowd were going nuts, and the band was loving it.

Jonathan makes the effort and gets closer to the crowd which of course pleases them. The track sounded slightly different from the album, but still sounded good as ever.

Their whole set went really well, their playing was spot on sounding just how it does on the album. I was quite surprised how they did not have a bassist, they just had two guitarist. However without the bassist they were still sounding great!

Although I did have one slight issue, Jonathan's stage presence was a slightly annoying to watch. With his how could I put it... camp hand gestures. But I guess I'm not one to judge.

The Drums leave the stage giving us time to get down my two friends who were unfortunate to get seated tickets.

The Big Pink get on stage and kick off their set with the track "Too Young to Love" this got the crowd at their feet straight away. However I wasn't totally pleased with their set. I thought they're sound was just too loud. The guy on the keys seemed to put across this constant feedback noise throughout each song. Practically making all the songs sound the same.

They of course ended the set with their bit hit "Dominoes"

Which was greatly pleased the crowd, which brought their set to an end with again more feedback deafening my ears. (I sound like such an old man...)

Up next were Bombay Bicycle Club which in my opinion was my highlight to the evening. They opened their set with the track "Emergency Contraception Blues" throughout this short song I knew instantly the set was going to be mind blowing. And boy was I right... each track then on sounded more and more bigger, they're sound filled the venue perfectly, with of course the help of the keys.

As well as this their stage presence was great, you could see they were enjoying their time on the stage. During each hard hitting chorusses of their songs they would go crazy and move around the stage taking advantage of the large area. Which was both enjoyable to watch and listen.

My highlight to the set was my favorite track of theirs "Magnet"

The performance of this track was just spot on, they played the whole track perfectly and Jack Steadman's Vocals were spot on, sounded exactly how he does on the album. A extremely enjoyable set.

The on came the headliners The Maccabees complete with a brass band section. They're set was again like Bombay Bicycle Club Spot on, note for note perfect and vocals again sounding perfect.

With the added brass section gave each song something extra to the live performance. Giving a very enjoyable performance. A few highlights for me were the crowd (including myself) singing back from bottom of their lungs to every chorus irrupting the venue.

In particular the song "Toothpaste Kisses' Resulting in a quite a humorous moment of the crowd whistling to Orlando Weeks during the opening verse (which is included in the album)

As a special treat to end their set the legend Edwyn Collins enters the stage and performs a track with the band. I admit I didn't know who the guy was but, the track was great and I did just about recognise it. After this a lot of people were real pleased with his guest appearance saying "This has made my night" - bless them!

To sum up I had a cracking night, every band were amazing (perhaps forgetting one...) and today I have a slight ring in my ears giving me another sign of a good night! (or a particular bands set)

If you were lucky enough to get a ticket I'm sure you had a great night too!

M x

Youth In Revolt (review)

2010-02-18T14:27:00.006Z

Its Orange Wednesdays, what else is there to do on that night? Of course watch a film for half the price.
I saw a trailer for this film a while back and was interested in it simply because I do like the successful career in acting Michael Cera is achieving.

The film has a simple cliche storyline of the boy wanting to meet a girl and loose virginity however there is a second boy in the way of the relationship from a girl boy meets.
However in this film I didn't really take much notice of the cliche storyline. I thought the setting for the film was a great one, out in the country side. There a few scenes of American country side which looked fantastic on the big screen. On top of that I think Michael Cera is improving as an actor. Although it is obvious he is being typed casted. I reckon he should try his hand at different roles, rather than the typical geek without a girlfriend.

There was second a role he did play however which was his alter ego of a French guy (I wont spoil it too much)
I thought he played this role really well, his delivery with some comical one liners was spot on. Making myself laugh quite a bit, as well as the cinema audience. Which I was shocked to find was around 1/4 full considering the film has been out for quite some time.

If you enjoyed the other films Michael has been in like Juno with Ellen Page, then you are sure to enjoy this one.

Rating: 7/10

Another film I am looking forward to is Jim Careys new one, about a con artist. I looks very entertaining (plus I just find Jim Carey hilarious)

M x

Valentines Day (Review)

2010-02-18T14:10:00.003Z

So the other day was of course that eventful time of year when everyone who is in a relationship suddenly makes huge efforts for each other. And people like myself who are single, get all down through reminding themselves how single they really are. Wishing someone would be their valentine, or at least receive valentines day card.

For my valentines evening I spent it with 4 of my other friends who were also single. We took a trip to our local town for a beer and a burger in a pub, then on to the cinema to see "Valentines Day"

Now before we went in I was already skeptical about watching this film. I knew full well it was going to be bad, due it being a horrible idea to make a profitable film from this commercial idea of Valentines Day, taking advantage of peoples misfortune.

However there was some decent parts which did make me laugh. Taylor Swift suddenly appeared in the film which I didn't know about, she played this airhead blonde with a boyfriend who basically sex maniacs. One particular scene involving the couple did make me laugh a bit. Also the great Julia Roberts (who is looking great for her age!) had a small part in the film, which I thought was great as she was in my opinion the only decent actor in the film. Just a shame her role only consisted of around 10%.

To sum up, the film was just a poke in the face of all the single people out there, showing you how easy it can be to fall in love with someone in apparently one day. "Hey its all real in Los Angeles"
I swear the timing didn't add up as one of the characters flew from LA to San Fransisco spent some time other then getting some revenge, then flew back to LA all in one day. Is that possible?

Although after watching the film I would like to live in LA, the constant sun does look perfect for my liking...

If there peole out there who took their partner to the cinema to see this film must of been real lazy. "Its called Valentines Day so obviously we have to see if on valentines day..."
No I think there could of been far more better things to do on the day than watch this film.

Rating: 4/10

M x

First photo shoot!

2010-02-11T16:48:00.004Z

Over the weekend, I went home for my first photoshoot for my cousins band Kizmit I think it went really well, and I learnt some stuff which I put into action the next time I am asked to take photos for a band. I hope more people will ask me as its something I am really interested in.

Heres 1 of the photos I was most proud of;

M x

A rethink of regular shenanigans

2010-02-02T21:05:00.004Z

For the past 3 weeks since I came back to uni from the Christmas break, I have participated in the usual shenanigans of a Monday night out to the local town of Kingston for the student night at Oceana.
To be fair the first night when we came back was great. Everyone was there from my university, so it was a great night to catch up.

Last night we out again to make it a 3rd week in a row. Don't get me wrong the night was a good laugh, I had a lot of fun. However to say the least I've had better mornings, and furthermore I've had a better full day.

The hangover I suffered today has been horrific. I had the usual sick feeling in your stomach which comes and goes until you eventually take a wonder to the toilet to be sick. This moment of sickness was probably the worst I've had from a night out (very violent)

I shall stop with the gory detail...

I now type this blog at the end day after eating a great chinese from down the road which I was surprised I managed to keep down. I am now having second thoughts of this madness of drinking so much and think to myself whether it is all worth it.

Although it is a lot of fun going out with mates and drinking yourselves silly. I think I may cool it down for a few weeks or maybe even a month. The night out really isn't worth suffering the next day trying to get rid of the hangover and practically waste a whole day doing nothing.

I think nights in the pub with a few pints and some mates sounds more of a good night to me now.

I know part of university life is to live a little and graduate as some serious drinkers. But I just don't think I need to this often, plus I will save a good amount of money.

Which is great as one of my downfalls is I constantly worry about money.

(Hopefully one day I shall not have to worry about money have a good career with a good amount of money)

For now I think I should just cool off the drinking a little and see what happens.

Although I'm sure this idea will blow over in a few days and I will be back out in the clubs the following monday.

As some people may say.... FML

M x

A quick update

2010-01-26T20:47:00.003Z

It has been a while since my last entry, so I thought I would use this time to update on what I have been up to since then.

I think about what I have been up to and at first I thought I haven't done too much, when In fact I have been quite busy!

I had my first week of lectures for my 2nd Semester of my 2nd year last week, that went reassembly well. One module I am taking is Web Design. I have to simply make a website of my choice, which is excellent giving us a free choice. I shall be designing a website for my cousins band Kizmit. Already I have some ideas floating around my head, hopefully it will turn out to be a good one.

Other than that website ideas I decided to do a complete revamp on my universities radio station site smucradio.com I am quite happy with the results, the process took me forever. I was sat at my laptop for about 6 hours straight. I know this isn't exactly good for me. However when I want to get things done I do them from start to finish in on sitting (if its doable)

Yesterday I receive an e-mail from SRO Audiences telling me I have tickets for "8 Out Of 10 Cats" to be in the audience, I was quite shocked as I requested some a while back, just as a hunch of many getting some as I thought the show would be so popular.

So it should be a good time, when me and my friends go on Thursday. I saw Jimmy Carr when I was in the audience for "Chris Moyles Quiz Show" and Jimmy was hilarious on that as a guest, so this will hopefully be 10 times funnier. As its his own show. It's just a shame they don't show the audience, as it's always fun to try and spot yourself when the show is aired on TV.

I don't think there is anything else worth upating....!

Oh wait, the other day I had a quick progress meeting on the music video I am directing for The Startover. This was very successful and were looking to shoot the remaining stuff to the video in middle of February, so hopefully the finished product will be done by the end of February. I am very excited to get this finished as its been my baby since last summer!

Thats enough waffling for now.

Ta ta for now,

M x

Pulp Fiction has given me some inspiration.

2010-01-21T20:44:00.003Z

Last night I went to my friends house just round the corner for a night in with some Pizza and the TV. We were flicking through the channels after stuffing our faces with Pizza and we see Pulp Fiction is on the box. We collectively thought it was a perfect choice and stuck it on.

I have seen this film numerous times but again watching it last night I was still watching the film just thinking how brilliant it is.

I took on board how simple the story line is, but through mixing it up and not putting the film in order it makes the story line far more interesting.

After watching the film I take the 5 minute walk back home whilst gathering my thoughts. I realise the film has given me some inspiration to maybe do some writing myself. I want to try and do some similar stories, which are simple to understand.

However it is not cut together in a straight forward start to finished manner.

Not only has Pulp Fiction or indeed Tarantino in general inspired me to do try and do some writing. Someone I follow on Twitter who may well be reading this right now has sparked on my writing interest. This person has recently been writing a lot and "tweeting" about it. From the sounds of it is very rewarding process.

I think sometime soon when I have some free time, I will close down Facebook, Twitter and all other social networking sites I am now a member of. Open up Pages (Microsoft Word to all you silly Windows users) and start typing away to see if anything good will come of it.

I'll let you know the results as it happens.

M x

Small Video

2010-01-19T13:42:00.003Z

Decided to test out my HD Video on my Canon 500d. However still not got the encoding settings right for Youtube yet.

Drag Me To Hell? Appalling!

2010-01-17T13:43:00.007Z

Last night my housemates had a couple friends over for a meal, a few films and a sleepover. It was all girls so I was tempted to walk round to my other mates house for a few manly games of Fifa. However the last few days I've developed a ridiculous cold (not man flu).

I think its only getting worse. So staying in doors is a good option at the moment. I decided to stay and watch these films they had hired and pass on my illness to them.

Now the second film we watched was (2009) "The Proposal" with Sandra Bullock and Ryan Reynolds. This was your typical Romantic Comedy with a predictable ending, however with the added bonus of seeing Sandra Bullock completely naked (unfortunately she did cover herself up). So I was fine with that.
However the film we watched before (2009) "Drag Me To Hell" was probably the worst film I have seen for a long time. (perhaps being worse than (2008) "The Happening" which used to be top of my worst films i've ever seen list)

The film is about some stupid curse that is passed onto the main female character (Alison Lohman). The curse is given to her through her coat button which is ripped off and then handed back to her.
The whole film was badly put together, and I'm sorry by Alison's performance was embarrassingly unbelievable. Some parts I saw myself staring at the screen just thinking how on earth did she get this part.
All the scenes that were meant to be scary were far from being scary. Mainly because the suspense was not long enough, and once the monster appeared on screen it was just not scary anymore (not that was in the first place). You were shown all the gore so you simply just laughed at how fake it looked. Not being scared like your suppose to be towards the horrible look on the monsters. So altogether a real poor excuse for a horror/thriller.

To this day I have yet to find a film that I could say was generally quite scary. Although I was quite impressed with (2005) "The Decent" but only with the beginning parts of the film when they are all claustrophobic in the tight conditions of the pot holes. That to me should be how the whole film should of been, the characters being scared what could happen to them. Not being taken over by some stupid monsters.
I always believe the characters being scared and not seeing the monsters is always the best way to put across the fright to the audience. As you put the horrible picture of the monster into your head, and you can sometimes relate to the situations of when you have been at home on your own perhaps. Thats the best method in my opinion.

Anyway, enough of me trying to sound like I know what I am talking about.
If you have seen any of these films, let me know what your thoughts on them are.

M x

Vampire Weekend @ New Slang, Kingston

2010-01-15T15:04:00.002Z

Last night I was one of the lucky people to have a ticket to see Vampire Weekend play the Hippodrome in Kingston at the night of New Slang with support from Good Shoes. And boy was it a good night!

The last two weeks I have been getting myself more and more excited about the night, and these last few days I have been playing both of their albums constantly on repeat. Then the night arrived at the excitement risen to a new level. Although I did think at one point "What if they only come on and do a 30 minute set" but I didn't want to think about that too much.

We get to the venue reassembly early so we can get a few drinks in before hand, and have a look round see who's about (of course) then we go and look for a nice spot where we can stand and enjoy the bands. Which was a bloody good spot.

On come Good Shoes and they had themselves a cracking set. I haven't listened to this band much, however I do see the appeal, they have some good songs which got the crowd enjoying themselves. The lead singer kept crowd surfing which was amusing as the New Slang staff kept frantically trying to drag him back out the crowd. The lead guitarist impressed me a lot, I thought his guitar playing effortless to watch. Even when the odd technical riffs being played.

They finished their set, and you could instantly tell the crowd were starting to get real excited of the fact of having Vampire Weekend to appear on the stage next. Unfortunately there was around a 30 minute delay before they come on. But I didn't mind, most headline bands do this, its now the norm in my books. I guess it brings the hype up.
Eventually they hit the stage with a storm, and the crowd erupted. They had a very impressive set. I was literally blown away at how good they were playing. I really did feel that I was simply listening to the CD. They were note perfect and their timing was unbelievably good. They really are a band that has rehearsed a lot for their audience.
At the beginning of each song they played the crowd would jump all together in unison and break into a huge dance off.
My position was a good spot as I was looking directly over the crowd to the band, so I could see which songs lightened up the crowd. Of course when they played their new song "Cousins" the crowd went crazy and danced none stop until the end.
Then they had a little break and a speak to the crowd about some hat that was thrown onto the stage, at which point they broke into "A Punk" and the whole venue went electric. I've never seen such a small venue have a crowd go that nuts over the first bar of a song.
Thats what makes Vampire Weekend so great, all their songs are instantly recognizable. And this was definitely apparent last night.

To sum out, I was literally speechless when they finished their set, and I generally wanted them to play more. However after they left the stage, the DJs hit the decks and I danced constantly until me and my friends left around 2am. A very good night indeed.

M x

My mad weekend in Amsterdam!

2010-01-12T13:49:00.002Z

Back in December sometime one of my university friends tells me she is organising a trip to Amsterdam for her 21st birthday. Straight away, I was on board and couldn't wait to hit the city!

And boy did it not end on disappointment!
The Friday evening before we departed on the Saturday morning at stupid o clock was a bit bad though. Due to all the snow we weren't totally sure whether we were going to make it over there or not. We took the gamble and made the journey to Gatwick anyway, and to our delight the flight wasn't canceled. We were delayed on the plane for 3 hours. But we didn't mind, at least we were going there.

After we eventually touched down in Amsterdam we went straight to our hostel (which was surprisingly not so bad) dumped our bags in the room then started the "Site Seeing". The first corner we turn we entered straight into the "Red Light District"
The experience of that area is quite odd in my opinion, the girls standing in the windows just waiting for someone is quite an strange concept. You walk passed and nothing is hidden from view, they are clothed, but doesn't leave much to your imagination. But we had to see that area to believe it all.
Next we stumbled across the first of many sex shops we were to encounter in the area. That again was a big opener, the shop was not holding back with its products. The things you can buy over there, are mental to say the least. I think Ann Summers have to rethink their merchandise!
Of course we didn't go all that way to look at girls and sex shops, we were for a weekend of partying!
After the sex shop we hunted around for a Coffee Shop for some substances and a "Space Cake" or two. We eventually found one which sold the "Space Cakes". This is where the weekend actually kicked off. Whilst I was sat in the coffee shop I didn't really feel much effect, I thought it maybe quite a weak mixture or something.
Later we left the Coffee Shop to go back to our room for a quick nap before we head out for the night as we were all very tired from the stupid o clock flight over. Again upon leaving the coffee shop I felt no effect from what I had taken in the Coffee Shop.
We arrived back at the Hostel got into our room and everyone got into bed after we had all eaten some crisps. Munchies!?
However I didn't want to go to sleep which was the same for one of my friends who asked if I wanted to go back downstairs into the bar. I agreed and we went back at bought a pint.
This is where it all began.

I was sitting there feeling quite good, really chilled out, we both went and sat down in view of one of the Tv screens in the bar, where a football match was being played. We both sat and watched the game, this is when I started to feel really strange. I could see myself watching the TV but not taking any of it in. I felt myself getting sucked into the TV. I snapped out of it turned looked at my friend. She was the same being mesmerized by the TV. I then told her "erm... I can feel it now.."
She said she felt the same, at which this point we just both burst into laughter, over nothing. We couldn't stop ourselves laughing which felt like at least 20 mins. After that stopped I started feeling paranoid, thinking everyone was watching me, and knowing what I was up to. (of course that wasn't true, as it was the norm for Amsterdam)
We sat for about hour or so trying to talk to each other with no words leaving our mouths, practically just noises. Then my mouth went really dry and I went to take a sip of my pint which was not a good answer. At which point I turned and said I actually did want to go to bed now. Me and my friend both went back to the room which everyone else having a nap. This is when the effect kicked in even more, I kept waking up mid sleep and thinking everything in the room was literally going in reverse. Was mental, and to be honest I was starting not like it and just wanted it to finish.
We all woke up after an hour or so, at this point I felt completely fine and refreshed.
The experience was interesting, as I have always been curious to see what its like, however during the time I didn't like it much. I can look back on it now and laugh, and happy I gave it a go. As I thought "When in Rome" when everyone else was doing it. However I'd be happy to not doing it another time. I think once was enough.
We head out for the night, which was a great experience, the whole ear was electric with people everywhere being very drunk. We again walked down the Red Light District, this time as it was night, there were men everyone checking them out, and I saw quite a few guys in through the doors. How desperate do you want to be?
This night I didn't drink too much, as I started to feel the after effects from the Space Cakes!

The following day we decided to actually do some real site seeing around the town. One place we went to was the Sex Museum, this was an hilarious experience, learning about sex through the ages. There was a lot of laughter from us all. We saw a photograph which generally looked like Susan Boyle. After a day of seeing the sites we got some drink and headed back to the Hostel to do an evening a real student way, or pre drinks in before going out. Consisting of a lot of drinking games. I would love to spend those 2 hours all over again, it was so much fun. We were all in fits of laughter for the whole time. Whilst we were playing the drinking games a guy entered the room. As it was 15 people to a room and there was only 10 of us. We started to chat to him, and it was actually from Southampton. Which goes to show how much of a small world it can be. We finished off the drinking games, and asked him and his friend whether they wanted to come out for the night with us. Eventually they agreed as they were both tired from their traveling they have been doing. We hit our first club, which gaves us all a free shot as it was our friends birthday trip. Then from that point I think I just danced throughout the whole time in that club until it closed at some time that I can't remember. We left the club and went into the club which was right next door, and again carried on the partying. I went and sat down for a bit, as I was feeling a little worse for wear. Where I found myself watching the TVs as they were playing full episodes of Tom & Jerry, which was great as it kept me occupied for a few hours or so.
This club eventually closed and we got back to the hostel around 5am, and hit the pillow and slept right through till the morning, at 10am when we had to be kicked out our room. This was not good as I had only 5 hours to try and sleep off my hangover. Which was not good, as I feel so rough in the morning from being woken up from the lights being turned on from the Hostel owner shouting at us to leave.
We packed our bags and put them downstairs then spent the rest of the day with more site seeing as our flight wasn't till 9pm. The whole of this time I was not in place, meaning I was sick about 7 times. Once in the toilet for our room, the toilet in the bar downstairs. And a toilet in a local museum we went to all about Ann Frank. Then to top that off when we arrived at the Amsterdam airport to fly back to Gatwick, I managed to be sick right on the Airport floor right outside a cafe. Little embarrassing to say the least. But again I can look back and laugh.

On the plane back we asked if we could get a birthday message from the caption for our friend who actually turned 21 on that day, to our delight he agreed and gave her a birthday message. Which of course got us all happy and cheered a lot. No doubt annoying the other passengers.
The fly back was quite and painless as there was only a 30min delay. Getting back I finally came round and felt alive, and stopped being sick. Everyone else was going to go to a local club near us back home, however I couldn't face doing that, so I went back home and had a great night sleep.

The whole weekend was an amazing experience, and a big eye opening. I think I would like to live there for about a year. To get a full experience, as some parts are quite nice places to live I think. It would be nice to live right next to the Thames they have their. And have my own boat. I guess its something to think about in the future.
I would certainly advised anyone else who is thinking about going to Amsterdam to take the opportunity and go there. You will not be let down.

M x

New Years Eve - A result in my eyes!

2010-01-01T23:29:00.004Z

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Last night my new years celebrations went swimmingly well I think! I had a good night of basically dancing away constantly with my housemates, and my mates from back home. But as I sort of expected my mates from back home weren't too impressed with the evening. The music being played wasn't totally their cup of tea. But I didn't mind I was still enjoyed myself, didn't want their mood kill my night!
This mood they had meant they left early, but me and my housemate soldered on right to the end of the night when the lights came on! Good times!

However when I come home I find my friends from back home have made a complete mess of my kitchen and my bedroom. To be honest I wasn't too pleased with that outcome. It showed their complete lack of respect to not only me but my housemates who they have only just met. Ridiculous! I'm sure they wouldn't of liked it if the same thing happened to them.

Anyway rant over, lets see how 2010 unfolds, so far its been a day of clearing the hangover. Spending the whole day in bed. Tomorrow I think I do some stuff to the house that needs to be done. Think this year I shall be more active with doing things. I don't like not doing stuff! Oh and to find a nice girlfriend :)

What's your new years resolution?

M x

New Years Eve - I have a plan!

2009-12-30T16:54:00.003Z

The last few days I have been going back and forth through phone calls and texting my housemates to try and organise a good night out for New Years Eve. I think I have finally have it sorted it. I have high hopes for the night now!

The last few New Years Even have been quite appalling. One year we went to a house party and got kicked out, meaning me and my friends actually celebrated New Years 12 O clock in the middle of the street going to another house party. Another year we decided to spend £20! to go to a club which we went to every week. Was a total waste of money as the club was rammed, meaning we couldn't get on the dance floor and took a year to get served at the bar. Plus the drink prices had been raised through the roof! And then last year my mates decide on a bar crawl at the last minute, which was a very expensive idea.

So now you can see why I have been working hard to make sure this year is going to be a good one for once!
We are off to a club in Kingston which has been reopened under the name of Hippodrome. The small record store in Kingston called Banquet Records have organised this event, which means there will be good DJs as the owners of the Record store have good taste in music! The main room is Indie so I imagine I shall be spending most of my night there. 2nd room is Dubstep and Electronic. Then the 3rd room will be Alternative Nu Metal, so that will be interesting!

Fingers crossed I haven't hyped up the night too much and it turns out to be bad. I have also invited a few friends from back home to come along to show them a better night out than Portsmouth ;-)

I'll let you know how the event works out after it happens.

M x