Thoughts of a Trying Atheist

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2009-12-26T18:26:00.001Z

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http://toata.wordpress.com

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#50; A personal retrospective of 2009

2009-12-26T13:22:00.001Z

First off, a very merry Christmas to all reading and I hope that you’ve had a fantastic few days with all your loved ones in the festive celebrations. My apologies for not being so active in this past month with blog entries on here, it’s been a very hectic combination of being at work with the Christmas food rush and doing university work and the avalanche of assignments I had thrown at me. so with this break of worries and woes I do wish you all the best with your festivities and a happy new year!

2009 has been a remarkable year for myself, and a very special year at that. There have been events that have changed my life without a doubt, and there have been events that have inspired me, moved me and just made me feel much happier about who I am and what my course of action in life is to be. It’s quite odd looking back at the past 12 months and recollecting the memories in a blog format as I do worry that it seems slightly self obsessive to be bringing up a wonderful 12 months for myself, but for me I just wanted to share with you why I’m sad to see the end 2009 going out.

There are a few major events that have occurred this year that have definitely been a huge positive boost; as of writing I’ve found myself part of a relationship with my wonderful girlfriend going on 8 months on the 28th and it’s ridiculous how much it’s improved my self esteem and confidence about life in general. I’m quite a shy person and, in comparison to some friends, I much prefer to keep my personal life ‘personal’ as such the term suggests. At the same time, I could happily scream out the delight and happiness being with Lou this year has made me feel, and there’s a good possibility she’ll be reading this later (*waves*), so I can’t thank her enough for actually finding some sanity in putting up with me, the fact that she’s the most wonderful person to have found in my life and for making things work because it’s been incredible, really incredible. At least that makes me look forward to 2010!

Away from the more personal feelings of life, as a Formula 1 fan it has been an incredible year of emotions and unexpected twists and turns. Coming into 2009 the team I supported found themselves struggles on life support after the pullout of Honda. Yet, by the end of October, they found themselves having a world championship driver and a constructors championship to be proud of. To go from drowning in worry to the sheer elation of victory was quite a turnaround and it’s been more than an emotional rollercoaster, to say the least! As if it’s not obvious now, I do love my Formula 1 and I get into the sport quite dedicatedly. The battle between my two favourite drivers at my favourite team was just sheer madness in controlling all the various emotions as the season went on but it was just amazing to see Brawn doing so well after the past few years of horrid performances from the cars Button and Barrichello were driving. Furthermore, the past 12 months have seen the world of Sidepodcast and it’s wonderful community become a big part of my life and to know there are F1 fans out there as completely mad as myself about the sport and unbelievably funny people at the same time is really fantastic and, going back to Lou, if it wasn’t for her re-introducing me to the wonderful world of Sidepodcast it’s quite staggering how different my year could have been. I also had the fantastic experience of visiting the Goodwood Festival in early July and it absolutely blew me away, as you can see in the link. It was a wonderful few days and a must for all motorsport fans of course. Will I be there in 2010? Oh without a doubt!

In general, 2009 had been an odd year in some ways. There have been a lot of deaths reported in the mainstream media, whether they be in sport, in general showbiz or other areas that the media have brought up over the past 12 months. One of the saddest and biggest losses in 2009, for me at least, was the passing of Sir Bobby Robson. The man was a footballing legend and much loved personality of ‘the beautiful game’ and it would definitely be an agreed statement that part of British football died with the passing of this legend. Other people who have passed away in the last year include Henry Surtees, who was involved a freak accident that ultimately cost his life, Michael Jackson, Heath Ledger and many others, and of course the many brave soldiers and individuals fighting abroad in various countries for us. To everyone affected in 2009 by the deaths in whatever way, I can only offer my condolences.

To move onto a more positive note, there has been much change over the past year. The popularity of the social networking service Twitter has exploded into the big time, with now millions upon millions of users using the service, it has without a doubt become a big feature of people lives over 2009. It made controversial changes at times, it attracted big celebrities names, it became a source of real time news and instant updates when necessary. Every year we seem to have a big fad grow into major popularity and it can be hard to argue that Twitter was 2009’s ‘big thing’. Onto a more personal level, 2009 saw Muse release their fifth studio album in The Resistance, a grand journey of music that for me took Muse to a whole new level with some of the ideas produced on the album such as the Exogenesis Symphony. I’m still undecided if it’s my favourite Muse album; it is brilliant to me but it feels wrong to place it over the sheer genius that is Origin of Symmetry or Absolution! Nevertheless it was new material from the band and a huge year for them, building upon a big album that was much waited for and with such events as the Eurasia treasure hunt it made the build up even more exciting. I know I definitely wasn’t disappointed with the eventual outcome.

Oh, and of course, a pigeon stole my ideas in the summer. Worrying times.

So what else can I say? It’s a shame that 2009 has to end because I’ve had an absolute ball of a time. But I can only look forward to 2010 with much anticipation and hope that it will be as brilliant as the twelve months have been. Of course, 2009 saw the introduction of this very blog as well as the recent creation of my Formula 1 blog over at Gridwalk Talk so I hope you continue to visit over the next 12 months, hope that I can continue to entertain you if that’s the case and that you all have an absolutely wonderful 2010!

#49; Apple Know How to Make a Man ‘Appy

2009-11-27T19:23:00.001Z

It’s been nearly 2 months now since I purchased my iPod Touch, a purchase that to this day I still find myself dazzled with bliss and happiness because it has provided many hours of, well, awesome! If you remember back to when I first got it, I blogged about it here on ToaTA as an after effect of the happiness at finally getting an iPod Touch. Of course, one of the biggest factors of buying this device was the Apps that Apple had released for this and the iPhone, so here’s my favourite apps and games I’ve bought and loved since my purchase… (although you soon may realise these will be balancing more towards my favourite games rather than apps, but still!)

Beneath A Steel Sky
Price: Currently on offer at 59p
Genre: Point and Click adventure game

If you love Broken Sword, Monkey Island or any of the old LucasArts adventure point and click games then this is an absolute must for you. I’ve loved the game way before it was on the iPod Touch and have played it many times on SCUMMVM but it’s a perfect companion for the Touch/iPhone. You get a distinct feel of 1984 and the whole dystopian vibe of a new world from the game, and the voice acting and addictiveness of it is second to none for me on the format. I think this was the first app I actually purchased and I certainly recommend it to all who enjoy these type of games. It works well, it looks fantastic with the Dave Gibbons cartoon cutscenes and the voice acting is absolutely spot on. If you want a game that makes you think in order to solve a problem, then you should give it a whirl too – just be patient and think smart. Such a great port of a great game.

Fling
Price: 59p
Genre: Puzzle game

Here’s one for the more casual gamer out there who wants a quick puzzle game to drive them mental but still be brilliantly addictive. Fling seems you, wait for it, flinging little furballs off the screen so you work it out that you only have 1 furball left. It sounds easy but it’s far more difficult that you imagine at times and will get you thinking! It’s a great little app, have several modes to keep you amused, all whilst being ridiculously adorable and fun at the same time. The impressive thing about it is that it stores thousands upon thousands of puzzles so that you’ll probably never get the same puzzle twice! It has stumped me plenty of times and it’s just a great little app. If it does drive you to the edge of desperation at times it does provides hints but handily pops up with the message ‘are you sure you want to cheat?’ – fantastic way to send me on a guilt trip and making sure I end up not cheating!

Canabalt
Price: £1.79
Genre: It’s a game… but… I dunno what genre?

Yeah, explaining the genre for this is a good start. Ignoring that though, Canabalt is brilliant. It is evil, and so frustrating, and it gets on your nerves, but it is fantastic. It’s basically an app port of a free browser based PC game and even though it’s not free it’s still well worth of the price. Your goal is to get the little guy who is running across falling buildings as far as possible, by tapping the screen to make him jump. The further he gets, the faster he runs, so from time to time you will need to slow him down by running into obstacles. It will drive you nuts as you start getting really far then mess it up by misjudging the timing of a jump but I love it nevertheless! also, recommended you play with headphones on as it has a wonderfully made soundtrack that gets you really into the game. Not sure what’s with the robots in the background though…

TheTrainLine
Price: Free
Genre: Train App

Look! an actual app! And it’s free!! Moving away from games on this format, the Trainline app is immensely useful if you find yourself on the move via trains at all. It’s able to check train times for you, save journeys, search journeys, search stations, tell you the nearest station based on your location, etc… basically, for a free app, it’s been an immensely useful tool to have in my pocket just to reassure me in strange, unknown stations. It’s probable more beneficial to iPhone users with a 3G connection rather than iPod Touch owners depending on wifi such as myself but I’ve still depended on it when I’ve had such wireless capabilities at certain stations. When you consider the official National Rail app comes at a hefty £4.99 I can’t see why you’d at least consider this if you need one for your journeys.

And finally, of course…

The Secret of Monkey Island Special Edition
Price: £2.39 until Dec 1st
Genre: Point and Click adventure game

Oh you thought I was going to get through this without talking about what is probably my all-time favourite game on the iPod? No chance! What can I say about this genius few hours of gaming? It’s smart, it’s funny, it’s so well written and it deserves it’s status as being a legendary game to those that have played it. Sure, it has a bit of a hefty price (buy now whilst it’s on sale!!) but my word is it worth it. You control Guybrush Threepwood, Mighty Pirate™ in his battle to become the Caribbean's most famous pirate! I don’t think I can actually say anything bad about this game. It’s ridiculous, I know, but it even works well on the iPod/iPhone. Its only right I end this section by saying ‘You're no match for my brains, you poor fool.!’.

So this is my roundup of what I’ve really, really enjoyed or found useful on my iPod Touch so far. I’ve got quite a few more games and apps than this obviously, but these are definitely the stand out in what I’ve used the most over the past few weeks since purchasing the Touch. I’m surprised from a gaming point of view how well it works as I was definitely a critic of such a format being a gaming handheld but, look at how many games have gotten into this blog entry. I think that says enough to me.

And yes, that was the best I could think of for a blog title. I’m sorry. As my regards, please be nosy and look at what actually takes up the contents of my iPod Touch…

#48; Fail.

2009-11-24T10:32:00.001Z

Whilst I’m struggling to fight through this C++ assignment I’m working on, I find myself easily distracted today by the Fail Blog. Now we all probably know what the site is about and the whole internet meme of ‘Fail’, but it still makes me laugh ridiculously at times in terms of what you can find on there. just wanted to share some of my favourites.

Using Photoshop so much makes me appreciate the amount of fail in that even more so.

You heard the sign, men worldwide. Don’t get pregnant.

I’m sure the city of Denver is proud of its’ Brians.

I don’t even know where to begin with that.

22 years of life experience necessary too.

So that’s what they’re used for!!

Rubens would be proud.
And finally, an epic video that just screams fail but yet win at the same time…

A truly wild Space Odyssey. I like how by the time it gets to the end it’s just an array of high pitched noises.

You can find much more FAIL over at the Fail Blog if you’re as easily amused as I am, of course!

#47; Water Always Wins

2009-11-15T20:55:00.001Z

Photograph – BBC

WARNING – POSSIBLE SPOILERS AHEAD FOR THE EPISODE AND CHRISTMAS PREVIEW

The beginning of the end. That’s what it was hailed as, the start of the trio of episodes that sees the exit of the great David Tennant from his role as ‘The Doctor’, and without an episode of Dr Who since Easter us Who-fans were just dying of anticipation for Waters of Mars. It had been massively hyped up by the BBC, Tennant has been flying about from show to show getting the word out and about 40 minutes before I write this up, it finished. 60 minutes of Dr Who. Was it worth the wait? To quote The Doctor himself… ‘ohh-ohhhhh yes!!’!

To put it simply, the episode was even better than I was expecting. It was written by Russell T. Davies, and his episodes for me tend to be over written in content and story at times so I had that on my mind. I will admit – towards the end I did wonder to myself how long it was going to be before RTD involved some over the top, unnecessary addition to the action unfolding in front of us. It kind of happened, but it stayed far less ridiculous than previous ‘RTD moments’ and it ruined nothing for me. Add that to the fact that there was no Dr Who for the majority of the year; this episode had a lot to live up to! As ever though it prevailed with flying colours and a sense of utter wanting from myself for the next episode to be screened at Christmas. I can’t wait just over another month!!!

So what made it such a great return to form after this unnecessary absence? The story, and characters involved, worked wonderfully well and they had their reason to be there. We were given their stories oh-so briefly through the Doctor and for the most part they all seemed vital to keeping the story and show watchable. Adelaide Brooke was a fine leader for her team, and almost companion, in the epsiode and the way her history was affected by what choices were made by the end of the episode – her own choices included as we saw. I found it quite smart how the whole history aspect of the story changed a few times depending on the Doctor and what he did, and of course, for the first time we saw a new side to Tennant’s Doctor. Plus, the return of the Ood that, previously a while ago, mentioned a song relating to the end of The Doctor… lots of little callbacks to references previously mentioned made it even better!

How weird was it to see Tennant turn his lovable cheeky-rascal character into a malicious, arrogant, power-mad creature? For me seeing the Doctor go from a down-trodden, defeated friend into an unlikeable fool was quite something. It was a side we’d never seen before – whereas the Doctor knew he had his power as a Timelord, the limits were always there and boundaries more than existed in his mind. By the end of the episode, these boundaries were more than gone, the power had gone to his head and it was bizarre to see his unlikeable quality of him that, for me at least, I did not expect to see. Despite that, it was pretty wonderful to see how easy it was for Tennant to flick the switch and decide to take everything into his own hands, and give a fresh angle for the Doctor before his time is up.

So that leaves us waiting with much exasperation for Christmas. The preview showed so much – the return of Donna Noble, the legend that Donna’s grandfather Wilf (cheers James!), scenes of mayhem and chaos, the Doctor continuing his new line of power and, of course, the return of The Master. Yes, we knew it was happening, but my god was it good to see. The mention of the four knocks, the sinister laugh, and John Simm in tow to take this Doctor’s era out with a bang…

Christmas can’t come quick enough…

#46; Why The Office is better away from the UK

2009-11-14T22:21:00.001Z

Ricky Gervais is a bit of a marmite type of guy for me. See, I love his stand-up shows and he is undoubtedly a very funny bloke whether you like him or not, whether his arrogant humour is your thing or not I mean. He of course grew into the world of super stardom via writing his huge, huge hit TV ‘mockumentary’ The Office. In case you’ve never seen it, it followed the every day lives of a series of paper company workers in Slough, England and just basically followed around the workers and most prominently boss David Brent, played by Gervais. It’s a good show, don’t get me wrong, but the cringe worthy nature of Brent (despite that being the entire point of him) makes it a tad unwatchable at times because he does drive me up the wall. A few years ago, a good time after The Office was super popular in the UK, it was announced that The Office was making it’s way over to the American side of the pond. Initially, I met this with utter discontent because the humour in the show is very, very British. However, it seems that 6 seasons into the show, it for me is the utter highlight of the two by a stupid distance.

David Brent Michael Scott

For starters, I am a huge, huge fan of Steve Carell. Whether it be his legendary performance as Brick in Anchorman, Evan in Bruce/Evan Almighty or the depressed Frank in Little Miss Sunshine, he has starred in many films where he has made the film for me. Once again, he did the job with the transition from British humour to American humour with The Office. Much like Gervais, Carell finds himself in the role of boss Michael Scott, who simply put just wants to be a nice guy! The first season of the US Office sees it basically copying everything that had been done in the original, and it was good don’t get me wrong. Michael had his loyal (to a point) kiss-ass sidekick Dwight, his ever-admiring Jim being the witty output of his office and a whole host of characters that were included. The thing is, if you saw both the original and the US Office, you could tell it wasn’t working as well in an American context. That’s why, from Season 2, the show absolutely went into overdrive into how well written, well acted and well received it became. To put it bluntly, it became bloody brilliant.

The thing is with the US Office is that it has been on our screens a lot longer now than the original was. Gervais’ creation only lasted 2 series, and roughly 12 episodes as well as few Christmas specials along the way, whereas the US Office sees it currently running through it’s sixth season in the US and well passed the 100 barrier. The characters have grown and grown, they have left and they have come and the series has expanded way beyond what was seen in that first season of the US Office. Because it has been on longer, you do know the characters a lot, lot better. You gain a greater amount of understanding between the relationship of Pam and Jim, that Dwight has his innocent moments in a sea of utter Dwight moments (it’ll make sense if you see it), that the various smaller characters like the lovable Kevin and his habits, Angela and her stern attitude to absolutely everything (except cats). and so much more. Each character has their own personality, their own story to tell in the office, their own part of the show, and it works so beautifully well because as you keep on watching you really get to know everyone as part of the office. For me the original UK version had a few characters that were worth watching, whilst the majority of the office didn’t really add much to the show.

The humour too is much more suited to my tastes. The biggest difference to the two is the fact that the UK original includes a lot of swearing as is the case with normal British banter in modern conversation, whereas any acts of swearing come at very minor opportunities or are bleeped out from the US equivalent. Furthermore, the humour as I’ve previously stated is completely different in my opinion for reasons already stated – the writing in the UK original very much seems to be based on the antics of David Brent and his judging of his office, his employees and his decisions with a back story of Tim and Dawn and the general British banter humour mixed in with Brent constantly trying to prove his comedy value, whereas the US Office is much more orientated towards the stories of the office in general with all it’s characters running around the main characters of Jim, Pam, Dwight, and of course Michael in charge, not to mention how Steve Carell makes Michael Scott a much more likeable, lovable boss despite his many flaws including his greed at times and ignorance, yet comes across as more innocent, naive and just wanting to enjoy what he does with who he considers his friends. That, for me, makes the offices of Dunder Mifflin in Scranton (US) just so much more enjoyable and warmer to feel involved in than the colder environment that is the Slough offices of Wernham Hogg (UK).

So that’s why I prefer the American version to the original. They say a lot of times that remakes of a classic TV show/film should never be done, as they inevitably end up being an embarrassment to the original; even more so most of the time when it jumps over the Atlantic I find! This however proves that, every once in a while, it’s worth going for if the outcome is as good as it became here. The show is probably my favourite comedy TV sitcom considering – it’s without a doubt up there with Scrubs and Arrested Development in terms of how fantastically done it all is.

How do you feel if you have watched both the original UK and new US series’? Are you sticking to your guns with Gervais’ creation, or more than happy to embrace our American cousins into The Office?

#45; The 2009 Formula 1 TOATA Awards

2009-11-05T15:11:00.001Z

Hello and welcome to the first ever Formula 1 Thoughts of a Trying Atheist Awards, a catchy named ceremony where the awards themselves are named just as self indulgently as whoever Oscar is and his awards he named, and more importantly, some alternative awards inspired by Jake Humphrey’s latest blog entry within the past year of Formula 1 and certain areas that deserve to be credited, shamed, and laughed at within the sport. It’s been quite a year for Formula 1, with moments such as Mr Fisichella unsure where to pit, Ferrari getting in a strop and being upset at just about everything, and allsorts of almost-wacky-racers inspired efforts from the sport. Nevertheless, let’s jump straight into the awards!

Biggest F1 Fail Moment of the Year 2009
Winner: Michael Schumacher realising that he ain’t the man he used to be
Runner up: Luca Badoer being even worse than that

Whilst we all felt for Felipe Massa’s horrifying incident at Hungary earlier this year, the news that soon occurred not long after with Schumi divided much opinion. Whilst many over at Sidepodcast were angry at upset that ‘he’ was returning, others felt joy at this 7 time world champion making his return to the sport. However, I will admit that after the euphoria from the media and sudden loving for the man seemed to appear when it was announced he was returning, I produced many a laugh when Ferrari admitted that… well, he ain’t returning. FAIL. Although I approve of him not returning. But still. FAIL for Ferrari. Whoopsy!

This leads me into my runner up for this award, which goes to Luca Badoer who seriously, seriously defined the term fail during his time as an f1 driver for Ferrari. I mean… wow. Almost impressive!

‘My Ears are Burning’ Award 2009
Winner: James Allen’s… thing after Malaysian GP
Runner up: Anything spoken by Jonathon Legard, throughout 2009

After putting up with the noise that is Legard over 2009 on BBC F1, I began thinking… maybe I do kind of miss that scallywag James Allen? However, I soon remembered this utter masterpiece from Allen created after the Malaysian GP retelling the weekend’s events in a narrative only Alan Partridge would be proud of. It’s a bit of a shame because I kind of like James Allen, mostly because of Legard’s monotone… monotoneness. Nevertheless, enjoy the winner of the ‘My Ears are Burning’ Award 2009:

CLICK ME TO WATCH THE VIDEO IF YOU DARE.

Sorry about the lack of embedding. It just would not let me, and just didn’t work. I can only assume the video is so rubbish that even HTML hates it. Concerning the video though, I can’t begin to imagine which hand gestures speak volumes with that. Oh and the runner up? Well the title speaks for itself really.

Ridiculous Bernie Ecclestone Moment of the Year 2009
Winner: ‘Hitler would have got things done’
Runner up: His ongoing affair with secret lover Simon Gillett

We all know how outspoken Bernie Ecclestone is. His shortcoming in height are easily made up with his rather ridiculous solutions to sorting things out – I take you back to the F1 Olympics idea with the medals instead of points debacle. However, Mr Ecclestone really pulled it out of the bag this year with the simply outrageous comments he made to The Times:

“In a lot of ways, terrible to say this I suppose, but apart from the fact that Hitler got taken away and persuaded to do things that I have no idea whether he wanted to do or not, he was in the way that he could command a lot of people, able to get things done.

“In the end he got lost, so he wasn’t a very good dictator because either he had all these things and knew what was going on and insisted, or he just went along with it . . . so either way he wasn’t a dictator.”

Yeah. Kudos to you Bernie, for making the most remarkably stupid, non related Formula 1 conversation when talking to The Times about Formula 1. I for one can’t wait to see you compare the British Grand Prix to the Falklands, or perhaps talk about Apartheid in south Africa being nothing when you lose money in Formula 1. He really did go the whole pitch to get a ridiculous outspoken comment out there and what a ridiculous comment it was.

The runner up for this award once again goes to Bernie, of course, for this stunning revelation of deadlines over the course of 2009. Donington and Simon Gillett were supposed to pay up for the British GP, yet all they created was a big hole in the middle of the track, the loss of an iconic landmark over the track and an embarrassing year for the future of the British GP. And yet, deadlines were being thrown out left right and centre regarding the payments! It was obvious that Gillett wasn’t going to get it done, and Bernie continued to play with his strings until it finally ended in November 2009. Sadly, not long after Donington lost the British GP, the man who rebuilt Tom Wheatcroft and owned it for so many years passed away just as the future of the track he loved went with his memory. Sad times.

F1 Building of the Year 2009
Winner: Abu Dhabi Hotel which apparently had a race track under it
Runner up: The Green Building of Valencia

Fair play to the organisers at Abu Dhabi. They promised a huge event to welcome F1 into Yas Marina and they certainly delivered with a day-night event with a huge, modern world of buildings set in an area which will be built up over time, with an accompanying Ferrari World and of course, this Abu Dhabi Hotel which was a massive highlight without a doubt. It was magnificent, it was multicoloured, it was exciting and it brought Formula 1 buildings to a whole new level. Also, it had a f1 race under it but that was forgettable. nevertheless, let’s take a moment to look at the well deserved winner of the F1 Building of the Year 2009:

Moody Blue… Crazy Red….

The runner up for this unbelievably prestigious award is of course the Green Building of Valencia, which is quite simply the only really distinguishable feature of he track asides from the greay walls, grey bridges, grey grey, and docks. It stands out in a world of dull and even though I’m sure Valencia is a lovely place to visit, the Green Building of Valencia is a true highlight of the Formula 1 calendar as I’m sure everyone will agree. The following photo is courtesy of Lou:

A truly remarkable building. As I’m sure every single fan will agree, this award was a big one for Formula 1. So well done to the new giant colour hotel for doing such a great job, and I hope it does such a great job next year as well at being a hotel!

‘How can a comment make me laugh so much?’ of The Year 2009
Winner: Steven Roy on Sidepodcast explaining Star Wars

Now I know what you are thinking - ‘This has nothing to do with Formula 1’ – true enough, even though it was made over at Sidepodcast but there is no way I could make awards and not give credit to this genius comment. It was made on the fateful day of 10th April 2009, when Lou (who is probably going to hate me for this!) mentioned that she wasn’t sure who Yoda was and that she had never seen Star Wars but had seen Cool Runnings. This led to Steven Roy making this incredible comment:

It was just the same except Star Wars was in space and instead of going down a hill they had to go and take on Darth Vader and the bad guys in a massive space war.

It is just genius and everyone deserves to know about it. I can’t remember laughing so had at such a ridiculous comparison and yet somehow it kind of makes sense, so congratulations to Steven Roy for winning this non-F1 related award in an F1 awards ceremony!

Pit Stop of the Year Award 2009
Winner: Jaime Alguersauri’s ‘Pitstop’ in Abu Dhabi GP
Runner Up: Heikki and Kimi’s Fiery Duel, Brazilian GP

There is simply no way I was going to let Tim, also known as Jaime Alguersauri to those who have no idea what I mean by saying Tim, get away without having a bit of fun at that silly pitstop he made at the ‘race’ in Abu Dhabi. Basically, the man was having gearbox troubles in the race and needed to come in to pit. So, he came strolling down the pitlane as you do to stop… only to stop at Sebastien Vettel’s pitbox… who was in second place at the time and due to stop at any second. As Tim came to stop, he suddenly realised as did the crew who pulled out some marvellous reflexes such as the front jack man who launched himself out of the way motioning for Tim to get out of the way. Basically, he came in, strolled through Vettel’s Red Bull pit box ready to stop, and went straight back out again…

…only to have his gearbox die out on the track. All in all, a pretty successful few laps for Tim and a definite winner of this award. It’s been quite a year for him since the master class that was Sebastien Bourdais was (un)fortunately sacked only to be replaced with this young man who is obviously unsure, just as the rest of us, what the differences between the Toro Rosso and Red Bull liveries are!

The runner up here is a joint effort to two finnish drivers who deserve much credit for their hard work to cause utter mayhem during a first lap of the Brazilian GP that had more action than an Action Man Convention in the middle of shooting an action movie. The mayhemic start to the Brazilian GP saw both Kovaleinen and Raikonnen both come in for repairs and the like. The thing is, what with it being Massa’s first time back at a racetrack since his accident, Heikki thought it would be pretty damn sweet to impersonate his Benny Hill-esque get away from his pitstop by pulling off the fuel hose and dragging it down the pitlane with his car. Unfortunately, this time he had Raikonnen right behind him causing the fuel pouring out to ignite in a fireball of mayhem around Kimi’s car who simply drove through it and carried on, being the Iceman he is. Whilst of course completely serious, it was also completely insane and one hell of a start to arguably the the best grand prix of the season. So well done to Heikki I suppose for coming second, which is something that isn’t usually said unless the sentence involved Lewis Hamilton. Sorry Amy.

One quick final special mention to Giancarlo Fisichella who began his season in Australia by driving straight past his mechanics for a pitstop and then driving into them when realising. Who’d have thunk that could have lead to a Ferrari drive!

And now, sadly onto our final award for 2009, the most prestigious award of the entire ceremony…

Best Formula 1 Scandal of The Year 2009
Winner: The Downfall of Lord Flavio and his Sidekick Pat
Runner Up: Breakaway Bonanza!!

So of course it would not be a Formula 1 year without a good ol’ scandal in the background to get on our nerves and make us hate the sport that we love. Luckily, in 2009, there must have been 6 or 7 of them so it’s been a treat for us to have all this politics thrown at us fans!! Yes we’ve had Lewis Hamilton having a bit of a laugh with the stewards, and of course we had that wonderful saga with the double diffusers being ‘the reason for Brawn GP’s success’. Brilliant!! However, it is kind of my honour though to award this to Nelson Piquet Jr, Pat Symonds, and Flavio Briatore for their stupidity in thinking they could get away with this yet, at the same time, utter genius is ridding that horrible man Flavio from Formula 1. Yes, they got away with it for a while but those crazy kooky Scooby Doo kids at the FIA sure did find out about it sooner or later once Nelson broke away from the grip of Flav. So many questions arose from this saga – why didn’t Nelson just say no and report them? How much did Fernando Alonso know about this? Who uploaded that picture of Flavio showering onto drop.io? It was truely a worrying time for Formula 1 and the safety aspect but we all fought together to get through it, Flav got banned for life, Pat got banned for 5 years and Nelson got shunned by the Formula 1 teams for being a bit of a cheat. So the award goes out to these three idiots creating this saga! Congratulations!

The runners up here are the entire FOTA organization having a bit of a hissy fit about the idea of a two tier championship, which admittedly was a shocking idea as ever from Max, and threatening to breakaway from Formula 1. Let’s be honest – it was NEVER going to happen was it? It was seriously overblown by the media and by FOTA and it was a bit amusing to see them get their knickers in a twist until the FIA gave up and sorted it out with them. Well it worked I suppose!

So that’s it folks! I hope you’ve enjoyed these awards and I hope to see you next year for the return of the Formula 1 Thoughts of a Trying Atheist Awards 2010! God help us if it was anything as mental as the past year was!

#44; Rubens’ final charge…?

2009-11-02T18:37:00.001Z

Well, it finally happened. The dream team has been broken up! Today saw the long-time expected announcement of Rubens Barrichello’s move from Brawn GP to Frank Williams’ long running Williams F1 Racing team for 2010 Formula 1 Season. Now, I am a huge Rubens Barrichello fan as you times I refuse all probably know by now, and with these rumours over the past few months have seen many denials of truth behind them from myself but, with it finally confirmed and out in the open, let me explain to you why for me I’m finally at rest with his move to Williams.

Being at Brawn was a perfect predicament for a fan like myself of Rubens. He had a hell of a team behind him that had suffered the hard times of Honda and grown stronger from their troubles, he had a wonderful friend as a teammate in Jenson Button, he had a boss in Ross Brawn who is a Formula 1 mastermind and, possibly most importantly for Rubens, he had a car that could win and perform like others on the grid couldn’t. Surely you can understand why moving away from Brawn to me would be a downgrade, and yes, I will admit I still do consider it a downgrade when I think of the Cosworth engine being used but I’m starting to look forward to new times at Williams.

This year has been a truly awesome year to be a fan of the man. He got his first win and pole in several years since his days at Ferrari, not to mention the fact he recovered a seat even I considered lost at times with Bruno Senna arrival into Formula 1 which eventually didn’t happen until the recent Campos announcement, and even though he’s had his critics at times with media comments or whatnot, Rubens can be immensely proud of everything he has achieved at both Honda and at Brawn over their 4 year career partnership. It is a shame that he’ll be moving away from Brackley next year.

From Brackley though he goes to Oxfordshire and to Sir Frank Williams’ world of Williams. I will admit that I have far less support for Williams in comparison to what I knew and loved about Brawn, but what I do know and respect is that Williams are a team with incredible history behind them and are run wonderfully well as an independent team. It makes me smile that Rubens will be moving from independent to independent team which is really nice, and Rubens will no doubt be considered the number one driver at the team with rookie Nico Hulkenburg getting the opportunity to look up to Rubens’ experience as an F1 driver. It’ll be strange supporting a Williams as I haven’t been behind them since the days of Damon Hill in that gorgeous Rothmans Williams to be honest… but as I’ve previously stated, now I am looking forward to it.

So bring on 2010 after this on season and another year of Formula 1. What is most important no matter what team is that Rubens will still be on the Formula 1 grid going into his 300th race next season, an achievement that no other driver has beaten, and that this could be his final swansong. It’s absolutely worth thanking everyone at Brawn GP and those who departed over the winter from the Honda fallout for all their efforts to be such an awesome team behind Rubens at Brackley during his time there, and especially for making 2009 such a special year for Rubens Barrichello. It’s been such a wild, wonderful and emotional year to be a fan and, despite missing out on the championship, I wouldn’t have wanted it to be anything less.

So… what will happen next in the long and winding road that is Rubens’ career? Only time will tell – let’s just hope the success continues!

#43; New look, new update!

2009-10-23T21:47:00.001+01:00

If you’re a fond visitor of this blog, which I wholeheartedly hope that you are of course, then you’ll notice that I have searched from the cold-hearted depths of the blue world by going from my old dark blue template to quite a bright, bubbly new look! I noticed the design over at mashable.com and immediately fell in love with it. Although it does remind me of Twitter, if that’s a good thing or not? Nevertheless, I hope you readers are as happy with the result because it took a bit of work to get it working, but in the end, was definitely worth it!

Also, this morning I got notified by Microsoft that I had been accepted into the Xbox 360 Dashboard Update Preview Program. Catchy name. Nevertheless, the update was a big software update for the console whereas it added several social networking features to it’s service – Twitter, last.fm and Facebook to be precise – as well as a few numerous minor updates. If you know me, I annoy the bejesus out of plenty of people on Twitter because I do really enjoy using it. Fair enough I do update a lot but still! So to have Twitter on my most played console is either a) a dangerously stupid idea to lose followers or b) an interesting addition to an already rich-in-features console.

I’ve spent the day using the update and it’s definitely managed to get some opinions from me as the features have been dissected, analysed and caused a great deal of scientist-like-beard-stroking. First of all, the Facebook update is the biggest surprise for me. Over the past year or so, I’ve moved away from how much I use the website as it has become a social networking mess of rotten applications, status updates created with the typing ability of a horse, and just general mess of a website at times. (Thank god for Facebook Lite). However, the actual application for the 360 is mildly impressive. Photo exploring is fantastically done with the ability to view your own and others, status updates don’t drown your screen and there’s no site of the general annoyances that bug me so much on the website itself. It’s clean, it’s efficient, it works very well and it gets a thumbs up from me surprisingly.

Next of my checklist is last.fm. Now I’m a fan of last.fm anyways, even though it reveals just how secluded and sad my musical library seems to be with the aural range of a singular band at times. I blame Muse. They started it. Anyways, last.fm gets a thumbs up too. The only downside for me is that you get advertisement videos popping up when listening to the band radio stations within it’s database, much in the same way Spotify reminds you it is ready to take control of your mind every few songs, but that is easily ignored. The application on the 360 allows you to view a slideshow of photos concerning the band currently playing as well as browsing and searching bands and music from afar and beyond. No sign of any data-related inclusions such as viewing lists of most played and whatnot though, although it does scrobble your currently playing songs on there. A big improvement for me would be for it to be available during games but, seeing as it is an independent application you have to download rather than a piece of the dashboard, it’s understandable. This does lead me onto my final point though…

As if you haven’t guessed by now, my final area of review here is Twitter. Whilst many people have their own opinions of the service, I think it’s fantastic and over the year especially the boost in popularity has seem me use it a lot more myself as more people become accustomed to it. However, the Twitter inclusion into the Xbox 360 is a failure. A miserable failure at that. Let me explain; Twitter is all about real-time updates, about being able to give a short message giving your current status or a quick message to share, key word being quick. Now if you want to tweet from the Xbox 360 whilst playing a game, you will have to quit the game, find the Twitter tab on the dashboard, input your message, then leave the area, and load your game back up and go through the opening menus and load your save back up. The reason this annoys me so much is that Facebook and last.fm are standalone applications you have to download, whereas Twitter is not. It is integrated into the dashboard anyways, which makes me wonder, why on earth can’t you tweet from the popup Xbox Guide that is easily available to message, chat, view friends, etc? Surely an option to send a tweet would make far more sense in the middle of a game than leaving it and going through several unnecessary steps? It’s very disappointing. Whereas Twitter on the 360 will allow you to view trending topics, search for people, and view messages, @ messages, DM’s and the likes, I’m astounded that the obvious idea of allowing you to be given the opportunity to tweet on the Xbox Guide has been completely missed and left out hasn’t been utilised here.

Anyways that’s my view on the update program and the main updates it provided. The actual final dashboard update I believe is available on November 17th so if you have an Xbox 360, remember to check it out then and tell me what you think!

#42; Operating Problems

2009-10-21T14:34:00.001+01:00

Tomorrow sees the release of Windows’ latest operating system, Windows 7. There’s been a fair amount of anticipation about Windows 7, as it seems set to correct everything that many people feel went so wrong with Windows Vista. From my own personal point of view and usage of Vista over the years, I am part of this group that feels Vista was a pretty poor piece of software from Windows. However, I do realise there will be readers thinking ‘Well I’ve never had a problem with Vista’ – fair enough. This isn’t any propaganda or persuasion to get people to upgrade, this is just me explaining why Vista will soon be a past memory and one I won’t be reminiscing in anytime soon.

The biggest problem with Vista was when it was first released. I managed to use the OS not long after it was made public in January 2007. When it was first released, to me at least, it was almost unusable. There were bugs left, right and centre, the operating system itself caused some serious conflicts with games and program being used, and the hardware itself that the system required was a bit annoying. Whilst most computers at the market at the time could run Vista with no problems, or so was thought, features such as Windows Aero seemed to be pushed in and rushed so quickly they just caused crashes and problems. It was very, very annoying. Furthermore, you had this ridiculous amount of programs with the Windows tagline greeting you on a fresh install. Shovelware forced upon you that I was never going to use. If you want to find a way to annoy me instantly Microsoft, that was a perfect start.

Going back to the mention of gaming, XP was a fantastic system in it’s support and compatibility of games amongst it’s system and various system requirements that all PC games have. Vista needed, and still needs, more powerful requirements although it’s obviously less important and obvious with no games including XP requirements anymore for obvious reasons. I’m a big fan of older games but once more with Vista, they just simply did not go hand in hand – the biggest example I can think of is Theme Hospital which is near impossible to work with Vista for reasons I have no ideas about, yet it worked fine on XP and even on the Windows 7 beta I had no issues. To be honest I wish I had a greater understand as to why these problems occurred with Vista when other operating systems have no problems! Annoying!

My final area of annoyance I’m gonna quickly discuss is the fact that I’ve lost god knows how much work over the past 2/3 years with Vista. I understand if there is scepticism that this is Vista’s fault but how is it I can use these programs (NetBeans, Borland, etc) on XP in our student suites at university on XP perfectly well and then, when it comes to home use and Vista, it be such a pain in the arse to achieve a positive outcome without problems? It’s been really frustrating and this is almost turning into a rant but I’m holding back for my own sanity I think! for myself, it’s been too frustrating.

Oh, and User Account Control. Quite simply the stupidest feature I have ever encountered.

No operating system is perfect. I’ll happily admit that Windows Vista in it’s current state (with two major Service Packs now available to help) is a lot more usable and stable, and it is nowhere near as bad as when it first came out, but for me it still doesn’t make up for it. Over the years the many crashes, moments of lost work unexpectedly, conflicting hardware and software, rushed inclusions and just general frustrations I’ve experienced with Vista want me yearning for Windows 7. Sure, you could argue that I should jump over to the Mac or try out Linux (something I actually have plans for very soon but enough on that for now) but for me, Vista is soon to be a recent memory I’ll hopefully not be revisiting. The funny thing is, for all I know I could come back on here in a few months and absolutely destroy Windows 7 and everything it’s supposedly promising to do for the user. Should we have to pay for these major upgrades though? Not necessarily no. But that’s life.

Apologies if these seems an annoying few paragraphs to you, or seems a bit fickle to be so annoyed at Vista, but it’s my own personal views and I respect that everyone will have their own experiences with the way they used their computer. I just hope now that Windows 7 lives up to the promising feedback it seems to be getting!

Operating Systems. Serious Business.

#41; Tim Freakin’ Schafer

2009-10-13T19:58:00.001+01:00

It’s OK. I understand if you don’t know who Tim Schafer is. Let me educate you into his world of greatness.

Tim Schafer. He created some of those wonderful games you may not have heard off above (and more including Day of the Tentacle and Manic Mansion!). The games he gets involved with end up being funny, fantastic, completely underrated (see Grim Fandango and Psychonauts especially) and he has a wonderful reputation in the gaming industry. He’s also a funny guy to boot and quite down to earth about not only his but games in general as well. Simply put… he is a legend in the world of gaming, and this week, he has his next epic Brutal Legend coming out for PS3 and X360, a game I’ve been anticipating with a huge amount of expectancy for a long, long time. It’s finally here!

I just wanted to write up a quick entry regarding the man because his games have gone under the radar too many times. Grim Fandango is my favourite PC game I’ve ever played, or at least tied with Monkey Island series (hey who co-wrote them I wonder?) but so very few people have even heard of the game which is an absolute shambles! If I could as all of you readers to do one thing this year, it would be to go out and find a copy of this game online for a few pennies or something and play it. It’s such a charmingly funny yet addictively brilliant adventure game set in the world of the afterlife that probably makes no sense yet once you get into it’s wonderfully dark yet witty and well-written story, you’ll realise just how sad it is that the game has been ignored for some long. It is truly magnificent!

Furthermore, Schafer’s last release (and yet first game with Double Fine Productions, whom he found and still owns) was the just-as-brilliant Psychonauts, an adventure game based in a world of psychic abilities filled with fantastic characters, varied settings from area to area and just a stupidly under bought game by the general gaming consumer. The genera reception is that even though it got such wildly excellent acclaim from inside the industry, gamers just did not buy it. Why?! I should really mention that Psychonauts is now available on the Xbox Originals service if you own an Xbox 360…

But yes, I can’t begin to tell you how excited I am for Brutal Legend. Having played the demo last week, and again after that, and again for a few more times, just that small snippet alone sent my excitement values into overdrive. It plays great, it looks superb, it oozes charisma and personality with it’s characters (Jack Black is perfect for the game, love him or hate him) and I really do hope it succeeds because if there’s something Mr Schafer deserves, it’s a big hit of a game. I’ll end this with the man himself explaining just what Brutal Legend is…

#40; Xbox Generation

2009-10-13T17:02:00.001+01:00

If you know me, then by now I’m sure you’ll know how much I enjoy my video games. There is no denial from me that I am a big gamer; a geek; whatever term you feel suits possible for us who enjoy our games! At the moment I own the 3 major consoles – Xbox 360 and Playstation 3 being my own whilst the Wii is more my brother’s console that I rarely play in all honesty. This afternoon whilst doing, well, absolutely nothing it occurred to me just how little I play one console in comparison to the other. For example, take a look at my games collection at the moment:

It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to work out that I have way more Xbox 360 games than I do Playstation 3. This has always been the case – even when I have owned 5 or 6 games for the PS3, they sit alongside 15-20 Xbox 360 games! Yes, I do play the Xbox a lot more than I do Playstation and honestly, I prefer the Xbox 360 to the Playstation. But what is the cause of this? I certainly don’t dislike the Playstation… and there are games I own on the Xbox 360 that I could happily buy on the Playstation 3. It just got me thinking, what is it that I prefer about Microsoft’s console over a brand name that has been synonymous with video gaming for the past 15 years or so?

Well, let’s consider the facts. I got given the Xbox 360 as a Christmas present 3 years ago this coming Christmas, whereas the Playstation 3 I bought myself this time last year. Perhaps it’s more of the fact that the Xbox 360 feels more of a complete console to me – it does everything I need it do, it does it whilst looking magnificently pretty, it has a superb online setup working behind the scenes and whereas it’s about as reliable as a chocolate teapot at times, it is just a console I’ve vastly enjoyed playing over the years since getting it. To me though, this is just personal opinion and doesn’t explain why I prefer the Xbox…

Maybe if I change focus and take a look at the Playstation 3 as a console then perhaps I can solve it. It doesn’t die on you as much as the Xbox 360 does, which is a major bonus, and it does have a strong line-up of games behind it. again, these can easily be purchased on the Xbox 360 though so the exclusivity of titles on the console isn’t so strong for me. It has the classic Playstation controller that has been a stronghold in analog based joy pad designs since the original Playstation, and it has Sony who, with Nintendo, are arguably the fathers in modern video game consoles. Once again though… there is just something about the Playstation that doesn’t attract me in the same way that the Xbox 360 does.

Hmm.

It’s really very odd to analysis and work out why if I’m honest as I can’t seem to find solid reasons behind why I prefer the Xbox over the other. Sure, Xbox Live and always being able to socialise during games online is a huge benefactor to my bias without a doubt, the Playstation Network for me just doesn’t compare despite being free, and services like Xbox Live Arcade and the upcoming Twitter/Last.fm/Facebook update will be fantastic for a Twitter Addict for myself, but at the end of the day, I just prefer my gaming on my Xbox 360. Hopefully that will not cause any shouting at me in accusation of being a ‘360 fanboy’ but there’s certainly nothing wrong with the Playstation 3 – for me, Sony have just lost a bit of their mojo that saw many people my age grow up in the era known as the Playstation Generation.

I think I may investigate my ideas further with this eventually… there’s a lot that can be said about consoles these days…

#39; Inspector Gadget

2009-10-09T14:46:00.001+01:00

Let’s face it – if you love your technology you LOVE it when you have a new gadget in your hands to mess about with and just explore. Today I had that awesome privilege after I gave in to quite a long term decision to buy myself an iPod Touch (it’s not iTouch!). I’ve been wanting to get my hands on one for such a long time and, well, I gave in. I sat down, thought about the pros and cons, got heavily persuaded by Sidepodcast, then decided that with my current iPod Nano starting to fill up then maybe it’s time to take that step up the ladder to a new world of iPod goodiness. And here it is!

I’ve spent a few hours fighting my way through this new world of applications, touchy-ness and general bouts of loud music, to the point where I have decided that the iPod Touch was totally worth giving in for. I absolutely love it! At first it’s been a bit of a pain getting used to the keyboard – my name has evolved into the likes of LLkeh and Lujeh plenty of times in this inexperienced newbie state of mine – but I’m settled in with it all now and well impressed by what it offers to me as not only an MP3 player, which is obviously gonna be it’s main use, but as a thing that does things in an awesome way kinda thing. I believe that’s the official term anyway.

One of the main attractions to me was the fact that the iPod Touch, much like it’s more social sister in the iPhone, supports applications in many forms. Whether this be for social networking, gaming, stupid boredom stuff or whatever, chances are you’ll find an app that will please you. There are plenty of games available for the Touch and, with my being an avid gamer, I can’t wait over time to try out a few. at the moment I have only two games that I’ve purchased – the Secret of Monkey Island, of course, and the fantastically underrated point and click adventure game Beneath a Steel Sky, which decided to inform the world earlier today on my twitter about it’s arrival into my world.

As I say though, so far I’m very impressed and I can’t wait to discover more awesome and useful things the Touch can be used for. In terms of an mp3 player, it more than fulfils my neediness for something that provides excellent quality playback and, with 32gb of space, I’m more than spoilt with the amount I can put on. As I say though, I’m still very new to this whole world of applications and awesome stuff, so please do recommend any applications you think I should check out (paid or free, I’m not too choosy!) as I’d love to know from the iPhone/iPod Touch owners what’s worth checking out.

Ooh I do love a new gadget! It’s like Christmas but without the whole Christmas bit!

#38; Back to life, Back to reality

2009-09-29T19:59:00.001+01:00

First off, apologies for a lack of posting recently but it’ll soon makes sense I’m sure. As with most people in the joyful month of September, the world of educational learning has come crashing back into my life with quite a force. At the moment I’ve just started my final year of a BSc Computing course at the University of Wales Newport, with this year obviously being ridiculously important – as well as the normal modules and assignments comes the big 15,000 word final year project. Oh god!!

What I’m currently planning involves a project that studies the computing methodology and technologies of disabled teaching in a primary school environment, basically a study of computing within such ways of teaching. To be honest, I’m kinda looking forward to it in a really bizarre way, but it is gonna be a lot of work. It’s a very rewarding subject for me though as I’d love to go into the world of teaching after University and hopefully an extra year of PGCE training next year but we shall see. Concerning the dissertation though, let’s just hope I manage to get there with all 15,000 words!!

It probably seems very odd for a computing student to be doing his final year project based on teaching than a programming/hardware related computing subject but for me it’s something I’m far more comfortable with and something I know will benefit me for the future far more than creating a program I’ll no doubt hate or be unable to complete. For me being able to give something back to a younger generation through computing would be a fantastic career choice, and with this dissertation, technology has progressed so much over the past few decades that we can help those with disabilities in such magnificent ways the dissertation will probably be a very humbling experience for myself to witness and understand more.

So best of luck to everyone starting back up with their A-levels, degree courses, masters courses, or whatever education they’ve gone back to in this past month. I’ll still be posting entries with whatever’s on my mind but University comes first with writing at the moment! It’s been a lovely summer and I have lots of fantastic memories, but for now, it’s back to the grinding repetition of lectures and notes!

#37; Everyone’s a Winner

2009-09-14T20:51:00.001+01:00

There’s just 4 more races to go in the Formula 1 championship and, unless you’ve been living under a rock or not following the sport, the current title contenders at the moment are the two Brawn GP drivers, Jenson Button and Rubens Barrichello. If you know me, then you’ll know how for many years I’ve stuck by not only Rubens as an F1 driver but Honda/Brawn as a team, not to mention supporting Jenson Button of course. It still seems extremely surreal to myself that after a few years of absolute struggle and despair with a car performing worse than Luca Badoer circus act, that these two good friends have found their way to the top of the mountain in the sport and look set to finish 2009’s season with a fantastic battle for the championship. the question I’m posing here though is… should I be happy or sad at this?

It seems a stupid question I know, but let me explain. If Barrichello goes on to become champion, it will probably be the most wonderful moment for me as a massive fan of his, the biggest moment for him in his career especially as it’s currently in it’s twilight years, and many fans can surely agree how wonderful it will be to see him champion after all the years of dedication he’s given to the sport not to mention how absolutely lovely the man is both as a treasure to Formula 1 and as a normal bloke who loves to race. The thing is, it would be an absolute shame to see Jenson not win the championship because I feel he absolutely deserves it, and I fear that this opportunity may not come to Jenson’s grasp again (I’m not saying it won’t at all, but as many people say, you take whatever opportunity you can) so seeing Jenson missing out on the championship would definitely be a gutting feeling alongside the sheer unmatched joy of simply knowing Rubens is a F1 world champion.

Of course, on the other side of this double edged sword, like I say seeing Jenson Button becoming champion would be absolutely wonderful and I hope it certainly happens just as much as Rubens getting there. No pun intended here but Jenson it absolutely in the drivers seat for the championship at the moment and I feel that he can do it – the ridiculous statements from the press of losing his mind and cracking under the pressure for me are ludicrous and simply trying to make it worse for him when I feel that it is simply was a run of unlucky form; look at Rubens at the start of 2009 for example and yet he continued with the words of positivity knowing that his time would arrive with success and it certainly has right now. Once more I find with such positivity of wondering about Jenson being champion comes the negativity of being absolutely gutted about Rubens missing out on what should definitely be his last shot at being Champion. It’s surely undisputable that Jenson Button being world champion for Brawn would be more beneficial for the teams image, sponsors and future with Jenson’s youth being far more beneficial financially for the future of his career than Rubens upcoming retirement in the next few years (surely). However, Ross Brawn promises a fair fight for both drivers going into the end of the season, just as he has done all season despite absolutely stupid media comments and accusations, and I for one can’t wait to see how it all turns out.

Barrichello made an absolutely lovely comment this past weekend at Monza that I couldn’t agree with more - “I think it is a winning year whatever happens.”. At the end of the day, I’m a fan of Brawn GP as much as I am a fan of Jenson and Rubens. One driver will surely prevail out of the two with the championship, but even though it’ll be a shame for the opposite, the team will have won immensely this season no matter what outcomes. The fans who have stuck with Honda and moved onto Brawn will win no matter what. even if Jenson or Rubens manage not to win the championship, it still remains a winning year to me and one year that will stick in my mind as a F1 fan for many years to come. Considering the fact that in January, both drivers seemed set to be losing their future with much speculation and disappointment over the Honda pullout, and no resolution or team in sight for them, it’s an absolute miracle that 9 months later Jenson has snagged 6 wins, Rubens 2 wins, the team are miles ahead in the Constructors Championship having not dropped below 1st place all season, and even though the Red Bull cars can still cause a fight-back out of nowhere, it seems increasingly likely that this team of nothing it seemed are set to snag a double World Championship. again, pinch me please because it still seems massively unreal, and I try not to take it all for granted because I absolutely love this team and seeing them grabbing success in such a fantastic manner gives me much privilege and pleasure after following their trials and tribulations for years.

So bring on the championship fight I say! These two men who have constantly had to prove themselves throughout their respective careers at different times stand up above the rest of the grid with a team that I wouldn’t swap for the world. Both Rubens and Jenson have stuck with the team through thick and thin, and have had their horrible times of failures and disappointments, so let’s enjoy the success and unrivalled achievements of the Brawn GP success this year whilst it lasts. Long live Brawn GP!

#36; The Resistance – Love really is our Resistance

2009-09-12T21:33:00.001+01:00

So, it’s finally arrived. The Resistance. Muse’s fifth studio album, something I have been hyping for months upon months on Twitter and in the build-up annoying a lot of people most likely in the sheer excitement of just simply listening to it. I’m gonna get straight to the chase and tell you how I hear the album song by song… here we go.

1. Uprising – 5:05
The album kicks us off into Muse’s resistance with a stomping bassline and a synthy section worth of Dr Who itself as many of you will now have heard by now. It’s the first single off The Resistance and it’s an absolutely fantastic opening track. Considering the album’s title, The Resistance, lyrics it fits in perfectly. ‘They will not force us, they will stop degrading us, they will not control us, we will be victorious!’ screams the chorus followed by a glam-rock guitar squeal of ‘COME ON!’; musically the song works so wonderfully well in my opinion. It builds up layer by layer – the first chorus seems quite empty and simple, then the guitar kicks in, and by the second chorus it feels like the Uprising has literally grown in size, a larger, more violent-sounding chorus following by a length but simple guitar solo that leads into the final grand chorus which, by now, sounds huge in comparison to it’s opening version. It’s a fantastic song and a fantastic opener as it creates the scene for the album and lays the foundation for what’s ahead which being musically listenable with influences of Goldfrapp, Gary Glitter (bare with me) and even Blondie evident and yet still sounding different enough to obviously be Muse. 85%

2. Resistance – 5:47
The end of Uprising leads us into a haunting intro for Resistance, a calming wave of sound leads into a tribal drumbeat and almost dance-esque piano tinkling that take us into the world of George Orwell and the romance that makes up his epic 1984 fiction involving Winston and Julia. The entire song is completely 1984 – the desire to get out of a controlled society, the desire to resist this and carry on their love, the desire to fight against everything that is trying to hold them apart. Resistance is an absolutely beautiful song and from the ground up totally based on the romance mentioned previously - ‘If we live a life in fear, I'll wait a thousand years, Just to see you smile again; Kill your prayers for love and peace, You'll wake the thought police, We can't hide the truth inside’ – combined with a double sided chorus that questions what could be wrong alongside the voice of reasoning telling the subjects why resistance is vital to pursuing theirs feeling. The drumbeat through the song is consistency excellent, driving the song alongside the cries of rebellion from Bellamy’s vocals and a startling bassline that goes hand in hand with the drumming from Dom Howard. It’s a shame the song comes to such an abrupt ending, ending on the synthy emptiness of haunting noises that opened the track but it works amazingly well. An absolute gem of a song and probably one of the best on the album. Love really is our Resistance. 94%

3. Undisclosed Desires – 3:56
Undisclosed Desires is probably one of the more surprising points of the album but it’s down to personal taste whether this is a good or bad surprise. It’s basically Matt Bellamy’s attempt at taking Muse into a new area with R&B foundations but looking towards the synth-pop that can be heard in Depeche Mode’s 80’s library and more modern artists/producers such as Timbaland. The song is incredibly basic for Muse – it has no guitar, but rather a processed beat of noises, a first-ever use of slap bass that strikes through the choruses in the song and even the drumbeat is barely evident. Yet it amazingly works for the band. The lyrics are absolutely fantastic personally – the song feels so light, and yet the lyrics come across as so dark and almost violent ‘I want to exorcise the demons from your past’ – yet it’s still a very strange song to analyse and review because it’s totally not Muse, yet they make it Muse. It’s not one of the stronger songs on the album but you can’t fault Bellamy for uncovering new areas for the band to work within genre-wise and still come out the other side sounding relatively comfortably in these new adventures of music. For me, the chorus is where the song really stands out with the soothing vocals speaking out sinister feelings of passion really making it a fantastic juxtaposition. It’s a great song but it’s something completely different. 79%

4. United States of Eurasia (+Collateral Damage) – 5:48
Another lengthy song and another vital addition to the album. Once again following the feelings and story of what can be seen in Winston and Julia’s story in 1984, a soothing combination of piano, strings and a simple tap of drums bring the song to a gentle start before crashing into an absolute wall of music Freddie Mercury would be more than proud to be part of. The song absolutely burst into life with a squealing guitar not too far off Bohemian Rhapsody and a scream of vocals that surprise the system, soon followed by a menacing bassline holding together an orchestra and piano section surely influenced from Lawrence of Arabia, not that this is a bad thing! But once USoE comes to life, it truly does start lighting up in fabulous ways. It’s completely over the top, but it’s completely Muse in a contrast to everything we heard in Undisclosed Desires. The lyrics, the strings, everything about USoE is grand, grand, grand. A growing trend starts occurring from here I notice – a mention of ‘they’, obviously directed at those in control, the reason behind this resistance. USoE absolutely goes out in style with more unbelievably over the top and grand surprises, the band screaming eura-SIA! SIA! SIA! (as Muse say themselves, you can’t help but chuckle at this like they did themselves!) leading towards a beautiful cover of a Chopin piece, here entitled Collateral Damage. This is all Matt – the strings, the idea, the piano, everything about Collateral Damage is sweet and simple and again a juxtaposition can be felt with the piano that speaks out so freely and sweetly reigning over the sounds of terror and children crying as a fighter jet rushes over to close the song. It’s epic. It’s over the top. But it’s brilliant, and it’s completely Muse. 90%

5. Guiding Light – 4:14
The fighter jet that sends out Collateral Damage leads up into a striking drumbeat that introduces Guiding Light, a song that can simply be described as The Resistance’s power ballad no questions asked. It’s very easy to simply compare this song to U2, who were an influence on the song as mentioned by Matt previously, but I do have quite mixed feelings on Guiding Light. It seems a very simple song, a bassline that stands out alongside the striking drums but the middle section provides a gorgeous little guitar solo that you feel just wants to go on further but doesn’t stand out long enough to be fully appreciated under Bellamy’s groans. It’s nothing hugely over the top as we saw with USoE, but the end of the song feels a little underwhelming in that it doesn’t seem to really go anywhere structure wise. That said, it’s still completely listenable and the lyrics once again fall back on a feel of romance and love, but it’s probably the weakest song on The Resistance. 71%

6. Unnatural Selection –6:55
Ah, Unnatural Selection. Every Muse album will see the older Muse fans ask for something that even resembles Muse’s older, louder, thrashier genre of music seen on the likes of Origin of Symmetry, songs that are based on heavier guitar. Unnatural Selection, for me, is such a nod towards their older stuff there’s absolutely no way this song can be ignored not only just for that but because it really stands out as a huge, heavy, angry bit of modern Muse that I definitely want to see more of. Opening with an organ to please all Megalomaniacs out there just to hear it back on a Muse record, Matt simply asks for the truth whilst the powers that be look down and laugh, before the song absolutely explodes in the most wonderfully angry riff. I can’t stress enough how much I LOVE the riff that makes up Unnatural Selection, but the entire song is nearly 7 minutes of anger, desperation frustration. And my god does it sound good! The pace is constantly electric, thrashing it’s way through with Matt’s distorted vocals going along with the journey until a sudden halt in pace completely brings Unnatural Selection to a shocking stop, a structure similar to that found in their classic Citizen Erased in which the song’s feel and context enters a different slow atmosphere building it’s way back up into this huge epic ball of rock, for lack of a better expression. The actual structure may confuse newer Muse fans as it’s quite different to the stuff they’ve done recently but if you’ve listened to the band for a long time, you should love how fantastically setup the song is in this way. That said, after the slow middle section, the song bows out in a huge thrashing metal riff that, again, I can’t explain enough how much I love it. The entire song is just perfect for the album and just what I was hoping to find on The Resistance! even better yet, it’s genuinely one of Muse’s best tracks in their entire library I have to say! 98%

7. MK Ultra - 4:06
Along with Unnatural Selection, here is another track I was absolutely looking forward to hearing in advance of the release of the album based on preview reactions from various media sources. Opening with a strong electronic backing and another massive bassline throttling away, MK Ultra seems entirely based on paranoid beliefs screaming against those ‘looking in and breaking through’. The synth on the song is absolutely tremendous, it constantly lingers around in the background combined at times with voices whispering from the shadows alongside a marching drumbeat and bassline almost dripping out the paranoid suspicious that the lyrics insist on expressing but as a whole song, it works beautifully and the point of the song comes across perfectly clear with these different factors all making one kick ass piece of synth-based rock. Once again massive guitar riffs smash through these walls of worry and suspicion to huge effect, perhaps not to the same effect as Unnatural Selection due to their lack of length but they still appear in this fantastic piece. It almost feels quite spacey at times, in a wierd bizarre way, with the constant synth driving the song on, but I can’t fault MK Ultra. Once again, I absolutely adore it. Fast, pacey, paranoid, and goes out with an absolute kick in the stomach riff. Brilliant. 92%

8. I Belong To You/Mon Cœur S'ouvre à Ta Voix – 5:38
After being punched in the face with 2 massive modern rock tracks, Muse seem to jump into a completely new dimension with IBtY. As you can plainly see in the title, yes, it does feature a French part of the song. Coming into the album, I had a lot of fears going into this track as the 30 second preview we were issued with from the band a few weeks ago made the song sound like Maroon 5 had come over for a holiday for a week and given them some ideas. However, I shouldn’t be surprised that Muse completely overcome the challenge of attempting new genres with amazing ease and create a fantastic piano based romantic epic, to be quite honest. The song has a massively upbeat feel to it as it opens, Bellamy humming his way into the song whilst the piano jingles via a wonderfully jazzy beat. Lyrically, the entire song is directly romantic and even gets a shameful but pleasantly funny mention of Muse within the lyrics. Once again though, much is the case with United States of Eurasia, you just have to lighten up and love the song for it’s completely ridiculous yet utterly brilliant moments. I Belong to You comes with them in the bucketful – the song stopping halfway through completely to allow Bellamy on the piano to sing a French interlude (completely French!) alongside an orchestra and the remaining members of the band still gripping onto their sanity despite this ridiculous change in context for their music, the similarities to classic Disney soundtracks almost jumps straight in your face in the Mon Coeur interlude, the fact that it’s all nothing what you’d expect from Muse and yet once again they absolutely make it their music with such ease, the fact the we see a French clarinet solo out of nowhere!! – it should be ridiculous and almost pompous but it’s listenable, it all has a wonderfully beautiful structure, and it’s completely brilliant. I thought I was going to hate this song, to be brutally honest, and yet I sit here after many listens humming everything from it. How?! 90%

9. 10. 11. Exogenesis Symphony (Part I: Overture – 4:18), (Part II: Cross Pollination – 3:56), (Part III: Redemption – 4:37) – 12:51
As far as I’m concerned, the Exogenesis symphony is quite simply the main event of this album. A year or two ago, Matt Bellamy spoke of the work that he was doing in the background despite the various albums Muse have brought out in the past few years. He mentioned a ‘symphonic monster’, a 15 minute or so song that was based entire on a 40 piece orchestra that he wanted to make one day, progressing in charting his ideas to eventually get it out into the masses. Finally, it is here with the Exogenesis symphony and I absolutely could not wait to hear this. As the album progresses, it tells the story of anger, frustration, love and a desire to get away from a society that is controlled and watched over. This final 13 minute (when combined) symphony tells the tale of a despite to leave the earth, be rid of the society we have created for ourselves, break the atmosphere and start everything again. A little depressing, perhaps, but if anyone can do it it would be the ambitious Bellamy. As you can see, the song is broken into 3 individual tracks but for the sake of the review, and the structure of the symphony, it seems sensible to review it as a whole. Overture opens up the symphony as expected – a large scale orchestra backing up screaming violins before launching arpeggios similar to the type of thing you could see Philip Glass undertake in his music. A build up in drums erupts and, the symphony doesn't begin for me, but rather the journey begins. Bellamy, constantly stuck in the land of falsetto for his vocals here, screams of the wanting to be away from the earth and from everything that makes our society a worse place to be in. Almost indecipherable, his words are basic - “Aping my soul, You stole my overture, Trapped in God’s program, Oh I can’t escape…” before questioning his existence. The true highlight is the actual instrumental though, with distorted guitars in the background accompany these arpeggio orchestral creating a hugely doomed feel to this opening, an absolutely jaw dropping start I personally felt with all the various factors coming together to back up the fear in Bellamy’s words. Once the opening part has soothed into the distance, Cross Pollination crashes in with a damning piano section, the scale matching the sheer ambition of the entire project undertaken by Bellamy here. Soon enough, his piano is accompanied by the orchestra returning from the opening section and the two combined create an eerie, floating atmosphere where aurally to myself created my own impression of floating away into nowhere. Bellamy’s piano continues to smash its way up and down the scale whilst the orchestra stops to allow the lyrics to return - ‘Rise above the crowds, And wade through toxic clouds, Breach the outer sphere, The edge of all our fears’ – emphasising the appeal to get away. However, soon enough the symphony builds up with the entire band and orchestra all becoming involved. Violins and strings swirling away in the background, the bassline and drumming going hand in hand with Bellamy’s piano with the message to spread the need to be away from the dystopian environment being outspoken so much in the lyrics. Before closing the second part though, a beautifully crafted piano piece sends us out in peace, tranquillity and calm whilst the orchestra furthermore sends this wonderful journey onto it’s next step. Before you know it, the piano closes down and silence grips our hearing as we move into the final part, Redemption. Once more, we are greeted by piano but now much more soft and delicate in it’s tone. Resembling Beethoven’s Moonlight Sonata, the emotional almost begins to seep out of this piano as it gently introduces what will be the ending. Violins and strings soon grow in stature and help create this world of peace Bellamy seems so sure on creating in leaving his dystopia. Part 3 is simply gorgeous though, it truly is a fittingly beautiful way to end a stunning and ambitious set of symphonies. Whilst we began this part with peace and quiet, the song soon comes to life with a moderate pace whilst the vocals, almost being whispered in the tranquillity, wonder ‘why can’t we just start over again?’ and promising ‘This time we’ll get it right’, a desperate plea for a new chance and an emotionally grabbing insight into the wonder that Bellamy promised us. The vocals soon die down, and we resume the wondrous piano and orchestra that introduced Part 3. It slowly takes us out, fading into the distance and ending, for me, Muse’s most awe inspiring, beautifully crafted and simply staggering piece of music to date. It has no mega hard riffs to mosh to, or a chorus that sticks in your mind like chewing gum, or anything like that. Instead it brings a whole new Muse to the table, one that they have hinted at in the past with Butterflies and Hurricanes, with Hoodoo, with Megalomania – a Muse that are not afraid to dip into a classic past and create something that most modern bands wouldn’t dare attempt. My only complaint of the Exogenesis Symphony is that I would love it to be longer, but with that complaint I feel like I am spoiling myself. It’s the absolute highlight of the album, the entire symphony as one, and I hope Bellamy, Wolstenholme and Howard keep the sheer size of this project in mind for the future and take another look at making it even bigger for a future release. 100%

So after all these years, that was it. It featured wonderfully addictive riffs, it features moments of surprise, shock and sheer unimaginable bliss, and most of all for me, it featured everything I expected from The Resistance and so much more. I’m still undecided if this is Muse’s best album to date in terms of the content because of how much I love Absolution (obviously my favourite album) but I can tell you right now it is definitely up there rivalling it. As time goes on, the band will settle into playing the songs live, the songs will settle into my playlists and I’ll grow even more fond of the album probably but it is simply epic. I realise that the word ‘epic’ is vastly overused but I can’t sum up any other word to explain The Resistance. The album is a 53 minute journey that takes you from the initial thoughts of an uprising against society to the sheer depths of wanting to get away from it all completely. Muse fans around the world should rejoice in what has been created for The Resistance, but not only that, music fans should come and embrace what has been created with this staggering album. Only the stupid should resist The Resistance. 89% (Based on average of songs)

#35; Brazilian Magic

2009-08-23T16:34:00.001+01:00

Sunday 23rd August 2009; 12:56pm BST. Rubens Barrichello is sitting in his Brawn GP Formula 1 car in 3rd position ready for a hot, long race through the dockyard of the Spanish city of Valencia. 1 red light. 2. 3. 4. 5. Pause. GO.

2:05pm BST. Lewis Hamilton pits early from 1st place. He strolls down the pitlane at 100km/h, with the mechanics rushing out to get ready for him. He pulls into his pit box, stops, waits. Disaster! A new front right wheel isn’t there! Time gets wasted, and as it does, Barrichello jumps Hamilton and gets a nice long lead ahead of him.

2:39pm BST. Barrichello makes his way around the final lap of the concrete jungle. He turns left, right, down straights, round hairpins and over bridges. He takes the final left hander to end up on the pit straight and zooms down to take his first win in 5 years in Formula 1! He’s done it!!

Bliss. Simply bliss.

The last time Rubens had stepped on the illustrious top step of the podium was the Chinese Grand Prix of 2004. Nearly 5 years it had been, a break that had gone on far too long with a win long overdue for this much loved Formula 1 driver. For me personally, today’s win is amazingly bittersweet and sheer emotional excellence. All weekend, Barrichello was simply stunning in that Brawn GP and today he answered a lot of unfair critics. It’s been mentioned so many times that Rubens doesn’t have what it takes at this stage of his career to win or even challenge for the championship, and yet as I type this, he stands 2nd in the championship behind his team mate. Rubens still has it without a doubt.

As a long time Barrichello fan it’s extremely hard to conjure up the sheer emotion of seeing this wonderful man get that elusive win he so absolutely deserves. There have been so many moments in career where he has deserved better, and this year, he has everything he could ask for in a team. Even under Brawn’s ruling there have been ridiculous accusations of favouritism to Jenson Button yet it’s simply ridiculous. Barrichello is his own man and his own driver who won’t back down from expressing how he feels, but today and throughout his career he has continued to prove why he deserves to be remembered for more than his Grand Prix career length.

I don’t have much more to say because everything that needed to be said was done so out on track today. The strategy was perfect, the car was consistently fantastic and the drive was exactly what it needed to be. The reward of seeing Rubens with that lovingly gentle smile back on his face at the top of the podium, accompanied by his celebratory dance and ritualistic podium stumble were given a welcome return within the paddock with open arms. 281 grands prix, and it never ever gets old.

So congratulations Rubens!! Enjoy the experience and let’s hope it continues for more wins in the future. He may be in the twilight of his career now but he’s still one driver you should never, ever underestimate. Plus he’s a nice guy to boot - what are the chances?!

#34; Imitating Greatness yet Beyond Flattery

2009-08-22T00:00:00.001+01:00

Music covers always get much discussion from those that love their songs. ‘A cover will never be as good as the original!’ people scream, without giving things even a glance. It’s far I suppose, when you’ve heard a legendary song that’s placed it’s own history in music only to see it rejuvenated 20 years later by some kids with no real talent, it is quite mind numbing at times. However, there are a few songs out there that absolutely rival their originals and I thought I’d share a few if that was OK with you!

Romeo and Juliet by Dire Straits, 1980

Covered by The Killers in 2007

This is a unique one for me. Earlier this year, I would’ve laughed off the suggestion it comes close to the wonderful Dire Straits song. I have been won over so much by this though, and it is a truly remarkable cover. Before I even swapped sides of bias I could easily acknowledge that it was such a beautiful cover by The Killers but did it really match up to the original? For me, without a doubt I now see. This caused a little bit of a debate over at Sidepodcast a few months ago but as I say, I’ve been won over by it so much and it’s simply ignorant to now see how beautifully done this song is covered. Even in this example at Abbey Road you can view to the right, the sheer wonder of the live performance, so immaculately performed, is a joy to behold.

Hurt by Nine Inch Nails,

1994
Covered by Johnny Cash in 2002

It kinda amazes me when I mention Johnny Cash’s interpretation of Hurt to people and then get the response ‘He covered it?’! It’s an utterly haunting cover though and even NIN themselves came to the conclusion that Cash made the song his own after this incredible bit of music. The video sees Cash in his final video before his passing on, and it’s just so poignant and haunting how he reflects back at his life in his dying days, I suppose, and it honestly gives me chills every time I hear it. It’s so utterly raw and it’s actually quite hard to explain just how powerful it is considering how late on in Cash’s life he sang this yet absolutely, as Nine inch Nails described, made it his own. A classic song for me in it’s own right.

All Along the Watchtower by Bob Dylan, 1967

Covered by the Jimi Hendrix Experience in 1968

Again I always seem to find a similar shock reaction when people discover that this is not a Jimi Hendrix song no matter how completely famous he is for this incredible piece of music. This is a Jimi Hendrix song no matter whatever way you look at it for me. Yes, Bob Dylan will forever be credited for the original song which is just above average to me, it’s really nothing special, but the sheer talent and absolutely unique style of music and sound Hendrix brought through his guitar and everything he did onstage with it just make this arguably one of the greatest bits of rock music of all time. And yet, it still wasn’t his song! The man was a legend, and only a man of his awesome talents could make this just as legendary.

Wonderwall by Oasis, 1995

Covered by Ryan Adams in 2001

I’ve no idea how well known this version is, but my god this is a hell of a cover of a hell of a song. I’ll admit freely that I’m not a huge fan of Oasis as a lot of their stuff isn’t to my tastes but Wonderwall is an excellent, excellent song. This, however, is an incredible cover that rivals the original for me. Ryan Adams takes it and slows it down beautifully to the levels of an acoustic guitar with immediate effect as the resulting sound is quite simply a sombre but sweet version of Wonderwall. It also sounds so much more genuine than the quite melodic original but still managed to keep all the emotion that was packed up in the Gallagher’s finest moment musically. Fantastic cover.

Hallelujah by Leonard Cohen, 1984

Covered by Jeff Buckley in 1994

After the previous years’ Christmas seeing a battle of the number ones between various covers of Hallelujah, I’m sure many of you know this song now reading this back and it was bound to be included. It’s simply impossible to ignore – this song has been part of my musical library for many years and it’s just remarkable how much talent, I feel, Buckley had. The video to the right shows him playing the song live in a studio and it’s just an awe inspiring bit of listening because it’s completely raw and completely stunning to behold without a doubt. This is way more famous than Cohen’s original without a doubt and whilst Mr Cohen no doubt got the ball rolling with an excellent original version of Hallelujah, there is simply no comparing any of the covers to Buckley’s incredible version.

Just a couple of special mentions to throw out there for you that didn’t quite make the mix – Imagine (John Lennon) covered by A Perfect Circle; a tragic view of a positive outlook, yet an incredible juxtaposition makes such a good cover – A Little Respect (Erasure) covered by Wheatus; we all know Wheatus for Teenage Dirtbag but this for me was a far more solid song and a simply epic cover! Love it! - Can’t Take My Eyes Off You (Andy Williams) covered by Muse; yes it’s Muse but it’s an amazingly catchy cover that takes a romantic classic into the 21st century with a rockier edge that works far better than it really should. There are more but my mind can’t think of them at the moment annoyingly!!

And a bonus cover for your entertainment, the incredible Deep Sunshine covering that all-time classic… The Final Countdown by Europe!

It truly is the greatest cover of all time.

So what are your personal favourite cover songs? There’s so many to choose from of course but I’d love to hear what makes your ears tingle in terms of covers. Of course, this entry has got me wondering now about the worst covers…

If you follow me on Twitter and seen my recent messages since writing this, I think you’ll know what will be in that…

#33; The Great Gig On the Ground

2009-08-20T23:46:00.001+01:00

As I sit here on my bed on a warm Thursday evening listening to some epic Pink Floyd, it’s got my mind wondering once more about the world history of music. What makes such a great band a great band? Bit of a strange sentence I know, and worded horrifically in such a way that puts my English Language educational studies to shame, but it’s just on my mind. Now I live for music, and music keeps me going along with other things every day. Of course I love my Muse (as if you didn’t realise that!) but for me it would honestly be a crime to say that Muse are my choice for the greatest band of all time. In fact I’d feel downright angry if, at this stage of their career, I even suggested a thing. Definitely not, but perhaps I could offer a few choices for me.

The band who stand out as the greatest band of all time are a certain progressive rock band you may have heard of known as Pink Floyd. Yeah no-ones heard of these guys what with their many many albums, legendary pieces of musical history, feuds and arguments galore and incredibly atmospheric live performances. Joking asides though, they are the epitome for me of what music should be heard as. Their soulful, deep and simply bone chilling songs at times, whether it be the more psychadelic stuff that makes of Dark Side of the Moon or the two CD epic that is The Wall, just everything about what they have done gets my infinite respect and there is simply no words to conceive how much admiration I have for them. When they performed at live 8 for the final time in 2004, at the end of a long day in Hyde Park, every Pink Floyd fan simply sat or stood there in awe, simply in awe, at one of the most historic moments for me in music and something that our newer generation of stars will never create. It was simply awe inspiring, and it gives me such shame to not grow up in their era and simply experience their back catalogue and read their stories in the way that I do now. Their albums were varied and epic, their stories were wild, gut-wrenching, and gripping at times, their arguments frustrating, but they were Pink Floyd.

Concerning that 2005 performance at Live 8, which in general was a woeful day with the likes of Pete Doherty wasting time, I will admit to you know that I sat there almost in tears late at night in the darkness just staring, gobsmacked. They played a few songs, Breathe, Wish You Were Here, and obviously Comfortably Numb come to mind and I think Money was on the short setlist too, but with their short time, they made the entire day. They simply were the star attraction and the perfect way to go out. Sadly, with the death of Richard Wright a few years later and continually ongoing arguments between Gilmour and Waters, it’s such a shame that we’ll never see this epic creation of music perform on the stage again. A musical tragedy in fact.

I’ve been recommended by a friend to go check out Nick Mason’s autobiography on the events and views from within the Pink Floyd world themselves and it’s definitely the next book I’ll be reading in the next few weeks. There’s a story I’m sure you guys may know about reading that I wanted to share with you anyways because it always seems so fascinating to retell. Basically, the original Pink Floyd line-up saw the band headed by Syd Barrett rather than David Gilmour, and this is when the music they were producing came out with a more psychadelic sound to it. Now I forget the littler details but it was simply too much for Barrett, his indulgences into a rock lifestyle with the influences of drugs and drink simply send him into narcotic, crazed drugged up states, at times causing him to simply stop still in the middle of a gig and stare into the distance. The band members later spoke about these events broke who they knew of Syd Barrett, and he soon quit the band in the late 60’s and simply escaped from the limelight. For years and years he was never seen even in a media spotlight or the band themselves. Gilmour obviously took over from that, but the band years later wrote the song Shine on You Crazy Diamond, almost in memory of the person they knew that was Syd Barrett before his indulgences ruined him. When the band went into the studio to record the song in 1975, a bald man walked into the studio and Roger Waters confronted the stranger. he was bald, rough, almost broken looking. Little did the band know it was Syd Barrett, looking so changed that even Roger Waters couldn’t recognise him. It broke Waters down to tears and left an emotional hold on the song without a doubt, an eerie coincidence that some people may simply say is untrue but is just a part of their huge history that I can do no justice simply retelling.

Remember when you were young, you shone like the sun.
Shine on you crazy diamond.
Now there's a look in your eyes, like black holes in the sky.
Shine on you crazy diamond.
You were caught on the crossfire of childhood and stardom,
blown on the steel breeze.
Come on you target for faraway laughter,
come on you stranger, you legend, you martyr, and shine!
You reached for the secret too soon, you cried for the moon.
Shine on you crazy diamond.
Threatened by shadows at night, and exposed in the light.
Shine on you crazy diamond.
Well you wore out your welcome with random precision,
rode on the steel breeze.
Come on you raver, you seer of visions,
come on you painter, you piper, you prisoner, and shine!

Their live work was tremendous too, they had such an aura about them onstage that so little I feel just could not match based on what I have seen and watched. I agree with the viewpoint that it seems a little unfair of me to make these assumptions when I’m simply a 20 year old student watching back on stuff like Youtube, TV and DVDs but there is simply no other band that captivates me attention with their live work at the time and studio stuff such as Pink Floyd do. That incredible bit of film at Pompeii for example stands out once again in my memory, and it’s such a unique bit of footage to watch and yet at the same time, so utterly brilliant and a big recommendation to music lovers everywhere.

There are other bands that come into contention for the greatest band of all time – The Who, Led Zeppelin, and a few others that I’ll go into detail on a later entry. But for now, I simply wanted to do a bit of writing on these wonderful, wonderful men.

Nick Mason, David Gilmour, Roger Waters, Richard Wright and Syd Barrett,

Shine on you Crazy Diamonds.

#32; Maybe the Correct Answer was “No.”

2009-08-15T18:50:00.001+01:00

As I mentioned in my previous blog entry, this week I gave a chance for the recent film of Yes Man, which is a comedy based off the same named book by Danny Wallace. I’ve held off on watching the film for a very, very long time as the book was an amazing read and I wondered just how potentially disappointing it would be to watch it. As you know by now, I have finally given to viewing the film. I actually went in with strangely high hopes before watching despite my literature reservations due to such inclusions as Jim Carrey, Zooey Deschanel, Terence Stamp and John Michael Higgins who have all produced wonderful pieces of film in their colourful histories.

However, this is NOT one of them. I was absolutely right to hold back.

Before I go into great detail, let me just clear one thing up in terms of how I viewed the film. Everything I speak of within the next few paragraphs comes from two perspectives – that of how good the film actually was as a film, and that of how well it compared to the book. Sadly, as I was expecting, it failed miserably in both areas for me. It probably seems exceptionally harsh but I can’t help but feel incredibly let down by the potential of the film based on how amusing, brilliant and interesting the book was. To be fair, the film definitely has it’s great moments – all of these moments unsurprisingly are because of lead Jim Carrey who once again proves how he probably is the best comic actor in the business(although his serious roles are top notch too!). If the film didn’t have Carrey, I would have given up halfway through.

In my previous post, I mentioned how much it annoyed me that Hollywood adaptations of books tend to be nothing like the original, and forget a vast amount of what makes the books so great. After watching Yes Man, it once again suffers seriously from this. It just bares such little, little resemblance to the book. Fair enough you can say it’s based off the book and shares the same principles but it just fails so miserably where Wallace’s adventure succeeded with such positivity. It’s a little frustrating in the two aspects I watched, the whole film just lacked something to really get it going and make it work. Sure it had a pretty strong cast, and some of them stood out at times. Where it gained in cast choices, it lacked in story direction. It was predictable, clichéd and just annoying at times to be quite honest with you with the main example concerning annoyances coming from the fact that when Carl (Carrey) said no to questions, his life turned disastrous in the click of a finger. This happens several times in the film, and it bugged me enough the first time it occurred.

The film took the Yes man idea the wrong way with how Wallace was trying to create such an ideology within his book. The thing is, one of the most enjoyable aspects of Wallace’s writing within Yes Man is that he doesn’t simply mention things he says Yes to, and move on. You get to hear everything he did, and as well as that, hear about it in the future and what the outcome of saying yes was, not to mention his thoughts at the time of being forced to say Yes in difficult situations. In comparison to this, the film barely does such a thing. Sure we see the odd after effect of saying Yes but often it simple pushed aside for the generic Hollywood storyline of a man wanting to be with a woman, messing it up, then making up. This generic piece of drivel overlooking the whole point of being the Yes Man really made the film suffer, and combined with a lot of weak scenes and weak characters that never actually existed in the book just made it too much of a poor combination for me to enjoy. It’s just a huge shame.

I hate being constantly negative though, and there are areas worth praising. The obvious area is going to be getting Jim Carrey to star as the lead character Carl Allen, a choice which made the film bearable to watch for 100 minutes. He was fantastic in his role, and even after all these years, he proved why he’s still one of Hollywood’s top actors. He provided scenes that conveyed a serious nature yet can instantly turn it about into a hilarious moment without being cheesy, patronising or stupid. One scene saw Allen (Carrey) and a co-worker in the film’s bank messing about with mimes, leading up to Carrey selotaping his face up to the terrifying yet mind numbingly funny look since Pete Burns’ last bit of plastic surgery. There were a few standout scenes in the film and, in what I’m sure is not a coincidence, all of them involved Carrey’s character. He was a breath of fresh air alongside Zooey Deschanel as the film’s love interest, who constantly came across as dull and monotone. I’m actually a fan of Deschanel but she did not bring her ball to the park with Yes Man whatsoever.

Ah well. I pondered the thought of it being a disappointment and I tried my hardest to enjoy it. Quite simply, it let me down where I was hoping for more. Alas… there was also one major highlight which had me clapping in joy from the sheer shock of it happening, and I just simply had to take a photo to show you guys:

Danny Wallace actually got a cameo!

Brilliant!!

However, the fact that this was the highlight of the film for me I think says it all.

#31; Giving into the Yes Man

2009-08-09T20:37:00.001+01:00

Earlier this year I had the pleasure of reading a fantastic book written by author-come-radio-host-come-TV-presenter Danny Wallace entitled Yes Man. You may recognise the name Danny Wallace, you may not, as he has done the odd bit of television work most prolifically by creating his own country on his BBC show. Anyways, the book tells his 6 month journey simply of when he simply said ‘Yes’ to everything – vulgar internet offers, drug deals, visiting places around the world, the lot. It’s an absolutely fantastic read and constantly through the book I laughed, smirked, felt sorry and got shocked at all the various escapades that Wallace managed to get himself into. perhaps some were fabricated to create more entertainment for the book but nevertheless, it was a fantastic, fantastic read and a book I’d happy read again.

However, whilst reading the book, I found out from a friend that a film, funnily enough, called Yes Man, had been made and released starring a much loved actor of mine in Jim Carrey. See, I love my movies. I have a stupid amount of DVD’s on my shelf in my room and scattered about the house with some not even opened yet, but I absolutely love curling up to a film after a long, tough day and just entering my own little bubble. Hearing this news got much excitement in me because at the time, I was obviously having a splendidly fun time reading this book! So I went online to find this synopsis of the film over at IMDB…

“The banker Carl Allen is a lonely man with low self-esteem after his divorce with Stephanie, for whom he still yearns. He avoids his best friend Peter. He has a boring job, stalled in a bureaucratic position in the loan department of a bank; and he spends his spare time watching DVDs. When he meets by chance his former high school mate Nick, he is convinced to participate of a self-help program called "Yes Man" leaded by the guru Terrence Bundley. The basic principle of the program is to say "yes" to new situations, leaving the negativism aside. Carl misunderstands the concept and says "yes" to every question. While leaving the encounter, he helps a homeless man and in the end of the night he meets the gorgeous Allison that helps him with her scooter. His life completely changes with his new attitude.”
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1068680/plotsummary

Huh. See, this is what what book is like…

Wallace, a freelance radio producer for the BBC in London, takes three simple words uttered by a stranger on a bus-"say yes more"-as a challenge and says "yes" to everything for a year. He says "yes" to pamphleteers on the street, the credit card offers stuffing his mailbox and solicitations on the Internet. He attends meetings with a group that believes aliens built the pyramids in Egypt, says "yes" to every invitation to go out on the town and furthers his career by saying "yes" in meetings with executives.
http://www.amazon.com/Yes-Man-Danny-Wallace/dp/1416900667/

See, now this is what bothers me about Hollywood ‘adaptations’. They don’t adapt in some cases, they appear to change completely. The synopsis for the film really put me off seeing it once the book was over and done with, and what I knew up to the point where I found out about the film. I realise it may seem picky pointing out the changes where there may be some comparisons, albeit not direct comparisons of context, but I will admit reading the film’s synopsis bugged me. It bugged me a lot. It sounded so… American!! The book is quintessentially British, and I absolutely LOVE how utterly British it is in the way we act, because a lot of not only Wallace’s actions but his friends in the book are everything that we can relate to. The context he writes in, the things he talks about, the way life moved on and the way he creates his world within the book just feels like home! Yet everything I read about the film so far just seemed so… not Yes Man. Bah! I want the book damnit, not what this sounds like!

I’ll be honest. To this point, I have not seen the film. So yes, I am kind of criticising something I have not seen yet, you could say. It’s not arrogance towards the film, but a little bit of fear to be honest in watching something try to be something else that I vastly enjoyed but failing miserably. Whilst browsing through HMV this weekend, I noticed that Yes Man was out on DVD and currently in their sale for a measly price. I simply stared at it and wondered. I walked away soon, still wondering to myself whilst looking for other deals (I got Planes, Trains and Automobiles, woohoo!). The thing is, the more I browsed the epic collection within the store, seeing the film equivalent of Yes Man came quarrelling back into my thoughts, leaving me to wander back over to the stand. Standing there, I asked myself ‘It’s cheap… and on sale… Should I give it a go, see how it plays out?’.

It only seemed fair, considering the title, what my answer was… so I’ll get back to you lovely people on my thoughts and feelings very soon!

#30; Looking the Part – Top 5 F1 Liveries

2009-08-03T00:54:00.001+01:00

If you’re an F1 fan, I’m sure you’ll agree that a car’s livery is mega important. Sure it has no technological advancement, no horsepower advantage, nothing like that, but it’s damned important I feel to a team. Seeing a livery you love, one that sticks out in your mind, something you remember for years to come shows just how important a livery can be for the identity of a team. Yes, it can all go horribly wrong and you can be remembered as an F1 team for all the wrong reasons, but never mind that. My top 5 liveries come from many different years, perhaps controversial to you, but I thought perhaps it would be nice to give out my list and explain what makes them so fantastically lovely to look at.

Starting at…

5) – Rothmans Williams 1996

How did anything relating to Jacques Villeneuve get in a top 5 of mine? Bizarre. Nevertheless, I had the pleasure of reminding myself how lovely the 1997 Williams was at Goodwood and it is simply a lovely car. In 1996 obviously performance wise it did the job for Damon Hill but what I love about the livery is the amount of colour it has but at the same time, none of them class to make it ugly to look at personally. The Rothmans brand is obviously relevant in making this so prominent in terms of the colours, but it really works so very well. Blue, white, gold and red? Yes please.

4) – Jordan Mugen-Honda 1998

Again, I feel incredibly wrong putting anything related to Eddie Jordan in my top 5 but look at this car. Just look at it. What the hell is that thing on the front nose? I haven’t a clue but my god, it is AWESOME. That’s all I can describe of the look of this car. It’s bright, it’s in your face, it’s simply shouts anger and everything and even though it wasn’t mildly impressive minus that insane race at Spa, I just loved the look of it. It’s nice and bright, for one, but with the contrasting black detail and various red related sponsors, it all just fits to make a lovely looking car I reckon. Why oh why did it have to be EJ’s though?

3) – Lotus Renault 1986

You definitely don’t need me to remind you who drove this beast of a car, and yet at the same time, brought out all the beauty within Formula 1 through his driving. Ayrton Senna is as much as a legend as this Lotus is, and visually, it’s incredible. A huge contrast to the other cars I have chosen, the livery simply has 2 colours – black and gold. Admittedly this was before I was born and what I know of the car comes from articles, images, and many, many videos of Formula 1 over the Lotus years but something about this particular car and this particular year just makes me love it. The contrasting look of a dark Black and a shimmering gold alongside each other just make it completely memorable.

2) – Jaguar Cosworth 2003

I’ll be honest. There were some absolutely gorgeous cars in 2003 – special mention to the Renault with that lovely blue and yellow flowing livery that just went so well both on the eyes and on the track, the Sauber Petronas with the blue and turquoise Red Bull sponsored livery, Honda’s Lucky Strike white and red beast that provided Jenson Button’s first ever pole, and a few others here and there. This Jaguar though, as average as it was performance wise, is an absolutely beauty. Just the racing green alone standing proud with that screaming Jaguar on the rear of the car being combined with the white and red streaks via the HSBC sponsorship just make me want to hug this car and tell it how good it looks. Will continue to stay in my good books for the visual loveliness of the livery for many years.

1) – Brawn GP 2009

Please don’t shout at me. Yes, I know you’re going to get to this number 1 and think ‘Oh come on!’ but I simply absolutely adore the Brawn livery. It shocked a lot of people at first when the team were finally revealed and that livery appeared on the Silverstone tests back in February, but my god, what a car. It’s a very bright livery with the main white theme obviously being present but it’s just something about those blindingly stunning yellow streaks with the black stroke around them that just made me fall in love with the Brawn’s visual design not long after I saw it for the first time. A lot of ‘fans’ of the team have come out of the woodwork since their success but how many of them, no doubt supporting simply for Jenson’s success, can say they absolutely adore this design? Yes, it is my favourite livery. Yes, I realise how controversial that may sound after 60 years of Formula 1 to be behind a 2009 livery. But… I simply refuse to ignore how much I love Brawn ’s livery. Simple. Elegant. Bright. Brawn.

So that’s my own top 5 liveries of F1 concerning what I know, what I’ve seen and what I watched. I’m sure lots of you are shouting at your computer screens right now asking why on earth I’ve chosen this and that, but I’d love to hear what you think about a top 5 or what you would choose. There’s so many options, so many possibilities, and so many opinions in the world that the combinations are endless!

Just as long as no one mentions the 1999 Winfield Williams car.

Strewth.

#29; Crime Alert – Pigeon Special

2009-08-01T23:37:00.001+01:00

HALT CITIZEN!!Have you seen this pigeon recently wandering around supermarket backrooms recently?
Has a pigeon of a similar nature been seen wandering aimlessly?
Do you know what a pigeon is?

THEN YOU CAN HELP SOLVE THE BLOG-ENTRY STEALING CRIME THAT OCCURED TODAY AT APPROXIMATELY 09:50 HOURS WHATEVER TIMEZONE WE ARE IN NOW
I THINK IT IS BRITISH SUMMER TIME. WELL IT IS THE SUMMER.
~~PERHAPS NOT.~~
THAT IS NOT THE POINT HERE.

THIS PIGEON IS ACCUSED OF STEALING AN IDEA I WAS GOING TO BLOG ABOUT WHEN I THOUGHT ABOUT IT THIS MORNING
I KNOW THIS IS TRUE BECAUSE OF THIS TWITTER ENTRY POSTED ON THE MORNING OF SATURDAY
Morning. Have a wierd idea for a blog entry ill be working on over the day whilst at work. Pointless idea really, but more later.

WE CANNOT ALLOW PIGEONS TO SIMPLE WANDER OUR WORKPLACES THEN STEAL OUR IDEAS. IT’S NAUGHTY. AND I LIKE MY IDEAS.
ALTHOUGH HE WADDLED AROUND THE FLOOR REALLY FUNNILY, IT WAS QUITE CUTE. AND WE GAVE HIM SOME BREAD, HE NIBBLED ON IT.

BUT THAT IS NOT THAT POINT HERE.

Together we can make Pigeon Crime stop. Birds all over the country are committing crime in heinous forms, as can be seen in the following clip of a seagull stealing some Doritos from a shop in Scotland:

THIS BIRD CLEARLY DOES NOT REALISE THE EFFECTS OF HIS ACTIONS. HE DIDN’T EVEN STEAL THE NICE FLAVOUR. HE STOLE THE RUBBISH ONE.

YOU CAN HELP. IF YOU SEE PIGEON CRIME, TELL A FRIEND NOW. THEY WILL PROBABLY THINK YOU ARE MAD.
THANK YOU.
LUKE.

#28; Nothing Futile about this Resistance

2009-07-28T19:03:00.001+01:00

I don’t know if you guys have noticed this but… I love Muse. i absolutely adore the band. Nothing really gives it away, apart from me constantly going on about them on Twitter, messenger and other places, does it? In all seriousness though, there’s a reason to this rather than me simply going on about how much I absolutely adore the band and the music they produce. On September 14th they release their next album, The Resistance, which will be the fifth studio album following Black Holes and Revelations in 2006, and I’m not gonna dumb down any expressions here – quite simply, I am absolutely friggin’ pumped beyond all matters of measurement for this release. Before the release of Absolution, I was mega pumped. But then before the release of Black Holes and Revelations, I was even more excited than that! But this takes it to a whole new level and I just need this album. Right. Now.

In case you don’t know, us Muse fan(atic)s have already have such a sweet free taste of the album thanks to, what I feel, is an absolute genius idea from the marketing aspect of the band. Basically, the band’s lead singer Matthew Bellamy posted a message on Muse’s twitter account, Musewire, mentioning a treasure hunt. Now, to give a clearer insight into this, not long after the release of Absolution, a US tour provided setlists with new songs being played for the first time with names in anagrams that ended up being various clues leading to special Muse-branded bikes that had worked as a fantastic and quite unique treasure hunt. The band have always had a cryptic element behind their music as plenty of times have songs appeared with cryptic names in their setlists, not to mention stuff on their website and messages within interviews and whatnot. The cryptic element of the band has been revisited in a gargantuan style within the past few weeks though, as Muse quite literally got people from around the world in an absolutely huge treasure hunt which was amazing fun to watch on and read it being solved at Muselive and Muse’s official forums. It went like this…

Muse.mu was put down for a few days and a counter appeared. When the site was back, it had been completely rehauled, obviously in spirit for the upcoming release of The Resistance. However it came showing a new sub-site – ununitedeurasia.muse.mu. The website provided a map of Eurasia, and constant messages displaying the type of language you’d expect to see from a navy/army radio, constantly cryptic and almost alarming in danger concerning their language and the way everything was being expressed, for example:

“FLASH MESSAGE TO ALL USOE AGENTS: ARCHITECTS GRAN AJEDREZ NOTE THAT STATION//COLOSSUS HAS NOT BEEN ACTIVATED.
RECOGNITION OF UNITED STATES OF EURASIA BY USA IS VITAL FOR THE SUCCESSFUL OUTCOME OF PROJECT GRAN AJEDREZ.
ARCHITECTS HAVE AUTHORIZED A TEMPORARY EXTENSION OF THE DEADLINE TO PREVENT LOCKDOWN CRISIS LIMITATION MODE.”

Yeeep. That’s what I thought. It turned out that, in various location around the world at specific times, people had to meet up with agents to receive a USB key that would provide a code for this micro-site which, in turn and gradually from city to city, unlock 30 seconds (or more) of the song United States of Eurasia! It was a brilliant, brilliant idea and I honestly have no idea how Muse fans can even begin to be smart enough to get through some of the clues being provided, which related to references from certain books like The Grand Chessboard by Zbigniew Brzezinski. After a week or so, every location had been unlocked, including a special appearance of a USB key in the United States with a message on the site almost screaming at fans to resist this, acting as if it were a trap, that is someone gave in to the temptation of meeting the agent that fans would regret it. It was brilliant! It created paranoia, worry, and mass discussions upon message boards what to do! Eventually, as I say, the song was fully unlocked. United states of Eurasia (+Collateral Damage), at 5 minutes in length.

The first new proper Muse piece in 3 or so years was finally here!! So… what do I think of the United States of Eurasia? There’s a simple way to answer this.

WOAH!!!!!!

I will be open and say it – it was NOT what I was expecting whatsoever. It’s so much better than that!! The song opens softly, almost recognisable in comparison to the piano of Beautiful by Christina Aguilera (why do I know that?) with Bellamy’s softly spoken vocals accompanied by strings slowly sending the song along. It’s a very calm introduction, very soothing with the lyrics reminiscing the romance within 1984 by George Orwell, a struggle to overcome wars and barriers with a cause gone insane no matter what the protagonist of this song and their partner do. It’s a minute or two in where the jaw really drops though. Just as you get used to this… BAM! Why split these states, asks Bellamy, before launching out (in full Freddie Mercury falsetto) WHEN THERE CAN BE ONLY ONE? with an explosion of sound, guitars squealing away, and a massive smash of drums whilst Bellamy finally screams out! Woah! It’s for me after this where the song truly comes to life, as the band bellow out the most wonderfully arabian-nights sounding section of the song, Bellamy tinkling away on a piano with the orchestra still in full strength simply adding to this wonderful combination, a middle eastern chant of song going along with the rhythm and a snarling bassline under all these layers just add to make this wonderful and hugely unexpectedly sound. The lyrics continue the paranoia of a controlled society - “You and me fall in line//To be punished for unproven crimes” with the constant mention of 'they’ referring to the controlling state Bellamy is obviously screaming out in protest against. The verses fit wonderfully with these middle-eastern instrumental section, but once the final part of USoE arrives, boy does it arrive in fashion. Once again fully utilising the power of Freddie Mercury (why do people moan at this? The man was a legend!) this section of the full United States of Eurasia (+Collateral Damage) ends making a huge amount of attention, with the band shouting out “Eura…SIA! SIA! SIA!”, Dom smashing away on an almost rebellious-sounding anger of drums within the background, Chris’s bass jumping up and down to the simply unignorable vocal screams and it’s just a pure climax of emotion. The best thing about it is that this is only the beginning for the added on Collateral Damage, where as USoE cools down after a vicious attack of rebellion towards a controlling state, the song settles down to end with a 2 minute piano solo of simply Bellamy himself covering one of Chopin’s songs and adding his own personal touch to it to create an elegant, beautiful and simply stunning ending to a song that feels so angry and so frustrated. Accompanying the piano are the sounds of children playing, enjoying themselves and the return of those strings that make USoE so wonderfully unique, simply adding to the atmosphere of this outro, before they simply disappear in a sudden, the children begin screaming in the background and the sound of a missile rushes through your mind all whilst Bellamy’s piano simply strolls past at a snails pace, continuing it’s elegance when a state of panic is obviously occurring in the background. Collateral Damage is a beautiful, beautiful outro that really adds to a song that seems to angry and fed up of society only to be followed by a massive juxtaposition in a piano solo that seems so far away from the world that it simply ignores the troubles it is surrounded in.

So… that’s the first song from The Resistance. Please watch the video at the bottom of this page, it is the full song, United States of Eurasia(+Collateral Damage), that I honestly think everyone deserves to hear. It’s a wonderful song and if you’ve known Muse for a long long time, take all expectations out of your mind and just enjoy because you’ll hear nothing like it at the moment in modern rock bands. Based on USoE, the album should be pretty incredible. Even better is the news that the opening song off the album, Uprising, will be debuted on August 3rd on the Zane Lowe show (Radio 1, 7:30pm), something that I will undoubtedly be checking out in a fit of excitement.

September 14th cannot come quick enough.

#27; F1’s Expansions into the Unknown

2009-07-27T15:07:00.001+01:00

As a Formula 1 fan it’s been easy to notice the shift in geographical location over the years from classic Formula tracks like Montreal, Imola and others into new territories for the sport, particularly the shift in focus towards a rich Asian continent for the commercial right holders to take advantage of. Formula 1 is slowly creeping out of Europe, which still is the prominent location of fan-base for the sport. It’s a shame because some of the tracks in Europe are fantastic – look how we lost Spa Francorchamps for a few years, yet saw it return with one of it’s iconic corners trampled for a new chicane that look the fun out of the bus stop. Sadly it seems no track in the sport is safe, no matter how historic or iconic they may be, and you can consider this a rant at the shift in focus to these new locations.

Obviously I have nothing against such countries as China, Abu Dhabi, Bahrain and another new locations to the Formula 1 world. The problem I do have is the soulless, barren landscapes they seem to be developed in, combining with tracks that provide no real sense of entertainment where they should be the pinnacle of motor racing. Why is it we always hear these comments from drivers that say… “So and so is a first rate facility, it’s state of the art” and so on – yes, well done, you’ve made a fantastic facility to show off the fat cats behind the curtains, now how about someone work on making tracks that actually benefit us fans? The tracks need top rate medical facilities and need to be safe, no doubt about that. To simply destroy every that Sid Watkins, Jackie Stewart and many other safety personnel over the years have created for F1 would be a catastrophe, but the fans don’t need to know about top class facilities. I feel they want a track that provides excitement, one with history, passion and commitment to the sport with fans that will come to see the race no matter the local heroes in the sport or not.

Of course can all point the finger at Hermann Tilke’s track layouts, which for me have been consistently dull minus a few exceptions in Malaysia and Turkey (more on this later though), but it would be unfair to simple point the finger at one man when he’s simply doing his job on the orders of others. The commercial rights holder that looks for these new locations is a man you may have heard of, Bernie Ecclestone. Yeah, you know that guy! Of course, these new Middle Eastern and south Asian countries have bags upon bags of wealth to throw at Bernie and his commercial rights, and there can be the argument that Formula 1 may need to open it’s arms to new markets, new audiences and expand upon it’s influence but what is these new markets of fans are simply not interested? You study the attendances of Turkey, Shanghai, Malaysia and their attendance records in races have been substantially lower than anything we would see in the main European market of Formula 1. The following diagram shows how Formula 1’s calendar has changed in nearly 20 years:

There is a huge difference on locality for Grand Prix in just this relatively short time span. Yes, the main European audience is still kept in mind but for how long, I ask? In the future, we’re expecting to see Grand Prix entries within the Formula 1 calendar from India, South Korea and closer to home in Europe, Bulgaria as well as rumours of United States and Canada regaining their Grand Prix events. But it just astonishes me at times that the commercial holders that negotiate the contracts seem to turn their back on loyal audiences and loved tracks simply for the hope of better money and ‘top class facilities’. Yes Formula 1 needs to be in a modern environment but why not support the locations they feel need improving? It just saddens me to see places like Montreal and Silverstone kicked off simply for stupid reasons.

I don’t like Hermann Tilke’s tracks, I’ll be honest. Bahrain is one of the most dull experience on a Formula 1 calendar ever created I feel and it’s very harsh to criticise anything for me, but it’s simply just a dire environment. There are a few tracks that Tilke has created that create a fantastic spectacle – Turkey has that infamous turn 8 that goes on, and on and is a huge challenge for the drivers, and the track itself has it’s great moment. I also have a soft spot for Malaysia as it’s a good track personally, not an amazing track but one of Tilke’s better designs. The problem is, these tracks still remain in countries that just don’t have the passion you see in the main European audience and it definitely shows on television, as watching a Grand Prix with empty stands at times can be disheartening. It happens in European tracks at times too, for example Valencia and Hungary stand out for me as usually disinteresting tracks with audiences nowhere near maximum capacity (although Valencia has only been around for 1 year, I really can’t see an improvement in 4 weeks time). We shall see what the future brings though.

Formula 1 is ever changing, there is no doubt about it. Rules change from year to year it seems, drivers swap about teams and both leave and exit the sport, and as you can see, tracks come and go. I’m a very traditional, possibly old fashioned, person as I’m sure you can tell from this and for me I just want to see the sport, the pinnacle of motorsport as they say, at the best tracks because that’s where the fans want them to be, and I’m sure the teams do too. What atmosphere can a sport achieve in a desert environment with no relief, landscape changes, atmosphere and relative support? It may seem a little greedy to be annoyed at these additions to the calendar but it’s something I can’t ignore. Hopefully I’m not the only Formula 1 fan who can’t help but wonder at these sort of things as time goes on.

#26; Music Review (Muse, Absolution)

2009-07-16T19:35:00.001+01:00

With just a few more weeks to go until Muse unleash their fifth studio album The Resistance upon the world and their adoring fans, I decided to review my favourite Muse album ‘Absolution’. Released in September 2003, it explores Muse’s fear of the world ending, areas of atheism and romance as well as bringing in genres of classical music, jazz and various other surprises along the way. If you know me well, you will know I absolutely adore Muse but I have approached this review with the upmost feeling of non-bias towards the band and enjoyed/reviewed the album for the music it contains rather than the music that I like. Hopefully it’ll be up to your standards, so… enjoy”

1) Apocalypse Please - Opening with a drumming beat of footsteps gradually progressing in their volume, a striking piano riff storms upon the listener into the song. “Declare this an emergency” screams Bellamy, and you can definitely feel the sense of urgency not only being sang out in despair but from the song itself musically. Whereas the title takes reference to the classic film Apocalypse Now, this song feels in a different world – it almost screams in pain that the end is nigh, an apocalyptic cry from Bellamy on vocals accompanied with the piano works wonders for the song personally. It opens the album with a taste of what to expect in the next 50 minutes or so – loud, brash messages thrown through bass lines, drum-riffs, pianos, synth, the likes. As an individual song, it works. As an opener it works even better. Excellent! 84%

2) Time is Running Out – Arguably one of the poppiest songs on the album, it remains to this day as one of the Muse’s most loved from the fans. Created by a fantastic backing bassline and the clicking of fingers creating the tempo, the song continues the ‘end of the world’ feel originating from Apocalypse Please. It’s certainly a massive distance away from the riffs and distortion of Muse’s previous album, but TIRO will get stuck in your head when you hear it. The bass and the drums are what make the song so fantastically addictive – you hear those notes shoot out at you from the bass as soon as the song starts and it runs the entire length. A little overplayed since the release of Absolution but still a definite highlight and one song that has stayed in Muse’s back catalogue of excellence with the fans for a long, long time since it’s first play. 90%

3) Sing for Absolution – After two electrifyingly momentous songs to introduce fans to Absolution, the record gets it’s first slower song in Sing for Absolution. A dreamy, almost galactic feeling cry of forgiveness that contributed to the album title obviously hears the trio back on piano with very little guitar, much in the same way Apocalypse Please did, but in a far slower, softer context. Bellamy’s vocals works wonderfully with the piano and synth in the background in keeping the pace of the song interesting enough to work but not dull enough to simply see the song getting skipped. Lyrically, it’s a highlight for me because of how strangely well it works as a love song - “There's nowhere left to hide, In no one to confide, the truth burns deep inside, and will never die” – yes it’s simple, but it just goes beautifully with what the song is expressing musically. By the end, after a calm, relaxed intro, the song ends on a louder, angrier tone with heavier guitars and Bellamy almost screaming his way into the outro. Underrated but not brilliant. 82%

4) Stockholm Syndrome – Heavy guitar. Huge bass riff. Gargantuan drums. I can’t think of enough expressions to sum up how massive, how wonderfully huge, how expansive Stockholm Syndrome truly is. The lyrics are nothing to write home about (although ‘This is the last time I’ll forget you!'' makes me want to scream it out in sheer delight"!) but for a song that prides itself on heavy guitar riffs and a bassline that could crack a safe, it’s easily one of the angriest romantic songs you’ll hear. Stockholm Syndrome really is completely brilliant though. From the moment the guitar opens the song to that massive outro of sheer headbanging glee for you rockers, I simply cannot criticise the song in any way or any form. Even the length is perfect, as I personally dislike songs that are less than 3 minutes in length and anything in 4/5 minutes length, for me, is just about right and the criteria matches for Stockholm Syndrome. Plus the guitar riff is up there with Muse’s best. Is this Muse’s best song ever? Arguable. Is this the best song on Absolution? Oh Yes. 97%

5) Falling Away with You – Wow. What a comedown after the mountainous reaches of screaming caused from Stockholm Syndrome. FAWY can fit into the category of romance once more, expressing the deprecation of the world around a person in love from the feeling of falling away with them, obviously. It’s a lovely song – the chorus is simple but works well enough. Musically, its simply guitars and drum tapping that take the song by it’s hand but it’s surprising to hear how non-existent Wolstenholme sounds on the bass, a shame for a man of his talent. I would probably say that this isn’t the correct genre for Muse as whilst the song does work, you just feel like it’s kind of feels like filler. 70%

6) Hysteria – In much the same was as Time is Running out, the bassline absolutely helps make this song a classic Muse tune. It has snarling guitar bashing throughout and cymbals crashing like a menacing ocean but that bassline you hear nonstop just absolutely makes Hysteria. It’s surprising how short the song is, especially whilst listening – time absolutely flies through it’s 3 minute length but it’s short and very sweet, with a gorgeously paradisical guitar solo towards the end. The solo actually feels contradictory to the general frustration portrayed through Bellamy’s lyrics and vocals - “I want you now!” he screams out, yet the guitar solo sounds as if the song reaches a complete different level of pleasure once it finishes. Definitely a highlight of Absolution and of Muse’s complete portfolio. Excellent bass. Excellent sound. Excellent Hysteria. 95%

7) Blackout – This is a strange one to analyse. It sounds like a song drifting down the Venetian canals on a summer afternoon with an orchestra guiding you along, with the song consisting of a string orchestra creating the main ballad whilst Bellamy softly sings along to simple cymbal taping. Being a love song, it ticks the boxes of a romantic cliche but it’s a lovely song without a doubt – just feels at times as if it lacks a little pace. It could be argued that the slow pace of the song makes it better to the context in which it’s sang, which it definitely adds to, but it’s a little out of Muse’s comfort zone. Although the solo with the electric synthesized guitar is the true highlight of the song alongside a cascading choir of violins and other strings. Lovely, but perhaps a little too lovely. 76%

8) Butterflies and Hurricanes – I can’t stress enough how epic this song feels. Really, an absolute epic. It slowly builds up from simply vocals and orchestra, but begins building into this gargantuan sounding of modern classical music, as completely contradictory as that sounds. The pace of the song runs beautifully, with a Formula 1 racing-style pace as it rushes along building more and more noise with piano, bass, drums, more orchestra, backing vocals, brilliant!! In contrast to other songs, with their apocalyptic or romantic message, B&H is incredibly optimistic and upbeat - “Best!! You’ve got to be the Best”! – again going in tandem with the pace of the song fantastically. The entire song is broken into two parts, if you will, by a piano solo by Matt Bellamy that could be confused with such composers as Chopin or Rachmaninov. The solo is elegant, managing to keep that pace that the song build up to towards this climax but adding a modern twist upon the world of classical music. It’s a very brave song, considering how much it mixes Muse’s modern sound with traditional classical music, but my god does it work. 94%

9) The Small Print – We jump from the inspirations of classical music to a sudden in-your-face classic rock song that goes back to the lyrical bias of desperation and anger that has been seen earlier in the album. The Small Print’s musical foundations are built from Bellamy’s heavy guitar and a crunching bassline from Wolstenholme that see TSP simply scream into your mind. We also get a bit more insight into the atheist beliefs of Bellamy and the band through the Small Print, something that goes into deeper thought later in the album. However the Small Print is a pretty good song – nothing hugely memorable but loud, brash and heavier than anything else on Absolution minus Stockholm Syndrome. 80%

10) Fury – To this day I’m incredibly upset about Fury. Basically, the song only appeared on the Japanese version of Absolution, and was scheduled to replace The Small Print worldwide until Dom/Chris outvoted Matt to keep TSP on, and leave Fury off for Japan. The reason why it upsets me so much is that Fury is simply sensational – and yet millions of fans worldwide may not get to hear it because it was simply released as a B-side to a single rather than on the full album. Fury has such an exotic feel about it for me, with the rhythm screaming out arabian nights-style themes with that gorgeously epic bassline that stands above Bellamy’s softly spoken vocals. At just under 5 minutes, it’s reasonably lengthy but, for me, has one of Muse’s must genius choruses. Again Bellamy almost innocently sings out against a song that creates so much power in it’s sound, with the chorus hearing the guitar run back and forth through notes, whilst Bellamy himself sings out against his sins in the hope of no God hurting him for his actions. If it were on the full album worldwide, it would rival Stockholm Syndrome for me. It’s an absolutely mind-blowing song I feel, it creates such an incredible aura and sense of powerful in the way the song conveys it’s message of sin, and just such a highlight that every Muse fan should hunt down. 96%

11) Endlessly – Absolution takes a turn towards the genre of Jazz as endlessly is a calm romantic entry towards the album. It’s an extremely simple song in comparison to some of it’s neighbours alongside it in the album, sounding something you’d hear in a jazz club on a Friday night from a small band rather than the over the top, apocalyptic end of the world paranoia that Muse have achieved in various other songs on the album. It’s quite conceptual in that aspect for the band because it’s so different to a lot of their other stuff – the bass feels so non-existant and the drums sound so stripped down, but it has this wonderful synth in the chorus that mixes with these aspects to create the chilled atmosphere the song is obviously striving for. Bellamy’s vocals work once more with the romantic message being conveyed and it’s a lovely little song, just feels kind of out of place on the album. The mini-solo with the organ is absolutely lovely though but again, sounds very out of place. 69%

12) Thoughts of a Dying Atheist – The song that inspired the name of this blog, huzzah! ToaDA is another fast paced entry into the album based off the guitars and bassline more than anything that, as previously described, seen to absolutely fly by in terms of time. It explores once more the religious aspect of the band’s beliefs in terms of their fear of death and the afterlife that so many religions describe, as the title of the song so easily describes. It’s a great little song though, again just being a typical rock song rather than falling into a particular genre of music elsewhere. Once more we get a guitar solo from Bellamy that adds to the length and breaks the pace in which the verses and choruses seem to come out at, and the fear of death and being an atheist in wonder combined with the constantly moving pace helps makes the song a valuable addition to the album. 83%

13) Ruled by Secrecy - Sadly even the best things in life have to end, and closing Absolution is the truly magnificent Ruled by Secrecy. Opening with a sombre piano and the exasperated vocals of Bellamy almost nasally singing about change in the air alongside a basic bassline and simple drum tapping. The opening minute or two makes it seem as if this loud album, constantly screaming out in frustration then switching to a more personal level at times, is ending on a low key with RbS but just as it feels the song loses all kind of pace musically, it crashes into a sea of piano, cymbals and basslines smashing together to create a hugely effective dramatic exit. Once the song turns into this huge song, it really adds to the atmosphere and cries of despair that previous songs had done so well to create and makes Ruled by Secrecy such a sweetly beautiful and yet screamingly desperate song to end with. It slowly builds down after the crash back to a sudden ending and echo to leave Absolution in the memory of it’s listeners. Fantastic outro for the album and a fantastically beautiful song in it’s own right. 91%.

So that’s Absolution by Muse. If you’re wondering, the average percentage turned out to be 85% (with Fury) or 84% (without Fury), which are both in general is a very fair scores I feel considering how much I love the band, and how totally unfair and biased it could have been! Hopefully the review was fine to read too as if this turned out to be moderately successful, I will indeed other music albums from other bands in the future. Concerning Absolution, it’s still easily my favourite album but nothing is perfect – everything is bound to have flaws. Perhaps you will feel I have been too easy going on some songs, or perhaps not critical enough but that’s the thing about opinions - you can never make everyone happy! I do absolutely recommend this to any real fan of music with an open mind that appreciates all areas of rock – whether it be slower, more romantically biased, general rock or those who prefer an over the top symphonic approach to music, it accommodates to all audiences and the entire albums flows so beautifully well. Muse’s next album, The Resistance, is out on 14th September and is already being called Muse’s ‘biggest and bravest masterpiece’ by different media outlets, so it does make me wonder… how excellent must it be to beat Absolution? Only time will tell my friends.

#25; It’s not quite Autumn but it’s more than Spring

2009-07-16T14:09:00.001+01:00

So it’s the typical British summertime rolling out once more it would seem – in a season that should bring sunshine, warmth, colour and clichés of a summer variety, we once more seem to put up with the usual stuff. I’ll admit we’ve had some beautiful days so far this summer but that’s the thing – I’m having to say ‘some’' rather than mostly! See, our summer seems to be full of cloudy clouds, showery showers and generally generic weather, 3 descriptions that I’m sure will blow you away with sheer visual oomph. To get myself out of this non-descriptive summer we seem to be experiencing once more, I’ve decided to remind myself of everything that makes me look forward to the summer and gets me back in the mood of the lovely few months they should bring…

Cornettos! OK not necessarily Cornettos’ themselves but ice cream in general. yes we’ve had the massively inflated prices of 99 Flakes contradict their actual name but Ice Creams and summer go together like peas in a pod! Whilst at Goodwood with that beautiful blue sky horizon I can’t even begin to tell you how many Ice creams I treated myself to, pure heaven. You just simply can’t go a summer without ice cream. Yum. Also, you all know secretly Strawberry Cornettos’ are the best ones.
Blue! No, not that absolute drivel of a band. No, not the Blue Man Group although they are kind of cool. I mean those glorious blue skies that stretch for miles and miles with the whispers of clouds stroking through their gentle views. Bliss! Absolute bliss! It’s not something us British folk tend to get treated with so often throughout the year it feels. Plus it means lovely weather of course which is always welcome. Just the colour blue itself looks so relaxing in the sky. I almost put tasty there, but I think that’s the though of Cornettos’ getting to my mind. Blue Cornetto sounds wrong.
Relaxing! It does feel like the summer is the time of the year when everyone seems to take a step back and just chill for a bit, or so in my experience. I have no uni work to necessarily worry about, it’s a fantastic opportunity to travel and go see people and laces, books to read and catch up with, there’s lots of good music to look forward to and listen, again with the ice cream, and it’s just such a relaxing time compared to the new education beginnings of the Autumn, the Christmas stresses of winter and the general springyness of Spring. Actually Spring’s quite nice too… but Summer is more Springier. If you get what I mean.

It’s quite wierd really because despite all this loving for the Summer, I do prefer the winter. I love the cold and the festivity and, as I am completely wierd, I find rain very relaxing. But the summer, when we get it, is absolutely brilliant because it is just relaxation central with the surrounding of bright, wonderful colours, that gorgeous breeze that brushes past and just a few months of chilling out to a cold drink and good music. When we get it, of course. I think I’ll just remind myself of this entry when the skies go grey over the next month or two…

#24; Rorschach’s F1 Diary/Journal

2009-07-08T21:25:00.000+01:00

This blog entry may not necessarily be my own opinions (to an extent) but I thought I’d do a bit writing in a similar style of the Rorschach character from the graphic novel Watchmen. Just imagine it over the course of the various news updates we’ve had in formula one’s politics mayhem over the past few months and perhaps try and immerse yourself in the dystopian context that Rorschach speaks from. It may be utter crap, it may be quite interesting, but I thought Id try something different. Do read on…

…

Tabloids don’t shut up. Newsreaders spew out the crap. Frustration at it all. Everything is awful. Stories supposed to be kept hidden, words supposed to be shared privately, ideas no-one wants. What is Formula 1? Is it the pinnacle of motorsport? or is it a pawn’s game of manipulation, greed and the desperate human cockroaches in charge demanding their spotlight? I don’t know anymore. I don’t care anymore.

….

Peace. Pease is merely a word intended to show neutrality, calmness, to be pure. Nothing’s pure in this. They say peace has been agreed, the smiles on the fat cats and the handshakes of the uneasy. Millions study their despicable words, spoken without an honest molecule of truth. Will it end, they ask. Will it finally be over? It can never be over unless changes are made. And I shall watch on with a dagger inside me turning at the progress of chaos being tortured upon the fans that make Formula 1. Sat there. Angry. Light flickering over my head at the lies. Constant lies. Regret everything? No. They regret nothing.

…

A day is all it takes. Mosley stands out from the crowd and declares ‘They got it wrong.’ You got it wrong. Admit it. The problem is no-one wants to admit it. It’s all wrong and all we can do is look on at those that have made it wrong. They say anger is simply the last of our patience, the final emotion of our sanity. Anger is no emotion. Anger is everything the politics stands for within Formula 1. Frustration. Non-entities. Is it fate that we suffer for their crimes? Nothing we can say. Nothing we can do. Simply watching on whilst the leaders kill our sport. Despicable.

…

Rorschach’s Diary, Wednesday 8th July 2009; A meeting occurs between the good and the bad. The teams from FOTA, the bosses from the FIA, the new guys in between. Words are said. Things are discussed. Opinions are clashed. The teams walks out, disgust, anger, revolt. The dust finally settled, they say? Not a chance. Looking on, I just see greed, I see injustice, I see many individuals crying out for their attention starved egos to be tendered for once more. Step aside, they tell him. Stand down, bring in the new blood. He simply laughs in secret, I know it. Power mad? Power hungry. There is nothing left. The words, the threats, the walkouts, constantly gouging away at that physical connection once adored and loved with everyone that loves the sport. Going. Going. Gone? They threaten a new born child to sprout from the polluted veins that choke behind the curtains of F1. Do we need it? Everything is wrong. Still.

…

The future? I pay my respects. Formula 1. Established 1950, Guiseppe Farina being the first victor. The motorsport lives a life for 59 years. Senna. Fangio. Lauda. Schumacher. Moss. All those lives, all that success, souls destroyed and revived. Is this it? Is this where it ends? Conflict never ends until conflict is resolved. How can conflict end when resolution is beyond the horizon… compromise is impossible. So why is it impossible compromising? Perhaps it is time to admit it. The end is the beginning is the end.

…

#23; The Goodwood Experience

2009-07-07T11:04:00.001+01:00

Everybody has various experiences within their lifetime that remain in their memory throughout their life, whether this be their first times, their passes and failures, their achievements, just the things that make up the way their life has evolved. This weekend I had the privilege of spending my first experience of the Goodwood Festival of Speed, as I mentioned in a blog entry just before leaving last week, and a weekend that will absolutely remain in my min for a very long time to come. Simply put, the many things I managed to encounter, absorb, gawp at and loved at the festival was like a motorsport utopia; hearing the roar of those vicious engines, staring down at the blindingly gorgeous liveries of cars that have made up their own history in various sports, and just so much more. Of course I realise that for an onlooker reading this, the language I’m using to describe everything is extremely extravagant, but it’s hard to dumb down the descriptions of how much I enjoyed the Festival of Speed. Hopefully, by the end of this entry, you will understand a bit better why the Festival of Speed is just a treat for motor racing fans everywhere.

Approaching the format of this blog entry has taken various forms and lots of consideration – do I talk to you guys reading in the form of a recap of every single day? Simply mention the most special moments of the weekend? Or just discuss and look at the highlights from the various areas of the Festival of Speed? Based on everything, and considering the amount of content that could end up being posted, it seems best to be to simply take a pinch of each option to keep the word count down from a gargantuan essay as well as hopefully keeping you readers interested! There is so much for me to mention concerning Goodwood – boredom is simply not an option I feel when you are at the festival due to the fact there is always something going on, something to see, and somewhere to go. As motorsport fans, we are all treated to viewing some of the world’s most beautiful cars whether that be from the luxurious world of modern Formula 1, the historical evolution of the Silver Arrow Mercedes, superbikes, NASCAR, Le mans, I really could go on and on! Seeing these motorcars and bikes and hearing the electrifying scream of their engines rushing through the Goodwood circuit at an electrifying speed though is simply indescribable. The added bonus of being able to chat to the heroes that risk their lives for our entertainment and their desire to race makes the opportunities even more special to me. Even after the first day, walking out of the event back to the bus, I was quite simply emotionally drained from the sheer brilliance of it all. My first day of the festival was jaw dropping, awe inspiring, just stunning. It absolutely blew me away.

The wonderful thing about going to such events for the first time, without any previous experience of such a race meeting (so to speak), is that it really does add a massive new level of appreciation for everything that makes up motorsport. Whilst I prepared myself as much as I thought I could for Goodwood, so many things opened my eyes and shocked me in different ways. You grow up watching these cars, these men and women forming the cars into the brilliance you see on track, and managing to stand there with such cars as that gorgeous Rothmans Williams car that won Damon Hill’s world championship in 1996 did feel a little surreal at first. Seeing the aerodynamic perfection on these cars curved and angled to achieve their upmost potential and seeing those striking liveries that made up the times where I grew to love Formula 1, then watching then fly past with the menace of their engines screaming past at a ridiculously fast speed for the first time within my life just made me fall in love with everything motor racing related even more. They have a huge part of history that they hold proud of, but with these classic cars, still seeing the modern and even future concept cars manages to amaze just as much. Perhaps it’s the concept of being surrounded by all these incredible motors continually, despite seeing the same cars over the few days perhaps, never ceased to amaze me. The drivers standing proud and discussing with their crew whilst setting them up to go out on track, for example, just adds to the magic that is Goodwood.

It still stuns me now thinking back over the weekend how normal it seems to simply walk up to these personalities, whether they be the drivers themselves, the crew, managers or PA’s, and simply talk Formula 1 to them. They are there for the exact same reason as everyone else though – because of their love for motor racing,enjoying everything it should stand for. Over the course of the weekend I had the pleasure of speaking to some fantastic people from within the paddock, which seems incredibly bizarre to myself going to such an event for the first time and witnessing these people in front of me that I had seen shape the sport and create their legacy within whatever sport they has come from. It simply was beyond surreal. Some examples to share with you, on the first day I managed to have the pleasure to see Adrian Newey in the Rothman Williams overalls standing outside the Williams garage. After quickly saying hello, and getting a photo of him, he seemed more than happy to talk and I mentioned to him how it must be fantastic to see Red Bull’s achievements this year finally coming to fruition, especially at Silverstone. He seemed delighted enough, smiled back and said ‘It really does never gets old’. With that I shook his hand and wished him luck for the future, and got a quick photo as he went off back to his busy schedule. Things like this really make me appreciate what makes the humble people within the paddock give you, the fans, the time you deserve for being dedicated to Formula 1 especially in the rough times of politics we have had to endure as of late. Other names that popped up in my autograph book and camera were the wonderfully welcoming Jackie Stewart, speaking to fans about little stories and answering their questions politely, David Brabham who had recently just won Le Mans with Peugeot spending a lot of time with the fans over the weekend (including coming out of the drivers paddock to attend to a disabled woman for a lengthy amount of time), Timo Glock, Eddie Irvine, Allan McNish, even Steve Ryder and Tony Jardine spent time with the fans that I witnessed at points despite not exactly being big A-list names amongst the autograph hunters. It is just an extremely humbling experience and a pleasure to meet such people when they give the time back.

So over the course of the few days within this wonderful environment, what stands out as the big highlights for myself? They were without a doubt a few days of blissful paradise, and I hope mentioning certain things will not annoy you with name dropping but simply enlighten you into just how much I enjoyed the times…

As previous mentioned, getting the opportunity to get up close and talk (even briefly) with such names as Damon Hill, Jenson Button and a big highlight for me asides from the world of motor racing, Pink Floyd drummer Nick Mason. Very surreal to see these guys. Easily the most memorable moment was watching John Button pass by Lou, Chris and myself until Chris stopped Mr Button, tapped him and asked “Do you mind having a photo with your friend?”. No complaints, John was more than happy to comply, wrapped his arm around Lou’s squeals of excitement and we got a wonderful photo of the two with John smiling throughout. Needless to say, it took Lou ages to recover after what had just happened… but what a moment!! Another memorable moment for me was seeing Adrian Newey drawing a quick F1 car for charity with the McLaren crew, and as he did it with the guys walking off thanking him, they turned and jokingly exclaimed “This’ll be our 2010 car!” to much laughter from Newey and the crowd of fans watching on. Brilliance!
Hearing those engines in person for the first time. That menacingly beautiful scream of a modern Formula 1 engine racing by, or standing right next to it as it warms up before setting off to the track was beyond description. It absolutely blew me away, and left me speechless as there are no words to justify and compare the loudness of those wonderful pieces of machinery. I mean, I see them every fortnight or so on TV and we all know what an F1 car sounds like no doubt, but until you hear one yourself, it seems you can’t appreciate just how magnificent they do sound. Plus it really is true; blink and you miss them.
The festival of speed does create the most fantastic atmosphere, and I adored being part of it all. You’re there with thousands upon thousands of fanatics, enjoying the company of these historical cars, these wonderful people, all showing their appreciation, hard work and skill from the many years they will have taken part in their sport. Sunday for me in particular was a truly wonderful day – getting the chance to meet up and explore with some amazing people and having a hilarious times whilst watching on with the events going on around us, not to mention seeing the names that have made up motor racing and continue to do so in the most beautiful weather is all just a blissful combination. The whole weekend felt like a dream come true to be honest, and after this weekend, I really cannot wait to attend again in 2010!
The photo opportunities were fabulous. Over the weekend I myself managed to get several hundred photos from allsorts of areas, whether it have been in the Cartier et Luxe or simply trying to keep up with cars on track, it has provided myself with lots of visual memories to gain much delight from remembering. The photos accompanying this entry are the photos I managed to take myself, and you can find the full set over at my Flickr account. It’s definitely worth having a look even if you think my photography is awful, just to see how many wonderful different things were were on offer to keep up with! It is pretty special how many photographic opportunities are available should you be willing to give the time to study everything that makes the cars such a beauty to look at.
Just to name drop a little, the full list of people I managed to say hello, stand next to (don’t think wierd of me!) or talk to this weekend were… Timo Glock, Pedro De la Rosa, Jay Leno, Jackie Stewart, Mike Skinner, Randy Wallace, David Brabham, Allan McNish, Alex Wurz, Jenson Button/Team Jenson (Jules, John, etc), Tony Jardine, Adam Carroll, Nick Mason, Mark Webber, Damon Hill, Kazuki Nakajima, Sam Bird, Christian Horner, Mario Theissen, Adrian Newey, Eddie Irvine, Steve Ryder, Bruno Senna, Jochen Mass, Jesse James, Derek Bell, Patrick Head, Jodie Kidd, and one or two others I’ve probably shamefully forgotten. Not too bad though for a first time, I think!

So that for me was everything Goodwood. It really was a special few days and I appreciate everyone who encouraged me to go because beforehand, there was much apprehension for various areas concerning accomadation, travel, money and whatnot. From my point of view, I cannot stress enough how much it is worth visiting for if you have the opportunity. Everything about it everything motor racing should be and it’s just the pure brilliance about it that has made me fall for Goodwood completely. It was simply incredible though. Hopefully you guys will have gained a better insight into my first experiences of this wonderful event, and if you’ve never visited before, hopefully this will encourage you to do one thing… GO IN 2010! Think I’ll end this with a few photographic memories…

#22; Full steam ahead, Goodwood

2009-07-02T19:15:00.001+01:00

If you’re a big fan of your motorsport and know the various events around the calendar, then you should know that this weekend is the illustrious Festival of Speed held at Goodwood. Occurring over the 3rd, 4th and 5th of July, the festival celebrated everything that is motorsport, the thrill of the chase, the roar of the hundreds of horsepower screaming towards onlookers, and just something that, or so I have been told, every motorsport fan should attend at least once. This weekend, as you can probably guess by now, I shall be attended all 3 days!! Woohoo!!

For those not in the know, the event’s website explains it better than me… here is the official blurb from the Goodwood website states…

“The Festival of Speed is far more than just a hill climb – it is a celebration of the history of motor sport and can justifiably claim to be the world’s biggest and most diverse classic motor sports event. Taking place outside Goodwood House, using the main road through the Park as the track, it’s the only occasion where you’ll see in action the greatest competition cars and star drivers from the entire history of motor sport. Famous drivers and riders have attended such as Sir Stirling Moss, Jenson Button, Lewis Hamilton, Fernando Alonso, Nigel Mansell, Mika Hakkinen, Johnny Herbert, Juan Pablo Montoya, Richard Petty, Carl Fogarty, Giacomo Agostini, Troy Corser, Troy Bayliss, Jean Alesi, Jacky Ickx, Marcus Gronholm, Petter Solberg, Hannu Mikkola and Alan Jones to name just a few. The Festival is an unrivalled social and sporting occasion in the motor racing calendar.”

Festival of Speed FAQs

I’m very much excited about seeing everything that the festival holds and you lucky guys will get the pleasure of myself reporting back to you all on Tuesday with a blog detailing my experiences. Originally I was wondering creating a day by day account of my experiences but sadly, due to a lack of internet access for myself over the days, it will not be an option. In fact, you won’t hear from me now until Tuesday – how will I survive for so long without my internets?! Going to the world of ‘outside’ for such a period of time should come with a warning me thinks.

So, wish me luck I suppose. This is the first time I’ll be attending Goodwood and as excited as I am, there’s an obvious anxiety to going somewhere new and different, as I’m sure you guys can understand. It’ll all be excellent though, I can just tell, and hopefully I’ll be able to bring back some lovely photos to share, discuss and enjoy! If any of you guys reading are going, do shout over and come and say hello if you see me – I hope to see you there!

Camera? Check.
Tickets for train and event? Check.
Earplugs? Check.

…well then, let’s go!

#21; Mime Acts Stay Away - Geniuses at Work

2009-06-29T22:14:00.001+01:00

I’ve been thinking today in work about what to write about in another entry. It’d be nice to get a bit more activity with shorter posts rather than my stupidly long posts at times, and I was given some lovely advice from Pat W in the comments the other day which I do appreciate and took to heart quite well, so thanks Pat! Back to this entry, tonight I just wanted to share a few live videos of Muse that are up their with my favourites and do a bit less writing, videos that I do absolutely adore. Hopefully you guys can get a bit more of an experience into why the band are considered one of the best live acts arguably in the world right now! So go ahead, read on, and enjoy…

Hysteria – BRIT Awards 2004

The BRITs are generally a quite mainstream affair with lots of pop, rap, r n’b etc type of music that I’m personally not too accustomed too. No doubt everyone’s entitled to their opinion but they don’t usually produce a show with anything much to my tastes. Nevertheless, when I heard Muse were opening the show, my jaw dropped – something I was not expecting! But that’s certainly no bad thing, as I welcome Muse in any kind of form. And as you can see for yourself, the performance speaks for itself in terms of sheer power, brilliance and every wonderful adjective in the dictionary…

Stockholm Syndrome – Earls Court 2004

Again, in 2004 this was performed at two incredible gigs over 2 nights in London Earls Court. It’s all about the raw power even more so in this more so than the Hysteria one aforementioned, and you get all this release of excitement, frustration, anger of the song and everything thrown into this brilliant, brilliant setlist closer. Just want to point out a special mention to the final chorus and the amount of emotion thrown into the lyrics ‘This is the last time I’ll abandon you’, I’m sure you’ll understand when you hear it. This, for me, is just the perfect Stockholm Syndrome. Period.

Fury – Royal Albert Hall 2007

I’m sure I’ve mentioned Fury many a time to friends, on Twitter and on this blog but I simply cannot get enough of the song. Fury isn’t on any Muse albums asides from the Japanese release of Absolution – it is simply a B-side. Yet in 2007 it began popping up in Muse’s live setlists around the world completely out of nowhere to much surprise and glee, as it is quite simply an incredible song. here specifically, watch the concentration in Matt as he strikes out the chorus on the guitar, and that menacing bassline. Something incredibly addictive about this performance. Brilliant brilliant brilliant!

Butterflies and Hurricanes – Wembley 2006

This was the setting for arguably Muse’s biggest gig of their career – the first band to play at the new Wembley Stadium. It was a hell of a gig – 2 nights of playing to 80,000 people in the biggest stadium in England? Yeah, I’d say that’s quite something… and this performance for me was the best of the evening. The entire thing is a pleasure to watch on the HAARP DVD they released of it but there’s just something about this rendition of B&H. Maybe it’s the short, sharp guitar that rides it along, or that incredible riff in the centre that takes full attention, perhaps Matt’s piano tinkling just jungles along inside my mind. Whatever the reason is, I simply love this.

Citizen Erased – Le Zenith 2001

We’re going into the darker, more insanically twisted days of Muse now, in the ‘shroom era of Origin of Symmetry, where tracked were recorded from bender sessions and everything was just a whirlwind experience of distorted guitars, progtastic excellence and an almost rebellious breakaway from the dark introduction of their debut album Showbiz. The thing I love about Citizen Erased is how it’s such a loud, in-your-face song and yet at the same time, the last few minutes are the sweetest, softest moments of Muse’s career and the contrast of styles in such a song sends chills up my spine every time. I bed of you to watch the video and enjoy every second for what is deserved, and excuse the vast amount of camera angles used!

Ruled by Secrecy – Earls Court 2004

Again we find ourselves in Earls Court as seen earlier with Stockholm Syndrome, and I promised myself to only choose one song from those gigs but I simply can’t. Ruled By Secrecy isn’t a setlist sitter – it isn’t almost guaranteed a spot on every Muse setlist like Stockholm Syndrome is. The thing is with Ruled by Secrecy in this performance is how well it synchronises with it’s video and presentation, everything builds up so well and you’ve got this beautiful song, the band synchronised, the song synchronised, and everything just placed together in a wonderful package. Plus once that piano kicks in…

Bliss – Fuji 2002

The gig in question here is the Fuji Rock festival, obviously in 2002, one for me that is unfairly ignored by many Muse fans especially when a pro-shot of the entire set is on Youtube to enjoy. Nevertheless, Bliss is in general one of my favourite live songs in any form – it has that excellent, excellent riff that accompanies the song and Muse do a hell of a job making it sounds so fresh every single time I hear it. Even better is that the song is ‘extended’ with the riff being repeated and given variation at the end of the song, which you’ll see to the side in the video. Such a fantastic performance of one of their earliest best gigs personally seeing as it’s back in ye olde year of 2002. Although they had 2 albums out by then… but still! Watch it, engross yourself into it, love it!

There’s so much more I could go into but I’ll leave it there. Songs like Knights of Cydonia at the V Festival in 2008, being preceded by Chris playing The Man with a Harmonica, or , stuff like Bliss being combined with the balloons and Matt’s tinkling introduction to New Born, Muse’s earlier stuff in France and small UK locations, even stuff like their early performances of Bliss that sound absolutely awful but have such a history about them, little stuff like that I definitely recommend checking out. If you yourself have any memorable gigs of the band or performances, please comment and remind me! Hopefully you’ve experienced them a bit more of the band with this though if you’ve ever wondered why their live reputation is so good.

#20; Wibbly Wobbly Bloggy Woggy… Stuff…

2009-06-27T22:04:00.001+01:00

You might be reading your feed readers or looking at that entry title and thinking I have finally gone mad. Finally lost my mind, simply throwing out random words and creating nonsense that sounds quite silly. No, that happened a long time ago! Hopefully some of you will have understood what the title is actually relating to, and what is my favourite show on television asides from sport like Formula One. This television program, well you may have heard of it… it’s called Doctor Who! In all seriousness though (Yes, you can be serious with that show for you silly doubters!) I can’t stress enough how much I enjoy every second of the modern re-launch of the much loved series. After thoroughly enjoying/reading an excellent entry by Christine over at her personal blog (SmarterThanYourAverage.com) discussing her personal favourite 5 episodes of the modern reincarnation, there was simply no way, after being inspired by that fantastic entry, that I could go through the evening without talking about the show and what makes it so brilliant for me in my own little corner of the interwebs.

Let’s face it; the show is immensely popular. Millions upon millions of people not just within the UK but around about the legacy of the Doctor and his sci-fi antics in all corners of the galaxy. It has been around for decades, and if you’re a fan of the show, you will know what I mean when I say that you ‘have your own doctor’. As you can probably assume already, a certain Mr David Tennant is without a shadow of a doubt my doctor. Yes, I know about the erratic brilliance of Tom Baker and that booming voice, or the witty impulsiveness of Peter Davidson, plus the fact when I started watching the show in it’s modern form it was given a new lease of life via the gritty but strangely appealing Christopher Ecclestone (Ecclestone… where do I recognise that name?). Nevertheless, Tennant has been a figurehead for so many audiences in the modern run of Doctor Who – he appeals to children and to adults in his own brilliant ways, he has that likable quality about him to allow new fans of the show to become followers of the show, and he also brings in everything a Doctor should have for the old school fans. Sadly, his reign will be up as the Doctor by the end of 2009 as he hands over the torch, or the Tardis so to speak, to Matt Smith – before I make a final decision of Smith, it’s only fair we see what he does as his Doctor but I will admit, I do have many worries as to how he can follow up David Tennant. For all I know, he could be incredible and be quite something; when the choice of Catherine Tate was announced in terms of being the Doctor’s companion, it came from much conserved criticism and quite a confused attitude from myself, but she became my favourite companion. Her attitude was refreshing in her relationship with the Doctor, her general appeal was completely different to that of Rose and Martha, and she was exceedingly funny; it was obvious Tate thoroughly enjoyed every second she was involved on Doctor Who, and that she had given as much influence into her character as possible. So for all we know yet, Mr Smith (See, it already works considering the Doctor’s alias!) could be the next big thing.

Over time with the progression of the modern series’, I’ve seen lots of people simply write it off as a kids program – this is quite simply one of the most ignorant, narrow minded viewpoints I hear about the show. I won’t deny the obvious, and that is that Russell T. Davies absolutely keeps in mind with every single episode he produces that the show does keep a younger audience in mind, and so it should. The appeal of the show itself is that it appeals to EVERY age though, not just children! I’ll give you an example with an episode; my favourite episode of the modern adaptation is the thrillingly brilliant Blink. The synopsis of the episode runs through the story of a young British woman finding a hidden message through the form of DVD extras and easter eggs, and further uncovering the Weeping Angels, a race that take the form of everyday statues that kill when a target blinks or looks away from them. if you find such a story stupid, or unbelievable, you should – that’s what makes every single episode so bloody brilliant! In Blink’s case, the story was incredible – it features such a little amount of the Doctor in it’s 45 minute timeslot, and yet is arguably the best episode for my own opinion. It excited, it thrilled, hell for me it frightened!! you know those screamers you find on the internet, that flash an image and scream loudly quickly? It even had that! So much for a kids show. The show consistently creates such an aura from the content it creates that truly makes it out of this world, the stories are totally completely mad, and the way they are portrayed, written, acted out, and produced make then 45 minutes of gripping, exciting, and thankfully amusing television. Sure, it’s not Hollywood effects but it’s the best damn thing on television for me when the series go out and I could never in words sum up how enjoyable I find every second of Doctor Who. Everybody deserves to give the show a chance because I still truly believe so many people are missing out on an excellent drama that may simply be dismissed because of silly little reasons. It has a protagonist that has a huge, rich history and back-story created by simply the best writers in the business, it has a sidekick that usually is a fantastic character and an excellent addition to the show (I wasn’t a fan of Martha, but I shalln’t go there…) and every single episode is special to me because of one simple reason – they’re always different and yet they’re always Doctor Who.

It does make me sad that we haven’t got a series until next year to love and cherish, and it does feel kind of wierd at the same time though annoyingly. When we had the third series, there was a brilliant arc leading up the the finally where the series would constantly hint at the return of The Master, a fellow time-lord notorious for being one of the Doctor’s enemies no matter how much The doctor reached out to him, and when we got to that finale, it created the most epic feeling in the way it was presented. Every week you could just see it building and building, you would keep your eye out for special events in episodes, you would see adverts on television hinting and it was the same with the fourth series leading up to that huge encounter with Davros and The Doctor – it’s that feeling that I miss just as much as I do the show at the moment. The excitement of not knowing what to expect next even though you just know in your mind what is coming around the corner, the hinting and teasing of the future for The Doctor and the presentation of the show created such a great atmosphere for fans I felt, and without the show around, television feels a lot more empty to me.

Long live the future of Doctor Who. I say this, but I also should say, long live the history of Doctor Who! Before the modern series had made it’s way onto BBC1 once more on our Saturday evenings, I had only watched a few episodes in all honesty – mostly Baker, Pertwee and Davison episodes. They were undoubtedly enjoyable and I have no reason to believe if I watched the entire back classic catalogue I’d love it, but if I’m honest with you, I’m more than happy to stick with my modern Doctor. Yes, we have a new future with Matt Smith at the helm of being the Doctor when Tennant moves onto new things at the end of the year (God, how good is that finale going to be for Tennant though?!) but we have a new breath of fresh air with Stephen Moffat at the helm of being the genius that puts it all together, replacing Russell T Davies. It goes without saying I am excited and I’m nervous at the same time for this – Smith is an unknown, but so what? Like I say earlier, he could be anything. He has Moffat behind him and if there’s anyone I can place faith in to continue producing this genius show, its him. Russell did a grand job to be fair to him - he created new characters that he wasn’t afraid to unleash into the wonderful world of the Lone Wanderer. Yes, he overused the Daleks and Cyberman I will admit, and yes, at times he probably did things in a pretty stupid way that could have been explained better, but he introduced us to Rose Tyler and her fantastic family, he laid the foundation for some incredible pieces of television on Saturday nights, he created new vital characters in the Doctor’s world (Just look at how popular Captain Jack was for example, and even smaller characters like Donna’s uncle Wilf who I personally though was beyond legendary status!) and of course, probably his most important achievement, he was the man that got the BBC to bring back the show to our screens. So with his and Tennant’s departure, I still remain positive. The future is just as important as the history, which seems appropriate for the context of the show really.

Now I wish I could travel back in time and watch everything for the first time once more… where are you, Doctor?!

#19; Saluting the Loyal Family Pt. 2

2009-06-23T11:53:00.001+01:00

Earlier this week I began a two parter blog entry delving into the realms of loyalty within the sport I love to watch, Formula 1. It’s not the easiest subject to discuss I find because we as the fans can never truly see the full side of an F1 driver in modern times due to teams almost providing the words for their drivers to speak rather than the drivers being given full reign to speak their mind should they want to. However, as I previously stated last week, I find this subject quite an interesting area of study. How loyal can you be to a team but have the offer of more money staring down at you from another source? Would a team matter that much to you should a faster, better team come looking for your services? There are many questions that maybe I cannot answer but I am certainly willing to discuss, and in this second parter, I am going to start with the current leader of the world championship in 2009, Jenson Button.

There is absolutely no doubt about it – Jenson is having the Formula 1 season of his life so far. Out of the 8 races we’ve had in 2009, the man has won 6 of them and got 7 consecutive podiums from Australia to Turkey. We’re hearing a lot of famous names from the past being mentioned alongside his name – Schumacher, Clark, Prost and others. If Jenson does become champion (and perhaps even if he doesn’t) by the end of the season other teams will be fighting for his signature – but as much as the rumours suggest big name teams like Ferrari or McLaren want him, is their reputation enough to pull Button away from Brawn? Let’s look at the facts; Jenson has been a part of his team since 2003 where he joined them in their British American Racing days. It’s very much been a rollercoaster ride for Jenson, with seasons of success in 2004 and 2006 but then the depressingly slow final 2 years of Honda’s recent run in Formula 1.

He certainly has a history with conflicts with teams though, as we saw with the Williams dispute in 2004. For those not in the know, Jenson was driving for BAR Honda but his entry into formula 1 was through Sir Frank Williams’ team (obviously Williams F1), and whilst they allowed him to drive for other teams such as Renault and BAR, they kept a form of option for Jenson to return to the team in the future. In 2004, Jenson himself stated that he planned to rejoin Williams for the 2005 season but BAR were on a rising path in terms of performance. As stated previously, he had an excellent season in 2004 – despite no wins yet in his Formula 1 career, he had achieved his first pole position and finished 3rd in the driver’s championship. Williams were not necessarily a step down at the time as in 2004 they had managed to win with Montoya, but they had finished lower in the championship than BAR Honda. Jenson was obviously stuck between the two, a contract he had signed and the possibility of a future with BAR. Eventually, BAR ended up getting Jenson’s services and it is reported he paid £20 million to Sir Frank Williams in order to clear the conflict. This boils down to a very big area though if true – money.

Was Jenson simply offered more from Dave Richards to stay at BAR? He soon signed a new multi year contract after the dispute was over, and a huge payment was involved in order to stay at BAR so this theory is definitely possible and critics of Jenson will say money was the reason he stayed. You can easily accuse myself of being biased which I do appreciate is going to be because of my support towards Brawn GP and long time support of Honda, but I still see Jenson as an honest driver within the grid. The past few years Honda have had an awful time struggling with many issues and after years of good performances and that fantastic first win for Jenson in 2006, he could have easily given up on the project Honda had after 2007’s disastrous year and furthermore in 2008 after another poor year. In November 2008, Honda CEO Nick Fry had confirmed Button had signed a new deal with the team despite all this (and of course no knowledge into the pulling out of the constructor in December 2008), and again when Ross Brawn bought out the team and before this news was confirmed, it could have been very easy for Jenson to jump ship to other places. However, he stuck with the team and it’s paid off without a doubt.

So what about the future for the Frome Flyer, will he stick with what he has now or will he be tempted by bigger and better offers after this season? At the moment the sport is in a grand state of uncertainty due to the every ongoing war between the masters at the FIA and the minions at FOTA, or so it feels. There is no guarantee that we will even see teams like Brawn GP in the sport in 2010, although I personally feel that there will still be a championship in F1 that we have now and will continue to have for years to come. Aside from my own point of view though, Jenson will get offers. If the money is right, teams will bid a lot for him because of his reputation as a smooth, easy and fast driver, and because of how this season has gone for him so far. I still feel that he will stay though – he obviously is comfortable with his place in Brawn GP, and his previous history with the entire setup with Honda and BAR of course. He has stuck with them through thick and thin and they have rewarded both him and Rubens with the most wonderful car. You have to remember that despite the car being in development for over a year, this is still a brand new independent team set up a month before the start of the season, and despite a good but not excellent Silverstone showing, the car’s performance has been mind-blowing as has Jenson’s drives. Arguments have arisen whether if this was Schumacher dominance we would all be complaining, and it is a fair point as 2002’s year of Schumacher caused much upset, but Jenson has finally got the car behind him to prove he is worthy of being a champion if it happens. For the future, he will remain at Brawn in whatever form the sport becomes, I’m sure of it. Constantly he has shown his support to what the team are doing, and he has a fantastic relationship with his teammate Rubens Barrichello (off the track of course, on track it’s every man for himself as it should be!) and most importantly for him as a driver, the team are obviously willing to support him through whatever lies ahead.

Formula 1 isn’t just about the guys at the front though, there are 20 drivers on that grid and everyone deserves to be considered. The next subject of loyalty I want to talk about is with underperforming world champions, for different reasons though perhaps. Renault managed to get back double world champion Fernando Alonso into a slower car from McLaren in 2008 after a controversial year at McLaren, whilst Kimi Raikonnen has never really shown that lightning speed he produced in his championship year of 2007. Alonso, for me, is still the most skilled driver in Formula 1. His car last season was very much a huge disappointment in comparison to that brilliant machine he used to fight alongside Michael Schumacher; it was much slower, it didn’t have the same power as what Renault produced in 05 and 06, and on a vain note, it was freakin’ ugly to look at, unless 200mph creme eggs are your type of thing. Why on earth would a champion want to drive a car that seemed so clumsy? The reason for me is because Alonso has a connection with the Renault setup. Flavio Briatore may make some misjudged and ridiculous comments within the world of Formula 1 but he has brought in some spectacular drivers into the sport and given them a stepping stone to make their name undoubtedly. He himself has said how much he appreciates working alongside Briatore and the two have the right relationship to make the team work so well and to add that loyalty aspect to Alonso’s job at Renault; just look at how disastrous the year of Mclaren was for Alonso after a complete breakdown between himself and the team’s management style with Ron Dennis specifically. he is not the most loyal driver on the grid for me though because of this, the job of a driver is obviously to go for the wins in a race but you’re contracted to a team in the same way a normal person is contracted to their company to work – you are there to work for them. Some of the decisions Alonso made, specifically that pit stop at Hungary 2007, jeopardised his reputation. He is an incredible driver, and he is a worthy name within the sport, but he obviously has a line where loyalty stops and personal choices come in. The Renault he has now in 2009 is still generally below average as it was in 2009, but Alonso proved his own dedication and enjoyment in Fuji and Singapore last season winning the two races in a car that really had no right to be there. We’ve had the huge, huge rumour for years about his move to Ferrari being in the works but who knows? If Renault continue to stagnate in terms of their development and lack of pace, it’s definitely possible. He has already left a team he seems dedicated to once, remember…

On the other hand, Kimi Raikkonen just as confusing to study for completely different reasons. He’s at the biggest name team in the history of the sport, the blood red colours of Scuderia Ferrari and the Prancing Horse following his every move in his Formula 1 life, and he has pretty much always had a sensational car behind him (apart from the start of the 2009 season of course) – so why is it he seems so absolutely unmotivated on the track? He’s an excellent driver as are the previous world champions of the past few years and there’s no disputing that, but if you compare how he was in 2007 to how he has performed after it, to me he just seems like a transformed man. There’s no consistency to his driving; he can have flashes of utter brilliance, then the next weekend drive unnoticed in the background. We of course had that infamous scene in Malaysia 2009 where nearly all the drivers pretty much worked on their cars in a drenched, ‘undwivable’ grid whilst Raikonnen was seen strolling through the pitlane in flip flops eating an ice cream seemingly in another world completely. His attitude in interviews has never been his strongest point and he has admitted that he hates that aspect of the sport, but he does say he loves the obvious racing aspect of Formula 1. It just amazes me. It’s a little strange because he didn’t have a bad 2008 at all really, he was a contender the championship up until the Japanese Grand Prix. It just bothers me that the second highest paid sportsman in the world seems to have such a lack of motivation and spark in his driving where his teammate, who was ridiculed far more than Kimi at times, showed his brilliance last season and was an incredible challenger for the championship. Where does this all fall into loyalty though? Well for me the lack of motivation is a huge, huge aspect of Raikkonen’s loyalty to not only Ferrari but also to the sport in general. He obviously has a bank account set for life – as I say he is the second highest paid sportsman in the world behind Tiger Woods, an incredible feat. If the Ferrari rumours about Alonso do indeed materialise, will Raikkonen simply leave the sport that seems so plagued and wallowing in a sea of politics and uncertainty? Honestly, it would not surprised me if he did move away from Formula 1 should that happen. You could just place it down to his personality, the way he acts is just how he is, but if that were the case it would still not prevent him from an inconsistent set of performances and furthermore, it would surely have seen him try to get more out of a car that was still amazingly powerful in 2008. His previous history in the sport has seen him at a few teams so he is certainly not loyal to a particular team, although the wage he is on at Ferrari may definitely see him stay if he had the option. It’s just another case of ‘who knows?’ with Kimi, something I’ve wondered for a long, long time.

I’m getting on a bit now with this entry and I apologise if it’s a lot of reading but there is a lot to say I feel. I’m going to finish though with the big talking point within the sport at the moment – the FIA and FOTA ‘war’. There’s no intention to delve into the tiresome world of the politics we’ve all been subjected to of recent months, and years even. We’ve heard enough of that. All I plan to say is that loyalty is obviously being thrown about in FOTA at the moment – Force India and Williams placed their own entries alongside the conditional general entry that FOTA applied for 2010 with all the teams. Can you be loyal at the same time as confirming your teams future? I believe so but it’s obvious that the teams in FOTA do not agree with the suspension of these two teams from the organisation because of their choice to enter. It’s a shame because FOTA have the potential to present ideas to an authority that seem adamant on taking the sport into a direction no fan seems to have any support for, but with these suspensions question if any problems are happening within FOTA themselves. Will we have a breakaway series in 2010? I don’t think we will. Hopefully, within the next few years we will get Formula 1 with cheaper tickets, with the rules the team wants and what they are suggesting with their breakaway threat. But you must remember – this is the Formula One Team Association. They make their threats for a breakaway and confront the FIA where necessary but every single team wants Formula One to have a future. I feel that even with the doubts of futures for teams like Toyota and Renault, they still want the sport to survive through everything that is going on. If we do indeed get a breakaway, I will be watching but at the same time, I will know at the back of my my mind that it is not what it should be, and I wonder whether this is the case with several teams within FOTA. As loyal as they are to the organisation and their goal to bring power to the teams, you have got to wonder how loyal they are when their future within the sport is in disrepute. Max and even Bernie Ecclestone as the commercial rights holder have shown how they treat loyalty – they simply don’t have any. They have thrown tracks with a huge history in formula one out of the window like a piece of litter because of financial reasons and provided us fans with the loss of some excellent circuits for their own benefit. After further thoughts of the whole subject, and especially after these bog entries and researching deeper into the various aspects of Formula 1, I can’t help to feel that loyalty in formula 1 is something hard to achieve when the people who run it seem to have no knowledge of the word.

So… that’s it. The Loyal family has been discussed, criticised, saluted and thought about. Thanks for reading these entries, a lot of thought has gone into them and again I apologise if there’s simply too much writing. There’s a lot more I could have gone into but I feel that enough has been said for now, and who knows, maybe a part 3 in the future ahead depending on whatever happens in the sport I love so much. I hope you guys have enjoyed reading this!

#18; A Simple World Within 140 Characters

2009-06-16T19:20:00.001+01:00

The year of 2009 has seen Twitter become very much a mainstream tool of social networking, so to speak. No, it does not take all your personal details and flash them about for the world to see. No, it does not work on creating a webpage advertising yourself with a song streaming in the background and an offensive use of HTML. It’s simple; it allows you to express what you want to express in 140 characters. Simple; that to me is what makes Twitter so brilliantly useful. Those characters, that small message, can do so much. It can express a thought, pass on a message, anything that your mind can manage to withhold within such a small boundary. So what makes Twitter so useful? How can such a simple system provide such a useful result of success?

Much like the way it’s designed, the answer is simple – because it IS simple! It doesn’t need any kind of fancy web design to ‘pimp your page’ or show off photos left right and centre all over the place, it works because it’s simple. for myself I use it in a personal sense, I use it to express my feelings on various things, to simply place me feelings in a simple message for people who may actually want to hear it, to talk to the people I love and to hear from even the most ridiculous of sources such as the Fake F1 drivers that make up the entire grid basically, and if you’re an f1 fan, it’s definitely worth checking out. It’s not just f1 though of course, you know how much I love the sport so I apologise for going on once again! It’s very easy to find out information from people whether they be in the public eye in music, or films, or whatever (look at how much used Stephen Fry’s tweets have been mentioned in the media for example!) There really is a surprising amount you can do with this system and for people reading this who have never used the system, then I hope you can learn a bit or two as to how useful it has been so far.

Twitter though has proved that, since its’ insurgence as a mainstream use of micro-blogging (or social networking depending on how you view it) now it seems, that it can be fantastically useful though. I provide the example in which really shot up it’s status within the world of the interwebs earlier this year; the crash of the plane into the Hudson river in New York at the start of 2009. It wasn’t the journalistic predators of the world’s media that reached their way to the crash site first, but rather, simply a twitter user who uploaded a picture he took on his mobile phone, and posted the message to the public via the image sharing service TwitPic. From this, news began to spread and this ridiculous sounding message “There’s a plane in the Hudson” grew eventually into the realisation that a major event had actually happened, and the picture backed it up. Brilliant! It is things like this that make me love using the service though; when people start embracing it, major media centres, television presenters, companies, famous people, whatever, you can find out some brilliant little things that otherwise we wouldn’t know about whether they be for formality reasons (brief news posted on twitter may just be ignored as a simple comment elsewhere for example) or whatever, twitter has just provided a new way for people to just say things in a lovely, simple way.

It would be safe to say we’re living in a technology-based world now though. Teenagers and young adults are extremely tech-based in the way their lives are run, whether this be in an occupational purpose or for general casual reasons, as a society we log onto your computer and share images over the internet, blog much as I’m doing now, play games over huge distances with no real notice of how far you actually are and all of this is thanks to the advancement of technology over the past few decades. Again, I take another example into the tech-central society in even places you may not think of. The current disruption of power and society almost revolting in disgust at the elections in Iran has seen censorship of the country’s internet based social networking sources. The young within the country are still finding new ways to share information, to show video footage from their phones, to tweet messages in protest, disgust, anger and all this in ways that the government and censorship officers are simply unable to hold back. Using the twitter search, I decided to check out just how many people are talking about it in such a short period and within 5 minutes of waiting…

5 minutes of waiting, and 736 results from people talking about such a massive current event. I left the webpage open, and within 10 minutes, there were well over 1500 comments found, yet this is only from people mentioning it with the hashtag I searched for; for all I know in that 5 minutes there could have been hundreds more not using the hashtag to help, inform, retweet, whatever… just astounds me really. I apologise that I’m not the most convincing person to read in explaining why this amazes me, but knowing that thousands of people are discussing ideas all day and all night about something as serious as this makes me a bit happier about us as human beings. Stephen Fry posted the following comment in a twitter message last night: “Iranian govt should at least know we're watching & we care. We're not imperialists, we just care.” – there are simply no intentions to turn this into a political blog entry at the current events but this, for me, sums up just how much power we can have via these simple messages. It’s not even just about the Iran revolts, but everything in life, anything that upsets you, anything that delights you. Anything you want to talk about, there’s your stage.

As with everything else in life, Twitter comes with it’s criticisms from people. A lot of people have mentioned to me, “who cares if so and so is eating some pudding? Why do we need to know every 5 minutes?” – it’s a fair point. It’s bound to annoy people where you see updates like that for no apparent reason, but there’s so much out there that can be actually interesting to follow if you gave it a chance. Another complaint I’ve heard is that it is just ‘too simple’, to go back to what I discussed at the beginning of this entry. It is simple, definitely, but that’s what makes it work for me like I’ve already explained. Perhaps after the use of social networking websites such as Myspace, Bebo or Facebook you, as a user, are to expect some kind of similar service where you express your inner personality via a webpage or two? again, this for me is where Twitter shines; if you’re creative enough, there’s a grand amount you can express in those 140 characters.

I personally hope that the service doesn’t die down anytime soon. Obviously it’s been immensely popular recently and has become the darling for media in terms of popping it into the odd article and news report perhaps to appeal to a younger audience (although in experience, the user-base come from all ages of people to be fair!). If you are with us lovely folk on twitter, then please do follow me because I do vastly enjoy every single person’s comments that I follow as well as always welcoming people to try and enjoy the possibly annoying musings I tend to shout out – you can find me @LukehMuse, and as you can see the last few updates get posted just over there on the right! Whala! This entry is very central to how I see the service obviously due to it being a personal blog, but I do want to know and for you as a reader (whether you use Twitter or not), what do you think about Twitter? Of course I would love to hear from your comments because, as I say, it still finds complaints in it’s sea of positive reception. A quick summary of what I think? It’s not just image sharing, or music streaming, or pages of information, it’s just one simple message… and the best thing about it is, it’ll never, ever need to be anything more.

Simple!

#17; Saluting the Loyal Family Pt. 1

2009-06-14T16:32:00.001+01:00

Formula 1 can be a very fickle sport at times for it’s inhabitants. For a sport that speaks volumes in racing, it’s just as much about the politics and money transpiring between the various spokespeople, principals, liars and folks behind the scenes that both build up and break down what we love about the sport; what happens out on the track. The drivers themselves are not the lovable gentlemen and characteristic playboys of the 60’s that we so often study and read about, and often remember and love to reminisce about. Concerning modern day drivers, I have been wondering a question recently to my mind about the personalities we watch driver around circuits many times a year to much enjoyment from myself and millions of others; at what price does a team become a team before an opportunity to these sportsmen? In what case do they see a team that may provide a future over an team that may provide economic providence? Does money rule over reliability to some?

It’s an unfair accusation personally to simply say that formula 1 drivers are simply there for the money; it’s simply not true. In the same way that footballers may be provided with the most ludicrous wages at times per week, and no matter how ghastly they may perform on the pitch at times, their role within their employment is the same as any of our employment roles within normal life; to turn up, get on with our job, and get rewarded for out input. Every driver has his own personality and opinions, of course, much like I have my own opinions that may vary from you the reader. The following content of this entry however is just my personal view of how I see the drivers in their position in the teams, and wondering just how loyal they are to their employers. You may think I’m right, you may think I’m wrong, that’s perfectly ok, but it’s something that has been on my mind and something that might be quite interesting to discuss. So… just how loyal are they?

The original plan was going to be to go through every driver and study their loyalty and previous history. However, after reviewing the blog, the ideas and after a bit of lovely feedback, I did decide that would be simply too much to write about. I love Formula 1 just as much as the next fan, but it seemed a tad ridiculous to study every area so thoroughly. There are new drivers to the grid, and there are drivers I don’t know so well in comparison to others, for example, look if I were to analyse Barrichello alongside Buemi – the difference in experience and history would be a huge difference! For me it seems best to simply look at the drivers who’s loyalty could come into question in the current climate of formula 1, and how the future could shape out to them. This is only the first part of this, and I hope to do another in the nearby future (this week) to conclude my thoughts and feelings and break up things a little. This, I feel, would make for a far less demanding read and also not so much content to include. I hope you agree!

A good place to start would be the world champion. Let’s face it, we have a champion who seems to be Formula 1’s marmite driver in the UK; you either love him or hate him. Lewis has a great deal to be loyal for personally concerning McLaren. The team, and Ron Dennis in particular, had a lot of faith in putting a new, inexperienced driver to the sport into the very top rank of cars in his first season. It paid off; Lewis has proved time and time again he has the skill to be at McLaren and as we all know by his second season he was World Champion, which is quite a fait. This season, it seems Lewis’ loyalty to the team that brought him into f1 and watched over his rise from karting into the big bad world of Formula 1 has bee brought into question plenty of times so far. His attitude towards the team has been very dismissive at times, and whilst frustration is bound to boil over the current world champion when he is struggling to get any pace out of a car still progressing towards the front again, it is imperative that he sticks with what he has for me personally. Of course, the ‘era of Ron’ is over and McLaren seem to be putting plenty of emphasis upon this new, honest setup they appear to be throwing at both us as fans and the FIA. Lewis is a very, very good driver, but he has a lot to learn if he wants to be remembered anything like his idol Senna; he has had plenty of challenges to overcome this season, and step by step, he can build his way to be in the top tier once more. He certainly has the skill, now he needs the head to go with it to remind him just what he has at McLaren. All that being said, McLaren haven’t been an honest team this season and have caused problems for Lewis themselves, as well as unnecessary headlines to accompany a frustrating entry into the 2009 season so you yourselves can ask where you feel blame is to place where loyalty is concerned with Lewis.

Let’s compare the top driver at McLaren (Sorry Heikki, or for Sidepodcast readers, sorry Amy!) to the top driver, for me, over at rivals Ferrari. I have a lot of time for Felipe. When I see him in the car, and around the paddock on TV, there appears to be a great deal of hunger in his style of racing and the attitude he has towards his role at Ferrari, not to mention how impressive he was in 2008 concerning his title challenge. He also seems genuinely delighted to be at a team such as Ferrari, which I’m sure anyone would in all fairness considering the pay packet you would be picking up and the team themselves with that iconic heritage orbiting the team, but there is a genuine loyalty to succeed in that car for me in Massa. When Schumacher retired from the team after 2006, he stayed on with Ferrari for various little roles but also as a mentor for the drivers, and it seems more specifically with Felipe. This has worked wonders personally; Felipe has matured, his driving ability has increased tenfold since those days at Sauber (Ah, good comedy) and he is a big landmark on the map of Formula 1. In the future, I can easily see Felipe staying but only at the teams choice; many a time have us fans been held to accusations within the rumour bank that a certain Mr. Alonso and Vettel may be driving in the blood red of Ferrari’s colours in the nearby future – only time will tell.

As a sport always pushing for the future, as with most recent seasons we have quite the amount of drivers with youth on their side and generally inexperienced with the sport yet apparently ready for the demands of Formula 1. I’m looking at the likes of Sebastien Bourdais, Sebastien Buemi and Nelson Piquet, who have only a single season or two’s history within the sport or, in Buemi’s case, a few races. How can we analyse the loyalty of a driver that is new to this world? Everybody has to start somewhere, even if you have criticism left right and centre, it’s your role as a driver to prove why the teams should sign you on. Formula 1 is now a very expensive world where money is constantly a centre point of discussion for several different reasons, so I question, are some of these newer drivers coming into the sport for the heritage of teams and the sport itself, for the passion of racing on the pinnacle of motorsport, or simply to ensure themselves a financial future in a job willing to embrace them? Piquet, in particular, seems to hold a very negative attitude to the way he addresses his job. He recently did an interview with F1 Racing magazine in which his responses to the way Flavio works as a boss, and how Alonso is as a teammate, showed how frustrated he was with his position in the team. You can sympathise I suppose in this aspect; he’s very much the number 2 under, as he calls it, “Flavio’s favourite son” and Flav himself gets little praise from myself. At the same time, Piquet’s performances on track have been far less of what should be expected of a team who just a few years ago were world champions, and the positive he has done is vastly overweighed by the negative in his driving whether it be his poor qualifying performances or inconsistent driving. Would he be better with another team? Possibly. He may have a chance to get out of how he feels is Alonso’s shadow and possibly get a car he feels he can get a better drive out of, but in his current role, there is obviously no loyalty to Renault. I have mentioned plenty of times myself how he expresses no real connection to the team, and if he had the chance to up his money and go, I feel he would happily take it over this seemingly secure drive.

There is plenty more to discuss about the various aspects of loyalty within the ranks of Formula 1, and possibly not just with the drivers. But for now, I shall leave it at this and move onto my next areas of discussion in my next entry, including Jenson Button’s domination of the 2009 season and what could be next for him. Again, this is all simply how the world of Formula 1 appears to me as a diehard fan, and there is no wrong or right necessarily in what I have mentioned. I do hope though that you return for the second part of this later in the week!

#16; We are not amused

2009-06-02T14:59:00.001+01:00

Let’s get the obvious thing out of the way; Muse are beyond my favourite band. Everytime they come on TV, or I hear their music, they get my undivided attention. The band have been in my mind with their incredible musical ability and what they do for years and years, and I have only seen them live once, as well as missing out on the biggest gig of their career with Wembley Stadium in 2007. No matter what mistakes they make, I continue to support them and listen to every individual piece of musical brilliance I feel they make. This year, we are getting their fifth studio album in “The Resistance”, what is expected to be a symphonic, completely bat-shit insane rock opera type of over the top thing that Matthew Bellamy seems to fascinated over creating, with the main attraction of the album expected to be a 3-track long “Symphonic Monster”, as the band call it, to close the album starting from a quiet build-up and ending in a clash or orchestral bliss. Just describing it now gets me so excited to hear this – the last album was out in 2006, and finally, we’re here with a new album! Fantastic! So… why am I so fed up of hearing about the band I love so?

The World Tour was announced yesterday. “The Resistance” tour, as the band put it, sees the threesome making their way around Europe (European Tour, surely?) from the snowy horizons of of Scandinavia, the peaks of Switzerland, and the sweltering luxury of Spain. Of course, the band will be coming home to their native United Kingdom to address their adoring fans with their new material, their classic hits, and maybe a surprise thrown in with a grand stage show. So for me, I sit there yesterday evening reading the dates in November… London, of course… Birmingham, for sure… Sheffield, ok… Liverpool?… Glasgow…and… that’s it for the UK? No Cardiff? No Manchester? Nothing? Just these measly few gigs in a 30 gig calendar? No Cardiff. And at £42 a ticket… what a disappointment. A horrible sense of anger and frustration ran through my body when I saw this, and whilst it seems a pathetic issue to get angry over, let me try and express myself to give you a greater understanding.

Why is it that Muse feel necessary to ignore the entire west-country as well as Wales? It makes no sense to me! There will be people who will travel to the Birmingham gig of course, it’s the nearest to any of Muse’s Welsh and West Country fans, but not everyone has that luxury of splashing out £45 + travel + accommodation every so often in life. This includes myself. As I say, I love the band but there’s no chance I can even begin to justify spending that much for 2 hours of something I still have no guarantee of making, and getting home from without any issues as well as the fact that it’ll be during a year of University where my future just may be depended on. We’re also stuck in an economic climate where money is a necessity; there are something I’m willing to travel for and I have my undoubted priorities in live that means the world to me no matter how far, but I’m sorry Muse, this is one area that you don’t come into. Cardiff would have been perfect, but alas, Cardiff is obviously not perfect for them.

Furthermore, 2009 is the year they’ve been touting for months and months about the new album, and finally coming back to the UK for a tour to us fans, something that has stayed on my mind for such a long time and I’ve been so mega excited for. The feeling of being at a Muse gig and seeing them perform to me is indescribable; a flurry of emotions, the incredible sensation of power, excitement, everything that the body can emotionally conjure up comes out in their live performances. There’s a reason why they’re widely considered arguably the best live act in the United Kingdom at the moment, and now I’m stuck with the feeling that I know I won’t see this after years of waiting for it so much. But…. that’s life. Life would be boring if it were too perfect, as they say.

The point of this entry is to not act like a selfish, self-centred spoilt brat who throws his toys out the tantrum – I apologise if it does seem that way but I am simply trying to convey just how much of a disappointment this is not only for me but thousands upon thousands of Muse fans nearby for sure. My sister, for example, got off the phone with me earlier today and her disappointment as I told her the new was unparalleled; she was mega excited such as myself to finally get the opportunity, after 3 years or so, to see this incredible band once again. She had constantly told me to remind her when the tour was announced, when we could see them, when they were coming. To phone up and tell her we weren’t going because they simply aren’t close enough absolutely crushes me and her reaction comes as no surprise. Hopefully 2010 will bring a proper tour of the UK and proper dates for us to enjoy. I can only hope for now.

The new album is still on the horizon and I’m still so very excited for it. The band are still an amazing collaboration of 3 guys who create sheer excellence in their talents and like I say, I’ve missed out on Wembley Stadium, so I’ve already had stuff like this before. It still hurts knowing what could have been. It really annoys me deep inside that they simply just haven’t accommodated for all areas around the UK. For 18 months after Black Holes and Revelations, the band toured around the world with gigs never tiring and losing faith in what they were doing so there’s still hope for next year. Onwards and upwards, I myself have a fantastic summer to look forward to in my personal life and events like Goodwood and other things occurring. Luckily for me, this hasn’t ruined anything at all. I’ve probably annoyed far too many people about this, and this is absolutely the last time I shall talk about how I feel about it all. However, I still love the band, I still love their music and I’ll continue to support them. This world tour will still make me ask myself though…

…why?

A question I suppose I’ll never know the answer to.

#15; Finding the Right Gear for Gaming

2009-05-14T14:19:00.003+01:00

Video games have become big business in many areas of the world. Getting a license to a famous sport, company, or something similar can provide mega bucks not only for the developer of the game who have the rights to their license, but for the actual people the game involves just as much. The FIFA, Madden, NHL and other franchises that EA sports create year after year do an incredible job for them, creating millions, possibly billions, for Electronic Arts. what I plan to discuss here though, to no real surprise, is the evolution of Formula 1 within the games world. F1 games have a fantastic history ranging back to the more simple days of the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) right up to the modern, high tech world of the Playstation 3. Studying the past few years, the official series of Formula 1 games has been absent from the grip of our hands via the medium of game controllers. This is all soon to change however, with the announcement last year of Codemasters’ purchasing the rights to create formula one videogames for the world to enjoy, and furthermore this year just a few weeks ago revealing that the Nintendo Wii and Sony PSP consoles will be the first to enjoy the world of F1 once more, with the more gamer-orientated Playstation 3 and Xbox 360 having to wait till the 2010 season. Nevertheless, this was great news for all concerned – Formula 1 was back in our consoles.

So who are these saviours’, these Codemasters people that have our beloved sport in their studios being miraculously recreated for us to immerse ourselves in and enjoy? I’ll try my best to bring you up to speed on why I’m very excited for Codemasters to have the license and why we should all be extremely excited for their games. Codies go way back in the world of gaming; away from the world of motorsport their heritage with games runs extremely rich in the veins of history for the evolution of gaming. Some of their more famous installments of games can be seen with Dizzy and the immensely brilliant Micro machines, a series of games I grew up in love with on the Megadrive and Playstation – seeing Micro Machines 2 brought into the HD generation with online play and a spangly crisp HD makeover may just send me into a ball of excitement! – but even away from that scene, Operation Flashpoint, Prisoner of War, Brian Lara Cricket, picking up the much loved Sensible Soccer and re-releasing a HD version for the Xbox 360 generation, Overlord, GRID, TOCA, Colin McRae, Music, I could go on and on… the similar fashion in all these games is that they have a huge fandom about them, and a much loved respect for each and every game produced or developed by Codemasters because every time you know you’re getting a good game. Unless it’s Leisure Suit Larry which… I’m unsure why Codemasters decided to make that. Google it for yourself…

So what about Formula 1 2009, what can we expect? Let’s just step back a second and take a brief look at the evolution of Formula 1 in consoles over the generations. I’ll be honest, I first started playing the F1 games on the Playstation, what with myself being very much in the Playstation age of youth, but I do have brief memories of playing Nigel Mansell’s game on the NES, Top Gear 2, Super Monaco GP 2 and even the immense Super Hang-On back in the days of the Megadrive despite not being an F1 game, but still! Along the life cycle of original Playstation, we saw several installments published from the team at Psygnosis (now known as Sony Liverpool, more on that later) and developed by the masterminds of Bizarre Creations (who went on to make Project Gotham), with Formula 1 97 being a massive standout from this writer’s point of view as arguably the best F1 game to be seen on any kind of console (excluding PC) but of course, all down to personal preference. This was followed up by the largely forgettable F1 98, developed by the largely forgettable Visual Sciences – some copies had Trulli in the Prost on the cover too. Bad times. But moving on, the series grew through the expansion of Psygnosis into Sony Liverpool, seeing new studios setup to work on future installments with Studio 99 developing a far more improved but still only average F1 99, as well as the original Playstation version of F1 2001. Of course, as we all know technology seems to fly by within a few years, and by 2001, Formula 1 was finding it’s feet on the Playstation 2. Concerning the PS2, Sony Liverpool themselves kept themselves dedicated to the development of the games, and from 2001 onwards in the Playstation 2 life of the series, only Sony L. made the games rather than sending it to a third party to develop it. This was no problem – the Playstation 2 series stays fantastic and were a great recreation of the sport, albeit it in the years of Schumacher domination. Along with the questioning of stagnation in real life due to Ferrari domination, there were questions of where the series was going as nothing new was really being added to the series year by year, and by 2006, Sony Liverpool had dropped a license they’d held for so many years.

F1 has never been a Playstation exclusive though, I simply give you this tale as Sony had the license for so long and were undoubtedly the main source of Formula 1 games. for example, look at Geoff Crammond - a video game designer very much has stayed true to his love of motor racing and Formula 1 over his career in videogames, created the much loved Grand Prix series for the PC. Sadly, the last Grand Prix game we saw was with the fantastic Grand Prix 4, back in 2002, although the game is still very much played and updated via the modifications and updates created by fans worldwide and can be found on the internet. Staying with the PC, it would be totally unjust to not mention rFactor, officially described as a racing simulator for those that want any kind of 4 wheel motor racing. The support and community this open source game has is absolutely incredible, and is arguably the best thing you will get at the moment if you want Formula 1 in a game. This being said, whilst Crammond and Sony managed to hold the license, for a brief few years Electronic Arts brought out a series of fantastic alternatives to the Sony series in Formula 1 2001 and Formula 1 Career Challenge, which actually still stands as one of my personal favourite F1 games due to the fact you had to create an F1 career over a series of years rather than a single season you see in most career modes within F1 games. That, and a sensational presentation style and general completeness to the games won me over so much, and when EA dropped the license once more, a general sense of disappointment definitely was felt from my point of view, despite the much criticised approach of yearly releases EA and their EA Sports division general seem to receive.

Over the years other formats have seen other big and small Formula 1 games created – Grand Prix Manager on the PC say F1 going in a strategy direction where you become a team manager and the F1 world ran alongside your decisions and roles as a team boss, and was quite a refreshing way to approach Formula 1 I felt, something I would love to see again. Going back a decade to the fantastic F1 World Grand prix on the Nintendo 64 as well as installments on handhelds such as the Game Boy Advance, and even small independent games like New Star Grand Prix that was released just weeks ago, there is a rich history of Formula 1 to discover and enjoy in your own hands, and one I can totally recommend looking up to all fans. The most recent official Formula 1 game though was the F1 Championship Edition seen on the Playstation 3, obviously developed by Sony, and if you do have a PS3 I'd at least look at downloading the demo for it as it really does show just how much times have changed graphically. Just a breathtaking thing to witness, no matter how frustratingly bad the commentary is even just for a demo (James Allen was never a great commentator but F1:CE did not help his cause!)

So, Codemasters. I do get such a rich sense of confidence whenever I think to myself that Codies are in charge of a new generation of Formula 1 games. We’re at a stage now in technology where realism is such a paramount factor of creating a game, and the F1 fans have let their voice known so much to the developers that they want a realistic racer – one thing that Codemasters themselves have more than happily picked up upon. Some of their more recent motorsport games – GRID, Colin McRae’s DiRT – have been utterly sensational games that have serious pushed the boundaries of how beautiful a game can look, but admittedly have not been the most realistic of games. Of course, there is such a big gap in audiences here when considering; these games were very much directed to an audience of gamers who want casual action, mixing a bowl of realism with a jug or arcade silliness, and in Codemaster’s fairness, it has worked because these games became hugely successful, and more importantly from my point of view, hugely popular. The team have more than enough resources, experience and dedication to motor racing to create a brilliant Formula 1 game, and I for one am truly looking forward to seeing what they can produce. It’s just a shame we won’t find out the true extents of their power in the elite consoles (PS3 and the Xbox 360) until 2010 really!

#14; Sit down and I’ll tell you a story…

2009-05-02T22:43:00.001+01:00

Storytelling is an essential art form in the world of films. Even a film with the worst acting or cast can actually be mildly enjoyable if it has a truly sensational plot behind it, one that engrosses you and keeps you watching to see the outcome, whether it be a twist or a turn or an oxymoronically expected surprise. There are many films I have watched where the story can grip you to the point of tears – a prime example being that of Schindler’s List, which many will know is a horrifically tragic story and despite being 3 hours long constantly keeps you interested because its story is so compelling, so unbelievable and so tragic and yet it’s expressed in the most incredible fashion. Even with a film such as Cool Runnings (I apologise for once again bringing this up in ANOTHER blog entry!), a film about a flippin’ bobsled team from Jamaica for god sake, it managed to have a story that can reduce you to tears because it’s so well done! But this is all with the manner of films – what if I were to ask you how much the story of a videogame would affect you?

Videogames have quite a negative connotation of nerdy guys sitting in their bedrooms for hours with no contact with anyone but their consoles. It’s an extremely unfair stereotype I would say to place this as video gaming within the past few years has become a lot more ‘mainstream’ with the audience it attracts – a lot more people have come into the world of gaming and Nintendo’s appeal to family gamers with the Nintendo Wii and DS have been a triumphant success for the company and as a brand name bringing in a whole new audience for gaming to work alongside. But this is not the point I plan to talk about here – there are games that can have the same effect on a human mind that a film could achieve and you could say perhaps that I feel it’s a bit unfair that videogames don’t get the same storytelling credit that a film or a book so easily achieve.

Let’s take a brief look into the world of Metal Gear Solid as an example of the absolute pinnacle of storytelling within a game. The MGS series dates way back over 20 years but really took the attention of many gamers around the world on the original Playstation, entitled ‘Metal Gear Solid’ funnily enough. The game was a classic – it introduced a firm main character in Solid Snake, but had brilliant underlying stories with other characters of the game not to mention being an absolute joy to play despite often being a pain in the arse at times. It was the brainwave of Hideo Kojima, at the time just a video game designer for Konami CEJ heading the production of MGS, but the game made not only him a huge name but the series too. Future installments came in with MGS2 and MGS3 on the Playstation 2 and MGS4 on the Playstation 3, but by every game, the story developed into an incredible, compelling and completely barmy but brilliant storyline. It would be criminal to go into great detail into the actual story because it is a huge, HUGE world to discover and look into but whether it be about the original storyline of nuclear threats or genetic conflicts, or of the wonder of democracy and philosophy, or any other crazy stuff that I can’t possible describe due to extreme spoiler warnings, it created such a high high standard for any other game to try and achieve with stories. Kojima himself has an interesting view on storytelling within games:

Storytelling is very difficult. But adding the flavour helps to relay the storytelling, meaning in a cut scene, with a set camera and effects, you can make the users feel sorrow, or make them happy or laugh. This is an easy approach, which we have been doing. That is one point, the second point is that if I make multiple storylines and allow the users to select which story, this might really sacrifice the deep emotion the user might feel; when there's a concrete storyline, and you kind of go along that rail, you feel the destiny of the story, which at the end, makes you feel more moved. But when you make it interactive - if you want multiple stories where you go one way or another - will that make the player more moved when he or she finishes the game? These two points are really the key which I am thinking about, and if this works, I think I could probably introduce a more interactive storytelling method.

Hideo Kojima, 2008
http://news.spong.com/article/16088/Kojima_Regrets_MGS4_Cutscenes

There are a lot of critics that simply dismiss the Metal Gear Solid saga as an ‘interactive movie’ – not a game because of how epic and huge the cut-scenes are in content and length, but not a film due to the gameplay. But what makes this any difference to any game story or even any movie story? Should the control of a user be detrimental to the flow of the story, but at the same time still achieve the effect of playing a video game? For example, with Metal Gear Solid 4, some cut-scenes within the actual game can last over 20 minutes at times, with the final part of the film having you sit there watching for over an hour. I can totally understand the complaints people no doubt made at such an incredible amount of time simply watching the game unfold – you will want to be doing this yourself, damnit, it’s a videogame! But at the same time, at what cost does gameplay come when you’re able to carry out such an epic story and make it work? I will be brutally honest with you here – the endings in Metal Gear Solid 3 and 4 (MGS4 I completed yesterday after 9 months…!) both had me in tears, and as far as I’m concerned, whether it be in the medium of a video game, a book, a film or a programme, if the story has that much of an effect on you to bring you to tears then it’s done it’s job 100% in storytelling success. People may no doubt think ‘It’s a game, why the hell would it do that?’ but I just feel that the gap between storytelling in different forms of media is one that is a bit unnecessary really.

This is a bit of a strange blog entry really. A lot of people may be reading this with absolutely no interest in gaming, in the MGS game, or anything even related, but it’s just something I felt like talking about. Reading a story that really works is always a huge factor for me and it would just be nice if we saw more developers in the world of gaming take their time with the story to produce something that could rival literature classics. Another game that shoots to mind is the fantastic first person shooter Bioshock, developed by 2K Games in 2007 and combined a creepy but exciting shoot ‘em up in an underwater utopia being destroyed by a power mad owner who’s story absolutely blew me away at the time because it continued to take you along in this beautiful retro environment taken straight out of the 50’s and yet it’s story would be one that provided twists, turns and a HUGE change of events you don’t see coming – and this is what helped make this game so utterly brilliant.

Some of you may be able to imagine when you were growing up and sitting down in front of your television and watching television presenters rattle out some classic stories on Jackanory on the BBC and probably sitting there loving every second of what was happening both visually and aurally. For me video games can do the exact same thing but in a more grown up nature obviously, but get you involved; imagine sitting in a cinema and taking control of what was happening. Even back in the ‘old school’ days, as they say, you kind of got the sequel experiences with Super Mario Bros - “The princess is in another castle!” and off you’d run into the next area to find the next castle, rinse and repeat… the Spiderman franchise obviously took some kind of notice here. It does kind of amaze me now how we see games in the form of movies too – coming within the next year are Pac Man and The Sims movies… HOW?! But back to my point, gaming is there for people to relax, to enjoy, to take in the thrills and spills of an exciting movie-style experience and make it their own, so why not enjoy the story just as much as film I say! of course, what with the advances in technology, it is creepy just how close we’re getting between the gap of reality and CG graphics…

I’ll happily take me some Alex Kidd on the Master system with his cute blocky head and jolly 8 bit music!

#13; You will never break The Chain

2009-04-29T22:53:00.001+01:00

Sunday afternoon, with a lunch roasting away in the adjacent kitchen and the windows steaming up from the warm, succulent evaporation of the steam rising off your dinner. A television aurally eases it’s way into your mind with the sound of a weatherman advising on the next day of climate worries, the short inset weather program goes off to be followed by an announcer, thrusting out the lines ‘And coming up next on BBC1… it’s Formula 1.’ Then you hear it. The bassline of a thousand races, of race cars screaming past your eyes at 200 miles an hour, of Murray Walker shouting down the race and screaming out many a classic line, the bassline of that haze that shudders above the tar that holds down the sport we love, the bassline of that champagne that flows freely around the souls and personalities of everything we love about Formula 1… the bassline of The Chain. The shudder that it brings down the spine of lifelong Formula 1 fans as it opens up an afternoon of drama, excitement, sheer intensity, everything that Formula 1 should mean to it’s fans, and yet everything I feel can be placed into the sheer intensity of this incredible song that provides an entrance, for a few brief hours, into the opening arms of a sport ready to excite.

To me a great sport deserves a great introduction. It all comes down to personal taste but with a sport such as Formula 1, you just don’t want a drab little montage bringing you into someone like Steve Ryder, who I will remind who was recently described as ‘beige’ by myself, just keeping the excitement down. Take a look at Match of the Day in the world of football – how much outcry would the BBC get if they decided to get rid of that legendary intro theme with a modern song that would just have absolutely no effect like the Match of the Day theme has! Away from Formula 1 you can see how painfully obvious how every big show has it’s own personality tagged by that introduction theme – Coronation Street’s trumpets slowly falling into Manchester, the thumping piano introduction of Eastenders, even the association of smaller things like the News at Ten and Blue Peter!

I do question though, how can such a song BE an entire sport though? What is it about The Chain that saw thousands upon thousands of people demand the BBC to hunt down the rights to have this when we tune into our televisions ready for Qualifying or a Race? We hear it for about a minute, in a show that least for 3 hours… and yet, to a lot of people, F1 on the BBC just would not be without this incredible opener. When ITV acquired the rights in 1996 to Formula 1, and when the coverage started the following year, we had no Chain. We had nothing even similar, but instead a dark and intense view of a Formula 1 car being unveiled alongside mechanics and the clinks of screws, spanners and generic metal objects inside a wind tunnel, nothing spectacular or traditional, just a dramatic but dark opener. I personally feel that, with ITV, their few years at the start of their license with the Formula 1 theme, they did a fair job with it. Yes, it wasn’t the Chain, but they had a solid introduction that provided fans both casual and hardcore to be interested and enjoy a brief introduction into the sport they love.

For a few years we were introduced with a far more gracious and exciting introduction to a sport that demands excitement from all factors of its production. Accompanying a generally heavy guitar riffs and a beating synth in the background, it was shown off with overtaking manouvres, crashes, famous moments from f1’s history, everything that made F1 exciting – it was a brilliant intro! It didn’t have The Chain beating it’s way into the sport but it had everything that you needed to get you pumped up and ready for an exciting few hours of F1! All of this was topped off with the adrenaline pumping scream of a F1 car as it rushes through your head and a simple subtitle that said where the Grand prix was. Simply, effective, exciting, brilliant! This was the pinnacle of ITV’s work with the intro to Formula 1, as along with their productions, it became a disappointment from herein. The greater detail on this can be found on my previous blog so I shalln’t go into greater detail here, but we instead got very generic introductions you’d imagine an American news network would use to transcend from the news into a sports section with no real meaning. The final theme used by ITV turned out to be the song ‘Lift Me Up’ by Moby. See… I have nothing against Moby, or the song; it’s on my iPod as are a few others within his library. This said, I have no clue what made the production team at ITV who were so well praised and awarded for constantly choose to have this as a theme for Formula 1. It seemed so lifeless alongside images of Lewis, Jenson, DC and even Anthony Davidson for a millisecond one season, and for me it never worked. Plus, I didn’t understand what the song actually said - ‘Lift me up, lift me up, UGGAUAUHGU’ – totally agree. I do like the song, but a F1 theme? Sorry Moby, better luck next time buddy.

So now of course we have the Chain and that accompanying video of a racing driver walking through that deep haze previously mentioned, the car forming in front of him as and it develops into the the Red Bull-esque cars racing through CG animated roads alongside those electrifying beats caused from the bass of John McVie with Mick Fleetwood tapping away softly, growing louder and louder, as the electric guitar grows from Lindsey Buckingham’s guitar then BAM! It all comes together, onscreen a sight of F1 cars racing each other with the shouts of the cars screaming through Fleetwood Mac and The Chain. The intro is a brilliant, brilliant intro and one I feel just would not have been as strong if it weren’t for the presence of Fleetwood Mac’s legendary tune. It’s delightful for myself to see something that is a part of Formula 1 heritage within the UK back where it deserves to be in so many ways, just the final minute or so of that fantastic song itself has such a Formula 1 feel to it as I’ve described already, and thank goodness it’s the song that brings us back into the world we love to be part of.

It does seem a strange subject to blog about, I’m sure it may seem that way to some but again, I brought up the fact earlier in the blog that so many programmes have that intro that is just associated with them through thick and thin, and if things changes, then people want the old back and want rid of the new. I don’t really have much else to say at the moment about things, but I am hoping that more people now get to experience this incredible song for a younger generation as for me it does personifies everything about Formula 1 – a bassline with tension, fear, and a building excitement, a guitar riff that slowly builds up, prepares for that big start then rushes into action and sends the song into a spiral of activity alongside the bass and a massive sense of excitement and racing poured into an incredible piece of music.

I can still hear you saying
We must never break the chain.

#12; Welcome Home Formula 1

2009-04-27T21:39:00.002+01:00

Formula One in the United Kingdom is back at it’s rightful home; the BBC. For years and years, whether it have been through 30 minute highlight shows to multi-hour live programmes, the BBC provided the masses of British F1 fans with the opportunity to watch one of the world’s most daring, thrilling and exciting sports in the world. However, the announcement in 1996 that their foes ITV has stolen the rights to broadcast the sport from 1997 onwards had taken many by the surprise, including the BBC themselves. What was to come for us? Were ITV going to take this sport, produced professionally by the BBC, and take it down a route us fans didn’t want or ask for? Personally… ITV did a wonderful job. For a few years. Then it started to go downhill. Faster than a Jamaican bobsled team.

Opinions are a wonderful thing really; we all have one and we’re all entitled to one. Many people may be saying to this blog entry ‘But ITV were terrible! Don’t give them credit!’; it would be criminal to simply class them as terrible when, from the year they started up their coverage, they brought many new elements into the coverage of Formula 1. Gridwalks, for example, are the brainwave of ITV with Martin Brundle scrambling his way through an anxious crowd of the F1 world, and gave us viewers a greater insight into the preparation of the races from their point of view. We saw the shows being presented from the races themselves, adding an atmosphere some studio in London could never produce. There were other little additions to our coverage that we never saw with the BBC and yet are now being used alongside some of the fantastic additions we’ve seen since the BBC’s regaining of the formula 1 coverage.

Where did it all go wrong for ITV though? They had the guts to use their money towards f1 and they didn’t hold back with it, they gave it the attention it deserved. For me, it all began to come very tiresome that the coverage we were being provided with was not as interesting as it should have been. After the American Grand Prix of 2001, the infamous Murray Walker retired from the sport his voice was so famous for being associated with, and ITV replaced the unreplacable with James Allen, formerly a member of the ITVF1 team as a pitlane reporter. His job within the pitlane worked to great effect and provided us with more information, but sadly, following up such a legend as Walker provided no help. Allen seems a nice enough bloke, there’s no doubt that he loves the sport and he has a massive amount of passion for the sport. As a commentator, however, he never fully lived up to what he could have grown into. An obvious bias for British drivers, Hamilton and Button specifically, began a tiresome annoyance for many fans, as well as repeating information unnecessarily and generally not providing a service that so many had gotten used to under the perhaps clumsy-but-lovable Murray Walker. However, it is not just James Allen who dampened ITV’s coverage – other factors such as the pundit work provided by Mark Blundell and the awfully dry presenting of Steve Ryder, both seeming uncomfortable in their roles with Ryder’s presenting style far too rehearsed and stiff whilst talking alongside a badly spoken, annoying pundit in Blundell. I have absolutely nothing against any of these individuals, but they just were not Formula 1 – what we had in Tony Jardine’s punditry work alongside Jim Rosenthal’s vampire-esque stares worked personally, although Jardine was a lot more satisfying to listen to than Rosenthal I must admit. The final contribution to the downfall of ITV F1 began from the day it started – adverts. We all knew that adverts were going to be a part of the sport because of ITV’s stance with advertising for revenue, but my my, did advertising become a bit annoyance in the coverage. Whether it be that moment in 1998 where an advertising break caused viewers to miss Mika Hakkinen’s world championship win, or just random annoying advert breaks when a race becomes exciting or when watching overtaking or action occur on the track, plus the general paranoia of knowing as soon as the adverts came on you’d miss something big, they tended to cause a serious lack of fluidity when watching a Grand Prix only to be constantly interrupted annoyingly. It was these things that, for me, provided much relief when I heard the BBC had finally bought back what they always should have had.

However, this is all in the past and now we have a bright future in BBC F1. We’re 4 races into the season and I can safely say that I’m utterly delighted that we have a refreshing new stance of programming to view for our loved sport. The entire team is almost completely new on the BBC; the addition of Jake Humphreys as a host was very brave personally as his experience in general sport on the BBC is there, but most associated him with CBBC and children’s programming in general. However, Humphreys has been an absolute star when us F1 fans has gotten used to Steve Ryder’s beige presenting. You may be asking, beige? He seemed to always wear beige, his hair was beige, and his speech and general presenting style was so boring that it can only be described as beige. In comparison, Humphreys feels like a spectrum waterfall gushing into our living rooms with a vibrant, interesting presenting style, and we’ve seen him with drivers, at press conferences, and generally jumping head first into the world of Formula 1 and absolutely bloody loving it, just as much as I’m loving watching him present the BBC’s F1 coverage.

Next up, David Coulthard and Eddie Jordan were appointed with the roles of punditry work alongside the wonderful Jake Humphreys, and so far, it’s a case of love and hate it seems. Coulthard has been charmingly funny but also strikingly interesting to listen to, with his insights and experiences as an F1 driver being massively helpful in improving his role as a pundit race by race. His improvement over the Grand Prixs as the season as progressed so far as been a pleasure to gel with, but the problem herein lies with Eddie Jordan as a pundit. It does not work, and I fear that many others agree with this. It’s a shame because the presentation of BBC F1 has been immaculate, it has been professional and interesting, a joy to watch and a pleasure to talk about. Jordan’s punditry work is just extremely contrived and forced in an atmosphere that feels incredibly chilled. I feel that he deserves more of a chance because I personally don’t mind him as a formula 1 personality, I just am yet to be convinced that his outspoken and often arrogant views of Formula 1 and the people within it could be a shadow over a team that have been amazingly smooth in their introduction to the world of F1.

Once again, we have issues with the commentary of Formula 1 within the UK when it comes to the BBC’s new lease of life with the sport. It would have been a huge, huge mistake for the BBC to have not acquired Martin Brundle as part as the race commentary team, and thank goodness, they knew what the people wanted and they went straight for him successfully. He may have jumped from ITV’s team to BBC’s team but there’s no doubt that he is the absolute star in the world of Formula 1 commentary right now, and always has been since he began his role with Murray Walker in the late 90’s. However, the new ‘main’ commentator we now have, Jonathon Legard, have been a huge mistake from the BBC’s choices with the BBC F1 team. I am not a fan of him, not at all. I hate to be arrogant or miserable about his role in the team but he is not what the fans are looking for in a commentator at all. Sadly, we seem to have gone from an annoy but passionate commentator into a boring and uncomfortable ‘talker’ of the events unfolding in front of him. His commentator is extremely dry, as in it just has no passion behind his words, and he often seems completely lost in the world of formula 1 when talking about the races. I appreciate he will want to learn more and more about the sport but he’s done Formula 1 commentary in the past – it simply is not a new experience to him! The radio 5 commentary team of David Croft and Anthony Davidson are a humorously fun team to listen to and take you through the race, and one I feel deserve far more credit than are given but are easily accessible with the red button service (something I will go into greater detail soon). If Croft was promoted up to the main commentary setup with Brundle, I feel it would be pure bliss to witness. David Croft is exactly what we need in a main formula 1 commentator – he is interesting, he watched the race without a degree of uncomfortability in his words, and he actually seems to have a degree of knowledge in what fans are wanting to hear as a commentator when compared to Legard’s often inane comments. The final additions of the BBC f1 team are seen in the pit lane via Ted Kravitz and Lee Mckenzie, as well as Holly Samos on Radio 5 pitlane reporting, but concentrating on Kravitz and McKenzie both I feel have provided a service that has been extremely useful and insightful, but unbelievably underused! If there’s one thing so far ITV did better than the BBC, it’s using the pitlane to get quick interviews with retirees and going down to Kravitz at the time more than once or twice a race and get a grand amount of information back.

So what makes the actual coverage so impressive now we’ve jumped back to the land of the Beeb? Well let’s get the obvious out of the way so far – NO ADVERTS! It’s feels so incredibly nice to watch a Grand prix in the knowledge you can sit down for 3 hours knowing the fact that you will not get interrupted, you can simply get engrossed in this beautiful sport known as Formula 1 without seeing who’s sponsoring the television program with an annoying jingle every 20 minuets following by 5 minutes of pure advertising hell. Furthermore, the presentation is a wonder to behold. The very first piece of video we saw with the new life of BBC F1, in the early hours of the morning before Australia’s Qualifying session, was a gorgeous video flying through valleys and oceans with the sounds of sights of Formula 1 occupying, an epic orchestral piece running through our televisions and computers accompanying the video and a voice booming out just why formula 1 is formula 1. Then, of course, we got The Chain. I can do no justice to the song in saying how good it feels to hear that legendary Fleetwood Mac song hauntingly boom out that bassline when the programmes come on for F1 – it is the F1 theme. Nuff said. Furthermore, we know longer have the Lewis Hamilton show, but rather a deeper look at the creation of the cars we see in front of us, deeper insight from all teams whether it be the minnows of Force India, the refreshing family attitude of Brawn or the frustrated giants Ferrari, everyone has been welcomed into the presentation of BBC’s F1 coverage and it’s just very refreshing. Of course, we have the new interactive settings with the red button, but here is one area that has a huge, huge amount of potential for the BBC to take advantage of but one area that does need improving based on the unresponsive, often poorly setup feeds that it should be providing but often tends not to from experience. That said, there is so much potential for improvement and they can make a truly remarkable service from this. There are many more little areas that have been lovely to see, including the respectful inclusion of the Grand Prix host’s national anthem being played before the race start rather than ignored, a lovely montage video being played after every race and the fantastic idea of a discussion Forum going on beyond the race for another hour between the various pundits, and it’s these little touches for me that have made BBC’s coverage so far an absolute delight to behold.

So onwards and upwards we go into the European portion of the season with BBC F1 being rapidly impressive in their work for us f1 fans… and I’m loving every single ruddy second of it. Let’s just hope they keep up this good work!!

#11; Blog for Absolution

2009-04-23T00:22:00.000+01:00

I realise that less than 24 hours ago I had written a blog entry cerning my view upon various matters of music and how a personals musical tastes can be too easily judged upon their character as well as various other tidbits. Furthermore, I want to thank those that provided me with some amazing comments about the entry because a lot of heart went into the writing of a subject that holds my heart in a dear way and apologies for the commenting bug that caused no-one to be able to post comments (that has now been fixed!). But I do genuinely appreciate all feedback from everyone so I did truly love the responses I got and am grateful for that! But nevertheless, back onto the subject - whilst I may have written that musical entry, I felt like explaining to you why i'm such a huge Muse fan and what the band mean to me alongside my appreciation for all things musical.

What is it about 3 blokes from various areas around the UK meeting up in the coastal greyland known as Teignmouth that has attracted me so much to be in adoration to the music they create, divulge, emote and perform? How can this band mean so much to me when there are millions of people worldwide singing to make a living, trying their hardest to live off their money and make a name for themselves and yet these three guys create such incredible music personally? I will be the first to admit that perhaps I like Muse too much - just take a look at my last.fm! But to say that I couldn't go a full day without listening to them, as absurd as that sounds, would be a true statement. I realise I'll have people laughing at such an idea, that a simple band could have such a profound effect on any human being, but I knwo that it's not just myself that appreciate this band for everything they do.

I got into Muse nearly a decade ago now, about 2001-ish I would say. It must have been around the release of their incredible second album Origin of Symmetry as I sat down at my sisters house humbley watching that 'lovely' channel known as Kerrang (I was young then, OK?) when this empty room appeared with melting images, and a somber individual with striking black hair stood their gazing into my eyes... then that riff was unleashed. Plug in Baby. Matthew Bellamy just stayed still with his hands just pouring out the most addictive and stunning guitar noise I'd heard for my age at the time... his red guitar, with metal-but-bizarre faceplates swung around his body with his hand continually strumming out this riff. My eyes continued to stare as I watched in amazement, seeing a fellow guitarist on the bass with wild, bushy hair orbit his movements, moshing away alongside a headbanging drummer beringing the song to life with drumfills and snaps of, for lack of a better description, sheer awesome. 'My plug in baby, crucifies my enemies, when i'm tired of giving.' My throat had instantly started humming the crunching bassline whilst my head grew in slight headbanging movement along with the lifespan of the song. Wow. Wow wow wow.What is this!? Where the hell have these guys come from?! Wow!!! What is that riff?! My jaw was on the floor as the guitar slowly faded out by the end of the song. Matt bellamy, Chris Wostenholme and Dominic Howard has blown my brains out with that addictively catchy piece of modern rock. This was the moment I knew something was in it from my point of view to follow these guys. Ohohoho, and follow I did.

I sit here typing this blog entry to you nearly 8 years still as much in love with that band as the day I discovered them. They've released several albums since them, travelled the world, matured into their own styles of music they can develop album by album and have even sold out the new Wembley Stadium twice in 2 nights. I am not trying to advertise the band whatsoever, but I can;t help but express as a fan how much pride these achievements bring to see a band you've loved for years do so much with themselves. Yet they continue to be so fresh with their style of music and surprise you in so many ways... if you told me that in 2001 that same band would have an r'n'b based rock song getting to no. 2 in the charts in 2006 I would have laughed at an idea and ridiculed them for thinking they would even try. But they did, and yet within such an impossibly strange idea for a rock band, they managed to do it without losing any credibility.

That brings me onto my next point - live shows. Muse are THE live band. I've only seem them once in person but that one evening provided a vast amount of amazement, bliss, profound excitement and almost a level of subconscious disblelief that I had the opportunity to finally experience these guys for myself. They make me wonder so much - these are three almost 30's on a stage with 3 instruments - a guitar, a bass, a drumkit. Yet the sound they produce is out of this world; for those not in the know I'd highly suggest looking on youtube for a few videos, or emailing me/twittering me to get a few suggestions what to look at. I can't put into words just how good of a show they produce. yet it's only 3 guys!!

There is so much that I could go into detail about their music that attracts me so much and why I treasure every soundbyte that they've worked into making. At heart, Muse are without a shadow of doubt a rock band; but they're a rock band that incorporate so many other genres into their music and are brave enough to attempt this constantly. If you compare their original album showbiz to their newest album Black Holes and Revelations, the differences are beyond vast. showbiz holds three young lads introduing themselves to the world of rock music with dark, moody insight into the thoughtds of feelings of a frustrated age group living in an area they hate, wanting to escape, with Bellamy pouring his feelings into screaming falsettos and his guitar work on tracks, whether it be distorted power riffs or a soothing Italian-style acoustic. 7 years later, with their 4th studio album Black Holes and Revelations, you hear the band being so much more confident to try new styles of music, to attempt areas of rock where others may not dare tread, to express themselves and how they view the world around them with so much diversity. The album for example begins with an apocalyptic insight into the political dictatorships around the world being asked for a sarcasm bow of appreciation, and is followed up with an insight into political conpiracies, the galaxy we live in, romance, hatred, love, war through a soldier's poem, and finishing on the most over the top, completely mental but utterly brilliant western-space-rock-opera we know as Knights of Cydonia. But it would be totally rude for me to mention all thisn without going into detail into the alvums between these; their second album Origin of Symmetry saw the band unleashing their progtastic, insanely rough and brilliantly addictive riffs fully into the faces of music fans throughout the world. Whether it be an 8 minute rock epic including soothing piano riffs and a bassline that could shake a city, a church organ haunting the echoing screams of Bellamy, the hyper mess of a shroomed-up session causing the most innocently gorgeous river of arpeggios creating an sense of bliss, the album was just completely in your face in comparison to the introductory nature of Showbiz. The followup is where Muse shine their greatest so far personally - Absolution.

Absolution is an album worthy of it's own paragraph personally, and I mean that with no disrespect to Muse's other albums as each album is incredible for their own reasons. This album is my haven though. From start to finish, 12 tracks (2 non songs too, theyre only a few seconds long though) of utter brilliance, and I dare say perfection when I know that nothing in the world will ever be perfect. Rather than go into massive detail I'll tell you just where this album shines ... Where to start...Ohhh... Stockholm Syndrome... How could anyone descrbe this song in words? I'll be honest, I can never describe Stockholm Syndrome properly. Anger, frustration, everything that we feel when we're at the end of our tether. 'This is the last time I'll abandon you, and this is the last time I'll forget you... I wish I could!!!' So much anger comes through these lyrics, and yet Bellamy's vocals are so soft, soothing, almost relaxing in a song that feels so loud and almost apolcaptic. You have heavy guitar riffs being through at your left right and centre, a bassline that jumps constantly back and forth, and an incredible drum riff taking the song along perfectly. And the main guitar riff? Ohh yum. Basically if Stockholm Syndrome were a food, it'd be jelly on top of a washing machine. You know it's good, you know you want it, and yet it's sits there going completely mental in front of you. Alongside SS we have the encapsulatingly addictive Hysteria, a song that runs on a bassline that just makes the song without a doubt alongside the guitar riff halfway through, a riff that spews out a gorgeously sweet feeling for a song that screams out frustration at wanting something more than anything in life and knowing you can't get it. Despite this, Hysteria stands proudly as the 'groovy' track on the abum despite still being totally rooted in Muse's rock origins. Other highlights of the album justify why Muse are more than allowed to dabble their way into new genres - Butterflies and Hurricanes provides an uplifting, positive light of life alongside a buildup of orchestral excellence, combined with a Rachaminov-esque piano section that breaks the song into two, yet makes the song a beautiful, unique experience to behold - Time is Running Out could be considered a pop-pier younger brother to Hysteria, being a bass-driven catchy haven of emotions for the band to unleash in their own unique way. I could go on and on.. endlessly and Blackout being the album's romantic areas... Ruled by Secrecy... Thoughts of a Dying Atheist... but I've already written enough...

And that is Muse to me. Apologies if this does seem like an annoying entry to include and so much to say over something that many people may not consider to be impressive, but I just wanted to get the opportunity to show you just how Muse crept into my life and what they mean to me. I mention them a lot to friends, again I fear this may be too much, so I apologise once more if it gets to the point of pure annoyance... but this is just one of the traits I enjoy in my life and one I'm far from being ashamed of. There are many more out there moreso than myself that truly love this band for everything they stand for, everything they create, for being Muse.

Sing for Absolution? I nmost certainly will be singing!

#10; The Sound of Music

2009-04-21T22:56:00.002+01:00

Another blog entry, two in one night? Ridiculous! But yes, i'm in a big writing mood tonight and I feel like I could let out so much at the moment, it's bit strange. Anyways, the ttitle of this entry pretty mushc sums up what I'm just thinking about right now - music. A lot of people would happily agree with me that a world without music, whether it be rock, rap, pop, r 'n b, jamaican rastafarian reggae, hardcore metal, whatever the hell rocks your world, would be a very boring world for us all to live in. I'm pretty open to music and I 100% respect that every individual gets their own rights to listen to what they like and have the tastes that they do but I do wonder -how do we as humans find it so easy to judge a person by their musical taste?

I'll give you an example with the local area I live. Most teenagers now listen to dance music, r'n b, hiphop, that kind of music. Sadly, there seems to be a general closed-mindedness approach to other genres when encountering such individuals as I have found out from experience and from off the mouth remarks that have been... 'discussed'.. in previous events. If you like rock music, or like metal, or anything like that, if you wear dark clothes or earrings or have 'emo- style hair, then immediately you are deemed a 'sweaty'; an indidivual not accepted into the chavtastic affairs that dominate the teenage lifestyle of millions throughout the United Kingdom. I know it;s almost totally ignorant of me to say such an outrageous statement without any real proof backing me up but to deny that the 'chav' stereotype is one undoutedbly routed into the younger society.

But music isn't something to be started at, judged upon, and ridiculed without giving a chance! Music is the expression that we all may hold inside in our own individual ways that allows us to express ourselves through sounds, words, lyrics, screams, instruments, anything our creativity can drive us to! If I were stuck on a desert island with my Muse CD's or iTunes with my entire library then i for one would be a happy chappy because music can get you through anything! There are so many emotions that can be protrayed in so many ways from the way an artist expresses themselves and pours emotion into a song they've worked over, or even in the manner in which you portray songs yourself. Music helps me personally keep my life going, and it would be fair to say that music is such an good indicator into how your mind is feeling - sad and down? put on some uplifting, inspiring pieces of music you love and it can make you right as rain again. Want to go crazy amd mosh like a churchill dog on a rollercoaster? Chuck on that Black Sabbath and make Ozzy proud.

I have absolutely no reason to boast about my own musical tastes. I honestly feel it's no better than anyone elses and I have no reason to feel that it can be judged by others as well, but I'm always willing to listen to what people have to say, recommend, suggest and enjoy. I adore music, without a shadow of a doubt, it keeps my mind sane alongside the fantastic friends I'm lucky to have and my choice of lifestyle. But despite saying I have no reason to boast, I;m damn proud of the music I love! I look at iTunes and see allsorts from Muse, Smashing Pumpkins, Fleetwood Mac, Andy Williams, even classical composers like Rachmaninov and Beethoven whilst ranging back to the progtastic wonders such as Pink Floyd and Rush, and I wouldn't change any of these for the world. Music can have such a stupidly huge influence on your life and I'm more than thankful for the incredible sounds they've made over the years that have brought myself and so many others joy.

So whats driving my mind loco in joy recently, you may be asking? Here's a general list of what i'm hearting recently...

Smashing Pumpkins - The End is the Beginning is the End and Ava Adore

How can such dark, disturbing songs have such gorgeously innocent choruses? It's such things like this that make me sit back in awe at the Smashing pumpkins and Billy Corgan's truly wonderful voice. They're such a good band and to say these two songs don;t stand out for me would be totally unfair because both hold so much anger and emotion yet bellow out the sweetest choruses...

Muse - Fury

When music provides the opporrtunity to make the hairs on the end of your skin stand up and goosebumps run wild across your back then you know it's special. I can't stress enough how muvh this song terrifies me in the most pleasing way - probably the stupidest sentence I'll ever write. But it's true! Menacing riffs, crushing basslines, again a sweepingly soft chorus that speaks about the hopes of an atheist (hey!) and just a stunning piece of music

Franz Ferdinand - Lucid Dreams

I'm not a big fan of electronic music-y genres. They can have their highlights but for me personally, I can't get into them. To be in love with a song that has a 5 minute electronic riff that bounces about from side to side in your mind profounds me to the point of unexplainability. But I can't help it - the addictive feeling I get from lucid Dreams and the incredibly sharp electro melodies it has is just a wonder for my musical tastes to be hold. concerning the album, this is easly the standout track on Tonight, which is a good album in all fairness.

Fleetwood Mac - The Chain

I had do, didn't I? But I can't help it! That bassline... the story behind the song and the album it's from... the buildup in the song and just how incredibly poignant the lyrics are relating to Fleetwood Mac as a band and their personal issues... it's just an incredible mix of real life worries and musical brilliance. That bassline is one of the most genius pieces of composition personally, as an F1 fan seeing it open up the sport on the BBC, and as a music fan who geniunely appreciates music for the sheer talent and skill it must take to produce music like this without machines and computers doing the work for you.

Sigur Ros - Sigur 1

So simple... but so beautiful. So quiet... yet so elegant. Sigur Ros are more than pioneers for the music theyr create in their genre. The ability to ease your worries, relax you, or create allsorts of emotions in just the most simple of forms. Sigur 1 is hard to explain because it doesn't do much apart from simply flow into your head like a silk mattress and make your mind as peaceful as possible. All of their music is a gorgeous composition of instruments, sounds, and the musical equivalent of an art gallery as bizarre as that sounds, and yet even though they don't need to do much to create the style of music they achieve, the diversity of emotions they can create for a listener is incredible.

There's so much more I could talk about musically at the moment and different songs but I shall leave it at that. Having the opportunity to ecpress myself on here concerning an area of life that billions of people worldwide run their life alongside is a pleasure because I love music because it's music. Music can sell, it can suggest violence, sex, greed, hatred, it can do anything and people may like it for those stupid reasons, yet I love music because it is music. That's all there is to it. It's emotional, it's beautiful, it;s diverse, and more importantly, it's our lives.

What would I do if music never existed?

Tap a few spoons on the table... tap my knees... and build it up from there...!

#9; Something old, something new...

2009-04-21T22:05:00.004+01:00

Yep. You may just have noticed something here - it's all gone light blue and lovely! I've decided that enough with the old dark blue generic blogspot and in with a fantastic new look provided by Ollie over at BlogF1 that was created by the guys from JackBook so it would be totally unfair of me to be taking credit for the fantastic job they've done making this look! Although I have been meddling about with the HTML values and whatnot to edit things around a bit more to my styling... but still! I massively appreciate it! Do let me know what you think of the bluey blue blueness; that's the best name I could think of.

The title for this entry has a lot more meaning alongside the whole 'something borrowed something blue' main meaning it's pretty much hinting at. I have this fantastic new blue design to gawp at (It's so blue I just want to swim in it!) but there's a few other things I've been looking at today and in the past few days. I found it utterly awful to see in the news that the police that attacked the innocent bystander Ian Tomlinson during the G20 protests last month were actually the likely cause of death rather than a heart attack as original suspected. How disturbing is it to know that during times of restraint and keeping law whereever possible in a sea of panic and frustration, our police authorities feel the need to attack even innocent bystanders to get their way? It sickens me to know that Tomlinson's fall to the ground via this despicable cause of action from a police officer attacking him has happened, it truly does.

On a less serious note, it was announced that Dan Brown's 'sequel' to the Da Vinci Code is coming out in September, and as an avid fan of Brown's literature, I'm mega super uber excited to hear this great news! It only adds to the fact that the next few months are a ball of excitement for myself - heading off to Goodwood and other places within the summer, Muse's new album and UK tour, this news about the book, the actual summer itself hopefully being a lovely relaxing few months plus fingers crossed by the end of august I'll be a fully qualified blowtorch-wielding driver! Ok, perhaps not the blowtorch....

I don't have much else to say at the moment though. Just looking down at tweetdeck to see that the blog has been plugged by a certain someone from the ever-growingly-mentioned Sidepodcast, so that was nice of him! I'll be doing a feature length blog entry later in the week sometimes relating to motorsport, so feel free to come back and check that out because it should be a good read!

Just want to end on one thing - How cute is this toaster?!! I want it! It even has a mini diffuser! That seriously is the greatest toaster ever, and I know what you're thinking - there are some pretty radical toasters out there! I once saw one that had legs and everything. But seriously, if anyone knows where to buy these, or steal them, or download the toaster, or anything... I must have it! It's so cute! It'd be so great seeing Jenson Breaddon and Rubens Braces-chello pop up....

...yep, I did indeed say those puns. Shocking? Yes. Worth it? Totally.

#8; London Bridge isn't falling down

2009-04-16T00:16:00.003+01:00

Wow, what a day! As I said yesterday today I was heading off to London to meet up with some fantastic individuals from the Sidepodcast community to see a Formula 1 related exhibition at London's Science Museum. I say exhibition as do the owners of it but I'd prefer the term 'Several futuristic items watched by a psychotic guard and a bloody annoying alarm thing'. The exhibit itself was a bit underwhelming to say the least, it was pretty small and it had such exclusive items as carbon fiber stairs (carbon fiber stairs!!), a fishing rod and a Ron Dennis Cryogenics Pod... or so it was thought to be with friends and msyelf.

It was a shame it was so disappointing because it could've had so much more but it felt very un-F1 related considering. The highlight of the museum F1-wise was seeing Mika Hakkinen's car from the 1999 German Grand Prix in which he crashed out at silly-speed-mph. I myself was amazed at the 'No Photography' side wing that I'd never noticed before on the car! Furthermore relating Mclaren and the museum, Lewis' car was hanging upside down at the entrance. I don;t really need to explain how much such a sight confused me.

Asides from the museum it was a tremendous day for sure. Just getting the chance to relax in Hyde Park's lucious greens and enjoy the beaming sunshine was rejoiceful and being around some truly wonderful people that enlighted and delighted myself was such good fun. Plus it's so releiving being able to talk F1 to people who love the sport because of it's fundamentals, it's history, the passion they have for it and the sport being bloody fantastic, not because of who the media darling is at any current situation feigning a fake interest! It was also so relaxing being able to just chill out and forget about the worries of the world in such a pleasent environment, one I simply cannot explain and praise enough.

So what did I learn today?

Traffic lights are evil. If the little man is green, do not stop.
I get confused at a lot of things... far too often.
London Underground isn't as nervous as I was making myself think it was
Chairs are not invisible, you cannot walk through them no matter how many times I try.
London rocks. So much.
SERIOUS SECURITY GUARD IS SERIOUS.
Walking when trying to photograph stuff is a stupid idea
That I'm lucky to have met such a great community and know that I'll be joining them for more escapades in the future!

So yeah today was a delight and one I hope to recreate many a times. Thanks again so much to everyone that came along because I can't stress enough how much fun today was and how nice it was to be able to get away and relax in the company of a group of great indivduals. Funnily enough I mentioned today how lovely the sunshine was and how enjoyable it was to be able to relax in such joyous weather when Wales gets so much rain and cloud... and when I get back to Wales... rain and cloud.

Ahh I'll never win!!

#7; A day of many emotions

2009-04-14T19:11:00.003+01:00

Tomorrow is an important day. April 15th, to many, may stand out as an unexceptional day, just another day to pass us through Spring. April 15th is however one of the most important days in the world of English football. Sadly, this correlates with one of the saddest days in the history of English football; the Hillsborough Disaster. Lowering the scale of things, tomorrow also is the day Formula 1 in 2009 could be shaken once more when we find out whether the diffuser argument will 'decide the seaso n', or so a certain Mr Fernando Alonso says. But hey, what does he know eh?! Last but not least, tomorrow is the big Sidepodcast meetup that I've really been looking forward to for the past few weeks! It would definitely be fair to say that April 15th, personally, well... it's a day of many emotions.

Going back to the Hillsborough Disaster, for those not in the know, let me do my best to explain. 15th April 1989, Liverpool vs Nottingham Forest in the FA Cup Semi Final at the Hillsborough Stadium in Sheffield; over 700 people were inured and 96 individuals killed in a horrific crush involving 3,000 supporters in a stand that was purposely made to hold 1,600 at the most, and even then, safety issues meant that this amount was too much as it was. Whilst the match was playing, supporters struggled to breath, move, do anything but fight for their life until 5 minutes into this match police forced the referee to blow up and serious help was obviously needed. Any kind of footage, whether it be through photos or video footage, shows just how terrifying the situation was.

At the time I was merely less than a year old; I don't have any connections to the event at all and as you can imagine I was far too young to know then just what this disaster was. But as a football fan you learn about these events and how much they change the landscape of the sport you love; as previously stated it horrifies me to hear just how bad the conditions were. It horrifies me to hear that after the disaster the police blamed the fans and pathetic excuses such as 'drunken behavior' for the cause of this. It horrifies me just to hear of the stories from various sources watching the events unfold in front of their eyes, and seeing bodies laid out stricken across the pitch at Hillsborough. Whether you're a supporter of Liverpool or not, there is absolutely no denying that as a football fan, it is your duty to provide respect and rememberance for those souls that were stolen due to horrific safety procedures and a chain of bad decisions and bad events leading to what we have 20 years on.

I almost feel slightly guilty of myself explaining this to you as it's not something I'm related to or witnessed at the time but as I have said, I am a football fan, I love the sport, and as it will be to football fans all across the country this week, this was a horrible moment that we all have to remember and thankfully have learned from concerning safety within football stadiums in modern day football. Noone will forget the 96.

I do want to lift the mood however within this blog entry. Tomorrow itself is a big day for Formula 1 as the diffuser argument looming over the sport finally comes to a head as the FIA finally decide what is legal and not. As a Brawn fan, do I think what they, Toyota and Williams have created and designed as a legal car component? Absolutely! I've tried my hardest to keep up with this story and a lot of it has gone over my head at times with technical-side of things, but I honestly feel that any illegality of the rules is void. Brawn himself stated his intentions with the diffuser to the teams over a year ago with no real complaints, he went ahead and worked on this fantastic Brawn car as did Toyota and Williams respectively, and now that other teams see how their interpretation of the rules is different to theirs, the argument has grown. Even now as I speak these appealing teams are making their own version of the diffuser similar to the big three that they're taking to the FIA - a sign of panic in case the diffusers are actually legal, or a sign of defeat to the point they know what the outcome is going to be? I'll let you decide but all comments are totally welcome with your opinions.

Finally, the Sidepodcast meetup is finally here! I'll definitely be checking back in on here in a few days to let you know how it went but I am very excited - seeing London for the first time in years, meeting people I really do want to meet and generally just having an excellent day out away from where i live should be fantastic! So yeah, bring it on!

#6; Summertime Blues?

2009-04-07T15:40:00.005+01:00

We've entered the Easter holidays it seems and as I've previously mentioned we're well into the Springtime now. Easter's a nice time for me, I'm certainly not a religious person so the pleasant feeling doesn't come from the religious aspect of the holiday but these 2 weeks for pretty vital personally in charging up my batteries in a rush for the final few weeks of university where assignmetns flood in and stress levels rise. So it's nice these weeks to have a chance to relax before the storm comes in.

I've been thinking a lot these past few days about the summer as well and what possibilities it holds for me. I don't have many plans at all; I'd absolutely love to go to Devon or Cornwall for a few days and have the opportunity to relax in the sunsets of the cornish coast with a pasty or ice cream but I can't see it happening sadly, which is a shame. My driving lessons are coming to a close now though, as I slowly make my way towards the final steps before my driving test, so if I pass by the summer then fingers crossed for that possibility.

There's also other little events like the Goodwood Festival that I'm hugely interested in attending this year. Every year I see it on TV and it amazes me to see these classic cars in what seems such a lovely atmosphere and from feedback from friends it's an amazing few days to experience as a fan of motorsport, so I'm definitely looking at that to get away in the summer.

To be honest the summer does give me much mixed feelings; the weather really is lovely and you get some beautiful days in the summer, everyone seems to be in a good mood and it's a lovely time but I personally get so much time off University (from stat of June to end of September, so 3 months) that it eventually gets extremely tiring being off so much and not finding much to do with my time. As bizare as that probably sounds, it doesn't take long before I want to get out of Uni when it starts up again! It's a very strange set of feelings...

There's not much point to this entry, I just felt like rambling about the summer because it's so lovely outside at the moment. Another highlight is the fact Muse's new album will finally be out towards the end of the summer/start of the autumn so I'm mega excited for that! I'm excuted for the year in general to be honest as a few spects of my life have evolved so much in the past few months and there are new areas of my life that make me incredibly happy, so much more than I've been in the past year or two, so yeah. I'm a happy chappy!

I may do another post later on something else as I'm in a big writing mood today but we'll see.

#5; April Fool

2009-04-03T11:14:00.002+01:00

Formula 1 is back once more. Luxurious lives, immaculately designed cars, the rich and famous, travelling in the world's most exotic locations in a sport that I deeply treasure s I've said before. We've had Australia, we've had drama and crashes and outrage and glory, upsets and excitement galore. Yet what we've had already more than anything is off track action. Appeals, decisions, lying, deceiving, the list could go on and we're not even a week into the sport. I absolutely love the sport, and I'm not going to say 'Im not gonna watch this with all this crap!' at all. What I am gonna say in this blog entry is simple; Why, lewis? Why Mclaren?

What good did you achieve from lying about what was said over the pit radio? This is a new, transculent era of formula 1 where everyone will hear what's going on. We don't need lying to dirty a sport that's rebuilding in the face of a horrid economy. The sport is growing, and whilst its changes has the obviously criticisms from many fans, it is trying to step forward into an exciting future based on the challenges everyone has right now. What good is it going to do saying one thing to the (albeit frustrating) regulators of our loved sport then providing the pit radios showing something else?

I think Lewis is a good driver. I'm not a fan but I respect what he has done in that car and for the team. What I don't respect is how both he nd his team knew exactly what they were doing and now, whilst they admit to it, they have faced a pretty lenient penalty personally. Mclaren have already had a fair share of controversy with the Spying affair that spoilt the sport a few years back, and whilst this new affair isn't anything on that level by any means, it's just a shame to see the team in the headlines once more. In a weekend that was truly glorious for seeing the Brawn phoenix rising from the Honda flame in a 1-2 highlight, we had more headlines discussing Lewis and Mclaren than we did celebrating the rebirth of Jenson Button's damaged career. As a Brawn fan it upsets me, as a Formula 1 fan it frustrates me.

I also feel very sorry for Jarno Trulli. I'm a fan of Trulli but from the very start of this he seemed completely innocent about the whole affair. He's a nice guy, and I'm not disputing that Hamilton isn't because he seems a nice fella as well, but it's hard to take the nice guy seriously if he's going to lie about something so sly. Trulli is a Formula 1 veteran, and yet we have the world champion who is still relatively new to ther sport considering it's his 3rd season, using his and the teams lies for one-up-manship over someone who deserved that position just as much as Lewis did personally.

The sooner we can all move in from this the better. Lewis hd admitted his part, Whitmarsh has said what he had to say and now sporting Director Dave Ryan has been suspended. Yet the respect that I had for McLaren as a solid Formula 1 team with a rich history once more gets damaged. I'm no person to this whole scanda at all, but I won't be the only person looking at this with a feeling of shame for Mclaren. The only April Fools I find hard to laugh at this year are these individuals. For shame.

Well that's my mini-rant over at Mclaren... I've noticed that a lot of this has become very Formula 1 related. My apologies if that seems annoying but it is a huge part of my life and one I can become very vocal over.

Phew. Hope everyone has had a good week, it's nearly Easter as well! I have the day off work today which is marvellous and I'm looking forward to this weekend's grand prix and also to a visit to london on the 15th with fellow members of the Sidepodcast community which should be a great day out! There's been a lot on my mind as well latelythat I might write up about over the weekend but we'll see. Right now I just want to lay down, have a cup of tea, and wish for these silly scandals to go away!

#4; Springing into Action

2009-03-23T11:29:00.004Z

Phew, feels like I haven't written anything down here for a while but it's been a good week or so since I've managed to find the time to write something up. Thankfully, I've found a bit of time just to keep things up to date so I thought I'd just write down a few random things runing through my mind on this strangely chilly monday morning (considering the past week or so has been hot, glorious sunshine, a bit of a letdown really!)

We're starting to slowly move from the season of snow, rain and coldness to the always welcoming spring blooms and showers. It's always nice moving on from the winter because as much as I love those few months, you do get tired of the cold weather, the rain, and the annoyances it can cause. I mean we had that mad 2 weeks or so where the snow was just completely insane and once more pretty much brought the UK to a standstill. I've always wondered to myself, do places like Finland and the rest of Scandanavia come to a standstill if the snow were to melt away there? It just always amuses me how much we have to panic about the snow when it comes and causes chaos!

But the lovely thing about Spring is that everything seems to wake up and get better into a new year from here on in. As a football fan, it's always exciting as the leagues come into the final few months and the tension builds between teams whether it be going for titles, relegation battles, or qualifying for other tournaments. Furthermore, it's even more exciting personally as a Formula One fan because Spring is the time where we finally get back into the spirit of things with the sport with the annual launch of the season in Melbourne, Australia. I'm massively excited for the new season as I am every year but there's so much unpredictability about this year's season because of the changes in regulations and everything else going on in the sport. If you were to say to me last year that Jenson Button is considered one of the favourites to win in Australia, as much as I love the guy, I would've laughed it right off!

Of course, whilst somethings are redeveloping into our world in nature, hobbies, and anything else in the Springtime, I'm starting to slowly make my way towards the end of my second University year. I'll be completely honest, it's been a very tough year and I'm slightly pessimistic about the final year based on the challenges I've had with certain areas in my uni life this past few months. Then again, what would university be if the assignments didn't drive you mad?! But I'm sure in the end it'll all be worth it, so far everything has been sent in and come back out with a pass (more towards the comfortable pass than just about a pass, thank goodness!). My targets though are to improve my work because I feel I can do better with what I have, it's just a matter of putting pen to paper and proving my thoughts right.

I am very much looking forward to the spring though from a personal point of view. a trip to London I'm extremely excited about, the return of Formula 1 after months of waiting, plenty of sport on the television to keep up with and a few birthdays to celebrate to; let's just hope that the spring blossoms a rich, eventful and pleasant few months for all of us!

#3; Normal service will now be resumed

2009-03-06T01:00:00.003Z

Brawn GP. Ahh such asweet words. After 3-4 months of back and forth rumours, of announcements being false and of deadlines being pushed aside, Honda Racing finally have a future under the guise of Brawn GP. As a Honda fan, the news comes as a startling relief and a fantastic chance to forget about the troubles and annoyances of the winter concerning the team and now the chance to look forward to a bright future. even better was the fact this news came with the confirmation that Rubens Barrichello will get at least another year in Formula 1 alongside Jenson Button, so the Honda team pretty much are all sticking together with a new name both in the car and outside of it. Although being told the news by a fellow Honda fanatic at 1am (thanks again Lou!) was the most awakening and unexpected announcement I was expecting to be honest. I mean, the team was surely going to survive, but actually getting the confirmation was the most fantastic feeling.

This seems like a good opportunity to express why I personally feel so devoted to this team. Why is it that a team that only stood on their own two feet for 3 years recently in F1, as well as their partnership with British American Racing for 6 years before that, mean so much to me? They only achieved 1 win in this time and several podiums, and they never blew the grid away with startling performances consistently and always found space to qualify towards the back of the grid more than at the front. They have a reputation for picking themselves up and walking out of the sport with their tails between their legs when things get rough in the sport for them. Yet I could easily tell you that Honda mean a lot more to me as a fan of a team than the rest of the grid right now.

I'm too young to know what they as an engine supplier in the 60's and 80's. Formula 1 started for me in 1995 when I started watching the odd grand prix before really getting into the sport in 1997. Under British American Racing, Honda didn't do miracles as an engine supplier there. BAR had Craig Pollock running the team which meant he gave a stupid amount of bias towards his overrated former world champion jacques Villeneuve. It may seem harsh to Jacques because in 1997 he did a great job for Williams and we had that epic showdown between him and Schumacher in Jerez. But apart from that year, I feel that Villeneuve did nothing to improve his reputation and skill as a driver, and his career went downhill before it had the chance to peak. But anyways, back to Honda. When dave Richards came into the team in 2002, things started to pick up. He managed to get Jenson Button after a disappointing year with both Villeneuve and Panis, and soon into 2002, Villeneuve was dropped from the team and replaced with the inexperienced Takuma Sato. 2004 though was when Honda, still under BAR, really started to catch my attention as a racing fan.

The year was a considerable success for Richards and the team. Several times throughout the year, Jenson managed to get podium finishes. The San Marino GP at Imola saw Jenson get his first ever pole position in Formula 1. Amazingly, the team finished 2nd in the constructor's championship this year behind the ever dominating Ferrari. The irony of this personally is that this saw me torn between these two top teams; I was never a big fan of Ferrari yet they were the team responsible for my favourite driver on the grid, Rubens Barrichello. At the same time, I had a great deal of admiration for BAR Honda here as they had made massive improvements, they seemed like a team willing to go all the way to succeed and they had a great driver in Jenson Button who was really starting to show just how much the team needed a driver like him and how replacing Panis with Button and eventually Villeneuve with Sato was making a huge difference in the team. 2004 was an amazing year; 7 podiums for the team (6 Button, 1 Sato), a pole position and 2nd in the championship. But no win. And sadly 2005 wasn't to be that year we'd see the team get that win. 2005 was very much not what BAR Honda were expecting... disqualifications for car weight issues, poor performances, and unreliabaility. By the end of 2005, things changed... Sato had gone and British American Tobacco had gone. Now it was just Honda, and now things were about to change.

2006 saw Jenson get a new teammate, and as stated previously in this entry, it turned out to be the man I most enjoy watching in F1 - Rubens Barrichello. Now they had a team with a solid engine, a solid setup and surely success in the near future. Honda were now a constructor, they weren't a supplier or anything, but they were the team. It started amazingly in 2006; in Melbourne Jenson pulled out all the stocks in managing to get pole position for the opening Grand Prix. It didn't result in that maiden victory but it was still a sign of what the car could achieve. It did take a while for the team to settle, admittedly especially for Rubens as he adjusted from life in that luxurious Ferrari to a 'new' team showing what they could do. Jenson managed to get points from the get go, and as the season progressed, both drivers started to pull in vital points. In the midseason of 2006, reliability began to frustrate the drivers and no doubt the fans such as myself; both drivers had retirements for several races and performance of the car was slowly falling. That was until August 6th, 2006 and the day that Jenson Button (in the most extraordinary of circumstances) pulled out both his and Honda's first win. You can almost laugh at the fashion in which it happened; Both Rubens and Jenson had managed to qualify in a fantastic 3rd and 4th position respectively, but this was until Jenson was forced to have an engine change demoting his starting position down to 14th. Despite this, the manic conditions on the day involving rain, safety cars and incidents coming and going pproduced a fantastic performance from Jenson as he rose from this position to challenge Fernando Alonso after a key choice not to pit during a safety car was out. Alonso soom decided to pit for dry tyres from the drying conditions and had a big enough lead to do this comfortably. As he came out of the pits and went around the first corner, his car was looking erratic. Soon enough, the World Champion simply stroll off the circuit due to the failure of his driveshaft and Jenson had the lead. From here in, it was a simple formality for Jenson and he had managed to bag his first win producing celebrations within the Honda paddock and around the UK for fans watching at home on a beautiful summer's afternoon. Despite Rubens' fantastic starting position of 4th, a 1-2 could've been the icing on the cake but it wasn't to be; Barrichello still achieved a respectable 4th position and more points for Honda that were always welcome. The sheer adjulation of Jenson's eyes as he got out of his car and faced the crew at Honda is a sight us Honda fans will never, ever forget.
The remainder of the season was a success as high point finishes came flooding in for the team; once again in the final race of the season Button started in 14th and this time didn't win but ended up on the podium in a magnificent 3rd place, as well as Rubens picking up points in the background. By the end of the season, 4th position in the constructors was a great start for Honda. Sadly, this would be their best year as from here on in, aerodynamic issues and more performance problems would constantly plague the team.

2007 and 2008 were not the best of years for Honda at all. An incredible risk was taken by not having any proper advertising on the car minus an evironmental awareness setup under the name Earth Dreams showing the team's environmental message despite the pollution and carbon footprint that many environmentalists complain about within the world of Formula 1. This new look and message didn't provide anything as nightmares rather tham dreams were the keyword to explain the team's performance in 07; only 3 points finishes and 6 points in total were the tally of the 2007 season and 2008 only produced 14 points for the team and yet ironcally a lower finish in the constructors championship. The one bit of glory within these two years saw a fantastic drive from Barrichello in completely manic wet conditions result in a 3rd position finish thanks to a strategy from the team that obviously paid dividends. Funnily enough this would've resulted in 2nd if a pti stop refuelling issue didn't slow down Ruben's final pitstop but the team happily took the 3rd place they achieved and mass euphoria greeted Barrichello as he left the cockpit and happily celebrated much in the same way with jenson two years earlier at the Hungaroring. In this season, Rubens broke the record for the most grand prixs driven by any driver in the sport, beating Ricardo patrese's record of 256 races.

So what is it about this story that makes Honda such a team to deserve this kind of recognition? As a fan of several components of the more recent team such as Barrichello, Button and Ross Brawn behind the scenes, the fact they hold so many pieces together in terms of the personalities that have made me love F1 is a huge factor. It was frustrating to see the team struggle so much after those few years of moderate success in 04, 05 and part of 06. The Honda name itself is a name synonomous with motorsport and seeing this team come from a mere supplier to the likes of a dying Jordan team and British American Racing to the likes of Button and Barrichello getting the best out of the car was something that always attracted me. It's a fantastic relief to see that everything has finally fallen into place for everyone here; Brackley have managed to keep most of it's workforce and continue on with a car it's been developing over a winter of disrespute in 2008 and 2009, Ross Brawn has managed to finally secure the deal to run the team and Button and Barrichello once more team up to do what they can for the team and it's fans. That is another factor for me in those two drivers; since Barrichello joined the various press shoots and events that the team have been involved in have seen both Rubens and Jenson seem to enjoy each other's company and share their knowledge of the car to do whatever they can to improve it. Whilst the final 2 years of Honda weren't anything to write home about, the dedication of these two drivers shows that success isn't everything to be happy about; both jenson and Rubens shows plenty of hard word to improve what they could in a difficult car. rubens himself is widely regarded as one of the nicest guys to grace his presence in the sport of F1 and Jenson still has plenty of years ahead of him to achieve the success I feel he fully deserves. Over this winter where both drivers had no idea whether they had a future anymore for various reasons, they stuck by the team that they'd served for years now. For Rubens it was potentially the idea that the young nephew of the late, great Ayrton Senna could take his place in the team and that the new Honda team would bring in youth over experience with Bruno, whilst for Jenson the lack of testing and no clear indication of a future for the team could easily have seen him moved to a team such as Toro Rosso and know he'd definitely have a future. Some may call it stupid to wait so long for a decision and news about your future but I truly respect the dedication they've served towards this team despite all the issues and problems of the previous 2 years.

So that's Honda from my point of view. Onto the future and the life of Brawn GP and hopefully success in the future. As I type this I've seen a picture on autosport of jenson back out there testing for the team and it fills me with such a sense of happiness to see this that I can't describe to you just how it feels. I'm personally not expecting Brawn GP to have huge success in 2009 due to the constraints of the winter and the long winded affair with this deal but I'll definitely be behind the team 100% once more, and I hope that others will soon join me in supporting Rubens, Jenson, Ross and the entire team at Brawn GP in a successful future.

#2; The future's bright, the future's multicoloured...

2009-03-03T14:48:00.003Z

Recently I've been thinking a lot about the future and what life will actually hold for myself once I've finished the remaining minimum of a year and a half left of Uni. It's my second year right now and in a few months I'll be thinking about dissertation options (oh joy!), and further into the future, where my life will lead. The course I'm undergoing is a Computing course, nothing fancy, no added bonuses to the name like Super Ultimate Media Computing Studies of The World. Nah. Computing. short and sweet, much like my temperament with the course at the moment. This is actually a double bladed sword for myself... is Computing too vague to provide a specific area of expertise for an employer, or is Computing so open it can provide myself with a lot more opportunities than a specific course?

I have a lot of hopes in the future about where I want my life to go. My favourite option is becoming a teacher and I've had a lot of stick and disrespect about this decision from people in the past (this WAS school so sticks and stones, etc) just becaise I'm a male wanting to teach. Has society really gotten so sad to look down on male teaching? Even before university and my final year of that dreaded environment known as sixth form and A2 levels, I studied research into the perception of male teachers whether it be high school or primary, and even a shocking amount of the study showed that parents themselves even tend to look down on male teachers in primary schools. Now I'm not making a generalisation, I'm not saying ALL parents are like this because they absolutely are not, but it saddens me to think that this sad perception still exists in the 21st Century.

So Teaching is something I definitely want to pursue. I'll be honest with those that don't know me well enough, I had an opportunity to take a teaching course in one of the oldest Universities in Wales and a specialist teaching campus too. I took it, I went there, then I came home with my tail between my legs. Am I proud of this? No, of course not. But going into such a demanding, important course at the age of 18 felt completely wrong to me. How can an 18 year old with no life experience study something so young and expect it to be fine? I went into that course too naive and too ignorant, but it's something I absolutely want to look at in the future but when I feel I'm ready to dive into such an important choice.

So what else is there in the future I can think about? I love writing and had a superb time with my English language courses over my A Level years (probably the only good thing to come out of my school life but that's not important right now!) and Journalism is something I absolutely would take a glance at. Again it's a big step and it would be more towards a specialist area of journalism, something like Formula 1 that I love to watch, analyse and whatnot. I don't think I necessarily have the skills right now to be confident I could do this well but that's the same with my teaching possibilities; it's definitely something to look at after uni.

Of course with Computing I'll get the obviously computer connotated careers. Do I really want to spend my life sitting in front of a plasma screen sorting out databases and treatening to throw my laptop out of the window from the sheer frustration of programming? No, I don't. But Computing can provide me with a massive experience boost in many areas I would have never studied and can provide me with smaller jobs to build up to where I want to be in the future. So the future is bright, I have a long way to go and I'm only 20, yet I'm already considering where my life is going! Maybe I shouldn't but this is just me, my mind works this way and it ain't changing anytime soon!

March has now come upon us all too, has anyone else noticed how quick february went and 2009 in general so far?! Not that I'm complaining, the joyous sport of F1 is soon to be back on our televisions in just over 3 weeks and I have a lot to look forward to this year; going to London in April, going to see Wales v Finland on the 28th, Muse's new album and their tour in the Autumn and the possibility of going to Goodwood in July. Plus I'm slowly making my way towards my driving license, despite being slow step by steps I'm getting there!

So the future is bright. The future may not necessarily be orange, but it looking rosy nevertheless.

#1; Hello and Welcome

2009-03-01T22:13:00.000Z

Good evening! You may have somehow accidentally stumbled on this new and maybe not so exciting new blog nevertheless, welcome to the Thoughts of a Trying Atheist. It seems best to introduce myself in whatever manner possible without seeming too much of an idiot. Basically, my name is Lukeh and I'm a 20 year old student living in the glorious valleys of Wales where sheep, rain and rugby rule the roost over our country's many privileges. I love my music and I don't think I could survive without the wonderful productions of Muse and many other rock bands I owe more than I could ever describe considering how much they keep me going everyday, along with some incredible friends that mean the world to me and a family I wouldn't swap for anything. Not even a Twix.

The title of this blog gets straight to the point and will save me a lot of explaining; the hopes are to give myself a chance to express my thoughts and opinions on whatever the hell is on my mind at the same time and to try and blog at least every day or two! Of course, whether anyone plans to read this is another question but I hope I can provide what little entertaiment is humanly possibly in the form of another possibly generic blog in this wonderful world we know as the internet.

So what are you, my loyal readers, to expect in the future from my typings, my musings, my extragavent little journeys into the unknown through the art of simply typing words? Well... I don't know! I honestly don't if I'm 100% honest with you guys (and I will say, everything I post on here will be honest, truthful and how I personally feel no matter if it may seem ruthless, critical or any other possible emotion at time but my intentions are never to offend, but simply express!) but whatever route I do decide to follow, I shall make it as entertaining as possible to keep you hooked.

So what's with the name? Yes, I thought, 'thoughts' is such a cliche for a blog. Seriously the amount of different things that was going through my mind when deciding what to name my corner of the interwebs is ridiculous.

"Lukeh's Blog!"? Oh please.
"Formula Muse!" Nice... it involves two things that I love to watch and listen to... but perhaps not relevant to the blog.
"Nick Fry's a Bastard.com!" See the above notation! Although I may keep this idea...
"A Welsh Walk Through Life" I really liked this, it does work but I'm only 20 with few very experiences in life enough to warrant this.

So... I stuck with Thoughts of a Trying Atheist. The museaholics amongst you should recognise this as a complete bloody ripoff of the track entitled Thoughts of a Dying Atheist off Muse's 3rd album (and my favourite) Absolution. It's no rip-off! I merely changed two letters! In all seriousness though, the name was chosen because it does sum up how I look at life and this blog's meaning. These are my thoughts, these are Lukeh, and with everything I do in life I try my hardest to make them succeed. Education, jobs, love, life, whatever the hell gets thrown at me, if it's a problem I will try to make it work. And I'm an atheist (but enough about that for now...) so it worked. And I'm happy with it.

But it's early days yet. Lots to say, plenty to discuss, allsorts to rant about. See you soon!
Lukeh.