#29; Crime Alert – Pigeon Special

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

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.

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

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…

#23; The Goodwood Experience

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

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!

#20; Wibbly Wobbly Bloggy Woggy… Stuff…

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?!

#18; A Simple World Within 140 Characters

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!

#16; We are not amused

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.

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

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!

#10; The Sound of Music

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...

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

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

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 season', 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?

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

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

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!