I'm Back

Sorry for the lack of posts over the last few months, however my life has been hectic. Firstly I was in the stage musical of 'Grease' during the last part of July and early August, playing the role of Sonny (the comedy role, surprise surprise). Grease was one of the greatest experiences of my life and I made friends that I am proud to call friends for life. After I had finished the show, my entire life became centred around the results that would define the rest of my life, A Levels. These were a daunting few weeks, however the results were in, they had been counted and verified and I got into Salford University, my first choice. So that is where I'm at at the moment, living it up in Salford. I have made some great friends and I'm enjoying the social life, I mean who wouldn't. I shall be posting more often now about University experiences, stuff that has happened and just random views and opinions I have.  

Top 5 (24/07/2013)

Week beginning: 24/07/2013 (UK Date)

5: Harry Potter Season Back

ITV have started their movie seasons again, with Star Wars kicking it off for the past month and a half, but now they are moving onto the most popular film franchise of all time. I am a huge fan Harry Potter and own all the DVD's and am excited that more people will get to see the wonder that is Harry Potter. It has got me into a Harry Potter movie so I have started watching them all on DVD, as has my sister, but I'll still watch them on the TV and endure the breaks. Catch them every Saturday afternoon.

4: Red 2

The sequel to Red is creatively titled Red 2 and features the return of Bruce Willis, Helen Mirren, Mary Louise-Parker, Brian Cox and a few others. The film is a comedy-action film, like its predecessor, and stars Bruce Willis as an agent, who is being hunted down alongside John Malkovich and Mary Louise-Parker. The person hunting them down is Helen Mirren. I won't ruin the film, however this is a great film and you should go and check it out.

3: Love/Hate

Love/Hate is a new crime drama set in Dublin, Ireland. The series is all about the criminal underworld in Dublin. The first episode was a introduction to the characters as well as giving a back story to where we join the story. Robert Sheehan, who starred in the original Misfits, plays the main character, whose brother gets killed in a drive-by early in the episode. The show is new to English viewers, however Irish people have already seen all 3 seasons, as it started in 2010 and season 3 finished on December 2012. Go and check it out on Wednesday's at 22:00 on Channel 5.

2: CSI:NY Final Season Reaches the UK

The ninth and final season of CSI:NY is finally here in the UK (wahhhaahahaaa). My favourite ever show on TV is finally ending, alongside CSI:Miami, which means if you want your CSI fix, you'll need to watch the Vegas version of watch old episodes. I haven't researched this because I don't want to know what happens and I know it has finished in the US so looking into it will probably reveal all, so this entry isn't very detailed. What I hope happens, is Danny takes Mac's position, as that's what he wants and Danny is my favourite character, Don finds love, Mac marries Christine, Sid does something crazy, Hawkes finds someone or gets a promotion and Adam, well lets hope something good happens to him.

1: It's a Boy

Yes the worldwide news that everyone was waiting on finally arrived, the royal baby was born and we now have a new Prince and a likely future King. The baby was born on Monday at 16:24 BST and was then named George Alexander Louis. This news reached all over the world and everyone suddenly became extremely patriotic. It is a wonderful thing because of the success of a Monarchy in a time of politics ruling, and the birth of a new royal, who is likely to rule the Monarch, is big news and great for our country.

Robert Frost

Robert Frost was an American poet. Most of you will probably have heard of him, despite having been dead 50 years. The reason; he was an influential character and his poems depicted the realistic manner of the world. He had works such as 'A Soldier' which is talking about the soldiers that fight for us and 'The Oven Bird' which is telling us, through a woodpecker's perspective, that life is too short. 

However my favourite thing that Robert Frost has ever written was “In three words I can sum up everything I've learned about life: It goes on.” The reason why this is amazing to me is because it really captures, in my mind, the main message of life. No matter what life throws at us and no matter how many time we are knocked down, it doesn't matter because life will carry on despite our troubles. This message for me is something that all people should live by, because if they do then they worry less about what went wrong and are more likely to focus on the positives, that life carries on.

Robert Frost, Poet and Legend

1874-1963

My Backup

So this evening I was thinking about what my backup job will be if I do not become a professional actor or something connected to that profession and I have found this to be rather hard because since I committed to a life in the arts it seems that I'm not qualified for anything else. So here are the options that I have considered.

Marine: I have always liked the prospect of the army and when I see the adverts for the Royal Marine Commandos, it just seems like such an amazing job. To do this job, I would have to improve my fitness, but I have taken a few practice tests for intelligence and I passed them with ease, so the physical side is the obstacle. To overcome this I am going to improve my fitness at university because this will benefit me in any job and in my everyday life.

Police: This is for the same reason of the marines, it seems like such a good job because you help people on a day to day basis and are recognised for your work. I should theoretically be able to get into the police force because I am intelligent, well appeared, and looking at the physical tests they seem to be in my capability.

Teacher: They say that those that can't do should teach, so this is why I have considered this job. I have always been good with younger people and have a decent rapport with them. Also I have always enjoyed helping people and passing on what I know to them. Yes most student despise their teachers, but I would have a different approach to teaching that would make students happy to come to my lessons.

Running my own business: This covers a lot of things, but it is something that has always fascinated me, being at the top of what you are doing, being in charge and doing something that you can call yours. I have had a few ideas for business, of which for obvious reasons, I will not divulge into, so if I were to pursue this I would not be going in blind.

Now some of you may be thinking that by having a backup, I am contemplating failure and this is negative thinking, however it is just a precaution. I will do everything in my power to become and actor, however there is only so long you can keep trying for before the ramifications of trying kick in. I'd rather not live with my parents in my mid twenties working in a crappy shop and going to several auditions a week without success, so that is why I have an exit plan.

Miley Cyrus

Ok so this topic has been one of the most talked about things all week and it is all about the child star who has grown up, Miley Cyrus. There are the two sides to the discussion, those who feel she has gone off the rails and is out of control and then there is the other side who just feel that she is growing up and it is up to her what she does.

So here is my take on the talking point of Miss Cyrus. She first rose to fame when she appeared on the Disney Channel as the sweet and adorable Miley Stewart, the daughter of country star Billy Ray Cyrus, who had a double life as the fictional superstar Hannah Montana. The show showed her life growing up and the viewers felt that they were watching her real life. Then Miley decided to try and part ways with the whole Hannah Montana and release music as herself. Then we slowly saw her start to leave the whole 'child star' image behind when she released 'Can't Be Tamed' where she was rather fierce and adult, to put it mildly. Now she has been doing her own thing with an attempt at having a serious movie career and then of course her controversial music career.

So that is the Cyrus story so far and I personally feel that she has made the right decision to break away from Disney, because if it was me I would feel that I had outgrown the channel. She obviously felt the same way and has tried to separate, however I feel that she went about it the wrong way about it. Her fans have grown up with her and they are now young adults as well, however she still has quite young fans and singing about sex and drugs and then having very provocative music videos will just enrage parents of those younger fans who look up to her and the older ones will always compare her to the child star they saw when they were growing up. I think her change in attitude was too sudden and it gave nobody time to adapt to the new Miley. It feels as though she woke up and decided to take every controversial artist out there and then combine them. I do admire her for taking the risk and trying to change because she stood up for her own life, however she rushed it and wasn't smart about it. I mean, look at Zac Efron, he starred in what is the biggest Disney Channel film franchise, but he managed to have a smooth transition away from child acting.

I will conclude that it's her life and it's up to her what she does with it, but that she also has to think about her fans and those young people who are very impressionable upon and she needs to think what is the right message to send to them. I personally love her for what she has done, but I'm 18 and old enough to make my own mind up, but those younger fans need a better role model.

Now                                                                                                            Then

 

GTAV

Gamers all over the place will all be talking about the upcoming game in the Grand Theft Auto series, GTA V. The game has been highly anticipated and is set to break every record going, highest pre-order sales, highest sales, most revenue, biggest game and many more. The game has covered things that no other games has dared to try and for that reason and that reason alone, this game is my favourite of the year.

We hadn't seen much of GTA V until quite recently with the gameplay and many interviews, which left a lot of the game up to our imagination, however they have released two trailers of which both gave analysts everywhere something to discuss. People were pausing the videos and scouring every detail trying to gain an insight as to what this game will include. The things we already knew were that; the game would return to Los Santos and would be set in the modern day, but the rest was left up in the air. There was many speculation over who was to be the protagonist, because there was a man in the first trailer, who was middle aged and people didn't like the idea of him being our only option. Then Rockstar announced the biggest selling point for the game, multiple characters. The revealed that we could play as any of three main characters on the same progressive storyline. Those characters were Michael (The man from the trailer), Franklin (A gang banger, who works for a repossession company) and Trevor (A nutcase). They then released three trailers, one for each of the characters.

Then after this we all got what we wanted, GAMEPLAY FOOTAGE, so we could finally see what the game itself looked like, not some trailer. The gameplay certainly didn't let anybody down and confirmed in everyone's mind why this is the game to purchase. The gameplay, swhowed us vehicles, gunplay, the changing between characters, how we could spend our money on tattoos, shares, customization. It also showedd us the new feature where you can plan out the missions, going in cleverly or just barging in, new past-times such as tennis, golf, biking, hunting etc. And not to mention the jaw dropping graphics that we saw.

Top 5 17/07/2013

Week beginning: 17/07/2013 (UK Date)

5: One Direction 'Best Song Ever' Trailer
One Direction fans across the globe will be screaming with excitement at the new trailer for the upcoming single, modestly titled 'Best Song Ever'. The trailer features Niall Horan is dressed up as a sort of tribute to Sir Alan Sugar, named Harvey. The other band members getting prosthetics put on to transform them into other characters. So this video will do well even if it isn't good because of the huge following that the former X Factor contestants currently have.

4: UK Heating Up
The UK is currently in the middle of a heatwave and the reaction has been pretty normal for British people, complaining no matter what the situation is. A couple of months ago we were complaining that it was too cold and now it is too hot, so who knows what whether is acceptable here. The country is currently at Level 3 warning and are really close to Level 4 warnings which is basically where people are told what to do in the current weather conditions. Temperatures have surpassed 30C and are looking to improve. (And yes I did include this story for a picture of girls in bikinis)

3: Alex G 'I Want Crazy'
It's the return of my favourite artist currently out there and she has no covered Hunter Hayes new song 'I Want Crazy' and she clearly does it justice. Equipped with just her guitar and a city at her disposal she gave us a great video with complimenting vocals. I have always been a member of #TeamAlexG and always will be, so any time she does something it is nearly guaranteed to make these charts. If you haven't heard of her then you need to go and check her out on YouTube or at her two shows in LA and NY later this month, details will be on her channel.

2: VMA Nominations Revealed
The VMA's are coming soon to pay tribute to the amazing music videos that we have seen over the past year, and of course the winners will go home with the coveted 'Moonman'. The show has been going since 1984 and is one of the big award ceremonies around and this year the nominees do the show justice. The big award nominees for 'Video of the Year' are Taylor Swift, Justin Timberlake, Macklemore & Ryan Lewis, Bruno Mars and Robin Thicke. Fans can vote for general VMA categories and to find out all the details visit MTV.co.uk 

1: Cory Monteith RIP
The saddening news came about on Saturday when Vancouver police found Cory Monteith's body in his hotel room. Suspicions arose when he was late to check out, so authorities were called. Cory, the star of Glee, had been struggling with drugs for most of his life, first going to rehab when he was 19 and again earlier this year. Cory has touched many people's life through his character Finn Hudson on Glee and through being a great guy off set. It has been confirmed that he died due to a alcohol and heroin overdose. His co-stars have all been grieving, mostly his girlfriend Lea Michele, who understandably has asked for privacy during these hard times. All I have to say is rest in peace Cory Monteith, you were a true icon and legend.