Sunday 28 April 2013

C2C TETR4.

So i was recommended by a friend to listen to this electronic group that released some new stuff last month and i am now obsessed. They are a group of four french guys called 'C2C' who just toured the US finishing at Coachella on the 19th of April and are on there way to the UK. There album Tetra was released at the beginning of September last year and their deluxe album at the end of January of this year. There are 16 tracks, some that stand out above all others and others are just really solid mixes; my favourites being Down The Road and Happy. I highly recommend turning this up really loud when listening.


I have bought my ticket for the 20th of June where they play the HMV Forum in Camden as a little treat for myself after i finish my exams on the 14th. Something to look forward to!
However, every music video i watch post Macklemore and Ryan Lewis nothing quite has matched the aesthetic of their videos; saying that their music video for both Happy and Down The Road are very funny. Although if i do recommend to watch something from them, i would encourage you to look at the teaser video they released before the US tour. 


This video, the techniques and shots and style, inspire me to get back in the making videos so something might appear on here in a few months or so, depending on what i feel. As performers they look so excited at what they are doing, and the crowd look as though they are having a blast. Very excited for June as the venue is only 2000 people. Probably, would not take my camera to this and seeing as though my camera phone is in the shitter, might use a friends iPhone camera for the night, so look out for more of C2C!

Friday 26 April 2013

No one thing can define me.

Found this guy through my Facebook feed i think (which lately, just seems to be videos - is my Facebook trying to be Youtube). He is an English artist of the spoken word, which basically means he is a rapper with less backing music. Suli Breaks (sulibreezy - Youtube). And his videos are awesome. Most recently his videos have been on the modern perception of education and work, which is a subject i could really relate to. The lyrics are so well written and meaningful, it encourages you to be more open minded and widen your perspective of what you need in life and what we are told we want and do. His break through video i would regard as his viral video is - Why i hate school but love education, with nearly three million views at present. However my favourite video is - I will not let an exam result decide my fate, as at the moment thats how i am feeling with my university application. 

Why I Hate School But Love Education 
















I Will Not Let An Exam Result Decide My Fate

















On a lighter note, i started posting on my new blog yesterday which shows where and what i eat (when it is interesting enough) called What I Ate TODAYish. So in the future i will post on here about what i have done in the day or what i want to share and then put a link which will have my food, so this feed does not get cluttered with dinner plates. 
See you later!!

Wednesday 24 April 2013

Past of the future creators.

So i have been away for just over a week now, and we are on an even date, so i thought i would make a post. My little unplanned break from my blog was due to the overwhelming amount of art coursework recently. Are deadline for all coursework over the past year in next Friday, so everyone including me, are beginning to loose out sanity as a result of the stress. Some self induced, most unavoidable stress. I had my fifteen hour exam piece on Monday and Tuesday which was dire but really productive, and hopefully when i exhibit my work for the moderator i may share my art from the past year on here. However, once this is over next week, it will give me a lot more time to focus on my remaining subjects as well as getting back into this.
Now, the reason i wanted to post so desperately instead of art coursework was to do a little round up of the draw my life videos that consumed Youtube since the beginning of January, the first being posted by Sam Pepper (i think) on the 8th January. Since then i have trawled through many of the videos as i thought it was a great way for the creators to connect with the viewers in a way that is not the normal, and the fact i am generally in terseted in other peoples past - not in a gossip like way rather that i just find it allows me more understanding of the person. I have not seen as many of them as i would like to, but i think i am getting there (almost). And what stuck me most prominently was the divorce rate of the parents of the creators. I allowed this to mull over in my mind and it gave me a confidence that how i feel, and how fifty percent of the children in families feel, right now is going to turn around. Even when you do not feel like the place you are in is escapable, i see all these people and think otherwise.
There was a saying that got thrown around a lot when i was younger, that is - if everybody put all there problems in a pile to swap for somebody else's problems, the likelihood is they would grab their own problems back. From this i feel like these recent videos have reinforced this for me, i the kindest way possible even though i feel like i am in the worst possible life scenario, i do not think i would want to swap with anyone else, as i know that right now i can handle what is going on around me.
So to finish this note a little lighter, i want to share my top five favourites that inspire me and give me hope and happiness.
1. Louis Cole - FunForLouis. An exception to the trend of separated parents, leads such a free and nomadic life and some of his vlogs are amazing.


2. Philip De Franco - SxePhil. His videos are the equivalent to the entertainment section in the morning paper.




3. Louise - Sprinkle Of Glitter. I think she is adorable and keeps a blog which is so good and constant (unlike my own).




4. Kate - Piddleass. I love her vlogs as she is not afraid to show the energetic, crazy side of her self , inside of us all.


5. Sam Pepper. Pranks and vlogs never fail to amuse. And he is really English.




So, this was quite a internet based blog as right now nothing in my life is at all interesting to any level of significance, which is disappointing. However, this summer i am not going abroad to get a full time job and might just get a part time job closer to home, which means i will have more time to read, adventure, work on my blogs and develop my art. I also need to sell a tonne of my clothes before i go to university.

Sunday 14 April 2013

Big Ass Guitar.

Song sharing time!
I found this video last weekend thought i deserved a share.


This is their remix to their own song, which on its own is awesome but i love the cover even more. They have a bunch of other cover of songs which are good, but this is number one for me. And this is the first time they play on the giant guitar, previously they were all trying to play on an average size guitar, i think.
Everything at the moment is so busy due to exams coming up, and i am off my Easter holiday tomorrow and back to school - so obviously last minute panic as i finally realise i have done no homework over the three week break. New, better post on the 16th.
HAVE A GOOD DAY!

Friday 12 April 2013

British Summer Time.

The weather is finally beginning to warm up in England, which is such relief as i feel i have not seen the sunshine in months. So, as per Briton, last week we got out the barbecue and had the first summer lunch of the year - ambitious. It was a good day, not really that hot, but warm enough. I think it is a British thing, as soon as enough people start to see the sun and it reaches 18 degrees Celsius, its basically considered summer in Britain. This also shows how much work i have been doing lately, revision for A2 exams next month (shitting bricks), as the only interesting thing in my life to blog about is a lunch i made last week. Wohoo!


Steaks

Rosemary and oil for potatoes


Ready to go on the BBQ



Doctor Who stamps
The main reason why my first barbecue of the year is so fascinating is the fact that the following day, there were blizzards and snow. So that was a quick English summer, i hope you can join us all again next year!
AND exciting news! I got the 50th Anniversary Doctor Who Memorial Stamps! Such internal excitement, i was shameless when purchasing them in the post office, FEELS. Also there were three more stamps of villains from doctor who - a dalek, a weeping statue and another i can not remember at this moment. 




Wednesday 10 April 2013

Stone Circles.

So as promised, for i do not know how many weeks now, i finally went to Stonehenge and Avebury Henge. I think it may have been the grimmest day of my Easter holiday, which was disappointing as i thought it might reduce the impact of the images for my art exam. However, i feel like the white sky really contributed to the sharp, grey of the rocks and would allow the viewer to focus more on the tone, shape and texture of the rock rather than the environment that the rocks were in. God this sounds like my art evaluation already. Chill.
After an early start to get out of the house early to allow for the journey to Wiltshire, my brother and sister were still in bed at 9.00am, so we did not end up leaving the house until 11.00am, which put a bit of a delay on my schedule but nevertheless we got out the house in the end. After following the directions on the Maps app for iPhone religiously we made it to Avebury Henge, which boasts that it is the largest stone circle in Europe, the weather cheered up - mildly i must emphasise. It comprises of three circles, one big circle with two circles in the larger one, and a ditch around the larger circle which used to be a moat - i think. I packed and distributed a lunch for everyone, including the dog, and we went off adventuring.


Original layout of Avebury, published in a late 19th century edition of the Swedish encyclopaedia. Original illustration by John Martin, based on an illustration by John Britton (copied from Wikipedia, such a go to)
Because you obviously need a sign to the biggest stone circle in Europe. Just incase you miss it!
Following the signs to where? 
The outer circle and moat
Very polite sign...

…Which my dog soon disobeyed

Just been doing some graphite drawings, mind my grubby hands

I do not quite understand the use of the adjective 'scheduled' ancient monument

My dog bounding along in the most disobedient manner
Rocks from the inner circle 
I think my hair gave up at this point
However throughout the duration of this excursion i had to keep focused as this, primarily, was a trip for observation and photography for my art examination in two weeks (or three). So here is a small batch of photos i may use - out of six hundred and fifty photos i did take. They all look quite boring, but my main aim is to take a textured layered subject piece and transform it into a two dimensional pattern.





The main reason i wanted to go to Avebury was because, unlike Stonehenge, you may touch the rocks and get great photos. Whereas at Stonehenge you can only walk round the circle at a distance and for a fee. Therefore we stood out side the area so i could just get a few shots of the place as it was imperative to tie my entire project together. You can especially see in these photos how dull the weather was, although it had taken a turn for the worse at this point in the day. 




I realise now that this is a post which has been over filled with photographs, but i took so many photographs i therefore feel the need to share an excessive amount.
And now i am not really sure how to finish up this post, most commonly i fill this bit in with a ramble about my blog problems. Not today Interneters.



Monday 8 April 2013

Trance. 67.

I follow Example on twitter - because he is an overall solid, British guy with some good songs and some incredible mixes. He does little film reviews now and again and rates them out of 100 'popcorns' (his own scoring system, obviously) on how much he liked them and whether he would recommend them. I thought i would adopt this idea because i watch quite a few films on a weekly basis and am always badgering my friends about how amazing some unknown actor is and how this film is so supreme to anything i have seen of late. 
A lot of the less known, indie films i watch are usually due to suggestion from an idol of mine Mark Kermode. He has a blog on the BBC website called Kermode Uncut and has insets on the Culture Show on BBC2. However Trance, a film with James McAvoy, Vincent Cassel and Rosario Dawson and directed by Danny Boyle (the boy who can do no wrong), was the most twisted, mind fuck sort of film i have seen in a while. 

It had surrealistic gore and blood similar to Drive (with Ryan Gosling) alongside a solid theme of travelling and pushing the boundaries when exploring and exploiting the human mind, not to dissimilar from Inception (with Leonardo Di Caprio) - however Inception was easier to keep up with. Even after consoling the entire plot and twists i still could not fully understand whose side i was on and which parts were a dream or hallucination and which parts were a real part of the story.  As well as this it had a strong theme of crime as well as some art and culture thrown in there too. Then on top of that, there were some blunt nudity shots that were captured in a basic, unartistic manner but were still so surrealistic as well as aesthetic at the same time. Although i must applaud Rosario Dawson for the sheer bravery of doing the shot.
What i thought was most brilliant was how the way in which the story was told you were never sure at the end which was the good guy and who was the evil villain and who was on who's side and which side i wanted to be on. It showed that each of the three main characters (shown above) were all wronged by one another, each had a bad side to them but all had an additional vulnerable side - a weakness.
I understand that my summery of this film was as confusing as the film itself, i lack the talent of Summly
I think generally the reviews for this film have been disappointment since Danny Boyle's wonder moment in the Summer of 2012 during the London Olympics. 
On the other hand, i enjoyed it immensely on the big screen, however it would not be something i would watch repeatedly as it is exhausting to watch and quite heavy going.
So in the spirit of Example's Popcorn rating i am giving this film 67 popcorns


Saturday 6 April 2013

To the max and enjoy.

OKAY!
So a song i am crazy for at the moment is Lightspeed by Datsik & Kill The Noise another awesome track from UKF Music. Its a really good instrumental mix which has been the only thing getting me through my revision at the moment. I feel if i find a really long instrumental, it is great alongside my revision - my own version of classical music (which apparently is meant to make you work more productively because there are no words). It has such a great backing beat, but to truly appreciate it you have to turn it up really loud - mind blowing music.
Tip: the best bit begins at 1.30 (ish) minutes into the song


I feel like i have reached a really good place with where this blog is going, what purposes i am using it for; i felt like i was going into this whole slice of the internet blind (which i was), but i feel like i know what i want to say and what i want to do now. And this makes me feel a lot more comfortable with what i am writing and the frequency with which i want to share things on here. 

Thursday 4 April 2013

He is there inside your mind.

Last week was one of my friends eighteenth birthday, so for that we went to Her Majesty's Theatre in Piccadilly Circus to see Phantom of the Opera (due to the fact she was the first out of out little group to turn eighteen we could not go out as no one had over age identification to go to a club and drink themselves sick, like a usual British eighteenth celebration).This was the first time i had been to a popular theatre production, which i cannot compare to small indie productions i have previously been to. We grabbed lunch at an Eat bar and consumed it in the Upper Circle bar lounge, which was decorated impeccably. We were however seated in the Grand Circle which was a the first balcony above the stalls, which gave us a good view of the chandelier scene, however the seats were stacked at such a steep gradient you felt as if you were constantly being tipped forwards off the balcony edge. It was a long production but it felt like it was all over in an hour. I cannot recommend this enough and i enjoyed the experience thoroughly, and i would much like to go see more popular productions. 
My ticket

A friends cool print trousers 

Yummy crisps from Eat

Ceiling in the Upper Circle bar lounge 

First shelf seating
After this we went to a Mediterranean restaurant in Goodge Street called Terra. It was a tiny little restaurant seating 30 place settings on ground level and an unknown amount down stairs. I ordered a Greek salad, mainly because i wanted the feta cheese, which was so good and i finished in six or seven minutes and a side of skinny chips. Then for dessert, as it was my friend's birthday, the waiters brought us a profiterole tower each, which was so filling but the most incredible dessert. 
As it was a friends birthday, there are fewer pictures than usual as it was quite a private affair, but such a good day. 

Greek salad

Interiors

Towers!

My tower

My empty plate

Tuesday 2 April 2013

Victoria & Albert Drama.

So i was meant to go to Stonehenge last Wednesday but completely fuddled up my weeks timetable, therefore this has been postponed until next Friday i think, which will consequently put a little pressure on me to produce my art work from my findings before i go back to school but it will have to do. Instead, i went to the Victoria and Albert Museum in South Kensington and did some figurative and structural drawings. Due to the improvised manner of my excursion i forgot my sketch pad which meant i filled three museum maps with various sketches and observations.
SW7


Main Hall, from the dreaded balcony


Statue hall
The people on the bench sat there for fifteen minutes or so, which allowed me to create a really detailed observation
I took a few photographs around the place but mainly just drawings. Just before i left to get back home i had a little episode, in which, while drawing with great enthusiasm on a balcony in the main statue gallery i dropped my sketchbook onto a ledge two meters below. This caused great distress within as i could not reach it and had no one with me to calm me down and interject a rational action to take. Fifteen minutes later after a mini break down by myself on the balcony staring at my final sketchbook i called a friend who told me to go get maintenance to see if there was any chance they could get it back for me. I went to go talk to the man at the information desk, when telling him about the location of my lost book, he went on to laugh at me stating this was a rare occurrence. After he had had his giggle he called maintenance which consisted of one little asian man who i had disrupted a meeting with some contractors on the roof of the building. After he rescued my book i was well shaken and was in a fragile state the entire journey home, i am so helpless by myself. Therefore i took a few photographs of my sketches just to back them up incase i ever misplace them again, and though i might just share a few with you.

Main Hall arch sketch

Detail from Main Hall arch sketch

V&A balcony, a little more abstract