Tuesday, 30 August 2011
Thursday, 25 August 2011
Hanna
I seem to be watching lots of genuinely good films recently. My latest instalment is Hanna, a film about a teenage German spy girl who is being hunted down by Cate Blanchett. It's filmed and edited brilliantly, done in such a way that keeps it interesting and fast paced. The acting is also really good. I think the plot on paper could be done terribly in the wrong hands so I have to give it to the director (Joe Wright) for turning this potentially awful script into something captivating. Trailer below.
Wednesday, 24 August 2011
Clearing out old memories
My parents are moving house this week :( so I went round yesterday to pick up a few bits and bobs. I discovered some interesting items on my travels, embarrassing photos of younger me, a mobile phone case with the word 'flirt' on it and more nostalgically, my old dolls house!
My parents hand built this for me for sixth Christmas. I was a bit shocked and the neglected state of it but I was even more shocked at the kind of dolls I used to play with! The grandma looks like an old man with a backwards dress and some long hair!!!? And that sorry looking baby. WTF?
I asked my mum why on earth she bought me these. Was it because we were mega poor or something? She said it was because they were the only dolls available at the time. Maaaaaannnnnn we were ghetto. I absolutely loved that dolls house at the time though, it had working lights and everything. I remember coming downstairs on xmas eve and asking my Dad what he was doing when he was gluing tiles to the roof haha!
 |
| LOL! |
This made me smile
A jellybaby someone had stuck to a wall :) The next picture DIDN'T make me smile though. My housemates Canon 7D. He was kayaking in France and had all his camera equipment and lenses in a 'waterproof bag' only it wasn't waterproof, it was splashproof. This is it after he took it apart to see the damage. Saltwater had got inside and oxidised, completely ruining all of his stuff.
Good films I've watched this past week:
Win, Win.
Rango.
Submarine.
Fast Five. (For pure action/cheese.)
Shit films I've watched this week:
Bodyheat.
97% on RottenTomatoes? What is THAT about!?
Rango.
Submarine.
Fast Five. (For pure action/cheese.)
Shit films I've watched this week:
Bodyheat.
97% on RottenTomatoes? What is THAT about!?
Sunday, 21 August 2011
Jamal Edwards, Google Chrome advert
This new advert from Google Chrome follows the success story of Jamal Edwards and how he became one of the UK's leading youth broadcasters by using the web to turn his hobby into something bigger. Enjoi.
Saturday, 20 August 2011
Saturday morning
Ahhh the comfort of blogging from my own bed, slightly hungover on a Saturday morning. God I'm sad! :) I do try and update this regularly though and seeing as my last blog posts were about the riots I figured I needed to write about something else.
Some friends of ours moved into their first new flat this week. Now they have the dreaded 'M' word (mortgage, shhhh) and they'll probably be popping out a few babies soon, my boyfriend and I made them a little house warming present to commerate their grownupness. Combining their last names (a la Brangelina) I typeset this cute sign and my boyfriend lasercut it out of steel and powder coated it a homely eggshell white. :P You can't see on the pic but we also added a chain to it so it hangs nicely from their wall. (I should add that if anyone would like a custom made steel sign for a cheap price then let me know!)
My friend Matt came to visit me one lunchtime this week. He's training to be an aircraft technician for the RAF so I don't get to see him very much. In fact, I don't get to see most of my friends very much because they all live in separate places too far away. This makes me sad. :( Anyway, it was great catching up with him, despite tales of his Magaluf holiday and when he left he gave me a present. It was my De La Soul cd he had borrowed yonks ago and was finally returning! But as an extra gift he had gotten me the same t-shirt :D thanks Matt!
Some friends of ours moved into their first new flat this week. Now they have the dreaded 'M' word (mortgage, shhhh) and they'll probably be popping out a few babies soon, my boyfriend and I made them a little house warming present to commerate their grownupness. Combining their last names (a la Brangelina) I typeset this cute sign and my boyfriend lasercut it out of steel and powder coated it a homely eggshell white. :P You can't see on the pic but we also added a chain to it so it hangs nicely from their wall. (I should add that if anyone would like a custom made steel sign for a cheap price then let me know!)
My friend Matt came to visit me one lunchtime this week. He's training to be an aircraft technician for the RAF so I don't get to see him very much. In fact, I don't get to see most of my friends very much because they all live in separate places too far away. This makes me sad. :( Anyway, it was great catching up with him, despite tales of his Magaluf holiday and when he left he gave me a present. It was my De La Soul cd he had borrowed yonks ago and was finally returning! But as an extra gift he had gotten me the same t-shirt :D thanks Matt!
Wednesday, 10 August 2011
Attention Brum folk
I'd stay inside tonight if this BBM is true. It most probably is.
http://birminghamriots2011.tumblr.com/
http://birminghamriots2011.tumblr.com/
Tuesday, 9 August 2011
Birmingham Riots 2011
Yesterday afternoon I was tipped off that riots might be happening at the Bullring later that evening and it'd be worth getting some photos. That was all the information I had but little did I know the full extent of the situation about to happen. I was an hour away from the scene but I rushed over, managed to persuade my French housemate whom I've never had a conversation for more than 30 seconds with to come with me. Even I knew it would be idiotic to go it alone. He even lent me his 7D as I had just borrowed mine to my brother. How naively trusting but extremely kind of him!
With nothing to go off except twitter rumours, we headed out by car to try and get as close to Primark as we could as we'd heard it had been set on fire. By now (9pm-ish) it had properly kicked off. Helicopters were flying above the city centre and most roads were fully blocked off by police so we had a mission parking anywhere. As we set off on foot and regretting not wearing a bigger coat to hide the massive Canon it seemed like we had missed the most of it. Cyber Candy was smashed in and a bit of Whetherspoons but no action shots for us. The road to Primark was completely blocked off...there was no blagging press passes at all for this one. Hundreds of obscured faced youths were still hanging around though and just as we considered going somewhere else, they starting smashing H&M store front. My heart was pounding quite a bit as I tried to figure out the camera settings but in the end I just left it playing on video. Someone clocked the camera though so we dispersed hence very shaky floor footage. A few lads had some rather intimidating dogs with them too. Standing and watching for a bit as the police arrive and the crowd breaks up, some guy with his face covered by a stupid wig starts confronting us and we panic a bit. We stay close to security, paranoid that he's told his friends and split up to watch where we go. We make a hasty decision to walk alongside a security guy who's escorting a crying lady and head back to the car.
A bit further out we see a cameraman and a news reporter setting up. I cheekily ask them for a press pass in exchange for our photos but he gets arsy with me and tells me what I'm doing is illegal. I saw these pictures later on of them. Looks like I had more wits about me than he did somehow. Turns out they're from ITV. (Not sure when these were taken, it looks like morning aftermath?)
Me and my housemate headed back to his car. On our way out we got mega lucky and saw huge crowds heading towards the mailbox about to go down. We quickly parked up and headed over there just in time to witness them smashing through the Armani store! Some guy shouted my housemate, started to chase us so we legged it up the escalators and through the mailbox. I don't think my heart has raced that much in my life! The guy gave up and we reached a family coming out of a locked up Nandos. We told them not to go the way we had came so the manager locked them back in. Some other passerby asked us about what was going on, I showed him a snippet of footage but said we needed to get out of here asap. We had to go a back way to the car. At this point my housemate gets a call from his friends saying she needed picking up because she was scared so we got her and left the rioters to continue undocumented. It's just gone 12pm the next day, I'm tired and I can still hear the occasional police siren. I dread to think about how much damage has been caused.
With nothing to go off except twitter rumours, we headed out by car to try and get as close to Primark as we could as we'd heard it had been set on fire. By now (9pm-ish) it had properly kicked off. Helicopters were flying above the city centre and most roads were fully blocked off by police so we had a mission parking anywhere. As we set off on foot and regretting not wearing a bigger coat to hide the massive Canon it seemed like we had missed the most of it. Cyber Candy was smashed in and a bit of Whetherspoons but no action shots for us. The road to Primark was completely blocked off...there was no blagging press passes at all for this one. Hundreds of obscured faced youths were still hanging around though and just as we considered going somewhere else, they starting smashing H&M store front. My heart was pounding quite a bit as I tried to figure out the camera settings but in the end I just left it playing on video. Someone clocked the camera though so we dispersed hence very shaky floor footage. A few lads had some rather intimidating dogs with them too. Standing and watching for a bit as the police arrive and the crowd breaks up, some guy with his face covered by a stupid wig starts confronting us and we panic a bit. We stay close to security, paranoid that he's told his friends and split up to watch where we go. We make a hasty decision to walk alongside a security guy who's escorting a crying lady and head back to the car.
A bit further out we see a cameraman and a news reporter setting up. I cheekily ask them for a press pass in exchange for our photos but he gets arsy with me and tells me what I'm doing is illegal. I saw these pictures later on of them. Looks like I had more wits about me than he did somehow. Turns out they're from ITV. (Not sure when these were taken, it looks like morning aftermath?)
Me and my housemate headed back to his car. On our way out we got mega lucky and saw huge crowds heading towards the mailbox about to go down. We quickly parked up and headed over there just in time to witness them smashing through the Armani store! Some guy shouted my housemate, started to chase us so we legged it up the escalators and through the mailbox. I don't think my heart has raced that much in my life! The guy gave up and we reached a family coming out of a locked up Nandos. We told them not to go the way we had came so the manager locked them back in. Some other passerby asked us about what was going on, I showed him a snippet of footage but said we needed to get out of here asap. We had to go a back way to the car. At this point my housemate gets a call from his friends saying she needed picking up because she was scared so we got her and left the rioters to continue undocumented. It's just gone 12pm the next day, I'm tired and I can still hear the occasional police siren. I dread to think about how much damage has been caused.
Monday, 8 August 2011
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