I seem to jump to this crack in the internet every summer. Maybe it's the heatstroke or maybe it's the genuine dislike of the sun, but here I am yet again except this time I AM A GRADUATE.
I've taken the plunge. The inevitable decapitation from the academic world and I have to say I am left wanting. These past three years have been eye-opening yes, but academically? Maybe not. Maybe I was too young and definitely too naive to even think about how to be a University student. I started university at 17, already an Irish stereotype (I can out drink you! I'm Irish! I'm a knobhead!), and so so unprepared of the complete and high probability of losing yourself. Now hold that tongue of yours. I didn't go crazy and I didn't pick up the glamourous lifestyle of a drug addict, I just didn't drink responsibly and with that and the combination of me, word vomit was the oppressor every time I got drunk.
Now three years on I don't drink to get drunk. The entertainment in it faded a long time ago, I think even before I started university I had an aversion to drinking but there I was in my mid teens in Ireland surrounded by people that were not good for me at all so of course I brought this mentality with me. I do have the good whiskey here and then and I still cling onto the Irish stereotype of drinking a good pint of Guinness (emphasis on the good, none of that watery stuff) but I don't go out of my way to blur my vision and get inebriated.
I remember halfway through my third year of university I really had a think about whether or not I made a mistake heading straight into third level education. Should I have waited a year? Taken a pretentious gap year? But then I thought of the people I would not have met, friended, climbed walls with and wrapped them up in caution tape. And the fear of that alternative universe shook me to reality.
Using the stalkerish mechanics of Facebook I figured that I've met and really liked and carried on communicating with hundreds of people over the past three years. I've been given job opportunities through those people, I've been to amazing places, worked in amazing places, and seen a London that the alternative me probably would not even touch. So yes, I am thankful for the decisions that naive 17 year old me made. Thankful for my parents for helping me along the way and thankful that they taught me the value of money and budgeting (oh gawd, so much budgeting). Thankful that the university allocated my student halls room to a person who would become my flatmate and genuine great friend. Thankful for the tutors for actually guiding me so I could steer myself away from turning into a heap of stress.
I'm just so thankful for everything, and because I'm not an affectionate person I'll post all my thoughts on a semi-anonymous internet platform.
I'm moving back to Dublin in August and will hopefully (spleen and kidneys crossed) start an internship at the National Gallery. My goals have not been cemented yet. Maybe they never will be. And I am thankfully terrified of that, as a normal humanoid should be.
Hopefully I'll be back on this blog/not blog a lot more frequently.
I like this blogging thing.
Wednesday 17 July 2013
Tuesday 28 August 2012
Well this is awkward.... Episode 1
Right... neglect is a sign of power. That one person can have the control to deprive something of attention. Like this anorexic blog. While this blog has been weaving in and out of my subconsciousness in all truth laziness is my poisonous habit.
Regarding to my list of films to see this year I did get to watch Prometheus, albeit in a non-fashionable way and also I watched it in bits over 30 times. So here it goes, the very unpleasant explanation.
At the end of May I was captured by a scary monster called Secret Cinema. I delved into the bowels of asbestos ridden hell (abandoned warehouse near Euston Station) and battled the monster that is known as pre-production. My GAWD. The amount of work and sweat and other liquids that goes into any sort of event like this is mind-blowing.
Shaken but not stirred a minefield of work was thrust upon me. Suddenly I was in charge of this production's build-up events to a following of over 130,000 people. Brain-sweating, yes I did a lot of that.
It was the last few days of May. I had to organise four missions. Four conditioning missions for future 'employees'. And here is episode 1 of 4.
Mission 1: Physical Conditioning.
You have to know. These little build-up events I pushed and squeezed them together in a matter of days. Secret Cinema stylee was always, ALWAYS last minute, as my co-workers always without fail would remind me. Suddenly my world was ram-packed with t-shirt printing orders (I ordered 1000 t-shirts), money, location scouting, money, props, lighting, etc. etc.
When the facebook event was launched the numbers began small. Familiar faces of co-workers and friends popped up in the attending bar. And then napalm was set alight. Hundreds and hundreds clicked attending and on the morning of the event 900 unfamiliar faces smiled at me from the screen, which meant that a third of them will actually drag themselves up and towards the meeting point (PR tip for you there). All I kept thinking was FUCK! Fuckety fuck.
It was like I was standing in on the precipice. The calm before the storm.
The first thing on the agenda. I had to get 1000 t-shirts (minus a few that the office stole) from the base site to Southbank. The transport system that we had hired dropped off the face of the earth at the last minute. And let me tell you, t-shirts are frickin' heavy.
Secondly. I had to get the running marshals all set up and ready. A few (a lot) cancelled last minute. Health and Safety.
Thirdly. There were around 400 people set to arrive and only one of me and 6+ volunteers to help (thank fuck for them) to cater to them.
7:30PM
So many questions. Giggling girls and awkward office bunnies still in their suits and ties asking if I had any exercise gear for them. There was a flurry of shoving the right t-shirt sizes to the right people. Tops whipped off and tops whipped back on. And when they left to go on the run I was left in a whirlwind of plastic wrappers (sorry Southbank), a disgruntled van driver, everyone's possessions in the van and more cardboard boxes.
They lined up in a row. And went through a series of warm-up exercises which from my view at the back looked like a lot of hip-gyrating and arm flapping. My colleagues asked if I was participating on the run. I scoffed, blinked and when I realised that they were genuinely asking if I was I walked away. It was a cacophony of megaphones and more giggling.
There were shouts of 'Brave New Ventures' and 'BNV' which I will always cringe whenever I hear its likeness to BMP. Oh dear.
Finally the last printed t-shirt wearing follower blasted away from my view, I slumped in the van and just mumbled and blinked. Fortunately the finishing line of the physical conditioning was a pub.
Regarding to my list of films to see this year I did get to watch Prometheus, albeit in a non-fashionable way and also I watched it in bits over 30 times. So here it goes, the very unpleasant explanation.
At the end of May I was captured by a scary monster called Secret Cinema. I delved into the bowels of asbestos ridden hell (abandoned warehouse near Euston Station) and battled the monster that is known as pre-production. My GAWD. The amount of work and sweat and other liquids that goes into any sort of event like this is mind-blowing.
Shaken but not stirred a minefield of work was thrust upon me. Suddenly I was in charge of this production's build-up events to a following of over 130,000 people. Brain-sweating, yes I did a lot of that.
It was the last few days of May. I had to organise four missions. Four conditioning missions for future 'employees'. And here is episode 1 of 4.
Mission 1: Physical Conditioning.
You have to know. These little build-up events I pushed and squeezed them together in a matter of days. Secret Cinema stylee was always, ALWAYS last minute, as my co-workers always without fail would remind me. Suddenly my world was ram-packed with t-shirt printing orders (I ordered 1000 t-shirts), money, location scouting, money, props, lighting, etc. etc.
When the facebook event was launched the numbers began small. Familiar faces of co-workers and friends popped up in the attending bar. And then napalm was set alight. Hundreds and hundreds clicked attending and on the morning of the event 900 unfamiliar faces smiled at me from the screen, which meant that a third of them will actually drag themselves up and towards the meeting point (PR tip for you there). All I kept thinking was FUCK! Fuckety fuck.
It was like I was standing in on the precipice. The calm before the storm.
The first thing on the agenda. I had to get 1000 t-shirts (minus a few that the office stole) from the base site to Southbank. The transport system that we had hired dropped off the face of the earth at the last minute. And let me tell you, t-shirts are frickin' heavy.
Secondly. I had to get the running marshals all set up and ready. A few (a lot) cancelled last minute. Health and Safety.
Thirdly. There were around 400 people set to arrive and only one of me and 6+ volunteers to help (thank fuck for them) to cater to them.
7:30PM
So many questions. Giggling girls and awkward office bunnies still in their suits and ties asking if I had any exercise gear for them. There was a flurry of shoving the right t-shirt sizes to the right people. Tops whipped off and tops whipped back on. And when they left to go on the run I was left in a whirlwind of plastic wrappers (sorry Southbank), a disgruntled van driver, everyone's possessions in the van and more cardboard boxes.
They lined up in a row. And went through a series of warm-up exercises which from my view at the back looked like a lot of hip-gyrating and arm flapping. My colleagues asked if I was participating on the run. I scoffed, blinked and when I realised that they were genuinely asking if I was I walked away. It was a cacophony of megaphones and more giggling.
There were shouts of 'Brave New Ventures' and 'BNV' which I will always cringe whenever I hear its likeness to BMP. Oh dear.
Finally the last printed t-shirt wearing follower blasted away from my view, I slumped in the van and just mumbled and blinked. Fortunately the finishing line of the physical conditioning was a pub.
Tuesday 8 May 2012
Saturday 5 May 2012
Still alive
2012 Run down of some of the films I want to watch:
Shame
Coriolanus
War Horse
Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy
The Hobbit
The Avengers
Carnage
Life of Pi
The Dark Knight Rises
The Amazing Spiderman
Prometheus
Men In Black III
War Horse
The Hobbit
Life of Pi
The Dark Knight Rises
The Amazing Spiderman
Men In Black III
Far too long
Ok it has been far too long since I've tippled into this. What is that? 6 months you say.
Well to say that I have been busy may be an exaggeration. It's more like a crippling sense of laziness than anything else but as the 2nd academic year draws to an end (I AM NOT LOOKING FORWARD TO DISSERTATION YEAR AT ALL) here I am yet again syphoning some boredom and procrastination into this lovely nest pot.
ONTO THE POST
These next few weeks are going to be a hella busy due to a multitude of factors.
1. DEADLINES
2. Being a part of the Qi audience (BAHHHHHHHH1HBVSDDSFBhvbdsjhv!... cough)
3. Exploring London's graveyards and parks
4. Volunteering at Future Cinema
5. A lot of theatre trips
6. Misc.
So one of the films that I have watched recently are The Avengers Assemble. Seriously, what a movie! Joss Whedon you have done a magnificient job! There are some little tidbits that I will pick later but still this film is one to watch. It's funny, captivating and just plain entertaining. There had been so many doubts in Whedon's capabilities of manning a cinematic feature but he has done so beautifully. There are some shots that just oozes Whedon such as his zoom and refocus style with the camera a la Firefly (may it rest in peace). The dialogue was quick and witty and Hello there Tony Stark!
Now I didn't see Captain America: The First Avenger and my god was his character one of my least favourite in the franchise but there are moments in the film when Chris Evans' acting really shined through. Here he was, a genetically morphed man of the 1940s, frozen and then blasted into the future by some 70 years and no one seems to give a toss about him. He's more Steve Rogers than Captain America emotionally. At times it just seems that he was fumbling around in the scene touching this and that hoping for some result.
And then there's Black Widow. Oh Black Widow you are a confusing character. Scarlett Johansson what were you thinking. Or rather what was the director thinking. There were so many changes in this little lady it was hard for me not to think that maybe they left some of the deleted scenes in the film by mistake. And before you go 'What a misogynistic bitch! She's a strong woman in this cock-fest of a film yada yada yada...' but seriously watch the film. If you don't get what I'm seeing then I don't care if I stand here on my own. Don't get me wrong there are some scenes in the film where Natasha Romanoff for a time being is a femme fatale of the highest degree but most of the time it was just stale. Stale like 1400 year old bread.
Speaking of stale, hello there Loki. Tom Hiddleston. I am a fan of your work, still am in fact but there is just something about Loki that just will not budge. Sure he was lied to ALL HIS LIFE, I certainly am not denying that. But Loki just felt like a manufactured villain bent on conquering the Earth (although in it's state right now I don't know why) because he had failed in taking over Asgard. Loki is the god of mischief. In the Avengers the mischief comes in burst and twists there is no underlying threat. No shadow encroaching the team. No slow burn. But I may be touching on personal preferences to films so I'll drop this for now.
On the more technical side I don't think that an advanced mystical force with advanced technology will tether themselves to their flying vehicles simply with a chain. Just saying...
The Hulk really did steal the show with a tonne of humour and some splendid Mo-Cap and it seems that 'The Other Guy' as Bruce Banner affectionately calls the green giant outshone Mark Rufallo's performance. I have an Achilles heel when it comes to Iron Man. He's my favourite Marvel Comics character ever. And Whedon's script alongside Zak Penn really does give this snarky egotistical millionaire just the right amount of asshole.
So yes The Avengers Assemble is one hell of a film. Go watch it! Just do... seriously just watch it. It's how comic book films are supposed to be. Think of it as Loose Women but with aliens, villains, astral plains, and with a lot of explosions.
Well to say that I have been busy may be an exaggeration. It's more like a crippling sense of laziness than anything else but as the 2nd academic year draws to an end (I AM NOT LOOKING FORWARD TO DISSERTATION YEAR AT ALL) here I am yet again syphoning some boredom and procrastination into this lovely nest pot.
ONTO THE POST
These next few weeks are going to be a hella busy due to a multitude of factors.
1. DEADLINES
2. Being a part of the Qi audience (BAHHHHHHHH1HBVSDDSFBhvbdsjhv!... cough)
3. Exploring London's graveyards and parks
4. Volunteering at Future Cinema
5. A lot of theatre trips
6. Misc.
So one of the films that I have watched recently are The Avengers Assemble. Seriously, what a movie! Joss Whedon you have done a magnificient job! There are some little tidbits that I will pick later but still this film is one to watch. It's funny, captivating and just plain entertaining. There had been so many doubts in Whedon's capabilities of manning a cinematic feature but he has done so beautifully. There are some shots that just oozes Whedon such as his zoom and refocus style with the camera a la Firefly (may it rest in peace). The dialogue was quick and witty and Hello there Tony Stark!
Now I didn't see Captain America: The First Avenger and my god was his character one of my least favourite in the franchise but there are moments in the film when Chris Evans' acting really shined through. Here he was, a genetically morphed man of the 1940s, frozen and then blasted into the future by some 70 years and no one seems to give a toss about him. He's more Steve Rogers than Captain America emotionally. At times it just seems that he was fumbling around in the scene touching this and that hoping for some result.
And then there's Black Widow. Oh Black Widow you are a confusing character. Scarlett Johansson what were you thinking. Or rather what was the director thinking. There were so many changes in this little lady it was hard for me not to think that maybe they left some of the deleted scenes in the film by mistake. And before you go 'What a misogynistic bitch! She's a strong woman in this cock-fest of a film yada yada yada...' but seriously watch the film. If you don't get what I'm seeing then I don't care if I stand here on my own. Don't get me wrong there are some scenes in the film where Natasha Romanoff for a time being is a femme fatale of the highest degree but most of the time it was just stale. Stale like 1400 year old bread.
Speaking of stale, hello there Loki. Tom Hiddleston. I am a fan of your work, still am in fact but there is just something about Loki that just will not budge. Sure he was lied to ALL HIS LIFE, I certainly am not denying that. But Loki just felt like a manufactured villain bent on conquering the Earth (although in it's state right now I don't know why) because he had failed in taking over Asgard. Loki is the god of mischief. In the Avengers the mischief comes in burst and twists there is no underlying threat. No shadow encroaching the team. No slow burn. But I may be touching on personal preferences to films so I'll drop this for now.
On the more technical side I don't think that an advanced mystical force with advanced technology will tether themselves to their flying vehicles simply with a chain. Just saying...
So yes The Avengers Assemble is one hell of a film. Go watch it! Just do... seriously just watch it. It's how comic book films are supposed to be. Think of it as Loose Women but with aliens, villains, astral plains, and with a lot of explosions.
Wednesday 2 November 2011
I've lost it...
I'm having a little breather.
Just a little over 150 words left on a Political Journalism assessment. A press conference with the oh so fictitious Sir Hufton Tufton-Bufton. Slightly fried my brain trying to read all through my notes. Stupid EU referendum.
'Such place Eternal Justice had prepar'd
For those rebellious, here thir Prison ordain'd
In utter darkness, and thir portion set
As far remov'd from God and light of Heav'n.'
-John Milton, Paradise Lost Book I.
Paradise Lost is being made into a movie... again. Directed by Alex Proyas of I, Robot and The Crow. Starring Bradley Cooper (Limitless), Camilla Belle (10,000 BC), Casey Affleck (Ocean's Eleven). Can you imagine the visual orgasms this movie has the potential of? With all the new film technology bursting and erupting into the scene I can't wait what the end result will look like. This movie will be captured using Motion Capture. Rightly s NO 3D PLEASE. I swear if they announce that Paradise Lost will be in 'shocking 3D' I might vomit. I really will. For me 3D needs to stay in Disneyland Parks and the like.
And Lucifer, played by Bradley Cooper, please be a bottomless pit of character development. I want to feel the anger, ruthlessness, vulnerability. I want to see acting and not just flash, bangs and CGI wings and heaven. Please Alex Proyas. I was doubtful of this production but now... now I don't want this to be a flop.
Just a little over 150 words left on a Political Journalism assessment. A press conference with the oh so fictitious Sir Hufton Tufton-Bufton. Slightly fried my brain trying to read all through my notes. Stupid EU referendum.
'Such place Eternal Justice had prepar'd
For those rebellious, here thir Prison ordain'd
In utter darkness, and thir portion set
As far remov'd from God and light of Heav'n.'
-John Milton, Paradise Lost Book I.
Paradise Lost is being made into a movie... again. Directed by Alex Proyas of I, Robot and The Crow. Starring Bradley Cooper (Limitless), Camilla Belle (10,000 BC), Casey Affleck (Ocean's Eleven). Can you imagine the visual orgasms this movie has the potential of? With all the new film technology bursting and erupting into the scene I can't wait what the end result will look like. This movie will be captured using Motion Capture. Rightly s NO 3D PLEASE. I swear if they announce that Paradise Lost will be in 'shocking 3D' I might vomit. I really will. For me 3D needs to stay in Disneyland Parks and the like.
And Lucifer, played by Bradley Cooper, please be a bottomless pit of character development. I want to feel the anger, ruthlessness, vulnerability. I want to see acting and not just flash, bangs and CGI wings and heaven. Please Alex Proyas. I was doubtful of this production but now... now I don't want this to be a flop.
Sunday 23 October 2011
Chaining A Wandering Mind
Procrastination is an infectious disease.
My goal for today was to wake up early (early-ish) and begin a full day of researching. The deadline is for this Tuesday and I still haven't started ANYTHING. The internet is a curse and a gift all wrapped in one. Like a candy-coated pill. With so many links and such information of course my mind was going to wander.
Recently a new friend of mine nudged me to watch Sherlock Holmes BBC. (Benedict Cumberbatch, Martin Freeman [Loved him in HGTTG]) I've been re-watching the episodes. What he didn't know of course was my latent obsession with the good ol' Baker Street sociopath. It wouldn't help of course that I have been patiently fucking waiting for the next installment for the movie version starring Robert Downey Jr, Jude Law and STEPHEN fucking FRY! (I'm a fan. End of.) Surely my excitement will take a physical form, fill this whole flat and slowly suffocate any organic aerobic functioning matter in the surrounding area.
And what stemmed from watching Sherlock Holmes? None other than a spark in my interest in Psychology. I wasted hours pouring over online texts on psychoanalysis, sociopaths, psychopaths, you name it. It's times like these that I wonder why I chose a media based degree. Surely I should have picked something that I spend most of my time obsessing over. Etymology, Anthropology, Psychology, Cosmology, Astrology. A lot of g's. Then I argue that that if I was studying my time wasting interests then it would suck all the colour out of it. Like painting an unchanging scene. Over and over and over...
It has been a reoccurring theme lately. I spend quite a lot of time wondering if I'm wasting my time with this degree. I sit and wonder. What will be the outcome? Will there be one at all? Maybe.
And here I am. 18 and already wishing to start it all over again.
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