Read here: http://gracecassonmusicscene.wordpress.com/2012/12/23/joe-carnall-friends%E2%80%A8-queens-social-club-sheffield-211212/
Sunday 23 December 2012
Monday 3 December 2012
Wednesday 9 May 2012
Pretty As A Picture: 'Washi Tape' Latest Hype
Popular now as ever, Washi Tape seems to becoming the new craze, or at latest uplifting your Mac is. Either way, these two combined creates a fresh look to your plain look of a MacBook. Design Milk posted about the idea which got me searching for a similar thing. The idea has also been spotted on minifanfan on Making It Lovely, a blogsite about 'doing up' and transforming the standard, or so-so...
I bought my Japanese Washi tape from Le Box Boutique on Etsy. There are loads and loads of Washi tape sellers on Etsy, I chose Le Box Boutique because they allow you to buy the tape by the foot rather than having to purchase the entire roll, allowing you to get a lot more patterns.
Washi tape is similar to masking tape in that it is easy to stick and restick in case you didn't do it right first time. This also makes it easier for once you've got bored with the design and want to make it over again.
This project was quite tedious but then again quite simple, and now I have a pretty laptop.
Shweet.
http://makingitlovely.com/
http://minifanfan.com/Happy-Keyboard-for-Happy-People
[Photos: Owned by Grace Casson]
Tuesday 8 May 2012
Monday 23 April 2012
Oui, j'adore macarons
A macaron, not to be confused with the coconut biscuit type, is a type of Parisian sweet meringue-based cookie, sandwiched together with a variety of cream fillings. It's definitely no typo, these are entirely two different things.>
I don't think I'll ever meet anyone who is so obsessed by these beautiful French sweet treats. The smell sets off light bulbs in my head. Different décor, different flavourings that could work, different concepts and different ideas. For the past few years I have been memorized by these confectioneries, trying to taste every different flavour there is to offer. It first started Christmas 2 years ago. I was stuck at Charles De Gualle Airport in Paris. After wondering around for a good 3 days, I seemed to find myself stood beside a food cart. A very special mouthwatering, enticing food cart. So many beautiful colours and flavours appealing to me. I was amazed. Laduree, my favourite patisserie specialise in these treats, another huge attraction. Lines are long, but be patient. Once you have tried these you have entered an entirely different world.
The many attempts of perfecting the perfect Macaron is proving difficult. They demand a precision in the mixing, baking and cooling.
I'm not quite there yet, but nevertheless, if you have never tried a Macaron you definitely are missing out. These treats are becoming ever more popular by the day, now stocking in a variety of supermarket chains. Beware, you can never just have one. A macaron teases. These dainty treats leave you wanting more than to begin with. Once I have a French patisserie of my own, I'll make sure you'll have fallen in love with these treats as much as I have.
Saturday 21 April 2012
#UKFestivals NOT trending this year?
A few years back, many festivals including Latitude, Reading and Leeds, and Bestival, were all sellout festivals, actually selling out way before the tickets were even printed. It was the moment just before the credit crunch struck and its taken a while, but maybe it's finally took a hit. It is estimated that last year overall, around 30 festivals went bankrupt. This year has seen Big Chill festival, which begun 18 years ago, being cancelled. Could this be the start of the end for our UK festivals?
It seems everyone is a lot more conservative in terms of their spending. I would agree that that's not the only reason however. For a while, there has been an increasingly cool trend of going to a festival. You need the ‘look’, the clothes, and the haircut. The original idea of going to a festival seemed to offer an alternative reality. Now, it's an industry. Festivals seem fashionable over recent years, high street chains have reveled in this notion of festival clothing, what to wear, what not to wear, in order to look cool and stand out of the crowd.
You find more and more people, despite there being a recession amongst our mitts, buying tickets to festivals without even seeing the lineup or having interest in the lineup. The idea of just going to a festival is seemingly worth it apparently. However when you look at it, is 200 quid for camping in a busy park really worth it? You could get it a lot cheaper and just take a speaker with you.
Festivals abroad are becoming increasingly popular nowadays. It seems that there are many accessible budget airlines offering cheap flights, as well as an experience that's part-holiday, part-festival. Many of these festivals are now being promoted throughout the UK, costing as much, if not a little more than the UK scene, so why not?
The concept that the UK festival scene is ending I don’t believe is correct. People find the money somewhere. It’s more the question of whether who the headline acts are matter anymore...
Tesco Takeover Trouble
FINANCIAL; RETAIL;
The past few years has seen a huge growth from Tesco. No city or town is without one, even village if they had it their way. Tesco have been given a profit warning following poor Christmas sales just gone. It is believed that Tesco will have to invest millions of pounds, around 400 actually, hiring and refurbishing staff and stores, in order to get their customers back where they want them. Tesco cut thousands of jobs of independent stores, this seemingly being their karma, but what are they proposing to do? Their plan to get anywhere and everywhere, lost the idea of being a brand people can trust to go to. It’s got too powerful, to the point where I don’t believe chief executive Philip Clarke, knows what to do with the power.
“Every Little Helps” is still one of the best taglines going, I reckon Tesco just need to incorporate it’s idea a little better. Tesco maybe in it’s warning stage, but I’m sure they’ll think of something, the man always gets what he wants…
Sunday 15 April 2012
Thursday 12 April 2012
A: Shall I jump off this cliff?.. B: Yeah, #YOLO ennit
The term 'YOLO' has become an overnight sensation, something which seems to have people hash-tagging nearly everyday on the popular social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter. It's popularity is due to the song 'The Motto' by Drake. Obviously Drake invented this acronym of course, and that is why people feel the need to credit it in every single status or tweet. Some people must not know this, but the phrase has been a motto for people for a long time. Yes, that's true. However in many cases, the term has been blown out of proportion and people over use it by hash-tagging it in pictures and wall posts because of the trend.
To me, there is no way to recover or redeem yourself once you’ve used 'YOLO' incorrectly. You either have no idea what the combination of letters mean, or simply the phrase itself is unclear to you. The phrase 'you only live once' should refer to events in life that end in an appreciation for the world around you, reflecting on once-in-a-lifetime opportunities and moments. It should not be used as a justification as to why you went out last night and got absolutely smashed off your face.
Y ou
O bviously
L ack
O riginality
Friday 30 March 2012
Tuesday 27 March 2012
Sunday 25 March 2012
What?... you thought i was okay because i didn't hash-tag my life away all over Twitter?
I don't believe it's too extreme to compare a drug addiction with a Social Media addiction. Now obviously Facebook can't damage your insides, but can affect your health. Social-Networking is an undeniably unhealthy addiction. It promotes paranoia and consumes precious time. It seems to be the core interaction with one another.
Facebook seems to be a way of life. Going a day without Facebook or Twitter would be like asking someone to not eat or drink for the day. ARE YOU CRAZY?
Facebook and Twitter makes us lazy. I feel like I know my friends back home are fine and doing well, just because they've typed a smiley on their screen, or added a 'haha' to their comments. I subconsciously feel like I've checked in with them, just because I've gone on their profile. Yet in fact I don't know at all do i? In a sense, we are actually losing the ability to make friends.
What has Zuckerberg created? So many articles seem to blame him, yet that's all we want. To pass the blame. It's our own control how much we display, how much we use and talk over these Social Network sites. Yes some people seem to upload their day to day brushing their teeth antics, which is on par with “I am getting ready to go out and get totally drunk tonight”, then write hating status' about others who are doing the EXACT same. And it's stuff like that, that makes me really hate Facebook and Twitter. Although a lot of people write subtle yet totally not subtle status' about how angry they are at you, not everyone does this. Not everything should be so literal. We don't all write about our personal lives, and our immediate reactions to life itself. I got asked the other day if I was annoyed at them because of something I put over Twitter. For ages I couldn't quite believe that something I typed in a matter of seconds, as a joke, made someone feel like that. For anyone who asks these kind of questions, either get over yourself, or stop worrying. If they really have written something about you in a subtle but not subtle, enough to know what they are doing kind of way, they aren't worth it. Facebook promotes a childish attitude and behaviour, and if you are naive enough to endure this, or let it affect you, then you've just got yourselves to blame.
P.s. Yes this is about you. No really. This whole post is me just being subtly yet not so subtly hypocritical.
Believe what you like.
Sunday 18 March 2012
Leave it now Simon...
I recently read an article in the Guardian Weekend magazine, with former Popworld and Never Mind The Buzzcocks presenter, Simon Amstell. He talks of his stand-up tour that is about to begin, his 'acting' career, and why he made an early retirement from Buzzcocks.
Buzzcocks was a highlight of mine on the telly, probably being the only series I would continuously follow. With Amstell quitting the show, like all good things, it needed to come to an end before it was ruined. This was a good move for Amstell, quitting. Yet he didn't actually quit did he. He's carried on, just with something else. Something shit.
If you've seen 'Grandma's House', you would have been bitterly disappointed. If you didn't feel this way, you are clearly too far up his arse that you haven't realised. 'Grandma's House' proves that just because you are a presenter, doesn't mean you are an actor. Clearly.
On promoting his stand-up tour 'Numb', Amstell discusses the fact that with his old work “...it has stopped being shocking”, something which actually is seemingly repeating itself. When being asked if he has a boyfriend, he replies “Why is this important?” and why is it? Is Simon now one of these 'celebrities' that need to promote their personal life in order to up their status? He states “It's the sort of thing a celebrity answers with no qualms...” I don't think you quite understand Simon, or he is just so desperate to hold on to his popularity that he blocks this idea or being anything other than what he tries to appear.
“I don't Twitter because I'd rather save things up til I've got a show”. Yet Amstell has set up a Twitter account, and even got commissioned by the Guardian to do a video blog on him setting the account up. Yeah, tell me about it...
Amstell ends the interview with “I'm not interested in giving it away for free”, meaning his comedy material. This sentence solely says Amstell all over. Marketing. It's a shame. On the other hand, Lee Ryan should be happy.
Sunday 4 March 2012
Oh Ma Dayzzz
In a poll of 4,110 Facebook users, just 8 percent said they liked Timeline, the new Facebook profile layout. 'Facebook Timeline' essentially is a reverse-chronological display of a user's status updates, photos, and life events. Facebook announced that Timeline will appear on users profiles over the next few weeks, whether the user wants it or not is not under consideration.
Since it was set up, Facebook has always encouraged users to enter personal details about themselves and their life experiences, sharing it to others. It's a lot simpler for others to view the information, and due to the vast amount of information made easily accessible by Timeline, this has caused users to worry.
As this new feature is introduced, users will get seven days to review their Timeline before it is posted, or you can choose to display it sooner. With reviewing their Timelines, users can opt to hide or feature certain stories, events, or photos.
Timeline now introduces apps, allowing more information to be shared. An example of this would be the use of 'Spotify' through Facebook. It posts what you are listening to, and what your activity is, in the other media. Guardian, Wall Street Journal, and Pinterest are amongst 80 other apps that feature a Facebook link. So why are people so worried? If you don’t want everyone to see what you’re listening to with Spotify, don’t connect Spotify to your Facebook account. Simple.
I know that isn't the only worry, people think that being able to see what you posted April 8th 2007 is scary. But why? So what if you were different back then, a little embarrassing, a little immature? If people my age are worrying about it, then I really don't understand why. What, we were 14 then? If you still talk or act like that, then that's the problem.
Facebook groups have been set up to protest against 'Timeline', and keep it optional. It seems like every Facebook change brings out the threats of deleting their accounts, yet despite this, Facebook continues to grow. It's just in our culture nowadays.
The most obvious thing to do if you don’t like the changes they make is to stop using it. It's presenting information that you have made public to whoever you have selected. You have also chosen to type that you were upset about cheating on your boyfriend and that they ended up then cheating on you... If anything, you should be grateful you get a whole seven days to change or modify your Timeline.
Hopefully from this, it'll prompt users to have private profiles if they haven’t already, or just generally think about what they are posting about their private life.
No specific date was given, its suggestive that the change won't occur on one single date. If you don't have Timeline yet, you will be forced to have it "in the next few weeks". No more specific information was announced. But you get these seven days to modify remember, so for those worriers, stay calm, you aren't gonna lose your popularity because someone found out you spelt lyk dis in 2k10...
Timeline features-
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hzPEPfJHfKU
Wednesday 29 February 2012
shweet like cinnamon...
Tucked away on Ecclesall Road, Sheffield, this dainty chocolate boutique, once stepped inside, seems like a magical wonderland. It is in no doubt a 'chocolate & sweetie emporium packed full of every kind of sweet and chocolate imaginable!' This boutique is owned by two best friends, Kate and Anne, just outward of city centre, in the popular student area of 'Eccy Road'.
Not only a shop, but a tearoom, Cocoa Wonderland provides the opportunity to take your chocolate experience further. With evening events such as a 'Chocolate Taster session', or 'Chocolate Lock-in'. As well as this, there is also Knit and Book club.
Filled with sweet treats and chocolate masterpieces, Cocoa allows customers to enter this wonderland, making you feel like you're back to your childhood.
If you live in Sheffield and haven't been yet, you are definitely missing out. With Easter approaching soon, I think it's perfect timing isn't it?
www.cocoawonderland.co.uk
Follow Cocoa here on Twitter!
Saturday 25 February 2012
A 'Cut Off' to remember...
Last Wednesday saw Adele at the Brits, being cut off from her acceptance speech by host James Cordon, so Blur could perform. Adele's reaction to this was to stick her finger up (to the suits) as she was rushed off stage.
Next thing you know, there's Tweets flying everywhere. Amongst many others, Lily Allen, Jamie Oliver, and Philip Schofield, attacked the Brit Awards as 'bad' and 'disgusting', after Adele was cut short to make way for Blur's closing set. This being the majority of reaction, however some people thought Adele was being rude and inappropriate.
Daily Mail believed “It was enough to leave the most powerful men in the music business choking on their cannon of lamb, and spitting out their swigs of the finest Cotes de Rhone.” No it wasn't. It didn't do that at all. Adele didn't do it to make a statement that she could get away with it, or to cause a stir. She simply just reacted to the bosses for rushing her off stage.
So called 'comedian' Frankie Boyle had then laid into host James Corden saying “Corden must regret the Brits. By cutting off Adele he looked like a fat, tactless moron. Who needs publicity like that? Well, Matthew Horne.” Boyle you should be done with comedy, clearly.
Yes Adele won an award and deserves time to give a speech of acceptance. I get that. But lets get this straight. It was done so Blur could perform. Blur, who won the Outstanding Contribution to Music Award. The Brits had set aside time for Blur’s finale, in honour of the band’s Outstanding Contribution to Music award. Maybe they shouldn't have won that award if people can't see it this way.
Monday 20 February 2012
“Grace can you call me back please!”... You know shits about to go down when you receive this voicemail off Momma cas!..
I have just realised, that in my possession, I have 2 pounds and 85 pence. It would appear I will not be getting the beers in tonight. Moving away from home can be tough, something I have only just discovered. Surviving on Dominos and Tesco's outstanding low fat ready meals, not really counting for anything seeing as I eat 50 biscuits between these meals though.
The greatest lesson university can teach you is how to survive the day to day basics, or at least how to cope with them.
I have lived on my own for 6 months now, yet still haven't mastered the trick of the washing machine. Yes, there is a trick. I seem to spend 8 pound per load. There must be something I'm doing wrong?...
Cooking. If I could afford it, I'd bake pretty cakes everyday and live off those. Timings in meals are difficult. The past week I have been living off Sainsburys' delicious yet not so delicious chicken goujons. Buying 30 probably wasn't the greatest of ideas. But they were reduced. Something that couldn't be helped. Mum's home cooked meals are such a luxury now.
I think my favourite average day to day task would be food shopping. It makes me feel like an adult. I love it. I convince myself I do really well with what I buy and how much I spend, until I get to the sweet aisle. Getting things that aren't a necessary buy, yet I still buy them. Standard.
Money. This month my phone bill was 150 quid! Yes 150 single POUNDS! Something I have come to terms with, that it's just a lesson learnt...minus 150 dollar. Scraping the money together and getting yourself out of theses messes, are just lessons. I definitely will not be making my average 2am call no more.
Sleeping pattern. Gone. Getting sleepy at 9pm and then waking up at 2am, is just something that comes naturally now. As well as needing a nap before going on a night out. Yes I'm a grandma.
Cleaning. How does she do it? Despite attempting the 'clean as you go' attitude, the flat remains actually disgustingly dirty. To keep it up, mothers must be superhuman.
Although I call Sheffield home, and believe it to be home, I couldn't survive without my family to actually go home to.
N.B. Mum please don't buy chicken goujons in.
Friday 17 February 2012
Wednesday 15 February 2012
Monday 13 February 2012
Sunday 12 February 2012
@NICK CLEGG Just so you know, I hold grudges!
This month's 'SHU Life' magazine's cover story is an interview with Nick Clegg. You can imagined how pleased I felt. I believe I did quite well, I reckon I survived half way through the article before getting so angry I wanted to rip the pages into shreds. It all started with the quote “One thing I've learned from a year and a half in Government is that people who make very firm predictions about the future of the economy...almost always end up being wrong.” THIS, coming from someone who is no stranger to being wrong, about quite a lot of things, of course got me a little riled up.
Of course a major topic on everybody's mind was what was he going to say about the tuition fee increase? How was he going to respond and answer to the people who gave him the votes he got? And as expected, he has no sense of regret, remorse, or even a conscience about the decisions he made.
“I think the thing I have perhaps utterly failed to explain successfully is that even though the price of the fee has gone up – the way you prepay has gone down. It's really important to remember this.” IS THIS SOME SORT OF SICK JOKE? It's funny that he thinks that answer makes up for the fact that you are still paying more, and you will be paying more for longer. Much longer. I don't think he gets what many people are so angry about! You know... the fact that he is a liar!
Again, with not the slightest feeling of remorse “I understand when people say to me 'oh, you said this and that in opposition.' But the fact, I'm afraid, is that I lead a party which had got eight percent of MP's in Parliament. I cannot deliver the Liberal Democrat manifesto in full. If people want that, they've got to vote for a Liberal Democrat government, but it didn't happen.” So I see, its payback then. Yeah that makes sense. If you don't get into power, join the opposition and don't do anything you said you would as a way to get your own back. Well its working for him.
As he said himself, it's been a year and a half since he has been in Government. Yet, the thing he isn't noticing, is that people are still angry and upset. People still actually hate him. That is not going to be forgotten or go away anytime soon. Nick Clegg is in denial that he didn't have a choice in joining the conservatives, and if that helps him sleep at night, then good luck with that.
Friday 10 February 2012
Big Blow To Sheffield's Cultural Offering?...
One of the major attractions to the city of Sheffield as a place to live in was the amount of potential the city itself has. For me, the amount of creative talent here, and the ideas and plans for the city seemed ever more exciting. Will this soon be in decline with 'Museums Sheffield' inevitability closing?
Museums Sheffield's application for £1.4m per year for the next three years has been refused. Museums Sheffield must now manage a devastating 30% reduction in its budget from 1 April 2012. “This is a huge disappointment for the city and Museums Sheffield. We know Sheffield had a very strong bid and should have been recognised for its cultural offer....”Julie Dore, Leader of Sheffield City Council.
This decrease in funding will have a big impact on Museums Sheffield, bearing in mind, Museums Sheffield controls Millennium Gallery, Graves Gallery, and Weston Park Museum. Its thought that just because the funding has been reduced there are no plans for the museums or galleries in the city to close, but isn't this inevitable if the funding is decreasing over the next 3 years? It's set for 45 jobs to be cut, meaning a large scale staff redundancy. As well as that, there will be major reductions in exhibition programmes, and less learning trips provided for schools.
The next exhibition that will take place, is believed to be it's last. Bearing this in mind, as well as the cut of the city's major cultural offering, I decided to ask the thoughts of passer bys, if and how they will be affected...
“I often spend my lunchtime wondering around and sitting in the cafe. I love to see the new inspirational pieces of work and the things in the gift shop. I want to buy everything there!” Lola 28yrs, Sheffield.
“Hearing that the next exhibition will be the last is really upsetting. I would have hoped the work remains the standard as it is now, but not such hope anymore... Activities and workshops will no longer exist? That is so disappointing. I always thought the idea of school visits was a good opportunity for children to have a fun day out yet learn quite a lot.” Mary 53yrs, Rotherham.
Museums Sheffield is a big part of the city, bringing and providing the culture it has. I believe people won't notice what they've lost until its gone. Especially with the Millennium Gallery, so many people walk through just as a gateway, a quick way, to get somewhere. Maybe once this has gone, people will realise it wasn't just there for a easier way to get somewhere else.
Museums Sheffield, following the decline of there application for the next 3 years, have now become in negotiation with the Arts Council to provide a short term funding scheme to ease a transition of cuts.
To add to that, with the amount of disappointment caused by the refusal of the application for Museums Sheffield, there is a plan to protest against the Art’s Councils decision on Sunday 12th February. A sit in picnic will be held at the Millennium Galleries in Sheffield from 12pm until 3pm. It is encouraged that everyone who is unhappy with the decision, joins the protest with a picnic basket and a pen, as Shefftopia will be holding a big drawing demonstration at the event.
This Sunday! 12-3pm! Millennium Gallery! Fingers crossed it isn't the end yet.
Friday 3 February 2012
#FF: CLUB LADUREE
If you have never heard of Club Ladurée, and what it entails, you are missing out, on what I believe, is a way of life.
Ladurée is an elegant Parisian Patisserie. It all began in 1862, when Louis Ernest Ladurée, created a bakery at 16 rue Royale in Paris. The decoration of the pastry shop was created by Jules Cherett, who found inspiration from the painting techniques used for the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel and the Garnier Opera. Soon, cafes developed and became more and more luxurious. They attracted Parisian high society. Along with the chic restaurants, they became the showcases of the capital.
Ernest Ladurée’s wife, had the idea of mixing styles, creating the first tea salon in town. The “salon de thé” had a definite advantage over the cafés.
This introduced a refined atmosphere and change within history. In September 1997, Ladurée, being both a restaurant and tea room, opened on the Champs-Elysées. Ladurée became a tea salon, pastry shop, restaurant, chocolate shop and an ice cream parlour. Ladurée intends to introduce this century-old name in the main capitals of the world and develop new business opportunities.
Ladurée is most famous for it's creation of the Macaron. Once cooked and filled, the macarons are put to one side for 2 days before going on sale, this being the time it takes to achieve a 'perfect balance between texture and flavour'. With each new season, Ladurée creates a new flavour macaron. I adore them. They fascinate me.
I first was introduced to Ladurée, Christmas in 2010. I was stuck at Charles De Gaulle Airport, and after having found the stall of Macarons, I made sure I spent my time there well. Ladurée is simply beautiful and perfection. Everything created is so beautifully prepared and presented. If you are going to buy macarons then Ladurée is the very best place to buy them.
Don't worry, you don't have to go all the way to Paris to find these lovely creations, Ladurée can be found in three London locations; in Harrods, in the Burlington Arcade and in Covent Garden.
http://www.laduree.fr/
The Ladurée Dream from Kluk Jeanovej on Vimeo.
Thursday 2 February 2012
it's safe to say...
For the third year, the Golden Globes had Ricky Gervais as a host.
The first time Gervais did the Golden Globes, his jokes were clever and witty. It was funny. It was fresh.
Then in 2011 they asked for him back. This causing quite a stir and uproar for being too harsh. It was again expected yet the intensity of the jokes weren't expected. So was there too much hype for 2012? Or was it generally just the same old boring stuff being delivered?
I believe it started well, but the anticipation and hype was all too much for what actually was delivered.
Granted, he did include celebrity jabs, but they were clearly approved and pre-approved by the the team behind the targeted celebrity and network. Another thing noted that practically no celebrity in the room was the subject of his insults, another big disappointment.
He was mildly amusing, but not outstandingly funny like last year. Many of us hoped he'd top last year, so when measured to that expectation, it seemed a let down. Some people believed it was like he wasn't even trying, but I think it was the case that he was trying too hard if anything.
I guess it's 'show business'... Gervais has been good for ratings for the network, and the network has been good to Gervais, no matter how maligned it may be.
I like Gervais, and continue to do so, I just wish the hype hadn't ruined it for him. I would have thought he'd have known better.
Monday 9 January 2012
'Celebrity' Big Brother? Really?.. No really? 'Celebrity'?
Big Brother is the British version of the Dutch Big Brother television format, which takes its name from the character in George Orwell's 1948 novel Nineteen Eighty-Four. After a decade on air, Big Brother moved to Channel 5 in 2011, after the channel signed a 2-year contract. We have a year left...
Celebrity Big Brother 2012 is the ninth series of the British reality television series, that began on 5 January 2012. One question...How are Channel 5 getting away with calling the new series, 'Celebrity' Big Brother? The likes of Frankie Cocozza to Natasha Giggs? They even lost Lee Ryan in the line-up. Now that's bad. Apparently, Lee was all set to go but then he demanded to be paid more than £175,000. Yes, he was getting paid £175,000. How does that make sense to anyone? There's even the huge factor being that even Lee Ryan would have been one of five, who you could actually not struggle to say was famous for having a talent worthy of being famous.
11 years ago, Celebrity Big Brother began, the concept of actual celebrities going into the house in aid of Comic Relief. Celebrities being: Anthea Turner; an English television presenter, Chris Eubank; a boxer, Claire Sweeney; an actress and television presenter, Jack Dee; an English comedian, Keith Duffy an Irish singer, and Vanessa Feltz; a journalist and broadcaster. The term 'celebrity' can be used in this case, where these people actually have a claim to fame, for having a successful talent that got themselves appearing on television, the word 'successful' playing a major part in that sentence.
Big Brother is possibly the best way to illustrate just how our society is seemingly decaying. The fact being that if another Celebrity Big Brother is on it's way, it will consist of solely people who have appeared on the non-celebrity version of Big Brother, now being worthy of the 'Celebrity' status. Surely that should be the point where Channel 5 take a step back and have a look? Course they won't, everybody wants to know how Justine Sellman is doing and getting on, don't they?
N.B. Justine Sellman (Big Brother 4, 2003) is now married and working as an IT consultant.
Monday 2 January 2012
Decay Of Our Society?..
Cultural values and society is indeed in decline. To illustrate this, if you took two newspapers, one being from 1959, and the other from 2012 present, I guarantee that the more recent newspaper will reveal a significantly lower cultural level in all respects, except the quality and quantity of photographs. There is a social and moral decay within our society. It's a fact that if you read The Sun newspaper then The Times newspaper, there's a difference in cultural interest significantly. Nobody realises it yet, but probably in the near future, the only news we will have will be; photographs of celebrities getting fat, and then showbiz gossip of who lost the most weight using their own fitness DVD's. If you seem to ask someone what's the biggest social issue of this week, it'll be Katy Perry and Russell Brand splitting up, or 'Jedward' on Alan Carr's Chatty Man, without a shadow of a doubt. This is the idea that celebrities take priority to somewhat general major issues of pollution or global warming, etc. Society has become so obsessed with this idea of a celebrity world to the extent that it has strayed away from the real issues at hand. People spend so many hours reading magazines, listening to radio shows, and even watching television shows revolved around celebrity gossip. What about the news? Or politics? What about the things affecting us personally or the things that will eventually affect us all? It's a question that must be asked in our celebrity culture: why do we care? What possesses us to keep up on our celebrity news? It comes as no surprise that our society is obsessed and mesmerised with fame. This is our decay of society on a culture level.
'Teenage Representation' sample
Media today is very useful to portray the way we live. Representation is 'the process whereby the media construct versions of peoples, places, and events in images or sound transmissions through media texts to an audience'.
All events are mediated by the texts that represent them. It takes forms and various techniques involved which are used to position the audience, so they take a particular view and feeling. ‘Every image is constructed and every opinion and feeling is manipulating’. We increasingly, are living in a ‘mediated’ society, in which that there is a process by the media that represents ideas, issues and events to us as the audience. There are techniques used for representation, particularly one being anchorage. This is ‘the fixing or limiting of a particular set of meanings to an image’. Anchorage gives a preferred reading, one most common example is where the anchorage text is underneath a photograph. The try to frame an image to get the audience thinking in a particular way, determining their feeling.
Media texts are usually known to rather than representing people as individuals, sections of the media use a 'shorthand' in the way in which they group people, known as stereotyping. This gives a negative and devaluing view on the people usually and most often, as it includes whole groups of people in society. Representation is usually to be found within the areas of class, age, gender, and ethnicity. It often shows how these 'identities' are represented as well as constructed.
Documentary film making is an opportunity to seek to document 'real' life. Documentaries such as 3 minute wonder on Channel 4 are commissioned as a series of shots by a director who wants to show primarily documentaries that generally highlight a current issue that is not public yet, or even to make a particular issue known.
It is well known that youth tend to suffer from a rather negative representation in the media. This is seen through looking at documentaries about teens and youth myself, and reading about it too. Teenagers are categorized mostly as from one scale to the other and never in-between, or 'normal' perhaps as would the public would say. Dick Hebdige is a British media theorist most commonly associated with the study of subculture. He wrote a book 'Hiding in the light: Youth surveillance as a display'. In it, he argues that young people fall into two distinct yet mutually dependent areas of representation. These are 'youth-as-trouble', and 'youth-as-fun'. He says that usually the category of 'youth-as-trouble' is presented in documentaries most often. For him, 'youth-as-fun' is presented later, mostly formed within advertisement, etc. Tabloids often sensationalise incidents of teen crime or issues present. Is it done just to keep things interesting for the audience? Of course it is. Often we are seeing someone else’s version of ‘reality’, as the ‘reality’ presented by the text is always going to have been constructed. People need to remember that!
Sunday 1 January 2012
01/01/2012
URBAN DICTIONARY: New Year's Resolutions - The things you promise yourself you will do over the year, but quit after the first 2 weeks.
“Bob's New Years Resolution was to lose 30 pounds...Yet Bob says a lot of things.”
...Bearing that in mind, here is my top ten NEW YEARS RESOLUTIONS:
1. Manage my time and make time
2. Motivate myself to work harder on my studies of French and Journalism
3. To use my summer wisely
4. Get fit
5. Start going to gigs again
6. Take more photos/start working on more photography
7. Reduce, reuse, recycle
8. Volunteer
9. Sort my Grammar out
10. Explore Sheffield and its surrounding areas
"A New Year's resolution is a commitment that a person makes to one or more lasting personal goals, projects, or the reforming of a habit. This goal must be reached by the Next New Year. Keep in mind that this is a goal, not a wish and should be something that you as a person could strive for."
40 to 45% of American adults make one or more resolutions each year.
According to a survey carried out, 75% of people pass the first week, 2 weeks- 71%, one month- 64%, and 46% after 6 months.
While a lot of people who make new years resolutions do break them, making these resolutions, I believe, is very useful.
Giving up smoking and losing weight are the favourites, and each year, the number of fitness DVD sales and Nicotine patches sold increases. Another popular promise made is to deal with better money management and debt reduction.
A tip? Don't set the bar too high, if you want to achieve it, make it realistic.
“Bob's New Years Resolution was to lose 30 pounds...Yet Bob says a lot of things.”
...Bearing that in mind, here is my top ten NEW YEARS RESOLUTIONS:
1. Manage my time and make time
2. Motivate myself to work harder on my studies of French and Journalism
3. To use my summer wisely
4. Get fit
5. Start going to gigs again
6. Take more photos/start working on more photography
7. Reduce, reuse, recycle
8. Volunteer
9. Sort my Grammar out
10. Explore Sheffield and its surrounding areas
"A New Year's resolution is a commitment that a person makes to one or more lasting personal goals, projects, or the reforming of a habit. This goal must be reached by the Next New Year. Keep in mind that this is a goal, not a wish and should be something that you as a person could strive for."
40 to 45% of American adults make one or more resolutions each year.
According to a survey carried out, 75% of people pass the first week, 2 weeks- 71%, one month- 64%, and 46% after 6 months.
While a lot of people who make new years resolutions do break them, making these resolutions, I believe, is very useful.
Giving up smoking and losing weight are the favourites, and each year, the number of fitness DVD sales and Nicotine patches sold increases. Another popular promise made is to deal with better money management and debt reduction.
A tip? Don't set the bar too high, if you want to achieve it, make it realistic.
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