Gadgets and Other Things – A Message In A Blog

You Me At Six and All Time Low

February 20, 2015February 20, 2015A Message In A BlogLeave a comment

Walking up to the O2 stadium on the 14th February 2015 was one of the most exciting things I have ever done! I wasn’t interested in looking at the O2 or visiting one of its million or so bars and restaurants; I was pumped and ready for one of the most anticipated shows in the rock calendar. The You Me At Six and All Time Low joint headline UK arena tour. Yeah, you read that right!

I’d seen ‘You Me At Six’ perform twice before and ‘All Time Low’ once before. Each time I’ve seen these two incredibly talented bands play, the crowd has doubled and the ticket prices have doubled with it. But that’s OK, because I love them and frankly, I’d sell my soul to see that show again; it was incredible. Easily the best show I had ever seen. In fact, let me give you a little example of how much I enjoyed it; it has now been about a week since the show and my throat is just beginning to relax.

I’d first seen You Me At Six play in 2010 at the Hammersmith Apollo and from that night on, well to say I was hooked is the understatement of the century. They are- in my overly bias opinion- the single greatest band in the country, nay, THE WORLD (bit much?) at the moment. Closely followed of course by All Time Low. Obviously.

Oh, how rude of me; I almost forgot to introduce everyone!

So, people, this is You Me At Six…

So we have:

Centre : Josh Franceschi – lead vocals (since 2004)
Far Left : Max Helyer – rhythm guitar, backing vocals (since 2004)
Second Left : Chris Miller – lead guitar (since 2004)
Far Right : Matt Barnes – bass guitar (since 2004)
Second Right : Dan Flint – drums, percussion (since 2007)

And here is All Time Low:

Centre Left : Alex Gaskarth – lead vocals, rhythm guitar, keyboards
Centre Right : Jack Barakat – lead guitar, backing vocals
Right : Zack Merrick – bass guitar, backing vocals
Left : Rian Dawson – drums, percussion

I know when I go to see these two perform, that it’s going to be an awesome event. You see, these days we’re bombarded with bands that have been put together very quickly, pushed on stage and then told to sing a song that has been written for them by someone else. And surprise surprise, it’s these bands that get all the immediate worldwide attention. It completely tarnishes the music industry and undermines the hard work, pure graft and years upon years of dedication to the game that bands like You Me At Six and All Time Low have put in. But these bands don’t have a true and loyal fan-base; they have 12-15 year old girls who will inevitably grow up and won’t give two flying hoots about them in five years’ time.

You Me At Six, All Time Low and many bands like them have some of the strongest fan-bases on the planet. They’ve grown up WITH them and respect and love them for everything that they have helped them achieve. It’s these people who will stand the test of time and continue to produce music to millions of fans across the globe until they’re 60.

I don’t know, maybe i’m just being sentimental. But I really do believe that these two bands have already and are going to achieve mighty great things in their respected careers. So good luck to them.

They’re my favourites. Who are yours? Let me know with a comment!

Until Next time

Bye!

Dystopia Part Three: The Finale

December 30, 2014A Message In A BlogLeave a comment

Let us wrap this up nice and quickly…

Dystopia is a pretty daunting word; it suggests absolute chaos and misery, a world full of death and no hope. But think about it for a minute; would you really want a ‘Utopia’? Would you really want a world where everything and everyone in it was perfect? I know I wouldn’t. The world is rapidly advancing and I for one am so excited to see where these new advances take us as a species. Sure we might have corporations owning everything but without these companies; Apple for one, we would be further behind than we currently are. Without having these (for lack of a better word) geniuses, at the helm of our technological world, where would we be? These people are those that need to push us forward in to tomorrow. And they’re doing it. Fast.

I started this little mini blog series as a way of finding out for myself whether or not we are actually entering a Dystopian age. But so far I have come the conclusion that a dytsopian future isn’t necessarily the disaster that it is often made out to be. Maybe the word ‘Dystopia’ can have connotations of other things other than apocalypse, or post-nuclear war; things that we associate with the end of the world. Because dystopia isn’t the end of the world; it’s simply a world in which we have fallen, and we need to pick ourselves back up. I believe that we can create new meanings for this word; as we are never realistically going to have a Utopia (which I have decided would be boring and useless) it needs to stand alone as a word that describes the ‘real future’, because that’s what it is. We aren’t looking forward in to a Utopian future; we’re looking forward to a Dystopian future and that’s okay, because that’s reality.

I think that’s exactly how i’m going to refer to a ‘dystopian’ future whenever someone begins to talk about how horrible it is. It’s reality; and however much some films try and make it the worse thing that could possibly happen; they never pretend to make it anything but a realistic foreshadowing of the future.

But you know what, i’ve just realised something; why do I keep refering to this period in our history as the future? We’re very much in it, right now. The future that we should be looking to is something much more exciting than our current perceptions of what ‘future’ is. I’m talking flying cars and USS Enterprises.

But what about YOU, what do you think of the word ‘Dystopia’?

Dystopia Part 2: Technology

October 7, 2014A Message In A BlogLeave a comment

Technology is seen in one of two lights; it is seen as the innovator of our world, the basis on which modern mankind is to evolve; or it is seen as the beginning of the end of freedom as a thing to be taken for granted. Let’s think about that for a bit, shall we…

Technology is evolving all the time, it runs our lives and if someone took your smartphone or laptop or in fact just your WiFi hub away from you for a single day, you’d probably go insane and start to question your entire existence. We rely on technology so much these days that they can do pretty much anything; for example make things so ridiculously expensive and force you to upgrade when you don’t want it, and we just blindly go along with it. So what’s to say that in 10, 15, 20 years that technology companies are to be the most powerful organisations on the planet; I mean, they’re already the richest. Apple, for example, is worth more than the entire US treasury.

So what do we do? Do we fight it? Viva la Revolution?

Simple answer, No, we shouldn’t. I’ve seen Continuum, It doesn’t end pretty. No, what we need to do is embrace this technology that is already such a huge part of our lives and develop WITH it. The world is too far gone under the control of these corporations for anyone to really have any effect on them; besides, if people did revolt against them, they’d shut down for the afternoon and the revolutionaries would go loopy because they couldn’t see whether someone had accepted them on Facebook!

The world is moving forward; and with this developing technology comes so many possibilities. We are on our way to finding a cure to Cancer, and so many other horrible diseases that are a huge issue the world over. We can do so many things with evolving technology that to say it is anything other than an innovator for good is just crazy. Disagree if you want, in fact, please do; I’d quite like a different point of view to this subject.

It saddens me that I was born when I was. I was born in 1992 and since then the world has gone tech mad! So much change and so much improvement; from the internet coming on leaps and bounds, to the geniuses in their medical laboratories who are trying to make the world a better, healthier place. Everything is on the way up and I feel like i’ve been born right on the cusp of it all. Who knows where we could be in 100-200 years time. I dare say there will be a cure for all forms of cancer; we might even see West Ham at the top of the premiership… … No? …well, ok let’s not get ahead of ourselves. But you get my point; in that relatively short period the human race could do so many amazing things, thanks to the technology giants who are running our lives. It’s just a shame that- and i’m not trying to be completely morbid with this- I won’t be around to witness it all.

Anyway, I went little bit off the beaten track there. My point is, that however much we try to say that Apple, Microsoft, Sony and any other tech titans are ruining the sanctity of life and that soon we’ll be having our Facebook feeds downloaded directly to our sculls and Mr Zuckerberg will be able to read our thoughts and control our minds, the fact of the matter is; without these people; without their groundbreaking tech or their out-of-the-box mindset, we wont be able to move forward. We’ll just stagnate if we don’t allow these people to take control, even just a little. I realise I sound a little bit like a brain-washed cyborg from a Sci-Fi film, but hey, if that’s what we need to see sense in who’s running things around here, so be it.

Please feel free to leave your opinions in the comments box and get a debate going.

Until next time…

Bye!

Dystopia

September 11, 2014A Message In A BlogLeave a comment

Dystopia: Introduction- Part 1

There comes a point in the existence of our species when what we always thought would be forever in our imagination, or forever on our screens; would eventually come to life. We have known for a very long time that if we continue in the direction that we have been heading, our fate will be sealed as one of a dystopian ending. I enjoy dystopian films; ‘The Hunger Games’, ‘Children of Men’, ‘I Robot’, ‘Book of Eli’. I don’t like these films because they show the human race in a state of ruin, or helplessness; I like these films because no matter how much you try and deny it, and no matter how much you want your perfect Utopian life to come true; these are the films that most realistically resemble the future we are entering.

It’s no secret that our world is slowly falling apart, that tensions between countries are at an all-time high. This however is merely the beginning of what I’m talking about. World War 3 is one thing, what comes after is an entirely different and much more serious case of affairs.

Now I’m not saying that it wouldn’t be beyond awesome to find yourself in the middle of the Capitol, just like Hunger Games; but just think for a minute, would you actually be part of that society? I mean come on; do you really think that after WW3-when this country like most others is in a state of absolute terror and devastation-the government isn’t going to crack down on EVERYTHING? They’re going to protect their own and the rest of you are going to be left out in the cold.

Sorry, that got a bit dark…

Another fine and equally terrifyingly believable way of looking at how our world is declining is through a series that was shown a while ago on T.V called Black Mirror, the episode I’m going to be talking about being ‘Fifteen Million Merits’. This is a dark satire aimed at reality television and to be honest, it basically hits the nail on the head. As a nation we’re obsessed with reality T.V; Big Brother (for some insane reason), X factor, Britain’s Got Talent. These shows all give their respective participants the shot at a better life. The thing about Black Mirror however, is that it exaggerates it; the idea being that you can’t get out of your trapped, mundane existence until you become famous through this one route. Kids have no motivation to do anything ambitious these days because they aspire to be like someone from Big Brother or TOWIE (if you read my blog you’ll know by now how much I dislike those people). My point is that if they all aspire to be like these idiots then future generations will think like this too and a massive anti-social, uneducated snowball of devolution will begin.

That last paragraph is far from my main point; it was just an angry diversion and I’ll now get back to the topic in hand.

Dystopia; It’s a scary concept, isn’t it. It’s something that we don’t often think about because we kind of believe, in a worryingly naïve manner, that this world will be the same forever; not on your life. The world is changing and we’d best be ready for it when it does. The gap between the rich and the poor is ever growing, especially in places like America, where the idea of the ‘American Dream’ is slowly fading to nightmare. The simple fact of the matter is, it’ll be us and them and the sooner we all realise this, the sooner we can get on with preparing.

I am obviously being a tad over-dramatic, but little pockets of the world are all becoming more and more irritable with one another and the idea of WW3 is becoming more of a reality.

The thing that bothers me the most about this is that for some, nothing will change; WW3 will for them simply be just another credit crunch or depression and then they’ll carry on with their perfectly ordinary lives. Gates to Royal Parks across the country WILL close to the public, businesses WILL collapse and life as we know it WILL change.

The main point that I want to make in this part (Part 1) is that our future is most probably not going to be what we have always expected. Back in the 40s, 50s and even 60s, people thought that the 2000s would be a new age of flying cars and robot servants; what we actually got was a slightly improved Ford Focus and Nick Clegg. We are improving in certain areas such as technologically, but that’s something I’m saving for Part 2.

Join me in part 2 where I explore our future from more of a technological point of view.

Be sure to like this post if you liked it and comment if you feel like commenting.

Until next time…

Bye!

Decisions, Decisions

August 14, 2014A Message In A BlogLeave a comment

I haven’t posted much over the last month or so; and it isn’t because i’ve become lazy or stagnant, it’s because i’m still deciding what this blog is going to be. I think i’ve figured it out now; thanks to a little advice. Let me explain…

As a blogger you’re faced with two options; firstly, you can decide to blog about whatever comes to your mind, on whatever subject you feel like writing about and hope that people notice you; and secondly you can decide to focus your blog on one subject or theme and aim yourself at one demographic in the hope that that specific niche will accept you.

I need to find that piece, that idea and structure that will complete my blog puzzle.

Here’s a picture of an incomplete puzzle. You know, just in case you didn’t know what one looked like!

I feel like neither of those choices necessarily defines me as a writer; and also, I don’t believe that your writing should be ruled by any strict guidelines just because that’s what ‘everyone else does’, same as anything else in life. So i’ve decided that the best thing for me to do with this blog-which will be the basis of my blog’s future format-is to combine the two ‘rules’ and create my own SUPER RULE! To have a light focus (i.e Fashion) and combine it with whatever I feel like writing about. I might, for example, want to write about current affairs and decide to weave fashion in to the mix; or I might simply want to write about current affairs. I don’t want the blog to become stagnant or for lack of a better word, boring. I want it to be in some ways, innovative. I want it to be free.

So this is the structure that i’ve chosen for ‘Danny’s Blog’. I will have fashion as my focus, something to which I can return to for any post I upload; but I do want to give the blog it’s own identity, and I feel the way to do this is to simply not go with what everyone else is doing. I don’t want to write about one thing, that’s not what i’m about. I want to write about EVERYTHING!

I thought that to be a successful blogger you had to have a focus, a specific niche that you directed to a specific type of demographic so as to gain recognition. But I realise now that the most important thing about a blog- in my mind – is that people enjoy your writing, and if that means directing my writing to a wider demographic, thereby (and I take this from ALL blogging ‘tip’ books) risking not having a strong and loyal follwowing, then so be it. I feel like now my blog has a purpose, and a direction to go in.

Plus, surely aiming my writing at a wider and more varied demographic just means that there’s more of a chance of gaining a larger audience, no?

Here’s me completing my blog puzzle, you know, just in case you were wondering what that might look like!

Please, if you’re reading this, do make sure you comment and let me know your thoughts on my decision. Like this post, comment and most importantly, follow and share it.

Until next time…

Bye!

Robin All The Talent

August 13, 2014A Message In A BlogLeave a comment

In 1995 a film was released which would bring in to my life, one of the greatest actors I would ever witness. ‘Jumanji’ was a piece of on-screen genius and to a kid, like me, it would forever cement in my mind that one of the funniest men on the planet was the incredibly talented Robin Williams. Now it’s well worth noting that, at this point in my brief existence, I didn’t know the name ‘Robin Williams’; but knew him instead as “that strange man” or ” that funny man”; and that’s alright by me. When you’re a child, you’re not influenced by names or fame or reputation; you’re moved simply by pure on-screen presence; something of which Mr Williams was most definitely not lacking.

When you watch films like ‘Jumanji’, ‘Jack’, ‘Hook’ or ‘Flubber’; you see-as a child- a fellow child, masquerading as a fully grown adult. You see a crazy man, jumping and making funny voices, pulling funny faces and talking to a piece of green jelly. This is of course, something Robin Williams did rather well. But don’t forget his other roles; serious, striking and powerful. My favourite of these is most definitely ‘Good Will Hunting’. I wont in any way describe the film; I wouldn’t want to ruin it for you; but take some time out of your day to watch it, because Williams’ acting is leaps and bounds beyond what most actors could pull out of any of their hats during their entire career.

Getting back to the reasons I loved this man growing up. One of which is that, quite simply, he was there while I was growing up. There aren’t many actors; in fact you could probably count them on one hand; who made the positive impact on my childhood quite like Robin Williams. It is-when I think about it-probably the reason i’m such the stubborn person I am today. He taught us kids that growing up (and no, this isn’t just a Peter Pan reference) was out-dated and frankly, boring. He taught us that nothing in life should be taken too seriously; unless of course that something is your flying car, or your real-life jungle board game.

I honestly don’t think that we will ever see an actor who in any way matches Robin Williams’ on-screen comedic presence; or who can compare to his adorable and loving nature; whilst still managing to be a serious and imposing hero at the same time. I might be wrong, but i’m pretty sure he was most certainly one of a kind, and future comedic actors had best be aware that they have got some seriously large shoes to fill.

When I first heard of Robin Williams’ passing, I couldn’t believe it, and I am still trying to come to terms with it. I’d lost a childhood and adulthood hero and i’ll be honest, it’s difficult to accept.

My point is, that Williams was an example of a life lived, not endured; and that is my entire life philosophy in four short words. To quote the man himself, ‘you’re only given one little spark of madness; you mustn’t lose it’.

It was shocking and heart-breaking news for me to hear; but my thoughts go out to his wife and children during this tragic time.

RIP, Funny Man, you’ll be truly missed, but never forgotten.

Bangerang!

I Went Shopping

May 13, 2014May 14, 2014A Message In A BlogLeave a comment

My last post focused on everything that I can’t stand about modern ‘fashion’ (to use the word very loosely). This blog will then of course focus entirely on the things that I actually like; more specifically my recent purchases of which i’m rather proud. So here they are, Oh and by the way, I will never call one of these posts a ‘Haul’ post; that’s just not how I roll. So naturally ‘recent purchases that i’m rather proud of ‘ is much simpler, obviously.

First up is my new Dark Grey Floral Burnout T-Shirt from River Island. I love this, no really I love it. It definitely is not what I would usually go for but i’m trying to switch the wardrobe up a bit. It’s perfect for summer, light, not too in-your-face and flash and it’s quite long, which may not seem like a particularly big deal but trust me, with my height, it matters.

Next up are my absolute favourite jeans in the world. I have vowed to never again buy a pair of skinny jeans from anywhere but River Island, and for good reason. They’re fantastically priced at £35, they actually do them long enough for my nine and half mile long legs and unlike other retailers they provide the customer with a proper choice. If you’re wondering, this particular pair are the Black Acid Wash Rip Sid Skinny Stretch, I also have the same but in Light Acid Wash.

Next are these Brown Pointed Creased Shoes. These, like almost everything in this blog are from River Island and again are very well priced at £35. I tend to wear them for pretty much any occasion as smart casual; they actually go very nicely with the dark grey skinny’s above. Very comfortable, stylish and compared to other places, an absolute bargain.

OK, i’ll admit it, this should have been called the ‘River Island Haul’ and yes this Mid Wash Jersey Sleeve Hodded Denim Jacket is from River Island. This Jacket is my complete favourite of the bunch; it’s beyond comfy, the denim is not as heavy as you might imagine and the floral style pattern on the inside of the hood (which by the way can be removed) goes nicely with the floral T-Shirt at the top of the post. This again is well priced at only £50.

Last one and hallelujah it’s not from River Island. No, this plain white T-Shirt with a printed front is from the online store of one of the best YouTubers around, Ben Brown. It, like the rest of the pieces in this blog is well priced at just £19.95 and is well worth it, the quality is brilliant and the designs are well thought through with a perfect finish. Ben Brown is an inspiration to so many people, and with his YouTube channel only getting bigger, his inspiring and contagious positive outlook towards life is reaching more and more people at every corner of the globe. So go check out his YouTube channel at Mr Ben Brown and check him out on Twitter at @MrBenBrown; it’s worth it, trust me.

So there you have it everyone, my recent buys. Alright, granted most of them were from one store but then at least you can call me consistent. If you guys have any clothing lines, both online and…er off make sure to comment in the comments section and let me know.

Until next time.

Bye!

What No One Should Ever Wear!

May 11, 2014A Message In A BlogLeave a comment

If by some strange reason you clicked on this post hoping for actual genuine sound fashion advice then look aw… actually wait, don’t look away now at all, keep on reading, but do so knowing that Senor Fashionista I am not. But hopefully I might be able to give some people an idea of what they should under no circumstances be found wearing.

So i’m going to do a sort of head to toe format here; now obviously I can’t possibly fit in all of the worlds fashion faux pas’ in one blog post, so maybe this will become a sort of serial blog, where I upload a post maybe twice a month filled with all of the things that I’ve seen people wearing that should by law be thrown in a skip.

So let’s get cracking shall we…

Head… and Neck:

Trilbys: I’m not entirely sure what some men think they look like wearing a Trilby, but I can assure you it does not look good. I think sometimes guys think that they look like The Don from The God Father or any other 70’s gangster film, but no, back in the day gangsters would wear these…

A Fedora, which in some cases can look like a stylish hat. But leave the Trilbys in the store.

Snapbacks: This particular hat defines the current problem with teen fashion. It’s not just that they look like a massive Daffy Duck with ‘Swag’ (I wont even get started on how much I hate that word) written on the front; it’s the fact that each and every person who wears one of these…things, is quite confident that they look like a ‘boss’. No. You look like a silly duck with a vocabulary so poor you have to resort to describing yourself as having ‘Swag’ on your hat so you don’t forget.

Burberry : This is a tricky one because Burberry is still obviously a very prestigious name in fashion. Let me explain; Burberry as we all know by now has a very distinct pattern, and when worn correctly by someone who has quite clearly bought a very expensive piece it can look very good. However, there are those who buy extremely cheap knock offs (mostly hats and scarves) and wear them whilst mugging an old lady; we call these people Chavs where i’m from and they’ve ruined the Burberry brand for the rest of us.

Top:

Hawaiian Shirts: This one is mostly aimed at middle aged men who insist on wearing these shirts on their holiday to Mallorca. I don’t know who exactly is responsible for these monstrosities but making poor innocent impressionable middle aged men look like massive parrots is not the way forward; it’s just mean.

Wife Beaters/ Vests: Now here in the UK we would usually associate the Wife Beater with just one man…

Yep, Onslow was a character from a British T.V series called Keeping Up Appearances, he was a vile, lazy and an all round slobbish man, and by using this picture I have explained why Wife Beaters are awful, end of discussion.

Football Shirts being worn anywhere but a football stadium: It’s a long title I know, but I really believe that the football shirt should be kept in the place where it belongs. I mean let’s face it, you wouldn’t wear your swimming gear down the shops to get a pint of milk, so why is it acceptable to wear your football kit down the pub, thereby making the entire establishment look automatically ‘Chavvy’?.

Massive Puffy Coats: I used to love wearing my puffy coat as a kid, it made me look like action man, or The Hulk, but when I see grown men walking down the street wearing one it just looks ridiculous; and you just know that when they take the massive coat off they are going to look like a stick man. By all means allow your children up to a maximum of fives year wear them, but stop after that. No seriously, stop!

Bottom:

Read my guide to Jeans post…

Guys, keep out of the short shorts: No, it’s not cool just because Joey Essex wears them, they are primary meant for women, not for a man on a shopping trip to Lakeside.

3/4 Length Sports Shorts: Words can seriously not explain quite how bad these things are, yes, OK in the 90’s when a boy band wore them in a music video they were acceptable; but ever since they’ve been associated with a six pack of tennants and a park bench, they’ve sort of lost their appeal.

Feet:

Crocs: They should never have been invented in the first place. Again, by all means allow your child to wear them on the beach, on holiday, for the express purpose of wearing them on the beach. But do not for the love all things good in this world wear them if you are a 50 year old woman walking around Tesco.

Sandals with Socks: I know for a fact that i’m not the only person who gets wound up by this. No man has ever put on a pair of sandals and then thought “Oh I know what will make this look even more sexy than it does already…” They just can’t think it looks in any way ‘fashionable’. So stop.

Uggs : I’m afraid this is the same situation as the Burberry crisis. Expensive and well produced UGG boots can on some people look quite good, but when they are poorly made knock offs and the teenager in a full pink lacoste shell suit has worn them and them only for three years straight, and the soles have begun to separate so the girl is essentially walking with her feet on the part of the boot that should be touching her calf; it’s time to give up.

I’m going to stop there and let you mull over any of the fashion faux pas’ you may be making right now. This will definitely be a twice a month blog because there a far too many no no’s around to ignore.

Until next time.

Bye!

My Top 10 TV Series

April 24, 2014April 25, 2014A Message In A BlogLeave a comment

I’ve been saying over the past few days that i’ll be posting a ‘My Top 20 TV Series’ on here, however, I soon realised that I do not in fact know 20 TV series and therefore have decided to knock it down to 10. So here is a list of My Top 10 TV series.

Top Gear

This is such an easy one because Top Gear has been my favourite show on television for as long as I can remember. It has everything one could ask for in a TV show; Explosions, Super-cars, Clarkson, May, Hammond, Exploding caravans and The Stig, obviously. If you haven’t yet seen an episode of Top Gear then you absolutely must! Also, if you haven’t seen an episode of Top Gear, how on earth not? It’s showed in I don’t even know how many countries to around 300 million people; so get out from under the rock you’ve been living in; or if you’ve upgraded, remove yourself from your cave and get on BBC iPlayer!

House of Cards

This was not even a series that I was even familiar with up until around four or five days ago, and then all of a sudden I said (to myself) ‘Hey, maybe I should watch House of Cards, it has Kevin Spacey in it after all, and he’s pretty cool’. Needless to say I watched it and it is now my absolute addiction. So go check it out on Netflix if you haven’t already, you definitely will not be disappointed.

Suits

This would have been in second place, up until of course four or five days ago when House of Cards came in to my life. I love Suits; it has that general Law type feel about it but it’s deeper; no other law series that I’ve seen focuses so much on the actual law side of things. That might seem strange to say but it’s true; when you watch it you’ll understand, I mean, they use words that I don’t even know the meaning of and I still love it. Again, if you haven’t seen it, I really do recommend it.

Doctor Who

The Doctor has taken pride of place in a previous blog post on here and for obvious reasons, he’s amazing. He is a time-travelling, Police box-spaceship-time-machine owning, sonic-screwdriver wielding genius nutcase. Who wouldn’t love him. I watched Doctor Who from Christopher Eccleston and have been an avid viewer ever since. I’m not entirely convinced by the ‘old’ Doctor Who series but maybe that’s because it was before my time. But if you ever feel like getting in to Doctor Who, i’d recommend starting with Mr Tennant.

Downton Abbey

I have my old University housemate to thank for this one, and I love him for it! Downton Abbey is absolutely what is right about television in England today. It tells the stories of both the servants and the masters in a 20th Century English stately home, through scandal, blackmail, marriages and even war. You can’t not love it. It even got a little cameo in Iron Man 3!

Made in Chelsea

We all have those guilty pleasure series and MIC is most definitely mine. I think along with most people who watch MIC my main reason for watching the show is my fascination with how the ‘other half’ live. I love the idea of living in Chelsea, or Mayfair or even more unrealistically, Belgravia. All of those areas of London are some of the most affluent postcodes in not only Great Britain but the world. You should check this one out for sure!

Sherlock

Sherlock Holmes is one character who I have been obsessed with for years now, but I have only really managed to read 3 of the books. I do however claim to be the TV series biggest EVER fan! Well, not really the biggest ever, but one of its fans for sure. I think Benedict Cumberbatch is one of the top actors around and mix him with Martin Freeman as Watson and you’ve got yourself an absolute goldmine.

Smallville

I feel really bad that I still haven’t yet got around to seeing the tenth season of Smallville, but seasons 1-9 were by far one of the best series I have ever had the pleasure of watching. It actually surprises me that it’s not higher up on this list, but what can you do! Tom Welling has proven himself time and time again in this series and it baffles me and will always baffle me that he never got the chance to play the big man in an actual film. Maybe if DC comics get their act together and actually decide to make a Justice League series (that’s if they’re brave enough to take on the titan that is The Avengers in the first place) they’ll cast him as Superman then. And they should.

Game of Thrones

Now there’s not much one can say about this that wouldn’t be a spoiler; so i’ll try not to take too long telling you how amazing it is. Again, it was my University housemate who brought me in to the world of Game of Thrones and again I love him for it! Making something of such epic proportions as a TV series was such a great idea, and the fact that it wasn’t just a 3 episode per series thing made it so much better, HBO definitely had some very deep pockets when it came to making this series. Go watch it…NOW!

The O.C

It had to be here somewhere, didn’t it? The O.C was one of my sisters all time favourite American TV series and once she decided to finally trust me in handling the precious DVDs it quickly became one of mine; after Friends, of course. I like the theme which runs seamlessly through the whole thing, which is the massive split between the rich and poor in one of the USA’s richest counties. I also love the way they delve deeper in to the issue by mixing the two societies, with the character Ryan being thrown straight in to the deep end of a world of cocktail parties and million dollar mansions. Brilliant, hats off to the creator of this one. Well done.

So there you have it, my Top 10 TV Series. I think you should all pick one of the series on here that you haven’t seen before, check it out, whether it be a single episode, or if you find yourself getting hooked, a full series and tell me what you think. And be sure to let me know what you’re favourite shows are so that I can check those out as well.

Bye!

Lego Heroes: Marvel!

March 31, 2014A Message In A BlogLeave a comment

I’ve been waiting to get my hands on a Lego X Box game for such a long time. Ever since I played the Indiana Jones game I needed to see if all Lego games were as amazing and as well put together as that one. When I first mentioned to people that I was getting Lego Heroes, one person suggested against buying it; he said it was really disappointing and that i’d get bored of it really quickly. I have to say, that really was not the case. In fact, this is one of the best games I have ever had the privilege to play. EVER. The references to the films are brilliant, the comedic bits that are placed in almost all of it to keep up the ‘fun’ element of the game are very well done and most definitely do not get boring, and the actual game-play is so much better than I was expecting. I knew it was going to be awesome, and so the fact that it was better than I was expecting is really something.

I absolutely have an obsession with the Marvel films; I’m not and have never really been too interested in comic books (actually the only comic book I think I ever owned was The Simpsons) and so I was relying on this game to equal my love of the films, and boy has it delivered. My favourite character to control so far being of course Iron Man. I can’t explain it, I guess it might be the fact that all of the characters (because they’re Lego) come across as short and stubby and watching them move about is just hilarious.

There are a few minor things that I find slightly annoying however. I’m not a massive fan of the Fantastic Four franchise, it’s not as captivating as the Avengers or Spiderman or The X Men. This isn’t really an issue but when you have to mess around figuring out where Mr Fantastics limbs are going to end up or when you’re trying frantically to control The Human Torch as he flies around following the path of a bee that was there earlier on in the day, it gets a little…tiresome to say the least.

Upsides occur whenever you get to control The Hulk or Captain America, or in fact anyone who isn’t part of the Fantastic Four; I even enjoyed being Hawkeye, and that’s a big deal for me because i’m not a huge fan to be honest. But the comedy sketches his character has with Black Widow are just perfect.

The actual game-play is outstanding. When you here that a film is being made in to a Lego game you really have to wonder at first why they bothered. However, Lego games are so brilliantly created with creators going to such painstaking lengths to get every detail perfect that it’s hard not to love them. You might think that it was so well put together that you forget that the characters are Lego at all; not at all, it’s so obviously Lego throughout the game that it’s impossible to think anything else.

I really want to thank the creators of this game for putting so much effort in to every aspect of the experience. They really tried hard to put forward an outstanding piece of work and it paid off. I love it.

If you have the game i’d love to know what you think of it. You might agree with me, you might think i’m completely crazy for liking it so much. Let me know in the comments.

Bye!