Hi, just a quick post to describe some of the sections that I aim to include within this blog.
My original intentions for this blog, as with my previous blog, was for it to primarily be used as a space for me to practice review writing, as an ambition of mine since prior to taking my A-Levels was to be a journalist in some manner, not necessisarily in current affairs, but erring towards this areas that I take and interest in, such as music. Therefore any reviews that I write here will be written as if I were intending to submit them for publication.
Other than that, a few of my favourite bloggers in the bloggosphere dedicate there websites to fashion. I may dip into such waters sporadically, especially if the aforementioned clothing/fashion business idea comes into fruition. I may attempt to customise and/or make things to keep my creative juices flowing.
Another thing that I have been considering which may be drawn from those music/fashion intended blog posts would be a 'Wonder Woman of the Week' feature, whereby I choose a person whom I find inspirational and write a post in an attempt to bringing you around to my point of view! ;)
Apart from that, all I have to talk about is my day to day life which is, at the moment, particularly uninteresting!
So that's it!
Tuesday 29 May 2012
New Waves.. 2:54 - 'Scarlet'
You may or may not have heard of a band named 2:54, but you should! Getting the perfect balance between gritty and eerie, 'Scarlet' is from their self-titled first album which is out now, and which I know I'll most certainly be getting. I'll most likely write a review when I do, it's already been pretty well received.
Also, I need new favourite bands please, mine have a habit of splitting up. Recommendations?
Monday 28 May 2012
Nothing better than a good idea!
So, in the midst of Britain's yearly heatwave, I spent the day indoors flitting about and sorting my student finance application (finally finished!) and printed some tab to learn on bass, 'R U Mine' by Arctic Monkeys next for me, I think. Also trying to teach myself guitar on my old acoustic that I first bought in age 11, saved all my pocket money for that! I quickly remembered what it was about attempting to teach myself that made me give up last time - struggling to hold down the chords. For someone with long, bendy fingers, you'd think that I'd have a much easier time achieving this than I actually am! However, I have a better concept of how to play the instrument this time around, after teaching myself bass; when I tried about 8 years ago, my brain genuinely couldn't comprehend strumming and timing!
Anyway, whilst filling in my student finance I was quickly reminded that I could really do with finding a job. Even if I only earned enough to have a bit of spending money as well as give my folks some board, it would be better than getting in more debt. Money left untouched is money that can be repaid quicker, after all. It was whilst browsing through some of my favourite blogs that I was struck by an idea. I was on LLYMLRS BigCartel, JWLRY, when I realised that she was, essentially, purchasing, bundling and re-selling rings in order to make a profit. After seeing all of the reconstructed and customised clothes at vintage store, COW in Birmingham last week, I realised that this was something that I and two of my friends whom take an interest in fashion could easily do ourselves, buying cheaply from places such as eBay and in sales and even raiding our own wardrobes for unwanted clothes which we could bleach, shred, stud and patch in order to make something one-off and unique. 'Vintage' has been really embraced in the past few years, especially so within the youth market who have a lot of disposable income, so this is something we could really capitalise on! Customising to order is another idea that I also had, for example taking a denim item and buying patches specifically and halving price costs between us and the seller. Retailing the actual denim higher than what we paid for it could still result in profit, as would purchasing the customising materials such as studs and the like in bulk.
The three of us have pretty different styles of dress - I prefer dark colours, plaid and tartan, prints and loose fitting tops, whilst my (girl) best friend is far more feminine and prefers dresses, skirts and bright colours, whilst my (male) best friend prefers retro shirts, painfully skinny jeans and gaudy prints. Between the three of us, I really think we could come up with something that could appeal to a lot of people! Hopefully, the financial and business side of this can work out as efficiently as what I think the creative aspect will :)
In other news, the Japanese Voyeurs B-Side and Rarities CD that I ordered last week arrived today. It's a limited edition of 250 (mine was numbered 231) and I knew it was something that I had to own, as they were set to be my new favourite band (after the demise of Alexisonfire D':) before they too, decided to split a few months ago. The disc has some really good songs on it and was a snatch at £7 including postage, and I'll probably do a review on it in the next few days!
If you've never heard of Japanese Voyeurs, I'll leave you with a taster below, enjoy :)
Sunday 27 May 2012
London Calling
About a month ago now, myself and some uni friends embarked upon a trip to London as part of our English Contexts group assignment for this semester. Our assignment was on the 'Monstrous and Grotesque' which was the focus for us to garner info in order to create a website on the theme, a compulsory part of which was to participate in a relevant field trip. After initially wanting to visit the Bodyworld's exhibition (if you've never heard of it, I suggest you click the link to see what I'm on about! It's equally shocking and amazing and allows you to view the human anatomy in a way that you never thought you would!), only to find that it was currently at residence in Germany, we decided to visit the Damien Hirst exhibition currently housed at the TATE Modern in London.
The day got off to a pretty bad start when I missed by first bus, making myself late and then had to get on another train in order to get to Birmingham where I met my classmate. Upon getting to Moor St. Station and enquiring about tickets, we discovered that the train we planned to get would, in fact, cost £50 (!) instead of the £15 that we'd anticipated! I guess that teaches us for not pre-buying train tickets! Luckily, there was a cheaper train about an hour later which cost £25 which we decided to get instead.
This was my first time travelling to London, and I was pretty excited! Anticipating a long train journey (and thinking that I'd make pretty boring company), i stocked up on sweets and magazines and even brought my sketchbook along for the ride, although I needn't have worried, as even though practically everyone who had said that they would come had pulled out at the last minute, myself and my lone classmate managed to yabber on about next to nothing! It was a pretty hot (albeit wet) day, and once meeting up with our native Londoner who was back home for the uni Easter holidays, we set off to find the TATE.
For those who are unfamiliar with Hirst's work, he became infamous in the 1990's for creating pieces to do with recurring themes of life and death, however, controversially, these pieces often incorporated either live creatures or their carcasses. Perhaps his most famous piece, entitled 'The Impossibility of Death in the Mind of Someone Living' incorporates a dead tiger shark preserved in formaldehyde.
It was both disturbing an fascinating in pretty equal measures. Being so close to such a formidable creature was still somewhat daunting even though it was obviously dead and had been for a long time. The sheer size of it was unprecedented by me; I could have easily fitted inside it if I had lay horizontally, and although it was decaying with age, it was still a sight to behold.
Not so welcome was the piece entitled '1000 Years', which was preceded by an awful rancid smell which was later revealed to be a severed cows head encased in a 7ft glass box that also contained masses of flies. It was not pleasant to behold, but then again, Hirst's work always appears to have set out to shock its audience.
For me, perhaps the best part of the exhibition which contained pieces from Hirst's entire career was the recreation of 'In and Out of Love', where canvases decorated with neatly arranged pressed butterflies was followed by a 'live' room where, upon entering, one was greeting with humidity and the sound of fluttering wings, yes, the room was filled with butterflies! The premise for this interactive instillation was for pupae to be attached to blank canvases, allowing the butterflies to fly into the room as they hatch. Even the canvases themselves appeared as works of art, as the fluids from the newly hatched cocoons dripped down the white background. It is in this instance that Hirst's recurring theme of life and death is shown in its entirety, with dead butterflies situated on tables beside rotting fruit creating a somewhat bleaker spectacle when placed in the same arena as the majestic fluttering butterflies.
After leaving the exhibition, our native Londoner acted as tour guide and gave us 'Brummie' folk a bit of a pitstop tour of the captial, talking us past landmark sites such as the Houses of Parliament and Big Ben, the MI6 buildings, St. Paul's Catherdral, Covent Gardens and the London Eye. And of course, M&M World, which was secretly our main purpose for the whole trip ;)
The day got off to a pretty bad start when I missed by first bus, making myself late and then had to get on another train in order to get to Birmingham where I met my classmate. Upon getting to Moor St. Station and enquiring about tickets, we discovered that the train we planned to get would, in fact, cost £50 (!) instead of the £15 that we'd anticipated! I guess that teaches us for not pre-buying train tickets! Luckily, there was a cheaper train about an hour later which cost £25 which we decided to get instead.
This was my first time travelling to London, and I was pretty excited! Anticipating a long train journey (and thinking that I'd make pretty boring company), i stocked up on sweets and magazines and even brought my sketchbook along for the ride, although I needn't have worried, as even though practically everyone who had said that they would come had pulled out at the last minute, myself and my lone classmate managed to yabber on about next to nothing! It was a pretty hot (albeit wet) day, and once meeting up with our native Londoner who was back home for the uni Easter holidays, we set off to find the TATE.
For those who are unfamiliar with Hirst's work, he became infamous in the 1990's for creating pieces to do with recurring themes of life and death, however, controversially, these pieces often incorporated either live creatures or their carcasses. Perhaps his most famous piece, entitled 'The Impossibility of Death in the Mind of Someone Living' incorporates a dead tiger shark preserved in formaldehyde.
It was both disturbing an fascinating in pretty equal measures. Being so close to such a formidable creature was still somewhat daunting even though it was obviously dead and had been for a long time. The sheer size of it was unprecedented by me; I could have easily fitted inside it if I had lay horizontally, and although it was decaying with age, it was still a sight to behold.
Not so welcome was the piece entitled '1000 Years', which was preceded by an awful rancid smell which was later revealed to be a severed cows head encased in a 7ft glass box that also contained masses of flies. It was not pleasant to behold, but then again, Hirst's work always appears to have set out to shock its audience.
For me, perhaps the best part of the exhibition which contained pieces from Hirst's entire career was the recreation of 'In and Out of Love', where canvases decorated with neatly arranged pressed butterflies was followed by a 'live' room where, upon entering, one was greeting with humidity and the sound of fluttering wings, yes, the room was filled with butterflies! The premise for this interactive instillation was for pupae to be attached to blank canvases, allowing the butterflies to fly into the room as they hatch. Even the canvases themselves appeared as works of art, as the fluids from the newly hatched cocoons dripped down the white background. It is in this instance that Hirst's recurring theme of life and death is shown in its entirety, with dead butterflies situated on tables beside rotting fruit creating a somewhat bleaker spectacle when placed in the same arena as the majestic fluttering butterflies.
After leaving the exhibition, our native Londoner acted as tour guide and gave us 'Brummie' folk a bit of a pitstop tour of the captial, talking us past landmark sites such as the Houses of Parliament and Big Ben, the MI6 buildings, St. Paul's Catherdral, Covent Gardens and the London Eye. And of course, M&M World, which was secretly our main purpose for the whole trip ;)
An eventful week!
Soo, the past week seems to have been pretty intense and busy on my front!
My final English Language exam (100% for this module, waiting on results - fingers crossed), followed by pretty much completing my first year of university deadlines as well as my Nonna's birthday on the Wednesday (I got her some nice flowers and pretty silk scarf from River Island picturing a Japanese woman in traditional dress, which I can't find a picture of anywhere!). Saw my cousin's end of year dance performance on the Friday (v.good!) before going to my Nonna's birthday meal on Saturday, as well as seeing Irish comedian, Dara O'Briain do his Craic Dealer show at the Wolves Civic on the Sunday; it was a brilliant night!
Dara was a natural at making something funny out of what the audience provided him with (some contributions were pretty diabolical), I'll defintely be seeing him again the next time around and would recommend everyone else do so too!
Monday was spent practising for our first gig and waiting for my Orange amp to arrive (Crush 100BXT Bass), which cut it pretty fine by arriving at about 6 o'clock at night after I'd been waiting on it for approximately 2 and a half weeks!
The gig was on the Tuesday night, as mentioned in the previous post! I have to say, I have never been more nervous for anything in my entire life! Not even when I started uni did I experience nerves such as this! Restlessness, shakes, shallow breathing, I was a wreck! We played five songs, a cover of Yuck's 'Get Away' (vid below) followed by an original song, 'Forgot Me Too' (also below), a cover of Nirvana's 'About A Girl' (again provided below), then followed by two more original songs, 'Sleepwalker' and 'Don't Follow Me'.
The gig went better than I'd thought it would; I didn't drop any plecs on the floor to hunt for mid song! - and even though I myself know that I made a few minor mistakes, the audience didn't notice, and we received a lot of positive feedback which was pleasing!
After that, the week has been pretty quiet. Myself and some friends travelled to Birmingham for a day's shopping in the sun (it's been spectacularly hot this week!), where we mooched through some vintage shops such as COW, where I bought a khaki vest/blouse which I'll probably post about soon!
It's been pretty relaxed since then! I've spent some time drawing, writing, watching Eurovison,The Matrix and Lord of the Rings and trying to teach myself some chords on my old acoustic (I'm the "bass player") which is another challenge that I've set myself. Apart from that, I'll most likely be clearing out my wardrobe in order to sell some of my clothes and other possessions on eBay. I doubt this week will be as eventful as the past week or so, but I'll try my best to make it so!
Til next time :)
Dara was a natural at making something funny out of what the audience provided him with (some contributions were pretty diabolical), I'll defintely be seeing him again the next time around and would recommend everyone else do so too!
Monday was spent practising for our first gig and waiting for my Orange amp to arrive (Crush 100BXT Bass), which cut it pretty fine by arriving at about 6 o'clock at night after I'd been waiting on it for approximately 2 and a half weeks!
The gig was on the Tuesday night, as mentioned in the previous post! I have to say, I have never been more nervous for anything in my entire life! Not even when I started uni did I experience nerves such as this! Restlessness, shakes, shallow breathing, I was a wreck! We played five songs, a cover of Yuck's 'Get Away' (vid below) followed by an original song, 'Forgot Me Too' (also below), a cover of Nirvana's 'About A Girl' (again provided below), then followed by two more original songs, 'Sleepwalker' and 'Don't Follow Me'.
The gig went better than I'd thought it would; I didn't drop any plecs on the floor to hunt for mid song! - and even though I myself know that I made a few minor mistakes, the audience didn't notice, and we received a lot of positive feedback which was pleasing!
After that, the week has been pretty quiet. Myself and some friends travelled to Birmingham for a day's shopping in the sun (it's been spectacularly hot this week!), where we mooched through some vintage shops such as COW, where I bought a khaki vest/blouse which I'll probably post about soon!
It's been pretty relaxed since then! I've spent some time drawing, writing, watching Eurovison,The Matrix and Lord of the Rings and trying to teach myself some chords on my old acoustic (I'm the "bass player") which is another challenge that I've set myself. Apart from that, I'll most likely be clearing out my wardrobe in order to sell some of my clothes and other possessions on eBay. I doubt this week will be as eventful as the past week or so, but I'll try my best to make it so!
Til next time :)
Saturday 26 May 2012
Zwei.
Hello again!
Here's a picture that I drew of Alec Turner!
Looking back at my last post (almost a year and a half ago!) it's pretty clear to say that I've got lost along the way in regards to this blog. An update is in order! So after some minor layout changes, I've decided to re-motivate myself into doing something productive on here. In the past year, I'm glad to report that I have successfully passed my A-Levels (in English Language, Media, History, and an AS in Art)and got accepted into university. After some deliberation and soul searching, I decided to not to move away to Nottingham to study English and Media. It was an ambition of mine to move away and make steps towards becoming more independent, a large part of which was to do with trying to build my confidence as well as - let's admit it! - wanting to participate in the 'stereotypical uni experience'! Putting it bluntly, I chickened out, switched my firm choice to English and Creative Writing at Birmingham City University and continued living at home for my first year of study which, due to the common first year undertaken by all students in the English department before we separate onto our different routeways for years 2 and 3, was somewhat underwhelming and non-motivating due to my not really studying what I had signed up to study. Thankfully, in the second year I get to choose my own modules and am looking forward to studying Creative Writing and Life Writing (what I actually signed up for!) as well as Children's Fiction and Contemporary Theatre!
My personal life has also undergone some changes in some regards. I'm trying to build my confidence as mentioned previously, and in the past year I made a promise to myself to say 'yes' to challenging situations instead of avoiding them as my natural instinct would tell me to. OK, so I was inspired by 'Yes Man', but it really is surprising how much more interesting and enjoyable life gets if you just say 'yes'! Going to university by myself (the majority of my friends stayed at the local uni or moved further afield) meant that I was responsible for making my own friends instead of inheriting them through others. This may sounds trivial to the majority of you, but as a pretty shy person, this was a big deal for me, and I admit, I was petrified! Similarly, I was invited to play bass in my friend's band around Christmas time! As I had only sporadically played an acoustic and bass guitar around the age of 10 or 11, this was quite a challenge to accept and I did so readily, as I felt that I was lacking some purpose since starting uni, perhaps because it wasn't what I expected it to be, or because I had been so comfortable in my personal situation for so long (steady friends and routines through high school and college) that all of this change unsettled me mentally for a while. Anyways! I practiced and tried my hardest, finding motivation through needing to be at an adequate level or so for my bandmates, and recently we played our first gig at the Wolverhampton Varsity for a charity night, raising money and awareness for SENSE, a deaf-blind charity! We are officially the last band to ever play the venue, as Wolverhampton University is sadly buying the building to turn it into offices. I won't lie however, I am far more excited to be standing on the same stage where Muse - yes, that Muse! - once performed on! It is very likely that I was standing on the same spot where Matt Bellamy once stood, allow me my fan-girling please!
Other than that, I have (so far) passed all of my modules at uni without having to resit, become even tighter with my group of friends, and now that I am free for the summer, intend to job-hunt and paint and draw the summer away, hopefully aiming to sell some of my paintings or get commissions if I get good enough. I also really want to take this blog more seriously, so this time I mean it when I say 'expect to see reviews'! Music! Film! Books? Plus whatever else is on my mind! Perhaps some creative writing! I definitely need to organise myself better!
Until next time (in the NEAR future):)
Kayleigh
PS: Follow me on Twitter and Instagram, both of my usernames are @ooKayyy :)
Here's a picture that I drew of Alec Turner!
Looking back at my last post (almost a year and a half ago!) it's pretty clear to say that I've got lost along the way in regards to this blog. An update is in order! So after some minor layout changes, I've decided to re-motivate myself into doing something productive on here. In the past year, I'm glad to report that I have successfully passed my A-Levels (in English Language, Media, History, and an AS in Art)and got accepted into university. After some deliberation and soul searching, I decided to not to move away to Nottingham to study English and Media. It was an ambition of mine to move away and make steps towards becoming more independent, a large part of which was to do with trying to build my confidence as well as - let's admit it! - wanting to participate in the 'stereotypical uni experience'! Putting it bluntly, I chickened out, switched my firm choice to English and Creative Writing at Birmingham City University and continued living at home for my first year of study which, due to the common first year undertaken by all students in the English department before we separate onto our different routeways for years 2 and 3, was somewhat underwhelming and non-motivating due to my not really studying what I had signed up to study. Thankfully, in the second year I get to choose my own modules and am looking forward to studying Creative Writing and Life Writing (what I actually signed up for!) as well as Children's Fiction and Contemporary Theatre!
My personal life has also undergone some changes in some regards. I'm trying to build my confidence as mentioned previously, and in the past year I made a promise to myself to say 'yes' to challenging situations instead of avoiding them as my natural instinct would tell me to. OK, so I was inspired by 'Yes Man', but it really is surprising how much more interesting and enjoyable life gets if you just say 'yes'! Going to university by myself (the majority of my friends stayed at the local uni or moved further afield) meant that I was responsible for making my own friends instead of inheriting them through others. This may sounds trivial to the majority of you, but as a pretty shy person, this was a big deal for me, and I admit, I was petrified! Similarly, I was invited to play bass in my friend's band around Christmas time! As I had only sporadically played an acoustic and bass guitar around the age of 10 or 11, this was quite a challenge to accept and I did so readily, as I felt that I was lacking some purpose since starting uni, perhaps because it wasn't what I expected it to be, or because I had been so comfortable in my personal situation for so long (steady friends and routines through high school and college) that all of this change unsettled me mentally for a while. Anyways! I practiced and tried my hardest, finding motivation through needing to be at an adequate level or so for my bandmates, and recently we played our first gig at the Wolverhampton Varsity for a charity night, raising money and awareness for SENSE, a deaf-blind charity! We are officially the last band to ever play the venue, as Wolverhampton University is sadly buying the building to turn it into offices. I won't lie however, I am far more excited to be standing on the same stage where Muse - yes, that Muse! - once performed on! It is very likely that I was standing on the same spot where Matt Bellamy once stood, allow me my fan-girling please!
Other than that, I have (so far) passed all of my modules at uni without having to resit, become even tighter with my group of friends, and now that I am free for the summer, intend to job-hunt and paint and draw the summer away, hopefully aiming to sell some of my paintings or get commissions if I get good enough. I also really want to take this blog more seriously, so this time I mean it when I say 'expect to see reviews'! Music! Film! Books? Plus whatever else is on my mind! Perhaps some creative writing! I definitely need to organise myself better!
Until next time (in the NEAR future):)
Kayleigh
PS: Follow me on Twitter and Instagram, both of my usernames are @ooKayyy :)
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