BUBS: The Handstand

I have not happily transitioned into my new house and, bar a few teething problems, am back on track to Build Upper Body Strength.

This week cheer has focussed mainly on going over what we learned at FCC last month (more on that here and coming soon) so keeping tight in the upper body and core has been essential for hitting motions precisely and with speed. We have also been pumping our gymnastics, I've been taking it easy since doing my back in at pride a week or so ago and so have been mainly working on leg flexibility simple lower body stretches. I conceed to have been focussing on the handstand perhaps a little too much for my back to get better, but I am determined to hit a hand stand for over a minute.

Guys, don't underestimate what a handstand can do for you. There are tons of examples I can give of the value to your shoulders, arms and core given by a simple hand stand. It's quick, easy to learn but hard to master. One thing I have kept up with at practices is a few handstands here and there.

As far as I'm concerned there are two things to think about when performing a handstand: strength, and balance. You'll find people perform the handstand in different ways but it is usually a combination of the two working harmoniously to get the most pleasing handstand. Notice I used the phrase most pleasing and not the word best. This is because you may be performing a handstand for a different reason from the next guy, it really has a lot of utility.

For example, like I said before, the handstand is a great tool for building upper body strength, particularly those muscles we use in cheerleading when we are lifting the flyers to shoulder height and above. Our core, our biceps, our deltoids, they all engage to keep us rooted and balanced when we are standing on our hands. 

Sometimes you might see a guy perform a handstand with his arms much wider than his shoulders, his back arched, his legs open and leaning forward. I call this kind of handstand a Muscle-handstand, because you are basically engaging all of your core and arm muscles to sublimate your lack of equilibrium. This is not a 'bad handstand' and nor is any handstand where you are actively engaging your muscles. In fact this is usually the type of handstand someone might do if they were using the handstand to build muscle in the first place i.e. handstand push-ups. Your basically using brute force to push your lower body off the ground and hold it there.

Other times you will see someone put their hands on the floor, shoulder width apart and quickly kick their legs up one at a time until they are vertical, they will then stay there. Lucky gits. These are more Balance-handstands, where the performer quickly finds their equilibrium and only engages their arms and core muscles to steady themselves, relying mainly on posture and balance to keep them up. They are still engaging their muscles, but it is taking them less effort to keep up because they are also thinking about balance and coordination. this is a more energy efficient handstand which is more suited to gymnastics and is the base of a few tumbles you might use in a cheer routine; handstand to forward roll, walk-overs, lumbers, handsprings can all be improved through proper handstand technique.

Now, I'm still learning a decent handstand, but the technique is what is important. There are things you can do to speed up the process of hitting a good handstand a length of time you can support yourself with. If you are totally new at handstands and want to utilise this fantastic method of strength and coordination building, here are a few tips.

- Start small if your scared

I hear a lot of people when they want to do handstands say '...but I'm afraid I will fall'. There is something about being the other way up with inhibits us and I think it has something to do with our head. Any time our head goes through a motion which is completely out of the ordinary, it tends to freak people out. With the handstand, you might be thinking 'My head is very close to the floor here and there is only the strength of my arms stopping it from being crushed under my own weight.' Well start small! I know we are all generally taught that our head is glass and we aren't allowed to touch it ever, the skull is actually quite a solid thing; But this is besides the point. If your concerned you can't hold yourself up without hitting the floor, don't go vertical just yet. try holding more and more of your body weight on your forearms, something like this:

This position is fantastic for giving you the right feeling of muscle and balance. Start small at first, maybe just tuck your knees to your chest and lean onto your forearms, see how long you can hold yourself up. As you gain confidence, be a little more daring; keep your knees tucked by bring them over your hips so that your torso is vertical and your knees are crouched. You can do this using just your muscle for now, do it against a wall if your still unsteady or unsure how far you want to go. That reminds me...

- Walls are your friend

You don't want to hit anything when you try your handstands? That's fine! Remember in school when some kids would do a handstand on a wall for fun? That's exactly what you need. Place your hands maybe 10cm to 15cm away from the wall and kick up. The trick is to try and guess how much power you will need on the kick-up so that your legs stop short or on the wall without going into it. You should have your fingers spread apart, your hands under your shoulders and your upper body should be engaged at the time you kick up. When your legs reach close to where you want them to stop, engage your abdomen and your arse and keep everything tight. Think planking from the chest down. Then you use your upper body strength to gain your balance and hold you up.

- Kick-ups work!

If you can't get your balance, don't be discouraged. You'd be some kind of mutant gymnast god if you could do it perfectly on your first go. The goal is to keep kicking up until you find just the right amount of force which gives you 0 momentum when you reach the vertical. Don't rest too much, if you kick-up and don't make it, use the rebound to kick up again. Just don't spend too long bent over because you might get a little light headed, and make sure to take a break when your frustrated because you might channel your anger into your legs and kick the wall with the force of a thousand suns (can you tell I might be talking from experience?)

In the end, it all depends what you are handstanding for. It works wonders for building strength, and getting you mental for other more difficult tumbles further down the line, but each handstand can have a different approach, hell, many different approaches for the best results. Here are a few decent video tutorials, notice the different ways people do their handstands, and the results are positive in any case. These videos are by the guys behind the Strength Project, they have a great collection of videos so make sure you subscribe to their channel...

(All about the muscle baby)

(Hand-balancing)

In the end, someone who can do a really good handstand will probably tell you that their way is the best way to do it, and the only way if you want to get it right/build strength/look good. You need to cherry pick the tips they give you and create your own style, whatever works for you is the right way to do a handstand. Just remember that you have a goal in your head, if your working on your handstand technique to improve your gymnastics, or upper body strength, or using them for break dancing to look good. If you have that goal in your head, you will stay motivated.

The results will be worth it, don't give up!

Video's from pride

I'm gonna use the blog to dump all the video's I find of our group from the Manchester Pride Parade 2011. Now, I'll warn you, these will probably be ten minute videos with about two seconds of our float on them, but hey, people like to see their work. That's the poor thing about pride, we spend all out time and effort working on a float and entertaining the crowd, and people tend not to take that many pictures of us.

http://youtu.be/HFRQ_r4V6p4?t=5m46s

http://youtu.be/HjNis3cPY2k

http://youtu.be/Tw6v8awzZyA?t=7m45s

http://youtu.be/ZE_abATO67Q?t=19m55s [new!]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8fikF_0srSI&feature=youtu.be&t=9m4s [new!]

I'm throwing some pictures up in to an album I've made on Facebook which you can check out here. That's it for now, maybe there will be more soon, who knows! If anyone see's anything, leave a comment; Cheers!

Short Film: Dennis

Found a wonderful short film, very moving.

Game Review: Portal & Portal 2

Ok I am going to admit something here. As a huge fan of the Portal series since Portal originally hit the shelves back in October 2007 I might have fired up Portal 2 with an already enthusiastic and rose-tinted view. What I found only confirmed my expectations.

Portal 2 is a first person shooter (FPS) puzzle game which carries on from its predecessor Portal. Based on the concept of the manipulation or reality through portals which preserve linear momentum. If that sounds complicated, watch this:

That is the teaser trailer for Portal, as you can imagine the game play is innovative and refreshing from other FPS's which I am not so much a fan of.

The story of Portal 2 revolves around your character from the original game; Chell. After being subject to numerous rounds of testing in the Aperture Science Computerated Enrichment Enviroment, and almost being murdered several times by the psychotic testing mainframe AI known as GLaDOS, Chell eventually finds her way out of the laboratories and to the surface which is where Portal leaves us. Portal 2 Is the continuation of that story, where you find out after losing conciousness from the final fight with GLaDOS in the previous game, you are returned to the Aperture facilities to recuperate (This was later ret-conned in a patch, the ending was added with an ambiguous robotic voice approaching Chell from behind and dragging her back into the Aperture underground-complex before she lost conciousness.)

You are woken from suspended animation by a personality core called Wheatley and emerge from your chamber into the now-destroyed and decaying Aperture facility. Wheatley helps you stumble through the labs in order to escape, but in doing so you inadvertently reactivate GLaDOS, the passive-aggressive and completely insane facility control AI, who appears somewhat bitter about the fact that you killed her...

Without giving away any of the story, what follows is a slightly jilted round of further testing ala: Portal with a which quickly changes in a surprise twist! In Portal 2 the game goes deeper into the story of Aperture Science Laboratories, it's history and it's founder Cave Johnson.

The best feature for me is in the middle of the game where you learn about GLaDOS and where she comes from, and the secrets to why she is so bent on testing. GLaDOS received numerous awards from gaming magazines and websites such as 'Best Character' and 'Best New Character' from GameSpy and X-Play respectively, and Game Informer named her one of the 'Characters who defined a decade' in terms of storytelling. Most are citing her humour which is a form of passive-aggressive speak which actively changes in tone and intensity throughout the series (in both games.)

One of GLaDOS' unique qualities is her voice, which is synthesised from the voice acting of one Ellen McLain (who also has the Half Life series and Team Fortress 2 under her belt) through an auto-tune to give it that robotic and maniacle tone (here is a sample, from wikipedia). GLaDOS is by far the best reason to play Portal 2 besides the game play.

Another quality to Portal and Portal 2 is the complete mind-fuck of gameplay. We have seen this sport of manipulation of the game world in games such as Prey, but never has it been used in such a way as to encourage problem solving on the scale Portal has set. One comment made by GameSpy when awarding GLaDOS 'Best Character' was that the game could have got by without a story, which while in itself is pretty definitive of a lot puzzle games in the industry, Portal sets itself apart from the others such as Myst or the Professor Layton series as being almost exclusively character driven while not taking emphasis away from the mind-bending puzzles of physics and lateral thinking. Not to mention how much of an impact Portal made on internet culture creating such memes as "The cake is a lie" and the emergence of the Companion Cube.

Something which I am yet to experience but I highly anticipate as being another redeeming quality of the game is the incorporation of co-operative mulitplayer. You take one the duties of one of two co-operative testing initiative bots...

Atlas and P-Body are the two robots featured in the video above, which is something I cannot wait to try!

For anyone who is interested in puzzle games, FPS games or simple fancies a good bit of storytelling, seek out Portal 2 but I urge you not to do so until you have played Portal. A criticism which I am quick to offer of both games is that they are too short. I completed both Portal and Portal 2 in the evening of buying them, but their replay value is acceptable for fans of the game, but it may be worth waiting until there is an offer on to purchase both games, and certainly purchase them online through supplies such as gameplay.co.uk or play.com. On the PC, both games are available for purchase and repeated download through Steam which is a service available to PC which binds many PC games to a single account where you can purchase said games and download them over and over again which is handy if you are apt to losing your original disks.

It is my hope that the series continues in some form, though Chell's story recieved a definitive ending in Portal 2 I am certain Valve can come up with a way to continue the franchise which is so highly regarded in the gaming community.

Things that I have been working on during my break from Uni

I'm not one to be idle.

I figured this out during my first year of study at Salford Uni, it's something which started right after finishing my access course at Bolton Uni. Don't get me wrong, there will come times when I really, desperately need a break (as happened recently) but otherwise I find that I get impatient or fidgety if I have nothing to occupy my time with. Since leaving my access course and studying at university I have become something of a workaholic, I'll try and take you through it...

I consider university to be my full-time job. I focus on my studies actively and they take up a large amount of my time. Other things which I prioritise are my cheerleading, gymnastics and gym work/fitness. These activities take about 90% of my total time spent at Salford, the rest is shopping, social time and 'misc'. I do this to ensure I am getting the most out of my time spent on my degree in Salford, and let me tell you, it works. This year I have passed every module on my course with a Distinction. I hit a rough patch in February which may take the mark of one of my modules down to a merit, but I still hold high hopes that I will finish the year with nothing below a first. My lifestyle plays an important part in this of course. I do not drink or smoke, I do not take drugs. I don't enjoy clubbing, or nights out, or concerts (well, I've never been to a concert, but I'd imagine I'll be sat at the back asking everyone in front of me to kindly sit down so that I can see.) Maybe I'm lucky in this respect, I have my own ways of having fun, I dare say the way I choose to occupy my time currently is satisfying enough and I have a wonderful circle of friends.

However, about a week after starting my short break, I began to feel the itch. I need something to do, I cannot be idle, I start going a bit cabin-feverish. Luckily, I have quite a few interests I can pull out of the bag for such occasions.

I started playing with Photoshop again, reading up on the latest trends, styles and tutorials which I must say are as good as any book or magazine on the subject (I recently bough a magazine on the subject, and found startlingly similar tutorials in it as exist on the web.)

I may consider writing my own beginners tutorials, explaining some of the more simple tricks which I do not see explained very often such as feathering and layer masks which can me indispensable for graphic design and photo-manipulation.

This also led in time to my return to web-design. As mentioned in my previous post, I have spent a lot of time in the past week tweaking and poking and jiggling and playing with CSS and Wordpress (WP) themes. Given the popularity of WP as a blogging tool I have been keen to explore its functionality to the private blogger for some time. My good frient Antony's blog, along with many other sites I frequent such as theCHIVE use the WP engine which seemed to be highly customisable as well as functional and easily accessible. I could never use CSS and never turly unerstood how useful it is until I started reading around the subject area just before my holidays started. I set myself a task: to create a custom theme of my own design for syeonline by the end of the holiday, and as the previous post displays, I managed to do just that. I will continue to make themes as I can already see how I could improve the current one, or how I can make designs based on a different concept (I want to make one based on a painty, arts-and-crafty style motif next) and I didn't know there existed such things as child-themes and so on. I'll probably end up working on it over the summer.

Gaming wise its been pretty cool. Not only has there been some interesting patches made to World of Warcraft in recent months which I have been exploring, there has also been the release of Portal 2 which I completed in the first day, and is well worth what I payed for over on gameplay.co.uk. If you played Portal, or are maybe a fan of puzzle games, FPS's or just looking for a really good game to sink your teeth into, get Portal 2 (though I will advise you if you have not already played Portal, play that first!) Both can be bought and downloaded through Steam. I also managed to try Final Fantasy XIV and unfortunately it did not live up to my expectations. I tried it for the first two or three days, and was not at all enthusiastic about playing it. I may try it again soon as I have heard there has been another patch released, but I will not be paying for a subscription for it in its current form. I have to say, considering how much I loved FFXI, I am very disappointed in Square-Enix.

Finally, my other guilty pleasure this holiday has been my gymnastics. I have been working every day, or every other day, on nailing some of the tumbles which have eluded me for some time. I am now a lot more confident at my back walkovers now and even attempting front walkovers. Also I am a lot less disoriented when chaining tumbles together (for example, Roll > Handstand Roll > Cartwheel and so on.) and am able to hold myself for much longer in a handstand.

The problem with most of my gymnastics isn't my flexibility. Although I do need to be more flexible to accomplish some of the tumbles I am attempting, I am actually more flexible than the average guy. One of the issues I have is the distribution of weight over my whole body. My main exercise is waking. I walk everywhere and as such, I have very strong legs. Both my thighs and calves carry a lot of weight, so much that the muscle on my upper body isn't strong enough to support it. Therefore I require more balance to hold a handstand, and more power to kick my legs over in a back walkover. The only way I can change this is by gaining more upper body strength, which of course will happen in time with regular gym and cheer workouts. For me, it isn't happening fast enough, this may be due to my vegetarian diet (being naturally low in high quality proteins.) I've been considering protein shakes, but I do not yet know how I feel about supplements. More on that story as it develops...

I have been working on my flexibility as well mind. It's painful work, but if it gets me my tumbles easier, I am willing to do it...

Cheerleading*, the case for.

Victoria Coren and Tony Parsons have recently written articles in the Guardian and Mirror respectively on what they think about Cheerleading.

Both seem to be jumping on some sort of anti-cheerleading bandwagon whom are only supported by their small fanbase, but even their arguements against cheerleading (for some reason, the fact that people enjoy cheerleading upsets them) are ludicrously personally bias and based on missguided assumptions from what they see on American TV.

Cheerleading is not a sport reserved entirely for pretty young girls. It is not something which is there purely for the entertainment of men, or the sexual gratification at the expense of the respect and dignity of the performers, because that is exactly what they are, performers. Its interesting where the definition is drawn between what is for the perverse pleasure of others and what is simply an appropriate thing to wear (they are usually pleasant to look at, eye catching, are breathable and generally allow for movement.) A cheerleader wearing a short skirt with shorts underneath and a long sleeve top is quite clearly a slut, whereas a swimmer wearing little more than a smile is an athlete...

Pictured: Acceptable sporting attire

Of course, this is only the case for women, which aforementioned journalists seem happy to comment on while ignoring the other side of the coin. I am tackling one side of the argument because of the lack of research these so called hournalists have put into the latter of their argument, that it is not a real sport. Men do real sports, right? Why can't women do real sports like football or rugby? Men are oppressing them, and so they are forced or voodoo-mind controlled into thinking that dancing for them in skimpy outfits while waving pompoms is as good as any other sport, the fools, damn those pesky men!...

Stop objectifying these cheerleaders!

The arguments of these opinionated media whores simply do not take into account that men and young men are involved in this sport, maybe not to the extent of women, but enough to merit a difference for an all girl, mixed, and all male stunting groups.

While we are on the subject of stunts, lets try and tackle this 'Its not a sport' issue. A report in 2008 discovered that cheerleading is the most dangerous sport for women (in America) and as it is the American style of cheerleading which is catching on fast. I have just found the following video of what has been going on this past year in America, and remember that cheerleading is nowhere near the scale over here as it is over there, but we are pushing to better outselves in this way and the techniques are often emulated...

Not Pictured: Sport...

...lets take a look at what is considered a sport:

• Angling
• Arm wrestling 
• Ballooning 
• Billiards 
• Bowls
• Clay pigeon shooting 
• Curling
• Darts 
• Folk dancing
• Health and beauty exercise
• Lawn tennis
• Life saving
• Orienteering
• Pool
• Skateboarding
• Skipping
• Snooker
• Yoga [source]

He's been training all his life!

Say what you want about cheerleading, but then next time I see the national Yoga championships take away people in stretchers for breaking large amounts of themselves, I'll eat my hat. Fact is, people do not know what cheerleading is, which is fine, hell I don't know the ins and outs of professional skipping, but that doesn't mean I launch feminist tirades or ignorant diatribes against it. So the clothing is a little shorter than a kimono, that's means that it is exploiting young girls? So there is dance and chanting involved, that means it is less a sport than something involving a ball? I pity those who cannot break their preconceptions. I imagine these people don't try yoga because its just a bunch of stretching and breathing, or that they think that its only a sport if there is an international cup to be won.

Try it, then tell us its not a sport.

*I am aware that in English, Cheer Leading is a two word phrase, but I use Cheerleading for the sake of arguement.

"Fear" workshop, day five.

Monday, thus beginning the second week of our performance project workshops. We are set to start devising the project on Wednesday, at the moment we are gathering resource material to work from and I am certainly pleased at the ground we have covered. I'd also like to take this opportunity to mention how pleased I am that the group has come together. We are all pretty much fully committed to the project now, which makes the idea of an ensemble actually seem not only plausible, but desirable, and achievable.

Today we started with a quick warm-up, then went straight into some character development work. We used visualisation again, this time we were told to close our eyes, and to imagine that it was the performance night; We are about to go on stage. What are we wearing? What is our hair like? Where about are we on the stage (or are we indeed off stage?) What kind of sounds could we hear? We then fed back to the group. I pictured myself concealed behind some sort of panel, centre stage. I was dressed in a pale blue hospital gown, my face was white and my features were contrasting against my pale skin. My hair was long and straight, possibly distressed looking and darker looking than usual, I could hear only silence.

We then got into groups by way of whoever we felt our characters were closer related to, so I ended up in a group with someone who pictured themselves clothed all in white, and someone in a gown which was covered in blood. We were to continue to develop our characters within these groups and possibly but then to a narrative or context. I found this exercise very difficult considering we had all pretty much gone for the mental patient, mine being one whom is totally devoid of sense, reason and reality, the other girl having been driven out of her mind by a demon, and the latter having killed her younger sister in a fit of jealousy (and therefore sanctioned.)

It was difficult because there is very little narrative you could do with people who were supposedly insane. They would have little motive and therefore little reason for conflict (which is where a story forms.) Really it was a good example of the restrictions and pitfalls to avoid when creative an interesting narrative, not to have characters that are too similar.

After before lunch, we looked into how magicians and mediums used techniques which were as much slight of hand and theatrics than any form of occult practice to instil fear into people. Largely rife in Victorian times when people were much sell sceptical and supposedly a lot more gullible, mediums would enter a persons house and use a number of tricks and illusions to convince the people in attendance that the séance was real. There are famous such people who did this quite convincingly, having 'ectoplasm' seep from orifices both reputable and perverse (certainly for the period) and people actually believed this was going on.

Then we had lunch, I had chips and gravy and even sprang for a Dr Pepper, it was good.

When we reconvened after lunch, we looked at a method of using technology to instil fear; Projection...

That piece is a little ambiguous, but really what it represents are the many possibilities! Imagine projecting someone elses face onto a neutral mask, or having a room full of living, speaking dolls. Or having one person dialog with themselves on stage through the use of multiple projections. This are certainly rolling in the ideas department, and today after looking into it, we used the characters we had developed earlier to experiment with cameras, and what we could do with the use of projection and live performance interaction. Ours was based around the story of the criminally insane girl who murdered her younger sister, with another actress and myself playing the part of her conscience, or rather playing out the inner monologue which happens during the scene. We were projected on the screen behind her, tormenting her with the thoughts she was having in her own head, we argued, yelled, laughed, all while the actress on stage reacted to our projections.

I am looking forward to using this in our final piece!

A video the Cheer Leaders and I made at "Mexican Night"...

First, watch this...

...then this..

"Fear" workshop, day three and four.

How sloppy of me to let me momentum slip!

Its the weekend now, or rather Friday afternoon, so its practically the weekend. I am sat comfortable at the desk in my room at home, and as such am free to evaluate the two days in which my group worked on our first performance project, "Fear."

On the Thursday I was only able to attend half of the days performance, due to clowning (more on that another time) and so missed a bit of the improv they went through to measure how fear can be generated by a few simple guidelines. What I was there for was the continuation of where we left off on the previous workshop. only this time with a little more emphasis on the controlling nature of my demon character, and increasing the clarity of the act of 'decision' that the protagonist must take between good and evil. It was interesting to pursue the exercise from the other day but I have to admit, I felt that I had done that already and learned what I could from it. Today some people mentioned wanting to do their sketches again or even in the performance itself, which made me sigh. Luckily I don't think that will be the case.

Today was all about sounds, and how we can use them to evoke the emagination of the audience. We were all tasked to bring an example of a piece of music we find to be scary, unnerving, or could in some way effect the feel of a scene to invoke fear. I chose Sally's Song from the Nightmare Before Christmas...

I don't really know why I chose that, I suppose its because there are a few discordant sounds in there, and the voice is quite shrill and eery (interestingly enough, while finding that video for you, I found a cover version by Amy Lee of Evenesence which is absolutely stunningly awesome.) After listening to the tracks that other people chose along with mine, we were able to discuss the ideas, emotions and in some cases (certainly some of mine) the narratives they conjure as we allow the music to take us on a journey.

It was certainly harder to have the images free flow in our heads (as a consensus) using the music with lyrics (such as mine) and it was generally agreed upon that soundtracks such as the Godfathers Theme (my second choice) and those from other such movies work best at generating unbiased streams of conciousness.

Finally, we gave an attempt at spoof. After looking at other examples in early cinematography at how music can give the audience the impressions and links and allow them to make certain in-obvious connotations with as little dialogue as possible (such films as 'White Zombie' and 'The Invisible Ghost.') The spoof really came about while watching the bad acting in those films, although for the way cinema worked at the time it was perfectly normal to be largely theatrical on film, these days film and theatre are two completely different worlds which is much separate from the mid nineteen hundreds theme of using theatre techniques...  and filming them. We took a track from one of the generic horror soundtrack CD's Mary (our director) brought along and set out at building a scene around the music using as little dialogue as possible.

I was disappointed in mine. Actually that's probably unfair, but then I am generally more critical of myself in private than I would let on. I thought that spoof would be something I was good at, being naturally comically inclined, but it seemed the other group got it without even thinking about it. The ironic thing is that some people in the other group with the same task I would argue do not have a single funny bone in their body, and yet they got it. This is sour grapes, obvious jealousy, but then what do you expect? Whats the point in thinking one of your strengths would serve you well, and you actually end up looking a fool (in a bad way) because of it. In fact, someone actually imparted some wisdom to us which was "Its much funnier when your not trying to be funny" which is ironic considering this is a lesson it took that person a semester to learn the year previous. That was vicious I suppose, but then I am actually more annoyed at myself than I am at the other people. Jealousy brings out the most vile creature in me, in most people I think, and I think I am over thinking things again as is my folly. I know I'm funny, I know I am funny when I don't want to be, I know that funny is spontaneous most of the time and controlled in only limited contexts.

Still, today left me feeling shit. Is that what it was supposed to do? I doubt it, and I doubt I will rectify the situation before division of our performance piece starts, but we shall see.

Fuck them, I'm well funny.

"Fear" workshop, day two.

Again, my apologies if this seems brief but I am on a time limit (I have a friend sat behind me as I write, as after this we are going to watch Ross Noble's new tour 'Non sensory Overload', and I am of course hella balls-to-the-wall excited.)

We began as usual with a workshop warm up, this time we focused on voice. We worked at creating harmony and discordance in equal measure, as a singular unit (that is, without letting the sound die between us, keeping it going and in many places alternating the breath.) Then we allowed ourselves to be led around the room with our eyes closed (working in pairs, alternating between the leader and the follower.) A suitable warmup, we were ready to begin.

Yesterday we were charged with finding a movie which had the basic theme of fear. Be it psychological thriller, horror, paranormal mystery, serial killers and what not. The movie I chose was Paranormal Activity, this being the most recent of that kind of movie which I have watched (not that I found it perticularly scary) and so it was easy for me to summarise it. I also liked the use of camera and its contemporary feel, almost realistic rather than naturalistic. My favourite or rather most memorable scene was one which happened during one of the evening filmings close to the end, when the lead female Katie is dragged with her foot from her bed by an unseen force...

We reviewed this and many other such films, like 'Silence of the Lambs' and 'The Orphan' discussing why the techinque worked ingenerating fear and the themes behind them. We touched on how the films differed and yet generated the same emotions, and how even the subject matter was vastly different from film to film.

After lunch we were tasked in small groups with devising our own short piece based on a loosely given plot synopsis. My group had "The last three minutes of a supernatural thriller, in which there must be a representation of a struggle between good and evil, with evil eventually winning." This was quite hard, abut I am pleased with what we did. Ours consisted of the protagonist 'Alice' having suffered the loss of her boyfriend a few months before, whom tried in vein to contact him using various occult sources of which one was the Ouija board. Through the board a demon comes and takes the form of her boyfriend which only she can see, and the boyfriend (played by myself) is the devil in her ear turning her against the altruistic best friend 'Carla'. The scene plays out and in the end the demon tricks Alice into killing her best friend. Given the amount of time we had to devise it I am pleased how it played out, and think that with more time it would only have gotten better.

I am afraid I will need to leave it here for now (and possibly indefinitely, or catchup on the next post) as it is time for a good dose of stand-up. I am so tired, I knew that the performance project will wear me out as it tends to, but with the cold on top of everything and having evening activities to attend, I have had little time to simple rest up and allow my body to work on battling this darn flu. Ah well, I shall persevere as I always do and take a little extra time to rest hard at the weekend.

Expect a review of the show at some point (Ross that is, but also this one when its finished.)

"Fear"workshop, day one.

This will be brief, as I am still rather ill and feel the sooner I can get to sleep the sooner I will be rather not-ill.

Today we looked at the idea of fear, we talked about what made us scared and why. It was a lot to discuss, but already I feel like we are diving right to the root of this project, and are building a good foundation to devise a piece of work. We were sent around the Adelphi building to find an area or place within or without that we find for one reason or another; scary. The area my group and I chose was a staircase leading below the basement level in one long stretch to a fire exit (which is at the very bottom step, ending the staircase abruptly.) We chose this area because the very unusual nature of the staircase meant that they appeared steeper than they actually are, and gave one viewing them from the top a sense of vertigo. Also, the abrupt end to the stairs at the bottom and the decent into darkness (being seemingly sub-terrain) seemed ominous.

We were then asked after lunch to return to that place and devise a piece of short theatre, with the intention to scare the audience. Instantly images came into my head from zombie movies with legless zombies clawing their way up the staircase to the audience, and perhaps appearing behind them, giving them the sense of being trapped. The image of something clawing and moving slowly is what I find very disturbing, more freaky-scary than terror-scary but ominous none the less...

Of course we then did this, my group and I with a small amount of improvisation and it worked. They jumped in the right place, they laughed a little but thats fine, its expected amongst friends. We went through everyones devised pieces in their own special places but I personally think ours was the best (I may be bias, but whatever.)

We were then sat together in a circle facing away from the centre, listening to the story "The Red Room" by H.G. Wells. A very interesting and atmospheric story, which I would suggest anyone to read if they wished to delve slightly into the macabre world of "Fear" for fear itself. All in all, a good second day, and a good step in the right direction (after all, none the less!)

The shivers.

I want you to listen to this music, and hopefully you are listening to it for the first time. I've always been a secret lover of classical music since I first started to learn how to play the piano. I could get swept away by an orchestra, I see such wonderful colours and lights when I close my eyes, and whole lifetimes come to pass and stories unfurl when a symphony rings sweetly or hotly through my ears. If a piece of music really touches me, I get shivers up and down my body. That is how I can tell a piece of music is good, the lights, the sounds, the ideas besides, it is the shivers or pure bliss I get which start right across my shoulders, through my heart, and spread like a wave of pure, shocking joy. I am floored by them, I need a moment to recover after feeling them.

One of the first classical themes I fell in love with is called Le Danse Macabre which is a wonderful example of 1800's classical composition. It was composed by Camille Saint-Saëns after being inspired by a poem written based on an old french superstition that on halloween every year, on the stroke of midnight, the devil rises from the deep to play his fiddle, and make all the dead dance until dawn...

Oh I remember when I was a teenager and first head that music in full glory, I had it on repeat and on my CD player (that was a while ago, remember portable CD players? I'll be harking on about walkmans next.) Recently, I've been diving into 'new age classical' which are compositions made in the last fifty years or so, which are so unique! Given the new techniques used in producing music combined with the classical format of the orchestra, it is so compelling!

Usually, in these modern times when people say something is 'new age' it usually means that they have tried to improve it by doing away with all the nonsense which gave it its charm, and crowbarred modern thinking to something which didn't need 'improvement.' However, I find that new age classical is just an amalgamation of different techniques and instruments appended to the old orchestral format. What we are left with is the sort of wonderful music used in the soundtracks of movies. You remember I mentioned before about when I hear inspiring and breathtaking music, I can see wonderful images and light? Well modern classical is applied to movies in the same way, so that people can feel through sound what they are feeling through sight.

I challenge you to listen to this next piece by Thomas Newman (a new favourite of mine.) Close your eyes, sit,  be, just experience it. Feel the shivers run through your body and wait for that moment where you need to breath in out of shear breathlessness. Seek this pleasure, for this is the true measure of great music.

Now try and tell me the 'Sex Pistols' were good music.

Review: How to Look Good Naked

Like many people, I watch How to Look Good Naked. I think it is a fantastic program existing for all the right reasons. At a glance most people would assume its just another gay fashion show focusing on women's bodies and whats 'hot or not' in the world clothing trends, but this couldn't be further from the truth.

I would urge as many people as possible to watch Naked, it delivers a message to all genders and sexualities about body confidence and how quite often we can be objective and prejudice, and self deprecating for no real reason. The shows host and creator Gok Wan uses his quirky sense of humour and familiarity with both women and style to create a persona that couldn't be warmer, I'm usually not a fan of the camp, sassy over the top gay man but Gok adds such an air of sophistication by simply knowing his work and being able to convey the message of body confidence in a way that is universally relatable. In the current series in particular, Gok is throwing in little tips for men to keep on top of their game, generally helpful advice from someone in the industry and well worth the watch!

Another good thing about this current series, the winner of 'Miss Naked 2008' Shona Collins has teamed up with Gok to try and get body confidence taught on the curriculum with PSHE (Physical, Social and Health Education) class in schools. Having studied the psychology behind the mental health conditions which stem from low body confidence (such as Bulimia Nervosa and Agoraphobia) I believe this is a vitally important and severely over looked field of education. Never would you believe that in school someone would take the time out to reassure people than actually, having a natural body and being confident in their own skin is more important than constantly attaining to that ideal body they see in the media. The fight continues to get body confidence on the curriculum with a petition over at number10.gov.uk, click that link and sign the petition for the idea of a more confident generation of teens to become a reality.

This topic ties into My Declaration of a healthier lifestyle, which doesn't just include regular excercise, but the psychological side of simply loving your body and the things that make you unique. There are a few people close to me, male and female, who are constantly getting down on their looks (in fact, of the people around me I think it is more common in men than women) and I honestly believe watching such things as Naked, which recently featured a second look at a lady who had a mastectomy during her battle with breast cancer. After appearing on the show with Gok, Kelly is now an inspiration to other women in the same boat, learning how to love their bodies and carry on being brave, confident and good looking women.

I am going to continue watching the shows on 4oD (a service I have recommended in the past) and keep suggesting that everyone indulges in a little feel good TV every now and then. I'm normally not a fan of reality TV (which from all accounts in on the way out within the next few years) but Gok's show (and lets not forget Too Fat Too Young, the first thing I saw Gok feature which is also a very hard hitting look at the way our culture percieves the overweight and obese individual.) I never really sit down to watch TV these days, most of the time if I am watching something made for TV I do it using onDemand internet television such as 4oD, but I usually set an evening aside for catching up on Naked while sipping a nice hot coffee and filing my nails... ok, I think I've said too much!

Quick question...

Does anyone remember Flat Eric? He was cool...

Ok, back to what you were doing.

And now, some funny videos...

Ok so I have been hammering BtFL recently just because thats simply all Ive been able to think about for the past week, but I think its only fair I prove I still have a sense of humour.

These videos are fantastic, you can take a look at my three favourites here but I suggest you go to youtube and look at some of the others that people have made. The concept is basically to describe the film in five seconds, they soemtimes take more but its the joke you want, Just take a look and I promise you'll laugh.