XMAS BLOG PART 2: A farewell to 2008

This second part is a bit belated, sorry. Had quite a bit of stuff on and wasn’t really sure what to write or how to write it.

After deliberation and thoughts about it last night, I realised that 2008 was one of the worst years of my life. It truly sucked, big time. That’s not an attack on anyone in particular, but it did suck for several reasons, mainly because of my own actions…but there you go.

So I’m back in Stoke now and tonight I’m going to the Sugarmill to meet new people and I’m going to raise a glass to wiping this year from my memory. 2009 will replace everything; I’ll face myself, to cross out what I’ve become, erase myself and let go of what I’ve done – as Linkin Park so brilliantly put it. Speaking of which…

So here’s to the future! Reno is wishing you all the greatest luck for the new year and hopes you all have a fantastic night tonight. Cheers :)

Tribute.

I wake up every evening
With a big smile on my face
And it never feels out of place.
And you're still probably working
At a 9 to 5 pace
I wonder how bad that tastes

When you see my face
I hope it gives you hell, I hope it gives you hell
When you walk my way
I hope it gives you hell, I hope it gives you hell

Now where's your picket fence love
And where's that shiny car
Did it ever get you far?
You ever seem so dead slow
Never seen you fall so hard
Do you know where you are?

Truth be told I miss you
Truth be told I'm lying

When you see my face
I hope it gives you hell, I hope it gives you hell
When you walk my way
I hope it gives you hell, I hope it gives you hell
If you find a man thats worth the damn and treats you well
Then he's a fool you're just as well hope it gives you hell
Hope it gives you hell

Tomorrow you'll be thinking to yourself
Where did it all go wrong?
But the list goes on and on
Truth be told I miss you
Truth be told I'm lying

When you see my face
I hope it gives you hell, I hope it gives you hell
When you walk my way
I hope it gives you hell, I hope it gives you hell
If you find a man that's worth the damn and treats you well
Then he's a fool you're just as well hope it gives you hell

Now you'll never see
What you've done to me
You can take back your memories
They're no good to me
And here's all your lies
If you look me in the eyes
With the sad, sad look
That you wear so well

When you see my face
I hope it gives you hell, I hope it gives you hell
When you walk my way
I hope it gives you hell, I hope it gives you hell
If you find a man that's worth the damn and treats you well
Then he's a fool you're just as well hope it gives you hell

When you see my face
I hope it gives you hell, I hope it gives you hell (hope it gives you hell)
When you walk my way
I hope it gives you hell, I hope it gives you hell (hope it gives you hell)
When you hear this song and you sing along well you'll never tell
And you're the fool I've just as well I hope it gives you hell
When you hear this song I hope that it will give you hell
You can sing along I hope that it puts you through hell

 

XMAS BLOG PART 1: ‘Twas the night before Christmas…

…and all through the house

No blogger was stirring

Not even James Grouse (who’s he?)

 

…

 

…

 

…

 

…

 

…

 

HOWEVER!

Reno WAS! Muhahaha

What’s new kids? I feel rather humbled at this moment. I’ve taken another step into letting go of being such a wound up prick tonight. I’m embarrassed to an extent but I’ll admit to this because a decision I made last night means that I have to – for the sake of me!

I’ll start with the decision that took me here. I realised that this last year has seen changes in me that I put into place for the sake of fitting in. Look into the days of old Reno; from the end of High School through college I was very… ‘emo’… and that’s how i identified myself a lot of the time, though I would always say that I want to stay away from labeling people – particularly myself.

 

 

Either way, that’s what I was (or trying to be) but at the end of college I thought it was time to grow up and move out of it before uni, so I cut all the hair off and I became a wanabe trendy mofo (as seen below…)

 

I know this is becoming an ego gallery here, but I’m getting to a point!!

SO! I got to uni, trendy Reno, shortish blonde hair… then the independence hit and I realised that the REAL Reno never conformed and officially I never would – I know that even in the future I’ll still be alternative in some way. So over the months I became more hardcore than ever, see below.

 

Damn I miss that fringe…

 

Then second year came along and I remained the chick magnet Xcore that everyone knew for a few months. But then, I began to fall back into that conforming mindset, mainly in an attempt to bag a particular girl – subconsciously to a certain extent; I know that’s why I did it, but I never realised it at the time. I cut my hair off, bleached it, bought trendy t-shirts, and slowly became something/someone that I didn’t even recognise anymore.

Then Katie and I split up, and I reformed into the summer Reno who likes to be very emo and stick to the same pair of shorts every day and goes back to black hair.  I dunno if it was summer that did that to me or if it was my freedom from convention on my relationship. But now we’re all back in Uni and what have I done? Cut my hair off and bleached it and remained in my conformed old self, I still don't recognise me – and that’s wrong. The most stupid thing is that Katie and I still aren’t together and yet I’m still keeping myself this way for some odd reason…maybe to impress her? I don’t know. Infact that isn’t the most stupid thing, Katie and I first met and showed interest in first year when I was mega emo, so why do I see it in my head as compulsory to try and be someone she (and my immediate friend circle) would accept?

Anyway, I realised last night that being myself is the most important thing I could do/be at this point in my life, and if that means being a 21 year old scene kid then so be it. Within this admittance of who I am, I covered up a lot of things I felt would embarrass me as a person, but now I can’t be bothered with keeping my barriers up trying to hide who I am and what my tastes are. I criticise enough things in modern culture (see blog below this one) so it’s only fiar for me to take criticism from others than try and hide from it. So here I am, telling you that I like Fall Out Boy and I like My Chemical Romance. I downloaded both band’s most recent albums and I personally can’t get enough of the song ‘Welcome to the Black Parade’ and ‘I Don’t Care’ from FOB. The thing is, I would be ashamed to tell people this for the fear of looking like someone who is following a trend or not being hardcore enough, but my music taste is so open in reality that I listen to almost anything! As a future Radio DJ I don’t have the privilege to close my music tastes, and to be honest I don’t think I’d want to even if I did! Music is my love, my life, my passion. I wouldn’t deny myself that for fear of reprisal before, so why do it for the last year?

RENO IS BACK BABY!

 

I’m really sorry for getting away with myself on this post and it not being very Christmassy but I want to tell you all that I’m thinking of you and that I hope all your days are as good as mine will be tomorrow! In the evening I’ll be uploading pictures of my day and there’ll be a special gift just for you (here’s a hint, novel exclusive…oh that’s more of a giveaway than a hint…woops!)

 

Anyway, sleep well peeps and look for part 2 tomoro!!

RenoXmas :)

Fuck Society – Fragrance

Okay so it’s been a while since I wrote a fuck society blog, and I felt compelled to write this one today after watching TV. In under an hour I saw the advertisement below, watch it and I’ll explain my problem :)

I’m sick of the way that rich companies will exploit the trademark of a celebrity for their own benefit. I don’t know if that is what annoys me more, or if its the fact that Mister McGregor would sell out in such a way. Either way, it’s shameful that either parties would do this. I mean, does the smell of your aftershave really have anything to do with the fact that Ewen went around the world on a motorbike? If you were to buy this rip off bottle of alcohol and urea would you automatically want to go journeying around the world…or better yet would you feel like you already have done? I don’t see what this advert has to do with the fact that it’s just a fragrance. Please explain or get off my screen. Damn pop culture.

 

Okay, anyway! On the upside, the novel is very much on the way now. I’m taking a new linear look on things so I can’t skip forward anymore. I’m not allowed to write chapter 2 until i’ve finished chapter 1 and so on. This has been my problem before, get bored of the current subject and skip forward to something more exciting in the narrative. But ultimately this gives me more work to do, as adding new characters in a previous chapter means I’ll need to go back and re-write whatever I’ve done in the other chapters later in the story. So instead of jumping back and forth in this endless cycle I’d rather just write straight through, finish, go back and re-edit in the same order. Makes it much easier. So, the first chapter is now entitled ‘A Brief History of the Past’ and gives a whole new intro to the story including a narrator you’re left leaving questions about. He explains the history of the Earth leading up to that point, it gives less of a surprise later in the story but I think the reader will appreciate it a little more.

Anyway, here’s an awesome music video I just watched on Kerrang! :) Enjoy!!

 

CHRISTMAS POST COMING IN THE NEXT FEW DAYS!!!

It’s all over

Merry fucking Xmas everyone! Uni work officially ended today when I handed in my final 2 assignments. Worked my arse off all night last night to get it done and I’m very proud of how they both turned out, hoping for a first on them – though obviously unlikely.

I want you all to know that I’m fine. Despite all the stuff you’ve heard me say over the last few months and all the stress you’ve heard surrounding my life, everything is fine. Now all the work is over I’m much more relaxed and I feel genuinely happy for the first time in a long while.

There are people I’ve been focusing on a lot recently, and they know who they are, and I hope they know I’ve enjoyed all the time I’ve spent with them recently. I feel like a changed man, a whole new Reno, reborn :)

I’m currently working my way through a bag of aniseed balls (or as I call them – sambucca balls) but its tough as i have about a hundred and I suck them for a long time so they each last about a hour. Phil goes through about 4 in 5 minutes though, so he is assisting in destroying the stockpile of pungent candy quite well.

Now my work is all finished, I’m officially not back in Uni for 5 weeks. That’s right, FIVE! In which case, I can focus not only on my dissertation but also my NOVEL! Yep, A Far Cry From Reality will go back into production tonight, and I’ll have an update for you very soon!!

Stay happy everyone, new post in a few days :)

Album of the Year

This year I have discovered a lot of new music. When I say “new” I don’t mean in the conventional linear sense, I mean the fact that I only just discovered it. Call it selfish or that it doesn’t count because some aren’t albums released in 2008, but it’s my choice and my blog, so…you know…fuck off if you don’t like it.

You may have noticed in some of my newer blogs that I’ve been trying to take a grasp of the blunt, harsh, direct comedy that Gervais and Carr take on, but I' seem to be failing…oh well.

So, after much deliberation and decisions over bands such as Job For a Cowboy, Madina Lake, Ash, Feeder, Everclear, Flobots, Frank Sinatra, Sufjan Stevens, New Found Glory, Jef Wayne and The Red Chord (to just name a few), the Album of the year goes to…

Alter Bridge with their amazing album BLACKBIRD. Without a doubt, this album comes up top. The others were good contenders, but this record is a piece of musical genius.  If you don’t know, Alter Bridge are the remnants of US hard rock band ‘Creed’ – who I know my brother used to be a fan of. However, don’t let this fact fool you, the sound is SO much different, and in my personal opinion it out-does their old material in every way. Take the title track ‘Blackbird’ for example; the shining 8 minute star among the rest of the blitzing tracks – it has everything; fantastic structure, clarity, complexity, changes in tempo and pace, an epic guitar solo, absolutely fantastic lyrics and a sound that has a maturity that is rarely found amidst the rest of the albums that metal bands are releasing these days. The song is not only powerful in a musical sense, but the journey that it takes you on from start to finish is so powerful that it blows me away every time I hear it. If you’re interested, I’ve posted the song below from YouTube, many thanks to Joenage for uploading it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

So now you’re listening to this wonderful song, what else can I tell you? Rapture went well this week, I had two shows (Tuesday and Thursday) as I was filling in for Sam and Mel. It was really fun to get in there twice in 1 week and play some awesome songs. It was flashback week and I played some of the best songs I listened to when I was 15 through 17, but a few had to be cut – including Rasmus by Paul’s hand. Shame.

Here’s a nice photograph from my landscapes module!

 

Stay safe everyone!! :)

More musical fun

Not got much time to update you guys, way too much going on and not enough time.

Went to see my tutor Stephen about my anxiety problems today, it was so good to talk to someone outside my immediate friendship cirlce about what's affecting me, and to get some advice on what to do about it, so thanks a lot Stephen :)

Photography book arrived today and it looks fucking mint, I'm sure you'll all get a chance to see it either in person or in a vlog very soon. My research book is almost finished too, so that's something I look forward to showing Mort this afternoon.

Here's another beautiful track that brings me to tears at times, but also makes me VERY happy too, because it's so brilliant.



Stay awesome ppl :)