Monday 27 April 2009

It’s over (170 days to lift off)

Way too tired and generally exhausted to write a big beefy post. Suffice to say, uni is over. It’s all done, it’s all complete. 5 hours sleep in the last 31 hours. Here’s a video from this morning when I was 90% complete and a few pics following!

 

 

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Reno

Sunday 19 April 2009

This is England… (178 days to lift off)

I love my uni’s library. Free DVD rentals, which I take advantage of regularly, supplied  me with a copy of This is England for the weekend. I’d heard rave reviews about the film in the pas but was worried it wouldn’t be my kind of thinthis-is-englandg.I was wrong. So wrong in fact that I was so impressed I watched the film a second time straight after it ended and ordered my own copy off play.com.

Don’t want to do a huge massive review of the film because it’ll take ages to write and you won’t be that interested. Basically, it is the best film I’ve seen in a very very long time. British film making at its best, not only in story and production but also in realism – they took us back to the 1980’s so successfully. Plenty of violence in the proceeds of the film, as well as racism and general psychotic behaviour. Powerful, moving and just fantastic. 10/10.

 

Tomorrow sees the first day in the final week of uni, with the second hand in of my final projects – my Radio Comedy evaluation. Then I’ll be grabbing a hair cut, pics of the whole day will be up in the evening.

 

Chooch is coming over later, which will be ace as I haven’t seen her in over a week.

 

Here’s today’s song, it’s about the Falklands so it is quite fitting to This is England (if you know the storyline), it’s a classic track from my past so I hope you enjoy it :)

 

Thursday 16 April 2009

You only live once… (181 days to lift off)

Every day, I receive uplifting little email titbits from The Universe (check it out at www.tut.com) and it’s cool to see when I wake up in the morning. Thing is though, I came to a realisation a few days ago that has changed my life around, without the need of anything like inspirational talks or uplifting emails. I remembered the saying “you only live once” – it’s such a powerful expression and even more powerful in its theory. Think about it, there are only a certain amount of seconds we’re all going to live – okay we don’t know the exact figure but there’s a definite limit, so why waste a single second, minute, hour, day, week or year being controlled by anything beyond our own mind. The world is your oyster; you can have, do or experience any single thing you want with the right attitude and enough effort. My life has been controlled by anxiety for over 3 years now, and although I’m kicking it in the nuts gradually, this realisation of me wasting my life in fear of my own feelings has woken me up – big time. I have a much bigger urge to break my habits, tear down my comfort zones, kill my anxiety and live the fullest life possible.

 

Back in Stoke, miss Mum’s house loads already – never said that before! Dunno what it is, maybe coz Dax isn’t back yet and Emma is away, but something doesn’t feel right about this place anymore. It doesn’t feel like home. I have to leave this house soon, I’m tired of it.

 

Anyway, back to the dissertation dudes, here’s the song that works alongside my new way of thinking, hope you like it!!

 

 

Reno x

Monday 13 April 2009

Fast & Furious: The Review

*WARNING – THIS REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS!!*

 

Okay, so the other night I downloaded a nice bootleg version of Fast&Furious after underestimating the cinema going public of Kettering. I’ve been a F&F fan since the beginning – the original is the film that connects me and my oldest brother Olly, so the franchise has been important from the start. I’ve always loved the franchise because of what it stands for – awesome cars, stupid impossible stunts, hot girls and some fun music. In fact, the main pulling point to these films for me is the fact that they are stupid. They make no sense, the special effects are over the top and the acting is… well it lacks integrity. Yes, you heard me right, these are the good things I enjoy about The Fast and The Furious.

 

The problem with the fourth film in the franchise is that it attempted to let go of these things – the acting may still have been lacking but this wasn’t in the comic way, it was just dull. They also tried to add too much sophistication and realism into the situations of the narrative, it seems a little too real for my liking. Think back to 2Fast2Furious, remember the stupid plot? Remember how ridiculous it was? It was almost like watching a cartoon! That was one of the funniest and best parts of what the film had to offer, because you immediately said “okay, this isn’t a serious film, let’s just have fun!” and that was definitely the pleasure of the text, for me anyway. The other thing that brings down this film is how rushed it is. The story jumps from section to section of key importance and the writers seem to have just ignored how important it is for us to know the characters. Maybe they thought there was no need for that as we already know Dom and Brian well enough from the first and second films. But they should have remembered that five years have passed and nobody really makes any reference to the ways in which they have changed in this time, because that is inevitable. Mia is the only one who really shows any form of character depth but even that is limited. It may seem like a contradiction to say a film needs to be silly but then it needs character depth, but it remains important to me. The story in itself is so short and yet they still tried to stuff in as much jargon as possible, instead of having depth, understanding and pacing to the narrative they rushed it all and yet it still seemed ridiculously crowded and claustrophobic to watch. The love scene between Mia and Brian was abrupt and too short, it had no development and no real reason behind it, other than showing that loose connection between the original and the new one (and leading to the end of the film, which we’ll discuss later)

 

One last thing that made this film disappointing; what the hell happened to the races!? The entire point of the F&F franchise was to base everything on street racing, it all revolves around this key subject; The Fast and The Furious had at least 5 races, 2Fast had at least 4 and Tokyo Drift had about the same. Whereas Fast & Furious had just one clear street race, which was wicked and very intense but even that had its shortcomings – what was with all the CGI satnav bollocks? It ruined the scene completely. After that there was no clear racing, no passion in pushing the car to the limit for just the thrill of the the ride.

 

 

Okay so that’s the bad stuff out of the way, what were the good points? The stunts and special effects were amazing, but I wouldn’t expect any less from this series. The tunnel sequences were really cool, as well as the aforementioned street race which gives Dom and Brian their ticket into the Cartel. The cars, though a little limited, are wicked too. It was great to see Toretto’s muscle car back in action after the big crash of the the first movie. Also, the use of the old locations (such as Toretto’s original house and garage) was wicked because it gave us a real feel of returning to the original story, this added to continuity and familiarities, which I loved.

 

One more thing, the ending; simply ace.end1 The entire last few minutes of the film I had a  hanging jaw; it was shocking, it was compelling, it was amazing and it ended with excitement. When the credits began to roll through the CGI of moving engine parts (as it always goes with this series) I was buzzing. I had that feeing I always get from Fast & Furious, so I guess ending on a good note is something that can be appreciated, just a shame the rest of the film had a sour taste to it all the way through. However, the good news is that this ending left a nice open door for The Fast and The Furious 5! Which, you’ll be pleased to hear, has already been confirmed and is in production! I have found from two different interviews with Paul Walker regarding number 5, one says it’ll be based in Europe and one says it’ll be in Brazil. Either way it’s bound to be fun, though I’d prefer the Europe option, mainly because I’d like to see my favourite characters racing through London, but that’s unlikely. Anyway, that’s a few years off, so we need to focus on the present production we have in hand; number 4.

 

One thing that can’t be denied of this film is the action, it’s virtually non stop and the adrenaline still pumps like it used to, so it was still fun to watch. If you don’t mind a lack of storyline integrity and a rush of narrative key points then this film is a definite for action junkies, which is what us junkies are used to, but in my opinion it falls below even the low standard we expect. A second viewing makes the film stick together better and you can understand the timeline better than the first time around, but paying £7 to get into the cinema again shouldn’t be required from a good film, so I’d suggest waiting for the DVD or be a pirate like me and get a shit cinema filmed version.

 

Overall, this movie get a 7/10 for me (the original get a 9.5, 2Fast gets 8.5, Tokyo Drift gets 8.5) which shows my disapproval in the film in its attempt to revive the original story and cast etc. (not that this was a bad idea, it just wasn’t done very well). Still, a 7 isn’t bad and I’d recommend you give it a chance if you’re into fast cars, hot girls, action, adrenaline and a mint soundtrack. Speaking of which, here’s the song to the ending credits, enjoy!

 

 

Reno :)

Sunday 12 April 2009

I need to tell you something…

It came from the future; a message from a distant warrior, prophesising what is yet to come for us. A warning of the wars we shall fight and the heroes who shall save us. Found in the desert near Cairo, hundreds of pages of words burnt into paper that cannot be analysed or identified appeared in the sand. The work was found in 52BC by Aulus, a soldier in the Roman army, who took it back to Rome as a secret trophy for his work in the military. However, unable to decipher the symbols, he hid the work under his house. Aulus died suddenly in 67BC and the work was forgotten for almost two thousand years, until it was found in 1996 by a construction team who were renovating the site of where he lived. The work was sent to an anonymous British historian who requested in his will that it be sent to me and I was to publish it. Upon his death in 2009, I started work on formatting the book and it will soon be put into publication. Now you too can read the story of the world’s future.

 

The top page of the stack of papers which the book is based on reads;

 

“To Whom It May Concern,

 

                I write this account to tell you of what the future has to offer for your very existence. Please find attached the first part of my work; The Awakening. This is the story of my Father’s past, your future. I beg of you, publish this book and tell all of the tales I write in this and the subsequent documents, of which there are many. It is my duty to tell this tale, and maybe prevent the deaths that have already occurred from taking place. Maybe my future is unset by sending this document to you, but I am prepared to risk this eventuality. Please, read, enjoy and prepare for the future.

 

Yours sincerely,

 

                William Hungary”

 

 

Learn the truth of the future; the war, the love, the courage, and the fate of our planet in this first instalment of The Chronicles of The Chosen: The Awakening.

 

Coming soon!

Saturday 11 April 2009

2 muffins sitting in an oven…

…one says to the other “it’s getting hot in here!!” the other turns and says

"ARGH! A TALKING MUFFIN!!”

 

 

Wins.

 

Emma finally hit my house for Easter fun part 2 (which should have been Wednesday but she’s rubbish!) Anyway, it was cool, we hung out for the afternoon at mine then planned the evening. Unfortunately the film we were gunna go see (Fast&Furious) sold out before we even left, so we thought this…

 

facers mate

Despite the Sat nav being rubbish, I managed to direct Emma to the place properly. We hit Tesco, then the pub for an hour or two. Was lovely, even if we had 2 milfs sat across from us and then 2 people on a double date – the bloke was a total geek and was making his date a bit scared me thinks. We chatted about the most inappropriate things for a public area, especially as we were right next to the cue for food orders, so a lot of people heard us talking about sex and…well I won’t go into it lol.

 

Here’s a few pics from our adventure…

 

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(I’m Jacko with pineapple hair!)

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(omg loads of Weetabix!!)

 

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(The aftermath at home!)

 

Great time was had by all! Thanks Chooch for an awesome Easter :)

 

I want to thank AJ for writing such a lovely and moving blog about Thursday’s announcement. It means a lot that people really care, but to have a blog post written about me was overwhelming to say the least. Cheers man :)

 

 

 

In Australia News, tomorrow Mum and I are sitting down and planning my future from now until I take off – including jobs, housing, locations, budgets, flights, visas, passports and pretty much anything else we can think of…HAPPY EASTER TO ME.

Nah, only kidding, I love the idea of doing that stuff, it’s gunna be MEGA!! :D

So excited!!

 

Today’s song is…

 

 

Best lyric ever is the first line of this song… “I wana slit your throat, and f*** the wound” lol, love it, real passion and hatred is what you need with metal.

 

Aaaaaanyway, I’ve rambled enough!

 

 

Reno x

Thursday 9 April 2009

The one where someone else explains it all…

Check out what I just found…

So this is it, as promised…

So I told you big news was coming, and I’m not going to fail on that promise. In October of this year I will be moving to Australia. I’ve been throwing around my two options for a few weeks; stay and work on a certain project in Stoke or move away, work and then hit the land down under. Officially, I took the latter choice last night.

 

 

A few of you will be shocked to hear this, and I’m sorry to tell you, but it’s something I really want to do. Don’t panic, it’s not like you’ll never see me again – I’m only going for a year! I’m sure you can all survive for a year without me, plus I’ll still be writing this blog and I’ll be on Facebook, MySpace and MSN regularly!!

So yeah, planning to fly around the 15th of October, so if we take that as the approx date of departure, it means that there’s 221 days until I leave! Until then things will be drastically changing in my life – once uni is over I’ll be moving somewhere new, working lots, selling junk, planning the journey etc – so I’ll be updating you a lot on that stuff as time goes by.

 

As you can see I’ve already started converting the blog into an Ozzy paradise, a nice new theme and a countdown of the days until I go too!

Anyway that’s all I’ve got to say for now, hope you’re all good, cinema to see Fast&Furious with Emma tomorrow! I’ll write a review after I’ve been :)

Also, don’t forget to check out the spin off that rocks the casbah!! Check it out here!!

Here’s the song of the day for you!

 

Reno x

Wednesday 8 April 2009

*Drum roll* BIG NEWS!!

Well not huge, but still coolness to announce!

The other night my friend Harry and I started a brand new spin off blog, entitled Reno and Harry Rock The Casbah – no, not meaning we have sex, instead it means that we write about awesome music. Harry and I have really cool and diverse music tastes, so it’s a good contrasting mix of styles and ideas. We’ve already got quite a few pieces up, with about 3 or 4 posts going up daily, so head over there for awesome junk – here’s an easy link… CLICK ME!!!

The other big announcement is still going to come soon, but thats a mega hush subject, I know a few of you are really anxious to know what it is, AJ especially! Fear not, all will be revealed soon!

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Still having a great time at Mum’s house, it’s nice to have some home comforts – real food, big TV, sky, etc. I do miss Stoke but not as desperately as I usually do, I like being here at the moment, getting some work done and working at my own pace – it’s great! The end of uni is coming towards me at the speed of a bullet and I’m bloody terrified!! Moving out of my house, finding a new place to live and work, getting up before 10am every day, it’s a big change! BRING IT ON!

It’s been a good while since I watched TV properly, and I forgot how disgusting some adverts are, especially in exploiting women in their obsession with looking thin – my example of this is the Special-K adverts on at the moment, asking “looking forward to summer but not wearing your swimsuit?” – showing a woman looking the mirror looking unsure, then advising the special~k way of getting thin.

(This isn’t the same video but it’s similar)

The stupid thing is, the woman in the video is by no means fat, she’s not even curvy for Christ’s sake. This will therefore make any women who are larger than her to think they’re fat, it sets standards too high for them and will just make them more self conscious. If you doubt that then ask yourself this; do Kellogg’s really care about how thin you are, or do they care about making money? I’d like to think their morals are in place but of course, it’s all about the moolah – raise the bar to say thin women are fat, then more fat people buy in = more sales and more cash.

 

SORRY!

 

Hello. I’m Reno. I rant about things that make no difference and I can’t do anything about. How are you?

 

Today’s song is…

 

Saaaaaaaafe!

Monday 6 April 2009

Easter Part 1 – Sunday with Em :D

So, as promised, remarks on yesterdays proceedings have finally hit the blog. Had one of the best days ever if I’m honest. I got up 20 mins late and Mum yelled at me (oops!) and then I had an awesome bowl of Lucky Charms (third in 2 two days lol) and awaited the arrival of my bestest friend. She was late (typical woman) but I didn’t care, we had fun times!! We messed around in the garden, took stupid MySpace pics, laughed at the Turkey Tree (see it to believe it) and hung out with my mega awesome Mum lol, she’s hip. Here’s a few pics of the day!!

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Would anyone else agree that my Mum looks a bit like April Margera (Bam’s Mum)?? Emma and I both see it, lets see what you think! Look at the pic of her next to the statues above and then compare her to this pic of ‘Ape’…

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I’ll let you decide.

Rest of Easter is looking to be ace, well this week at least!

Not much else to report, special new blog coming soon, but that’s hush-hush for now, news coming soon on that so stay tuned!!

Today’s song…

Reno x

Saturday 4 April 2009

Words I like

Dunno why I’m writing this, but I am! Just had this strange urge to tell the world about the words I like. I have a great love for words connected to war and general destruction. Here’s a list of a few AWESOME words for you to have a think about:

Apolocolypse

Battle Cruiser

Tank

Module

Console

Port

Silo

Military

Cannon

Turbo

Ultra

Nebular

Sector

Explosion

Combustion

Thrusters (wahey!)

Ion Cannon

Wing

Shields

Battle suit

Battle armour

 

Okay so most of them are sci-fi war stuff, sorry! lol.

Speaking of sci-fi war, my novel is moving again! Started a new chapter on Thursday night called “The Guiders” which introduces a whole new set of characters into the story, mysterious beings that contact Chris and tell him vital information. They’re a little like Frank the Bunny in Donnie Darko but less freaky and we never see their true form. Kinda dudey.

 

Anyone up for a fun Easter? Can I get a “hell yeah?”

I can’t hear you!! I SAID, CAN I GET A HELL YEAH?!?

That’s better.

 

Got to Mum's yesterday and so much has already happened in 24 hours, big surprise coming for you guys in the next few weeks, big announcement coming, but that’s a big shhh for now!! Emma is heading over from Bedford tomoro, talk about convenience (Bedford is 30 mins from Mum’s) – pics will be up on Facebook and a few on here if you’re lucky!!

 

Here’s today’s song for you to enjoy!!

 

Speak soon broods and dudes!!