"What do you do with a BA in Journalism...?"

...Write a review on Avenue Q of course!

If you've ever sat and watched Sesame Street with a younger family member and wished life were as simple now as it were when you were young enough to appreciate it - enduring hours of puppets mindlessly singing about letters in the alphabet and eating cookies - then Avenue Q is for you.

The story surrounds a young college graduate (puppet), Princeton, who has left college full of the ideologies one collects through early life. He wants to know what his purpose in life is and why he is alive. He comes to Avenue Q -a suburb full of sell-outs and nobodies - to begin a new job, however he's laid off before the first day!

In comes Kate Monster... the girl next door (puppet). The first character to say the word 'fuck' which set the tone pretty accurately for the rest of the show. Kate has a dream to open a school just for monster children as she feels they're discriminated against... Princeton and Kate have a heated debate about racism which leads nicely into a cheeky little number, "Everyone's a little bit racist" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RovF1zsDoeM&feature=related Avenue Q manages to tackle everyday 'grown up' problems in a elementary - oddly sensible way!

Well to cut a long story short, Kate falls in love with Princeton who in turn falls in love with her but finishes things as he thinks being with her will stop him from finding his 'purpose'. Princeton has a one night stand with a slutty puppet, aptly named - Lucy the slut (so genius!). But when he realises there are many types of dream and you can find happiness in helping others they get back together at the end of the story.

The set is very cleverly done with only five or six cast members and countless puppets. The cast are very skilled are precise with their switching of characters and choreography. It can be hard to ignore the cast members at first as they are actually 'invisible' - grown ups like to use their imagination too! However, it becomes normal and the cast members also portray how the puppet is feeling through their facial expressions.

A nice little personal touch came in the form of a Pompey jibe which had the Southampton fans cheering and hooting.

An absolutely brilliant show. Luckily for me I went with a friend who works at the Mayflower and acquired a front row seat for £12.25 but I would pay full price to see it again tomorrow. I feel Avenue Q tackle just about every sensitive issue about growing up and leaving college and manage to put a optimistic spin on life's pissers!

Must see.

Everything in life is only for now...

My first published article!

So yesterday I was let loose on a program called inews which is the 'newscity' of the real world! I was asked to write an article on the latest happenings on Japan using the news wires coming in. My final draft was tweaked as there were a few stylistic preferences of ITN but here it is...

Radiation from the stricken Japanese nuclear plant will reach North America in days, a Swedish official has claimed.
The particles are expected to travel across the Atlantic to Europe but they are not thought to be harmful to health.
Meanwhile, rescue efforts have been hampered by a cold-snap which has brought heavy snow to some of the areas worst hit by last week's tsunami and earthquake.
Some evacuation centres are also experiencing water and heating shortages, and many parts of the country, including Tokyo, are bracing themselves for rolling blackouts.

Experiencing ITN...

This week I have left the safety of humble Winchester for the hustle and bustle of London to take part in a two week work attachment at ITN. Now obviously as I expected, upon entering the building on my first day there was one word on everybodies lips. Japan. Words cannot describe the devastation that has been caused and pictures say more than a thousand words.

One upcoming event I had let slip to the back of my mind until Monday was the Royal Wedding. Well that all came crashing back to the forefront of my mind as I was given the task of sorting through the ITN Royal Wedding Channel and changing the format of the public videos for SMS. Exciting stuff, until 5 hours later when I was still muddling through them and getting sick of any word even slightly associated with royalty. I guess the reality of it all though is that you do have to spend hours and days staring at the same thing in the journalism industry. The trick is to find ways to look at the material with fresh eyes every time you come back to it. I myself decided to imagine Prince William in his birthday suit and with a full head of hair...

Day two arrived, nerves were starting to subside and I felt a bit more at ease around the newsroom. While I was at a loss for something to do I took a walk over to the entertainments department and started talking to a guy called Johnny about his job. He is a games news reporter. Him and his side-kick make daily bulletins rounding up the must-have games and offering their professional opinion on them. We got chatting about how the games world is taking over the movie world in that the public excitement for upcoming games is absolutely phenomenal. At this point I was asked to let Johnny get back to his busy work. Oops!

I spent the rest of yesterday arranging showbiz tapes with the promise of being sent on a uber cool shoot on Monday... this has got me quite excited!

I'm not sure what today has instore for me but so far it has involved administrative tasks of ordering couriers and writing labels. After that I hope to have a bash at Avid which is the editing software they use here. I've been looking over peoples shoulders and in theory it looks very similar to Final Cut Pro, just with different buttons. How hard can it be?

Flawless UK Tour Review

Flawless UK Tour

When I was asked my friend Mike to go to Portsmouth and watch Britains Got Talent's dance reject act Flawless, I thought "Oh god, this is going to be TERRIBLE". However Mike promised we'd take a cheeky detour to my favourite restaurant first and I needed a good distraction from my dissertation anyway so I went.

When we took our seats there were a pair of white gloves on each seat - a sure sign that this show was going to involve the audience is some highly cringy way. I sat down and set the gloves a side and decided to open my mind like a parachute to the figures who were flip-flopping and sliding on to the stage.

What I was expecting was a group of young lads, slightly full of themselves, simply breakdancing for 2 hours. What I got was a production of emotions. Each dance telling a different narrative. Each dancer took on their own personal character – if you will – and in the audience I felt like I had gotten to know them on a personal level. Ok, they had all the components of a manufactured phenomenon, the cheesy catchphrase, “Chase the dream not the competition”, the flock of screaming girls and the general swagger of jesus at the second coming. Despite all this you could not deny they had such raw talent – and very desirable torsos but that is neither here nor there!

The team of dancers prove in their tour that they are not one trick ponies, with hints of disco, ballet and contemporary styles blended in with their own street dance genre came a fantastic hybrid of genius that got even the most huffy of grandparents squirming and boogying in their seats.

A big egg shaped face emerged on the screen in some sort of intergalactic theme and it became clear that the dreaded glove moment had come. Instructions boomed out throughout the theatre for a simple but effective hand routine to occupy us while the dancers changed for the next big projection they were about to give us. It was actually very amusing, and the screen threw back images of the audiences attempts which provided eruptions of laughter.

Despite my initial apprehension I would definitely recommend this show to people of all ages for a feel good evening – and if you're a student like me then it will only cost your Jaegermeister piggybank £5. Bargain! 

Magazine Journalism Lecture 4

Reviews and Critics

'Theatrical Viagra' - Nicole Kidman in The Blue Room

Basics - 

Simple format; What is it? Is it any good? Does it do what it says on the tin?

Subjects; Music, theatre, comedy, dance, food, books

Gonzo reviews - 
A piece where the reporter is so outspoken that it become mores about the reporter than the actual subject. Michael Winner - Sunday Times. AA Gill -The Sunday Times. Matthew Norman - The Independent.

Reader service - 
ie. Sight and sound magazine

Judgement - marks out of 10?

Literary Criticism -


The Quarterly
The Fortnightly
The Westminster
Edinburgh Review
Punch (Thackeray)
Household Words (Dickens)
Times Literary Supplement (Virginia Woolf)
Daily Telegraph (John Betjemen)

Book Reviews - 

Badly paid
Have to read whole book
Freelance
Experts in fields
Authors themselves
Perks - Gastons - send 3 copies
Staff - Booker judges


History


Crusading "consumer rights" movement pioneered in the US by journalist Ralph Nadar. 
Consumers' Association 1957


What not to do


Avoid personal preference, ie. "I like this because..." No good in serious consumer journalism.

2010... You've been wonderful!

It's a new year, a fresh start, a clean slate but I was just not ready to say goodbye to 2010 before a quick look back at the highlights...


January

This is New Years eve 2010 with my good friends Lorna and Mike. I don't know the other girl. 2010 was an important year for me from the start. I had closed doors in 2009 and was ready to move on. This night started at Mikes house and several bottles of Vodka and Archers and ended with us trying to 'interview' some Polish girl on her night - which she believed would appear on ITV news the next day. Amazing stuff.


February

This right here is my pre-drinks on my 21st birthday. Notice the disapproving looks from my peers. Their concerns were justified later that night....


March

Lucy's 20th Birthday... and what a fun night we all had! Each of us donning a different colour to transform into our favourite Mr.Men character... although I kept being asked if I was a sick smurf. I don't think I had the Little Miss Naughty look down :(


April

After what felt like the longest. winter. EVER... the sun made a cheeky appearance in April. And BOY were we pleased to see him!


May

Well, the results of the night may have left our country in a dire position but for us at WINOL as budding journalists we were given a golden opportunity by our lecturers to do an overnight 8 hour continuous broadcast covering the election. It was tiring but exhilerating and I'm so proud of everybody involved for pulling it off. We did good. BRIIIIIIIIIIINE! :)



June

June was a particularly good month for me so I have chosen two pictures! The first is of the stage at Bellahouston Park in Glasgow on my trip to see Snow Patrol. I have family in Glasgow and had seen they had a date there so on a complete impulse I bought two tickets and phoned my auntie to let her know I'd be paying a visit. I took my crazy uncle with me and we had a great day making friends from across the country and drinking Gamers cider! The fact that Editors were one of the support acts was the icing on the cake and spending the rest of the week with my little cousins was the cherry :)

The second picture needs a little more background info. This is a picture of me and my friend Gabi on Bournemouth beach one night. After a lunch date where we both spent the afternoon moaning about life and how we needed to do something spontaneous... Don't Stop Believing by Journey came to mind and we both decided we wanted to get the midnight train going anywhere! She had to get back to work but we arranged to meet outside her work at 11pm and jump on the last train - which happened to be heading to Bournemouth! Our friend Marina met us at the station, a few cans of cider, couple of towels and a few hoodies in tow and we left to spend the night on the beach telling life stories and discussing the future and what-not. The next morning we were £30 worse off (we were mugged... don't ask!) and we got caught coming back without tickets so got fines too. Financially the worst spontaneous adventure ever but it was so much fun I don't regret it!


July
According to photographic evidence, July doesn't exist...
I do happen to remember this being an iconic month for me and one of my, at the time, very close friends. July was very fun!



August

In August I quickly went blonde... and then quickly went back again. The decision was made over a bottle of pear vodka with Gabi where she told me she had always wanted to see me blonde. It, of course, went orange on account of the redness before  hand. There was some minor swearing and teary eyes. I stuck it out for a week or two though before going brunette again. August brought with it a very wise lesson for me. Don't make hair style choices when drunk...


September

September brought with it a new face for the Milner Place family. Katey Marshall joined us and the house was instantly a more homely place. Before Katey I lived with the two boys and another girl but she didn't socialise or even acknowledge any of us and so there was generally a bad atmosphere. Katey changed things and we've all become very good friends!

October

Anybody who knows me well will know I'm a bit of a fitness dodger... at secondary school I famously avoided football in P.E. for a whole term with notes written by my 'mum' telling of a 'bad back'. I hated it so much! In October my housemate Dom got all of us in the house to sign up for Hockey try outs. At first I was adament he would never find me on a hockey pitch, but I joined and I love it!! The above picture is me with the hockey girls on the high street during a stop, drop and roll on a social.


November

November... the month of Chesney Hawkes! November saw me ousted from my News Editor role at WINOL and plonked into a new one of Entertainments Editor and within 24 hours I had an interview with the one and only set up for the very next day. Probably my proudest moment of the year, academically.


December

December... my little sisters turned 18. I chose this picture because my sister Sammy's hair is absolutely outrageous where we are giving her birthday bumps. It always makes me laugh :) Unfortunately my other sister Danielled saw what was happening and ran out the room before we could catch her too! The disadvantages of twins... We got her in the end though... we got her good!

So this was my year! I've bid a sad farewell to 2010. It really was a pretty amazing year. Here's to 2011... and my New Year Resolution which I've just decided is to never stop making memories. Thanks for reading. Kisses <3 xx