Aidan Parr
The blog of a student journo - random musings/diary entries, reviews, articles and whatever else comes to mind…
Archive for Uncategorized
August 5, 2010 at 11:25 pm · Filed under Uncategorized
So it’s been a while.
I spent a lot of time yesterday listening to some new music. I downloaded Eminem’s new album ‘Recovery’ and a few mixtapes, the most high profile being Wale’s ‘More About Nothing’ - a follow up to his hit mixtape ‘Mixtape About Nothing’. Unfortunately, however, I was unable to give any of those tracks more than a cursory listen as my entire afternoon was taken over by B.o.B and his album ‘B.o.B Presents: The Adventures of Bobby Ray’.
B.o.B Presents: The Adventures of Bobby Ray album art.
Before downloading, I hadn’t really heard much of B.o.B (real name: Bobby Ray) although he had caused quite a stir, not in the traditional manner of underground hip-hop, but over the internet, through mixtapes.
Having been released in the US on April 27th, I arrived to the album late, and, having already heard the first two singles; ‘Airplanes’ and ‘Nothin’ on You,’ I kinda knew what to expect. I was expecting an ‘o.k.’ album with a couple of decent singles and some average album tracks. Instead, I received an album that had 11 tracks - all of which, I enjoyed! In fact, most of them I loved!
‘Airplanes’ and ‘Nothin’ on You’ are obviously two of the better songs, given the ’single’ status, but I also enjoyed ‘Ghost in the Machine’ and ‘Magic’. The rest of the songs all had their upsides, but those were my stand out tracks.
This is an album that I could listen to hundreds of times - I was instantly more familiar with it than I was with ‘The Blueprint 3′, my favourite album of last year, a sensation I’ve only had with the Arctic Monkeys’ ‘What ever people say I am, That’s what I’m Not.’
I’ve done a bit of research since my first listen. Firstly, it seems that a lot of the critics I’ve read didn’t rate this album at all - however, the backlash against said critics I saw was astounding. It does seem to be a dividing album, you either love it or you hate it.
For my part, I love it, and it’ll be a firm fixture on my iPod for years to come.
Check out my lastFM account here.
May 6, 2010 at 9:07 pm · Filed under Uncategorized
So election fever has hit the UK!
Today is polling day - I voted at about one o’clock (but I am not going to divulge my choices!)
It is shaping up to be the most exciting election in recent history, with the Lib Dems having their best chance of getting Clegg into number ten in almost a century, and with neither brown nor Cameron having a clear advantage over the other. In fact, all indications are leaning towards a hung parliament.
A new feature for this year’s election has been the introduction of American style television debates, and it is those that have really been responsible for the huge surge in popularity that Nick Clegg’s Lib Dems have experienced - so much so that the Guardian and her sister paper, The Observer, have come out in support of them.
The rest of the newspapers seem pretty split across the other two main parties: The Sun, along with the rest of Murdoch’s empire in full support of the Tories - so much so that their topless model of the day was relegated to page 7!!
This election has split public opinion seemingly into almost equal thirds - minus, of course, those going for the minor parties.
Now, its just hit 10 - the exit polls are out - seeming to suggest a hung parliament, and the BBC is the best place to see the results! I can’t wait!!
February 8, 2010 at 2:31 am · Filed under Uncategorized
American football is a competition of sheer brute force and skill not seen since the days of the gladiators, and like the Roman’s before us, we build it into a spectacle so big, it eclipses the game itself.
Perhaps all sports are some times guilty of this, but non more so than American football and it’s Superbowl.
Approximately 151 million people watch at least part of the Superbowl, throughout 232 countries/territories; Americans consume 325.5 million gallons of beer that day; and approximately 1 billion chicken wings are eaten.
Such is the commercial draw of the Superbowl that a 30second-advertising slot during the game will cost around $2.8million.
So what’s all the fuss about? America is the only country that really celebrates ‘Football’ as a mainstream sport, and although countries such as a Canada and the United Kingdom have leagues, ‘Soccer’ is generally regarded as the most popular sport.
Yet it seems rather silly to compare a national competition in a country the size of America with a similar competition in a country the size of the UK. But even a continental competition such as the UEFA Champions League doesn’t have the class, the excitement or the grandeur that the Superbowl has. There is no such thing as a Champions League halftime show, but in the Superbowl this year, The Who rocked out Miami’s Sun Life Stadium in what can surely be one of the most surreal gigs of their careers.
Even the FIFA World Cup doesn’t have the same presence as the Superbowl, despite it being a complete competition between every country in the world. Then what makes the Superbowl so special? It isn’t the game itself. To me, American football is one of the most annoying sports to watch, with its stop-start nature you get taken away from the action every few minutes.
Then is this a different matter? Not a matter of one sport being more exciting than another, but of one nation being more passionate or more excitable about their chosen sport?
It doesn’t matter.
This year’s Superbowl has a bigger meaning. Playing against the Colts is a team that a matter of years ago represented a broken city. New Orleans has been decimated by Hurricane Katrina, yet the successes of their sports team have shown to the world that people and places can survive; can be rebuilt. The people of New Orleans united behind their team, and have shown what can be achieved.
Perhaps this can give some hope to the people of Afghanistan; of Iraq; of Haiti. These countries have been shattered, one way or another, but perhaps New Orleans and the Saints have shown how the human mentality can survive and overcome these issues.
The score is almost irrelevant; but lets not tell the players…
Stats courtesy of: http://bit.ly/cjSY05
January 25, 2010 at 4:07 am · Filed under Uncategorized
Hi peeps.
So I am officially 20. It was my birthday yesterday, and I had an immense time! So a big thanks to everyone that got involved/will get involved on tuesday.
Its been a while since I last blogged, so I reckon I’ll do another music one, the tunes I’ve been getting into recently.
Journey - Don’t Stop Believing
I can’t believe this one is back - it is an epic 80s tune, and a reflex night wouldn’t be the same without it!
Plan B - Stay Too Long
The single and the Pendulum remix is class, really amazing. I liked it from the first time I heard it, hopefully it’ll be on Radio Sonar soooooon!
Ultravox - Vienna
Another 80s classic, been playing it on my radio show recently, I can’t get enough of it!
James - Sit Down
An immense tune, by a thoroughly under rated band. I hope they make a bit of a come back!
Lady GaGa - Bad Romance
Not my usual type of music, but it is a great party tune!
Not much else to tell you about. Hope you all have a great 2010!
x
December 25, 2009 at 1:48 am · Filed under Uncategorized
So I’m sitting at 01:27 on Christmas Day morning, looking through all the Celebrity Playlists on the iTunes store, and I figured I’d do my own. So these are my top tunes of the year - bear in mind, they’re not all songs that came from this year, just the ones that meant something to me!
Jay-Z / Empire State of Mind: I could pick a fair few of his songs, but this is the one that really introduced him to me, and the one that I love the most - mostly because New York is somewhere I really wanna go in the future.
The Who/ Baba O’Reilly: This was my opening song of this year’s Radio Sonar show, ‘Classics on Sonar’. Crazy piano playing at the beginning made it the perfect introduction!
Arctic Monkeys/ Secret Door: My favourite song off their latest album ‘Humbug’. Its got a haunting melody to it that very nearly reduced me to tears one early morning after the stresses of essaying.
Journey/ Don’t Stop Believing: There are many songs that could fill this slot, but this is the tune that reminds me of epic reflex times. It is THE place to be in Soton.
Spandau Ballet/ Gold: They got back together!! One of THE defining bands of the 80s reformed and released a new album. Gold is a classic and will forever be one of my all time favourite songs!
Lady gaga/ Pokerface: I must stress that it is the acoustic version I like. That kinda pop music isn’t my usual cup of tea, but she does have great talent, and an amazing voice when she sings acoustically.
Stevie Wonder/ Superstitious: Epic tune, found it on my Motown compilation album. It really makes you wanna dance. Played it on my show a few times.
Robbie Williams/ You Know Me: Its probably not cool to like him anymore (unless you are a 30 year old woman!) but Robbie’s comeback album was a hit - and this was the best song on there!
Tinchy Stryder/ Number 1: It was my tune of the summer, I loved it! ‘Nuff said!
There you have it, my 9 songs of 2009. Of course, there were loads of others, but I had to keep it to a respectable amount! I’ve already got a few albums to check out when the new year (and funds) come my way. Until then, I will revel in the best of 2009. Merry Christmas, and Happy New Year.
December 16, 2009 at 4:23 am · Filed under Uncategorized
Ok, I won’t lie to you, I only bought this album to see what all the hype was about. I’d never really been a big Jay-Z fan, infact, I’d have struggled to name three of his songs. Yet this album has opened doors to me.
This album has belatedly introduced me to one of the biggest and best hip-hop/rap artists of all time.
Upon released The Blueprint 3 - named after Jay-Z’s most successful studio album - was surrounded by hype. It was arguably the most awaited album of 2009, and rightly so. After his controversial appearance at Glastonbury 2008, his high profile relationship with pop sensation Beyoncé, work with the Pussycat Dolls and Rihanna, Jay Z was THE man of hip hop. This is the guy that the likes of Kanye West looked up to. And I knew nothing about him.
The critics were not unkind to the release, many of the singles (especially Empire State of Mind) loved both by the critics and by the public, yet many seemed underwhelmed by the entire package. Killian Fox, of the Obeserver states: ”His spectacular career arc might bear out some of these claims but, while an improvement on the last two albums, this is no Warhol masterpiece.”
This makes reference to his self styled ‘Saviour of Hip Hop’ slant, with songs such as D.O.A. (Death of Autotune) admonishing the current generation of rappers and producers, telling them: “You niggas singin too much, Get back to rap you T-Pain’n too much”. Alongside this is boast upon boast of his musical talent (”I crush Elvis in his blue suede shoes”) and his power and influence (he’s a ”small part of the reason the president is black”). Yet surely this is deserved self praise? What other rapper is as rich as him, as powerful as him, as successful as him?
Sure, this is a boastful, self congratulatory album. And no, it probably isn’t his best work. But for me, this is what hip-hop is all about. To me this album is perfect.
December 3, 2009 at 2:16 am · Filed under Uncategorized
Ok, so I am blogging for the first time in forever on the night that I was setting aside for essay fun.
I am currently embarking on an essay about global journalism, well, that’s what I’m telling people. In reality I am surfing the net (does anybody ever say that any more?) looking at advancements in web based media.
Recently I discovered a website called ReadWriteWeb, and made a contact called Marshall Kirkpatrick. Through conversation and reading the site I am getting more and more excited about various bits of media and social networking that are coming along every day!
We all know about blogging - usually only one person with their own blog, or in the case of the guardian, a group of people blogging together - but with RWW you get an international group of people bloggong for a common cause, a real step forward in the search of global journalism.
I’m also getting excited about going to the next SRAcon at Nottingham Trent uni - if its anything like the last one we will have some fun times, and might learn something too.
Anywho, flying visit for now, must get back to the essay!!!!!!!!!
August 30, 2009 at 12:00 am · Filed under Uncategorized
And here’s my next article!
Would football benefit from Goal Line Technology?
By Aidan Parr
We’re just two weeks into the new Championship season, and already controversy reigns. Last Saturday saw Crystal Palace denied what seemed to be a cast iron goal in their game against Bristol City. Freddie Sears’ shot had beaten the keeper and hit the stanchion in the goal and bounced straight out again. Instead of awarding the goal, referee Rob Shoebridge awarded a goal kick.
This incident has sparked new questions over the lack of goal line technology in games, with the argument against them suggesting it would take too much time to make a judgement, thus disrupting the game too much. However, many advocates of the system can look towards rugby union and tennis as a prime example of how this kind of technology can help the game and ultimately provide the right result.
In rugby union, there often comes a time when the large mass of bodies throwing themselves around can block the officials’ view of the ball, at which point the referee can call for the video referee to make the call after viewing the incident from various angles. The judgement is then relayed back to the referee via a microphone/earpiece combination, and also to a big screen at the ground to inform the fans. The process takes a matter of minutes, saving a lot of time and ill feeling between the two teams.
In tennis it works slightly differently. If a player feels that the umpire has gotten a call wrong then he or she gets to challenge the decision, at which point a video referee is called in. Interestingly, each player gets a set number of challenges, preventing them from contesting every close point, so if they challenge and get it wrong, they lose a challenge for later in the game.
None of these sports have suffered from the introduction of the technology and it has since become as much a part of the game as the balls with which they are played, and although they cannot guarantee perfection (think back to the ‘Try that was’ in England’s semi final at the rugby world cup), they can at least preventthe scenes we saw last weekend.
Harry Redknapp said: “It’s the 21st century - how long since we put a man on the moon? And yet Fifa won’t let us have cameras on the goalposts?” Surely it’s only a matter of time now?
There ya go!
Should be another one coming soon!!
August 29, 2009 at 11:58 pm · Filed under Uncategorized
As promised, here is the first of my articles written for www.football.co.uk - hope you enjoy it!
Patrick Viera – Return of a legend?
Patrick Vieira - Can he return?
By Aidan Parr
In a transfer window that has seen two record smashing transfers in as many weeks, and enough money to clear the debt of a small nation change hands, it is surprising that one of this seasons biggest transfers could be done for comparative pennies!
In a move that no one expected, Arsene Wenger seems to be trying to resign club legend Patrick Viera back to Arsenal. The move, which could only be eclipsed by the return of Theirry Henry, could see Viera make the move back to North London for almost nothing, four years after leaving for Italy.
Viera had been rumoured to return to London with Arsenal’s arch rivals Tottenham Hotspur, but a move to champions league football and a hero’s welcome would obviously be his preferred choice. After being voted as Arsenal’s fifth greatest player ever in 2008, Viera would be a popular signing by Wenger, although there is some debate over the motivation for the move.
Over the course of the last season, many experts agreed that Arsenal were lacking in a natural leader and dominating force in the centre of midfield, to hold the team together and provide a platform for the more attacking players to launch off. Currently the Arsenal midfield can be considered quite lightweight, and Viera’s presence would certainly harden their resolve. However, Wenger has already signed Belgian midfielder Thomas Vermaelen, so one questions why another defensive midfielder is needed, especially one in the autumn of his career.
Although players like Paul Scholes, Ryan Giggs and Claude Makalele have all shown in recent years that older players can still compete in the Premier League, signing a 33 year old player certainly does not fit Wenger’s ethos of signing young talent, despite the signing of Mikael Silvestre last season. Instead, Viera may be seen as a back up player, whose main role is to help nurture the development of players such as Alex Song and Abou Diaby rather than an immediate solution to Arsenal’s midfield problems.
Although there is huge debate over whether Viera can perform in the league, his possible signing could very well be one of the signings of the season, up there with Michael Owen’s move to Manchester United. Viera’s last appearance in the famous red shirt was the 2005 FA Cup final, in which he scored the winning penalty; it would be poetic justice, and huge testimony to Arsene Wenger’s vision, if Viera was a key part of the squad that ended Arsenal’s four year trophy hiatus.
Check back soon for the next one!!
July 6, 2009 at 9:00 pm · Filed under Uncategorized
Howdey peeps!!
Hope we’re all ok out there?
So it’s summer now, and I am back in my first humble abode, rather than the crazy cool student house. I’m typing away on my old windows machine that seems loath to work properly.
So I am still jobless so far, so still skint, that hasn’t stopped me checking out new trainers on the ‘net, just stopped my buying them.
Thankfully, Spotify means that music is free for me, and I have been using it to check out N-Dubz and various hip-hop type remixes, along with some various classic bits for my radio show next year.
Went to Turkey earlier in the year, which was all good! Lots of sun, and free drinks on the all inclusive offer, served (in the evenings) by blonde Swedish girls. I definitely recommend it!!
So just need a job now, anything really, gonna get me some funds!!
I’ll post again soon!!
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