Anyone who knows me knows that I LOVE television. Not just any old rubbish though, it must be good and entertaining. For example, on my Sky+ are the likes of Enlightened, Coach Trip, 10 O Clock Live, Unforgettable, and a new show I am really looking forward to, Luck. That being said, Geordie Shore also features. This post is not just about any run-of-the-mill telly shows. My top two favorite shows of the last 5 years are from the same network in the America. Those shows are Nurse Jackie and Homeland. The latter is what you are going to find out everything to below.
For those of you that have a 24 shaped void in your life, then watching this show will make you feel complete again. Homeland tells the story of a US Marine who has spent the last 8 years of his life held captive in the Iraq and a CIA agent, Carrie Mathison, who received information that the Marine, Sgt. Brody, may not be the same person that went missing 8 years ago. You will have to watch the show to find out if her information was true or not.
Claire Danes and Damian Lewis are the two protagonists. Some of you may recognize Danes’ name and you would be right. She played the Juliet to DiCaprio’s Romeo in Baz Luhrmann’s amazing adaptation of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet. Lewis played Major Richard D Winters in 2001′s Band of Brothers. They are not the only two stars in the show. Mandy Patinkin also plays an important role. He played Gideon in the first 2 or 3 seasons of Criminal Minds. He plays the character of Saul, a supervisor to Danes’ Mathison who was in Iraq a few years after Brody is captured..
Right from the get go, you will be hooked. The plot is full of intrigue and suspense. It is not shot in live time like 24 however, but not much is these days. The characters change between being liked and hated. At times you will feel sorry for Brody but not until after you will have developed a hatred for him. Mathison however is a very strong minded character, bordering on the obsessive. This is the reason why you will love and hate her.
Showtime don’t do anything by halves though. Most t.v. shows are advertised as being an hour long but are actually only approximately 40 minutes or 20 minutes (advertised as half hour) long. Nurse Jackie is closer to the 30 minute mark. Homeland is closer to an hour long in each episode. Since it is only 12 episodes in the first season, you know that each episode is unmissable. The only criticism I would give the show is that they were given the go ahead for a second season before shooting the final episodes. However, the season finale will leave you quivering behind a cushion at several points, none more so that the final few minutes when I fought to hold back the tears. Needless to say, each 50/60 minute episode will leave you longing for more.
Homeland has already started on RTE 2 in Ireland and is on Friday nights at 9.30 so you can catch up via the RTE player website. Homeland will start in the UK on Channel 4 on Sunday 19th. You will not see a better show this year.
There is a fine line between glory and oblivion, just ask Steve Brookstein, Big Brother contestants and Lady Gaga who is right on this line according to her song “Edge of Glory”. However, ask any of the ‘little monsters’ around the world and they will tell you that she is way over that line (on the glory side, obviously). Today (17-06-2011), I woke up to a notification beeping on my phone that Lady Gaga’s video for “Edge of Glory” – the best song to end her “Born This Way” album – is premiering so obviously I immediately clicked to view it and after discussing with those at NTA HQ, this is what we have to say about it.
It is not boring! When you go to watch it, you may think, “ugh, this is boring” like us but about thirty seconds in, you are thinking the complete opposite. In her other videos to date, Lady Gaga can be seen to be gyrating and dancing and doing other things with her troupe known as Haus of Gaga but in “Edge of Glory”, it is only her and Clarence Clemons on the saxophone. However, one would be foolish to say that she is feeling the effects of spending millions on her Monster Ball Tour and almost facing bankruptcy.
It is filmed on the Warner Bros. Studio Lot. If pop culture today is to be believed then this video will be a raging success. Sex and the City filmed here as did friends and many other television shows and films and music videos e.g. The Saturday’s “Higher”. With Gaga dressed in leather number which, in hindsight, is much more tame than her past outfits consisting of meats, Kermit the Frog and her other creations. There are no flashy effects of big, bright shining lights, it is just Gaga which goes perfectly with the song. There is no need for a massive crowd to dance around her.
It is an adequate length. It is just under 5.30 minutes which some may consider to be too long but there are no drawn own parts in the video like “Born This Way”, “Alejandro” etc. The music kicks in straight away so hopefully, should Gaga release any more singles from the album, they will follow this perfect example.
Gaga goes back to basics. Anyone who has bought and listened to her latest album will agree that she goes back to basics in terms of being quite retro in her sound and sounds as if she was from the ’80s or ’90s. What is better than all this is that she has brought back the saxophone! This makes us here very excited because w love a bit of brass. Even Katy Perry uses some on her latest “Last Friday night (T.G.I.F)”.
You could not feel more emotion in a song. With the video just having 2 stars, it feels so personal. It sounds so big right from the start with the ‘ah-ah-ahs’ which result in goosebumps forming all over one’s body because you just know the production and the song is going to be epic. It is all about what Gaga wants and her career so far with her proclaiming “it isn’t hell if everybody knows my name”. One could look at the song as being a thank you to all her little monsters that have been with her from the very start because she is “hanging on a moment with you”. It could even be about Gaga having everything in her life but love. Right at the start she claims how she wants a man “who thinks it’s right when it’s so wrong” but we here, prefer the former option.
I could put the video here but it could get removed so as a compromise here is the link to the official video and below, you can find the live version of the song from BBC Radio 1′s Big Weekend for your delicatessen. Just to add, you should all take an hour break today and watch her set in full. The set was INCREDIBLE even though she was 20 minutes late but she is Lady Gaga, whom can get no better than her latest addition.
*The video was uploaded to YouTube by “TheBlade015″.
We at NotTheAverage HQ were looking over our posts from the past (some are rather good and a few are not so – have a look for yourself and you can be the judge) and there are a few topics we have not yet covered. Looking back, we have covered a surprising amount of sport stories, one or two on politics, and lots on film, music and current affairs and some entertainment. What is missing from this list is;
Technology,
Books,
Health,
Food
And perhaps a few others I have yet to remember.
That being said, let’s start, naturally with the first topic, technology, and in particular, mobile phones – to be even more specific, the “iPhone”.
Now, to set the scene, just over two months ago I was at work and took my phone which was an LG phone, no older than four months, out of my back pack to text my Dad for a lift home. In this backpack were a change of clothes and shoes and other small items. As usual the shoes were on the bottom with the clothes on top and the phone was in a front pocket situated towards the top of the bag. There was no pressure on the phone nor moisture or liquids in my bag yet somehow, the screen managed to disintegrate. For those who know me, you know that I take great care of everything I own so how the screen managed to smash itself remains a complete mystery. Needless to say, I bought an iPhone the very next day and two months later, I fail to see how I was able to go so long without one.
The best in Smartphone technology.
You may be thinking “why should I buy an iPhone when I already have an iPod or an mp3 player as well as a phone?” and that is exactly what I was saying, right up to when I needed to buy a new phone. I did not go straight into the local phone shop and bought the Apple product. I looked at other fruit based phones i.e. Blackberry but those keys look too small for my fingers and I already had a similar phone in the form of a ‘Samsung Ping’ and I hated it so much. It was just awful. Why? In the same pocket in my backpack mentioned above, the phone would somehow manage to unlock itself and manage to dial some random number in my phone. I would be walking when this happened – the phone is not magic!! In the past, I have had 3 mp3 players. I started off with a Phillips block and upgraded to a Zen Series M mp3 which has left a window on my laptop which I am unable to remove even though I have uninstalled all the software – on a sidenote, if anyone can help me get rid of this window, it would be greatly appreciated (yes, I have tried reinstalling the software as well as closing the window but it reopens almost immediately. Thanks). If the third time is a charm cliché is to be believed then hopefully my 2 and a half-year old iPod will not give up on me any time soon.
How does one get rid of that blasted window in the middle of the screen?
The iPhone 3GS is an incredible piece of technology comparing it to my previous phones and also to the Samsung Galaxy GTi phone. For one thing, the iPhone is light in both weight and touch. Just a glide with the finger across the screen will change as one can have many screens depending on how many applications (apps) one has. The softest of touches selects an on-screen option whether it is access to the internet or selecting messages. Better yet, it only works with the finger so it cannot unlock itself in a backpack.
There are thousands of apps to do about absolutely everything. I, myself have apps for news, music, social networking, travel, several games (the best is Doodle Jump (Hop Edition), cooking and the best one, ‘SkyView’. This is such an amazing app. There is a free edition or one that costs about €1. Selecting SkyView uses the camera and as you point the camera one can access loads of information about stars, satellites and the pathways of the sun, planets etc. One can also see all the constellations. It is fantastic to know that an app. like that actually exists. It is not for the hardcore star-gazer especially if they use the telescopes but for those with an interest in seeing all that is in space. The most appealing thing about the app. is that you can see what is in space on the other side of the Earth just by pointing the camera at the ground. Obviously, Angry Birds is a staple app. for anybody in possession of an iPhone.
So clear, so light, SO good.
Yes they are expensive, especially if you are a pay-as-you-go customer but the iPhone is such a good investment because they will not unlock themselves unless there is actually human touch. If you do not own an iPod then you should definitely get an iPhone as it is both. You do not have to apply loads of pressure to the screen to choose options like the LG phone and along with all this, there are apps to suit everybody. All of the icons are so big and clear you do not need a magnifying glass to see what options you are selecting unlike the Samsung Galaxy S which has small and blurry icons which are hard to see unless you focus in on what you want. With the iPhone you can see whatever you want so easily straight away. The touch screen technology is so intuitive it makes the iPhone easy to operate despite one’s age. If you want the best in mobile technology then the Apple iPhone is the one and only option.
Hello everybody, yes that is right, we are back after six long months of studying and fear not, after finishing our final year of university we are here to stay for longer. We have had several ideas for posts over the last number of weeks but today, something struck a few of us. With Rihanna having two banned videos from television (‘S&M’ and ‘Man Down’ - the latter is hands down the best track on her album ‘Loud’) and the likes of other artists becoming YouTube sensations, just what does make a good music video? Here are our 5 key steps…………
1) Find out what the ‘kids’ are into.
The children, as Whitney Houston sang, are our future so it is only right that music artists give them some sort of reward before the big, bad world starts for them so why not reward them by making pop culture references in one’s music video. Over the last year, Rebecca Black literally became an over-night sensation for her ‘song’ ‘Friday’. Also, ‘Glee‘ is one of the biggest and most popular television shows among teenagers and perhaps even older so it only makes sense to feature stars from the show in one’s video but not the main ones. Perhaps Artie (Kevin McHale) and Brittany (Heather Morris) would be suitable choices since Dianna Agron has starred in a film (‘I Am Number Four’) the other main characters are all over the place.
2) Tap into what the ‘youth of today’ are feeling.
Everybody knows how the ‘jocks’ and the ‘plastics’ have bundles of confidence and have no problems socially but what about those who are the opposite and do not particularly feel comfortable with big crowds and social interactions? Where are people for them to look up to? They must learn to show confidence and believe in oneself somewhere and this is where the aforementioned groups come in. Give the young, shy people a gentle nudge in the right direction, and I stress the word gentle and see them fly and flourish right in front of your eyes.
3) Try not to leave anybody out.
Do not just focus on the teenage population of the world – that is what Twilight and the likes is mostly for. But what about the slightly older fans who do not need help in social interactions and do not care about what the kids are into?? Why not have a big star or two from the ’90s. Hanson – those three girls who actually turned out to be three boys, or perhaps even mature adults as the case seems – would be an ideal group since there is not a person in the world between the ages of 20 and 30/35 that does not remember ‘Mmmbop!’. Including everybody not only sends a message to children but one also gets the thumbs up from the slightly older generation.
4) Do not anger the parents!
Do not anger the parents. Do not give them any reason to contact the regulating body because otherwise, one could get one’s video banned and create a media frenzy which will die down in a few days but that is not the point. Some say that “no news is good news” and it is better to stick to these words because otherwise, people may become so sick of the same story that they may not watch the video whenever it comes on. Everybody was raging about Adele when she released that sob story of a song and now, I no longer particularly care for her. ‘Someone Like You’ was the number one song in the world for about a year and we here at NotTheAverage HQ are sure that there are others who were turned off Adele due to the publicity of her – credit to her for being herself though and not selling out by doing MASSIVE tours because we are sure that she would eventually flop and thus, by at least trying to stay out of the public eye, it is not all that bad. After all, it is not her fault people connect to her songs WAY too much and finally;
5) Make people laugh:D.
With the state of the world being what it is, why not kick back and give people a well deserved laugh. It is not particularly positive when one reads/hears about friends emigrating to another country or moving away for long periods of time due to lack of jobs and the inability to buy anything on a budget so emigrating is the only choice one has. The likes of The Script and even Jessie J to name but two, all need to calm down and not take life so seriously. One must also be careful not to go overboard with this – the prime example is LMFAO or, the annoying people who shuffle to get from point a to point b. Their annoying video is much like a frown (n). You start of hating the song and the more you hear it the more you grow to like it but this positive peak soon falls again once the novelty wears off and you start to hate the song more quickly than the time it took you to grow to the song. Reward people with a break from all this doom and gloom by giving them a reason to have a hearty laugh resulting in tears – of happiness. A good method of making people laugh is seeing people in situations one would not usually find themselves in. The ‘nan’ groups on Facebook are prime examples as well as seeing people inadvertently flip from being introverted to being extraverted even if it is for only a brief moment.
Put these five ingredients into a bowl and what one should get is what is without doubt the best music video of the year and possibly since the turn of the millennium. This video is definitely a return to form for our favorite solo female artist after she changed too much for her last song. As we all know, change is never good. We are of course, talking about the one and only Katy Perry whose video ‘Last Friday Night (T. G. I. F)’ premiered yesterday on music website vevo.com (which we think is better than YouTube) and at the time of going to print has gotten in excess of 3.5 million views which, as we are sure you will agree, is not too bad. So, without further ado, take a ten minute break and get ready for a good, bellow of a laugh.
Things to look out for;
The hilarious alter ego of Katy Perry, Kathy Beth Terry.
The appearance of Glee characters at the 30 second mark and the 2 minute mark.
The hilarious drunken antics.
The possibility of Sudoku becoming popular again before becoming a fad soon after.
Rebecca Black’s silent appearance from the 1.45 minute mark.
The saxophone solo.
The appearance of Hanson, showing they have not gotten a job at a fast food chain and disappearing into obscurity.
Make sure to watch right to the last second for 670 seconds of absolute hilarity unlike the likes of Gaga who became boring with her marathon videos ‘Telephone’ and ‘Alejandro’.
I must say, I did something rare today in opening the Irish Independent – don’t worry, I did not buy it, I got it free at work – and went straight to page 11 with Bertie Ahern, of all people, criticising how Brian Cowen has handled the situation in our beautiful, green country. I thought it was all a bit rich to tell you the truth. There was obviously some truth in what ‘Bitchy’ Bertie said since “only one senior Fianna Fail figure came to his [Brian Cowen's] defence” so let’s take a look at what “Bertie said to Brian.”
It started with former Taoiseach, Bertie Ahern, saying that we all live in a “24/7 Ireland”. Now, who wants to explain what is wrong with this to the person who plans to succeed Mary McAleese? There are seven days in every week and each of those days have 24 hours, so of course we live in a “24/7″ country. Yes, you hardcore Fianna Fail-ers (if any are left) will be saying that he means news is happening all day, every day, and that we need to be informed by the man who is supposedly running the country. But, Ahern does not think that Mr. Cowen “should be out every” – this coming from the man who hides in our breakfast cupboard to dish the dirt on the day’s news.
When the Greece situation happened, this is when Bertie began to worry. He saw what was happening and started to think of the outcome, the roll-on effect, and the procedure he would take and, in essence, criticised Cowen for not acting how Ahern himself, supposedly would have. You have to laugh really because Bertie did not see the sirens sounding nor the lights flashing when he got all that money “from friends, aka the €50,000 “dig out” and the “gift” payment in Manchester of €8,000.”
Here Comes The Money
On a rather serious note, Bertie seems to have grabbed himself a few headlines as of late. He has made his plans clear that he wants to run for President “even though it would be very difficult for a Fianna Fail member to be elected President”. But by distancing himself from the Cowen regime and criticising the way he handled the whole situation over the last few years, it seems Bertie is showing he is not just any Fianna Fail member. Let’s hope people are smart enough to see through the smog that seems to be emanating from Ahern.
Let me start straight away by saying I really, really like Ke$ha. Some of you may have just closed the tab or gone to another webpage but bear with me if you will.
Blake Lively looky likey
First off, she looks just like Blake Lively (Serena Van Der Woodsen) from Gossip Girl, albeit from the Lower East Side!!. Now, lets get down to her music. Yes, I know you right now. might be saying, “you can’t call it music when she uses autotune as much as she does.” And you may be right, but who doesn’t use autotune these days. All major bands in the pop cauldron do it and it is not necessarily a bad thing and if it sells records……but I Digress. Anyway, you may think she burst onto the scene with “Tik Tok”. WRONG. She did that track, “Right Round” with Flo Rida. Yes she did, but she appeared somewhere before that but we had no clue who she was at the time. She first appeared on television screens in Katy Perry’s debut, “I Kissed a Girl” video. True story. Don’t believe me? YouTube the video.
Anyway, about Tik Tok, it is a very addictive track and you will b singing it for ages, I know I was just to annoy my brother, saying how she wakes “up in the morning feeling like P Diddy”. She even brushes her teeth with a bottle of Jack Daniels which shows that 1) she must be made of money to afford so much whiskey everyday and 2) she likes the drink (although, this has not been proven fact, it is just a line in the song). But the video is just as good. It really is. Once you listen to it, and start humming the words, you won’t be able to stop.
So, skip forward to the release of her second single “Blah, Blah, Blah” with 3oh!3 and the Tennessee Temptress is onto another winner. Not only is this song INCREDIBLE to run to, but it has all the good qualities of her debut with some extra little tidbits. It is under 3 minutes so it is a really quick song. When you think about it, many songs can be 4 minutes long and incredibly slow and/or boring. It is a great song to listen to before going out or doing any exercise so it ticks all the boxes already. You can listen to it and put on a ridiculous voice to mimic the auto tune no matter what you’re doing.
How can she get any better?? Well, her peak continues on the same level with the release of single number 3 – “Love is My Drug”. Straight away, something may be her drug, but whether it is love is a whole other story. the video for me, is only average compared to the other 2 but she does look an awful lot like Shakira. Don’t dispute or deny it because she does. the high point of this song is when she sings “I gotta question……………” It is just so dancy and brings in a bit of the 808 which is good in any song, just listen to the Far East Movement’s “Like a G6″. Song wise, it is the best of the 3, video wise, it is not as strong as the other 2. In case you did not know, an 808, or to use the full name, the “Roland TR-808 Rhythm Composer”, was one of the first programmable drum machines.
However, Ke$sha gets even better with her latest single “We R Who We R”. You can watch the video below. She really is looking “sick and sexified”. She keeps songs and her lyrics so simple, which you may call lazy, but I call great because you get to know the words and what she is saying so much quicker. The high point in this video comes at 2.29 part of the video, although, you could push that back to the 2.10 part of the video. It is the calm before the storm if you will. She does write her own music unlike many other artists. And she is consistently good. Although, if you download ANY of her songs, make sure it is Party at a Rich Dude’s House. It is, hands down, the best song to go running to. that and Take That’s SOS are on my running playlist so perhaps you should do the same!
So, it is obvious that Ke$ha is just like marmite, very strong marmite. Make it a new year’s resolution to listen to her album at least a few of her songs. Trust me, you won’t be disappointed.
First off, thanks to The Point Of Everything for pointing this out. Take a guess at who you think this is.
Guess who.
I for one still thinks she looks pretty, not as awful as people may think. Yes, you may say “ew, look at the wrinkles in her forehead”, but those are only from her frowning expression because of the person taking the photo. Clues???
She is a woman – obviously.
She is American.
She is a singer
She is under the age of 30.
She recently got married to……………. I can’t say.
Her videos have all been incredible.
The book to her second album smells like candy floss.
She looks different to when she is caked with make up.
She kissed a girl, and like it, particularly because of her cherry chapstick.
Her husband makes her feel like she is living a “Teenage Dream”
It is of course…………………………….. Katy Perry.
Yes, its true. Russell Brand decided to take a photo of her with no makeup and post it to his twitter page. remember when Ashton Kutcher posted a twitpic of Demi Moore bending over??? Well it is just like that. It has been reported by many american sites that Perry asked/demanded for the photo to be removed from twitter but by then, the damage had already been done. ooks like we know the first celebrity couple to split in 2011!! No, I joke. There may very well have been uproar in the Brand/Perry household, at the end of the day, it is just a photo and obviously she won’t look as good as she did in her California Gurls” video, but I still think she looks very pretty.
With champagne flowing and Auld Lang Syne ringing, it feels only fitting to blog about the year that was 2010. And what a year it was. We saw the death of Big Brother (hopefully), Ireland became broke, Apple went mental, Television and film went one step further, X Factor returned to get the Christmas Number One spot again after poor ‘Geordie Joe’ failed last year, and plenty more stuff in between. That being said, let’s take a look back…………………..
It was a year full of gates, i.e. controversy. There was Gamu Gate with the X Factor, which for those of you who don’t know, is all about this girl on the X Factor who sang really well and impressed the nation. Everybody thought she would make the live shows if not the final but Cheryl Cole decided that Katie Waissel (who cried) and Cher Lloyd (who did not even sing a song) would be better choices. There is also what I summarize as Sport Gate – where many sports stars cheated on their significant others. Cheryl and Ashley Cole divorced over the Summer, but was it any surprise that it was going to happen?? John Terry cheated on his wife with his team-mate’s girlfriend. Then there was the divorce of Tiger Woods and his wife too. It seems that for many, Golf became quite an interesting sport! The most surprising of all cheats came in August of this year. For some peculiar reason, Peter Crouch cheated on Abbey Clancy. I’m sorry, but if you were in a relationship with Abbey Clancy, surely your eyes would not even dare to look at other women – she is just beautiful, much more stunning than some of the other wives and girlfriends of sports stars out there.
In a nutshell
Sport was not all bad, Spain won the World Cup in South Africa during the summer, after the scandal of him fixing games, John Higgins came back to win a nail-biting final of snooker at the UK Championships. Honestly, you will never see a better game of snooker, or even a better frame. He was 9-5 down and it was the best of 19 frames, so if Mark Williams wins a frame, he will win, but Higgins fought back against the odds to beat him 10-9. It was truly nail-biting stuff.
For all listeners of Irish radio stations, particularly, Cork’s 96fm, we were all in for a shock when it hit the headlines that Neil Prendeville decided to get his thing out and started to perform a ‘sex act’ on himself. True story, you know for a fact that if anyone else had done it, he would have berated them at the top of his show and refer to it throughout but the shoe is on the other foot and he just appeared to make excuses – he mixed pills with wine, he did not recall ‘exposing’ himself etc.
Technology exploded this year with Apple going crazy. They already have the best mp3 players under their belts, and quite frankly, they also have the best smartphones – if not only for ‘Angry Birds‘. This year, they launched the iPad which is like a laptop but it is not a laptop. It is more a tablet, slightly bigger than an A4 piece of paper and it is remarkable thin. Or, for a better analogy, it is like a big iPhone. It does look stunning and you would be guaranteed to get looks of jealousy off some people. At college for instance, I saw several students walk into the study room of the library with them in October and I just stared in disbelief as they were able to afford them in the first place. My own brother owns one, and I must say they are impressive, if only for ‘Angry Birds‘. For those who have played this game, you will know how unbelievingly addictive it is.
Who could forget when everybody went crazy for the third dimension. Since Avatar, every second release in Cinema is a 3D film – How To Train You Dragon 3D, Tron 3D, Up 3D to name but a few. Sky launched their first 3D channel. Pubs around Ireland and the UK broadcast many matches in 3D. It must be a thrilling experience, I myself will be going to see Tron in 3D next week, but is it not just a massive headache? Not only will the cost of a 3D television give your bank balance a headache but some people are unable to watch 3D without getting a headache – true story.
Ireland became bankrupt. I could go on and on about it, but others have already talked about it, so to get more about it, and more concisely than I could ever do it, just head on over to Scandal Central, or check out this, also from Scandal Central - http://scandalcentral.wordpress.com/2010/11/18/all-over/. They really are great reads to find out all you need about it.
Of course, the start of the year was rocked by that awful catastrophe in Haiti, where an earthquake killed approximately 200,000 people and injured countless others. But, every country rushed to the aid of the country by raising millions worth of aid for them by means of concerts, phone-a-thons and many others. I could put up an image but they are just too gruesome. for those of you (like me) who do not know where Haiti is, it is located just off the coast of the States in the Caribbean.
Many things happened in Music too. 2010 was a fantastic year for Ellie Goulding who topped every new poll at the end of 2009/start of 2010 culminating in a heart warming rendition of Elton John’s ‘Your Song’ for the people over at John Lewis (a store in the UK).. For those of you who can remember, or are thinking that “that rings a bell, but from where???”, well, don’t fret because Fyfe Dangerfield, from the band Guillemots, sang “Always a Woman” earlier on in the year. You can youtube for that link. The charts went crazy for all things Glee. It was a great idea to release the songs from the show after it had aired. It must have made them tonnes of money especially with songs like “Rehab”, “Don’t Stop Believin’”, “No Air”, “Safety Dance” and their mash-ups and versions of Madonna songs and Britney Songs. After the success of getting a different song to Christmas Number 1 in 2009, it was only right that people tried to do it again. Here in Ireland, people tried, and failed, to get a song called “Horse Outside” by the Rubberbandits to number 1, and the less said about that, the better. Whereas in England, they also failed in getting a much more listenable song to number one. The song, of course, was this. Olly Murs proved why he should have won X Factor in 2009 with the release of his first album and it is a really good listen. Cher Lloyd gets signed to Jay-Z’s label so expect an album from her in the summer. I for one, can’t wait (sarcasm, of course)!! Gaga cemented her place as Queen of pop, winning countless awards, earning countless global number ones, selling millions of records and even airing her views on the Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell policy in the military in the states.
This policy was revoked recently which is a massive win for Obama and Gay Rights Activists too.
In other quick news, Paramore are on the verge of splitting up after the Farro brothers decided to leave the ‘band’ saying how it was more the Hayley Williams band than Paramore and they were just their for the ride. I was stunned to learn that Scarlett Johansson and Ryan Reynolds have split. Of all the people who you would think would not split up, and they do. Comedy actor, Leslie Nielson died. He is best known for his role in the Airplane movies and Naked Gun trilogy. poland weddings are great fun altogether.
So, after a year of infidelity, break-ups, get-togethers, catastrophes, deaths, gates and vuvuzelas (which I don’t find as annoying as other people do, what will 2011 have in store for the world. Watch this space.
Happy New Year
In the meantime, we here at NotTheAverage, wish all our readers a very prosperous Year and hope ye all have a great 2011.
This is my first post in nearly a month. I could come up with an excuse but I suppose it was a motivation problem and I was always doing something else. So here we go, a nice chunk of not-so-new news.
Not so long ago, I said how there is not as much pressure on the examinations at Leaving Certificate level in this country, yet, for a small few, this does not seem to be the case (http://nottheaverage.wordpress.com/2010/08/17/under-pressure/). For those of you who do not know, I am of course talking about Cillian Fahy from Clare who made a tidy sum of money after selling his Leaving Cert. notes after he received a perfect 700 (or 600 since only the best six results determine the points one receives).
Fahy finds funds
Now, my problem does not lie with him selling his notes (he is nearly €3,000 better off for college), but why oh why did people bid so high? The average revision book is no more than €10 yet Mr. Fahy’s French notes made him a profit of over €1,000, as did his Maths notes. I wouldn’t dream of spending such a foolish amount. Just because he got an A grade does not mean the buyer will. You’ve got the revision books and you also have teachers and the internet as well other resources. Teachers are present to help after all. They always say if anyone has a problem then just ask and many others come into school a bit earlier to help with projects and the oral exams in French/German/Irish. The poor parents are now a thousand euro worse off, or even worse, did the parents of whoever bought the notes do so themselves (for their son/daughter)?
Maths, which many people struggle with, fetched him €1,020. The other five subjects got him more than €700. Not only is the 18-year-old good at studying and applying himself, but he is also good with money – making it anyway. He saw the opportunity and he took it. I am surprised English earned him so much. If he studied Shakespeare, there might be a different play on the course for next year, much like the poets, and comparative choices so that is paper 2 of the mandatory subject. You are asked to do much the same things in the latter half of the French paper i.e. a diary entry, writing a formal/informal letter as well as others but that is just a matter of learning of a certain layout and a few handy phrases because, if, for instance, a formal letter comes up 2 years in a row, the tasks one is asked to do will be different. The same can be said for the question which asks for one’s own opinion on a topic – which mostly deals with a topical subject.
When it’s crunch time, you can buy as many notes and study aids as you want but it is how you use the material that gets you the results. As my favorite teacher used to say, “fail to prepare, prepare to fail.” Students will always be nervous going into exams because they strive to do the very best they can to please everyone – parents, teachers and then, themselves. Forking out more than €1,000 for notes for ONE SUBJECT is not going to change that.
Earlier on in the year, we were all annoyed about hearing that Iyaz could not take his Ipod off of the replay feature, yet we could not stop listening too it, despite its cheesiness. This may have been because of the high rotation of the track or the vast popularity of the track – it did after all, reach the top of the charts. Either way, here is a selection of new tracks that should be one of these two – incredibly popular and/or on high rotation.
First up, it is the addictive Alesha Dixon. The former Mis-teeq singer has come back with her first single off of her new album, The Entertainer, and “Drummer Boy” does exactly that. The first time I heard it, I could not believe it was her and honestly thought the song was awful. Then, I heard it again and again and again and I was like “actually, this is quite a good track.” Alesha Dixon is an entertainer. Her first album, Welcome to the Alesha Show, was a great album to dance to and listen to before you went out. So, how will The Entertainer compare? Well, going from “Drummer Boy”, it seems to be slightly advanced from all those on the first album. It seems to be in the same vain as all the other songs from this album too. She sings about how she needs a “Drummer Boy”and someone who is “good with his hands”. She seems to be looking for love with this album rather than giving up on love with her other album with titles from “The Boy Does Nothing” to “Chasing Ghosts” to “Can I Begin” to “I’m Thru”. The video, which you can watch here, is just incredible. Less is definitely more with Alesha. Most of the time in the video, she and her Drummer Boys are in front of a green screen so you would think it would be better if the drummers were green screened to look like a massive army like that part in Take That’s “Shine”. But then again, why would you want to do that? Her troupe of 10 and more Drummers are perfectly equipped shall we say for the video. She wants to “hear it louder, louder, louder”, as well as “feel it harder, harder, harder.” They give her exactly what she asks for. It is such a simple song as well with a great video full of bright loud colours. Alesha definitely looks sexy in red and black which she wears for most of the video. The new album is out on November 22nd so expect a big Christmas song to appear on there in some shape or form.
From Alesha to Alexandra. Alexandra Burke is back with new single, “Start Without You” and the less said about this track the better. Watching the video for the first time yesterday, I was reminded of two things. The first of these was one of the Geri Halliwell videos once she split up from the Spice Girls with all those guys who have seemed to have forgotten their t-shirts at home. Some even forgot their pants! Second, there is a kind of rapper person who appears on the track as well to fit with the Summer-Jamaican vibe of the track. He does not seem to have a purpose in the video other than to emphasise this vibe – much like Bubbla Sparks from Peter Andre’s “Mysterious Girl” track from the early 90′s – also the time another track was released which Burke has used for the sample of the track. Once you hear it, you think “I know this track. I know this track” but cannot think of what it is. You would think that Alexandra Burke, who with this song lives up to her name – well surname at least – would go off somewhere foreign, to an island or somewhere similar to a carnival/festival because this would suit the video so much more. Instead, it is shot in a warehouse location which has been covered in white cloth with men pumping their guns and doing gymnastic stuff. She tries way too hard. Even with her appearance on “The Alan Carr Show” she was dressed in this little blue number, and it really was little. We all know that she is a beautiful woman so there is no need to tell us at every opportunity. What the self acclaimed Beast needs to do is take a leaf of the effortlessly sexy Shakira’s book. When she appeared on the same show a few weeks ago, she was dressed in a simple outfit of a pink top and a simple pair of jeans and she has never looked more stunning. “Start Without Me”, unfortunately, will do quite well in the charts even though it shouldn’t. If you really want to, you can watch the video right here.
Alexandra Burke is trying too hard (and epically failing) to be the U.K. version of Beyoncé, which brings us nicely onto Beyoncé Knowles. Her new one asks everyone the question “Why Don’t You Love Me?” And? Why don’t you? She is amazingly beautiful proves it in very sexy outfits. It is very clear that this is more Sasha Fierce than Beyoncé Knowles. It is a track for women. Standing up for women and how (forgive me if stereotyping) “you don’t need no man. You’re your own woman who puts “puts money in the bank account.” She gives her man everything he wants and everything he need yet it is still not enough. Does this man have a pulse? Just being in the same room as the popstar should be enough for any man to love her. The video is equally as amazing. Shot using what I assume is an old video camera to make it look slightly 80′s ish. It is like S Club’s ”You” only better and listenable on every level. She is in a maid’s outfit as well as others and seems to be the perfect housewife who has “beauty…style…class…and ass.” The sure-to-be-number-1 – which is available to buy on ITunes NOW – can be seen RIGHT HERE. Just scroll down a bit.
Another US artist who I like almost as much as Beyonce is the marmite Ke$ha whose new single “Take It Off” is out now and is single number 4 from her album “Animal”. It is just so different to what she has done previously. First off, she sounds like she now knows how to use an autotune except for the start, when she is warming it up. Second, it is a dance song which is always good right? You’d listen to this while getting ready to go out as well as have it blaring out the window when driving. If you do the latter, the song would be amazingly perfect if you owned a sub woofer. As usual as ever for Ke$ha’s songs, the lyrics are ridiculous but that is why we love her isn’t it? For example, part of the chorus goes like “there’s a place I know if you’re looking for a show, where they go hardcore and there is glitter on the floor….” That is how I tell if a place is hardcore, if there is no glitter on that floor then I am not going in. If that floor does not sparkle and stick to my shoes then you will not get me in there. Saying that though, the video is really good and again, random – the definition of Ke$ha. She is in some skate park with lots and lots of colored dust with people who are made of this dust. The more the video goes on, the more covered in dust she gets. You can see the official video for it can be seen right here. Trust me, I could not stand her at the start, but she brought me “right round baby right round” so this song is sure to be around for quite a while and annoying us all in no time at all. She is like the one time girl kisser who liked it, Katy Perry.
This brings us round to the “California Gurl” Katy Perry. Her follow up to the candy land video is an ode to a loved one who made her feel young again and like a teenager – bearing in mind, she is only 25. “Teenage Dream” is her best song in a LONG time. She, like Shakira, is effortlessly sexy. This is cemented in her video towards the end when she spies her lover in the gym and closes her locker. She is stunning. The perfect song is released at exactly the right time of year, unlike Alexandra Burke’s. It is smooth, not too slow, and can be listened too all day long without once getting a feeling of boredom from it. Whoever this song is about, Mrs. Brand is obviously reflecting on a difficult time of her life when this person “brought her too life…when things were kinda heavy.” It seems that apart from marrying the ‘comedian’, she can do no wrong. So “let’s go all the way” and buy her single when it is released on the 24th of August – with her album of the same name following just 3 days after. This is testament to the fact that she should never go away from the music business for more than a year ever, ever again.
Someone who did do this, but is FINALLY back and is my favorite female solo star of all time, is KT Tunstall. Not since “Other Side Of The World” has she released a song has high as the calibre as her new one “(Still A) Weirdo”. She has been away for more than 3 years and is back with her new album “Tiger Suit”, which gets released in just over 2 weeks. If “…Weirdo” is anything to go by, it will be just as big as her first album. AS much as I love Tunstall, her second album, “Drastic Fantastic” proved to be that difficult second album which may be what she sings about in the new video which you can watch right here. The first line is only testament to this i.e. “Now I know I took for granted, that things would always go the way I want it.” Or even the confessional “I don’t always get it right.” She stays true to herself. She layers the track with her own self mad sounds, from the whistle to the to the strange “ugh ugh”, or maybe even “chuck” noises from the start. To really get a feel for what I am saying you HAVE to listen to her debut, “Black Horse and the Cherry Tree” or google for her performance of the track on Later….With Jools Holland which cemented my love for her. Yes, she is “still a weirdo, still a weirdo, after all these years”, but that is why we love her right?
Best of the Rest (In This Oder).
The Script are back with new track “For the First Time” and it is like they have never left. Their new album, Science + Faith, from which the single is taken is released in September.
Lissie is back with her second single “Cuckoo” taken from her debut album, Catching A Tiger which is out now. She is like Ellie Goulding only better. Sorry Ellie.
Magnetic Man – “I Need Air”. Just an amazing track. Flawless.
Scissor Sisters – “Any Which Way”. A very clear subject matter.
Tinie Tempah – “Written in the Stars”.
and ALL the way down at the bottom is the unbelievably awful, trying too hard to be JLS, Mcfly with their new track “Party Girl”. Imagine GaGa’s Bad Romance done badly.
*Note – I do not own any off the links used above. All of them have been taken from YouTube and credit goes to those to which it belongs. Done and done.
