Robin Williams: Remembered

 When I was a kid I remember I used to always say "I don't care what happens in the world, as long as Robin Williams doesn't die". I adored the man; he was one of my first favourite actors and was in all my favourite movies at that time - I wanted him to live forever.

  Robin Williams passed away yesterday at 12.02pm PDT. It has been said that it was suicide by asphyxia. When I first heard the news, I went all cold and stopped breathing; the initial emotion I felt was complete shock. Then denial. Then buckets and buckets of sorrow (and tears). It's tragic when any celebrated or honourable person dies, but the whole world's heart seems to be broken by this death. 

  He was born on the 21st of July, 1951, and grew up in the state of Michigan. He had been a quiet, timid child, until he became involved in acting. In drama classes he discovered he had a talent for picking up different dialects easily, and could improvise extremely well. 

  As well as his widely praised film career, Robin Williams has also done work in television, stand up, and theatre. Starting his full career doing comedy shows on tv, he gained a wide audience by appearing in sitcoms such as 'Happy Days', and - especially - 'Mork and Mindy'. Having been in films since the late 70s, he finally reached mainstream success in war-comedy 'Good Morning Vietnam' for which he was nominated for an Academy Award and where he impressively showed how talented he was at improvising dialogue to entertain.

  Williams starred in a bundle of many different films, gaining awards and nominations for ones such as 'The Fisher King', 'Dead Poets Society', 'Awakenings', and 'Mrs. Doubtfire'. Finally, in 1997 he got his first and only Academy Award for playing in a more serious role as therapist Dr Sean Maguire. Even when appearing in such a profound role, he still managed to sneak in some improvised light comedy, most significantly the infamous 'farting wife' anecdote. 

  Either as a teacher, a doctor, a blue genie, or an old lady - Robin Williams has been the entertainer most of us have grown up with, loved, and cherished deeply. He has made us laugh and cry, and now is the time for us to remember, and enjoy the treasures he gave to the world, and the absolute legend that he was too.

Hayley

  

I left the house one time (photo post)

Well, yesterday, I finally got out of the house. My brother's band were having a practice, and I decided to tag along for the first time. My brother's band, Hybrid Sky, practice in a 1950's museum in a town not too far from where I live, so i decided to take some pictures there, for some art homework. This post has no sole purpose, but I hope it is somewhat visually pleasing. Considering my camera isn't the most professional gadget I was pretty pleased with the outcome of these photos, I thought it'd be interesting to build up a portfolio of some sort, and it was fun to edit the photos to how I wanted them to look. Enjoy :)

- Rhianwen

REVIEW: Manic Street Preachers - Futurology

On the first of April, this year, I had the best night of my life - I saw my favourite band live. The gig was everything I imagined and even better; I can't begin to describe the pure ecstasy of those wild two and half hours. The band I saw was the Manic Street Preachers. Being from Wales and being very familiar with boredom, alienation and despair, the Manics are the perfect band for me. 

It was on this night that I had my first taster of their upcoming summer album, Futurology. The Welsh rockers played the title track and the semi-German Europa Geht Durch Mich. </p>

The critically acclaimed album was released July 7th, and after reading review after review praising it, I decided it was time for me to write one too (and Nicky Wire said he reads as many reviews as possible, so here's hoping he'll pay attention to this.) 

The reviews aren't wrong. The album, to put it simply, is fantastic.  It's practically flawless. It doesn't surprise me in the slightest that it's their biggest album since 2007's Send Away The Tigers. With a futuristic sci-fi twist, the record is unlike anything they've released before; despite rumours of it's similarity to 1994's The Holy Bible. Don't get me wrong, it isn't dissimilar, the themes of both albums run parallel. However, musically, Futurology is noticeably more upbeat.

 For me, the opening and title track is full of hope. Nicky's singing has improved much since William's Last Words, as he almost murmurs &#8220;We&#8217;ll come back one day/We never really went away,&#8221; the reason I probably find comfort in this song is because it&#8217;s as though the band are reminding us - no matter how long they go away for they&#8217;ll always be back. They&#8217;ll always be here. <br/>

The leading single, Walk Me To The Bridge, is an angst-ridden rock song with a familiar pop-sounding riff that's almost a signature for the Manics since their fifth album This Is My Truth, Tell Me Yours. This song leads perfectly into Let's Go To War; which Nicky Wire - the band's beautiful lanky bassist - told NME is a part of the You Love Us/Masses Against The Classes trilogy. It's funkier and seemingly not as aggressive as the previous, but you can tell it's in relation to them (I even said that before NME mentioned it.)

My personal favourite is Sex, Power, Love and Money. Lyrically, it could have been on The Holy Bible - "self  created for self defence / self esteem is self indulged" - but again, the music is so upbeat you're dancing, despite the themes of the song. The reason it's my favourite is probably the reference to my favourite poem, Lament For The Moths by Tennessee Williams, in the line "lament for the weak / for they will be crushed", and Wire's singing in the chorus.

And that's a good representation for the whole album, really. It's angry, but a good dance. Funky - yet it doesn't lose what we love the Welsh band for; bitterness, and more than anything else, truth.

4/5