Fandom, it is a strange word indeed I had not heard it in popular usage it basically means a collection of fans around a famous person and or sport. I first heard it referring to Harry Potter fans around the world most notably on Fandom Forecast a rather nifty Podcast I like to listen to from time to time.
Anyway I found myself thinking about how many fandoms I consider myself a member of. First and foremost I guess is Harry Potter because it seems that fandom is just very good at bringing themselves together through things like online groups, premieres, special podcasts and conventions. It is certainly one of the biggest fandoms around but it is not the only one.
Another fandom I am a fan of is Anime. For you that don’t know what anime is basically it refers to Japanese cartoons. Don’t ask me how you pronounce it I do it my way others do other ways, anyway amines you have likely heard include Dragonball Z Crying Freeman and Death Note. This is probably the fandom that I have been involved with the longest but it is a lot more disparate than the Harry Potter fandom but all over the world you’ll find people who know what Akira is and why it is amazing.
Anyway at the moment I am trying to now build up a list of anime series, which I will be discussing in a future blog.
STOP THE PRESS
Torchwood is back; I just saw an announcement for it on the BBC. It is an awesome show; to me it shows off everything that is wrong with Doctor Who. Which in case you did not know suffers from the problem from having 12 or 14 episodes but actually only about 4 episodes worth of anything remotely interesting to watch at most in a season it is a shame when you have two stars with as much going for them as David Tennant and Freema Agyeman so it is a shame they did nothing with it. Torchwood as well as its more adult theme compared to Doctor Who’s family centred approach allows it to play closer to the core ideals of Science Fiction, dark and grey and futuristic. Anyway I’ll be watching I hope you can too.
Saturday, January 5, 2008
It's Britney bastich
Britney Spears
I intensely dislike writing about the whole entertainment industry thing as in celebs I love talking about films and TV shows for instance. However it would be remiss for me as a blogger to leave out this whole thing with Britney sent to hospital because she refused to give the kids back. I actually saw some celeb correspondent on TV say that this could be the golden moment, she can now get help for obvious emotional troubles and turn her life around.
Maybe or maybe this whole sick voyeur like stage show will continue on for far longer than anyone like myself would want. Britney is my age freaky stuff all that success so young but then I would not wish what she goes through now on anyone, and there are some people in this world I truly dislike.
Other than that it has been a quiet newsday with earlier news stories continuing like Kenya and the American Elections so that is all we have for today folks.
I intensely dislike writing about the whole entertainment industry thing as in celebs I love talking about films and TV shows for instance. However it would be remiss for me as a blogger to leave out this whole thing with Britney sent to hospital because she refused to give the kids back. I actually saw some celeb correspondent on TV say that this could be the golden moment, she can now get help for obvious emotional troubles and turn her life around.
Maybe or maybe this whole sick voyeur like stage show will continue on for far longer than anyone like myself would want. Britney is my age freaky stuff all that success so young but then I would not wish what she goes through now on anyone, and there are some people in this world I truly dislike.
Other than that it has been a quiet newsday with earlier news stories continuing like Kenya and the American Elections so that is all we have for today folks.
Thursday, January 3, 2008
Shaft's new ongoing experiment
The News as Shaft sees it.
In the news today things that have peaked my interest.
MuggleNet attack
On Wednesday the 2nd January there was a hacker attack on MuggleNet and since then they have put up a notice and included a review of the year that was. MuggleNet if you didn’t know is the premiere Harry Potter fansite set up by Emerson Spartz in 1999. It is an award-winning site that also launched its own Podcast MuggleCast, which is a current top ten Podcast on Podcast Alley.
Just took me by surprise when I checked it this morning just have a quick look at all things Harry Potter for the last month or so only to see that there had been an attack and that the site won’t be back online in the short term till they find the problem and get it sorted.
Joey Barton released on bail
I just thought it was weird they kept him in over New Years I mean he is famous and less likely to you know hastily leave the country than most. Still they are the legal eagles so they must know what they are doing right? Whether or not he is guilty not so interesting to me and the press will no doubt spin it out endlessly till everyone is sick of it I just think at this point things are a little interesting.
Kid gets £3000 mobile bill
UK story. Hilarious story but obviously not for the family involved. A kid 17 years old if you are interested at all decided to use his mobile as a modem to connect to the Internet. He then apparently managed to rack up a bill of £3000 the report seemed to indicate that it happened in a day but that is somewhat hard to except. To me it just shows once again big business, surely after he went past £200 in a small amount of time alarm bells and notifications should have happened especially as it was seemingly a new contract.
On the other side however it also goes to say something about responsibility. Should a 17 year old have a contract mobile paid for by their mother? Also through the fine art of interview we found out that she also pays for his girlfriend’s but we didn’t get to find out why that was.
Wednesday, January 2, 2008
Swollen fingers, cases of sprite and the news
So here I am blogging again not so much about entertainment but about news and other vaguely important stuff to me.
The Black Sisters
Only Harry Potter enthusiasts of the higher orders would realise who these wizard rockers are. They are also YouTube film-makers with over 100 videos dedicated to the world of Harry Potter. Their latest video was called confessions and celebrates their first year at YouTube and they come clean about a lot of things. Too hard to explain to non-Potter fans but I still thought it deserved to be included in my sum up of interesting things in media. The video is here
Drinking in the UK
On a radio phone in today they were asking why the British drink as much as they do indeed so much more than the rest of Europe. Most people who called in did seem to be actually taking it seriously and a few different reasons were given. The most popular answer was indeed "living for the weekend" with such justifications as the amount of hours the British public do as to why they tend to drink so hard. Sounds reasonable and would surely point the government in a different direction than constantly putting up the prices of alcohol in its various forms as a form of solution. It must be more than that though but don't ask me what it is. No doubt it will be on some panel show in the near future.
Thats enough for now will add some more when I find more interesting stories to comment on.
The Black Sisters
Only Harry Potter enthusiasts of the higher orders would realise who these wizard rockers are. They are also YouTube film-makers with over 100 videos dedicated to the world of Harry Potter. Their latest video was called confessions and celebrates their first year at YouTube and they come clean about a lot of things. Too hard to explain to non-Potter fans but I still thought it deserved to be included in my sum up of interesting things in media. The video is here
Drinking in the UK
On a radio phone in today they were asking why the British drink as much as they do indeed so much more than the rest of Europe. Most people who called in did seem to be actually taking it seriously and a few different reasons were given. The most popular answer was indeed "living for the weekend" with such justifications as the amount of hours the British public do as to why they tend to drink so hard. Sounds reasonable and would surely point the government in a different direction than constantly putting up the prices of alcohol in its various forms as a form of solution. It must be more than that though but don't ask me what it is. No doubt it will be on some panel show in the near future.
Thats enough for now will add some more when I find more interesting stories to comment on.
Tuesday, January 1, 2008
2007
2007 is gone so here is what I think.
My favourite film of the year - The Brave One
Not sure why just had lots of fun watching it. I guess because by my nature I rarely browse much past the action and martial arts flicks to be fair this one as sooon as I saw the ads on TV was one I had to see and I was impressed by it.
My worst film of the year - Spider-man 3
Stank up the place terribly had no idea what it wanted to do. Lots of pointless weird scenes that I can't understand why they were forced into it.
Favourite Anime of the Year - Naruto Shippuuden
Not sure if it is spelt right there may or may not be too many "P"s in it. Got to love this show and finally after a long wait for its loyal fans it has finished with the filler crap that was driving most of us insane and got back to a kick ass storyline that continues the growth of Naruto and his friends through a time jump of two years and his return to the village determined to find and rescue Sasuke.
That is all for now I might continue on with this later.
My favourite film of the year - The Brave One
Not sure why just had lots of fun watching it. I guess because by my nature I rarely browse much past the action and martial arts flicks to be fair this one as sooon as I saw the ads on TV was one I had to see and I was impressed by it.
My worst film of the year - Spider-man 3
Stank up the place terribly had no idea what it wanted to do. Lots of pointless weird scenes that I can't understand why they were forced into it.
Favourite Anime of the Year - Naruto Shippuuden
Not sure if it is spelt right there may or may not be too many "P"s in it. Got to love this show and finally after a long wait for its loyal fans it has finished with the filler crap that was driving most of us insane and got back to a kick ass storyline that continues the growth of Naruto and his friends through a time jump of two years and his return to the village determined to find and rescue Sasuke.
That is all for now I might continue on with this later.
Monday, December 24, 2007
A Heroes Activity as there is a strike
As the Writer's Guild strike continues I was thinking to myself something to do that would be fun. Well let me tell you my idea and you can be the judge - A episode by episode view of the second season of Heroes with my own UNIQUE views on them. So if people are interested in reading the reviews or maybe getting involved themselves then why not leave a comment or get in touch through my YouTube account which I am now hoping has been linked with the blog =o).
Thats enough of that then, till next time.
Thats enough of that then, till next time.
Friday, December 21, 2007
A Monthly blog?
Because I am certainly not interesting enough to be posting much more than that I think. I also have other websites with probably a lot more viewers than this one will get. So enough of that lets go to my new feature.
These are the things I have been thinking about over the month.
The Golden Compass - It was a good film. I am a huge fan of the series and was eagerly anticipating this. I didn't like the beginning though with the explanation of half the plot at the beginning, you don't know what is going on in the book till the 2nd book in terms of what they discussed at the beginning (trying not to give anything away). Overall I give it a 4 out of 5 though. If you liked the book it is worth the time to go watch. It finishes earlier than the book does so be warned.
Smallville - Why do I still watch it I wonder? The plot is insane, and it has a nasty habit of expecting us to forget everything about the previous seasons. Do you guys remember that Clark got sort of married once and said he loved someone other than Lana? Nope then nevermind but for the rest of you at least you were paying attention. Apparently the next season might be the last which I think is a good enough run.
Mugglecast - It will be ending its normal service at episode 140. Came as a bit of a surprise to me at least what with Picklepack and everything. I guess though in one way it was inevitable with them all going to college and having that huge change in lifestyle.
Die Hard 4.0 - Only recently watched it I thought it was pretty good to be honest it works well as an action film. It was a good mix of funny and action packed and the stunts were definitely over the top.
Thats about all for now.
These are the things I have been thinking about over the month.
The Golden Compass - It was a good film. I am a huge fan of the series and was eagerly anticipating this. I didn't like the beginning though with the explanation of half the plot at the beginning, you don't know what is going on in the book till the 2nd book in terms of what they discussed at the beginning (trying not to give anything away). Overall I give it a 4 out of 5 though. If you liked the book it is worth the time to go watch. It finishes earlier than the book does so be warned.
Smallville - Why do I still watch it I wonder? The plot is insane, and it has a nasty habit of expecting us to forget everything about the previous seasons. Do you guys remember that Clark got sort of married once and said he loved someone other than Lana? Nope then nevermind but for the rest of you at least you were paying attention. Apparently the next season might be the last which I think is a good enough run.
Mugglecast - It will be ending its normal service at episode 140. Came as a bit of a surprise to me at least what with Picklepack and everything. I guess though in one way it was inevitable with them all going to college and having that huge change in lifestyle.
Die Hard 4.0 - Only recently watched it I thought it was pretty good to be honest it works well as an action film. It was a good mix of funny and action packed and the stunts were definitely over the top.
Thats about all for now.
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