It’s Saturday 17th
August. Arsenal are playing Aston Villa in the their first league game of the
season, the score is incredibly two-one to Villa with five minutes left to
play. Villa’s summer signing Antonio Luna picks the ball up in Arsenal’s half,
rushes into the box un- marked, and slots the ball into the bottom left hand
corner of the goal, past a helpless Wojciech Szczesny. Disaster, the Gunners have lost
their first home game of the season. Outside the Emirates, fans call for the
end of Wenger’s seventeen-year reign and wonder why he hasn’t bought any
world-class players in the transfer window.
Twelve weeks on and Arsenal go five points clear at
the top of the premier league table, and beat last years Champion’s League
finalists Borussia Dortmund, in the space of a week. But how has this turn
around happened, and why are Arsenal now tipped for their best season yet?
The star signing
Mesut Özil has undoubtedly been the best signing for
Arsenal in a long time. He was brought to club for £42.5 million, smashing
Arsenal’s previous transfer record by £29.5 million. By far Özil’s best trait
is his ability to pick out a pass anywhere on the pitch and has showcased this
talent with five assists in all competitions. He has also proved vital in
Arsenal’s attack and has given Olivier Giroud the platform to score more goals.
The Welsh wizard
In previous seasons Aaron Ramsey’s ability to cut the
mustard at Arsenal has been questioned, but the Welshman’s incredible start to
the season is sure to silence the critics for now. He’s the leagues top goal
scoring midfielder with six goals and is as vital to the Arsenal make up as
Özil. A partnership with Flamini in central midfield has been key to Arsenal’s successes,
with the perfect balance between attack and defense.
Big Per
Standing at 6' 6'', Per
Mertesacker is hard to miss and certainly opposition attacks have found this
out first hand. He may not be the quickest, but Mertesacker has been vital in
the air and a partnership with Laurent Koscielney has defended well in big
matches against Liverpool and Dortmund. However, Arsenal have been weak against
set pieces with 56% of their goals conceded coming from set pieces, the highest
in the top flight. If Arsenal are going to be true contenders they have to
start focusing on this area of their defense.
Problems
Arsenal may have started the
seasonal strongly but there is no certainty that they will run away with the
title. Their depth of squad could be a big issue especially if Giroud picks up
an injury. Bendtner has been woeful this season, so Arsenal fans will prey
Giroud does not pick up an injury before Christmas. Their failure to capture
Demba Ba in the summer could come back to haunt them. There is no doubt Arsenal
need to strengthen the spine of their squad in the January transfer window to
keep them in contention for the title and Europe. In previous years we have
seen Arsenal drop out of title and cup races in the space of just a week so it
is vital they keep this form up for as long as possible. Arsenal may have
started the season well, but the cruel world of football can break a team at
any moment.
A Phoenix secretary steals $40,000 from her employer's client, goes on the run and checks into a remote motel run by a young man under the domination of his mother. One of Alfred Hitchcock’s greatest (and creepiest) productions.
2. The Shining (1980)
A family heads to an isolated hotel for the winter where an evil and spiritual presence influences the father into violence. Lots of blood and goddamn terrifying children. Watch out for the bathroom scene.
3. Repulsion (1965)
Left alone when her sister goes on vacation, a young beauty finds herself besieged on all sides by the demons of her past.
4. The Invisible Man (1933)
A scientist finds a way of becoming invisible, but in doing so, he becomes murderously insane. Has amazing graphics for a movie 70 years old and Claude Rains is a perfect mad scientist.
5. Rosemary’s Baby (1968)
A young couple move into a new apartment, only to be surrounded by peculiar neighbours and occurrences. When the wife becomes mysteriously pregnant, paranoia over the safety of her unborn child begins controlling her life.
6. Let The Right One In (2008)
Oskar, an overlooked and bullied boy, finds love and revenge through Eli, a beautiful but peculiar girl who turns out to be a vampire. A haunting love story that takes creepy-children horror to a new level.
7. The Exorcist (1973)
When a teenage girl is possessed by a mysterious entity, her mother seeks the help of two priests to save her daughter. That movie no one wants to talk about because they get the shivers.
8. A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984)
In the dreams of his victims, a spectral child murderer stalks the children of the members of the lynch mob that killed him. Helen Bonham Carters is perfectly cast for this classic horror.
9. Alien (1979)
In space no one can hear you scream. It needs no other explanation.
10. Frankenstein (1931)
Horror classic in which an obsessed scientist assembles a living being from parts of exhumed corpses. This is seen as the best representation of Mary Shelley’s classic novel.
Whether you’re a science-fiction fan or not, it’s been difficult to avoid the fact that this year brings a very special event to all those who are. The 23rd Of November 2013 marks 50 years of the world's longest running sci-fi show - Doctor Who, and on this day fans across the globe will unite and be treated to something that they have not seen the likes of since 1996...A full-length Doctor Who movie. Prayers have been answered, and as a "love letter to the fans" the show’s head writer and producer, Steven Moffat was given the green light to begin production in late 2012. The special - titled ‘The Day of the Doctor’ - features current Doctor Who stars, Matt Smith (The Eleventh Doctor) and Jenna-Louise Coleman, whilst former stars David Tennant (The Tenth Doctor) and Billie Piper will also be returning, much to the delight of fans. Moreover, the famed John Hurt will be joining the cast to portray a forgotten incarnation of The Doctor. On November 4th 2013 the BBC revealed the first official – albeit short – clue as to what the film would be about. It was summed up in the following synopsis: "The Doctors embark on their greatest adventure in this 50th anniversary special. In 2013, something terrible is awakening in London’s National Gallery; in 1562, a murderous plot is afoot in Elizabethan England; and somewhere in space an ancient battle reaches its devastating conclusion. All of reality is at stake as the Doctor’s own dangerous past comes back to haunt him." We can expect great things from ‘The Day of the Doctor’ as the characters join forces to combat the terrifying Daleks, the shape-shifting alien Zygons, and – perhaps worst of all - the Doctor’s darkest secret. ‘The Day of the Doctor’ is to be aired on TV and in selected cinemas worldwide on November 23rd, in both 2D and 3D.
On the 29th October 2013 the Blues Festival was held at the Royal Albert Hall with acts including The Voice's very own Nate James. The building housed various generations all attending to share their love of the blues bringing with them a atmosphere that made everyone feel like one. There was singing along and dancing including an old couple who got up and ball danced around the room during one of the songs. Talk about putting a smile on everybody's faces. Possibly one of the cutest things I have ever witnessed.
The first performance in the section of the building I attended was Nate James, his act contained original songs from his new album ,out in may, including 'cosmic ranger' as well as songs from his single, which is out in march, and other singers. The performance was very relaxed and had some forms of 'banter' going on between Nate and the audience. After his set he went around the room talking to everyone and having a drink with friends and visitors. Nate is such a nice guy and defiantly my favourite act of the day. As soon as his album comes out I know I will be getting it.
Another act that stood out to me for a totally different reason was Smooth & Turrell. This band can only be summed up in one word and that word is insane, for when they performed the energy level was over the bar especially from the keyboard played who was not only head banging to the music but playing whilst standing on the seat and with his feet!!! To think, some people say the blues is boring! Another thing I noticed from their performance was the crowd, normally at gigs, festivals and concerts its the teenagers who are up dancing around and head banging and going mad but no not at this festival for it was every teenagers nightmare, nearly every parent and adult in the room was up dancing and singing along at the top of their voices whilst all the kids sat their with faces like tomatoes. Personally this band was just there for the entertainment of the keyboard player, their music wasn't that good and caused havoc to my camera when trying to record. You couldn't even hear the singer!
Overall though it was an amazing day and I managed to get some good footage of Nate James' performance for you guys to check out. He is such an amazing singer and deserves recognition so without further adieu here is the footage from these his set:
After the 80mph hurricane winds from Sunday night through to Monday morning, it wasn’t for sure whether Tulleys Farm would be open or not. But thankfully, the Shocktober Fest Fright Night went just as planned. Even better, we were first in the queue so we got first pick of which Haunt to line up for first; and our first destination? The Haunted Hayride.
In hindsight, it was definitely the best decision to plough through this one first – lines just after us took about 15 minutes to go through! Also, it was a gentle and easy Haunt to start the night off with live actors jumping on and off the moving tractor ride as we passed. By far the most horrific sight was some nuns dancing to ‘Single Ladies’ – Oh, the horror! Fortunately photos and video recording wasn’t allowed, so you will not be scarred with this image anytime soon.
After some mild brain bleach, it was onwards to ‘The Cellar’ – typically this would be a last haunt as it’s one of the more ‘immersive’ experiences. But with some strong determination, accompanied with the rather humorous attempts to sing ‘Wrecking Ball’ as we entered, we somehow managed to make it through – despite our little train of people falling over multiple times and getting lost in the pitch black!
And to anyone watching the live cam – you’re welcome!
With 2 more Haunts we were allowed to see, we initially wanted to visit ‘Hell-ements’. However, a couple of us weren’t particularly fond of having bags placed over our heads (what a surprise), so we nominated ‘Creepy Cottage’ as our next Haunt of call. Personally, I found it to be a much tamer version of ‘The Cellar’, although the actors in this one were a lot more interactive; especially when someone decided it would be hilarious to start spontaneously chatting them up!
As our last decision was upon us, we decided to look at the map for the Shocktober Fest as we had no idea of where to go next. Yet one particular Haunt caught our eye: ‘Woodstock Rottin’ since 69’. This Haunt was set within the cornfields nestled by the ‘Woodshock Live Stage’, so rock music and jump scares sounded pretty good! Although it wasn’t just jump scares aplenty – there were blood spattered surgery rooms, darkened hallways narrowed by squishy balloons and one particularly disgusting puking zombie. We were quite relieved to see the end that one, particularly after the last room that we had to trek through.
Let’s just say I don’t really like chainsaws or white strobe lights anymore…
Interview with Izzy:
Q: ‘Why did you decide to go to Tulleys farm this year?’ A:‘Cause I’ve been before and it was really scary, and I thought, ‘you know what - I’m going to do it again!’
Q: ‘Which attraction were you dreading most?’ A: ‘The cellar because I went on it before and I was so genuinely scared that I just thought that I could never do it again – but I did it!’
Q: ‘Which Haunt did you find the scariest?’ A: ‘The scariest part was probably in Woodshock when we go through the tunnels and it was all close and dark. The worst thing about that was the fact that I couldn’t see anything and I had to trust Matthew Palmer to lead me the way.’
Q: ‘Was there anything you were looking forward towards, but were disappointed by?’ A: ‘I’m probably most disappointed that I didn’t get to talk to Esmerelda today, because I love her so much.’
So here is a 'little' post for all you video gamers, internet zombies or whatever you wish to be called!
This weekend Comic Con MCM & YCS hit London taking place over Friday, Saturday & Sunday at Excel! Many TV stars, YouTube stars, etc, turned up to the event to meet their fans! On Saturday the cast of 'By Any Means' ,a new hit TV program which any Hustle fans would appreciate, appeared featuring Primevals very own Andrew-Lee Potts. There was also a booth put up for YouTube's Tomska! EVERYBODY DO THE FLOP!!! Both myself and Sam Walker attended this event but on separate days so luckily for you guys you have double to coverage! So starting off the post I give you Sam's article:
Saturday 26th October 2013:
Normally on a Saturday, I wouldn’t even be up at 7:15, let
alone catching a train. But when your train journey includes hordes of ‘Bleach’
and ‘Naruto’ characters, you know you’re in for a pretty spectacular day! Except
for the innocent train-riders who probably checked their eye sight once or
twice…
We decided to fork out £20 for the Early Pass in order to
get into the main congregation straight away. Purchasing the Early Pass also
meant a lot less people were present, so the queues – whilst still fairly
boring – were nowhere near as endless as they were towards the end of the day.
Now, I had never been to ExCeL London before, so I thought
it would be a relatively small event…boy, was I wrong! Travelling from the
entrance to the eSports theatre on the opposite side took about 10 minutes –
without even browsing through merchandise. Stall upon stall was selling quirky
collectibles, adorable plushies and occasionally a few…questionable products.
However, I’ll leave it to your imagination to fill in the blanks.
As events weren’t being held until 11:00 am, we decided to
kill time by visiting some of the gaming trials on offer; this included a 15
minute playthrough of ‘Dark Souls II’, a short peek at Rising Star’s new game
‘Hometown Story’ and brief glances at the ‘Tales of Symphonia Chronicles’.
Throughout the day we mainly bounced from one event to
another; the first being the MCM eSports League of Legends tournament where FM
Storm were matched against Perilous Rift in the losing bracket. Unfortunately,
after an hour long wait for the event to start and with commentators as loud as
mice, most of the audience up and left after Perilous Rift won the game - much
to the confusion of the team members and event staff!
Although some of the other events had issues as well (I
wouldn’t classify £15 for an autograph as ‘worth it’), most of the day lived up
to its expectations -especially with
the unanticipated bonuses of a ‘Pope’ offering free hugs, Mario and Luigi
dancing on DDR, and cosplayers dancing on the plaza outside.
My Top 5 Cosplayers
1.Jolteon –
Pokemon: As a Pokemon fan, I can say no more. This…is pure awesome.
2.Sora –
Kingdom Hearts: He’s got the looks and he’s got the pose – but alas, no
Keyblade. Snow’s looking pretty good in the background though…
3.Midna –
Legend of Zelda - Twilight Princess: Quite the accurate costume, although she
is a bit too tall for the form she’s in…
4. Doctor
Who – Doctor Who: Out of the many ‘Doctor Who’s swarming around, this guy was
definitely the best!
5. Wally –
Where’s Wally: I FOUND HIM - AND I HAVE PROOF!
- Samantha Walker
Sunday 27th October 2013:
So this was it, I was finally going to go to MCM and find out what all the fuss was about and let me tell you it lived up to its expectations! To be honest I don't even know where to start!
On arrival to ExCel, cosplayers emergerged from all directions forming an army of Ashs, Pikachus & Doctors. In fact, name any character and it was there! Including Sims! It didn't take long to get in at all, mainly due to the fact I brought a early bird ticket for £16! Such a good price for an awesome day and to avoid queuing.
Once inside I was overwhelmed by what I discovered, the first thing I laid eyes on was a huge blow up minion at the centre of the room. Talk about making a statement! There was literally something for everyone wherever you looked as well. There was merchandise stalls, card game tables, Meet & greet booths and you could try out tonnes of new games which haven't even been released, I even tried out one that was currently a working progress but was already so good!. I did find the prices of some of the activities were a rip-off, to get signatures from big celebrities you had to pay £15...£15 for a bit of writing on some paper using a sharpie, no thanks! However I did managed to get one from Hannah Spearritt for free which was very nice of her! I also got signatures from Tomska and Jack Howard, unfortunately I missed Chris Kendall ,also know on YouTube as Crabstickz, walking about!
Later that day I managed to sneak off into the YCS convention for Yu-Gi-Oh in order to join some of my other friends and see what was going on in there. The first thing I noticed was giant Yu-Gi-Oh cards and no I don't mean only a bit bigger than average I mean human sized cards! It was insane and I loved it!. So many duals were going on as well and it makes you want to relive your childhood - well it made me want to anyway. Another thing I discovered on my visit was the fact they were giving away 2 free packs of cards to everyone in order to improve their decks, which is benifitual to any Yu-Gi-Oh players.
I must say the atmosphere of the whole place was probably one of the greatest aspects though, as people behaved like one big family, 'stranger danger' went out of the window in some respect, everyone was just running around high fiving each other and getting 'free hugs' without any thought of it being seen as abnormal, in fact the most abnormal thing would have been if you didn't cosplay at all! Overall Comic Con was a success and I enjoyed every second of it! Can't wait till next year to do it all over again!
My Top 5 Cosplayers:
1. The Weeping Angel - The effort that has gone into this costume is amazing and well, I am a whovian!
2. The Transformer Family - This is possibly the cutest/coolest thing I have ever seen in my life!
3. The Silence - I started fan-girling when I saw this, i'm not even going to bother lying!
4. Spiderman - Its Spiderman, What more can I say?
5. Team Rocket - What is a top 5 without Pokémon, also these cosplays are amazing! Enough said!
- Rachel McDowell
Here is a photo montage from the event including a a message to you guys I managed to get from Tomska himself (sorry for the shakiness I was to over-joyed being in his presences) Enjoy:
