Tuesday 30 December 2014

alone in the dark

my older brother is currently obsessed with gog.com. he's a few years older than me so he remembers a load of old games from the 90s he played as a kid. every now and again he tries to get me to play one, as like a history lesson or something. for christmas he gifted me the alone in the dark trilogy and in return i agreed to actually play one of them. this is why i'm reviewing a game from 1992.


the story is that you're a detective (or there is a female character you can choose who i think is some relation to the owner of the house) hired to investigate a haunted house for some reason i've forgotten. the character turns up at the house, walks up into the attic and then you are left to explore. the graphics look pretty clunky by todays standards and the control system is hard work - it's really hard to get any accuracy in the fights and there's this awkward double-tap the forward arrow to run thing. at first i wasn't sure how far i was going to get and almost texted my brother to say 'tried it, as expected it's rubbish'. i mean, it's cool to see the origins of the survival horror genre and i get that it's kind of like watching a silent film, except the control system makes it really hard work. silent films aren't any harder to watch that contemporary films, if that makes sense. but there's one thing about this game that is amazing, and superior to most horror games now. it's the atmosphere.


there's a moment in the game where you walk into a kind of lounge and there's a ghost sitting in a chair - a transparent figure with glowing eyes. one of the many books you pick up in the game talks about this ghost. if you touch it, the ghost stands up and turns into a blobby monster thing and eats you, so you have to edge around the room. it's a really creepy sequence, and it adds to a building atmosphere of dread that runs throughout the game. the background material in the books you find adds to this as well, and what it does is present a world in which your character is dwarfed by the vast evil he is up against. i found this atmosphere and the process of piecing the story and history of the house together to be utterly compelling and it was this that made me press on to the end.

i admit, i did use a walkthrough a couple of times. life's too short to be wandering aimlessly through a house full of monsters with no idea what to do next.


overall, if you haven't played alone in the dark and you enjoy this type of game, i'd recommend checking it out. it does require a bit of perseverance to master the controls and has some frustrating moments but there are some genuinely creepy moments too and it's dripping with atmosphere and dread. i'm definitely going to check out the next one in the series.

Wednesday 24 December 2014

blogmas 24

okay, to anyone who is still with me, merry christmas! or happy holidays or whatever! i'm not spending christmas with family this year, but will probably be watching this later because that's what we used to do on christmas eve in our house. i will probably disappear for a week or so but i will return in 2015 with more stuff! my new year's resolution is to start posting videos too...


happy new year!!!

blogmas 23

i know, i'm a day late, but look! i found a weird al christmas song!


Monday 22 December 2014

blogmas 22

i know we're probably a bit too close to the big day for a bah humbug song, but i only just found this and i fucking love corey taylor...


Sunday 21 December 2014

blogmas 21 - black mirror, white christmas review

there's this tv series on channel 4 called black mirror. charlie brooker writes it. recently there was a christmas special. it was one of the best and most depressing things i have ever seen.


if you missed it you can still catch it on 4od. it was pretty amazing. jon hamm from mad men (which i've never seen, but he's always jon hamm from mad men) is in it, and rafe spall who was in that rom-com with the mentalist. and nymphadora tonks is in it too. it's kind of like the twilight zone movie, where there are like three stories within a framing story. as with all those things some of he stories are better than others but the way they're tied together works really well. there's stuff about social media and artificial intelligence in there, but the central conceit is that in the future you will be able to block people like you do in twitter in real life. this idea isn't just a gimmick to hang a story on, it becomes central to the story itself and leads to a truly horrifying and very miserable ending. so yeah, if you want to feel really depressed this christmas and at the same time inspired and uplifted by the fact that a christmas special this amazing actually exists in the world, then check it out.

Friday 19 December 2014

blogmas 19

bob clark not only directed black christmas, he also made this...


blogmas 18

i did warn you that when i ran out of ideas i would probably post the black christmas trailer...


but it is a fucking awesome movie.

Wednesday 17 December 2014

blogmas 17

another day, another amazing christmas movie trailer...


Sunday 14 December 2014

paz vs youtube - part three - iamGeorgeTown

so i am planning to start my own youtube channel in the new year but i have lots of questions about how to do it and what to make videos about. i thought it might be useful to ask other youtubers these questions and then i thought everyone else might be interested in the answers too. the first interview was with morgan gleave, then i interviewed amber goluckie and the latest is with musician george reece who has a channel called iamGeorgeTown.


george is the most prolific and experienced youtuber i've interviewed so far and there's a real evolution evident in his videos. there is also huge amount of variety on his channel, from music videos to narrative shorts, but while the subjects may vary the videos are united by george's standout wit and effervescent charm. he is also a musician and you should check out his music on his bandcamp page. here's what george had to say about his channel...

what made you decide to start your own youtube channel?

First of all, thanks so much for having me on your blog! Truth is, my sister made me start YouTubing. I already had a YouTube channel, which I used to upload the occasional bit of music to in a hangover from the beautiful days of MySpace, but it only occurred to me that there was more I could do with YouTube when my younger sister Katy started getting into vloggers like Bertie Bert G and CharlieIsSoCoolLike in early 2012. She said ‘You’d be good at that,’ and although she was clearly terribly, terribly wrong, I found I thoroughly enjoyed it.

how would you describe your videos?

I make an idiotically wide range of videos, from proper serious music videos to simple live cover songs, and from the most basic of talk-to-camera vlogs to more complex narrative short films. It’s not that I don’t know what I want to do – it’s just that I love doing lots of different things, and I find it hard to focus on my favourites to the exclusion of all others. I also like that my channel isn’t just a bombardment of sameness. I started it as an excuse to do something creative besides telling people about the music I’d made, to provide context and colour to my main music work, and I hope that through all the reviews of different salsa dips, and the competitions with myself to see how fast I can tie my shoelaces, it does that.



 
what type of camera do you use and what do you edit on?

I started off with a cheap old Sony Handycam, and I’d advise anyone to start making videos using whatever equipment they can get their hands on. The content is vastly more important than the quality. It needn’t be fancy to begin with, especially if you’ve got something worthwhile to say, or you’re good at what you do. I currently shoot on a Canon 600d (with stock 18-55 lens) and edit on Serif Movie Plus (because it’s cheap and does almost all the same things as proper software, only slower). I’m playing around with a new audio setup at the moment involving an external Zoom H1 mic attached to my camera. So far it’s not going all that well…!

do you consider yourself primarily a musician or a youtuber or both, like if i met you at a party or something and i asked 'what do you do?' what would your first answer be?

I’m always a musician first. Partly because I can rely on the average person having a clue what one is. Partly because that’s my ‘main thing’ and primary love. But also partly because YouTube is just a vessel for other things. I don’t think anyone is a YouTuber and a YouTuber alone. Some people are filmmakers, journalists, presenters, comedians, agony aunts/uncles, but it’s only the format and the distribution technology that is new. So just like someone forty years ago might have been a musician/performer who occasionally appeared on TV/Radio, I am a musician, writer, presenter, ‘actor’ (perhaps…?), who makes things on YouTube.


when you made those first two videos about reasons to and not to vlog, did you have much of a plan in place and did you think you would still be doing it over 300 videos later?

I’ve always tried to just wing it – do what feels right at the time. It just happened that I liked doing it enough that I kept going. It’s still shocking to me how much I enjoy it, and it’s kind of compulsive in truth, like an addiction. But I’ve always simply planned to do what I think will make me happy, and that continues to be to continue to make stuff.





i really liked the narrative sketches like 'not alex day' and the 'i found charlie' video. have you made any more narrative short films and is directing something you're interested in doing?

Thank you! Yeah, I love making that kind of thing, and I’ve been lucky enough to direct a few music videos since those short films in the early days of my channel. I kinda just enjoy indulging in any creative activity. Any ‘making’ of any kind. So yes, I hope I’ll be writing and directing more narrative stuff soon, as well as some scripted non-fiction, some documentary and edutainment-y things. But there’s a lot more work and focus required for that sort of thing, so I rarely find the time to get going with it. Soon, soon, soon!

i thought the subscriber contest you did with sam hammond was a fantastic way to boost interest in your blog and a good way to challenge yourself. have you thought about trying this again and who would you challenge now? also, did he ever do the forfeit?

Yes! Haha. I have thought about it. It was a huge amount of fun, but there are a few reasons why I haven’t done it again yet. One is that I don’t like to repeat myself in too obvious a way, so if I do it again, it’ll likely be with some new twist. Another reason though, is that I think the audience has changed in the two years or so since we did that. The average YouTube viewer is significantly more cynical now, for a number of reasons, so I think it’d be harder to create an event like that and have it be taken in the right spirit. Thirdly, I haven’t done it again because I have no idea who I’d do it with. It’d have to be someone with very similar numbers of subscribers, and similar levels of ambition, and I just can’t think of anyone. I’m willing to listen to anyone who wants to challenge me though!
As for the forfeit, no I don’t think Sam ever did the forfeit, which was a shame. He did have the last laugh though, because a few months after our competition, he made a video which went super-viral (like, a couple of million views) and to this day, even though he’s more or less stopped making videos, he has more subscribers than I do! And much deserved, because he’s amazing :D




you seem to have an uncanny ability to keep your videos to a reasonable length but it doesn't seem like you're editing out a whole lot of mistakes. is that preparation, multiple takes or natural talent?

You know what? I have an absolute horror of my videos being too long. So I guess it’s just fear. I shoot everything in order, and just repeat each paragraph until I think I’ve said it the way I want to. If I think a video’s likely to be too long I’ll actually write down a script, so I stay on-topic and avoid repetition. But no, not really any of those things. It’s just trying to keep things formatted as briefly as possible. I figure I can always make another video tomorrow and say more stuff, so I try to keep each chunk as bitesize as possible.

your 'how to be posh' video has over 28,000 views. when you have a video that successful, do you find yourself over-analysing what made it work?

It’s funny, because that video was actively designed to prove the point that there is a formula. I’d heard a lot of chat suggesting that there wasn’t, so I deliberately made that video with an eye on it being ‘viral-able’, if that makes sense. I made it short, silly, a bit controversial, very searchable (‘How To’ videos match up well with frequently searched terms) etc. etc. precisely in the hope that lots of people would share it and it’d bring traffic to my channel. That’s why I introduce myself and invite people to subscribe at the end (which I don’t do in all my videos).

It’s been my most successful video by a mile, but still far from being properly ‘viral’. So on reflection, I think the truth is that you can’t create a formula for what will be crazy popular overnight (like the ‘Get Out Me Car’ thing… baffling!) but you can predict with some accuracy how well any given video is likely to do on average, and create things with those factors in mind. As for why I don’t make more stuff with those qualities that made this video a success… I don’t know. I find it kind of tiring, and disingenuous probably. It’s lots of fun, but I don’t feel like it’s my great calling, if you know what I mean, so I tend to leave that sort of thing to people who are better at it than me so I can get on with writing songs with too many chords in them.




it feels like your videos have become more serious over time, taking on subjects like feminism, theology and sexual abuse. was that a conscious decision or just part of growing up?

It’s partly down to the increasing cynicism of the audience I mentioned earlier. As the platform matures, the content is bound to mature as well, and as I’ve become closely attached to the community of YouTube, I sometimes feel compelled to add my thoughts to a particular debate or issue. I think my thoughts and opinions, such as they are, tend to be significantly different from the average YouTuber (although I try to present them in as non-confrontational a way as possible) so it’s usually just when I feel I have something to say that hasn’t already been said. And issues that need addressing are cropping up more and more as the community becomes aware of itself. It’s kind of fascinating – like a living being passing through a difficult adolescence.

But for my own part, I much prefer to make light-hearted things, and I hope that’s the part of my work that resonates best with people.


can you talk about the evolution of your opening titles?

Yeah, so I thought I should have some right from the beginning. I always based pretty much everything I did on YouTube on WheezyWaiter, because he’s awesome and exemplary in more or less every way, and the titles were the same. A little three-second sting with the name of my channel, on a background of Grand Cayman (the capital of which is George Town). I re-recorded the audio at one stage, then for a while had title sequences which were submitted by viewers for a competition – that was a lot of fun. I may go back to some of those some day. My current thing is a picture of Naples, Maine, lifted from Google Earth. I drove through Naples once, and just felt instantly at home. It’s what GeorgeTown would be like if it really existed. Not too big, not too pretentious, near the water… people knowing each other’s names and being nice to each other… y’know.

do you have any advice for youtubers just starting out?

Absolutely! My main piece of advice is ‘do it do it do it!’. Lots of people talk about making videos, even set up channels and call themselves YouTubers, but never really make anything much and then complain that no one’s watching. Until you have a fair few subscribers and a back-catalogue, it’s important to let people know what to expect. Otherwise there are like a billion other channels they could be watching. But if you say ‘I’ll be making a funny video every Monday, and a song every Saturday’, and you actually do, then slowly but surely people will start clocking in to watch, so long as you’re good. Because that’s the other thing. You’ve got to play to your strengths, and continually try to strengthen those strengths. I’d advise lots of self-examination and honest reflection, and lots of practice (whatever your discipline). For example, I’ve looked at myself in a mirror and decided I’m never going to be an action movie superhero. So I don’t do that sort of thing on my channel. I do music, and I really work hard at it and try to get better. Find your thing, and do it really well. It doesn’t mean you can’t try other things too, but be honest with yourself!

can you recommend an unsung piece of art (book, film, videogame - whatever) you love that people may not have heard of?

I’m so glad you include ‘videogame’ under the heading of ‘art’. I still feel like a lot of people don’t really get that. Final Fantasy VIII is pretty much the most wonderful piece of art I’ve ever beheld. It’s an entire world that has lived with me for fifteen years or so and shows no sign of growing any less beautiful.

Then there are a couple of pretty stunning Monets in the National Gallery in London… I mean… I’m conscious that all my answers are already pretty long, and I could keep on recommending great art for ages. It’s one of my favourite things to do.

Tell you what. Here’s one, and it’s the last for now, I promise. If you ever get the chance to go to a promenade theatre production by Punchdrunk theatre company, take it. Take it immediately. You won’t regret it. I saw their Faust in 2006 and it changed everything.



what can we expect from your channel in 2015?

More scripted, narrative, and ambitious film content. Less sincerity. And at some point, a new album of original songs, which I’m determined is going to be my best yet. Better than my previous five combined… plus a bajillion. 2015 is going to be magical in GeorgeTown.

can you nominate a fellow youtuber for my next interview?

I think you should interview Maddie Moate and Dodie Clark. They do what I do, but better.

subscribe to iamGeorgeTown, follow george on twitter, check out his music on bandcamp and consider supporting him on patreon.

-----

thanks to george for taking the time to answer my questions!

if you have your own youtube channel and would like to be interviewed you can e-mail me at pazvsstuff[at]gmail.com or find me on twitter @pazvsstuff

blogmas 14

funnily enough, i'm not that big a fan of nightmare before christmas. i feel like i should like it but i never quite got into it as much as most people i know. i am, however, a huge korn fan so korn covering kidnap the sandy claws is kind of amazing...


blogmas 13

a bit late, i know, but this is worth it. behold the trailer for the most terrifying christmas film ever...

Friday 12 December 2014

kontrolfreek - fps freek vortex

full disclosure - i was sent these gaming accessories for review, so this isn't just a random 'hey, look what i just picked up!' post, it's more of a 'someone sent my free stuff for a review!' post. i hear you have to be clear about such things these days.

so anyway, kontrolfreek make gaming accessories for consoles and specifically they make these little...er...really want to call them noggins...yes, these little noggins that you fix to the sticks on the controller so they make playing games easier. there's a whole video about how it's supposed to work right here...



now, i'm not a huge fps fan but i do and have played a lot of them. i tend to choose games based on the story rather than the type of game and sometimes the stories i want to experience happen to be in first-person shooters. the thing is, i'm not terribly good at them. would kontrolfreek be able to cure my inability to shoot any bad guys at all ever?

so i was sent the fps freek - vortex. it looks like this.


there's a tall 'noggin' for the right stick to improve aiming and a little concave 'noggin' for the left stick. they snap onto the sticks really easily, like this -

in real life, on my sofa, they look like this -



the two games i tested them on were bulletstorm and call of juarez. yes, they were random choices, and yes call of jaurez came out in like 2005 but they were the two first two fps games i had to hand. for the sake of being contemporary and relevant i also downloaded a demo of destiny and tried them out on that as well.

overall, i found they did actually help. i did feel a lot more in control with the aiming, and they did make the whole experience smoother (this was the same on all three games so it wasn't anything to do with the quality of the game). one thing that really stood out was that the left noggin is particularly good for walking. you know, when you're trying to walk slowly up to a precipice or something (this happens a lot in call of juarez) and nudge the stick that little too much by mistake and your character breaks into a run and throws her/himself over the edge. well, this fixes that. accuracy is much easier and you can make much more subtle movements. after using them for a few days i started to wonder why joypads aren't built like this already?

oh, that's why. because playing anything else with them (like when my housemate and i went back to fable 3 for the first time in like a year so neither of us knows what's going on), is a bit annoying. but it's okay, because kontrolfreek have a whole range of accessories for different types of games! look, you can check them out here.

overall, i wouldn't call kontrolfreek accessories essential but they defintely work and they're reasonably priced. last week they started selling them in game so you can pick them up in there or get them from their website.

blogmas 12

hey! i know! how about a really cheery christmas song to celebrate the fact that it's friday and you don't have to go to work for two whole days (unless your stupid employers have their christmas party on a saturday and you feel obliged to go even though it will mostly feel like being at work except with alcohol)! this is a song by harvey danger called sometimes you have to work on christmas...


Thursday 11 December 2014

Wednesday 10 December 2014

blogmas 10

never been much of a 'trekkie' (is that the right term?) but this is fucking awesome...


Tuesday 9 December 2014

Monday 8 December 2014

Sunday 7 December 2014

paz vs youtube - part two - amber goluckie

i have become fascinated with youtube and the people who post stuff there and one day i hope to upload videos myself. to this end i have started interviewing youtubers. you can read the first interview with morgan gleave here. this next one is with amber goluckie, a british youtuber who makes videos on a range of subjects including her own experiences with a re-enactment group.


amber's channel typifies what is so interesting about the vlogging medium. at first glance her videos look like they cover a random selection of topics from bus etiquette to cash machines, but after watching a handful of the videos patterns begin to emerge. there is a real sense someone who has an appreciation of the past, particularly in the re-enactment videos but also in the letter writing challenges. at the same time, this contrasts with the medium itself as well as with the subjects of some of the videos, and this contrast makes for a really interesting and consistently surprising channel. here's what amber had to say about it...

what made you decide to start your own youtube channel?

I had lost my job and as I began my search for employment I decided to film it so there were a few videos of me scrolling through the internet and then I documented my first trial week at my new job. I am not sure if those videos are still up on my channel or not but they did help me and even made me a friend through them. I suppose the rest of my channel came from there as I began to make other videos that interested me.

 
how would you describe your videos?

A mess, Haha, there is  a bit of everything in there, my hobbies, my family and friends and of course my vlogs and tags. I tend to do the videos that I feel like doing at the time, I have an ongoing, never-ending list of videos I want to make.

what type of camera do you use and what do you edit on?
 
I started with just my laptops webcam and now I am using a standard HD camera my mum got me.

the letter writing challenge videos are really interesting. do you think people present themselves differently in letters than they would in a text or email?

Yes, I do find that people will often tell you more in a letter then in a face-to-face conversation or through social media. I have also noticed that a lot of people write the same way that they speak. I wonder if this is because we have lost our letter writing skills over the years.


are you going to continue the interviewing not famous people series? also, when you interviewed chelsea, was that steampunk hat you were wearing?

Yes, I do plan on continuing with the series, I just need to find the time to sit down and film them, also get enough people to agree to the videos. It was a Steampunk hat you're right, another little hobby of mine. 


can you talk about how you became involved with re-enactments and explain a bit more about it?

Re-enactment is where a group of people get together to portray a period of history. The group I am a part of spans the time of 1800 to 1900 America. So things like the civil war and settlers in the west.  My parents met through doing this and so my brother and I were born into it. I love it and couldn't imagine my life without it. I have made many friends through re-enactment and we also get to wear some very pretty dresses.


there's a really interesting contrast on your channel between the old (letter writing, re-enactments) and the new (heartbleed, phones, youtube). was this intentional or is it something that's developed over time?

To be honest it has developed over time and was not intentional. I suppose really it portrays all sides  of my personality, I am an avid fan of history but a slave to my generation.

it's great that you managed a daily vlog for a month. did you learn anything interesting from making videos every day? what were the challenges and would you do it again?

Oh Blimey, I went crazy doing those videos, it is a documentary of my descent into insanity. It was hard going to work all day then filming and uploading in the evening. I was lucky to have some very good friends, Chelsea and Laura, who put up with shoving a camera in their faces all the time. I would love to do it again.




the 'short-lived paradise' music video seemed like a bit of a departure and it really worked well with the music. have you considered making more music videos and are you interested in directing?

Yeah I wanted to do something different to my normal videos. The guy who made the music, Nicky Soaralot, Became a good friend of mine and I hope I did justice to his music. I am looking to do another one in the nurture. As for directing it is something I only do well on the spur of the moment to be honest. I would be so erratic trying to direct other people.




i thought the video 'i dont even know what this is' was really interesting because it addresses the question at the heart of the youtube community - how much do we really know about the people posting videos on youtube? how important do you think authenticity is in a youtuber?

Everything I put on is true of me and I hope that all youtubers are truthful in what they say. I do think it is important to not put on a front to your fans.

do you have any advice for youtubers just starting out?

In all honesty I am still starting out myself, but you just have to keep going with it.

can you recommend an unsung piece of art (book, film, videogame - whatever) you love that people may not have heard of?

Art is perspective, what I enjoy might be nonsense to other people but I think maybe I would like to put a good light on fanfiction. In my eyes the kids who write these are amazing writers and have wonderful imaginations. I hope that some of them go on to write novels and get them published in real life. Perhaps not fanfictions but original stories.

what can we expect from your channel in 2015?

A lot more hopefully. More re-enactment footage, and a couple of collaborations are booked for next year, so keep an eye out for them!

can you nominate a fellow youtuber for my next interview?

That Lad Davie. He has been a great help to me since we meet through our love of the internet.  As part of his community I have learnt a lot about editing and filming and I  enjoy his videos immensely. 

subscribe to amber's channel and follow her on twitter.

-----

thanks to amber goluckie for doing the interview!

if you have your own youtube channel and would like to be interviewed you can e-mail me at pazvsstuff[at]gmail.com or find me on twitter @pazvsstuff




blogmas 7

probably everyone knows this already, but there's this podcast called professor blastoff, and it's very funny. it's three comedians (tig notaro, david huntsberger and kyle dunnigan) and a guest discussing science, although mostly they joke around. anyway, kyle dunnigan released a christmas album last year, here's the video for one of the songs -

blogmas 6

still feeling rough, but do have a bit more festive spirit today. enough to track down this amazing retro xmas atari ad anyway...

Friday 5 December 2014

blogmas 5

okay, this isn't particularly festive but i am ill today. i mostly feel like this...


Thursday 4 December 2014

blogmas 4

i could probably post 24 different versions of carol of the bells for blogmas as there are some awesome ones out there, but this is probably my favourite...


Wednesday 3 December 2014

the fear

the fear is a four-part crime drama that was broadcast a couple of years ago and is currently available to watch on 4od. it stars peter mullan as a brighton crime boss who starts to lose his mind at a point when his two sons become embroiled in a brutal gang war with an eastern european gang.



i'm not the biggest fan of crime dramas but peter mullan is always worth watching (he was in a brad anderson horror film called session 9, which you should check out if you haven't seen it). also, it was filmed in brighton, where i live. it's pretty amazing watching car chases and gun battles taking place on the streets i walk down on my lunch break every day. the filmmakers really make brighton look pretty too, with some fantastic shots of the seafront. there's this great moment that opens the series where mullan's character is completely dwarfed by the ruined west pier, and the pier looks like something straight out of lovecraft, like it was built by the old ones. third reason to recommend it, harry lloyd is in it. you may remember him as the dickhead brother of khaleesi in game of thrones. in this he plays the most sympathetic character in the whole story, plus he is incredibly fucking hot. also, richard e grant, fucking withnail himself, is in it. that's an awesome cast and they all do a great job.

on a more critical note, i felt like the dementia plot kicked in too early. like everyone is talking about how great mullan's character is and how fucked they'll be if he's lost his mind, but when we meet him he's already losing his mind so we never get to know what he used to be like. also, there's one moment when he's walking along the seafront and he's almost knocked over by a fleet of unicyclists. now, i know people who ride unicycles in brighton, i've seen maybe two at most on the seafront at any one time, but this was like ten of them, as if everyone in brighton rides a unicycle because we're all a bit wacky. but these are minor issues.

overall this is a classy series with awesome performances and a great setting.


blogmas 3

what are the best movies to watch at this time of year? christmas horror movies of course! i could be obvious here and post the black christmas trailer (i still might do that, black christmas is a fucking awesome movie) but i thought i'd go with something more obscure.


p2 is a rather fantastic little film and worth checking out if you can find it. plus it's all like festive and stuff.

Tuesday 2 December 2014

blogmas 2

jill tracy is a goth/noir musician whose songs are very pretty and very dark all at the same time. she probably one of the artists you would least expect to release a christmas album. in 2012 that's exactly what she did, and this song was on it.


if that doesn't get you in a festive mood, nothing will.

Monday 1 December 2014

blogmas 1

it's december, people are doing christmassy things, lots of youtubers i like are doing vlogmas but seeing as i can't manage one video yet let alone 24 i thought id do blogmas instead. so here's the first of 24 random christmassy things -


as evidenced here, ten benson are awesome, you should check them out.