45 Random things to do this summer

1. Play snap in a random field last thing at night.
2. Go to a random field with an ipod and have a picnic as the sun's setting.
3. Go to a free festival and dance like loonies.
4. Have a word of the day every day and use it at least five times.
5. Take a photo of yourself every day (if you can) to see if you have a tan.
6. Find a song you love, have it as your summer song and listen to it everyday.
7. Learn how to say hello in 20 different languages.
8. Have a movie night where you and some friends have pizzas and party snacks and watch lots of Disney films.
9. Keep a diary and write in it twice a day, or once at night so it's a full day's worth.
10. Create your signature/autograph, take a picture of it, put it on bebo/facebook/twitter etc and have the caption as 'Just in case I get famous'.
11. Create your family tree.
12. Keep some grass from every field you go through.
13. Leave a random pile of grass somewhere.
14. Draw a portrait of someone, e.g eachother, and if there's 4 of you, in pairs.
15. Make a homemade present - like a photo frame - and card and give it to someone for their birthday.
16. Bake a cake.
17. Invite everyone doing the 100 random things over for dinner/tea and prepare it yourself.
18. Go out with friends colour coordinated with eachother, wearing matching hats.
19. Tidy someone's bedroom for them.
20. Make pasta from scratch.
21. Go somewhere with someone, take loads of pictures with them, make a collage of the pictures, and hang it on their wall.
22. Give someone a nickname and insist on calling them it every time you see then, no matter how embarrassing.
23. Make up a secret handshake and use it.
24. Buy a pen from every tourist attraction you visit.
25. Create a smiley face out of fruit, place it on your own face, and get someone to take a picture.
26. Tell someone you love them everyday.
27. Hug someone everyday.
28. Have a section on your bebo/facebook/twitter etc that tells you what you're doing each day and change it every day.
29. Write down everything you hope to have achieved by the time you are 35 (or any other age)
30. Create a new word, think of a meaning for it, use it on bebo/facebook/twitter etc + msn and see if you start a new trend.
31. Get up as early as you can every day so you have the whole day to do stuff.
32. Play at least 7 games of rounders with at least 4 people.
33. For each of your friends, write down three reasons why you love them.
34. Completely randomly, give someone a lecture on your views of politics.
35. Make a list of your favourite names, pick your absolute favourite, and call someone it for a day.
36. Write a song with friends, make a music video for it, and put it on YouTube, or just make a random video and put it on YouTube.
37. Meet someone new.
38. Ride in a wheelbarrow/Have a wheelbarrow race.
39. Have a huge water fight.
40. Find a picture of a house & some furniture and make a collage of your perfect house.
41. Run down a hill barefoot.
42. Roll down a hill.
43. Get a grass stain at some point.
44. Get a new obsession with a comedian/musician and quote them at every available opportunity
45. Compile all of your favourite lyrics/lines/quotes in a list

Rachel (Webmistress) with help from a guy called Ryan (nothing to do with the blog really...)

10 songs that me and the other fisherwoman particularly like at the moment...

- Red, Daniel Merriweather (A great song, that is rather catchy, to us anyway.)
- Use Somebody, Kings of Leon (A great mix of rockers and a love song.)
- If Today Was Your Last Day, Nickelback (For Nickelback it’s a good song)
- Drowned, Tim Minchin (Another brilliant song by the Aussie comedian)
- Remedy, Little Boots (Great song, what’s not to like?)
- By The Monument, Maximo Park (A song you can sing along to by a Geordie indie band, shocker)
- Once When I Was Little, James Morrison (A song for his baby daughter, 'nuff said)
- Crying Lightning, Arctic Monkeys (It’s an Arctic Monkey’s song, you’re bound to like it)
- Rabbit Heart (You Raise Me Up), Florence + the Machine- (It’s a really grower just needs a few listens, then you’ll fall in love)
- Red Lipstick, Skint and Demoralised (He’s from Wakefield and he talks sense, you’ve gotta love it)

Beth (Twitmistress)

10 songs of the moment that make us cringe...(these are in a random order)

- Evacuate the Dancefloor, Cascada (When this comes on, people do literally Evacuate the Dancefloor)
- Paparazzi, Lady GaGa (This song sums her up with just the title...)
- Kiss Me Thru the Phone, Soulja Boy Tell 'Em feat. Sammie (A touching dedication to the girl he misses)
- Single Ladies (Put a Ring On It), Beyoncé (One word: scary)
- Sugar, Flo Rida feat. Wynter (These people can't spell their own names correctly)
- Funhouse, P!nk (Just plain irritating)
- Raindrops, Basement Jaxx (Oh, how badly we wanted to like this song!)
- We Are the People, Empire of the Sun (Dark, dingy, and completely unfathomable)
- Poker Face, Lady GaGa (How do you annoy Lady GaGa? Poker face..oh the hilarity)
- 21 Guns, Green Day (It's just plain weird)
Coming soon: 10 songs of the moment that get us moving...

Rachel (Webmistress)

Will we ever get a voice?

I'd like to start off by asking a question, when will teenagers ever get a voice? Obviously I don't mean literally a voice, I mean a say in things - particularly in matters that concern them. Today's latest is that schools will possibly close in the autumn due to swine flu. This is ridiculous. I'm not going to give up however many months of valuable learning time because the government are scared for what is effectively just a bad cold. Having read several articles on the issue online, I can conclude that nobody has considered the opinions of those that will actually be affected - which is what angers me so much.

On a smaller scale, equality in school manages to anger me just as much. The school council at our school is run purely if the school can be bothered and no matter how many issues you bring up with the members - nothing ever gets done. We're told they're all ''approachable'' and will try to resolve our issues - yet after three years I'm still waiting for soap in the girls toilets. I myself have been nominated as a school council respresentative for my form several times - however each time have lost out simply because the other candidates had more 'friends' than I did. Does the government operate in this way? I'd hope not...

And then there's 'teenagers in society'. It seems we can't even walk down the street without random strangers giving us a wide berth and funny looks. In the media, we're portrayed as drug-taking, streets-invading, soon-to-be-alcoholic yobs and it's really not fair. Yes, I'll admit that a majority of teenagers are like this, but another majority definitely are not. And for those that are, does anyone ever bother thinking about why they might have turned to drugs and drink?

Being a teenager is hard enough without being slagged off in the media and avoided in the street. You lose your friends, you suddenly experience emotions you previously didn't know existed and the pressures from school are often too much to bear.And for those 'model student's within schools, they never get any praise, no one ever recognises what they do - only what those that misbehave do. We're doing our best in this mixed up world, so why don't you do us a favour - and give us a break.

Rachel (Webmistress)

This is a random rant but...

What is it with all the chavs suddenly using speak like 'ROFL' and pretending they're into stuff they clearly don't know anything about? Classic example: massive chav stating that they like Half Man Half Biscuit. Now for those that don't know who Half Man Half Biscuit are, they're a rock band known for their satiric, sardonic and occasionally surreal music (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IxR0JY-FMh8) and most definitely not for being in da hud or whatever they say these days.

It seems that chav has now moved onto indie/scene/emo/sad act - and to be honest, it's terribly annoying. It's unacceptable to be an intelligent, naturally humourous and lovely human being yet it's suddenly fine for the idiots of the Earth to start spouting crap like on Facebook: 'Favourite books: dunt read find it rather sad'.
And it's utterly unfathomable how they can get away with dressing like rejected Topshop models but also wearing the latest Nike Airs and tracksuit bottoms matched with an Adidas jacket whenever meeting friends. To be honest, if one of my friends walked up to me wearing Nike Airs, tracksuit bottoms and one of those hideous Adidas jackets when just randomly going to the cinema, I'd probably either scream or run away from them through fear of getting either stabbed, or brainwashed.

When did it become suddenly uncool to be a normal human being? Why do people our age seem to think it's only cool if you look exactly the same as the next person and try too hard to be something you're never going to be? Why can't we accept that natual intelligence, warmth, humour and friendship is SO much better than unnatural stupidity, 'hardness', irritablility and being an absolute moron?

And if by chance I've offended anyone, I'm sure you'll spam us with your 'ard comments about how we're nerds and geeks - get over it guys, we have.

Rachel (Webmistress)

Chronicles of a Desperate Dad Review

Desperate Dad charts the trials and tribulations of a time starved Dad, who goes from hero to zero in 3 years when his son says that he will never ever be James Bond because he isn’t cool enough and the fact that he’s married to mummy. And that no, he can’t drive as fast as the boy racers in Citroen Saxos, but then who can? Basically he’s totally not cool. His eldest son Tom drags him round computer shops wanting the latest equipment, while all he wants to do is crash on the sofa with some beer, never red wine, that leads to trouble and more claims on the insurance when they feel the need to break windows. Mummy wants Daddy to have a vasectomy. Childless friends talk of going on anniversary trips to Florence. They spent theirs in Tesco. Their half term holiday was going to be in Greece before Ben gets caught at the check in desk with a plastic gun. The security guard has an “I’ve just nailed Al-Qaeda” look on his face. His son’s just been arrested for terrorism. Guaranteed to make you laugh out load on many occasions this is the funniest book that I have read all year. It’s brilliant to see life through a Dad’s point of view, great for teenagers, new parents and experienced, this book will make a whole range of people laugh.

Beth (Twitmistress)

James Morrison Live at Sheffield Academy

Having already won Best British Male Solo Artist at the 2007 BRIT Awards and selling over one million copies of his debut album, ‘Undiscovered’, by the end of 2006, James Morrison is certainly an exciting young talent. After ‘Undiscovered’ in 2006, Morrison began the nerve-wracking job of writing and recording his notoriously difficult second album – and he didn’t disappoint. Morrison himself has said that the album (‘Songs for You, Truths for Me’) is songs for his girlfriend, Gill, daughter, Elsie, and everybody else – but also truths for him. But the album itself is more than that – there’s a guarantee that anybody who listens to it will be able to relate to the heartfelt, thoughtful lyrics. So, bearing all of this in mind, we knew we were in for a good show. Admittedly, we were only three rows from the stage itself which probably helped contribute to the amazing atmosphere we experienced. After a much anticipated stage entrance, Morrison launched into the opening track of his second album, ‘The Only Night’, quickly followed by a song from his first album, ‘Under the Influence’. Next up were two of our favourite tracks, ‘Undiscovered’, and ‘Please Don’t Stop the Rain’ – a song that had been released on the very same day. It was obvious that each and every member of the audience were enthralled by the charismatic delivery of the songs and even when he spoke in between them – such as when he told the audience, “Nelly Furtado? Stuff her!” – a comment that the fans pretty much agreed with as cheering ensued. ‘Save Yourself’, ‘This Boy’, ‘You Make It Real’ and ‘Broken Strings’ soon followed – with the ‘beautiful’ Miss Beverley Brown taking the place of Furtado. Other songs played from his second album include ‘Love Is Hard’, ‘If You Don’t Wanna Love Me’, ‘Precious Love’ and ‘Nothing Ever Hurt Like You’. Morrison next decided to take a break from playing his own music and launched into an interesting fusion of his own song, ‘Call the Police’, and the Stevie Wonder classic, ‘Uptight’, closely followed by a cover of Changes by David Bowie. ‘Dream On Hayley’, a heartfelt dedication to his older sister – Hayley – was then followed by another song closely linked to his own life, ‘Once When I Was Little’. By this point the whole audience were desperate to hear the two tracks that ‘made’ him – the two that you can’t help but love. A woman behind us even screamed that she wanted to hear ‘You Give Me Something’ and our guess is she left happy as he immediately launched into the opening bars of the song and the audience went wild (including the woman behind us, who screamed in sheer delight.) Our feet were tired from standing all night and our ears were ringing but still we couldn’t let him leave the stage for good without playing his signature song, ‘Wonderful World’. And as we all stood there, singing along to the soulful yet cheery melodies, we couldn’t help but agree – it definitely is.

Rachel (Webmistress) and Beth (Twitmisress)

iTunes, a smudge on the music industry or download extraordinaire?

iTunes. With it we moan, and without it we‘re just as unhappy. Since 2001 it’s been slowly taking the music industry and condensing it into a handy pocket sized electronic device perfect for torturing us with on trains, buses, or any other form of hideous public transport. Don’t lie, we’ve all been there. You’re sitting happily watching the countryside flash by when some moron sidles alongside you, playing the latest tunes through their headphones so loud the whole carriage, or in fact the whole train, can too share the thrilling experience of The Pussycat Dolls or Cascada.

And none of us would mind if they listened to it quietly, but no, they don’t. These people take pride in how loud their iPod can go and how many people they can irritate to the point where someone will inevitably go “Could you turn that down please?” and the moron with the music will screech some hideous response about how it’s a ‘free world’ and how they can ‘do what they like’.

Even better, the ‘artists’ producing this tasteless trash don’t show any signs of remorse either. Ironik probably doesn’t understand the meaning of his own name, Lazee can’t be bothered to pick up a dictionary and The Yeah You’s should be approached with great caution…either that, or armour - the choice is yours. Some so called artists’ names are even unpronounceable, take ‘Deadmau5’ for example. Whoever they are, they probably get downloads simply because people want to know if during the ‘song’, they say their own name.

The songs themselves are equally as ridiculous. Kiss Me Thru the Phone (you know the one, that catchy tune that goes something along the lines of: She call my phone like/
Da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da) is a touching tale of how Soulja Boy misses his ‘girl’ when she’s away while Beyoncé is encouraging all the Single Ladies to Put A Ring On It - we can only assume she means a finger, although she could obviously be talking about a group of atoms linked by bonds that could be represented graphically in circular or triangular form - it’s getting to be just as common as singing about heartbreak or being in lust these days. I think Daniel Merriweather sums it all up best with “You took something perfect and painted it red.”

Then of course there’s the charming Lady BlahBlah (real name Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta - you can see why she changed it). Her unique combination of 70s synth pop and dance music has more recently captured the musical minds of what seems to be the entire world. The reviews for her album though, are hilarious. One feature about iTunes that can’t be criticised is the ability to slate or rate any single or album in whichever way you see fit. ‘Chris_Here’ concluded: ‘This is one of them albums where you can listen to it without skipping’ while ‘Chica Guacamole’, as a 19 year old girl, “is quite frankly embarrassed that this album is considered to be the soundtrack to the year for her generation” and starts her review saying: “If swine flu were an album, this is what it would sound like…”

The somewhat genius new changes to pricing hasn’t done much for the favour of iTunes either. The coolest, hippest, most downloaded songs are now a staggering 99p (free from Limewire); the middle class, average, catchy but not amazing tunes are still a decent 79p (again, free from Limewire) and the burnt out, tacky noises are a mere 59p (no one wants these, yet alone free from Limewire.) As well as the fact that no one will buy these 59p songs, simply because they’re 59p and we’re all music snobs now, can you imagine the crushing feeling of defeat you’d feel as a 59p artist? You’re not even worthy of the normal price, that’s how bad you are. But saying that, how can iTunes be even legally allowed, yet alone morally allowed, to charge £1 for rubbish like Paparazzi or the ever popular Kiss Me Thru the Phone?

For a long time now the music industry has not been about the quality of the music, the artist or even the song. No, the music industry is about how many records you can sell within the shortest period of time. And yeah, fair enough, it makes sense. But surely we shouldn’t be allowed to get away with compromising the product being sold? Even the thrilling Saturday evening talent show (well, at least it used to be) The X-Factor has jumped on the quick download bandwagon, releasing the official winners singles on iTunes and online before anywhere else, ‘cause apparently so many people want to download the latest cover version of Hallelujah or A Moment Like This (speaking of that Leona woman, she totally killed Snow Patrol’s ‘Run’). The online music download giant now even has its own festival (coincidentally named ‘iTunes Festival’) that takes place each year - it’s ridiculous. Do we honestly care so much about a piece of technology that we cannot live our lives without it?

Well, yes, we do. Even I am guilty of spending obscene amounts buying songs I’ll never really need or want on a regular basis. For instance, I recently bought an audio book of a favourite comedian of mine purely because it was reduced (for those interested, Mark Watson Makes the World Substantially Better - hilarious if you like Welsh people, terrible poetry, or Tim Minchin). When the price popped up on the screen I was so excited I had to hold myself back from screaming and running for my iPod like a child in Toys R Us. Audiobooks, they’re a newfangled aspect of technology. The clue is really in the title, they read to the lazy, the blind and those that feel ill when reading in the car but there’s no writing for the deaf. Surely they can’t get away with that?! As well as audio books we’ve got films (one day they may understand that we have portable DVD players for those); TV programmes (although there’s a rule in the iTunes office that states whole series may not be uploaded to the store); music videos (yeah, ‘cause we really want the song and the video so we can go “Ooh I’ve got the matching pair!”); Podcasts (which is just radio but pre-recorded); iPod games and now applications (anyone else ever needed to use a spirit level whilst on their iPod? No, I didn’t think so.)

So with the wide range of random assorted junk that can now be downloaded from iTunes, it’s hard not to find yourself buying into the global music phenomenon - I mean come on, who doesn’t want Octahedron by The Mars Volta or series one of Undercover Boss from Channel 4? You don’t even have to have an iPod anymore, you can just sign up and spend away regardless of where your purchase will actually end up. We salute you iTunes, only you could take our hard-earned pennies and still leave us wanting more…

Rachel (Webmistress)