Concerts, a conference and hearing aid problems

Well the last few weeks have been both and enjoyable and busy, firstly I feel like I should write about two concerts I went to. The first one, a Christmas present from my brother was to see Royal Blood at the Ulster Hall. Royal Blood for those who don't know consist of just two band members with a bit of a twist on the guitarist/singer and drummer format in that it is a bassist/singer and a drummer. They have only released one album so far but they seem to have grown very popular very quickly. They put on a great show and we had the best possible view to enjoy it due to having balcony seats overlooking the stage as you can see from the video below:



The second  concert I went to exactly a week later was Muse also at the Ulster Hall. This was a big surprise, Muse had just released the first song from their new album before they announced a surprise  intimate UK tour. The tour was announced the day before tickets went on sale but thankfully I found out about it and my brother was able to get us two tickets. I was very excited as Muse are probably my favourite band and I had never seen them live. I have to admit I was a bit worried when we arrived and there was a very long queue but its not that big a venue and we were able to stand with a relatively good view of the stage. I wasn't fussed on their support band but Muse put on a great show. It was a bit of a different set list they played two new songs, two b sides as well as other songs they don't usually play along with some of their classics. I just wish since they hadn't played in Northern Ireland since 2006 that they could have played for even longer, they have so many good songs that its hard not to be disappointed when they don't play some of them.

Moving on to my PhD it has been a busy period doing lots of lab work on the samples I collected last summer  I also attended my first conference. Basically the idea of these conferences is for people from a whole load of different universities to come together and talk about what work they are doing,  and network with other people. It is a good learning experience for PhD students such as myself, and I presented a poster on my initial results. The conference was in Liverpool over three days and it was actually my first time away from home (apart from school trips) and in a different country without my family. Though I did travel with my supervisor both there and back and three other people from the lab I work in were also at the conference which was great. The only issue was and its something I will have to deal with in the future is that ever present problem of communication. At the poster presentation one of the other people there asked me to explain my work and why it was important and I attempted to tell her but I got the impression that she didn't really understand what I was saying.Overall it was a good experience and it pushed me out of my comfort zone without anything bad happening with is always a plus.

My swanky hotel bed with light and air conditioning controls on the wall also a slightly creepy picture

Whenever I do go away I always have to make sure to bring a spare hearing aid and batteries with me, unfortunately both my digital hearing aids decided to play up in the period leading up to the conference. One of them had stopped working a few weeks before and had been sent off to be repaired. Unfortunately when it came back it was now working but now emitting a loud buzzing noise, so it had to be sent off to be repaired again. Around this time my other digital hearing aid decided to start distorting. Long story short I had to spend a day and a half wearing my old analog hearing aid which was very strange now that I'm used to wearing the much better digital aid. Managed to get an appointment at the audiology clinic at the hospital I go to and the very nice girl (much nicer than the other not very nice or competent people who we have dealt with in the past) was able to reprogram the repaired aid and she also reprogrammed the other one which fixed the distortion problem. This was great as it meant I could go back to wearing a digital aid but I could also bring a digital aid as backup for the conference.

One of my digital hearing aids

Thanks for reading.

Videos!

Just thought I would share this video created by the charity Changing Faces. A short and sweet advert to raise awareness about people staring at facial disfigurements.




A while back I saw a video of a little person who had put a hidden camera on himself and recorded his day including people staring, making comments and even taking photos of him without asking! It just makes me wonder what the results of someone with TCS doing this would be. I wrote a piece about staring before here but just makes you wonder how many times it actually happens and also how many times it happens that you don't necessarily pick up on it. As far as I'm aware no one has taken a picture of me without asking (or asking for that matter) but if they did then I think it would make me seriously angry. Staring is one thing but taking a photograph is just completely rude.

Continuing on the topic of videos  the new Treacher Collins Family Support Group website has a whole load of videos from tv shows which people with TCS have featured on. I definitely recommend as some of them are really good.

http://www.treachercollins.net/Videos.html

Thanks for reading.

Facial disfigurement on screen

Unless you have been living under a rock lately you will probably have heard about the movie The Theory of Everything which is about the life of Steven Hawking. Eddie Redmayne has received a lot of praise and award nominations for his portrayal of Steven Hawking and his decline due to his condition. The movie has prompted some debate about whether it is ok for a able-bodied actor to portray a disabled person. In my opinion yes it is, because as long as it isn't done in a bad or mocking way also it is just acting. Obviously it would be impossible for a non-abled bodied actor to have shown that decline that Hawking experienced. The same can be said for those who portray people with an mental illness for example a young Leonardo Dicaprio played a boy with a developmental disorder in What's Eating Gilbert Grape. The same role wouldn't have been able to been portrayed by a child with that condition as they wouldn't be able to follow orders, remember lines etc.

So what about people with facial disfigurements? It is a common theme in movies that the bad guy has some characteristic which makes them look scary. Whether this is an eye patch, a facial scar or something else. In many cases the villains actions alone should be enough to show us that they are in fact bad or evil. This has resulted in Changing Faces creating a campaign to challenge this assumption. They made a short film featuring Michelle Dockery of Downtown Abbey fame which was shown in certain cinemas. You can see it below.



I think as with everything things should be done in moderation and with proper thought. A villain shouldn't just have scars etc. for the sake of it or as a lazy way to show how they are evil. On the other hand I don't think they should make all bad guys look perfect. In some cases it is a core part of their character take Two-Face from Batman for example. I was interested to read about the movie Under the Skin a while back as a positive example of a movie using someone who looks different. I haven't seen it but it features Adam Pearson who has quite an obvious facial disfigurement coming into contact with Scarlet Johansson's alien character. You can read more about that here, otherwise I would just be repeating the same stuff that is in the article.

Scene from the movie

To be honest I think it is not so much a case of giving people with facial disfigurement or disfigurement leading roles in movies/tv shows, although if possible and if somebody wrote something with that, it would be awesome if done right. Instead I think it would be good to slowly get people used to the idea that there are people with these conditions and they are perfectly normal, perhaps by using them as minor characters or extras. Its hard not to think about these big budget movies/tv shows and how awesome it would be if they gave screen time to people who look a bit different. Take Star Wars for example obviously its hard to know what will happen in the new trilogy but imagine if they had a jedi with a facial disfigurement who was shown kicking-ass and how memorable (in a good way) that would be. They don't need to be a main character but it would get people talking. Obviously Peter Dinklage is now very well known for Game of Thrones and his height is a main part of his character in it. But it was only after I read a comment online after seeing him in X-men Days of Future Past that I realised that his height wasn't in fact referred to at any point during the movie. My point is that this should be the case for people with facial disfigurements on screen, unless it is a major part of their character then it shouldn't be referred to. They don't need to make a big deal about it.

Thanks for reading.

*Just want to clarify that I originally used the word deformity when I wrote this blog and you can probably still see it on the links I posted. I didn't realise that some people may not like that word and obviously I don't want to offend anyone. So apologies for that.

Doctor Who 50th anniversary and beyond

Well I think the last time I talked about Doctor Who I talked about Season 7, since then we've had the 50th Anniversary special, Matt Smith's final episode and series 8 featuring Peter Capaldi as the newly regenerated Doctor. Starting with the 50th which had three special shows. The first I will talk about is An Adventure in Space and Time. This was a TV movie about how Doctor Who first started and about William Hartnell who played the first Doctor. Now I must admit I've only seen a few clips of classic Doctor Who never mind of the first Doctor but that said it was very interesting to see how it all started. David Bradley does a good job portraying William Hartnell, although his voice is obviously different.

Next up, the main event the Day of the Doctor., the 50th anniversary special. There was a lot of hype built up for this, a lot of expectation, there was also controversy when the first trailer was exclusively shown at San Diego comic con and not put online after. We did eventually get a proper trailer which raised hype levels even more. There was also the great surprise of a mini-prequel episode called Night of the Doctor, unfortunately the surprise twist in it was probably spoilt for most people like it was for me but it was still great. The day of the doctor itself ended up being a major event being shown world wide at the same time both on tv and in cinemas. I personally stayed at home and watched it on tv with my parents. If I had to review it one word I would say brilliant!  I won't spoil anything but I will say it manages to be both epic but with a surprisingly simple story, it has lots of great individual moments, many references, for the fans of classic Doctor Who certain tropes of modern Doctors are poked fun at and there are some great surprises as well. Its hard not to wonder though since Steven Moffat (showrunner/head writer) claims they did the 3D on a 2D budget, whether or not it could have been longer and or/even more epic if they had just scrapped the 3D in the first place which in my opinion is a bit of a gimmick anyway. Also I cannot express how disappointed I am that Christopher Eccleston did not make even a cameo appearance, no matter how he feels about his time on the show he should have done it for the fans.

Finally the third and smallest part of the 50th anniversary specials was a bit of a nice surprise. It is called the five(ish) doctors reboot and was written by Peter Davison aka the fifth doctor. It is a comedy about the classic era Doctor Who actors attempting to be a part of the 50th anniversary episode. It focuses on Peter himself, Colin Baker who played the sixth doctor and Slyvestor McCoy who played the seventh Doctor. It also features appearances from a whole load of people involved in Doctor Who currently or in the past as well as some other special cameos. Overall it is very funny so kudos for the BBC for making it part of the 50th anniversary when originally it was just a fan project by Peter Davison.

Now onto Matt Smith's final episode, The Time of the Doctor which aired on Christmas day 2014. Unlike David Tennant who got a double episode send-off, this was just a 60 minute special. It's been a while since I've watched but I can remember feeling a bit disappointed by it. It had a lot of great ideas, some of which could have been the plot of episodes themselves (for example a town where nobody can lie) as well as some great acting especially from Matt Smith but it felt too rushed. It had the main plot of the episode, the introduction of Clara's family (which didn't add anything to the episode and we never saw them again apart from the gran in the season 8 finale) as well as the wrapping up of plot lines from way back when Matt first started as the Doctor. My family ended up watching it with me and it was rather awkward because despite the fact that it was a Christmas special which generally attracts more viewers than who would normally watch it, it relied on you being up to speed on the whole of Matt's time as the Doctor. It was also confusing for established fans with the introduction of this new important character who the Doctor knew very well and who seemed awfully like another main character in the show but apparently wasn't, we've still not gotten an explanation who she really was. It was disappointing to see so many plot lines answered quickly after so much build-up though in fairness you wonder if Matt was expected to do another season before he ended up getting movie offers and deciding to leave the show.At least Matt's final scene as the Doctor was great, much better than David Tennant's whining.

As for season 8...well I have to say that I'm envious of the people's who's comments I read saying that its the best season of modern Doctor Who yet and that Capaldi is an amazing Doctor because that's certainly not how I felt. I should clarify that I'm not bashing Doctor Who for the fun of it, I'm a big fan of Doctor Who, I've been watching it since 2005, I watch a lot of different tv shows and it has been one of my favourites over all these years. I should start with the positives, they've made some positive changes this season, its less rushed, they've toned down the music and there has been less use of the sonic screwdriver to save the day. Now for the negatives, firstly this season they have seemingly forgotten how to show us things, instead we are just told things HE IS THE DOCTOR, Clara is a CONTROL FREAK, Vastra and Jenny are MARRIED, two characters ARE IN LOVE etc. We get Daleks again after having only one episode between the 50th anniversary and Time of the Doctor which both featured them..Endings of episodes which ended up just being stupid or rushed. Major plot holes. A nasty unlikeable Doctor. Way too much focus on Clara. It tried to be too sentimental at times which just didn't work. And finally I feel I should highlight Kill the Moon, a promising episode which turned into the most annoyingly stupid episode of Doctor Who. I simply cannot understand why the writers made some of the decisions they did and its the one episode I did not go back and watch again because it annoyed me so much. I feel I should say that whilst I have been very negative I did watch every episode. The christmas special was fine not bad but not amazing either.

I'd also like to add, after all the praise the new costume got, he rarely wore the flipping thing!

In conclusion I think there needs to be change, Steven Moffat is great at writing individual episodes which is evidenced in the fact that he has written the majority of the best modern Dr. Who episodes whenever Russel T. Davies was in charge. The problem is that whilst the quality of the production, the effects etc. has increased season after season the writing hasn't. I think I didn't mind the not so great season 6 and the decent but not amazing season 7 because it all seemed to be leading up to something but then The Time of the Doctor happened and it was a bit of a waste. The problem is that Moffat seems to want to have his cake and eat it, he has so many ideas but instead of focusing on one or two of them he uses all of them and it doesn't make great results.Filming has already started on season 9 so its too late to change now but I really hope after this season they bring in someone who is respectful and a fan of the show but who brings new ideas and takes the show in an exciting new direction.

Let's face it no matter what happens I will probably keep watching anyway.

My looks do not define me-Part 5

Hello, again sorry for the lack of updates I do have ideas for stuff to write about but actually sitting down and writing has proved difficult recently. I thought it was a good while since I did one of these features, so this time I'm going to talk about my love of reading. My parents love to read and so that was passed on to me any my brother. Whilst I don't read as much as I used to due to my unhealthy habit of going on my laptop rather than reading before bed I still enjoy it. I've started reading on the train in the morning and going home in the evening rather than just sitting listening to music. My parents got me a kindle for Christmas which is pretty great but I still like physical books as well.

I don't really have a favourite genre of book, I like fantasy, sci-fi, action, detective stories and stories about the law (John Grisham, Scott Turrow etc.) among others. I still read young adult stories and I don't think they should be looked down on. It did depress me whenever the Twilight craze was at its peak and you would look at the young adult/teenage section only to see it filled with Twilight clones. Though now it seems to have moved on to  future dystopias such as the Hunger Games and the Divergent series. Though if it means that people are reading then that's  a good thing.

Of course on the other hand you have the catch 22 that many of these series are being turned into big budget movies, on one hand that may mean that people go back and read the books, on the other hand they might just decide to watch the movies. As much as I enjoyed movies such as the Harry Potter ones, the first Hunger Games (haven't seen the others yet), I think they do miss some of the things that make the books so good for example being able to read character's thoughts, not to mention the fact that they are not limited by budget or poor cgi/effects. Also the movies do sometimes make changes to the source material, some good, some not so good, I didn't get one change made to the end of the final Harry Potter movie compared to what happened in the book.

If you asked me to name my favourite books I would find it very difficult as I have read so many. Obviously I've already mentioned the Harry Potter series, there's also the Chaos Walking trilogy by Patrick Ness (starting with Monsters of Men) which is a young adult series that I really enjoyed and I plan to go back and read along with the His Dark Materials series by Philip Pullman. Dexter is probably known by most people as a tv show but it is based off a book.which is part of it's own series. The books and tv show each have different story lines so you do not need one to enjoy the other. I'm reading the latest book at the moment which I'm enjoying. Ender's Game is a book I really enjoyed but its sequels are very different, I enjoyed Speaker for the dead, the third book Xenocide is good but gets bogged down in hypothetical and theoretical physics at times, the final book in the Ender saga is in my pile of books to read. As for my favourite author if it's anyone it would probably be Colin Bateman if only for his writing really appealing to my sense of humour.


Thanks for reading

This is actually smaller than the pile of books I have to read

Christmas Update

Hello, first of all I want to apologise for the lack of updates, I have had some ideas for things to write about but to be honest I haven't really been in the mood. I've been working away at my PhD since the last update, I think I've settled in a bit better and I'm now a bit more confident about what I'm doing. It was quite a short semester so after Christmas the real work begins including lab work, planning field work, carrying out field work to collect samples as well as continuing to do lots of reading and working on my thesis. Before finishing for Christmas I had to do a presentation (as did all the other first year PhD students) on my project and the work I had done so far. It was to be 10 minutes long with questions afterwards. I have to admit I was rather nervous but I think overall it went well despite rushing slightly at the end and maybe asking too many rhetorical questions" What is the problem? what is the current plan? what am I doing? etc." My friend said that I seemed much more relaxed than in my project presentation in the final year of my degree which is a good thing, I was also able to answer the questions that people asked me.

Another reason for my lack of updates is that the last few weeks have been rather busy with the PhD presentation, I went to see both Kasabian (amazing) and Embrace (decent) live as well as attending a gig organised by my brother for his website featuring three local bands. I also attended a Christmas party for PhD students and staff members as well as catching up with one of my friends who I haven't seen for a while. I've got one more night out with people from my lab to go to which I'm looking forward to as well as Christmas itself with a chance to relax without having to worry about work.

Merry Christmas and thanks for reading.

Superhero Madness-Part 3

There has been some pretty big news in terms of movies lately but first I want to talk about TV shows. First Agents of SHIELD, I wasn't fussed on it at the start but thankfully as it has gone on it has improved. That said it still could be better, the problem is that it is part of the Marvel universe on a TV show budget so even though it ties in with the Winter Soldier for example (unlucky for anyone who hadn't seen it before watching the show) it feels a bit disjointed and limited. That said the first two episodes of season 2 have been much improved, they've made some tweaks in terms of characters, there has been some pretty cool effects, a cool bad guy and interesting plots and mysteries set up. They have teased some pretty cool things since the start of season 1, it will just be interesting to see how they all pay off. 

Arrow season 2 continued the progress of the second half of season 1 to be great, managing to balance numerous plot lines with great acting and great fight scenes not to mention a great villain. Stephen Amell deserves special praise for successfully portraying three characters, Oliver in the present, Oliver in the flashbacks as well as the Arrow. The writers also deserve praise for not going down cliche routes, there have been a number of times over the course of the show when I've expected something cliche to happen only for them to do something better or unexpected. My only criticism of season 2 is that at times it felt like there were maybe too many characters and some were being neglected as a result but that has improved as the season went on. The first episode of season 3 was good although it had to fit a lot in.

The first episode of the Flash (which is in the same tv universe as Arrow) was good, I like Grant Gustin as Barry, hopefully the side characters will be more developed as the show goes on. The special effects are decent but obviously not as good as a high budget movie. My only criticism is that it packs a lot in so it seems a bit rushed but its good to get the origin out of the way and the tease at the end of the episode is very interesting indeed.

If three superhero shows a week wasn't enough we also have Gotham (and Constantine though I haven't watched it yet and its only available on amazon instant in the UK). To be honest I was very skeptical about this show, a Batman prequel, not connected to the Arrowverse nor a prequel to Ben Affleck's Batman, not to mention hearing about all the villains that were apparently going to show up before Batman even existed. That said I've quite enjoyed watching it so far, its not amazing or anything. It could do with being a bit more subtle for one thing (yes we get it Bruce will one day become Batman, Selina will become Catwoman etc.) but it is a decent start and it will be interesting to see if it improves with time. 

Where's Jim's moustache?

I also want to praise two animated shows, Young Justice and Spectacular Spider-man, two great shows that were cancelled after their second seasons for stupid reasons and from what I've seen are miles better than the current Marvel and DC cartoons. Spectacular Spider-man although it looks a bit childish is actually a very good modern take on the Spider-man story. It was cancelled because the animated rights reverted back to Marvel from Sony who replaced it with the awful Ultimate Spider-man which is nothing like the comic of the same name. Young Justice is set in a world where the Justice League have been around for quite a while and are well established. The show focuses on a group of sidekicks who are not ready to join the League yet but who want to form their own team and go on missions. Do not let the fact that the show is focused on a team of sidekicks dissuade you from watching it as it is amazing. There is great action, drama, tragedy, comedy, there are appearances from a vast range of DC characters both good and bad, there are androids, aliens, clones, betrayals, double agents and time travel, not to mention strong female characters which made the show popular with girls as well. Apparently they base a show's success on toy sales and apparently girls don't buy toys, and this was one of the reasons they cancelled it, it wasn't the fact that they put it on at weird times, had large gaps between episodes or that the toys/merchandise for the show was mostly rubbish. There have been social media campaigns to bring it back but it doesn't look likely we will get a third and final season, the writers must have thought they would since the final episode of season 2 sets up the story for a third season. I still highly recommend it though and I hope even if it does remain cancelled that they take inspiration from it for their movie universe as it does so many things very well.

How was this replaced by Teen Titans Go?!