robwoolford.com

We’re looking at a potential film of the year here. Blades of Glory didn’t quite have the same feel as Anchorman or Talladega Nights but it looks like Will Ferrell will get it spot on again with this film. Long story short, he plays Jackie Moon who is a player, coach and owner of a Basketball franchise, yet he can’t play basketball. Check the trailer, if you enjoyed Anchorman in any way shape or form you will probably enjoy this too!

Just found this geeky little gadget. Not available yet, the e-paper snap bracelet is a concept currently under production. Once fitted upon your wrist it acts like a watch and displays the time and date. However, if you take it off and unroll it, it becomes a fully functional video player. The bracelet won’t require batteries or charging as it will work off of kinetic energy. I like the idea but to be honest, the price tag will be through the roof… and it’s incredibly nerdy.

Today I’m 21 years old.

I’m not sure how I’m supposed to feel about 21.

I don’t feel any older.

I still feel about 18 inside.

Although, with that being said, I should probably have done all the crazy shit I wanted to do in my adolescence by now. Like getting arrested for being drunk and disorderly. Or being so wasted for a whole week that I can only remember a day or two of it. Or maybe sleeping through an entire 24 hours. You know, the stupid shit like that that you can’t get away with now you’re post 20.

But that was the case when I turned 20 I guess.

I can legally drink in America now.

But I can’t get to America, so why does that matter?

Long gone are the days where I turn 16 and I’m able to buy cigarettes, or operate a gas-powered lawn mower. Oh no. Those days are behind me.

Oh well. University will be done this year and then I can earn some fucking money.

Forgive the goofy face. Some things will never change.

… who surpassed my sister’s present by bringing an Xbox 360 into my life.

Oh. my. word.

Xbox 360 and Mein Kampf in the same day? You gotta be kidding me!

Gamer tag is mr woolford for anybody that wants it at NBA, Madden or Pro Evo.

… are the ones you weren’t expecting.

I think we were all shocked last week at the death of Heath Ledger. A lot of people have wrote about it, or passed on some gossip they heard, well I’m not going to do any of that. Instead, I’m going to share this little article I found on NewsWeek.com courtesy of Christopher Nolan, the director of the forthcoming Batman film The Dark Knight.

Heath Ledger, 28, Actor

Best known for his haunting, Oscar-nominated performance as Ennis Del Mar, one of the gay cowboys in 2005 ‘ s “Brokeback Mountain,“ Ledger was a massive young talent on the cusp of greatness when he died last week in New York. The native Australian, who is survived by his 2-year-old daughter, Matilda, had recently finished work on this summer‘s “Batman“ sequel, “The Dark Knight,“ in which he plays a villain, the Joker. Christopher Nolan, the film‘s director, shared these memories:

One night, as I’m standing on LaSalle Street in Chicago, trying to line up a shot for “The Dark Knight,” a production assistant skateboards into my line of sight. Silently, I curse the moment that Heath first skated onto our set in full character makeup. I’d fretted about the reaction of Batman fans to a skateboarding Joker, but the actual result was a proliferation of skateboards among the younger crew members. If you’d asked those kids why they had chosen to bring their boards to work, they would have answered honestly that they didn’t know. That’s real charisma—as invisible and natural as gravity. That’s what Heath had.

Heath was bursting with creativity. It was in his every gesture. He once told me that he liked to wait between jobs until he was creatively hungry. Until he needed it again. He brought that attitude to our set every day. There aren’t many actors who can make you feel ashamed of how often you complain about doing the best job in the world. Heath was one of them.

One time he and another actor were shooting a complex scene. We had two days to shoot it, and at the end of the first day, they’d really found something and Heath was worried that he might not have it if we stopped. He wanted to carry on and finish. It’s tough to ask the crew to work late when we all know there’s plenty of time to finish the next day. But everyone seemed to understand that Heath had something special and that we had to capture it before it disappeared. Months later, I learned that as Heath left the set that night, he quietly thanked each crew member for working late. Quietly. Not trying to make a point, just grateful for the chance to create that they’d given him.

Those nights on the streets of Chicago were filled with stunts. These can be boring times for an actor, but Heath was fascinated, eagerly accepting our invitation to ride in the camera car as we chased vehicles through movie traffic—not just for the thrill ride, but to be a part of it. Of everything. He’d brought his laptop along in the car, and we had a high-speed screening of two of his works-in-progress: short films he’d made that were exciting and haunting. Their exuberance made me feel jaded and leaden. I’ve never felt as old as I did watching Heath explore his talents. That night I made him an offer—knowing he wouldn’t take me up on it—that he should feel free to come by the set when he had a night off so he could see what we were up to.

When you get into the edit suite after shooting a movie, you feel a responsibility to an actor who has trusted you, and Heath gave us everything. As we started my cut, I would wonder about each take we chose, each trim we made. I would visualize the screening where we’d have to show him the finished film—sitting three or four rows behind him, watching the movements of his head for clues to what he was thinking about what we’d done with all that he’d given us. Now that screening will never be real. I see him every day in my edit suite. I study his face, his voice. And I miss him terribly.

Back on LaSalle Street, I turn to my assistant director and I tell him to clear the skateboarding kid out of my line of sight when I realize—it’s Heath, woolly hat pulled low over his eyes, here on his night off to take me up on my offer. I can’t help but smile.

R.I.P. Mr Ledger.

Well that was fun.

I’ve just got back to Sunderland with my friends from university. As part of my birthday week I took them down to York for a night out. I’ve talked about doing it for the past three years but we finally got round to doing it. I think it’s fair to say they all had a good time. What I enjoyed most of all was that my friends from home came out too, meaning I had my closest friends from Sunderland and my favourite people from back home in the same room. That was kind of weird in a way, and I was a little nervous as to whether they’d mix well, because if that flopped then I’d be hosting two separate parties in one room – and nobody wants that. But it was brilliant. In fact, it didn’t last long enough.

York is a good night out if you’ve never done it before. York, in general, is a lovely city, and the nightlife follows suit. It’s not sleezey or seedy, the people won’t bother you and everything is pretty close together. Unfortunately, there’s only really one place to end your night out… well, some would disagree… but there’s only one big club in York, The Gallery. A narrow club with like two/three levels, The Gallery is the only place to end a night out in York if you want to be in a nightclub. I’ve been a regular visitor for nearly 5 years now, and in no way is that depressing. Unfortunately my uni friends didn’t get to see The Gallery this time because the queues to get in are nothing short of horrendous. On the bright side, it means they’ve got a reason to come back to York, and it’s also good because I kind of expected them to be disappointed by The Gallery’s rather banal character. But it would have been nice to show the lads the club that I’ve frequented to since I was 17.

We did get to do all the other usual spots though. Wetherspoons, Varsity and Revolution are all places that I would recommend to anybody visiting York for a night out. And of course, Old Orleans. Old Orleans is always our last port of call before The Gallery. A great shots bar, and they make mean cocktails too. If you’ve an Old Orleans near you I’d recommend the Flatliner shot, which I believe is now known as a Spicy Mexican. A measure of Sambuca, a measure of Vodka and all the tobasco sauce that you can deal with. I sunk two last night and my mouth felt like fire. Other drinking spots were visited too, but are nothing special. The lads all seemed to have a good time, and my friends from back home always enjoy our usual route.

Next week I’ll be doing the opposite… bringing my friends from York up to Newcastle/Sunderland for a night out. The Gate, Sam Jacks, Tiger Tiger – yes please!

Taken from GameSpot:

One of the most anticipated games of 2008 has been given a firm release date. Rockstar Games has issued a statement saying that Rockstar North’s Grand Theft Auto IV will be released simultaneously for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 worldwide on April 29. A release date of April 25 had previously been rumoured for the UK, though some leaks of US retail materials pointed to a March release. It had originally been set for an October 2007 release, and its shock delay to 2008 was blamed on the “time-intensive nature” of dual-platform development.

The latest iteration of the series follows the adventures of Eastern European immigrant Nikolai Bellic as he searches Liberty City for an as-yet-unnamed person from his past. The release, which some analysts see as having the potential to outsell Halo 3, could provide a major boost for Rockstar parent company Take-Two Interactive, which has struggled financially over recent quarters.

Shit. That’s the same day as the mrs’ birthday. Perhaps she’d like to watch me play it as a birthday present. I’ll put that idea forward and see what happens.

(Click on the pics for a bigger picture)

The RR house in Sao Paulo by the Brazilian Andrade Morettin Arquitetos lies close to the sea in a humid climate surrounded with thick vegetation.

It’s a 220 square meter house surrounded by greenery. Hammocks hang throughout the house. One neat thing about the house is that it is made of a combination of full-height wooden and glass opening screens which allow the compartments to become part of the main double-height living area, six meters high, which in turn can be opened up to the outside world.

Stylish. as. fuck.

It’s 3PM here and I’m absolutely shattered. Why? Well for the second time in a week I’ve pulled an all-nighter with uni work. January hasn’t been kind to me this year, as over half my degree has been decided in this month alone. But it’s all done now. Two essays, a live radio assessment, a website with 2 hours worth of podcasts and a 37-page radio application have all been handed in in January alone. That’s not including all my dissertation stuff too. So yeah… a lot of work.

But now it’s all handed in. As of today, I have a week off (my birthday week, luckily enough) and then I’m back to uni – for a measly 6 hours a week. To put it into perspective, each university year is made up of 120 credits. In my course, each module you do is made up of 20 credits, and I’ve been doing 80 credits worth of work between September and January. However now, between February and the end of University, I have only two 10 credit modules. Compare this to three 20 credit modules I was doing last semester. To shorten this story, I have so much free time on my hands now that I don’t even know what to do with it all.

Of course, I’m going to be working on my dissertation too, but I had to do that on top of near-30 hours at university last semester. Now I’m going to be doing it on top of six. I’m over the moon. In a sense, uni is almost over – well over half my degree has been handed in now and by the end of Feb I’ll probably have a good idea of my overall grade.

If you’re interested, my dissertation project is a hip hop web radio station which you can find at www.worldhiphop.fm. That’s coming along quite well at the moment, but I can really get a lot done on it now. Also, the web radio/podcast module I’ve just completed I put online at www.robwoolford.com/mac376/ and that’s all to do with travel. Also this semester, I’ve had to write an essay on sexual representation in advertising, a presentation on globalisation, as well as a pretty mammoth and challenging module where my group set up and performed an educational radio station for kids.

I might be singing a different tune in a couple of weeks time when the grades start to roll in, but for now I’m just going to chill the fuck out. And I plan to start that by watching Old School and Team America. Until next time…