Moar? YES PLEASE!!!

I don't really know how well my last Blog post regarding Matt Bellamy's fashion sense went down but I'm sure there a few people who want some more so here it is! (I also quite like this as a break from revision and school and exams and just generally everything that's going on right now)

Matt on a magazine cover in 2001, image from microcuts.net

For my first full blown feature on the fashion sense of this legendary front man I am going all the way back to 2001, a full 10 years ago. It's funny how it wasn't that long ago that I though that 2001 wasn't really that much in the past but looking back on it now things, and especially fashion, have really changed. I personally feel I have been doing a lot of looking back recently due to the fact that I am leaving school (which I'll probably expand upon in another post, so you can look forward to that!).

Anyway, here Mr Bellamy is seen wearing a long-sleeved, black top with a round neckline and panels of black netting, or tulle for us "textile nerds "( I do hope this counts as revision!), in the sleeves. He teams this with the standard red spiked hair of the Origin of Symmetry era, which ladies I think we can all agree was the best era for hairstyles! This top particularly reminds me of the early naughties because it was around this time that me and my friends were starting to rebel against our parents clothing choices for us, well as much as you can when you're 8. Being a goth seemed cool back then and I particularly remember my friend having a top similar to this one, which I loved. The closest I got was a black and green striped top with safety pins and skulls. Oh well, maybe there'll be a goth revival and I can finally get my chance to wear some netted sleeves. 

Hmm, this has turned into more of a nostalgia fest than I intended. On a completely opposite note, I received a letter from Ravensbourne today with some very exciting news! It had the dates of some pre-September events for future events and the starting dates for the new term. Unfortunately, due to my Japanese exam, I can't attend one of these events and the first day is a week earlier than I thought it was. This makes it an extremely close shave with Reading; I start the morning after Muse, which will not be fun. Getting off a train after four days in a tent with barely a shower is not exactly the first impression I was hoping to make...

Lyric of the Day: "When I saw you last night I wanted to say run away with me...but all I could say was 'Hey'" - Mercury, Bloc Party    

Riddle Me This, Textilenerd

Exactly a month today, as any A level textiles student will know, the A2 textiles exam will take place. This would fill me with joy as it is also my last exam, if it weren't for the fact that we have not been taught any of the syllabus. It's a very long story as to why which I can't be bothered to go into right now. Anyway, one lesson a few weeks ago I humored my textiles teacher by pointing out to her that we had missed one part of the syllabus out. Here's where the problems begin, and the main reason we haven't learned anything this year; the AQA GCE Textiles Unit 3 does not have a textbook (why? God knows...) and our teacher doesn't actually know anything about A Level Textiles. This meant that she had to trawl google for source materials for the topics, this particular one was global and cultural woven traditions. 

Whilst doing this she came across an "A2 Textiles Revision Site" called "Textilenerd". (She felt the need to point this out to me in front of the entire class, sparking laughter from my friends. My own teacher calling me a textile nerd?) This instantly caught my attention as since there was no revision book, perhaps a revision website would actually be useful. However, when I looked at this so called "revision site" I found it was a fellow blog. Now it would be hypocritical of me to abuse a blog but the particular post that our teacher had printed for us simply copied out AQA's specification for textiles. I could have read that myself. 

I was intrigued and when I got home I looked at the blog in more detail. From what I could see the posts were mainly a collection of websites with useful sources to learn from. This is fair enough, but that is what our teacher had already been doing, rather unsuccessfully, for us. What we were searching for was something more concrete to revise from. As good as the internet is, there is something slightly untrustworthy, and certainly unreliable, about it. Call me old fashioned, but the only dependable way to revise is from a book, especially an exam board approved book - which is frankly the only way I can be given peace of mind when learning. But there lies the issue: AQA has no approved textbook! So where else does one look?

The mark schemes provided by AQA are quite possible the vaguest things I have ever seen. The average "answer" given goes like this:

Limited description and poor quality answer 0- 4 marks
Reasonable description and a quality answer 5 - 7 marks
Detailed description and an excellent answer. 8 - 12 marks

WELL NO SH*T SHERLOCK! This kind of thing in a mark scheme would be tolerable if it came accompanied with an actually answer to the question, which in some cases is given but at an extremely basic level which if you were to write you would probably get 1 or no marks. This means there are virtually no resources to refer to when revising for this near impossible exam. No wonder over 50% of candidates get C's and D's.  

So it appears that it is not only my teacher who is poorly equipped to teach a lesson; AQA need to learn a few things about writing an A Level. God help us all. 

Lyric of the Day: "They're gonna clean up your looks with all the lies in the books, to make a citizen out of you" - Teenagers, My Chemical Romance

    

Remember many moons ago when I was talking about my art coursework final piece? (the recycled materials dress) Well you'll never believe it but I actually finished it this week! And after having spent the best part of the last two weeks in an art lock down my sketchbooks are actually finished as well it seems! It's a miracle! Well here is the final product:

The front view

The back view

In other fashion news I had a rather serious "wardrobe malfunction" today. It happened just as I was getting into the car to go to school, which I suppose was a good thing, it would have been beyond bad if it happened AT school. Basically my skirt hitched up as I was getting in to the car but I ignored that and proceeded to stretch my leg in to the car but as I did the entire back seam of my skirt ripped all the way up! There was barely a thread holding it together at the top! I assumed I must have imagined the massive ripping sound but when I went to check sure enough my entire backside was on display. Luckily my Dad very kindly drove me to my Mum's house where I picked up my other skirt and I got to school earlier than I do on most mornings which was rather strange. All's well that ends well.

Lyric of the Day: "Anticipation has a habit to set you up" - The View From The Afternoon, Arctic Monkeys

Oh procastination, you temptress!

Matt Bellamy: front man of rock Gods Muse, four time winner of NME's sexiest man in music, nominated for both best and worst dressed at the NME Awards, the male Lady Gaga?!? (well, maybe not that extreme) Over the past 12 years his fashion sense has certainly changed a lot, for better or worse though, is debatable. He has been known to wear such fashion atrocities as a feathered coat,  a Hawaiian shirt and flashing LED glasses, to name a few. His onstage outfits alone are worthy of their own blog. Incidentally I did wonder if someone had done this before, because if not there would surely be a gap in the market for one! Turns out there is: http://wtfismattbellamywearing.tumblr.com/ It's not quite what I had in mind, but it's a fashion blog of sorts I suppose. Well, if this post goes down well I may make a weekly (or whenever I can) feature of analysing the many fashion disasters, and the few successes, of Mr Bellamy.

Muse in 1996, oh the simplicity of the 90's!

Matt Bellamy performing at Wembley Stadium, September 2010, showing his love of glitter, donning a mirrored suit with his (late) Glitterati guitar (image from www.muse.mu)

You may have gathered by now that my lifetime ambition is to become a fashion designer. You may also have gathered that I am a massive Muser. What few people know is that one of my other ambitions is to design suits for Matt Bellamy to wear on stage. (or any of my garments to be honest, I'd be happy if he wore a scarf I designed!) What no one knows, I think, unless I have actually told people and my memory is failing on me yet again, is that I once had a dream that I won an award for a suit I designed for Matt Bellamy and I walked onstage to collect it with him and after wards him and the rest of Muse performed Uprising. Some, namely my sibling, may laugh but someone has to design his clothes right? So watch out, my designs could very well be coming to a stadium near you soon!  

Lyric of the Day: "Fashion! Put it all on me! Don't you wanna see these clothes on me?" - Fashion, Lady Gaga

I'm On The Edge Of Glory

Radio One's Big Weekend was on this weekend, for anyone who's been living in a cave (or just doesn't listen to Radio One). Obviously, living 300 miles away from Carlisle, I didn't win tickets. Instead I had to settle with watching it on my PC. I spent most of Saturday doing art coursework and it provided the soundtrack, and quite frankly was the only thing getting me through the unbelievable mountain of work I had to do. Can you believe it, those jammy dodgers got Arctic Monkeys as a surprise! They were pretty good (and made me really want to see them live!) but the performance of the weekend was without a doubt Lady Gaga. 

I watched Graham Norton on Friday night (woo! what a life I lead!); this is a rarity for me but Lady Gaga was on so I had to. She never fails to amaze me; who else can pull off dressing like the devil's dalmatian on a chat show? 

You know how sometimes when you watch a performance it just makes you want to get up on a stage and rock it like you own the place? Well Lady Gaga's headline slot on Sunday night was one of these performances. God, why didn't I keep up dancing or practice the piano more so I could do that? Oh well, I'll settle for designing her on-stage outfits. 

Lyric of the Day: "If it weren't this dark you'd see how red my face has gone" - You Probably Couldn't See For The Lights But You Were Staring Straight At Me, Arctic Monkeys

Arty Farty Party... Not

This week I have "finished" my final piece for my exam module in art. The term to "finish" is a loose one when it comes to art, because it is never finished. I could spend my whole life trying to finish my art A-Level and it would never happen. But for now it appears to be completed, how long it will be though is unknown. With the amount of drama going on in the art department recently I could be told to rip it to shreds at any moment, but I won't bore you with that.

This is view one of my, overly complex, final piece. It is meant to be my eye, but very pixelated

View two...I can't even be bothered to start explaining this one

The final view. This one is my personal favourite; it's meant to be of my brother's eye, again in a simplified form

Lyric of the Day: "I'm the candyman....Also known as Dave, Dave from Sheffield" - F**k The Millennium, Scooter

I knew the tranquility and peace of mind of handing in my textiles coursework wouldn't last long; yet again an extremely short deadline has been sprung on me. I now have three weeks exactly to finish ALL of my art; that includes my final piece (both exam and coursework), both of my books, three essays and two exam boards. Bang goes my social life. And, considering all of this work that still needs to be done, what do you think we spent our art lesson today doing? Eating a chocolate bunny and playing wink wink murder. Well, one last moment of relaxation before the art lock down begins- tomorrow. All I can say is roll on the summer!

In other news today was the referendum and local elections and for the first time ever I was able to vote! I did not feel a wave of responsibility or adulthood though. Ironically, the polling station is my old primary school and I haven't been there in about 5 years, despite living 2 minutes around the corner from it. The hall looked quite different to how I remembered, for one it was much smaller, but it would be wouldn't it? I was pleased to see they still had the tile I made up on the wall though!

Lyric of the Day: "She just laughed and said 'Oh you're so funny' I said Yeah? Well I can't see anyone else smiling in here" - Common People, Pulp

I have finally finished my textiles coursework and today I handed it in! Despite the fact that my teacher wasn't even in on this very important deadline day, which really doesn't surprise me as she's never in when it really matters. I didn't realise it would be such a wight off my shoulders! I have had so much coursework recently, what with my art exam as well, that I've been feeling a bit snowed under. Here is my completed top and jacket:

 Speaking of which, today was the last day of my art exam. This doesn't really mean the end though; I now have the evaluation to do and, due to the complexity of my piece I still have to assemble the whole thing. I'll post pictures when it's finally done, which will hopefully be in the next couple of days. It's feeling like gradually, bit by bit, things are getting done. It's not so bad after all!

Lyric of the Day: "We all got old at breakneck speed, slow it down, go easy on me" - Wetsuit, The Vaccines