Thursday morning was probably the best morning I've had in college so far. It was just a really fun lesson. Brian was introducing us to a program called InDesign, a program which I've never used before, shock. It was nice to actually learn something new and Brian always makes the lesson enjoyable. Because no one had ever used the program before and because a few of the people in the class were a bit confused, he was revelling in it. "Oh, I'm gonna love watching you all use this", he said with excitement and you could tell all throughout the lesson that he was really loving the whole teaching experience. It made me feel good too. The class felt alive with questions and comments about the stuff he was saying, it was great. He talked through all but 30 minutes of our lesson. That man rocks.
I showed him my slideshow presentation that I had created a few weeks ago. He liked it, but one of Brian's downsides is that he'd say it was "excellent, mate", to anyone, and even if he didn't like it. It's like a teacher's obligation, isn't it? That they must say your work is good, or at least not say it's bad.
He also asked me about the football card stuff that he had asked me to design. I had assumed that he had already seen it, but he said he hadn't. I told him I'd bring him a CD with it all on the next day.
Stan was waiting outside my class at lunch, which was a welcome surprise. Jamie also showed up a few minutes later and the three of us, along with two of Stan's friends from his course sat in the reception area of the college and talked. Jamie left at about 12:40pm and I went back to lesson at 1pm, as did Stan.
While I was waiting outside the classroom for Daniel to arrive, Bronek saw me. A brief bolt of fear crept in on me, for I knew he knew that I had not been in Tony's lesson on Tuesday.
"Neil", he said, in a stern-but-also-friendly way, "Why weren't you in on Tuesday afternoon?"
I thought quickly, debating whether to come up with a lie or tell the truth. I told the truth.
"Because I find his lesson SO boring."
"But Neil, you must come in for his lesson."
"But it's so boring. I don't do nothing."
"Neil, you must come in for his lesson."
"But..."...I sigh. "Fine."
"If you're so bored in his lesson, ask him for something to do."
"I do! Every lesson! But he always tells me to do my own thing."
"Well if you're that stuck, come and see me and I'll give you some work. But you must attend his lesson from now on."
"Fine."
Blargh. I have nothing against Tony himself, but his lessons are just a waste of my time, because all he does is teach the class tutorials about the basics of Photoshop, which I most certainly already know. I find sitting in his lesson for three hours a waste of my time. I did last year and nothing has changed. But, if I don't attend from now on, I know Bronek will come down heavier on me. Stupid man.
I also had to apologise to Daniel for being absent the past two of his lessons, but he was a lot less arsed about it than I thought he'd be. He simply asked me if I knew the basics of Flash and he listed a few of the things the class had been learning and I said I knew how to do them all, so he left me alone.
We got our first proper brief from him. It is to create a 60 second animation with the theme "The Journey is the Destination". That is to say that the journey to somewhere is more interesting than the destination and therefore we are to make a 60 second animation of that journey, the destination being one of the biennial sites.
The lesson was spent coming up with storyboards. I was a bit blank at first at what I could do, but after about 20 minutes of thinking, I formed a solid idea of what I could do and from there on, I had created the entire animation already in my head without the need to draw it all out first. I had also chosen the music to go with it, but I'm not going to divulge that, because I'll post it here when I'm done and you can see/hear for yourself. Of course, even though I have the idea in my head now, I still have to put it down on paper for the benefit with Daniel and I suppose me in the long term, because anything to do with drawing counts towards my drawing development unit, which is one of the key units over the course of this course.
Friday was fairly boring, especially in the morning, since we were in room 1/13. That room does things to me. It makes me feel crap. Stuffy. Depressed. As I've said before, it's very small, cramped and there are no windows. It's a horrible place to work. It's hard to be creative in there. Because of this, I decided to get out and go do some research in the library for an hour instead. That proved useful, as I did get some good stuff from books and scanned it in.
I returned the the library at lunch as well and continued scanning through till 1pm, where I went back to lesson. The afternoon was taken up by watching music videos by a director named Michel Gondry. I'm sure his name isn't familiar to any of you, but his work will be - He's the guy who made the video to White Stripes - Fell In Love With a Girl, along with Hardest Button to Button. He's also made the videos for Chemical Brothers - Star Guitar, Let Forever Be, Daft Punk - Around The World and Kylie Minogue - Come Into My World to name but a few. In short, This Guy Is Good.
Daniel asked us to make notes on each video we watched. This would count towards our research for the animation we are making. A lot of people thought many of the videos were "weird", as in not particularly appealing. God only knows why, as pretty much every video we watched was great and very much appealing. Should you ever be watching a music video, you might be able to tell it's Gondry's work. He has a habit of using repetition throughout his work. You only have to look at such videos as Hardest Button to Button and Come Into My World to see that. If you haven't seen those videos, you really should.
So that was Friday over and done with. Later on that night, I was doing my nightly rounds of websites. This includes Liverpool08.com, as I like to check up on how Liverpool is moving forward with its regeneration schemes and how it intends to live up to being the Capital of Culture for 2008.
The latest item on there caught my eye. Here's a few excerpts from the news item:
Williamson Square, in the heart of Liverpool City Centre, has been transformed as part of a �5.75m scheme.The new-look Square includes a spectacular new fountain - around which is inscribed a new poem by Roger McGough - and features high-quality granite paving, new seating, lighting and trees. It will be officially opened on Monday 29 November with a spectacular light show and performance by Cirque Bijou. Ten students from St Edward's College will give the first public recital of the poem.
The focus to the Square is the new fountain, which consists of 20 jets of water to produce a double arch of water rising out of the pavements to a maximum height of four metres. The fountain is programmed by its own computer which allows for two spectacular displays every hour with the height of the water varying throughout the day.
At night the fountain will be illuminated by coloured lighting, producing continuously changing patterns. The fountain will operate until about 10.30pm each day when the water will be turned off and replaced by a misting effect.
Surrounding the fountain, inlaid into the granite paving, is a specially written poem, a gift to the city by Roger McGough. The poem, on the theme of water, has been written to be read from any point around the fountain.
It sounded pretty good, so I made a note of it as something I planned to go and see.
Saturday was fairly boring. Sunday, I awoke with a migraine and ended up going back to bed, only to wake up feeling worse and by 9pm, felt like I was on the verge of throwing up due to the nausea that I sometimes get from having a migraine. Not a nice experience.
Today I awoke with an extremely stiff neck, another part of having a migraine. In addition to this, even though I'd had 10 hours sleep, I felt drained of energy and couldn't even find the strength to go and get my hair cut. I felt so tired. I decided to not go and get my hair cut afterall.
I did, however, call Liverpool City Council to find out what time the fountain would be opening and I found out it was at 6:20pm. I went back to bed for an hour at about 4pm, but didn't sleep, but it did help me feel a bit more awake, enough to get up and go to the opening of the fountain.
I walked to where I knew the fountain was and I could hear music playing as I got closer to it, specifically, Massive Attack - Teardrop. As I turned the corner, I could see glowing red and blue lights and as I got nearer to the cordoned off area, I then saw the amazing spectacle which was the new fountain, along with people who were performing in and by it. Yes, they were running through the fountain, at 6:30pm when it can't of been more than 5 degrees celsius.
But my god, this fountain looks amazing. Sadly, I missed most of the performance, but once the bulk of the people had faded away, I managed to get to the front of the cordoned off area to see the fountain properly. It's such a beautiful sight.
And of course, I most certainly took pictures. You can see all 11 in the picture archive, but the only one you need to see right now to realise how cool it looks is this one.
How beautiful is that?
Liverpool isn't used to such beauty. That's what this whole rengeneration scheme is about. Bringing Liverpool into the new Millennium, as it's long overdue. This fountain is a good way to start. I just hope that it doesn't get vandalised, as it's completely open. That is to say, anyone can freely run right through it, which means that it's quite easy, I'm sure, for someone to ruin it, which is a shame. I hope it doesn't happen.
The fountain doesn't seem to of gotten that much publicity really. I mean, there wasn't that many people at the opening. I thought there'd be more. Plus I think it was quite strange to open it of a Monday, at 6:20pm, when all the shops in town close at 5pm, which means town is pretty much empty by then. What would of been a better idea is if they had opened it on Thursday, as town remains open till late on Thursdays and it would of got more publicity. However, I'm pleased to be able to say that I was there to see it being opened and will no doubt be one of the only people who know anything about it in college so they'll definitely be seeing the pics I've taken.
Time for bed.
