Premium Netflix

So I’ve been a subscriber for Netflix for a few years now, I get my money’s worth as I have both my parents and a couple of friends using my details to watch it when they want. Also having a 4k subscription means I get the sharpest picture. Now recently I read that there was talks about a premium service that could go into effect within the next couple of years, and what this extra service would be is simple. Subscribers would be able to stream the latest movies out in the cinema in their country as soon as it was released in the cinema. Now I used to have a Cineworld card, when I was dating my ex, we went to the movies very often, I also used to go a lot with my brother and friends. But as time when on, and the price increased, then ultimately Cineworld started adding in the like of the super screen and 4dx and charging a premium for these services. It just seemed like I was paying more and more for this card. When I realise that if I went at least twice a month I was saving money. The past year or so, I’ve been going to the cinema less and less. Mainly due to saving money. I cancelled the Cineworld card a good while back due to lack of use. Truthfully, I don’t regret it at all. I feel if Netflix done this premium service I would be upping the price for access to these movies if the pricing was on par to that of a Cineworld card. As I could stream these movies at any time I wanted, watch it as many times as I wanted, all from the comfort of my own home. Granted im inclined to do this mainly due to having a 65” 4k tv to enjoy a miniature cinema experience. Though I remember growing up going to the cinema very infrequently and it made it a special time being treated to it via my older brother, or my parents. And I still have great memories of it, I still go, but now I save it for a movie I know I would regret seeing on the big screen, like the recent Avengers infinity wars. But when I can also catch older movies such as the thing, on a small independent local cinema, I would choose the latter as it is a movie id be dying to see on the big screen since I was a kid. To date I have managed to see Akira twice on the big screen, once with my older brother and once with a pal of mine. Both times I was glued to the screen. Massive child like smile stuck across my face. To me those experiences are defiantly money well spent. But when you get a card that you pay for every month, you start to feel the need to justify going every month. And it becomes more of a chore than anything. I mean I really made my money’s worth at times like when batman vs superman was out in the cinema, seen that 4 times on the big screen, no fucks where given (just by the time I seen it a second time I knew what bits I could sleep through so as not to miss anything amazing). If Netflix done this new service, it would be a massive leap forward for the home entertainment industry. I do have a fear that it might kill the cinema though. Which would break my heart as a movie fan. But it might also encourage more independent cinemas to start popping up and show older movies. There is a lot of pro’s and cons. But ultimately, if I can stream the latest movies in 4k at home on a 65” tv, I really don’t give a fuck!

Media entertainment

I want to talk about the amazing world of entertainment we can access currently. As a kid my dad and older brother got me watching some amazing classic movies like ghostbusters and back to the future, and many more. I am always thankful for that, but also the encouragement for other forms of media entertainments. From video games, board games, games played with toys and figures, cartoons. I remember one of my first introductions to something similar but vastly different to what I had experienced up to this point. That was anime, dragon ball z to be specific. It looked cool and interesting, growing up, of course I wanted to be a Saiyan. I fell in love with the art and animation, before that the greatest animated series I had seen was the batman animated series, which was dark and gritty (which I still love with all my heart to this day) now here was DBZ being all dark and gritty and action packed, I don’t remember the long drawn out episodes where literally all that happened was the characters screaming at each other while charging their attacks. I just remember the nonstop action and story.

Then, I was introduced to the next level. My main intro to the world of anime and everything outside of western entertainment. My brother had rented Akira on VHS, this shows how long ago this was, he told me how great it was, he simply got it and handed it to me and told me to watch it. At this point me and my brother still shared a bedroom, he told me to wait till I was alone to watch it, I at first thought it was because it was scary somehow, as I was shown a lot of horror movies by this point, so I was excited. I wasn’t told anything about the plot, just that I had to watch it. And when I did, it blew my prepubescent little mind. The art style, the plot, the story, and that gorgeous bike of Kaneda’s. everything about that movie was just perfect to me, as such it became my favourite movie for a long ass time. Then slowly my brother introduced me to more and more anime movies and shows, some we rented some he found a copy to download. I soaked up each bit. When there was a new anime being shown on cartoon networks Toonami I was there, every day it was on, reruns and all. I watched everything from DBZ to sailor moon to Tenchi Muyo. For me no anime was off limits, nothing too cheesy for me to watch. This thankfully introduced me to one of my favourite shows called Outlaw Star, and to this day is still one of my all-time favourites. Though this appeared more in my teenage years, I would stay up late as it was shown at 4am every Saturday, so I would wait for my dad to pass out from drinking, sneak through to the living room and sit and watch the episodes with fascination. Now in my mid teenage years my brother again introduced me to something new, and that was Asian movies. He started off with one of my favourites. Old boy, this story was just mind blowing. Twisted doesn’t do this movies justice. Then there were the likes of battle royal, the good the bad and the weird. And all sorts of other movies. Some action some horror, all amazing. This just opened another whole world for me. Growing up I started to get into everything I could. Manga, anime, subtitled movies. Not limited to just the Asian market but all over. In school we were forced to watch a movie called the choir, I was never a massive fan of learning French, that was just my preference, but after watching this movie, it really did make me realise I shouldn’t knock back a language/culture that can make a movie like the choir. All this growing up just made me realise how little my world was before in terms of entertainment. As I’ve grew up I seek out all sorts, thrillers, horrors and even romance stories, if it’s well written and acted I know I’ll enjoy it. An amazing example of this is an anime called Clannad. This anime is based off a virtual novel game. The anime though is just fantastic. The art is great, but the story is just mind blowing. As its based off a virtual novel, its essentially a dating same story, the main character learns about the girls back stories and ultimately chooses one of them. But the “ending” to it just broke me, the art, the voice acting, the music. All of it just collected into a giant ball of feelings that was just amazing.

Now with all that lovely background out of the way, the main reason I am writing this blog is because I feel people choose to purposefully ignore parts of it due to complete ignorance. A good example is my dad, he loves movies, but he refuses to watch a subtitled movie, me and my brother have told him time and time again about the movies we have watched, we tell him the stories and he seems genuinely excited but as soon as we mention its subtitled he just ignores it. I feel this is a shame as people miss out in some amazing stories. Same goes with video games, I feel like these are some of the best outlets to tell amazing stories such as the persona series or the mass effect series of games. There is a massive list of truly great games to list. The same can be said for everything, movies, books, comics. Hell, even music, the second you say you hate a certain type of music is when I think people are just being ignorant. Without exploring and listening to all sorts of music you can’t say you truly experience that to its fullest. My main interest in music is classical and rock. But I don’t limit myself to it at all, I love tons of music from the 80’s and everything from pop to power ballads. Hell, I’ve seen nickel back live 3 times now and loved it each time, I’ve even been to video games live where they play music pieces from video games with an orchestra. I am so thankful for those people in my life who encourage me to do more of these things as all it does is inspire me with more creative ideas of my own, see how things have went well and poorly for some media. Where as a book can tell a massive story, it will never reach as many people as a movie will these days. Thankfully as well, most modern tv shows are starting to realise the past mistake as well, the likes of say Game of Thrones, there’s very few filler episodes as its all based of a previously done story and worked on for the purposes of tv. This is something I’ve been noticing more and more of and I am so glad for it, as it just gets straight to the point and keeps within the story to the most part.

In closing I just hope that people are more open minded when it comes to different forms of media as the world is a bigger thanks to the connection of the internet, we can find all sorts of amazing forms of media out there. You just need to be open minded enough to experience it for what it is. Enjoy the stories, enjoy the tales. Maybe share a tale or two of your own.

Mask's

Recently I have been thinking about the masks that people wear. Not the literal masks for a Halloween costume, but the figurative mask that we all wear. The masks, that make up different parts of who we are. How you act and speak differently to different friends depending how close you are, how much you trust them. Like the mask you wear when you talk to your family, your aunts, uncles and parents. Its all just slightly different, but a different part of you just the same. 

The only time we are without these masks is at 2 points in our lives. The first is when we are small children, the world seems so small and big, how everything is new and amazing. Yet that moment, which is different for each and everyone of us when life just turns around and slaps us full of reality. Is the day we donned our first mask. Our first different version of who we are. Even if it’s something so small as to pretend to have an interest in something your best friend likes, just because you want them to still be your best friend. It can be something that small. Or something so big that you even change who you are completely, for example you walk into work and your personality changes to a whole different you. Someone maybe more confident than you are outside of the workplace, maybe even you’re a manager and you must turn off being friends with these people you work with as you are in charge and need to enforce the rules you yourself used to hate. 

These masks are nothing to fear, as they are a part of you, big and small as that’s just how we protect ourselves. We make these masks because life slapped us full of harsh reality. When we meet new people, friend’s lovers etc, we chip away at the mask we first showed them, so that they start to see just a tiny but more of who you are. Think about it, think right back to your first partner, you put on a show, a personality, working so hard to keep them to like you, you know they do, but you think maybe they just like who you were, they liked the mask, so you chip away at it slowly, showing just a bit more of who you are. Then they leave, they hurt you badly, so you decide next time won’t be the same, you add back on the chipped away pieces and add on more, making the mask bigger and stronger for next time. Then you start again, you meet some one new. This time you think it’s going to be different and it is, but not the way you hoped, they are just like you they wear a mask, you realise what’s happening, but they chip away at their mask, the person they turn out to be is defiantly not who you thought they were, they hurt you in a whole new way. They could lie, cheat steal, physically and mentally hurt you. I hope that in that situation you can get out and be stronger for it. There are those that do. They will learn in their own way but that’s what happens. We all need to chip away at our masks over time to show who we really are.

These masks are used to protect you, strengthen you. That one time though is enough to break who you are. That one time is when you know with all your heart that the person you wake up next to is the person you want to spend the rest of your life with, the person who means more to you than life itself. The person you truly and deeply love. This person has stuck around after your mask is gone, they still laugh with you and smile at everything, they make your world better. They’ve dropped their mask and you are truly happy. Then, life takes another slap, something, anything, can still mess it up. They make a mistake, you do, anything, and suddenly that mask that was chipped away slowly becomes a mask like fortress, impregnable, that is until someone else comes along and chips away at it. This person is the one you don’t chip away at your mask, but they do, they take a sledge hammer to it and tear it down because they can see just how much you just need to see someone for who they are and tell them its ok. Wither this person is a lover, or a friend or family. This is the person who will tell you something we all need to hear. That is simply, its ok just being yourself. Others might have hurt you in some way, but that’s then, this is now. Right now, is the moment of perfection where you are amazing just being yourself, the good, the bad, the weird, everything that makes up you being you is perfect.

Don’t be afraid to don your masks. Never be scared to take them off. They are as much a part of you as your mask less self is.

Now I’m not saying that this will happen to you in the same way, nor has it happened to me the same way, this was just an example, you could go through many friends and partners before finding that one person you can show your real face to, or you might be with them already. These were just examples.