Spotlight

To get into the habit of blogging again, from now on I will be fornightly spotlighting an actor, musician or celebrity I reckon you should take a look at. And our first spotlighted person is...

  LEONARDO DICAPRIO

Hollywood's Leonardo DiCaprio is taken the film industry by storm with a string of fantastic films since 2006's war film, Blood Diamond which was made by Edward Zwick. Then came Scorsese's The Departed before moving onto spy film Body of Lies in 2008 alongside Russell Crowe and in the same year, he reunited with Kate Winslet in Revolutionary Road. He took year out before joining back up with Martin Scorsese to brilliantly bring Dennis Lehane's novel Shutter Island to life alongside an all star cast including the legendary Ben Kingsley. But Shutter Island hasn't been DiCaprio's only success of 2010. Next he teamed up with Dark Knight director Christopher Nolan to bring us the fantasticly mind bending sci-fi: Inception with the extremely talented Joseph Gordon-Levitt.

He's a had a fantastic four years and having observed his development as an actor since his starring roles in Romeo and Juliet(1996) and Titantic (1997) I can truely appreciate his magnicifent work. And with Clint Eastwood's Hoover to come next year, he's surely in line for his first Oscar!

My Youtube Picks...

If your like me and you love sitting in your large computer chair amusing yourself with an array of entertaining Youtube videos, then sit tight and read through this entry to find out my favourite Youtubers and why. But firstly, for those of you that have been living under a rock for the last few years then here is quick summary of what exactly Youtube is...

Youtube is an online video sharing site where thousands of wannabe actors, television presenters, comedians, musicians etc...post videos of themselves online for the rest of the world to see. Some Youtubers do in fact have a natural talent of some kind but most are overrated, talentless hacks! *cough* Fred *cough* Instead of socialising with friends, playing video games or exploring the great out doors they poor their hearts in front of a camera in order to see how many hits they can get. Bit like me, just with a webcam.

Got it? Great. On with the blog...

#1 - Lisa Lavie
Lisa is an extremely talented singer with a beautiful voice. She may not be the most stunning girl (but still a looker in my opinion) on the market but her vocal talents are second to none. Reminds me a little of my favourite singer, Kelly Clarkson with a slash of Beyonce attitude. Normally I hate anyone who attempts to sing Michael Jackson's Earth Song but her cover of the MJ classic is brilliant, by far the best cover I've ever heard. I also love her rendition of Beyonce's Halo, absolutely beautiful. If you haven't checked out Lisa yet, please do. You'll love her.

#2 - Michael Buckley
Michael Buckley's webshow: WHATTHEBUCKSHOW is one of Youtube's most famous video blogs which sees Buck talk to us about all the latest gossip and celebrity news in his own unique way. Famous for his one take (no cutting) "blogs", Michael makes a living from his work on Youtube and has become one of few to become famous for his online alter ego. One of my favourite Youtubers and probably everyones favourite gay host, Graham Norton eat your heart out!

#3 - Charlie McDonnell
Charlie is famous for his show charlieissocoollike and his contributions to the Five Awesome Guys collaborations that took place during 2008. This saw Charlie and the other four guys do a video everyday (a different guy each day) for a whole year. Charlie known also as Tuesday (from his Five Awesome Guys days) is one of Britain's most famous video bloggers and has been entertaining us for about three years. Charlie's Challenge Charlie videos are extremely funny and his down to earth presenting style makes him very entertaining. If you like spotty teenage boys then Charlie is for you.

#4 - Kurt Hugo Schneider & Sam Tsui
Kurt Hugo Schneider, this guy has talent. His piano playing and composition skills are top notch and he makes some fantastic videos. His friend Sam Tsui an extremely talented singer and his MJ medley that he produced with the help of Kurt was soooo good, if you find Kurt's page, take a look at that video - you'll be blown away. The two are part of an online web series, College Musical which is extremely funny and actually very well put together, the script itself isn't as good as it could be but the series as a whole is pretty good, the music is top notch! High School Musical would be jealous.

#5 - ShayCarl & the Shaytards

Shaycarl and his family (the Shaytards) are quite possibly my favourite Youtubers to date. An extremely funny series that follows the lives of Americans, Shay, his wife Kaliette and three children Sontard, Princesstard and utterly adorable Babytard. Having not been a particularly big fan of reality TV shows such as the Osbournes and the Karshadins due to their...unorthodox life styles. Check them out!

You can find all the above Youtubers at Youtube by either searching their name or one of their shows. I recommend all of them, obviously; kind of the point of the blog. And just for the record, this wasn't a Top Five nor were they ranked in order of my favourite, I just simply listed them in the order of who I thought of first. However ones that would never make my list include Fred who's show is just as bad as Bruno! and Chris Crocker, who's just a dick!

The Reprise of the PoD.

"Reprise of the Proclamations of Dantay"

Many of you are probably wondering how long this blogging reprise will last and the honest answer is, it's down to you. As much as I want to get back into writing blogs, without the feedback, the comments and the opinions from you guys, it does become difficult to motivate yourself to write for the few. So the simply answer is, if you want to see me blog more, give me something back; however big or small, I just want to hear from you guys.

After all, my ego can always get a little bigger. ;)

England - Out with the Old, in with the New!

IMAGE: Theo Walcott, Jermain Defoe & Steven Gerrard against Bulgaria - 03/09/10

"Out with the Old, in with the New"

After a pretty abysmal performance at the World Cup, including that humiliating display against Germany, it's time to re-evaluate exactly where England have been going wrong in the last few years - particularly the last ten years.

It's always the same story for the English as time and time again the "great" nation is hyped up only to be torn apart when it really matters. The hype can only be blamed on the press who year in year out force us to get behind our country only to lynch mob them when they fall short of international success. The blame is often placed on the manager and rightly so but it's the players who should also the brunt of English anger as it's them who failed to perform.

I may not have agreed completely with Capiello's line up and tactics at the World Cup but it's only fair to blame the over payed players that gave about the half the effort they should of. And why? They were tired. Aw bless - if they tried doing a hard days work first then maybe we might have a little sympathy but with the ridiculous amounts they get paid, they should duly deliver when called on by there country. I remember a time when it was an honour and a privilege not a chore! And I've only been on this planet for nineteen years... my oh my has it changed in so little time.

So where have we being going wrong? Picking the wrong players time and time again. The same players are chosen every year despite playing badly the year before. Who you ask? Lampard is one - if I was a football pundit he'd be slammed by me every week because I personally don't rate him at all, especially for England. Terry is another, about as useful as a chocolate radiator. Carragher, Upson, James and Heskey are others who I wouldn't of let anywhere near the World Cup squad.

Who should we be playing? The youngsters. Stop pissing around during the qua lifers and get a strong squad together that will have enough time to gel. It's now that we need to create a permanent lineup for the Euro's. They will have nearly two years to play and train together and maybe just maybe, we'll stand a chance in 2012.

I may be no expert but the likes of Jack Rodwell, Adam Johnson and Gary Cahill seem a lot more exciting than the likes of Lampard, Terry and co. We need young players who really want to play for their country and not ones who are just waiting to pick up the pay cheque at the end of the tournament. This would be my suggested line-up:

HART (GK)
G.JOHNSON (RB)
CAHILL/FERDINAND (CB)
JAGIELKA C(B)
COLE (LB)
WALCOTT/A. JOHNSON (RW)
GERRARD (CM)
RODWELL/BARRY (DCM)
MILNER (CM)
A. JOHNSON/J. COLE (LW)
ROONEY/DEFOE (ST)

So Ferdinand may not be getting any younger but when fit he can be extremely useful. The back also needs someone more mature but if Jagielka is given a good enough run of games (and considering his form, I hope he does) he should be able to mature into the role which we would free up the second role - which I would hand over to Gary Cahill who looks to be our most promising centre back.

Theo Walcott is a difficult one as while I may not be his biggest fan, I can see how good he can be. But when he's not playing at his best, he's awful. I would much rather hand the position to Adam Johnson who looks a lot better than Walcott who I believe is a little overrated. And as Johnson has taken two goals in two games rounding off two brilliant performances, I'd much prefer him ahead of Walcott. With Johnson on the right hand side, Joe Cole can slot in on the left and with the support of James Milner and Steven Gerrard we would be pretty formidable going forward. Cole may not have set the world a light during the World Cup he wasn't really given much time to shine. He's by far our best option on the left hand side, particularly if Johnson occupies the right wing.

Supporting the back four I would have Jack Rodwell in an anchor man type role connecting the defence with the midfield so instead of Terry's usual hoof up field we can play it from back to front smoothly. The same role could be played by Gareth Barry but like his name, he's boring and as Rodwell is so young, he has the potiental to be ten times better than boring yet depenable Barry.

The final difficult decision is the all important forward. Out of all the England players, Wayne Rooney had by far the worst World Cup. But with a goal tonight and a strong performance against Bulgaria (with two assists), he looks as though he can do the job. But if Defoe can keep scoring goals like he did against the Bulgarians then he could easily challenges Roo for the role.

Rooney is the whole reason I picked 4-5-1 and here's why. With United he had the most amazing season and having spent most of it all alone, I see no reason why he can't replicate it for England. The reason for his killer season but dreadful international campaign this year is all down to tactics. Sir Alex found the perfect role for Wayne and unfortunetly, Capiello decided to ignore it. He had no chemistry with Heskey and while he linked up well with Defoe this week, I think his best lies with 4-5-1. And Gerrard is the perfect man to link up with Gerrard, sitting behind him linking the play effortlessly with someone like Rodwell bringing it out from the back. It may not work but as it's not really been tried - it's worth a go surely!?

After all, you can't get much worse than our performance this Summer.