Well, I made it through my first semester of uni! I achieved three Distinctions and a Credit, and i’m pretty proud of my efforts. I can promise you, it will only go downhill from here. After my first semester, i’ve made so many great friends and just met so many people. It’s true when they say that UOW is a really social uni, and I love it. I don’t mind coming down 4 days a week, because I get to see so many people, and catch up with everyone. Plus the uni runs free-football (soccer) every Tuesday and Wednesday, and I make time for those and basically make my timetable around them, because it’s super fun.
This semester i’ve kept my French after working my way to a Distinction, as well as my mandatory subjects of MEDA102, PHIL106 and BCM111. I have to blog for my BCM111 work, which I look forward to, because if you couldn’t tell already, I LOVE blogging. My identity around university starts and ends with my blog url, “are you Jake Pascoe from jakepascoe.com?”. So you can expect those BCM blog posts, but i’m also considering blogging for my other classes as well, especially philosophy. I love my philosophy class, even though the lectures can get pretty dreary at times, the readings and concepts themselves are very interesting to read, and think about.
I’ve slightly changed the formatting a bit on my blog now too, all my previous (and future) BCM blog posts can be found in the “BCM” headings, while my current BCM111 class can be found under “BCM111” (durr). For the moment, any more blogs I write for my other subjects will be found under my general “Blog” heading, because i’m not sure how many i’ll actually get time to write. So expect those, as well as my daily photos, and my irregular music posts.
Well, that’s all for now, expect a lot more regular posting from me now i’m back at uni, because I need to procrastinate somehow!
Back in last 2013, when they drew the teams for the group stages, I couldn’t help but feel that we would get a decent group this year, one with some lower and less experienced teams. Boy was I wrong. We got hit with the group of death. Chile, Spain AND Netherlands. From this point onwards, everyone dismissed Australia completely, and they were right to, we are no match for those three teams with Spain and Netherlands picked to advance through, especially when we are missing some key players. Kruse, Williams and Kennedy all out injured, and Schwarzer deciding it was time to hang up his international boots. Everyone new this was just going to be experience for our next golden generation, a chance for the players to show that they deserve to be representing Australia.
Match 1: Chile v Australia (3-1)
The two teams met in Cuiaba, after their first meeting in the 1974 World Cup, where Australia gained their first ever world Cup points. Some poor defending and mistakes gave Chile a 2-0 lead after just 15 minutes, but Tim Cahill did what he does best and headed one into the back of the net before half time. After conceding a final goal, Chile finished the game winning 3-1. Admittedly, it wasn’t the best game for our defenders, but the pressuring and tactics that Ange had put into place was fantastic.
Match 2: Netherlands v Australia (3-2)
This game was Australia’s best performance in this World Cup. The high pressure Ange placed against the Dutch worked effectively, and we looked like the team on top for most of the game. Netherlands opened the score, and the one and only Tim Cahill responded within the minute with one of the best goals in his career, and certainly one of the best goals of the World Cup. Australia then later went into the lead after Jedinak converted a penalty, but it didn’t last long as the Dutch scraped together two goals to win 3-2. Some poor defending from Davidson which lead to Robin Van Persie’s goal, but other than that, I think Australia deserved to win that game.
Match 3: Spain v Australia
For the first 30 minutes of the game, I honestly thought Australia was going to smash Spain. Again we had a very good high pressure and the Spanish were making plenty of mistakes. Although we were missing Tim Cahill, we have Taggart up front, and he finally had his time to shine. Unfortunately he seemed to enjoy hugging the grass after slipping over more than actually playing the game. It was a depressing end to our campaign, because although we looked very confident and played very well, it was again that one mistake in our defence that lost it for us. In this game, it was McGowan, who must have thought David Villa was invisible, because we was never marking the major threat that he is. It was a shame that Franjic was injured and couldn’t play, because he played very well in the first game.
Although we came last in our group losing all three of our games, we definitely played well, and have improved as a team. There are definitely some stand out players in our squad after the world cup, Taggart has been bought by Fulham and they are also reportedly interested in Davidson.
Matthew Leckie (Aged 23):
Matthew Leckie was one of, if not the best performing Australian at the World Cup. His sprints and runs down the wing were a major threat, and his aggression and excellent pressuring was one of the reasons why Australian’s can hold their heads high after this World Cup.
Tim Cahill (Aged 34):
As expected, Tim Cahill was majestic in this World Cup. Adding two more goals to his tally of World Cup goals, he become the one of very few players to play in three consecutive World Cups Finals. He was a constant threat to every opposition, with Chile and the Dutch resorting to fouling and pulling on his shirt for every cross, most of which were ignored by the referee.
Ange Postecoglou:
Ange deserves a big round of applause for his work in the World Cup. No one expected us to do anything big at the World Cup, no one but Ange. Even with our backs to the wall, Ange come out fighting like a true Australian and gave us a performance we would all be proud of. The tactics and formations he put in place were carefully planned and thought out, and worked very effectively. Even with several major injuries, resulting in Ange picking players that had only several caps under their belt.
Even though we didn’t get a point on the table, we still played some very competitive games, and we have started nurturing our new golden generation. Every single one of them put 110% into every game, and that’s all we could have asked from them. Now we have to look forwards to the Asian Cup, and how to combat the major Asian teams that we’ll have to face. But i’m sure Ange has a plan. #InAngeWeTrust
For my Ciné-Roman project, I decided to respond to Hubert Czerepok’s Madness is Like Gravity. The artwork explores how different people perceive reality and the fine line between sanity and insanity. I interpreted this as a physical act caused by madness, by a non-literal push, in whatever way, shape or form.
I started by exploring what metaphorical pushes may create madness in people, and found that a lot of madness caused by small ‘pushes’ can be found in romantic contexts. I photographed in Cronulla, and tried to simulate romantic contexts where one person would be tempted into a state of madness. Based as a narrative, I used two contexts, one with jealousy, and one with frustration. I tried to photograph the frustration in one person with close up shots, and a longer frame length in the film.
I recorded the ambience of the location, as well as a small piano work. The main focus was on the quote directly from the art piece. I tried to make it sound threatening, to try convey the importance of the quote, not only in my project, but in life.
Le Jetee influenced my work with the narrative structure, and how they used images, and the gaps to continue the narrative.
David Moyes has recently broken ANOTHER record by being the first manager fired since 1986. On Tuesday night for us Aussies, we received the not so shocking news of David Moyes getting the axe from Manchester United. Over the last few Months, Moyes has faced some harsh comments towards his management at the club, and losing to his old team, Everton, was the final blow for fans. As there are always two sides to an argument, there a two sides towards his sacking. There are the majority of people that demanded his sacking, and those that were more sympathetic and were open to him managing for another season. And probably one of the saddest things about his sacking, is that it happened just three days before his birthday. Spurs are apparently interested in signing Moyes, and I think he’ll flourish there, as long as he is given time.
Moyes still managed to win one more trophy than Jose Mourinho
Moyes originally signed on with United for a 6-year contract, and the board backed him up with a long-term plan and stating their faith in him, because rebuilding after the departure of arguably the best manager in football wasn’t going to be easy. So why wasn’t he given the long-term chance to rebuild United? Because if we look at his past club, Everton, he brought them from near relegation, to a top 6 team. And if he could do that with the minimal funds Everton had, surely he could do it for the reigning champions? Unfortunately, there’s more than one answer.
The high expectations left by Alex Ferguson
The attitudes of the players
The complete switch in back-room staff
The philosophy of Manchester United fans
Age of our starting squads
Growing lack of talent
David Moyes hated the banner, thinking it implied he was gifted the position rather than earning it
When Alex Ferguson announced his retirement, the tickets for his last game were going for sale online for almost £3000, that’s almost $5,500 AUD. When ticket prices are that high, it’s safe to say that the man was one of a kind. He’s the reason why United are as successful as they are. So being the man to replace him would be suicide. The fans would have continual high expectations for him to achieve, as if Fergie never left, and the problem with that is, most of the fans don’t know what’s going on with the club. They just shout and cheer for United, then attempt to blame someone when their club is losing. And unfortunately, for those die-hard United supporters since child-hood like myself, it’s painful to be stereotyped with those people.
It’s come to light that a lot of the players were not happy with the new management, some of them even betting on ‘how long until he was sacked’. There was so much bickering going on behind the scenes that they managed to keep quiet for a while, that i’m ashamed. If I was Moyes, and a player made a negative comment about me, I would shout down at them until they fall in line. Bickering like a bunch of teenage girls and then blaming Moyes because they played poorly reminds me of saturday-league football. They should really think about what they’ve done before they find another scape-goat.
Another point I made was the age of the team. The likes of Ferdinand and Evra in our starting team, I found was a poor decision throughout the season. Ferdinand is still a good player, but he has the turning circle of a truck, and the speed of a sloth. Multiple times while watching games, I would scream at my monitor when he moved out of position, and it would usually lead to conceding a goal. And Evra was summed up in the second leg against Bayern Munich. Great offence, terrible defence. Both of them should be dropped immediately. They were world class in their prime, but with our captain Vidic leaving at the end of this season as well, it’s time to start a new legacy. They are no longer United Quality.
A once legendary pairing now outdated and no longer United quality
So what now? We’ve sacked our manager and we still have games left! Ryan Giggs is what happens now. Ryan Giggs has stepped in as Manager on an interim basis, which basically means he is to be Manager until they contract a full-time manager. During his first team talk he said that “we will go back to playing like Manchester United”. I have the same confidence in Giggs as I did in Moyes, which is a great amount. Giggs knows how everything works, he’s basically the living embodiment of Manchester United. The man breathes trophies.
But what about long-term? A lot of names are in the air, including Jurgen Klopp, Van Gaal and even Jose Mourinho. Most of them are just hopeful rumours, but some of then are quite good candidates. I personally would love to see Van Gaal manage United, he has the perfect personality to control the egotistic players, and know-how to win seasons, and continue our reign of success.
Ryan Giggs is to take over management until a permanent replacement is found
But why would Jose Mourinho be rumoured to join us, he just joined Chelsea. Well there were rumours at the end of last season that Jose wanted to take over after Fergie, and perhaps they’re just journalists making up stories to write about. But wouldn’t it be great if he joined us? He has quite the resume. There are rumours that he is trying to get himself fired so he can manage United, but again, i’m going to assume their false rumours.
Van Gaal would be the better fit for United I think personally. He is currently managing the Netherlands international team, and managed the likes of Ajax, Barcelona and Bayern Munich before looking onto the international stage. He’s won countless awards for his clubs, and multiple personal awards. His ‘no one is bigger than me’ personality is exactly what we need at United to keep everyone in line, and for everyone to perform at their maximum potential again. There’s an in depth analysis here on reddit. One story that I particularly like about Van Gaal, is when meeting Pique, Van Gaal, without warning, pushed the 14-year old Pique over and said, “You’re too weak to be a Barcelona defender.” We need that kind of attitude.
The Dutchman will be perfect for United
Even when we sign a new manager, we still need to make some crucial signings. We need some new defenders, and some new midfielders. We really need to make it rain this transfer window, we have a lot of players leaving, and we already have too many holes in our team. We need to totally reshape our team. So who should we buy? (All values in euro’s from TransferMarkt)
Ivan Rakitic
Ivan Rakitic 20M: The 16 year-old Croatian footballer currently playing for Sevilla in Spain, plays in a central midfield or attacking midfield. He has magnificent passing and vision, which we need in our team. He’s also quite the dribbler. While we don’t need another attacking midfield, he can play out wide, and he’s worth the investment. His move and pass play can would be dangerous if lined up with Kagawa and Mata. He would most likely be suited on the right-hand side, leaving the middle for Mata.
Luke Shaw
Luke Shaw 30M: An 18-year old Left-Back for Southampton, he’s one to keep an eye on. He’s already in the starting squad, and plenty of top clubs including Manchester United and Chelsea have him in their scopes. He’s like a young Gareth Bale, with a great attacking style with good decision making. Apparently Manchester United are to beat Chelsea with a 30M bid for the youngster this transfer window.
Kevin Strootman
Kevin Strootman 21M: At 24 years old, he’s in the starting line-up in his Italian side Roma as a central midfielder. He’s a tough tackler and has excellent vision, which is exactly what we need in a new midfielder. We don’t need another Carrick that will only bass it backwards. He’s currently injured for the rest of the season, and the 2014 World Cup. His tough tackling would suit the Premier League, and most importantly, Manchester United’s style of play. Plus he has a good relationship with Van Gaal, so if he is to manage United next season, he will definitely look at bringing in the Dutchman.
William Carvalho
William Carvalho 7M: A Portuguese defensive midfield player, at 22 years old he plays for Sporting Lisbon. Manchester United have been scouting him for some time, and he’s a perfect fit for United, much like Strootman. And for only 7M, he would be a great investment, and a valued played in our ranks.
Ezequiel Garay
Ezequiel Garay 17.5M: A 27-year old defender currently playing for Benfica, would be a great asset to United. With a great tackling ability and some great strength, he surely fit in well for United. United doesn’t really need many CB’s, as we have Evans, Smalling and Jones already, and all of which are good enough to fill the holes of Vidic and Ferdinand. Garay will just add a bit of experience to the defence.
I think the one thing that really needs the change though, the the fans philosophy and mentality towards the next few seasons. Everyone expects us to win season after season, but it’s just not going to happen. We can’t continue to have the strongest ego. We have to accept that we’re going to lose some crucial games along to way, but we’re setting ourselves up for great success in the future, similar to Liverpool. They were once a great team, and it took them decades to contest again.
Everyone just needs to remember that Form is temporary, but Class is permanent.
But until next season, we get to experience Ryan Giggs as a player manager, and i’d love to see him on the side line managing in his kit, and to sub himself on. Especially in the last game. Maybe it’s the start of his next big scheme to win more trophies, to become the world’s next best manager. Either way, i’m behind United, and I have faith that we will eventually bounce back and become champions once again.
For my Media Arts this semester, one of my assessments is in photography, which we essentially have to photograph an uncanny object. For my object, I’m doing my MacBook pro, and i’m attempting to photograph it in a completely alien environment, considering it’s purpose. So it looks completely out of place. That’s the theory though, I don’t know how they’ll turn out, probably nothing how I imagine. So for one of my locations, I went to an abandoned hotel near Newtown. Don’t go to Newtown during peak hour. Just don’t
The place was filled with litter, graffiti, empty drinks and everything looked like it was infested with aids. If you can use common sense and avoid the syringes and broken glass, it was actually a pretty cool place to shoot at. We bumped into two Swedish tourists outside as we were trying to get in, who apparently were “maybe” trying to get inside. In terms of my assignment, I was trying to find a location inside with heavy graffiti, that made you think “Why is that person using their laptop in this place?”, and I think I found one.
I’m still undecided on which shot to use exactly, because I got quite a few good ones I think. And i’m such a perfectionist, so I might even go back there. I’m going to filter it in black and white for my assignment because I wanted to viewer to look straight at the laptop, and not at the colourful graffiti on the wall, because it’s very good at distracting your gaze. But all in, it was a great day, and a great location. Huge thanks to the Urbex-Profesional Holly for showing me where it is, and sitting in aids-infected carpet for me. She also has a Facebook page with some awesome photos on it that are worth a look at. I have some more posted over on my Tumblr if anyone wants to see some more.
Lucy Rose is an English singer/songwriter, and released her first album ‘Like I Used To’ in 2012. Her album peaked at 13 in the UK, which I think is amazing, seeing as it’s her first album. She toured with Bombay Bicycle club in early 2012, and I would have seen both of them live then if I had money at the time. I only just found her on Spotify a few weeks ago, but from then, i’ve listened to her almost every day. She’s amazing.
Her top song would be ‘Middle Of The Bed’ (above), is about a broken relationship, and whether or not she still has feelings for him. It’s a beautiful song with a lot of powerful emotion behind it if you really pay attention to the lyrics. They way she sings in this song, you can just imagine her eyes closed, picturing an emotional memory. Well I do anyway (I’m not crazy).
My friend had told me to listen to her for a while, but I kept forgetting about it until a few weeks ago when I recognised her name on Spotify. One of the most annoying things in the history of humanity is when you suggest something to someone, and a few months later they try and introduce that very thing to you, as if they just found it, so i’m sorry Nick! Lucy Rose is a groovy new artist, who hopefully this year will bring out a great album and become even more popular. Plus it helps when she’s super cute looking.
I can finally blog about music again! And this time, I want to introduce you to another one of my favourites. Foals. They’re an English indie rock band who published their first album back in 2008, and it was a great success. They started gaining popularity mid-2008 because of this, and they have spiralled their way across the indie-rock genre. I think one of the reasons behind their success is the change of style in some of their songs. They change in their 2010 album ‘Total Life Forever’, to a more acoustic and slow style, mainly through the song ‘Spanish Sahara’, which personally is one of my favourite songs. check it out below.
They got really popular in 2013 in Australia particularly, getting the spot of 29th on the widely popular Triple J Hottest 100. They won ‘Best Track’ at the NME awards in 2010 and 2013, and ‘Best Live Act’ at the Q Awards in 2013. If you havn’t heard of these guys already, I would suggest joining the bandwagon now, because these guys are going places. I had the opportunity to see these guys live back in September 2013, but none of my lame friends wanted to come. C’est la vie.
For those that are interested, i’m doing a 2hr mix at my friends party on the weekend, and I’m going to record it and publish the live mix album next week sometime. So for those that are after some great party music, keep tuned!
For those of you that don’t stalk me consistently, it will be news to you that i’m learning French at Uni as one of my subjects. French as a language has always interested me. It seems sophisticated. And i’ve always wanted to learn another language, because i’m immensely jealous of people that can speak to languages. Especially when you can have a private conversation with people that also speak the other language! I’ve always wanted to do that.
But learning another language is hard, or so i’ve been told. So far we’re just learning the grammar of the language, which is a lot more complicated than it sounds. Every object even has a gender! And you have to remember what it is. It’s all so much to take in at once, especially when you have a 3 hour tutorial.
The pronunciation however, I find easier than the actual spelling, thanks to my awesome technique. An easy way to pronounce words in french correctly (or at least almost), is to put on an extremely stereotypical offensive French accent. I know this sounds stupid, and possibly rude, but it really helps! Because you naturally roll your tongue on certain letters, which you’re supposed to do, but it just makes it seem so much easier!
I also find that when learning French, it will either feel like you’re fluent already and you’re a genius, or that you have to reinvent the wheel just to understand what’s happening. And why you don’t pronounce the bloody endings of words, and why ‘Y’ is pronounced as ‘E-Glrek’. You just can’t win with the French, unless you’re Germany (I’m going to hell for that)
I would recommend French as a language to most people, because it’s interesting, and fun to learn. You may have to put in a lot of hard work, and a fair amount of study (which i’ve terrible at), but in the end it will be worth it. Especially if I still want to do a semester in Paris next year!
For my second music post, I’ve decided to introduce you all to one of my favourite Artists, William Fitzsimmons. He’s an American singer/songwriter, and I think of him as another Modern-Day Smiths band, just like Keaton Henson. Yes I have a fetish for break up bands. His first two albums, Until When We Are Ghosts (2005) and Goodnight (2006), we’re completely produced and released by himself. And that’s impressive.
One of his most well known songs, Passion Play (Below), is one of my favourite songs by him. It’s a beautiful song about how he considers himself a Christian, but struggles with his faith. Something im sure alot of people can understand and empathise about.
Some more of his songs that I love include, “Please Don’t Go”, and “So This Is Goodbye”. He is such a beautiful artist, and his music really makes you feel some strong emotions, which is what he tries to achieve. I love this beautiful nature in his lyrics, and to me, it really makes him stand out.
One of the reasons I fell in love with him so much, was his amazing beard! I mean, check it out! I’ve joined the Facebook group “William Fitzsimmons to Tour Australia“, it may only have 111 likes, but there are alot of people over in Australia that would love to see him live. Personally, I would travel to the other side of Australia to see this man. He is amazing.
So the soccer season is upon us! We have quite a few new faces in our team this year, and our coach had a brilliant idea of having a team building/bonding day. Now, we all occasionally go up to our local pub and grab a drink together, but just getting a few drinks and socialising doesn’t give us the opportunity for team building. That’s when our brilliant team coach came up with the idea of paintball.
Now, I had never been paintballing before, so I didn’t know what to expect in terms of pain or what where we would be playing would be like. Turns out it was an indoor arena, with your basic wooden barricades and walls. We only had 6 people that could come, so it was the perfect size.
Now let me tell you this, paintballs hurt. A lot. But the thing is, when you’re actually playing and you get hit, you don’t notice it straight away. It takes about a second to kick in. Maybe it’s just me, but I just felt ‘in the zone’. But the aftermath of paintball is always a good competition. Who got the worst bruise? I’m telling you now, no matter what, you WILL leave with a bruise.
It was a great team building exercise, working together to pelt the life out of the other team, covering each other and winning as a team. It’s a good idea to build communication skills and teamwork, and it’s great fun. 10/10 would recommend. But try not to get shot in the back of your head like I did.
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