5 things I've learned this week - 21st January

I think I should do this a weekly thing, because there's always something going on either in music, films, games, or whatever that springs to mind...

1. Dubstep is very cool

I find myself listening to more Dubstep these days than ever before; maybe it's the cold weather? Or maybe it's because the good stuff is really great? Forget about the stuff on the radio; for real treats I'd recommend digging deep and checking out compilations and blogs/websites such as Fact Magazine for the latest and greatest.
What's also interesting about this genre is that some artists are already looking at what you can do with Dubstep elements, but in an entirely different way; Post-Dubstep if you will, artists such as Jamie Woon and James Blake have already been mentioned in this blog in the past, but there's probably more out there that I haven't heard of yet.
Chasing Voices: ‘Ex Nihilo Nihil Fit’ is my latest Dubstep crush. Unfortunately it's only on vinyl and I can't find it on youtube, but I did get a sneaky link earlier in the week, and it sounds terrific.

2. Actress has an exciting 2011 ahead of him

Apparently he's already recorded 2 albums since Splazsh! Some more space-aged Techno beats would go down well with this writer, considering I heard Hazyville for the first time this week, and thought it was great straight away.

3. Play.com is very slow these days

I used to always buy stuff on Play because I got them within the next 3 days. Nowadays I'm lucky if I get it in the same week! Maybe it's time I switched back to Amazon for my music/games/films etc. At least on Amazon I'm a "Prime" member (whatever that means)

4. Black Swan is as good as they say it is, and more importantly; Natalie Portman was fantastic.

I saw it for the first time a few days ago, which is quite late in internet terms since it came out in the States a while ago I think, but it was worth it. It's out today in the UK, and whilst this has been gathering quite a hype, I'd say "go and watch it" myself too.
Portman was the real star of the film however, not only did she act the part well, there were times where you were genuinly excited/terrified of what her character Nina would do next. Meg Griffin was great too! :)

5. Britain isn't really that great to live in at the moment

I'm talking about rise in fuel costs (which is shocking, considering I remember it was only 79p when I was 10 or so!!) rise of casual material, rise of food and drink, rise, rise, rise etc. The only thing that's not rising is wages, and with a tough economic road still ahead of us, times are only going to get tougher, especially with the ConDems in charge. Oh Clegg, how you've let me down...