Hallam FM Website Story 3

This is a piece I had published on the Hallam FM web pages while I was completing work experience there. Sorry there are no pictures to go with my story.

"A young mum is celebrating after returning from America with her son.

Rebecca Williams, from Swallownest, travelled to the US with her son Ben, so he could receive specialist treatment for his undiagnosed condition. And after a four week intense course she says he’s a changed boy.

Ben, 6, suffers with Global Developmental Delay, a hole in the heart, a failure to thrive and epilepsy, just to name a few. Before they left for America Rebecca said life was hard work as Ben had to be supervised at all times.

She said,

“He had very stiff legs, he had very limited motor skills in his hands which meant he couldn’t do things, like play.” He also struggled with eating and talking and had to use Makaton sign language to communicate.

But after a month long trip to a medical centre in America, mother and son are immediately seeing the benefits.

Rebecca said, “It’s like they’ve popped a little bubble and before we went he used to just sit and watch everything that was going off. Now everything he sees he can now do. He’s like a little person.”

The treatment Ben received had various elements from the early morning warm up massages to the specialist therasuit he was given. The suit, like an external skeleton, gave Ben sensory feedback on his muscles for everyday things we take for granted.

As well as this he also had four hours a day of physical therapy, weight training and time spent playing in a ‘Spider Cage.’ The specialist cage “builds up their confidence so they know they’re not going to fall over,” Rebecca said.

After just one trip Rebecca says Ben’s “got a little character about himself which he’s not had before because he’s not been able to express himself.”

It’s far from over for the both of them and as they are now in the process of trying to raise another £10,000 for a return trip to the states in the New Year. Rebecca hopes that future trips will bring even more progress and will help Ben reach his full potential.

She said, “You always look at Ben and think he’s got so much more to give and you’ve just got to try. Try and get the best out of your own child.”

The next fundraiser is a 1960s and 70s night at The Tabard in Herringthorpe Valley Road, Rotherham, on July 22 from 7pm.

A live music event will follow on Bank Holiday Monday August 30 at The Bridge Inn, Rotherham, featuring bands playing all day and into the evening. A magician will also be there to entertain the children.

Rebecca would like to thank everyone who has supported her throughout, her friends, her family and the local community. She wouldn’t have been able to do this without their help.

To learn more about Ben, read about future events and to make a donation log on to
http://www.fundraise-for-ben.co.uk/"

Hallam FM Website Story 2

This is a piece I had published on the Hallam FM web pages while I was completing work experience there. Sorry their are no pictures to go with my story.

"The Yorkshire Ripper has been told today that he will spend the rest of his life in custody.

Peter Sutcliffe, who's now known as Peter Coonan was convicted of 13 counts of murder back in 1981.

The former lorry driver received 20 life sentences for murdering 13 women and attempting to murder 7 others across Yorkshire and Greater Manchester. No formal limit on his sentence has ever been set - until the High Court made that call today.

Sarah Robinson, a Yorkshire Psychology expert, said:

"People don’t like the fact that he’s wanting to know these things because it’s almost like an insult. How dare you think that we will even consider this after the things you’ve done."

Sutcliffe has spent all of his years in custody at Broadmoor top security psychiatric hospital after being diagnosed as mentally ill.

He attacked his victims with a hammer, a sharpened screwdriver and a knife which gave him the "Ripper" name. His first murder was on 5 July 1975 and he claimed he was on a mission from God to kill prostitutes, despite not all of them working in the sex industry.

Mr Justice Mitting, said:

"This was a campaign of murder which terrorised the population of a large part of Yorkshire for several years."

He added,

"Apart from a terrorist outrage, it is difficult to conceive of circumstances in which one man could account for so many victims. Those circumstances alone make it appropriate to set a whole life term."

Tell us your reaction to this decision...."

Hallam FM Website Story

This is a piece I had published on the Hallam FM web pages while I was completing work experience there. Sorry their are no pictures to go with my story.

"Chesterfield FC’s £13 million stadium was unveiled this week ready for their first home friendly against Derby.

The B2net stadium has taken nearly a year to build and with only the finishing touches to add it will be ready well before the start of their season.

The seven thousand fans, who have bought tickets already, will enjoy the game with unrestricted views and an extra six inches of leg room.

“It’s something we’ve been trying to build for many many years,” Barrie Hubbard, Chairman of Chesterfield FC said.

“Everyone I’ve seen and spoken to think it’s fantastic and if we get people in then perhaps it is one of the major achievements ever happened in Chesterfield for many years.”

There is also a full size pitch with the option to go international if England host the World Cup in 2018. With Sheffield Wednesday being a match ground, Chesterfield’s new stadium would be used as a training camp for some of the biggest names in football.

“It’ll be a better place to come and play football,” Ian Breckin, Chesterfield’s Captain, said.

“We’ve got to make sure that we start the season well. It’s a fantastic ground and everyone is looking forward to getting the season up and running.”

The project was funded through friends and the major share holder Dave Allen, who now owns 80% of the shares. With banquet and conference facilities the club are hoping that it will all help fund the project.

“Football play 22 or 23 days a year where as the banqueting facilities they have on the first floor can be used 365 days, all year round,” John Curry, Project manager for GB building solutions, said.

As well as the football, behind the Midland’s Co-Operative Community Stand there will be a collection of facilities including one of only a few stadiums to have a permanent police office.

“Local authorities are getting involved with us,” John Croot, Community Director of Chesterfield FC said.

“We’ve got classrooms going in and a gymnasium area. We’ve got a range of partners including local PCTs where we work on healthy living initiatives. To some it up in a sentence, it’s using football as a vehicle to engage.”

The new stadium has been designed to accommodate everyone and anyone with a collection of new disabled seating both in the stand and pitch side. Four out the five lifts are also accessible by disabled people.

The changes mean that everyone will pay the same price for tickets, compared to Saltergate where the disabled were given a discount. But the club are saying that ticket prices will remain as they were last year for now.

Chesterfield also unveiled their new kit, keeping with the same sponsor Vodka Kick and the energy drink KICK."

Rap + Hip-Hop = Gun Crime??

This is a piece I wrote for Fuse Magazine that was published on Friday October 24th 2008. Sorry there are no photos but I couldn't find the article on line to get them.

Rap + Hip-Hop = Gun Crime??

"The news is littered with stories nowadays of youth crime, gang related muder, drug abuse and many more offences which are being pinned on the music which these offenders listen to. Can it really be considered that the Hip-Hop and Rap industries are responsible for this behaviour? To even begin to consider this it’s important to understand the history of it.

Collins dictionary describes Hip Hop as, “pop-culture movement compromising rap music, graffiti and break dancing,” but is that really what it started out like? The beginning of Hip Hop is still unclear today with many people believing it started in the 1970s. However, it was around long before this time, maybe not in the form we know today but the similarities are there. Earl Tucker (aka Snake Hips) was a popular performer at the Cotton Club and incorporated elements of what is now commonly known as Break Dancing.

The Cotton Club was a primarily white based Jazz club in New York City, which feature artists such as Duke of Ellington and Louis Armstrong. The Jazz influence continued throughout this era and in 1969 James Brown recorded two songs which influenced the drumming of today’s more commonly known rap. However, back when these were performing the music they played wasn’t considered offensive or “obscene” as many Hip Hop and Rap artists are being branded with lately.

The 1970s saw the rise of what many people see as the actual beginning of Hip Hop with the genre branching out into Rap and artists such as Grandmaster Flash and The Black Messengers entering the scene. One of the first major censoring campaigns took place in this era with The Black Messengers having to perform under the alias “Mechanical Devices” due to the controversy it brought with it.

The next few decades were the most important in turning Hip Hop into a genre associated with negative connotations. The introduction of “tagging” associated with graffiti was introduced, not to deface property as it has come to be used for, but was used by City couriers when they travelled on buses and the underground.

The gang related violence, which has become the main headline in most newspapers, has been blamed on the culture of Hip Hop, stemming from the publical display of violence by both Tupac Shakur and Christopher “Notorious B.I.G” Wallace in 1996, where gun violence claimed the lives of them both. The History of these two rappers turned the word Hip Hop into something of an obscenity.

With Notorious B.I.G and Tupac both involved in dealing drugs, gang related violence and with the promotion of this through their music videos, it is understandable why people are unhappy with how Hip Hop was portrayed. However, Hip Hop has taken a step back from the negativity it has received in the press, with many rappers and artists involved in charity events and campaigns such as P.Diddy and his “Vote or Die” or Dizzee Rascal’s single, Dean, donated to CALM (Campaign Against Living Miserably) which tackles suicides in young men, it is obvious to see that they are trying to turn over a new leaf and shake the negativity away from their music.

Chris Mckay"

Titanic 2 Review-'It's so bad it's.....'

( Credit: photobucket.com)

Usually that sentence is finished with the word ‘good’ or ‘funny’ but for this film another four letter word springs to mind.

Don’t ask me why I sat through 90 minutes of a sequel to James Cameron’s classic but I did. (Although it's not really the sequel it's just a modern day take on the original, confusing I know.)A new boat called the ‘Titanic 2’ (this is where the genius starts) is built to celebrate the 100 year anniversary of the original and follow the same route the first ship took.

You’re probably asking the same question I was when I heard about this, “Wasn’t the first film about an actual boat that sunk? And didn’t nearly 95% of its passengers on board die?” Historical facts like that though haven’t got in the way of Asylum Productions creating their straight to DVD movie, released on the 24th August.

The story, if you can call it a story is this; on the 100th anniversary of the original voyage, a modern luxury liner christened 'Titanic 2' follows the path of its namesake. (As you can tell a lot of work went into the plot.) The new ship has iceberg detecting radars and a reinforced bow (someone has done their homework.) But it hasn’t accounted for an 800mph tsunami resulting from global warming that hurls an iceberg into the side of the new ship (which isn’t made from the same strong material the front is because that would be silly.) The passengers and crew try and fight to stay alive but really it ends the exact same way. (Sorry to spoil it but when you name a boat after ‘Titanic’ what do you think is going to happen?)

From the outset the film is never going to be successful. The director should be fined for the numerous factual errors alone, my favourite being just 30 minutes in. Allegedly following the same path as the original, ‘Titanic 2’ pulls out of the dock and sails nicely past the Statue of Liberty, I could have sworn the first ship set off from England and was heading for New York?

As well as that, the ship must have one of those new handbrakes where it stops the boat immediately as soon as the propellers are turned off. I’m no ship expert but I don't think boats are capable of that.

If that wasn’t enough the dialogue and acting is definitely something else. To name a few gems;
“It may look like its predecessor but underneath it’s anything but,” and “It seems like history is repeating itself,” shows the pure imagination of the script writers. Even the cover of the DVD gives away the ending, 'Lightening Strikes Twice.' But you can’t blame the actors either; if you got a script through that had the words ‘Titanic 2’ on the front you wouldn’t give it your all. In fact, if I was nibbling on my last tin of Spam and was sheltering from the winter weather in a cardboard box I wouldn’t even accept an offer to be an extra in this film.

The tragic love story of Rose and Jack, portrayed by Kate Winslet and Leonardo DiCaprio has been replaced by Brooke Burns, (she was in Baywatch but obviously not as famous as The Hoff or Pamela) as well as Bruce Davison and Shane Van Dyke. (What you haven’t heard of him either? Shane Van Dyke is the star in hit movies like ‘The Blair Nurse Project’ and ‘Murder 101: If wishes were horses.’ You can’t even make this stuff up!) And that’s not it. To try and complicate matters they’ve introduced sub-plots that have nothing to do with the story and don’t move the film on at all.

The special effects and CGI are left to be desired for and make the Atari look high tec. The constant jump from computer animation to real time just highlights how poor this film is and quite frankly I’ve seen better effects from the original Thunderbirds.

Asylum Productions are known for releasing ‘mockbusters’ like ‘Snakes on a train’ and ‘Transmorphers’ but they have definitely pushed the boat out here. If you’ve got an hour and a half of your life you don’t want back then STILL DON’T watch this film. Give 'Gigli' another try or maybe 'Anaconda' but NEVER watch this, it’s too late for me. Save yourselves.

From imitation special effects to the ridiculous amounts of silicon breasts, and even a toothless coast guard thrown in for good measure, this has to be the worst film I’ve ever seen and will ever see. I’m only hoping they’re not planning Titanic 3.

Rating: 1/10 (And that’s only because it had A LOT of silicon breasts)