If possible, would you live year-round in your favorite season?
Well, as we don't really have clearly defined seasons in the UK then yes. I'd go for late spring/early summer which can range from really hot weather to cool, wet and windy. It doesn't get too cold though and the flowers and light on sunny days is beautiful so that would be good enough for me. And at least the days would be long.
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March 2010
31/03/2010
29/03/2010
28/03/2010
It's culture innit?
So here, finally, is my recent theatre round up:
London Assurance, National Theatre - Loved it, loved it, loved it. Written by Irish playwright Dion Boucicault, who was a contemporary of Dickens, it is essentially an old school farce with larger than life characters plotting, scheming and getting tricked along the way.
Simon Russell Beale is superb as Sir Harcourt Courtly, the city gent who mistakenly believes he is still young, good looking and fashionable and whom is off to marry a woman young enough to be his daughter. And Fiona Shaw is equally superb as the horsey and loud Lady Gay Spanker (the name was enough to sell it to me) who plots to woo Sir Harcourt for a bit of fun.
There are too many other delicious characters to mention but if you are expecting an evening of thought provoking theatre, look elsewhere. If instead you want to sit back with a glass of something nice and have a bit of fun with plenty of laughter along the way then do what you can to get your hands on the quickly disappearing tickets.
Juliet and her Romeo, Bristol Old Vic - This was a work related freebie so I had nothing to lose. Romeo and Juliet with a twist: it's set in an old people's home. A nice idea but it just didn't work for me.
The script pretty much kept to what Shakespeare wrote and while I don't have problem at all with love stories set around older generations, the energy and passion and subsequent violence and tragedy that comes with this famous teen love story just can't be adequately replicated in the over 70s. For example, when Juliet is being threatened with a nunnery if she doesn't marry Paris you empathise with her as a young girl at the mercy of the grown ups but with an 80 year old? I couldn't help thinking: 'Stop bullying that old lady or I'll report you to social'.
Sian Phillips did as marvellous a job as Juliet as she could and looked so elegant throughout but the whole thing just clunked and grinded along at a geriatric pace and I got a little bit bored.
Sweet Nothings, Young Vic - I saw this back at the beginning of the month and I'm actually struggling to remember much about it, which is quite telling. I've had to check the programme as an aid memoir and it is about a man who lives in fear of his married lover's husband finding out about the affair while dallying with another young woman who is very much in love with him. I didn't get much of a sense of his fear nor of the depth of the young woman's love. Mitzi the flirtatious but more worldly-wise friend is a more interesting character (played by Natalie Dormer of Anne Boleyn/Tudors fame) but otherwise there was little that was engaging which subdued what should have been quite a tragic ending.
Serenading Louie, Donmar Warehouse - Described as 30-somethings reflecting on how their lives haven't quite turned out how they imagined it had potential. It was written in the 70s and is set in the 60s and follows the lives of two couples who are friends.
None are totally happy in their marriage (one of the women is having an affair, one of the men befriends young students in an attempt to feel young). Neither are they happy with their jobs or role as housewives.
The first half sees their unhappiness and discontent slowly revealed like some cankerous growth. The second half sees them confront the growth with shocking results. Or it should be.
Maybe I was too tired. Yes I could see how nicely it all fitted together and how the clues were there all along. It was well acted but I found the characters a bit grating and just wanted them to get on and explode or do whatever they were going to do at the end. And afterwards my accomplices and I talked more about the dresses the actresses wore than anything else. I've probably enjoyed it more thinking and writing about it than I did actually sitting through it.
27/03/2010
Some random shots from the week
Where have you been all my life? Discovery of the week, probably the year: it tastes like a velvety-smooth chocolate ice-cream/mousse but has no nasty dairy, soya or even sugar. Only four ingredients. Genius.
Was very flattered to be asked by our designer at work if I would take some pictures of busy traffic outside our office to go with a feature in the mag. It was all fine until he suggested trying some shots from our fourth floor balcony (we had to get permission from our landlord to go out there as it is decorative rather than usable feature of the building).
I'm not great with heights and my palms were sweating just thinking about it. It wasn't quite as bad as I'd imagined as there was a lip on the balcony which masked the sheer drop but I still felt the need to cling onto the railing with my elbow and concentrate hard on not thinking about where I was.
We aren't using the balcony shot big in the end as there wasn't enough traffic (typical) but are using one I took down at ground level as the main image. Proudness level: 9/10.
One of the few plus sides to the economy being up the spout is it means despite having a reduced budget the nice hotels have all dropped their prices to the point where they are expenses-friendly. This is a little boutique hotel in Leeds where we were hosting an event and we were all given upgrades to these beautiful rooms with a charming little seating area.
The bed was so lovely and squishy and feathery I could have sat in it and worked all day (had the hotel internet been working and had I not had to catch a train back to London).
The hotel also had this cute frog shaped soap which didn't really fit with the overall style but was fun.
I'm not great with heights and my palms were sweating just thinking about it. It wasn't quite as bad as I'd imagined as there was a lip on the balcony which masked the sheer drop but I still felt the need to cling onto the railing with my elbow and concentrate hard on not thinking about where I was.
We aren't using the balcony shot big in the end as there wasn't enough traffic (typical) but are using one I took down at ground level as the main image. Proudness level: 9/10.
The bed was so lovely and squishy and feathery I could have sat in it and worked all day (had the hotel internet been working and had I not had to catch a train back to London).
The hotel also had this cute frog shaped soap which didn't really fit with the overall style but was fun.
26/03/2010
QotD: My Mythical Creature
If you could have any mythical creature as a pet, what sort of creature would you choose and what special powers would it have?
Brought to you by How to Train Your Dragon. In theaters everywhere Friday.I'd have a Hippogriff like the ones in the Harry Potter books. I would fly it to work and just around generally. Wouldn't have to worry about it getting stolen either as they can be quite vicious. I'd keep it tethered in the park opposite my flat where it could feed on pigeons, rooks and magpies and any gangs of teens who happen across it's path.
It's special power would be to calm everyone around it.
24/03/2010
QotD: Ex-Pat
Where would you choose to live if you had to leave your country?
Until Feb I would have said Wellington in New Zealand but now it would have to be New York. It's the only place that could adequately feed my film and theatre addiction. And it has an infinite subject matter for photographs...
21/03/2010
Pierced lady
How much of it do you think she takes out at night?
Surely the world's biggest dogs
Or at least London's biggest. Their owner, the beige trousers in the pic, was having a pint outside a pub.
Breakdancers on the South Bank
Tried out the sports setting on my new camera and am quite pleased with the results. The camera automatically takes a series of shots over a couple of seconds or so which is great for fast moving subjects. More pics on flickr.
20/03/2010
For my viewing pleasure (part 1)
I wanted to write down a few thoughts about some plays and films I've seen recently but hadn't had time before I went away for work. Well I'm back so here goes...Films first:
Alice in Wonderland Love Tim Burton's slightly dark, slightly sinister and nightmarish style and it works so well with the characters Lewis Carroll created. The quirky dialogue tickled my sense of humour, I even got a fit of the giggles at one point. Not sure the 3D added anything to the experience although I did see it at a normal cinema rather than the IMAX so maybe on the big screen it has more impact. Came out of the cinema with a smile on my face.
The Hurt Locker Not one for war films usually, I wanted to see what all the Oscar fuss was about. It's shot in a reportage style and follows a team of bomb disposal experts in Iraq in what turns out to be pretty much a snap shot within their tour of duty. It refreshingly doesn't attempt to judge the conflict and the reasons for it, choosing to concentrate on the men and their daily job. It is immediately gripping and engaging but I could help feeling that after about an hour or so I had got the fact that it is an extremely dangerous and tense way to earn a salary, to the point where I started thinking 'enough now, please'. I'm glad it beat Avatar to the Oscar but it wouldn't have been my choice.
The Blind Side Went to see this at a free screening otherwise I'm not sure I'd have spent my money. Again I was curious to see why Sandra Bullock won the Oscar and having seen the film, I'm still curious. It's not that she is bad, far from it but I think it is the subject matter of the film rather than any particular strength in the performance which floated the academy's boat. Putting all that to one side I laughed, I cried; it is an entertaining, if slightly long film. However it is only the fact that it is based on a true story and has photo's of the real people under the credits which saves it from straying into cheesyness.
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo Having put last year's Let the Right One In up in my top five
films of 2009 I was looking forward to another Swedish cinematic offering. I went in knowing little else about it apart from the fact that it was a thriller and had the critics in a bit of a lather. It is a well constructed murder mystery that doesn't stretch feasibility too far. And, it is satisfying with all the threads of the story and character's back stories cleverly and neatly tied up by the end. Interesting characters too, well acted and all set against a sometimes bleak, sometimes sinister landscape. Tick, tick, tick.
In the Cannes
Hurray. My annual trip to the South of France for work is over for another year. Don't get me wrong, I'm not complaining that I get to work in sunny Cannes for a week. But three 18-hour days sandwiched by two early starts to travel there and back takes its toll.
It is fun but I am physically and mentally exhausted, my stomach is grumpy and my body is still on work/Cannes time and woke me up at 6am. Quiet weekend with maybe the odd afternoon cinema trip thrown in I think. Anyway I couldn't resist taking the odd non-work piccie...
The calm of the night before it all kicks off:
I'm very, very, very lucky to get put in a nice hotel. Very lucky. A lot of journalists end up on sofa beds in flea pits a 30Euro cab ride outside Cannes. I've stayed in the same hotel for the last three years and this year they've given the lobby a rose and lily theme. Although I must say that I didn't immediately think of a rose when I saw the chair...
And I'm not sure there were quite enough pillows on my bed.
And then there was the food. Some good and some, well some just down right strange and unappetising:
And I'm not sure there were quite enough pillows on my bed.
And then there was the food. Some good and some, well some just down right strange and unappetising:
19/03/2010
14/03/2010
13/03/2010
12/03/2010
07/03/2010
Johnny Depp/Captain Jack look-a-like
And quite a good one, I think. He had the swagger of Captain Jack but is a bit chunkier of build than the real thing.
If you want your fix then he can be found at Covent Garden. And he actually found my picture on Flickr, sent me a message and is using it on his website
(This picture is going to blow the stats on my Flickr account heh heh)
A sunny day in London, in early Spring
Finally it seems like the weather has started to turn a corner after a rotten winter and the blue sky was just too tempting....so I set off for a walk into to town with my camera...
More pics if you are interested on Flickr
05/03/2010
04/03/2010
03/03/2010
Dame Judi upstaged by Bottom
Last night was a night of theatre firsts for me. First time at the Rose Theatre in Kingston (not quite a trip to New York but it did involve getting on a real life train to get there), first time seeing a professional production of A Midsummer Night's Dream and first time seeing Dame Judi Dench on the stage.
And owing to Peter Hall's* wonderful production it was also the first time I have seen Shakespeare performed entirely in the costume of the period in which he lived and with some local Brummie accents.
Dame Judi plays Titania, a role she played for Hall back in the 60s. Shakespeare wrote A Midsummer Night's Dream during the reign of Elizabeth I and Hall dressed his Titania in the look we associate with the famous Tudor Queen, red curly hair dotted with pearls and beautiful corseted dresses.
She doesn't say anything when she first takes to the stage but even the audience seemed to sit to attention in her presence. Had I been standing I don't think I could have stopped myself doing a courtsey.
But Midsummers Night's Dream is a great ensemble piece and just when I was thinking that Dame Judi was going to steal the show in comes the magnificent Oliver Chris playing Bottom.
I know of Chris from his work on favourite comedy series of mine, Green Wing, but while he may have proved his comic credentials on telly, he cemented them on stage.
His superbly hammed-up death scene was so good that for the first time at the theatre I laughed so hard it hurt. Even some of the other members of the cast were laughing out of character.
There were a lot of teenagers in the audience, presumably it is an English set text for this years GCSE's or A-Level but what a fantastic introduction to Shakespeare on the stage. I'm quite jealous as my first taste was a rather dry production of Henry IV part I.
Completely unforgettable and if it transfers to the West End, which I hope it does, I'm going again.
* I didn't realise until last night that Sir Peter Hall set up the Royal Shakespeare Company
Some other reviews
The Independent "Dame Judi is a tip-top Titania and Bottom's not bad either"
The Guardian "I've also never seen a Titania more vocally and spiritually enraptured by the transformed Bottom."
What's On Stage "A conventional revival, maybe, but far too good to be snooty about."
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