Quote Of The Day

"Victory goes to the player who makes the next-to-last mistake - Chessmaster Savielly Grigorievitch Tartakower (1887-1956)"

Tuesday, July 30, 2013

Tough Day At Work #1...

Working late. No time for lunch or supper. Home 11pm with problems still to resolve. Pah!

Monday, July 29, 2013

Tuesday, July 23, 2013

Tuesday, July 16, 2013

Stu turns 40...

The old boy has turned a corner. More pics to follow but love this one from way back when.


Thursday, July 11, 2013

The Drowned Man: A Hollywood Fable...

Last night Stu and I went to Punkdrunk's The Drowned Man: A Hollywood Fable in the imagined Temple Studios in London's not so glitzy Paddington.

Billed as a promenade experience we walked around a vast cavernous ex-Post Office sorting office dressed as a number of film sets. In the back lot were the dressing rooms, the props rooms the make-up, costumes and the wigs. On set were the desert, an ice lake, various interiors and the forest. No really.

We were silent and wearing masks as the actors danced around us playing out stories of love, betrayal and death.

It was a truly immersive experience with loud environmental noise, dimmed rooms and secret passageways. All great fun. It was at times exciting, at times boring. You needed to seek out where the action was taking place - which itself could be a bit of a challenge. You'd walk into a room just as some episode was finishing. Or the other masked patrons would be crowding around something so you, standing at the back, couldn't see.

Still, the attention to detail was sublime. Every shop, every hotel room, every scarecrow's funeral, every changing room was meticulously dressed.

It was a sort of Secret Cinema but without the film. It was our first Punchdrunk performance and I don't think it'll be our last.

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Tuesday, July 09, 2013

Humidity's Rising...

Some days you are just pleased they are over. Some mornings you wake up more tired than when you go to sleep. 

Thursday, July 04, 2013

Shoot The Messenger...

I hate when you have to give unreasonable people bad news. Because they then perform true to type. 'Nuff said.

Tuesday, July 02, 2013

Laurie Anderson and the Kronos Quartet...

Last Friday Paul and I went to the Barbican Hall to see Landfall - Laurie Anderson's latest work - this time a collaborative work with the Kronos Quartet.

These two new musical colossuses joined for a 75 minute mildly whimsical and often diverting rag bag of pieces which were at times captivating but at times frustratingly brief.

Anderson's stories of Hurricane Sandy, her flooded archive and the frustration of other people telling you about their dreams were engaging enough but like the musical works all too brief.

It's almost as if Anderson was too deferential to the Quartet with their sublime fiddling and so lost her own captivating performance style.

One aspect that really worked though was when letters, symbols and words fluttered across a screen at the back, magically coordinated by some computer software to the sounds being played

Next time though let's have our Laurie back doing what she does best. Solo work.

Monday, July 01, 2013

Gay Gooners...


Last Saturday was Gay Pride in London. The recently formed Gay Gooners group were marching with the full support of the Arsenal Fooball Club. Naturally I went down to join them in my full replica kit and we all had a great time chanting and singing and feeling proud. I all but lost my voice by the end.

Interestingly huge cheers went up from Arsenal fans both gay and straight.  "Good on you" they shouted. "Arsene Wenger's Red Army we shouted back"

The odd boo (but good natured 'boo') from the watching crowd was generally from Chelsea or Tottenham Hotspur fans. I went over to them and guesturing to the march said, "Where are Spurs and Chelsea then?" and they nodded and agreed. "Next year" they said, "next year we should be here too." And they should. As long as we out nubmer them!

An Arsenal fan first. Gay second. As it should be.