Olivier Dubois Company’s Tragédie...

Last Friday night Stuart, Darren and I went to see Olivier Dubois Company’s Tragédie at the Sadler’s Wells in London’s glitzy Islington.

Consisting of three parts; it was in turns repetitive, desensitising, hypnotic, visceral, a little bit rude. Nine men, nine women and not a stitch on.

Initially all the naked dancers did was walk from the back of the stage directly to the front of the stage and turned on the heels to repeat the process once again. This was performed to a dull thumping bass line. After half an hour we kind of got it. We were desensitising to the nudity.

As the piece progressed to the later stages however things got more interesting. The dancers started to twitch. And jump. And move in diagonals. The music got more chaotic and the movement reflected this. Soon the piece became more tribal with a wild pumping beat and the dancers started to synchronise their pulsating actions.

By the final section the dancers were performing to a thumping techno beat and hectic, vibrant dancing ended up as writhing around on stage in an ecstatic orgy of humping flesh.

We loved it.


Teaser Tragedie from Tommy Pascal on Vimeo.

Lunchtime Walk...

I went on a local walk this lunchtime as part of Baker Street Quarter Partnership's free walks series.
I ended up doing a salsa dance class, going to an art gallery, visiting a c18 real ale pub and then in the Monocle cafe. Highly recommended.
http://www.bakerstreetquarter.co.uk/Walks-9183.html

Secret Cinema 21...

On Saturday night Stu, Darren, Tim and I went to the latest Secret Cinema in the old Town Hall in London's trendy Crouch End. We'd been told what to wear, where to go and who to meet - but were a bit surprised (and mildly disappointed) by the film. It was a 'classic' - just a not very good one!

The 'business' beforehand was excellent would with all the actors playing their part very well.

Still worth a punt on SC even if the film choices can be a bit variable.

Secret Cinema...

A few weeks ago Stu and I went to the latest Secret Cinema event.

There are mild spoilers below so if you are going - read no further!

It's hard not to give the game away with these films  - but to be honest everyone I spoke to knew what it was before they had arrived. Suffice to say it was good film.

This time the event was held down in West Croydon at the old thirteen-story BT offices. The place had been done out like a make-shift Ministry of Information which we could roam about in until the film started proper.

We had become employees of the newly formed G.O.O.D. organisation where we had been assigned to the Committee for Credit Creation (Keynes Department K-4.06/F). We started our 'work' at 6:30pm prompt in our trusty grey suits. About twenty of us sat around a large meeting room table trying to come up with ways to generate wealth and sell the idea to the general public. It was fun and funny.

After that we headed up a floor to the media area where we filmed an advert with a group of other people - something about a mother, a loud-haler and her lazy kids running down for breakfast. Don't ask.

Then we just wandered about - there were masks and a party and a typewriting class and an office with a table that moved and showroom dummies and a restaurant and rooms with paper flowing out of the walls and people, lots of people. It was great fun.

The film was projected in the central atrium with the sound coming out of speakers behind us. The footage was fairly dim and so hard to see but the environment more than made up for that.

Another triumph for SC. Now if only they had sorted out the licencing so we could have had a drink...

Secret Cinema...

Last Friday Stu and I went to Secret Cinema. Tell no one.

This Is England: The Musical...

A fantastic rap by Dan Bull summarising the film This Is England.

The Frick Collection...

On the plane on the way over to JFK we fell into conversation with an old New York lady in the seat next to us. She was full of advice of places to visit in the city. Top of her list was Frick Collection at the Frick Museum. And boy was she right. We went on Tuesday. It was amazing and the list of the painters on show was incredible.

The collection features some of the best-known paintings by major European artists, as well as numerous works of sculpture and porcelain. Included in the collection are Jean-Honoré Fragonard's masterpiece, The Progress of Love, three paintings by Johannes Vermeer including Mistress and Maid, and Piero della Francesca's St. John the Evangelist. Other featured artists include: Barna da Siena, Gentile da Fabriano, Giovanni Bellini (The Ecstasy of St. Francis), François Boucher, Cimabue, John Constable, Jean-Baptiste Camille Corot, Jacques-Louis David
Aelbert Cuyp, Thomas Gainsborough, El Greco, Francisco Goya, Frans Hals, Malvina Hoffman, Hans Holbein the Younger, Rembrandt, Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Andrea Riccio, Jacob van Ruisdael, Titian, J. M. W. Turner, Anthony van Dyck, Diego, Velázquez, James McNeill Whistler and Jan Van Eyck.