green_amber

THis was where I took yesterday's pictures:-)

I thougt this was going to be just another stand up, having picked up a a spare ticket from Snotnose and knowing it was a sell out as he'd won the Perrier the year before. In the event it turned out it was the last show of the run; the Beeb were filming it; it was hopelessly over running so it started after midnight and went on till after one; and the guy who was clearly mad on speed./ all this added up to an INTERESTING evening. It was meant to be a story about passive resistance in Amsterdam, but he kept diverging into talking about fucking and fisting, people walked out in droves, hecklers wandered on to the stage, there was nearly a fight, then he took all his clothes off to make some kind of a point, then it turned out he'd got HUNDREDS of people to wander around and on stage naked giving out flowers and singing "No more war".

I felt I got my money's worth:)

Personalised LOL-Lj Generator!

via purelyskindeep

Marcus Brigstocke v v g as long you're an atheist non-American who doesn't read the Daily Mail or drive a 4 X 4 - which of course would be no-one reading this journal:-)

Oh my lord. For those who follow the Tomster, his own account of his show so far..
http://scotlandonsunday.scotsman.com/topics.cfm?tid=1623&id=1223432007

The Bedlam Theatre Oxford Uni version of Stoppard's Arcadia was superb, if very slightly rushed - it's such a dense text, it's like watching The West Wing without a rewind button. Almost two hours with no interval, take water in with you :-) Especially good parts taken by the young Thomasina (I didn't get the actor's names) and Lady Groom, played a little a la Catherine Tate I think. I saw the original London production in 93 and I think this Thomasina actually takes a better part than the pro actress on the London stage. The main female actress's approach is interestingly modelled, I think on Felicity Kendal, Stoppard's leading lady since the 90s, and predominant muse of the time. Proper thoughts on the actual text which is a tour de force on art, science, love, sex, history, literature, po-mo and fractal theory, to follow. I think it's a sell out , but if not, go!!

Then to The Bacchae at ye actual proper Festival, helas, with the much-trumpeted (hmm) Alan Cumming's bum, playing Dionysus the wine god as a Glasgow semi-transvstite dancer (from Olympia not Transylvania, but..). The Greek chorus are transformed into a Tamla Motown line up of glamorous black songstresses in shimmy red dresses, an inspired move (all the dull chorus stuff is turned into songs), and Cumming brilliantly uses his past associations with Glasgow panto and high camp to shift effectively between the louche and the threatening. Dionysus IS a rock god after all - and here that's how he's played, , mike, groin action and all, at least for the first hour or so. The staging is visually brilliant especially on an almost wholly uncluttered white stage (now i think about it, much of it looks like a White Stripes video), the eventual apparition of divinity revealed is almost perfectly done using intense lighting. But the pace drags - it's almost 2 hours with no interval (again! and even hotter! they do give you free paper fans as you go in..)and although David Greig's translation into quasi-Glasgow-gangster poetry is on the whole pithy and evocative, it's just too damn long, especially the "emo" 2nd half (this adjective somehow strikes me as just right suddenly for the Greek drama obsession with rending of garments and tearing of hair).

It was interesting seeing it with Andy who knew nothing of the Greek theatre tropes of all violence off stage, and of unity of place, theme and action. "Why does everything important get reported by someone else?" he said. Well, indeed. (MInd you JKR was still having problems with this in the last Harry Potter and she isn't even Greek.) In some ways this production for all its glitzy chorus is probably still too traditional. I certainly think they'd do better to cut some of the later lamentation scenes with Agave. It'd be interesting to hear what other classical scholars heading this way think of it (childeric?)

And on to traditional piss up with Shouting Book Club (part of) : talking loudly over each other, vilifying the Filmhouse wine list and showing each other phone cam pix. We'll all have lunch and go to see Warhol. Home sweet home:-)

http://www.wired.com/software/webservices/news/2007/08/open_social_net

Wired calls for the OS community to build a non proprietary social networking site a la Facebook.

But er isn't that LJ??

In other news: in bed with a bad head cold after a fairly sleepless night. Throat is sore and tummy weird. Pah!!!

Have to be ok by tonight as have tickets to see Adam Hills and Rich Hall with Snotnose's gang!!!

Last night: first show, Sean Lock, pretty good if a tad Anglocentric. JOkes about what a shit summer it's been ("only not such a surprise for you lot I suppose?"), the environment (ve-ry Home Counties), the smoking ban ("yes you've had it for a year here already but it's material isn't it?") I felt slightly embarrassed for himn. Very smooth comedy though. Also luverley yakitori, gyoyza and yakisoba at Bonsai. mm. One bottle of Sapporo made me feel v strange tho so i went home to cough and sniffle :(

Weekend past was lovely; lilitufire's welcome home lunch at Pancho Villas (shame I went to Viva Mexico first, wasn't it!!); King Kong and pizza at Andy's new and rather nice flat, surrounded by an infinity of boxes plus hyperactive ginger kitten; lots and lots of SLEEP; late lunch at Urban Angel with thishardenedarm and his pal "Don't Tell the Google" Ish at Urban Angel, dodging the Fringe parade traffic, and a long wistful walk through an almost autumnal Edinburgh past the galleries of Dundas Street and the restaurants of Stockbridge, along the Water of Leith and beyond the Modern Art Gallery. Came back and saw my first ep of Studio 60, which was brill - how long has it ben on C4?