(OK, I was lying – this blog may indeed be continuing in its free incarnation for some time to come. You can think of it as a loss leader if you want. But the James Murdoch post did attract an exciting mini-flurry of retweets, including the fabulous Emily Bell, as well as kind words from the editor of nothing less than TV & Satellite Week. So worth upsetting the neighbours for.)
The first half of my week was spent with the proud mother of a new (and beautiful) blog in fair almost-Birmingham, wherein we played Cluedo (she won), ate pizza (I won) and saw Funny People (there were no winners). Good grief. I actually quite enjoyed the first hour or so, but there are 1960s Doctor Who serials which are better edited for pace, and that was back when every single edit was a physical (and expensive) cut of the tape. You have no excuse in 2009 for making me feel that it might be 2012 before this slow meander is going to come to some sort of a ‘conclusion’, by which of course I mean ‘eventual standstill’.
I also had a very 1950s-esque evening in which Andy and I went out to the pub and left Lucy and Lou behind to knit play Battleships on Sky Games. Except I’m not sure that 1950s men-escaping-from-women would have supplemented beer with melted chocolate pudding. And this means it wasn’t really a pub, it was a pub / restaurant. And you can’t pay for each round with a debit cards and kid yourself that you’re anywhere close to the 1950s. But regardless of all this, it was a lovely evening!
Upon my return I became a lucky recipient of Abbi’s spare gig ticket and saw Jack’s Mannequin at KOKO. A fully furnished gig review is naturally available, and all I would add is that I had a really great time. (Oh, and do I really look under 14, doorman? It’s cool if I do – eternal youth is fine by me – but do let me know if I’ve been missing out on child rate train fares all this time.)
[This paragraph is intentionally blank in order to allow the reader to take a moment to pause and read the blog of a more productive human being. Go do that… now. I’ll wait. Right, all done? Then I’ll continue!]Finally, last night I met up with Oliver, Abi and Sarah to see Troilus and Cressida at the Globe. Two things. One: the Globe really has been fantastically done, hasn’t it? It looks beautiful – almost as beautiful as a JLE station.* Two: wow! The play felt like a collection of Shakespeare’s greatest hits, filled with laugh-out-loud moments but with none of the irritation incurred by the comedies. According to Wikipedia (and thus surely worthy of no further question) it was probably written soon after Hamlet, probably – Dominic supposes without evidence – as an antidote to that misery-fest. So, yeah, I enjoyed Troilus and Cressida. (Although I can’t watch a character called Ajax without expecting him to start talking about the mingled yarn of life’s web 2.0.)
(*I love them. I appear to be in a minority.)
