For anyone studying a Shakespeare play, I always recommend you go and see a stage performance. So it was great to see Black and White Sextet tonight, a modern adaption of Othello (one review here) which made practical use of modern news reports and mobile phones to help tell the story using abridged dialogue.
The small theatre made the emotion of the play very strong indeed and the ending was very well executed – a no holds barred approach to Desdemona’s nasty death which was far more powerful than a cutaway some larger productions might have been tempted to use. Oh, and Othello chased Iago offstage right past where I was sitting brandishing a sword which made me duck!
My experience was even better than simply watching the play, however, because Richard Earthy (Iago) is a friend of the family so he joined us for a drink afterwards with Fliss Walton (Desdemona) and the young university student in charge of lighting. This was amazingly and very useful as we discussed the play and various interpretations of it. Fliss completely changed my view of the meek Desdemona who was rather feisty and strong in this adaption, which is supported by considerable evidence in the text itself. The same goes for Emelia, Iago’s wife, who was also much stronger than we had imagined when reading in class. Shakespearian women have got guts, it appears.
It was slightly surreal as well. We mingled with Cassio and Emelia. Desdemona bought a round of drinks. Iago got some crisps and talked about his ‘gay wedding’ onstage in one scene with Othello. (See! I was right!) So I feel much closer to these characters now 
and how cool is that?
Somehow, I managed to forget what was clearly the most important item of the day – my appearance in a podcast by GG. (It’s towards the end, about 4/5ths of the way through.) Apparently this blog is not only amusing, but insightful too! Cheers GG – who does podcasts so wonderfully naturally I’m surprised he’s not on radio yet.
Also as some of you have already noted, my links section is now magically randomised for you to avoid any potential conflicts. OK, well maybe it’s just me being lazy and not wanting to order them. Whichever explanation you prefer.
OK wow, yes, I think I want to go to Cambridge now 
The shadowing scheme was excellent. Well, everyone agreed that the central organisation was rather weak in places so it really depended who you got assigned to stalk for the duration – I was lucky enough to get Krishna – a wonderful first year mathmo (ur, Maths student) who was a brilliant shadowee.
I stayed in his college, Gonville & Caius College, which I already feel fondly about compared to the others. (It’s surprisingly how quickly the college rivalries rub off on you!) I had the experience of sitting in the front row of a Cambridge Maths lecuture… of which I understood nothing, understandably. So I started noticing other things. Like the way one of the professors wrote out all the equations without any prompts whatsoever. And how the other stopped half way through to read Valentine’s limericks. And how someone pronounced graph as graff but otherwise had no Northern accent whatsoever. And the fact that the lecturer used the phrase ‘take it to the other side’ which my Maths teacher loathes. Ha!
I also got to go punting (Hooray! And I got to try it myself too! Pictures possibly to follow) and attend Krishna’s Maths supervision. A supervision is an almost direct tutoring with one or two students just going through the work, and usually without a little Sixth Former perched on a chair behind them. “Have you done any work on continuity yet?” he asked politely, while my shadowee laughed. I should have pointed out that until last term I didn’t know that differentiation existed.
All this aside – there’s no way I’ll get to Cambridge or anywhere else unless I actually do some school work. It feels like so long since I was at school I feel so out of it, but I’m sure on Monday everyone will delight in piling me with the work that I missed.
And I almost left out the story of how I got to Cambridge in the first place. I was going with Promise and booked coach tickets. Unfortunately she was slightly late due to bus delays so we missed it. Literally, I was running after it trying to catch up but to no avail. However – clear head in a crisis and all that – I thought to buy train tickets instead and we made it in time. Phew!
Talking of London transport, I got bored of paying adult Oyster fares so I finally got around to getting a 16-17 photocard for even cheaper Oyster. 
Well it’s true. On Valentine’s Day I went to see Munich, which is hardly the most romantic film in the world and probably not the thing to take your girlfriend too. It’s the story of the massacre of Israeli athletes at the Munich Olympics in 1972 by Palestinian terrorists and the subsequent vengeance killings organised by Golda Meir and Israel’s government. Essentially the message was the futility of such a plan because for every person you assassinate there will be plenty more to take his or her place, all you’ve accomplished is more death, more bloodshed and more bitter revenge. Both sides believe they’re fighting for the right to call a land their home, a feeling you can deeply appreciate if not truly understand.
I also discovered during the film that I can blame my mum for my dark sense of humour. There’s a scene where two men are attempting to assassinate a wealthy Arab and are hiding in his garden ready to take aim. My mum sees the swimming pool and leans over to me whispering “It’s Michael Barrymore’s party!” Soon enough, the pool did end up containing a dead body 
Right, on Wednesday it was great to meet up with some friends from school again. We planned to go bowling but finding it fully booked ended up watching Fun with Dick and Jane – the new comedy starring Jim Carrey. It’s… an odd little film. I definitely enjoyed watching it but that’s not to say it was actually a good movie, in fact, I wouldn’t have said they were even trying particularly hard to make a coherent film in the first place. Until five seconds ago when I looked it up on IMDB I didn’t know it was a remake which may go some way to explain this. I think this would have actually been the perfect Valentine’s Day film simply because couples could spend half the time snogging at the back, then watch a few scenes and not feel like you’ve missed much. (Dominic’s Valentine’s Day tips will not be a regular feature of this blog.)
Basically – if you want to go and see a good film, see Munich. If you need something to pass the time and don’t mind a rather cartoony plot, Dick and Jane might be more your thing. If you think combining these two films into some kind of slapstick massacre film would be interesting, you’ve officially sunk to my depths. Well, Fabio and I. Oh it was good to go into full force religious mocking again without fear of a fatwa, but I did get a very odd look from a woman pushing a buggy on the way back home when I joked that we were glorifying terrorism (we weren’t, don’t worry) rather too loudly. She just turned round and gave me that “I’m reporting you to the Daily Mail” stare that shut me right up.
Continue Reading
A little while ago I stumbled across Ebon Musings. It’s a very well argued Atheist site with nicely written essays so I sent the author a note to say so. Well, while I was in New York an email landed in my inbox to announce the launch of Daylight Atheism – his new project in blog form.
I’m always wary of ever acting like Atheism is some sort of cult, with binding beliefs or philosophies. It’s not a group and it’s not a movement, and there can’t be any leader or structure, because it’s not a religion – it’s just a state of belief. So I’m not at all promising that it will reflect my own views (although chances are they’ll be pretty close ). That disclaimer aside: go check it out. Worth reading, especially as written by an American who finds himself in an increasingly fundamentalist country.
And on a totally different note – I fulfilled a lifetime ambition today and bought a copy of Broadcast, ‘the weekly newspaper of the television and radio industry.’ Hurrah! I missed the news about FilmFour launching on Freeview in July too. 
Helen on It’s (waiting) time.: “Fabulous news, congratulations to you both! X” Jun 8, 21:51
