News: The reviews
The reviews for Guys and Dolls with Ewan McGregor have been largely positive, although those who saw the mythical National Theatre production in the eighties (and its revival in the nineties) have bagged the new production. Catching up with a few afficianados today while purchasing The Light in the Piazza cd, they suggested they took the musical fable part out of the show. This is a very Donmar Production thing to make a bright show darker and bleaker. While the set did look a bit like leftovers from their Grand Hotel production, and a bit of colour wouldn't have gone astray, I still thought it was great evening of entertainment (and Ewan)...
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Art: Summer Exhibition at the Royal Academy
Yesterday evening caught the The Royal Academy of Arts Summer Exhibition 2005 with the man from the Eurostar. It was fun and there were some wonderful works on display and for sale. Some cost more than a luxury car but that's art for you. I thought the giant statue of woman made out of dominoes for £80k seemed like a bargain. The double-six cut in two for nipples was a nice touch. In the same room however were two "mixed media" pieces that took a cute teddy bears and gave them evil gnarling killer looks, holding bright red powertools, and an array of dead animals underneath them. I loved it. Never mind the rest of the art, this was something that just appealed to my sense of humour and aesthetics. I suspected that my taste (and perhaps my sanity) was coming under question, but hey, cute teddy bears turned evil killers I just couldn't resist. I think they should mass-market the things... They would be a hit.
Friday Email banter I get into work and find this email in my inbox today... From: Manager Sent: 03 June 2005 09:24 To: Paul Subject: RE: Outrageous outbreak of individuality Importance: High Paul I was shocked and stunned to see that you are using Verdana instead of Arial for your email font. I had no idea you were such a maverick! To which my response was... From: Paul Sent: 03 June 2005 10:46 Subject: RE: Outrageous outbreak of individuality... Just Verdana it... Blame this outrageous outbreak on individuality on: Being a follower of Jakob Nielsen's readability / usability thing (putting into question just how individual I am I realise) Downright shocking personal preference for clean look of this san serif font Not being able to get enough of that generous inter-letter spacing, that aids on-screen legibility at the expense of efficiency in printed output As a temp of 16 months now becoming too much of a maverick All of the above... Wheth...
Theatre and the rest: Blood Wedding
Following my meeting with a stranger on the train, I was invited to see last night's production of Federico García Lorca's play Blood Wedding at the Almeida Theatre . There are two Garcia Lorca plays playing in London at the moment (I am seeing the other on Monday), but this one has movie star Gael García Bernal in it so the entire season has sold out. I was very chuffed to be going... Strangers on a train can lead to all sorts of interesting adventures...
It is a great production with a terrific international cast. García Bernal plays the man who steals a bride away on her wedding day. He is such a terriffic actor and just oozes sex you can almost forgive the bride for running off with him (although at the end you will still be muttering "bitch" about her)... Later, some people had quipped they didn't understand what all the fuss is about García Bernal is, but if you had sat in fourth row like I did with an unusual sig...
Travel continued: Its not the destination, its the journey... Getting to and from a destination is part of the fun of going by train. On the return leg yesterday from Lille to Waterloo it was a little more interesting than normal. It sort of went like this: Two small bottles of Bordeaux had certainly made me comfortable and relaxed as we went into the Euro Tunnel. It also took its toll on the bladder. Making my way to the bathroom I noticed I was being watched. When one is getting checked out it is always worth checking back. After leaving the bathroom I got the surprise of my life to see that he was right outside. At this point I explained to my colleagues at work (for the sake of brevity among other things) that I struck up a conversation, but that wasn't the case. Not expecting anyone outside the bathroom as I rolled back the door I was a tad startled and retreated back to my seat. Afterall, there is no mile-high club on a high speed train surely... But returning to ...