Paul in London

Technology and the thoroughly modern lifestyle Today it occurred to me that between my flatmate and I we have 3 televisions 3 VCRS 3 dvd players / burners 2 computers 3 digital cameras Its a lot of junk to have... Not to mention the PDA and the iPOD. All this technology reminded me of being in Fopp yesterday (which is a great music, dvd, books and record store) and heard a new track from Daft Punk's latest album - Human After All "technologic": Buy it, use it, break it, fix it, trash it, change it, melt - upgrade it, charge it, pawn it, zoom it, press it, snap it, work it, quick - erase it, write it, get it, paste it, save it, load it, check it, quick - rewrite it, plug it, play it, burn it, rip it, drag and drop it, zip - unzip it, lock it, fill it, curl it, find it, view it, curl it, jam - unlock it, surf it, scroll it, pose it, click it, cross it, crack it, twitch - update it, name it, read it, tune it, print it, scan it,

TV: The return of Dr Who Last night while I was off at the National, I did set the VCR to record the return of Dr Who. Naturally fans gathered to mark Doctor Who comeback . Although not a fan, any show that features a man-eating wheelie bin can't be all that bad...

Scenes from Tottenham Court Road Saturday 3pm. Scientologists and Protesters collide outside their main shop (for non celebrities) in London. And I have to walk past this every day... A few police were on hand to make sure it was all kept civil...  

Theatre: His Dark Materials Part II Snapped up a front row seat to see His Dark Materials Part II at the Olivier theatre. Based on the stories of Phillip Pullman, they have turned it into two three hour plays that cover epic journeys, religion, morality, good and evil and so on and so on... I figured Part I may have covered a lot of exposition in its three hour length, and so the three hours of Part II may have been more about the action. It actually doesn't work out like that ( given both parts have different stories to tell ) but anyway. Sitting in front row meant that as the stage rose and sunk and moved around you did tend to miss out on the action, but you also got the sense at times you were part of the action. It was quite a spectacle and something that really used all the tricks of the Olivier Theatre. Even more of a spectacle were some of the actors and puppeteers, (although that has less to do with the overall appeal of the show and more about my personal taste)... It wa

Scenes from Skanky London: Centre Point plaza at Tottenham Court Road Saturday afternoon... 

Monster music on Good Friday: St Matthew Passion Caught the (near) sell out concert of St Matthew Passion with the City of London Sinfonia and BBC Singers last night. Richard Hickox conducted, and the Evangelist was played by Tom Randle who was superb. The first time I had seen someone treat the role as though it was retelling a drama and not reciting an oracle (although the music at times does tend to lend itself to being the latter). At three hours in length however it is a marathon effort - for the performers and the audience. It is one of those pieces that can work really well or fail spectacularly. I was in a performance of the latter once, so it was nice to see the former happen last night. For those in the audience that didn't feel like DVT was setting in, they rewarded the performers with a raptuous applause. They had definitely earned it, and you could sense the relief in the faces of the orchestra members and chorus that it was over. They certainly earned their performa

Music: Musical Theatre Students Thursday night caught a performance of this year's Musical Theatre Students at the Royal Academy of Music . It was ninety minutes of songs from musical theatre from this year's class that includes Ian H Watkins (or H as he is known). He wasn't a star for this performance however - it was the class and the ensemble on show. I went with a group of musical aficionados which meant while they were appreciative of a good performance, they was also pretty ruthless when some individuals chose songs that just didn't work for them. Beware the group of musical aficionados if the costumes look too tight, there is a milky white stain on your trousers, or if the song isn't right for you... On the other hand I was wondering whether they were getting marks for degree of difficulty, such as the man who couldn't pronounce "H" singing the Billy Joel song "Say Goodbye to (H)ollywood" or the woman who just didn't have the not

Scenes from Euston Square Station 19:03.