Paul in London

DSC04091 , originally uploaded by Pauly_ . The Christmas lights, the people, and the Scientologists on the pavement peddling their little cult... It's Christmas time in London...

Saturday night I caught Sir Thomas Allen in a recital of music by Fauré, Duparc and Ravel at the Wigmore Hall . The first half was Fauré's La bonne chanson and L'Horizon chimérique and I thought they were great. I still had a bit of a hangover from all the merriment of Friday night so when it came to interval and everyone was bitching about how the old man was struggling through the music people started knocking back the drinks in the bar when they found out I was enjoying it. Well there are a couple of points to make here. The first is that Allen is only 62. The second is that as I had never heard some of this music performed before I was more interested in the music than the quality of the performance. But the audience was very appreciative of Allen... All told I preferred the Fauré works to the others. But I didn't hang around afterwards to get any of his CDs... I needed coffee...

DSC04047 , originally uploaded by Pauly_ . 'Tis the season for silly hats... These ones were pretty camp ones at that as well... Still the dinner that came with them was very nice...

Man with no shirt on: Um hey uh do you have any wax? Distracted Paul: Uh wax? Man with no shirt on: Yeah you know... for hair... Paul: I don't have wax... I have clay... Wanna try? Man with no shirt on: Oh I guess I could give that a shot... Paul (producing tin): Here, help yourself... Man with no shirt on: Oh so I just put a bit on my finger... Paul: And rub it... Man with no shirt on: Oh... Okay..

DSC00062 , originally uploaded by Pauly_ . Christmas lights in need of an ASBO...

Checkout lady (scanning Paul's shopping) : They found another body... Paul : Did they? You mean a fourth? Checkout lady : No a third*... She had been sssstrrrangled. Paul : Oh Checkout lady : You got club card? * The conversation took place before the news that two more bodies had been found in Suffolk today...

I have spent the last couple of days watching Superman II: The Richard Donner cut. For reasons that are too involved to explain (but rely a lot on the power of internet nerds) an almost complete (there is one screen test to substitute the film) second version of a sequel to a movie made thirty years ago has been released on DVD. This clip includes previously lost footage of Marlon Brando, Christopher Reeve and Margot Kidder and has some significantly different scenes. The YouTube clip above explains some of the differences. In all almost half this film did not appear in the original theatrical version that was credited to another director... Alas having seen what is now a rare extended cut on Australian television (which supplemented the original version with footage shot by Donner) neither this version nor the deleted scenes includes the great campy lines such as Ursa played by Sarah Douglas , screaming "MEN! TO KILL!" Perhaps one day all the lost footage can be found... Un...

Sunday night I caught a concert showcasing new music from composers in New York and London called Christmas in New York . It's great to see new music in the West End since most shows nowadays are juke box collections of classic hits or revivals. The only trouble is that new music doesn't always mean that it is great music. Even though it wasn't necessarily the case, by interval it felt like every song seemed either dour or trite or a bit of both. It would have been fine in an elevator but in a large theatre that was a bit of a problem. And surely only composer Frank Wildhorn could use a lyric call St Paul's Cathedral "ancient"? The British composers who had their new songs showcased tonight were good, but I still couldn't get over the rest. If it wasn't earnest, it was a song that would be good to slash up by. I guess music theatre was once at the cutting edge, but I wasn't thinking along these lines. I guess nowadays if you want cutting edge you d...