So, just how do you buckle a swash? (slight spoiler alert)

I went to see the second Pirates of the Caribbean movie yesterday, and have mixed views on it. I normally love a bit of swashbucking, with pirates and big frocks. I can’t fault the scenery – John Depp and Orlando Bloom in the same movie, can’t be bad, and I have to admit to a soft spot for Jack Davenport – but it did feel very much like ‘part one, of two’ in that it seemed to take a long time to get going, the plot was pretty thin (with rather too much slime for my liking – yeucch!), with a few ‘set piece’ action sequences which seemed to add little to the story line, and seemed to be purely there for comedy value and to gloss over the plot holes. I’d like to have seen the triangle of Jack/Elizabeth/Will developed further and I didn’t cry for Jack, as he’s clearly going to be back in the next film.

As for the script, well, it wasn’t a patch on any of the last series of Dr Who.

I go on about electrical equipment again

I took the dvd player back to Currys on Saturday. No problems, they didn’t even take it out of the box, just told me to get a new one. I’m now not sure if this is a good sign in terms of customer service, or a bad one, in that they’ve had a lot back that don’t work.

I think I’ll be going back next week with the mp3 player, which has shown no inclination to work at all.

This weekend, I moved onto more mundane things, and bought a new Dyson!

Shopping, Paris style

We're in a Tescos on the outskirts of Leeds (only slightly scary) collecting together the ingredients for an impromptu picnic.

'Do you know you hold your basket like Paris Hilton?'

Me: 'what?' (I have the basket in the crook of my arm, as usual) 'doesn't everyone hold it like this?'

I look around, and see that everyone else is holding thier basket by the handle, I reflect that this may be the reason I seem to have a lot of collisions in supermarkets. I try the alternative. It not only doesn't feel right, but I now can't get items off the shelves, and the basket seems much heavier. I revert to 'Paris' style.

Google-ing

I 'googled' myself today, as I wanted to check this blog, and hadn't got the address with me. It was actually quite scary to find that if you stick 'theatre snob' into Google, I'm the third down on the list!

Blackpool (aka the one with all the footnotes)

I've been to Blackpool twice. Once on a freezing day at the beginning of March, as part of the now legendary 'Radio Tour'. I think that was the day I became manager of our ficticious 'girl band'. And we didn't see much of Blackpool apart from an old man's pub, a very scary roundabout, and the radio station. The second time was last year, as part of our JCS* touring. This time it was May, but for some reason Blackpool still seemed shut, and it rained. A lot. I nearly ruined a new pair of shoes**. I think you can say I wasn't impressed.

So, http://www.bbc.co.uk/drama/blackpool/***, the drama series, passed me by. I guess I was aware of it, but the title probably put me off, and if I had read about it, the comparisons with Dennis Potter**** would also have put me off. But this weekend, I bought the dvd*****, and I love it. Funny, absorbing, quirky, and very well acted.

It explores the seedy side of life, focussing on Ripley Holden, a self made 'jack the lad', owner of an amusement arcade but with ambitions to build Blackpool's first 'casino hotel. I'm not giving anything away here, as you learn all this in the first 5 minutes. The series revolves around Ripley and his dysfunctional family, his neglected wife, Natalie, his daughter, the bizarrely named Shyanne, and his son. And a suspicious death, which the police become involved in. And I say no more, other than to highly recommend it.

Oh, and did I forget to mention, it also stars the lovely David Tennant, as the detective inspector?

And as for an update on the dvd player - it now seems to have no power - I think it's going back to the shop!

*Jesus Christ Superstar (can't think why I'm explaining this)
**don't you just hate it when you go out in new shoes in the rain?!
***unpretty link, as I still don't know how to do the pretty ones
****I feel the same about Potter as I do about Pinter, I just don't get it
*****what, you thought I bought the dvd player because it was on sale?!!

Where I have another battle with technology

If you'd not realised by now, computers and other technical things don't like me, and I have absolutely no logic where they are concerned. It always seems to me that you need a degree in this stuff to be able to understand the instructions! Anyway, after umming and ahhing for a while, I gave in to the sales yesterday, and bought a dvd player, and an mp3 player (the fact that I went in for a clock radio, as mine failed to wake me up two days running last week, is beside the point).

It can't be too difficult, I thought, surely with the right leads I just plug it in...wrong!! So I sat there, in front of the tv, with dvd player plugged in, and connected up, dvd inserted, pressing buttons...nothing...it was on, the little drawer went in and out, but as for a picture, no. Did I have the right channel, should I have it switched to tv rather than Sky? Why don't they tell you the simple things like that? Eventually I gave up, and came to play withthe mp3 player - should be easy, just plug it into the usb port...nothing...installed some stuff off the cd...computer crashed...still nothing. Hmmmm!

So I asked around at work today if I was doing anything wrong with the dvd player? No, apparently it should come on straight away. Was it broken? How do I know, I just assume it knows it's me that's bought it, and decides not to work.

Back at home, I decide to try again...insert dvd...press a few buttons...nothing. Check the back...

The scart lead had fallen out of the back of the tv! Whoooohooo - I have pictures.

The mp3 player still won't download though. Oh well, one thing at a time!

Bookshops

I got sucked into the farthest reaches of Borders today. I love bookshops, you can get pulled so far in, going from one book to another, and that's what I did, finding myself spending nearly an hour in there.

To really wallow, you need to be upstairs, away from the crowds (our Borders gets a lot of tourists buying books on York, and calendars). As you wander, the world kind of fades into the background. If that sounds odd, I suppose what I mean is that when I'm absorbed in a book, I simply don't hear what's going on around me. You can speak to me, and I won't hear it.

I wasn't even looking for anything in particular, but I found myself in the Arts section, which led me to Shakespeare, which led me to looking at so many books that I wanted, picking them up, glancing at them, but unable to think of a good reason to buy them. I was very tempted by Dominic Dromgoole's book 'Will and Me', which I didn't buy, but only because of the £17.99 price tag. I just know that one day I'll give in though.

It actually felt a little strange leaving and walking out into the Saturday morning crowds again. Suddenly everything seemed particularly loud, as though the volume had been turned up.

You know you're obsessed when...

you spot a Dr Who Dalek cake in M&S, and, just for a moment, think about buying it because there's a cute picture of David Tennant on the box!

In the words of a friend who's seen it all before 'it'll get worse before it gets better!'

Oh dear...

Melting

And so today was the hottest day on record for 100 years or so. And I love it, apart from the fact I had to work.

Apparently the roads in Liverpool were melting, and they had to close some of them - thankfully none of the ones I had to use to get home though!

And then Mrs Jonah did throw the Wagon Wheels

Yes, more Mystery Plays yesterday. I watched some of the ones again from last week, and caught a couple that I'd missed, one of them very bad, the other the Crucifixion, which was technically accomplished, but had some bizarre directorial choices (if they were choices) such as Jesus not making a sound as nails were supposedly hammered through flesh and bone - the words are graphic and horrific, surely there should be a reaction? As we sat there eating ice cream, it seemed to me to be just the sort of thing that the crowd would have done, if they'd had ice cream at the time.

The best plays were definitely Adam and Eve, and the Holy Spirit at Pentecost (which no longer had confetti bombs, but then as some of the streamers from last week were still stuck in the trees, perhaps that was why) both of which showed what could be done as an ensemble with a bit of imagination.

After a break for wine and food (well, it's almost biblical) we went to see 'Off the Wagon', a send up of the plays, which featured a pantomime version of Jonah, where Jonah and Geppetto* were in the belly of the whale, we all had to shout out, and then sing 'When you wish upon a star' while Mrs Jonah threw Wagon Wheels into the audience. Now, there's not much that can get a York audience as excited as a Wagon Wheel**. An innkeeper clearing up after the Last Supper, ('I'm sure they bring their own wine y'know - just order bread and water, and then the minute your backs turned...'), and in the midst of it all a surprisingly moving monologue by the Woman taken in Adultery.

A lovely day - despite the sunburn!

*No I'm not sure how he got there either
**I caught a Wagon Wheel - whooohoo!

Italia 2006 part 2

After a bit of a break while I got sucked into the last episode of Dr Who, and my viewing of the Mystery Plays, and then the world of work (busy week, but then they all are these days!), I’m returning to my tales of Italy.

Having had a couple of days of playing ‘follow the umbrella’, I decided to strike out on my own. Only as far as Diano Marina, about 10 mins down the road, but still, I felt intrepid, buying my bus tickets and trying out my Italian. A little leisurely shopping and sitting in cafes was just what I needed. By about the fourth day of the holiday I think I’d relaxed into it.

Then I did my main trip of the holiday – along the coast, through Genoa, and down the Riviera di Levante to Santa Margherita and Portofino. Unfortunately the main Italian summer holiday traffic delayed our arrival in Santa Margherita, so we only had time for lunch there before getting a boat across the bay to Portofino. This was one of those memories you want to bottle, and take out on a wet cold and miserable day at home, or on a particularly bad day at work. It was gorgeous – arriving by boat, passing the incredible yachts in the harbour, clearly belonging to some of the beautiful people, although we didn’t see any of them, as the cafes and restaurants round the harbour were full of tourists like us. Maybe they hide away on their yachts during the day, and then come out at night? I’d certainly go back to that area, but I’d want to stay at Santa Margherita, or Rapallo, which are bigger and, lets face it, have more shops.

What else did I do? Well the pace of life had slowed down, so a couple of times we walked to Cervo, a beautiful village with shady narrow streets, set on the hillside, discovering cafes with wonderful views across the bay, where you could sit in the sun (or rather the shade) and drink cocktails, and on the last day where we sat and had a long and leisurely Italian lunch at a lovely restaurant, ordering our food in a combination of English, Italian and French.

Ah, Bella Italia – I guess I’ll be going back.

It's a Mystery - chosen children and cursed caitiffs

Yesterday I went to see the Wagon Plays* in York. These are the medieval Mystery Play Cycle, and every few years** the city mounts either a full scale production or a small scale version on wagons in the streets of the city. The wagon plays are actually the more authentic version, as this is how they were originally presented.

This year it was the turn of the wagons, and a number of City Guilds and local groups each presented one of the plays, from The Creation through to The Last Judgement. You get a slightly different selection of plays each time, but the core elements of the story are always there – The Creation, Adam and Eve, The Crucifixion, The Resurrection and The Last Judgement. This time we also had the Entry into Jerusalem, (which made me want to launch into ‘Hosanna’), and the Harrowing of Hell along with curiosities like Christ and the Doctors in the Temple (pretty dull). I was sorry that there was no ‘Noah’s Ark’ this time though, as I always think of that as ‘my’ play.

We watched them at a couple of stations, and missed a few of the plays – it’s a long stand if you are going to watch them all. I missed the crucifixion, but then I think I’ve seen enough of those in the last year or so to last me for a while. Some were definitely better than others, some told the story straight, whilst others, with the benefit of better actors*** and direction were very inventive and great fun.

The best ones were Adam and Eve, with a cynical female God, who herself munched on the apple as she looked down on Adam and Eve cast out from Paradise, The Entry into Jerusalem (fun with a wooden donkey, and for ‘Jerusalem’ read the gates of York), and The Descent of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, performed by a young and enthusiastic cast complete with balloons, confetti bombs and throwing of pots (literally) – well, it was the Potter’s Play. Some moments were unexpectedly moving, such as the rapturous welcoming of Jesus into the city, by the mob who would turn against him a few days later.

The impact of the language always strikes me – difficult to read, yet easy to understand when spoken, with great alliteration and a rhythm and energy that feels very modern. They weren’t meant to be read but were the secular version of the story, by the people of the town. The character of Jesus in many of the plays has a sense of humour, though I’m not sure they’d ever have seen the resurrected Christ as a council workman complete with Hi-Viz jacket.


*You know one of these days I am going to have to learn how to do links, so that I don’t have to explain this

**the ‘full’ version used to be produced every 4 years, but the last ones were in 2000, and because of finances it seems the next ones aren’t likely to be until 2010, and don’t even start me on this, as I’m like to go into a rant.

*** when I criticised some of the acting I was told ‘It’s not the RSC you know’. And I know it’s not, but as a Theatre Snob, I’m afraid I can’t ignore it.

Goodbye, Rose Tyler

SPOILER ALERT - if you haven't seen tonight's episode

Tonight I cried with you, and for you and for the Doctor. I mean really cried, noisy sobbing on the sofa, for the end of a relationship. At least you didn’t die, which was what I’d expected, but you and the Doctor are now not just worlds, but realities, apart. And both of you have broken hearts. As I said in an earlier blog, I do love a love story.

I have loved this series of Doctor Who. Some of the episodes have been greater than others, but to have well written drama gracing a Saturday evening makes such a change. In so many ways this series has been about the relationship between Rose and the Doctor. In ‘Doctor Who Confidential’ Russell T Davies said that they’d known from the start of the series that Billie Piper was leaving, and that has been clear from the arc of the plot. So many things happened that have greater meaning later in the series. We’ve had monsters and near death experiences but through it all, it’s always been Rose and the Doctor. If we were missing this in anyway, the other characters kept telling us – Mickey, Jackie, they knew they were on the periphery. So many times they were nearly separated – in ‘The Satan Pit’, in ‘Fear Her’, but finally, two weeks ago, Rose said ‘they keep trying to split us up, but they never ever will’ and the Doctor solemnly replied ‘Never say never ever’.

For me, one of the key episodes was ‘School Reunion’ which brought back Sarah Jane Smith to show Rose what life was like ‘after the Doctor’, and she had never been able to move on with her life, until he finally came back at the end of the episode to say Goodbye.

In this last episode, some may say it was about a battle between the Daleks and the Cybermen for the Earth, but it wasn’t. Rose never doubted that the Doctor would save the world or that she would be there with him. After he ‘saved’ her by returning her home at the end of the last series she wasn’t about to leave him again, even if it meant never seeing family and friends again. And he accepted that, even if it meant risking her life as well as his.

But now, Rose is still alive, but separated from him for ever, and they both have to live with that. The supreme piece of acting tonight was the moment when each stood at the wall of the void. He didn’t say a word but the pain of loss was just there in his face.

Finally, he found a way to send an image across realities so that he could, this time, say Goodbye. And she told him that she loved him, and he was about to respond when his image faded. And that was just perfect. The Doctor can’t say it, but it was there and we know.

Thank you Russell T Davies, David Tennant and Billie Piper. I am going to feel a little lost on Saturday nights now.

Italia 2006 part 1

Let's be clear from the start, I love Italy. The lifestyle, the history and the culture, the food and the wine, and the wonderfully relaxed attitude to life*. So, I went to the Italian Riviera for a week, to just outside Diano Marina to be more precise, and no that isn't the picture above**, that's Monte Carlo, where there were some seriously fabulous boats in the harbour, and some incredible cars parked outside the casino.

But, to go back, I had a great time, though it took me a couple of days to start to relax. What was lovely was not having access to a computer for a whole week, and never turning the tv on the whole time I was there. I knew when Italy won their football match***, and when England got knocked out, and that was all the news I had. Apart from that, I sat in the shade - it was far too hot to be out in the sun for long, reaching 39C one day - I saw the sights, I shopped a little and ate lovely Italian food. I didn't drink a great deal of vino, as, again, it was just too hot.

The Riviera is a part of Italy I'd not visited before, but which has long been on 'the list', and it lived up to expectations. The scenery is lovely as the Maritme Alps sweep down to the sea, with tiny villages in sherbert colours perched impossibly on the top of hills. And I've always wanted to go to Portofino.

We went to San Remo, home of the 'Italian Festival of Song', the inspiration for the Eurovision, and to Monaco and Monte Carlo and I realised that I really don't like playing the game of following the guide with the umbrella, and like to go off and explore on my own.

I find it difficult to describe Monaco. The streets are pristine, and you are apparently likely to get arrested if you so much as eat a sandwich in a park. It has an air of affluence, but also of slight unreality. Real people don't live like this, and therefore I didn't see any around. In fact it was mainly tourists and I thanked God that I wasn't on a cruise ship and hadn't been made to waer a sticker identifying me as such. We went into the Casino in Monte Carlo. You just pay an entrance fee, and go in to see the building, and play at the tables, or slot machines, if you wish. As this was during the day time, the reality was less James Bond and more old Americans in bad cruise wear playing the tables. I just know I would never make a gambler - I really don't like not getting anything back for my money. And I think that so much of the Principality has been developed on the back of the money made from the Casino tells you who really wins.

A week isn't really long enough. You wind down after a few days, and as you get to the end of the week, feel you've just settled in and have got to know the area, and could do with a couple more days, but, alas, I had to come home.

*unless driving, in which case passions run high
**my photos of Italy were on film, not digital, as I still think it's better for views, so I don't have them back yet. Ergo, you get a pic of Monte Carlo
**we were on a boat, in the harbour of Imperia and heard the shouts go up from a crowd watching outside a bar - the captain then did a little dance on deck!

An Italian Interlude

Buona sera mi amici (or something to that effect)

And so, the reason for my lengthy absence is that I've been in Italy for a week, and now find that there's so much to catch up on (not least all the other blogs that I read!). Musings on my holiday are still to come - oh yes, don't think that's going to be avoided - but for now I have to do all the other post holiday things, like unpack properly, and shop for food, and, sadly, go back to work for two days.

At least it was hot here when I got back. I'm not sure if it will last till the weekend though, which is a shame as I want to go and see an open air play.