For some reason, this really moved me:
“Take a look and remember”, he told her. “You will never, ever hear about this again.” (BBC)
Monthly Archives: May 2006
I must be slightly stressed because I’m very amused by this BBC news headling: “Rubbish fire hits rail services”
Surely that’s a bit judgemental? It might be a really good fire, for all they know.
I discovered Free Williamsburg while Googling Orhan Pamuk.
And I apologise to H, to whom I rhapsodised about the Chris Ofili, because it already has or is about to close.
One for my special New Zealand friends: “New Zealand is not for sale, despite somebody in Australia trying to offload our neighbour – a nation of 4million – to the highest bidder on eBay. From a one-cent start, 22 brisk bidders took the price to $A3000 before the “sale” was pulled from the website.”
I’m having trouble believing this one but I’ll blog it for my friends from Leeds (or who went to uni in Leeds): “A man, 34, wanted for serious assault, escaped on a horse- drawn rag-and-bone cart and eluded four police motorbikes, a patrol car, a video van, two cycling constables and a helicopter in a bizarre low-speed chase through Leeds, England.”
And while I’m here, this man has wisdom for all of us: “During a civic ceremony to honour him as Britain’s oldest known World War I veteran, Henry Allingham, 109, of Eastbourne, East Sussex, attributed his longevity to “cigarettes, whisky and wild, wild women”.” (Odd Spot)
“A religious ruling condemning the display of statues has angered Egyptian liberals and intellectuals who fear it could encourage religious zealots to attack the country’s pharaonic heritage.” BBC
In the ‘well, der’ science column, “Revealed: how scent of a woman attracts lesbians”. Guardian.
This SQL Function Reference: Oracle vs. SQL Server page is pretty handy. If you’re a geek.
Should I be worried that Google Maps doesn’t think half of Moldova (and all of Transdniestr) exists?
It’s ages since I’ve reviewed anything I’ve seen, so to start on the backlog… last night I saw The Royal Hunt of the Sun at the National.
I really liked the play itself, but the staging was weird. I don’t know if it was deliberate, but it was as if the past forty years had never happened. It might have been intentionally retro, which is why I’d love to hear what they intended.
The staging, particularly in the first part, just seemed amateurish. It really distracted from the performances and the text. Where modern productions might use projections to suggest scenery or movement, they used swathes of silk, which could have been effective, but somehow just wasn’t. Some of the costumes were gorgeous, but some looked like something your Mum might run up the day before fancy dress day at primary school.
There was far too much action that looked like bad mime or interpretative dance, and the Incas’ accents were almost offensively ‘Meester, I breeeng you girls, yes?’.
It got better in the second part, but lots of people didn’t come back after the interval.
But some of the audience obviously loved it, judging by the applause at the end. The crowd was older than other audiences I’ve seen at the National, particularly for Travelex season shows.