one for the ladies

this was a week of two halves. the first half was dominated by work and food and i was generally exhausted, having worked for about two weeks doing cover shifts on my days off and seeing chapter be busier than we've been for a year truly took its toll. sunday i missed both the aforementioned poetry and casey's film night and then monday missed ipso facto at clwb then tuesday missed stalker paul barnett's birthday. we missed barnett's birthday for a pathetically middle aged reason: we fell asleep in front of a documentary about disraeli and gladstone after eating a christmas dinner size portion of bangers and mash. rock and roll. well done steen for the amazing sweet potato mash, well done to me for the amazing red wine gravy. top hole. we had a little sit down after such a massive meal and the next thing i knew i could hear steen snoring on my shoulder and the time had long gone to go and play skittles. this week i also spent time watching MARGARET: THE ROAD TO FINCHLEY on iplayer. god bless iplayer, i'm actually watching good tv again. it was very enjoyable and silly, hinting at sexual tension between ted heath and mrs t and demonstrating how frighteningly ambitious she was and scared everyone she crossed. i quite enjoyed all the little comedic irony moments of "carol, when are you ever going to go to the jungle?!" and little mark thatcher getting lost in the sand dunes. i am a bit of a sucker for all politics programmes, dramatised or otherwise.

but i was keeping this to remind myself of the exciting things i did in the week so i should get a move on.

i started doing my ushering shifts in the cinema this week. i can't believe its taken me so long to actually get around to asking graham for these shifts as it is the cushiest number in chapter, which is pretty cushy already. i am on hand for any emergencies and the beginning 20 minutes of any film is disturbed by showing latecomers to their seats, this is true, but to have the privilege of watching all these fantastic films and getting to know the oldies who come in to watch them is wonderful. the first film i ushered for was THE READER. now, i've seen this before and wrote about it on my blog but it was a different experience watching it with a group of retirees who actually remember these days and talking to them afterwards. despite having a lot of nudity, none of them seem to be shocked and all were coming out misty eyed and telling me how beautiful they thought it was.

the next day was THE CLASS, the film about a parisian inner city high school that won the palm d'or last year at cannes. i'd heard that it had very good reviews and praise should certainly be heaped upon the cast of 14 year olds, who were utterly convincing. at the beginning i was thinking "i should really tell my teacher friends to see this" but by the end thought better of it, it felt a bit too real, do they really need to see more of that? it reminded me of all the reasons why i wanted to go into teaching and the reasons i didn't.

i also emersed myself in the lives of the characters of REVOLUTIONARY ROAD for a second time. i only saw it about a month ago but really wanted to see it again and it was just as powerful. i was reminded how claustrophobic it was, how the house they live in seems to act like a pressure cooker for their arguments, the character of april is always keen to escape to the outside, to get out. i've seen it twice, i'll see it again!

on wednesday i was actually convinced to leave the house by PENS and WAVVES in buffalo. it was a relatively late gig, it didn't start until about 10pm and we're so used to early gigs and can't afford to waste our money in buffalo since all the drinks are about £5 each so were on the water. i was a bit worried as one of PENS was sleeping on the sofa before the gig but she completely defied my expectations by being full of energy on stage. the sight of three young girls (one clearly not wearing a bra) was quite, um, stimulating for many of the people in buffalo but they soon backed off once they realised it would be a chaotic lo-fi shambles. i was in the minority of people who thought it was brilliant fun, most muttered "amateurish" like it was a bad thing and just stared at the bra-less girl's shimmying chest. philistines. WAVVES are apparently one of those "band of the moment" bands who i have not heard about but someone in london likes them so they're getting loads of noise made about them, or so i presume. they weren't terrible, just overrated. i was a bit disturbed when i saw their merch stall had t-shirts with massive cannabis leaves on them, who finds this funny after the age of 12? uh oh. the lead singer looks like someone from the OC. he was an arrogant little tyke who needs to have his heart broken or something to give these songs some oomph cos i was pretty bored in a "heard it all before" way through most of the set although the last one was spikey enough to make me dance quite a lot, if only the whole set had been like this and not songs about getting fucked and playing computer games. but PENS signed our 7" by drawing porno pictures and writing "merry christmas" so the night ended well.

thursday the tv was in my diary. RED RIDING on channel 4. i was a bit nervous about this, as i'd heard it was going to be a triumph and thought it would only disappoint if it had been talked up so much by the guardian. but there was no need to be worried, i was thoroughly gripped. it was sort of an anti- life on mars. there has been so much 70s nostalgia programming going on about how much better things were then, that life was simpler: women knew their place and men were men. i get really sick of that, people writing "i am gene hunt" in their status updates and women denying being feminists and sending photos in to nuts magazine. in RED RIDING the police are brutal and corrupt and the women are there to prop up the egos of men, be mothers or lovers and racism is accepted and expected... or else. this village in yorkshire was more LEAGUE OF GENTLEMEN than HEARTBEAT, everyone was dirtied by some kind of pay off. it was shot beautifully, like the lens was smeared with grime. the cast was amazing, it was like all the best actors in the country had signed up, even for a couple of lines of dialogue. its in three parts and i can't wait to see the other two.

saturday saw the start of the INTERNATIONAL WOMAN'S DAY celebrations in chapter and clwb ifor bach. upstairs in the llofft we had LOVECHILD by the theatre group blunt instrument, showing the a woman who was put up for adoption go to find her birth mother. anne is a woman elegantly and tidily dressed in sharp tailored grey, beige and white, her ordered personality reflected back to her in the sparse, clean elegant set. into this walks billie: chaotic, emotional, dressed in bright billowy clothes. she is about to turn her life upside down. when the play first started i was afraid it would be too wordy for me, i've been so used to physically demanding theatre recently and it was to be over an hour of these two women talking but very quickly it drew you in, you developed an understanding of these people and where they had been and wanted to know what they were going to do now they were reunited. the ending was devestating. billie picked and picked at anne, taking apart her life, digging into her past until she cracked. anne's slow, cathartic breakdown, superbly played by polly kilpatrick, where she admitted having dreams about the baby she gave away just got me in the gut. the baby that can never be comforted, memory's scream that can not be silenced, i have experienced that emotion and down the tears fell. i was ushering for this and had to gather myself together but i had butterflies in my stomach for a long time afterward.

rushing from that to clwb in the rain and wind did me good, it blasted me out of that room and into the night. LOOSE and PEPPERMINT PATTI were co-promoting this gig of KING ALEXANDER, THE DULOKS and THEORETICAL GIRL. i missed king alexander, for shame! but they're playing another loose night on the 7th may so i'll not miss that. i entered clwb only to have THE DULOKS make fun of me for being late. if there is a prize for best banter, these ladies would win big. they were very very entertaining on stage, it was like watching punk stand up. they dragged up on stage people taking pictures of themselves rather than the band and outed them as an incestuous couple (they weren't), they made fun of the old men sat on chairs at the front and did some ace song and dance numbers about being pirates and bad vegetarians. big grin throughout. a quick trip to the merch stall to say hello to one half of the promotion team and buy a duloks album and an interesting looking zine by colette rosa. then THEORETICAL GIRL took to the stage, a bit nervous but looking fabulous in understated neon (is that possible? yes, its possible). 50% of the crowd had left (don't get me started on how much seeing your mates' band then fucking off annoys me) but those that stayed got treated to perky pop songs about heartbreak. she explained how she had brought a giant keyboard as a backing track to play her songs and it worked really well, the crunchy guitar numbers were my favourite, a good foil to her sweet home counties voice. the piano numbers made victoria wood pop into my head though, once there it was hard to get out.

today is officially international woman's day and SCRABBLE SUNDAY! wooop! i've also been getting excited about my birthday plans in a month as this year is a big birthday and it coincides with easter weekend and the loose all dayer and a twisted night out AND a scrabble sunday. very fortuitous! i feel like some god of good things is treating me for my birthday to distract me from how momentous a day it is. can i really be in my 30s in a month? golly.