this week started off with the best gig of the year so far with ponytail and comenechi making me dance like that woman in flashdance in tommy's bar. we began the night by going for a supposed romantic meal in pizza express (nothing says romance like a 2-4-1 voucher) and had to move tables due to the 10 excited tweens at the next table making it hard to think let alone hear ourselves talk. it was good eating: my pizza had an egg on it, i require nothing more in this life. steen was worried we'd be late but we were first there and the bands hadn't finished soundchecking. we found a anxious looking john from FORECAST who was putting on the gig. someone had also scheduled casiokids to play in clwb the same night. ouch. and one of the support bands hadn't turned up. owee. subsequently there was a big time delay in getting started but it gave ample time to chat to mates charlotte and ashli about our beautiful cat and get a pint of old rosie in before the bands started. COMENECHI were a japanese girl and lanky britguiarist in a skeleton mask. she drummed and yelled into the mic things like "you are retard! i was your lovely sunshine!" and did ace confused stage banter and they were amazing fun. throughout the gig there was a petit, dykey lass with cropped hair and a pixie face in the crowd. "she's new", noticed perv claire, is there a student in tommy's bar? heavens to betsy! but no, she turned out to be the winning lady from PONYTAIL. she came onstage, went into what looked like a spiritualist trace and yelped and chirruped and danced like she'd taken some strong peyote. behind her were noodley post rock guitars and an unerring beat. i started dancing and clapping and grinning and didn't stop till the music did. i turned to john, who was dancing next to me "gig of the year!" i said excitedly. thankfully it wasn't just me but a whole bunch of lovelies were all a bit rapt.
this was also a week of catching up with some old mates. on tuesday me and my long lost friend paul (who has not so much been lost as "living in bristol") had a couple of bottles of wine and a catch up, vowing to never leave it so long again, and i bloody hope we don't. then thursday i met my friend elena for a less boozey version of the same thing. last night i was yurt-bound for nims and kats birthdays and a girlie winefest. its wonderful realise that even though you haven't had a proper conversation with your mates for a few months you can slip back into it so easily and get it all off your chest.
this weeks' ushering shift was an interesting one, RACHEL GETTING MARRIED with anne hathaway. i was quite excited about seeing it as she was nominated for awards and i do love american indie but i was quite disappointed. it was all right, the script was quite sharp and the acting was good (debra winger as her mother had a small but powerful role) but i really hated the smug family. i can't stand wedding films at the best of times. i find it hard to empathise with any of that stressful "the petals for the bridesmaids to throw don't go with the tablecloth!" nonsense and this indian themed wedding a capella singing and electric guitar "here comes the bride" the family had was especially irritating. apparently the screenwriter who is the daughter of sidney lumet based it on her family and it was very annoying having all these self congratulatory people around ("and now a speech from our close family friend fab five freddy...."). but then afterwards i was thinking about it and maybe you're meant to hate the family as much as rachel, maybe they are irritatingly smug so you feel more sympathy for her. all i knew is that i'd probably be off my face on drugs if i was a teenager in that family too.
mid week we stayed in and watched CAPTURING THE FRIEDMANS as steen had not seen it before and i'd not seen it since i saw it in the cinema many years ago. i was slightly disappointed as they had done a new version of the movie for the dvd which cut out the beginning bit where it looks like you're there to watch a PBS film about childrens entertainers in new york and it unexpectedly turns a bit dark when they talk to the most popular clown david friedman. this is actually what happened, the director was making an innocuous film and discovered this huge story about friedman's fucked up family in a nearby suburb. instead the dvd version went straight into the story about how david's father and little brother ended up in prison after being accused of sexually assaulting a group of boys at the computer club. i felt it lost a little in going straight into the story, you didn't get a sense of the director's journey into the story so much, but its still bloody fascinating. it turns into a salem witch hunt in this town with the stories getting increasingly incredible and no-one sure what happened for real and what people are being selective about. the friedmans filmed themselves on videocameras during this time, thinking that it would just blow over and they'd look back and laugh so it becomes a film about reliable memories. i watched some of the extras from when the cast and crew took the film around the film festivals and these were like car crash tv, david and his brother almost doing a stand up routine about it, the only way they can deal with it. disturbing.
we also went around to see the patti girls to watch RED RIDING on thursday, armed with biscuits and ready to drink lots of tea. the episode featured the yorkshire ripper and we saw how much further the police corruption had sunk. steen and i were too young to remember the ripper really but helen told us some of the fear that was around at the time and we reminded each other to all go on the RECLAIM THE NIGHT march on tuesday to show our support for the cause.
on friday steen and i went to see THE AGE OF STUPID with my friend anne. it was suitably frightening and steen and i vowed that we would not take any unneccessary flights. i want to go and visit my brother in germany but we have to stop thinking of these things as cheap and convenient, according to the scientists we don't have long before we can stop global warming and there are enough ignorant people out there using up fuel and pumping shit into the air without us adding to it. train to rostock please! it only takes about 24 hours....
tonight i'm looking forward to seeing one of casey's films in gwdihw (which i seem unable to pronounce without doing it in a camp comedy high pitched tone). today i am tired and its beautiful and i'm stuck inside. booo for work!
Showing posts with label red riding. Show all posts
Showing posts with label red riding. Show all posts
15 Mar 2009
8 Mar 2009
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.
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.
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