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Post by crowblack on Sept 12, 2023 9:40:01 GMT
In previous years, if there’s been any guests like directors or actors, they will be introduced on stage before the film and say a few words, usually takes five to ten minutes at most but I’m not sure if there will be any of that this year due to the ongoing SAG strike (although I saw both Jessica Chastain and Peter Sarsgaard made appearances at the Venice Film Festival last week, so don’t know how that happened) I think British, Irish, European and indie films are likely to be there - taking the opportunity to enjoy more sunlight with the US away. Some US indies and the like have been given the green light to go on filming during the strikes so they may show up too.
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Post by crowblack on Sept 11, 2023 22:19:28 GMT
Is it the film itself that starts at the stated time, so any introduction would be before that?
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Post by crowblack on Sept 11, 2023 11:29:27 GMT
The idea they were a flop was the very clear narrative that was pushed when they cancelled Sundays, but that was never the evidence I saw with my own eyes. The shows I went to on a Sunday at the NT, and others in the West End, were always very busy and as difficult to get tickets for as Saturdays, if not harder. Were employees paid more for Sundays than Saturdays and that forced the economics not to work? Interesting. I seem to recall there were union problems for the Sunday performances so I assume they ended up costing more. As a National Theatre, for those of us outside London (who nevertheless help pay its funding), weekends visits are the main option, so Sunday afternoons would be great - assuming there aren't track works, you could make a day trip of it.
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Post by crowblack on Sept 9, 2023 22:21:51 GMT
He's 51 though - surely not playing the Dane?
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Post by crowblack on Sept 9, 2023 7:43:36 GMT
We've had such an appalling summer in the NW - rain, cold, heating on, wettest July on record, everything mildewy and mouldy - I'm actually enjoying this (mostly): the hazy light is very 70s nostalgic and I'm getting on with some very belated Spring cleaning.
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Post by crowblack on Sept 7, 2023 19:38:28 GMT
I bought one of those mini hand fans (Funme) and it's very effective, though not quiet. Until this week, there has only been one day when I needed to use it (social event as a thunderstorm was about to break) and I forgot to bring it. Btw, do you have Sahara dust on everything today? We do here in the NW, and odd opal skies, very still, birdsong sounding really loud this evening.
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Post by crowblack on Sept 7, 2023 18:23:51 GMT
Btw, is the Bfi Riverfront restaurant as poor as the tripadvisor reviews suggest? I've never eaten there. I ate there a few years ago (when Oslo was on at the National) and it was noticeably poor. Nothing pleasant that you want from food (taste, texture, appearance) except it filled you up. The new tapas place La Gamba nearby is good. Thanks, I'll have a look - I used to just go to Byron burger on The Cut before a NT/OV/YV show because it was reliably fast, filling & tasty, but it's closed down. I might just bring a packed dinner!
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Post by crowblack on Sept 7, 2023 10:57:35 GMT
Btw, is the Bfi Riverfront restaurant as poor as the tripadvisor reviews suggest? I've never eaten there.
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Post by crowblack on Sept 6, 2023 20:21:48 GMT
Btw, I saw a couple of people on Twitter say they logged in at 8.55, didn't get put in the queue but were able to buy tickets straight away at 10! No way to verify these tweets, but kicking myself because my 2 pages on my desktop didn't flip to the queue at 9 as expected either, so I kept refreshing till they did - it might have been better to leave one unrefreshed as a test! I eventually got in at 11 and managed to snap up the last 'stalls' seat for Hoard, which is nearly sold out, so I'm delighted with that. The trains are an expensive mess at weekends so I'll wait for the other things I want to see to go on general release up north.
(The other page I had open, which was on my ipad - a lot more modern than the desktop - flipped immediately at 9 and that was the one I got through first on. Anyway, I might test it out on my desktop next time there's a queue-it booking)
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Post by crowblack on Sept 6, 2023 9:07:10 GMT
Logged in on one device at 9.01 and the other 9.05 cos it kept showing the regular page not the queue (I was logged in - it didn't show until my log in timed out, it seems)- both have given me a queue number in the upper 5000s.
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Post by crowblack on Sept 5, 2023 17:55:19 GMT
If a film isn't billed as a 'gala', does that mean it's just an ordinary screening, no directors, cast, talk? No, sometimes they still show up. The 11am opening gala "reprise" the following day used to be fun spotting which of the guests had the biggest hangovers... And sometimes at galas the guests may be underwhelming (and the writers strike might make them even more sparse this year). There are no guarantees. Thanks! The stars that do turn up, if they can do so 'ethically', will get more attention though!
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Post by crowblack on Sept 5, 2023 14:19:04 GMT
If a film isn't billed as a 'gala', does that mean it's just an ordinary screening, no directors, cast, talk?
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Post by crowblack on Sept 5, 2023 9:44:14 GMT
Does it make any difference to your eventual place in the queue if you open the website with the countdown at 8am or whatever, or is it just random? Or having two tabs open?
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Post by crowblack on Aug 27, 2023 20:08:31 GMT
I wonder how this will play with the upcoming elections? Less celebrity news and events, more airtime for the Trump show?
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Post by crowblack on Aug 25, 2023 11:54:24 GMT
Confusion usually happens when people are over-relying on one or two of them. Also a young generation so wrapped up in a befuddling mix of reality star post-Kardashian culture and gender identity ideology that a bog standard 80s 'Diana' or 90s indie kid haircut or a preference for trousers and comfy clothes rather than an insta-pout and spray-on leggings is now rebranded a sign a girl is 'non-binary' or wannabe-boy.
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Post by crowblack on Aug 24, 2023 9:53:30 GMT
There will always be a woman who is tall or deep-voiced or broad-shouldered who may be stopped and questioned by someone who is not as able as they think to identify a trans woman. And if that happens she will say, oops, apologies, I thought for a moment you were male (because men do try to get in here sometimes, despite the signs on the doors*), and the other woman will say that's fine, I understand, it happens from time to time because I'm tall and I dress quite butch (btw, when you stay 'stopped and questioned' you make it sound like it's the Gestapo!)
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Post by crowblack on Aug 14, 2023 7:11:13 GMT
Badenoch's phrasing is vague when it comes to people who are transgender. Many people's phrasing is vague when it comes to transgender. That's the issue: we used to understand it as people with gender dysphoria seeking and obtaining permanent lifelong physical changes, in good faith, to present more like the opposite sex and personal legal changes to accompany that: people like the late April Ashley. Now it's an ever expanding and increasingly vague, undefined umbrella, achieved by simply announcing you're changing your pronouns or name, if that. No need to even shave your beard off, apparently.
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Post by crowblack on Aug 13, 2023 19:49:15 GMT
My question is though, say you have a trans woman who has lived happily as a woman for 30 years. Has had surgery, hormones, is as feminine as any other woman you'd walk past in the street, just as an example. Would you be ok with her using the female toilets? I'd be fine with male born people like April Ashley or Jazz Jennings as I know their 'story', that they've had surgery, in Ashley's case ( don't know about Jennings), was attracted to men. I've lived in houseshares with gay men, one of whom sometimes 'crossdressed', as we'd call it then, and as I knew their sexual orientation felt perfectly safe with them. What's become evident over recent years is that the definition of trans has shifted from 'transsexual', generally same sex attracted and having surgery, to the far wider and looser term 'trans' which now includes a lot of heterosexual males who have no intention of having what's euphemistically referred to as 'bottom surgery', are 'intact', and are sexually aroused by women, use terms like 'cotton ceiling', and also use very misogynistic, sometimes violent language towards women (on social media, many are the 'anime avatar' users). Like many women, I do not think these new style 'trans' individuals' motivation for wanting to get into spaces where women get undressed are in good faith: we've seen a lot of evidence that it is not. And they have muddied the waters for what we did consider 'good faith' male born individuals who used women's facilities, in small numbers, and with little fuss. My personal feeling is that, if they are no longer able to easily access women's changing rooms, toilets, prisons etc. many of these opportunistic heterosexual males will move on to some other activity and we'll get back to talking about people with genuine gender dysphoria.
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Post by crowblack on Aug 13, 2023 18:37:58 GMT
But it isn't a solution. I wouldn't want to use a urinal in a mixed space. And I suspect I am not alone in that. Some men might be but that isn't enough to justify making the men's toilets open to all. What's the situation at the Young Vic or Royal Court? Anecdotally I hear that women won't go in the former-men's-now-unisex, but I've seen men (who dress like men) use the former women's toilets as well. I don't know who decided to put urinals by the sinks at a trendy local venue but it's been that way for a decade now - despite comments on tripadvisor by both women and men that it's nasty. When I go there to see a show, I call into the single sex traditional loos at a nearby venue first.
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Post by crowblack on Aug 13, 2023 18:28:37 GMT
No one has a magical built-in radar that accurately tells you who is trans and who isn't. I think many people, especially women, can tell. People with intersex conditions like XXXY syndrome plus surgery can pass but that's rare - and that's not what we're talking about here. Females who take testosterone, grow beards, go bald, drop voices, have surgery, 'pass' better, but they are not the issue when we're discussing concerns around women's safety in single sex spaces (btw, re - sports, once female to male-presenting transitioners start taking testosterone, they are no longer allowed to compete with women because of the obvious advantage that confers, similar to Soviet era Olympic doping).
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Post by crowblack on Aug 13, 2023 15:56:33 GMT
Where is the room coming from at most London theatres coming from? Old Vic had a refit, using money fundraised specifically with the words more women's toilets. Could have added extra space then. Young Vic has four toilets 'blocks' - could have left two womens, one men, one unisex, but they instead made one of the women's unisex too so in practice - I've seen this - men use it, even though there is a male (now unisex with urinals and cubicles) block right next door to it (in practice as we all know, there are long queues for the women's toilets, short queues for the men who take less time to 'go', apart from The Inheritance where the audience was almost all male and there was no queue at all for the women's) There are listed venues with limited space that have, as I said in an earlier post, kept the women's single sex and made the male toilets open to all. Tate - I think - has, or had, female, male, unisex, and disabled with entrances close together. All these points have been made before on this very very long thread.
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Post by crowblack on Aug 13, 2023 15:38:02 GMT
Not sure that's always the case. Plenty of trans women do pass after surgery and voice work They'd have to be very short, with small hands, small feet, narrow shoulders, wide hips, a lot of facial bone surgery - Asian 'ladyboys' might do but not Europeans. Venus will have to unlock disabled toilets. It wouldn't be safe or ethical to make a trans women go in the gents if they banned from the ladies nor would it be safe or ethical to put a transman in the ladies if they banned from the gents. If this was about safety or ethics, venues wouldn't have made toilets entirely unisex, as many have (Old Vic, Royal Court, Kazimier - urinals by the sinks, ew! - Young Vic upstairs etc). No one seemed to care about women's safety then: they didn't even bother to make the doors and partitions full height at these venues to stop cameraphones being used. If a transwoman is in danger in the gents, why was the 'solution' to rechristen all toilets unisex and let any men into the women's? This move was about the affirmation of 'identity', not safety. And there was all of lockdown when theatres were closed for them to install a third space, but they didn't (btw, it is not ethical to use the disabled toilet)
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Post by crowblack on Aug 13, 2023 15:09:01 GMT
Are you going to stop every woman from heading into the ladies if you think her shoulders are a little broad or her voice is too deep? Women have a different build from men, regardless of how we present. We're very good at identifying each other. If social, and legal, rules are laid down one would hope people have the decency to follow them. If they don't respect boundaries and enter spaces set aside for the safety, privacy and dignity of females, that's a red flag. Some venues have the toilet entrances by the cloakroom, with attendants, to police this. Up until, what, 2018, 2019, this went without saying. It was how we all knew and agreed to behave for the sake of privacy and safety. Women's spaces exist for a reason, and that reason hasn't magically gone away.
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Post by crowblack on Aug 13, 2023 13:45:44 GMT
Venues could simply do what they are now starting to do in UK sports: one block of female sex-specific toilets, another block labelled 'open - cubicles and urinals' for males however they identify or dress, and females who id as men if the male users are ok with sharing a space with them too. A lot of sports crowds are heavily male orientated but that would make sense as it gives women a safe space. I meant in the actual competition: males who identify as women or girls have been allowed to enter - and, unsurprisingly, given their physical power advantage, win - women's sports categories. In the UK this is now being addressed by specifying that women's sport is for females, and the men's category has been retitled 'open' so theoretically anyone can enter that regardless of how they identify. I've heard of some theatres that have already done similar with toilets - kept the women's women's, renamed the men's block 'unisex'.
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Post by crowblack on Aug 13, 2023 12:27:51 GMT
Venues could simply do what they are now starting to do in UK sports: one block of female sex-specific toilets, another block labelled 'open - cubicles and urinals' for males however they identify or dress, and females who id as men if the male users are ok with sharing a space with them too.
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Post by crowblack on Aug 12, 2023 11:27:06 GMT
Does anyone know if there are plans for this to be recorded / streamed at some point?
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Post by crowblack on Aug 3, 2023 13:50:55 GMT
I've got one leggy aeonium and a herd of agaves so it was wonderful to see so many flourishing - I'm in the rainy North West not frost-free Cornwall so have to lug them all in the house in the winter, which is getting difficult now they're big! Yep mine have to come inside in the winter. Only one agave and a miniature one at that. Quite a few succulent varieties but aeonium and echevaria are my favourite. Started my collection last year and I am getting on for fifty plants now. Currently sat in the garden waiting for the postman to bring the latest selections. Which are coming from surreal succulents just around the corner from the Minack I'm jealous! I'm ok with cacti - I've had one, an Easter cactus, since my childhood & that has survived a lot (including the cat using the then tiny pot as a litter tray on a narrow window ledge!) but manage to kill most of the succulents I get within a year.
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Post by crowblack on Aug 3, 2023 11:55:10 GMT
I wanted the gardeners world piece to focus a little more on their aeonium collection. But i guess that is just tailoring the piece for me really. I've got one leggy aeonium and a herd of agaves so it was wonderful to see so many flourishing - I'm in the rainy North West not frost-free Cornwall so have to lug them all in the house in the winter, which is getting difficult now they're big!
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Post by crowblack on Jul 29, 2023 18:24:45 GMT
I'm hoping it will prompt some sort of strengthening of homegrown UK independent cinema and production: we lost that rich landscape in recent years, and it would be great to get it back.
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Post by crowblack on Jul 29, 2023 11:11:31 GMT
I'm hearing of others due to be premiered at the Venice film festival next month shifting to next Spring or date unknown, September's Emmys postponed. My brother works on the promotional photography side of films and TV in the UK so he is obviously reporting the impact on that whole sector here too (promo images, posters, fashion mag shoots with the stars etc).
What are the impacts on theatre? Many UK actors are involved in (committed to?) halted or postponed US-led productions so presumably that will cause problems with involvement any upcoming UK film, TV and theatre work?
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