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Post by Backdrifter on Aug 2, 2019 9:14:15 GMT
the Tories could conceivably have won with a fresh candidate It's as though they wanted to lose. I love that the expenses fabricator then complained of other parties' "dirty" campaigns.
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Post by Backdrifter on Jul 31, 2019 8:52:19 GMT
Yesterday - excellent meal at The Kitchin, and disappointing 1st production, How Not To Drown (Traverse). At Summerhall now queueing for entry to Buzz, 1st of 7 today through to midnight. This should be more like it!
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Post by Backdrifter on Jul 30, 2019 20:51:01 GMT
I have my first show on Thursday (Unfortunate), and I'll probably be seeing Cruel Intentions next Thursday, and Friendsical on either next Monday or Tuesday. What Girls Are Made Of is scheduled for the 20th for me. I've been commuting in by train for rehearsals for my show and it hasn't been the easiest due to infrequent service to my town, and delays on almost a nightly basis. We have our first show on Friday and we run until the 11th and I'm very excited about it all. Enjoy your run and... just being there.
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Post by Backdrifter on Jul 29, 2019 18:09:36 GMT
ENOUGH. She screams. Bad behaviour on a thread. YES. OH GOD SOMEONE PLEASE STOP THIS. DEPLOY HAMMERDOWN PROTOCOL, NUKE THE ENTIRE BLOODY THREAD [turns and runs before someone inevitably comes in with some other sodding puns horsey or otherwise]
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Post by Backdrifter on Jul 29, 2019 18:04:11 GMT
Arrived this morning. Two relatively quiet days first. I saw Midsommar at the Cameo this afternoon.
Bloody hell...
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Post by Backdrifter on Jul 27, 2019 12:55:11 GMT
Rylance looks a bit too fit and clean for a character who lives in a caravan and uses Class As as a primary food group, or on whom the other characters would wee. I get you but I've met a few Roosteresque men over the years and they closely match MR's portrayal. I'd never thought about it in terms of their lifestyle but they were in amazingly good shape, wiry and muscled but somehow also a bit ravaged. Plus MR came across as less 'clean' than he looks in pics. All these things combined to convey a sense of this soiled yet powerful latent presence in 'Englishness'.
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Post by Backdrifter on Jul 26, 2019 9:00:11 GMT
All Luton Airport trains were cancelled so I nabbed two other stranded Lutonites and we shared a cab, only just made it. Roxie was Romanian and Matteo was Italian. We made our flights thanks to an England-Italy-Romania alliance. So piss off brexit.
Worst thing though, I didn't get my bacon roll. Grrrrr.
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The HEAT
Jul 26, 2019 3:55:21 GMT
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Post by Backdrifter on Jul 26, 2019 3:55:21 GMT
Up early for my flight back to Inverness via the joys of Luton Airport. That said, there is a cafe there that does outstandingly good crispy bacon rolls. To make up for the pineapple and banana I'm having now. Anyway, just got the edge of a thunderstorm, seemed like it was off to SE of London. Dah, I love a thunderstorm but haven't seen a decent one for ages. I keep missing them. Right in the middle of hot sticky humid classic thunderstorm weather and I still can't get one.
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The HEAT
Jul 25, 2019 21:52:04 GMT
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Post by Backdrifter on Jul 25, 2019 21:52:04 GMT
Oh man it was gorgeous in the Lyttleton. Gorgeous!
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Post by Backdrifter on Jul 25, 2019 21:50:08 GMT
Sitting down was your mistake These words have applied so many times in my life.
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The HEAT
Jul 25, 2019 14:54:58 GMT
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Post by Backdrifter on Jul 25, 2019 14:54:58 GMT
I just walked 5 mins from my workplace to the nearest tube and am now sat in a train that feels like it actually has specially heated seats. I'm drenched in sweat. Still, as someone who once stood in a materials test chamber at 60C, this is nothing!
That said, from memory, the current conditions don't feel especially different from that. I suppose above 40ish it stops feeling hotter.
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The HEAT
Jul 25, 2019 10:53:52 GMT
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Post by Backdrifter on Jul 25, 2019 10:53:52 GMT
How's aircon in the Lyttleton? Seeing Rutherford tomorrow, 38C day. The nice thing about Rutherford is they have a rain curtain before the play starts, so I expect temperatures will be lovely in the Lyttelton with that going on. I and other front rowers might not be able to resist sticking our faces under it. But hey, good news. The Met Office forecast is for a London high of 37C but it will feel like 36. Yay! What a relief.
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The HEAT
Jul 25, 2019 10:44:05 GMT
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Post by Backdrifter on Jul 25, 2019 10:44:05 GMT
How's aircon in the Lyttleton? Seeing Rutherford tomorrow, 38C day Effective. It's under the seats, so don't put huge bags there to block the air flow. Yeah I tend to use the cloakroom and anyway I don't think they permit large bags.
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The HEAT
Jul 25, 2019 10:43:05 GMT
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Post by Backdrifter on Jul 25, 2019 10:43:05 GMT
Good luck everyone. We'll get through this! Don't really have a choice, haha. And we'd better start getting used to it, because we've got more of the same (and worse) in the future. I wouldn't get much respite even back home in Inverness where today it'll hit 29C. Luckily by the time I'm back at the weekend it'll be down to low 20s. I must check what Edinburgh will be like for my Fringe trip next week.
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Post by Backdrifter on Jul 25, 2019 6:36:38 GMT
Good luck everyone. We'll get through this!
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Post by Backdrifter on Jul 25, 2019 6:32:15 GMT
Hmmmm....
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The HEAT
Jul 24, 2019 19:58:42 GMT
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Post by Backdrifter on Jul 24, 2019 19:58:42 GMT
How's aircon in the Lyttleton? Seeing Rutherford tomorrow, 38C day.
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Brexit
Jul 24, 2019 19:56:17 GMT
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Post by Backdrifter on Jul 24, 2019 19:56:17 GMT
New cabinet so far looking grim. Priti Patel as Home Sec, someone previously sacked for lying. Javid, a greasy specimen who sucked up to Farage, is Chancellor. Raab, who didn't seem to know we are an island or that the Channel was significant to trade, is Foreign Sec.
But of course, brextremists one and all.
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Post by Backdrifter on Jul 24, 2019 17:35:34 GMT
I don’t know about each woman's salary, large or small, whatever it is, but I think one is entitled to moan a bit if you as a woman or anything else for that matter, are being paid less than a bloke doing the same job. Yes and you're also entitled to, aside from whatever job you hold, write books about whatever you like including strenuous endurance events, do conference speaking or indeed anything else. And you shouldn't then be expected to think "Despite my being paid less than men doing the same broadcasting job, I'm doing all these other things too do I should probably just keep quiet really. Lest I be seen as part of a, oh I don't know, mob or something."
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Post by Backdrifter on Jul 24, 2019 9:09:22 GMT
I often wish there was such thing as Choral Musical Theatre. Something like this musically, with leads and a chorus integrated into a heartfelt story. Yes, there is Opera, but I'm not really to keen on the overly vibrato tone taken and I've yet to come across anything in this direction I also like a bit of choral music, though I'm still at the stage of thinking "oh I like that" if I happen upon it rather than seeking it out. I recently saw a documentary about a choral production at the Edinburgh Fringe a couple of years ago ad it was fascinating and mesmerising, I'll look it up and see if I can find what it was.
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Post by Backdrifter on Jul 23, 2019 18:47:20 GMT
I have used a fake online birthday for years now Me too. Often the drop down menu for the year goes back to 1890 so I tend to put that. Not because I think I'm striking a blow to The Man, but because I find it amusing they allow for users who are pushing 130. When I signed up to the C4 player it asked me all the usual stuff and said it was so they could tailor recommendations to my tastes. So I signed up as 130 year old woman and awaited my helpful recommendations. The first one was for New Girl.
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Brexit
Jul 23, 2019 14:59:24 GMT
Post by Backdrifter on Jul 23, 2019 14:59:24 GMT
Although I'm not surprised at the result I'm deeply disappointed in the Conservative Party. They took someone who was nothing but dishonest through the Brexit campaign, has been openly bigoted on many occasions, and has outright declared that he'd act like a dictator and shut down parliament if he doesn't get his way, and they said: "This guy. This is the person who represents what the Conservative Party stands for." Some will probably have genuinely thought that, but I think the majority of tory MPs at the parliamentary party voting stage thought, "the brexit party has become a serious threat and, detest Johnson though I do, unfit for this office though he clearly is, he's realistically the only candidate who can win back the defectors." Literally, how do we keep the party on life-support a bit longer, without realising their actions may hasten the plug being yanked out. Never underestimate a priveleged white man with a monstrous ego and boundless unwarranted confidence Absolutely spot-on, to which I'd add to also not underestimate the British public's weakness for that kind of character. I never cease to be amazed and dismayed by the rock-solid vein of class deference that still runs deep through this country. The very people most likely to be utterly shafted by the likes of Johnson, those who will rail against privilege and entitlement and point out the bad hand they are being dealt, will then vote for him. It's completely infuriating - whatever resentful rhetoric they come out with, they end up tugging their forelocks to the posh rich white men. Those most likely to be adversely affected by a Johnson-led administration and a no-deal brexit seem to be on a determined mission of self-harm.
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Jul 23, 2019 13:34:24 GMT
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Post by Backdrifter on Jul 23, 2019 13:34:24 GMT
We were talking about something in 2026 in work the other day and I found myself genuinely thinking “if we even get that far”... hope for the future seriously waining. The debacle with the US Ambassador was the latest in a series of very worrying events. We aren't just drifting into the arena of the unwell, we're sliding into the fetid pit of the toxic.
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Post by Backdrifter on Jul 23, 2019 13:29:56 GMT
Well it’s finally happened, Boris is now the new PM. With all his buffoonery is he really the guy who can unite both a divided Tory party and country and get Brexit finally over the line? With the current Westminster political arithmetic, it’s hard to see how he’s going to achieve it without changing the numbers which means going to the country with a general election (and probably risk political destruction of the Conservatives). With Boris in London, Trump in the U.S., Putin in Russia and Kim Jong un in N. Korea, these are going to be interesting times indeed. Two things I wish people would stop doing. Calling him chummily by his first name, and referring to him as a buffoon. He's so much worse than that. It's nightmarishly staggering that we've gone from his being unelectable because almost no one in the parliamentary party liked him, to his becoming PM. It's a grim indication of tory MPs' placing of party before country and self-respect. More of which we saw from Javid the other day, with his nauseatingly greasy sucking-up to Farage.
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Post by Backdrifter on Jul 23, 2019 13:21:02 GMT
A Little Night Music - RNT. Dame Judi and Patricia Hodge. Front Row. Never rated send in the clowns but Judi slayed it. I saw that production from the other end, back of the circle. I agree re Clowns, her delivery was wonderfully bitter and acidic. I'd never thought of the song in that way.
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The HEAT
Jul 23, 2019 9:19:05 GMT
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Post by Backdrifter on Jul 23, 2019 9:19:05 GMT
Just flown down from Inverness where by its normal standards its been too hot and muggy at about 25C. Flight delayed so for over 3 hours I've been on board a cool air-conditioned plane but will no doubt shortly be walking into a wall of heat.
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Post by Backdrifter on Jul 23, 2019 7:44:09 GMT
The Darkfield production, Flight, last year had a lot of people talking. Scran and Scallie looks nice but just a bit too pubby for a real treat. I think you're right in that Kitchin does top the list. It's great to be able to have a Michelin-star 3-course lunch and then scoop a fast food trailer tea off a paper plate in George Sq later on. I really liked Flight. I didn't see Seance, and missed its run at the Vaults this year as well, annoyingly. Another thing that impressed me about Kitchin on my visit last year was TK's presence which you don't often see with chefs with a public profile. The lunch is great value especially considering the various extra little bits that come with it. Getting the matched wines bumps it up of course but I can't resist it. I had an absolute killer cocktail there which I hope I can recall assuming they still have it. I totally agree, despite the extravagant lunch I'll no doubt be looking for something off some stall or other that evening. I know what you mean about Scran but I'd like to try it sometime. Isn't there another TK place now, maybe in Bruntsfield?
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Post by Backdrifter on Jul 22, 2019 16:30:39 GMT
Angels in America was something to remember I considered this but didn't end up including it, though I did leave my 3rd choice blank for now so I still could. I properly became a regular theatregoer in the early 90s and along with the aforementioned Madness of George III, Angels was a big landmark for me back then. I still remember the buzz of excited anticipation I got ahead of going along to part 2. That said I might also consider Ken Campbell's solo show Pigspurt as my remaining choice. Its daft inventiveness and the way it gathered and connected various threads was a real joy. At that early point (1992?) in my theatregoing I hadn't seen a solo show before, at least not that I remember. In all respects it was a type of stage event I hadn't experienced before. Postscript to the above. About 18 months later I put to Campbell an idea for something he might be interested in doing, by leaving a scribbled note for him in a pub by the River Lea he mentioned in one of his other shows, Furtive Nudist. To my surprise it worked and he got in contact, leading to me and a friend going to visit him at his house for what turned out to be one of the strangest and sporadically uncomfortable evenings I've ever had. It got more relaxed as it went on and ended on friendly terms but didn't lead to anything.
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Post by Backdrifter on Jul 22, 2019 14:22:49 GMT
I try to have as many shows in the same venue as possible but its not always feasible. I'm seeing Gordon Brown do a talk at the book festival as well, which has messed up that day potentially in terms of close shows to them! Outside of Summerhall I haven't attempted the 'focused venue' strategy. I have one instance of your Brown aberration* which is that my attendance at the Stewart Francis show is literally my only show north of Princes St and is on a day otherwise consisting entirely of southside stuff. My only other outliers are a show each at the Traverse, Lauriston Halls and Dynamic Earth. It'd be great if I had my usual rental on West Port but as it was unavailable this year I'm in a place right amid the hustle and bustle of Rose St, which I'm not much looking forward to. In the first few years of going I would always find myself attending the C venues a lot but that's really tailed off now. I haven't consciously avoided them, but through simply booking what appeals I find myself very rarely visiting them now. * Sorry, "your Brown aberration" sounds a bit questionable but you know what I meant. It could also be The Brown Aberration - a long-lost unpublished Len Deighton novel.
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Post by Backdrifter on Jul 22, 2019 12:24:23 GMT
Ive fully booked up one day at Summerhall for 5 plays in a row. Got a few more things booked around the festival. Tough to keep it so they are close together! In the last 2-3 visits I've taken to doing this. It has such a range of events and venues, and is so pleasant to kill time in between events, I decided to schedule at least one whole day there. This time I don't have any complete days there but do have three when I'm mainly there for 3 or 4 shows. I once did the Pickerings distillery tour there, this year moving from gin to beer with the Barney's Brewery tour.
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