London 2012

London, I don't know how to say it, but I think we need some time apart.  I've tried to get excited about this sport's day thing you've been banging on about but i just don't really get it.  It's not you, it's me, I appreciate that, but you only seem to be interested in one thing; what with your hoops draped all over everywhere and your streets brimming with high-stoppability idiots.

I think it could still work.  I just think we'll get on a lot better if we have a break for a couple of weeks.  Are you cool with that?  Grand. See you in September.

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In other news I went to the ballet again.  Play Without Words.  That's supposed to be good, right.  Everyone raves about it.  Didn't get it.  Not at all. Found it boring and I didn't really understand what was going on.  A series of technically adept set pieces, I can see that.  But not sure i'd call it a 'play' more like a particularly tepid episode of EastEnders where everyone does everything really slowly. Guess I'm not as culture as I think I am.

I went to the Tanks, too.  That's the new bit of Tate Modern.  Dead good bit of artspace.  Liked it a lot.  Not certain about the art that's in it at the moment - but we've established that I know nothing about culture so it's probably great.

Ibsen - He's one of the biggies, right?

I saw A Doll's House last night (note the capital letters, that's the A Doll's House not just a doll's house; that's probably not newsworthy, although, to be fair I probably see more plays than doll's houses so maybe that would have been more newsworthy than my so-called news.  I appear to be waffling...).  I figured I ought to see it whilst it was on, it is one of them-ones-what-you're-supposed-to-have-seen, after all. That Ibsen fellow, father of modern theatre, in't he?  It was pretty impressive - well theatrical. Weatrical?  I can see what the hype's about, although not sure that I loved it but then I'm not an 1890's feminist so I'm probably not the target demographic.

One thing that did move me was the price. It was only about 70 pence more to go and see "one of the greatest plays ever (TM)" in London than it was to go to Braintree and see some dire Hollywood dross last weekend. There's something wrong with the world.  Or specifically, there's something very wrong with cinema's cost:quality ratio.  There's a few of those film things coming up that I'm half curious to see but that last experience made me feel 3% more stupid and i'm not sure I want to put myself through that again. The only thing that would have made it worse is if it was in 3D and I had to wear those eye-bleeding glasses.  I was going to add a flippant comment there but then remembered what was in the news today - still quaking from a masked psychopath would have at least given me a story to tell rather than just led to me whinging.

This week I've mostly been eating scorpion death chilli chocolate. I appreciate that it's a lot hotter than chocolate needs to be but I'm finding it strangely addictive in a masochistic way. I've got used to it a bit, now - don't get me wrong, it's still a little bit like getting kicked in the mouth but I can eat it without a fire extinguisher to hand - and am probably being a bit free and easy with offering it about.  Is it rude to break your mates?

It looks like my Blog has got a medium-sized Russian following.  Hello Russia.

Hotel Shampoo

I saw Gruff Rhys last night, not so much news in itself, I've seen Gruff in his various guises many times before.  What's probably more news is that I'm fairly sure that this was my first 'proper' gig of the year.  It's July.  That means the first six months of the year were completely devoid of live 'pop' music.  Is this still that growing up thing? I've seen jazz, opera, choral and ballet this year.  But no 'pop'. I feel like I'm losing my edge.

I managed to not see the Olympic torch.  I was tempted - I set an alarm and everything but it was raining so I went back to sleep. Once in a life time opportunity - like the Jubilee Regatta - which I also slept through.

I feel like I ought to pass some level of condemnation on the nasty nasty goings on in Timbuktu.  I'm not going to, mainly because i don't understand it (and by it I mean religion) but it does make me feel a bit lucky I went when I did what with all these military coups, kidnappings and desecrations.