Wednesday, 24 December 2014

Improv

Now I'm not averse to a comedy night. I've been to one or two in my time so I feel like I can stand in a relatively informed position when I sneer belittlingly in the direction of improv.

The speed people come up with things is no doubt impressive but ultimately it feels like you're watching a parlour game played by professionals. And if that was worth watching Pictionary would be in the Olympics, Scategories woukd be on the telly and there would be illicit Taboo gambling in the back rooms of shady pubs.

It's like real comedy but without the jokes.

Something else I don't get: ello. Apparently it's the hip new face of social media. I feel out of my depth even thinking about it. I reckon I'm a decade too old and 82% too uncool to understand it.

Sunday, 14 December 2014

Lux Interior

I was promised snow. Stamps foot like a petulant child. I wanted Europe's Most Spectacularly Sited Capital (TM) to be all snow covered and pretty. I bought boots and everything.  Instead I got drizzle.
So yeah, I've spent the weekend in Luxembourg. Now if there's one thing I know about those Benelux Low Countries is that they are all flat as the proverbial flam. This Luxembourg place has confounded that assumption, I tell thee. It's a double decker city, with the two levels split by towering rockfaces. I wasn't really expecting that.


It was way more interesting than I was expecting too. Quite a bit of that culture stuff around and chock full of Christmas markets (it's not Christmas until we get our plugs, which is a reference I just won't understand if I ever read this back).

I ventured out of the city today. I went to Echternach, up on the German border. I think it's a pilgrimage town, but can't be certain as the tourist information was closed. At a pilgrimage town. On a Sunday. When the town is up to its eyes in Christmas Market and, for some reason, a medieval fayre. Guess everyone in Echternach is getting ocarinas this Christmas. 

I didn't manage to spend all that long in Echternach (thanks to the very inconvenient Sunday public transport - for the record, public transport within Luxembourg is crazy cheap. Four euros for all you can eat) but I did manage to sneak a couple of miles along the Müllerthal Trail, Luxembourg's foremost hiking route. Way more spectacular than I was expecting - I blame the lack of flat, these not so low countries and their lack of flat...

Thursday, 4 December 2014

Better than Parmesan

I went to that there Sam Wannamaker Playhouse to see everyone's favourite incest thriller Tis Pity She's A Whore . Quite liked it I did, both the show with its strangely modern stylings and that there theatre with its atmospherics and lack of electric lighting.

Wasn't a massive fan of the view tho - it took restricted to a whole other level - this is going to sound like I'm exaggerating but I'm not, I could only see half the stage. Stage left. And it seemed that most of the action was hanging out on the right. The fascist.