Pam Ann was amazing! Seriously one of the best live performances I have seen for a long time. The show owes a lot to Barry Humphries' performances (as Dame Edna Everage et al), with Caroline Reid appearing as two characters, Lily (a myopic Asian air-stewardess) and Pam Ann. Like Dame Edna, Pam Ann invites audience participation with live game shows, and generally takes the piss out of the poor fools (un)lucky enough to get seats near the stage. Pam Ann's got a wealth of special material, as most of the humour revolves around the horrors of airline travel. And the humour is universal I think, as nearly everyone has flown on a plane, and often more than one airline to compare the service.
Pam made many references to it being Australia Day. The three audience-plucked game show guests were Australians, with one person from Brisbane, Sydney, and Melbourne, prompting many easy jokes ("you can tell where they're from by how they're dressed", "Brisbane - that's not Australia. There's Australia, and then there's Queensland"). She even made reference to T.A.A. at one point, which got a giggle from the Australians in the audience (there were many, this is London after all), while the joke flew straight over everyone else's head.
My favourite segment of the show was a videoclip where Reid performed a little caricature of different airlines, donning the appropriate uniform, and mocking the stereotype. We saw the giggling subservience of a Singapore girl, the dictatorial Aeroflot stewardess, the airhead from Virgin Atlantic, the rough-as-guts easyJet steward from Essex ("we're flyin' ova wart-arr" , and an Iberian show-pony. But the best was British Airways ("those [Heathrow] T4 bitches"): immaculately dressed in the BA uniform, a grumpy Reid leans against a seat, checking her nails, huffy at the prospect of doing anything for the passengers, all while Malcolm MacLaren's Aria on Air plays whistfully in the background. Hilarious!!
Saturday, January 28, 2006
Thursday, January 26, 2006
New Improved Google Maps!
Google Maps is now even better, offering satellite image resolution to 6 inches for certain areas of the world, like London. By my calculations, the London maps date from 2003. Here is Sheridan Buildings, which is where I live in Covent Garden.
Here are some famous locations:
- 10 Downing Street
- Trafalgar Square
- Piccadilly Circus
- Canary Wharf
- London Eye
- Covent Garden Piazza
- Royal Albert Hall
- The British Museum
- Primrose Hill and Regent's Park (the latter being the southern and larger of the two parks)
It's quite clever how Google seamlessly stitch together various satellite images, taken from different angles. Check out the image of the Shinjuku district in Tokyo. Note how the skyscrapers are photographed at two different angles. But can anyone spot the join? I can't.
Here are some famous locations:
- 10 Downing Street
- Trafalgar Square
- Piccadilly Circus
- Canary Wharf
- London Eye
- Covent Garden Piazza
- Royal Albert Hall
- The British Museum
- Primrose Hill and Regent's Park (the latter being the southern and larger of the two parks)
It's quite clever how Google seamlessly stitch together various satellite images, taken from different angles. Check out the image of the Shinjuku district in Tokyo. Note how the skyscrapers are photographed at two different angles. But can anyone spot the join? I can't.
Australia Day Lunch
- char grilled barramundi
- crispy potato
- sugar snap peas
- sweet potato mash
The dessert is a chocolate fudge cake, which was delicious, although I think a pavlova might have been more appropriate.
Total cost: £3.95
National Pride
Happy Australia Day everybody!
To celebrate, I've organised a little Australian ex-pat get-together, with Kurt, Max, and David. We'll meet for dinner (probably in Fitzrovia or Bloomsbury), to be followed with Pam Ann's one-woman show, at the University of London theatre. A good choice, I think, to celebrate Australia Day, as Pam Ann is Australia's air-stewardess-extraordinaire.
While on the subject of drag queens, I have big news regarding my last short film, Murder's A Drag. I have been busily entering it into some of the upcoming 2006 gay film festivals, to "get it out there". Over the Christmas break it screened at the inaugural Tropical Fruits Film Festival in Lismore. Kevin caught the screening, and said he and his friends laughed a lot, and enjoyed it immensely. How much that had to do with the screening, I cannot be sure, as it was 11pm on New Year's Eve.
The big news is that Murder's A Drag has been accepted into the two big Australian festivals:
- Sydney Mardi Gras Film Festival, screening on Saturday 25th February at 5:20pm; and
- Melbourne Queer Film Festival, screening on Wednesday 8th March at 7:30pm
As you can imagine, I'm thrilled to bits, and have rescheduled my planned trip back to Oz so that Paul and I can fly to Melbourne for the screening. Yes, I'm coming home!! Yay! My darling Kerby turns 30 on 26th February,and I'm flying home to celebrate. I arrive on the 26th, and will depart on 12th March. I'd have liked to arrive a little earlier, and stay a little later, to accommodate the Sydney screening and Big Gay Day, but The Firm has very strict rules limiting holiday leave which applies to contractors (even though The Firm doesn't pay for our leave). I can't complain really as I'm allowed 26 days per year, more than Australia, which I am trying to save for Paul's European trip later this year.
The job at The Firm is going well. I occasionally toy with the idea of looking for work elsewhere, but the plan quickly falls foul of my apathy to change. I'm unlikely to find another job within 12 minutes walking distance from home, which requires me to do so little and still get paid, so I'm reluctant to risk the change.
But The Firm does continue to provide me with a daily dose of entertainment. Lately, our DACEE office is the source of that humour. DACEE is The Firm's acronym to collectively refer to our offices in Germany, Austria, and Central and Eastern Europe. I know that spells GACEE, but apparently GACEE means something offensive in another language, so they've substituted Deutschland for Germany. The Firm's expansion into these regions came about through a merger, where the London office was the dominant entity. This hasn't boded well with many of the DACEE partners, fee-earners, and admin staff, who want to do crazy things like run Linux insteadof Microsoft software. At the time all this was explained to me, I was reading a World War II hypothetical text called "If Britain Had Fallen". When I pointed out the similarity between the DACEE region and the map of Hitler's Fatherland, I was mock-chided and promptly reminded "don't mention the war".
To celebrate, I've organised a little Australian ex-pat get-together, with Kurt, Max, and David. We'll meet for dinner (probably in Fitzrovia or Bloomsbury), to be followed with Pam Ann's one-woman show, at the University of London theatre. A good choice, I think, to celebrate Australia Day, as Pam Ann is Australia's air-stewardess-extraordinaire.
While on the subject of drag queens, I have big news regarding my last short film, Murder's A Drag. I have been busily entering it into some of the upcoming 2006 gay film festivals, to "get it out there". Over the Christmas break it screened at the inaugural Tropical Fruits Film Festival in Lismore. Kevin caught the screening, and said he and his friends laughed a lot, and enjoyed it immensely. How much that had to do with the screening, I cannot be sure, as it was 11pm on New Year's Eve.
The big news is that Murder's A Drag has been accepted into the two big Australian festivals:
- Sydney Mardi Gras Film Festival, screening on Saturday 25th February at 5:20pm; and
- Melbourne Queer Film Festival, screening on Wednesday 8th March at 7:30pm
As you can imagine, I'm thrilled to bits, and have rescheduled my planned trip back to Oz so that Paul and I can fly to Melbourne for the screening. Yes, I'm coming home!! Yay! My darling Kerby turns 30 on 26th February,and I'm flying home to celebrate. I arrive on the 26th, and will depart on 12th March. I'd have liked to arrive a little earlier, and stay a little later, to accommodate the Sydney screening and Big Gay Day, but The Firm has very strict rules limiting holiday leave which applies to contractors (even though The Firm doesn't pay for our leave). I can't complain really as I'm allowed 26 days per year, more than Australia, which I am trying to save for Paul's European trip later this year.
The job at The Firm is going well. I occasionally toy with the idea of looking for work elsewhere, but the plan quickly falls foul of my apathy to change. I'm unlikely to find another job within 12 minutes walking distance from home, which requires me to do so little and still get paid, so I'm reluctant to risk the change.
But The Firm does continue to provide me with a daily dose of entertainment. Lately, our DACEE office is the source of that humour. DACEE is The Firm's acronym to collectively refer to our offices in Germany, Austria, and Central and Eastern Europe. I know that spells GACEE, but apparently GACEE means something offensive in another language, so they've substituted Deutschland for Germany. The Firm's expansion into these regions came about through a merger, where the London office was the dominant entity. This hasn't boded well with many of the DACEE partners, fee-earners, and admin staff, who want to do crazy things like run Linux insteadof Microsoft software. At the time all this was explained to me, I was reading a World War II hypothetical text called "If Britain Had Fallen". When I pointed out the similarity between the DACEE region and the map of Hitler's Fatherland, I was mock-chided and promptly reminded "don't mention the war".
Thursday, January 12, 2006
Merry Merry Happy Happy!!
Happy New Year everyone! I have many stories to tell about the last three weeks, and will blog them soon. The short of it all is that I'm desperately broke after blowing about £700 on God-knows-what. I can't even blame a massive blow-out of a New Year's Eve. Actually, I purchased a lot of clothes in the January sales, which are fabulous here. True discounts of 40% are to be had, and many boutiques operate a discount-on-everything policy. It sure beats sorting through oversized orange Gianfranco Ferre swimmers at David Jones or Century 21.
My internet trawling took a dark turn this week after hearing about Colin Farrell's home-made sex tape. Alas, I could not find it... but I did d/l some other home-made chestnuts:
- Paris Hilton (sad and boring)
- Kate Richie, who plays Sal on Home & Away (very very disturbing)
- Tom Sizemore, movie actor, appeared in Heat, presently in gaol for bashing ex-wife Heidi Fleiss (stupifyingly engrossing, car accident bad, and possibly the grossest thing I have ever witnessed)
While we're in the gutter, let me mention The Sun. I refuse to buy the paper, but I am obsessed with how appallingly trashy it is, and take advantage of reading a work colleague's copy every day. There are four types of articles in The Sun:
- sensationalised hot topic of the moment (eg the Muslim cleric who advocated blowing up Big Ben)
- the latest happening in non-ebrity (celebrities lacking talent) and reality-tv land.
- sex
- sport
And yes, I have seen the occasional Sun article which manages to touch on all four categories.
Today's nadir concerns Jonah Falcon who complains that his generous manhood has ruined his life. (yawn.) Apparently this is news, and worthy of a full page article. Can I draw your attention to the handy celebrity manhood index and ruler, printed in the article's sidebar, and faithfully reproduced on-line. Between the "manhood ruler" and the ubiqutous "Page 3 Girl" (which itself is astoudingly poor form in the 21st century), there is no graver indictment for The Sun's trashy reputation.
But there is some good news. The highlight of my year so far is tracking down the new remixes of Stars on 45. Remember those early 80s tracks that sampled the Beatles, Abba, and various 70 disco songs, et al ? Well, the chorus of that song ("You can boogie like disco, love that disco sound!") has been sampled, and the result is ultra-dancey and uber-cool. You can check it out at the Global Deejays website.
My internet trawling took a dark turn this week after hearing about Colin Farrell's home-made sex tape. Alas, I could not find it... but I did d/l some other home-made chestnuts:
- Paris Hilton (sad and boring)
- Kate Richie, who plays Sal on Home & Away (very very disturbing)
- Tom Sizemore, movie actor, appeared in Heat, presently in gaol for bashing ex-wife Heidi Fleiss (stupifyingly engrossing, car accident bad, and possibly the grossest thing I have ever witnessed)
While we're in the gutter, let me mention The Sun. I refuse to buy the paper, but I am obsessed with how appallingly trashy it is, and take advantage of reading a work colleague's copy every day. There are four types of articles in The Sun:
- sensationalised hot topic of the moment (eg the Muslim cleric who advocated blowing up Big Ben)
- the latest happening in non-ebrity (celebrities lacking talent) and reality-tv land.
- sex
- sport
And yes, I have seen the occasional Sun article which manages to touch on all four categories.
Today's nadir concerns Jonah Falcon who complains that his generous manhood has ruined his life. (yawn.) Apparently this is news, and worthy of a full page article. Can I draw your attention to the handy celebrity manhood index and ruler, printed in the article's sidebar, and faithfully reproduced on-line. Between the "manhood ruler" and the ubiqutous "Page 3 Girl" (which itself is astoudingly poor form in the 21st century), there is no graver indictment for The Sun's trashy reputation.
But there is some good news. The highlight of my year so far is tracking down the new remixes of Stars on 45. Remember those early 80s tracks that sampled the Beatles, Abba, and various 70 disco songs, et al ? Well, the chorus of that song ("You can boogie like disco, love that disco sound!") has been sampled, and the result is ultra-dancey and uber-cool. You can check it out at the Global Deejays website.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)