Posted 7:51 AM by Paul
The Undiscovered Country

We went to the theatre last might and had a fantastic evening. Hamlet in a production by the Royal Shakespeare Company at the Albery on St. Martin’s Lane is a big occasion. We met up first in bar just off Trafalgar Square. London looked beautiful all lit up for Christmas, twinkling in the cold night air. Heather also looked beautiful and I felt a bit manky in comparison. We had a couple of drinks and some spring rolls. It was a treat just to sit and talk, free of work and without the kids for a few hours.

The previous might I had been out with Chris and Steve to a Spanish restaurant and drunk too much. A client who is exhibiting at an event I am organising bought me lunch and we shared a bottle of wine, which got me going all over again. If not exactly dissolute, I felt a bit louche when I met Heather, but she didn’t seem to mind.

Coming into the grand old Albery Theatre,which was built in the last century, you could feel the excitement and the history. Photographs of Laurence Olivier in Richard III, Hamlet and King Lear adorned the walls of the theatre bar. There was a real sense of anticipation in the air. Up in the bar we sat on the same table as Patrick Stewart, a man known to millions as Captain Picard of Star Trek and a fine Shakespearean actor as well. It is a strange feeling sitting next to someone extremely famous because you are ostentatiously avoiding all eye contact in order to to allow them a bit of privacy. In a way, you are a lot ruder than you would be to a regular person. He met up with a younger woman. A girlfriend? Possibly. Possibly not.

It reminded me that most of the actors I know are still really passionate about the theatre. It is a love affair not a job. Patrick Stewart could have afforded to arrive at the last minute at a side entrance in a limo and have the best seats in the house. Instead he was meeting a girl in a crowded theatre bar and taking his seat in the Grand Circle. The most expensive seats are £30. Perhaps he was doing this out of respect for the younger actors. It must be a bit disconcerting if you spot a living legend on the second row when you are half way through you opening soliloquy. My old friend Ian who trained at RADA and enjoyed a load of success in the 1990s in a big soap opera has the same passion. If he sees a great play he is uplifted and can talk about every detail of the show for hours. He will eulogise or criticise aspects of a performance I would never notice.

Listening up there in the dark of the Grand Circle to Hamlet reminded me just how many set phrases and sayings that are now staples of the English language come from this one play. It must be difficult to say lines like “…neither a borrower nor a lender be” which are now clichés with any kind of conviction. One line that did stick in mind was the description of Death as “the undiscovered country” It made me think about my mother and father.

The production of Hamlet was disappointing. The actor who played The Dane was too handsome in a blonde upper class English sort of way. His vowels were full and his consonants clipped. He didn’t so much descend into madness as start off barmy and get a bit barmier. There seemed to be a few people on stage who found it difficult to walk and act at the same time. It was all a bit stiff with none of the vitality and sensuality that you get in a great ensemble piece. The white faced mime ghost looked like he had been trained by Lindsay Kemp. He was also way too young.

The staging and costume designers hadn’t quite made up their mind if they were doing an expressionistic or naturalistic piece. The King and Queen showed none of the creepy lascivious sensuality that I had loved when I saw the play at the Edinburgh Festival in the mid 1980s. You felt like they were having sex on the old King’s grave before he was cold. The Queen on that occasion was played by Jean Marsh who incidentally played Rose, the head maid in Upstairs Downstairs. My friend Ian played Rosenkrantz. I left at the interval because I had to do some illegal fly posting for a left wing comedy gig I was promoting. I kept up this tradition in 2004 by leaving at once more at the interval. I have never seen the second half of Hamlet.

It was my suggestion but Heather (and clearly most of the audience if the overheard intermission comments were anything to go by) felt the same way about the production. We don’t have a lot of time together and we decided to end the evening at a bar together talking about the future and the past. We also had to be back home by 11.00 to relieve our wonderful babysitter Kimberly. When we got home Alice was in a lovely mood. She had told Kimberley that Hamlet was a play about a dwarf who cycles from Peckham to Brixton. She can be very funny. They had made Christmas decorations and watched the DVD of School of Rock starring Jack Black. Emily was fast asleep.

We ended the night eating chocolate and watching U2 on the Jonathon Ross Show. Like Patrick Stewart, they are multi-millionaires but are still passionate about what they do. They still have that air of being people rather than personalities.

A great night and a great time to be living in London and not the undiscovered country.

Posted 7:35 AM by Paul
Bad News From the USA

Carol sent me the information below all accessed from public service radio in the USA and not far out conspiracy websites. DEpressing for us and more dpressing if like Carol you are American.

BBC Reveals NYC Tests HIV Drugs on Kids A nine-month-long BBC investigation has revealed that thecity of New York has been forcing HIV positive childrenunder its supervision to be used as human guinea pigs intests for experimental HIV drug trials, in some casesagainst their will.

All of the children in the program areunder the legal guidance of the city's child welfaredepartment, the Administration for Children's Services.Most were living either in foster care or independent homesrun on behalf of the local authorities, Almost all thechildren are believed to be African-American or Latino. OneNew York social worker told the BBC she had never beeninformed that the drugs she was administering to childrenwere experimental and highly toxic. Jacklyn Hoerger said,"We were told that if they were vomiting, if they losttheir ability to walk, if they were having diarrhea, ifthey were dying, then all of this was because of their HIVinfection." In fact it was the drugs that were causing manyof the problems. The BBC identified pharmaceutical giantGlaxoSmithKline as one of the companies that provided drugsfor the tests.

Ala. Legislator Proposes Banning Books w/ Gay Characters In Alabama, Republican state legislator Gerald Allen hasintroduced a bill that would ban all novels with gaycharacters from public libraries, including universities.If the bill passes, Allen said books containing gaycharacters will have to be removed from library shelves anddestroyed. One book that would have to be destroyed is"Sisters" a 1981 lesbian romance novel written by LynneCheney, the wife of Dick Cheney.

Gov't Defends Using Evidence Gained By Torture. Also at the court proceeding, the government claimed it hasthe right to use evidence gained by torture in decidingwhether to detain people at Guantanamo Bay. Statementsproduced under torture have been inadmissible in U.S.courts for about 70 years

Posted 3:36 PM by Paul
American Music

Tonight three things happened which reminded me of the greatness of American music

- Alice was practising Gospel in her room. She doesn't really like to sing much, but she has been chosen to do a couple of parts in the Peckham Goes Gospel show this Christmas. She is a little nervous and was learning her parts and playing the CD which had been loaned by her school. It sounded so inspirational that it could almost make you want to be a Christian again. The music lifted you up. She is singing with her classmate Samir. Samir is a Muslim

- The new Eminem video was played on TV. It is a corrosive track about the price blue collar America is paying for the Iraq War. The visuals are straight out of a graphic novel. Maus meets 8 Mile. The message is as strong and uncompromising as anything by Bob Dylan or Woody Guthrie. I have heard it once. I don't know the name of the track but I won't forget it. When it was over Heather and I looked at each and exchanged a look which said " Good God we don't like the msuic but we have just seen and heard something extraordinary" He wasn't singing about his crib or his ride or his Hos. He didn't claim to be a Playa Pimp. He was was giving us a narrative about modern America. The final sentiment for Bush was " Strap on an AK47 and go to Iraq if you want to impress your dad". It will be dismissed and ridiculed. As were Muhamed Ali and Bob Dylan. I am buying the album

- BBC4 showed an a documentary about the Beach Boys long lost Smile album which was resurrected at a live concert at the Royal Festival Hall in February 2004, not three miles from where I live. It was a reminder of the brilliance of the music of Brian Wilson and the Beach Boys. Heroes and Williams, California Girls, Surfs Up, Good Vibrations. Choral masterpieces.

Alot of words are written about cultural imperialism contending that American Culture is dominant purely becuase of the power of marketing and the dollar. Much of American Music is dominant because it is the Best.