I love this site. You get to upload 12 songs and share them.
So, I've done so.
Enjoy!
http://conoroukla.muxtape.com/
#UPDATE: "Muxtape will be unavailable for a brief period while we sort out a problem with the RIAA."
Saturday, August 02, 2008
Muxtape!
I love this site. You get to upload 12 songs and share them.
So, I've done so.
Enjoy!
http://conoroukla.muxtape.com/
#UPDATE: "Muxtape will be unavailable for a brief period while we sort out a problem with the RIAA."
Yet another. Because it's raining and I'm bored.
1. What time did you get up this morning? 8.30
2. Diamonds or pearls? Diamonds. Silly question.
3. What was the last film you saw at the cinema? The Dark Knight.
3B. What funny movie have you seen lately that is worth mentioning? Not sure.
4. What is your favorite TV show(s)? Right now I'm like, the last person in the world to watch Six Feet Under, but it's very good.
5. What did you have for breakfast? Apple juice and toast.
6. What is your middle name? Joseph.
7. What is your favorite cuisine? Japanese.
8. What foods do you dislike? I'm getting better at seafood. I fear Vegan cuisine might not be my cup of tea.
9. What is your favorite chip flavor? Salted
10. What is your favorite CD(s) at the moment? Corelli/Nilsson in Turandot.
11. What type of vehicle do you drive? A Toyota Avensis! Ha!
11B. What is your dream vehicle? A Mercedes. Or a Smart. Or even a Mini coupé.
12. Favorite Sandwich? I prefer to make my own, but in general I hate sandwiches.
13. What characteristics do you despise? Smallness. Cruelty. Laziness.
14. Favorite clothing? Whatever works.
15. If you could go anywhere in the world on vacation, where would you go? Okinawa.
16. What color is your bathroom? Green.
17. What is your favorite brand of clothes? I have always liked Calvin Klein.
18. Where would you like to retire? A ranch in Northern Japan.
19. Favorite time of the day? Evening.
20. What was your most memorable birthday? I haven't had a big blowout celebration for years.
21. Where were you born? Dublin.
22. Favorite sport to watch? American Football was a hilarious experience.
23. Person you expect to send it back first? This is a blog. How lame.
24. Who do you least expect to send this back to you? Leila.
25. What fabric detergent do you use? Dunno. But it's nice.
26. Favorite beverages? Green or mint tea.
26B. Favorite soda(s)? Sprite. But I found out recently it's 30% sugar so I gave it up.
28. What is your shoe size? 10
29. Do you have any pets? I really want a dog.
30. Are you a morning person or night owl? Both. Does this make me an insomniac?
31. Any new and exciting news you would like to share with family & friends? Y'all know it already!
32. What did you want to be when you were a child? An actor.
32B. What do you want to be now? A director.
33. What were you meant to be doing today? Reading.
34. What book are you currently reading? Invisible Cities, Steppenwolf, Le Bal, Spring Snow.
35. What is you favorite ice cream? Ben & Jerry's Bohemian Raspberry.
36. Red or white wine? Depends. Like both.
36B. Favorite Mixed Drink(s) or/& Beer? Gin and tonic.
What’s your best high school memory? Going to Calcutta.
37. What’s your best college memory? A lot of laughter.
38. What’s your biggest regret? Dunno.
Friday, August 01, 2008
Thursday, July 03, 2008
Heaven!
I've had gorgeous food in Greece before (and my mouth is already watering with the promise of a trip next week to my favourite restaurants in Argolida) but since coming on Sunday I've been lucky enough to have two little foodie moments. The first was on my first night, when my glamorous hostess cracked open a nice bottle of wine and served olives stuffed with almonds. Sounds weird, I know, but they are delicious! Next morning she also produced some fabulous coffee accompanied by little cinnamon-flavoured biscuits - a very winning way to start the day.... Today it was some caramel vanilla tea, which is also nicer than it sounds.
But the piece de resistance goes to the dessert we had yesterday in a little organic cafe near Panepistimiou metro station in the centre of Athens. It was a bowl of light mascarpone cheese, with chocolate chips and strawberries lightly marinaded in balsamic vinegar. This is, I am quite sure, what God has for dessert on his birthday. (And you can bet your ass I'll be using the excuse of mine to head back there in 2 weeks for a second helping!)
Wednesday, July 02, 2008
Proust Questionnaire
I've been watching (incongruously) Angelina Jolie on Inside the Actor's Studio, and kinda enjoyed the questionnaire at the end. So, in memory of the time when questionnaires were so fun and frequent online!
(The Vanity Fair Questions)
What is your idea of perfect happiness?
A sense of accomplishment (a good job having been finished), good company, and a good laugh over a good meal.
What is your greatest fear?
Running out of time. Mediocrity.
What do you regard as the lowest depth of misery?
Being unable to be happy for others. Smallness and pettiness.
Where would you like to live?
Japan.
Which living person do you most admire?
Tough one. People who live and create passionately, resolutely, personally. But that is a very long list.
Who are your favorite heroes of fiction?
Mizoguchi (in Kinkakuji and in Brushstrokes!),
Who are your favorite heroines of fiction?
The first wives, and that memoir-writing Geisha.
Which historical figure do you most identify with?
Oh dear lord. I don't know.
Who is/are your favorite painter?
Many.
Who is/are your favorite musician?
Madonna (deal with it)
What is the trait you most deplore in yourself?
Gossip.
What is the trait you most deplore in others?
Gossip.
What is your favorite journey?
That motherfucker of a flight to Tokyo.
What do you consider the most overrated virtue?
Propriety/restraint.
Which living person do you most despise?
Kinda starting to think that it's not really helpful.
Which words or phrases do you most overuse?
Like....!
What is your favorite occupation?
If I wasn't what I was (or trying to be all these things) I would love to consider being an architect.
What is your greatest regret?
Don't think I have any. I'm too young to call them regrets, for now. Leaving Japan is the closest thing to a regret that I have, but it's not one.
When and where were you happiest?
Japan, I guess. Still I'm happy today anyway.
What is your current state of mind?
Enjoying Angelina on the Actor's Studio. Calm, excited at some new ideas brewing in my head.
If you could change one thing about yourself, what would it be?
My feet.
What do you consider your greatest achievement?
Dear lord. Let me get back to you on that.
What is your most treasured possession?
A book and cd given to me by someone very special. It's as much for the gifts as for the thought behind them.
What is your most marked characteristic?
Over-analysis? Being a good listener, I hope.
What is the quality you most like in a man/woman?
Kindness/sense of humour.
Who are your favorite writers?
Salman Rushdie, Yukio Mishima, Pablo Neruda, Shakespeare, Federico Garcia Lorca.
What is your motto?
Believe. Keep at it. If it's all an illusion, we might as well laugh at it.
(The Actor's Studio Questions)
What is your favorite word?
Thank you.
What is your least favorite word?
Sweetie.
What turns you on creatively, spiritually or emotionally?
Individuality, beauty, wabi sabi, gratitude, the ineffable, the ephemeral, laughter.
What turns you off creatively, spiritually or emotionally?
Ego, forced things, affectation, cruelty, jealousy.
What sound or noise do you love?
Music. The welcome announcement at the theatre in Epidaurus, and the strange bird that sings there.
What sound or noise do you hate?
Traffic light indicators in Dublin. Scratches on stone or unglazed clay.
What is your favorite curse word?
C*nt. For emergency use only.
What profession other than your own would you like to attempt?
Architecture. Publishing.
What profession would you not like to do?
Anything repetetive or clerical in an office with no natural light.
If Heaven exists, what would you like to hear God say when you arrive at the Pearly Gates?
Do come in, we're celebrating, and there are some people here would love to meet you.
(The Vanity Fair Questions)
What is your idea of perfect happiness?
A sense of accomplishment (a good job having been finished), good company, and a good laugh over a good meal.
What is your greatest fear?
Running out of time. Mediocrity.
What do you regard as the lowest depth of misery?
Being unable to be happy for others. Smallness and pettiness.
Where would you like to live?
Japan.
Which living person do you most admire?
Tough one. People who live and create passionately, resolutely, personally. But that is a very long list.
Who are your favorite heroes of fiction?
Mizoguchi (in Kinkakuji and in Brushstrokes!),
Who are your favorite heroines of fiction?
The first wives, and that memoir-writing Geisha.
Which historical figure do you most identify with?
Oh dear lord. I don't know.
Who is/are your favorite painter?
Many.
Who is/are your favorite musician?
Madonna (deal with it)
What is the trait you most deplore in yourself?
Gossip.
What is the trait you most deplore in others?
Gossip.
What is your favorite journey?
That motherfucker of a flight to Tokyo.
What do you consider the most overrated virtue?
Propriety/restraint.
Which living person do you most despise?
Kinda starting to think that it's not really helpful.
Which words or phrases do you most overuse?
Like....!
What is your favorite occupation?
If I wasn't what I was (or trying to be all these things) I would love to consider being an architect.
What is your greatest regret?
Don't think I have any. I'm too young to call them regrets, for now. Leaving Japan is the closest thing to a regret that I have, but it's not one.
When and where were you happiest?
Japan, I guess. Still I'm happy today anyway.
What is your current state of mind?
Enjoying Angelina on the Actor's Studio. Calm, excited at some new ideas brewing in my head.
If you could change one thing about yourself, what would it be?
My feet.
What do you consider your greatest achievement?
Dear lord. Let me get back to you on that.
What is your most treasured possession?
A book and cd given to me by someone very special. It's as much for the gifts as for the thought behind them.
What is your most marked characteristic?
Over-analysis? Being a good listener, I hope.
What is the quality you most like in a man/woman?
Kindness/sense of humour.
Who are your favorite writers?
Salman Rushdie, Yukio Mishima, Pablo Neruda, Shakespeare, Federico Garcia Lorca.
What is your motto?
Believe. Keep at it. If it's all an illusion, we might as well laugh at it.
(The Actor's Studio Questions)
What is your favorite word?
Thank you.
What is your least favorite word?
Sweetie.
What turns you on creatively, spiritually or emotionally?
Individuality, beauty, wabi sabi, gratitude, the ineffable, the ephemeral, laughter.
What turns you off creatively, spiritually or emotionally?
Ego, forced things, affectation, cruelty, jealousy.
What sound or noise do you love?
Music. The welcome announcement at the theatre in Epidaurus, and the strange bird that sings there.
What sound or noise do you hate?
Traffic light indicators in Dublin. Scratches on stone or unglazed clay.
What is your favorite curse word?
C*nt. For emergency use only.
What profession other than your own would you like to attempt?
Architecture. Publishing.
What profession would you not like to do?
Anything repetetive or clerical in an office with no natural light.
If Heaven exists, what would you like to hear God say when you arrive at the Pearly Gates?
Do come in, we're celebrating, and there are some people here would love to meet you.
Sunday, June 08, 2008
The Black Lizard (Kurotokage)
In my ongoing research into the cultural life of Japan in the late 1960s (which, I hope, will lead to 2 books!) I have been trawling through books, plays, music, history, and - most excitingly - film. And the most fascinating recent treasure to be unearthed must surely be 'The Black Lizard' (黒蜥蝪) by Kinji Fukasaku, made in 1968.
The story is adapted from a piece written by Edogawa Rampo, a crime novelist who flourished before the Second World War. His name is actually a play on words based on the Japanese pronunciation of Edgar Allan Poe (Edogaru Aran Pou). The film is concocted from a stage version by Yukio Mishima, who is himself featured in it as a life-size human doll. The star of the show, however, is Akihiro Miwa, Japan's most famous female impersonator, who plays the eponymous heroine, jewel thief and criminal mastermind 'The Black Lizard'.
The film is wildly over the top, a high-camp celebration of crazy that is silly, hilarious, affected and extremely entertaining. Get your hands on it!!
Saturday, June 07, 2008
Friday, May 16, 2008
Eurovision
I love the Eurovision. I always thought it was so exciting growing up looking at other countries and hearing songs in other languages. And all the tacky glitz and 'glamour' etc were fun too, of course. And the whole voting system with the phone-ins - now video calls - etc. A great night in May.
Needless to say I'm less than thrilled with Ireland's entry this year. Although I reckon we'll either win it, or else come last and be permanently disqualified. (Either outcome will be the hilarious, anarchic kind of response that Dustin and his flock are aiming for - and while I'm not stuffy enough to be insulted at their iconoclastic lampooning of such a pan-European-tradition - seriously! who cares that much?! - I don't think the thing is THAT in need of demolition...)
Here's the Israeli entry. A nice song, has a touch of the country's own spirit, nice singer. Written by, of all people, Dana International. Wonder if she'll manage to steal the limelight again?! Perhaps she eats turkey....
Needless to say I'm less than thrilled with Ireland's entry this year. Although I reckon we'll either win it, or else come last and be permanently disqualified. (Either outcome will be the hilarious, anarchic kind of response that Dustin and his flock are aiming for - and while I'm not stuffy enough to be insulted at their iconoclastic lampooning of such a pan-European-tradition - seriously! who cares that much?! - I don't think the thing is THAT in need of demolition...)
Here's the Israeli entry. A nice song, has a touch of the country's own spirit, nice singer. Written by, of all people, Dana International. Wonder if she'll manage to steal the limelight again?! Perhaps she eats turkey....
Saturday, May 10, 2008
Surgical Spirit
I love this show!
New episodes have been really fantastic - with the extra bonus of Addison Sheperd (Kate Walsh, who got a shout-out here before...)
Hurrah!
Friday, May 09, 2008
Still in the Running...
I'm very curious to see who wins Top Model this time around. Each has things that mitigate against them, but each also has their strengths. For the sake of readers in Dublin who'll watch it on Living, I won't mention names, but there's really only one girl I want to win. And I've wanted her to for a long while...
It was remarkable watching the show this week, seeing Paulina modelling for the ladies - she seemed very good at her job! The Model Judges are all there for a reason, I guess...
As has become relatively clear as the season have gone on, there's really only one ACTUAL Top Model. And that, of course, is Tyra.
Doesn't Tyra look like a slightly hotter version of Wilhelmina Slater in this photo?? I wonder if La Banks will end up running her own magazine. I imagine she will - given her beautiful photographs on all sides of the camera, and her apparent desire for world domination! But despite her meteoric post-modelling reinvention and her assault on all global media, I gotta say I really admire her.
It was remarkable watching the show this week, seeing Paulina modelling for the ladies - she seemed very good at her job! The Model Judges are all there for a reason, I guess...
As has become relatively clear as the season have gone on, there's really only one ACTUAL Top Model. And that, of course, is Tyra.
Doesn't Tyra look like a slightly hotter version of Wilhelmina Slater in this photo?? I wonder if La Banks will end up running her own magazine. I imagine she will - given her beautiful photographs on all sides of the camera, and her apparent desire for world domination! But despite her meteoric post-modelling reinvention and her assault on all global media, I gotta say I really admire her.
A small commemoration
This rambling set of thoughts, lists and impressions is named after The Pillow Book of Sei Shōnagon (清少納言), written about 1000 years ago this year. I reckon it's all very well (and perhaps unexpected) for me to have a pretty blog with an Asian lady as its frontispiece, but I say give credit where it's due!
In many respects, her book could be considered the world's first blog - a selection of little entries, in various formats, in which she documented her life in the Heian court. She and Murasaki Shikubu, author of The Tale of Genji, are two of the foremost ladies of Japanese literature.
The Pillow Book (枕草子 makura no sōshi) is a lovely thing to have beside one's bed, it's perfect for dipping into, or indeed to read straight through.
Of course there are plenty of other blogs that reference her style, including THIS ONE (a fun literary blog).
For a slightly less sensational read, my other FAVOURITE book at the moment is by Liza Dalby. (Who, in glorious synchronicity, wrote a lovely novel about Murasaki!) It's called East Wind Melts The Ice and it's a compendium of thoughts throughout the seasons - based somewhere between California and Japan. No prizes for guessing why I'm enjoying it so much.
Just lovely.
How talented is this friend of mine??
A lovely song, a lovely singer.
No more commentary required.
A lovely song, a lovely singer.
No more commentary required.
Thursday, May 08, 2008
Cut it up, turn it loose
How cool is THIS - you can now upload and send 'mixtapes' (well - collections of MP3s) online!
I love it. Thanks to M & J for giving me the nod ;)
My sugar is raw!
News just in - World Tour Autumn/Winter 2008!
She's starting in Cardiff and heading around Europe and the USA. Curiously, a lot of the dates seem VERY close together - does this mean that there won't be an enormous number of extra shows added?
And what about all those promises to go to Australia? I reckon she'll go to Mexico and South America, and certainly Dubai, and perhaps finish in Japan like last time? I'd like that.
Watch this space...
Tuesday, May 06, 2008
三島由紀夫 の宅急便!
After writing an essay about Kinkakuji (The Golden Pavilion) by Yukio Mishima, back in November, I was recently given a prize by the Japanese Embassy in Dublin. The award was a voucher for Kenny's Bookshop in Galway, who rather wonderfully have hunted down my (very obscure) choices - and the books are on their way as I type!
I think there are few pleasures greater than a new book. Perhaps this might explain why I'm so pathologically loath to crease spines, turn down page-corners, or write on them - I want to keep them as pristine as possible! My bookshelf looks like a bookshop. The only moth-eaten, dog-eared books I have are my rehearsal copies of plays I've directed. And they occupy a whole different category ;)
Put Your Hands Up For Detroit!
I just love the new version of Music mashed with Fedde Le Grand's Put Your Hands Up For Detroit. Awesome!
Roll on the tour!
My little tribute...
If you wanna see some little shots and snippets of Ninagawa's Caligula, click here.
It's gonna be out on DVD during the summer, I can't wait.
Funny that that play is still on my mind - I ain't free of it yet!
(The カリギュラ chapter is underway at the moment... argh!)
City of Angels
In case any of y'all are ostriches...
I'm going to LA! Come September, I'll be relocating to sunny California.
And yes, you're welcome to come visit. Yes, I'll be driving.
No, I'm not getting a perma-tan. Or plastic surgery.
Re-appraisal
I know everybody is sucking and chewing on her 'Hard Candy' at the moment (and for the record my fave trax are 'Give It 2 Me', 'Miles Away' and 'Devil Wouldn't Recognize You'), I had a lovely moment of re-finding one of the less flashy tracks from 'Music' this morning.
Check out 'Gone', the album's final track (for those who didn't get American Pie or Cyber-raga thrown on for good measure....)
The woman manages to get it right just about every time!
Selling out
Is not my thing
Walk away
I won't be broken again
I'm not
I'm not what you think
Dream away your life
Someone else's dream
Nothing equals nothing
Letting go
Is not my thing
Walk away
Won't let it happen again
I'm not
I'm not very smart
Why should I feel sad
For what I never had
Nothing equals nothing
Turn to stone
Lose my faith
I'll be gone
Before it happens
Selling out
Is not my thing
Walk away
I won't be broken again
I won't
I won't fall apart
Dream away your life
Dream away your dream
Nothing equals nothing
Turn to stone
Lose my faith
I'll be gone
Before it happens
Turn to stone
Lose my faith
I'll be gone
Spring forward...
...now that I have a fall back!
I've been offline and hibernating for much of this winter, it was pretty hard for several reasons.
BUT things are looking up!
I have decided to spend the next few months writing, it's high time that I got my stuff together and finished several projects. Might even list them here sometime soon ;)
So welcome back, I'll be here much more often from now on.
Friday, January 04, 2008
Ake Ome!!!
That's Happy New Year in Japanese, kids...
How are y'all doing???
I'm so excited that it's 2008. This year that just ended was pretty rough, pretty hard work, and I'm glad to have gotten through it.
Whistlestop review of 2007!
(Funny, remember my previous reviews of the year in here? all luscious and fun and wholesome? not so much for this past year. Bullet points are all y'all are gonna get... No real value judgements or particularly rich commentary...)
January
Working on Othello with Second Age.
Workshops for the SEEDS showcase production.
February
Working on Don Carlos with Rough Magic.
March
National Theatre Studio Directors' Course in London. (Amazing! Haha - cracked already...)
April
Japan - a little catchup trip.
Athens - a week of translating and development.
London - Ninagawa's Coriolanus. 4.5 hours long. TWICE.
May
Berlin - SEEDS trip.
Auditions for Caligula.
June
London - a lil' trip for some catchups and an Asian theatre research day.
Milan - trip to visit Sofia and La Scala. Dahlink.
July
Greece. As ever.
August
Spent an intense awesome time building the costumes for Caligula (our SEEDS show) in the empty Rough Magic office with La Tilly. Who rocks la World.
Rehearsals for aforementioned Caligula began.
Also spent a lot of time translating La Marea, for the Theatre Festival.
September
Caligula was performed. My mom was diagnosed with Cancer.
Started work on Philadelphia Here I Come, with Second Age.
October
Philadelphia (and Letterkenny, Ennis, Dublin, Cork and Dun Laoghaire) here we came.
November
Back to Tokyo. For three whole fabulous weeks. Much of which I spent working on a paper for....
December
...a conference I came back to Tokyo for in early December. This was awesome.
Athens - back to Greece for some serious R&R and to finish the translation.
Christmas - hard work.
and then I got sick New Year's Eve. Although the tricky shitty details of the year are not listed here, but if felt with this infection that 2007 was saying "Ha! You may be rid of me, but you damn won't forget me!"
And that's hella true.
Things I'm excited for in 2008:
A whole new range of projects. Not just theatre! Conor goes multi-media!
This will be the year I buy a mac. A hot one.
The US Presidential Election
The SATC movie
New Madonna, Cyndi and others. Maybe a Madonna tour?
Travel to new places. And loved ones, too.
It's funny, I love New Year's Day infinitely more than New Year's eve. If I had my way I'd have the big celebration on Jan 1st, and have a really nice dinner party to welcome the possibilities of what the year will bring :)
How are y'all doing???
I'm so excited that it's 2008. This year that just ended was pretty rough, pretty hard work, and I'm glad to have gotten through it.
Whistlestop review of 2007!
(Funny, remember my previous reviews of the year in here? all luscious and fun and wholesome? not so much for this past year. Bullet points are all y'all are gonna get... No real value judgements or particularly rich commentary...)
January
Working on Othello with Second Age.
Workshops for the SEEDS showcase production.
February
Working on Don Carlos with Rough Magic.
March
National Theatre Studio Directors' Course in London. (Amazing! Haha - cracked already...)
April
Japan - a little catchup trip.
Athens - a week of translating and development.
London - Ninagawa's Coriolanus. 4.5 hours long. TWICE.
May
Berlin - SEEDS trip.
Auditions for Caligula.
June
London - a lil' trip for some catchups and an Asian theatre research day.
Milan - trip to visit Sofia and La Scala. Dahlink.
July
Greece. As ever.
August
Spent an intense awesome time building the costumes for Caligula (our SEEDS show) in the empty Rough Magic office with La Tilly. Who rocks la World.
Rehearsals for aforementioned Caligula began.
Also spent a lot of time translating La Marea, for the Theatre Festival.
September
Caligula was performed. My mom was diagnosed with Cancer.
Started work on Philadelphia Here I Come, with Second Age.
October
Philadelphia (and Letterkenny, Ennis, Dublin, Cork and Dun Laoghaire) here we came.
November
Back to Tokyo. For three whole fabulous weeks. Much of which I spent working on a paper for....
December
...a conference I came back to Tokyo for in early December. This was awesome.
Athens - back to Greece for some serious R&R and to finish the translation.
Christmas - hard work.
and then I got sick New Year's Eve. Although the tricky shitty details of the year are not listed here, but if felt with this infection that 2007 was saying "Ha! You may be rid of me, but you damn won't forget me!"
And that's hella true.
Things I'm excited for in 2008:
A whole new range of projects. Not just theatre! Conor goes multi-media!
This will be the year I buy a mac. A hot one.
The US Presidential Election
The SATC movie
New Madonna, Cyndi and others. Maybe a Madonna tour?
Travel to new places. And loved ones, too.
It's funny, I love New Year's Day infinitely more than New Year's eve. If I had my way I'd have the big celebration on Jan 1st, and have a really nice dinner party to welcome the possibilities of what the year will bring :)
Monday, November 05, 2007
Back once again...
After Facebook completely took over my life all my plans of blogging more totally disintegrated, apologies.
I'm back in Tokyo after a very long absence. Since I was last in this greatest of cities, I went to Greece to translate plays, went to Berlin to watch eye-poppingly interesting theatre, did mammoth amounts of auditions for my show, went to a conference in London, did my usual Greek July gig AND the celebrations of its 5th anniversary, where yours truly gave a paper, came back to Dublin and spent weeks working on costumes for the said show, translated a piece for the theatre festival in Dublin, directed CALIGULA, went straight into rehearsals as assistant director for PHILADELPHIA HERE I COME, did a few sound designs and then left for Japan again. Not bad for 7 months!
I'll do my best to keep y'all posted on the current trip, which promises all kinds of surprises....
Happy Autumn to you, dear reader. If anyone's actually reading this :P
Monday, April 09, 2007
Cherry Cherry Lady...
... does anyone remember Modern Talking? I was listening to them today meandering through Ginza, where I found the most enormous Muji store I've ever seen. Three storeys of goodness! I have a new favourite shop ;)
I also got my hair chopped off today, back in Aoba-ku, of happy memory. It's so fantastic to be back here, it's like I'm recharging my batteries. At the weekend I was taken to a wonderful yakitori restaurant, and then on a terrific Sunday-with-Jack we shopped for art books, had retro Ootoya food and then saw a fabulously colourful film called 'Sakuran' directed by Ninagawa's daughter Mika. It's based on a manga - think Memoirs of a Geisha on acid. With funky music by Shiina Ringo. I sincerely hope it'll be released internationally (maybe daddy's clout will come in handy...) because it's a riot!
I also got my hair chopped off today, back in Aoba-ku, of happy memory. It's so fantastic to be back here, it's like I'm recharging my batteries. At the weekend I was taken to a wonderful yakitori restaurant, and then on a terrific Sunday-with-Jack we shopped for art books, had retro Ootoya food and then saw a fabulously colourful film called 'Sakuran' directed by Ninagawa's daughter Mika. It's based on a manga - think Memoirs of a Geisha on acid. With funky music by Shiina Ringo. I sincerely hope it'll be released internationally (maybe daddy's clout will come in handy...) because it's a riot!
Friday, March 02, 2007
Hey kids,
Sorry it's been a while, I've been insanely busy this year so far!
Coming up over the weekend, my review of last year, news of what I've been up to and what I'm planning on BEING up to for the forthcoming few months.
Here's a fab photo by the amazing Horst P. Horst - recognise it from anywhere??
By the way, does anyone read this anymore? If you do, please leave a message so I know you're out there hahaha...
Sunday, January 07, 2007
Oozing charm from every pore...
Finally, the moment you've been waiting for... a big long blog about plays in Hungarian!!!
Madonna's playing in the background and for the first time in a few weeks I'm in a truly good mood. So count your blessings ;)
As you know, I'm on this little internship programme with a theatre company in Dublin, along with four other people - Cian (producer), Deirdre (designer), Sarah Jane (lighting designer) and Sophie (director). We were sent to Budapest at the invitation of a director there named Lazslo Marton, and thanks to him, we got to see a very wide variety of performances in Hungary, and here they are:
1) Rattled and Disappeared. This was a crazy piece of theatre loosely inspired (apparently) by Kafka's the Trial. I had no idea of this, but it didn't matter. The set was extremely deep and long (maybe 15 metres) and looked like a very long corridor. There were doors and windows and holes all the way along it, through which the actors came and went throughout. The whole place filled with smoke, there were dominatrix bitches from hell, drug addicts dancing to songs from the musical "Chicago" (numerous times!) and various other things. The best moment was the orgy, which featured a song called "Little Black Spiders" by Armand van Helden. You MUST download this track, it's awesome!! All of the actors in the show had amazing bodies, male and female, and it was just really sexy and insane and exciting. There was a slight 1920s feel to it, but there were also people surfing, and even an alien at the very end!!
(There's a photo at this link: http://www.szinhaz.hu/index.php?id=737&cid=9253 )
It was the best thing I saw there, and it was only a pity that we saw it on the very first night!!
2) Mary Stuart by Schiller. This was a relatively conservative and rather boring production, although Elizabeth was hilariously butch and fat. She looked a little what I might look like if I dressed up in a leather version of one of Queen Elizabeth's dresses... Which, while amusing, is really not a good thing. The set was extremely simple (one large piece on wheels that could be manipulated and became a door, Elizabeth's throne (which she knocked over! grrrr!) and various other things. And then, from the ceiling, 6 electric fans were lowered to make Mary's pretty skirts flutter in the wind. Very silly. Overall the show was quite boring...
3) 3rd night we saw Peer Gynt, performed by Kreatakor, who are amazing. About 8 actors (one of whom is INDECENTLY attractive) played all the characters in 4 hours of rather terrifying and confusing but very engaged theatre. They had no set, apart from a set of stairs and a circular platform on the stage, which revolved. There was loads of nudity, and at the end, all the characters appeared as penguins. For no real reason, but it kinda worked!! There are photos on their website... http://www.kretakor.hu/ (The hottie is this guy: http://www.kretakor.hu/?sub=C1-1&szemely_id=2606 )
4) Monday night was an evening off, thank god!
5) Tuesday we saw Caligula, which was the performance, I think, that I was most excited to see. It was really strange. The performance was in an old trade union cinema/screening room. Several seats had been removed though, so there was an acting space on the main theatre floor, then large wooden crates leading up to the actual stage, which was sealed with huge perspex doors. The whole stage was surrounded with a honeycomb in gold, and at the centre of each hexagone was a golden lightbulb. On the main floor, and hung from the ceiling, were countless mirror balls. So obviously I was very excited! But then, the play started. It was more of the same darkly weird theatre style that Hungarians seem to like - no glamour, just extremely raw, slightly scarily intense acting. "I BELIEVE IN MY ART SO MUCH THAT I WILL HURT MYSELF TO GET YOUR ATTENTION OR MAKE YOU BELIEVE THAT WHAT I AM DOING IS IMPORTANT" kinda theatre. Which is a bit too much. The girls in the group really really loved this show, but the boys didn't. Go figure! There are actually loads of good photos of this production at this link: http://www.radnotiszinhaz.hu/index.php?id=406&cid=15088
6) Next night we saw A Midsummer Night's Dream. Now, I LOVE this play. Love it very much. But I hated this production. It was performed with puppets and a tiny cast and terrible actors. Everyone was dressed in white and Puck was a tiny energetic little harpy that we wanted to strangle after about 3 minutes. To give you some idea: Oberon had a 6 foot feather boa as a penis, which kept getting stuck in things. Then he raped Puck at one point, who proceded to cough up feathers. Yuck. Not even a big funny.
7) Next night we came to a really cool arts venue for a dance performance, which I have to say i LOVED. Not just because there was an incredibly beautiful dancer with a cute piercing naked on rollerblades. Although of course that helped ;) There are photos of this show and others by the same company here: http://www.hallercamping.hu/frenak_hu/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=17&Itemid=36 It was absolutely gorgeous, all about struggling to be alive and have a sense of self in the modern world. Read about the company - the director is really fascinating. He grew up to parents who were deaf and mute!! I've been looking for photos but can't find any of our hottie performer. Too bad. (There's some very cool photos on this page too... http://www.tancelet.hu/fotogaleria.php )
8) The following evening we made our way to the belly of the hill that's crowned with Budapest castle, for a performance in an old hospital. This was four hours of wandering through the bowels of the old building, following Kreatakor's version of the story of Siegfried and Niebelung. I have no IDEA what happened. But it was quite amazing. The best moment was in an old dormitory full of beds (where the audience were forced to sit, one by one). A crazy crazy lady sang "Personal Jesus" at the top of her voice, and then all the lights went off, and she lit a flare and stuck it in her mouth like a cigar. It was insane! Then the lights came back and we saw Freya sitting on a bed gibbering, since she had clearly lost her mind. This was "the twilight of the gods". It really was remarkable. Remarkably self-indulgent, also, but it was fascinating.
9) Peasant Opera, by Bela Pinter. This was very strange, performed in a university theatre space in an incredible building on the Danube. The story was about a young man and woman who were about to get married, and then a whole twisted tale of adulteries, emmigration, and parents murdering guests who turned out to be their own children ensued. It was probably much funnier in Hungarian, but they did provide very surreal English subtitles...There's a long review of the show here http://www.mvdaily.com/articles/2004/09/peasantopera1.htm - but it's not as good as it sounds!!!
10) MEDEA. AT the Katona Josef theatre, which is part of the Union des Theatres de l'Europe. Woop-de-doo. It was appallingly DREADFUL. Although I did take the piss afterwards talking to the others. They all hated it, and so I pretended it was fabulous for about five minutes until I had them completely convinced that it was the best Medea i'd ever seen. They I told the truth and shared their horror at such an ugly performance. Here are some photos. Apparently it won loads of awards, which information makes me rather wonder about the mental ability of judges and theatre critics in Hungary, but nonetheless... http://www.theatre.org.hu/index.php?id=745&cid=9236
11) The next night we saw the most self-indulgently cringe-worthy show of them all, called "Dance in Time". It was a dance piece by our host, Mr. Marton, celebrating the history of modern hungary through dancing. YUCK!! The whole thing took place in a cafe, and started in the 1920s, went through the wars (complete with Jews waltzing away to the gas chambers, families being halved by Soviets... barf....) and then ended up in a contemporary nightclub with racial tensions bubbling over. It was horrendously self-satisfied, although the audience adored it. It's been playing for 15 years and has toured the whole bloody world.
12) Festen. Side note - I never want to see another production of this play or story. Yes, it's remarkable. No, I don't like it. Yes, it's important. No, I would never bother doing it. This production was enormously well acted, and some of the directorial things were remarkable. By the time I saw it, though, I'd seen so many plays and so many other rehearsals that I just couldn't deal with it. The others raved and rhapsodised about it - when we met the director afterwards - but I kept my mouth shut since I actually slept through much of the first half. http://www.vigszinhaz.hu/html/unnep_p.htm
13) Unlucky number, albeit the last.... We were taken to see Richard III at the Hungarian National Theatre on our last night. The building looks like a hotel in Las Vegas, complete with a lake in front, and a courtyard that Ginger Rogers and Fred Astaire would happily dance on, underneath the stars. In hideously bad taste, the facade of the old, popular National Theatre has been submerged in the lake for all to see that it has met its doom and been replaced by this monstrosity.
I have never seen a more ridiculous performance in my whole life. Ever. It was absolutely endless. And while the stage is remarkable - it can lift and drop and tilt and change within seconds, silently, the production was nothing more than an advertisement for all its capabilities. Really it was hilarious. There were CARS on stage. TWO ACTUAL CARS. And just when we thought it couldn't possibly get any more ridiculous, Richard had his dream. And then, since it was a dream, everyone he'd murdered reappeared in white. As did a WHITE, Third, Car. And - wait for it - A HORSE!!!!!!!! Honestly, I thought it would never end. It would have made Cacoyannis' Coriolanos seem interesting and brief. http://www.nemzetiszinhaz.hu/repertoar.php?play_id=24&gallery=1
There are loads of photos and even a video on their website!!!
So that's all. We also saw rehearsals for The Wild Duck, 100 Years of Solitude and a few other things. It was remarkable and exciting and really really tiring - I needed a holiday when I got back! And instead I had Christmas... hahaha.
Madonna's playing in the background and for the first time in a few weeks I'm in a truly good mood. So count your blessings ;)
As you know, I'm on this little internship programme with a theatre company in Dublin, along with four other people - Cian (producer), Deirdre (designer), Sarah Jane (lighting designer) and Sophie (director). We were sent to Budapest at the invitation of a director there named Lazslo Marton, and thanks to him, we got to see a very wide variety of performances in Hungary, and here they are:
1) Rattled and Disappeared. This was a crazy piece of theatre loosely inspired (apparently) by Kafka's the Trial. I had no idea of this, but it didn't matter. The set was extremely deep and long (maybe 15 metres) and looked like a very long corridor. There were doors and windows and holes all the way along it, through which the actors came and went throughout. The whole place filled with smoke, there were dominatrix bitches from hell, drug addicts dancing to songs from the musical "Chicago" (numerous times!) and various other things. The best moment was the orgy, which featured a song called "Little Black Spiders" by Armand van Helden. You MUST download this track, it's awesome!! All of the actors in the show had amazing bodies, male and female, and it was just really sexy and insane and exciting. There was a slight 1920s feel to it, but there were also people surfing, and even an alien at the very end!!
(There's a photo at this link: http://www.szinhaz.hu/index
It was the best thing I saw there, and it was only a pity that we saw it on the very first night!!
2) Mary Stuart by Schiller. This was a relatively conservative and rather boring production, although Elizabeth was hilariously butch and fat. She looked a little what I might look like if I dressed up in a leather version of one of Queen Elizabeth's dresses... Which, while amusing, is really not a good thing. The set was extremely simple (one large piece on wheels that could be manipulated and became a door, Elizabeth's throne (which she knocked over! grrrr!) and various other things. And then, from the ceiling, 6 electric fans were lowered to make Mary's pretty skirts flutter in the wind. Very silly. Overall the show was quite boring...
3) 3rd night we saw Peer Gynt, performed by Kreatakor, who are amazing. About 8 actors (one of whom is INDECENTLY attractive) played all the characters in 4 hours of rather terrifying and confusing but very engaged theatre. They had no set, apart from a set of stairs and a circular platform on the stage, which revolved. There was loads of nudity, and at the end, all the characters appeared as penguins. For no real reason, but it kinda worked!! There are photos on their website... http://www.kretakor.hu/ (The hottie is this guy: http://www.kretakor.hu/?sub=C1
4) Monday night was an evening off, thank god!
5) Tuesday we saw Caligula, which was the performance, I think, that I was most excited to see. It was really strange. The performance was in an old trade union cinema/screening room. Several seats had been removed though, so there was an acting space on the main theatre floor, then large wooden crates leading up to the actual stage, which was sealed with huge perspex doors. The whole stage was surrounded with a honeycomb in gold, and at the centre of each hexagone was a golden lightbulb. On the main floor, and hung from the ceiling, were countless mirror balls. So obviously I was very excited! But then, the play started. It was more of the same darkly weird theatre style that Hungarians seem to like - no glamour, just extremely raw, slightly scarily intense acting. "I BELIEVE IN MY ART SO MUCH THAT I WILL HURT MYSELF TO GET YOUR ATTENTION OR MAKE YOU BELIEVE THAT WHAT I AM DOING IS IMPORTANT" kinda theatre. Which is a bit too much. The girls in the group really really loved this show, but the boys didn't. Go figure! There are actually loads of good photos of this production at this link: http://www.radnotiszinhaz.hu
6) Next night we saw A Midsummer Night's Dream. Now, I LOVE this play. Love it very much. But I hated this production. It was performed with puppets and a tiny cast and terrible actors. Everyone was dressed in white and Puck was a tiny energetic little harpy that we wanted to strangle after about 3 minutes. To give you some idea: Oberon had a 6 foot feather boa as a penis, which kept getting stuck in things. Then he raped Puck at one point, who proceded to cough up feathers. Yuck. Not even a big funny.
7) Next night we came to a really cool arts venue for a dance performance, which I have to say i LOVED. Not just because there was an incredibly beautiful dancer with a cute piercing naked on rollerblades. Although of course that helped ;) There are photos of this show and others by the same company here: http://www.hallercamping.hu
8) The following evening we made our way to the belly of the hill that's crowned with Budapest castle, for a performance in an old hospital. This was four hours of wandering through the bowels of the old building, following Kreatakor's version of the story of Siegfried and Niebelung. I have no IDEA what happened. But it was quite amazing. The best moment was in an old dormitory full of beds (where the audience were forced to sit, one by one). A crazy crazy lady sang "Personal Jesus" at the top of her voice, and then all the lights went off, and she lit a flare and stuck it in her mouth like a cigar. It was insane! Then the lights came back and we saw Freya sitting on a bed gibbering, since she had clearly lost her mind. This was "the twilight of the gods". It really was remarkable. Remarkably self-indulgent, also, but it was fascinating.
9) Peasant Opera, by Bela Pinter. This was very strange, performed in a university theatre space in an incredible building on the Danube. The story was about a young man and woman who were about to get married, and then a whole twisted tale of adulteries, emmigration, and parents murdering guests who turned out to be their own children ensued. It was probably much funnier in Hungarian, but they did provide very surreal English subtitles...There's a long review of the show here http://www.mvdaily.com/articles
10) MEDEA. AT the Katona Josef theatre, which is part of the Union des Theatres de l'Europe. Woop-de-doo. It was appallingly DREADFUL. Although I did take the piss afterwards talking to the others. They all hated it, and so I pretended it was fabulous for about five minutes until I had them completely convinced that it was the best Medea i'd ever seen. They I told the truth and shared their horror at such an ugly performance. Here are some photos. Apparently it won loads of awards, which information makes me rather wonder about the mental ability of judges and theatre critics in Hungary, but nonetheless... http://www.theatre.org.hu
11) The next night we saw the most self-indulgently cringe-worthy show of them all, called "Dance in Time". It was a dance piece by our host, Mr. Marton, celebrating the history of modern hungary through dancing. YUCK!! The whole thing took place in a cafe, and started in the 1920s, went through the wars (complete with Jews waltzing away to the gas chambers, families being halved by Soviets... barf....) and then ended up in a contemporary nightclub with racial tensions bubbling over. It was horrendously self-satisfied, although the audience adored it. It's been playing for 15 years and has toured the whole bloody world.
12) Festen. Side note - I never want to see another production of this play or story. Yes, it's remarkable. No, I don't like it. Yes, it's important. No, I would never bother doing it. This production was enormously well acted, and some of the directorial things were remarkable. By the time I saw it, though, I'd seen so many plays and so many other rehearsals that I just couldn't deal with it. The others raved and rhapsodised about it - when we met the director afterwards - but I kept my mouth shut since I actually slept through much of the first half. http://www.vigszinhaz.hu/html
13) Unlucky number, albeit the last.... We were taken to see Richard III at the Hungarian National Theatre on our last night. The building looks like a hotel in Las Vegas, complete with a lake in front, and a courtyard that Ginger Rogers and Fred Astaire would happily dance on, underneath the stars. In hideously bad taste, the facade of the old, popular National Theatre has been submerged in the lake for all to see that it has met its doom and been replaced by this monstrosity.
I have never seen a more ridiculous performance in my whole life. Ever. It was absolutely endless. And while the stage is remarkable - it can lift and drop and tilt and change within seconds, silently, the production was nothing more than an advertisement for all its capabilities. Really it was hilarious. There were CARS on stage. TWO ACTUAL CARS. And just when we thought it couldn't possibly get any more ridiculous, Richard had his dream. And then, since it was a dream, everyone he'd murdered reappeared in white. As did a WHITE, Third, Car. And - wait for it - A HORSE!!!!!!!! Honestly, I thought it would never end. It would have made Cacoyannis' Coriolanos seem interesting and brief. http://www.nemzetiszinhaz.hu
There are loads of photos and even a video on their website!!!
So that's all. We also saw rehearsals for The Wild Duck, 100 Years of Solitude and a few other things. It was remarkable and exciting and really really tiring - I needed a holiday when I got back! And instead I had Christmas... hahaha.
Saturday, December 09, 2006
Hisashiburi!!
So I know, it's been rather a long time since I've blogged, but in fairness I've been super busy...
I promised to write all about that amazing kaiseki meal I had in Yugawara with the calligrapher, and then I was busy for a lot of May and June with Titus and Valkyries and various other things going on in Tokyo, and then I went to Stratford and Dublin and Greece and Helsinki and should probably have blogged about that.
Then in August I moved back to Tokyo and spent the time I shoulda been blogging moving from the asylum in Soshigaya to a new (wonderful) place in Tama Plaza and joined a gym. So spent even less time at the PC. And then I went to Osaka to see Madonna, then saw her in Tokyo (for which many kudos to the Mexican for finding all the tickets) and then went travelling around Japan with a friend visiting from home.
Then I directed my Beckett performance in association with the Irish Embassy, and also worked on Ninagawa's Orestes and Tango at the End of Winter, and then had the hideous task of moving back to Ireland and starting my new job there.
That was all only three weeks ago, but it feels like far far longer. I have seen a ridiculous number of plays since coming back, including Measure for Measure, Festen, Dream of Autumn, School for Scandal, Hamletmachine, Anna Karenina, and a host of others, and I'm now in Budapest thanks to Rough Magic, learning all about Hungarian theatre.
Shall blog about Budapest later. Just wanted y'all to know that I'm back in action...
Cx
I promised to write all about that amazing kaiseki meal I had in Yugawara with the calligrapher, and then I was busy for a lot of May and June with Titus and Valkyries and various other things going on in Tokyo, and then I went to Stratford and Dublin and Greece and Helsinki and should probably have blogged about that.
Then in August I moved back to Tokyo and spent the time I shoulda been blogging moving from the asylum in Soshigaya to a new (wonderful) place in Tama Plaza and joined a gym. So spent even less time at the PC. And then I went to Osaka to see Madonna, then saw her in Tokyo (for which many kudos to the Mexican for finding all the tickets) and then went travelling around Japan with a friend visiting from home.
Then I directed my Beckett performance in association with the Irish Embassy, and also worked on Ninagawa's Orestes and Tango at the End of Winter, and then had the hideous task of moving back to Ireland and starting my new job there.
That was all only three weeks ago, but it feels like far far longer. I have seen a ridiculous number of plays since coming back, including Measure for Measure, Festen, Dream of Autumn, School for Scandal, Hamletmachine, Anna Karenina, and a host of others, and I'm now in Budapest thanks to Rough Magic, learning all about Hungarian theatre.
Shall blog about Budapest later. Just wanted y'all to know that I'm back in action...
Cx
Saturday, April 08, 2006
There are no words
Anyone needing inspiration to take exercise or clean up their act, visit hotghettomess.com
Specifically to see THIS PICTURE... (Not for the faint-hearted...)
I may never eat again...
Blog may follow soon.
Specifically to see THIS PICTURE... (Not for the faint-hearted...)
I may never eat again...
Blog may follow soon.
Monday, April 03, 2006
Multicolored misadventures
So, as you may have seen, I dyed my hair dark red a few weeks ago, and loved the results (which you can see in my profile photo at the top of this page).
Alas the colour was only temporary, but it damaged my hair so as it washed out it looked weak and cheap and, vain fool that I am, I decided to do something else. So on Friday I tried to bleach it blonde and get rid of all the colour, with the thought that if it went wrong I could just get it all chopped off.
Saturday morning, with my newly bleached pink/orange/yellow hair I went to cherry-blossom viewing with some friends in Yoyogi Park. My hair was insanely orange. So, Saturday night, (after a LOVELY day, see next post) I tried to use the tail end of the first red, which I thought would get rid of the orange-ness and perhaps get me back to where I started. Not so much. It went pinkish red.
Argh!
On Sunday I went to Ninagawa rehearsal wearing a hat for the first time in months. We finished early, so in the afternoon I headed to Sengawa to my lovely salon in the hope of getting it all cut off. Alas, my lovely salon was jammed to the lovely rafters, so I would have to wait until Monday morning. Meanwhile the pharmacist beside the lovely salon was having a sale, so I bought some very cheap dark-brown dye to get rid of the ridiculous redness that was exposing me to much comment on various train platforms, and it actually sent my hair back to darkened normality. I thought. Then it dried, yet another electric shade of red. Argh again!
This morning I went to the salon for my lovely appointment with lovely Hiroyuki, who looked terrified when I told him to shave it all off. "Eeeeeeeh? Maru-bozu??" (aka bald as a monk? are you SURE?) He said my hair was too good to chop off. I pointed out that the colour was silly. He agreed and got out the razor. Mercifully his delicate hands never slipped, and he did a fabulously smooth job.
And I love it!!!
Here is my gallery of out-takes and mistakes. Perhaps I should just wear hats more often. Or wigs. If I continue like this I'll be bald and have no hair - or scalp - anyway!
Alas the colour was only temporary, but it damaged my hair so as it washed out it looked weak and cheap and, vain fool that I am, I decided to do something else. So on Friday I tried to bleach it blonde and get rid of all the colour, with the thought that if it went wrong I could just get it all chopped off.
Saturday morning, with my newly bleached pink/orange/yellow hair I went to cherry-blossom viewing with some friends in Yoyogi Park. My hair was insanely orange. So, Saturday night, (after a LOVELY day, see next post) I tried to use the tail end of the first red, which I thought would get rid of the orange-ness and perhaps get me back to where I started. Not so much. It went pinkish red.
Argh!
On Sunday I went to Ninagawa rehearsal wearing a hat for the first time in months. We finished early, so in the afternoon I headed to Sengawa to my lovely salon in the hope of getting it all cut off. Alas, my lovely salon was jammed to the lovely rafters, so I would have to wait until Monday morning. Meanwhile the pharmacist beside the lovely salon was having a sale, so I bought some very cheap dark-brown dye to get rid of the ridiculous redness that was exposing me to much comment on various train platforms, and it actually sent my hair back to darkened normality. I thought. Then it dried, yet another electric shade of red. Argh again!
This morning I went to the salon for my lovely appointment with lovely Hiroyuki, who looked terrified when I told him to shave it all off. "Eeeeeeeh? Maru-bozu??" (aka bald as a monk? are you SURE?) He said my hair was too good to chop off. I pointed out that the colour was silly. He agreed and got out the razor. Mercifully his delicate hands never slipped, and he did a fabulously smooth job.
And I love it!!!
Here is my gallery of out-takes and mistakes. Perhaps I should just wear hats more often. Or wigs. If I continue like this I'll be bald and have no hair - or scalp - anyway!
Tuesday, March 28, 2006
We love...
Grey's Anatomy is just wonderful. Of course I only started watching because of Sandra Oh, who remains the best thing about it, but must mention this lovely lady too. Kate Walsh rocks. McBitchy Dreamy Fabulous.
Saturday, March 25, 2006
Get on to Joan Collins, tell her there's free Champagne...
Of course, on Friday evening after work when I tried to do the hair poshly for the fashion show, nothing was working, so I had to do my best Madonna Erotica impression and slick it down like a (very very very red) helmet. What's a boy to do... Jack and I had Mexican and margaritas before sashaying to Sendagaya to the grounds of the Meiji Portrait Gallery (I think?) where Fashion Week had set up camp. After the Taishi Nobukuni (www.tashi-nobukuni.co.jp) show, which was very cool, we decided to stay for the DressCamp (www.dresscamp.org) show, which was tons of fun. The music was excellent, although the show was a bit tawdry since it was the very last show of the week and the models looked bored, tired, and occasionally downright hostile - perhaps due to the clothes they were wearing. The collection was rather inspired by vintage Versace, with print hints of Pucci and D&G. Alas, while this might sound like a good thing, it wasn't entirely. Certainly it was a fun, outrageous event, complete with a veritable menagerie of dead animals and stuffed-toy-worthy furs draped over emaciated models, but I won't be rushing out to buy DC. Well - maybe their boots, some of which were amazing.
Thereafter J and I went for (more) drinks, and met up with our new friends from Tuesday night - no, not the soldiers, but Mako, Takeshi et al., aka the fashionistas. The Baileys was flowing, and before I realised, it was 3am and we were piling into a taxi, polluted (again! am I starting to have a problem?!), heading back to Mako's place.
Saturday was a gorgeous day, and - when not in bed "recovering" I managed to fit in a walk around Soshigaya to enjoy the blossoming cherries (nearly there - next week will be gorgeous) and re-discover Kylie's "Impossible Princess" album. Anyone reading this should instantly go and listen to "Breathe" and "Limbo". I mean it, right now. "Some Kind of Bliss" while you're at it.
After writing the introductory (rather silly) chapter to the book, I met Mako and his hag Ayumi (1st Japanese hag! woohoo!) for dinner in Shimokitazawa. We had simple izakaya food and beer while Ayu-chan told stories of her trip to Florida and we discussed the grammar of various languages and how to be rude in all of them. No prizes for guessing who won that game!
On the way home this morning I realised I'm a total sellout and I love it. I love me my Starbucks White Mocha, and I absolutely adore my iPod. Yes, I have been completely hoodwinked by agressive marketing. BUT with these two white-encased joys in hand, on a sunny day as the millions of cherry flowers pop open and the sun comes out from behind a cloud at the perfect moment in a song I've rediscovered, I can't help feeling it's good to be alive.
Bleurgh - I just re-read that last sentence, and BAM my hangover hit. Pass me a sick-bag...
Thereafter J and I went for (more) drinks, and met up with our new friends from Tuesday night - no, not the soldiers, but Mako, Takeshi et al., aka the fashionistas. The Baileys was flowing, and before I realised, it was 3am and we were piling into a taxi, polluted (again! am I starting to have a problem?!), heading back to Mako's place.
Saturday was a gorgeous day, and - when not in bed "recovering" I managed to fit in a walk around Soshigaya to enjoy the blossoming cherries (nearly there - next week will be gorgeous) and re-discover Kylie's "Impossible Princess" album. Anyone reading this should instantly go and listen to "Breathe" and "Limbo". I mean it, right now. "Some Kind of Bliss" while you're at it.
After writing the introductory (rather silly) chapter to the book, I met Mako and his hag Ayumi (1st Japanese hag! woohoo!) for dinner in Shimokitazawa. We had simple izakaya food and beer while Ayu-chan told stories of her trip to Florida and we discussed the grammar of various languages and how to be rude in all of them. No prizes for guessing who won that game!
On the way home this morning I realised I'm a total sellout and I love it. I love me my Starbucks White Mocha, and I absolutely adore my iPod. Yes, I have been completely hoodwinked by agressive marketing. BUT with these two white-encased joys in hand, on a sunny day as the millions of cherry flowers pop open and the sun comes out from behind a cloud at the perfect moment in a song I've rediscovered, I can't help feeling it's good to be alive.
Bleurgh - I just re-read that last sentence, and BAM my hangover hit. Pass me a sick-bag...
Friday, March 24, 2006
Dance! Get On Your Feet!
Tuesday was the best day I've had in months. Despite being a little cagey about it, I agreed to meet Jack and Alfred and go and enjoy plum blossoms for the afternoon, weather permitting. I met the boys (with Takuma and Takeshi, a new face, in tow) and we headed out on the Keio line to I-forget-where. Spirits were high and the weather was pleasant. Off the train we clambered up a whole lot of hill to get to the lovely garden (photos to follow) choc-full of plums in various delicate stages of beautifully coloured blossom. Yours truly had been a little late, so alas we missed almost all of the local municipal grass-blade orchestra performance (aka old women blowing on grass in a vain attempt to make communal music) but this was a grief easily borne.
We lunched on posh bagels and pittas courtesy of Jack, and had fun people watching before clambering around the whole of the park and seeing a pretty spectacular view of Tokyo. This all took about an hour, after which it was still way to early to go home so we went back into Shinjuku with the intention of seeing a movie. Alas, our five differing agendas and temperaments ensured that we couldn't pick anything to watch, so we went for a coffee, before finally deciding to go for dinner at a place Alfred new that purveyed Nagoya gay chicken wings. Imagine chicken wings prepared with masses of aromat and salt. Delicious!! (Don't yet know what made them gay, mind you...) Dinner was really nice, with soup, and sweet-miso kebabs, and the wings (galore), swilled down with plum liquor (for the day that was in it!).
Of course, now quite well-sauced, we were in no mood to go home, so instead we headed for Sin City for some dancing. And a whole lot of sinning. The club wasn't particularly crowded and the DJ was sufficiently impressionable that we got our way all night. Which was fun! As were the soldiers who were enjoying their national holiday (perhaps we were the entertainment!!). I doubt I have ever been so drunk. I had about a pint of vodka, without as much cranberry as I shoulda had with it. But who cares?? It was hilarious. Top tracks of the night are below...
On our way out, we all pulled, too.
Then Wednesday was clearly spent recovering... In the evening I met Nicky for dinner (in truly foul rain) at Good Honest Grub. I am loathe to sing the praises of this wonderful place, but it's not like I'm A.A. Gill, so I'm sure that a glowing mention here will ruin the place at all. We LOVE it. Nicky and I were the only customers when we got there, so we were treated like royalty and given free booze and all manner of niceties. Not least of which is their moderately priced and always delicious food. Or indeed their fun cocktails - eg Love Bubbles (created for Valentine's Day, with champagne, amaretto and a strawberry) or Green Margaritas (regular Ms with lots of Melon - my poison of choice the other night...). On the way home, in the dreadful rain, I happened across M's TRUE BLUE album on the joyPod. This album is so summery and fun, it almost made me forget the rain!!
Thursday I was back in Saitama, and in the evening got a call from home - finally the Columbia communication arrived, and, alas, I have not been accepted. Boo hoo, next business...
Tonight I am going to a fashion show in Harajuku as part of Tokyo Fashion Week. Since I had nothing exciting to wear, I dyed my hair.
Kinda red!!
More news will follow if/when it happens...
The Soldiers' Night Playlist:
Love at First Sight - Kylie
Erotica - Madonna
1, 2 Step - Ciara (* why why why is this pronounced Sierra...??)
Hung Up (SDP Remix) - Madonna
All Nite (Don't Stop) - Janet
Filthy Gorgeous - Scissor Sisters
Vogue - Madonna
Sorry (PSB Maxi Mix) - Madonna
Believe - Cher
I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For - Cher
Butterfly - Kylie
Jump - Madonna
Outrageous (Junkie XL Mix) - Britnah
Just A Little While (Remix) - Janet
These Boots Are Made for Walking - Jessica Simpson
We lunched on posh bagels and pittas courtesy of Jack, and had fun people watching before clambering around the whole of the park and seeing a pretty spectacular view of Tokyo. This all took about an hour, after which it was still way to early to go home so we went back into Shinjuku with the intention of seeing a movie. Alas, our five differing agendas and temperaments ensured that we couldn't pick anything to watch, so we went for a coffee, before finally deciding to go for dinner at a place Alfred new that purveyed Nagoya gay chicken wings. Imagine chicken wings prepared with masses of aromat and salt. Delicious!! (Don't yet know what made them gay, mind you...) Dinner was really nice, with soup, and sweet-miso kebabs, and the wings (galore), swilled down with plum liquor (for the day that was in it!).
Of course, now quite well-sauced, we were in no mood to go home, so instead we headed for Sin City for some dancing. And a whole lot of sinning. The club wasn't particularly crowded and the DJ was sufficiently impressionable that we got our way all night. Which was fun! As were the soldiers who were enjoying their national holiday (perhaps we were the entertainment!!). I doubt I have ever been so drunk. I had about a pint of vodka, without as much cranberry as I shoulda had with it. But who cares?? It was hilarious. Top tracks of the night are below...
On our way out, we all pulled, too.
Then Wednesday was clearly spent recovering... In the evening I met Nicky for dinner (in truly foul rain) at Good Honest Grub. I am loathe to sing the praises of this wonderful place, but it's not like I'm A.A. Gill, so I'm sure that a glowing mention here will ruin the place at all. We LOVE it. Nicky and I were the only customers when we got there, so we were treated like royalty and given free booze and all manner of niceties. Not least of which is their moderately priced and always delicious food. Or indeed their fun cocktails - eg Love Bubbles (created for Valentine's Day, with champagne, amaretto and a strawberry) or Green Margaritas (regular Ms with lots of Melon - my poison of choice the other night...). On the way home, in the dreadful rain, I happened across M's TRUE BLUE album on the joyPod. This album is so summery and fun, it almost made me forget the rain!!
Thursday I was back in Saitama, and in the evening got a call from home - finally the Columbia communication arrived, and, alas, I have not been accepted. Boo hoo, next business...
Tonight I am going to a fashion show in Harajuku as part of Tokyo Fashion Week. Since I had nothing exciting to wear, I dyed my hair.
Kinda red!!
More news will follow if/when it happens...
The Soldiers' Night Playlist:
Love at First Sight - Kylie
Erotica - Madonna
1, 2 Step - Ciara (* why why why is this pronounced Sierra...??)
Hung Up (SDP Remix) - Madonna
All Nite (Don't Stop) - Janet
Filthy Gorgeous - Scissor Sisters
Vogue - Madonna
Sorry (PSB Maxi Mix) - Madonna
Believe - Cher
I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For - Cher
Butterfly - Kylie
Jump - Madonna
Outrageous (Junkie XL Mix) - Britnah
Just A Little While (Remix) - Janet
These Boots Are Made for Walking - Jessica Simpson
Sunday, March 19, 2006
Third Thai's the Charm
I've had a rather interesting ten days. (When do I not?!)
Zaki came to Tokyo to collect her mother around about the time of the Chita Rivera post, and the Mexican and I met her off the train. Of course, Miss Thang was about a week late, so plans of karaoke/dinner/dancing/anything needed to be shelved because I couldn't afford to stay out all night. (The Mexican and I had in fact had dinner beforehand and gotten in a dance to "Hung Up" before Z arrived...)
I had been up late working the night before so I was a dreadful host, leaving poor Z to watch movies all night after I disintegrated.
Sunday, I met Shin and Mark for some Karaoke in Hachioji, and was reminded of how toxic and dangerous J-pop can be (cut to me getting home that night and watching a variety of music videos from such true talents - not - as Koda Kumi and Amuro Namie... In fairness, the videos are often fabulous. It's the music itself that sticks in your head). After we sang our hearts out we went for dinner in a nice izakaya and introduced Mark to the wonders of ume-shuu (plum liquor!). This made us all drunk enough to agree to go into Shinjuku to accompany M while he waited for his date. So we went to a quiet bar and sat and stared, exhausted, at a concert by Koda Kumi that was conveniently playing on the wall. M's date arrived, and Shin and I went home.
Monday I spent working on my book proposal - yes, people, it might actually be published sometime this year! - and generally feeling unwell. Also I paid my health insurance, fearing that the malaise might need serious attention.
Tuesday I went and met Kan from Company Izuru. ANYONE IN LONDON MUST GO SEE THIS SHOW, IT'S FABULOUS! (See image below) . I have been working on translations for their programme also, and we had a good laugh in Hiroo as we figured out what he wanted me to say and how he wanted it said. His appreciation for blank verse is commendable!
After meeting Kan I met a Chinese friend for dinner in Ginza. I was knocked for six by how spookily he resembles the Mexican. What a funny old world...
Wednesday morning I bit the bullet and found a clinic in Aoyama that I could visit to get myself looked at. I had a swollen gland (think My Big Fat Greek Wedding - "it was my twin!") and it was clearly bugging me. Having battled with my Japanese and the relatively patient ladies at the front desk, I was finally seen by the doctor, who told me it was a lymph node infection, and sent me out to wait for my drugs. These were delivered in a cute little bag, with clear instructions etc. But I only got enough for 4 days! And, surprise surprise in this delicate, gentle country, they appear to have had absolutely no effect...
That evening I went over to Takuma's house for a new phenomenon (here at least) known as American Idol night. The show is broadcast on cable here, but they show the entire week's shows together so it's a 3 hour epic. I know I'm very new to this year's show and all, but there's only one contestant for me, and that's Mandisa. If that lady doesn't win, I don't know what.
Thursday, feeling better (probably the placebo effect of just HAVING drugs) I got up early and went to Nishimachi International School to give a presentation to a class full of 14 year-olds, whose teacher had asked me to come speak to them about Greek drama and my "work". I felt so grown up. Despite my fears, they were absolutely lovely and very attentive. Thank god for powerpoint and dvds, I guess. Cleverly, I spoke for almost all of the allotted time, leaving very little room for questions. And those that slipped through were amazingly informed and insightful.
But no, I still don't want to be a teacher.
That evening I headed out in the foul weather to the Irish ambassadorial residence (incidentally JUST across the street from Nishimachi school) for a function to celebrate St. Patrick's Day. This was a big hoo-ha, but it was very nice, and I met some fascinating people, including a professor from Sophia University and one John Dillon, Greek professor in Trinity, who just happened to be in Tokyo. It was rather startling to see such a sophisticated and distinguished crowd descending on the plush buffet spread, particularly when the (Irish) sausages were served and all dignity was eschewed, in a display only worthy of a Biblical pack of locusts...
Paddy's day itself was absolutely lousy. I was on my way to Saitama for the first day of Ninagawa's Titus rehearsals, when I fainted on the train and banged my tired head. So I went home and went to sleep. All day. That evening I called home to wish birthday/patrician greetings to all, and then got an email from Maria wondering if I'd be free to go to Shizuoka (halfway between Tokyo and Nagoya) to see a play the following day. Now, y'all know me and what a sucker I am for a play I like directed by someone famous... This was the Bacchae, remixed (see below! :P) by Suzuki Tadashi, perhaps Ninagawa's only real rival. So of course I agreed to go.
I paid a fabulously decadent sum for a return day ticket on the Bullet train and arrived quite relaxed at Shizuoka, in good time for the performance. Changed trains, got as far as Higashi-Shizuoka (where I was supposed to go) and was really impressed by the lovely station and shopping complex right there. I hopped into a taxi, and showed the driver the flyer for the performance and the map attached. Now, this woman was either biscuit-takingly stupid, or the most evil hostile bitch I have ever met. I knew the theatre was about 3 minutes from the station, so I was a bit confused when we seemed to be 8 minutes away from the whole town. The cow deposited me at Suzuki's performing arts centre, SPAC, which is his (amazing looking, delighted I got the chance to see it, but that's not the point because it wasn't where the show was on) base in the area. She took my money and scarpered, leaving me in the worryingly-empty car-park. I found a security guard at the gate, proferred my flyer (thank god I'd grabbed a few in the station) and asked, winsomely, if this was where the show was on. He was absolutely LOVELY, and said no, that the show was on in the theatre beside the station, and that the taxi-driver was a profiteering shameless bad person. Or words to that effect. It was by now 2.30, and the show was starting, so I asked, defeated, which of the two shows in the programme would begin first. Amused, he reassured me that what I'd come to see hadn't started yet... He ordered a taxi for me (and charged it to the S.P.A. Center!!) and sent me on my way. Of course, while I was waiting for the cab, it started pouring rain...
FINALLY I got back to the theatre (which was inside the posh-looking shopping centre beside the station!) and was met at the door by two very worried-looking assistants who ushered me to a seat and looked after me as though my lateness was somehow their fault. I only saw the last 15 minutes or so of "Nina" the modern dance piece by Kanamori Joh that preceded Dionysus, but it was enough to make me even angrier at that stupid/nasty driver. (Of course it is partly my fault for not asking someone other than the taxi driver, I accept, but I'm the injured party and I'll bitch if I want to...) I shall certainly be looking out for anything else by this really interesting amazing choreographer...
Also spotted in the audience for this very limited-engagement double-bill were numerous fab actors and actresses, and Miyagi Satoshi, artistic director of Ku Na'uka Theatre Company, whose Antigone, Medea and Othello I saw in Tokyo. We love them....
So finally, after much consternation and gnashing of teeth, I was there, in Shizuoka, dripping wet, to see my first Suzuki production since coming to Japan. What was most striking was how similar the soundscape was to that of his Oedipus, which I'd seen in Epidaurus in 2002 - and you can take that either way, as a mark of a distinctive theatrical voice at work, or as a sign of someone who's done nothing new for four years....
The show was almost amazing - Suzuki's eye for composition is flawless and the stage always looked absolutely beautiful. But the acting wasn't particularly life-changing, and there were several cringe-worthy moments. Agave was the most impressive, but she appeared to be doing her best impression of Shiraishi Kayoko (awesome awesome Japanese actress who's worked with Suzuki AND Ninagawa...) who originated the role. I really enjoyed the performance, and I'm thrilled I got to see it, but it was reassuring to feel, as I left, that I'm certainly concentrating on the right septaguanarian Japanese theatre director...!
Sunday I did masses of laundry and tidied my room (I figure if I do Spring cleaning, it might actually become Spring...) and spent a good deal of time chatting to my new Thai friend. I have often heard that Thai people are wonderfully friendly, exuberant, kind and funny people, but my experience has been strange. There was Cortney's madcap friend Mary, who's just heaps of fun but whom I don't really know. I also lost a good Japanese friend to Thailand (he's obsessed with the place and has now moved there, boo hoo). And then of the actual Thais I have made friends with, the first turned out to be a total bore, and the second is very confused and introverted and a huge amount of work. So now I have a new Thai friend (am I not a saint for never giving up?!) and he's a hoot and a half, and all of those nice things Thais are rumored to be. So hurrah! Third thai's the charm....
PS If anyone has a version of Bonnie Tyler's Holding Out for a Hero, please please let me know. Am trying to find a particular one, which is beyond description, so all help gratefully received...
Zaki came to Tokyo to collect her mother around about the time of the Chita Rivera post, and the Mexican and I met her off the train. Of course, Miss Thang was about a week late, so plans of karaoke/dinner/dancing/anything needed to be shelved because I couldn't afford to stay out all night. (The Mexican and I had in fact had dinner beforehand and gotten in a dance to "Hung Up" before Z arrived...)
I had been up late working the night before so I was a dreadful host, leaving poor Z to watch movies all night after I disintegrated.
Sunday, I met Shin and Mark for some Karaoke in Hachioji, and was reminded of how toxic and dangerous J-pop can be (cut to me getting home that night and watching a variety of music videos from such true talents - not - as Koda Kumi and Amuro Namie... In fairness, the videos are often fabulous. It's the music itself that sticks in your head). After we sang our hearts out we went for dinner in a nice izakaya and introduced Mark to the wonders of ume-shuu (plum liquor!). This made us all drunk enough to agree to go into Shinjuku to accompany M while he waited for his date. So we went to a quiet bar and sat and stared, exhausted, at a concert by Koda Kumi that was conveniently playing on the wall. M's date arrived, and Shin and I went home.
Monday I spent working on my book proposal - yes, people, it might actually be published sometime this year! - and generally feeling unwell. Also I paid my health insurance, fearing that the malaise might need serious attention.
Tuesday I went and met Kan from Company Izuru. ANYONE IN LONDON MUST GO SEE THIS SHOW, IT'S FABULOUS! (See image below) . I have been working on translations for their programme also, and we had a good laugh in Hiroo as we figured out what he wanted me to say and how he wanted it said. His appreciation for blank verse is commendable!
After meeting Kan I met a Chinese friend for dinner in Ginza. I was knocked for six by how spookily he resembles the Mexican. What a funny old world...
Wednesday morning I bit the bullet and found a clinic in Aoyama that I could visit to get myself looked at. I had a swollen gland (think My Big Fat Greek Wedding - "it was my twin!") and it was clearly bugging me. Having battled with my Japanese and the relatively patient ladies at the front desk, I was finally seen by the doctor, who told me it was a lymph node infection, and sent me out to wait for my drugs. These were delivered in a cute little bag, with clear instructions etc. But I only got enough for 4 days! And, surprise surprise in this delicate, gentle country, they appear to have had absolutely no effect...
That evening I went over to Takuma's house for a new phenomenon (here at least) known as American Idol night. The show is broadcast on cable here, but they show the entire week's shows together so it's a 3 hour epic. I know I'm very new to this year's show and all, but there's only one contestant for me, and that's Mandisa. If that lady doesn't win, I don't know what.
Thursday, feeling better (probably the placebo effect of just HAVING drugs) I got up early and went to Nishimachi International School to give a presentation to a class full of 14 year-olds, whose teacher had asked me to come speak to them about Greek drama and my "work". I felt so grown up. Despite my fears, they were absolutely lovely and very attentive. Thank god for powerpoint and dvds, I guess. Cleverly, I spoke for almost all of the allotted time, leaving very little room for questions. And those that slipped through were amazingly informed and insightful.
But no, I still don't want to be a teacher.
That evening I headed out in the foul weather to the Irish ambassadorial residence (incidentally JUST across the street from Nishimachi school) for a function to celebrate St. Patrick's Day. This was a big hoo-ha, but it was very nice, and I met some fascinating people, including a professor from Sophia University and one John Dillon, Greek professor in Trinity, who just happened to be in Tokyo. It was rather startling to see such a sophisticated and distinguished crowd descending on the plush buffet spread, particularly when the (Irish) sausages were served and all dignity was eschewed, in a display only worthy of a Biblical pack of locusts...
Paddy's day itself was absolutely lousy. I was on my way to Saitama for the first day of Ninagawa's Titus rehearsals, when I fainted on the train and banged my tired head. So I went home and went to sleep. All day. That evening I called home to wish birthday/patrician greetings to all, and then got an email from Maria wondering if I'd be free to go to Shizuoka (halfway between Tokyo and Nagoya) to see a play the following day. Now, y'all know me and what a sucker I am for a play I like directed by someone famous... This was the Bacchae, remixed (see below! :P) by Suzuki Tadashi, perhaps Ninagawa's only real rival. So of course I agreed to go.
I paid a fabulously decadent sum for a return day ticket on the Bullet train and arrived quite relaxed at Shizuoka, in good time for the performance. Changed trains, got as far as Higashi-Shizuoka (where I was supposed to go) and was really impressed by the lovely station and shopping complex right there. I hopped into a taxi, and showed the driver the flyer for the performance and the map attached. Now, this woman was either biscuit-takingly stupid, or the most evil hostile bitch I have ever met. I knew the theatre was about 3 minutes from the station, so I was a bit confused when we seemed to be 8 minutes away from the whole town. The cow deposited me at Suzuki's performing arts centre, SPAC, which is his (amazing looking, delighted I got the chance to see it, but that's not the point because it wasn't where the show was on) base in the area. She took my money and scarpered, leaving me in the worryingly-empty car-park. I found a security guard at the gate, proferred my flyer (thank god I'd grabbed a few in the station) and asked, winsomely, if this was where the show was on. He was absolutely LOVELY, and said no, that the show was on in the theatre beside the station, and that the taxi-driver was a profiteering shameless bad person. Or words to that effect. It was by now 2.30, and the show was starting, so I asked, defeated, which of the two shows in the programme would begin first. Amused, he reassured me that what I'd come to see hadn't started yet... He ordered a taxi for me (and charged it to the S.P.A. Center!!) and sent me on my way. Of course, while I was waiting for the cab, it started pouring rain...
FINALLY I got back to the theatre (which was inside the posh-looking shopping centre beside the station!) and was met at the door by two very worried-looking assistants who ushered me to a seat and looked after me as though my lateness was somehow their fault. I only saw the last 15 minutes or so of "Nina" the modern dance piece by Kanamori Joh that preceded Dionysus, but it was enough to make me even angrier at that stupid/nasty driver. (Of course it is partly my fault for not asking someone other than the taxi driver, I accept, but I'm the injured party and I'll bitch if I want to...) I shall certainly be looking out for anything else by this really interesting amazing choreographer...
Also spotted in the audience for this very limited-engagement double-bill were numerous fab actors and actresses, and Miyagi Satoshi, artistic director of Ku Na'uka Theatre Company, whose Antigone, Medea and Othello I saw in Tokyo. We love them....
So finally, after much consternation and gnashing of teeth, I was there, in Shizuoka, dripping wet, to see my first Suzuki production since coming to Japan. What was most striking was how similar the soundscape was to that of his Oedipus, which I'd seen in Epidaurus in 2002 - and you can take that either way, as a mark of a distinctive theatrical voice at work, or as a sign of someone who's done nothing new for four years....
The show was almost amazing - Suzuki's eye for composition is flawless and the stage always looked absolutely beautiful. But the acting wasn't particularly life-changing, and there were several cringe-worthy moments. Agave was the most impressive, but she appeared to be doing her best impression of Shiraishi Kayoko (awesome awesome Japanese actress who's worked with Suzuki AND Ninagawa...) who originated the role. I really enjoyed the performance, and I'm thrilled I got to see it, but it was reassuring to feel, as I left, that I'm certainly concentrating on the right septaguanarian Japanese theatre director...!
Sunday I did masses of laundry and tidied my room (I figure if I do Spring cleaning, it might actually become Spring...) and spent a good deal of time chatting to my new Thai friend. I have often heard that Thai people are wonderfully friendly, exuberant, kind and funny people, but my experience has been strange. There was Cortney's madcap friend Mary, who's just heaps of fun but whom I don't really know. I also lost a good Japanese friend to Thailand (he's obsessed with the place and has now moved there, boo hoo). And then of the actual Thais I have made friends with, the first turned out to be a total bore, and the second is very confused and introverted and a huge amount of work. So now I have a new Thai friend (am I not a saint for never giving up?!) and he's a hoot and a half, and all of those nice things Thais are rumored to be. So hurrah! Third thai's the charm....
PS If anyone has a version of Bonnie Tyler's Holding Out for a Hero, please please let me know. Am trying to find a particular one, which is beyond description, so all help gratefully received...
Remixes, Part Deux
The list I gave of favourite remixes could obviously never be complete, or all-encompassing. ..
I really love when a remixer can take a ballad and turn it into an amazing dance track (particularly the kind of track that sad music geeks use words like throbbing, or monster, or floor-filling, to describe...)
Of note today - the Scumfrog remixes of Britney (aka Queen of Trash) Spears' Everytime.
Ooh, and a curious remix in the opposite direction... (aka weird world-music lesson of the day:)
Dana International blazed out of the alternative club scene in Israel under the auspices and remix talents of Ofer Nissim. S/he was crazy, provocative, and controversial, singing in Hebrew and Arabic, and often doing ironic cover versions of camp classics like Baccara's "Yes Sir, I Can Boogie" or "Hello Dolly" in Hebrew. She went on to win the Eurovision, and just when you thought she couldn't out-camp her feather-clad winning performance, the following year she created the Eurovision's interval act, and performed the Jewish Sabbath prayer (on a Saturday night) as a tribal dance remix extravaganza. And then fell flat on her ass when she was presenting the trophy, thereby ensuring that poor Charlotte, the Swedish winner, got only half the attention in the following day's press... Gotta hand it to her. ANYWAY, now that Dana is rather established, her most recent album was less provocative (or downright crazy) than previous efforts, and is a slick, sophisticated collection of songs. Most interesting is the "remix" of her song "Ani Nitzachti", which means "I Won" - from her Eurovision follow-up album - in a gentle, delicate acoustic version. Super classy, complete makeover, super remix.
If you are still reading this, god bless you.
PS Shout out to Ofer Nissim, whose monster remixes of everyone from Dana to Suzanne Palmer to Ofra Haza are throbbing, floor-filling genius...
I really love when a remixer can take a ballad and turn it into an amazing dance track (particularly the kind of track that sad music geeks use words like throbbing, or monster, or floor-filling, to describe...)
Of note today - the Scumfrog remixes of Britney (aka Queen of Trash) Spears' Everytime.
Ooh, and a curious remix in the opposite direction... (aka weird world-music lesson of the day:)
Dana International blazed out of the alternative club scene in Israel under the auspices and remix talents of Ofer Nissim. S/he was crazy, provocative, and controversial, singing in Hebrew and Arabic, and often doing ironic cover versions of camp classics like Baccara's "Yes Sir, I Can Boogie" or "Hello Dolly" in Hebrew. She went on to win the Eurovision, and just when you thought she couldn't out-camp her feather-clad winning performance, the following year she created the Eurovision's interval act, and performed the Jewish Sabbath prayer (on a Saturday night) as a tribal dance remix extravaganza. And then fell flat on her ass when she was presenting the trophy, thereby ensuring that poor Charlotte, the Swedish winner, got only half the attention in the following day's press... Gotta hand it to her. ANYWAY, now that Dana is rather established, her most recent album was less provocative (or downright crazy) than previous efforts, and is a slick, sophisticated collection of songs. Most interesting is the "remix" of her song "Ani Nitzachti", which means "I Won" - from her Eurovision follow-up album - in a gentle, delicate acoustic version. Super classy, complete makeover, super remix.
If you are still reading this, god bless you.
PS Shout out to Ofer Nissim, whose monster remixes of everyone from Dana to Suzanne Palmer to Ofra Haza are throbbing, floor-filling genius...
Thursday, March 09, 2006
Chita Rivera
www.chitarivera.com
For the strangest Flash animation I've seen in a very long time. Who'd have thought a Broadway diva would choose Prodigy's "Slap My Bitch Up" as her theme music? Go figure...
For the strangest Flash animation I've seen in a very long time. Who'd have thought a Broadway diva would choose Prodigy's "Slap My Bitch Up" as her theme music? Go figure...
Wednesday, March 08, 2006
Conor's Loves #48 - Book Off
I found a copy of Naomi Campbell's album "Babywoman" yesterday in the newly-opened Book Off cd & book shop in Seijo. Also a copy of Ruthie Henshall's George Gershwin album. Both of these are entirely out of print (the first deservedly, the second scandalously) and I'm delighted!!
Conor's Loves #47 - The Remix
I absolutely love remixes. Filling up the pod over the past while has confirmed this love.
I don't remember the first remix I ever heard, or how precisely I came to enjoy them (occasionally far more than the original song) but I suppose it's the ultimate postmodern musical expression - chopping up a song and, on occasion, completely changing its character. My current favourite for this is Stuart Price (aka Paper Faces aka Les Rythmes Digitales aka Man With Guitar aka Thin White Duke...) - his remixes, often of songs he produced himself in the first place - are almost uniformly fabulous. Zaki (and I love her for it) recently sent me in the direction of the Verve Remixed series - Jazz classics from the Verve back catalogue that have been given some very slinky facelifts by painfully chic deejays and producers for our listening pleasure. I also recently got my hands on the Cirque du Soleil compilation "Solarium/Delerium", which remixes many gorgeous tracks from their back-catalogue.
Of course Madonna has long been a pioneer of the remix - as far back as 1989/1990 she was at it, and included her most startling "remix" - The Beast Within, on her Justify My Love single. Fancy juxtaposing lines of text from the Book of the Apocalypse with her (thereto) most overtly sexual song. What are you gonna do?
Of course there are many less-than-satisfying remixes, and mashups/bootlegs might get another blog entry at some point in the future (as the 21st century, post-postmodern bastard cousin of the remix...) but for now, here's a few of my all time favourite remixes, listed because they give an entirely new feeling to a song, or, mainly, because they're cool...
The Music - Bleed from Within (Thin White Duke Remix)
Missy Elliot - Lose Control (Thin White Duke Remix)
Depeche Mode - A Pain That I'm Used To (Jacques Lu Cont Remix)
Gwen Stefani - Hollaback Girl (Hollatronix Remix)
Madonna - Don't Tell Me (Victor Calderone Sensory Mix)
Madonna - Sorry (Man With Guitar Rmx)
Madonna - The Power of Goodbye (Fabian's Good God Mix)
Madonna - Nothing Really Matters (Kruder and Dorfmeister Remix)
(ok you get the picture, lots and lots of Madonna remixes)
Ofra Haza - Shali K Rework
Delerium - Silence (DJ Tiesto In Search of Sunrise Remix)
Tina Arena - Never (DJ Tiesto Remix)
Whitney Houston - I Will Always Love You (Hex Hector Remix)
I don't remember the first remix I ever heard, or how precisely I came to enjoy them (occasionally far more than the original song) but I suppose it's the ultimate postmodern musical expression - chopping up a song and, on occasion, completely changing its character. My current favourite for this is Stuart Price (aka Paper Faces aka Les Rythmes Digitales aka Man With Guitar aka Thin White Duke...) - his remixes, often of songs he produced himself in the first place - are almost uniformly fabulous. Zaki (and I love her for it) recently sent me in the direction of the Verve Remixed series - Jazz classics from the Verve back catalogue that have been given some very slinky facelifts by painfully chic deejays and producers for our listening pleasure. I also recently got my hands on the Cirque du Soleil compilation "Solarium/Delerium", which remixes many gorgeous tracks from their back-catalogue.
Of course Madonna has long been a pioneer of the remix - as far back as 1989/1990 she was at it, and included her most startling "remix" - The Beast Within, on her Justify My Love single. Fancy juxtaposing lines of text from the Book of the Apocalypse with her (thereto) most overtly sexual song. What are you gonna do?
Of course there are many less-than-satisfying remixes, and mashups/bootlegs might get another blog entry at some point in the future (as the 21st century, post-postmodern bastard cousin of the remix...) but for now, here's a few of my all time favourite remixes, listed because they give an entirely new feeling to a song, or, mainly, because they're cool...
The Music - Bleed from Within (Thin White Duke Remix)
Missy Elliot - Lose Control (Thin White Duke Remix)
Depeche Mode - A Pain That I'm Used To (Jacques Lu Cont Remix)
Gwen Stefani - Hollaback Girl (Hollatronix Remix)
Madonna - Don't Tell Me (Victor Calderone Sensory Mix)
Madonna - Sorry (Man With Guitar Rmx)
Madonna - The Power of Goodbye (Fabian's Good God Mix)
Madonna - Nothing Really Matters (Kruder and Dorfmeister Remix)
(ok you get the picture, lots and lots of Madonna remixes)
Ofra Haza - Shali K Rework
Delerium - Silence (DJ Tiesto In Search of Sunrise Remix)
Tina Arena - Never (DJ Tiesto Remix)
Whitney Houston - I Will Always Love You (Hex Hector Remix)
Monday, March 06, 2006
Oscar The Grouch
I can't comment much as I didn't see the telecast and half the movies aren't even out here in Japan. The fact that Memoirs of a Geisha is now an Oscar-winning movie is sad. The fact that Brokeback couldn't possibly win best picture is sad (but go the score-composer for what he said about love!) The fact that Reese beat Judi and Felicity is sad. The fact that so many people wore ugly dresses is sad. The fact that P S Hoffman looked like a tramp at the OSCARS is very sad. Oh well, I guess it's because he's a serious character actor - don't they have to make an effort? (David Straithairn looked marvellous, by contrast)
But, saddest, of all, Dolly Parton didn't win the chocolate-filled trophy for her lovely Transamerica song. And she had so much work done for the big night. Lady is starting to look like Jocelyn Wildenstein...!
Favourite quote of the night:
"I do have some sad news to report. Bjork couldn't be here tonight. She was trying on her Oscar dress and Dick Cheney shot her." Jon Stewart.
But why would she be dressing as a septaguanarian republican??
Saturday, March 04, 2006
Curioser and Curioser
MySpace is seriously weird. I was checking a friend's page and found a video of two boys from Kansas, performing "Defying Gravity" from the musical Wicked, with more gusto than really was decent to display.
At the bottom of the page was a selection of "funny things you can add to your MySpace to make it fun-er", including the following quizes, which are all determined by simply typing your name in a box.
Who were you in a past life?
A forlorn priest in Cyprus who died by decapitation. (That's rather interesting)
What's your Japanese name?
Kenji Yamamoto (Where this came from is beyond me. Although I have been haunted by the name Ken/Kenji/Kennichi/Kenny/K here, and I know kountless people with variations of the name!)
What colour should your eyes be?
Brown. (They're not, they're blue)
I don't even have free time to be wasting on this junk...
At the bottom of the page was a selection of "funny things you can add to your MySpace to make it fun-er", including the following quizes, which are all determined by simply typing your name in a box.
Who were you in a past life?
A forlorn priest in Cyprus who died by decapitation. (That's rather interesting)
What's your Japanese name?
Kenji Yamamoto (Where this came from is beyond me. Although I have been haunted by the name Ken/Kenji/Kennichi/Kenny/K here, and I know kountless people with variations of the name!)
What colour should your eyes be?
Brown. (They're not, they're blue)
| Your Brain's Pattern |
 Your brain is always looking for the connections in life. You always amaze your friends by figuring out things first. You're also good at connecting people - and often play match maker. You see the world in fluid, flexible terms. Nothing is black or white. |
I don't even have free time to be wasting on this junk...
Thursday, March 02, 2006
Me and miPod
Apologies for the lack of postage since the Big Trip to the Big Apple. It was lovely.
I arrived kinda dizzy with tiredness in Long Island, which was calf-deep in snow and a little dark and gloomy, but that all changed once I got to my cousins' house and they looked after me wonderfully. It was so comfortable to have their place as a base of operations.... Thursday, as the jetlag wore off, I pottered around with Catherine, went to the mall with her, and then to see my great-aunt in Garden City. It was lovely to see her.
Friday was my orientation day, of sorts, so I packed up early and made my way into the city, and found my way up to Columbia and met Antoine for lunch. We found each other in Barnes & Noble, and then went to a cool diner and had hamburgers. The chat flowed and flowed (as it is wont) and soon we found it was 7pm (we'd met at 11.30!) so I headed off and met MyLinh to go and see Blasted by Sarah Kane, a piece by one of the graduating directors from Columbia. It was fun to look at the crowd and try to figure out who else there mighta been a directing auditionee.
The weekend itself was extremely intense - we were there from 8.30am on Saturday until all hours that night (after which I had to go looking for red paper in Manhattan, along with a Hawaiian who was looking for wrapping paper and chalk...) and then I went back to MyLinh's for donuts and much-needed sleep. Sunday was equally intense - we were all regrouped at 10am and continued until lunchtime. I must say it was an amazing experience to spend a weekend with 24 other such talented, exciting, interesting individuals. The calibre of all involved was such that I think we can all agree that whoever is chosen more than deserves their place, and there SHOULD be no hard feelings. Of course my standing on this might change if/when I hear I'm not in... :P
After we finished on Sunday we went for very much needed nourishment and margaritas at a Mexican restaurant close to Columbia. To Matt, James, Yaelle, Henning and Lara, thank you for the best unwinding possible!!
Sunday evening, I went back to MyLinh's for a snooze, and then we headed out to try to find the others at an Irish bar on Bleeker St - we failed miserably, but did pass Sushi Samba again on the way to Joe's Pizza, which was too full so we went to have Indian food instead - perfect antidote to the absolutely horrendous cold in Manhattan. Thereafter we went to a very funky moviehouse to see Transamerica, which was excellent. And a completely different movie than the one I was expecting. Felicity Huffman is boundlessly talented.
Back at the mans, M and I ended up watching Flavor of Love, the tackiest and most spectacularly trashy show in the history of time. Much respect to New York (aka Tiffany Robertson) for keeping it real and being the most fabulous lady I've ever seen on Reality TV. Maybe apart from Nadia on BBUK. I crashed, but M continued watching Entourage, Marky Mark's show about making it in Hollywood. It was fun, but I seem to know it far better than I should for having watched only 1 episode. I guess osmosis works!!
The following day we woke late, and I went to meet the lovely Tokyo transplants for coffee which became dinner at a cool pizza house near Astor Place. I then trekked back to Long Island, while they all headed to see a show. I would liked to have gone, but this crushed flower was seriously wilting from fatigue...
Tuesday morning I headed back into the city to attempt to meet Ginny and Ryan Joyce, but she was sick and SHE was a total flake and didn't answer his phone. So grrr to him, but hopefully I'll see them soon.
Back in Tokyo - after an upgraded flight! Woohoo! - I was knocked for six by weird jetlag and was all over the place for most of the past week. I did manage, however, to get a new iPod, which I absolutely love. It's already filled with more divas and screamers than you could shake a stick at.
And that's pretty much all the news. More as soon as it happens.
I arrived kinda dizzy with tiredness in Long Island, which was calf-deep in snow and a little dark and gloomy, but that all changed once I got to my cousins' house and they looked after me wonderfully. It was so comfortable to have their place as a base of operations.... Thursday, as the jetlag wore off, I pottered around with Catherine, went to the mall with her, and then to see my great-aunt in Garden City. It was lovely to see her.
Friday was my orientation day, of sorts, so I packed up early and made my way into the city, and found my way up to Columbia and met Antoine for lunch. We found each other in Barnes & Noble, and then went to a cool diner and had hamburgers. The chat flowed and flowed (as it is wont) and soon we found it was 7pm (we'd met at 11.30!) so I headed off and met MyLinh to go and see Blasted by Sarah Kane, a piece by one of the graduating directors from Columbia. It was fun to look at the crowd and try to figure out who else there mighta been a directing auditionee.
The weekend itself was extremely intense - we were there from 8.30am on Saturday until all hours that night (after which I had to go looking for red paper in Manhattan, along with a Hawaiian who was looking for wrapping paper and chalk...) and then I went back to MyLinh's for donuts and much-needed sleep. Sunday was equally intense - we were all regrouped at 10am and continued until lunchtime. I must say it was an amazing experience to spend a weekend with 24 other such talented, exciting, interesting individuals. The calibre of all involved was such that I think we can all agree that whoever is chosen more than deserves their place, and there SHOULD be no hard feelings. Of course my standing on this might change if/when I hear I'm not in... :P
After we finished on Sunday we went for very much needed nourishment and margaritas at a Mexican restaurant close to Columbia. To Matt, James, Yaelle, Henning and Lara, thank you for the best unwinding possible!!
Sunday evening, I went back to MyLinh's for a snooze, and then we headed out to try to find the others at an Irish bar on Bleeker St - we failed miserably, but did pass Sushi Samba again on the way to Joe's Pizza, which was too full so we went to have Indian food instead - perfect antidote to the absolutely horrendous cold in Manhattan. Thereafter we went to a very funky moviehouse to see Transamerica, which was excellent. And a completely different movie than the one I was expecting. Felicity Huffman is boundlessly talented.
Back at the mans, M and I ended up watching Flavor of Love, the tackiest and most spectacularly trashy show in the history of time. Much respect to New York (aka Tiffany Robertson) for keeping it real and being the most fabulous lady I've ever seen on Reality TV. Maybe apart from Nadia on BBUK. I crashed, but M continued watching Entourage, Marky Mark's show about making it in Hollywood. It was fun, but I seem to know it far better than I should for having watched only 1 episode. I guess osmosis works!!
The following day we woke late, and I went to meet the lovely Tokyo transplants for coffee which became dinner at a cool pizza house near Astor Place. I then trekked back to Long Island, while they all headed to see a show. I would liked to have gone, but this crushed flower was seriously wilting from fatigue...
Tuesday morning I headed back into the city to attempt to meet Ginny and Ryan Joyce, but she was sick and SHE was a total flake and didn't answer his phone. So grrr to him, but hopefully I'll see them soon.
Back in Tokyo - after an upgraded flight! Woohoo! - I was knocked for six by weird jetlag and was all over the place for most of the past week. I did manage, however, to get a new iPod, which I absolutely love. It's already filled with more divas and screamers than you could shake a stick at.
And that's pretty much all the news. More as soon as it happens.
Tuesday, February 14, 2006
Valentine's Day
Relationships: There are those that open you up to something new and exotic, those that are old and familiar, those that bring up lots of questions, those that bring you somewhere unexpected, those that bring you far from where you started, and those that bring you back. But the most exciting, challenging and significant relationship of all is the one you have with yourself. And if you can find someone to love the you you love, well, that's just fabulous...
Monday, February 06, 2006
I love the internet
By accident I came across this site this evening, check it out for a quick laugh at the expense of my best girl Miss Hilton...
http://cityrag.blogs.com/main/2006/02/bird_brain.html
http://cityrag.blogs.com/main/2006/02/bird_brain.html
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