"journals" via Rav

So my new fear is that no-one is going to come to my wedding. Sean and I sat down to write a preliminary list on Friday night---wild and wacky evenings here at the Nothing But Bonfires household, I tell you!---and we came up with an initial group of 98 guests.

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Baritones rehearsing... Of sorts... Only one month to go...

Posted by email from paulinlondon's posterous

It's a sad day when the most exciting thing in your life is a new hand soap, I realize this, but Method just came out with a range of special holiday-themed fragrances and I don't know about you, but I love a special holiday-themed fragrance. 

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After months of open-air rallies and stadium speeches, America’s political families turned last week to domestic scenery: Sarah Palin in her Wasilla kitchen, mixing baby formula; Michelle Obama discussing with Laura Bush which bedrooms at the White House would be good for Malia and Sasha. The Obamas announced that . . .

It was funny to see at the end of Oliver Stone's movie about the failure known as George W Bush's Presidency the words "the end". Bush is still in office, but the movie serves as a comforting reminder that not only is he a lame duck, but that the end of a weird eight years is nigh...

It also is a reminder about the collective administrative and leadership failure over eight years. Iraq is at the forefront here but any number of the administration's policies could have been used. The movie portrays Bush as a likeable guy in a struggle for approval from his father. Unlike previous Stone biographies, you don't really care whether this is accurate as there is too much pleasure to derive from the knowledge that this analysis is bound to piss off the Bush family...

Josh Brolin is great in the title role, but it is a pity that the other actors seem to be more playing dress up than developing characterisation. And what is going on with Jeffrey Wright's eyebrows? I didn't know Colin Powell used tweezers? We also don't get much insight as to why he was popular and won two elections... I guess it probably serves as a reminder that it is entirely plausible given the options the American people would not hesitate in electing a likeable but stupid guy again in future... Now there's a happy thought...

I mentioned earlier this year to Grant and a few others in the chorus, that I had not seen Willy Russell's musical, Blood Brothers. The reaction to this statement was like one of those scenes in a movie... You know like in a western, when a stranger walks into a bar and the music stops, people gasp, and everyone looks up and stares... I was committing musical heresy apparently, even if a show about two guys who turn out to be brothers and then die wasn't high on my list of things to see...

Well Grant was determined to rectify this oversight, so on Friday I found myself at the Phoenix Theatre where this show has been playing for a very long time... Blood Brothers tells the rather melodramatic story of two twins separated at birth. They grow up only knowing each other as friends and one goes to Oxbridge and becomes a Councillor, while the other goes mad (some may be confused about whether there is much of a contrast here). Eventually thanks to the love of a girl and shoes on a table (lucky it wasn't wire hangers), it all ends in tears.

I was told that I would be a hard man to not to be upset by the ending. Well throughout the show I was upset by loads of things such as the lack of characterisation, the entire role of the narrator and his dirty shoes (a downside of sitting too close to the stage) and the constant spelling out in big letters the class differences (which is done a lot better in Billy Elliot). But what saves this show is the central character of the mother Mrs Johnstone.

Grant was disappointed that one of the Nolan sisters wasn't performing as Mrs Johnstone, since over the years I think every single one of them has played this role. But we got something far better. We got last years X Factor finalist Niki Evans. Evans came fourth in the show last year. She seems so perfect for this role and gave this show the lift it needed. Evans own story as told on X-Factor last year was emotional enough. She was working as a dinner lady before going on the show last year. But it is not just her story and her pitch-perfect singing that makes her interesting. It was also her ability to deliver the most incredibly emotional performance, that had the audience on its feet cheering her at the end. Here's hoping that we see more of her on stage in the future, as she was nothing short of sensational.

It is always possible to get good discounts to the show, and the show is worth catching while Evans is in the run... Even the most jaded theatre-goer would be hard not to be impressed by this turn...Then again I am always a sucker for stunt casting...

Not many people remember….blah blah blah…Dudley Moore….Classically trained pianist….underrated…blah blah blah.

Anyway, fans of the fugue - as I’m sure you all are - will get a kick out of all juice he gets from the central motif* from “Colonel Bogey” - not to mention the false bottom(s) he sticks on it.

Also, you know, the term “Classically trained pianist” can mean both “Someone who is a classically trained pianist” and, more frequently, “A famous person who can play the piano”. Moore was very definately in the former camp - check out the part that begins at 1m35s. That, people, is not chopped liver.

* Yeah. Central Motif. Suck it, haterz.

My Dad’s a clever bloke. He’s also, as you might already know, a man of minimal fuss and...

Don't mess with Sevenoaks drivers...