Why Don't You

I hope this is something that was discovered, and not 'trained'. And that these paintings are sold for lots of money and the money goes to help sick, injured, and vulnerable elephunts. Everywhere.

So, I went to see Dead Man's cell-phone 2 weeks ago with the marvellous smilethatcurved. It has Mary-Louise Parker in, was written by someone recently famous, and is well worth seeing if you want to have a lot of play to discuss afterwards. I am often hobbled in the plays I go and see - they are well-made, well-directed, well-acted, and most of all well-written. This one had 3 out of 4.

It was a bit like one of those creative pieces of writing that you're asked to asked to at 13 do by an English teacher who for some reason that her troglodytes are capable of being inspired. It starts off with a great flight of fancy, from which below you can see the world. And it carries the theme on, with a nice twist in the flight path and glides towards an evolving plot arc well into the beginning of hte second act. And then deposits the plot from a great height onto all of us below. Much like a "and she woke up and it was all a dream". In fact, not far removed from that. And so you spend the next hour thinking of all the reasons why it hadn't worked - did she know her own characters? Had she run out of time to write the damned thing? How could she have better ended the thing?

It also inspired me to a derivative play: someone who sees the play, and gets an idea: if Mary-Louise Parker can use a man's cell phone to take on his life, almost by accident, imagine what a university graduate - and Bristol University, no less - could manage?! That girl over there - I bet she knows someone called John. She's rich, she will have been at a party with him last summer - I'll tell her that's where I met her before. Here goes nothing... Pasted below with three alternative endings... not cos i think its much at all, but just to illustrate that better endings are possible.( Ring a bell? )

Current Mood: creative

Am heading to New York in early January for 3 months. Which should be quite fun. Do let me know anyone who is visiting and might fancy a drink of some kind.

As ever, the weather is hot and humid, and the air still smells of distant pollution and fried food. The streets are still neon lights and a language I don't understand, and it is still very alien.

But this time its a bit nicer. The hotel room(s?) is somewhat larger than my flat. Aside from the lounge (with study, and a many-inch LCD TV), it has a seperate bedroom (similar TV, and a specially lengthened bed... cos of height, obv.) and the separate changing room, it also has a shower that could fit three people (with, appropriately, 3 shower heads), a bathroom so large it needs two sinks and another TV, and which has a free-standing bath in which could fit three people. Even the toilet attempts to be hot, behind a frosted glass door. There are 8 different mood settings for the different rooms (classical music and lights... and yes, including in the shower), and everything that can be is over-stuffed. As someone far wittier than I pointed out - "These rooms were clearly designed by an architect who shagged a lot".

It would seem that when yer DVD RAM drive is open, walking into it, thus breaking the tray out of it, is in fact *not* good for its continued operation.

Ho hum.

Nothing a bit of SuperGlu wouldn't fix though, I'm sure.

Just been to see Patrick Wolf at the Astoria. Pissed.

But he is an artist of (i) great techincal ability, (ii) great creativity, and (iii) great showmanship.

So he deserves to be bigger than he is. Ahem.

I haven't seen it yet, I'm only told. And for all I know, they look rubbish. And I'm not sure why I'm quite so buzzing about this. But apparently my photos from Feeling Gloomy, as well as being in One Week to Live and TNT, are also in Time Out this week.

Turning out to be quite a good year so far, all in all...

....expect more of this for the next year.

Can I just say, Mr Nelson gives a great concert.

Current Music: Angel flying too close to the ground. In my head.

Firstly, it has snowed all night, and I'd like to be making snowballs.

Secondly, the internet is not working at home, and thus I am forced to read LJ at work, which I told myself I wouldn't. Work being time when you, I dunno, 'work'? Bah.

Here.

Iraq. Critics express outrage over another botched execution, as Saddam Hussein's half-brother is decapitated by his noose. How is that a botched execution? If Hussein's half-brother had expressed outrage, that would've been a botched execution. Still, President Bush says the incident shows that Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's government "still has some maturation to do." Maliki vows that someday his government will be mature enough to blunder into a foreign quagmire to prove he's tougher than his dad.

...why is it that the first time Big Brother leads to some kind of substantial and meaningful debate about what we're like as a country... its seen to be a bad thing?

Here. Some more to follow at some point, but these are the main ones. Check out hte sunrise ones in particular - in the distance even the oil rigs look purty.

...that swimming in the creek in January won't make you freeze because the waters are still warm from summer, it turns out that ignoring them is the right policy to follow. Still, it woke me up. Apparently it burns 500 calories. All of which was made up later, of course, with the Texas barbecue. Barbecue is a very different thing in Texas from our understanding of it. They don't mean burning meat above flaming wood - that's known here just as fancy grilling. Instead, they pack the individual pieces of meat in paper, and heat them over smouldering oak... for around 8 hours or so. Great flavour, but I don't know if it's really worth 8 hours of cooking...

Tomorrow: the national air guitar championships. I kid you not.

All kinds of things to be said about Texas, all of them positive. It's huge, the people are lovely, and it's really not that different at all. Highly recommended.

Whilst I now have a black velvet jacket, I'm still not entirely convinced that it is me. Pictures to follow, no doubt.

Hmm. So the fun of New York now kinda dilluted by being stuck in the plane, on the ground, in Manchester, and not able to leave cos there's no customs capacity. Not so good...

Anyone who wants to call me to keep me entertained is more than welcome.

...but here I am anyway. This time in a hotel room that seems to be some corporate idea of Ireland - which is to say that the place is called FitzPatricks, and that I'm in some form of Irish Golfing Legend's 'suite'.

But the bed is huge, the bath could fit three people (though I doubt I'm going to get a chance to prove this), and all is well with the world. Including unsecured wireless networks, oh yes. Though someone tried to pickpocket me when i refused to buy their M&Ms, which was interesting. Seems he didn't realise that Brits keep their wallets in their trousers, not their coats.

Right, better get on, have to be back in 3 days...

(oh, and for anyone ever in the dilemma of "do I want Economy or can I stretch to Business Class?", the answer is MaxJet - half the price of normal Business Class, for an entire jet of business class travel. I couldn't even touch the chair in front with my feet when I tried. OK, I wasn't trying that hard, but...)