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alexsarllSo yes, hasn't there been a lot happening since one could last log in to LJ? Though somehow it seemed that Russian spammers could post comments even when I couldn't get in to delete same. Not cool. Also not cool: too many deaths, near, far and famous. Unnecessary. Possibly the best bit of Jerry Sadowitz' set this week (first time I've seen him, unless you count his Channel 5 show back when they were what seemed at times like the only TV home for stand-ups, and what a strange thing that is to remember) was the Norway/Winehouse material, because it was where you could most tell that he was a man howling out his anger at an unfair world the best way he knew how, somehow being funny in the process like Elsinore's gravedigger is, and not just Frankie Boyle or some such twerp.
(Other comedians seen: Nick Doody and Henry Packer, both less famous and less wrong than Sadowitz, though the latter was pretty bloody wrong in places by any normal standards. As is hopefully obvious, this is not a criticism. Also Richard Marsh, although that was more of a comedy/poetry hybrid, or a storytelling show, or just a very strange thing for a man to do if he doesn't especially like Skittles, but v.good nonetheless)
What else? London is empty lately, isn't it, or emptier than usual, outside the tourist areas anyway. Some people say they're all on summer holiday, I suspect heat death. Which would be for the best, I mean, what's with all these people I don't know or like who don't even work in sectors of use to me, daring to clutter the place up? I went to some community art a week or two back in the Andover, more normally known for stabbings than experimental dance, and while obviously it's laudable that the denizens were watching the dance rather than stabbing each other up, their understanding of audience etiquette was sadly lacking. Oh, and courtesy of![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
exliontamer's concubine I've been revisiting some classic board games of my youth. Well, first of all I had to visit one that was new to me, Dream Phone, which just felt like a queasy exercise in pre-Internet grooming. But then we got on to the classics. Well, I say classics but it turns out that Ghost Castle is barely better than Snakes and Ladders in gameplay terms - there's precisely one choice in the whole game and nobody ever takes the slower, safer route - and yet it does have a glowing skull tumbling down a chimney causing havoc, and that counts for a lot. But Escape from Atlantis, and Lost Valley of the Dinosaurs - these remain pinnacles of the form. Atlantis in particular is sufficiently spiteful that you wonder if Luke Haines' books somehow omitted a period as a games designer, its mechanisms encouraging needless nastiness and even at times a gleeful suicide drive from any player who knows they can't win. Excellent stuff.
I've also found the first new London venue I like since, what, the Silver Bullet? Namely Native Tongue in Smithfields, where the Soft Close-Ups played on Tuesday. An underground bar in the Buffalo Bar sense, but a little airier, a little more choice at the bar. Definitely to be encouraged. And I've been watching Torchwood, of course, though addiction aside I couldn't necessarily tell you why. The science fiction side of it all is being handled very well, in terms of the ramifications of death just...stopping. So's the horror, with that basic uncanniness and revulsion of a thing that should be dead or even more simply immobile and yet refuses to stop moving. But as drama, it's nonsense - and as evil as I am prepared to consider Pfizer et al, buying their stand-ins as villains for something like this just doesn't gel. So inevitably it's going to be aliens behind it all, but if so, why bother with the false reveal? Why, in general, is it all taking so long?
(Other comedians seen: Nick Doody and Henry Packer, both less famous and less wrong than Sadowitz, though the latter was pretty bloody wrong in places by any normal standards. As is hopefully obvious, this is not a criticism. Also Richard Marsh, although that was more of a comedy/poetry hybrid, or a storytelling show, or just a very strange thing for a man to do if he doesn't especially like Skittles, but v.good nonetheless)
What else? London is empty lately, isn't it, or emptier than usual, outside the tourist areas anyway. Some people say they're all on summer holiday, I suspect heat death. Which would be for the best, I mean, what's with all these people I don't know or like who don't even work in sectors of use to me, daring to clutter the place up? I went to some community art a week or two back in the Andover, more normally known for stabbings than experimental dance, and while obviously it's laudable that the denizens were watching the dance rather than stabbing each other up, their understanding of audience etiquette was sadly lacking. Oh, and courtesy of
exliontamer's concubine I've been revisiting some classic board games of my youth. Well, first of all I had to visit one that was new to me, Dream Phone, which just felt like a queasy exercise in pre-Internet grooming. But then we got on to the classics. Well, I say classics but it turns out that Ghost Castle is barely better than Snakes and Ladders in gameplay terms - there's precisely one choice in the whole game and nobody ever takes the slower, safer route - and yet it does have a glowing skull tumbling down a chimney causing havoc, and that counts for a lot. But Escape from Atlantis, and Lost Valley of the Dinosaurs - these remain pinnacles of the form. Atlantis in particular is sufficiently spiteful that you wonder if Luke Haines' books somehow omitted a period as a games designer, its mechanisms encouraging needless nastiness and even at times a gleeful suicide drive from any player who knows they can't win. Excellent stuff.I've also found the first new London venue I like since, what, the Silver Bullet? Namely Native Tongue in Smithfields, where the Soft Close-Ups played on Tuesday. An underground bar in the Buffalo Bar sense, but a little airier, a little more choice at the bar. Definitely to be encouraged. And I've been watching Torchwood, of course, though addiction aside I couldn't necessarily tell you why. The science fiction side of it all is being handled very well, in terms of the ramifications of death just...stopping. So's the horror, with that basic uncanniness and revulsion of a thing that should be dead or even more simply immobile and yet refuses to stop moving. But as drama, it's nonsense - and as evil as I am prepared to consider Pfizer et al, buying their stand-ins as villains for something like this just doesn't gel. So inevitably it's going to be aliens behind it all, but if so, why bother with the false reveal? Why, in general, is it all taking so long?
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no subject
Date: 2011-08-04 08:47 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-08-04 08:47 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-08-04 06:02 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-08-04 09:23 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-08-04 06:04 pm (UTC)I'll bite
Date: 2011-08-04 09:44 am (UTC)Re: I'll bite
Date: 2011-08-04 10:51 am (UTC)Um, anyway, sorry, what? Oh yes, I like the sound of board games and you should do a board game night some time by which I mean invite me to one. Also I had a chicken bhuna ready meal thing the other day and it felt vaguely disturbing. I did not bhuna myself. (And you are spot on re: Sadowitz.)
Re: I'll bite
Date: 2011-08-04 06:06 pm (UTC)Re: I'll bite
Date: 2011-08-04 08:21 pm (UTC)Re: I'll bite
Date: 2011-08-04 06:05 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-08-04 10:24 am (UTC)Because they are trying to string out one storyline for 10 weeks. I have no idea why. And given that it's Torchwood, why have there been no signs of aliens yet and we've had four episodes already? Aside from that, I'm still enjoying it.
no subject
Date: 2011-08-04 10:51 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-08-04 06:08 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-08-04 06:10 pm (UTC)I kinda assumed that the 'there is only so much grief to go around, it must be rationed out appropriately' would be exclusively the province of sneery Internet dicks unconnected to either tragedy, but it's nice to have that confirmed, so thank you, and no worries, and hope you're OK.
no subject
Date: 2011-08-04 11:38 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-08-04 06:11 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-08-04 11:58 am (UTC)I should probably clarify classic board games ; )
no subject
Date: 2011-08-04 06:12 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-08-04 03:44 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-08-04 06:15 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-08-05 05:37 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-08-07 09:14 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-08-15 04:40 pm (UTC)Torchwood (as of episode 5) is just rubbish, and the biggest insult is the continuing sidelining of Jack and Gwen in favour of the terrible, colourless new American team-members. Until this week I couldn't even remember what Esther's first name was! But it's Rex and Oswald's show now, while Barrowman minces "amusingly" in the background and Gwen is a funny little comedy Welsh accent lady for the Yanks to find cute.
no subject
Date: 2011-08-16 07:23 pm (UTC)I mostly agree with your critique of Miracle Day except that among your complaints seems to be the shortage of Gwen. There has never been anything ever which would be improved by more Gwen.