canadian_turtle

• After being unsuccessful in grabbing free tickets to A Flea in her Ear at the Old Vic I finally managed to nab some earlier this week! Unfortunately it clashed with my plans of going to see I Am Number Four with Anneke (for which I also had free tickets) but since the theatre show is in its final weeks and the movie only in previews we eventually did decide to go to the theatre instead.

A Flea in her Ear is a farce with all the usual ingredients; over the top characters and situations, mistaken identities, sexual innuendos, etc. While the play has a bit of a slow start we spent most of the second act in stitches as it went from one ridiculous scene to the next and by the time the interval came around we were both saying how pleasantly surprised we were by how much we were enjoying the show. Unfortunately the third act was the complete opposite from what we had just seen and very few laughs were had. Overall it was an enjoyable play though (even more so because we didn't have to pay for it!) and we had a lot of fun debating whether two of the characters that look identical in the play were portrayed by the same actor or not. Anneke was convinced she's seen them on stage at the same time where I was certain that it was the same actor. However by the end of it even I was confused as character one leaped off stage and character two (dressed differently and coming from another entrance onto the stage) came back on what seemed only seconds later. All was cleared up though when I saw a poster outside saying "Tom Hollander is so wonderful they cast him twice!"

• In other news: I have a temp job. It's sadly not working for the make-up department at the National Theatre (as advertised on their website) and not even remotely related to the publishing or journalism industries. Plus it's only for two weeks and a mere five hours each day at that. But it's *something* and it means I will get a much-needed income right about the time I have been seriously contemplating giving up on my dream of permanently living in the UK. I am not out of the woods by any means, but at least it's a postponement of having to make that agonising decision.

• Also, because I am ever so slightly obsessed I had to make icons as soon as the first Frankenstein pictures trickled in yesterday. Admittedly I really should stop with these six month or longer gaps between my icon making sprees as it proved to be a lot more effort to produce only these 20 icons than I'm used to and they're not even that great (plus I had to break open my old laptop as all my Photoshop resources were still hiding out on that hard drive!). Ah well, hopefully I'll get into the swing of things again soon.


More HERE @ icatcher

When I went to the theatre yesterday Jude Law was sitting in the seat in front of me!!! Those of you on Twitter already saw me squeeing about this but I'll try to write a little more coherent about it today:

I went to the final performance of Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street as performed by the National Youth Music Theatre at the Village Underground. Now I couldn't stand the Johnny Depp movie and I normally don't know about amateur performances but I saw the NYMT perform a few of the songs during West End Live in June and was incredibly impressed (especially by the two leads Matt Nalton and Lizzie Wofford). I'm still not very fond of the storyline itself, but I was amazed by every single performance given during the show and couldn't believe the actors were only aged between 8 and 21 years. They were brilliant. And if I had gone earlier this week I would've probably tried to get a ticket for a second performance, they were just that good.

The show was set in the Village Underground in Shoreditch, which I hadn't been to before and looks like a space that might usually be a club? They had four rows of seats in a half circle around the stage area (which was just the floor really) and the actors used every inch of it. The barber shop was set up in the far back but the rest of the space varied in use between the judge's home, the pie shop and the general streets of London. Before the show and partly during the intermission the assemble was just wandering the "streets" looking very homeless and/or mental, which was a great way to set the mood. The show itself was just incredible. I really can not put into words how amazing it was. I was probably most impressed by Matt Nalton, who played Sweeney Todd, who looked and sounded as if he'd been performing on the West End all his life. I'm sure we'll be hearing plenty from him soon enough.

The reason Jude was there (I assume) is because he started off with the NYTM himself, many, many years ago (in fact, he's from Lewisham, were I currently live *random fact of the day*) and recently became a patron for them. Still, he currently lives in the States, there were ten performances all-together and loads of places he could've sat for each of them so the fact he was sitting in the seat in front of me during the one show I went to? Pretty damn awesome.

He was with two of his kids so I didn't bother him but that didn't stop me from glancing in his direction quite often. Partly because I had to look his way to catch what was happening on the stage in front of him, partly well, because he was looking so damn fine. He was wearing a tight grey t-shirt with very short sleeves making his upper arms look huge and his hair looked all crazy and amazing and he kept leaning on his hand giving him a dreamy look and... Okay I admit I was looking at him for pretty much 3 hours straight. I did see the whole show properly though, so it wasn't that bad. I can't help it he was sitting within my eye sight of the stage ;)

Afterwards I was a bit disappointed I didn't have any pictures (though I do not regret not bothering him, it wasn't the place for it) until I realised I already have his picture and signature from when I saw him during the the film festival in Toronto in 2006 XD

And that was my random celebrity encounter of the day story.

Mood: || Busy
Tune : The Superjesus – "Over to You", The Killers - "Indie Rock & Roll"


[English]

[x] First off a desperate request for some songs I really want. If you have some of these or can download one or more for me please let me know ASAP in a comment to this post (or mail or IM) so I can change it in this update and people don’t unnecessarily send it to me multiple time. Thank you so much!

- All American Rejects – "Move Along" Thx original_lie
- Sam Roberts - "Bridge to Nowhere" Thx angeldean
- Theory of a Deadman - "Since You’ve Been Gone" Thx angeldean
- Rob Thomas - "Ever the Same" Thx original_lie
- Matt Goss - "It's the End of the Road"
- KT Tunstall - "Suddenly I See" Thx original_lie

[x] Okay so like I already said before: The Royal Nova International Tattoo was awesome! To all who don’t know what a Tattoo is: it’s basically an entertainment show involving the military, at least that’s how it started out. There’s one everywhere –Canada, Netherlands, Scotland, etc.- and it has become a huge international thing (at least to the mentioned three, the top 3 in the world). The one I went to didn’t only contain entertaining acts from the army, but also performances from the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, choirs, gymnastics from Germany and Estonia, marching bands from around the world, acrobats, etc. etc. etc. It was a three hour overwhelming show that I feel blessed to have seen. The highlights to me where the moments when all the performers were on stage together (hundreds of people) performing as one big orchestra. Can you imagine listening to bag pipes, an opera singer and choirs at the same time while watching Mounties march? That’s pretty much what I was enjoying xD After the show some of the performers stuck around for the audience to ask them questions, tell them what a great job they did, etc. And I got a pin from a Mountie! I shall treasure it forever! :D Anyways, the show being so amazing, I wanna go to the one in Scotland now (the biggest Tattoo in the world) :$That would be August 2007; which would actually work out alright since I wanna go to the UK next year for a few months.

[x] A couple days after the Tattoo I got another shit load of bag pipes; which was during the Scottish Festival and Highland Games I went too. It was at the foot of Citadel hill, so the day started off with seeing bag pipe players and other people in kilts scattered all over the hills; almost like Scotland itself ;) The first few hours there were contests for individual musicians and dancers, which was a joy to watch on itself, and the highland games (huge guys in kilt competing to see who’s the strongest). Though the best part was the official openings ceremony with all the bands (that were going to perform later) playing together and marching over the field. So many bag pipes together! Was unbelievable. I also highly enjoyed the historical re-enactment from the guards (see pics) and the people that were impersonating the guards. Actually, watching people all day long was fun, since most of them were in Scottish outfits. Anyways, the guards were there to make awareness of an event that is soon to start here and I wanna go to as well; the changing of the guards –its hundred year celebration. Getting to the afternoon it was getting too hot to bear so I left for a little while. And when I returned it was time for the before mentioned bands to play one by one, they were incredible. It turned out to be a great day.

[x] Last Sunday I went to see "Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest" in the cinema. I thought it was going to be more than amazing, since the last movie was already awesome and I figured this one to be even better. But it wasn’t :( It was still a great movie, very funny and all, but the storyline didn’t grasp my attention that much and I hate open endings (it’s movie 2 of 3, the finale is next Summer). Anyway; going to the cinema again, after many weeks made me eager to go see another movie soon. I might go to "Pulse" a new horror flick with Ian Somerhalder (Boone from LOST) and Kristin Bell (Veronica Mars).

[x] On a side note, something I just wanted to share: I was watching TV the other day and saw a commercial for the HANSO foundation :\ For everyone who doesn’t watch the TV-show LOST: it’s supposed to be this fictional organization, central in the show. But they try to make it look for real by professional looking websites and apparently now also commercials. Was cool to see, especially since it took my mind a few seconds to register that it was fake & part of a TV-show.

To end this update, a bunch of pictures, enjoy!

( Pictures Tattoo & Scottish Festival )



[Nederlands]

[x] Allereerst een verzoek voor een aantal liedjes die ik erg graag wil hebben. Als jij een of meer van de onderstaande nummers hebt of voor me zou willen downloaden, laat het me dan z.s.m weten als een antwoord op deze update of via e-mail, zodat ik mijn verzoekenlijstje kan aanpassen en ik de nummers niet meedere keren in mijn inbox krijg. Dank je wel!

- All American Rejects – "Move Along" Thx original_lie
- Sam Roberts - "Bridge to Nowhere" Thx angeldean
- Theory of a Deadman - "Since You’ve Been Gone" angeldean
- Rob Thomas - "Ever the Same" Thx original_lie
- Matt Goss - "It's the End of the Road"
- KT Tunstall - "Suddenly I See" Thx original_lie

[x] Zoals ik al in een eerdere update had gezegd, The Royal Nova International Tattoo was onwijs gaaf! Aan iedereen die niet weet wat een Taptoe precies inhoudt: het is een voorstelling van het leger, of in ieder geval zo is het ooit begonnen. Overal in de wereld is er wel eentje jaarlijks te vinden –Canada, Nederland, Scotland – en het is tegenwoordig een groot internationaal success (in ieder geval voor bovengenoemden, de top 3 in de wereld). Degene waar ik naartoe ben geweest, had niet alleen optredens van het leger, maar ook van de Royal Canadian Mounted Police, koren, gymnastiek groepen uit Duitsland en Estland, fanfare bands van over de hele wereld, acrobaten, etc. etc. etc. Het was een drie uur durende overweldigende show en ik prijs me onwijs gelukkig dat ik dit heb mogen meemaken. De hoogtepunten waren voor mij de momenten waarin alle artiesten tegelijk op het podium waren (honderden mensen) als een groots orkest. Kun je, je het voorstellen? Doedelzakken, een opera zanger en koren die allemaal tegelijk zingen en muziek maken terwijl mounties door de zaal marcheren? Dat omschrijft wel ongeveer waar ik van aan’t genieten was xD Na de voorstelling bleven sommige deelnemers in de zaal voor het publiek om hen vragen te stellen of gewoon even te laten weten dat je van de show hebt genoten. En ik kreeg een pin van een Mountie! Ik zal het voor altijd koesteren xD In ieder geval, de show was dus geweldig, nu wil ik ook naar de Taptoe in Schotland (grootste in de wereld) :$ Wat Augustus 2007 zal worden. Dat komt goed uit want als het mogelijk is wil ik volgend jaar toch voor een paar maanden naar Groot-Britannie.

[x] Een paar dagen na de Taptoe was het Scottish Festival and Highland Games. Het was aan de voet van Citadel Hill, dus de dag begon met het zien van doedelzakspelers verspreid over de heuvels, haast zoals Schotland ;) De eerste paar uur waren wedstrijden voor individuele muzikanten en dansers, wat erg leuk was om naar te kijken, en de zogenaamde highland games (grote mannen in kilten die strijden om de title "sterkste man"). Maar voor mij was het hoogtepunt de officiele openingsceremonie waarbij al de bands tegelijk optraden (dat waren de bands die later op de dag individueel zouden gaan optreden). Zoveel doedelzakken bij elkaar! Ongelofelijk. Wat ik ook erg leuk vond om naar te kijken was een kort historisch theaterstukje (zie foto’s) en de mensen die verkleed waren als wachten. Eigenlijk was het de hele dag leuk om naar de outfits van de mensen te kijken, aangezien de meeste waren gekleed in typisch Schotse klederdracht (kilten, etc.). In ieder geval, de wachten waren daar om reclame te maken voor een festival dat er snel aankomt, genaamd "The Changing of the Guards". Dit jaar is het de honderste keer dat het wordt gevierd, dus extra special. In Later op de dag werd het echt bloedje heet en ben ik even weggegaan. En toen ik terugkwam waren de optredens van de bands; wat echt onwijs gaaf was. Al met al een toffe dag.

[x] Afgelopen zondag heb ik "Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest" in de bios gezien. Ik dacht dat het een supertoffe film zou zijn, nog beter dan deel 1, maar dat was het niet :( Het was een goeie film hoor, begrijp me niet verkeerd, maar niet zo goed als het vorige deel. Het was erg grappig, maar de verhaallijn boeide me niet zo en ik heb een gruwelijke hekel aan open eindes (dit is deel twee van drie, het laaste deel komt volgende zomer uit) Maar goed, nu ik na zoveel weken eindelijk weer eens naar de bioscoop ben geweest, wil ik eigenlijk gelijk weer een film zien. Dus ik ga misschien naar de nieuwe horrorfilm "Pulse" met Ian Somerhalder (Boone van LOST) en Kristin Bell (Veronica Mars).

[x] Ik was van de week trouwens tv aan het kijken en toen zag ik ineens een reclamespotje van de HANSO foundation :\ aan iedereen die niet weet wat dat is: het is een fictieve organisatie van de tv-serie LOST. Maar door superecht lijkende Internetsites en nu dus zelfs tv-spotjes lijkt het allemaal heel realistisch. Was wel gaaf om te zien, vooral omdat het me een paar seconden kostte voordat ik doorhad dat het nep was, omdat die organisatie niet eens bestaat LOL

To slot, een serie foto’s, geniet ervan!

( Tattoo & Scottish Festival foto’s )