Three Cultural Outings

Last Friday I was lured to the Junction, round the corner, by groliffe and C and C's friend C2, to see Show of Hands with Miranda Sykes, supported by Rodney Branigan. Branigan was funny and impressive (played a duet with himself, no mean feat on acoustic guitars: also managed a drum solo without any drums). Show of Hands were rivetting -- I found this folk gig more ... inclusive? ... than many rock gigs, more of a sense of camaraderie with audience.

Last Saturday I traipsed around the National Gallery with ladymoonray, then met up with swisstone (standing in for a poorly ms_cataclysm) and headed to the ENO for Terry Gilliam's production of Berlioz's The Damnation of Faust. I'd been looking forward to this, and the production -- transposed to Nazi Germany -- was visually arresting and beautifully lit, with stunning use of video, interesting staging etc: but it just didn't engage me for some reason.

Yesterday Wednesday I was back in London, at the IMAX with ladymoonray, for Pirates of the Caribbean 4: On Stranger Tides. Immensely enjoyable and considerably better than the previous two films (though still managed a few slow bits): it felt a lot more like the first one, with which I fell in love. Much of the soundtrack was based on that of the first film. Penelope Cruz was very good as Tough Girlie. It's a long time since I read the Powers novel which this claims to have been 'suggested by': there were moments when I felt as though Powers had plundered (pillaged, rifled, looted) Declare as well as On Stranger Tides.

There's a Geoffrey Rush interview in the Torygraph, in which he was asked "how do you resist the temptation to slip into high camp when acting alongside Depp?"

The truthful answer to this is, as far as I can tell, "I don't."

Arrrr!