tag:dreamwidth.org,2009-04-14:59050Tangled Mindtamaranthtamaranth2018-02-06T08:27:57Ztag:dreamwidth.org,2009-04-14:59050:1006785Monthly culture: January 20182018-02-06T08:27:57Z2018-02-06T08:27:57Zcoldpublic0<b>05JAN18: <i>Scythians</i>, British Museum</b><br /><a href="http://www.britishmuseum.org/whats_on/exhibitions/scythians.aspx">Official Site</a><br />No music in the background of this exhibition, which made me happy.<br />Like the best exhibitions, this brought home the reality of human life in a distant time and place. Outstanding items included shoes with embroidered soles (when your culture is about riding everywhere, and sitting on the ground, this makes sense); textiles from 800 BC, the dyes still bright; 2000-year-old cheese!; tattoo art -- the women tattooed with predators, the men with prey animals. Made me want to reread <a href="http://tamaranth.blogspot.co.uk/2015/11/201526-corn-king-and-spring-queen-naomi.html"><i>The Corn King and the Spring Queen</i></a>, though that's set towards the end of the period covered by the exhibition. <br /><br /><b>18JAN18: <i>The Return of Ulysses</i> (Monteverdi), Royal Opera, Roundhouse</b><br /><a href="http://www.roh.org.uk/productions/the-return-of-ulysses-by-john-fulljames">ROH page</a><br />A performance in the round, on a stage which encloses the orchestra. <br />A combination of a heavy cold, some wine and the eccentricities of this production (a flock of white helium-balloon sheep; the glutton Iros who I don't recall from classical myth; Telemachus and Minerva on a tandem) meant that I spent the evening in a state of happy bafflement. The singing was gorgeous, the translation a good one: plenty of humour, some relevance (chorus as refugees), and lots of lovely visual touches. However, this is a very early opera, and peters out rather than ending properly with a rousing finale.<br /><br /><b>20JAN18: <i>Amadeus</i>, National Theatre</b><br /><a href="https://www.nationaltheatre.org.uk/shows/amadeus">NT page</a><br />Absolutely splendid production: I know the film pretty well, and there is a lot that didn't make it onto the screen (Salieri's wife, for instance, and quite a bit of Salieri's rage against and disgust at God). Lucian Msamati is a stunning Salieri, and Adam Gillen is brattish and charmless as Mozart -- far less impishly likeable than Tom Hulce's version in the film. You can see why his very existence appals Salieri. <br />The opera excerpts in the original film made a huge impression on me at the time: I am happy to report that the mini-stagings in this production (Abduction, Don Giovanni, Magic Flute, Figaro) are excellent -- though the most arresting musical moment was surely the oncoming Kyrie, orchestra and choir at full blast moving inexorably towards a cowering Salieri.<br /><a href="http://felixonline.co.uk/articles/2018-01-26-salieri-versus-god-amadeus-at-the-national-theatre/">excellent review here</a><br /><br /><b>25JAN18: <i>Edward II</i> (Marlowe) Greenwich Theatre</b><br /><a href="http://www.lazarustheatrecompany.com/edward-ii">Lazarus Theatre Company's page</a><br />A 90-minute production without an interval, but which retains all the vital elements of the original. It's a minimalist staging: nobody leaves the stage when their character exits, but instead the actors retreat to the sides, where the props and costumes hang. Everyone is barefoot. The young prince who'll be Edward III is just a voice on the phone.<br />Edward is really not very good at being king, and Gaveston seems to delight in flaunting his privilege -- interestingly, in this production Gaveston is played by a black actor, which adds a touch of racism to the classism, homophobia, xenophobia and envy that drives the action.<br />I became nervous towards the end when a great deal of plastic sheeting went down, and masks and plastic gloves were donned by Mortimer and his crew. Luckily 'that scene' was mostly sound, with the lights down: it was nauseatingly awful. Amazing.<br /><br /><img src="https://www.dreamwidth.org/tools/commentcount?user=tamaranth&ditemid=1006785" width="30" height="12" alt="comment count unavailable" style="vertical-align: middle;"/> commentstag:dreamwidth.org,2009-04-14:59050:994086Monthly culture: July 20172017-08-03T07:42:05Z2017-08-03T07:42:05Zcreativepublic005JUL17: <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2250912/"><i>Spiderman: Homecoming</i></a>, Odeon Leicester Square<br /><br /><span class="cut-wrapper"><span style="display: none;" id="span-cuttag___1" class="cuttag"></span><b class="cut-open">( </b><b class="cut-text"><a href="https://tamaranth.dreamwidth.org/994086.html#cutid1">Read more...</a></b><b class="cut-close"> )</b></span><div style="display: none;" id="div-cuttag___1" aria-live="assertive"></div><br />16JUL17: <a href="https://www.facebook.com/events/1392236947538622/">'The Death of Christopher Marlowe'</a><br /><span class="cut-wrapper"><span style="display: none;" id="span-cuttag___2" class="cuttag"></span><b class="cut-open">( </b><b class="cut-text"><a href="https://tamaranth.dreamwidth.org/994086.html#cutid2">Read more...</a></b><b class="cut-close"> )</b></span><div style="display: none;" id="div-cuttag___2" aria-live="assertive"></div><br />19JUL17: <a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/music/reviews/blink-182-live-review-o2-arena-london-tour-dates-tom-delonge-matt-skiba-alkaline-trio-a7850356.html">blink-182</a>, O2, Greenwich<br /><span class="cut-wrapper"><span style="display: none;" id="span-cuttag___3" class="cuttag"></span><b class="cut-open">( </b><b class="cut-text"><a href="https://tamaranth.dreamwidth.org/994086.html#cutid3">Read more...</a></b><b class="cut-close"> )</b></span><div style="display: none;" id="div-cuttag___3" aria-live="assertive"></div><br />20JUL17: <a href="https://www.rbkc.gov.uk/subsites/museums/leightonhousemuseum/flamingjune/almatadema.aspx">Alma-Tadema: At Home in Antiquity</a>, Leighton House Museum<br /><span class="cut-wrapper"><span style="display: none;" id="span-cuttag___4" class="cuttag"></span><b class="cut-open">( </b><b class="cut-text"><a href="https://tamaranth.dreamwidth.org/994086.html#cutid4">Read more...</a></b><b class="cut-close"> )</b></span><div style="display: none;" id="div-cuttag___4" aria-live="assertive"></div><br />21JUL17: <a href="http://www.classicalsource.com/db_control/db_concert_review.php?id=14677">Der Freischutz (Weber)</a>, Blackheath Community Opera, Blackheath Halls<br /><span class="cut-wrapper"><span style="display: none;" id="span-cuttag___5" class="cuttag"></span><b class="cut-open">( </b><b class="cut-text"><a href="https://tamaranth.dreamwidth.org/994086.html#cutid5">Read more...</a></b><b class="cut-close"> )</b></span><div style="display: none;" id="div-cuttag___5" aria-live="assertive"></div><br />22JUL17: <a href="https://www.ft.com/content/57dda736-c5fd-11e6-8f29-9445cac8966f">Adventures in Moominland</a>, Royal Festival Hall<br /><span class="cut-wrapper"><span style="display: none;" id="span-cuttag___6" class="cuttag"></span><b class="cut-open">( </b><b class="cut-text"><a href="https://tamaranth.dreamwidth.org/994086.html#cutid6">Read more...</a></b><b class="cut-close"> )</b></span><div style="display: none;" id="div-cuttag___6" aria-live="assertive"></div><br /><br />27JUL17: <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt5013056/"><i>Dunkirk</i></a>, Barbican Cinema<br /><span class="cut-wrapper"><span style="display: none;" id="span-cuttag___7" class="cuttag"></span><b class="cut-open">( </b><b class="cut-text"><a href="https://tamaranth.dreamwidth.org/994086.html#cutid7">Read more...</a></b><b class="cut-close"> )</b></span><div style="display: none;" id="div-cuttag___7" aria-live="assertive"></div><br /><br /><img src="https://www.dreamwidth.org/tools/commentcount?user=tamaranth&ditemid=994086" width="30" height="12" alt="comment count unavailable" style="vertical-align: middle;"/> commentstag:dreamwidth.org,2009-04-14:59050:965003Monthly culture: August2016-09-05T18:47:34Z2016-09-05T18:47:34Zsatisfiedpublic3First came <a href="https://nineworlds.co.uk/">Nine Worlds</a>: love the new venue (Hammersmith Novotel) and felt much less frazzled than in previous years. My Historical Headcanon (concerning Christopher Marlowe) seemed well-received and I was on a couple of interesting panels about historical fiction, fanfiction, writing, etc.<br /><br />Then to Edinburgh to skew my monthly averages for various types of Culture. I like the shorter-than-usual performances (they averaged an hour): leaves plenty of time for climbing the hills of which Edinburgh is composed, and pausing for refreshment at each summit.<br /><span class="cut-wrapper"><span style="display: none;" id="span-cuttag___1" class="cuttag"></span><b class="cut-open">( </b><b class="cut-text"><a href="https://tamaranth.dreamwidth.org/965003.html#cutid1">theatre, gigs, circus, literary stuff, opera, comedy</a></b><b class="cut-close"> )</b></span><div style="display: none;" id="div-cuttag___1" aria-live="assertive"></div><br /><br /><img src="https://www.dreamwidth.org/tools/commentcount?user=tamaranth&ditemid=965003" width="30" height="12" alt="comment count unavailable" style="vertical-align: middle;"/> commentstag:dreamwidth.org,2009-04-14:59050:888546Alan Moore at the Cambridge Science Festival, 17.03.122012-03-19T21:45:31Z2012-03-19T21:45:31Zcalmpublic0- science and the occult have been almost completely equivalent as feedlines for stories<br />- science as an intellectual playground ("New Scientist is weirder than science fiction")<br />- you can write better fantasy if you understand science -- know the rules you're breaking<br />- on Heaven: "not really my kind of place ... all that marble and goldware sounds like a 1980s plasterer's bathroom"<br />- his current work-in-progress is over half a million words long: "longer than the Bible and, I hope, more socially instructive"<br />- he spoke about time as the fourth dimension and transience as an artifact: everything happens once, simultaneously, and is always happening. Quoting Einstein, 'the persistent illusion of transience'. (Unlike Nietzche, who thought that everything repeated eternally, AM thinks everything happens just once and we <i>experience</i> it repeatedly.)<br />- some entertaining anecdotes about loopholes in Scientology (sin is a terrestrial issue, therefore it doesn't count if you're in a plane. I feel a Dr Seuss poem coming on).<br />- all claims of magical experience are valid and reasonable as long as you accept that they are happening <i>in the mind</i>, rather than in objective 'reality' where science can see them.<br />- on religion: the etymology is rooted in 'bound together by a belief'; thus, he's quite content to be (probably) the sole worshipper of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glycon">Glycon</a> (a human-headed snake, probably operated by Alexander of Abnotichus a.k.a. Alexander the False Prophet). "I know it was a puppet," said Moore. "I'm eccentric, not stupid."<br />- Mr Moore has fabulous shoes.<br /><br /><img src="https://www.dreamwidth.org/tools/commentcount?user=tamaranth&ditemid=888546" width="30" height="12" alt="comment count unavailable" style="vertical-align: middle;"/> comments