Tuesday 26 June 2007

Swan Lake at the Royal Albert Hall

We first went to the ballet in 1990 when we saw The Kirov in Swan Lake at the London Coliseum. Since then we seem to enjoy the ballet more and more every time we go. We were lucky to see Darcey Bussell twice with The Royal Ballet at the ROH. The first time was in 1991 when she danced the Sugar Plum Fairy in The Nutcracker. The programme said it would be Lesley Collier, the top dancer at the Royal at the time. When it was announced she was indisposed and it would be Darcey, there were a few groans. We hadn't heard of her, but she was fantastic. She was only 23. When we saw her in Cinderella in 1998, she was at her peak. Magic.

Swan Lake performed by English National Ballet in an arena like the Albert Hall is something else. Spectacular with wonderful costumes, great lighting, my favourite ballet score, dry ice and 60 swans. The soloists were good, how hard it must be to dance on such a huge floor, in front of an audience of 3,000 plus on all sides, there is nowhere to hide. If they do another ballet next year, we will definitely go again.

Dorset in June


Five nights at the Manor House Hotel at Studland. "A quiet sanctuary" as Alison commented on our departure. No children, great views, large garden and grounds, food wonderful, huge room with six windows one side towards the sea and four on another overlooking the gardens. Breakfast not available until 8.30, so no business people, and not a sound after 10pm. We could not have wished for more.
On the first day we took the ferry from the end of Studland Bay over to Sandbanks. A short drive took us to Poole with a handy car park for the harbour. Then a boat took us to Brownsea Island. Owned by the National Trust (so free to us) we enjoyed a circular walk all the way round. Came across a few tame peacocks who displayed their plumage for our photos. The boat back became a a tour of Poole Harbour which was as interesting as it was unexpected. By then the weather had turned from cloudy to sunny and sitting on the top deck was perfect. A mooch around Poole before we took the ferry back.
Tuesday was our longest drive. First to Charmouth and some fossil hunting. Nothing spectacular found but the beach was nice. Into Lyme Regis where our only shower of the day started whilst having tea and cake. The rain soon cleared and we walked over to the harbour and a precarious but spectacular amble along The Cobb. Pretty much deserted so able to take some good photos. Alison didn't have a black cloak, so emulating Meryl Streep was not on. We were very impressed with Lyme Regis, it is such a beautiful place.
The next day was my favourite. The weather was good so we walked from the hotel to Old Harry Rocks (see photo above) and then along the cliffs to Swanage. A really great walk. I had been to Swanage many years ago and thought I remembered it as a bit seedy. I was very wrong. It is quite a pleasant resort, nice beach and a picturesque setting. I had suggested before we started out that we might get the bus back, and didn't have to wait very long for our open top bus ride back to Studland.
The weather was not very promising for our last day, so we took off for Chesil Beach. It was very windy and cloudy, but stayed dry. We parked at the small visitor centre, which we found to be one of the very few ways onto the beach. Not at all flat and sandy, but like a long steep dune of pebbles. Nothing like the photographs that are taken from the air. The waves crashing in were quite deafening. A lower level of pebbles was soon under water. Their website said it could be dangerous as the pebbles are unstable. Arriving at Weymouth, we were not impressed. I thought it would be a much nicer place than it was. We didn't stay long. A coffee and a walk along the seafront and we were off to Lulworth Cove. What a difference, such a beautiful place. The weather had brightened so Alison decided we could walk over to Durdle Dor. Quite a steep climb to the top of the cliffs turned out to be over a mile of hard going. But again it was worth it. When we arrived at the rocks, I was amazed to see Portland in the distance where we had been earlier in the day. The walk back was better, mostly downhill with marvelous views of Lulworth Cove.
We were thinking about going to Bournemouth on the way home, but the weather on Friday was very wet. We were just lucky that the previous four days had been so good.

Monday 4 June 2007

A Long way Down, The Time Travellers Wife, Untold Stories, Margrave of the Marshes and We need to talk about Kevin

To complete a trilogy of reviews, these are the books I have read since retiring.

"A Long Way Down" by Nick Hornby is an irresistible book. Full of contemporary language, written by four very different "friends". "The Time Traveller's Wife" by Audrey Niffenegger is equally enthralling. I didn't want it to stop.

It took a long time to finish Alan Bennett's "Untold Stories", but his writing is always captivating. And I have already written about "Margrave of the Marshes".

I had to call it a day with "The Night Watch" by Sarah Waters, but I'm glad I did as having started "We need to talk about Kevin" by Lionel Shriver had got me hooked.

After our visit to Canterbury, I have just read "Murder in the Cathedral" by T S Eliot. It was one of the plays we did for "A"Level at school, but I didnt remember it at all. Mainly written in verse, there are some great passages. The four tempters give Thomas a way out before ending together with this speeech:

"Man's Life is a cheat and a disappointment;
All things are unreal,
Unreal or disappointing:
The Catherine wheel, the pantomime cat,
The prizes given at the children's party,
The prize awarded for the English Eassay,
The scholar's degree, the statesman's decoration,
All things become less real. man passes
From unreality to unreality.
This man (Thomas Becket) is obstinate, blind, intent
On self-destruction,
Passing from deception to deception,
From grandeur to grandeur to final illusion,
Lost in the wonder of his own greatness,
Enemy of society, enemy of himself."

And the end where the four knights go to the front of the stage to address the audience and explain their actions. It is just like a business presentation without powerpoint. Wonderful, but it was all wasted on me at eighteen.

Mary, Thea, Sandi, Alison, The Dixies........and Jonathon

I had to record that the six CDs in the car this last week have been such a great selection. The five female artists are all such marvelous song writers. I hadn't bought a Mary Chapin Carpenter CD for a few years, but I had listened to some clips from her 2004 album "Here and Gone" and was not disappointed with my purchase. The arrangements, and especially the piano playing of producer Matt Rollings, were outstanding.

I wrote about Thea Gilmore's "The Threads" EP in March. There is one track called "Icarus Wind" that is exceptional.

"smile...it confuses people" is such a good album from Sandi Thom. "Lonely Girl" and "Sunset Borderline" are great back to back tracks.

Its hard to pick a favourite track from the Grammy award winning "Taking the Long Way" by the Dixie Chicks. It deserved its success.

Even after such great albums, "Alison Krauss Live" was still spine tingling. Up goes the volume and on comes the virtuoso playing of Union Station and the magical voice of Alison. She called Jerry Douglas the best Dobro player in the world, who am I to argue. This is the only one of my six AK albums that contains "I am a man of constant sorrow", worth it for that track alone. Lonnie ( see previous posting) would have been bowled over by the exuberance of the music.

The one odd CD in the car was a compilation free in the Sunday Times called "Anarchy UK". The punk recordings were ordinary including the obligatory Sex Pistols but not anything by The Clash. However there was one brilliant track that I had not heard for a long time - "Roadrunner" by Jonathon Richman (composer) and the Modern Lovers. I had left the CD in the car from the previous selection, just to here this track again. A masterpiece of a two chord garage anthem. How can that be?

Spiderman 3, Zodiac and 28 Weeks Later

What a mess. Spiderman 3 was the worst film I have seen for a long time. It was embarrassing. There was no story to speak of, just a series of seemingly unconnected events. The fight sequences were all effect and no emotion, as all the characters had become pathetic. There was no direction of the acting, any dialogue was superfluous, it would have been better as a silent movie. When Spidey gets nasty, is that meant to be funny? Because it wasn't.

There was potential in the cameo roles, but only the daughter of the manager of Spidey's apartment was special. Her added "goodnight" to Spidey was so good, it could have been from another movie. And who was the guy he meets in the street? They obviously didn't know what to do with the last third, so they just threw money at the special effects. But what a poor ending for a poor film.

Zodiac was interesting but not engaging. It did need two and a half hours to tell the story, but Roberts Downey Jr was the only character who was not one dimensional. The film lacked pace in parts, but the directing was great, as was the screenplay. The soundtrack was terrific with an original selection of tracks from the 60's and 70's. I had not heard Donovan's "Hurdy Gurdy Man" for years and it was a real blast form the past.

28 Weeks Later is strange film. I have to say it all seemed a bit amateurish. How not to make a sequel to the brilliant 28 Days Later. The first half of the film in Canary Wharf was inspired, but
it loses track when an ordinary chase in the second half centres on other locations which were interesting for a few seconds.