What I learnt this week…#1

I think it’s important to blog regularly, and to be honest for the last few weeks I have been quite neglectful as of late. Partly it’s because I’ve been really busy, I’m not making excuses, I’m just saying, loads on, once I’ve finished with work, other work, play stuff, stand-up, curing cancer and stand-up blogs there’s not much time for writing wistful but witty posts with a hint of poignancy. So I thought I’d put down a few notes about what I learnt…

1. Different ways to ruin movies – Two films and two different ways to ruin potentially perfect movies. I saw Lincoln and it had amazing acting, brilliant cinematography yet Spielberg has found it necessary to make the pacing so slow that it becomes the most tedious film i’ve seen in a long time. But that’s nothing compared to Quentin Tarantino. Django is a great film, funny, clever with the best Klu Klux Klan scene I’ve seen – But why, why when you expensively assemble a cast of stellar actors would you ruin it all by inserting yourself in the film – at least he had the good decency to kill himself off in a good fashion.
2. Good food in warehouses – I had lunch in the Camp and Furnace with Louise on Saturday. I’d been there before for the launch of the Biennial where it was full of hipsters and I felt out of place, but in the cold light of day it’s quite a nice place to grab lunch and had a lovely warm fire! It also has the best light bulbs ever!
3. Playwrighting is hard – I have no motivation to write plays at the moment, not quite sure what to do about it. I think the problem is deadlines – with gigs you get immediate feedback and you have to sort it before the next gig – playwriting takes ages… I need a deadline.
4. Not gigging makes you stressed – The longer between gigs the more worrying the next gig becomes. Pretty obvious stuff.
5. I’m obsessed with The West Wing – I seem to be held into a trap of watching The West Wing from series 1 – 7 on loop. I’ve just started from series 1 again and i’ve noticed little things. Like Martin Sheen’s hair gets dyed with grey in towards the end of the series – the theme tune speeds up and becomes more cinematic in series 3 AND Leo doesn’t age. Not at all. Even slightly.