Talk: Hallowe'en Penny Dreadful Show - The Art of Victorian Horror

Tonight, I booked with Guided Walking Tours in Brighton and Sussex (!). They advertised an online talk entitled Hallowe'en Penny Dreadful Online Show - The Art of Victorian Horror. I have to say, online has become much more of an option since lockdown. And this'd be a night I could move stuff from my desk - we have to clear them out by the end of the week, as we're moving office next month!

Well would you credit it - the guide messaged us during the day, said he wasn't feeling well. But he kindly provided us with the link to a past recording. I stayed on in the office for a bit, watched the one soap I still follow (I can stream it), then took some stuff from the desk and made my way home - earlier than expected. Where I decided I might as well watch the recording!

Well, I'm glad I did! He's hoarse in the recording - apparently just out of a bout of Covid - but that doesn't detract from his excellent storytelling skills! He also chose a nice, spooky background, and appropriately spooky background music. And what an excellently structured talk, starting with modern horror, which had him hooked from an early age, then turning to the origin of the penny dreadfuls in Victorian times. So we get a good dollop of history to go with our tour through the popular titles. Well worth watching, very entertaining, and a nice run-up to Hallowe'en.. Highly recommended, for horror fans! He gave us another link too - and there are some links at the end of this recording. All in all, great value, with five for the price of one!

Tomorrow, I booked another walk with Invigorate - this one was a tour of (the outside of) Christopher Wren's churches. Starting even closer to the office than the last one, handily. Rain is forecast - I hoped it wouldn't get too bad. Well it seems that the guide had the same thoughts, because checking what turned out to be a dreadful forecast for tomorrow, he postponed it to Thursday! Instead, for tomorrow, he's taking us to a free "Anniversaries" concert by the band of the Royal Yeomanry, at the Guards' Chapel. Tickets also available from Eventbrite. And funnily enough, this is where he took us, for another military concert, on what was my last Meetup before my long lockdown.. and as on that occasion, we're meeting in the Old Star. All I can say is, I hope it's not as crowded as it was that day - not least because, with pretty much nobody following precautions, the UK now has the highest number of Covid cases in the world..

On Thursday, I can't go on the rescheduled walk, because I have an online storytelling double-bill - I'll have to see how that pans out. First, I'd booked Universe, a Crick Crack Club (CCC) show happening in Oxford and live-streamed. Clare Murphy - and I've seen it before, and it was the best show ever! And then I saw that Martin Shaw from the CCC was doing an online show, earlier in the evening.. this one, in association with Watkins Bookshop, is called The Smoke Hole, and it's free. So I said, hey, why not? (And this is realistically the last night I can move stuff from my desk.)

On Friday, back with the London European Club for a concert - Balkan Music, courtesy of Raka & Balamuc, in The Post Bar, Tottenham. Sounds like fun. Even if I have to bring my work laptop, as we won't have access to our desks by that night. Then I'm back to Ireland - another Saturday flight - and with a few days off, I'm not flying back until the 28th. At least I'm not working from home this time, so don't have to bring the laptop on the flight!

But on the 29th, back with that group again, for Carmen - contemporary flamenco at The Place. (Might work from home that day, as we won't be in our new office yet, and I'd have to carry my laptop around with me.) Funnily enough, someone in the group said there were no individual seats left, and asked whether anyone wanted to double up with her. I offered, if there were no other takers - but she never got back to me. So, since I was now up to that date in my schedule, I decided to check for myself - and got an individual seat! So I've booked it.

And on the 30th, I'm doing something nice and Halloweeny - a ghost story event entitled Night Owl - changed from Scared to Death in the Woods, which they're now doing on Hallowe'en itself, and which has sold out. Tickets from Design My Night. So, an organisation called London Dreamtime is leading us off into a undisclosed location, somewhere around Hampstead Heath.. we're to dress warmly, and bring a blanket to sit on, and a "candle in a jar" - I actually went out and bought an LED flickering candle in a lantern-style holder. Well, thought it was the most practical! Now I just need batteries..

Dance: Grupo Corpo

Today - wow, at last, Meetup is running things early enough in the day for me again! Up in the Cheap Seats (UITCS) was watching a couple of contemporary dance shows by Grupo Corpo - Bach and Lecuona, each streaming on Vimeo and available to rent for 48 hours for £3.95. So I signed up - just rented before watching. Only to find that the price had more than doubled! ($15 when I looked). Hey-ho, it's no more than I'd have paid to see them live - and I don't begrudge it them, the arts need all they can get during lockdown.

I watched them early - why not? First up was Bach - as you might expect, the accompanying music is Bach (or a re-arrangement thereof), to which dancers move as if to visualise the music. I love this kind of dance, and it is beautiful - alternately bubbly and pensive, the movements perfectly matching the sound.

But I have to say, I was more taken with Lecuona - a slightly shorter piece, it comprises a set of pas de deux, performed to a soundtrack of Cuban love songs. Quite explicit, it also demonstrates a quirky personality, more independent of the music we're hearing than the Bach piece is. So, quite an unexpected performance.. and better watched second, to leave you with a smile. Well worth the price of viewing!

With only two of us having signed up to join the organiser, it was a real shame that my fellow co-attendee cancelled at the last minute, citing tiredness. I can't blame her though, it's been an exhausting week for me too! and TBH, I nearly dozed off a couple of times while watching. No reflection on the performances. I signed on for a solo chat with the organiser (and would you believe, found myself reaching for a pen as I logged on! Reflex action from so many Zoom calls with work..). Anyway, it was great to see him again, and we used our full chat time.

Tomorrow - back to Amazon Prime, I guess. And what's coming up next on my list is The Family Man, which seems to be an Indian series about a government agent who has to keep the true details of his job from his family.

And next Saturday, UITCS is watching a performance of The Sleeping Beauty, streamed from the Opera House, and available for rental for £3 in the UK, tax added outside the UK. So I've booked that, and will be delighted to join them. Available till the 28th.

TV Series: From Beirut to Bosnia (Episode 3)

So, I finally got around to watching Episode 3 of From Beirut to Bosnia. Available through the sterling efforts of Sands Films, who managed to find something that's practically disappeared.

The series basically seeks to explain why Muslim extremism targets Westerners - the first two episodes deal with Western-backed Israeli aggression in Palestine and Lebanon, and as promised, the last episode heads to Bosnia. Specifically, to Sarajevo. During the nastiest of its tragic history.

So, Robert Fisk dons a helmet and flak jacket to brave the streets of the besieged city. As he points out, he's lucky to have them - the soldiers don't have that luxury. Nor do the civilians, risking their lives every time they go out to buy groceries, running down the streets with their shopping bags as snipers pick them off from nearby rooftops. God, that brings back memories - I vividly remember the reports on the evening news at the time. I remember the shame that the West wasn't doing anything, as the Serbs systematically murdered the Muslim population, or packed them onto trains to go and live elsewhere, as best they could. And the West refused to arm the Muslims, to allow them to defend themselves.

Stand-out scenes, for me, include the hospital, where we see a little boy brought in after being shot by a sniper. Also receiving treatment for gunshot wounds is his mother, who tried to shield him. As the surgeon remarks, those responsible for this aren't human. At the train station, we meet some refugees - one woman, asked how she feels when she looks at a photo of how things were just a year ago, looks at Fisk aghast. She refuses to answer - how do you think I feel? she exclaims. Shortly afterwards, as the train arrives, a frail old man has to be lifted onto it, to an uncertain future.

At a press conference, Fisk asks the UN spokesman - who's just given a summary of the situation - whether there is any area under UN control that isn't experiencing bombing or shelling. A long pause follows. "I presume," says the UN guy, "that you're using the phrase 'UN control' advisedly. We are currently experiencing shelling and sniper attacks in all areas."

A devastating sequence has Fisk being escorted by Serb police to an area that has been "ethnically cleansed" of Muslims - a misnomer, as he says. This wasn't ethnic cleansing, it was a straightforward land grab. He gets them to stop at a place he recognises - he was there a year before, visited the mosque, had a cup of coffee with the imam and his wife, who had been promised Serb protection. Now, the mosque is in ruins, as is the imam's house. Photograph frames are broken, the photographs scattered on the floor. The Serbs, of course, know nothing about what happened there. (And ask not to be filmed.) And at time of broadcast, he still hadn't found out what happened to the imam and his wife, who had been so friendly to him. Last year.

Standing in the ruins of the mosque, as the camera pans over the ruined decorations, the holes in the walls - Fisk remarks that if violence like this is perpetrated on the Muslim population, you must expect retaliation. It's a nonsense to say that it's mindless terrorism - he also reveals that he feels that, at the end of each of his articles about the Middle East, he should include the warning "Watch out!"..

A very important series. And yes, I haven't forgotten about my film backlog of The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, Snowden, The Unbelievable Truth, Time (all on Amazon Prime), and Zero de Conduite, on the Internet Archive. Watch this space.. as ever..

Film: The Greatest Showman & TV Series: From Beirut to Bosnia (Episodes 1 & 2)

So, one of this evening's films on tv was The Greatest Showman! Starring Hugh Jackman, it's the story of P. T. Barnum, the famous showman. And it's a musical.

The second-longest-running chat show in the world is the Late Late show, and every year, just before Christmas, they do a Toy Show, to showcase different popular toys and books. These generally have a theme - and sure enough, a few years ago, the theme was The Greatest Showman. The host came on dressed for the part, and songs from the film were performed throughout. So it was good, finally - as I'd never seen it before - to see what all the fuss was about!

The songs are the stars of the show, truly. Each is a show-stopper, and the choreography that accompanies them is stunning. Apart from that - there's not much to say. P. T. Barnum seems more personable here than in the Wikipedia article about him, and you can fairly ignore most of the plot. Basically, it's rags to riches, and he's trying to prove himself to his rich in-laws. So he gets this idea to stage a show, and it's a hit. Mind you, the sound levels in the film were very off - the dialogue seemed very muted in comparison to the musical numbers, and so in order to hear what people were saying to each other, I had to increase the volume quite a bit - now, my mother screeches in complaint if anything is too loud, so there was a limit to what I could do, and I did miss a lot of dialogue. There might have been some complexity there that I failed to notice. But it is a very enjoyable film, for the musical numbers and the excellent trapeze work that is included. Not very deep, though.

Later tonight, feeling less tired, and with nothing interesting on tv that I hadn't already seen, I caught up with the first two of the three episodes of the tv documentary made by Robert Fisk, From Beirut to Bosnia, about the relationship between the Middle East and the West. Hard to find, it's available on the Sands Films site - part of an homage to Robert Fisk. And wow, it does require concentration - one of those where I feel I should be taking notes.

In short, Episode 1 details Israeli attacks on South Lebanon. They always plead self-defence in these cases, but as this documentary shows, many attacks have been completely unprovoked, and others completely disproportionate - revenge for attacks that caused the deaths of eight Israeli soldiers, for example, resulted in the killing of 150 Lebanese in retaliatory shelling. Nine of those killed were later shown to be militants.

And particularly interesting to an Irish person was the scene where an Irish UN peacekeeper was showing him around a bombed-out building. (We send out a lot of UN peacekeepers, particularly to Lebanon.) Entering a room whose front wall had been completely blown away, his guide explained that another peacekeeper (Irish-sounding name) had been in this exact room when he was killed by a shell from an Israeli tank. Indicating the Israeli tanks, observing them from a nearby hill, he explained that although the tank driver concerned had apparently been disciplined, nobody had ever actually explained why they'd done it..

Mind you, one thing about Robert Fisk was that, living among the Arab community as he did, he always had links to that side of the conflict - and another interesting segment has him visiting a Lebanese "underground prison", of the sort where many Lebanese, and some Westerners, were famously held - generally without any kind of due process. Always good to see the whole picture.

Episode 2 concerns dispossession of the Palestinians, either through bombing and shelling, or land grabs. He visits the Gaza Strip.. not a nice-looking place at all. It's amusing to watch Israeli soldiers, constantly telling him and his cameraman to stop filming, or they'll close the area and force them out. Undeterred, he manages to interview a 16-year-old girl, already married and about to have her first child, who's experiencing pains. The curfew is in effect, and there's no way to get her to hospital - the Israeli soldiers he questions about her tell him she's already left in an ambulance. Finally, he and his cameraman end up driving her and her mother to the UN hospital.

One woman is filmed, in hysterics about how all the houses in her neighbourhood have been destroyed by Israeli shelling. And, just outside Jerusalem, he highlights the case of one lone farmer holding out against the encroaching wave of Israeli settlers. Interviewing the family, he discovers that they've owned the land for hundreds of years - they have title deeds both from the Ottoman days, and also from the British Mandate period. However, the Israeli government has issued them notice to quit - they need the land for a housing scheme. For Israelis only - Arabs need not apply. Sadly, this is the same family he mentions in This is Not a Movie, who were evicted shortly after he interviewed them. It's also interesting how the Israeli settlers he speaks to are adamant that the foundation for their right to be there, and to evict the Arabs, is given to them in the Bible..

Finally, he was given directions by a Palestinian, living in Lebanon, to the house in Acre that his family was evicted from in 1948, during the formation of Israel. He's keen to find out what happened to it - he is not allowed to enter Israel, nor are any expelled Palestinians. When Fisk gets there, he finds a lovely family, happy to talk to him. The grandad, who was the first Jew to occupy the house, is a Holocaust survivor. In an interesting twist, Fisk then goes in search of this man's family history, and visits the Polish town where they were from. Once known as a Jewish town, there are no Jews there at all any more.. and no record of those killed in Treblinka, where his search takes him.

Any correlations that you might draw here are for you to decide - Fisk says nothing about them.

I'm looking forward to Episode 3 - and very glad I don't live anywhere near there..

And yes, I haven't forgotten about my film backlog of The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, Snowden, The Unbelievable Truth, Time (all on Amazon Prime), and Zero de Conduite, on the Internet Archive. Watch this space..

Film: This Is Not a Movie

Film again today - and with a surfeit of sport on tv, it didn't take me long to get around to it. I watched Sands Film's weekly offering, a documentary about the late, great Robert Fisk, entitled This Is Not a Movie.

Oh wow, this should be required viewing. As the club organiser pointed out, its release this year was stymied by the pandemic, and it's kind of sunk without trace - which is a tragedy indeed. So he urged viewers to share it. Well, here we go! I should point out that it's not, at time of writing, on the "past films" page - I had to go to the main film page, which has a few Robert Fisk-related resources, under a heading of an homage to him.

It starts dramatically, with old footage of a younger Robert Fisk and his cameraman, running under fire through the rubble-strewn streets of a Middle-Eastern city. As, in more recent times, he is driven towards the front line of the Syrian civil war, he laments the fact that he sees no other journalists there. The club organiser, in his brief analysis afterwards, points out Fisk's physical courage - but as the man himself says, you have to go and see for yourself. Certainly, he's scathing about getting information from the internet - and particularly about social media.

One of the major themes throughout is his lack of trust in authority - and how refreshing it is to see someone unwilling to toe the popular line! Criticised many times through the years for being "pro" one side or "anti" another - as he says, what does he care? He writes what he sees - after that, people can make of it what they want. He has better things to do than worry about people's opinion of him.

He cut his teeth in Belfast - where he made an enemy of the British Army by refusing to follow their official line on things, instead publicising their crimes, incursions across the border and so on. Good preparation for the Middle East, where he spent most of his life. Asked in an interview why he was still there, he said it's like a book that you just can't put down - he MUST see what happens next.

You'll learn a lot about the politics of the area, just by watching this. He follows an arms trail from Syria, back to Bosnia, and thence to Saudi Arabia, who were, at the time, arming Syrian rebels. Including "terrorists" - a buzz word that he hates, because he says we're addicted to it. He's met Bin Laden a few times, incidentally - and you'll be interested to hear his account of one tense interview! Also included on the Sands Films site is a link to a rare tv documentary that Fisk made, From Beirut to Bosnia, about the relationship between the Middle East and the West - kudos to them for digging it out! I might actually watch that on Tuesday.

Always suspicious of the official line, he is scathing of the Israelis.. and you just have to see the interview with one settler (colonist, as Fisk would put it - as he says, language is important), in which the settler denies that there ever was a Palestinian state or history! Thorough, brave, and committed, truly, with his passing, a great light has gone out - we can just hope that his ideals and standards continue. This film comes with my highest recommendation.. and do stay for the credits, over which the very appropriate Cedars of Lebanon is played!

Tomorrow afternoon, the great storyteller Nick Hennessy has another livestream! Mustn't miss that. In fact, just in case we were thinking of forgetting it, he was practicing his livestream today, as I was trying to watch my film..

And on Monday - an old friend has bought me a ticket to watch the livestream of A Christmas Carol from the Old Vic! He and the family will be watching simultaneously. Aww, how thoughtful..

Film: The Warren

Well, I finally got a film watched. Predictably, the short - The Warren, a short film on Reel Palestine. Figured I'd have time for that much, at least! I still have a backlog of The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, on Amazon Prime: The Syrian Bride, new to Sands Films: and Snowden, also on Amazon Prime. The last of which I'm most interested in - so naturally, it comes last of the four!

A small amount of buffering didn't cause too much trouble. This is an atmospheric piece about the Israeli army, creeping around a Palestinian refugee camp at dead of night, looking for insurgents during the second intifada. I was a few minutes in before anyone spoke, at which time I realised there are no subtitles! Happily, although it'd be nice to know what people are saying, it doesn't prevent you following the plot.

It has a decent amount of suspense. Can't say much more about an 11-minute piece without giving too much away, but suffice to say that the Israeli army don't come out of this squeaky clean. The ending is truly unexpected, and will give you pause for thought. Recommended!

Now, this evening, Up in the Cheap Seats are doing a couple of things - one is a musical called Fiver, about the journey of a five-pound note through the city. Livestreamed from Southwark Playhouse, so you have to watch it at set times. Ran yesterday, running today. I love a musical, and the story sounds interesting.. of course, I can't do it in the evening, but there is a matinee today, which I've booked for. Full price, for once, and my ongoing discount doesn't apply, but I'm delighted to help the theatre. I've logged in and am waiting for the start, at time of writing - glad to hear they've followed the Old Vic's lead, and included audience sounds while you wait. Really adds to the realism. Only thing is, the recording keeps looping, and there's a slight pause before each restart. And as you listen over and over, you do start to recognise segments. Still, it helps.

And tomorrow, reliable London Social Detours has another talk. This time, it's one hosted by the host's historian friend, which makes a nice change - and it's about "Death, Disease & the Great Fire of London"! 

Concert: The Telling

Tonight, something popped up that I just couldn't ignore - Wimbledon Music Festival, running for the next week, had an online concert based on the life of a medieval nun, Hidegard of Bingen - half music, half story. Early music - I couldn't resist! The link will remain available for another week, but I watched tonight anyway. I booked with one of my cheap tickets sites (CT) - no cheaper, but it does fulfil my requirement to book something with them. Such requirements could be hard, this year! If you fancy watching it, the password is telLingWIMF202004.

So, there's a singer, a harpist, and an actor (in the veil) playing Hildegard herself. It takes place in a church - denuded of its seating, it's just like it would have been in medieval times, and very atmospheric. Performances of the works of the woman herself are interspersed with brief performances describing her life, in words that it is imagined she might have used. And wow, it's intense - placing her in a convent at the age of eight turns out to have been rather a good idea, as she went on to have visions, accredited by the Pope, and compose a huge volume of music. As well as founding a couple of monasteries. I adored it, of course - I always love this kind of music. Not sure the cat was as impressed - but hey, aren't cats supposed to be ministers of the Devil?

Tomorrow is my birthday, and I have every intention of taking the time to see something. And that day, Up in the Cheap Seats is watching Emilia - a recording of a past show, it's available for eight more days after. And they're still taking bookings - for the minimal fee of £1! So I've booked that as well. Gee, it feels great to have things booked again!

World Cinema Film Festival, Talk on Darwin, & Film: The Post

For Saturday, I was thinking film again. Next most interesting on my list, at the same rating, is Black Book - the story of a Jewish singer who infiltrates the Gestapo during WWII. Now, I've already seen something along these lines - but having watched the trailer for this, it isn't familiar, so I'm willing to give it a shot. However, I was suddenly presented with an alternative - Experience London Events, Concerts & Parties advertised the World Cinema Film Festival, which was online this year, and streaming for free over the weekend. Tickets from Eventbrite. I couldn't get many details of the programme, but it started on Saturday, and consisted of talks and short films. So I booked a ticket.

And that is indeed what I watched. The ticket included the link to the festival page - this is still available until Sunday, I believe, so with or without a ticket, you should still be able to watch, if you're interested. Very little information on the page, mind, just a couple of videos, and the names of the filmmakers and people questioned in the 1-1 Q&As. Each video runs for about 2.5 hours, and covers that day's entire content - annoyingly, although the filmmakers' names are given, as I say, no film names or durations are given, and no timings. Me, I skipped through all the Q&As, by the simple means of watching for long enough to see what the interviewee looked like, then clicking ahead, 10 minutes or so every time, until they weren't there any more. At which point I'd click back a little, catch the very end of their interview to make sure I wasn't missing anything, then just keep watching for the film.

Of the first day's films, honestly, the only one I felt was worth the effort was the very first, which was an interesting series of snippets from Caribbean immigrants to the UK. The younger ones' poetry and music mixed nicely with the older ones' stories of how they were discriminated against ("No blacks, no Irish, no dogs" on boarding house windows, for instance). They had tales to tell of the educational system - some had come over as children, but far from the UK system being superior, as one man tells it, it is designed only to educate the top 20%. As blacks, they were automatically lumped into remedial classes. One woman, who came as an adult and had trained as a postmistress, applied for a job in a post office when she arrived. So she left the hospital where she was initially housed, full of expectations. When she arrived at the post office, however, they showed her where the cleaning equipment was.. Naturally enough, she immediately quit, and returned to the hospital, quite upset. When the nun in charge heard what had happened, she said, "Well, if you're just going to be offered work as a cleaner, then you might as well work here!" Happily, they paid better, at least.

The second piece is about an Italian drum maker. I found the musical snippets more interesting than the actual description of drum making, personally. The third piece has yet more immigrants - in this case, all from Jamaica. And for the last piece, it's just as well I listened to the continuity announcer (despite her impenetrable accent!). Because she informed us that the last film dealt with sexual abuse following a party. Just as well - the film itself is an equally impenetrable piece of art school drivel, all animated paper cut-outs, and I couldn't make any sense of it at all. Finally, I should add that the entire video is captioned, and I didn't seem able to turn the captions off!

I actually only finished the first video on Sunday afternoon. (Ironically, I had to use my mother's old laptop to watch it, as my work laptop wouldn't stream the videos - firewall, perhaps.) Unfortunately, I stayed on that laptop for the next call - which meant the reception was so bad, I had to turn off my video! Can't win.

Later that afternoon, London Social Detours (LSD) was hosting a "virtual visit to the Galapagos", complete with a chat about Charles Darwin. So, off I went again with them. A decent presentation included a couple of short films, and a slideshow - one of the group had been there a few years ago, and could elaborate on what it was like - sadly, another couple on the call had been supposed to go there this year, until Covid scuppered their plans! We can only hope that we can all get travelling again one day. Anyway, the quiz afterwards was fun, with the fastest person to type the answer getting the point. (I only managed once to be first.) There were quite a few prizes, although the winner elected to take a tote bag rather than a book, having too many already! The runner-up also got to choose a prize - the rest of us, I'm afraid, had to make do. As for the chat that finished the session - as usual, it ended with one topic dominating discussion; this time, it was, of all things, Morris dancing. The American on the call was intrigued..

That night, tv scored a hit with the Sunday night film - they showed The Post. Directed by Steven Spielberg, this tells the true story of the "Washington Papers" - documents leaked during the Vietnam War that showed that the US government had known for years it was unwinnable, but had been sending over troops to save face. The film follows the story of the Washington Post, which watches jealously as the New York Times (NYT) publishes extracts.. Meryl Streep is the publisher of The Post, Tom Hanks the editor, but jeez, they just cannot get a scoop like that! Readership is falling, the paper is in trouble - until Nixon slaps an injunction on the NYT, preventing them from publication! When somebody slips into The Post's offices with a box that just happens to contain some of the papers.. well, what would you do?!

This is a great, tense, political / journalistic thriller, which of course resonates with today's presidency. And you just have to love the final scene, with a security guard reporting a burglary at the Watergate Hotel.. "the next instalment", you might say!

Monday was a UK bank holiday, which I took as such, even in Ireland. Helen was good enough to suggest a video call - it's been ages since we saw each other, of course, and yes, it was so good to see each other again! With all the platforms available to us, we chose Google Meet - which was fine (especially since I was on my work laptop). Differs from Zoom - which I seem to use most - in that your own video, while visible, only displays as a thumbnail at the top! So we had a lovely, long natter - Zoom would have kicked us out after 40 minutes.

Afterwards, I finally caught up with the second World Cinema Film Festival video. Again, no film names, no timings, and no indication of where anything starts in the video. However, on the whole, this is far better than the first day's fare! Interestingly, in this one, no captions are displayed - and yes, I did try to turn them on and couldn't. The presenter's accent is, as mentioned above, impenetrable, so I could have done with them here.

Anyway, we start with Hush, about a young girl with an impossible family. By not speaking for a day, she manages to bring them together in a surprising way! The second film is the least successful - a photoshoot with a North Korean defector to South Korea, she tells us (in what I assume is Korean) about her experience. However, half the subtitles seem to be missing - I can only assume that this is deliberate on the filmmaker's part, designed to show how we're not getting the whole narrative. Very weird to watch, though.

The third film, Roots, in contrast, has no dialogue at all - we see an (Indian?) immigrant couple change their image to fit in. Quite striking. And the last, Carla's Room, is again without dialogue - we see a series of snippets of life from a girl's bedroom, which summarise her story, and her relationship with her mother. Works well. As for this Meetup group - it was my first time with them, and it's obviously one of those that just exist to advertise events. 

So, I was pretty busy over the long weekend, and decided to wait until I'd finished watching the film festival to blog. Then I was busy yesterday, and tired at the end of it - so here we are, at last. Hello again.

This coming Saturday.. tan ta ra! The Old Vic has taken to streaming shows live in camera (so, played to an empty theatre). And coming up next is Three Kings - a one-man show with Andrew Scott! Showing from today to Saturday, it replicates a live theatre show, in that you have to attend at the scheduled time - so the only show I can make is the Saturday matinée. For which I snatched a ticket asap! Caveat - despite the different ticket prices, the view is the same for everyone - it's just a question of how much of a donation you feel like making. They're supposed to send me a Zoom link tomorrow - oh, and these are non-transferable, you can only use the link on one device. But boy, do I love Andrew Scott.. Postponed from weeks ago, as he's been in hospital (neither serious nor Covid-related, we're assured!). At last..

Wouldn't you know it, it's clashing with the next weekend LSD Meetup. Can't be helped - I'm not missing Andrew Scott for that..