Sunday, January 30, 2011

The week that was #21

Not a lot going on this week, but there were a couple of things worth noting.

The Millennium trilogy

Over the last couple of months I've read the three books in Stieg Larsson's Millennium Trilogy – The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, The Girl Who Played with Fire and The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest.

I'd heard of them, but not much about them; in fact, the first time I really started thinking about reading them was after the success of the film version of Dragon Tattoo1. So, when my friend and co-worker Rachel said she had them if I wanted to borrow them, I – having nothing else to read at the time – jumped at the chance.

Having studiously avoided reading much more about them than the titles, I wasn't really quite sure what to expect. But I was a little taken aback by how unimpressed I was when I started reading Dragon Tattoo, since it took quite a while for it to get interesting. But it did get interesting, and so I stuck with it all the way to the end.

Monday, January 24, 2011

The week that was #20

Do I think this song is about me?

In the last The Week That Was I wrote about the weirdest thing I'd ever seen; what I came across this week may actually top that.

It's this:



Yeah, it's a YouTube video of a song by The Sensational Mary Barclay Band, called, of all things, Jamie Wright.

That's my name!

Really, it shouldn't have come as much of a shock as it did. I have one of the most common given names (which is actually James; Jamie is just what I go by, mostly because I think it suits me more than James); Wright is also a very common name amongst people of English descent – though, as noted in this post, 'my' branch of the Wright family comes via the USA.

Wednesday, January 19, 2011

Fringe 2011 Preview

Most of you probably know that I'm a theatre reviewer (it's not like I don't mention it on at least a semi-regular basis), but I've probably never explained just what a big deal the Adelaide Fringe festival has been for me over the years.

In many ways it was a validation of my choice to move to Adelaide from Townsville, all the way back in late 1997. It certainly wasn't why I moved here, since I'd never heard of the thing before I got down here, and it wasn't until the Fringe guide showed up in January 1998 that I even knew it existed.

I asked my then-friends/flatmates about this Fringe thing and they – being, for want of a better expression, woefully culturally deprived – couldn't tell me much at all. So I flipped through it and found a show that sounded interesting. And then another, and another and another. All up I think I found a dozen shows to see.

Wednesday, January 12, 2011

The King's Speech

Even though I'm in the middle of writing my Fringe 2011 preview, I had to take the time to write a quick review of The King's Speech, which I saw Monday night.

It is 1925 and Prince Albert1, Duke of York (i.e. the younger son of the current monarch of England, at this point George V; the elder son is always the Prince of Wales) has a problem; he has to give speeches – the King having embraced radio as an effective means of communication – and he stutters badly.

After trying numerous different 'experts' his gives up. His wife Elizabeth (who we know better as the Queen Mother), however, does not; she visits Lionel Logue, an Australian speech therapist (and failed actor), and she convinces Albert to seek his help.

Sunday, January 9, 2011

The week that was #19

It's been a while since I did a catch-all post, but a few things have happened over the last week or so; however, none is really worth devoting a standalone blog post to. So, I felt it was time to resurrect The Week That Was series.

Of course, whether or not there'll be another is wholly dependent on what else goes on – though I know what my next post is going to be: my 2011 Adelaide Fringe preview.

Pete Postlethwaite

A sad thing that happened this week was the passing of legendary actor Pete Postlethwaite, aged 64. The distinctive-looking Englishman appeared in several of my favourite films – Romeo + Juliet (as Friar Lawrence), The Usual Suspects (as Kobayashi) and In the Name of the Father (as Guiseppe Conlon) – as well as numerous others; he was someone I was almost always pleased to see in a film because he always added so much.

Monday, January 3, 2011

Tron: Legacy

As soon as I heard it was finally being made, I knew I wanted to see Tron: Legacy. The original was one of very few films I saw at the cinema as a kid1, and I remember being completely blown away by it.

Yesterday I got myself to the cinema to see it.

1My parents weren't exactly cinema enthusiasts, and we lived too far away from my town's cinema for me to get there by myself.

Story

Spoilers ahoy.

Saturday, January 1, 2011

Hello, 2011!

Well, it's now 2011. And I'm looking forward to another year of doing what I do: work, theatre and other forms of amusement, and blogging.

Theatre

Big things on the theatre calendar include the 2011 Fringe festival – while the full details won't be out for another couple of weeks yet1, some great acts have already indicated they'll be coming to town: Amanda Palmer and The Sound & the Fury being two I'll definitely be seeing; no doubt there'll be others of a similar pedigree – fingers crossed for Theater Simple, The Jane Austen Argument and whoever Guy Masterson finds to bring along – to add to that.

And there's plenty more theatre: The State Theatre Company of South Australia season – which I wrote about here – is something else I'm keenly anticipating. Next week I've got the professional production of West Side Story, and in May I'm seeing probably the most-anticipated musical of the last few years, Wicked.