Another new toy

It must be the time of year where I get a bit gadget happy, because I didn't stop at the Blu Ray player I wrote about in my last post; I also have a shiny new phone. But this isn't a product review – there's really no point, since what I've got isn't exactly new on the market; it's a Samsung Galaxy SII, which came out early last year.

Skyfall

It wasn't a given that I would go see Skyfall; while I was a big Bond fan when I was younger, watching pretty much all of the films, things had changed. I had, come the end of the Brosnan era – when I was old enough to know better – realised just how hackneyed they'd become; while I'd liked Goldeneye, both The World is not Enough and Die Another Day were poor, and Tomorrow Never Dies only tolerable.

When they announced the re-casting of Bond with Daniel Craig I was happy - I've liked him in pretty much everything I've seen him in, with his small but significant role in The Road to Perdition being the standout¹ – and I was even happier they were hinting that it would also be a reboot of the style, since that was the biggest problem; they'd gone way overboard with the gadgets, the seductions and the double entendres.

A new toy

Despite my love of film, I'm not actually all that into watching movies at home – I find it hard to sit through a whole one because of all the distractions; this, of course, is another reason why I do go to the cinema as much as I do: to overcome my problematic attention span.

But I'd like that to change, mostly because even though I get to see most of the films I want to see at the cinema, there are a few that I miss for different reasons, such as just not having the time, the dumbasses at the cinemas putting things on at inconvenient times, or the film distributors not bothering to release them in this country.

The week that was #31

Have had a pretty busy month or so – luckily I've had enough time to crank out the occasional post – but I've been up to a bit lately, so it's time for an update.

My Romantic History

Finished the show I'd been stage managing - I did intend to include a writeup in this update, but once I started I realised there was enough material to constitute a standalone post and will post it another time.

How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying

After a succession of serious roles (namely Alonso in The Tempest¹, Glenn in Suddenly at Home, Ross in Macbeth and Evan in Don's Party²) over the last few years, I was in the mood to do something a little lighter – either a musical or a comedy. I was probably leaning more towards doing a comedy because I'd be more likely to get a lead (or a least a major) role in a play than I would a musical, but as the shows for the 2013 season were being announced, I realised there wasn't anything that particularly caught my eye; therefore, the best option for me would be a musical.

Pride & Prejudice (on stage)

Just quickly – I don't have much time – I'm just putting down some thoughts about the stage production of Pride & Prejudice I saw yesterday. It was by Independent Theatre, one of my favourite Adelaide companies; over the last few years they've done some great shows, most of which I've been lucky enough to see.

Anyway, I was very keen to see this - P&P is one of my favourite books; I wrote about it here - and with Independent's history of clever, faithful adaptations, I had high hopes.

I was not disappointed. It was a very good adaptation, with all the dialogue taken from the book with an emphasis on retaining the great characters and (more importantly for me, an unrepentant word-nerd) exquisite language in all its brilliant, snarky glory.