captivebird

The nasty party

2016-10-08T11:01:35Z

Nationalism combined with placatory promises of pseudo-socialism. Very frightening rhetoric coming out of this most right wing of governments. For the Tories it is, and always has been, about the survival of themselves, The Conservatives Party, first and foremost. They literally see themselves as the natural party of power and will do almost anything to cling to it.

I despise everything this selfish country seems to stand for at the moment. Just the prospect of Brexit has diminshed the UK in every way. Surely 48% is too large a proportion to just lie down and accept this shit. Seriously looking for a credible movement to join that will provide real opposition. Not being English, at least my family can disassociate to some degree from all the ugly sentiments being expressed, but I cringe now seeing a Union Jack and it makes me want to weep. Being British was always difficult to embrace wholeheartedly given colonial and domestic history, but it truly is nothing to be proud of in these depressing times.

Brexocalypse

2016-09-24T10:23:56Z

Three months on and we're still none the wiser. The silence from the Government is ominous and here is just one of a multitude of insolvable conumdrums http://www.itv.com/news/2016-09-22/mays-choice-admit-were-out-of-eu-customs-union-or-fox-is-redundant/

Why would any sane Prime Minister trigger Article 50? Is it still going to be the EU's fault when all goes horribly wrong and we are cast adrift after two years of failed negotiations (because we really, truly, will never get a deal better than the life-line we have already thrown overboard) to sink, slowly, beneath the rising seas? So fickle is the media that I'm sure they will start singing the EU's praises and point out that almost all the UK's problems are the result of domestic policy, just as soon as it is too late.

We cannot just lie down and accept our rights and financial security being ripped from us by a load of economically incompetent lying liars. Where is the serious opposition to this crap!?!? I am European and wish to remain so!

Summer's over

2016-08-31T13:48:56Z

From the PM's speech to her cabinet of ministers today:

“We must continue to be very clear that Brexit means Brexit, that we’re going to make a success of it. That means there’s no second referendum, no attempts to sort of stay in the EU by the back door, that we’re actually going to deliver on this”

So it's going to be hard and hideous. What an utter and complete fuck up.

New book about old favourite

2016-08-22T10:24:18Z

I have started reading Snape: A Definitive Reading by Lorrie Kim...

It's an interesting analysis of the subtleties of Snape's actions and motivations throughout J K Rowling's seven-book series, providing further food for thought.

From the introduction and backcover blurb –

"The Harry Potter series may be named after The Boy Who Lived, but if you want to know the story, keep your eyes fixed on Severus Snape. This hook-nosed, greasy-haired, grumpy character is one of J. K. Rowling's enduring gifts to English literature. He's the archetypal ill-tempered teacher: acerbic, yet horribly, deliciously funny. When he's in a scene, you can't take your eyes off him. Snape is always the story."

Always my favourite character, there's a lot of Snape-bashing in these PC times, but there's no doubt that he taught Harry and his cohort much of use in his own sneaky way. I still love Snape's subversive tactics against Gilderoy Lockhart in Chamber of Secrets so much, and of course it was thanks to Snape that the students leant to use the most useful defensive spell which actually won the day so often, rather than just silly hexes in a safe environment.

So far, highly reccommended! Now on to chapter three, The Prisoner of Azkaban... :-)

Bloody awesome!

2016-08-20T19:03:27Z

Homage by a hughly talented team. Brilliant!

A welcome diversion

2016-08-04T15:01:15Z

So now I've read the recently published rehearsal playscript...

and I must say (absolutely no spoilers) that it was a fun few hours retreat back into the Wizarding World with largely familiar characters. The new story hangs together if you squint at it sideways and can stomach the somewhat squicky new addition to canon. I'm not going to poke holes in the script because it provided some much appreciated escapism and it's harmless enough stuff. Looking forward to seeing the play for real at the end of November – mostly to see the magical effects before my very eyes.

The Three Brexiteers

2016-07-16T09:06:53Z

This says it all https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/jul/16/johnson-davis-fox-three-brexiteers except to mention that other hilarious appointment of Andrea 'I want to guide Brtiain to the sunlit uplands' Leadsom as Secretary of State for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs. I hope she has some wellies. And enjoys explaining to farmers that their subsidies will soon be toast. Here are some of her profound thoughts http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2016/jul/14/andrea-leadsom-repeal-fox-hunting-ban-climate-change What a joke. Unless it truly is a cunning plan by the new PM to give them the metaphorical rope with which to hang themselves. Maybe May's first official visit – to Scotland yesterday – was to tell Nicola Sturgeon off the record not to worry, her 'trusty' team of the Three Brexiteers plus D'Artandrea would soon prove that leaving the EU was not in the UK's best interests after all. An expensive gamble, but probably cheaper in the long run and less damaging than actual Brexit... I wish!

Eton mess and more

2016-07-01T14:48:50Z

It's like the five stages of grief. Mostly I've been stuck in a cycle revolving between absolute fury, depression and the need to rant with like-minded people who are equally in shock. Acceptance is a long way away. Alas, so too are most of the like-minded people with the exception of my most immediate family. Today once again I'M SO ANGRY with the privilged Tory bastards who basically gambled all our futures to try to further their own prospects. And the worst of them all is the loathsome Michael Gove. I hope he too gets his just desserts and fails spectacularly in his bid for the leadership of his party. That he could become PM of the UK is unconscionable. If he believes that being a Scot will curry favour north of the border after what he's done, he is deluded. Candidate of unity I don't think so.

Please remember this...

2016-06-28T17:06:46Z

Alyn Smith MEP today

Meet the new Harry Potter team

2016-06-02T08:15:50Z

Revealing Charm

2016-04-28T14:01:31Z

Perhaps I'm simply such a Muggle that I couldn't see anything when I walked past the entirely derelict looking Palace Theatre at Cambridge Circus...

... or work has started on preparing the venue since I hurried to see Bug last Saturday. (Classic symtom of remembering an urgent appointment elsewhere...) Suddenly yesterday a picture showing posters, plus a swathed shape looking suspiciously like a giant Snitch. The Muggle Repelling Charms are wearing off and Harry Potter and the Cursed Child starts previews in just under six weeks' time. Woot!

P.S. I'm not seeing the plays until the end of November, but I don't mind spoilers so will probably buy and read the playscript as soon as it is published.

P.P.S. The snitch-shaped nest containing, presumably, the cursed chlld is fully revealed...

Doctor Strange

2016-04-13T18:17:04Z

Ooooh...

I dunno anything about it really. But ooooh... :-)

Doctor Thorne

2016-02-23T20:28:00Z

Many years ago in a fit of AR related enthusiasm, I read the entire series of six Victorian novels that constitute Anthony Trollope's Chronicles of Barsetshire https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chronicles_of_Barsetshire The first two of these novels constitute the wonderful 1982 series The Barchester Chronicles, beloved of all AR fans. I read the following four books in the hope that Obediah Slope would reappear – but alas, if I recall correctly, he got but one further passing mention. But here is gratuitous picture of him anyway...

Now after all this time, the third novel in the series is being televised by ITV as a three part drama, adapted by Julian Fellowes of Downton Abbey fame. I watched not one single episode of that, but will certainly tune in for Doctor Thorne on 6 March. Tom Hollander – currently in The Night Manager – takes the title role as the good doctor. Fun article with Tom Hollander here http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/tv/features/tom-hollander-on-the-night-manager-doctor-thorne-heightism-and-atheism-a6884106.html

Drama of a good kind

2016-02-17T14:34:09Z

On a wet, dreary Wednesday, good to remind myself of organised treats coming up in the next couple of months...

wonder.land

Go down the modern day rabbit hole and reinvent yourself in the digital world. Monotone daily dull to multicoloured media magic... Amazing effects promised. Whilst Damon Albarn OBE (Blur, Gorillaz) is not necessarily my cup of tea musically speaking, he is undoubtedly talented and inventive. Should be fun!

The Master Builder

Ralph Fiennes starring. Only my third Ibsen – the first being the production that kick-started my theatre-attending enthusiasm AR as John Gabriel Borkman, and the second being Andrew Scott in Emperoro and Galilean. Never seen Raplh Fiennes live on stage before so looking forward to it.

Doctor Faustus

Irresistable chance to see Kit Harington – looking very Jon Snow-like hopefully – going to hell in the eponymous role. No idea yet who else is in the cast, but don't really care. Have The Globe version (with Arthur Darvill as Mephistopheles) on DVD, but this new version promises a modern twist on the traditional Marlowe play. Can't wait.

Bug

From Death Comes to Pemberley, Grantchester, Life in Squares, Lady Chatterley's Lover, War and Peace, Happy Valley – even a cameo in Mr Turner... it seems James Norton has been everywhere on our screens of late. A chance to see him up close in the intimate Found 111 venue last used for The Dazzle. It will be hard to top that experience but nevertheless exciting!

Harry Potter and the Cursed Child

2016-02-10T16:24:59Z

More big news for Potter fans https://www.pottermore.com/news/ww-publishing-cursed-child-script-book-announcement

So, much earlier than I expected, an initial (rehearsal) playscript both in print and digital form on 31 July, plus a 'definitve' edition later in the year. Guess it's a huge money maker. How many fans will buy both...

Missing the magic

2016-01-31T11:16:11Z

I'm so ready to be enchanted anew this year both in film...

plus on stage/hopefully also in print... https://www.therowlinglibrary.com/2016/01/25/at-least-two-publishers-after-the-cursed-child/

R.I.P

2016-01-14T14:50:30Z

My dad, David Bowie and Alan Rickman all gone within one month. It's too much. :-/

Fantastic stuff...

2015-12-15T16:03:40Z

Still enough of a Potterhead to find this exciting...

Fan vid

2015-11-17T09:48:41Z

Sherlock music performed by 'John' and 'Sherlock'...

Sunset Song

2015-11-12T14:41:30Z

I didn't know that this film had been made! Based on the first part of the classic Scottish trilogy A Scots Quair by Lewis Grassic Gibbon and starring both Peter Mullan and Kevin Guthrie – last seen in that joyous little musical film Sunshine on Leith.

I need to re-read these novels! Having run out of Game of Thrones, I can indulge this whim immediately. Copies of the novels reside on a shelf in my parents' house, but thanks to Kindle, I don't have to wait. All three are mine for just 99p just like that. :-)

War and Peace

2015-11-09T13:19:56Z

I do so hope that this new BBC adaptation is going to be good...

Theme tune

2015-11-07T21:10:54Z

Just putting this here because I love the title music to the current BBC series The Last Kingdom by Eivør Palsdottir from the Faroe Islands...

So evocative. Actually I like the animated drawing also. :-)

New Sherlock fanvid

2015-10-13T10:24:09Z

Still my favourite Cumberbatch role. Reminder that either he and MF are lousy actors... or this is the greatest love story ever being told. :-))

Hamlet trailer for NT Live screening

2015-09-26T14:13:58Z

The Danish Girl

2015-09-01T15:13:21Z

This I want to see...

Not released in the UK until January 2016 however, so quite a long wait. :-/