Two years and one month
It's 25 months since I last posted an article in the backlash section of this site. The Incredible website used to be done very differently. The weblog bit was quite brief and all the meaty stuff was stuck away in the sections. As time went on, the weblog became the focus of the site and the sections just the equivalent of DVD extras. Normally, I blether what I want to on the front page. This is why I've not written any articles about attacking the world or arguing with people (which is what "backlash" is about). It's also fair to say that I've been a lot more in harmony with the world over the last couple of years, so there's been less vitriol to pour out.
Luckily for you (perhaps unluckily for me) I have finally broken my backlash-silence. I had an ebay auction go wrong and here is what happened.
You are what you eat
If that's true then I'm a low-priced low-fat Morrisons ready meal that smells suspiciously of someone's armpit.
Low in other stuff
My mood is swinging down. It must be growing pains, or the constant anticipation of a busy month with nothing frenetic actually happening yet. Tomorrow ought to be a bit busier, but the hustle and bustle hasn't started.
Costumes
I spent the early part of tonight's rehearsal working on a lovely pair of shoes I'll be wearing for the show. I say lovely... they're alright - I wouldn't wear them for my own purposes, but they'll do the show nicely, nicely, thank you. In addition, I was a witness to an all too familiar costume debate. Admittedly, it was slightly shameful, since it related to female costumes, and I shouldn't have such a working knowledge of such things.
I'm not camp.
The Play What I Wrote
The Morecambe and Wise tribute show returns to Newcastle at the end of Feb for a week. I had almost managed to see this last time it came. I say almost... we (well, I certainly did) misjudged the start time of the performance, rather significantly... we were late... then got confused about exactly which seats were ours... in a nutshell, we missed half the show. The second half made very little sense without the first. I think I'd like to see the whole of the show this time.
The title is apt enough. I'm putting a bit of time into writing a new play. The play would form the core of a sequel to The Musical! and I'm really in two minds about the whole things. On the one hand, we had glowing reviews for the original show, which made a fuss of our songwriting. On the other hand, we could quit while we're ahead (assuming that we feel like we're ahead when the March run is over). On one hand, my collaborator may not even be able to do the show, on the other, if he is, it would be a shame not to give Edinburgh another whirl - especially since we got better at making a show work there. In terms of writing a follow-up, it could be a really bad idea to write something that is so explicitly a sequel, though the concept of the original was so strong, that perhaps something too different would like the magic of the first. A sequel can be a boring rehash, but then a sequel can also play the self-deprecating card, acknowledge its possible failings and then surprise the audience by avoiding them.
I don't know.
I do know that I'm trying to write something which I believe has a bit of depth and interest, as well as a bunch of gags. I hope that my collaborator - well, he ain't collaborated on this yet, but there would be no show without him - will see something in the notes I've sent him that he likes. Bizarrely, I sent him two show briefs, he picked the second, but I had, by that stage, decided that I couldn't achieve the brief of the second, but had a clearer picture in my head about the first... and I'd already written a few scenes...
Oh dear. I'm not necessarily a playwright. I'm just a spoilt schoolboy who happens to have aged 14 years without understanding a great deal about the world. I may have learned a lot and I may be able to show understanding of things... heck, I may even be able to hold down a reasonable job and attempt to provide support to my team-mates (whom I think are currently doing a great job)... but I'm exactly the same kid who wanted to stage shows in his school theatre when he was 17. And I did. I wrote a play. It wasn't too bad. It wasn't too good either. It was just a play.
When you're looking at the world, as a man in the tail end of his 31st year on the planet, and you realise that some of your perspective is still that of your 17 year-old self... it can be a good thing, and it can be quite depressing. Surely I'm more sophisticated now? Surely I can get along with people better? Get to know people... be of interest to people?
Or maybe I'm just the geeky enthusiast who can sometimes turn invisible. When I feel like singing "Mr Cellophane" from Chicago every so often... it's definitely the invisibility thing. Being invisible is bad. Being invisible to people that are always in sharp focus to you... well, that calls for a song.
Maybe I'll write one.
It's 25 months since I last posted an article in the backlash section of this site. The Incredible website used to be done very differently. The weblog bit was quite brief and all the meaty stuff was stuck away in the sections. As time went on, the weblog became the focus of the site and the sections just the equivalent of DVD extras. Normally, I blether what I want to on the front page. This is why I've not written any articles about attacking the world or arguing with people (which is what "backlash" is about). It's also fair to say that I've been a lot more in harmony with the world over the last couple of years, so there's been less vitriol to pour out.
Luckily for you (perhaps unluckily for me) I have finally broken my backlash-silence. I had an ebay auction go wrong and here is what happened.
You are what you eat
If that's true then I'm a low-priced low-fat Morrisons ready meal that smells suspiciously of someone's armpit.
Low in other stuff
My mood is swinging down. It must be growing pains, or the constant anticipation of a busy month with nothing frenetic actually happening yet. Tomorrow ought to be a bit busier, but the hustle and bustle hasn't started.
Costumes
I spent the early part of tonight's rehearsal working on a lovely pair of shoes I'll be wearing for the show. I say lovely... they're alright - I wouldn't wear them for my own purposes, but they'll do the show nicely, nicely, thank you. In addition, I was a witness to an all too familiar costume debate. Admittedly, it was slightly shameful, since it related to female costumes, and I shouldn't have such a working knowledge of such things.
I'm not camp.
The Play What I Wrote
The Morecambe and Wise tribute show returns to Newcastle at the end of Feb for a week. I had almost managed to see this last time it came. I say almost... we (well, I certainly did) misjudged the start time of the performance, rather significantly... we were late... then got confused about exactly which seats were ours... in a nutshell, we missed half the show. The second half made very little sense without the first. I think I'd like to see the whole of the show this time.
The title is apt enough. I'm putting a bit of time into writing a new play. The play would form the core of a sequel to The Musical! and I'm really in two minds about the whole things. On the one hand, we had glowing reviews for the original show, which made a fuss of our songwriting. On the other hand, we could quit while we're ahead (assuming that we feel like we're ahead when the March run is over). On one hand, my collaborator may not even be able to do the show, on the other, if he is, it would be a shame not to give Edinburgh another whirl - especially since we got better at making a show work there. In terms of writing a follow-up, it could be a really bad idea to write something that is so explicitly a sequel, though the concept of the original was so strong, that perhaps something too different would like the magic of the first. A sequel can be a boring rehash, but then a sequel can also play the self-deprecating card, acknowledge its possible failings and then surprise the audience by avoiding them.
I don't know.
I do know that I'm trying to write something which I believe has a bit of depth and interest, as well as a bunch of gags. I hope that my collaborator - well, he ain't collaborated on this yet, but there would be no show without him - will see something in the notes I've sent him that he likes. Bizarrely, I sent him two show briefs, he picked the second, but I had, by that stage, decided that I couldn't achieve the brief of the second, but had a clearer picture in my head about the first... and I'd already written a few scenes...
Oh dear. I'm not necessarily a playwright. I'm just a spoilt schoolboy who happens to have aged 14 years without understanding a great deal about the world. I may have learned a lot and I may be able to show understanding of things... heck, I may even be able to hold down a reasonable job and attempt to provide support to my team-mates (whom I think are currently doing a great job)... but I'm exactly the same kid who wanted to stage shows in his school theatre when he was 17. And I did. I wrote a play. It wasn't too bad. It wasn't too good either. It was just a play.
When you're looking at the world, as a man in the tail end of his 31st year on the planet, and you realise that some of your perspective is still that of your 17 year-old self... it can be a good thing, and it can be quite depressing. Surely I'm more sophisticated now? Surely I can get along with people better? Get to know people... be of interest to people?
Or maybe I'm just the geeky enthusiast who can sometimes turn invisible. When I feel like singing "Mr Cellophane" from Chicago every so often... it's definitely the invisibility thing. Being invisible is bad. Being invisible to people that are always in sharp focus to you... well, that calls for a song.
Maybe I'll write one.
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