Alien Spouse

Singing My Baby to Sleep.

The bedtime routine for Eva involves singing appropriately soothing songs for about twenty to thirty minutes - And "Twinkle Twinkle" is only a couple of minutes long, no matter how slowly you sing it, so you either have to sing it on repeat, or come up with something else.

I remembered a fair number of other lullabies, but not a huge repertoire, so then I moved onto a selection of songs from "The Sound of Music" - This is odd because it's not one of my favourite musicals and never has been, and yet I know the whole "Favourite Things".  Doc C has never seen the film (or stage version), so he thinks my rendition of "Edelweis" is lovely, and it seems to have a suitably narcotic effect on the kidr.

Now I've gone a little more classic jazz musical by adding a few Cole Porter standards ("You Do Something to Me", "Miss Otis Regrets", "Don't Fence Me In" are the most frequent) along with "One for my Baby (and One More for the Road)", which is perhaps not the most traditional of nursery rhymes but it does the job.

This evening out of nowhere "Diamonds are Forever" made an appearance.  It's come to Bond themes now?  Oh dear.

Beer City Video.

Apart from moving house I was also very pleased to see the launch of a video that I've been working on for a couple of months now.

 

I am the project manager for production company that made this - which in this case meant I did everything from comissioning custom etched beer glasses; including child-care of an adorable little girl whilst her dad climbed into a beer vat; to sewing a teeny tiny kilt for a beer bottle.

It was a very unusual project I think, and I sort of doubt that anything is going to touch this for the having-fun-at-work factor - I mean really I got paid to hang out in bars and discuss jokes!  How much better could it get?

Belated Birthday Mention.

I totally forgot to mention that it was mine and Doc's birthday last Monday - That's how much of an event it was this year!  Doc had to teach, so he was away and it was just me, Eva and the cats hanging out and watching Eddie Izzard on Netflix.  I went to bed early.

Ah well, at least my Mum prepared and sent a fantastically thoughtful parcel of lovely things for all of us which arrived on Thursday.  I'm wearing the fleece lined slipper socks right now, M&S's finest, and they are gorgeously cosy.

Asheville Feeds Me.

I always book my next haircut with Naomi on my way out of the salon (Ananda - Who are lovely by the way), that way we have our next trip to Asheville set up before we've even left town, and when I booked my haircut last month I happened to choose the weekend that the Americana Burlesque and Sideshow Festival was in town. That sounded like our idea of a good time, so the Doc booked a hotel and I threw an evening dress and two bags of make-up into an overnight case. However, we couldn't find out if there would definitely be seating at the main show at The Orange Peel on Saturday night. I know that sounds a bit needy, but really I don't want to be standing for three hours at the best of times and it would really kill Doc C's back. We really did try to find out, we scoured the website for clues, and asked at the box office on the day, but no-body seemed to know and we didn't want to plonk down $25 apiece on the off-chance we'd be able to snag a chair.

So we got dressed up anyway and went for a curry at Mela. There was considerably less nudity on display, but the Malai Kofta (Ground almonds, cashews and paneer cheese formed into balls and cooked in a rich almond spice sauce) with a Mumbai Mojito was so delicious I barely noticed that. I am a girl who liked her food, it makes me very happy to eat a really nice meal.

Speaking of which, we went to Table for brunch this morning. You know when I say it like that it sounds easy, but we weren't at all certain they would be able to fit us in because we didn't have a reservation. To be sure of a tasty breakfast we got there half an hour before they opened and made sure we were the first people through the door. They hadn't even printed off the day's menus, that's how ahead of the game we were this morning!

Doc had a breaded pork loin with a fried egg and avocado, which was delicious; at least that's what he tells me, personally I was too focussed on my bagel with lox, goat's cheese and a hard-boiled egg to really pay any attention to anything else. So delicious. I'd already eaten half of the bagel, all of my salad and a good number of smashed-then-fried potatoes before I thought to take a photo.

So delicious.

happy sigh.

The Amazing James Randi.

This is James Randi, who was speaking as part of the Skeptic track of events at the conference.  This was one of the few photos I took of an actual person at Dragon Con, and it's annoyingly a bit blurry.

This was one of the events that I insisted we had to attend, and it was well worth queueing to hear The Amazing Randi speak about his dual careers as a stage magician and a paranormal investigator.  I could have listened to him talk all day.

Friday Night Still On My Mind.

I'm still kind of stunned by the Q&A with Amy Sedaris last night, it was just so cringe worthy.  This is why we can't have nice things people! 

The hijacking of the whole thing by local businesses was just so rude (I only mentioned two incidents in my post yesterday, but it was more like 10 or 11 out of the 15 questions), and it was all the more outrageous because the audience paid $30 a ticket, so it was like paying to sit through a tacky infomercial.  Oh and we were told several times that the ticket price was subsidised, so I think we were supposed to be indulgent of it becoming a marketing seminar.  I have been bitching about it to Doc C on and off all day.  Fortunately he's been doing the same thing, so he didn't mind

I hate to think what Amy Sedaris thought of the whole thing.

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Amy Sedaris Has Great Legs.

Amy Sedaris was appearing in town this evening as part of the University's Summer Arts Program, and I have been really looking forward to it since May.

Amy Sedaris was great; she was funny, gracious and incredibly patient.  This may seem like an odd thing to say after seeing a comedienne, but there was a Q&A session with the audience at the end and the host who had been chatting with Amy Sedaris earlier was choosing who got to ask questions.  The majority of the people who were invited to "ask a question" were just hogging the microphone to promote a local business.  At one point Amy Sedaris invited an audience member to make a craft project with her.  One enthusiastic young man was selected first, he literally vaulted onto the stage and really seemed into the whole thing.  There were really only enough materials for one craft project, but the host then pulled a woman out of the audience as well.  She turned out to be the owner of a large local shop, and getting her up on the stage seemed to be purely a way for the host to mention the name of it.  It was just so transparent.

Amy Sedaris is staying at a local spa, and, during the Q&A, the owner was given the mic.  She asked if Amy Sedaris liked eggs, Amy Sedaris seemed a little non-plussed by the question, but said no, not really.  Don't like eggs?  Umm, no?  This seemed to go on forever, until the spa owner eventually said that she had been planning to make Amy Sedaris breakfast.  It was like when a small child tries to tell a knock-knock joke to someone who doesn't know they are supposed to say "Who's there?" and the child just keeps trying to tell the joke anyway.  But obviously the owner of the spa is an adult, so it was more uncomfortable then that even! 

Amy Sedaris has a book, "Simple Times: Crafts for Poor People", coming out in November, that I think I might buy because she was just such a sweetheart this evening to put up with all the nonsense so politely.  And I wished I had a copy of her last book, "I Like You: Hospitality Under the Influence" to get signed after the show, and I might just buy a copy anyway because she was so nice and funny.  We should all get copies!

p.s.  Amy Sedaris changed out of an ankle length gingham dress into a second-hand dress that a friend had altered for her and made extremely short.  This is how I know Amy Sedaris has great legs.

Vintage Radio and Faux-Vintage Posters.

In my quest to find some fun podcasts to listen to I found Strange Tales on Relic Radio, which I really liked.  It's vintage sci-fi American radio dramas from the 40s and 50s, and when I went to the Relic Radio website I found they have ten other programs to subscribe to.  I'm probably going to get hooked on the suspense, thrillers and horror shows, but I am particularly intrigued by the whole archive of Orson Welles' radio performances.

 Also, Meg at Quiddity linked to a rather fabulous vintage-style DC character posters:

After I'd saved Batman to my iPod to use as a wallpaper, I followed a link from that page to the twitter feed of the artist, Michael B. Myers, and from there I went to his website. I really like his series of illustrations of Lost characters as well, but I think I'd probably be more likely to put the DC posters up on my wall at home.

Post Script:  Late breaking squee of joy for this terrific Dexter poster. WANT!

  

Snow and Glitter.

We got our snow.  And it doesn't look like it intends to stop in the near future.

I slept late, then cleaned the bathroom and now I'm going to curl up with some knitting and "RuPaul's Drag Race".  We don't have Logo, the channel it's on, as part of our cable package, so I was delighted to find complete episodes on-line at the Logo website.

What with that and the cupcake websites I've found today it's turning into quite a shiny afternoon.

Evening Class Supplies.

This evening's class was on John Webster's "The Duchess of Malfi", which has everything you could want in a Jacobean play, and throws in a nice case of lycanthropy when you're least expecting it.  Love it.

As you can see from the photo I bring all the necessary school supplies to the class with me.

• Text
• Last week's hand-outs
• Notepad
• Pens (It's important to have two or three different colour options, for the more detailed doodles)
• Cough sweet
• Folder
• Water
• Tea
• Chocolate, in this instance Reece's Peanut Butter Cups, but the exact type of chocolate is not important.

Message for Megan Mullally.

So TLo, you know Tom and Lorenzo from "Project Rungay", right,? Well, they interviewed Megan Mullally for Metro Magazine.

It turns out that she is developing a new musical, which sounds great! (I won't spoil TLo's interview with any more details, go and read them) But, and I think some of you will be able to guess what's coming next, there is still no mention of her doing a revival of "Mame".

What the H-E-double-hockey-sticks do I have to do here Mullally? Why are my psychic projections that you should play this role being ignored? I'm seeing either an opulent mini-series, or a full on Broadway that transfers to West End extravaganza. It would be so fabulous.

That Sunday Feeling.

Yesterday I intended to finish "The Duchess of Malfi" and start reading "Frankenstein", then make a start on the pile of additional reading I need to do. Totally achievable, right?

So naturally I stayed up until 2 last night, and I watched episodes of "Law and Order: SVU" and made a Brain Slug.  I'm sure I can hand that in instead of one of my research papers and it will be graded appropriately.

Still for me Sundays have always been about that mad scramble to get homework done anyway.  Why should that change, just because I'm 33 and should know by now how to efficiently plan my time?

The important thing is that the Brain Slug turned out quite well, except Doc thinks it needs to be larger.  So I anticipate that I'll be whipping up this one's bigger brother when I should be doing something else entirely.

Ah, crochet!  It's nice to see my wool gathering take a solidly literal form!

Home/Work.

This weekend I have a LOT of reading to do for my classes, so naturally I slept for most of this morning, went out for lunch, played with the cats and started a new crochet project.

Ryan Landry's Showgirls.

We went to see a drag cabaret last night, and, OHMIGOD, it was fabulous! Loved it!  It was a mixture of  amazing professional performers and gifted amateurs competing for a cash prize, although we weren't told ahead of time which was which and some of the amateurs were extremely good.

 Personally I was very fond of Katya, who did THE routine from "Flashdance", complete with back flip and splits, but she was narrowly beaten by Susan Boil.  It was eerily similar to the "Britain's Got Talent" YouTube sensation in that when the queen made her entrance to the stage she looked such a mess we assumed it would be off-key screeching at worst, or lip synching at best.  Instead we got a pitch perfect performance that brought the house down, and won the $500.

 Of the professionals the standard was uniformly excellent, the Mistress of Ceremonies had absolutely nothing to hide by the end of the first number, and was a charming hostess for the whole show.  The co-hostess, Shady, was very sweet and had just the most gorgeous face; in fact I can honestly say that she was making me reconsider black lipstick as a style choice and that thought hasn't occured to me in a good 15 years. 

 Penny Champagne was stunning and I also loved Thirsty Burlington's homage to Little Edie.  I can quite honestly say I haven't seen drag acts this good since I left London, and that's a long time to go without a good wig and the judicious use of diamante.  I feel most refreshed.

Unusually I went out today and took photos to accompany a post I'd already written, so now you can see posters!

The main poster for Showgirls is a take on the logo for a popular brand of salt, but the face has been altered so that it's Ryan Landry.  I put in a picture of him from the poster for "Willy Wanker and the Hershey Highway", so you can see how great that portrait really is.

The poster on the left is for Illusions, but it features three of the Showgirls we saw.  Shady Pines is being very dramatic at the back, whilst Billie Jean is front right and we also saw the gorgeous chanteuse on the left who I believe is Tisch DeWilliams.  Fabulous creatures all of them!

Dance Amigurumi Dance!

This is the cigar box I bought on Saturday, doesn't it make a perfect theatre for Amigurumi?  I think that's what it will probably end up being, because it is exactly the right size for it.

In other news, I am a very bad friend and have still not sent Ferret his Victoria Page.  I think it's because I'm not a hundred percent happy with the hair, but I'm not sure what to do about that.  In this scene in the film Miss Page has her hair in one of those odd looking side up-do's from the late forties; the sort I suspect you can only get away with them if you have post-war facial features and my Amigurumi just doesn't.

Anyway, I keep thinking inspiration will strike and I'll work out a way to make her appropriately beautiful.  We shall see.

In the mean time she is very much enjoying being the prima ballerina in the ballet recital currently at the Partagas Theatre (just off Shaftsbury Ave., at the Piccadilly Circus end).

Goodbye "TV Stole My Baby".

I have deleted my other blog, which Doc gave the name "TV Stole My Baby" to, because I have only updated it twice since I set it up anyway.  Plus it was supposed to be a separate space for me to post TV reviews to, and I'm somewhat disenchanted by the fact that any new series I get excited by keep getting cancelled.

Well, that and I can't stop watching "Law and Order" marathons.  Now that I've got over my aversion to the terrible music (and what the hell is that ching-ching noise supposed to be anyway?) I like all three of it's incarnations and I am simply unable to turn off the back-to-back episodes once they gets started.  The point is though there is really is not a lot that you can say about "Law and Order", without having to plaster the thing in spoiler warnings.  Except from it's always entertaining, and the lead actors look like they are having the best time.  I love Vincent D'Onofrio, and his partnership with Kathryn Erbe has so much texture to it; Ooh, Ooh, and Olivia d'Abo is surprisingly good as an evil, um, librarian.

Anyway, "Law and Order" is good, but really does the world need a regularly updated blog full of posts like that last paragraph?  No, I didn't think so either.  Delete.

Comedy Central: Can I Have a Quick Word?

For crying out loud, Comedy Central!  Would you PLEASE stop running that atrocious trailer for "Krod Mandoon and the Flaming Sword of Fire".

Look, I am of the generation that enjoyed Sean Maguire's work as Tegs in "Grange Hill" and he didn't do the worst Irish accent I've ever heard during his time as Aidan in "Eastenders", but I still think this looks awful.

To be honest I would probably have watched it, just because I usually enjoy geeky comedy and this actually does have a half-way decent cast; however I really have seen that trailer one too many times now and I am pretty sure that it's going to have some truly appalling jokes in it.  I also think special mention must go to the crassly overt sexualisation of the central female lead, and a side kick who I am prepared to bet quite a lot of money will turn out to be the "hilariously" flamboyant gay character.  Why not just call this "Porky's: The D&D Years!" and be done with it?

In summary, Comedy Central, this saturation advertising campaign has been complete over kill.  By which I mean that you have effectively killed any faint flicker of interest I had in seeing this, despite it starring several British actors that I am usually fond of.  That is really quite an achievement.

Ok, But How Does the Walrus Come Into It?

Every time I think I get how the internet works, or what's going on out there I find a new thing that throws me completely.  I don't mean NSFW stuff, after all I've seen "Avenue Q" so I am well aware that many people believe that "The Internet is for Porn" and all sorts of other far less pleasant things.

No, today what I don't understand on the internet is Layer Tennis.  I thought I'd got it, but then I looked through some archive matches and now I think I must be missing something.  I sort of understand how it's played (a designer sends an image to a second designer, who answers with their interpretation of the image and each match is a volley of ten images), but I don't really get if the designs must incorporate an aspect of the previous image or if there has to be any thematic connection running through all the volleys.  I also really have no clue how a winner is determined, in fact even the commentary can be baffling to me because I'm sometimes not sure how it relates.

For me Layer Tennis has become the on-line design equivalent of ice hockey, in that I really have no clue what is going on but I sort of don't want to, because just watching the action unfold without any notion of what the hell is going on is fascinating to me.

I may have to sign up for a season ticket.

Although, I Could Pull The Big Con from "The Sting".

BBC America just ran a trailer for "Any Dream Will Do".  What is the point of showing that here now?  Hasn't Lee finished his run already?

Twilight (2008)

I have just got back from seeing "Twilight" (2008) which I enjoyed immensely, because it was so very very bad.  It's hard to know where to start, but I think the plot and the dialogue were probably where the problems began; you know according to IMDB the script was written in six weeks.  And, even though it was based on a book, that time frame explains a fair bit actually; however I think the director took that half-baked mess composed of equal parts creepy teenage obsession and flawed reinterpretation of vampires, and really made something special out of it.

Of course the director is only one part of the creative team and she was very ably supported in her efforts here.  I particularly enjoyed the quite appalling pale vampire make-up that made the entire audience at my screening laugh every time a new vampire was introduced, and that Jill pointed out actually stopped at the chin, and left a nice tanned neck on all of the vampires.  I also feel I should mention some very fine smell-the-fart acting on all counts, but with special mention to Robert Pattinson in the first biology class scene and Cam Gigandet in the decoy chase scene.  I was slightly disappointed that the vampire stand-off during the thunderstorm didn't turn into a Jets Vs. Sharks style choreographed rumble, because for a moment there I was fully expecting it too.  That would have been spectacular.

I can't wait to see it sweep the boards at the Oscars tomorrow.

Out Damn Spot.

This is not a phrase I ever thought I would use in relation to the completion of a soft toy, but I am really pleased with how the bloody dagger came out!

I used different size red sequins to create a blood stain on Lady Macbeth's dress, and I hot glued the dagger on top of that.  Then I hot glued tiny red sequins to the dagger, with a red thread from those leading to the blood stain and I put more hot glue over the top to create some texture, which I coloured in with a red marker pen. 

And there you have it, a nice gory accessory.

Accessorised.

David went with recreating the sleepwalking scene, but with a totally illogical bloody dagger and a coronet. 

Having said that, I suppose if anyone would go to sleep with a lethal weapon and some bling it would be Lady Macbeth.

I also restyled the hair, because the bouffant was apparently reminiscent of Sarah Palin.  Which was not what I was going for at all.

Almost Complete.

This is my amigurumi with hair and a mouth, so she is looking a bit more like herself.  And herself is Lady Macbeth.

She isn't finished yet, because she is going to be a birthday present for my friend David, so I'm going to let him choose how I do the eyes and what accessories I should make.

I love that the bouffant is bigger than her body!  Actually I was going to sew the hair to secure it in this style, but Doc C said I shouldn't do that, because he thought David would like to be able to style her hair himself.

A Very Rockette Christmas To You All!

Merry Christmas!

Doc C and I are about to head out for our Christmas walk, so I'll catch up properly with you later; stay tuned because I have festive cat photos, naturally. Nancy was even cajoled to pose for one! 

In the meantime Thombeau over at Fabulon pointed his loyal readers over to this YouTube video, and I found it particularly amusing because I am fairly certain I saw the Rockettes do exactly the same routine when I saw them in Boston about five years ago.  I mentioned that in the comments on Fabulon, and Thombeau replied that he thinks all the women screaming in the background are the Rockettes!  These are their male dancers who put this together to give the girls a Christmas treat.  Love it!

Idea: Range of Exercise Clothes for Intellectuals.

Sometimes I have great ideas that I am just not in a position to actually implement, the oft quoted example being the lavish mini-series of "Mame" and the sequel "Around The World With Auntie Mame" starring Megan Mullally (I'm going to keep mentioning that one, until someone steals the concept.  Unless McG is reading this. In which case: Yikes).

It's mainly casting, which would have been my dream career, but I do also develop product lines in my head sometimes.  Most recently I've been mulling over an idea I came up with when I was a teenager that I still think would be a winner.
When I was studying "Hamlet" for my Eng. Lit. A-Level I thought that work-out gear that had the quote "Oh! that this too too solid flesh would melt, thaw and resolve itself into a dew", would be great.  I'm sure I've seen that phrase on t-shirts before, but I am thinking of a whole range of clothes specifically designed for exercise with that and other appropriate literary quotations.  You know track suits or yoga gear with lines from Dostoyevsky on, that type of thing.

The market would be intellectuals, or just people with intellectual pretensions, to wear their brains on their sleeves whilst on the elliptical machine.  Of course the range would also accommodate those people who want their tracksuits to say more than "Just Do It" whilst they are slumped on the sofa watching telly.

It would be cool, right?

Zig-A-Zig Argh!

I was a bit disappointed not to have taken more pictures at the Ghost Train, but I just forgot that it's really really dark, which is the point I suppose.  It's got to be much easier to spook people out that way.

So I thought I didn't really have any good images that I could post from this year's Ghost Train, but then I remembered that one of the Spice Ghouls had been at the Alumni Tailgate a few weeks ago and I had a great picture of her playing twister in lovely bright sunshine.

It's a fab costume isn't it?  I particularly like the Bride of Frakensteinesque beehive wig.  In fact I think I might need one.

You Get a One-Way Ticket on the Ghost Train.

NaBloPoMo!  Go! Go! Go!

Yes it's National Blog Posting Month, and since Edith rampaged around the house at top volume until I got up to play with her, I may as well post.

The Ghost Train was SO much fun last night! The weather was perfect for being at an amusement park after dark; it was crisp and clear so you could see all the stars, and there was just enough of a nip in the air for hot chocolate to seem a very attractive prospect. When we arrived the car park was only about half full, which boded well, and it turned out that there really weren't that many people there (which I suspect was because of the big football game at the University; which was televised and which we won by a ridiculously huge margin).  This meant we could whizz around the park going on all of the rides, and didn't spend most of the evening waiting in queues.

We went on the Ghost Train first, and Jasmin established a pattern for the evening by being so easy to spook and make scream that the costumed staff wouldn't leave her alone.  It was hilarious!  I do have to admit that, although I am assured I did not actually scream, one of the werewolves did get a definite jump out of me.  As I suspected the Ghost Train is about 50% more effective when there is no-one on board with a torch (American translation: Flashlight), shining it out so you can see exactly where you are and what's going on around you.  It was just much more atmospheric and spooky.

After surviving the Ghost Train trip through Werewolf country we watched the Main Street Dancers for a while, until they were about to segue from "Thriller" to the "Macarena"; at which point we went to buy funnel cake, and catch the ski lift to the top of the mountain.  We went straight onto the Tunnel of Terror, and I have to say I thought the Mad Butcher's heart just wasn't in it last night, maybe it's not so much fun if there aren't crowds of people, but he didn't bother trying to make anyone scream and didn't get on our train so he could menace us with chainsaws in the Tunnel itself.  We did still get a great scream from Jasmin, when something animatronic leapt out at her.  David and Doc C were almost crying with laughter by the time we got off.

Another good thing about going in a large group was that there was always someone willing to do whatever you felt like next, so David and I rode the Scrambler (one of those really rickety looking funfair rides that throws you around at high speeds), whilst everyone else watched and made rock signs at us whenever we were thrown towards them.  That was a great ride, not least for the excellent choice of music "Don't Fear the Reaper" by Blue Oyster Cult!  Nice!

We also rode the Tilt-and-Whirl, walked through the 3D maze and the Black Hole, which were all things I hadn't done before.  The Black Hole is very odd, it's a walkway through a spinning tunnel of lights, which doesn't sound like much but your body see the movement and tries to compensate by making you lean so you end up throwing yourself against the hand rail, and staggering along.  We went through that twice!

I am very proud to say that this time I felt brave enough to finally go into the Haunted House and it was really fun.  We were all very nervous (except, obviously, for Doc C who just finds such things hilarious).  It was really cleverly done, so when you first arrived it was a hotel reception area, and I did not hear a word of what the man there was telling us, so I don't know if there was any sort of clear narrative to the house or if it was just a series of grand guignol vignettes.  From the reception we were ushered into a lift with a mad ghost bell hop, and that just shook us about whilst the bell hop laughed, and then were let out the other side to continue the tour.  It's sort of a blur because as a group we just decided to rush through, with ever-one holding hands like a crocodile of small children.  I forget what order it all came in but I know there was a girl covered in cobwebs screaming for help; a giggling lunatic; a very grumpy looking girl with a knife, a pram with something nasty in it and bloody eyes; a mad scientist in a bio hazard suit who had the only well lit room so we could fully appreciate the twitching bodies; a mad electrician (I think, there were sparks involved) who threw a switch and set off an electric chair with someone convulsing in it and then finally some sort of enormous demon thingy who followed us right up to the door.  It was really really fun!

We then went back to Main Street to take photos posing on the life size plastic horses before we left.  We actually left forty minutes earlier than Doc C and I did on our previous visit, but because it was so quiet we actually had packed in a lot more to our visit. 

My verdict: Two thumbs up, an excellent way to spend Halloween.

Production Drawings. Renderings. Theatre Plans.

In my office we decided we needed a new filing cabinet, or rather an empty filing cabinet.  So we went over to the university's surplus furniture storage warehouse and chose a dusty green one that apparently used to belong to the history department.

Outside the warehouse they had a whole bunch of odds and ends, ranging from what looked like a dentist's drill to stacks of once brightly coloured chairs that had been in the sun for too long.

There was also a large chest of blueprint drawers.  We really didn't need it, but they looked interesting so I went over to investigate.  At which point I kicked myself for not having my camera to hand, because it was nicely distressed wood and had clearly come from the theatre department, so it had cool labels on the drawers.  Fortunately I did have my phone with me, so I snapped a quick pic.

Ngaio Marsh 32: Light Thickens.

Technically this is the last of the Inspector Alleyn mysteries, but we still have the covers of the short story collection and and the autobiography to look at.

This story is set in the Dolphin Theatre again, this time during a production of "Macbeth" which is where the title is taken from.  Isn't this a particularly intense cover image?  And delightfully dated too, I think it might be the haircut but the typeface is certainly doing it's part too.

Ngaio Marsh 24: Death at the Dolphin.

What a great trippy sixties cover!  It's very evocative of... something!  I don't remember clearly how much  this cover image has to do with the plot; but I don't think an awful lot really, apart from the dead body.

The Dolphin in the title by the way is the name of the fictional West End theatre that Ngaio Marsh set several of her show biz based mysteries.  It sounds like such a beautiful building, it's almost a pity it doesn't really exist.

I've included the photo of the fly leaf of the book, because I really love how the Crime Club's hooded gun man has this weird echo images around his face but not the gun.  I'm not sure what it's supposed to be indicating; has he made friends?  Is he tripping?  Is he in a hall of mirrors?  It doesn't really matter, it looks great!

 

Ngaio Marsh 20: Singing in the Shrouds.

So this is the cover that should have been on "Spinsters in Jeopardy", and the blurriness of the photo is nicely atmospheric I think.  It also has one of Miss Marsh's most enigmatic dedications; what looks to be a hand drawn triple X.

(Limited SPOILERS from this point - Killer not revealed.)

This book really encapsulates what I like about Ngaio Marsh mysteries (This particular plot is set in the ultimate in remote and secluded settings, a cruise ship), with one of the aspects of her writing that I find most difficult to read and almost impossible to defend:  blatant homophobia.  Several times in her books she has secondary characters who she specifically indicates are gay, and they are always described as having almost no redeeming features.  In this title a gay character is killed in a case of mistaken identity, and it's actually received as good news by the other characters when this plot twist is finally revealed.  I fully understand that an unpleasant side effect of reading vintage fiction is that it will necessarily feature vintage prejudices; however Miss Marsh was heavily involved in theatre and there is no way on earth that you are telling me that she didn't have contact with gay men and women in that sphere of her experience if in no other.  Of course another possibility is that she was gay herself, and is expressing her self-loathing through her work; but really homophobia is an ugly, ugly thing no matter what the reason for it.

So, I have issues with this one.

Ngaio Marsh 16: Opening Night.

I wish I had an undamaged copy of this amazing dust jacket.  Even though the front is badly torn, the spine still has a great icon for The Crime Club.  The whole back cover is a fabulous portrait of Ngaio Marsh, but for some strange reason it's blue.

I've included both versions of The Crime Club icon from the dust jacket and hard cover spines, mainly because I like how the hard cover icon looks like the hooded gunman is brandishing a banana.

"Opening Night" is one of several mysteries with a strong theatrical setting, these are always very well done; which is unsurprising really because Marsh was made a Dame due to her work promoting Shakespeare in New Zealand.  She worked with some of the best known New Zealand and Australian actors, including a young Sam Neill. 

 

A Streetcar Named Bud-Light.

Today we noticed a lot of cars pulled up outside the house next to ours, and we realised with a sinking heart that probably another student was moving in.  We are once again surrounded.

We know exactly who this is.  This is the younger sister of the girl Doc C had to threaten with calling the cops on to get her to turn her music down a couple of months ago.  Fairly naturally we are apprehensive.

We went out to dinner tonight with friends from the Philosophy department and the English department.  It was really fun, but we knew that when we came home there might be some fresh drama to deal with.  Fortunately there is no music this time, so Doc has gone to bed. 

Me?  Oh, well I'm sitting on the sofa innocently blogging and simply unable not to hear every word of the drunken confessional ramblings of Elder Sister going on on the balcony next door.  It is fascinating, not least because just when you think you've heard the juiciest bit someone will announce in highly melodramatic tones "No, no, no!  You're not listening to me!  He's not right for you! Period.  Question mark. Exclamation mark." or "My family has forgiven me, but I cannot forgive myself!"

It sounds exactly as if Tennessee Williams had drunk an entire case of light beer with Jack Daniels chasers, and then thrown up all over next door's balcony.

Three Paragraphs About CSI.

The other evening I was flipping through the channels trying to decide what to watch on television, when Doc said, in a very firm tone, that he wished to watch some sort of detective drama involving a team led by a slightly grumpy, and yet charismatic, middle aged man.  As such he declared that he would accept "CSI", "CSI:NY" (occaisionally referred to in the AS house as CSI: Star Trek, because they have the best gadgets.), "Without a Trace" or "Criminal Minds".  (I probably could have got away with "Law and Order: Criminal Intent", or at a push "Numb3rs", but those weren't specifically name checked by The Doc.  "Numb3rs" is the point at which our love of detective procedurals begins to diverge; I think it's fun, he thinks it's daft.) 

Having expressed his entertainment requirements Doc paused for a moment, and then said he would also accept "CSI: Miami".  Up until quite recently, both of us would have refused point blank to watch "CSI: Miami", but we have discovered a gleeful joy in mocking Caruso's one note performances.  Does everyone do this?  I can't otherwise fathom why "CSI: Horatio's Shades" would have the best viewing figures of the three; what with all those portentous pauses whilst H stares off into the middle distance and then totally kills whatever puntastic line he's been given.  Excruciating, and yet somehow highly amusing.  I also learned recently from a particularly bizarre episode that bloggers love to hide insider dealing information within posts of bitchy gossip.  I can't find the Typepad encryption application to do that, so if I do ever get any secret insider dealing hot tips I'll just have to tell you straight out.

Fortunately "CSI: Original Flavour" was on, and it was a back-to-back screening of the four noir-ish episodes in which Grissom is on sabbatical and so new guy Keppler (played brilliantly by Leiv Schreiber) is in charge of the unit.  I was reminded of how great those episodes were, in fact I would even say that though I am naturally very concerned about William Petersen leaving, the Keppler episodes reassure me some what that "CSI" will continue to be great.

Live & Direct Jam.

One of the local second hand music shops let people put up flyers advertising shows, and I noticed the other day that most of them have been torn down recently.

I'm not sure if that's just because it's the summer, and whilst college is not in full swing there aren't many bands playing locally or if it's because the shop has just changed ownership.

Either way I liked all the torn posters, and rusty staples. 

Summer Drag.

During the long summer break the university is running summer classes, and there is some sort of high school drama programme as well.  Yesterday Doc and I were sitting in the shade of a tree after lunch, and the high school kids came running out for a break.  They started throwing a Frisbee around, and as we were watching to make sure we weren't about to get a Frisbee to the head, we saw that several of the boys were wearing rather lovely cocktail dresses.  Presumably the girls were also in male drag, but as they were all just wearing shorts and T shirts it was hard to tell if that was any different to what they would usually wear really.

A couple of the boys were having problems because they had picked ill-advised strapless numbers, and, with nothing to hold them up with, they were clearly worried about them falling off, but some of the other guys looked very comfortable indeed.  I particularly coveted a gorgeous moss green halter neck dress, with a beaded net overlay.  It had been tastefully accessorised with some Jackie O style white framed sunglasses, and showed off a muscular back and shoulders beautifully.  I'd say that young man was pleased with his choice too, because he did a couple of twirls to make the skirt fly out.

What was really funny was watching people passing by suddenly notice what the kids were wearing.  One man was driving a crane of some sort across campus, his eyes were practically on stalks and he kept turning back to look as he drove past, so much so that I thought he was going to crash into some pedestrians at one point.

Dance School

I did what I could with this shot on Picnik, but no amount of cropping, or fiddling with the exposure can stop it being a photo of a dance school above an oil exchange.

Maybe it's a great studio space, and perhaps the teacher is phenomenal but I still think that's a stray spark from a tap-class tragedy waiting to happen.

Boston: Eating On The Road.

On the road trip we had the usual dilemma of what exactly is a vegetarian supposed to eat on the highways and byways of the US of A?

It's not easy, and it really comes to something when you are profoundly grateful for a McDonald's, even if you are totally sick of fillet of fish and they inexplicably have chosen to cover all of the salads in chicken.  Because chicken is now a vegetable?  I don't understand why they can't have one single solitary meatless salad, but there we are.  I expect it's that lack of vision that's holding me back from running a multi-million food conglomerate.

As a change of pace on the return run we stopped off at a Johnny Rockets.  They are a faux-fifties chain of burger joints, but despite the slightly punk name they favour the anodyne version of the fifties which fortunately includes 100% soy burgers.  This particular burger joint was located on the edge strip mall on a highway in the middle of nowhere, and frankly it could have done with a lick of paint.

All of the waitresses wear khaki trousers, hefty lace-up boots, white shirts with bow-ties, a full apron and one of those little hats.  This quite suited our waitress, Shannon; she seemed nice, looked about 12 years old and had an adorable face full of freckles.      

As part of her minimum wage job Shannon was required to do the following things:

• Show us the two foot from the door to our booth
• Prominently place two five-cent coins on our table for our own personal miniature juke box (which I don't believe actually was wired up to the sound system). 
• When serving our drinks she had to pick up the enormous straw dispenser that was sitting on our table, open it for us and brandish the straws in our face.
• When our food came she had to provide us with individual paper dishes for the ketchup, the dishes said "Hope You're Smilin' too!".  Shannon was politely stone-faced for the whole time we were there.
• She then had to draw a smiley face in the paper dishes with the ketchup.

The worst was yet to come.

Through out the meal fifties and sixties music was playing fairly unobtrusively in the background, but when "Love Shack" came on I barely had time to register that it was totally anachronistic (although otherwise utterly fabulous) eighties pastiche of sixties music before the volume was abruptly increased.  At first I thought maybe it was the chef's favourite song or something, but then I noticed the other patrons clapping and staring at a space by the counter.

I turned to see poor Shannon and another waitress doing the most lacklustre dance routine ever.  They were clearly mortified, and neither of them could manage even a fake smile.  I couldn't watch it fully, because I was blushing so furiously on their behalf.  On the other hand I felt obligated to occasionally turn and look, because I thought it might be even worse for them to have to dance and be ignored.

Shannon got quite a large tip from us, but I doubt it will pay for the crushing of her soul.

Waiting for Godot. The Guy Who's Delivering the Mattress.

We spent Saturday in mattress showrooms, thrift shops and antique shops seeing what sort of stuff we could find to furnish our new house with.

Mattress shopping is surprisingly tiring.  It's all "Lie down on this, and see how you like the firmness.  Ok, now try this one that's recommended by NASA."  Then you have to really think about which was more comfortable, and you can't be sure so then you have to lie on them again.  After much exhausting lounging in comfort we narrowed it down to two, but before we make a final decision we are actually going to have to go back and lie on each of them for a full fifteen minutes as recommended by all the mattress shopping guides.  It's not going to be easy, but we have to do it.

We also found loads of cheap furniture in the thrift stores, but the antique shop we went to was imported English antiques and it was super expensive.  I thought it was exhorbitant given what they were selling was really only in decent condition and none of it was that special.  Mum, I am telling you now that you would make an absolute killing over here.

Oddly my favourite thing in the Antique place was actually a window:

Yes, that is indeed the disembodied head of the playwright Samuel Beckett in the middle of it. 

Because, after all, what home is complete without a stained glass image of your favourite minimalist proponent of the Theatre of the Absurd?

It did lead The Doc and I to decide that if we ever commission a window featuring a disembodied head, it will be Patrick McGoohan as Number 6. Probably doing that eyebrow thing.

Verdict.

"Sweeney Todd" rocked.

Afterwards The Doc said "All musicals should be like that".  There is no higher praise.

There Will Be Vengeance!

This evening we are going to see "Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street". 

I've been waiting to see this since it was announced that Tim Burton was making it, and I left the UK just before it opened there thinking I'd catch it here.  However it simply never made it to any of the cinemas in town and I was resigned to watching it via a NetFlix DVD on our tiny little TV.  Fortunately Randy mentioned it was being shown by the university's film society this weekend, and so finally I get to see it for the grand price of one whole American dollar.  I am so excited that I had to go and take a little nap this afternoon to calm down.

Doc C is actually looking forward to it as well.  Having seen the brilliant "Sunday in the Park With George" last year (that production with the same cast is transferring to Broadway soon, so we may see it again), he's decided that Sondheim could be one of the very few exceptions to his blanket ban on musicals as a form of entertainment.

I think it also helps that there will be plenty of gore and that essentially the action is going to be Johnny Depp, being insane, up against Alan Rickman, being evil.  Who will be the more over the top and pantomime villain-esque?

I cannot wait to find out.

Drag!

Doc C was on the judging panel for the student drag show last night, so naturally I went along too.  The big prize of the evening was that the winner will be on the bill for the professional drag show next month.  There were only six contestants, so it was quite a short show but it was fun.

The majority of the contestants were Drag Kings, which meant a lot of double entendre laden stage names, but not particularly inspired costumes or dance routines.  Only two of the Drag Kings had actually worked out any sort of choreography, the others were relying on the fake beards and groin thrusts to carry them through the whole three minutes.  My favourite King came in second in the whole contest, but I think the King who performed to The Darkness song "I Believe in a Thing Called Love" definitely has some potential.

The two Queens had frankly put in a lot more effort, with full make-up wigs, dresses and heels.  The winner chose a particularly good song ("I need a Man" by the Eurythmics, and having just re-watched that video it's like Annie had Drag Queens in mind all along), and had arranged a troupe of back-up dancers.  True she didn't actually dance as such, but she had the being fabulous down pat.

Would you believe that was the one day this week I forgot to put my camera in my bag before leaving the house?  I was so cross with myself, but I'll try and get some at the professional show, which is in actual fact a hoe-down.  Obviously I'm already trying to source a bolt of gingham.

Local Theatre

Earlier this week I was bemoaning the lack of West End calibre theatre, although since then I've remembered that "Behind The Iron Mask" (Please click that link, it's got a brilliant photo of the mask itself) made it to the Duchess, illustrating that apparently anything is West End calibre these days. 

Secondly I made that complaint before I saw that Anthony Zerbe will soon be appearing at a local theatre in "They Do it With Mirrors"

Naturally I assumed this would be based on Agatha Christie's "They Do It With Mirrors" (that last link may include spoilers, I stopped reading it half-way just in case) and I quite honestly adore stage adaptations of Christie murder mysteries, even when I know full well who the killer is.  This title happens to be one of the very few Christie whodunits that I haven't read, so it would actually be a surprise. 

However, on checking the theatre website, it turns out that the production coming to town is in fact a one man show about the poet e.e. cummings.  It's had very good reviews and is supposed to be brilliant, but I am still frankly disappointed that I won't get to watch Miss Marple's astonishing detective skills.

To cushion the blow I took a quick canter through Zerbe's impressive IMDB listing of 109 titles to refresh my memory of his illustrious career, and it includes these highlights:

• "Cool Hand Luke"
• "Bonanza"
• "The Omega Man"
• "Mission: Impossible" (the genius sixties TV series, not the Tom Cruise vehicle)
• "Ironside"
• "Papillion"
• "Hawaii Five-O"
• "Kung Fu"
• "The Rockford Files"
• "Little House on the Prairie"
• "KISS Meets the Phantom of the Park"
• "Dynasty"
• "The Equalizer"
• "Columbo"
• "Licence to Kill"
• "The Young Riders"
• "Tales from the Crypt"
• "Murder She Wrote"
• "Star Trek: Insurrection"
• "Walker Texas Ranger"
• "The Matrix Reloaded"

Now I might still go just on the off chance Mr Zerbe will be in the bar afterwards, it would be so interesting. 

I mean does he have Pete Falk's phone number, and, if so, has he ever been out drinking with him and Patrick McGoohan?  Because that would be a story I'd want to hear.

Missing the West End. Maybe.

I understand from the BBC website that Summer Strallen is about to take over in the role of Maria in "The Sound of Music".  I knew Miss Strallen's tenure as Maria was imminent and I wish her every success, but damn it!  Why did I have to see stupid Connie and miss Summer?

Gah!

So far, since I left London, I've missed the multi-award winning London production of "Hairspray!", I've missed Chewitel Ejiofor as "Othello" (incidentally I believe the role of Iago was played by someone called Ewan McGregor.) and The Spice Girls came nowhere near N.C. on their tour, so I was totally unable to slam it to the left, shake it to the right, or indeed chica in any direction at all.

So unfair!

Gloria Steinem

Last night we went to a talk at the University given by Gloria Steinem.  Of course photography was banned during the talk, so I took this shot whilst we were waiting for it to begin.  In retrospect, I doubt anyone would have even noticed me snapping a couple more pictures but that's not really the point.

I have to be honest and say I've never read "Ms." Magazine or any of Steinem's books.  Of course I'm more than aware of the difference that the feminist movement has made to the everyday life of women over the past century, I'm extremely grateful to the women who campaigned to get us this far, but having said that this was the first talk I'd ever been to about feminism.

It was surprisingly funny.  Steinem's talk was titled "The Progression of Feminism: Where Are We Going?" which sounds dry as dust, but she is a very witty speaker and made it an entertaining subject.

During the Q&A session at the end I was really impressed by how she handled the questions from the audience.  The funniest response was to a professional actress who had recently been told by a director to lose thirty pounds in order for her to appear naked in a play that she didn't feel actually called for female nudity.  She had turned down the role, but felt that her polite "No, Thank you." had not fully expressed her feelings on the matter, and she was clearly still very upset, what should she have done?  Steinem said "Well if that director already thinks you are difficult, you should find out when the play opens.  Then picket it."

I also really liked her response to the girl who made a whole speech into the audience mike about how when she was a kid Barbie dolls could be doctors!  Now little girls had Bratz to play with, and the emphasis was on lip gloss and boyfriends!  Gloria gently pointed out that Barbie was never a great role model, what with the being anatomically impossible and everything, then she suggested starting a letter writing campaign to the makers of Bratz dolls, and organising a boycott of their products.

Quite aside from the talk itself, the thing that I really found bizarre was the behaviour of the audience. The auditorium was pretty nearly full when we arrived, which meant we had difficulty finding a pair of seats, finally settling for the back row.  As we listened to the talk people were getting up and leaving right from the very start, although not with any sense of protest at the opinions being voiced or indeed any sense of engagement with the event at all, it seemed to be motivated more by a generally listless ennui.  A lot more people did the same during the Q&A.  By the end of the talk we were the only people left in the back three rows.  I thought that was unbelievably rude, but Doc pointed out many of those who had attended were probably students who had been strong armed into going by a professor.  I suggest that next time the professors should specify that the kids have to turn off their phones so they can't talk or text amongst themselves, and that they have to stay until the end.  Otherwise it's just really annoying for other audience members who might actually be trying to pay attention.

A Night at the Opera

On Sunday Doc C and I got dressed up and went to a recital by one of his students, Anna is also doing a music degree in vocal performance.  It was really good, she's a soprano so the music was mainly opera and she had a costume change in the interval, which meant there were two nice frocks to admire as well.  Lovely!

After the recital we waited with the rest of the audience to congratulate the main star, but also the cellist who was another of the Doc's students.  When Anna came out to meet her family, she introduced the Doc and I to her mother, who is a humanities teacher.  Anna's mother said to the Doc "Oh she loves your class!  She's told me all about it", at which my husband replied "Really?  Wow, she never says anything in class.  I think this is the first time I've actually heard her voice."

And that is an excellent example of why The Doc has never pursued a career in the diplomatic service.

**Postscript - Doc C tells me that I have misquoted him here, apparently he said "I think this is the most I've ever heard her voice!", which is totally different.

Cheerleaders.

On Friday Doc and I went to the gym, to use the cardio room and weights.  We'd forgotten they were closed because they were doing a blood drive or something, anyway we tried.  That still counts right?  I mean I changed into a sports bra and everything.

Anyway, to get to the changing rooms, you have to walk through the main indoor basketball court and the cheerleaders were rehearsing.

Of course I've seen "Bring It On", and other cinematic examples of cheerleading, but it's really quite impressive to see it in real life, because you know there are no stuntmen or safety wires involved.  The Uni's cheerleaders are mixed, so there are a couple of beefy guys who effortlessly pick up the girls and hold them at arms length over their heads.  We saw one girl being lifted like this, suddenly balance herself on one leg and bring her other leg straight up by her head.  It was like she was doing yoga, except for being seven feet up in the air.  There is no way I would ever agree to do that, I know I would hurt myself.

There was also a lot of human pyramid stuff, and girls being thrown through the air.  I don't think we're likely to go to an actual game, although you never know, so I'm glad we did actually see a few of the cheerleading squads moves.

It's all fun and games until someone gets Demonically Posessed

I was chatting with Mum this afternoon, via Skype, and we were talking about the Tweetsie Railway and the Ghost Train, which she thought sounded fun. 

I was saying that actually the creepiest bits for me where those stretches of track where nothing is actually happening, you are just on a steam train chugging slowly through a dark forest at night, but you know there is someone waiting for you out there and they are planning something unpleasant.  True, in this case, it was just someone dressed up as Mrs Bates with a rubber knife to wave around, but the effect was still unnerving.

The kids on the trains were often quite vocally bored by these bits, so I suppose that type of tension is a learnt response in adults, where as children need a bogeyman of some sort to leap out at them to get an actual fright.

That made me think about how some kids toys can appear really disturbing to adults, who hasn't seen a clown doll that just looks like pure evil?  I can illustrate this perfectly with a photo I took that evening of a horse on a merry-go-round for toddlers.

I'm sure kids find this ride quite appealing, but to me this particular horse looks sinister.  It's got a mad look in it's eye, if you ask me.  Fortunately the whole ride was only about three feet high, so there is no way I could fit on the thing anyway. 

But if I could, I wouldn't.

Saturday Night Drag Show: Lip Synch-O-Rama

Doc C and I met up with some friends and went to a Drag Show put on by one of the University societies as a fund raiser.  I wasn't really paying much attention beyond the Drag aspect of the whole thing, so I don't know which society or what the money went towards.  I'm assuming something that I would approve of.

The weird thing was that it was staged in a local club that is not allowed to sell alcohol.  The way it works is you take your own beers to the club and they are stored behind the bar for you, the bar staff give you a numbered cloakroom ticket and then, when you want a drink, you show them the ticket and they hand you one of your own bottles.  Very odd.  The bar is owned by the university and is obviously subsidised by them, otherwise I have no clue how they would make enough money to stay open.

The line-up for the evening was a mix of local talent, including a couple of students and the MC, who is a faculty member in the drama department, and some professionals from out of town.  The show itself was mainly Drag Queens, with one Drag King, they all had a dramatic entrance through a curtain and then performed on the main dance floor at the same level as the audience.  This was to enable people to tip the performers, which had the unfortunate side-effect of the show itself being broken up quite a bit by the Queens working the room for the money.  I thought this was best handled by one of the student performers, who had two blonde backing dancers who happily collected the cash.

Unfortunately the lighting wouldn't have been good enough for me to get a good shot without a flash, and I didn't think the ladies would appreciate the harsh lighting of my camera.  Actually Doc C took a photo of me with the MC using the flash, and I look bloody awful.  That flash is a friend to no-one.

So, once again, I am posting about fabulous outfits with no pictorial evidence.  Please picture wigs a go-go, well-draped liquid-look satin in various metallic shades, sequins by the bucket load and some vertiginous heels, all being strutted around a dance floor to music by Brittany Spears, Beyonce, Cher and other such camp pop performers. 

I'm sure you'll agree, that is always a recipe for an extremely entertaining Saturday night.

North Carolina Renaissance Festival

Sorry I didn't post yesterday, but if you take a jet-lagged Alien Spouse to a Renaissance Festival what you get by the end of the day is a small confused heap of exhaustion.  It was really fun though!

Some of our friends had been telling Doc C about the North Carolina Renaissance Festival, which is open every year on weekends in October and November, and we had arranged to go with them this weekend.  This was all organised before the dramatic dash back to London for my Visa interview, but I could just about make it back to North Carolina in time, so we decided we would still go. 

It was more than slightly surreal to have come from England only two days earlier, and be wandering around a sort of approximation of European history slash fairy stories.  The festival is held in a specially built faux Tudor village, which is smothered with signs for things like "Fyssche and Chips".

All of the staff are wearing costumes, and there are several actors wandering around to provide suitable atmosphere.  On top of that loads of the ticket buying public take the opportunity to put on their corsets or their pirate hats, some costumes are very good indeed and some are really quite perplexing.  A large number of costumes involved fairy wings, or demon horns.

 

We saw several of the shows that are performed on open air stages.  We all enjoyed Hey Nunnie, Nunnie!, but then three out of the six people in our group were Religion professors, so that's sort of the target audience for jokes about Catholicism.  The Pirate Shantyman and Bonnie Lass were having microphone issues throughout, but I liked the songs and took full advantage of the many invitations to "Arrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!".  Bonnie Lass had literally just had a baby a week ago, so we were extremely impressed she was able to do three shows a day.  We caught the grand finale of one of Dextre Tripp's show, which involved him balancing on a ladder, whilst lighting firecrackers taped to his chest, and then being pelted with water balloons, I loved the art work for his posters and T shirts and would have liked to have seen him walking the burning tightrope.  We also did see some of the jousting, which seemed to be very tightly choreographed.

There were loads of shops and food stalls around the fair, usually selling something suitably unusual.  The food tended towards turkey legs, but you could also easily get fish and chips, scotch eggs and ice cream. There were several shops selling or hiring out costumes, candle shops, embossed leather bags and boots, jewellery of all kinds, wings (both pretty fairy and bat-like demon wings), paper parasols, swords, and most bizarrely, wax hands. 

There were also fairground rides, including actual grumpy-looking camels and a very docile elephant, a giant rocking horse, those sort of boat-swing things and Da Vinci's Flying Machines merry-go-round, which I thought was just such a well-realised idea.

   

It was all very odd.  I enjoyed it a lot, but I think I'd like to go again when not feeling quite so spaced out, and quite probably in some sort of costume.