'Out of the way!' - out of order

I love music and I really enjoy going to gigs but recently I haven't gone to as many big gigs - mostly as I've got into a lot of brilliant music that I just see in pubs, houses etc and partly as I've been seeing loads and loads of comedy. For whatever reason I hadn't been to the Academy in Newcastle (once Carling, now O2, neither of these brands mattering) for ages. (I think since The Smiths Indeed back in February.

I'm not really a fan of the Academy. I'm against O2 customers not having to queue (it goes against the idea that true fans will turn up hours early and get the best places) and the atmosphere is not generally great (this applies to Newcastle specifically, the Academy in Glasgow is a beautiful building and the atmosphere at Flaming Lips was perfect) and most of the bands on there aren't my sort of thing.

But when I do go (and I used to go a lot) I'm constantly taken aback by the rudeness and aggression of the security staff. They yell. A lot. And I'm not a child; I'm a paying customer (actually, so are the children that are there!) and I expect to be treated with respect.

The atmosphere of being caged in makes people behave like animals. One guy shouted 'out of the way!' as he pushed me out of the way. This doesn't happen anywhere else. It simply isn't right.

To lighten the mood, here's a picutre of the beautiful band:

Charlie's Comedians - A - Addison, Chris

Chris Addison is lovely. He's very very thin and quite tall with dark curly hair that makes him look boyish (especially in The Thick of It where he plays Ollie/In the Loop where he's Toby). I've only seen Chris Addison once (as in stand up; I've spied him wandering 'round Edinburgh!) and his recent show is supposed to really different to his older ones which were big thematic shows in which he dealt with topics such as evolution, the perodic table and Englishness.

I wish I'd seen these shows - very much! But that's not to say his current stuff isn't up to much; quite the opposite: his show is one of the best I've seen. It may be partly a question of expectations - I wasn't sure what he'd be like or if I'd find him that funny (I love him on TV but then they're not written by him so I didn't know - I'd always thought of him of one of Richard's people rather than one of mine and so ensured we got front row tickets for R's benefit). The front row seats ended up having a lovely benefit for me (Chris Addison kept responding to me and how much I was laughing which was so great). Also, he's very charming and has a lovely Northern accent (he's from Manchester) and the same (or at least similar) political ideas to me and my friends (generally). But he's somewhat posh (well, a bit middle class, I guess) and he does a fair amount about that.

One of the best things about him was how angry he was (and this was February when we still had a Labour government) about things being so shit. And he really cared about voting and the then-upcoming election. There were bits of his show about the gym (which he doesn't need) and his school. He didn't talk about Skins - but then why would he?

I'll definitely see him again (in December actually as he's doing 9 Lessons... - of which loads more later!!) and would recommend him with hesitation!

And here he is:

He's 38! Can't quite believe it.

Really Desperate Housewife

Note for Nat (and whoever else) : Desperate Housewives Season 7 spoilers, sorry.

In Season 6 of DH Susan Delfino inherited a strip club when her first husband Karl died. She was shocked and appalled at this. She wanted nothing to do with the place and sold it as soon as possible, she 'rescued' the intelligent Robin (who escaped the Lane and the show by running off with Katherine Mayfair which was great), what's more she was really angry with Mike for going to the club. (As she should've been.) Anyway, the result of this storyline (other than a beautiful girlfriend for Katherine) was that Susan had money - enough to pay off some of Mike's debt. So she did. And Mike went crazy - for some reason it hurt his macho pride that the wife and mother of his child felt that whatever they had (or lacked) was shared.

Somehow, this debt must have got out of control and even Susan's stripclub money couldn't help. The Delfinos had to lease their house (to Paul Young of all people) and move to a little apartment which is five minutes away. Understandably, Susan wants to get back to the home her children grew up in. Less understandable is the way she goes about getting the money back.

She ends up (after not persuing many alternatives) becoming a sexy cleaner (cleaning in her underwear on a webcam). A desperate situation that you'd expect the writers to portray with heartbreak and misery. No, the situation is played for laughs with typical Susan physical comedy. She keeps this huge secret from her husband and prances around in her brand new underwear with glee. Empowerment? I don't think so.

After a while a bigger company is going to buy the small stripping company from Susan's landlady. They are going to put up a huge bill board of Susan; Susan gets this stopped but at a price. She needs more money so agrees to one-on-one online sessions. How niave is she, exactly? She does one but gives up after the man asks to see her breasts (what precisely was she expecting?).

Lynette finds out what Susan's been doing and doesn't understand; Susan explains she wants MJ to have hot lunches. Which is fair enough but to resort to this is somewhat extreme. However, Lynette is a good friend and doesn't want to judge.

In the same episode Lynette is totally on form and on message - telling her mother-in-law that in her house her sons get up of their asses to get their own drinks and under no circumstances will her ten-year-old daughter be taught to mindlessly serve men.

So, what is going on with Susan (or rather with the writers)? Why is she so quick to sell herself. Later in the episode she realises she must sell her grandmother's jewellry. At this point I was almost shouting at the TV: "Why on earth didn't you sell that before you starting selling yourself?"

The issue remains unresolved. And I'll keep watching and hope for a positive outcome but I really do hate this storyline. I know DH can be silly and soapy. And I understand not all of the women on the show are good feminist role models - that's fine. I love Gabby, I love them all. But Susan - she's supposed to be an artist. What happened to that? What happened to Susan? For some women there are few options but Susan is lucky - middle class, both her and Mike have jobs, they're not living in luxury but they have a nice enough place. Whatever their problems are (and they're pretty temporary) there must be another way to solve them.

Plenty More Lesbians In The Loch

The main problem I have with Lip Service is that it's British. So there are only six episodes in a series - and five of them have been on. Luckily, the box set comes out on Monday (before the last episode airs, eep!) and I think I will pre-order it as I don't want to wait until Christmas to start sharing this with people. It's good. It's really good. I love so much about it; it's British, which is great as there is nowhere near enough good British TV; there aren't enough dramas on - and I don't mean Midsomer Murders - I mean the good stuff. We had This Life but that was ages ago. That was on when I was too young to be watching it (I always had to go to bed, it was years and years later I finally got into it - watching/taping it every night and watching it all in a month). Then there was Queer As Folk which I mention not because of the gay connection but because it was a brilliant, brilliant show. About ordinary people.

I'm trying to think of good recent British dramas and struggling. There is Doctor Who, of course, oh and Sherlock (but with only three part is hardly a 'series' - though I think the next one will be longer!) Jekyll was great a few years ago. (What would we watch without Russell T Davies and Steven Moffat?) Other than that there is only Torchwood (which had its good and bad points but ultimately triumphed with "Children of the Earth") and Skins (which rarely lived up to its potential but was absolutely amazing and incredible when it did, honestly!) which is a teen show. And I love teen shows but I'm very far from teenaged now.

Lip Service then is the show for us - our generation. (The characters are in their late twenties/early thirties.) And it's not set in London! (I love London but it's so removed from the rest of the UK. It is entirely its own place.) It's set in Glasgow - a busy city that I'm fond of (but not one that I love), a rough, rainy place with a beauty you have to look for.

Laura Fraser plays Cat, a sensible architect. I've loved LF since I was about fifteen and saw Virtual Sexuality - a wonderful film about losing your virginity. Cat's great - she's probably the character I can relate to the most. She's always being stressed and really organised, she's still really upset and messed up from Frankie leaving her years ago. And LF seems especially tiny in this - very cute and Scottish.

Then there is Frankie, she's the one in all the trails and publicity for the show - she's the dark, dangerous one you're supposed to like. And she's great but I much prefer Cat and Tess. Maybe that just means I'm growing up.

Tess is amazing! (She's played by Fiona Button who apparently graduated the same year I did.) She's an out of work actress who's been recently dumped. She's incredibly pretty and funny. And then there's Ed, Cat's little brother, a writer who is Tess's best friend and is in love with her. This is without doubt the best storyline in the whole show - so tender and heartbreaking. Unrequited love portrayed brilliantly. And Ed is so sweet and lovely.

The Cat/Frankie storyline is brilliant too - estranged exes with a lot of history to work through. Frankie has all of this other stuff going on too - her dead aunt, mysteries about where she came from. There's loads going on. I haven't even mentioned Jay - probably because he's not as interesting as everyone else. He's an architect and works with Cat and is friends with everyone especially Frankie.

And if that's not enough Miles Jupp even appears in an episode! Amazing.

Never Let Me Go

I read a lot - and I did once try to write about everything I'd read. It was too hard and exhausting. But I feel that it's important to say something when a book is amazing. And this one is so good in so many ways. I know it won the Booker prize about five years ago but I didn't know what it was about or anything.

I'm still not sure precisely why I liked it so much as I did - I think a lot of it was to do with how it was about school and growing up. I still love things about schools, particularly boarding schools (which seem even more intense than normal schools) and the unique nature of this particular school was absolutely fascinating.

This book is one of those books that's not technically sci-fi and is regarded as high brow and somehow 'proper' but is nevertheless about clones. There are mysteries and secrets throughout the book and even the by the end it's still all weird and messed up. It was genuinely chilling and addictive. I'd like to read some more of Kazuo Ishiguro's books - they all same wildly different from each other. Which is great but pretty sad for me as I want to read more books exactly like this.

I decided to read it after seeing the trailer. I hope the film is as good. Keira Knightley's in it and although she annoys me quite a bit she is in some of the best films - Love Actually is amazing, the first Pirates film was brilliant (though a bit ruined now by further efforts) and the Atonement adaptation is great too (and that's one of my favourite books, definitely top ten, maybe top five, once it was second or third favourite!). Erm, let's not mention Pride and Prejudice. Jennifer Ehle is the best and only Lizzy!

Right now I'm reading Jacqueline Wilson's The Longest Whale Song - I decided to read a children's book to escape from the world for a while. Except it's heartbreaking and keeps making me cry. Amazing though. Also struggling with silly Michael McIntrye's stupid autobiography. Why am I bothering? I think there are many reasons - to judge him properly, to see what he thinks/writes about Edinburgh, the Fringe and people I do like/love. It is dull so far though. And far from funny.

Oh, another interesting thing about Never Let Me Go is that I read a lot of it in the sky. I have a weird memory and always seem to remember where I was for things (which train or house or library) so that will stay with me too.

Hit Me Like You Did The First Time Part Two

Edinburgh, Sunday 26 August 2007:

Edinburgh is beautiful. It's a city unlike any other city I've visited. It's especially unlike a capital city. It's smaller and quieter - really old and lovely, everywhere you go (almost) is just breathtaking.

In the August excitement though, you pass by it all in a hurry. You're constantly in a hurry. But from time to time you have to stop and notice how absolutely amazing it all is. It is the perfect city for the Fringe and the Fringe is perfect for Edinburgh. I've visited at other times of the year and I always love it but August is something else.

My other times in Edinburgh are:

For one night with Nat, John and Deborah - lovely but we didn't see very much!
For one night with Richard and James - to see Tilly and The Wall (amazing) and meet up with Paul (lovely) - again, we didn't see much of the city!
March, 2009 with my mam (brilliant, saw Alex Horne for the first time, went to the zoo, etc)
April, 2010 with my mam (again, wonderful holiday - more comedy and nice meals)

So, I do truly appreciate Edinburgh for all itself and not just the things I see there! Anyway, we began our Sunday by seeing The Early Edition which is like The Late Edition from TV (though it hasn't been on in quite a while!!) but in the morning. Marcus Brigstocke presents with Andre Vincent. The guests (loads of them as it was its final day) were: Robin Ince, Andy Zaltzman, Nick Doody and Carrie Quinlan. At the time I didn't know who any of them were! But I really enjoyed the show - and there was a mad bit where Brendon Burns wandered on stage, having won the Comedy Award the night before! He was so happy and hadn't slept and then he was on the phone to his mum. It's the sort of spontaneous weirdness that makes the Fringe such an enjoyable place to be.

After that we did something I wouldn't recommend for Fringe time: we went to Holyrood Palace. Which is good if you like palaces, especially if you're into Mary Queen of Scots (I'm more of an Elizabeth I fan) and was really great for us as Paul got us in for free. But I'd say unless you're not likely to be in Edinburgh again or you're not into seeing millions of shows - don't bother with the touristy stuff at the Fringe. Go another time and see stuff. The zoo is the best! The tour of the vaults is ridiculously filled with ghostly bullshit (including a rapist ghost). So, the palace was good and then we must have had some food at some point - it's hard to find places to eat that aren't full!

Then we went to see The Trachtenburg Family Slideshow Players - one of the most amazing shows I've ever seen. They're a lovely family - Jason (the dad) sings, Rachel (the daughter) drums, Tina (the mum) operates the slide projecter! They go around yard sales etc and buy old slides and make up songs about them. They're absolutely brilliant - fun, meaningful and exhilarating. Seeing them remains one of the best nights of my entire life. And, if anything, Richard liked it even more than I did! It was a really short set due to the show before overrunning (this is mercifully rare during the Fringe; in general things run to a really tight schedule!). But it began with this song "The Complicated Life" which they came onto. Then the stage was set up like an old sitcom and they did funny little skits/sketches between songs a bit. Really unusual but totally wonderful. Anyway, they played "Beautiful Dandelion", "Eggs", "Mountain Trip" - then afterwards we met them all and bought CDs and t-shirts and got the CDs signed. I'm still waiting to see them again!

Then, walking along in a happy daze, Richard saw Charlie Brooker outside a bar - smoking, trying to give up, bless him. This was in the days long long long before he married Connie Huq, he was with Al Campbell (aka Barry Shitpeas), the director of Screenwipe. Charlie was everything he is on TV: lovely but swear-y and offensive (but obviously not really offensive!). I told him I'd started watching The Wire (I had but didn't ever get very far with it, maybe one day), he said "so you fucking should" or something then Al was saying he hadn't seen it so they got in a little argument about that. I told him I had a book of cuttings of all of his columns. He said "you're fucking sick" but in an affectionate way. Al took a picture of us and then Charlie made him take another one as he didn't like the first one. He then mocked him for being a director and taking such a rubbish picture. Here is the second one:

Now in a giddy state we attempted to walk to George Street but I took us the wrong way up the Royal Mile. A huge argument ensued. At some point either Stewart Lee or Richard Herring wandered past. Oh, and on the Saturday I saw Adam Hills (as in spotted him, well Richard did as he is better at spotting people!) which was lush.

I'll not dwell on the argument too much - we got to Rich Hall on time and he was brilliant! I've seen him loads now and can't remember what stuff's from the first time but he's great!

On the Monday we went to see a mad version of Pericles because the guy flyering like Richard's velvet jacket (we do all sorts of things if people like his jacket!) and it was quite good but had a weird game show bit in it (!) and so our first Edinburgh Fringe came to an end.

Our lives had changed forever.