Every year around this time R and I gather together for one exhausting night of planning our Fringe trip. And while we may have settled on the perfect method for completing the task, it doesn't get any easier! In fact, the more comedy we see (and fall in love with) the more people become "must-sees". And the painful, unavoidable truth is you can't see all of your "must-sees"!
After eight hours on Saturday night (and a couple more last Sunday morning!) we had decided on thirty shows (over five days). And, like always, as excited as I am about the shows we've booked I'm disappointed about all the shows we're not seeing.
Ten Shows I'm Disappointed We're Not Seeing (that we could have seen!)
1. Francesca Martinez I've never seen her before but would love to!
2. Claudia O'Docherty Loads of people I love love her, her last show seemed to be the talk of the town last year so I need to check her out!
3. James Sherwood This is the second year we're not seeing JS's solo show! Bad us. Too many clashes and conflicts; I hope he does Political Animal so I at least see him a bit!
4. Simon Munnery Noooooo! I'm disappointed about this to say the least. However, we do know his set ridiculously well. And the new stuff can wait until next time we see him (not long, I hope!)
5. Lloyd Langford I still haven't managed to see Lloyd; he's been on the list a while, too!
6. Paul Foot Bollocks. I hope we manage to see him elsewhere as he's unlike anyone else.
7. Matt Forde Like Lloyd Langford I know (of) him from Jon Richardson's Sunday show on 6Music. This is his first solo show and I hope it does well!
8. Phill Jupitus Well, it would've been interesting to see Phill do stand up. I've no idea what his shows are like as there are no ideas and he doesn't seem to tour. Oh well, another time!
9. Tim Fitzhigham We're not seeing Tim's solo show but we are seeing Flanders and Swann (I'll be writing about it in August!)
10. Thom Tuck Again, we're not seeing Thom's solo show but we are seeing a Penny Dreadfuls play
Ten Edinburgh Favourites That We Are Seeing (things we're seen once or more at the Fringe!):
1. Stewart Lee - ah, Stew. His 2007 show remains one of the best I've seen at the Fringe or ever!
2. Bridget Christie - ah, Stew's wife; in fact I prefer her to SL! I absolutely adore her, she is wonderful in every possible way.
3. Andy Zaltzman - Zaltz is great! He's more one of R's people than one of mine but every year I love and appreciate him more.
4. Alex Horne - I've heard good things about this upcoming show! Can't wait! Alex Horne is amazing.
5. Robin Ince - This could be Robin's last Fringe for a while (so he says on Twitter!) so I'm very glad that we're seeing three of his four offerings! If anyone should win the spirit of the Fringe!!
6. Josie Long - Super excited about more Josie especially as it will include Brontes!
7. Tony Law - Tony Law is bizarre but brilliant! He's always very early in the day which is helpful! So so much is around 6-midnight; that's where the painful choices are.
8. Kurt and Kristen - and guests! Hot tub! Love them both (disappointed we're not seeing Kurt's show!).
9. Political Animal - more Zaltz and friends. Kitson please????
10. Barry And Stuart - Derrenesque boys who are bizzarrely doing two shows: a show and then forty-five minutes later: a tell where you find out how it was all done! It should be interesting.
Ten Things I Haven't Seen Before (by which I mean a full show!):
1. Henry Paker - I was heartbroken not to see HP's debut last year. We did see him in The Golden Lizard though and it was truly wonderful. I love him!!
2. Tim Key - how have we not seen Tim Key do a full show? I don't know but it's true. I love him too!!
3. Frisky and Mannish - I'm really excited to see them properly after the exciting taste we had at 9 Lessons!
4. Evelyn Evelyn - I fucking love Amanda Fucking Palmer (her AFP show in Edinburgh is after we leave but we may catch her in Glasgow!) and EE should be a lot of fun to see (Amanda Palmer and Jason Webley playing conjoined twins in a mad caberet act!).
5. Sara Pascoe - Enjoyed her in Gutted last year, don't know her stuff at all!
6. Humphrey Ker - Ditto!
7. The Penny Dreadfuls - I haven't listened to much of their stuff; R assures me it's amazing. It's always exciting to see new stuff!
8. Comedy Countdown - Really excited about this one. I love late night Fringe events where you don't know who'll turn up (I'm hoping for Horne, Kitson, Long, Key, Watson etc!)
9. Richard Herring's Edinubrgh Podcast - I've never been to a RH podcast recording. Anyone could be there (there's mention of guests!), anything could happen.
10. Joanna Neary - Also discovered for the first time at 9 Lessons! Very excited!
Five Shows That We're Not Seeing (because we're there at the wrong time):
1. Tom Lenk - Nerdgasm - noooooooooooooo! Why is he only doing one night?! It's a long way to come for just one show.
2. David Mitchell (The Unbelievable Truth) - I love DM a crazy amount. This would've been good.
3. Ricky Gervais and Warwick Davis discussing Life's Too Short - this would've been good, interesting etc but I'll see the actual TV show so nevermind!
4. Alex Horne's Taskmaster II - this will be wonderful! Last year Taskmaster was one of the best things we did!
5. Amanda Palmer - a full AFP show. In Edinburgh. Oh, man!!
Five People That Aren't Coming At All (according to the programme, one-offs and special appearances possible!):
1. Daniel Kitson - please come!
2. Brendon Burns - a year off, I guess! He doesn't miss many!
3. Mike Wozniak - co-hosting Taskmaster ll as he won last year but no show!
4. Wil Anderson - I'm still waiting for his return!
5. Miles Jupp - Miles!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Guess he's working on his forthcoming book?! I shall miss him.
And finally:
Today after over EIGHT hours of trying (we did other things: watching Daria, Modern Family, Futurama, reading) we got the book festival tickets we wanted! Neil Gaiman in conversation with Audrey Niffenegger, Jasper Fforde.
The hard bit's over for another year! Now for the fun part!!!!
Sunday 26 June 2011
Thursday 16 June 2011
"Whatever Happened To Our Heroes?" (John Cleese in Edinburgh/Futureheads in Sunderland)
Even a short train journey can really make you feel like you're escaping your ordinary life and doing something amazing. And the ninety minute (ish) journey up to Edinburgh is one of my favourite trips! It's beautiful, especially when the sun is shining and you can see the sea (I love the sea). I'd have been happy just to be having a lovely stay in Edinburgh. But going to see John Cleese was absolutely perfect. I'm so happy that we decided to see him.
I had a few doubts as John Cleese means so much to me (too much?) and has been known to be a bit rude/bigotted etc. Which I've always defended. I know he's somewhat messed up but geniuses (and I don't mean Apple employees!) often are. I don't care if he's not perfect; I have loved him ever since I was about eight and I can't imagine not loving him. Having said that I also knew that a bad experience with him would be heartbreaking. But I would never know if I didn't go! It was certainly a risk worth taking.
Our arrival in Edinburgh co-incided with the launch of the Fringe programme (one of the best, most exciting times of the year!) so we saw a bit of street performance and R grabbed his programme direct from the shop (mine was delivered on Wednesday as I'm a Friend of the Fringe). We had a nice recce to make sure we knew where the theatre was so nothing could go wrong in the evening. Then we checked in and had a lovely lie down on our hotel bed (I don't know why we both so knackered but it was lush to just relax!)
We went out for a nice meal (luckily, while I was excited I wasn't so bad that I couldn't eat!) and then walked to the Festival Theatre. On the way, I reminisced about crying when I saw James Marsters in 2005. I said that I wouldn't cry when I saw John Cleese.
And...I was wrong! But it was a different sort of crying. With James Marsters it was mad, hyped up gratitude for getting me through a lot of heartbroken teenage stuff (unbeknownst to him, of course!!). With John Cleese, as the sounds of "The Liberty Bell" (the MP'sFC theme) filled the theatre my eyes filled with tears of pride (and perhaps the closest I've ever came to patriotism) as John Cleese strode on stage to raptous, glorious applause: thousands of people, young and old all saying thank you and we love you as one. The applause lasted ages. Then the show started:
The beginning of the show was Cleese's explanation for him touring (which of course we knew as it was called John Cleese's Alimony Tour) and tore into his ex-wife for a while (hilariously and not too savagely!) saying that she hadn't so much as contributed a two-way conversation to the marriage.
Then he began at the beginning of his life and told us about his childhood and the best bits of his career. He used clips (some of which I'd seen; others I hadn't) to punctuate his talk (it was a talk. It was funny and lovely but not stand up) and when he showed his speech at Graham Chapman's funeral I couldn't help crying. I love GC so much. I had a dream once where I magically got to meet him (I was about five or six when he died, Simon Mayo played "Always Look on The Bright Side of Life" - I remember being sad but not really knowing why or who he was.)
When he spoke about Fawlty Towers he did impressions of the real hotel owner, Mr Sinclair. It was as close to Basil as I'll ever get. Marvellous.
The whole evening was simply lovely. Cleese remembered the Pythons with love and not anger. He sounded like it had been the best time of his life. He gave the audience exactly what they wanted and it was an entirely perfect night. I know that sometimes when your dreams come true it goes a bit wrong and isn't at all how you imagined. This was what I wanted and needed. He is, was and always will be absoutely wonderful. He's still got it.
When we got back to hotel we put on the Channel 4 Comedy Gala which was so rubbish it's hardly worth talking about. We both dozed off. I feel sad when I think this is the best stand up people who don't go to gigs actually see. There is so much better out there!
The next day we got the train home. This time it was raining. Boo. Anyway, I got home and had a little rest in bed listening to Jon Ronson On...Jon Ronson is great. R got me into him recently and I haven't looked back. Before too long I had to leave and head to what Barry Hyde himself called the most confusing gig in Sunderland ever.
Now, this gig started its life as the Skinny Twins Festival. It was an all-dayer with the following line up: The line-up includes The Stranglers, The Boxer Rebellion, Neville Staple, The Rifles, The Blitz, The Generals, 12 Dirty Bullets, Detroit Social Club, Leatherface, The Beat, and The Sunshine Underground. It was £35 and in Houghton.
At some point it changed its location (to Sunderland's North Shore which is the Uni's Students Union at St.Peter's Campus) and the price dropped to £25 and The Futureheads jumped on board as co-headliners (and most of the line up changed!).
The time was also a confusing issue with tickets saying doors at 3pm, two seperate facebook events (one starting at 7, one at 3!), Hyde and Beast tweeting they were on at 7.45. Eventually (bear in mind this was on the day!!!) we heard doors were at 6pm. We assumed it'd be kicking off around 7pm. It wasn't. We arrived and everyone was in the bar but the partition doors (to make two rooms one big room) hadn't been opened. It was all really loud (old punks and no background music) and I don't think there was a great atomosphere but it may have been partly due to confusion (I really hope no one arrived for 3pm!!). Also we were both really tired from our mini-trip.
Finally (after we'd had a little rest on a bench) they opened the doors and we made our way to the front. There were very few people right at the front (most were up a few stairs and behind some bars) in fact everyone other than the two of us who were occupying the area directly beneath the stage seemed to be die-hard fans of the first band:
Spray On Jeans
Well. Now. The thing is that I don't really know if they were good or not. I think they were all right. They were pretty low-key acoustic-y (four of them on high bar stools, one standing, lots of guitars) and had a couple of songs that were catchy but to be honest I was pretty distracted throughout by one of their fans who would not shut up, stay still or stop filming (not just filming the gig but filming the crowd reaction which as there was barely a crowd and there was not much to react to [it wasn't as if it was a Flaming Lips or Sufjan Stevens kind of atmosphere; people were just standing, listening, maybe nodding their heads, perhaps smiling] and it felt very intrusive having some child (I think he was seventeen-ish) thrusting his phone in our faces.
I tried to be empathetic and told R that SOJ must be his ONSIND. Everyone has their ONSIND and if they don't then I hope they find it soon. It's exciting to be at a gig when the band playing live right in front of you means so much to you. However, it's pretty selfish to let your extreme excitement ruin someone's chances of falling in love with the band. I don't think this was a band for me to fall in love with but I would've looked on them more favourably if I'd not been hounded by this kid.
He didn't even seem like the sort of fan for this kind of band. The guys on stage were calm, cool and quiet. The fans all seemed like they wanted to shout along (which would suit something heavier) and jump about. It was bizarre. Then the annoying one kept shouting right in our faces 'fucking mint! Look them up on facebook', which, as my friend Cat later pointed out, was really daft as we were seeing the actual band right then. You don't need to tell someone that a band's good or how to find out about them when they're right there!
Next up were the increasingly enjoyable Hyde&Beast who R apparently enjoyed more than the Futureheads!!! Well, I may not agree there but they're certainly great and I'm all ready looking foward to the album release (and also to their set at Split Festival which I'm fairly sure I'll be going to!)
Strangely, towards the end of the set a burlesque dancer with feathers began perfoming in front of the stage (and off to one side). She was on stage properly later on so I will discuss that in just a moment!
Barry Hyde introduced the first band, not sure about H&B as I'd popped to the toilet as between sets (shows how brilliantly quick the change over was!) but he was on stage in his beautiful coat a lot sorting stuff out and setting up and whispering (presumably helpful!) things to this very young band (or two-thirds of them) before they began. The band in question were The Blitz. Before the gig I'd looked them up and really enjoyed them. Live they seemed ridiculously different - quieter, less confident, less sure. One of the members was absent but even so, I couldn't believe it was the same band. It wasn't. There appear to be numerous bands called The Blitz; two of which hail from Sunderland.
These boys were young. Babies! Much younger (I think) than We Beat The System (also good, also returning to Split) and they seemed very nervous. They only played a couple of songs and didn't do any banter. They didn't even seem to say when their set was over they just awkwardly got off stage. I'd like to see/hear more from them. They appear to be doing well and gigging lots in the area. (Actually having listened to a bit of their stuff on MySpace they do seem like they were not at their best on Saturday which makes sense if the entire band weren't even there!)
Next up - The Futureheads! Miraculously, no one had pushed us off our lovely front centre spot by the stage! So I had a perfect view of the boys. It was great to see them but the sound sounded a little off at first. I'm not sure that it's a great venue but still The Futureheads are great! They started off with "The Chaos" and "The Connector" then played some of the earlier stuff: "Man Ray", "First Day" "Robot", "Decent Days And Nights", "Meantime" and of course "Hounds of Love". They also played "Skip To The End" (as Barry Hyde describes it 'the bouncy bounce song'), "Heartbeat Song" (in which Barry beat his chest to make his voice go all viverberate-y, it was amazing) and "Beginning of the Twist". As I've written them all down, it seems like loads but at the time it appeared to be over in a split second!
Barry Hyde and Sunderland
Barry said some very interesting stuff in the middle of the set. It relates to a lot of stuff that I think too. He was talking about how people say that there's never anything happening in Sunderland and that it's bullshit. Firstly, I will say that I don't actually live in Sunderland. I live in Washington which is in the borough of Sunderland but was once in County Durham and often aligns itself more with Newcastle. (Football team preferences are pretty split here too. Not that I care!) So all of my observations come from being not quite in the place but sort of there. (And especially from working with people from Sunderland.)
First of all, I don't think it's helpful or healthy to moan about how Sunderland is a badly done to place. Comparing it to Newcastle will not help anyone. People will say how Sunderland is bigger (it is) and so should have more of the amenites and opportunites that has made Newcastle more affluent. But I think the comparisons are never going to change things. Newcastle is a city I truly love. Sunderland only became a city when I was a child (I remember going to watch a big show with the Brownies that celebrated its new status) so it can't really compete! So rather than complaining about how shoddily the city is treated people should do the following:
1. Find out what's happening and bother to go! Baz is right. It's bullshit that there's nothing going on in Sunderland. The Sunderland Empire shows huge musicals. If you want to see a play there's the Royalty (amateur, sure but they're really good!). Now that comedy is back in vogue there's a lot of it everywhere (in pubs, in the theatre, you just need to look online. Google 'grinning idiot'), there's art in Sunderland too (I don't often find time to visit the art galleries there but they exist!) and of course there's a lot of gigs going on!
2. If you want to do something and it doesn't appear to be happening make it happen!! Put on your own shows.
3. Instead of bitching that the show/gig/play/whatever you so want to do is in Newcastle and not Sunderland, just jump on a bus or a metro! I'm always willing to travel for gigs (to London, Manchester, Glasgow, Edinburgh, wherever!) but I understand that it's expensive to arrange trains and hotels to travel that far away. But if you live in Sunderland or Washington it's extremely easy to get to Newcastle, Durham, Gateshead (for the Sage and the Baltic).
A brief note on Take That - so many people went to see Take That at the Stadium of Light recently. More people than even like TT! The reasons seemed to be twofold: one, it was on the doorstep and two, they'd 'put on a good show'. If I had to hear one more person say that to me I would've screamed. Where Lady Gaga's theatricality is an intrinsic part of who she is, TT seem to have just made that a part of their set as they are not good enough alone. I'd much rather see a brilliant band in a cupboard than see TT with whatever elephant/robot spectacular they may have to disguise their blandness. I don't think that proximity should ever trump talent or passion when deciding what to see!
Oops, got a bit sidetracked! The point is that Barry Hyde doesn't just make amazing music. He makes things happen. (I really admire ONSIND's Nathan for this too. He is responsible for so much of what's going on in Durham.)
After the Futureheads' set there was a very large gap where nothing happened. This is always disappointing at gigs. Before the final band of the night came on, Katrina Darling returned to dance to "God Save The Queen". It began as the actual National Anthem but turned into the Sex Pistols classic. She was dressed vaguely as the Queen. (It was only later I discovered she is Kate Middleton's cousin! Bizarre.)
I mentioned this burlesque bit to Tim at work who informed me that it's a usual occurence at rock shows these days. Is it? I've never encountered it before. But then I wouldn't at the lovely sort of gigs I go to! Now, I don't really want to get into a big burlesque discussion. Some might say that it's just stripping (and she did stip to almost nothing at all), others claim it's empowering. Well, Katrina looked like she was in control and happy, but I'm not a fan really. And one thing I would say is that perhaps burlesque should be kept for burlesque shows: it kind of jarred with the rest of the night and because no one there had paid to see burlesque I don't think they/we knew what the rules were. I took pictures (because I take pictures of everything) but I stopped when she got to a certain point. It felt intrusive. (I'm not sure that you would've been able to take pictures/video at a proper burlesque show!) Like I say, K herself seemed more than happy to take her clothes off for the drunk old punks but I felt a bit uncomfortable.
Eventually The Stanglers came on stage!! We left before the end but we did see them do "Get A Grip On Yourself", "Peaches", "Golden Brown", "Always The Sun" and a few I didn't rememeber from my lovely childhood where we listened to cool compilation tapes in the car on the way to picnics; so I associate The Smiths, The Jam, The Clash, The Stanglers etc with fleeing up and down the Northumberland countryside. Lush. (Once when I was seven I had the use the word 'cure' in a sentence in school so I wrote 'The Cure is a band', my Year Two teacher responded with '?' in red pen!)
It was a tiring weekend with some truly perfect moments.
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| Berwick-upon-Tweed - beautiful |
I had a few doubts as John Cleese means so much to me (too much?) and has been known to be a bit rude/bigotted etc. Which I've always defended. I know he's somewhat messed up but geniuses (and I don't mean Apple employees!) often are. I don't care if he's not perfect; I have loved him ever since I was about eight and I can't imagine not loving him. Having said that I also knew that a bad experience with him would be heartbreaking. But I would never know if I didn't go! It was certainly a risk worth taking.
Our arrival in Edinburgh co-incided with the launch of the Fringe programme (one of the best, most exciting times of the year!) so we saw a bit of street performance and R grabbed his programme direct from the shop (mine was delivered on Wednesday as I'm a Friend of the Fringe). We had a nice recce to make sure we knew where the theatre was so nothing could go wrong in the evening. Then we checked in and had a lovely lie down on our hotel bed (I don't know why we both so knackered but it was lush to just relax!)
We went out for a nice meal (luckily, while I was excited I wasn't so bad that I couldn't eat!) and then walked to the Festival Theatre. On the way, I reminisced about crying when I saw James Marsters in 2005. I said that I wouldn't cry when I saw John Cleese.
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| Very excited! |
And...I was wrong! But it was a different sort of crying. With James Marsters it was mad, hyped up gratitude for getting me through a lot of heartbroken teenage stuff (unbeknownst to him, of course!!). With John Cleese, as the sounds of "The Liberty Bell" (the MP'sFC theme) filled the theatre my eyes filled with tears of pride (and perhaps the closest I've ever came to patriotism) as John Cleese strode on stage to raptous, glorious applause: thousands of people, young and old all saying thank you and we love you as one. The applause lasted ages. Then the show started:
The beginning of the show was Cleese's explanation for him touring (which of course we knew as it was called John Cleese's Alimony Tour) and tore into his ex-wife for a while (hilariously and not too savagely!) saying that she hadn't so much as contributed a two-way conversation to the marriage.
Then he began at the beginning of his life and told us about his childhood and the best bits of his career. He used clips (some of which I'd seen; others I hadn't) to punctuate his talk (it was a talk. It was funny and lovely but not stand up) and when he showed his speech at Graham Chapman's funeral I couldn't help crying. I love GC so much. I had a dream once where I magically got to meet him (I was about five or six when he died, Simon Mayo played "Always Look on The Bright Side of Life" - I remember being sad but not really knowing why or who he was.)
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| I snuck a picture at the end so it's not great! But it IS John Cleese!! |
When he spoke about Fawlty Towers he did impressions of the real hotel owner, Mr Sinclair. It was as close to Basil as I'll ever get. Marvellous.
The whole evening was simply lovely. Cleese remembered the Pythons with love and not anger. He sounded like it had been the best time of his life. He gave the audience exactly what they wanted and it was an entirely perfect night. I know that sometimes when your dreams come true it goes a bit wrong and isn't at all how you imagined. This was what I wanted and needed. He is, was and always will be absoutely wonderful. He's still got it.
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| Yay!!! |
The next day we got the train home. This time it was raining. Boo. Anyway, I got home and had a little rest in bed listening to Jon Ronson On...Jon Ronson is great. R got me into him recently and I haven't looked back. Before too long I had to leave and head to what Barry Hyde himself called the most confusing gig in Sunderland ever.
Now, this gig started its life as the Skinny Twins Festival. It was an all-dayer with the following line up: The line-up includes The Stranglers, The Boxer Rebellion, Neville Staple, The Rifles, The Blitz, The Generals, 12 Dirty Bullets, Detroit Social Club, Leatherface, The Beat, and The Sunshine Underground. It was £35 and in Houghton.
At some point it changed its location (to Sunderland's North Shore which is the Uni's Students Union at St.Peter's Campus) and the price dropped to £25 and The Futureheads jumped on board as co-headliners (and most of the line up changed!).
The time was also a confusing issue with tickets saying doors at 3pm, two seperate facebook events (one starting at 7, one at 3!), Hyde and Beast tweeting they were on at 7.45. Eventually (bear in mind this was on the day!!!) we heard doors were at 6pm. We assumed it'd be kicking off around 7pm. It wasn't. We arrived and everyone was in the bar but the partition doors (to make two rooms one big room) hadn't been opened. It was all really loud (old punks and no background music) and I don't think there was a great atomosphere but it may have been partly due to confusion (I really hope no one arrived for 3pm!!). Also we were both really tired from our mini-trip.
Finally (after we'd had a little rest on a bench) they opened the doors and we made our way to the front. There were very few people right at the front (most were up a few stairs and behind some bars) in fact everyone other than the two of us who were occupying the area directly beneath the stage seemed to be die-hard fans of the first band:
Spray On Jeans
Well. Now. The thing is that I don't really know if they were good or not. I think they were all right. They were pretty low-key acoustic-y (four of them on high bar stools, one standing, lots of guitars) and had a couple of songs that were catchy but to be honest I was pretty distracted throughout by one of their fans who would not shut up, stay still or stop filming (not just filming the gig but filming the crowd reaction which as there was barely a crowd and there was not much to react to [it wasn't as if it was a Flaming Lips or Sufjan Stevens kind of atmosphere; people were just standing, listening, maybe nodding their heads, perhaps smiling] and it felt very intrusive having some child (I think he was seventeen-ish) thrusting his phone in our faces.
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| Spray On Jeans - could barely hear the band over the hype! |
I tried to be empathetic and told R that SOJ must be his ONSIND. Everyone has their ONSIND and if they don't then I hope they find it soon. It's exciting to be at a gig when the band playing live right in front of you means so much to you. However, it's pretty selfish to let your extreme excitement ruin someone's chances of falling in love with the band. I don't think this was a band for me to fall in love with but I would've looked on them more favourably if I'd not been hounded by this kid.
He didn't even seem like the sort of fan for this kind of band. The guys on stage were calm, cool and quiet. The fans all seemed like they wanted to shout along (which would suit something heavier) and jump about. It was bizarre. Then the annoying one kept shouting right in our faces 'fucking mint! Look them up on facebook', which, as my friend Cat later pointed out, was really daft as we were seeing the actual band right then. You don't need to tell someone that a band's good or how to find out about them when they're right there!
Next up were the increasingly enjoyable Hyde&Beast who R apparently enjoyed more than the Futureheads!!! Well, I may not agree there but they're certainly great and I'm all ready looking foward to the album release (and also to their set at Split Festival which I'm fairly sure I'll be going to!)
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H&B |
Strangely, towards the end of the set a burlesque dancer with feathers began perfoming in front of the stage (and off to one side). She was on stage properly later on so I will discuss that in just a moment!
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| Katrina Darling |
Barry Hyde introduced the first band, not sure about H&B as I'd popped to the toilet as between sets (shows how brilliantly quick the change over was!) but he was on stage in his beautiful coat a lot sorting stuff out and setting up and whispering (presumably helpful!) things to this very young band (or two-thirds of them) before they began. The band in question were The Blitz. Before the gig I'd looked them up and really enjoyed them. Live they seemed ridiculously different - quieter, less confident, less sure. One of the members was absent but even so, I couldn't believe it was the same band. It wasn't. There appear to be numerous bands called The Blitz; two of which hail from Sunderland.
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| Words of encouragement from Barry Hyde |
These boys were young. Babies! Much younger (I think) than We Beat The System (also good, also returning to Split) and they seemed very nervous. They only played a couple of songs and didn't do any banter. They didn't even seem to say when their set was over they just awkwardly got off stage. I'd like to see/hear more from them. They appear to be doing well and gigging lots in the area. (Actually having listened to a bit of their stuff on MySpace they do seem like they were not at their best on Saturday which makes sense if the entire band weren't even there!)
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| The Blitz |
Next up - The Futureheads! Miraculously, no one had pushed us off our lovely front centre spot by the stage! So I had a perfect view of the boys. It was great to see them but the sound sounded a little off at first. I'm not sure that it's a great venue but still The Futureheads are great! They started off with "The Chaos" and "The Connector" then played some of the earlier stuff: "Man Ray", "First Day" "Robot", "Decent Days And Nights", "Meantime" and of course "Hounds of Love". They also played "Skip To The End" (as Barry Hyde describes it 'the bouncy bounce song'), "Heartbeat Song" (in which Barry beat his chest to make his voice go all viverberate-y, it was amazing) and "Beginning of the Twist". As I've written them all down, it seems like loads but at the time it appeared to be over in a split second!
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| I especially love their 'Chaos'-y drum! |
Barry Hyde and Sunderland
Barry said some very interesting stuff in the middle of the set. It relates to a lot of stuff that I think too. He was talking about how people say that there's never anything happening in Sunderland and that it's bullshit. Firstly, I will say that I don't actually live in Sunderland. I live in Washington which is in the borough of Sunderland but was once in County Durham and often aligns itself more with Newcastle. (Football team preferences are pretty split here too. Not that I care!) So all of my observations come from being not quite in the place but sort of there. (And especially from working with people from Sunderland.)
First of all, I don't think it's helpful or healthy to moan about how Sunderland is a badly done to place. Comparing it to Newcastle will not help anyone. People will say how Sunderland is bigger (it is) and so should have more of the amenites and opportunites that has made Newcastle more affluent. But I think the comparisons are never going to change things. Newcastle is a city I truly love. Sunderland only became a city when I was a child (I remember going to watch a big show with the Brownies that celebrated its new status) so it can't really compete! So rather than complaining about how shoddily the city is treated people should do the following:
1. Find out what's happening and bother to go! Baz is right. It's bullshit that there's nothing going on in Sunderland. The Sunderland Empire shows huge musicals. If you want to see a play there's the Royalty (amateur, sure but they're really good!). Now that comedy is back in vogue there's a lot of it everywhere (in pubs, in the theatre, you just need to look online. Google 'grinning idiot'), there's art in Sunderland too (I don't often find time to visit the art galleries there but they exist!) and of course there's a lot of gigs going on!
2. If you want to do something and it doesn't appear to be happening make it happen!! Put on your own shows.
3. Instead of bitching that the show/gig/play/whatever you so want to do is in Newcastle and not Sunderland, just jump on a bus or a metro! I'm always willing to travel for gigs (to London, Manchester, Glasgow, Edinburgh, wherever!) but I understand that it's expensive to arrange trains and hotels to travel that far away. But if you live in Sunderland or Washington it's extremely easy to get to Newcastle, Durham, Gateshead (for the Sage and the Baltic).
A brief note on Take That - so many people went to see Take That at the Stadium of Light recently. More people than even like TT! The reasons seemed to be twofold: one, it was on the doorstep and two, they'd 'put on a good show'. If I had to hear one more person say that to me I would've screamed. Where Lady Gaga's theatricality is an intrinsic part of who she is, TT seem to have just made that a part of their set as they are not good enough alone. I'd much rather see a brilliant band in a cupboard than see TT with whatever elephant/robot spectacular they may have to disguise their blandness. I don't think that proximity should ever trump talent or passion when deciding what to see!
Oops, got a bit sidetracked! The point is that Barry Hyde doesn't just make amazing music. He makes things happen. (I really admire ONSIND's Nathan for this too. He is responsible for so much of what's going on in Durham.)
After the Futureheads' set there was a very large gap where nothing happened. This is always disappointing at gigs. Before the final band of the night came on, Katrina Darling returned to dance to "God Save The Queen". It began as the actual National Anthem but turned into the Sex Pistols classic. She was dressed vaguely as the Queen. (It was only later I discovered she is Kate Middleton's cousin! Bizarre.)
I mentioned this burlesque bit to Tim at work who informed me that it's a usual occurence at rock shows these days. Is it? I've never encountered it before. But then I wouldn't at the lovely sort of gigs I go to! Now, I don't really want to get into a big burlesque discussion. Some might say that it's just stripping (and she did stip to almost nothing at all), others claim it's empowering. Well, Katrina looked like she was in control and happy, but I'm not a fan really. And one thing I would say is that perhaps burlesque should be kept for burlesque shows: it kind of jarred with the rest of the night and because no one there had paid to see burlesque I don't think they/we knew what the rules were. I took pictures (because I take pictures of everything) but I stopped when she got to a certain point. It felt intrusive. (I'm not sure that you would've been able to take pictures/video at a proper burlesque show!) Like I say, K herself seemed more than happy to take her clothes off for the drunk old punks but I felt a bit uncomfortable.
Eventually The Stanglers came on stage!! We left before the end but we did see them do "Get A Grip On Yourself", "Peaches", "Golden Brown", "Always The Sun" and a few I didn't rememeber from my lovely childhood where we listened to cool compilation tapes in the car on the way to picnics; so I associate The Smiths, The Jam, The Clash, The Stanglers etc with fleeing up and down the Northumberland countryside. Lush. (Once when I was seven I had the use the word 'cure' in a sentence in school so I wrote 'The Cure is a band', my Year Two teacher responded with '?' in red pen!)
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| A not great picture of The Stanglers; we were well back by then. The old people had got pretty rowdy! |
Wednesday 8 June 2011
Edinburgh 2008 - Day Four
Wednesday 6th August 2008 (aka the day it didn't stop fucking raining):
Well, it's just a few days now until the Fringe Programme comes out for 2011. (Eep! Now it's only a day!) So I'll relive the wettest day I've ever spent in Edinburgh (everyone please remember your wellies!!).
We began the day by getting absolutely soaking wet (our hotel was a fair distance from the City centre and I think we may have jumped on a bus or into a taxi but it didn't make much difference). We then saw Golden which was a modern day re-telling of Macbeth. I think it was quite good. It was a very small venue with seats on all four sides which is generally quite dynamic.
After that we had to get a taxi back to our hotel to get changed before getting a taxi to an old church to see Kes. This production was by schoolchildren who were excellent (especially the main little boy playing Billy - perfectly heartbreaking) and their teachers who were not! I enjoyed it but not as much as the film.
Then we found some lunch and bought some ponchos (you may look silly but you need a poncho for proper Edinburgh rain!).
Next was Columbinus which we saw in a Quaker-y place. (The Quakers seemed very nice.) It was a very interesting play about the events that led up to the school shooting in Columbine. I loved the first half but was less bothered about the second half.
The play began with all of the kids (about fifteen to twenty of them) getting up, having breakfast, getting dressed and going through their normal routines. It was very ordinary but remarkable in its everydayness. I love stuff like that (like Mrs Dalloway and The Hours). I'm not sure that it made me think anything new or different about the shootings but it was a really well done play. (Usually at the Fringe you have very little time to process everything right after it's happened. You generally have to save things up and think about them later on when you get a bit of time. Conversely, you may end up having an epiphany in a split second. That's why the Fringe is so great!)
The nice Quaker man offered us all a quiet room to sit and have a think/pray in but there was no time. We went to TGI Friday in a desperate effort to cheer ourselves up. The play had been heavy; we were still soaking. My trainers were absoutely appalling waterlogged. It didn't matter how many times I changed my socks it was all squealchy and gross. I was ready to cry (knowing me, I probably did!) but lovely Stewart Lee was next.
We went to the Stand (aah) for Stewart Lee: Scrambled Egg. This wasn't a proper show; it was Stew doing material that would end up on Stewart Lee's Comedy Vehicle S1 (similarly Vegetable Stew was the preparation for SLCV S2) but that was fine as it was advertised as such.
The idea was that Stew would have a little egg box with six 'eggs' in - each with a different topic (lasting about a half an hour) and he'd do two for each show of the run. (Or something like that; it was ages ago now!) Anyway, he'd spent a long time making the eggs and the box and it was a great idea however, he hadn't come up with enough material to do this (three hours - the length of the entire series) but he did have enough for a brilliant hour.
It wasn't as good as 41st Best Stand Up (the first SL show I saw where I just fell in love with him - comedically!) but it was still great: this was the first time I heard a lot of the stuff that ended up on the show including Radio 4 comedy, celebrity hardbacks, Franklin Ajaye comedy record and Del Boy Falling Through The Bar (which was part of 41stBSU) too.
The main drawback (other than still being completely sodden!) was that we'd got there late and there were no seats left (bear this in mind for Stand gigs!) and we had to stand up. While standing is perfect for music it's rubbish for comedy. When you collapse into giggles there's nothing solid to collapse into which means that you just have to absorb your own laughter (if that makes any sense at all!) which is hard at the best of times but with no sleep and very damp - it's just no fun. (If it had've been someone crap and not lovely Mr.Lee it would've been horrendous!)
Then we met up with one of R's lovely friends for some hot chocolate. He and P caught up in The Conan Doyle and Nat and I got a taxi (we got taxis everywhere that day! They're cheap in Edinburgh and we were past caring anyhow) to see Grease Lightnin' Drag Show (it had Grease, men and drag and Australians!). It was pretty silly (erm, unsurprisingly) and maybe not as good as I'd expected/hoped it may be. My main quibble was that they were just miming. I would've rather seen them sing (but I think it may have been partly a copyright issue, not sure!). Anyway, it was nice to disappear off for a bit of fun with Nat! (And I'm sure equally good for R to be away from us and our silliness!)
We finished our night at the Stand Up For Freedom Amnesty International benefit show hosted by Ed Byrne. I'm not overly bothered about Ed but he's such a lovely guy and deals with the compere role perfectly - you can't not like him!
I can't remember the order but the comedians we saw that night were:
Mark Watson - doing the same stuff we'd seen him to a couple of days before; still brilliant though (and you never know who's going to turn up at these things when you book [well, depends when you book, I suppose] so do take the chance that you'll see some bits of people's sets twice; this may seem a bit annoying but I find it fascinating to have the opportunity to see the comedian's skills at making the material fresh every night. When you see something again you can see the comic is truly excellent at their craft.)
Sarah Millican - again, we'd seen Sarah Millican (at a Juppcast) and we were going to see her again that week (we'd also seen the same material at a pub night a million years ago; I'd go on to see Not Nice again. It was amazing though!)
Alan Cochrane -funnily enough, I liked Cochrane a lot more here than I had at the Stand. The lateness of the hour was the same but perhaps for a huge venue like the Assembly on the Mound (one of the big rooms there anyway!) he simply tried harder than he had hanging out with his friends. My opinion of him seems to change a lot. I wouldn't go out of my way to see him but I do like a lot of things about him. Hmm.
Otis Lee Crenshaw - This was the first time I'd seen Rich Hall as Otis and I loved him. Very enjoyable.
I think Wilson Dixon was there too but I'm not certain!!
Any that was it - our day ended by waiting (in the rain, by puddles/lakes) for a taxi. I had never been so glad to take off my clothes. We saw some amazing stuff that day but because of the weather it was the worst day of the Fringe (still a ridiculously brilliant day compared to ordinary days at work etc!!)
Well, it's just a few days now until the Fringe Programme comes out for 2011. (Eep! Now it's only a day!) So I'll relive the wettest day I've ever spent in Edinburgh (everyone please remember your wellies!!).
We began the day by getting absolutely soaking wet (our hotel was a fair distance from the City centre and I think we may have jumped on a bus or into a taxi but it didn't make much difference). We then saw Golden which was a modern day re-telling of Macbeth. I think it was quite good. It was a very small venue with seats on all four sides which is generally quite dynamic.
After that we had to get a taxi back to our hotel to get changed before getting a taxi to an old church to see Kes. This production was by schoolchildren who were excellent (especially the main little boy playing Billy - perfectly heartbreaking) and their teachers who were not! I enjoyed it but not as much as the film.
Then we found some lunch and bought some ponchos (you may look silly but you need a poncho for proper Edinburgh rain!).
Next was Columbinus which we saw in a Quaker-y place. (The Quakers seemed very nice.) It was a very interesting play about the events that led up to the school shooting in Columbine. I loved the first half but was less bothered about the second half.
The play began with all of the kids (about fifteen to twenty of them) getting up, having breakfast, getting dressed and going through their normal routines. It was very ordinary but remarkable in its everydayness. I love stuff like that (like Mrs Dalloway and The Hours). I'm not sure that it made me think anything new or different about the shootings but it was a really well done play. (Usually at the Fringe you have very little time to process everything right after it's happened. You generally have to save things up and think about them later on when you get a bit of time. Conversely, you may end up having an epiphany in a split second. That's why the Fringe is so great!)
The nice Quaker man offered us all a quiet room to sit and have a think/pray in but there was no time. We went to TGI Friday in a desperate effort to cheer ourselves up. The play had been heavy; we were still soaking. My trainers were absoutely appalling waterlogged. It didn't matter how many times I changed my socks it was all squealchy and gross. I was ready to cry (knowing me, I probably did!) but lovely Stewart Lee was next.
We went to the Stand (aah) for Stewart Lee: Scrambled Egg. This wasn't a proper show; it was Stew doing material that would end up on Stewart Lee's Comedy Vehicle S1 (similarly Vegetable Stew was the preparation for SLCV S2) but that was fine as it was advertised as such.
The idea was that Stew would have a little egg box with six 'eggs' in - each with a different topic (lasting about a half an hour) and he'd do two for each show of the run. (Or something like that; it was ages ago now!) Anyway, he'd spent a long time making the eggs and the box and it was a great idea however, he hadn't come up with enough material to do this (three hours - the length of the entire series) but he did have enough for a brilliant hour.
It wasn't as good as 41st Best Stand Up (the first SL show I saw where I just fell in love with him - comedically!) but it was still great: this was the first time I heard a lot of the stuff that ended up on the show including Radio 4 comedy, celebrity hardbacks, Franklin Ajaye comedy record and Del Boy Falling Through The Bar (which was part of 41stBSU) too.
The main drawback (other than still being completely sodden!) was that we'd got there late and there were no seats left (bear this in mind for Stand gigs!) and we had to stand up. While standing is perfect for music it's rubbish for comedy. When you collapse into giggles there's nothing solid to collapse into which means that you just have to absorb your own laughter (if that makes any sense at all!) which is hard at the best of times but with no sleep and very damp - it's just no fun. (If it had've been someone crap and not lovely Mr.Lee it would've been horrendous!)
Then we met up with one of R's lovely friends for some hot chocolate. He and P caught up in The Conan Doyle and Nat and I got a taxi (we got taxis everywhere that day! They're cheap in Edinburgh and we were past caring anyhow) to see Grease Lightnin' Drag Show (it had Grease, men and drag and Australians!). It was pretty silly (erm, unsurprisingly) and maybe not as good as I'd expected/hoped it may be. My main quibble was that they were just miming. I would've rather seen them sing (but I think it may have been partly a copyright issue, not sure!). Anyway, it was nice to disappear off for a bit of fun with Nat! (And I'm sure equally good for R to be away from us and our silliness!)
We finished our night at the Stand Up For Freedom Amnesty International benefit show hosted by Ed Byrne. I'm not overly bothered about Ed but he's such a lovely guy and deals with the compere role perfectly - you can't not like him!
I can't remember the order but the comedians we saw that night were:
Mark Watson - doing the same stuff we'd seen him to a couple of days before; still brilliant though (and you never know who's going to turn up at these things when you book [well, depends when you book, I suppose] so do take the chance that you'll see some bits of people's sets twice; this may seem a bit annoying but I find it fascinating to have the opportunity to see the comedian's skills at making the material fresh every night. When you see something again you can see the comic is truly excellent at their craft.)
Sarah Millican - again, we'd seen Sarah Millican (at a Juppcast) and we were going to see her again that week (we'd also seen the same material at a pub night a million years ago; I'd go on to see Not Nice again. It was amazing though!)
Alan Cochrane -funnily enough, I liked Cochrane a lot more here than I had at the Stand. The lateness of the hour was the same but perhaps for a huge venue like the Assembly on the Mound (one of the big rooms there anyway!) he simply tried harder than he had hanging out with his friends. My opinion of him seems to change a lot. I wouldn't go out of my way to see him but I do like a lot of things about him. Hmm.
Otis Lee Crenshaw - This was the first time I'd seen Rich Hall as Otis and I loved him. Very enjoyable.
I think Wilson Dixon was there too but I'm not certain!!
Any that was it - our day ended by waiting (in the rain, by puddles/lakes) for a taxi. I had never been so glad to take off my clothes. We saw some amazing stuff that day but because of the weather it was the worst day of the Fringe (still a ridiculously brilliant day compared to ordinary days at work etc!!)
Sunday 5 June 2011
Grey's Anatomy (Things You Can Disagree On and Things You Can't)
I love Grey's Anatomy. I always have. The only slightly iffy time for me was when Izzy was having ghost sex with dead Denny (it turned out to be a hallucination caused by cancer). As long as it wasn't going all supernatural (it actually does do that a bit sometimes as with Meredith when she briefly stopped breathing and saw Denny in the afterlife - another hallucination or something else?). Anyway, while I'm not too keen on any ideas of heaven, GA creator, Shonda Rhimes often puts in little bits of religion. I don't know what she believes in (and it doesn't matter really) but the whenever the show has a religious character who's a regular they're always much more bothered about their own God than the ideas of any one institution. (Guest characters who are religious in a judgemental way are not dealt with kindly.)
In fact in a recent episode when Callie and Arizona were getting married, Dr Bailey suggested that God was much more progressive than any of churches that spoke on his behalf; it was just a question of people catching up to God. I don't believe in God and am not a fan of religion (to say the very least) but the idea of a being I don't believe in being happy for two women to get marry is preferable to me to the idea that a being I don't believe in will send them (and me) to hell.
So it's a very liberal show especially for American network television. In the recent finale (season 7) Cristina Yang (played by Sandra Oh) discovered she was pregnant. This wasn't the first time. In the very beginning of the show she became pregnant after sleeping with Burke (who left the show when the actor was fired for being homophobic). She knew that she didn't want the baby and scheduled an abortion. Before she had it though, it was discovered it was an eptopic pregnancy (where the baby grows outside the womb) so the pregnancy was not viable.
In seven years Cristina has changed in many ways but she still doesn't want a baby. She's married to Owen who does want a baby. A few episodes ago they talked about their feelings and could not agree. Now, I'm not saying you have to agree on everything before you marry someone (or commit to them forever in some other way) but you do have to agree on the big stuff. As Cristina points out you can't compromise; "you can't have half a baby".
Owen tries to tell her what a great mother she'll be then tries to convince her she won't have to be too involved with the baby or give up her career. She says "I'm not a monster. If I have a baby I'll love it." Which is brilliant to hear. So many people think that if you don't want to raise a child you must hate them or doubt your ability.
Owen acts as if Cristina is being unresonable for not changing her mind. The truth is they should never have got married. Not until they'd got this stuff sorted. (In fairness they had a somewhat rushed wedding following a crazed gunman attacking the hospital.) It's just too important. I honestly do feel bad for Owen but mostly I just feel angry with him for failing to realise that Cristina not changing her mind is the same as his point-blank refusal to change his mind.
So what will happen at the beginning of season eight? The finale ended with Owen chucking Cristina out of her home as she'd made an appointment to have the fetus terminated so I can't really see much a future for them. I just hope that she does go through with the abortion; so that people might come to understand that it's not something where you just change your mind (perhaps it is for some people but surely they've been more than represented on TV all ready most notably Miranda on Sex and The City).
I watch a lot of TV and the only actual abortions I've encountered have occured in Six Feet Under and The L Word. (While Miranda chooses not to have an abortion in SATC it is revealed that Sam and Carrie have both had them in the past.) In Dawson's Creek Pacey's sister Gretchen either had an abortion or miscarried but she won't tell Dawson which (this occurs when Dawson's mother, Gayle gets pregnant and considers her options, ulitmately she keeps the baby).
Apparently (I have learned from googling) somebody had an abortion on Friday Night Lights which goes out on NBC. However, that was a young girl (ditto Claire in Six Feet Under). Is Grey's Anatomy finally going to show an adult married woman making that choice?
In America approximately 3,700 abortions are carried out every day and 48% of these women are over 25. There are many reasons women may choose to have an abortion but some of them must just not want to be mothers. It will be interesting to see what happens with Cristina.
R hates Grey's; he hates Private Practice (the spin off) even more but while we may disagree the merits of medical dramas we've agreed not to get married or to have children.
In fact in a recent episode when Callie and Arizona were getting married, Dr Bailey suggested that God was much more progressive than any of churches that spoke on his behalf; it was just a question of people catching up to God. I don't believe in God and am not a fan of religion (to say the very least) but the idea of a being I don't believe in being happy for two women to get marry is preferable to me to the idea that a being I don't believe in will send them (and me) to hell.
In seven years Cristina has changed in many ways but she still doesn't want a baby. She's married to Owen who does want a baby. A few episodes ago they talked about their feelings and could not agree. Now, I'm not saying you have to agree on everything before you marry someone (or commit to them forever in some other way) but you do have to agree on the big stuff. As Cristina points out you can't compromise; "you can't have half a baby".
Owen tries to tell her what a great mother she'll be then tries to convince her she won't have to be too involved with the baby or give up her career. She says "I'm not a monster. If I have a baby I'll love it." Which is brilliant to hear. So many people think that if you don't want to raise a child you must hate them or doubt your ability.
Owen acts as if Cristina is being unresonable for not changing her mind. The truth is they should never have got married. Not until they'd got this stuff sorted. (In fairness they had a somewhat rushed wedding following a crazed gunman attacking the hospital.) It's just too important. I honestly do feel bad for Owen but mostly I just feel angry with him for failing to realise that Cristina not changing her mind is the same as his point-blank refusal to change his mind.
So what will happen at the beginning of season eight? The finale ended with Owen chucking Cristina out of her home as she'd made an appointment to have the fetus terminated so I can't really see much a future for them. I just hope that she does go through with the abortion; so that people might come to understand that it's not something where you just change your mind (perhaps it is for some people but surely they've been more than represented on TV all ready most notably Miranda on Sex and The City).
I watch a lot of TV and the only actual abortions I've encountered have occured in Six Feet Under and The L Word. (While Miranda chooses not to have an abortion in SATC it is revealed that Sam and Carrie have both had them in the past.) In Dawson's Creek Pacey's sister Gretchen either had an abortion or miscarried but she won't tell Dawson which (this occurs when Dawson's mother, Gayle gets pregnant and considers her options, ulitmately she keeps the baby).
Apparently (I have learned from googling) somebody had an abortion on Friday Night Lights which goes out on NBC. However, that was a young girl (ditto Claire in Six Feet Under). Is Grey's Anatomy finally going to show an adult married woman making that choice?
In America approximately 3,700 abortions are carried out every day and 48% of these women are over 25. There are many reasons women may choose to have an abortion but some of them must just not want to be mothers. It will be interesting to see what happens with Cristina.
R hates Grey's; he hates Private Practice (the spin off) even more but while we may disagree the merits of medical dramas we've agreed not to get married or to have children.
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