I'm watching tv.. wanna watch with me? I channel surf so hold onto your hat.
On channel One we have the Olympics
Channel Two is Family Fear Factor
Channel Three has The Simpsons (3rd time today)
and Channel 4 has the Top 50 Rock Videos
so, Guns n' Roses are on C4 so it's back to C2 for us. I've been a big fan of Fear Factor in the past - my fondness for it has worn a little thin lately but I'm still glad to have it on my tv this evening. Parents and Children. No big boobs or pecs but mums n' dads and their offspring. First stunt: they have to walk along a thin woobly beam high over the water and snatch flags that dangle above. Because of the wind the last kid took over 30 minutes to get all her flags which was amazing tancity for a 12 year old. She and her mom were eliminated cos she took so freaking long.
*checks the simpsons* Bart seems to be liberating [stealing] the elderly.
*checks the Olympics* rowing.. oo New Zealand Coxless Pairs: Women (J Haigh/N Coles). Canada's leading right now.
*checks C4* oh Greeenday, When I Come Around number 33 - I have really shitty reception on this channel but it doesn't interfere with the sound. Haven't seen these guys in ages.
*Channel 2* Fear Factor - it's the gross stunt.. each child will be locked in a box and covered with cockroaches. The parent then has to remove roaches using only their mouth until the weight of the roaches is such that they can use a key ring full of keys and must find the right key to unlock the box and get the kid out.
*checks the simpsons* Smithers is doing a Titanic-esque sketch of Mr Burns.
*channel 4* oh yay.. Ed OBrian and Phil Selway talking to Jaqui Brown. It's interesting they are showing the video for High and Dry and it's not the one that they used to show. I bought the Radiohead DVD 7 TV Commercials a while back and saw this High and Dry video. The one I had remembered from television was different, being the band, outside, blue hued/black and white, desert-like, playing the song, then it started raining. yeh, I prefered that one.
*channel 3* Yay.. Star Wars:A New Hope- What a wonderful movie to put on a Saturday night to take away the sting of replacing the West Wing with the Olympics. Look, there are the ever-present 7 storm troopers and the asthmatic Darth Vader. Of course R2D2 is the most intelligent character bar none. Princess Leia has embedded her message into his memory banks and he and C3PO are about to jetisan themselves in an escape pod. Princess Leia is such a fiesty space chick. But she's no match for a storm troopers weapon set to stun. "Darth Vader, only you could be so bold." They've noticed the space pod has gone and they're gonna go down to the planet and check it out. It must be very difficult for droids to walk with sand in their joints. Especially R2D2's wheels.
*channel 4* - number 21 is Alice Cooper, Poison.
*channel 3* - the sand people look like they're gonna ambush the lone R2D2 oh no!
*channel 2* - okay so the mom and the boy won the car for the gross stunt on Fear Factor.. blech.. You could'nt pay me enough to put cochroaches in my mouth.
*channel 3* - Back to Star Wars and they've hoisted R2D2 into the hold of their sand tractor thingie and he's about to find the armless C3PO was captured before him. Oh here's one of those crappy director's cut scenes i hate with the stormtroopers on the planet surface figuring out the bolt they find in the sand is from a droid. what? you couldn't work that out by wheel tracks?. Now we meet Luke for the first time and find out he's a whinning farm boy. Meanwhile, back on the space ship Leia's continuing her fiestiness infront of insurmountable opposition from the Empire.
*c4* Number 29, Metallica - One.. or the One.. or whatever it is.. i hate Metallica.
*Channel 1* 100m Womens Butterfly
I might settle on Star Wars and save my poor weaky wristy - and your interest level.
Read MoreFQ TOPIC: Ego
FQ1: What is an activity that you can do better than anybody else you know?
Boil an egg to soft warm runny yolk perfection.
FQ2: What is a subject where you are smarter than anybody else you know?
Getting Away with Stuff - pick-pocketing in Science, thinking up sneaking-around things at boarding school, smoking in the toilets in the middle of the night etc etc
FQ3: What is a trait you possess that makes you superior to lesser humans?
I have the loudest voice around. My voice, when pitched right can cut through space and time. When I sing in church, people turn around to see who's making all that racket. When I laugh, the entire building hears me. My voice is bigger n' your voice. RAWRR!!!
FQ FICTION: Which of your many stellar accomplishments should be recorded in the history books?
I will be best remembered for my compassionate, considerate tolerance of others. My caring nature will be sorely missed and gratefully remembered by all those who were touched by my gentle soul.
Read MoreFinally Friday
"look.. Look! LOOK!! guys from the orchestra look oo he's cute oh wait a minute, no he's not so cute up close oh no actually um ew."
"they're orchestra guys! they don't call it a pit for nothing"
I miss Alex Wagner.
The New Zealand Ballet company performed Madame Butterfly last night at the Aotea Centre and we sat in Stalls/Row T. The seats were great. The scenery, lighting and music were spectacular - I swear, the stage sets and lighting trickery that goes into the NZBallet productions are never less than stunning. If I'd been to more shows overseas I'd say "leading the world in set design and staging" but I haven't so I won't (but I bet I'm right).
I found the dancers lightweight though. Is that a terrible thing to say about people who work so hard by someone who needs at least three naps a day?
Lieutenant Pinkerton, danced by Douglas McCubbin just seemed shakey and a bit all-over-the-place. I'm sure I was *supposed* to think him dashing and passionate. I wasn't at all convinced he was anything other than a complete cad (the character not the dancer) a pervy American soldier just trying to get himself a bit of Japanese kimono. He needs a hair cut too (the dancer not the character) all those blonde curls detract from his body line and make him look cluttered.
Amy Fote danced Butterfly. If she'd been any smaller she would have floated away. Her tiny frame and delicate hands seemed perfect but again, something was lost in translation.
To be honest, it felt like it should have been a matinee, not an evening performance. And as I say that I realise, that's exactly what the problem was - these dancers were the matinee cast. Originally, Craig Lord and Jane Turner had rehearsed these roles, but shortly before the season started, Lord sustained an injury and had to retire from the role.
Turner was then to dance with his understudy, Geordan Wilcox but then decided she would rather not dance at all in her last performance before retirement. In stepped Yu Takayama, Turner's understudy. So I'm thinking, McCubbin/Fote got bumped up to evening performance leaving Wilcox/Takayama to the matinees.
Ahh.. soo.
Well, I want to see Wilcox and Takayama dance Madame Butterfly but I doubt I have time to get to a matinee before the season ends here on Sunday.
Have to say, the theatre was full. The Ballet's ability to put bums on seats is a credit to the shows they put on for us. Truly, you have to see the staging to believe it. Simple, stunning - I mean, the staging gets applause all by itself most performances. Clever clever stage designers and crew.
I miss Alex Wagner.
I know the ache will dull with time but I also know it's going to take as long, if not longer than it took for me to move on from River Phoenix's death [ok i know i've not fully moved on from that either but I'm getting there] Not that Wagner has died of course but, being half a planet away I doubt I'll ever see him dance again and the stage is pale without him.
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