Mar
8
2011
Ripped Jeans Credibility
Made less so by posting online
Feb
21
2011
Reflections: Diciembre – Teatro en el Blanco @ Brisbane Powerhouse
Diciembre is a near future fable of love, war, patriotic duty and familial love.
Set in not too distant future, Chile is at war with both Bolivia and Peru in a seemingly repeat of the War of the Pacific.
A brother home for Christmas is confronted by his pregnant twin sisters each with their own plans for his future. The older (i think) wants him to fulfil his patriotic duty and kill as many of the opposition as he can, while his younger sister, wants him to run away, flee the army and find refuge in the South.
It’s brave work. Not least because it was not so long under the Regime of Pinochet ago that such a work would not have been possible. Continue reading
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Feb
13
2011
Reflections: Apollo 13 Mission Control @ Brisbane Powerhouse
The set of apollo 13 showing audience in their roles
Raise your hand if you like a bit of Tom Hanks in a tin can?
You know what I mean. The movie Apollo 13. It is just bloody good fun, in that whole will he or wont he kind of way. Spoiler. He does.
Question. Take this story based on the events of the ill-fated Apollo 13 mission and then stick it on stage where the audience (or at least a good deal of them) is in mission control and what do you have?
Well, want you don’t have is the will he or wont he. Not because there isn’t a Tom Hanks in sight, and certainly not because the fundamental story isn’t gripping. It is, regardless of familiarity.
But perhaps primarily because of the way it is done. This is an experiment in immersive theatre where the audience is involved in the re-telling of the drama. This is it’s strength and it’s weakness.
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Feb
6
2011
Daily word count targets.
Some thoughts.
I’ve never really been a big fan of specific word count writing goals such as those that drive people through NaNoWriMo.
Primarily because I’ve never had too much trouble sitting down and writing a bunch of words and being satisfied with that. But also because I never really needed to know when something would be done – exactly. I was happy enough relying on my internal writing clock measuring progress with a rough estimate of a finish month – well finish quarter.
Then I got older. Then I realised there were only so many writing days left and still so much more I wanted to put down. Not that I’m an old man or anything, but still.
So instead? Well, drafts need to be done by a fixed date. Which means weekly writing goals, which really means daily word count targets.
Blurgh!
Continue reading
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Jan
28
2011
Reflections on incentives in ticketing theatre
This little reflection starts with a though:
That Broadly speaking, and in comparison to interstate, Brisbane people tend to buy their tickets only a couple of weeks before the show is on. That is, there is no pre-sales to speak of.
If true, this is a bit of problem, at least an economic one.
Seemingly like everyone else, I’ve recently watched Freakconomics and their conversation on incentives got me thinking about what incentives might be pushing patrons to act like this.
Well, frankly there seems to be a few of big ones right off the bat:
- Stalling for time gives you options. Including the option of not spending any money at all, the option of going to the movies, going out for something to eat, even staying at home and watching a bit of Bondi Vet.
- People don’t like planning ahead. Exception to this is if it’s something we’re looking forward too, but even then we can be pretty slack. It’s all stressful and icky. Especially if we’re trying to get other people involved or make a fun evening for a loved one. Besides, isn’t the ultimate night out one that just seems to happen without any for-thought?
- Regular theatre punters don’t really like to punt. They like to know something will be good before they go. So if they can hold off on tickets until their mates tell them how good something is, then why not?
Okay fine, but are there incentives to buy sooner?
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Jan
22
2011
Overdropping
Mash-up words are fun.
You know that oft-times irreverent combing of the morphemes of two words so as to form something new.
Despite the young wanting to claim everything cool as they’re own invention, they’re nothing new. Lewis Carol who invented a good many in the delightful nonsense poem Jabberwocky called them Portmanteau, so named after a French travelling suit case which opened into two halves.
At best they fill a meaning gap, offering an idea instantly recognisable though previously unspeakable – they open outwards revealing the well fit contents of their interior.
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Jan
20
2011
Mentee, Mentoree, Meant what?
A friend of mine recently disparagingly commented on a mentoring program for their use of the word “mentee”.
To quote: “You’d think a mentoring program would know there’s no such word.”
For those of you thinking I’m being needlessly fastidious and that I’m going to say the word should be mentoree, you’d be wrong, as mentoree is not a word either.
Say what?
It’s true. Both of these constructs reflect the same kind of grammatical over extension toddlers make when they say things like swammed or runned.
It’s as if people have searched through their recollections of word forms and dragged out good old:
- addressor/addressee
- departor/departee
- abductor/abductee
and applied it to mentor.
Well, what’s wrong with that?
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Jan
16
2011
Google Docs for Writers
For some months I have been using google docs to write.
This might seem like somewhat of a no-brainer, after all it is a word processor so what else would it be used for exactly?
Well, creative writers can be a sketchy lot, part fancy, part reality, part party. For the most part we’re not very good with change, even though that’s what we write about, and we don’t like trusting out precious to some unknown other that’s sitting somewhere out there in The Cloud.
The Cloud? Seriously it just doesn’t build confidence.
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Jan
14
2011
Why I Use Ubuntu / Linux
It wasn’t so long ago that I was laughing with a friend of my about how Linux tended to make evangelists out of its users.
I would shake my head in pity for the poor people who had nothing better to talk about then their new operating system.
It’s strange how one changes.
1. Stability.
Having been a Microsoft (windows) user since the early nineties, it seems a pretty odd time to switch away from windows given that with windows 7 Microsoft seems to just about made as stable an operating system as Microsoft is ever going to make.
What got my goat though is the increasing cost of this stability:
I mean, first money for the new operating system.
Then for your hardware.
Then for antivirus etc to make is safe.
Then the bugger needs gigs of ram just to sit there and do nothing.
Both the monetary and resources costs were just plain annoying.
(That and my damn windows machine kept crashing when left on overnight.)
Lesson: Stability issues makes one look elsewhere.
Continue reading
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Jul
28
2010
Review: I Love You, Bro – La Boite
Charming, delicate, and deliciously self-mocking this lovingly crafted one man show is an absolute winner.
Johnny is a fourteen year old logged onto a chat room as LBJ. There he meets Markymark. A football star a couple of years his senior. Markymark mistakes LBJ to be a girl. Oh the deliciousness of it all. What pranks could a fourteen year boy pull on the older lad? Well, not so much of a prank. No, in fact, Johnny falls in love with him.
For serious right? Well, yes, but also a lot of bloody fun.
You see, what is poor old Johnny (as LBJ) going to say to him when he wants to meet? That’s right, Markymark is a regular horny teenage boy who’s going to want to see this LBJ in the flesh (if you get my drift), I mean, really wants to see this LBJ. Clearly this isn’t going to work for Johnny. And so the real deception begins. LBJ gets a step-brother, then another step-brother (actually Johnny) then a dangerous ex-boyfriend out for revenge, parents, obviously – and well – the cast of fictitious characters begins to outweigh the actual. Indeed a veritable army of online handles come into existence all designed to help Johnny get his man. And does he? Well, you’ll have to see it.
Our hero is brilliantly writ and played. The language walks this beautiful balance of teenage innocence crossed with an adult sophistication able to comment on the shear absurdity of the increasingly complex story Johnny creates.
Sure the play captures unrequited love, but perhaps more interestingly, there is a real art to the way Johnny goes about playing his creations. Throwing himself deep into the lie, so even he begins to lose sight of the real.
I Love You, Bro is one of those rare theatrical treats where we get to be kids and adults, where we laugh, where we barrack for our hero, where we go on the roller-coaster too. Although it is based of an English story, it’s Australian theatre at its most fine.
Recommended for all. Take a date, take you’re mum, take your son. Either way you’ll get a good laugh and a fine night out.
Show watched Thursday 22nd July 2010.
Playing at La Boite Theatre at the Roundhouse. Season extended until 15th Aug 2010.
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about
A writer, producer and blogger with a passion for storytelling. Glen lives in Brisbane but dreams of New York, has a Grad Dip in Education but doesn't like teenagers, watches really average movies even thought they annoy him, loves to drive but doesn't own a car, yearns for more adventure in his life. Needs a new pair of jeans, perhaps a nice dark blue colour. Spells colour with a "u". Currently reading: Mind the Gaffe, and The Doubter's Companion Occasionally he writes reflections of theatre, books and film, as well as small novelties.
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