On Monday evevning we fought our way through the snow to go and see an off beat production at The Roundhouse in Camden. It was my choice, and based on me thinking we would be seeing something different and challenging...just the way I like my theatre. In fact Robert Lepage's Playing Cards is two and a half hours of tedium....some very clever staging but a bunch of ill-defined and uninteresting characters. It was quite a spectacle as you can see from these pictures...but it failed the 'bum test'...how long before you start wriggling on your seat - I managed ten minutes...leaving another another 140 to go. It did pass (oh for heavens sake!) the todger test...yes one of the male characters was all naked and flaunty. I'm still waiting for some theatre with boobs and bits, whilst The Cat's Mother keeps eye-balling the male offerings.
You know I like Street Art...well here's someone making our telephone exchange boxes a bit more attractive
Crowd sourcing is the new 'thing'. If you've not come across it, essentially it's about getting a large number of people to cough up a little money to make a thing happen. Most famous is 'Kickstarter'...currently trying to persuade a very large number of people to find some ready dollars to build a Death Star. If I remember rightly, they need $54,000,000,000,000. Which is quite a lot. I got involved once in the funding for some very clever bicycle lights...called REVO Lights. They've gone through all the testing, prototyping and so on before going into production. My set arrived. I read the instructions, realised that to fit them was more complicated than building a spacecraft, so they now sit unloved in the garage. If you knew how much I'd spent, you'd think I was an idiot.
Foolishly, I failed to donate to Lloyd Cole's latest album...he was looking for funds to pay for the recording of the music. I hesitated. I don't know why...I would love to have thought of myself as a record producer. I still feel the music world beckons. Anyway, the album will be out soon(ish)
My latest venture into Crowd Funding is 'Unbound'. I've contributed to the costs of publishing a book on Street Art here. If you fancy it, put a little bit of money in...you know I want you to.