A Christmas Carol

And why, pray tell, have I been so quiet of late? Surely not due to a total mental breakdown following the Cardiff Players production of Amanda Whittington's The Thrill of Love?

Well, partly due to that. But it's mainly because my energies are currently being focussed into their next production, an adaptation of Dicken's A Christmas Carol. And yes, they want projected images for it. Two sets of projected images to be precise. I'll just put that nervous breakdown off until the New Year, shall I...

Having proved myself somewhat proficient at producing trailers (three teasers and one full for The Thrill of Love), I was requested to produce one for this production. Luckily I was way ahead of them, as I had already starting plotting a trailer for this while I was creating The Thrill trailers.

The starting point was always going to be the star in the Cardiff Players logo (which, by the way, is a masterfully designed one by Fred Skilton and gives me so much scope when composing the trailers). From there I shamelessly channelled one of my all time heroes, the pioneering cinematic master Mr Georges Méliès, in the cloud/cityscape imagery and the old-style film look. As with the previous mini-movies, this provided me with an opportunity to delve further into what the versatile program Final Cut Pro could do, and presented me with new challenges - none more so that the cityscape which took a fair few hours to figure out!

I would like to thank Jonathan Wheeler of the use of his face as 'Marley-in-the-door-knocker'. (Jon is actually playing Marley in this production). He doesn't really look that gaunt - I had to 'ghost' him up considerably using Photoshop to get that look! I'm also pleased with the door knocker I found using Google search, though I was a bit dubious about putting in the search term 'victorian knockers' for fear of what  it brought back...

Anyway, there 'tis.

The Gaiety

It has been my intention for a while to write a story based in the now abandoned Gaiety cinema on City Road in Cardiff. Up until its closure it was renamed 'Spin' and turned into a bowling alley/nighclub affair - here is an excellent webpage giving a history of the buildings and pictures taken in 2011 when the place was well and truly abandoned.

One of the girls from the photographic course I was on late last year tried to gain access to the building as it now is, but found it full of squatters who didn't really want anyone intruding, be it for artistic purposes or not. And this got me thinking...

Why not write a story based around a community ensconced in one such abandoned building, purposely cutting themselves off from the world outside? The idea rattled round my head for a few months and ideas of how to approach it formulated. But it never really made it onto paper. Or even virtual paper.

Then, as the approach I had decided upon would be diaristic, why not publish it as blog entries? After all, Dickens published his work in journals and such. Not that I am claiming to be a Dickens by any stretch of the imagination.

Anyway, nothing ventured and all that... here is a link to The Gaiety.

Fringe Benefits II - style icons, serenading inmates, intimate late-night encounters... and noodles.

Yes, it's that time again when we take our annual pilgrimage north of the border into the cultural chaos that is the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. And this year's choice of shows was even more eclectic than last's.

For a start the first venue was Edinburgh's Cineworld; not an obvious choice, but it was to see a rather rare event - a nationwide live feed to selected cinemas from the David Bowie exhibition at the V&A. Having failed to even get near visiting this highly acclaimed look at this pop icon's life (booked out until eternity and now finished) this was a chance to get a taste of what we had missed and also witness a superb documentary about this extraordinary performer's life and work.

From there to laughs - the annual favourite 'Shakespeare For Breakfast', whose sub-title this year was 'The Reclaiming of the Shrew', wonderfully grafting the William and Kate story into the bard's comedy.  And you gotta get a bit of stand-up in there too, this year in the motherly shape of Jenny Eclair, a comedienne I've been wanting to see live for soooo long. And man was she funny - so much so that at one point I nearly lost consciousness laughing so much - her menopausally obscene rantings striking a chord with many a woman of a similar age in the audience.

Lets not forget the art too, with superb exhibitions of the stylish photographs from Condé Nast (at the City Art Centre) and the wonderfully surreal work of Man Ray (at the Scottish Portrait Gallery). And then to musical theatre in the shape of the brilliant Kiss of the Spider-Woman - The Musical from the Musical Theatre Society, superbly staged and performed. Then to circus - the incredibly surreal but eye-poppingly spectacular show 'Noodles' from Cardiff based troupe extraordinaire NoFit State. I may well be avoiding that particular carbohydrate for some time after witnessing that...

But the highlight for me was the highly intimate two-hander 'between', written by Oskar Brown and directed by Geoffrey Hyland. Performed at 11.30 (that's p.m.) in a tiny space at the Surgeon's Hall off Nicolson Street the play unflinchingly focused on intimate relations between men, be they gay, straight or undecided. It was originally developed as a student production by Brown at the University of Cape Town Drama department and was then re-invented for Fringe productions with the help of multi-award winning director Hyland. Brown performs with fellow South African Nicholas Campbell amongst a sea of blue papers (which by the way were all of Shakespeare's 154 sonnets printed in various sizes) in various states of undress and physical proximity. The effect is sometimes unsettling given the closeness of the actors to the audience; the sense of voyeurism is palpable. But then that is the point, to be exposed to that intimacy no matter how uncomfortable it may be. A brilliant piece of minimal theatre.

And then, of course, there was all that was in between; the inevitable leaflet-strewn struggle down the Royal Mile, stopping for some over-priced tea at Patisserie Valerie (or Val's Cake Shop as we dubbed it), perusing the pissed punters on Grassmarket and meeting up with Barry for several pints at that old gay hang-out The New Town. A wonderful but woefully short visit.

Oh and update on the tram system; they have finished it! But no trams are running on it yet. Not until next year at least.

The Sharply Dressed Artist

It has been a pleasure to be recently introduced to a very talented - and very well attired - local artist; Mr Christopher Langley. He was suggested as a contact though a mutual friend who knew we had something in common - the appreciation of suit and ties (and smart dress generally).

I met Chris for the first time the Red Dragon Centre's Costa coffee bar during a lunch break. I was wearing a white, short-sleeved shirt and hastily slung on a tie before leaving the car in order to impress. It did not, so he told me later! Oh the tie did, but not the way I had tied it. Before long he was showing me how to master the Windsor knot and such, and the extolling benefits of wearing a tie loosely so not to feel strangled or constrained.

And now I am hooked on the look - this has proven to be the image change that I was searching for. Oh, I had always had a fascination for the suit and tie look, the way it idealises the masculinity of the male body with its emphasis on broad shoulders and tapering waists, with the tie giving the whole ensemble a sense of symmetry. (And there are certain websites that are dedicated to this form of dress, but let's not go there, shall we.) And now I have established the basics, I want to delve further into my other passion... waistcoats!!

Being friends with such an influential individual does have its benefits too... afternoon tea at the Celtic Manor in Newport, dinner at the Liberal Club in London... I could so get used to that.

As I mentioned earlier, Chris is a talented artist and his work can be seen in Cardiff and its surroundings. Just last week he had an open evening of his paintings at the Waterloo Teahouse in Roath, where his colourfully rendered images of the locality brighten the walls of the establishment, reflecting the summer mood. He even created several works of original art on the train back from London, using the Inspire Pro application on my iPad mini. To see these wondrous images appear before my very eyes was indeed a privilege.

And, of course, here is a plug for Chris's website. Let me just state that I am writing and raving about Chris's works of my own accord - he did not ask me to do this! Honest, guv.

Metal Arithmetic

First of all ... Happy New Year!

Second of all ... how to approach 2013??

I don't appear to have a strategy for this year - actually nothing new there as I'm perilously disorganised at the best of times, with the exception of last year when the first month was dedicated to urgent family matters. So after the first 24 hours of the new year clicked round I started thinking about what I want/need to achieve over the next 52 weeks.

And to be honest, nothing concrete materialised. Oh, I know there is a lot going on in January to focus on; tap starts next week, photography intermediate the week after and ongoing video work for Cardiff Players' upcoming Robin Hood pantomime which will involve a crash course in how to produce beautiful and complex sequences using Final Cut Pro. Oh and a visit to Belfast in February. And deciding what to do for Stu's 50th in April. (Actually that particular F-word is not to be uttered - according to Stu he will be 'forty-ten'. Bless.)

But overall I couldn't foresee an overall plan for the year. Not that it bothered me though; after the stress of 2012's inaugural month, I decided a relaxed attitude to 2013 is needed - focus on the small things and see what happens. Let events in this particular 365 days evolve organically, treat the year as a tabula rasa. Mind you, it is only the 2nd of January. May have changed my mind by tomorrow.

But I'm keeping an exercise book by my side this year and jotting all notions, no matter how barmy, impractical or depraved into it. And a list of things I simply have to do. Like breathe, eat, sleep...

On more immediate matters, what to watch as my first outing at the cinema tonight... Quartet? Pitch Perfect? Life of Pi? The Hobbit? (actually probably not the latter as it is likely to be around for at least the next three months...)

And finally, what's with the title? No idea - it just repeated itself round my head, annoyingly and persistently during the night and was the first thing I thought of when I woke up. If anyone can offer a meaning for this bizarrely playful juxtaposition of words, be my guest.

Usque ad proximam tempus...