Amit Drori

Amit Drori an Israeli puppeteer this evening at The Barbican in the Pit followed by an aftershow discussion. He has put an obsessional amount of work into his robotic animals....a turtle, an elephant mother and child, a crane, and a gazelle...incredibly whimsical almost swallowed by the stage. I felt that there was too much clutter on the stage with the wooden boxes which seemed just like haphazard packing crates and pointed to the idea of a show touring....and the work behind the scenes, but the Japanese tree which they assembled was light, cut beautiful angles and went with the mood of the Savannah and the Indian music wafting in. It was hard to piece together the story. There were snippets of ideas.....his mother's piano....then elephants in the Savannah.....I felt like it was a work in progress which grew out of the robotics which obviously had been lovlingly and thoughtfully produced. I feel like they need more space for the robotics to interact and more choreography. I was also not sure of the intent of the tent. They assembled a tent and stayed in it for a while while maeuvering the puppets. However, if they wanted to hide, I think that something less literal would be fitting. The tent takes on a whole different meaning in itself and I was not satisfied that it worked itself into the storyline. In the discussion, Amit explained that he just wanted to put a tent on the stage and camp out.....perhaps in relation to it being a travelling show....but I felt it was not necessary. Although, this might sound critical, it was an enjoyable piece to watch.

Saturday-Theatre

Hard to get Ben out today, but got him to do his math and writing homework. V came over and we went to Jacksons Lane to see a one man show from the mime festival. Best part, he had a huge steel wheel that he got inside and rolled around on stage meanwhile juggling...each ball a different name of a past girlfriend, telling snippets of his life in prison...quite spotty...not sure if he really was....didn't make a convincing ex-con apart from the muscles....a dove coming down from the ceiling while he was playing guitar...sort of cabaret mixture. Italian. Tube down, but made it in time as they started the performance late because of it. Subway for Ben afterwards in Camden town. Told we had to leave after purchase...take away only. Not stepping out into the cold with a child who can barely hold one of those big sandwiches. Some police order about no seated customers after 8pm. No one else in the shop. Use your pea sized brain...look around. Is that really breaking the law? Eating a sandwich while standing up in a take-away? too bad.. Arrest me. Sort of attitude these sandwich makers have....why they never get ahead. I find rules like that extremely tedious and ever more present...and the people who have to enforce them get paid minimum wage. Pathetic. 

Televisions From Other Galaxies

Televisions from Other Galaxies.....silkscreen print exhibited at Summer Exhibition of Royal Academy. This print was inspired by Chinese pictograms and heiroglyphs.

Christmas Rush

Christmas play today. Ben in a white tunic doing some Russian Cossack dancing.  Lucy was at the piano so I took a picture of her son for her. A walk in Hyde Park this morning. Check in, tickets, boarding passes, passports sorted. Yesterday, house cleaning was productive. House Beautiful. A nice afternoon. It snows in California.

Bad Titles

Cycled up to Camden Town and dropped off cup to Cliff...pet man. He was pleased. His mother isn't well. Ben really needed a new bike. Five minutes in the shop and came out with new BMX bike.... a blue GT.  He is happy with his new ride. Then to shop to get birthday presents for Pam and Saffar....some dvds. Regents Park to see Brigitte but didn't have much time before party. Rode home in half an hour passing Villandry and Holiday Inn and the BT tower... and then to party in Shoreditch. Alice there. They are going to Puerto Rico on Saturday. A fantastic Asian food supermarket found on the 55 bus route...Longan. Got curly squid tentacles, dim sum, seaweed paper for sushi, deep fried bean curd etc. Yumbo. Ben loves miso and sushi too. xx An art gallery....chatted and made some contact. Street type work. Mixture. A Cuban artist with twelve foot mashed up metal buckets in rectangles...I liked. Otherwise... tattoo like stuff. bad titles... but a cool venue....a damp old train depot. Then to furry coat man who had Bobby Brown on the turntable, stopped by to say hello, but ended up with another one...black this time. So funny...a chat with two girls there and Jude...long intriguing chat with one main topic.

Oh Yes. And there was another mass shooting in America. I saw the headline on the way to the park. I had my little Guardian coupon for getting the paper....but most newsagents don't take this. I like what Morgan Freeman has to say about it. These things need less media coverage as the sick people who do these things have nothing to offer but want to go down with a little fame.....and all the reports focussed on the shooter, not the victims. People remember the name of the killer, but not a single name of any of the innocent people who die. Touch wood, but mass shootings don't seem to have caught on here yet.

Nice time carolling on Sunday Evening in Shoreditch. The American Ex pat meet up group did a Mexican brunch, but an odd assortment of people...didn't really click in fact there was nothing American about it. Don't think I met one American person there. Stick to the hiking group.
 

De-cluttering

Didn't drown in the pool this morning after an English at Andrews. Crap magician had guests arriving so couldn't accompany. Mine came at noon....Taiwan....two nights. They are cold. I have given them two duvets. Hungarian goose down. Couldn't turn the radiator knob. Need some muscle for that. Apparently, Crap Magician's child has never peed in the bin....but mine has. A first. Chatted with a mesophitic guy doing pool walking. He said swimming was boring. Boring pools. As if pool walking is a step up. He said he was starting a de-cluttering business. I have waded through a few items in the back of the closet and produced a big black bag of stuff that I downloaded at Calthorpe today. Part of it was meant for Leather Lane, but they took everything....clothes, toys....all except a bike part. That old bike part...still have it. Big orange raincoat from Folk today....self-present. Still can't find the shed key. Clive bringing a suitcase for me.

Ran into Anne's husband in Leather Lane. Nice chat. Back and forthe between here and Exeter. Dress needs taking up. Tailor had big grin suggesting I try the dress on in the back for him to take it up. Said I'd wait for the seamstress on Monday. Didn't leave the dress with him. He quipped about that.

Do...the shop in Covent Garden interested in seeing my work. A quick stop by on the way to see Julian at the gallery to catch up. South of France since late June. Said I looked like a Christmas present. ha ha. He's showing ceramic plates with quirky text....Handmade. Quite similar to what I do. Quirky text....hmm.  Meet again in the new year. Meet our left wing artist....? Mayfair...left wing...? Do I have anything else to pull out of the hat. Furry Hat. Clive over to dinner. Had to toss out the big pheasant yesterday. rancid. But had some pheasant breasts. Mash with sausage, onion, and cabbage. Nice and some curried cabbage that I felt was a bit too exotic to go with everything else. Clive has a friend called Jane. Her lover had taken a photo of the spare bedroom beforehand so that he could put it all back in place...BBC music producer...lives out of town. Not many of them. What a small world.

Brigitte

Brigitte over for dinner tonight. A goodbye roast duck as she is returning to Hungary on Wednesday. I will miss her smiling face and our good times. She might be back. It depends if she can find a teaching job in Hungary and still needs to pass the written English exam.  A swim yesterday...long and luscious swim. Had not been in the pool for a week. More dinner plates painted today. More teapots in need of paint. Ben glued to the iphone. One last week of school. Hope to take him to winter wonderland and see Brigitte one more time before she goes. Perhaps Brick Lane or Hampstead Heath...see about a concert somewhere on the weekend. Ben's question this morning was rather koan like...Can you walk slowly fast? So we tried walking slowly. I showed him two forms of slow walking....Walk slow and think fast....walk slowly, think slowly... a Japanese moment. So he tried it a few times. I have the impression he's a smart boy.