January Sales and the Degradation of Society

The following is a work of humour, and should not be taken as a bitter man's rant on the January Sales and humanity as a whole. Despite the fact that that is exactly what it is.

Is it just me, or does humanity suffer a slight evolutionary lapse during that period just after Christmas and the middle of January? It appears that the whole of mankind declares "Well, enough's enough." and discards any sense of civility and common decency in favour of kicking each other's heads in. It's as if after being nice and polite to everybody for almost a year it's just too much, and all their pent up anger reveals itself in the glorious eruption of the January Sale Riots.

Now, I may be a misanthropic bastard at the best of times, but after tripping over a myriad of trousers, shoes, knickers, and elderly people, all casually strewn across the floors of even the most reputable retail outlets like fallen soldiers of some bloody war, I've achieved a new level of people-hating wonderment. Human behaviour has always fascinated me, largely because I've never really understood most of it. People will get into heated arguments as to how best to remove a red wine stain, where to park the car, or what paving slabs they should use for the patio, whilst I'd be more interested in discussing reality (the illusion of?) and the ethical implications of Hitler possibly being reincarnated as a starving African child as some kind of karmic debt.

The latter is apparently not appropriate 'light conversation' to have over Christmas dinner. Especially if you feel the need to stand up and goose-step energetically around the dining room... Mind you, it's better than doing it in the middle of a restaurant.

Anyway, I digress. I'm relatively certain I don't belong in the human race any more, either because I'm too highly evolved to be considered human (please stop your derisive laughter...) or am just a completely alien life-form. Or both. Or neither. Either way, consider this my resignation from humanity, I'll go and live with the dolphins if the aliens reject my application. But my point is I fail to see the logic behind the mob-mentality, general disregard for garments and readiness for combat all in the name of 50% off jeans... I can't help but feel that were we in the grips of a nuclear fallout this would be acceptable!

Back to the story at hand... I went to try a shirt on in the fitting rooms (as you do) and was instructed to use one of the vacant cubicles, a fairly obvious instruction I felt but I wasn't going to question this person's qualifications. The only problem was, there was no indicator as to whether a cubicle was vacant or not, so it was more changing-room roulette than shopping. Which sounds sort of fun when I word it like that. Anyway, I approached a door and went to open it (presuming, somewhat 'stupidly', that an occupied fitting room would be locked) only to find staring back at me a rather startled woman struggling into a fairly sizeable negligee. The best I could really offer in this circumstance was to back out of the cubicle apologising profusely whilst everyone in the area glared at me like I was a broad-daylight changing room rapist.

Admittedly, they can be forgiven for making such accusations considering the circumstances. I fear that were this to be a court case, it would very much be one sided. And not the one sided-ness that would be in my favour!

Perhaps I'm wrong (first time for everything, I suppose). Perhaps appropriate decorum for shopping is to fight your fellow man over a reduced garment, and to just throw anything that you either disprove of or is the wrong size on the floor. I'm sure the house-elves will be pleased to clean it up afterwards.
Hopefully society will recover by the middle of January, but until then there's only one tactfully designed shirt left in Marks and Spencer's and it's every man for himself!

National Novel Writing Month - A Retrospective

I went into National Novel Writing Month at the beginning of November with a spring in my step and a song in my heart, and with my wide and dewy eyes I gazed upon the word count that was to be my goal. 50,000 words.  Having only found out about this event 3 days into it, I would have to average 1851 words a day which, whilst seemingly a little steep, was perfectly manageable.

Under certain circumstances.

One of said circumstances is that you can keep your imagination from bouncing around like an over-excitable labradoodle. I started with a respectable and serious novel with deep philosophical and political connotations which would put our entire social paradigm into question, but before long I noticed small cracks starting to appear, revealing a sense of humour beneath it. Not that this novel didn't have room for humour, but the contrast between the main narrative and these snippets of wit and whimsy was so stark that it would have been more subtle to walk into an office with an electric blue mohawk and a 'My Little Pony' briefcase. It wouldn't work!


Unfortunately, my imagination spotted this and leapt onto the idea with the fervour of a horde of crazed rabbits that have just seen something that rabbits really like (don't think too much about that metaphor, I certainly didn't). Suddenly, I had the idea for the novel I was writing at the time, a sequel, a completely different novel, and about two or three plays running rampant in my mind.

There was also an infinite number of monkeys at my door wanting to talk to me about a script for 'Hamlet' they'd worked out, but I told them I had enough problems of my own and to come back sometime next week.

Anyway, in conclusion, I've decided to dedicate myself to my imagination, take it out for candle-lit meals, long walks, and write a novel in my own time rather than try and squeeze a story out within a month.

Great Gorilla Run

I know what you're thinking. "Bron, you charismatic stallion, it's been over a week since the Great Gorilla Run. Why haven't you Blogged anything?" Unfortunately, despite having a blog, I'm not the most frequent of bloggers. Regardless, the past week has been filled of it's own distractions to derail my focus from blogging (as infrequent as it is).

Well, what can I say about the event? It was a not un-windy day, and somewhat cold. Despite this, the gorillas still removed their heads to reveal they were actually sweat-drenched humans afterall. There was a substantial amount of supporters, mostly gathered around the start/finish line up Mincing Lane (close to Monument), where Bill Oddie awaited to hand out medals to each runner as they crossed the line to the sound of an all-gorilla percussive band.



I'm not entirely sure what else I can say about the event!
A thousand people hopped into some gorilla costumes and went for a run around central London, leaving pedestrians and drivers baffled. Most amusingly was the bloke out for a casual run, completely oblivious of the event, suddenly being overtaken by a band of gorillas. I sincerely hope he still doesn't quite understand what went on to this day...

Oh, and a most gratuitous thank you to Bill Bailey for posting about this event to his followers on Twitter - the Animal Ledger website received so many views from his tweet that the bandwidth had to be upgraded! Bill Bailey is a supporter of both the Sumatran Orangutan Society and International Animal Rescue, and we really appreciate him publicising this event in the hope of gaining more sponsors.

Great Gorilla Run

This Sunday, my friend Sonia will be joining a thousand other gorilla-costume-clad runners as they take to the streets of London in a 7km charity fun run to aid the plight of the great mountain gorilla, of which only 720 remain in the wild (gorillas, not runners). 


For further information and details on how to donate, please visit http://www.animalledger.com/greatgorillarun.htm


I'll attempt to blog the event whilst there, and write a few catch-up posts to fill in the almost-two-month gap between my last post and this one at some point too.

Website Updated

Pictures from Romeo and Juliet have now been uploaded onto my website. Thanks to Steve Hawker for these brilliant images!
More pictures from the performances will follow at a later date.

Yesterday we had our final rehearsal before the opening night. Things ran smoothly and quickly, with scenes slipping seamlessly into eachother. The occasional passer-by would come and receive a free preview of a scene or two before carrying on their way, probably unnerved by being spoken to by 16th Century nobility...

A few weeks back I did a bit of in-costume advertising in and about the town with... mixed reception. Some people were actually interested and obligingly took a leaflet (although probably only because they saw me reaching for my rapier), whilst others found it easier to turn a blind eye on the tall man in green. Personally I thought the doublet and cape were much more trendy than contemporary clothes, but each to his own!

Opening night is tomorrow night at Christchurch Priory House. 'Doors' open at about 18:30 and the performance starts at 19:30 (with a little introduction about ten minutes prior from the various supporting artists to immerse the audience into the story and lull them into a false sense of security!).

Romeo and Juliet - Update

Following the weeks of selected scene work and running the production's segments, we're now on to full run throughs. Given Shakespeare's love of wordiness, no doubt these will last long into the night! We're presently working with very few cuts to the script, but chances are some elements will have to be trimmed if it appears the audience won't be leaving their seats until midnight.

Opening night is in just under two weeks now - whilst it feels like this whole run-up has been brief, I also can't remember a time without it! Tickets are available from Christchurch Tourist Information and on the 'door' (although, being outside, there is no actual door... just a man called John).

Romeo and Juliet

After several weeks of running read-throughs and blocking some of the scenes, rehearsals for the open-air production of Romeo and Juliet have now moved to the performance space in Christchurch. Presently it's just a lot of grass with entrances marked by jumpers, but at least we now have a feel for our environment!

Having auditioned back at the beginning of February, I was cast as Count Paris. Despite being the suitor of Juliet and opposition to Romeo, I maintain Paris is no villain - he's merely courting the wrong woman at the wrong time given the central events of the narrative. That doesn't stop him from being arrogant, imperious and pompous, though!

Breakfast in Fitzrovia

It sounds more like a film noir title, which is a musing for another day. Anyway, it's a marvellous morning, so I decided to sit in Fitzroy Square for a spot of breakfast. Terribly pleasant start to a day!

Oh my god... It's the longest queue in the world...