July 29, 2009
Ketchup
Um. Been awhile, hasn't it? Despite a promising start, this July must stand as a leading candidate for the slackest month in the (now 6-year, FFS) history of WT. Doing much worse will be hard, but hey, I can give it a go.
In the meantime, what have you missed? Really not all that much. Work proceeds at the same glacial pace, little advances, little steps back. Scientific equipment companies are the bane of my life. Or is it just science? Is there hope? Who can tell anymore?
There have been a few cultural outings that I probably can't even remember. Let's see. C de la B's Ashes -- choreographed by Koen Augustijnen, previously responsible for Bâche and Import/Export -- was frankly underwhelming, with remarkably little in the way of bite and intensity for a show ostensibly about death. The music and singing were marvellous, though, and there was a bit of trampolining fun as well. Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui's Shaolin Monks frolic Sutra was much better, vigourous and articulate and beautiful; I liked it even more this time than on its first outing. The Hayward's Walking in My Mind exhibition occupies an equivalent conceptual space to last year's Psycho Buildings and I found it similarly unremarkable. Um, what else? Terminator Salvation was noisy useless dreck, but still not as teeth-grindingly dreadful as number 3. Zowie Bowie's Moon, on the other hand, is a bleakly brilliant flashback to the days when SF films had something to offer other than explosions and eye candy. Not that I've got anything much against the latter, but. (On which subject, Dexter -- need I say more?) And BSG's finale was contrived and annoying in more ways than you can shake a stick at, irksomely revisiting the hack screenwriter's equation of plotting with divinity that makes Signs so fucking emetic, but you have to admire the chutzpah of certain aspects, such as the casual final subtitle "150,000 years later"...
The summer has been rubbish, and we seem to be facing the prospect of another 40 days and 40 nights of rain. Even so, I've managed quite a bit of park time skating, and am now girding my loins for a return to the scene of the crime. Eek.
Before that, though, there's a few days in North Wales for, among other things, Ian's birthday. Back next week, but I can't promise to post.
Posted by matt at July 29, 2009 10:01 PM