Cyberclogs

OK finally bothering to get around to writing up about seeing Sonic Youth on Wednesday night just there and I have to say they were pretty damn good overall. Their main set comprised mainly of the Daydream Nation album, which of course any Youthie fan will know stands as a sort of milestone in their recording career and generally considered one of their more accessible albums. And they played every last song off it, which was pretty impressive. Sadly I felt after they finished the Daydream set, they played a bunch of songs I wasn't familiar with and a few of which didn't really impress me, so I felt they could have probably have picked a tauter set for the rest of the gig. Ah well hey ho, from what I understand Sonic Youth were doing this tour by picking out different albums and using them as the main set, so guess other songs I was looking for would have popped up there. I shouldn't complain too much cos they are on of the most influential alt rock bands around and they don't often come to Glasgow so it was great to see them at last.

Also on a different note I watched Shooter tonight with Mark Whalberg in ultra serious mode as a top rate sniper, Sgt Swagger who is hired to provide a diversion to prevent an assassination attempt on the President of the USA. But things go awry and Swagger is framed and forced to go on the run from the authorities. Directed by Anton Fuqua (Training Day) I was expecting this movie to be pretty good and thankfully it was, although it did lack a certain amount of credibility in places (two guys could easily take out an entire rebel assault team? Yeah sure with no scratches!). Its also not the best performance Mark Whalberg has ever given, he's OK in it, don't get me wrong, but he's just playing it as straight as can be. But the pacing of the movie is just about right and the action is really good, Fuqua is a real good action director I have to say. So give Shooter a look in once (or twice if you're keen).

Just for a change I thought I would incorporate a few things into one blog entry: first off the Simpsons Movie:

I thought I was really good, a great laugh from start to finish, it was like they had saved up all their reserve good jokes over the past few years and instead waste them on a handful of good Simpson Episodes put them to good use in a whole movie (let's face it the later episodes of The Simpsons aren't too great). Highlights include Bart's naked skateboarding (the humourous covering up of his parts is hilarious), Homer in Alaska whipping his huskies as they ride over a mountain gap (and he continues to whip them until they attack him!). There are many others but I don't want to spoil them. Suffice to say the Movie of the Simpsons is a rather good one, not to mention funny.

New College:

The new Clydebank College, what can I say is a rather lovely modern building, very plush, very spacious, lots of room, with some of the most obscenely lengthy corridors you will see (It feels like being in the set of The Shining). It also has a lovely view of the Queens Quay, and you can see boats and ships floating up and down from out of my office window, wonderful eh? The downside is of course it will soon be plagued with lecturers and students all running round trying to find out where they are going, and coming to us lot for the answers (fekkin nightmare really!). Choas will soon erupt, also it will be a shame to see if a groups of neds trying to vandalise a pristine new building, for that they should be expelled forever and sent ot the darkest corner of Hades. Ermmm, anyway, its pretty good.

Night out tonight: Quite enjoyed my latest acting chums night out tonight, five of us turned up tonight, as the we decided just to go ahead with the night out since one of the number (Miriam) who got into acting college couldn't make it, so we went to Bar Bloc then onto the Counting House (which I have to say seem to serve some lovely food). Its always very nice to meet up with acting crowd, as they're such an affable bunch, so big cheers for Scott, Teresa, Paul and Mhairi for showing up and providing some fun banter. Just back in, in fact, goddamn, taxi fares from the town are bloody expensive!!

Anyway that's my rambling for tonight, think I'll turn in and pass out.

Well, I'm finally getting round to writing about my day at the festival on Sunday there, as it was the first day of the Edinburgh Fringe Festival and I was meeting up with some of my acting class crowd (namely: Scott, Teresa, Alan, Miriam, Lynn, Gordon and myself) to go and see some shows. On the whole it was a real good day, so please forgive this entry as it will be a biggie.

The first play we saw Long Time Dead by Rona Munro (who also wrote Sylvester McCoy's last Dr Who story, the dire Survival, don't worry this play was way better than that!) about three mountaineers who go through personal and physical struggles while climbing. The actors in the play were excellent and having taken some acting classes myself I could kind of see some of the process of their acting namely that they used their "fourth wall" alot (staring off at something off stage or envisaging something in the play that was offstage). For a drama though there was plenty of humour and some really funny one-liners, I didn't know any of the cast, but the two men were both great and very natural while the women were very good, I felt the younger of the two wasn't quite as good. Some of my acting crowd also felt the older women who played the nurse who treated the wounds of the mountaineers wasn't terribly convincing at her part, although I thought she was pretty good, but do I agree she struggled to convey her emotions, when it came to being upset. The play did kind of lose its pacing in the second half though, and the ending felt a bit slapped on (suffice to say one of the characters didn't mind losing some limbs too much!).

After some lunch we went on to see the second play, which was a stage musical of Debbie Does Dallas, which I was really impressed with as it was so well choreographed, and the performers were all first class singers too (Pop Idol and X Factor were looking in the wrong places for singing talent, they have nothing on these guys!). Plenty of innuendo and smut of course, but there were plenty of laughs too, and the fact that the whole musical was done on the floor so close to the audience was also quite interesting (or arousing since it was alot of young hot women prancing around short skirts and tops). At first I thought it might be seriously tacky but I think it was the highlight of the day. Also I was convinced that Stockard Channing was in the show aswell, unfortunately I couldn't find a cast list for the show on the Internet, damn!! (I'll never be able to look up that blonde who played Debbie now!!).

The final show of the night was a stand-up one from comedian Rhod Gilbert, a Welsh comedian from Wales (ha ha!), or as he put it from the fictional town of Llanbobl (just remember it really doesn't exist!) which he claimed that several people in the audiences of his shows said they actually lived there! Stand ups can be a bit hit and miss, but Rhod was very funny, I loved one of his gags about people who go to learn Welsh, in his class he said 4 people passed and 26 died (i.e. mainly from swallowing their own tongue from trying to pronounce the words). Also a young boy in the audience provided a really funny moment as Rhod was spending some time skirting around using bad language until he asked the kid "Have you ever rode a horse?" and the kid said "No I hate it, you're arse gets too sore". Rhod's whole show was based on deception too, and also using the plot of Who's Eating Gilbert Grape (the Johnny Depp movie) as the basis for his show, so it was funny when he turned the whole thing on its head at the end.

So after all that we all went to a local bar and had a few drinks and after that another bar (another drink funnily enough). By the end of the night I was quite drunk and tired, although this didn't stop me from doing some of my Acting 2 monologue which I was supposed to do during that class run, but had the chickenpox at the time, and did it in front of my remaining acting mates at Waverley Station (which I could only remember about half of, if that!). Don't ask me why now, but it was one of those "seemed like a good idea at the time" things.

Anyway train back, taxi back, and a damn good day out in Edinburgh, it was the first time that I had seen the festival, so I'd like say a big cheers again to Scott for organising the day, and cheers to everyone else who showed up. Hope I can go back again sometime and maybe check out the film festival or something.

Well today I finally finished up at the old Clydebank College as I'm taking the day off tomorrow since the IT team will be moving the PCs out tommorrow and we've packed our crates already with all the tedious paper and admin type stuff, so there's little point being around.

Can't say I'm too sad to see the back of the place, although I will miss the convenience of its location, since I live just down the road from the college, so I will probably need to take a bus to get to the new college at Queens Quay. From what I understand when we will arrive there on Tuesday it will be bedlam trying to suss where to go and what to unpack etc etc. But at least it will be good to be in a shiny new building instead of a dilapidated one, which has leaks from the roof, piss stains in the toilets and numerous griffiti all over various places.

So we'll how it goes on Tuesday, by any luck we should be able to find our new feet by the end of next year in the new building somewhere.