Cyberclogs

Well I haven't reported too much on my blog of late so thought I might as well put something up, since my last post which was written in a drunken haste (3am just back from seeing the Foos and breaking my use of the no f-word policy I just made up there).

Well apart from work, and my acting classes not too much to report of late, last week's acting class was one of the best so far as we did scenes from Romeo and Juliet and I had to play a female part (yes a female part!) of a nurse, an aged nurse I might add. It was actually great fun to try and do and somewhat challenging as its the first time I had to play such a role in classes, although one of my classmates Teresa reminded me back in the day that the men use to play the female parts too as women back then didn't play in the Shakespeare plays. We did another scene which involved the two rivals Mercutio and Tybalt facing off one another, and the rest of us would act as background crowd taunting one another, which was broken up amusingly by Alan who yelled "TRANNY!!" which caused Scott who played Tybalt to break up with laughter.

So tomorrow night will be the second last of the acting 3 classes, which Ian told us would involve improvisation, so it will be fun to get back to some of that, as in the past when we did it feels like wandering into the set of Whose Line Is It Anyway? So I'll look forward to that and maybe post up something more blogworthy of it then.

On another note I went to the cinema there on Sunday and saw American Gangster, with Denzel Washington and Russell Crowe starring, it was pretty good I thought, although a bit slow in pace at first it does get more gripping as the film carries on. Denzel was pretty incredible once again (he usually is) and Russell Crowe was pretty decent in his role too, although he did fall short of the mark that Denzel had set. Its one of Ridley Scott's best films for a while although not necessarily one of his world best, but I'm glad he directed rather Tony Scott, as it would have been made with all too much flash etc, annoying MTV like images all over the place (which we've come to expect from Tony!).

So that's it for now ermm I think. Except to say its less than 4 weeks to Christmas!! Shit!! And I haven't really bought anything yet. Suggestions???

Well I'm just back from the Foo Fighters gig night and I have to say (and forgive this first use of the f-word on my blog) they were fucking amazing!!! It was one of the best gigs I've been to in years. Dave Grohl totally commanded the audience with his amazing good nature and charisma, he cracked many a joke and played many a brilliant and memorable song. I was also delighted with the fact that at the SECC they had removed all the seats and it was for the first time I'd been there a totally standing gig, and this allowed us far easier access to the front of the gig, and in the middle they played an acoustic set aswell and moved to a middle podium where audience could easily crowd round and take photos. There were many great songs played, my main favourites included "Monkey Wrench" "Skin and Bones" "Everlong" "DOA" and "In your honour". To be honest the whole gig was fucking brilliant. Dave and the band (which I was delighted to say included the acoustic set up of the "Skin and bones" DVD aswell as Pat Smear who played back in the "Colour and the Shape" tour days).

Even the section between the set finale and the encore was great as we saw big screen video footage of Dave drinking beer off stage and licking the set list, which was really funny! And towards the end of the night I even was brave enough to subject myself to the mosh pit, which was fairly mild to be honest, I've seen far worse, so I didn't mind being subjected to some "friendly violence". Anyway it was great, the Foos did come, rock and conquer, in short they were fucking superb!!!! And if you haven't seen the Foos yet, do yourself a favour and go and see their next show at the nearest venue next to you. You won'r regret it!!

I'm combining two things in this post, first up: I'm just back from seeing a play which I went along to with some of my acting class crowd, the play was Under the Elms, written by the late American playwright Eugene O'Neill. It was set back in the old west and was essentially about three brothers (at first) who own a farm, but then two of them sell of the farm to the Dad and his new beautiful young bride, but the younger, weaker willed son, falls for her and they soon have an affair and, well, it gets messy from there.

Unfortunately I couldn't get into this play at all, as the characters just didn't interest me or engage me in any way (especially the two brothers at the start, I just couldn't wait for them to leave the stage!). And some of the acting was pretty poor in places, especially when it came to breaking down in tears acting something they young guy didn't do too well, although the girl managed a lot better in that department. I guess it must be difficult to convey raw emotions on stage convincingly even if you are a professional actor. But another fault of the play was some of the dialogue, which reeked of corniness, especially the way the actors kept yelling "Carliforn-IA" all the time, which got pretty annoying, and the Mills and Boon effective level of love talk "I love you, I want you to kiss me, hold me, and let it last a thousand years!" etc etc. Pass the sick bag please.

To be fair the actors were pretty professional, I just don't know if it was a mixture of the dialogue and the characters that they were portraying that just didn't ring true or seem believable, or what. But I wouldn't recommend going to see this play, and none of my fellow acting chums would either I think.

Secondly: on a more positive note I will be seeing the Foo Fighters on Friday at the SECC, which I'm sure will rock like mad (I expect a fully ringing pair of ears by Saturday morning). Thankfully the show is still on, as I was a bit mislead by the billboard posters round Glasgow of the Foos gig, which said "cancelled" on it. Which it turned out was a ploy from the City Council to stop billboard posters from being put up, but hardly seems fair to put a false sense of insecurity on people who have bought tickets for an event. Anywaysss, the Foos will come, rock and conquer on Friday, and I'll probably leave a review of it on Saturday, if I'm able to.