Writer's Block

I took in a couple of shows at Soho Theatre last night, Spencer Jones and Late Night Gimp Fight. Jones delivered probably my favourite show of the Edinburgh Fringe in 2015. There's a loose framework here about preparing for an acting audition, but it's mostly just a setup for a series of delightfully silly prop gags. He feels like the absurdist equivalent of a one liner comedian, quickly reaching the comedic nub of an idea before moving on to the next and eventually you'll submit to the ludicrousness of this childish 41 year old man. His nomination for the main award at the festival this year was well deserved. Late Night Gimp Fight returned with their first show in four years and a musical parody of "Seven Years" starts the show, touching on the notion of these tired 30 something men with kids returning to this sketch nonsense. The Gimps deal in dark, near the knuckle sketches of varying quality, but musical parodies are the fivesomes' forte. The show ends ...

I've mostly been trying to ignore anything anyone has to say about "Star Wars: The Last Jedi" as I am unable to see it until Sunday. Negotiating the internet has been a bit like that episode of The Likely Lads where they try to evade knowledge of the England score. I have a healthy interest in Star Wars. I wouldn't say I'm fanatical about it, but I enjoyed The Force Awakens even if I was rather less enamoured with Rogue One last year. But I must continue to put my fingers in my ears and shout "Lalalalala I am not listening lalalalala".

It was the start of the PDC World Darts Championship 2018 tonight. It's the showpiece event of the darting calendar and will be the swansong of Phil "The Power" Taylor, who will retire after the tournament having lifted it 14 times amongst many other honours. Taylor often seems like a horrible man and I can understand why spectators and players alike might want to see the back of him. But it's a pleasure to watch him throw and he is, by any reasonable measure, the best darts player in history. A fairytale finale to his career seems difficult to envisage though. Michael van Gerwen is the best player in the world although he's not playing as well as he can at the moment. Daryl Gurney and Rob Cross have been impressive newcomers on the tour this year but this tournament may come too soon for them to make a major impact. Peter Wright has been there or there  is an outstanding darts player but seems to lack the psychological tools to carry him over the line in the tr...

It was very icy underfoot today. Frankly, I didn't care for it. I've had lifelong issues with maintaining my balance without throwing these irksome weather based variables into the mix. Other than that, I've mostly been listening to the delightfully titled "Loose Canon", The Divine Comedy's live CD recorded on their Foreverland tour earlier in the year. It doesn't quite replicate the joy of being at one of their gigs, but it's a solid approximation. There are a number of great tracks and "National Express" is especially joyous. But the highlight for me is Bad Ambassador. What a stone cold banger that song is.

I've been snowed under with revision, exams, work and anxiety and other stuff hence the total lack of content recently. I've seen all sorts of things in the past few weeks that I'm yet to properly comment on too. The Divine Comedy gig in Brighton, Young Frankenstein in the West End, Battle Of The Sexes, Death of Stalin etc. I'm hoping to find some time to fill in the gaps before the end of the year, but I make no promises. Also, this blog a day business is definitely not happening next year.                          Anyway, I've been enjoying doing absolutely nothing today, particularly as I'm working 13 of the next 14 days or something silly. I would like to point you in the direction of this performance of "Take On Me" by a-ha for MTV Unplugged. It's soulful, it's contemplative, it's beautiful.

Today was one of a number of days recently that I've let get away from me. I had a sort of depressive relapse over the weekend and I'm not at my best. I have an exam looming over me in nine days time that I have revised but still don't feel mentally prepared for. I basically just want this year to end and start afresh in January, when I know I need to start making some big changes in my life. I turn 30 next year and I'm still left with the nagging sense that my 20s were an enormous chasm of nothing and life is passing me by. But as I said to my father this evening, "You've got to keep living until you die".

Another day, another Frank Turner show. The last time I saw Turner he was trying to gee up an O2 Arena crowd ahead of a Blink 182 headline set. Here he dials it down a couple of notches and what we have is a more mellow set, opening with new track "There She Is", a ballad reminiscent of "Tunnel of Love" era Bruce Springsteen. It's a subdued start to the gig, which is only remedied with the jaunty "Recovery" and the heavier live version of "Long Live The Queen", bringing the crowd at the Hippodrome to life. "Songbook" features reimagined tracks from Turner's back catalogue and we're treated to a couple of them here. "Polaroid Picture" and "Glorious You" work so well in their slower incarnations that it's difficult to go back and listen to the original recordings. Turner's next record of original material is due out next year and it promises to have a more political emphasis, as evidenced throug...