Kings Road, Chelsea

Complicated reasons have seen me in Chelsea both on Friday and Saturday, and this evening it was Babushka, in the Kings Road. A funky venue with sofas, chairs and comfy cubes for lounging about. The bar is cosy, playing chilled music whilst we sipped cocktails. Sin-til-lating.

Chelsea Bridge Wharf

I headed over to Chelsea today, for a meeting near Chelsea Bridge - just minutes from Sloane Square.

Just for fun, here's the latest jam cam picture from the bridge.

After we'd finished - which included drinking around two litres of Tchibo coffee, I had to head back to drop my car before spending an afternoon in friendly conversation in Weybridge, accompanied by a modicum of Shiraz, and some whiskey and Canadian club.

OTA : Wordless Wednesday

Edinburgh Streets

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Tag: Wordless Wednesday

Back to England (reality?)

Away from the general crazy delights of the Fringe, I was travelling south today, having an overnight stop yesterday to pickup a mirror. We have plenty of video footage from Warhol and will attempt to make a DVD of the performance, along with some outtakes and maybe a highly condensed promo version of around 10 minutes!

I've collected some of the other media together: not counting the sound effects, there's 23 pieces of music included. Time to wind up Final Cut Pro, with a large disk drive!

There's some stills from the performance across on Christina Nott's site and I'll add a couple of short videos here when I get some time to do some editing.

This afternoon I have been re-arranging furniture (don't ask).

4 stars - The Scotsman

publicity in John Lewis shop window
Stop the press. A different post from that which I'd started for Saturday. The Scotsman has given our Bubbleandsqueek production 4 stars!!!!.

Yes Warhol at the Fringe has four stars!

We will be out to the copy shop in the next few minutes to make some more promo posters!

Yippee!!

rest awhile

I suppose I should mention the hotel in Edinburgh - we arrived to be greeted with champagne on ice and some rather interesting chocolate mousse type things in little glass goblets.

Its one of those hotels with peacocks strutting around the grounds, where you sit down on sofas to check in and the rooms are full of cushions and heavy drapes with large tassels. Knock on the door to take a look around. I can justify this as proper vacation time for a few days, so I shall just enjoy it all.

bongo time

First a technical rehearsal and then a preview evening for the Warhol staging at the Fringe. Edinburgh is a mad place at this time with countless plays, comedies, standup, music and other entertainment from all over the city. So gaining mindshare from a single production takes a lot of work and planning. Posters, leaflets, assaults on Princes Street, The Royal Mile, tableaux, interviews, hopefully press reviews (and hopefully good ones). The above frame is from today's filming of the cast preparations; a few standing outside after the technical rehearsal.

Tomorrow is the first 'Standing in John Lewis (department store)' event too. So a lot to do to get that vital audience.

First night, and a reasonable gathering - although this was still preview night. The show is launched!

fringe events

In Edinburgh from today, where the Fringe is in full swing. A little mad right now so difficult to post. This is from a borrowed Mac, plugged into a nearby Swisscom wifi hotspot. When I get stable connections, I'll post more!

door sense

A weird co-incidence today as I saw two different people walk into plate glass doors.

The first person stopped just as they got to the door, which was at a well-known sport store. No harm done.

The second one was a store that I was inside and just leaving, when I saw someone ahead of me walk into the door and bounce backwards in slow motion, hitting the floor. I helped him up and he was quite dazed initially, and had dropped money and his wallet. Several other people came over to check as well (though no-one from the shop) and once he was composed he assured everyone he was all right. I reported the incident to an assistant named Aaron in the store and he promised he would tell the manager.

So co-incidence, I suppose - but I was cautious myself after that for the next couple of shops and even noticed one door sliding back quite slowly. I will get over this obsession.

3 stars

The work finished today, but we needed a final session which meant I couldn't take a flight tonight and instead have to go back on Friday morning. As luck would have it, that means a small group of us, variously flying to Washington, Boston, Stockholm, Cleveland and Brussels decided to meet for dinner in the hotel.

Lets just say it was excellent.

Carmen

Wednesday was a somewhat intense day for me with work related matters, but we had a hard cut-off in the evening in order to take a visit to a nearby town. I say nearby, but it was actually around an hour and a half away. Verona - which is a very old town and has a spectacular collusseum in the centre. We'd managed to get some tickets to visit this special place and to see the opera Carmen, performed in the open, in the collusseum.

On the way, I'd briefly read a few notes about the cast, and it sounded as if there were about five or six main players in the opera. Not so, on the stage in Verona, I estimate there were 130 people on stage for some parts, plus a 40 piece orchestra. The Italians know how to throw an opera.

The main show started at around 21:00 and at midnight we were on Act Three. Then there was another 20 minute interval, during which I briefly left the collusseum to get some lemon sorbet. Then back for the final act.

A well staged and well performed show; we walked back to our transport at around one thirty in the morning, happy - if sleepy, before our long drive back to the hotel.

Bella Italia

The flight to Milan was only delayed within acceptable norms and the transit to the waiting car was pretty fast, considering that I'd had checked baggage. I've not really got any idea where I travelled to except it was along an Autostrada and then through some twisty lanes to a rather spectacular spa hotel.

The main business was due to start the next day and as I checked in I received a discreet invitation for aperitifs on the balcony bar at 20:00. Oops, it was already 20:05, so I realised I'd better get moving. I seem to find that when I'm away like this there is never really any time.

Anyway, the hotel room was rather good with its own balcony, jaccuzzi and so on and by the time I found the others, they were already tucking into the local Italian equivalent of champagne. No idea what it was called, but it sure tasted good.

The view from our vantage point was right across the valley and to some decent looking hills opposite. Truly spectacular. When I can get the right connector for my phone I'll post a picture or two, but for now, you'll have to make do a snap of part of my room.