Posted in June 2009 …
The sports that I did not/will not watch
This weekend was the British GP weekend and then for the next two weeks the country will be struck with Wimbledon fever once more. I did not/will not watch either of these and there are reasons for both sports.
F1 – The whole scandal over the breakaway championship threat, the legal action taken by the FIA, the petty name-calling between both sides…way to ruin a sport. In recent years F1 has become a watchable and exciting sport again. It would be the most popular if we didn’t have cheating allegations, political backstabbing and now this, which is essentially the equivalent of two schoolkids trying to out-boast each other. It’s pretty damn pathetic. I felt sorry for those who went to Silverstone this weekend expecting talk of racing. My opinion on the whole matter? The sooner Max Mosely goes the better since he seems to be the one in the way of any real progress.
Wimbledon – I like Andy Murray as a tennis player as much as the next tennis fan but I just know that all the TV and radio coverage will be so Murray-biased it will almost be farcical. Especially the BBC. Andy Murray this, Andy Murray that…imagine waking up to BBC Breakfast in the morning. It’ll essentially be “Oh hi, did you have Andy Murray for breakfast? If not, here you go! Blah blah blah!” I don’t even think he’ll win the tournament. Roger Federer has to be the outstanding favourite. The fact that he just won a tournament – nay, a Grand slam tournament – on clay will give a player far more confidence than winning a poxy warm up tournament like Queen’s.
In conclusion: sport is brilliant if you get past the ten million walls placed in front of you that block your enjoyment of it.
Haircuts and wet shaves
I find going to get my hair cut a very awkward experience. I find that it almost feels like an intrusion for some complete randomer to go about messing around with my hair, even though that this is what I pay them to do. It’s a strange experience. Either way, I had a hair cut and my head now has the least hair it has had for a few years. It’ll grow back fairly quickly. The wedding that was taking place over the road was quite distracting and also quite puzzling. Think about it – you want to have a wedding on a Saturday afternoon. Why the hell do you then decide to have it on the Guildford high street, where when you come outside you will be surrounded by totally bewildered shoppers? It came across as very attention seeking.
I also had a wet shave with some vouchers I got for my birthday from my girlfriend. It’s a really luxurious experience, even if apparently I looked nervous. I wasn’t. I was just enjoying it in my own special way. So there.
Words fail me
This video is both dreadful and highly amusing. Enjoy:
Derren Brown: Enigma
I’ve been thinking all day of how to write up my thoughts on this without giving away anything massively important, so I’m going to give it a go now, but do understand that the reason it may be short is because I don’t want to ruin it for people who are planning to go unlike some of the local newspapers that have already written reviews of the show when it toured the UK before the current West End run.
As mentioned before, I’m quite a fan of Derren Brown’s work and have been dying to see him live for a while, especially after the airing of his two previous shows – the Lawrence Olivier winning Something Wicked This Way Comes and An Evening Of Wonders. As I enter the Adelphi the stage design is not too dissimilar to his previous shows and is very true to Derren’s style – a sort of Victorian ambience. It is from there on in where trying to describe his show without giving things away is tricky. What I will say is that it is a well-constructed show that pushes all the right emotional buttons in the audience. Brown also has terrific stage presence, which helps when building a rapport between him and the audience. If you do get a chance and you live near London, make an effort to go to his show. I believe some tickets are still available.
A couple of side-notes though. Comedian Mark Watson was one of the members of the audience who went up onstage at random. I only realised this when Watson wrote about it on Twitter. I could have spoken to him outside the theatre – a great opportunity missed. Mark commented on Derren’s blog this afternoon:
I’m Mark Watson and I can promise everyone it was an absolute fluke, except in the sense that I nearly mowed a couple of people down in my desperation to catch the frisbee, as I have every time I’ve seen him. I assumed Derren didn’t know who I was. When I saw this on the blog I nearly had a heart attack, which would have been hard on my heart as it’s only just recovering from [SNIP! Possible clue as to what the show involves - Max]. As ever, an amazing show.
Secondly, those familiar with Andy Nyman (not only the creative partner of Derren Brown but also the gloriously evil TV producer in horror series Dead Set) will be delighted to know that he has a cameo in it. I had to ask him on Twitter last night to verify that it was real and he confirmed it was. I’ll leave those who have seen/will see the show to guess what the cameo is…
