(no subject)

A nice little column from Slate on the art of the poetic insult. They don't have my favourite one, though:

EPITAPH UPON LORD CASTLEREAGH

Posterity will ne'er survey
A nobler grave than this:
Here lie the bones of Castlereagh,
Stop, traveller, and ****.

By Byron, of course. Did you know that Byron's publishers in London still have many of the love letters sent by his female fans, some of which enclosed pubic hairs? Fangirls never change, do they?

My own latest column, Fun With Science, is up at blueyonder, where some of my older bastard offspring still linger. Read if you're bored.

(no subject)

A nice little column from Slate on the art of the poetic insult. They don't have my favourite one, though:

EPITAPH UPON LORD CASTLEREAGH

Posterity will ne'er survey
A nobler grave than this:
Here lie the bones of Castlereagh,
Stop, traveller, and ****.

By Byron, of course. Did you know that Byron's publishers in London still have many of the love letters sent by his female fans, some of which enclosed pubic hairs? Fangirls never change, do they?

My own latest column, Fun With Science, is up at blueyonder, where some of my older bastard offspring still linger. Read if you're bored.

Wolves in the Walls

Tonight I was lucky enough to see the stage version of Neil Gaiman's book The Wolves in the Walls at the Lyric Hammersmith. I remember hearing Gaiman read the book back when it had just been published, and wondered if the stage version would be as entertaining as that was.

The coolest thing, I think, was the Dave McKean design: seeing actual humans inside a McKean-imagined world was breathtaking. Every detail was there, from the stunning wolf puppet/costumes to Lucy's knitted pig. A close second-coolest thing was the movement: everyone really used their physicality to create the world of the story. The music was quite beautiful in places, and the actors were all great.

That said, the show's been on tour for a while now, and the voices are suffering. Even with amplification, singing music this demanding on an eight-show-a-week schedule is tough. Sure, the show's only an hour-and-a-bit long-- but the four principals are onstage and singing for nearly all of it. They've used musical theatre voices rather than operatic ones, presumably because opera singers have more sense than to do eight shows a week. They'd have had to double-cast, which would mean paying for twice as many singers, which would be inconvenient-- but still, I'm curious as to how this score would sound sung by classical voices. As it was, the small orchestra were excellent.

Hmmm, half past midnight. Must.... sleeeep....

Wolves in the Walls

Tonight I was lucky enough to see the stage version of Neil Gaiman's book The Wolves in the Walls at the Lyric Hammersmith. I remember hearing Gaiman read the book back when it had just been published, and wondered if the stage version would be as entertaining as that was.

The coolest thing, I think, was the Dave McKean design: seeing actual humans inside a McKean-imagined world was breathtaking. Every detail was there, from the stunning wolf puppet/costumes to Lucy's knitted pig. A close second-coolest thing was the movement: everyone really used their physicality to create the world of the story. The music was quite beautiful in places, and the actors were all great.

That said, the show's been on tour for a while now, and the voices are suffering. Even with amplification, singing music this demanding on an eight-show-a-week schedule is tough. Sure, the show's only an hour-and-a-bit long-- but the four principals are onstage and singing for nearly all of it. They've used musical theatre voices rather than operatic ones, presumably because opera singers have more sense than to do eight shows a week. They'd have had to double-cast, which would mean paying for twice as many singers, which would be inconvenient-- but still, I'm curious as to how this score would sound sung by classical voices. As it was, the small orchestra were excellent.

Hmmm, half past midnight. Must.... sleeeep....