KIDS OF TODAY

This is a picture of Zainab.
She now speaks excellent English and is also an accomplished French Speaker.
As you can see she has also learned to drive , both vehicles on the road and Adults up the wall.



















Zoha has also started to perfect her assertiveness talents and is on the brink of graduating from teeny weeny Finishing School.

ANGUISH WITH POSIE at the TRON

One of the side-effects of seeing so many International and World Class events is that one forms a very low tolerance to shite.This can come across as arrogance , but is genuinely a capacity to unappreciate works that are not trying hard enough to get their points across.There is nothing more disrespectful to an audience than perceived lack of effort.

Therefore a "blind date" visit to the theatre can turn out a be quite a dicey experience , if the effort is there you can enjoy a work without in any way being taken by the point it makes , but to know you have been respected and invited to take the stimulation challenge by the work is something one is grateful for.At the very least you know the point of "The Other" is a valid one from their perspective and should be a considered input when you are trying to understand a situation as part of a whole and not a partisan angel bordering on dogma.

Before the play i had a meal in Bar Cosshack , a very nice and filling salmon dish of the highest calibre.It will now become my default pre-Tron theatre visit eatery.

The play was a short notice " i have spare ticket" invite which i duly took up.It was a very pleasant and over-neat glorified theatre workshop affair which i enjoyed a great deal.A very nice performance from Nicola Daley and a low key "mind on other things" by Ian Macpherson.

In the event we got what may be euphemistically be describes as a lighthearted in the moment entertainment for an evening.I have to admit i am a man of profoundness and like works that can last in the psyche a little longer than an evening.

Overall a good night out with a plot which could go a lot further in breadth and scope.

MARK THOMAS at the GLASGOW STAND

I only found out about this appearance when i was doodling around and came across the date in his website.The stand website said it was SOLD OUT but trying Telephoning on the off chance.By the off chance i managed to get 2 tickets so so did my friend James.

Mark was on excellent form using a similar , though entirely freshened up , format to his edinburgh festival appearances last year.He said his next tour will be based on his trip to the West Bank which should bring mark back from the current project to the sharp-shooting sabre-rattling very best satire with a deep political cutting edge.


Here are two examples of what he really does better than the rest , and what he will be returning to.



And this extra special performance that puts the Zionists in their colonial place in no uncertain terms.

THE ROAD at the GFT

The Film version of Cormac McCarthys apocalyptic , though hopeful novel was always going to be a difficult and intriguing challenge.The real crux would be if the film is tempted to give a greater role to the woman ( mother) than the barely one sentence in the original novel.When Charlize Theron was slotted for the role things did not look too good at all on that front.But , in the end , the appearances of the woman are very well done in the form of Proust like flashbacks triggered by the odd object bringing back a flood of touching recollections of happier times.If anything the film gives a value added element to one aspect of the Book which appeared to be weak in the novel.namely that the Mother , a little like Ma Joad , would probably take the lead role in bringing the Family out of crisis and into safety physically and emotionally intact.

A very worthy film in which hope triumphs over the complete devastation brought on by artificial social engineering.

It is also a reminder , especially in these economic climate times, that the state and civilisation in general may not be up to the task of giving welfare from cradle to grave , if anything they may destroy more than they create , but the old fashioned values and institutions like the Family will always be there to pick up the pieces from collapsed civilisations.

Star Viggo Mortenson also runs a very progressive publishing and art project that promotes young social justice orientated writers publish relevant far reaching work that would struggle to surface in mainstream corporate publishing circles.