WALDEN at Gillmorehill12

There are no hiding places in a one man play , which makes it the most stimulating and rewarding interaction between the espousing , almost an expurgation , of an idea.To be communicated psyche to psyche.A way of effortlessly passing barriers any other form of presentation would flounder upon and getting to the very marrow.

A blessing , albeit a brilliant furtively disguised one ,of the cutting of funding in the arts , and the corporatisation of the funding bodies which routinely attract as members shocktroops whose self-imposed diligent duty is to extract the political from "culture".To entertain and educate has been streamlined to entertain.Engagement with the audience is seen as challenging the doctrine of "impartiality" a la BBC , balance has hit the stage , making observations that are not of the observational situational medium taboo for general mass funding.This has meant meaningful statements are of necessity obliged to look for one man stage shows to articulate thoughts , the equivalent of the age of pamphleteers with all the wit;satire and wisdom that such a medium can provide us.

A quite remarkable subject for a one man play is Walden performed by Magnetic North , based on the account by Henry David Thoreau on a spell spent on the edge ( not necessarily detached) from society.An effort to "Simplify;simplify;simplify" life , have two or three things to deal with , not hundreds and thousands.An effort that is more difficult to accomplish today , with debt and contracts controlling the show called life.

According to the Magnetic North Blurb "On 4 July 1845, Henry David Thoreau walked into the woods near his hometown of Concord, Massachusetts and decided to stay. He built a hut next to a lake called Walden Pond and for the next two years attempted to live entirely by his own resources. As well as discovering the thrill of living life at no-one's behest but his own, Thoreau found something else - himself. Walden, Thoreau's account of his life in the woods, is one of the most extraordinary and unclassifiable books ever written."

As i sat for the play to begin , suddenly the person next to me starting moving about in a stimulated robotic trance , suddenly jolted into a charge of life , seemingly having a fit, starting uttering the strangest of disconnected semicoherent musings.Only when he stepped in the centre of the space i realised he was the actor and the performance had begun.Occasionally he would venture from the centre and park his butt next to me as the stage directions merited.I did find him looking at me when telling the story of an "old man" he would observe on the other side of the lake a little offputting somewhat.

The play itself is quite brilliant , touching upon the Human and natural spiritual values of the Book.Scottish Theatre has been producing superb work of late and this is a very worthy gem on the crown of this successful rich seam , long may it continue.

Particular passages really hit the spot for me , one goes " We could be blessed if we always lived in the present and took advantage of every accident that befell us , rather than spending our time atoning for the neglect of past opportunities.we loiter in winter when it is already spring."

Another one is " Is it the source of the Nile, or the Niger , or the Mississippi, or a Northwest Passage around this continent , that we should seek?
We could be a Columbus to whole New Continents and Worlds within us , opening new channels , not of trade , but of thought."

These two are only near the end , there are many more in this quite remarkable and superb piece of inspirational work.

MARK THOMAS at THE STAND EDINBURGH

The latest tour by social justice supporting comedian Mark Thomas is called Manifesto.He is going around the country getting democracy on the ground up and running as he gets audiences to suggest policies that will be eventually presented to Parliament using formal procedures.In this particular leg he was collating a policy to present to the Scottish Parliament on August 19th.


The last 2 tours i seen of him had extremely funny though limited material concerning the exclusion zone around protest restrictions and painful bureaucratic registration limitations around whitehall.

This time we enjoyed a wider zone of flexibility and saw a fuller range of his rapier Swiftian Action backed satirical wit.

Here he is in typical blistering form:



You can keep abreast of a range of issues and developments in his website.

GO TO GAZA , DRINK THE SEA

One remarkable , and most welcome , process during the Gaza offensive and War of annihilation by the Modern Weaponry of Israels western armed force that petered out when the spirit of the Gazans refused to be cowed was the rapid reaction in the alternative media to the events of late December and January 2009.In almost real time the world wide web was filled with stories , meticulous analysis,live feeds, as quick , if not faster than the established state propaganda sleek machines could belabour the public conscience with the usual hype about War on Terror , precision strikes, attacking military targets only and the usual hyperbole that passes for unbalanced reportage of the bombing of civilians and civil infrastucure ( electrical supply grids ; water pumps;food storage areas , not to mention centres run by the Catholic Church Charity Cavitas as well as UN food distribution centres and schools).

Right from the off the mainstream news sources carefully embedded in the Israeli IDF information locations , were miles behind in getting on the ground coverage from Al-Jazeera ( with news teams within Gaza itself) and especially the blogosphere both from within Gaza and from those linking to in-depth resources homed from the Lebanon War of 2006.

As the Israeli army were busy earning the epaulet "have failed in their military objectives" to replace the torn tattered reputation of the glorious 60s, so too did the Mainstream media have to deflect their editorial course to follow the blogosphere logic as it been clear the Human spirit would see off 21st century live ammunition.The fight in the media was not dissimilar to comparing the means of a 21st century Military machine competing with RPGs.The ability for independent internet sources to react quicker than the Mainstream media made a telling contribution.Suddenly even the BBC had to change the impartial relating of Israeli spokespeople pontificating ,as the civilian toll rose , every Hospital and School bombed brought Stability and Civilisation closer and closer , to showing images of the destruction of civilian life and homes.

For Israel the hurting defeat was not the Military one.The really sore one was the defeat of the Image of Israel in the media.They were beaten simply because the Palestinian got an ever small ;still marginal airing of their side of the story in a time of War.

Go to Gaza , Drink the Sea was one such rapid reaction , this time a artistic and cultural one written whilst the conflict was still ongoing.

For a brilliant review of the play go no further than this piercing piece by Eileen Fleming

My Pal noticed right away the set design using the imagery of Piles of shoes , Zionists has been quick out the traps trying to copyright this metaphor of suffering and Human Misery , as if to say the Palestinians have no right to use Shoes to convey their plight , as by doing so they are trying to equate Israeli Treatment to the crimes of the Nazis , which by the Zionist apologists warped logic is another unacceptable wanton example of Anti-Semitism.

The play is a powerful articulation of the tragedy suffered by the Palestinians , far more eloquent than political speeches of academic lectures could ever be.This is because it is a Simple Human Story told by Humans.

If you already sympathise with the suffering of the Palestinians it will re-invigorate one , if you have not encountered the issue , then this play will in the introduction that will bring you round.

I LIKE TO BE A PLAY EVERY AFTERNOON by GERTRUDE STEIN

A segued piece by the CalArts School of Theatre combining 2 plays , the first segment has 3 brash confident looking roaring twenties dudettes entwined in pregnant pauses ; pulling faces and other almost but not quite there communications.Not a little different to social networking sites style we have today.Superficially they seem to be almost together , but the substance is a freefall.

The second half provides the other great counterpoint to modern communication as the characters are joined by some others obliged to make a spectacle of themselves.Loud incoherent shouting replaces the silence , but the lack of substance shines on like a lamplight left in a dark deserted corner."Look at us! Be with us! We are fun AND useful!" is the running theme as the protagonists veer from the Facebook style non-contact contact sport to the Big Brother style "your in my face , get out of my way , but please dont leave , i need you to be the screen to my film".

The Play and cast do pointingly capture and convey the theme of "the Need to be with" with a light , though stimulating thoughtpiece staging.Very apt and highly amusing play , though its main strength is a bitter aftertaste of aching Angst it leaves one with when they consider their own modern scoreboard on relationships needing tinkering and a whole lot of work in one direction or the other..

BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN AT HAMPDEN

When i saw him last year i felt very privileged and lucky as it seemed it may be the last full swing old style tour with the E-Street band , he was 59 after all.Sure one would expect him back doing the odd acoustic tour , which i would love as some of his older songs have more poignancy and depth of feeling as acoustic, so much so that to hearing the original rock versions seem overdressed and cluttered.

What a bonus to have the pleasure of having him in our hometown.And what a debut for Hamzah as his first concert.

It has been shaping up to be a good year for legends engaging in operation rolling swan-song.We have had Jackson Browne;Neil Young ; that old geezer that lost all the dough as his agent spent a lifetimes fortune on houses and yachts whilst he was away discovering the joys of non-material living in some Buddhist hideout , and later we have Simple Minds making a comeback , backed by OMD.

The weather turned at just the pivotal strategic moment i and Hamzah left house to walk to Hampden , we planned to have a Fish Supper from Ramsays at Victoria Rd near the entrance to Queens Park.The rain was bucketing down as my Wife offered us a lift , with a smug sheepish you-two-are-plonkers-arent-you look.We told her to hop it ,were sticking to the original plan and walking.

By the time the Fish suppers were ready time was running somewhat short , so we ate on the hoof , i was surprised at the rate Hamzah finished his portion , im sure he throw some of it behind the bushes when i wasnt looking.But anyway we completed our mobile meal in the nick of time.

There were plenty of tickets going for sale at face value price in the environs outside the Stadium , some enterprising dudes were even selling ponchos , with sales rocketing and plummeting in proportion with the on-off temperament of the precipitation.

Once inside we found our seats to be excellent,the kind you see LaPorta sitting at when watching La Liga matches away from Home alongside the rival clubs Chairman.We could not have asked for a better spot.The ground started filling up to seething point ; those poor buggers that have to climb the gantry on those rickety fluttering rope ladders with broomstick thick planks managed to sway and cascade and loop into position.We were ready.

Bruce started the show with the thunderpaced Badlands:



Thereafter we riproared ; and reflected; and thunder-roaded and come out the other side as better Human Beings.Elegiac versions were punctuated with Sublime ones , rounded up with ones too ineffable to describe , you either feel it or you are not alive, Springsteen has a loquacious style that gets right to the marrow.A blistering performance that would have silenced the most cynically fastidious crowd.


Another stand-out was Atlantic City:




Then we had a truly mellifluous rendition of Thunder Road , an uplifting controlled obstreperous rabble-rousing Radio Nowhere ; the Pathos charged reflection of The River.

Having Seen him at Old Trafford and The Emirates last year i have to admit the Glasgow crowd were several octaves higher in passion and verve.I didnt believe so much the hype that Glasgow crowds are any better than the rest.But now i know better.

PEER GYNT AT THE THEATRE ROYAL

Peer Gynt was originally written as a prosepoem play in the late 1860s.Once published it received mixed to hostile reviews , never being performed for nearly a decade.Thereafter stagings have been few and far between , and the quality of productions has been similar.Some have wondered if the play could ever really be staged at all , whilst others have opined Radio airings are about the best limit to bring the play alive.

And so it was until a courageous and innovative production company from Dundee hit on the inspired notion of stage production , but adding their own words to make the play modern and accessible , whilst retaining the original themes.Too add a plethora of "FUCKINS" to spice up the prose of Ibsen would seem a bit of sacrilege , at least on the surface.Alas , the Dundee Rep. company approach worked , all credit to them for bringing a dead play to life.

The original play was to be accompanied by incidental music , music by Edvard Grieg which was in time to become far more famous than the play itself , so much so that a lot of People believe Griegs music came first and Ibsens version later.

The play itself has many universal themes , to that extent you could call this play as close as Ibsen came to straddle the line between The Romantics and the ushering in of the age of realism.After this play , as the wounding response of some critics , Ibsen was to focus wholly on prose , and realism in general.But , he was never to relinquish the over-arching Universal Romantic notion of a closed circle , unlike Chekov who was to start a brand of realism that begins and curtails ( rather than ever ends) in a more inter-active linear fashion.

The Dundee version plays strongly to the inner search of the Empire , Peer goes all around searching for it , only to realise he was looking for the wrong thing in the wrong places.

In the dream sequence in the troll kingdom , Peer finds society corrupt , Kierkegaards "to thyself be true" is made in the troll society of the time a rather Thatcherite " Be true to yourself-ish".

After winning his fortune in the great race , he loses it in the great grab his "friends" partake of , leaving him all alone on the shore , the sea on one side , a mirage on the other , and angry savages ready to pounce on the beach , a stint in a nuthouse is a welcoming solace , though a sobering as you may well guess.So much for Empire.

At last he goes home ( on easyjet) , eventually to discover the Empire that counts most is the constant love that waits for one , when one is true to their Faith ; Hope and a True Love.

NEIL YOUNG AT ABERDEEN

I have never been to Aberdeen before.Been to Dundee but got no further.With Neil Young playing his only Scottish date there it was a perfect time to make a debut.

After Dundee the land is a very lush Green , with Prime Beefstock all around and undulating lowish hills.The richness of the land oozes out like a convection.

Aberdeen itself seems to show its glory and wealth in its headstones.The lampposts are also of a regal nature , beefeater scarecrows drawing , rather than repelling , with sheen and lustre.I have heard many times the description the granite city.The granite is not of the marble type , rather the cement coloured hue , somewhat disingenuously complimented by newer buildings made from cement stone trying to blend in.The council offices in the centre are made of a regimented art deco rectangle and cube lego style assortment.You get a very grand impression not far removed from the cathedral at Barcelona , though on a much smaller , yet more minimalist way.




Just before we hit Aberdeen the weather turned , driving mist obscured visibility to only a few yards , which was a shame as the satvav was showing the sea was only a few yards away , on the clear day im sure it would be an inspiring sight.It is an odd culture shock when you go to a place from Glasgow and need to sympathise with the incremental weather.

Having arrived early we went to the legendary Ashvale Chip Shop restaurant , a joint so popular it even has its own wiki entry , one showing the many Best Chip Shop in the UK wards it has won
I had the Whale , a big 1IB fish said to be so difficult to finish you get a reward of a dessert and a certificate if you can tackle it.I was quite hungry and downed in next to no time.It was so easy an undertaking i couldnt even be arsed asking for the certificate.The dessert on the house was glory enough.The whole package is a little like Harry Ramsden but a slight quality higher.


As for the concert , early was the theme again , we managed to casually position ourselves near the front of the queue , once we got in we were at the very front , which is the best place to be not only visually but also because you can lean on the barriers , therefore you dont get tired.

Neil started of with the brilliant Hey, Hey , My , My , aided and abetted by two gentlemen who looked as if the were going to keel over at any moment , but like neils voice never do break and get more masterful as time went on.

Guitar frenzy extravaganzas Down by the River and Cortez the Killer kept the euphoria going.

The song below ive included as it just about captures the exact view we got , as well as the energy of the performance.