Film: Brain Damage, Concert: Metamorphosis, & Storytelling: Orpheus Dismembered
Well, again on Monday I was too tired to blog - and Tuesday saw me booking some things ahead, which took up all my spare time. That evening, I was back with Movie Roadhouse London, who were dipping their toe in horror as well.. subsequently also advertised with The Hideout.. we were seeing Brain Damage, an 80s body horror about a guy infected with an alien parasite.. hmm. Showing in The Nickel Cinema - which turned out to be around the corner from The Wilmington, so I booked there again.
Now, I might have known that the organiser would have an idea where to eat - and he found a few places closer than that - so I cancelled my booking for The Wilmington, which hasn't been great for food lately anyway, and has never been good for service. First, he suggested an Italian - but it turned out to be one of those places you have to email for a booking, and they never got back to him. So instead, we ended up in The Lady Ottoline!
Well, the buses were doing their amazing disappearing trick again, so I was late - I kept him appraised though, and I think he waited to leave home until I was nearly there; he lives close by. The dining room is, as usual, upstairs, and I spotted him and joined him. There was supposed to be a third member joining us, but this was a new member, and an unknown quantity - frankly, quite often they don't even show: and indeed, we never did hear from him.
Oh dearie me - ok, we only had one server, but as I've said before, I've seen people absolutely excel in such circumstances.. or in simply busy situations. This one was plainly inexperienced. Took our food order, but not our drinks order.. it took us ages to catch her to give her that.
I didn't have a starter - my companion did, but ended up having to dissect the prawns he'd ordered: as he said, a messy job, and then they weren't even worth the effort - he described them as bland.
Then she mixed up my companion's main food order.. you see, I'd asked for steak, and he'd asked what the pie was and decided to go with the sausage, but then I asked her to repeat what the pie was (beef and carrot), and decided to go with that. She obviously had pie on the brain, because that's what we both got. My companion agreed to go with that. Mind you, I do have to praise the pie - I do believe it's the tastiest pastry I've ever had in a pie!
My companion - rather optimistically - decided to go for dessert. He had sticky toffee pudding, I went with the salted caramel ice cream. He did mention to her that we were in a hurry.. but well, that wasn't going to make much of a difference, eh! We waited quite a while - and unusually, their standard ice cream portion is three (large) scoops. I was quite unable to finish it - drew the line at two, and we left.
The cinema wasn't far - we went straight in. The only seats left were at the front (they're unassigned).. which suited my companion anyway. I was rather dubious, but figured - why not..?
Well. The film is very 80s. Big hair, grainy footage.. and when the CGI appears, it looks very home-made. Nothing at all wrong with any of that. The big stand-out feature that distinguishes this film.. is the alien parasite - which, I have to say, reminded me of nothing so much as a massive, blue turd. Likes to live in water, and when it finds a host, it attaches itself to the back of their neck and bores a hole to the brain. It's got a proboscis it can insert there, which squirts some sort of narcotic into the brain, making them see visions, giving them a feeling of euphoria - and the idea is, they are then brainwashed into feeding it the human brains it craves. All you have to do is get close enough, it leaps upon them (no, I dunno how either) and bores its way straight through to their brain, through the side of their skull.
Lovely. What I haven't mentioned yet is that it has the cutest little face (well, eyes and a wee mouth that can open really wide when necessary), and a laconic, bar-room voice. Speaks English. And people call it "Elmer". (Well, something like "Aylmer", but hey, sounds like Elmer, and I think that's what it's credited as.
The film is frequently hilarious.. yes, there are some icky moments - again, beware, squeamish people - and beware also those sensitive to flashing lights, which do occur a couple of times. I just can't get over Elmer's face.. good to remember when blood is spilling all over the floor. Recommended, if you have a taste for that kind of thing!
Afterwards, we visited the downstairs bar:
Yesterday, back with TAC for another Kirckman concert for young classical musicians at King's Place- this time it was Sherri Lun, with a concert called Metamorphosis. My bus was terminating early, but handily enough, just about where I had to change anyway! Funnily enough, the driver had just got the message from the dispatcher about the early termination and was giving hell, saying that wasn't far, and he'd just taken on a load of people..
I got there early anyway, and happily, there wasn't a queue out the door at Nando's, where I was planning to eat. There was a bit of a wait inside, but the waiter quickly sat me at a communal table, which I had to myself until after I'd eaten. And wow, the service was so much faster than when it's busy.. I even had time for their delectable choc-a-lot cake!
I was really early to King's Place too - TAC doesn't like you to quote their name when you're collecting tickets, but the lady at the till asked me whether I was on the guest list, so I had to - happily, nobody was around to hear. I moseyed on downstairs - the hall wasn't open yet, but I got another drink, and was early enough to get a seat on the sofa. Interestingly, the wine was being served in tumblers:
The hall did eventually mostly fill up:
She came on in a nice, pale gown rather than more conventional black - and her repertoire consisted of composers over three centuries who had produced variations. Bach and Mendelssohn were followed by Busoni, someone called Sofia Gubaidulina, and Brahms.. but what struck me was that I don't think I've ever heard such expressive playing. (For instance, looking up - and playing snippets of - all the aforementioned pieces, I really don't think they sounded as good as she did!) Two encores were well-received - a terrific concert.
Well, I got the blog started in the office today - it was pretty empty, after a packed office yesterday to iron out difficulties with the OS they produce. I took a discreet seat by the window to do this. Tonight, I was back at storytelling with Orpheus Dismembered, featuring Ben Haggarty, of the Crick Crack Club (CCC). Happening at Hoxton Hall, and I booked to eat in Schnitzel Heaven beforehand.
Not too long a journey from the office - on the bus, I occupied myself observing a young Oriental-looking woman, standing in the luggage area (which was otherwise empty), phone in one hand, the other mostly in her pocket.. with the starts, stops, and turns of the bus, she just shuffled her feet to stay balanced, rather than holding onto anything. Fascinating to watch. Anyway, a shortish walk in bright sunshine to the restaurant. I beat the crowd - it really filled up while I was there!
Didn't fancy anything extravagant - I just had the regular chicken schnitzel, with a moreish side of breaded garlic mushrooms. Still, it was a double schnitzel, compete with both a slice of lemon and a big knob of garlic butter - I found they worked quite well together. With time for dessert, I ordered the Belgian chocolate cheesecake - I'd have preferred a regular chocolate cake, this was a little sickly, but never mind. Annoyingly, the wine only comes in medium glasses. Well, there I was, enjoying my dessert and a second glass of wine - and what should happen but a young lady on staff came over, patted me on the shoulder, and squealed about how wasn't it great I was enjoying my day out, with my dessert and wine..?! She asked whether I'd had anything else to eat, which I assured her I had. What, did she think I'd been let out for the day..?
A short walk to the venue - and a welcome one, as I was stuffed - where the white wine was only in cans - I asked for a (plastic) glass, which she gave me, and into which I decanted them. I was early enough to have my pick of seats, and ended up near the stage, but at the side, where I'd have room for my rucksack. By start time, there were people all the way up to the second balcony - it was almost full:
They did start a little late - it was only him, with Jonah Brody providing atmospheric music, and a few comic asides. Now.. Ben Haggarty is the best classical storyteller I know of, and he was in his element tonight. Essentially the story of Orpheus, it was set up in the first half with his family history - the Titans, Zeus and his philanderings. As he said, he hoped we'd read the trigger warnings.. there was death, of course, but also castration, cannibalism, incest.. the list goes on.
After the break, we were onto Orpheus proper - now, I knew the essence of the myth, but not every detail. For instance, I didn't know that his mother was a muse - or that they were the daughters of Zeus and his aunt Mnemosyne! He has a fantastic description of the show the muses combined to put on together, that made everything in the world stop to listen, and the mountains crane over to hear better.. with the chaos that ensued, Zeus ordered them never to do that again! I didn't know that his father was the King of Thrace - or that that is (partly) equated with modern-day Bulgaria! Worshipping Dionysus as they did, Ben joked that he was sponsored by the Bulgarian wine board..
Well, it seems that young Orpheus was sent off to study in Egypt, the seat of administrative learning in those days. Knocked all the artistic temperament out of him - it took Eurydice, a wood nymph, to bring it back. They fell in love, she gave up her immortality to be with him.. and, of course, she was killed by a snake on their wedding day.
I have never heard this story brought so beautifully to life - and it's one of the saddest myths I know of. Ben brought us right into the midst of the festivities - and then to the crushing grief that led Orpheus to enter the underworld to ask for her return, his beautiful music paying his passage. He paints the bargain that Orpheus struck with Hades as a test of trust - without looking behind him, could Orpheus trust Hades to keep his bargain, trust her to love him enough to leave her comfortable death..?
Ben paints so sad a picture of the underworld, of Eurydice's final return there.. after which a distraught Orpheus remains at the spot, staring at the sun, wasting away, until - in this version anyway - Apollo, the Sun God, takes pity on him and sends the Maenads to rip him to pieces, so he can join her in death.. hence the title. His head was subsequently taken to taste the waters of remembrance, which flowed from a certain cave - it became an oracle there, until Apollo got jealous, his own oracle being ignored, and stamped his foot, causing an earthquake that destroyed the cave and the head. And now nobody knows where it is..
I cried. I joined in the standing ovation. It's a long time since storytelling had such an effect on me.. speaking of which, it seems their agreement with the British Museum (BM) has come to an end! Well now, that's a shame - their Sunday afternoon sessions were so relaxing! They have a new arrangement with Hoxton Hall, and promise they'll be doing Christmas carols again there this year.
By this stage, my phone battery was so low that I had to memorise the route back to the bus.. which, I might add, had the heating up so high the driver had to turn on the cold air..
Tomorrow, back with Up in the Cheap Seats (UITCS) at Sadler's Wells, for Solera - flamenco with Paco Peña. ¡Olé! Eating at The Wilmington again- and can go a little earlier, it being a bank holiday.
On Saturday and Sunday - barring last-minute offers I can't refuse - I'm thinking documentaries, both in cinemas of which I'm a member. On Saturday, looking at Everybody to Kenmure Street, a documentary (Emma Thompson takes part) about a movement of Glasgow locals when a couple of their neighbours face deportation in a dawn raid! Was looking at it before, but didn't go - happily, it's on much closer now, in the Garden Cinema.
And on Sunday, thinking of Underland, a documentary about people working, and researching, underground. Showing in the Barbican, which is closer, but only in the morning - so I'll probably look at going to the Curzon Bloomsbury in the evening. Handy for shopping, of course..
Next three days are Meetups again - on Monday, I'm with London Museums A-Z for a trip to the BM to see the exhibition on Sufi Life and Art. Off to Penderel's Oak afterwards, as usual.
On Tuesday, I'm with London Classical Music and Theatre Group - I just couldn't resist Mayerling, it's my favourite ballet. Showing at the Opera House, and I'm eating at Cote Covent Garden beforehand.
And on Wednesday, back with UITCS for Marie & Rosetta, another Motown biographical musical, at Soho Place - eating at Bistro1 beforehand.
Next Thursday, more storytelling with the CCC - this is Island of Love, another Story Pick + Mix, at Next Door at Theatre Deli again. Again, it's related to Greek myth - this is the story of Cyprus, birthplace of Aphrodite, from a Cypriot storyteller. I tell you this though, I won't be eating in La Spezia again after the last time, it just isn't worth it!
On the 10th, the second of the year's concerts from Rune, in St. Bartholomew the Great! This one is A Merveillous Swevene: Dreams & Visions, and again I'm eating in the Old Red Cow beforehand.
And on the 11th, I'm with a new Meetup group called, ahem, Get a Social Life! Well, see, they're doing a daytrip to Glastonbury and Cheddar Gorge - I've already booked my tickets for Glastonbury Abbey and the Cheddar Gorge caves. Sadly early start - but it is a long way..
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