h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Just going into living room to put the CD of the play on the stereo.

Plan is to listen...not worry about reading the text at the same time. I want the full pleasure. Lokking at text can come later.

Just tore cellophane wrapper off CD...Looked at credits..who the voices are etc..It might be an American thing? as it's made by LA Theatre Works..all kinds of foundations etc are funding it...also it is a AudioFile Earphones Award winner. I've not heard of that here.

It's going to be brilliant.

I read the blurb on the back,

'...Both dazzingly clever and emotionally naked, Henry's search for the 'real thing' in art and love demonstrates beautifully why both are worth the effort in the end.'

(Back later ).

I had a cassette of it years ago with Jeremy Irons as Henry

And Glenn Close putting on her Dick van Dyck accent as Annie.

Shall be back later with stuff to say or email or both.

Wanted to stop you worrying though, in case you were.

Thanks so much. It's done massive good to my soul today.

I used to really rather enjoy Tom Stoppard. Might have to seek this one out...

I tend to very much gush over this particular play. Although it is very clearly set in a particular historical period, it still comes across to me as timeless. I love it.


Another play I'm very fond of (a little less known than Stoppard, I expect) is Ann-Marie MacDonald's 'Goodnight Desdemona (Good Morning Juliet)' http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goodnight_Desdemona_%28Good_Morning_Juliet%29

I was absolutely blown away by it when I saw it in 1990 at Northern Light Theatre during Nightwood's first tour with it.


I expect it will be a little harder to find on CD.

Do you want the good or the bad news first?

You are getting the bad..(but don't worry).



I reckon I heard about as poor an interpretation and version on CD as you could conceive of. The acting was about as bad as overacting as I could imagine. (I'm fussy). It was English people that the LAs had got hold of..but they couldn't act. They could just talk very loudly in an affected Radio 4 style...that was almost parodic. And yes the play seems very dated...and overly long IMO.

The thing deserved to be panned.

**

BUT that has nothing whatsoever to do with the actual play. What a relief to read Stoppard's actual text and instructions.

But I didn't really need to read to know that. I could already get all the intelligence, humour and excellence...submerged as it was by that particular version...so many great lines...and man it hots up as a play once we get to, 'stupidity made coherent' line.

All that complexity and wit woven into a kind of narrow fluffiness.

Of course as a Brit myself and immersed in this culture...it will be a bit different for me.

Loads more to say really. But thanks a million for recommending.

I'll be on that actual text for a few days.

So many good lines...

(And I'd love to meet Brodie )..


**

I tried to give an honest appraisal..The play deserves it.

...so many great lines...


*lowers tone*

I was watching Dharma and Greg the other night...


Dharma 'Guess what I'm doing...?'

Her father, Larry Finkelstein, answered 'Acid?'

Made me roar. Like. A. Drain.


Stop.



Carry on.

See *lowers tone* is spot on...or rather by the by.

The play is dealing with The Real Thing.

Our hero Henry the playwright is searching for the real. Like me he's as happy listening to the footie or immersing himself in art and intellectualism...it's genuiness he's after. (mind you it's a toughie when the only thing on is a City match..)

>Henry: I'm supposed to be one of your intellectual playwrights. I'm going to look a total prick aren't I, announcing that while I was telling Jean-Paul Satre and the post war existentialists where they had got it wrong, I was spending the whole time listening to the Crystals singing 'Da Doo Ron Ron'.
<

So sad it was a bad `production.


And when I first saw it it was a bunch of Canadians and they were brilliant.

The original London `production had Felicity Kendal as Annie and I don't know who else for the rest. I don't think I've ever seen any videos of her in the role, but that's who I see in my mind when I read it.

Of course, Stoppard was having an affair with her at the time, if I remember correctly, which adds yet another layer to the `play.

Yes Felicity Kendall would make more sense for the part of 'Annie'...not Glen Close

He was having an affair with her?

Full disclosure.

I had a relationship with a woman in the past...actually my first with a woman..things were going wrong..and I discovered she was having a brief fling with a young man. It came to light..I won't go into detail..but I remember him saying he had a thing for Felicity Kendall's ears..and my partner's ears reminded him of her

I made a massive blunder today on NaJoPoMo and posted a friendly response to someone's journal in the wrong place. It didn't go unremarked upon.

At least it wasn't a telling off for a typo.

I won't post another journal there until the last day now.

Wonder how Henry would get on here?

Effers,

It was a simple mistake any of us can make. Helleloo wasn't being mean or nasty to you. She was making a friendly remark that you had posted in the wrong place, that's all

Why don't you go and post it into her journal anyway and joke that you got cross threaded

Lord! We've all done that many time before

Keep up your journals, hunny


lil x


ps... I'm going offline now, Formula 1 on TV. If you reply to this I'll come back later

You *entirely* are missing the point. It's just the *latest* example of the type of thinking dominating here.

It's entirely indicative of the spirit of this place now.

It saddens me deeply.

I honestly don't think you begin to understand. At least one or two are left here that do.

(And if you had the slightest respect for me as a person...you *wouldn't* call me hunny. That is your way and your language...nothing whatsoever to do with the way I have been here for years. You don't see *me*. Please don't ever call me hunny again..or give hugs. I've repeatedly posted here how much I don't like that..unless it is a specific context from a close friend and appropriate.

Thank god Mags gets me.

**

And I may or may not post later on her journal.

But I must say I'm amazed to suddenly see *you* here in this particular thread to do with that special play that anhaga recommended...and stuff being posted that is very personal to me as an artist.

There's few enough places I feel safe here now.

It's the same old muddly thing starting now...that Peanut does. Can you also leave me alone please. I already had to put up today with reading another load of nonsense on anhaga's blog about *me*.

Seriously it becomes clearer and clearer to me that only a certain *culture* is wanted now.

I don't do 'Blue Peter' or pointless F1 grand prixes...that have already had all the life sucked out out of them...as the championship was decided weeks ago...and Red Bull are technically clearly so far ahead of the rest. It's boring. It isn't sport.

I'm be on the football though.

(I can find a way to be here...but I want SPACE to work it out myself...and with people that *get* me.).

Let's see . . .

should I go over to Create and 'pimp'(stay classy, people) my Personal Space?


Or should I put another coat of sealant on my new tile floor?











I think I'll do the Real Thing with my floor.































Seriously! 'Pimp'? I can't help but feel like that stuff is being written by a lonely 45 year old who tries to pick up girls down at the high school.