Almost Votin’ Time – Please Vote Obama!

As the US election nears I’m getting increasingly fearful that McCain/Palin will win. Personally, like the majority of my US friends, I want Obama to win – although that is mostly a “please, no more Republican evil!” knee jerk reaction, there is now some sense in my head that Senator Obama is a strong orator who doesn’t rely on feel good bull-sh*t like his opponent. That and McPain/Palin seem to be running on a ‘dig more oil’ and ‘attack more countries’ policy more than anything else these days. Oh, and don’t forget ‘Joe the Plumber’!

Here’s the rub. To folk outside the US who’ve never lived there it may come as a surprise to learn that most Americans are reasonable folk, who love their families, support charities and just want a good life. They aren’t all part of gun-toting, lynch mobs. However the vast majority of Americans also watch Fox and other hyperbole spewing mega-media corps who firmly want the Republicans to get in. Sarah Palin looks good on TV, and her ‘straight talking’, ‘hockey mum’ appeal seems to be having a big effect.

To really understand what Americans are subjected to I suggest us Brits regularly watch The Daily Show on More4. You will be shown, to comedic effect, the bizarre ramblings and contradictions of the politicians who are vying for the US votes. Thankfully for The Daily Show writers the McPalin bandwagon is a comedic goldmine of repetition, slogans and vilification of that ‘terrorist’ Obama. Watching this will show you how good the Republican strategists are at working the fear in many Americans minds into something firm they can latch onto – amazingly this fear isn’t translating into ‘we need someone to lead us out of this credit crunch’ it’s translating into ‘Oh please no baby Jesus, don’t let that evil Islamic terrorist Obama into office or we’re all dead!’. Fear is a powerful weapon. It’s the weapon of choice for the dark side and it’s the weapon of choice for the Republicans. Fear leads to simple slogans sticking in the minds of the populace, as it feels like a solid rock to hold onto.

Unfortunately for the Democrats, they like to be reasonable about everything. Liberal even. Or as McPalin is now saying – ‘socialist’ – a word that strikes fear into every ‘right thinking’ American’s mind. Ooo! Socialist.. that’s like ‘Communist’ isn’t it? No. They’re very different. However the Democrats will stay reasonable, pointing out the reasonable flaws in the McPalin sloganfest, and presenting a reasonable, considered approach to how the country might be run – including potential compromise where appropriate, or change if necessary. This is not a message that fits nicely on a bumper sticker, or that resonates with those folks who it needs to resonate with. They’re still stuck on Obama’s colour… not that they’re racists! Oh no, it’s just he’s one of ‘them’.

So you see why I’m a bit worried about this election. Last time two rich, white guys went up against each other – and the Southern, war monger won against the successful businessman. This time an older, white war monger with his trophy VP is going up against a black, educated, intelligent, charismatic, black man and his older white VP. I know who I’d like to win, but my money would have to go on evil winning again if I was a betting man, or if I had any money during this greed induced recession to waste on betting…

All of you in America. I implore you. For the sake of your children, and the chance to bring your once great country to the forefront of world politics again for positive reasons (not just because you’ve bombed poor people again). Please vote Obama, and get your friends and family to vote Obama. Look in your own heart and see if you’re being racist – be honest now. If you think Obama is either a terrorist, Islamic or ‘one of them’ then you’re racist – sorry, that’s the truth. Of course if you want to vote McCain for any other reason than that then go ahead, it’s your free choice. Just don’t expect me to feel sorry for you when you wake up in the morning, and look over on the other side of the bed and go ‘Oh wait. Did I vote for him lat night? I’m never drinking again…’

Chilly Autumn Days and Open Bridges

As we approach the end of British Summer Time this weekend the weather is getting much cooler but thankfully staying bright and sunny. Aside from Monday’s torrential rain this means I’ve been able to cycle into work every day with my nice 15-20 minute ride into Shoreditch. Yesterday was a perfect example of why cycling is best, as I left our house and crossed the roundabout the traffic almost immediately stopped solid allowing me to wind my way through the, often too small, gaps left by the cars. As I got closer to Tower Bridge I found out why the traffic was so solid – the bridge was up letting a boat through. Luckily I’d timed this perfectly and raced up the empty side of the road reaching the gates just after they’d opened. Yay!

There seems to me no reason why the bridge should go up during rush hour given the havoc this causes, and strangely enough the Tower Bridge lift schedule agreed with me saying that the Rainbow Warrior was due through at 10.45 but nothing before then. So who knows why it was up. Today it’s due to go up at 10.15 for Steamboat Will, so who knows if they’ll decide to come through on time or not. For those of you with big boats that need to go up the Thames just that little bit further (as you’re not getting past Wandsworth Bridge however much you hope) you’ll be glad to hear that bridge raises are free… to you at least. To everyone in the traffic you’re blocking it costs raised blood pressure, running engine fumes and being late into work – something in this climate most people don’t want to be. Still, it’s pretty for the tourists.

Stephen Fry’s Love Letter to America

This Sunday, for those of us in jolly old Britland, Stephen Fry is embarking on the first episode of his love letter to America – which should be a jolly good watch and probably a lot better than the watered down distress visited on us by Little Britain USA (sorry, Matt and David – it’s not your best work). In a wonderfully long blog post Stephen explains where his fascination with America came from, the near chance that he could have grown up in America had his father but taken a different career decision. Having found this out at age ten the young Stephen, or ‘Steve’ when effecting an American accent, would imagine how his life could have been had this choice been made differently. Now the adult ‘Steve’ Fry gets his chance to share his effusive joy and wonder about the country that might have been his but isn’t thankfully for all us Brits who consider him one of our brightest treasures.

Brit Drinking

I was amused this morning to come across an article in the Daily Mail discussing how our British excess drinking habits appear to people from the US. The amusement was doubled by seeing a quote from my friend and ex-drinking partner in New York, Robert Kelsey – yes, he of book writing fame. The article can be summed up pretty succinctly in that we, as Brits, not only like our booze but actually need it to function as the witty, urbane folk that the rest of the world see us as. Alcohol in all its forms acts as a necessary launching pad to having a good time, impressing the opposite sex and finding a life partner – dictated perhaps by whether they have the same capacity for alcohol as ourselves, or maybe just enough propriety to not mention our drunken indisgressions once we sober up.

The whole world of British drunkenness has now been re-presented to me on my return from the US. As a Brit abroad it used to amaze me that our American friends would generally limit themselves to two beers a night, with rare exceptions. Now I have US friends who can, and do, imbibe to relative excess and handle it very well indeed, so I know that stereotype doesn’t hold true for everyone. The different does seem to be how drunk New Yorkers act when compared to drunk Londoners, and driving across town at 10pm last night after a great game of five-a-side football was yet another eye opener. The pavements of Old Street were overflowing with people barely able to stand upright, and seemingly intent on committing suicide with every passing car. Groups of skinny, rat faced boys, dressed in sharp shirts with slicked down mousey brown hair, seemed intent on catching our eyes as we drove past in obvious need of causing a fight with any excuse. “What you lookin at? I’ll fuckin’ have ya!”.

Drunken Brits at our best achieve Oscar Wilde levels of eloquence and witty banter, at least in our own minds and those of our drunken friends. At our worse, we’re lying on pavements in our own vomit, clothes in various states of disarray, blood on our faces from the last fight and looking forward, when we regain some small portion of our alcohol ravaged brains, to a chance to recount our heroic exploits to our friends, most likely over a pint. As an ex-ex-pat all of this is at times something to be embraced, and at other times a great source of embarrassment. Why can’t we just have a few, quiet drinks without feeling the need after the second to carry on? Why can’t we learn to get drunk while retaining some level of class? Perhaps this is the great leveller of class, with everyone from royalty down being a complete drunken idiot at some time. The only difference is that one drinks Krug by the carriage-load, the others drink cheap, strong Stella by the shitload. Social excess drinking is surely the glue of our entire empire.

A Midautumn’s Night Dream

After last weekend’s theatre fix, we decided to try for last minute returns for the Globe’s Midsummer Night’s Dream which closes this weekend. Turns out getting return tickets at the Globe is not so bad, or at least wasn’t tonight – but maybe that’s because everyone else checked the weather forecast and realised it was going to be hella-chilly out there! Still, the production was excellent and it was good to see one of my favourite Shakespearean outings in a different venue. The last time was back in NYC with the traditional Gorilla Repertory summer outdoor performance in Washington Square Park. Happy days indeed.

More Shakespearian Stuff

On Saturday M and I braved our hangovers to finally get down to the Globe Theatre for a production. Given it’s all of 15 minutes walk from our house and we’ve had most of summer days relatively free while job hunting it’s a bit of a travesty that we never went earlier, but them’s the breaks. Given also that it was splendid fun and only five quid for a standing ticket I’m slightly annoyed at myself for this oversight! Ah well, next season..

The play we saw was Timon of Athens, one of Shakespeare’s less well known efforts, co-written with one of his proteges, Thomas Middleton. The story centres around Timon (in olde English ‘Tymon’), a rich member of Athens society whose life revolves around throwing lavish parties for fellow Athenians, and granting opulent gifts to people who please him. All of this Timon does in the theme of being generous for generosity’s sake, but the people around him, his so-called friends, take advantage of his good nature, so much so that he ends up in the poor house hounded by debtor’s agents. All his money gone, Timon ends up in the wilderness where he chances upon some gold in the ground while digging for roots to eat – and almost immediately people arrive, having smelled the money from afar. Timon, now an angry, bitter, broken man, uses the money to abuse them and funds an attack on Athens itself. Eventually he dies, kept company only by his faithful steward who watches over his fall into madness.

As you can plainly see, it’s a dark morality tale that fits well with the current financial situation going on in the world. Thankfully the story flows with moments of high humour, especially in the interchanges between Timon and Apemantus, a local philosopher who refuses Timon’s generosity and points out how the people around him are not really his friends. The production at the Globe is beautifully considered and executed, with a running theme of birds – the carrion crows of debtors dressed in black flying down from netting suspended over the theatre floor – harrying Timon increasingly through the play. We were lucky enough to be standing in the round, something I highly recommend, and the actors come through the crowd regularly – sometimes from the doors and sometimes from the sky, rappelling down from the netting above, sometimes throwing chocolate coins (my favourite method of entrance).

The Globe itself is a stunning recreation of the original Globe theatre, and a must see if you’re visiting London, especially with the high quality production values and cheap standing ticket prices. The seated patrons rise on vertical walls in a circle around the standing floor, the round, and the stage itself is situated at one side of this circle. Luckily for us it was a bright, sunny autumn day which made standing without any cover a much more enjoyable affair, although our legs were pretty sore at the end of two and a half hours. So take comfortable shoes and a bottle of water to drink (no glass).

Thanks to the entire cast and crew of Timon of Athens for a highly enjoyable show. We’ll be sure to visit again as soon as we can – just make sure it doesn’t rain again!

The Wind-Up Bird Chronical – Haruki Murakami (5/5)

Dark, inter-twined narratives compose this epic from Murakami. The tale is of a normal man, nick named Mr Wind-Up Bird by a local girl, whose life takes a turn for the surreal when his cat goes missing, followed shortly thereafter by his wife, and the rest of his life as he knew it. From there Mr Wind-Up Bird keeps uses his faith in bringing his wife back to keep himself moving on, and in the process finds many other people to help, although never in any straightforward manner. Although sometimes slower in pace than his other books, Murakami keeps the plot moving forward while introducing other elements, somewhat akin to David Lynch without the damn fine coffee. A great book, although perhaps not the easiest Murakami to start with – perhaps Norwegian Wood is better if you’re a Murakami virgin.

Post by Matt Hobbs

Doctor Who Hamlet Hits London – Sells Out. Duh.

Well, for those of you who aren’t Doctor Who fans turn off now.. for those of you who are, you’ll be sad to hear that the London run of the RSC’s Hamlet, starring David Tennant and Patrick Stewart sold out in a few hours earlier today.

Having been one of the many thousands who beseiged the Novello’s ticket site earlier today, I can only say it was one of the more stressful moments in my life. The site was constantly up and down, in the same way that the phone line was constantly engaged. In fact, even when we somehow managed to, apparently, book tickets the site refused to confirm the purchase! How stressful is that? Well it turns out a lot less stressful now after the box office confirmed that my payment had gone through – yay!

Of course now I have to find out how many times I paid for those tickets, as without a confirmation page and unable to get back through again I tried repeatedly to ‘Confirm and Purchase’ to no avail. Fingers crossed the ticket server was sensible enough to work out that the tickets had already been sold and not charge again, but given how badly it dealt with the whole thing then nothing much would surprise me. In all fairness this was extreme demand, but surely it was expected? Still, it could be worse – Ticketbastard could have taken even more of my money along with other people’s as they sell tickets for a thousand quid markup on their ‘fan to fan’ touting site with their ‘service fee’. Why hasn’t this travesty been shut down yet?

Personally for popular, limited events such as this I believe London’s theatres should start to follow a Glastonbury style of ticketing to prevent the amazing levels of touting. Named tickets, that can only be used by the people whose names are on the ticket and present valid ID. Can’t make the show after all? Then return your ticket for a full refund, allowing real fans to get last minute tickets at the face value rather than 10x, and you get a priority place in line for returns on another day – for example if you happen to be ill. Admittedly this is a lot more work for the ticketing facilities, but if people are dedicated to getting rid of touts and helping the fans then what other options are there? Or the other option is to follow a Madonna-esque model of pricing, with an auction being held for the better tickets ensuring that all the money goes to the RSC rather than anyone else. Then with the extra cash they can run more cheaper tickets to help expand the audience of Shakespeare to those less able to afford it – which was part of their goal of casting David Tennant in the first place.

As for me, I can’t wait for my yearly dose of ‘Sci Fi Shakespeare’. Last year it was Patrick Stewart as MacBeth and the show was wonderful. This year – it’s Whovians and Trekkies in the audience as two great British actors tread the boards in one of the world’s most famous plays. Allons y and make it so! Sorry, my geek side kicked in.. resistance was futile. Coff.

Remembering: Seven Years On

It’s now been seven years since 9/11. Seven years of more unnecessary wars and death around the world. Seven years of George W Bush and the ridiculous, damaging policies of him and his cronies (thankfully not for much longer though). Seven years of loss for families whose loved ones never returned home from work that day.

To everyone who died that day – we remember. For everyone else – here’s to a better world.