Shakespeare in Stratford or "There Is Nothing Like A Dane" or "You Can't Make A Hamlet Without Cracking Some Heads"

Just back from another week in Upton Snodsbury, wherein we managed to take in two of the Bard's plays , "A Midsummer Night's Dream" and "Hamlet", at the Courtyard Theatre, temporary home of the RSC during the redevelopment of the main theatre, the frontage of which is displayed below.

Both plays were excellent , though I enjoyed the former more , as it's not so depressing. The cast was virtually the same for both productions, with the additions of Patrick Stewart and David Tennant for "Hamlet" (which ensured a full house and more besides). A number of nubile young ladies I'm sure were only there because of the presence of the latter actor.

"Hamlet" is the one with the body count , while "Midsummer Night's Dream" is a little more light hearted but not without it's darker side.

Would recommend the RSC productions to anyone with a penchant for that sort of thing.

Music For Nothing

A short post this , just about downloading. There's some folk still think that they shouldn't pay for music they download , then complain if it ain't pristine or contains a virus when they get the

stuff off limewire or wherever. WE7 pays for downloads by advertising , so you can get free downloads , with no DRM , no virusses and the artist gets paid. This is a widget thing that should allow you to listen to People Get Ready by Jeff Beck and Rod Stewart:

However this has to rate as one of the worst albums of all time: It even has Chris Waddle and Glenn Hoddle's "Diamond Lights", I think you'd be better getting a Retro England Shirt from TOFFS!!



But they have a lot of good stuff should be supported in their efforts.

The "Last Supper" At The Free Trade

The Free Trade Pub has one of the greatest views in Newcastle , about to be destroyed by Taylor Wimpey by raising a block of flats in front of it, details here. The Government deemed that the view had no merit , especially where cash was involved. This is the same lot that put 75% on fuel , tell us to tighten our belts when energy bills increase by up to 60% , expect a 2% pay rise to be observed by the country while awarding themselves 9.4% . Gits. It's also one of the few pubs in the area that get's a thumbs up from The Burglar's Dog !!

Anyway this is the sort of thing we're going to lose to the builders:

And heres a short video with pictures , soundtracked by Lindisfarne's "All Fall Down":

On August 14th an impromptu pub trail was instigated , which was rather well attended . Not naming names as some folk value their privacy , but the pictures are here , and thought this was reminiscent of a certain famous painting:

And here's the rest soundtract by Terraplane's Beer and Cigarettes only available as far as I know on the vinyl 1978 compilation The Akron Complication on Stiff Records!!

A Short Rant - Mainly against the old and the young

There's a couple of sure signs that you're getting old:

• You tell people age doesn't matter (it shouldn't)
• You go into HMV or wherever and you already have evreything you want
• And lot's of others...

But one thing I never understood is that you can never get past the tiniest old man or lady on a footpath no matter how big the footpath. I finally worked this out. Normal people squeeze to make room to let let you past, while certain members of the older geneation just refuse to give an inch... The other day an old guy gets on the bus and gripped the handrails at the front of the bus and refused to let anyone pass as "he was only going one stop" !!!

Worse than the students who congregate ant the front of busses despte the rest of the bus being empty , for fear they may miss their stop.

And then the people on trains who insist on blocking doorways and aisles while they adjust , pack and unpack their luggage and laptops, totally mental.

..and the people who block doorways while they have a conversion or tab regardless of who wants to get in or out.

I suppose you can include the drivers who hog the middle lane of the motorway driving at forty miles an hour when the road is virtually empty. There's a reason for the inside lane.

Oh and then there's the charvers with puchchairs who seem to think that it's OK to block the suprmarket aisles while they decide on whether to go for the Lambrini or the Concorde , or block the footbath while trying to juggle their Gregg's pastie and light a tab at the same time spilling ash all over the unfortunate kid being pushed around!!!

Grrr.

New Bath and Carpet!!

We finally had the carpet delivered after much trauma , and people have asked to see the bathroom , so thought the easiest thing would be a short video , which is here:

It's the first day of August and the weather is mad as a fish going from monsoon to tropical sunshine in a matter of hours , still it could be much worse.

Most of the stuff in the bathroom was supplied by Newcastle Bath & Plumbing Centre in Fenham who are both reasonably priced and provide great service.

After the first video , people want to see the garden and front room, so that's here now. Apologies for shakiness , but still bgetting used to video camera thing , and should give you an idea of how things are going!!

Spiders , Bees and a dog called Keegan!!

The garden is coming on well , though we're getting a bit of wildlife in the form of frogs, bees and spiders. Fiona insists that the spider webs should be cleared though I point out that the kill the real nasties such as bluebottles and the like. This guy seemed to be quite happy sitting on the water feature!!
We've also had lots of bees visiting but they are very reluctant to be photographed or filmed. We may get a picture at some point.





While drinking Cava during the afternoon , we noticed the family at the back had aquired a new yappy , black and white puppy ......they called it Keegan!!!

Mouth of Tyne Festival 2008

No rain this year but not much sun either. That didnt stop the bands or people enjoying themseleves . We started the day in South Shields watching the Excellent Bessie and the Zinc Buckets run through a great rockin' set including Stray Cat Strut , Ubangi Stomp and Jolene, much to the delight of numerous small schildren running around the circular paved area th the front of the stage .Took some video with the new camera but the sound was distorted so I added a Gene Vincent soundtrack!!

Also here's a link to them on youtube.

Then we went into Tynemouth to the Priory to see various Salsa bands who were perfect for the occasion , not only that but the bar was incredibly efficient despite running out of various ciders towards the end.


The Priory looked great bedecked with weird looking flags and stuff.

Here's the main stage:

On leaving the Priory we went past the jazz stage and encountered this rather excellent sounding band:

I'll leave this post with a phone photo of a double rainbow over Tynemouth last night: