You had plenty money 1922

Tired. Hot. Brain feels like swiss cheese due to job. (tedious, tiring, annoying, brain-deadening, stressful, brain is not engaged whatsoever, pissed off with the general shite) Looking for new jobs. Problem being that I'm not qualified for very much and tend to run screaming from most office type stuff. Can't afford to take time off for re-training, anything vaguely interesting tends to pay less than my current job - and I'm just about surviving on this wage, have no idea what I actually want and was ready to kill something at the end of the last time I was in education. Add to that the problem of London makes me ill but all my friends and social interests are in London. Yeah. I'm fucked.

Jodie won the Nancy competition (squee and bitching and discussion over at nancy_or_oliver, Cameron and ALW really need to remember that people have opinions about Oliver!, and if you wanted someone really different that you could mould for a role, you should be re-doing the entire production, not leaving it to the public to decide. and the public really resent being told who to vote for when the person you're pushing has shown time and again that she can't act, is really awkward on stage, can't dance and is horribly inconsistent. Especially when one of the other contestants is sweet, warm, funny, can act, has great stage presence, a great voice, and generally conforms to people's idea of the role (plus the two judges who are actually being honest and thinking in terms of who the public would like plus who'd they like to act against really like - and yes, it was gleesome to see JB and Denise's little victory dance). Oh, and then you called her fat in the semis.

Oi, wiccachik, was poking around some theatre sites and it looks like the Bournemeister is doing a new production at Sadlers. Dorian Grey, 2nd -14th Sept (premieres at Edinburgh festival on Aug 22nd for anyone up that way, she says, giving Celia a pointed look). However, the only Bourne production listed at New Wimbledon is Edward Scissorhands for November. And no listing of whether Brick Shithouse is in it. :mutter mutter mutter:

Spent sunday afternoon at Stonor (family known for being around since Norman times - the original house dates from the 12th century, and then being really, really rich until they got fined like crazy for having an addiction to harbouring catholic priests during the Reformation), which is pretty, great for history geeks, has really gorgeous gardens (somewhat amused and calculating how much money they were making from the VW rally going on in a field at the front - £7 entry for rally *and* house, and we're pretty sure we saw some pre-war VW vans as we were driving out). Chatted to the volunteer tour people that lurked in the various rooms, talked to one bloke, turned a corner, then brain did the blinky blinky as the hairstyle was somewhat distinctive and realised that that tour person was Lord Camoys. (family photos on the tables in some of the rooms)

off to buy toothpaste.

Weather vile. Heart going out to miniosiris and clothsprogs who're being all 14th century down near...er... Dover is it? Here's hoping the rain's not too bad.

Woken up by wind and rain at 5am this morning, and though it's not quite as torrential now yours truly took one look when I got up and went 'bugger thys for a game of soldiers'. I don't mind light drizzle when jogging. I just really object to coming back with my teeth chattering and having to wade through swamp conditions.

Reading bits and pieces, lifting eyebrows at the taste of the British public over letting Jessie through in IDA, vaguely peeved at the Lord picking Rachel over Sam even though we know he's made his preference clear all series for Sam. Here's hoping Rachel gets a decent career out of this, especially after her performance of Cabaret. Worried if Sam wins it, because as a lot of people have pointed out, she's young and there's a high chance she'll ruin her voice. Fingers crossed for Jodie. Because if Jessie gets it, Cameron's going to have problems. Seriously, British public, the fact that she's been turning in mostly substandard performances, regular negative criticism from the judges on points that she never fixes and proving time and again that she can't act isn't an issue? (Graham tells me that judging by the non-musical boards he frequents, Jessie is fave amongst the blokes)

Went surfing through afterelton.com and playbill for amusement value, and as usual, got struck by reviewers getting completely the wrong end of the stick because they haven't got the cultural references in place. See After Elton's reviews of Torchwood and Seth Rudetsky's coverage of I'd Do Anything. Where he keeps mentioning the fact that all the girls sing 'As long as he needs me' as 'As long as he-ay nayds may', most recently coming up with the excuse that maybe it's easier on the vocals and letting them hit the notes better. :facepalm: Good lord. You'd think he might have figured out by now that it's because they're singing it with a cockney accent and that a cockney accent bears bugger all resemblance to Dick Van Dyke. Maybe I should point out that a worrying percentage of Broadway singers I've seen in the UK sound terribly nasal.

This is your opportunity to point out other stuff that people on the other side of the pond get completely the wrong end of the stick about due to lack of cultural reference. Seen anything annoying in Torchwood/Life on Mars coverage? Supernatural/SGA/insert US show here coverage? A personal favourite of mine is the amount of times we've had to yell 'UK coppers *do not carry guns*' or '...nhs does not work that way'

I was just going over song choice that all the girls have been given so far and noticed something interesting.

You know how Rachel's constantly being given judges praise so the audience favour her?

This...isn't the whole story. I think she's being kept in for back-up.

The girls who're *always* given songs in their range, guaranteed audience pleasers, choreography that suits them, that show off their different acting ranges and lyrics that you can act to?

Sarah and Jodie.

Rachel gets some good songs, but she's also given things like 'Oh what a Night'. And most of her songs have the section that she always noticeably shouts on.

Not to mention? If Sarah and Jodie aren't being given 'oh my god you're a star' praise, they're getting constructive criticism and notes for next week that they can actually *work* with. Not to mention the cutesy behind the scenes and rehearsal stuff we're shown is always, always in their favour to give good audience impression. (nice supportive but not nutso-supporter family, the teapot thing which is a cute quirk but *also* has a dedicated work reason behind it, the engagement news...)

I'd Do Anything - group song 'Enough is Enough' is at least a better choice for musical acting than 'Sound of the Underground' was. Though seriously, how fucking bad is the sound in that studio considering how out the last two were? Keisha and Cleo didn't deserve to be in the sing-off, but really peeved that Andrew chose Keisha and dumped Cleo. Cleo damn well acted her way through the sing-off and Feelin' Good. Keisha - lovely voice, but nothing behind the eyes when she was singing. I really don't know if she'd make a good musicals performer, whereas fingers crossed that Cleo gets work soon.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v6XEk2j7RtU - reasons to hate Paul. And Jackie. And Sonia. Oh, and various others. Mind you, slightly weirded out over the sound of my voice, since I rarely get to hear what it sounds like to others. As usual, '...I'm that deep? And that luvvie-sounding?'

Woke up at 8am by noise, looked out and fucking hell. Snow falling. Grabbed camera, took pictures for actual proof. Lunchtime, I went for a walk, by which time it was melting if the snow was on it - sun being warm enough that I tuck three loads of laundry out which wasn't that far off dry by the time the snow started falling again. And experienced that very weird feeling of shaking snow off laundry.

Barrowman tomorrow. SQUEE.

mostly costuming, creating the swiss miss wienerlicious outfit from Chuck.

Done : most of the sewing.

To do:
buttons on the shirt
pintuck the sleeves on the shirt
put the catch onto the skirt
shaping sewing on the top and bottom of the corset
get hook and eye tape and sew that on
put the lacing on the corset.

So basically, detail stuff.

Watched the first live show of I'd Do Anything. the olivers, what little we saw, appear to be much of a muchness. the Nancys - no Lee or Connie this time round who you can point at straight off. There's four or five who could do it with different emphases. So far, I'm going for Samantha, Rachel, and Cleo, and Keisha I just adore unreservedly for her full-on Shirley Bassey-ness. Rachel did a really good raw, Cleo you felt had been broken so many times and was only just holding it together, and Samantha - I think we're going to call her raunchy Nancy. Reminded me very well of the film Nancy.

We need to kick Barry Humphries into being more critique-y. Glad that Denise is being more so this time round, too. Pondering on the point that Andrew raised, which is that accent is pretty key. Mind you, I've always been of the idea that Nancy doesn't have to have an East End accent, London was a melting pot, like it always has been. Maybe we should point out that at least three of Jack the Ripper's victims weren't from London.

Following weeks will tell on who's the judges' favourites and where the blatant manipulation of the audience and who gets given the songs that're just terrible for them. (see Ben last year - when you give him stuff like Elvis, he couldn't put a foot wrong, and the sing-off songs were normally brilliant for him, since he'd wipe the floor with the others in those, but they kept giving him stuff that was terrible or out of his range in his performance songs) Also, anyone else notice that there's a lot more professional actresses in this lot, not just 'in school'?