TEAM CRANK

Not much to report other than I WON MY FIRST PUB QUIZ!! Not much of a pub quiz goer, but have been on my fair share of losing teams (although not too shit that we actually win any form of booby prize). Tried to rally up some of the Barcelona crew for the new quiz that's just started at Aspen here in Edinburgh. Only two people turned up, not including myself. However, we somehow managed to stumble upon an ex pub quiz host who wanted to join our team. My highlight was the music round where we got 19.5/20! That, and the fact that I knew Anne Hathaway was Shakespeare's wife! I must thank Bill Bryson for that one, and my Mum for buying me the book!

Going next week as TEAM BOILED GOOSE.

Cassette Tape

This is going to be a relatively odd post because I'm still awake at 1.30am, have to be up for work in a few hours time and I just can't seem to bring myself out of my post-holiday blues, even though I've been back for almost a week now. I went to Barcelona for Sonar music festival and it was genuinely one of the best trips of my life.

Anyway, I'll hopefully get around to writing more about the trip later (when I'm not so depressed) but I thought I'd share with you my cassette image. I love cassette tapes. I used to make mixed tapes for car journeys when I was younger. I still listen to audio books on cassettes and have quite a collection stored away in my parents' house. I also practically wet myself when Threadless issued their Nostalgia t-shirt because I've done that loads!

Yeah, I told you this post would be weird...

In other news, I finished the first book in The Hunger Games trilogy and have moved onto Catching Fire. I'll give you my thoughts later but at the moment, I have to say I don't really see why people are creaming themselves over it... it's alright, I just don't think it's fantastic and the thought of there being yet another book to read after finishing Catching Fire is tiring me out.

Right, I'm off to listen to my Harry Potter audio tapes :D

Jekyll & Hyde

Jekyll & Hyde are two names that I genuinely just presumed everyone knew, along with others like Frankenstein and Dracula. Ok, fair enough you might struggle to remember who actually wrote the original story, but the tale is so ingrained in modern society, I find it hard to comprehend how someone could have lived life without gaining at least a basic knowledge of the plot (come on, CBBC even ran a series called Julia Jekyll and Harriet Hyde while I was still in primary school).

So when asked by a friend of a friend what my plans were for last Friday evening, I was slightly taken aback by his response of "What's that about?" when I told him I was heading (once again) to The Edinburgh Playhouse to see Robert Louis Stevenson's classic brought to life on stage.

In saying that, having read the book myself, I feel a reread is in order; I for one certainly don't remember the story having much to do with love at all. In fact, if my memory serves me correctly, there is no romance in the original, yet the play features heavily on two lead female characters who are both in love with Dr Jekyll. This addition got to be quite boring as a lot of the songs seemed to revolve around their relationships and I'm just not a big fan of "woe is me" solo sing-your-heart-out style songs.

Which brings me to my next point: It's a musical.

Now, I like musicals, I do, I really do. It's just... I personally don't think Jekyll & Hyde managed to pull it off that successfully. I reckon if you're going to take a famous Victorian Gothic tale of human duality, you need an exciting, creepy score. I would have much preferred it if the songs were just scrapped completely and the writers focused more on the story because it's a very good story that didn't need to be tampered with in the first place.

HOWEVER, despite some of the songs being a bit wishy-washy for my personal liking, I did enjoy the performance overall and would definitely recommend anyone to go see it. I think Marti Pellow did a great job as both Jekyll and Hyde (I especially liked how his hair style was used as an indicator of which of the two characters he was portraying) and the set was fantastic. If, on the other hand, you'd rather spend your money on something a little more substantial, then I strongly suggest you purchase the book. Especially if you're one of those select few who have never heard of the strange case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde...

The Pierces

Got a message last week from my friend Cara telling me that The Pierces were going to be in Edinburgh on the 7th June and if I fancied joining her to see them perform. Previous to this message, the only song I'd ever heard of theirs was Secret which was also introduced to me by Cara. I'd liked Secret so did that thing again where I accepted without bothering to check and see if I'd like any of their other tunes. I'm very trusting like that.

Edinburgh was the first stop on their UK tour promoting their new album You&I . They were preforming at The Pleasance Theater which seemed odd to me to begin with as this room is very dark and full of seats whereas I had (for some reason) imagined there to be room for people to stand and chat. I'm very inexperienced when it comes to these things but it worked out in the end, despite the fact that whoever was in charge of lighting had a tendency to just plunge the room into darkness or fill it with light without warning. The seats themselves were a little uncomfortable but I reckon that happens regardless when you're having to sit stationary for two and a half hours.

We turned up slightly late so Delta Maid, one of the opening acts was already mid-performance, a Liverpudlian solo singer with guitar. And while there's no question that she's incredibly talented (and sweet!), her music wasn't really to my taste. I get the impression that if I was to listen to her songs a few times over, they would grow on me, it was simply I didn't fall in love on the spot. The second act, Alice Gold (right), was a different story. She walked onto the stage with her long blond hair (for a moment confusing me because I thought she was Catherine Pierce) and fellow band mates and just blew me away with her voice and stage presence. Her music is very reminiscent of the 60s, incredibly catchy and toe-tapping. I have every intention of downloading her albums. Probably my favourite song of hers at the moment is Runaway Love, have listened to it a fair few times since Tuesday night. And on a different note, her eyes are gorgeous!

Finally, The Pierces took to the stage to much applause and began wowing everyone with their new songs. Like I said before, I'd only heard Secret before which, if I'm honest, is very different from the songs the played. I really liked Secret, but it was nothing to some of the other songs on offer. In fact, I'd go as far to say that as they were playing their last few songs, Secret is arguably one of their least impressive tunes which should say something about the other songs - they were amazing. I had felt that it would have been difficult to top Alice Gold (because her songs were better than Secret as well) but I was not disappointed in the slightest. Without a shadow of a doubt, Glorious is my song for summer.

EVITA

Sometimes, just to shake things up a bit, I'll go see a film or read a book with absolutely no idea what it's about. In other words, I will deliberately refrain from researching its plot or searching for reviews so I can watch/read while free of any preconceptions that such research could potentially throw my way. So when my friend, Katy, suggested we go to the theater, I suggested we go see Evita at The Edinburgh Playhouse.

Now, don't get me wrong, I knew Evita was famous and I knew that "Don't Cry For Me Argentina" is from it... but that was pretty much as far as my knowledge extended. Turned out that Katy was pretty much in the same boat as me and just fancied going to see a performance. However, while we walked to The Playhouse discussing our severe lack of knowledge of the show we had just spent £50 on, Katy piped up that she knew it was about the political system in Argentina way-back-when. This was probably my first alarm bell as it contrasted quite significantly from the idea I had painted in my head of it being somehow kinda similar to Mamma Mia. I don't really "get" politics and historical politics are just a no-go usually.

Aesthetically, the show was phenomenal. I mean, there's just no way anyone could really fault the singers and dancers and the set construction was equally impressive (not to mention the dress worn for "Don't Cry For Me")... it just didn't really float my boat, which was massively disappointing. Other than the fact that politics has never been a strong point for me, I've never been a fan of musicals completely void of dialogue as I tend to find it quite tiring to keep up with the story. On top of everything else, having eventually figured out that the production is based on a real person, I came to the dismal conclusion that this is one instance where doing a bit of digging beforehand would have been incredibly beneficial.

Basically, I'm definitely glad I went to see it, it's just a shame that it wasn't as good as Mamma Mia!

In other news, a very big hello and welcome to my lunch buddy Morven who has become my first official follower! I think she did it out of pity (haha!).

The Hunger Games begin...

After finally finishing Four Past Midnight by Stephen King, I was just about to sink my teeth into a reread of the last three Harry Potter books (I mean, the movie is almost upon us!) when a conversation at work with my lunch buddy, Morven, turned to a trilogy I had heard a lot about. I'm clearly talking about Susanne Collins's The Hunger Games which received a lot of exceptionally positive reviews here on the interwebs. I was telling Morven about how excited the girl in Waterstone's got when I rocked up at the counter with the whole set and how she almost had a fit when I told her that they were making the movie.

Anyways, being a bookworm herself, Morven was convinced enough to go ahead and buy them and suggested we read them together to share views and so, last night, I put Harry Potter aside (I mean, I've read them so many times I can practically recite them!) and picked up volume one of The Hunger Games. I'm only on chapter 3 at the moment but have a feeling that I'm probably going to get through them rather quickly. I already love the atmosphere and air of desperation that's been set.

I'll keep you posted on my thoughts :)