Hey hey my little fruityliciousnessess…

This article marks a somewhat ‘comeback posting’ for me after my brief vacation in the land of exams: freak sunny weather, very little alcohol and equally stressed, demoralised and somewhat tetchy ‘natives’. BUT, since that is all now out of the way and I’ve returned home to the freedom of drab and dreary weather, mixed with the joys and freedoms of exam-less life, I have to say is: ‘Let the good times roll, and the frolicking continue!’ In essence, my summer (‘Of Love’?!) has begun very much in earnest, today being the first day in a week where I’ve had more than 5 hours sleep and in my own bed. Drawback is of course that I now have no money for all my ventures this summer. Now, knowing the spendings of more than one of the readers/writers/site owner of SPIELOFF I’m pretty damn sure that there’s a lot more people in the same boat: penniless, homeless and bloody hungry. Now it seems that Mr. Steven ‘site-owner’ Vu can help you, regarding the hunger with his new burger deals, and as for homelessness, try ‘Shelter’, they do a lot of good work around the country and especially in London, poignant methinks for my column…

What I CAN help you with is the first dilemma I mentioned, penniless frivolity! Over the summer, I shall strive to inform and educate you on many a cheap (or indeed free!) happening in and around London, starting this week with what the Vu-man mentioned briefly in one of his postings. No, not cheap burgers, but instead the ‘Watch This Space’ event outside the National Theatre on the Southbank. Now the Southbank in any instance is always a fantastic place to be anyway, a very artisan and bohemian place with its ‘Villier’ arches, book stalls, Tate Modern, Royal Festival Hall, Hayward Gallery, Saatchi Gallery, the Millennium Eye, National Theatre, National Film Theatre, The Globe…and the list goes on and on…

However, an added incentive to visit the Southbank now comes in the shape and size of the aforementioned ‘Watch This Space’ festival. Running until the 3rd September, it promises to be as ever a delightful and interesting festival full of colours, magic, dance, music, theatre and film. There are ‘acts’ on every day, sometimes even twice a day. Having been for the past two years, it really is the most eclectic mix of performance artists. I mean thinking back, the two big acts which won me over last year were the ‘Le Parkour’ (Free running) guys, and the surprise artists ‘Hayseed Dixie’: bluegrass galore! My thoughts exactly, random! Oh and the year before that was the acrobatic troupe that you see in between BBC programmes, you know, the guys rolling down a strip of cloth from the ceiling and doing martial arts based movements on what I think is the Dome?! (Someone correct me if I’m wrong…) There’s something completely different for everyone, everyday, regardless of the weather and perhaps equally as important, its completely free. I mean, who says there’s no such thing as a free lunch? Besides, since most acts begin at 2:30 (unless otherwise stated) it really IS a free lunch…-time entertainment.

Since the whole festival lasts until September I couldn’t possible list to you everything which is going to happen, but I mean off the top of my head within the next week or so, the ones you should really look out for is the UK Breakdancing Final (Yeah, I have no idea either…) on the 8th July, and then on the next day ‘Organzola- Theatre of Adventure’ which in itself should be pretty damn bizarre and funny… an absolute must for anyone who likes absurdist comedy or farce. Right, I’m going to be a little bit cheeky now and plug my own show on the 5th and 6th August. I shan’t harp on about it unlike Mariah Carey at Live 8, but it’s basically a National Youth Theatre production of Hans Christian Anderson’s ‘The Steadfast Tin Soldier’ in celebration of his bi-centenary. Like I said, it’s all free and it would be good to see some of you there. (We have another two different shows in the National Theatre itself as well as the Lyric in Hammersmith throughout August and September but it would be unfair for me to plug it…. Oh wait have I done that already? In that case tickets are 6 or 10 quid for the National Theatre Shows, and 10 to 25 quid for the Lyric shows…)

Right back on track now… ‘Watch This Space’ really is probably the best of free summer entertainment in London, check out the National Theatre website for more details, but one other show you should look out for is the Sheena Davis Group on the 29th August who is arguable one of the country’s greatest current jazz vocalists. Think Ella Fitzgerald meets Lisa Hannigan if you will… Even if you don’t plan ahead, this is one of those things in which if you’re just out in London for the day, you can go south of the river and enjoy. It’s a 15 minute walk at most from the West End and Trafalgar Square across Waterloo Bridge and along what I think is the most beautiful part of London in its proximity to the (alright admittedly grubby) waters of the Thames.

Even if you don’t go to every single performance, or if you don’t even see one at all it’s still worthwhile to just sit on the fake grass and bask in the glory of the sun south of the river. (Oh, and pints are 3 quid so you know, extra incentive…) And who knows, you might see Jude and Sienna there as I did not too long ago and perhaps even more excitingly, you might even see ME there…

Anthony

P.s. Come support the National Youth Theatre! Mwah! x

Had such a lovley day wondering down southbank today. The annual National Theatre summer festival is in full swing, watch this space. It’s based just outside the Hayward Gallery and features a small stage with a patch of luxury fake grass. Much more fun than it seems.

Later on in the festival open air films are shown on the large square blocks on top of the Hayward. If you’re ever in London on a pretty summers day I suggest you pop down and see what’s going on.

Anyway, today a pretty lady by the name of Joanna was playing with her band. Nice cool relaxing Jazz mixed with singer songwriter stuff – never good at describing music. Her cute daughter was running amock in the audience plugging the CD.

I forgot my camera but here are a few pictures of what it looked like last year.

After went and met Jeannine for a relaxing chat in the park.

Watch this space is a summer festival which happens just outside the Hayward on the southbank. A small stage and pretty astroturf for all weather fun in London. Here are some entries from last year, I’ll fill it up in the coming week.

National Gallery – Watch this space calander

As i’m sure i mentioned before i’m skint, i therefore thrive on all things free. I decided to spend as little money as possible today while maintaining a high level of funness.

Got on the train at Norbiton thereby not paying that £5.20 to get to London. I’ve learnt that if you forget your ticket is out of date so do they. Just wave that ticket like it’s todays and you want them to bugger off and stop harassing you, they usually do. The amount of money i’ve saved jumping the trains more than makes up for any fine i’m likely to get.

Met Graham at Raynes Park, forgot that Dave wanted to come so called him and we all met up at Waterloo. Down to southbank to “watch this space” where Nick Luscome of XFM Flomotion fame was to play. I wasn’t impressed. His diminutive figure and chilled tunes got me lethargic. I guess it’s good to listen to when your at home and the music is a background to something, but at midday with the sun blazing i wanted lively music.

I’d always thought DJ’s actually did something, but watching good ol’
Nick was like watching a man pretending read. it probably does take a lot of effort and skill but he might have just recorded his effort on CD and played back. I guess i like loud music, blasted at your ears. Takes less effort to listen to and i find loud music narrows the spectrum of music afforded to your ears, thereby making it easier for masterpieces to arise. Or some bollocks like that. Probably a reason to why i like Mad Capsule Markets, the Japanese Electronic Hardcore outfit.

As i mentioned, i got bored. Decided to drag everyone to some pretty non energetic Gospel music at the embankment. Got bored. Did i mention i’m easily bored? Had a Subway, regretted it, paid £5, the total of what i’d pay for the day.

Played Peeping Tom, thought of the song while at it. Then went to see a Samba band at Watch this space. Blew my expectations away, they got the crowd going with at least a quarter dancing. Quite an achievement for the people that were there. Guys can’t dance, we just don’t have that natural rhythm. All the girls looked pretty amazing shaking those hips, while the guys just stood there improvising. Obviously there are the poor soles whose significant others dragged them to salsa classes but overall it was pitiful. I especially felt sorry for the guy who was dragged to the centre but looked like a wooden pole amongst a backdrop of moving people.

The time was 7:30 odd, the music had stopped and Lucy had joined us. Such a cool girl. Decided to go watch a movie, for free. Yes, free. Turns out Dave’s sister was to deliver free cinema tickets with her newspaper round to the area for a new cinema just opening. The rebel decided to keep the tickets and use them. Watched Fahrenheit 911, better than Bowling for columbine but not mind blowing. I’m sure there are better reviews so i’ll leave it short. The film was hilarious in places but lacked pacing. Moore at times couldn’t decide whether it was a comedy or documentary. Cracking a joke one minute while showing a grieving parent the next. Stick to an emotion and play on it, don’t alternate. Also the ending seemed to be a botch job, they should have intertwined references to LofTF throughout instead of haphazardly sticking it on at the end.

All in all a great day for the princely sum of £5. I’m afraid i’ll get bored of free music at southbank quite soon. Oh well, there’s always free comedy.

The great people of Bloomberg have sponsered a string of events running from 18th June – 21st August 2004 at the National Theatre on southbank.

I went down there a few days ago and picked up a flyer, gonna circle some things and go to them so i can tell myself all about them.

Saturday 24th July:

Sun Lounge 2.15pm – Nick Luscombe XFM Flow Motion

Should be fun

Saturday 31st July:

Waterloo Cines – The Lodger: A story of the london fog

So they project a good old film onto a massive concrete wall and u watch it standing up. On the level below is an orchestra playing the films score live. Should be fun.

More details can be had at the National Theatre

I’ll probably head down to embankment and see if anythings happening there. Jazz on the streets looks mighty good.

Reqiuem for a Dream – Soundtrack

I wake up to find the loo with piss all over it, after spending a week living in confined spaces with him (Wales) i concluded it was the work of Dave. Obviously he vehemently denied it but, what the hay.

The next 5 hours from 0807-1343 were spent on some sofas watching daytime TV with my fellow friends. CDUK being the highlight appearing at 1130. Cat Dealley never looked so lovely. I do miss Zoe Ball and Lauren Laverne. Managing to peel myself from that sofa and borrowing Deer Hunter and the Pianist i strode home.

Quick shower later and a new T-Shirt, i was out of the house again. By myself and not much of a plan to do with the rest of the day i decided a trip to London would do me good. A bit of introspection, a book and maybe a film wouldn’t go a miss. Walking down to Kingston with Lolita in one hand i felt like a star pseudo intellectual. I’d decided on the train to waterloo i’d traverse south bank then see if anything was happening at embankment or my favourite cinema PrinceCharles. Hectic drumming could be heard while on my way so i stopped to watch some Japanese drummers, or white boys and girls playing the ancient art of hitting drums in a Japanese manner. Was most exciting.

Thought i’d check out the Hayward Gallery and look at some pretty pictures in a most pretentious way but £4 kind of put me off it. A girl named Alissa from Holland stopped me and asked to take three pictures of my hair. I wasn’t going to stop her and it made my day, she was quite pretty and we small talked about hair and compared digital cameras. I felt emasculated with my paltry 2.0megapixel camera while she had a F828 5.0 megapixel Sony camera, thankfully she didn’t rub it in. Took a quick snap of her and made her look like an ogre to make up for it. Think she realised she was a tad older than me when i couldn’t come up with a uni quick enough so she left with the excuse of a meeting.

Southbank is pretty fun at this time of year, laughed at some buskers and moved on to the Barbican to watch some poor drama. Music would start at 1815 so i decided to have some lunch and come back later. PrinceCharles and Embankment seemed vacant so i noted down some times for my next outing and piddled back to the Barbican. As everywhere described everything as Eclectic i think it fitting i should to. The Eclectic mix of whatever nationality of music was playing when i got there, it was pretty good except for an ogre of a woman dancing provocatively. I mean, i know i like hot pants and all, but this was wrong. I’m not to sure if i got it on film. Don’t know if i wanted to. Had a pint of Carlsberg at a ridiculous price of £2.70 but i guess the music was free, it was a nice day and i was bored.