Fun Times
I had a really good weekend - actually I had a really good exam period. As on top of three exams (all of which went well), I managed to get a second 78% mark for my coursework and managed to go to an outdoor show, a musical, an extravaganza maskerading as a musical, a pantomime and a surprisingly enjoyable charity concert (who says I don't take my studies seriously). Anyway, one of my unofficial online resolutions this year is to keep a better record of all the things I get up to - last year this was pretty much just an art journal - but hopefully people won't mind me posting other stuff too.
Anyway I posted about the first three events earlier in the week so I'll skip straight to the pantomime. It was down in Richmond, which is obviously a bit of a trek but as I was meeting a friend and it featured the lovely Simon Lipkin (see Icon - he's the slightly less pink one) - I didn't mind. The day started fantastically as walking to the coach station at 6am I managed to fall over right in front of the only person I passed on the entire journey - lucky I'm not embarrassed easily (although I did spend the rest of the day limping slowly). Got into Victoria a bit late as England is still involved in (what feels like) a year-long deluge, but got to Richmond and met up with my friend with plenty of time to collect the tickets, have a drink and do a bit of window shopping (there was a shop with shoes made out of chocolate - chocolate!).
The panto was pretty good though not perfect. It's posh panto, with Nigel Havers - but that was the first problem really as his role, Baron Hardup, is not really big enough for the main 'name', so they'd changed it to feature him more - plus this also meant too many of the jokes were aimed at the adults - and as the audience was made up mostly of school parties you could tell they were bored for big chunks of the panto. Paul Zerdin, as Buttons, pretty much stole the show - but for me the character always does, I care much more about Buttons than Cinderella (how can anyone resist the charming best friend, with a massive unrequited crush) - he worked really well and one of my favourite moments was when he cocked up and got the date wrong rather spectacularly. I also adored Simon obviously, his character, Dandini - the Prince's servant, is relatively small but fun as he got to swap places with the prince and be manhandled by the Ugly Stepsisters. I'm not sure he was enjoying it too much, but I can't really blame him after doing over a months worth of shows - he just looked bored when there wasn't much for him to do, though he was his usual funny, sparkly self when he had something in the script to work with. I was a bit annoyed that the orchestra drowned out his singing during his duet with the prince (Shine by Take That). The sets, dancing and singing was good though.
I got back to Liverpool late on Friday and the next day headed to the library to finally sign up for a card and check out a Beatles exhibition. The exhibition was cool (there were letters signed by Brian Epstein *squee*) but I was more blown away by how beautiful the room was - absolutely stunning - straight out of Beauty and the Beast stunning with gilt twisting staircases and a beautiful dome and everything.
After that we headed to the new Arena to watch the Liverpool Number One Project - which was lots of (mostly) Liverpudlian artists performing Liverpool number ones - there have apparently been 56 number ones from Liverpool (although the number rose to 58 by the end of the evening as more people turned out to be born in Liverpool) - which is supposed to be more than any other city in the world. I admit I enjoyed it far more than expected, as most of the line-up was a little pants (Ray Quinn, Cast of Hollyoaks, Atomic Kitten...). True some of the acts were rubbish but there was loads of good stuff as well. Despite myself I enjoyed the Hollyoaks people, Eton Road and Antony Hannah; Kappa (who I've been watching play in tiny clubs for years) performed a fantastic version of Lady Madonna on the accoustic guitar; Thea Gilmore did a wonderful version of You Spin Me Right Round (on her myspace - http://www.myspace.com/theagilmore); The Scaffold stole the show with Lily the Pink and a fun new verison of Three Lions, Three Shirts on a Line (last song at http://www.myspace.com/thenumberoneproject); Dr and the Medics were massively fun playing Two Tribes and Spirit In The Sky (which is one of the new number ones being claimed by Liverpool) and Gerry was wonderful as always. So a good night.
I've spent the last two days being unusually relaxed and lazy, lots of drawing and I even wrote Ianto Jones (Torchwood) fic instead of working on my dissertation (although I did go through all the notes that my dissertation tutor had left me on the first chapter and found one which just said 'Hooray!' - which pretty much made my day.
Anyway to make up for all this rambling here is some art. An old piece - but I finally managed to colour something I'm pleased with *grins*. I used the tutorial here by Sherant - fantastic stuff. It's a picture of Fenrir (in wolf form) targeting a very young Lupin. Hope you like it.
Anyway I posted about the first three events earlier in the week so I'll skip straight to the pantomime. It was down in Richmond, which is obviously a bit of a trek but as I was meeting a friend and it featured the lovely Simon Lipkin (see Icon - he's the slightly less pink one) - I didn't mind. The day started fantastically as walking to the coach station at 6am I managed to fall over right in front of the only person I passed on the entire journey - lucky I'm not embarrassed easily (although I did spend the rest of the day limping slowly). Got into Victoria a bit late as England is still involved in (what feels like) a year-long deluge, but got to Richmond and met up with my friend with plenty of time to collect the tickets, have a drink and do a bit of window shopping (there was a shop with shoes made out of chocolate - chocolate!).
The panto was pretty good though not perfect. It's posh panto, with Nigel Havers - but that was the first problem really as his role, Baron Hardup, is not really big enough for the main 'name', so they'd changed it to feature him more - plus this also meant too many of the jokes were aimed at the adults - and as the audience was made up mostly of school parties you could tell they were bored for big chunks of the panto. Paul Zerdin, as Buttons, pretty much stole the show - but for me the character always does, I care much more about Buttons than Cinderella (how can anyone resist the charming best friend, with a massive unrequited crush) - he worked really well and one of my favourite moments was when he cocked up and got the date wrong rather spectacularly. I also adored Simon obviously, his character, Dandini - the Prince's servant, is relatively small but fun as he got to swap places with the prince and be manhandled by the Ugly Stepsisters. I'm not sure he was enjoying it too much, but I can't really blame him after doing over a months worth of shows - he just looked bored when there wasn't much for him to do, though he was his usual funny, sparkly self when he had something in the script to work with. I was a bit annoyed that the orchestra drowned out his singing during his duet with the prince (Shine by Take That). The sets, dancing and singing was good though.
I got back to Liverpool late on Friday and the next day headed to the library to finally sign up for a card and check out a Beatles exhibition. The exhibition was cool (there were letters signed by Brian Epstein *squee*) but I was more blown away by how beautiful the room was - absolutely stunning - straight out of Beauty and the Beast stunning with gilt twisting staircases and a beautiful dome and everything.
After that we headed to the new Arena to watch the Liverpool Number One Project - which was lots of (mostly) Liverpudlian artists performing Liverpool number ones - there have apparently been 56 number ones from Liverpool (although the number rose to 58 by the end of the evening as more people turned out to be born in Liverpool) - which is supposed to be more than any other city in the world. I admit I enjoyed it far more than expected, as most of the line-up was a little pants (Ray Quinn, Cast of Hollyoaks, Atomic Kitten...). True some of the acts were rubbish but there was loads of good stuff as well. Despite myself I enjoyed the Hollyoaks people, Eton Road and Antony Hannah; Kappa (who I've been watching play in tiny clubs for years) performed a fantastic version of Lady Madonna on the accoustic guitar; Thea Gilmore did a wonderful version of You Spin Me Right Round (on her myspace - http://www.myspace.com/theagilmore); The Scaffold stole the show with Lily the Pink and a fun new verison of Three Lions, Three Shirts on a Line (last song at http://www.myspace.com/thenumberoneproject); Dr and the Medics were massively fun playing Two Tribes and Spirit In The Sky (which is one of the new number ones being claimed by Liverpool) and Gerry was wonderful as always. So a good night.
I've spent the last two days being unusually relaxed and lazy, lots of drawing and I even wrote Ianto Jones (Torchwood) fic instead of working on my dissertation (although I did go through all the notes that my dissertation tutor had left me on the first chapter and found one which just said 'Hooray!' - which pretty much made my day.
Anyway to make up for all this rambling here is some art. An old piece - but I finally managed to colour something I'm pleased with *grins*. I used the tutorial here by Sherant - fantastic stuff. It's a picture of Fenrir (in wolf form) targeting a very young Lupin. Hope you like it.