Here are some quick old reviews that I wrote back in May and never got round to posting - something I really like, and something I sadly don't.
BUSH,
Snoop Dogg
Looking at Snoop Dogg’s 2013 release ‘Doggumentary’ on
Spotify and every song (bar one) hosts the explicit certificate that would have
made me feel truly untameable had I been listening ten years ago. Controversial
lyrics actually aren’t a part of ‘BUSH’ at all, with rap taking a backseat role
to baselines that are truly enjoyable purely for their relaxed, funky sound
that somehow reminds me of smooth 70’s disco. ‘California Roll’ is easily the best hit on the album, with Stevie
Wonder’s influence automatically adding a timeless element to the song, ‘Peaches N Cream’ is more upbeat, but
Snoop’s classic soft vocals chill the song out. The whole album is incredibly
effortless, relaxing and a generally good record for background music. 7/10
English Graffiti, The Vaccines
Back in 2011, my answer to the question ‘What Did You Expect From The Vaccines?’
would have been recklessness and vocal depth, and a whole bunch of songs that I thought I could listen to for a long time, but with the release of this new album I might have to say I don’t quite know. I really want to like 'English Graffiti' – it’s unquestionable that Justin Young has the song-writing capability
to twist simple lyrics into the kind of powerful anthems that made 'Norgaard' and 'Post Break-Up Sex', I’m just not all that sure that
this is really shown off on 'English Graffiti' as much as on the record’s predecessors. But where
lyrical sincerity is compromised, a new territory has been explored by the
band: everything’s more robotic and tracks such as ’20/20’ and ‘Minimal
Affection’ really represent a movement towards pop-rock, which is generally a genre I like. Action-packed and
categorically energetic, English Graffiti is a vibrant wake up for The
Vaccines, but I might find myself returning to their older material for
something with more depth and impact. 5/10
The best photo I could find of the George Wood Theatre that we performed on (this is not our performance!) http://www.christiannamason.com/
This week I
participated in a Theatre and Performance taster course at Goldsmiths' College,
New Cross Gate. I’ve had possibly one of the most beneficial weeks of my life
in terms of helping me improve my performance skills on and off stage, and I
decided just to write a little about what we did on some of the days and what I
learnt over the course of the week. The experience has been something I am
extremely grateful to have taken part in, especially with it being free and so
close to home, and I would recommend it to anyone from London who is
considering taking a drama degree. I apologize if this post is a bit long,
there was nothing I could miss out on!
Even though I was
doing the course with a friend I was slightly anxious before beginning - you
can never really know what to expect in these kind of situations. I pre-empted
that we would have to take part in some of those awkward ‘getting to know each
other’ activities, where you find yourself having a twenty second moment of
panic as the circle approaches your turn and you have to desperately conjure up
some memorable anecdote about your life and tell it to a group of strangers.
It’s in those moments that I just seem forget everything that’s ever happened
to me. Surprisingly, we didn’t have to do any of that. We did play lots of
drama games that tackled the basic boundaries of working with new people – name
learning; breaking the touch barrier; working on improvisation, and that was
helpful for breaking the ice.
The theme of the week
was love, and I have to confess that at first I wasn’t too keen. I thought that
‘love’ is a bit vague and not really juicy enough to produce poignant and
explorative theatrical pieces, but throughout the week I realised it could be
more thought-provoking than I initially expected.
'Physical theatre is a form of performance in which movement and physicality of the body has a predominant part in the narrative of a piece.'
A physical theatre sequence from Frantic Assembly's Othello at the Lyric Theatre http://www.lyric.co.uk/
On Thursday we had a visitor to the course, the rapper, dancer and hip-hop theatre maker Jonzi D. I honestly had no idea what to expect. I dreaded being asked to create some sort of hip-hop dance based alongside the annoyingly common generalisation that anyone who likes acting also likes dance (completely untrue for me and many others), but the workshop was actually so much fun and gave me so much help in how to devise physical theatre pieces. We picked four words to do with love and created a stylised sequence to demonstrate them in a non-naturalistic manner, for instance one of my group’s words was ‘security’, and we made a human padlock to show this. Jonzi D gave us so much help in tidying up the piece and making it look more professional and perfected, which I always think is super important for creating good physical theatre. His own interpretation of ‘hip-hop theatre’ was funny and simple, a combination of story-telling through characterisation and performance poetry that really made me think – which good theatre always does. I think this day was the most beneficial for creating skills that I can take away from Goldsmiths.
What I’ve written is
just a basic summary of some of the activities that show how varied and
valuable my week has been; I’ve been exposed to so many industry professionals
and kind people who were willing to share their own skills in order to improve
the work of aspiring undergraduates. I have made so many friends through
the course, and it’s been the first time that I’ve had a chance to perform with
people that are not only enthusiastic, but all wanted to go into theatre. On
top of this, the technical facilities at the George Wood Theatre were the best
I’ve ever had in a performance – they made the stage and lighting I’ve been
excited to use before look so poor. I am so grateful to Goldsmiths' College,
Danny Braverman and the rest of the team who dedicated their time to this week.
I will remember this opportunity for a very long time.
