I visited a coffee shop to find I could not buy a coffee.
I visited l a second coffeeshop. Bar pushed against the wall. No coffee.
In the street two girls spot me who I may have seen before. The eldest walks up to me and tells me she has to do as her father told her, be a hero. Puzzled . She says talk to me. I invite her and her younger sister to join me. We walk to a coffee shop.
We walk into a coffee shop to find undergoing decoration. The door to the garden closed.
I wake up. I was not even aware I was dreaming. I must have momentarily fallen asleep.
I had no intention of buying anything, I ended up buying a jar of honey, two bottles of pomegranate juice. Each bottle, the size of a coke bottle, the juice of a kilogram of pomegranates. One good for health, but never more than one.
The honey eased the sickness of caffeine poisoning.
Tried local version of jamon serrano. Very tasty.
Soaps tempting but would have contaminated coffee.
I suggested bees wax paper for wrapping. Where to obtain from? I inquired of honey stall. They were not very helpful.
The Medieval stalls were far more interesting than any craft market in England, which tends to be overpriced tat.
I thought I would eat at a restaurant, further up, past the monastery. Too late, closed. A conversation with the owner, a large glass of brandy, invited to return another day.
Live streamed last week, only a few hours left, as only retained for a week.
A very avant garde production, nigh impossible to follow, not helped the cast keep morphing into different characters, leaving one with glimpse of what is happening.
Excellent music.
A very powerful and moving production.
This week Treasure Island followed by Twelfth Night next week.
Hard to believe long long time ago I read Jane Ayre, humanities faculty English literature, university first year.
Set in Brighton in 1963, One Man, Two Guvnors, a play by Richard Bean, an English adaptation of Servant of Two Masters (Italian: Il servitore di due padroni), a 1743 Commedia dell’arte style comedy play by the Italian playwright Carlo Goldoni, was lived streamed by the National Theatre last week, part of their contribution to the coronavirus lockdown.
The play opens in the house of local gangster Charlie the Duck, a party in progress to celebrate the engagement of his daughter Pauline to another gangster, only he has been killed.
It then gets complicated.
A knock at the door, the minder of Roscoe Crabbe. But is he not dead, no he is outside in a car.
The opening scene is very reminiscent of Only Fools and Horses, I had to check not the same scriptwriters, with a hint of a Brian Rix farce.
Members of the audience are dragged on stage to participate.
Very very funny. I could not stop laughing.
Live streamed last week, then on youtube for a week. A few days left.
One Man, Two Guvnors toured in the UK and then opened in the West End in November 2011, with a subsequent Broadway opening in April 2012. The second tour was launched six months later, playing the UK, Hong Kong, Australia and New Zealand.
First of a series of live streamed plays from the National Theatre. Next will be Jane Ayre. To follow, Treasure Island and Twelfth Night. More may be added.
Live streaming has only been possible thanks to the cast agreeing to forgo their royalties.
The Final Reckoning by Petros Markaris, dramatised for BBC Radio 4.
Set in Athens during the economic crisis, shortly after the 2008 banking crisis and before Syriza come to power, with roots in the dark Fascist past.
Wealthy tax dodgers receive demands for unpaid taxes, when not paid, they are killed with hemlock, their bodies dumped at archaeological sites. Next are corrupt politicians.
Socrates was killed with hemlock. His dying words, the final reckoning, was that his debts and taxes be paid.
Written by Paul Mason and James Quinn, directed by James Quinn, Party Animals is a brilliant political satire on the Blairites and coup plotters within the Labour Party.
Sound quality is a bit iffy, listen on headphones.
I am lost for words. The audience were transfixed.
A man walks on in the darkness, sharpening a knife on a grindstone, squeak, squeak. He is joined by two women either side, washing clothes in a tub, slap, slap, a rhythm is built up, musicians join in, one of the women breaks into song.
Three incredible vocalists, guys on percussion, guy on double bass, guy on cello, another guy on keyboard.
Percussion three large drums, to which we were treated to amazing drumming session, seeds, banging in a tub and hollowed out tree trunk.
Music appears to be Arabic, slowly changes, at times jazz, at the end, African, if they could, the audience would have been on their feet dancing.
Based upon traditional work in the Canary Islands, and set to a back drop of ever changing Canarians carrying out their traditional work.
We were even treated to the whistle used to communicate, as travels further than voice in the mountains.
Congratulations to the artistic director, to the musicians, the sound engineer, the lighting engineer, and the theatre director Monica for hosting this amazing musical spectacular.
Why do the hotels promote tourist crap as so-called entertainment, when there are cultural events worth attending?
Pieles is not available on DVD or youtube or vimeo, simply because it is a musical spectacular that must be seen live. There is the possibility the music may be uploaded to bandcamp and available on CD.
A neat touch, the musicians lined up to greet as people left the auditorium.
Ata Madri, an expert in Mediaeval Arabic and The Arabian Nights receives an e-mail with an attachment. When she opens the attachment, it alludes to The Arabian Nights.
She has a dream:
Your fortune lies in Cairo. Go seek it there.
She is led to a bookshop in Caro, where believes she will find a Medieval manuscript of The Arabian Nights containing a long lost tale.
A wonderful re-telling of The Arabian Nights, tales within tales.
The ending of this BBC Radio 4 dramatisation is remarkably similar to The Alchemist by Paul Coelho.
A series of novels, set in Shanghai, in the immediate aftermath of Tiananmen Square massacre.
A China that is changing, from the China of Chairman Mao, to the China we see of today.
Inspector Chen is an unusual character. He is a poet and there are many references to early Chinese poetry. He studied English at university, was hoping to go on to a Masters Degree, but is ordered to take up a post as a diplomat, until it is found his uncle had unrevolutionary tendencies. He is transferred to the Shanghai Police to write reports for the local Party Secretary. He asks to be assigned to police work, and is assigned to special cases, political cases, given his own apartment, this at a time when three generations of a family are all living in one apartment.
Each person encountered is politely addressed by their title, or as Comrade.
A wonderful insight into China.
Qiu Xiaolong (1953- ) was born Shanghai, China. Visiting the United States in 1988 to write a book about T S Eliot, but following the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989, and a newspaper reporting on his previous fundraising efforts for Chinese students, he was forced to remain in America to avoid persecution by the Chinese Communist Party.
BBC Radio 4 has dramatised three of the Inspector Chen novels.
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