Brighton Fringe 2010 preview

With the Brighton Festival being launched this week I've tried picking out some Fringe events that might be worth their ticket price. Their printed brochure won't be published and on the streets until 17th March so we'll have to put up with their clunky website. Since I know a little about CMS run websites I couldn't help myself to email the Fringe people and moan about it as its so slow and takes forever to go through ever event.

Here's some interesting comedy events I've found so far:

How To Survive a Zombie Apocalypse
1, 2, 4 and 5 May at Komedia, £8
In 2010 the Sell-Out Cult Hit of the 2009 Edfringe is destroying brains across the UK! Join Dr. Dale and his team as they teach you inventively insane ways to survive the inevitable rise of the undead in this 'Brilliantly Bizarre' (Broadway Baby) & 'Wonderfully Weird' (ThreeWeeks) life saving seminar. Four stars from British Theatre Guide, Broadway Baby and Zombiecommand.com


Phil Kay
3, 4 May at Freerange, St Peter's Church Gardens, £8
Multi award winning Scotsman Phil Kay brings his marvelous freewheeling ever effervescent comedy show to the glorious streets of Brighton. "One of the greatest comedic odysseys ever witnessed... 'Hysterical' in every sense of the word - Kay truly is a mesmerizing headf**k genius" - Time Out

The Milky Drink Kids Ride Again
1, 2, 21, 22, 23 May at Laughing Horse, The Quadrant, £Free
Three people who started comedy at an age when most people join The National Trust and between them are 139 years old, tell jokes early so they can get to bed. Richard Rycroft tells tales of his misspent youth, Jane Hill has a comically jaded view of life and relationships and Rob Coleman offers a stream of one-liners.
I only put this one in as it mentioned my name! This isn't me by the way!

Brian Gittins' Fringe Friends
29 April, 6, 13, 20 May, Upstairs at Three and Ten, £
Pyecombe's finest roadside cafe owner Mr Brian Gittins welcomes you to another evening of entertainment. Every week, Brian will introduce us to his "pick of the fringe" friends who he has somehow co-opted to perform alongside him. “Breathtakingly funny” - The Guardian "A supremely funny oddball. The next big cult on the comedy circuit" - Time Out
I follow this guy on Twitter whose almost hourly output is 140 character friendly puns. Hopefully his material will be more than just (sometimes) one liners.

Barbara and Yogashwara's Safe Space
7, 8, 9 May (almost hourly) at their caravan on Kensington Street
Mother-and-daughter partnership Barbara and Yogashwara offer a refuge from the Festival fray with healing, rituals and mindfulness. Ruthless adult comedy horror that explores power, abuse and New Age spirituality. “Their development of classic archetypal comedy characters is on a par with the likes of Steve Coogan.” Simon Casson, Duckie Shows this brilliant come along only too rarely. Limited capacity - Book early!
susannahhewlett.com

The Dog-eared Collective's JOYRIDE
7, 8, 9 May, Upstairs at the Three and Ten, £8
Sketch comedy. Join fun-junkies The Dog-Eared Collective for a full throttle thrill ride through the turnpikes of pleasure. Edible insults, hurdling, falafel – whatever flips your switch and fires up your funny bone, sit back and strap in as the DEC set a comedy crash course for Cloud 9! “It’s Mighty Boosh meets League of Gentlemen” Fest, ***** Threeweeks Brighton 2009
www.dogearedcollective.co.uk
Anyone who quotes Mighty Boosh and League of Gentlemen is playing a dangerous game!

Late Night Gimp Fight!
8, 9, 11 May, Upstairs at Three and Ten, £8
The World's first Gimp-based sketch comedy group make their Brighton Festival Fringe debut! Come and see why 2010 is The Year of the Gimp. Uproarious sketches, music... and gimps. The new show combines hilarious songs with their trademark off-the-wall sketches that'll leave you feeling violated, in a good way. “Lively, slick, and above all, funny” - Three Weeks
www.latenightgimpfight.com

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• Brighton Festival 2010 preview (gingerdjrob.com)

Brighton Festival 2010 preview

Finally, a glimpse of Spring and Summer entertainment that's coming to Brighton. Can't wait to see the back of Winter. Both the Brighton Festival and Fringe websites have gone live with this year's events. Brian Eno is the big name for the festival but I'm struggling to find anything accessible that's not up its own arse. The Brighton Festival Fringe website is completely useless as you have to search by date or category with no real idea of the highlights. Getting the printed brochure this weekend will be one of my priorities.

Here are some Festival events that appeal to me at the moment:

Electric Hotel - 14 and 15 May
Described as:
Electric Hotel is a bizarre and beautiful outdoor spectacle; a uniquely designed, fly-by-night residence brought to life through dance and sound. Sitting on the outside looking in, you snatch glimpses of the do-not-disturb lives unfolding behind the floor-to-ceiling windows. Wearing headphones to eavesdrop on the internal spaces of the building, you witness the residents in their private rooms: their natural habits, unnatural fantasies and housekeeping of wildly varied quality. Electric Hotel is conceived and delivered by an ensemble team: director and co-founder of Shunt David Rosenberg; choreographer Frauke Requardt (Pictures from an Exhibition at Sadler's Wells/Young Vic); and designer Börkur Jónsson (Woyzeck at Barbican; Metamorphosis at Lyric Hammersmith).

How Do You Like My Landscape - 17 - 19 May
Described as:
And God felt great and powerful and He thought some animation would be cute and He ordered little animals.'
(Genesis). In How do you like my landscape? Manah Depauw and Bernard van Eeghem use sharp imagination, miniature topography and fake plastic animals to redefine the role of the human body within the history of the earth. This four-episode spectacle plays out across a time and terrain where apparent tranquility only serves to camouflage the terrible beast of desire within. Produced by Margarita Productions, Brussels

Best Before - 19 - 24 May
Described as:
Last year Rimini Protokoll made its UK debut at Brighton Festival with the première of Breaking News. Now, the ground-breaking German collective presents its latest slice of 'reality theatre'. Best Before pulls the multi-player video game out of the virtual realm and plugs it into an intimate theatre setting. A simulated city evolves on a giant screen as each of 200 spectators adds their personal touch, game controller in hand. At first you are an anonymous avatar but then you take on human dimensions as audience members clash, collaborate and negotiate the forces that define reality in the third millennium. A gamer's dream, this thrillingly inventive production asks you to help shape the future ... before it's too late! Rimini Protokoll has blurred the line between reality and fiction in over 20 immersive theatre experiences, putting 'experts in daily life' at the heart of its bold new vision. 

Lali Puna, John Hopkins - 20 May
Described as:
In their only UK date this year, cult German quartet Lali Puna join forces with fellow electronica artist and producer Jon Hopkins. Lali Puna have helped map out the musical landscape for modern, experimentally minded electro pop. Originally conceived as a solo project by Valerie Trebeljahr, the Weilheim outfit have produced four beautifully crafted albums of vibrant electro riffs and jubilant pop hooks. Jon Hopkins is a musical shapeshifter. His soundworlds - bold, euphoric and often unsettling - have seduced the likes of Brian Eno, Herbie Hancock and David Holmes. Here he presents a live audiovisual encounter with VJ Myogenic.

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• Brian Eno to curate Brighton festival (guardian.co.uk)
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Banksy in widescreen

Here's a film to get excited about after a two month lull of cinema entertainment. Banksy is the star of Exit through the Gift Shop (linked to Guardian review) and will be showing at the Duke of Yorks, Brighton and other independent cinemas from 5th March.

Trailer below:



A few more Banksy YouTube moments to get you in the mood including the Paris Hilton CD artwork:



And a more political stunt at Disneyland:

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• Banksy film has pop-up premiere (guardian.co.uk)
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Reach for the lasers

Image by Ginger DJ via Flickr

Thanks to my Twitter sources I found out about this art meets landmark meets silent rave event and drove down to the West Pier armed with camera. According to the Brighton Argus it was to celebrate the Chinese new year of the Tiger as a Tiger beer promotion. They could have at least given out free promotional beer as I didn't see any connection until I read the paper. More photos on my Flickr site.

Argus article: Brighton's West Pier lit up by green lasers

Massive Attack at Brighton Dome

The last couple of times we saw Massive Attack were slightly disappointing. Although they deserve huge arenas being the legends they are, their recent past output had Robert '3D' del Naja fully at the controls using his almost whispery voice getting lost within a huge moody soundtrack. I hadn't heard any of their new album, Heligoland as it has only just been released plus after 100th Window not really repeating the winning formula of Mezzanine I hadn't made an effort to preview it. Unfortunately Kerry couldn't join me for the gig so Kev stood in.

The band set up consisted of two drum kits, the guitar player who looked like Derek Acorah who's been around since Mezzanine, a keyboardist looking like Heston Blumenthol, a bassist and the vocalists of 3D, Daddy G (can you believe he's 50 years old!), Horace Andy and a couple of ladies, one to do the Shara Nelson songs and the other, recent addtion, Martina Topley-Bird who was the previous support act. No Cocteau lady this time. Behind the band was a slighly familiar sight of their digital light and text display show for the band's political messages, facts and quotes.

The performance overall was excellent with the band playing all the songs you really wanted to hear and about 4 or 5 new album tracks interspersed throughout the set. I'd say about 2 or 3 tracks from those played that I hadn't heard before were worthy but never capturing the classic hooks of the first 3 albums. The only real low point of the whole performance was a new track straight after their encore which didn't really go anywhere and left the crowd to talk amongst themselves.

Safe From Harm was undoubtedly the best using the guitar based Mezzanine sound to really blow the roof off and Horace Andy's Angel really captured the crowd's attention. Teardrop was also good though I've heard better live versions with different singers. Obviously, Unfinished Sympathy was played with not to much different from the original, though for me its always a slight surprise as whether the band could possibly tire from playing it everytime.

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Holiday news: Vietnam for Christmas

Its been a busy few weeks which have mainly consisted of stripping horrid lime/disabled car green paint the past house owners had. Slightly gutted we missed out on a surprise Pirate Paul's Disco Dungeon special guest of one half of the Filthy Dukes.

A couple of nice highlights over the past few weeks were snowboarding at Xscape in Milton Keynes and finally mastering my technique without falling over. I'm desperate to update my 10 year old boots and bindings now.

But the best highlight is booking our next big holiday which will be cycling in Vietnam! We'll actually be taking it over Christmas and New Year flying out a few days after my birthday. We're using a company called Exodus and including their Cambodia extension to see Angkor Wat (see pic) and Phnom Penh. We'll be using rented cycles even though they allow you to bring your own and for about a week we'll be cycling between 60 and 90 kilometres a day!

Ignoring the presenters, the Top Gear Vietnam special gives you an idea of the beauty (and city traffic chaos) of the country.

Daft Punk unmasked

Just found this YouTube video interview of Daft Punk, unmasked and looking very, very young.