Tuesday, April 24, 2012

Epiphany: Part I...

I am not the religious type. I did try it when I was about 13 or 14 but it wasn't really for me.

Then when I got older and started reading up on religion and getting interested in sociology and history my views on religion somewhat hardened as the body count from religious wars started to stack up. And although some religious tolerance has remained, that hardening of view about religion being largely about control and oppression remains my default position.

But I have recently had something of an epiphany. And there were no churches involved. Or any religion of any kind. There was an issue of faith, though...

I'm been back involved with a theatre company for about six months now and I'm project managing their latest - and most ambitious - show. They're a good bunch of people who do credible work and the fact they've invited a relative stranger in and given him such a responsible role either shows they have faith in me and my background. Or they were desperate. Fortunately, I think it was the former rather than the latter.

And much as I'm enjoying doing the work and working with the company on what promises to be a very worthwhile project, it did open my eyes to the fact that I can still do all of this. I had rather stupidly let one bad experience a decade ago stop me creating and devising and directing... and more importantly working with like-minded people.

And the more I thought through this the more I realised I could do this all again for my own work employing actors I now and working with writers I liked. That was the moment of epiphany.

I'm obviously committed to this and another project for the time being. But there is a seed of an idea there... and given enough time it may just start to grow again.

Thursday, April 12, 2012

Happy Birthday...

I am 43 on Saturday and the Missus is asking what I want on my birthday.
'I'd like a new Mac.'
'OK.'
'I'd like to have a lazy morning in bed, too...'
'OK.'
'I'd also like to go and and play pool in the afternoon because I've got a match on Sunday...'
'OK.'
'Then I'd really like to have a nice curry with cheesecake for afters at home, then curl up on the sofa with you and watch a bad movie...'
'OK.'
'And if you could be nice to me for a sustained period of time that would also be good.'

There is a pause.
'You always have to push your luck, don't you?'

Guess that's a no to that request, then.

Tuesday, April 03, 2012

Wax On, Wax Off...

I have hair for the first time in about 16 years.

My normal routine is to go to the barber's whenever it gets about an inch long and get it shaved back to a No.1. But I haven't done this for a while and now it's quite long. For me.

The only problem is I don't know what to do with it or how to style it. I simply don't have the know-how. To rectify this, however, I bought some hair wax and decided to give it a go one morning. It didn't go well.

The Missus entered the bedroom to catch me with white, gloopy stuff all over my hands and my hair going off in several directions at once. I got a pitying look, the sort of look reserved for a child whose mother has just caught him using his new paints on the wall because he didn't know the wallpaper wasn't a canvas. Then I got a sigh as she gestured for me to hand the hair wax over while she set about rectifying the mess I'd made.

The Missus may have married an idiot...