I'm not a regular East Enders audience member but I follow enough to enjoy the odd episode when I'm round at my sister's and last night's was particularly enjoyable.
The storyline which made it so was about the aftermath of Bobby's death. I liked how they showed his mother's grief in a visual way -throwing away his possessions steely faced but breaking down over his hoody- and the ending was very strong. It wasn't implausibly huge or bathetically small, it was human, domestic and sad. The "doof doof"s didn't feel like a "badum ching", they felt like they deserved to be there.
An excellent piece of writing!
Friday, 22 October 2010
Sunday, 17 October 2010
New Delhi, the main event: 96 hours of Absolut insanity
How do I begin to describe being at the Commonwealth Games Closing Ceremony? It was like one of those dreams where everything makes sense inside your head but when you think about it you realise that there's no way you could be playing poker with the ghost of Oscar Wilde in a spaceship.
We travelled for 24 hours straight, catching fitful bouts of sleep wherever we could, and once we arrived went straight out to see the stadium (no small undertaking). We woke up at 5am the next day to rehearse in the midday sun then wait around in the "holding room", a name which makes me reflexively sweat. We were leered at, waved at and cheered at. People wanted to take photos with us then add us on facebook. I don't actually remember performing but judging by the video I did. We watched the hugest fireworks display I have ever seen surrounded by antsy policemen armed with AK-47s. That night we partied hard and drank nothing but the finest Swedish vodka, falling asleep at 6am to rise at 6.30. I packed in a flurry and managed to remember everything except my toothpaste. The journey back was a blur of still more airports, planes and buses. I think I watched a film. Eventually we were bundled into taxis home and I slept for a day and a half.
Now I'm freaking out slightly at the fact I'm set to be even busier if anything and missing the constant presence of Sam, Harry, Meg, Ada and Chris. We've become so used to seeing each other every minute of the day and now I'm bereft! I've been forced to text Ada for bad jokes.
It's difficult to reflect on something so huge that happened so recently. I read a book once which had a nifty way of explaining how we perceive such momentous events in our own lives so here goes my slightly cack-handed version:
In the line of my life delhi has bubbled off as something too separate from the everyday; with time it will merge back into the line until I can look back and it'll just be one continuous story.
I'll have to try though, this being a reflective blog and all:
We all got a fleeting glimpse of a culture very different to our own. Lavish temples and luxurious hotels co-exist alongside slums and shelters built out of what people could find by the road; policemen look like soldiers and soldiers play the bagpipes; everyone is friendly, the men are openly leery; men and women don't mix and me being friends with Sam and Chris is very odd. It wasn't nearly enough to understand India but I can see it would be an exhilarating and heartbreaking place to live.
We had to learn a whole new set of rules: cover your legs if you don't want to look like a prostitute, brush your teeth with bottled water and don't touch any food which hasn't been thoroughly cooked, no matter how appetising that tomato looks. I couldn't even have ice with the aforementioned fine Swedish vodka.
We experienced the kind of working conditions we've never encountered before - working long hours on little sleep, strange food and in temperatures you're more used to seeing on an oven. We ran with injuries and conquered heatstroke with bottles of electrolyte water and icepacks on the neck.
When it comes to 2014 I definitely want to be at the closing ceremony, as an audience member if not as a performer, because nothing compares to the party atmosphere. Positive audiences always have a peculiar energy to them and one tens of thousands strong fills the air with an infectious, short-fused feeling.
It was hard, hard work. Parts were seriously unpleasant, even painful. It was utterly insane and completely unlike anything I've ever done before. I would do it again in a heartbeat.
We travelled for 24 hours straight, catching fitful bouts of sleep wherever we could, and once we arrived went straight out to see the stadium (no small undertaking). We woke up at 5am the next day to rehearse in the midday sun then wait around in the "holding room", a name which makes me reflexively sweat. We were leered at, waved at and cheered at. People wanted to take photos with us then add us on facebook. I don't actually remember performing but judging by the video I did. We watched the hugest fireworks display I have ever seen surrounded by antsy policemen armed with AK-47s. That night we partied hard and drank nothing but the finest Swedish vodka, falling asleep at 6am to rise at 6.30. I packed in a flurry and managed to remember everything except my toothpaste. The journey back was a blur of still more airports, planes and buses. I think I watched a film. Eventually we were bundled into taxis home and I slept for a day and a half.
Now I'm freaking out slightly at the fact I'm set to be even busier if anything and missing the constant presence of Sam, Harry, Meg, Ada and Chris. We've become so used to seeing each other every minute of the day and now I'm bereft! I've been forced to text Ada for bad jokes.
It's difficult to reflect on something so huge that happened so recently. I read a book once which had a nifty way of explaining how we perceive such momentous events in our own lives so here goes my slightly cack-handed version:
In the line of my life delhi has bubbled off as something too separate from the everyday; with time it will merge back into the line until I can look back and it'll just be one continuous story.
I'll have to try though, this being a reflective blog and all:
We all got a fleeting glimpse of a culture very different to our own. Lavish temples and luxurious hotels co-exist alongside slums and shelters built out of what people could find by the road; policemen look like soldiers and soldiers play the bagpipes; everyone is friendly, the men are openly leery; men and women don't mix and me being friends with Sam and Chris is very odd. It wasn't nearly enough to understand India but I can see it would be an exhilarating and heartbreaking place to live.
We had to learn a whole new set of rules: cover your legs if you don't want to look like a prostitute, brush your teeth with bottled water and don't touch any food which hasn't been thoroughly cooked, no matter how appetising that tomato looks. I couldn't even have ice with the aforementioned fine Swedish vodka.
We experienced the kind of working conditions we've never encountered before - working long hours on little sleep, strange food and in temperatures you're more used to seeing on an oven. We ran with injuries and conquered heatstroke with bottles of electrolyte water and icepacks on the neck.
When it comes to 2014 I definitely want to be at the closing ceremony, as an audience member if not as a performer, because nothing compares to the party atmosphere. Positive audiences always have a peculiar energy to them and one tens of thousands strong fills the air with an infectious, short-fused feeling.
It was hard, hard work. Parts were seriously unpleasant, even painful. It was utterly insane and completely unlike anything I've ever done before. I would do it again in a heartbeat.
Handover Bootcamp: "It's a cross between a kidnapping and a sleepover"
Prologue: structure training (confused)
We lucky few on the inflatables (the great big silver armadillo) had three days before everyone else to get used to our roles. We were in from 10-4 and felt exhausted by the end of it; looking back I can only laugh at that.
As well as the silver beasts we trained on proportional metal frames which, at that point, seemed to weigh an impossible amount. A session with one of those and I was in serious pain - by the end they felt light as a feather. That was largely due to the work of our trainer, Mauritz. This guy is amazing: a German acrobat/circus performer, his muscles have muscles. He improved our strength and flexibility to the point where we could have backflipped through the performance. Or near enough, I'll be able to carry camera bags more easily at least.
Feeling like we'd done quite enough already we had a day off and then began bootcamp proper:
Week 1: basic training (high)
Everything in mass choreography is arranged by numbers. The groundcloth is covered in co-ordinate marks so you remember your position relative to those (for instance, my "homebase position" was D-4) and you're assigned a unique number based on your group and your height. As you can imagine, I was at the lower end of the scale. I wasn't even judged tall enough to carry one of the planks (the Michael Jackson-esque light-up boards the pipers walked on), instead going into a group called "utilities" where my responsibility was initially as a spotter and then to help get the inflatables ready. Structures (utilities and the plank carriers) had to stay late several days to get in extra practice; that meant a few 12 hour days which really put a strain on.
The choreographers kept a track of us by the bibs we wore - colour coded and with our numbers printed on back and front. The first time I was called out by my number was a shock; I loathe being called by a number but I had to get used to it as well as to being called by my official name (Felicity) a lot of the time since that was the one the staff had.
We had another fitting for our costumes in a horrible sequence which involved far more public changing of clothes than I like (uptight? moi?) and a thrilling adventure arguing over the pointlessness of trying on a bra several sizes too small.
This week we worked on improving our fitness and conditioning and learning the basic moves, such as marching. It was tough physically but by Friday I was riding an incredible endorphin high from all the exertion; my brain switched off completely and I was just sickeningly happy.
Unfortunately, biology's irritating habit of getting used to things meant that by week two that wore off:
Week 2: putting it together (tired)
This week we moved to Toryglen football centre, a brilliant place on the south side I never knew about with a massive indoor football pitch which enabled us to rehearse with the inflatables without having to worry about wind and rain (a big consideration - those things go crazy in the wind since they are basically sail-shaped). Instead, we just had to worry about noxious carbon monoxide fumes from the leafblowers used to inflate them and the strange rubber chips in the astroturf which, it turns out, I'm mildly allergic to.
We were all getting tired by this point and the natural drugs had worn off. Midweek I strained my left knee when we ran without warming up (producers were in and they wanted to show off as much as possible so they skipped it; big mistake - lots of people were hurt) and since I have no kind of sporting background I was stupid enough to ignore it and keep going, making it much worse. I only really recovered enough to do the run in India and even then I felt the consequences the next day.
Our props made the journey to India at the end of this week so we had a dress rehearsal on Saturday so we got to try on our kilts. Turns out kneeling in one of those things is more revealing than you would have thought.
Without our props the next week was mainly for the fabric cast, we were just there to fill in the gaps:
Week 3: flower arranging (injured)
Since I wasn't running I had even less to do. I carried the steel frames (child's play by then) into position and then back out. I tried to rest my legs as much as possible since I really, really wanted to be able to do the run and the injury had spread to both because of my limping to compensate.
It was a short week since we had a few early finishes and Friday off. From there, we just had to worry about getting to Delhi...
We lucky few on the inflatables (the great big silver armadillo) had three days before everyone else to get used to our roles. We were in from 10-4 and felt exhausted by the end of it; looking back I can only laugh at that.
As well as the silver beasts we trained on proportional metal frames which, at that point, seemed to weigh an impossible amount. A session with one of those and I was in serious pain - by the end they felt light as a feather. That was largely due to the work of our trainer, Mauritz. This guy is amazing: a German acrobat/circus performer, his muscles have muscles. He improved our strength and flexibility to the point where we could have backflipped through the performance. Or near enough, I'll be able to carry camera bags more easily at least.
Feeling like we'd done quite enough already we had a day off and then began bootcamp proper:
Week 1: basic training (high)
Everything in mass choreography is arranged by numbers. The groundcloth is covered in co-ordinate marks so you remember your position relative to those (for instance, my "homebase position" was D-4) and you're assigned a unique number based on your group and your height. As you can imagine, I was at the lower end of the scale. I wasn't even judged tall enough to carry one of the planks (the Michael Jackson-esque light-up boards the pipers walked on), instead going into a group called "utilities" where my responsibility was initially as a spotter and then to help get the inflatables ready. Structures (utilities and the plank carriers) had to stay late several days to get in extra practice; that meant a few 12 hour days which really put a strain on.
The choreographers kept a track of us by the bibs we wore - colour coded and with our numbers printed on back and front. The first time I was called out by my number was a shock; I loathe being called by a number but I had to get used to it as well as to being called by my official name (Felicity) a lot of the time since that was the one the staff had.
We had another fitting for our costumes in a horrible sequence which involved far more public changing of clothes than I like (uptight? moi?) and a thrilling adventure arguing over the pointlessness of trying on a bra several sizes too small.
This week we worked on improving our fitness and conditioning and learning the basic moves, such as marching. It was tough physically but by Friday I was riding an incredible endorphin high from all the exertion; my brain switched off completely and I was just sickeningly happy.
Unfortunately, biology's irritating habit of getting used to things meant that by week two that wore off:
Week 2: putting it together (tired)
This week we moved to Toryglen football centre, a brilliant place on the south side I never knew about with a massive indoor football pitch which enabled us to rehearse with the inflatables without having to worry about wind and rain (a big consideration - those things go crazy in the wind since they are basically sail-shaped). Instead, we just had to worry about noxious carbon monoxide fumes from the leafblowers used to inflate them and the strange rubber chips in the astroturf which, it turns out, I'm mildly allergic to.
We were all getting tired by this point and the natural drugs had worn off. Midweek I strained my left knee when we ran without warming up (producers were in and they wanted to show off as much as possible so they skipped it; big mistake - lots of people were hurt) and since I have no kind of sporting background I was stupid enough to ignore it and keep going, making it much worse. I only really recovered enough to do the run in India and even then I felt the consequences the next day.
Our props made the journey to India at the end of this week so we had a dress rehearsal on Saturday so we got to try on our kilts. Turns out kneeling in one of those things is more revealing than you would have thought.
Without our props the next week was mainly for the fabric cast, we were just there to fill in the gaps:
Week 3: flower arranging (injured)
Since I wasn't running I had even less to do. I carried the steel frames (child's play by then) into position and then back out. I tried to rest my legs as much as possible since I really, really wanted to be able to do the run and the injury had spread to both because of my limping to compensate.
It was a short week since we had a few early finishes and Friday off. From there, we just had to worry about getting to Delhi...
Saturday, 9 October 2010
"I've never gotten to home base so many times in a month before"
"Stop making bad puns, Flick."
The reason we Delhi crew have been a bit lax in blogging lately is that Bootcamp has been utterly exhausting, and even if we had the energy there's very little we could say without breaching our confidentiality agreements. I haven't even been able to fit in much cinema/tv time what with the 9 hour rehearsals.
I can tell you that it will be a fantastic show and that it was absolutely worth doing, even if I have jiggered my knee in the process (things I have learned: when you hurt yourself, you shouldn't just carry on and hope it gets better, stop while you're ahead so that it heals quickly). We've had a lot of fun and it's going to be surreal to go back into the real world... we may start doing intense circus-inspired warm ups before class.
Once we're back and my brain has recovered (it's gone into temporary hibernation for the duration) I'll write something more detailed, since it has been a very interesting experience for everyone involved. In the meantime, tune in on Thursday and watch out for the very short one limping around pathetically.
The reason we Delhi crew have been a bit lax in blogging lately is that Bootcamp has been utterly exhausting, and even if we had the energy there's very little we could say without breaching our confidentiality agreements. I haven't even been able to fit in much cinema/tv time what with the 9 hour rehearsals.
I can tell you that it will be a fantastic show and that it was absolutely worth doing, even if I have jiggered my knee in the process (things I have learned: when you hurt yourself, you shouldn't just carry on and hope it gets better, stop while you're ahead so that it heals quickly). We've had a lot of fun and it's going to be surreal to go back into the real world... we may start doing intense circus-inspired warm ups before class.
Once we're back and my brain has recovered (it's gone into temporary hibernation for the duration) I'll write something more detailed, since it has been a very interesting experience for everyone involved. In the meantime, tune in on Thursday and watch out for the very short one limping around pathetically.
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