December 2005
FANCY DRESS
Hello,
I am going to go dress in white. This is what I have decided to do tonight. I am going to wear a white suit with a white shirt and I do not know what to do, should I wear a white tie or a white bob tie? I do like the idea of a bob tie but it is too conventional. A white tie will make me more modern, more “The Island” than “El Hombre de Colon” (a very famous character in Spain during the 60is, 70is. He will be always dress in white and it would be advertising a label of soap for washing your clothes) (the whitest of the whites). So I have decided that I am going to wear a white tie, I am sure I will look like the guys from “the Island”.
Also I am going to wear white shocks and white shoes with white laces. One problem I see just now and it is that my white shoes have black soles. I am going to have to paint them. Yes, that is the solution. It will not be the same but if I paint them with white plastic paint that resist water it would be good enough.
Now, what do I do with my hair? I am going to wear a wig. No, I am going to paint my hair white and I am going to wear a white moustache. Not a very big one but very funky and sophisticated.
I am not very keen in gloves but it is going to be cold so I have to decide if I wear them or not.
What I really know is that I am not going to wear a white hat. I like hats but for this costume it is better without one.
Small details like a white belt and a white handkerchief and perhaps something to hold the cigarettes that are white too.
I am going to leave now and do the shopping so I will be ready for my creation of Mr. Charley.
Have fun.
A DAY
Hello;
Today is my friend Natxo's birthday. Ja, ja it is like “nachos con carne” I have never realised. In Spain, we call Natxo to all the people that are calling Ignacio. Estrange¡¡¡. Anyway, for many years all my friends met in his house this day to celebrate his birthday and also to celebrate the fact that we do not see each other's very much and this is the day where we see each other's once again. It is always a very good party that affect a lot how the party next day is going to be. I usually get so drunk that the next day I do not fell like going out at all.
I wander what my friends are doing, I see my friends from here but my other friends in England and in Austria I wander if they are having a very good time.
I know that Petra was going tomorrow to the party of a friend that lives in a boat. Her friend is Flick a very nice performer and a very good director they all said I have never seen anything she has done. Lucy was going to be there too. I am sure they are going to have an amazing party. Those two together always manage to get completely mad.
Toby went to Germany with his in Laws and perhaps by now they are in France. His mum has a brilliant place in the south of France and it is perfect to spend some time with you family. After they will go back to Brighton because they are getting ready to move homes.
Stephan was going to Corintia, a south region of Austria in the border with Italy. Elke is from there and now that they have a kid they have to spend more time with their grand parents. I would love to see them driving in the Lincoln Continental all over Austria, avoiding the towns because the car is bigger than the streets. And probably they would be in Munich where Stephan's family lives and is from. They have already received the container and they had lots to unpack so they probably want to be at home as soon as possible.
Like us that live at Miren's mum while our house is getting renovated.
Have fun.
WINE
Hello;
I have been drinking. As everyday when I am in my village before I go to have lunch I have two or three glasses of wine in the local bars. As my brother says we have to support the local business and that is the best way to do that.
I have my “locals” using the word they use in England to describe the pub where they drink very often. I could not have just one “local” because in my village you never stayed in the same bar more than thirty minutes. Every normal day I go always to the same two or three bars but most of the time I go first to one where the owner is a friend of mine from the time when we were kids and then to one that has been there all my life. The two bars are around three hundred metres apart.
Well, In my country you drink the whole time so we create little habits to be able to carry on drinking.
I always go to the bar not sooner than 12 o'clock, it is not healthy to drink so early. I order my little glass of Rioja and I drink it while I look to the daily paper. You can order much different kind of wines. You can order the one that is the cheapest and also very bad. This kind of wine is called “txikito” I do not recommend it to any one. It costs 30 to 35 cents and it is very bad. Then there is the one called “cosechero” usually a wine from the year, that does not have a clear label and that is made with a mixture of many grapes. Then you have the “crianza” the king of the wines. Every bar has different ones and usually is very good wine with Denominacion de Origen, made with grapes from Rioja and with a label that certificate it. This all are red wines. I always have a “crianza”.
The whole thing changes a lot if we talk about roses and white wines. There are far too many different classes and I am not familiar with them.
So I have my first “crianza” with the paper and then I walk to the other bar. I walk slow felling the breeze or the sun and sometimes the rain. Most of the time I always met someone in the first bar that will come with me to the other bar. We will have another wine there and we will do the way back to the first one or we will go to another one to have a “pintxo”. A typical small thing to eat that when you drink in the mornings in very helpful because you fell dizzy very fast and a little bit of food keep the hunger fresh and remind you that the food is waiting for you at home.
Have fun.
DIA DE LOS INOCENTES
(The day of the Innocents)
Hello,
Do not ask me where this comes from because I do not have a fucking clue. The only thing I know is that in this day everybody is ready to make jokes and to play little tricks to as many people as you can.
All the papers, the radios, the TV channels the all open their news programs with a big poker face telling to their viewers the most outrages thing that you have ever heard on you life. Some of them some time are very subtle and it takes you a little bit of time to find out if is true or not.
When I was young we will listen to the radio to try to find out which one of the news was the fake one. It was not easy because on the radio in more difficult to see who is performing and who is not performing.
The classiest way of celebrating the Day of the Innocents is by cutting a paper doll. The classiest paper doll is very simple, big head and a body shape very roundly a simple. What you have to do is once you have it is you put a little bit of scotch in the head of the doll and then you stick it in the back of someone with out him notice it. Then is the most difficult part of the whole thing and this is to stay with this “Innocent” for the biggest amount of time without him knowing that he has been framed.
Now a days everybody buys this pre fabricated jokes and they are not as good fun as the old ones because the old ones had the beauty of being unique and originals.
Have fun.
ZUMANITY TODAY
Hello;
I wander now, how are they? New people have come in and some people left. I think of Stefan and Sahara, they probably are not working together every again.
Marcela and Larry are getting married, congratulations and I am sure they are going to be very happy and have lots of babies.
Leticia and Niki are also getting married and I wish them the same happiness and the other couple. Leticia you should know that your dance is fantastic and we are being very successful with it.
At the boys dressing room hello and love to Alex, Geronimo, Kevin, Evan, Joey, Arslan, Jacobo, Antonio, Allan that I hope that you are having a very good recovery.
In the girls dressing room Sophie, my favourite girl of all of them, Anginas, Olean, Olga, Vanessa, Gyula, probably not there anymore, Ray Van O all my love; Julia and her mum, the Boteros sister my favourites girls they are doing a great job. And also Bernard.
Everybody in the make up and wig department Ron, Roger, Meredith, Jennifer etc
Everybody in the costume department Sonia, Jack, Synia, Kiera, Kevin, Lesley, Kenton, I am sure I forget someone but SORRY.
Then the techs Mark, not there anymore, Carlo, Dan, Giacomo, downstairs and everybody upstairs, Barry, and everybody in the fourth floor, starting for our dear friend Tim, when are we going to see you in Europe? Serene, Brigitte, gorgeous Brigitte and Kathy and Bob that probably is in Mister very very happy, I send you all my love.
D. Jeff, Tivo, Sebastian, JF, Coring, Mel, Elliot, Larry, Lonny, the whole band is fucking great and we are having a great time with all of you doing “Four times in Love”. Thanks.
I wish you all the best. There are names that I do not remember now but I have your faces in my brain and I think about you too.
Have fun.
BOXING DAY
Hello;
What the fuck is that? It does not make any fucking sense to me. I fucking think that we have fucking enough celebrations at this time of the year to fuck having to celebrate another one. I hope that we never fucking get that tradition in Europe, the fucking continent, I mean.
In fucking Boxing day the whole fucking London stops. Nothing fucking works because everybody is celebrating the fucking boxing fucking day. All the fucking public transports stop the whole fucking day and only fucking thing that you can do if you want to fucking go form one fucking side of London to the other fucking side of London you have to get a fucking cab.
And let me fucking tell you they really are a fucking bunch of pirates. On that fucking Boxing day London become like the Fucking Chinese Sea in his good fucking times when you did not fucking know where to look in order to avoid the fucking pirates. Yes, all the fucking mini-cabs charge fucking extortion amounts of fucking money. Once I have to fucking paid 50 fucking quid to go from fucking Hoxton Street to Fucking Vauxhall. Fucking hell.
Have fun.
CHRISTMAS DAY
Hello;
I hate the Christmas of the lights of Oxford Street and the John Lewis department store windows.
I love the Christmas of my parents having her grand daughter, Leire, coming all the way from Barcelona to see them and then spending time, lots of time all together just being together.
I hate the Christmas of Happy Christmas to everybody because the only reason to be happy is because we have to be happy is Christmas. People should make an effort the rest of the year and be happy and wish all the other people happiness.
I love the Christmas of drinking nice food and even nicer wines like this year.
I hate the Christmas of spending incredible amounts of money just because it is Christmas.
I love the Christmas of meeting once again the people of my pass, many people that I loved and many that I love and having the time to be together once more.
I hate the Christmas of the people that are not there any more and I miss them, like my grandparents. And all the people that will go soon and I do not want them to go.
I love the Christmas of the people that give everything these days to the ones that do not have anything, like my sister in Madagascar.
I hate the Christmas of the people and companies that they just give some this special days and nothing else the whole year.
I love the Christmas that remained us that we are human and we live with many others.
I hate the Christmas that leaves us alone with no one to share something to celebrate.
I love and I hate Christmas.
Have fun.
DINNER;
Hello;
With my first view of the table my mouth get full of water like the dog of Pavlov. There are many well known dishes in this table, classic in any Basc Christmas table, I can see for example a plate of white asparagus, just boil but very think and tender looking that are going to melt in my mouth the help of that delicious vinaigrette. There is also a couple of plates of Jam, Iberico and lomo Iberico, tow specialities from the pork that are very well appreciated anywhere in the world at any time of the day.
Also I see red peppers with anchovies and a plate of foi grass. Then in the middle of the table there is a big plate with mussels that just have came out of the pan and the heat is leaving them in a small portions that made little curtains of smoke before they disappeared in the air of the room. There is a pot with red pepper souse coming from the kitchen ready to pour over the mussels that will make the curtains of smoke to become a sheet of white smoke. They are a little bit spicy and it is the secret recipe of my family in law.
Now is time to sit around the table, open the cava, open the riojas and one rose from Navarra so everybody is drinking happy and start to eat.
New things arrive to the table “croquets”, seals in tomato souse, “almejas a la marinera”, prawns, brains, and all this delicacies of this time.
This is just the cold starters and the hot starters. What am I going to do? This is the first celebration of this festivals and … I am going to get really fat. There is going to be a first course, second and dessert, my Cuban cigar rest in my pocket to come out and have a fight with my cognac and then, I nice heart attack to die happy.
Have fun.
THE CONSTANT GARDNER
Hello;
I have seen this movie this week. I really liked it. It has been directed by Fernando Miralles the guy that did “City of God”. I have not seen it yet and really I do not think that is very good because everybody says that is a fantastic movie.
The actors are Ralph Fiennes and Rachel Weiss. He is very good actor and I think he is very good in the movie but for me it is cold. I know that what he does is like being English and being emotional but keep being English at the same time but I did not care very much for him. To illustrate what I am talking about his college in the movie, plays a nasty character and I think he is more attractive because he has a more clearly emotional journey. He does baddies very well.
But for me the high light of the movie is SHE. I think she is so pretty and such good actress. And I have to say that I do not buy her character because I think the way is written it is very difficult to believe that exist in our days. My sister work like that in Africa and that is what it happens in the movie and either my sister is not very political or her character is not too believable. But anyhow I love her. I think she is incredibly sexy and charming and good to be with. I am in love with her.
The movie goes about one of the problems of Africa and what we do to solve them. Some one is trying to create a medicine that the whole world will need and they have come up with a prototype that is cheaper to use it in Africa with the procedure of try and error that go trough a normal investigation in the first world. So that means that while people are dyeing they know more about the medicine to make it better. This plot plus the fact that there are many economical interests affecting the whole relationship of the two characters made the whole movie.
The whole thing is breath taking and very inspiring for the search of farness in this world that we live. And Africa¡¡¡¡
Have fun.
MATCHES IN THE TOILET
Hello;
There are fascinating things that people do once you go into the toilet. And please do not try to be clever, you can wash yourself and also you can drop things. Yes, you can drop pipi and caca and as many things as you can imagine and you can do as many things as you wish and people let you do but it has being designed for dropping excrements and for wash you bits, all of them.
But as far as I am concern I think the highlight of going inside the toilet is to go for a pooh. There are people that always go there because they have to and then there are the ones that go there because there are many other things that they can do there and I am talking about reading and having moment of solitude.
It is a very intimate place and if you are living in a crowded place so that is a perfect place to spend the time. While you are still there you can use the time to cut the nails of your toes or the nails of your hands. You can read books or listen to music and I am sure that there are some people that like to watch TV in there.
Smoke a cigarette or to do something that you do not suppose to do in front of people it is one of the most common uses of the place.
But the king of all the actions is the shit. You go to have a shit and you have privacy or not and you can read, go through your thoughts, or simply enjoy the fact that you are getting rid of so much shit. The second part is the smell and let me tell you, is a real problem if you do not close the door on time. The whole fragrance can travel fast and it is not nice. So, do this always have a window in the toilet, or an air vacuum or if not light a match and that will take the bad flumes away. I promise.
Have fun.
IN THE MIDDLE OF THE OCEAN
Hello;
Our set, the set of COOPED left Calgary the same day we did. It was the 15 th of November. His destiny was Athens, the Coronet Theatre. We had rented a whole container to take all the things there and there was enough time to make the whole trip.
The journey was going to be pretty simple, by lorry all the way to Montreal, and then it will take a ship and will cross the whole ocean all the way to Athens and then form the Piraeus the port in Athens all the way to the theatre.
A month later we received a call from the guys running the theatre in Athens saying that the container had not arrived yet and we call the shipment company and they told us not worried because by the beginning of the year the whole thing will be in Greece.
A couple of weeks later Kathy our manager received a phone call from the theatre again saying that the set should have been in the theatre already and that they do not know where it is. Kathy called the shipping company and they cheeked and the container was in a ship in the middle of the ocean and it was going to be in Athens the 10 th of January, that was the day of our arrival to build the set and do the get inn. This is terrible we are not going to be able to do our gig. Kathy told the guy could you not make the whole trip faster? We need the set before. The guy could not answer anything.
I could see the set by itself, floating inside a container, on top of a big transporters crossing the ocean, almost shank and going very slow, being hit by the big waves and lonely and cold. We had to be able to do something.
Some minute later Kathy received another phone call from the shipping company saying that the container with the set had got lost in the middle of the ocean. They did not know how did he do it but he was not there anymore and they comment in how difficult is to get rid of the ropes and chains that tie the container to the boat.
What? Said Kathy
And the guy says that they have made a mistake and that the container was going to be in Athens next day. Everything had being a false alarm. Good old Kathy.
Have fun.
CRISTOPH MATALER
Hello;
There were two plays of his in Berlin the weekend that Stephan and me spent there. Stephan saw one of them and I saw the two of them. His plays are always very big and very elaborated and with not many things happening. I do not speak German so I do not understand anything that the actors were saying.
The first one was in a kind o church with a stage on the left and the room of the church on the opposite side. There was nine or ten actor. Some of the actors were old and some of the actor was young.
As far as I understood the whole thing was like in the future and there was no hope and they were all living together. From time to time a nice music will come and the entire cast will walk to the edge of the stage and model like in a catwalk. It was very funny and very stupid. They sung songs from the fifties. All the songs were Italian songs. The entire cast was like chorus.
The other show it was in changing room of a laboratory for human conduct. There were four benches with hungers for the clothes on top the benches and they went in diagonal to down stage. They were a cast of nine or ten actor. The play was in the same theatre that the night before but no one of the actors of the previous night was in this nights show.
I did not understand anything of this second show because Stephan was not there to translate thou I have to say that I laugh sometimes. I also was very happy to see the show.
I like the things this guy do since I saw one of his shows many years ago ”Stunde Nool”. It was about a school of politicians and it was very funny. I saw it with subtitles. He always does weird things and use humour very well and the actors that he choose are very good and they song fantastically well.
Have fun.
BERLIN
Hello;
Berlin? For me is a city cut in two. Yes, and I do not mean because one part was the west and the other was the east. My felling was that there were parts very modern that had a relationship with the other modern parts of the city and then the parts that are very similar the rest of the north of Europe. I will not put Paris in that category of north Europe because I think Paris is a little bit more elegant. But I have seen Berlin in Zurich, in Vienna in Stockholm, in Prague all these very beautiful places but they have a clear similarities in the way they look.
Berlin fells very happening place. People walk like going to places to do things. There are not many Germans on the streets or I did not see many but even the people that have gone to establish themselves in that town they are very integrated. I like that very much of that town people of all over the world living together. You could argue because I have not been very long there but in the airport I meet a big bunch of Colombian students going back to Bogotá. Our friend Waltraud she is from Vienna, my friend Francy is from Leipzig and the people in the supermarket where we bought things to make an strudel were al foreigners look like
I saw the wall and I was impress I tried to imagine how it must felt to have you city surrounded by a wall and also how it must fell to have to cross a wall to fell freedom. I have to say both feelings where not very nice. I also like that they are very political and they have issues about everything and the fight and fight for them.
I enjoyed Berlin very much and I will love to go back. It is a big grown up town where a child can have lots of fun.
Have fun.
MEASURE FOR MEASURE
Hello;
What we are going to talk about here is the last show of Theatre the Complicity. Simon MacBurney is the director of the company and one of the actors of the show. He has so much talent and almost everything he does is very good.
Stephan and me went from Zurich to Berlin to see the show that we have head so much about it. Well and also the fact that Hanes was also in the show and that Rick Katz too and that Francy lives in there and she is an old friend of mine.
I really enjoy the show, I thought it was a fantastic production but I do not like very much the text that is the only thing. The actors where great and to see a show like that it is very inspiring.
After the show we went for drinks with the actors and everybody else and we had a brilliant time.
My most incredible experience there was to see the kind of people that goes to see shows in Berlin. Theatre all over the world is packed with intellectuals. It looks like the shows are done just so they and only they can have fun with the shows they do and they forget about the audience all the time.
In Berlin perhaps more than anywhere else in the world the audience are actors and intellectuals of the theatre. Stephan and me we appeared there a little bit earlier after walking under the snow for one hour and really looking forward to find a warm place and as we went inn we could not see any people, just intellectuals. They all were dressed in black and smoking cigarettes with existential necessity. All of them had left their sense of humour in the prawn and were incapable of having a good laugh.
I felt sad. The show of Complicite has laughs being the show that it is but they did not laugh.
It makes me sad that there are so many people that think that theatre has to be intellectual. I wander if they know what they are missing.
Have fun.
SHOWERS
Hello;
There are many kind of showers in the market. For my profession and the love that I fell for that machine I consider myself a little bit of a specialist.
There is always an understandable love for the shower that you have while you grow up. You live your family house thinking that it is the best shower and that probably you will never find anything better. How wrong you are when you are young. At my parents house the shower was the classic square dish with one of this phone showers that you can regulate to get a more powerful stream of water or gentler one. Then I went to study in Seville and the plate was square but there I learned that the way you heat the water and the pressure are key player in a good shower. In Seville my shower was heated by electricity with a very small heater, enough to have a one-minute shower. Length is another key player for a good shower.
Then in London I missed the shower in Seville what I think gives you an idea of how bad it was my first London shower. Over there it was included in the bath and it was not hanging from the top of the wall over the bath. Also they do not use shower curtains and after 10 years in England I still do not know how do they do it.
From London to Zurich in Switzerland where the whole shower thing started to get closer to perfection. With lots of hot water and the shower inside a both hanging from the wall and with a very thick shower curtain the whole was almost perfect.
There I found the perfect hotel shower in Switzerland too in a hotel by the Geneva lake, in the city of New Chattel. There the bathroom was almost as big as the room and it was in a plate but with the bath next to it. The floor was heated and the soaps and the pressure of the water everything was perfect.
The perfect shower in a house is at Cal's house. He has for me the best shower ever. The plate is not square, is in semicircle and with walls in glass that take over the shower curtain. Fantastic pressure in the water and wonderful temperature.
Have fun.
AIR BERLIN
Hello;
This is a big town, a big grey town that looks like any other German towns. Well, it is the capital of Germany so there is nothing you can do about it. And if I am not mistaken we are flying in a quite new airline. I look around the plain and they are so new that it feels a little bit scary to touch anything in case I break it. It is a low cost airline and it does not really look like that because they have given us a meal. In the new low cost airlines they are so mean and tight that it makes you not to want to fly with them anymore.
I would not day that the decoration is great if anything is too east German but their airline troubles a lot to Zurich and Germany that are the capitals of expensive design. And it seems that apart from the trays where they serve the little food the whole design thing is rubbish. Everything looks like it has being in North Korea or the old east Germany but I did not want to be nasty with them so it is going to be other Korea.
We flew very well and we arrive to our destiny with no delay.
Perhaps the reason why I was so disappointed with the design of the airline is because we flew from Zurich new International Airport and it really is very nice and big and spectacular. It has very big rooms and corridors with a little train for going from one terminal to the other. The only problem is that you cannot buy food everywhere. Some of the terminals do not have bars or places to get something to drink and if you have to be in an airport for quite a while you want to have shops and bars and things.
Have a good journey if you fly to Berlin. Next fly I will be getting is to Bilbao and I am going there by Palma de Mallorca so I am going to do double the miles that if I will go straight, that is the reason why it is a low cost airline.
Have fun.
FIRE IN LUTON
Hello;
I have this small night mare that things are going to go wrong and then when you see in the TV that there is a big fire in London then the first thing you think is that something has happened. I switched on the TV and I saw a the big flames going to the sky and immediately I thought of my friends from London but all of them where with me in Switzerland so they were not and risk. The only ones that were not there with us were Cal and Mat and some more friends but then I saw that the fire was in Luton in North London and that nobody that I know was going to be affected by it.
I looked at the images on the TV and it look exactly like the other times when big fires appeared on TV. Only this time nothing terroristic has happened and I was happy that it just was good as an accident and no many innocent people had died. Some people had died and that was really sad.
The whole thing at the end it was just an accident in a storehouse where they were storing petrol and gas oil. Something must have happen during the night and the whole thing exploited.
Do not you think that it is sad that people every time we see something like that in this times we think it is a terroristic attack? Well, that is really sad and it give us an idea of what kind of society are we living in.
Have fun.
MR. FLOP
Hello;
All the actors of the world know this character. He is a mature man that comes from time to time to visit you while you are practising your job. When he visits you he makes you a favour. He lets you know that you have got lost and that you should never forget the audience under any circumstances.
Now is some time that I do this working in the theatre and I have put a face to Mr Flop. It is the face of my dear teacher Monsieur Philippe Gaulier but I am sure that every performer of the world has different people in their mains when Mr Flop arrived.
At the Arosa Comedy Festival, at 11 o'clock at night he paid as a visit. It was not nice but it made us more sensitive and vulnerable in front of that audience that did not seem to understand what we were doing.
Still when that happens, you must trust the material and get bags of pleasure from the bottom of your heart and like the ships of the balloon in the sky trough as much pleasure out so you become enough light that the whole thing can carry on in a good manner.
Actors are very egoistic and do not want to give any of their fun and their pleasure while they are on the stage. They keep it for their families and friends and that is not right.
We immediately heard the audience and gave everything we had to make everybody happy in that little theatre at the festival and we got an EIGHT.
Mr. Flop is like medicine. You put yourself a virus inside yourself so you can kill a much stronger virus.
Have fun.
SWITZERLAND
Hello;
I am in love with this country. I love this country so much that my heart hurts every time I am here. I love the mountains. I love the lakes. I love the black chocolate. I love the white chocolate. I love the milky chocolate and I love all the chocolate that they make here and it is not black, white or milky.
I also love cheese. I love all the cheese from Switzerland. I love foundy. I love eating foundy all the time. I love getting really fat for eating foundy everyday for a week. I love the slops and snowboarding in the Swiss mountains. I love the cities of Switzerland.
I love Christine, Andy, Max, Casper, Rolf, Harold, Gugy, Crigy, Salome, Neil, Sabine and all the people that work in GMT.
I love Paul, Ernesto, Regula, Brigit, Maky, Peter, Bruno, Jens, Rene, and all the people and shows that are KKG and the shows they do every summer all over Switzerland.
I love Dennis very much because she is a wonderful girl and a wonderful person. And I love her to be very lucky and very happy for the rest of her life.
I love the grass in Switzerland. I love the grass that grows in the mountains and I love the grass that grows by the lakes. I love the grass that grows in private gardens. And I love the grass that grows in the professional plantations.
I love Niederveningen with Sonia, Mathias, Benny, Benny, Petter and all the boys from the single men club.
But what I really love is to swim in the Zurich lake in the summer while the sun is shining.
Have fun.
KASINO WINTERTUR
Hello,
Like going back home it fells every time we are here and now is run by Rolf Corver.
We met Rolf Corver the first time I came to work here with KKG. He was one of the producers of the show. Since then he has been a fantastic friend.
We have been driving for tow hours now. Most of time in the motorway and Petter, Roger and me have arrived before we expected to Wintertur. We found the Casino really fast thou there is a funny one-way system to get into town.
The Casino Winterthur is a fantastic place. It is a big building with four floors. They use this place to do shows in the main theatre and then there are rooms for conferences, private parties and so apart from the fourth floor that has all the offices.
In the ground floor is the restaurant where we are allowed to have a meal per day. The cook the most beautiful ever and they also have very nice wine so that means that we can get a little bit drunk everyday.
The theatre is not very bog but our show fitted perfectly. We worked really hard in one day we build the set and did the first show. It always happened the same thing to us the first gig there is never too many people and then the word of mouth starts to work and we are sold out. Well, perhaps not sold out but we sell enough tickets to be worthy of us to be there.
Winterthur is not the most exciting town in Switzerland. As far as I am concern probably the Casino is the most exciting thing there and also the trains but you know train spotting is not the most popular thing in the world.
I have to mention also that we had very nice hotel with a fantastic Breakfast.
Have fun.
SNOWBOARDING
Hello;
Have you ever been sliding down slop? Have you ever been sliding down slop very fast with the sun shining on top of you and the sky blue as the sea? I have done it a couple of times and let me tell you that it is a fantastic experience. If I had done it I would not dear to say anything like that I would have said that, it looks really exciting and if I have the chance I would try it myself.
When you are on the slops the first thing that takes your breath away is the site of the mountains. They are usually fantastic to look at. You can spend the whole day looking at them without even bother to snowboard. This is of course if the weather is good and the sun is shining.
The felling if being attach to a board going real fast down the slop is fantastic. It feels like having a bath in adrenaline. Well, I have never had a bath in adrenaline but I have a very vivid imagination. And when you want to break you pull your hips forward and then you block really tight the one that you have more affection for and the board attached to you body stop. Then a big wave of snow goes all over the place like a magician throwing lighting of ice. It is really good fun and very exciting.
We try to have as many gigs as possible in places that you can snowboard. We met doing a show where every day off was spent snowboarding so we saw the touring as a fantastic opportunity for practicing one of our favourites things.
After some time going down and up we stop to have a beer or something to drink and most of the time become lunchtime. I always gather some dry nuts or energy bars but I always end up having the local goulash.
By the time the slops close we are usually destroyed and we go back to our lodge dying for food and drinks. Funnily enough it has become a habit for all of us to eat the first day of snowboarding is Spaghetti Bolognese. And it works because it is very simple and very energetic. Next day will be hard so you have to gather as much energy as possible so you may fell a little bit staff next day you will be thankful.
Our mistake is that we always tend to abuses the consume of wine. It is such a fantastic thing to shipped wine when you fell physically very tired that usually we can stop. So next day we have energy but also a nice hangover.
Have fun.
AROUSA HUMOUR FESTIVAL
Hello;
We are driving the van to Arosa. We have been in the van for three hours and we are almost there. The view is breathtaking and very scary because every time we take a bend on the road it looks like is going to be the last one. And let me tell you our dead would be horrible. The village must be at least 2000m over the sea.
The most famous thing about this festival is that they build a circus tent in the middle of sky slop. It is amazing. We arrive there at night and the whole tent was lighted in the outside and the image was fantastic. We had to leave the presentation performance because thou it is an international festival most of the artists come from Germany, Switzerland or so and they do their work in German.
The festival goes for a couple of weeks and our gig was the Saturday night at 10 o'clock. The problem was that there were other shows in the same theatre before us so we could not do a proper set up of Cooped with enough time in advance. Let me tell you that we did the get inn at 2 o'clock in the morning. MAD. We finished the get inn at five with very little time to sleep and recover in order to do a good performance. Also, another problem, the venue was too small so the set did not fit and there were not enough lights, an accumulation of misfortunes that affected the show. We did not do a great performance, we saved the flop but we were not very proud. When the whole thing was done we all got a nice sensation of relief after the job done.
We all said never again, from now on at least two days to do the get inn, an so and so … but bollocks, it is going to happen again and jus from myself I hope it happens in this festival because we got two days of snowboarding after wards and the hotel was fucking great. So I hope we go back with our new show.
Have fun.
NIEDERWENINGAN
Hello,
There are many things and many places that we have been doing shows but if I will have to choose one place where everything started Niederweningan would be one of the places with more points in the list.
We arrived yesterday after almost three years and the funny things is that for the last 10 years there has not been one year with out Spymonkey with out visiting this small town 30 Km away from Zurich the capital of Switzerland, well not really the capital is Bern but Zurich is the probably the biggest town in the country. And then is the capital of Spymonkey land and that is there. Arguably with Brighton is true, because that small town in the south of England it has meant a lot in the Spymonkey world and hopefully it will even more.
The first time I ever went to Niederweningen it was because I was going to do a show in Zurich. My second show with KKG and Petra had this boyfriend that had a farmhouse very close to the place where we were rehearsing. I ended up staying in the garden on the house in a shitty caravan for almost four months, funny, very funny but very cold too.
Once Roger, now Petra's husband organised a gig at the local gym of our previous show called Stiff. Everybody was there, everybody from the village and it was very nice because we also had a DJ and drinks after the show. It was a fantastic party.
Sonia, Mathias, now they are having a baby, Benny they all live there, with Roger and they always treat us like family. I love them all.
Now we come for just one night and it is ten years later but they still will be there, like the GOOD things.
Have fun.
6 AM
Hello;
When you wake up so early to go on tour you do know inside yourself if you have done it before that the whole thing is going to be a big, big day like a big week that you will not be able to recover in a very long time.
I do not know the time I am living and I do not know when I am going to fell rested once again. It is 6:30 and I am ready to go to pick Petra at Bounds Green. She has just sent me a text message telling me that she is there already.
I am driving the van with Petra all the way to Arosa Humor Festival. It is our first time there and it has a very good reputation because lots of people from German speaking Tvs go there looking for the next big thing.
I am very excited. I have spent the last three weeks in Bilbao on holydays and now it is the right time to start to work.
I am a little bit scared because I have to drive on the other side of the road. It is not easy if you live in Europe or any other country that it is not England to get use to the way they drive over here. I am confident because I got my driving licence here now many year ago.
It is raining and it looks like is going to be like this all the way to Switzerland.
My other concern it is my dear friend Petra. Lately I do not spend with her as much time as I used to and that is because we have known each others for to many years and we are not very patient with each others. I am confident thou, we both have grown up and we do not argue any more like when we were young. We have had so many fights in the pass that could fill pages and pages of many blogs. Probably all of mine and all of her blogs.
I like here very much and because we are not the same we fought until we discovered that we could not make the other change and we accepted how we are.
Have fun.
NET WORKING
Hello,
That is exactly why nobody likes actors, yes. Many people do not like actors because they are all the time doing things to meet people and they have the reputation to be veletas. And it is really true.
There was a time in Seville that I used to say that you would get more jobs in the bars than by going to auditions. I still think the same but I do not go so much to bars as I do not go to auditions either.
Probably by now I know that there are other means to get work, still we in spymonkey spend most of the time doing networking.
Thou my experience tells me that the show business world could be divided in many ways but I am going to do it in two; one the one that is where there is not much money involve and they tend to the business how it should be, doing auditions and so and then the one where there is lots of money. In this last one you audition if you are not sure whom do you want and in this case you just see people that have very good reputation. If you do not audition this is a business so you just get what you want for your money. I know that this is a too simple explanation but I always been told that artists when they create things put faces to their ideas and if when the moment to put your play or your movie or what ever you want to do with actors you first try to get those people that you saw on your imagination.
Spymonkey has in Petra the best net working person in the world. She is shameless and funny and very generous so people feel really attracted to her. It is not all personality when it comes to do the job to be good in bars or parties is not good enough you have to be good actor too. Petra is a good actor and I suppose Spymoneky is good too.
Have fun.
CINDERELLA
Hello;
Pantomimes are traditional shows for Christmas in the theatres of Great Britain. They are basically old fairy tales that follow specific patens and rules built with time. Their specially designed for kids thou everybody who works in them try really hard to make them enjoyable to adults too. It is not easy. Now a days there is a new current of Pantomimes, they have change the generic name to Christmas show so they can fit more show inn and non traditional pantomime stories like “treasure island” or “the firecrackers daughter” etc. The fact is that they whole genre has grown a lot and now there is the Traditional traditional pantomime and the pantomimes who covers also all the ones mention before.
The pantomimes traditional have to follow certain rules, they have to have songs, they have to be funny, there is a very direct dialogue with the audience, some members of the audience will go to the stage, and the most characteristic is that a male character will play a female character dressed as a woman. All this rules are made to make the audience have the best of times, the whole family together.
I had never seen a traditional pantomime and I am a big fun of Christmas shows so when Cal told me that he was going to direct one I was determinant to go and see it.
He was asked to direct Cinderella at the theatre in Newry.
The cast of the pantomime was a mixture between professional actors and semi-professional ones. Sadly in this one it was the professional the worst thing in it. And also the best thing too, Matty Chops and his friend, that I do not remember his name were very good doing a rendition of a song from the “black eye pies” as the evil sisters. Also there were many children and directed by Cal did very funny things.
I saw a matinee full o kids from the local schools and I enjoy very much the format of the show. Cal, I think did a great job and the show was funny and entertainment. The traditional pantomimes I do not think they are very good shows, the audience come not to see a good show necessarily they come to be entertain doing and seeing something that they already know so you have to give them that. I would love to do a Pantomime with Spymoneky but I have a little bit of a problem with doing something for children. Perhaps it is because I do not have children myself? I do not know, I will give it a go anyway.
Have fun.
TRAVELING ABROAD
Hello;
What do you do when you travel abroad? I can say that I always do almost the same things. I always pack my suitcase at the end, almost before I am leaving the house to the airport. Yes, and probably I had spent the whole day or two days before thinking about what I am going to take with me and what kind of clothes.
For this time I am going to Switzerland and we are going to be in an sky resort so all my sky gear has to go inn. Also I am going to be in London a couple of days so I am going to need some normal clothes, and I should take my I-pood and my computer and … then I realise that I am going for just ten days so why do I have to put so many clothes. If I do not have everything I need I will get out my VISA card and I will buy it.
So as you can see I have not decided what take yet because this is the first part of the process. Later on I will start with counting how many days I will be travelling and then I will get one pair of underpants for each day, and then the same thing with shirts and t-shirts and then trousers one for every four days and a pair of shoes, and a pair of trainers and…
Then there is the thing of at what time is the plane? You have to double check. Yes, I know is boring but you have too because It would not be the first time I have missed a plane and it is not pretty.
You do not forget the passport. If you are from Spain you can travel all over Europe with you Identity card but I always take the passport because is more secure. Also I always keep it in my travelling bag so I do not have to think about it because I know is there. Well that is not true I also double check.
And then who is going to take me to the airport? I have that department covered with my parents but I have to let them know. Best thing before you are going on a trip have lunch or dinner with the people is going to take you to the airport so there is enough time to talk about the trip to the Airport.
Have fun
.
39 E-MAILS
Hello,
This morning an opened my e-mail account and there were so many e-mail. In fact there were 39 e-mail. I counted them just because I was going to try to be smug about them as soon as I will find someone like you to talk about it. Well, it is always like that as soon as we are getting ready to go on tour. It makes me fell a little bit left out because I see that my colleges talk about things everyday and I do not. And I fell that the only way I could not fell left out is by being the boss and that is going to be very difficult in this COMPANY. I also think is fine, Spymonkey it is an international company but is based in England so for the people that are in England is much easier and cheaper to communicate.
The e-mails I got are not all very clever; there is one that said, “What do you mean? Black?”And then you have to go down with the arrow and see what were they saying before but most of the time it does not get better.
This is all because we are going to Switzerland on tour on the 10 th December. We are going to be playing at the Arosa Comedy Festival. There are so many things to prepare and also is a way to warm up for the work that we have to do. Like your main and your body have to find little by little that state of tension necessary for performing. It is like the Karate professional killers, they do very detail and straightening movements that would make them invincible in a fight. Like them, we Spymonkey, like the old warriors fighting for freedom for our art we warm up mentally and physically through Internet.
Have fun.
HIGH NOON
Hello;
My life goes slowly when I am not working. I have arrived to Romo two weeks ago and my heart fells trapped. I keep thinking in my friends in England and in Vienna an how do they go about with their lives.
For me it fells different because I am very lazy and they are not. So I have this little red light on top of my head, behind my left ear that bright every time I could be doing something and I am not doing anything. The red light sends a message to my brain and from the brain a very strong current of responsibility arrives to the place where my spirit lives and then I have to do something.
I know that Toby is in Brighton and that for me is already hard work. He has tow kids to take care of and his wife. Also he is always working and they have a house to buy and administration to do.
Petra is looking for a house in London. She is looking for the perfect house that will make her happy and millionaire at the same time. Probably she goes all over the place in her bicycle and does lots of exercise and talk to lots of people.
Stephan has arrived to Vienna and he still trying to set his sleeping patterns right. Plus the fact that he has a baby and the baby has grand parents and uncles and friends of his mother etc he is going to be very buddy even if he rather stays in bed the whole time.
I have not done anything apart from sample all the wines that the bars of my village sell. I have been reading books and getting things ready to get my kitchen finally done and that's it. Oh, I fell like Gary Cooper in “high Noon” deciding if I take care of business or if I wait for a more convenient time. Ok, that's it I put my guns in my belt and I go to face my destiny.
Have fun.
STRONG WINDS
Hello,
Listen for all of you that are working for Cirque du soleil I have to inform you, before Michael Bolingbrook tells you or you read it in the Hand to Hand, that Dralion had to cancel the 8:30 show because the wind was so strong that the council of Bilbao decided that it was dangerous to do the show. There was a big southwest storm coming and there were 150 km winds that were going to be very dangerous for the tent. At the place where the have built it, the wind comes really fast. The tent is at the entrance of the town of Bilbao, north of the Guggenheim Museum, by the river Nervion. This is the river of Bilbao. In Bilbao is know as “La Ria” because it is one of those rivers that when the tide is up they get lots of water and when the tide goes down they have barely any water.
The Nervion River goes to the sea for 12 to 15 km. I said this because it has a couple of turns and when you look at it from a plain it looks like big snake awakening.
On the sides of the river there are towns and when the river met the sea there is a big port that 100 years ago it used to be a big estuary. Now a day there are building everywhere but they do not stop the wind.
In the winter, all those powerful winds that come from the North and hit the seaside of the Biscay Bay the hit the cliffs. When the get tired of hitting all the walls that are the main landscape of the Bay the travel a long the coastline find places to get in. As soon as they find one they go inn like ghosts or zombies going into the hunting house. The gather speed really fast one they are in the valley and when they are in Bilbao they are very powerful. I have heard of ships wreaking, trees falling down taking their roots all the way out of the earth, cranes that where there that day will be on the floor next day and so on.
That is the reason why I think is very good that cirque cancel the show. Thou just between you and me I would have love to see the tent of Dralion stacked over the Guggenheim Museum like a big red and white condom.
Have fun.
ORANGE JUiCE
Hello,
I love orange juice. Yes, it does sound like a very stupid statement but it you will be leaving in Spain from time to time you will realise that it is a very important thing. Here everyday when I wake up from my nightly sleep I always have a freshly squeeze orange juice.
When I was young or better teenager my mum used to bring me the juice to my bed. She said all the time that you have to drink the juice as soon as it gets squeeze so all the vitamins do not died. I kind of did not believe her but she said that a doctor friend of her told her that so it is true. I have to say that I do not care if the first thing that I put inside my body is a little bit of freshly squeeze orange juice is so great.
In my house there is always the squeezer on top of the counter and the oranges are in the fruit basquet. I cannot even see because I am deep sleep and I get the oranges and I have to find the knife to cut them and the peculiarity is that you should keep some of your oranges in the fridge so they are really cold. The others you keep them outside and when you squeeze them all together the juice is colder.
Lately I fill the glass with the juice and then I leave them for just a little bit of time on the table until the whole breakfast is ready and then guess what is the first thing I have? Yes, you guessed right the juice.
It is very disappointing when you go out of the country and there is not freshly squeeze orange juice. The best one I had not freshly squeeze is one I had in America called Tropicana but it is not even close to the taste of a freshly squeeze orange juice.
Have fun.
