September 2007
SHAKESPEARE IN LOVE
Hello;
Miren has gone to see her family and I have decided to stay at home watching TV.
I flicked through the channels and there is was “Shakespeare in Love”.
The first time ever I saw this movie I was in Switzerland. We, Petra and me were touring with the Circus Knie.
While we were there we were not having the best of times and any opportunity for us to get a little bit of outside influence we always welcomed very much.
We arrived to a small town in the middle of Switzerland that I remember had like many others a parking lot, a big Migros supermarket and green and mountains all around and should not forget a Station. Because for all of you our there Petra and me were touring in a train with a very traditional circus. They had animals, elephants, tigers, giraffe, bulls and many more things that we do not see anymore.
We had a really rocky, rehearsal time and we had a horrible beginning. At that time we were having a horrible time with KKG and we felt completely cheated and mistreated.
So we saw that there was a movie theatre and that there was an afternoon shows so we took each other's and went to see the movie.
It is a very good movie. I think it is well written and the actors have fantastic parts to play and not just that they do it very well.
We sat there and started to watch the movie. By the minute ten we were so into it that it was embarrassing. Then a little bit later, I do not remember the moment I could fell how my eyes were getting some water. I was getting emotional with the movie and then I heard Petra sobbing next to me. She was crying literally. She was sobbing and trying to be not too loud but it was too late. I looked at her and I decided to go for it too.
So we spend the whole time crying and enjoying the movie very much. From that day onwards we visit many movie theatres during the tour because after the movie we felt really well. A good cry is always good for everybody.
So I have watched the movie again and I do not know if I got move because it reminded me of that time or because the movie is really moving.
Have fun.MIREN
Hello;
Yes, I have arrived today and I am leaving after tomorrow.
I saw my girl and she is looking really good. She is really great. At first she was a little bit pissed because I was coming here just for a couple of days and then shooting off to London because we are going on tour.
She always tells me that it seems I am the first one to go there and then I am the first one to come back here.
I think I have to go there a little bit before because I do not live there so it is my way of being available for Spymonkey in case it is needed for me to do something.
But let me tell you, she came to pick me up in the car. She had booked a table in a nice restaurant so without even going home for a shower and to leave the luggage we went to the restaurant.
It is a restaurant called Sardines so guess what thing we were eating? Yes, you guessed it right. We had sardines and they were great. We drunk a little bit of wine and we talked a lot. Then she wanted to go for a Gin and tonic so we took the car. She did not allowed me to drive, which was quite nice.
We went to a club and we ordered some drinks and then we had a little dance. She took me home and we made love for hours.
I have to say it was fantastic. It is nice to be with someone that likes you and that wants to make the most out of the fact that you are there. It did not used to be like that but now she is completely on.
I am leaving in one night but I have already had everything that I wanted to have here.
Have fun.LOSTED SHOW
Hello;
Another show that I have been offered and that I have to say no because I have my own company and I have commitments with it. It pleases me to have my own company and thou some times it is difficult and I fell bad I think it is the right thing to do so I am happy saying no to another show if that means I can work with my friends in my company.
Paul asked me If I could like to be in the show that they are doing fro Christmas at the Lyric. I said I would love to do that show. Last time I worked with Paul probably it was not the best show ever but I have to say I had the time of my life.
And also it would have meant that I would have spent the holydays in England and I would have stayed at Cal's by myself and I would have had a fantastic time.
But then there was the gig we have in Helsinki the week of the 26 th November. We are playing in Espoon in Finland and they hired us months ago, we have signed the contract and we cannot really break it. It will not be right and probably we will have to pay quite a lot of money in fines.
And this is not the most important thing. For me the most important thing is that I am sure we are on to something. We are so close to do something that we have never done before and that is going to put us in a higher state that the one we are now.
If all of us we said yes to things that are not Spymonkey we are in danger of loosing anything.
All the works I do with people that are not Spymonkey are great because they fell really liberating. And they are. When you work in your own company everything is a little bit personal. I think is normal. WE have been working together for almost ten years now. So when you get a job with someone else is great because you are free. But I imagine that if you just do work for people and never for your own company it can be nice. I think it has to be really lonely. I have done it for a while and that is why I decided to create a company.
I hope it last for a long time.
Have fun.ANOTHER MONEY JOB
Hello;
Well, I suppose to be at home now. I suppose to have woken up late and go down to the bakery and picked some croissants and then cross the road to get my paper. Then with all those thing go up home and make breakfast and then use my morning to put myself up to speed with living in Bilbao and living with my lovely wife.
Instead I have waken up very early in the morning and I and I have gone to Soho. I have run and run thinking that I was going to be late and when I was there they told me that I should not have needed to run because they were running late so … So I started my day not very well.
They pay me enough in couple of hours for me to stay more day in London. And I have to say I do the job with Antonio and he is a nice and fun guy to work with.
We are doing to the prototype for a new game for the play station. We have done more work for this in the pass and it is good because it is a real estrange work and you get to do really weird things. The funniest thing is that the game it may never become a game. They have done lots of work in this thing and they have put quite a lot of money and lots of time in something that if when they presented the people from the other branches of Sony entertainment do not think is good it will be put in the bin.
Also if they finally do it I would love to get a part in the game. Because if now they have paid very well then I do not want to think about how great is going to be once they have the proper money to pay us.
Our only fear is that they probably will want someone more famous to the job or it is very likely that someone very famous will want to play the part. Perhaps because they will get not bad money and also because they could sell the game better.
So I have been working for a couple of hours and I have made enough money for a week.
I can go back home now and see my girl.
Have fun.PLUCK
Hello;
Pluck is a company of string players that mix in their show music with comedy. Cal has directed one show and now is on the verge to direct them the second one.
They are great musicians and very nice people and definitely one of them is very funny. But that is not the most important thing, the most important thing is that with Cal's help they can all of them be funny, very funny.
He has been working with them for a while now and he has come up with a great idea. I do not know if I should mention here what it is because …in any case I will say just one word TITANIC.
Because he was not having a very good time working with them I have offered myself to go with him to rehears so at least I will be able to laugh and to have fun with him and them.
So this is my first day and they are rehearsing in Finsbury Park. I arrived a little bit early so I could go to a printer and do some copies of my face to send them to the agents that I am going to try to get while we play in London.
The studio is an small studio but it is nice because they have everything they need there so they can come up with the show there.
Also they play the music Cal asks them to play and then they do have a nice idea and they just put both things together. The funny thing is that Cal send them ideas and then they react as if he had not say anything and Cal has to say the idea again and again and then there is a moment where Cal disappear in his computer and let me tell you for someone that has nothing to do with it is a little bit violent.
They are like paralysed. I do not know it is because they have had problems in the pass and now they are not able to solve them and talk to them or is just that they are like that?
But whenever any of their ideas gets put up on the floor it is really amazing because they play very well and then the music with a little bit o comedy it always works very well.
I am sure it is going to be an amazing show so I really recommend to all of you to look for Pluck's show and go and see it. You are there for a treat.
Have fun.THE SOPRANOS
Hello;
Finally I have started to watch the best television ever on television in the world of the television. I knew of the series from a long time but I never had the chance to or the time to watch it.
I saw many years ago when the whole thing started the first episode. I remember that it lasted very long. It was like a feature movie and I must say I did not think anything of it. It has that thing that is very common now of shooting as if it is a documentary because the camera moves quite a lot.
The thing I remember the most was Tony Soprano the main guy of the show driving in his car from work to home. The places that he drives through are very similar to the places that you drive when you go from the airport to town in Montreal.
Also I remember that he, Tony was not a very sympathetic character and he did not look nice or attractive. Also his family was so common and unfunny and very real that it was hard to believe all the hype surrounding the show.
The show is finishing this year. The first episode was almost seven years ago and now after all this time I am going to start to watch the show.
During all this time I have made some attempts to watch the show but they have never really worked. I saw some episodes in Calgary the second time we were there after Las Vegas. Then I did not see any more episodes. I did like them when I saw then in Calgary the problem was that I knew I was not going to have time to watch the whole series. I did not want to get into it without knowing that I was going to be able to watch the whole thing.
Now I have arrived from Glasgow and Cal has all the discs of the show so I am going to start to watch it now and as far as everybody says I am in it for a treat.
Have fun.BOB MACDONALD
Hello;
“Hi friends I know you have already heard about Bob's passing this weekend. I spoke with him on Thursday, Friday and Saturday of last week by telephone and he was very brave and peaceful, despite the obvious fact that his life was quickly slipping away. In true Bob fashion he made a very quick, proud and elegant departure – and as always, we are left wanting more of his presence.
It is in these moments that you feel closest to those you care about most – and so I reach out to you to let you all know how much I love you guys, knowing that this gesture would make Bob very happy.”
“No arrangements made yet – everything happened too quickly. I was thinking about playing “Stillsick” for anyone interested. I think it was the loudest I ever heard Bob laugh, when he watched that video at his farewell party!”
Tim Robinson
He was one of the best in that horrible world we spent two years of our life. I had the best times with him in his office. He was never boring and he was never our boss. We had this common understanding that he was the only one who respected our job fully and … Bob we are going to miss you because in a very short period of time we loved you very much.
It is our lost because I wish I would be able to go in the super stylish way you have gone.
Have fun.
SRI LANKA
Hello,
We have an idea for a show with Joss Houban and we would like to do part of the rehearsal work in Sri Lanka. And for me it would be just a dream to go there and have everyday my dosage of surf.
Dandou means is the language of the town the flower does the orange tree. But I must say I didn't understand anything these foreigners said…. All these spliffs…. Where is that tree gone? Must stop smoking now I´ am living in tree lanka.
The sun shines everyday everywhere. I didn't understand them… foreigners.
And that it would be a really good thing and exciting thing to do. We would be able to have accommodation there to be able to go to work really fast and well, the best thing of everything is that we work all the time. You go for dinner and we talk about the show. When we go for breakfast we also would talk about the show and we have siesta we also talk about the show and so and so…
And Sri Lanka is an island. It is an island in front of the east coast of India. I have never been there. I have heard that the most important thing is that there are elephants free all around. The use the elephants for transport and for work.
Also Neil who is the guy who runs the place there tells me that during the winter from ten o'clock onwards there is a fantastic wave that comes there everyday.
That is going to be a problem with the rest of Spymonkey because for us to surf is not an important thing. I wander why. In a way to go surfing is always a good thing and they would love it they would try do it.
I think that probably we are going to be in Sri Lanka doing a show. I also think that we will end up going there when there is not surfing. I think we have change quite a lot. In the beginning everything used to be for fun and now it is a business but it is clear that we all have fun in different ways now.
Have fun.LISA, CHARLY & EDWINA
Hello;
This really is a women day. All of them lovely and all of them came to see the show for different reasons. Lisa is a member of the family. She has been with us for the last two almost three years and she is being doing a general all. In the beginning of the relationship she was going to be everything but then GHP came in “and bit her head off” and her roll with in the Family change and it was never really define in order to not interfere with them.
As it happens, as it has happened Lisa has been left out to do the most nitty, gritty work that is to do and …well, she wants to do other things.
We are saying see you later, well, not really because she is going to be around and now it is impossible for her to leave us completely mainly because we will dead and will disappeared in the middle of the Ocean of the Arts administration and world so ….
The Charlie and Edwina came all the way from Edinburgh to see Stiff. They both are friends of the company from the time we spend in Australia two years ago. In there Charlie was taking care of us and she was really nice and efficient. Edwina had another position and then last year while we were at the Festival, the Edinburgh festival she was working like us at the Assembly Rooms.
They are really nice and really positive people. We had a chat with them for an hour after the show. We want to be with them, they are fun and they do their work very well. In our wildest dreams we always thought of them working with us. But we do not have any work and we do not have any money to pay us.
The left at ten pass eleven and none of them forgot one of their shoes behind them so I do not know when we will see them again. But we are friends and they are nice and very pretty people to have around.
SECOND SHOW
Hello;
It did not go great. It still is like a kid that broke his leg and now is going back to walk and he does not know how to do it. It works and people seems to laugh and have lots of fun with it but when it comes to the laugh ride that used to be in the pass Stiff has not found his proper speed yet.
Two people that show Cooped while we did in Montreal came to see Stiff. It is funny I think people who saw first Stiff likes more Stiff than Cooped and people that saw Cooped first like more Cooped than Stiff. I suppose this is a normal thing.
They were really sweet and nice. The live 30 miles away from Glasgow and they came to see the show because they wanted to have a t-shirt of Spymonkey with the Kissy Kissy motto.
Well, I was and we all were really happy to have created such an amazing response from them. Thinking a little bit backwards we did have an amazing time in Montreal so it is not surprising that people enjoyed the shows we did there very much.
Glasgow it is a very nice city. It does remind me a lot of Bilbao before the Guggenheim. Bilbao was a destroyed city that had achieved a lot in the pass but when the industry started to disappear the whole place collapsed.
Here you see areas absolutely gorgeous with great buildings and beautiful streets and then you turn around and it is a fucking dump. Well, you really need to have a Guggenheim museum that will help quite a lot.
Lisa a Peter came to see the show and Graeme Gillmor too. They liked it very much, so they say and they are waiting for the show to be up and running to come again and enjoy the party.
They are really nice Lisa and Peter. They are very supportive and a real pleasure to have a round. I like very much the way they live their lives.
Anyway come to Glasgow because it is a happening city full of nice and enthusiastic people who want to make you fell good.
Have fun.
TRON
Hello;
The first time Stiff was played in front of an audience was in Brighton. We were very nervous because we have never done our own show in front of a real audience.
Many funny things happened while the show was being played. At the moment of the body scene the table where we were playing broke down and the audience thought that it was part of the show and like that one many other things.
After five years we have done Stiff again in front of an audience. This time it was in Glasgow at small but very nice theatre called the Tron. I do not know what does that mean the Tron. Mr Murdston said that he thinks the church used to be called like that and that is the reason why they have kept the name for the theatre.
If Mr Murdston says it that is probably truth because Mr Murdston knows a lot.
He is double working while in Glasgow. He is working with us, well, it is his company and then he is doing the music for a show in Glasgow with Graeme.
The show, I was talking about the show, the show went a little bit start-stop and I am not very sure if we have the audience with us all the time. It is funny how every time you do a show it does not matter how much time you have done it; there are moments that are always different. Those moments are as different as the amount of audiences that you have.
This first show after many year s it was a real test. We have not done the show for a long time so it was really exciting to do it. It did not go as well as we like the show to go but I think the audience liked it very much and there was a sense that there is going to be a really strong word of mouth about it and probably by the time we are about to finish the run we may sell out.
Have fun.GLASGOW
Hello;
We have arrived to Glasgow this evening. It has taken us quite a lot of driving. We had a great van. We came really fast. We waited for Petra and then we just drove all the way up to Scotland. The funny thing is that we thought it was going to take us more time than going to Edinburgh and in fact we did it faster.
Stephan, Petra and me in the van while Toby went in his own car. He is doing the music for a show that Graeme is doing in Glasgow and he is going to stay for a week more after we leave.
We are staying in a house, of Sarah Jane, She is very good friend of Toby from very years and she has a fantastic flat. It is very funny to be here in Glasgow because it remains us of the time we used to have in Edinburgh. It is really sad that we do not play more in Scotland, people really like us here but we do not get enough gigs.
We got lost in our way here and Toby had to come in his car to find us in the middle of town.
We are going to be playing at the Tron. It is like an Arts Centre but it looks really good. We are part of a festival whose name I do not remember. I know that what Graeme and Toby are doing is also part of that festival. We also have to do a number in the cabaret of the opening of the Festival. We are going to do the number we always do when we are not in America or Canada, the Pom-Poms.
We went to see the theatre before going to bed. Toby had cooked some pasta and we were hungry and tired and also we had a very early start the next morning.
I had found some accommodation fro us but we did not use it at the end because we all fit in the house. I had to share the room but at least the company was going to save some money.
Oh!! I know this was a boring blog but that is how it is some times.
Have fun.
RUN THROUGH
Hello;
Today we told Cal to come and see a run through of the Stiff. We have not done the show for almost five years.
We set everything in the little room of the church in Brixton and as soon as Cal was there we started the run. The run went very smoothly and we did not have to stop once to try to remember. Cal was laughing. I wondered if he was laughing because we were being funny or because he was remembering the funny things he created for the show when we did it first.
After the show we went for lunch. We lunch in a Bar where we had dinner the day we had a big fight during the creation of Bless. Everything here in Brixton brings me back memories of that horrible time.
After lunch we went back to the rehearsal room and there was nothing to rehears. That show is a good show. After so many years it still stands and it is very nice to do it. So we decided to work in the notes that Jeffrey Latimer gave us about Cooped. He wants to get it to take it Toronto and converted into a big success in America. Of course for us it is very important that the producer do what he said he is going to do. We need someone to put the money we need to make it in America.
Also there is something about Cooped that is not right. Lots of people have complained about something missing. That tell us that we have to try to keep working in the show all the time until the show is completely tight and slick and everybody wants it.
We sat around the table and talk and we worked and it is horrible because we have developed this thing where we all know more or less what everybody is going to say before they say it and then we do not listen.
We are entering in a new era with Spymonkey and we have to be patient, probably as much as we were the first time or even more.
Have fun.STIFF
Hello,
Stiff is a material's resistance to bending. That is the exact definition Wikipedia gives us about the word. For Spymonkey it means just one thing. Stiff is the name of the first show we ever did.
The show is about an actor that tries to re launch his career as an actor after the death of his wife. He wrote a piece of theatre to homage his departed wife and he has made sure that in the show there are many moments where he is going to be amazing.
In order to be the best also he has hired three actors to do the parts that he is not going to play. Those three actors are very bad. That is the reason why he got them on the first place.
As the play happens the other actors realize that things are not going as well as the actor told them so they start to add things in order to help him. Of course the whole thing becomes something very different to what the actor expected.
We opened Stiff in 1997 and we had to stop for a while because we did not have any more money. Petra and me went to work in Switzerland with the circus Knie. We tour with a circus for eleven months.
After that Paul Willeman left the company and Stephan joined the show. That year, the year 2000 we went to Edinburgh. We played in a small venue at the Chaplaincy Centre. The slot we had it was not the best time something like 4:45 pm if my memory does not fail me.
We did have very good reviews. We got four stars in the Guardian and we got lots of people to come to see us. After that the British Council gave us gigs all over the world. Lots of people played big part in the success of Stiff, from Martin Sutherland, Cal McCrystal, Kathy Bourne, Lucy, and many many more friends. They made the tour of Stiff one of the best times ever. I just hope that whatever we do next is as good and as fun as Stiff.
Have fun.BARBEQUE
Hello;
I am sure you all know that we have approached Joss Houban to direct a show with us. We have always like the work he did with the Right Side and we met with him in Paris for a week in May and we did have an amazing time working together.
We think that we could have a fantastic time working with him and it will open our imagination and it will give us another vision of the work. We know that Joss like Cal has a very clear and specific way of doing things in theatre so it is going to be very good to be able to mix both.
Joss is in London at the moment. He has done a show with Peter Brook and they are opening in a day at the Young Vic. He is going to be here for three weeks more time that anyone of us. We are going to Glasgow to do Stiff so we will have to see the show when we came back to London to do the Cooped tour in England in the Autumn.
So Petra, the entertaining director of Spymonkey, though it is a very good idea to meet up with Joss and do a dinner party.
Also, she though of taking advantage of her amazing terrace and that it would be a very nice idea to do a Barbeque. The problem is that the weather today has not been very good. It was warm enough but it was very windy so it was difficult to do the cooking in it.
So I have ended up cooking the whole shit while everybody was eating inside. Joss came with Amy his wife. She is very nice too and we have cooked a little bit of fish for her because she does not eat any meat.
The fish was not very well cooked I realised when I saw that she had left almost the whole piece in the plate. The meat was good, sausages and chicken. Thanks God Stephan took over. We did not really talk about anything. Joss talk a lot and he is very much into the show he is doing so it is very normal that he did not want to talk about what to do.
That is going to be our next goal, to find what kind of show do we want to do together with Joss.
Have fun.TV AGAIN
Hello;
Yes, there we go again and we have another meeting to find out, better say to come up with ideas for a TV show.
We said that we would try to come with ideas for a TV proposal we have to make to an American TV Channel. They saw the show at Just For Laughs and while the summer has gone by we have kept in touch with them by GHP. It would be so cool to have a TV deal with an American TV channel mainly because we may have the opportunity to work and live in America once again. I have to say I miss my friends in America. They all are very good friends and I would like to see them more often.
So we are doing a meeting at out new Club House. Since Petra has a flat the place to meet with everybody is at her place. We bring the drinks and she put the house and she cooks. At first we never thought that this would be a very good idea but now after a couple of times it is not so bad.
So there we are doing the meeting and the ideas are all old proposals from a TV version of Cooped, which I think it will be very nice to making a Hospital Tropical series. Even then we are not agree so much of how that thing should be on the TV. I think that it should be clearly Spanish orientated but Toby thinks that it should be in an indeterminate place in the South Pacific. I think that is a completely different thing. I am not saying it could be funny but I have always seen it different.
Another thing is that we talk about is something that happens in Las Vegas and that has similarities to what happen to us while we were working there. I do not fell very inspired but I am sure that with all of us putting our input we will have lots of fun.
I offered another different idea that nobody liked. I said that it would have been nice to take us somewhere else where we have never been but nobody saw it thou they all say that it was a nice idea to bring something completely different.
Have fun.FORCES OF NATURE
Hello;
No, Not really, the weather is very good in here. No, the sun shining and we are having a very good weather. It is very nice to be out. Well, if you go out very early in the morning it is not the best because it is a little bit chilly but the rest of the day it is warm and very nice.
Thou I think I am the one who has the problem. The summer in Bilbao has been very good apart for four or five days in the middle of August when it really rain a lot for a little while.
So if I have been going to the beach almost to the day before I came to England my body it is not used to this cold weather. I am not saying Bilbao has a tropical weather. It has a nice weather but not too much different to the English one but this morning when I left to Brixton for rehearsals I was really cold then in the middle of the afternoon we broke for lunch and I was cold. When we finished rehearsing the weather was nice and warm and now while I write the weather is cold or I am cold.
At the end yesterday we had to drive for almost four and half hours to Tunbridge Wells to pick the van because the renting car company fucked up the information. We were ready to put everything inside the van but there was not van.
So we drove in Toby's car and then we drove back in van and loaded the van and we went all the way to London so we will be ready to go into rehearsals first thing in the morning.
We have been doing this for so many years that there is a sense of unreality, it looks like a déjà vu or a bad dream, as if we never went to Las Vegas and never travelled in Limousines and never slept in nice hotels and never had a house with a pool. So this is it us going back on the road with the same show we ever started to go on the road.Have fun.
REUNION
Hello;
Here we are again. I arrived yesterday; well not really I arrived on the tenth. I went strait on to Brighton and Petra stayed in London. Toby was here and Lucy was here too.
I always come to England a little bit earlier and stay a little bit more when we are done. In fact I stay longer so I can help if it is necessary and until now it has worked out well. It has not worked well mainly for my lovely wife because she cannot understand why do I go there the first one and leave the last one. She probably thinks I have a lover.
Well, everybody is coming today. We are getting a van to take everything up to Brixton to rehears there. We are rehearsing at the same church where we worked while creating Bless. Uhhh!! I think it gives me the jibbers.
Everybody is meeting at Small Dole. We are expecting the van to arrive at two o'clock and then we will drive it all the way to London and then in the morning we will set everything up and then we will start to rehears Stiff.
I have not seen Toby and Petra since the end of July. We saw each other last time in Montreal. It always makes me a little bit nervous to see them again. I have the paranoiac felling that one day I am going to arrive there and they are going to tell me that the end of Spymonkey has arrived.
So when I see them and they do not tell me anything like that then I fell happy.
And now taking out all the set parts from the storage space I can avoid thinking about the times when we started doing Stiff. The first time we went to Edinburgh and the first tour in America, and all the other thing we have done in these ten years that we have been doing shows and touring together.
Stephan is here; Lucy has arrived too, Petra, Toby and me. We do the get out from the storage container and we will be working in Stiff during the week and then Glasgow.
Have fun.AT LUCY'S
Hello;
I am staying with Lucy tonight. Yesterday I slept at Joanna's flat. She has a great flat in Brighton and because she travels a lot we get to stay there quite often. But as I was going to go to Joanna's flat her daughter called and told us that she was going to have to come to Brighton for a conference and she need to use that flat and she did not want anyone to be there while she was inn.
So I have to go back to Lucy and she has a new boyfriend and it does not look very good to have another man sleeping in your flat while you are starting a relationship.
You can be as liberal as you want but to see someone there that seems to be at easy in your new girlfriend's flat it has to make you uncomfortable.
Lucy has a really nice flat in Brighton.
My favourite part is the garden and the bathroom and the kitchen. I know I have three favourite parts of the house.
The bathroom is new and it is very comfortable and nice thou it could be bigger. So from those three favourite things the least favourite one is the bathroom.
The Kitchen is small but very practical and it opens to the garden. There is always lots of light in the kitchen and if you ask me I will make it a little bit more private.
The problem with all this ideas is that you need money. It is very good to have ideas but you need to have money to make them and if you keep having ideas and you can not put any of them to practice you start to get really frustrated and it is not good.
The Garden is great. She has already done an amazing party. I was not there but it was I and the police the only ones who did not make it.
She has put a little house in the lower part and now she has to put plants and trees around so she will get some kind of intimacy. She will do it little by little.
Lucy's house is really nice as she is. Well, she is nicer than her house.
Have fun.BRIGHTON
Hello;
It is something funny to think that things will never be forever how you think they are. I remember the first time I came to Brighton I did not like it. I think I have said this before; the sea was all the time going to one direction. While in my town and everywhere else in the world the sea always comes towards the beach.
Also there were very nice parts mixed badly with really nasty bad parts. For example the area where we first ever rehearsed Stiff was a really nasty and ugly area and now everything is cleaner.
Half of the centre of Brighton is cars free area so it is fantastic to go around. The shopping is as good as ever and the girls are better than ever. Thou I have to say that probably is my own problem.
I am getting old and I like to see girls all the time. I like girls I always did so now the thing is just as strong as if use to be.
But let me tell you about why do I am starting to like Brighton. I wanted to say a lot “I am starting to like Brighton a lot” but no, I like Brighton but I am not starting to like Brighton a lot I like it quite a lot or I fell comfortable.
It has become a town for people. It has fantastic places to walk around or to use your bicycle and it has very good pubs and it has very good shops.
The fact is that Brighton is now like living in a big summer festival. It does not look like a town because wherever you are and where ever you go there is always people on the streets and on the shops and of course it is Saturday and Sundays the best days to be there.
I think it has become a fantastic place to live and I would not like to live there but lately I am more inclined to fell comfortable there. In the war between Brighton and myself, the nice city by the sea has won. Still is full of lesbians and people with piercing and tattoos but now there kids and nice people all over the place.
Have fun.MEMORY LANE
Hello;
From time to time I think I am going to tell you something that may have happened to us in the pass. When we did not have a blog.
For example the first time we ever met Stephan.
We did not know him. He was going to take over Paul Willeman. He had left Spymonkey so I talked thanks to Paul Hunter recommendation to Stephan while working in Switzerland.
We hold the audition in London. He came there and we had more people but no one of them was German. We played for a while. I remember being at the church before any body and seeing him on the streets. It was funny to see him later on having fun with us.
He played well and he was funny but I remember the way he played Hitler as a very funny and surprising him.
He accepted the job and he started to tour with us. The first gig we did together or at least one of the first ones was in Niederweningan. We played at the Sports room of the local school. The show went very well and we were having a beer.
The curtains where the set was were close because all our things were in the behind.
Suddenly someone open the curtains and the two big pieces of material started to go apart. And Stephan was in the middle of the stage air guitaring like mad. Everybody looked at him and he had not realised that he was being watch. He was there until the end of the show and then everybody clapped.
He has been working with us since then.
Have fun.AGENTS
Hello;
Thanks Petra because she has sent me the e-mails with the address for agents in London that are going to come to see our show.
I have thought recently that I should try to get an agent. It is very difficult to get one in London for me. I am from Spain and I do not look like an English person but if I would speak very good English perhaps I would get a chance. It is very difficult to have a proper English accent. I do not think I can do it. I could try but it also would cost me lots of money. Because I would need to have like one to one lessons to practice a lot and those kinds of classes are usually very expensive.
Well, I have decided to send them my CV and a picture of mine and try for the first time to find a person that would be able to represent me and my work in England.
But what do I say in the letter? They are going to find out that I do not know how to use their language properly and I am going to be not selected.
I hate when people do not want me or like me.
In any case I know examples of people who are foreigners and they do have agents and they do work in England proper theatre work but very rarely TV work. There is a chance always a very small chance in all these things. You may be lucky and the agent that you write the letter is looking at that precise moment a fat Spanish actor. He/she needs one for a very important TV series or better for a movie. Then he/she comes to see the show and loves it and loves you and decided to ask your representation and that's it.
I think like that many times and then I say to myself do not be silly. I have to learn from Petra because she has a fantastic drive and she goes and talks to everybody and sends the letters and she suffers but then she just forget about them and carries on.
So get ready agents because you are going to receive one of my letters and one of my pictures.
Have fun.
VISION
Hello;
When I close my eyes it is not true that I do not see anything.
The first thing that happens to me when I close my eyes is that everything disappears. I get a vision of something deep back. I can see a curve downwards. I mean like an arc of light. It is a very weak light. I believe it is the muscle in my eyelids. It does a kind of press in my cornea and I can see that.
Immediately after I have closed my eyes for some seconds I see the deep black like a when the TV has gone blurry. But this time instead of whites and grey and blacks everything is in blacks.
Also I see like the negative of the last things my eyes saw before I decide to close them. I see the computer, I see my legs and my hands and I see my jumper completely cramped over my stomach.
When your eyes have been closed for teen to twenty seconds then the image is still there. The image in negative stays there for quite a while but the funny thing is that when you move your head the negative image moves with you. Where ever you move your head as if trying to see in another direction the same last things you saw before you decided to close your eyes is what you see wherever you look.
It is quite spooky.
And then when you have had your eyes closed for a minute or more all the recent images go. They are not there anymore. There is a moment of darkness and then your imagination takes over. And you see many things you do want to see and many others you do not want to see.
You get rid of the not wanted ones by shaking your head and then when they have gone you know that those would be the nightmares and the others would be the dreams from now on.
Have fun.I-POD
Hello;
The I- Pod is set in a small sound dock on top of the self where the cookbooks rest. The cook keeps all his bocks there so Paul put the I-Pod there. He never reads those books any more. It was Monday. On Monday the peal, the clean, the chop, they slice and they cut. And at the end of the day everything has to be left as if nothing has happen.
The chef does not like to see anything left over or any thing dirty.
So the pealing, the cleaning, the chopping, the slicing and the cutting started and Paul decide to put a soundtrack to the day.
He thought for pealing something slow because you need to have rhythm. So choose “7”. Fantastically sexy the work in the kitchen was going smooth. In very short time the pealing had concluded and the cleaning of the pealing started at full blast.
It wasn't a hard cleaning it gentle keep things in their places and Paul got hold of his favourite track of Celia Cruz. The kitchen got “salsa” and it did not stop until Paul change the music and Led Zeppelin came through the speaker. The carrots, the parsley, the potatoes, the aubergines and the sukinies were on top of the counter s. The sound of the evil guitars was the sharpness of the knives that ended the job earlier than ever.
Lunchtime and the Chef made his entrance in the kitchen shouting to the souse chef. The chef was read and the souse chef was getting white by the second. The Walkirias appeared through the speakers and the arms of the chef were going up and down non-stop.
The souse chef tried to say something and the adagio by Albinoni started to sound on the speaker.
Suddenly the chef heard the music and stopped. He was listening. The music changed to the soundtrack of “Sharks”. He was looking for the person responsible for the music and he could not see how Paul was directing the music with his remote control.
He looked from one side to the other, look at Paul and the music change to the sound track of Psycho.
Suddenly the chef turned around and left the room to the music of Tom and Jerry and the whole staff after him to the music of Snow white and the seven dwarfs.
LA BARRA DE PAN
Hello;
Since I remember in my house bread was a “baguette”. In Spain we call bread “barra de Pan”. It has the same shape as the famous French baguette but it is fatter and the upper top is considerably crunchier.
There was another kind of bread that my father uses to bring home. It was bread from a village. It was a loaf of bread. It was circular and he will cut the bread in half and will keep half in newspaper and we will eat it from the other half until finish. I did not like that bread because it dried really fast.
La Barra de Pan had and has a very nice and soft interior. If you do not want to get really fat you take it out because that is where the yeast and the flower. The outside is crunchy and it is great. The fight for the most appreciated part where glorious and we will get the best part of la barra de pan, the ends, alternates days.
One day they brought another loaf of bread. This time had the shape of a brick. I had seen it before but just on the TV. It was in a TV add for Bimbo. Bimbo was a label for bread in a brick shape. They kids who their parent got Bimbo bread used to eat it cut it in small squares and the jam and butter will go inside.
Since that day we ate Bimbo bread toasted for breakfast.
La Barra de Pan is the best bread to do sandwiches. You get more bread therefore you have a bigger surface to fill with nice things. Then when you have a bite the crunchiness of the outside goes very well with softness of what it is inside.
Since many years I had a sandwiches in the afternoon made with a piece of bread from La Barra de Pan. Those sandwiches have developed for the best since the time I used to eat them for my Merienda. (A snack at the end of the afternoon). In my time the best example was bread and chocolate. Your mum with cut a piece of La Barra de Pan and a pice of the chocolate bar and then will introduce the piece of chocolate into the piece of bread. The hardness of the chocolate will sleep inside the bread very fast and nicely.
It was a delicious and energetic snack that will give you enough power to play until the end of the day.
Now I go out to get La Barra de Pan with my newspaper first thing in the morning. That is to be at home.
Have fun.WHO ARE YOU TALKING TO?
Hello;
When we arrived in to the house there was someone waiting for us. Yes, she was there. She knew we were coming so when we open the door we heard a hello from the deep end of the house.
We went straight into the kitchen. It was really cold so we wanted to get warm. We took our coats off and we place our behinds against the hot hitting and our faces lighted with comfort.
“whafzzxxsghrsotttnsphand?¡¡” we looked at each other's there was someone else in the house. We did not know that someone else was going to be here. She said she would wait for us alone. I asked her what did you say? And she called back saying nothing. Our faces showed our confusion but the cold remained us that we wanted to get warmer. We turned around and we placed our hands on top of the hitter. Our behinds were really warm now and it was the time to take care of our fronts.
Someone shouted, “Fucked”. This time it was very clear. The sound of the word fuck it was unmistakeable. I looked to my partner. I went in. I did see nothing apart from her pottering around the room. As my head went through the door her head turned around and I saw a big smile.
I will be there with you in a second.
I heard you talking. Did you say anything?
She looked at me in surprise and said no. Ok, I wait for you in the kitchen.
As I was going back I heard a whisper. It was really soft as if someone was sharing a secret. I stopped and I started to walk back to where she was. I had to find out if she was lying. We were about to take a very important step and everything had to be clear and good.
I tried not to be heard as I went back into the room and I saw her moving her lips. This time there was not sound. She was talking but she was talking to no one. Better she was talking to herself. It is something of solitary people. When you do not have anyone to talk with you talk to yourself or you talk to everything that surrounds you.
Have fun.RADIO
Hello;
That is the first thing that happens in my house when you wake up in the morning and it is too switch on the radio. In that moment the sound, the voice of the speaker fells the kitchen. It is not a big radio. In fact is very small and it runs with batteries. They last very long. Once the sound of the radio has fill the kitchen the day has began and you get into cooking the breakfast.
And while we do that there is a sound in the back. It is a gentle sound that leads you slowly into the day. Your main sails between the realisation that the day is starting and the night is ending. You are in a short of “duermevela”. I do not know the translation in English. It means what I said before, sleeping awake.
It is a contradiction in itself but a nice felling.
One of the things that amaze me is the fact that it is not pleasant as music. You play music and there is a pleasant sound. There are vocals that make you sing or listen too. Meanwhile the radio is sharp and there is news and there are plenty of adds. And we do not stop listening to it because it allows you to drift in and out of paying attention to it.
I like Radio very much. I do not think this sound in English very well. In Spanish is a little bit stupid. It is like saying that I like plutonium very much and I will be eating it the whole day.
I like the radio. I like the medium because thou it is 100 years old at least still it appeals in the same way as when it started. You listen to someone that you fell is talking just to you or better you have the opportunity to listen to someone else's conversation without being rude. It is like when you are in the tube and you try to catch a conversation of the people next you and you forget to leave the train at the place you suppose to. Here with the radio everything is fine. You can listen everything or not.
Have fun.RECIPES
Hello;
I love recipes. I look for them in all the papers I read. I go through the paper and when I arrive to the food section I love reading it and then cut it from the paper and then or most of the times I fold it and hide it inside a book. Then when I read the book I find recipes.
But the best thing of recipes is that they make me dream. When I am reading them I dream of the smell of the food. I dream of the look of the food, the warmth, the texture, the combination of the flavours.
Also there is something fetish about recipes. You found them in the middle of papers or magazines and you would have seen many pages with no colour or boring things and then the food section with their tools and the suggestions of products and the recipes.
I like reading them. I like the way they unfold. It is very normal that the list of products is at the end or in the beginning like in a list. There is not one that does them as they give the instructions. For example like “you put the rise in the pan, two measures of water for each of rice (250 grams of white rice)” and then you will carry on with the recipe.
I think this will help accomplish of the recipe because sometimes in the recipes you really need to know many things about cooking. The food writers forget that the ones who read their pieces are not professional cooks.
Then once I go through the whole recipe I like to look at the picture of the dish and go through the process in my head and imagine the steps before the picture on the paper and then steps after.
I miss in the recipes, in the writing of the recipes a little bit of literature. What I am trying to say is that you need to make the writing a little bit more interesting. It would be nice to know what the writer felt or thought or why did they choose that recipe. I believe some food writers do it and it is fantastic.
I try to cook the recipes sometimes. I am not a very good cook because I do not have enough patience. But I like eating and not like other people that cook I do not loose my appetite as I am cooking if anything I get crazy with my food.
Have fun.HAIRY ASS
Hello;
I think I have been writing this blog for almost two years now. I remember when I got the idea to do it. Well, it was not really my idea. It was Toby's idea. He said one day that it would be nice to have a blog in the web page and that I could be the one to do it because I do not speak very good English and when I write my comments are things are always really bad and I miss spell and … well, if you have followed a little bit my blog you do know by know the thing I do.
I honestly thought this was going to be easy. It has not been at all. I decided to write one everyday. I did not think that people were going to be reading it almost everyday and... Well, I have not been very consistent.
I realised that I was not writing a blog. I was doing a column. Yes, I was writing a column of our lives on the road and of my life in my own life. For some this was boring. They told me that it was not really a blog so it was not fun but others have really liked to go into my really weird world. I call it weird because I do not understand it either.
Some also told me that they do not understand it anyway. That is John Nicholson. I hope that you are reading this one.
But I have to say that I have also got a kick from doing it. I have gone to many different faces with it but always I have found something nice to talk about at least something nice for me. In many cases it was just a diary and you could see when I was in the mood and when I was just filling up the page with words as if the amount of words in the blog was paying me.
Also the fact that I had to have some words put together everyday it has made me a little bit more discipline. And also has made possible to have a reason to escape other commitments where I had to put my mind on.
I have also learnt a lot. I have learnt a lot of English to start and I have learnt quite a lot about computers.
Now the blog is leaving at the end of November. We are taking it to My Space. I hope this change is good for all of you as I hope it is going to be for me.
Have fun.NEW PHONE
Hello;
I have a new phone. It is a new mobile phone. My old one was getting a little bit fat. Yes, it was getting really fat and I was not being able to put it in my pocket. I had to have a special bag just to take my mobile with me.
It all started when one day at that time when you are leaving your house and you make sure that you are not forgetting anything. I touched all my pockets and I did not find my telephone. I went to look on top of the piano. I always leave all the important thing there so I know where they are at all times.
There it was. I picked the phone and because I was not wearing a jacket that day I tried to squeeze it in one of the pocket of my trousers. I almost could not put it in.
I thought to myself “this phone has always fitted in here. What's going in on?”
So I carried it my hand that day but I did not stop doing the gesture of putting it inside my pocket during the whole day.
When I went back home at night I thought more. I do not think I got fatter. The wallet fits perfectly, the keys too but my mobile phone does not? Why?
Next day I put another pair of trousers. This time I was ready. So at the same time of the day before I went to the top of the piano and I got the phone in my hand. It was as fat as burger. I had to take the phone with both hands. If I wanted to talk with it I had to hold it against my ear with two hands.
I tried to put it inside my pocket but stupid of me; the phone did not fit either.
After that I decide to take it to the shop and ask. I asked at the shop. The lady was nice. She told me that my phone was getting fatter and the only thing was to leave the phone in for a diet treatment.
They gave me another one while mine was in treatment. This one was really thin, good-looking and very fit. I used for a week and then I received a phone call from the phone shop. I answered in my very fit phone and I was told your phone got so fat that exploded. So you need a new phone and this time get one that does not get fat.
So now I have a very thing and good-looking phone. It fits everywhere I want to put it in and I am happy.
Have fun.
