HAPPY NEW YEAR

...to all our reader!

May the sands of time never get in your lunch.

15 is a triangular number: 1 + 2 + 3 + 4 + 5

A penguin swims at a speed of approximately 15 miles per hour.

The only 15-letter word that can be spelled without repeating a letter is "uncopyrightable".

Gosh! I’m a regular cycling Ophelia!

UN FUNNY?

(Do you gerrit?)

With the new year fast approaching, I know I should be optimistic, but it's decidedly difficult when you're aware of the way of the world.

Some time ago, whilst attending an outdoor professional sports event, where some chubby cheerleaders were struggling to strut their stuff to the accompaniment of a discordant din spewing from a sound system, I made the comment, “Modern music has hit a brick wall!” Nobody could hear what I was saying, of course! Later, whilst recounting the incident to my wife and explaining that the lasses were struggling to match their movements to the raucous racket that had neither tune nor time, I added… “Modern comedy as well!”

Reading some reviews of that ill-famed flick, ‘The Interview’, which has the unknown to me, James Franco, and the likewise, Seth Rogen, in the leading roles, I came across the following…

“But Mr. Franco mugs shamelessly to make sure we understand that he’s being funny, which he’s not, and the script as a whole turns a satirical—or at least farcical—premise into sour buffoonery. In the real world, a debate has been raging over what does and doesn’t constitute torture. In the movie world, there’s no debate; watching “The Interview” is torture from almost start to finish.

So how did such a turkey ever escape the studio lot? A significant part of the answer lies in the dumbing-down of the audience that began decades ago, when studios discovered that kids would turn out to see almost any piece of junk on any weekend provided the marketing departments did their jobs. Movies weren’t the only coarseners of pop culture, but they led the way, with the eager assent of the paying public. The dumbing-downers were so successful for so many years—and became so beholden to a small coterie of popular stars—that they dumbed themselves down to a level of trivialization where reality and reckless fantasy were no longer readily distinguishable. As Hollywood spectaculars go, “The Interview” was long in the making.”

Oh, that’s so true… unfortunately.

According to 'The Guardian' and many other news sources, the aforementioned James Franco was paid $6.5 million for his stint in the cinematic offering.

"We are living in the machine age. For the first time in history the comedian has been compelled to supply himself with jokes and comedy material to compete with the machine. Whether he knows it or not, the comedian is on a treadmill to oblivion." Fred Allen (1894-1956), American comedian.

HACKROBATICS

According to the BBC website 17.12.2014, two decades after its London premiere, the musical comedy, ‘City of Angels’, has returned to the stage at London's Donmar Warehouse.

The film noir-inspired musical was created by Cy Coleman, Larry Gelbart and lyricist David Zippel. Yes, that’s the same Larry Gelbart who, when receiving a Tony Award, grasped the opportunity to speak the writer's eternal lament: “Why does everyone else think they can do what I do, but only after I've done it?”‘

Director Josie Rourke told the BBC it took on modern issues about self-identity and integrity.

"In the universe of the Sony hack, we are left questioning how deeply we believe in what we do and how honest we are with ourselves," she said.

Hopefully, having read the postings on this blog, my regular reader will know that I do believe deeply in what I do, and I am very honest with myself. Of course, I can’t speak for other people, and I wouldn’t presume to, but I do offer advice in this direction to ego-trippers, and I repeat, at the risk of becoming boring (CUE SHOUTS OF “NAY, NAY, AND THRICE NAY!”) “However well you do a show you can always do it better!” I adopted that maxim a long time ago when I was active in the amateur theatre. I can’t remember reading it anywhere, neither anyone communicating it to me, it just seemed so obvious. It’s a truism, isn’t it?

With regards to the Sony hack (sounds like a Country and Western singer!), apparently, the vast trove of documents stolen included an “early version” of the script for the next James Bond film, ‘Spectre. Well, I refuse to send out copies of my scripts as e-mail attachments, explaining to enquirers that the part of Yorkshire where I was born, bred and still live, is serious Luddite country, and we do not trust modern technology, consequently, I have no desire to have my work floating around in cyberspace… if that is what it’s called. Still if hackers can get to Sony, the White House, the United States military and NASA computers, what chance has yours truly got of his scripts not being snaffled?

Personally, I would have difficulty hacking into a matchbox with a felling axe!