Pot81pouri

Whilst the weather has thankfully cooled off a tad, and it has even rained a couple of times, nevertheless it's still too nice to do any wargaming related stuff. There may - or indeed may not - be a burst of activity in the annexe next week when the Casa Epictetus may - or indeed may not - be expecting a visitor. In the meantime Plastic Soldier Review have now reviewed the Red Box Burgundian Crossbowmen and agree with my spitfire comparison, although they seem to to find the handguns acceptable. Oh well, what do I know?

I have been lucky enough to see Earl Thomas perform again. The last time I saw him he was in full-on sex-on-a-stick mode and received a somewhat wild reception from the good women of Yorkshire, and from quite a few bad ones as well based on what they were shouting out. This time, possibly hoping to avoid all the catcalls (and sadly for those making them he's actually gay in any case), he went gospel. A more thorough review than I have room for can be found here, but I would like to point out that in well over forty years of gig going this is the first time I've ever seen a bagpipe solo; another item on the bucket list ticked off. Mentioning gigs makes me realise that there are a great number that I haven't reviewed; it also makes me realise that the moment has passed.

I do want to say something about "Withering Looks", a Brontë spoof by LipService Theatre, a company I have mentioned here before. As there were so many of them in the family one is never at a loss for a Brontë anniversary and as I live so close to Haworth Parsonage these are always celebrated enthusiastically hereabouts. This year being two hundred years after, well actually I forget after what precisely, this was the second such parody that I had seen recently, both pieces being two-handers. The first - which mainly seemed to draw on "Jane Eyre" - contained some excellent physical theatre, but had a badly underwritten script, and this latter one - with more of "Wuthering Heights" about it - was by some way the funnier. This may be because they interpreted the concept more loosely (their recreation of scenes from the 1939 film starring Merle Oberon, Laurence Olivier and David Niven was a joy) or possibly because Emily is intrinsically funnier than Charlotte.

A chap with a beard

Politics continues to amaze but not delight. And surely there is no one better to comment on the activities of the big orange turd than the inventor of the flush toilet:

          "Treason doth never prosper, what's the reason?
            For if it prosper, none dare call it Treason."

                                        - Sir John Harington