DRAMATIC EXIT pt.2: the scatter

In the second of three imperative posts, I introduce a means of getting the hell out of there with the maximum fuss possible. This  – very public – withdrawal comes into play when one wishes to fritter up one’s dispassionate, glum and/or anti-social companions on a bus or a subway journey: the type of folk with… Read more »

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VIOLENT ENCOUNTERS of the isolating kind

A Boxing Day stroll along Diagonal was intercepted by a violent incident with a madman. “Puta!” yelled the hefty, pee-soaked man, who had already attracted my attention by spitting at me. “Why do you say that?” I replied. I realised my mistake immediately. “Puta!” he raged “Zorra!” He tossed aside his black bag and lunged at me. On your own, love. I… Read more »

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TÚRRON DE YEMA: Gift or insult?

A moist, sickly-sweet lump of sugar (1kilo), smashed almonds (1kilo) and 12 semi-solidified egg yolks, the lightly browned Túrron de Yema must be the quintessentially backhanded Christmas gift; the booby prize of the seasonal raffle. One might go so far as to suspect that the same single bar has been circulating the peninsula since Wilfred… Read more »

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HENRY V: The Dark Heart of Heroism

A conspiracy to dumb down the dark side of archetypal English hero Henry V has been uncovered in a radical new version of the Shakespeare play, performed by Edward Hall’s all-male theatre company Propeller. The notion that Henry (left) was ‘curiously flat’ for a Shakespearean hero was dismissed by representatives of the troupe, the actor… Read more »

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WHAT’S ON? Henry V, Propeller-style

Girona’s Teatre Municipal, December 6th & 7th: With the European ideal in the doghouse and nationalism on the rise, theatre company Propeller get in there with a brutal, allegedly brilliant staging of Shakespeare’s Henry V, the heroic history play-turned-1989 movie that once made Kenneth Branagh sexy. It’s the IV time that the all-male British troupe, artistically… Read more »

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WHAT’S ON? Sydney Dance Company

This is the first time that Catalan choreographer Rafael Bonachela brings Sydney Dance Company to Barcelona, then London in December, where they are performing two pieces, 6 Breaths and LANDforms, both of which are set to the original, emotive scores of Italian Ezio Bosso. LANDforms, in which dancers confront the tough, beautiful Australian landscape & climate is an… Read more »

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