Skin of the Moon

Skin of the Moon
Originally uploaded by jovike.

I was fortunate to catch this show at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. I bought the t-shirt just because I liked the Voodoo Vaudeville artwork and the woman who sold it to me recommended Skin of the Moon as very funny and "random" - well, I loved it. It all made perfect sense to me being a gentleman of a certain age; anyone who can dance the Timewarp and likes vampires, time machines and St. Trinians will love it too.

While queuing for the aptly-named Wildman Room, the Evil Master himself appeared before us in full makeup - I did a double take. (I felt sheepish to have been shocked, since I once shocked people in Canterbury when I wore a Robot of Death costume from Doctor Who.)

The beginning of the preformance in the darkened theatre was weird and scary and I hoped Espe would not run out screaming. Luckily we were in the back row behind two burly chaps which meant we did not share the fate of those foolish enough to sit in the front row.

Chris Cresswell has a sure comic touch and works well with Colin who is probably a woman. He has assembled a fine company and they should be given their own TV channel.

A highlight of the show is the 'notorious puppet oracle' Baby Warhol - have a question ready. I thought of a really good one the next day. Oh yes, and they played a bit of a Hawkwind song too so that's most of my buttons pushed.

If you are going to Edinburgh you must see this! *****

And the bar upstairs is still open after midnight, what more can one ask.

Voodoo Vaudeville.

(This text is also on my Flickr Stream with the tags: "Voodoo Vaudeville" "Chris Cresswell" burlesque weird wacky sexy saucy kinky twisted cabaret spanking vaudeville theatre comedy wicked puppet maid apeman dominatrices Warhol charming outrageous witty surreal romp "Edinburgh Festival" Fringe Edinburgh Hawkwind "time machine".)

Hawkwind Christmas Party

Hawkwind Christmas Party ticket
Originally uploaded by jovike.

You'll never guess where I was last night! Hawkwind's Christmas party was a special gig at the Astoria in Charing Cross Road. Support was Spacehead, whom I missed by spending too long chatting in Borders over the road, and Man, the "Welsh Wizards". Man and Hawkwind did a US tour together in 1974. Yes, a long time ago, and now Martin Ace's son Josh is in the band on rhythm guitar with his father on bass, and someone called Richards on lead: very good. Richards also sounds a bit like Deke Leonard singing, it's the Welsh accent you see. They stomped through faithful high-energy versions of C'mon, Romain and Spunk Rock.

Hawkwind did a lot of crowd-pleasers as it was a party with only a couple of tracks from the new album, maybe because Lene Lovich and Arthur Brown were not present. Following a poll on hawkwind.com, the set included 7 by 7 and Upside Down (which I have never heard live before) with vocals from Mr. Dibs, also Brainbox Pollution and Psychedelic Warlords. Amazing! Robotic dancers in neon paint came on for Angela Android and reappeared, gambolling or capering as appropriate throughout. Hawkwind's lightshow has at last gone half digital, remaining an analogue hybrid. I've long thought they should use something like G-Force as a backdrop: well now they are, but still combined with glimpses of the the space art, film and graphics accumulated over the decades. Magic.

Really great music with Dave Brock playing a lot of guitar instead of noodling with the synthesiser. Alan Davey energetic as ever, Richard Chadwick on good form. (Who the saxophonist or keyboard player were I know not.) When the double live CD comes out, buy it.

Clayson and the Argonauts

Alan Clayson is performing on Saturday and Monday evening in the capital, and reforming the Argonauts after twenty years for a concert on the 3rd of December.

Update: great gig! Dark suited, the group played all the complex numbers with gusto. At 51, the bassist was the youngest. Alan Clayson himself, with a shock of white hair, has lost little of the brio and fine enunciation that I saw him display thirty years ago in a gig at the Torrington, North Finchley. I got the CD: recommended, especially if you like Robert Calvert with whom he shares a WWII nostalgia.

I'm feeling old myself now, having to take off my glasses to read the tiny print in the extensive liner notes in the CD. He's written lots of rock books too.

(Who was the support band? they were good, like to get some of their stuff.)

Science Museum

Day 4: We returned to the City of Arts and Sciences in Valencia today to see the Museu de les Ciencies Príncipe Felipe. This is a huge building with a skeletal framework, which is covered with so much glass the window cleaner has a job for life. The best part of the museum is the interactive experiments on the lower levels, ostensibly for children, which are a lot of fun. As in all museums there are many exhibits not working but there is so much here it does not matter too much. We had fun playing with light and sound.

The main exhibition on the top floor was about genetics. A brave attempt to explain a big subject, with more interactive exhibits to engage the casual visitor. There are a couple of cafes inside the museum, the best one having a big hot buffet so get there early to spear the biggest fish. The other cafe has bare concrete walls so it is like being in a toilet.

The film we had booked to see in the Imax dome L'Hemisferic was Grand Canyon which was excellent. Each seat is reclined so you can see the film projected on the ceiling, the inside of the dome. Headphones carry the sound and you can switch them between languages. In the picture you can see me pretending to react to a fifty foot spider walking across the screen which sure enough happened later. It was spectacular. The Imax process gives a good sense of depth and perspective. The best parts were the early Indian settlers walking around their vertiginous paths, and a trip by canoe down the rapids.

We gave the Umbracle a miss and did not visit the impressive Palace of Arts (Palau de les Arts) because they are still building it.

La Cuidad de las Artes y las Ciencias

Day 3: The honour of our presence today was awarded to the City of Arts and Sciences, a large development near our hotel in the South of the city of Valencia. We walked there. The sky was still overcast as you can see from the photos.

In this picture, on the left in the distance is the massive Palace of the Arts, still under construction. On the right is the much smaller L'Hemisferic, a combined planetarium, imax and laserium dome. We will visit this tomorrow, meanwhile we had a glass of horchata (aka orxata), a milk-like drink made from chufas (tiger nuts) which is delicious accompanied by some fartons (steady now) which are straightened doughnuts. Who needs holes in doughnuts. There are Orxata stalls throughout the city. Link: Horchata.

Also in this part of the 'city' are the L'Umbracle, a garden promenade with a car park underneath, and the Prince Philip Science Museum (Museu de les Ciencies), but today, as the sun came out and we started getting roasted, our goal was the Oceanographic (L'Oceanogràfic as I'm sure you have worked out!), the largest marine park in Europe.

Of course this had the largest queue in Europe too, so it was two hours later that we got in. We discovered why the line was slow at the ticket booth where you have to choose there and then which film showing you will see at the Hemispheric. Ay ay ay. If only they had given us leaflets or put up posters two hours back along the queue so people knew which film was which... so I would say: get your tickets in another part of the City.

We settled down in the Delfinario for a spectacular show, with young people in tight latex using fish and whistles to get dolphins to do things they normally wouldn't.

Half of the L'Oceanografic is underground where extensive aquaria link weird buildings, including water tunnels where the fish and sharks swim above and around the visitor, or giant glass tanks housing whales(!) and hundreds of tons of water.

My favourite animal was the walrus, whose comical galumphing about, expert lounging around and skilful swimming all made for an enviable lifestyle. Walruses are very big!

The penguins had a very nice enclosure, on a natural looking terrain, but were the least animated creatures I have ever seen, at least while I was there. Some London Zoo penguins could show this lot a thing or two.

The submarine restaurant and most of the other places to eat inside L'Oceanografic were packed, so we got something fast in a corner of the site amongst litter and bad architecture. Wha-hey!

So, L'Oceanografic: get there early.

You find us later in nearby El Saler shopping centre: notable for not including a branch of El Corte Ingles. On maps you see C.C. which is Centro Commercial. This is either a group of different stores in a galleria or a single large El Corte Ingles. Centro Commercial El Saler is a small indoor shopping centre on three levels. The publicity for their rebajas (sale) was "Crisis Existencial?" printed everywhere in large yellow letters which was quite worrying. The shops here include a huge Carrefour hipermercado (supermarket) and to make me feel at home: a branch of C&A and an ABC cinema. Actually C&A have closed all their shops in the UK. There are also two branches of MacDonald's, to end on a downbeat note.