Everything Falls Apart at Spleen - Post 250

The get-in for Everything Falls Apart finished around 10pm, and as everything was set, we decided to have a later start the next day. 1.30pm would do - enough time for a music rehearsal, soundcheck and run through before Alex had to fly off back to the UK to prepare for a scratch performance of Sea Journey.

In the morning Iva, Anna, Alexander and I went for an international haircut. The ladies at the hairdresser were very nice, and once Anna's hair had been cut to the required length (I think she got about 20cm cut, if not more), and the kids were waiting for me and Iva, one of the ladies asked Iva if she could put some colour in Anna's hair, promising it would wash out with the first wash.
Iva agreed and shortly afterwards, Anna had some pink streaks in her hair. It was very cool, so Alexander wanted some colour too.
He got some blue.

 

I just got a trim, because I don't want my hair too short during winter.

In the afternoon, we went into TAO to rehearse EFA. It was great to come back to that show - the last time we did it was in September.
We made Beate run around a bit to pick up some stuff we broke/forgot/needed, and we were ready for the show.

Since TAO is a little bit narrower than the space we usually use, 80 people suddenly felt like a lot, but they found their way around and understood quite quickly that they could move to wherever they felt they would see best.

And then everything went very fast: we played, went to bed, got up, played again, packed up, had lunch, filled the van, got in cars/vans/trains.

Exit Graz...

Edniburgh here we come!

Holidays are over. I could tell you many stories of my holiday in the land of the golden smiles, but this is not my blog, it is NIE's blog. But to keep up traditions: I now sport an Uzbek haircut, which you can come and see at the Pleasance Two every day at 5.30pm.

If you want to see stories or hear photographs (I've just travelled for about 14 hours...), I've learnt a lot about bribes. So come and find me at The Pleasance, watch the show and afterwards I will show and tell. If you buy me a coffee. Or a beer. Or dinner. Or a Vespa Scooter.
If you buy me a Vespa Scooter, I might let you cut my hair and then you will appear in the International Haircut section of this blog.

So tomorrow we will all join in Oslo to spend a week rehearsing My Life With the Dogs so it's in top shape for the Fringe festival.

I must say it's cold in Europe...

International haircuts

Yesterday was a day off and for a change it was a glorious one. 20°, bright blue sky, and Linz looked beautiful.
Alex and I went for lunch al fresco, then wandered around trying to find a hairdresser that just cut hair and didn't want to 'pimp our head' or 're-style' or whatever else it is they want to charge a fortune for.

On our travels we had a look inside the Ruhepol, which is one of the Linz09 things. It's a statement against the lack of silence in modern society. We walked into the foyer and a woman came up to us and whispered something I couldn't understand. So I asked her to repeat it. She whispered again.
As she was standing several metres away from me, there was no way I'd ever understand her whispering. So when she was finally close enough to me for me to understand her explanation of the Ruhepol spaces, she'd also reverted to normal speaking volume.
At that point our haircut was more important than a quiet space, so we walked off.

We eventually found a hairdresser, plain and simple Cut 'n' Go.
The staff were very friendly, even though they didn't quite understand Alex when he said he wanted to look 10 years younger.
I got my hair cut with razor blades, which was new to me.

So far the top 3 places for haircuts are:

1. Beijing
2. Galway
3. Linz

Canterbury in the South East

After Warwick we drove down to Newbury (West of London) and stayed in a hotel next door to the theatre. David commented that his hotel room was probably closer to the stage than the dressing room in some of the theatres we've been to.

In Newbury we celebrated Nikita's 5th birthday with an overdose of chocolate (chocolate cake with chocolate ice cream). We all screamed the devil out of the cake as Tom was cutting it, and the other people who happened to be in the theatre cafe at that point must have thought we were mad.



Today we are in Canterbury.
I took a bus into town to get a haircut, and first of all I nearly had a fight with the people of Toni and Guy. They didn't have time to cut my hair so I asked if there was an other hairdresser near (bad manners, I know). The woman pointed vaguely into some random direction and said: 'down there, but I don't know what the quality is like'. To which I replied: 'it's just a haircut, I'm sure they can do it'. She gave me a very angry look and I left.

I found another hairdresser which wasn't part of a chain and which was far less expensive. While my hair was being washed, I sat in a massage chair, and if it hadn't been for the show tonight, I'd probably still be there.
As I expected, the haircut was fine (not quite as impressive as my Chinese haircut, but I don't have time to go to China for a haircut, so I'll live with it).

On the way back I overheard some students discussing the cheapest way to get wasted. The result of their comparison was cider: cheaper than wine, same percentage, and they could get a lot more of it. They also tried to calculate for how long they'd have to drink at home to be drunk enough to be able to go into town and not have to spend too much money on alcohol to get completely hammered.

And I wonder: is talking about getting drunk beyond words as 'cool' as actually getting immensely drunk? And is either of it 'cool' at all?
Or am I just getting old?

Life is good in Beijing

Last night we were invited to have dinner with the people from the British Council. We ate a lot (as you do in China) and had a great night out. The British Council people had been living in Beijing (or elsewhere in China) for a while, so we could ask them a lot of questions.
They all spoke Mandarin, which I thought was very impressive.

Today, Dave, Bob and I went to the 798 Art District, at the edge of the city. It is an industrial complex built by the East Germans in the 50s that has been turned into what is probably best described as an art village. Gallery after gallery in the most amazing spaces.

This is the Originality Square.

And this is some of the art we found there.

After that we took a taxi back into town (taxis are incredibly cheap here, in fact so is food), and went for a walk along the artificial lakes west of the Forbidden City.

The path along the lake was very peaceful for most of it. At one point there were a lot of tourist tat shops, but we ignored them all.

This was the peaceful bit.

And this was one of the lakeside guidelines. We were good children and obeyed the rules.

Then Dave tried out some of the fitness equipment. The Chinese really work on their physical health, they go jogging, stretch, and use these kinds of adult's playgrounds to keep in shape.

This is the entrance to where we perform. Only, it's not where we play. On the first day we all got confused, because what happens is you have to walk around this theatre to get to where we play.

This is where we play. It's a great space and suits us to the bone.

Today the warm-up game was Chinese football, which is with a big shuttlecock. We were rubbish at it and all the ushers laughed at us.

Musical warm-up.

Some subtitles.

Some more subtitles.

After the show we went for dinner and ate some pigeon. This is the pigeon's head.

It's the second time we went to this restaurant - it's really good and close to the hotel. The woman who waits at the door to let people in wears a fur coat.

Yesterday I got a Chinese haircut. I like getting my hair cut in strange places, so I decided this had to be a winner. We all joked beforehand that because the Chinese are not used to curly hair, I might end up with straight black hair.

It didn't end up black, but boy was it straight. The hairdresser worked very hard and got an incredible result: I've never seen my hair like this before.



The next morning, however, it was back to normal.


I would like to add that this is probably the best and most precise haircut I've ever had. But I prefer my own curls.

Tomorrow morning we will leave at 8am to go to THE GREAT WALL OF CHINA!