Core competancy

Finally got the bike back, fixed from the incident in the office carpark and it still rocks. Only returned to central London from Watford, but it feels good to be back.

Snagged and Clored

Went to see three works of contemporary dance yesterday as part of “Snagged and Clored” at the Clore in the Royal Opera House. The first work, by Carol Brown, was the most enjoyable, in a fairly standard, uncontroversial, contemporary dance way. Good technical proficiency and interesting differences in physique and style of movement among the performers, if not especically groundbreaking choreographically.

The second work, by Sarah Warsop, featured a live DJ to create the soundscape. A clever idea, maybe, but generally this was pretty mundane — the most striking thing was that one of the dancers had much bigger boobs than the others… the work itself just didn’t do much for me.

The third piece, the “World Premiere” of a work by Bock and Vincenzi, was painful. I did not enjoy this one at all. Of course, I probably was not supposed to, but rather have feelings of pain, anguish, irritation and tedium evoked in me. In which case, it worked perfectly. But frankly, after a hard day in the office, I want to be entertained, especially if it’s already half nine and I haven’t had any dinner. OK, it’s art not entertainment. Unfortunately, I’ve never been much of a fan of art at the best of times. The piece had many of the hallmarks of annoying arty, poncy dance — irritating discordant bashing on a piano, repetitive contemporary dance twitching and falling over, bloke who sat there and did nothing for the whole thing, Germanic–sounding bird intoning a load of nonsense throughout. If I was better educated, I’d probably have thought it was fantastic, but on Friday I’m afraid that it was a case of wrong night, wrong time, wrong fuckin’ part of town.

Labels: contemporary dance

Clinton in disappointment shocker

An amusing slip–up from Ian Pannel on BBC Breakfast news this morning, reporting live from the Democratic Party Convention in Boston. He was talking about the speech by Bill Clinton who, he stated, “never fails to disappoint”. Ha ha.

Amid all the sex discrimination furore, this article about greetings cards amused me.

Men at work

I know this has been around for a while, but someone just sent it to me on email and I thought I had to put it up on here. Quality picture of Ms Sharapova and some letching groundsmen from Wimbledon; I mean, you would, wouldn’t you? She really is everyone’s favourite Anna–Kornakova– who–can–actually–play –tennis–in–addition –to–being–saucy–as.

Am I a selfish git?

Speaking of weddings, what do you think of today’s decision in the Parlour case? The general principle established appears to be that post–divorce income is a matrimonial asset to be split in the same way as other matrimonial assets, to reflect the vital input of the other partner to the marriage. Well, if that is not another big disincentive to getting married, I don’t know what is. Without wishing to be unduly negative…

I mean, I know you shouldn’t get married if you don’t think it’s going to be forever, but it’s a fact that a lot of marriages don’t work out, for whatever reason. And now you’re telling me that on divorce, my spouse potentially gets to garnishee half my income, irrespective of her reasonable needs or those of any kids? Maybe I’ve got the wrong attitude here, but I baulk at conceptualising my present income, never mind future post–divorce income, as a “matrimonial asset”. It was me who took the decision to work my ass off in school, who went to university, went to law school, got a job in a decent law firm. It’s me who has to show up at work every day and sacrifice what I might otherwise want to do to the demands of a job that pays well and that will support me and my partner to a certain level. And while I’d be happy to continue to use my income to support a future wife as part of our family, I’d be pretty reluctant to enter into a contract that apparently declares my entire income, present and future, a joint matrimonial asset, even if my future wife decides to run off with the postman. Maybe I’m just not ready to get married yet.

Had a great time in Madrid over the long weekend at a mate’s wedding — all the best to Sharko and his new wife and I hope you have many happy years together. Bloody good wedding too!

In other news, in my absence, the relevant people have considered the issues and it looks like I’m going to be left high–and–dry for the costs of fixing the bike. Unless I sue my employer. Which, although I think I’ve probably got quite a good case, may not be the most career–enhancing move. What a bugger, though.