falling from the frenzy that was the fringe...

gosh, where do i even begin, so i've just settled back in the wonderland that is berlin and it feels a little like stepping from one world to the next. to those that have never had the pleasure of taking part in edinburgh's fringe festival, for the four days i got to sample the pleasure i can only say its a little like the madness i'm used to in berlin, only with way more performances and people from everywhere. its a theatre/comedy festival on acid, where all your time is spent performing, promoting, trading contacts and taking in some brilliant entertainment and art from all over the world. Thanks to the wonder that is london's spoken word programme UTTER, spearheaded by the ginger haired king richard tyrone jones, i journied to this magical scottish place of hills and temperamental weather and even a castle, a big pretty straight out of a fairybook castle. and though i met no prince or princesses, there were poets and poetesses and comics and performance artists and breakdancers and street performers, all doing all they could to convince the other performers, theater goers and locals that ours was the show they must see.

funnily enough the most fun i had was probably the last day we did promoting/flyering. myself, richard and dzifa benson (my new sister in crime) to0k to the royal mile and jumped up on bollards, bellowing oru prose to the passing public. you'd think it would be humiliating, but it was like taking my performance skills straight down, stripped down to grass roots guerilla level. if you can get a crowd to form around when you're not protected by the safe confines of a stage, well you've got to be doing something right. *video of that coming soon.. oh dear. at one point we were bellowing beside this street performer, a silent ancient asian woman in blue face paint and a million piercings, i ran into her later at this venue and she very quietly and sweetly said she adored my poetry and to keep at it. ah the street performers and other promoters, like the really really hot girl with the whore sign who was out of flyers and just getting people to write the details of her show down.

i'm already thinking about going back next year, and what that will involve, but until then i'm having fond memories of meeting so many marvelous people. and i'm crushing on the city and its local spoken word scene hard. (it helps that all versions of scottish accents i heard sound so damn sexy to my cosmopolitan easyjetset ears :-)

but you probably want some gossip don't you? as i am the girl that likes to kiss and tell... well i'll excercise some ladylike discretion and name no names or particulars. but i can tell you that much to my amusement on one night i saw a fantastic solo show by nyc comedienne desiree burch, that involved audience participation, and at one point left me with a rather large orange dildo in my hand... drinking and chatting after with my edinburgh hosts emma and wallace, i encountered several very hot boys. one of which wrote his name on my arm so i could stay in touch, only i washed it off by accident, anotehr of which didn't write his name on my arm, but gosh i wish he had (although i do remember him taking my glasses off at once point and telling me i how beautiful i was, which made me all shy in a not very varjack way) and then emma and i snuck into this rockabilly club where i was plucked by the promoter/dj and swing danced all around the place. oh and then the following night there was attention from two gentlemen cant mention, but suffice to say the latter of the two resulted in a lot of very sexy flirtation.

and then it was soo late that me and emma had to go back to her place, where i could barely keep my eyes open, and in an hour she was shaking me awake and i was sleep walking into a cab, and now here i am in berlin again. nice one. xxx p

zayna and paula got soul....

5oo days of summer...

Last week I saw a premiere of the film The 500 days of summer. It is a charming little film. It feels very much like a first film, or film school film, in all its breathless desires to pack as many quirky effects and styles as it can into ninety some minutes. This was the kind of film that me and all of my film school friends wanted to make in college. *(those of us that weren’t hell bent on being the next tarantino that is) and what makes it the kind of film we wanted to make? Well…
It has (in no particular order)

• An anonymous narrator unconnected to the plot
• Split screens
• Rotoscoping
• Disney-esque animation mixed with live action
• Black and white silent film sequences
• Choreographed dance sequences
• Flashbacks and flashforwards
• Gorgeous animated titles
• a moody brit pop soundtrack (which for American audiences gives it yet more indie cred. Cue the smiths, belle and sebastien which in the plot are given supreme character relevance)
• very now hipster styling which makes all the characters dress in a kind of modern day version of retro (a neutral classy mash up of forties, fifties, sixties)

For me, and anyone like me, who has this crazy idea that we are totally completely individual in all of our quirky ironic indie interests, after about twenty minutes one is glumly forced to face the fact that yes, i/we belong to a demographic. And that did get in the way of the film for me sometimes. It was like the film was in the corner of a house party, giving me drink after drink, while saying like me like me like me, I’m cool too! we have soooo much in common. But some of those people at parties irritate, and then there are others that you clock and think, yes, you’re a bit young and keen and overexcited, but you are cool. So you let them ramble on and give you more drinks and as soon as they stop trying to prove themselves, the real coolness shines through. So while I can’t say I loved the film, i liked it enough to give it a chance. And this is the coolness I saw shining through.

It does very well to tell a different kind of love story, that isn’t so much about love necessarily but postmodern relationships in general. It plays with gender roles very nicely as well. other than films/tv about polyamoury, this is the first time I have EVER seen a film that deals with the matter of a “non=conventional” relationship. Especially, where it is the female character who is uninterested in commitment or labels. The writers definitely speak with experience, the story and characters involved are presented with sensitivity and bittersweet poignance.

The best part of the film however, is the casting of the two leads. Indie film it girl Zooey Deschanel and the impossibly adorable Joseph Gordon-Levitt are an utter joy to watch. the film is worth seeing for them alone. the way they relate and fail to relate to one another is genuine and real. There are many head noddingly accurate truths that are said and portrayed about relationships. (personal favourite sequence: after the morning they first have sex, and a split screen sequence about date expectation versus how events really play out) annnnd The art direction is fantastic. One of the cleverest ideas of the script, is making the pair work colleagues, in a greeting card company. This allows for some great visual jokes in shots, and a cheeky juxtoposition of the commercial representation of love and sentiment, versus the actual one.

So cast aside all the over the top style stuff, the heavy handedness about them LOVING british pop music (maybe this would bother me less if I was more American) and that matter of all of the characters bar the main two, being fairly two dimensional. (the best being the little sister of the male main character, she only exists to give her older brother advice, but it’s an adorable idea to have this totally together thirteen year old, coaching her moody heartbreak junkie brother). There are a few films that I love to see every time I come out of a relationship, or think about entering one. This could well be a film I add to the list. And though it may not be a date movie, date movies are kind of of over for our times aren’t they? when the concept of dating itself is overrated, maybe its time for more films like this where the equation is far more complicated than boy + girl = love.