Review: Panache Panache!

Recently, a friend of mine convinced me to go with her to a variety performance being put on by the Modern Languages department of Sawtry Community College.

The show - titled Panache Panache - involved the various Languages classes engaging in skits, dance numbers and so on with various levels of theming on the language said class or club was centred on.

Now, with a premise like that things were never going to be perfect, but that's beside the point. This event had an entrance fee and is, as such, as open to criticism as any event. So what was it like? Well...

The show's headline act was a modern version of Cinderella performed in German with subtitles (The lines were projected onto a screen beside the stage in English). For the most part, this was a largely humorous affair with appropriate and surprisingly good performances from most of the cast.

However, a major hole in Cinderella was - er - Cinderella (Rebecca Ayelett). Ayelett was poorly cast - being described as the most beautiful girl in the world when every other girl on-stage was noticeably better-looking lost the part a lot of credibility. As far as I can tell through conversations with the cast, this wasn't one of the jokes, it was a gaffe.

Ayelett's acting also left a lot to be desired. Audience members were frustrated by wildly varying volume levels, and to make matters worse, emoting is apparently not a skill Ayelett possesses. Lines such as "A party, but not for me" were delivered with the same emotion as lines like "I'm having a great time [at this party]".

On the upside, the performance of Sam Cattell as a Fairy in Training received an appreciative reaction from the audience whenever he was on stage. Cattell was able to mix the overt campness of his part with his own inherent masculinity and deliver lines in a humorous tone that delighted audiences.

Other notable performances came from the Chavvy Sisters - so called as they were quite noticeably not ugly, but were dressed as chavs. Playing up the hilarity of their lines, situations and characters, they elicited a laugh in every scene they appeared in.

The evening's Compere, Vorn, was an audience favourite thanks to an easy-going attitude and a great selection of hilarious jokes. Vorn received whoops and cheers whenever he appeared and helped to bring the quality of the evening up significantly.

A truly enjoyable skit was put on by the Italian Club. In it, Gemma Ronzano portrayed a girl trying to buy Ice Cream from an Ice Cream van. All the dialogue was delivered in Italian, with audience favourites Anthony Chamberlain and Scott Parmenter sitting at either sides of the stage portraying Mafia members translating for the audience.

Parmenter and Chamberlain received huge laughs from the audience, notably due to Chamberlain's character being portrayed as a fool, with Parmenter, frustrated, correcting him on several occasions - accompanied by a swift slap and an exclamation of "Stupido" in a thick Italian accent.

Ronzano - who, helpfully, has Italian blood - was great, delivering a frustrated closing line at hilariously high speed and covering holes in the performance - once again the failings of Ayelett who also appeared here - perfectly.

The other notable performance involved Compere, Vorn. In a break from introducing other acts, Vorn was involved in a completely straight-faced performance of "The Hokey Cokey" entirely in German ("Das Hokey Cokey"). A huge amount of humour came from the fact that whilst "The Hokey Cokey" is usually performed with smiles and laughter, using upbeat music, this version reflected the German language - hard, stern and simple. The audience lapped it up. Hilarious.

Other acts were mostly noticeable through their blandness - one such act of unoriginality was a conversation Spanish which was translated after each line into English. There was nothing in the least bit interesting about any of it, it was much the same as how students learning how to speak a Modern Language in the classroom, prompting the belief that it came from just that - completely unchanged.

Various attempts were made to involve the audience, almost all failed with one notable exception in the form of a "Das Hokey Cokey" reprise, which had the whole audience on their feet.

Panache Panache was a bit of a laugh. It would have been much better, but there were noticeable holes in the show where the quality of the acts fell off completely. Holes in the cast prevented some of the better performances from living up to their potential, but it was a mostly enjoyable evening.

The service was also pretty good. I send my thanks to Emma Coates and Hannah Pritchard for serving our drinks - even though we were skulking in the back with no table.

Classic Controlling

Today, I bought the Wii Classic Controller for use with my Virtual Console games (I have Super Mario Brothers, Sonic the Hedgehog & Kirby's Adventure).

I gotta say, that is a nice pad. Comfortable, good looking...I wish I could use it as a PS2 or GameCube pad - it's that cool.

Weird things going on lately 'round here. Gonna have to look into them. Strange to say the least.

Other weird things include Resident Evil 4 on Wii, DRM-Free music on iTunes & the colour of the XBOX 360 - Elite. XBOX 360 looks crap in black Microsoft, get over it.

Anyway,
Feel Good,
Jens

The future

I'm noticing some worrying precedents being set. This is a modern, electronically connected world. You should know that, here I am - a freelance journalist - communicating with you via an entirely internet-based publication medium. And yet, we live in a world run by people who don't understand. The future is on computers; efficiency, progress, technology and liberalism are the ways of the future.

And yet, those with power who are in touch with the digital wave of the future, are too hung up on protecting old media and monitoring our activities. I don't trust Trusted Computing, because I see no need for it. DRM creates markets with no competition.

The internet is anarchy. In the future, anarchy will reign offline too. Unless, of course, governance changes. Proponents of the free media movement recently rallied around the idea of starting their own country (A movement spearheaded by one of the most prominent players in the Bit Torrent medium).

If things don't change, civil unrest will rise and civil war can't be far behind.

Peace out,
Live Connected,
Jens

Depression

Never mind fucking avian flu, have you noticed how many people are depressed lately? Seriously, what's up with that? Is there really bad shit happening nation-wide or is something more sinister afoot?

As a blogger and hard nosed journo, it's my job to claim it's my job to find out.

Peace out, chin up,
Jens

Huge Sigh

Wii is still unavailable. I'm really pissed. Here I am with the money and the desire to get one, but clearly Nintendo just don't want my money.

It's insane, I hear all this talk about them ramping up production in a couple of months and blah-blah-blah but none of that changes the fact that no retailer has any! The local Tesco, incidentally one of the biggest, has only received two since before Christmas.

Two measly units. Gee, thanks. How generous.

And so I've gone another week pretending to play Wii Sports rather than playing it.

Huge Sigh.

Anyway, amidst my aggravation, we moved WiiDS over to the new template:
http://www.wiidsforums.com

I also put up a couple of features to celebrate. Now I just gotta make GP hurry up and review some stuff. He's been really lazy on that front for a while now.

Totally getting the 360 HD-DVD drive. But for my PC. Word is that Apple are gonna put out an ad for the true video iPod during the Super Bowl. I hope so, but I doubt it.

HDTVs now start at £230. The world celebrates.

Vista's out. The world fails to notice. I'd get it, but it's just too pricey! Seriously, I dunno who OS developers think they're kidding.

Anyway, I'm done.

Catch ya,
Jens

Laptop

You know, by this time next year I'm gonna have a new computer. A laptop. This laptop:

http://direct.tesco.com/q/R.200-0984.aspx

I know what you're thinking. What's an Apple Geek doing buying an "underpowered" AMD Windows Based Laptop. Well, the truth is, I really want a laptop and I like the styling, weight, size and feel of that one. Plus, it's cheap which means I can get it quickly. December 28th 2007 in fact.

By my 17th birthday I will have 3 computers. None of which will be this Dell. 2 will be Macs and one will be the laptop above. Of the two Macs, first I will be getting a 17" iMac in May then in September, a MacBook.

You might be wondering why suddenly I'm getting a second laptop rather than an XBOX 360. Well, as it turns out, my brother will be staying at home next year (Academic year), so I can just use his. I'm still going to buy the HDTV and AppleTV as and when I originally planned (January/February respectively).

As an early birthday present I'll get myself an iPhone in October.

I love money. ^_^

Good thing I get a job this year. Speaking of, I'm probably doing work experience at Nintendo Magazine. Nice.

Still no luck finding a Wii. Just gonna have to hope my sources inside Tesco can give me a decent heads up when they're getting them.

And of course, I've gotta hope that that is before late February. This whole thing's seriously nuts. I'm really annoyed about it all.

Oh well, feel good,
Jens

PS: Design is Law. BuySealand.Com

It's official

It's official folks. There are no Wii available in the UK, and it looks like it's gonna stay that way for 6 weeks. That's a real bummer. Very soon I will be able to cash the £100 check that I need and I was rather hoping to grab one right away. Luckily we have a friend in the Tesco Entertainment department who is going to tip us off about any pending deliveries.

Meanwhile, Apple have, as usual, singularly managed to make me want to spend too much money. Thank the heavens I get a job this year! As it stood, I intended to buy a MacBook, an iPod with Video and maybe a 17-inch iMac. Since Steve Jobs gave his keynote presentation at MacWorld '07, I now want a MacBook, an AppleTV, iPhone and the iMac. In total, that'll run to probably £2,000. Wow.

iPhone is an interesting one. The reason I want iPhone isn't the telephony, I have a RAZR for that, but the PDA aspect and video playback. To me, the actual phone is of no consequence. However, it does make the thing seem more special, like what we have there is the future.

Doesn't hurt that it's hella sexy either.

AppleTV meanwhile is simply a good idea. Once Apple (Finally) start selling TV shows and movies in iTunes Store UK, I intend to start buying. So once I have my HDTV next January, I'll grab one.

On another HD note, I'm joining the 360 club in November most likely, but my Live Account will be active before that on my brother's 360.

You know, what they say about high tech teens is true. I'm living proof.

Feel good,
Jens

PS: The Pirate Bay Nation. Awesome idea, cos as Carmack says "Design is Law". That is also currently my mantra.

WiiDS Live: Get The Groove On

Hey guys. Just a quick post to show you the WiiDS Live Titles:



And the first video to use them, Wii Sports Tennis:

FireFox 2.0

Forget IE7, FF2 more than makes up for it. This new version is prettier and has new features coming out of its nose. IE had the upper-hand in certain areas for a little while, but FF 2.0 is the best browser ever.

For example, you will see less spelling errors in this blog from now on, because FF 2.0 has a built-in spell-checker. Result.

Incidentally, I have found out why IE blurs the internet and how to stop it doing it. It's a new rendering something or other which they have enabled by default and you just have to switch it off.

Feel good,
Jens

Sometimes the world's okay, I guess

Friday was my birthday. I recieved some wonderful edibles, a dartboard, some money, assorted knickknacks like a watch and a booklight and also that gadget I've been raving about most recently.


Yes, iPod Nano Aluminum (AKA iPod Nano 2G, iPod Nano Aluminium) . Silver, 2GB, prettiest damn MP3 player currently made by anyone anywhere. It's great, I love it. Shame the otherwise brilliant iTunes 7 is having some iPod syncing bugs (It does sync both my iPods, but won't add or remove tracks to the Shuffle and intermittently refuses to allow me to change settings of my iPod Nano or remove songs.

And meanwhile, my dad's Creative Zen 20GB which at the time he was calling the second coming, is so disastrously screwed it's not even funny.

Funny how thing work out, huh?