Category: ff2009

The Night Before Christmas…

As much as I was sagging my shoulders last weekend, weighed down with the drudgery of dredging together The Shortlist, I’m actually quite gigglingly giddy now. I can hear fireworks going off at (I presume) The Garden’s opening party, and I’m really looking forward to knocking off work tomorrow night and catching my first shows.

That, of course, brings me to the big bugbear this year – I’ll still be putting in regular(-ish) appearances at work during the Fringe, rather than just taking most of the month off. Hopefully this won’t get in the way of the blogging too much…

The Shortlist didn’t really turn out too short; 152 shows in all, one of which has already been nixed, and Tim Minchin has already sold out (and Stephen K Amos isn’t that far behind)! Scheduling has already begun in earnest, and a plethora of matinees bodes well. This “pre-week”, prior to the official opening of the Fringe, is – of course – centred around The Garden, so that’s where I’ll be most of the weekend.

Right, off to put another order (for 21 tickets) in. Excited!

ff2008 Wrap… ff2009 Kickoff!

I’ve really enjoyed the last couple of days – due to the proximity of the 2009 Adelaide Fringe, I’ve felt absolutely compelled to churn out the rest of my ff2008 writing. What can I say? I do my best work under pressure ;)

It’s been a delight writing up the remaining shows, because it’s given me the excuse to ignore my other obsessions and write about this arty stuff which I really, truly adore. As I’ve said before, that anyone can create something beautiful, or stand on a stage and risk ridicule, or temper their movements so as to cause emotion is something that I envy, something that I admire. All credit to all those that perform such feats!

And, reading back on ff2008, I’m left to reflect that it was a pretty bloody good year. From the incredible new experience of The Smile Off Your Face to the usual Masterson quality imbued in Follow Me; from the anarchic Nick Sun to the delightful DeAnne Smith; the incredibly polished DBR to the ramshackle genius of Bird Lantern; Don’t Look Back, Conclusions: On Ice, Moving Target… every one of them a winner, or at least fun to write about.

But now it’s time to look forward to ff2009… and, less than a week out from the first shows in The Garden, The Scheduling has commenced. And it’s scary.

Tips? The Tuxedo Cat looks to be the go-to venue for comedy this year, and Holden Street for your more serious stuff. Other than that, though, you’re on your own… for now.

Please, keep reading – and tell your friends. It’s going to be a big year :)

Welcome to 2009!

Oh dear.

As you might have noticed, it’s been quite some time since there was an update on this blog. And you also may have noticed a few cosmetic changes, too.

For starters, as I mentioned in my other blog, I had a major problem with my old hosting company. It seemed that they weren’t really serioius about… well, hosting. Losing all content, waiting for a week before the DNS issues are sorted, then being “resurrected” on a new server that doesn’t actually support most of the content you had there before? That’s shit, that is. I’m a nice chap, so I’ll not mention the company in question, but rest assured they’re not going to be getting any recommendations from me.

So – a new host (Ilisys – who have been nothing but utterly wonderful so far), and with it a new blog platform. I’d used MovableType for years (and, prior to that, custom homegrown PHP & Perl solutions), but I wanted to give WordPress a whirl… and, quite frankly, it’s lovely. So there’s a new look here, a better search system, and I’ll gradually crawl through and tidy up all the back-referenced links so that they work.

But now it’s January 2009, and the new Fringe guide has been released this very day (the 14th). Which is exciting, as always – but it makes me feel very-ultra-guilty because I’ve still got 8 shows to write up from 2008! For reference, these are…

  • Book of Longing
  • Cat on a Hot Tin Roof
  • Seven Times Me
  • To Be Straight With You
  • Nick Sun – Burnout Show
  • Stephen K Amos
  • Dharma at Big Sur
  • I Only Came To Use The Phone

…plus a monstrous visual arts walking tour. Which I insisted on performing on the hottest day of the year, if I recall correctly.

Luckily, I’ve still got notes a-plenty to supplement my own memories, so I hope to churn them out before the next Fringe starts. On the 19th of February.

Ummmmm.

Best get to work then, hadn’t I?