No Sky, No Stars, Stupid Stories
09/03/2019 11:30 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
izmeinaEvery year this serpent greedily awaits the annual celebration of freakishness that is the Fringe Festival. Every year is an opportunity to raid the war chest and see an assortment of strange and crazy shows. This year was no different with the exception that the indulgence reached excessive levels even by my own decadent standards
The usual quota for the last 8 years or so has been 20 shows per year give or take 1 or 2
This year for the first time ever I passed the 30 mark. But due to all sorts of chaos and craziness, I never did manage to post about a single one of them.
So what better excuse is there than the usual congruence of days and dates in February and March to indulge in a little trip down memory lane. Next year will be one of those pesky leap years but this one was not so this is the perfect occasion to remember Saturday 9th February.
That night there were 2 shows. One I had booked in advance in order to get the Fringe Friends discount and the other was a repeat performance of a show that was so good the first time that I wanted to see it again
The first was called “One Sky, Many Stories” and the blurb proclaimed it to be a musical exploration of astronomy based on both science and Aboriginal knowledge of the night sky.
Apparently this mob got themselves a bunch of STEAM grants - money available for innovative combinations of science and art
What a total waste it was.
The venue itself was simply gorgeous. A Belgian Spiegeltent which was good 100 years old.
While the music in itself was reasonably good, pleasant and relaxing but nothing particularly awe inspiring, the whole show turned out to be sad and pathetic in its attempt to bask in the glow of Politically Correct Worthiness.
Based on the blurb ad the title , I was naively expecting ancient stories of the stars of the southern skies such as the Dark Emu and the mother whose children fell out of a basket that she kept them in and ended up becoming stars.
Richard Walley and Ray Norris are well known trail blazers in this field but there was no trace of their influence at all in this pompous nonsense
If there had only been music with titles named after assorted constellations, it would have been redeemable. But no. There had to be a white screen above the musicians where worthy videos were played. No pictures of constellations or story telling just a bunch of people out in the desert talking about the significance of the night sky in their lives but without EVER showing the damn sky and stars
This event was in a Spiege tent so there was no reason why they could not project the stars onto the dome.
I have never seen such perfect illustration of breaking the rules of “Show. Don’t tell”
It was all telling and no show at all.
It was tedious and annoying and a total distraction from the music.
I felt like it was an hour of my life and $20 wasted on a total damp squib
The annual Astrofest takes place next Saturday and if Ray Norris or Richard Walley make a guest appearance then I will learn far more about Aboriginal Astronomy and a whole lot cheaper than this show which I ranked as the second worst that I have seen at the Fringe Festival this year. And since there were 30, that is pretty pathetic indeed.
If it had not been in such a gorgeous venue, it would have been at the very bottom of the list.
Bang Bang - a tribute to Quentin Tarantino was almost the exact opposite. A brilliant show in a dreadful venue
It was in a nightclub which let in so many people that many simply could not see the stage at all and I was one of those. It was just as well I had been to see it the previous week and got a front row spot right next to the Pole. For this show had pole dancers and the works. It was seriously steamy and raunchy but never seedy and the soundtrack was simply stunning.
They also had a white screen which they used to play snippets of assorted Quentin Tarantino movies and it just added to the absolute fabulousness of the whole show.
The first time there were only enough seats for 60 people. The rest had to sit on the steps or stand. But there was not the crowds there were the night of the 9th because word had not gotten around yet.
In fact so many of the people in the queue the first night I saw it were women in the 60 plus demographic that I assumed that the queue was for some parody of The Sound of Music.
By Saturday 9th February that had all changed. The audience consisted of mainly males with the odd 40 something couples. I hid in a corner and could barely see any of the show unless I stood up on tip toes near the bar. Even then it was a struggle.
But I had already seen it before and the sound track was so good that I was not as peeved as I certainly would have been had it been my first visit to this amazing show.
“Bang Bang” was the second best show of the Fringe and “One Sky, Many Stories” was the second worst. So it was a mixed bag of an evening.
Sunday 10th was the last night of the circus show “Railed” which was in the top 5
That was in one of the 3 Spiegeltents and was a packed house because word had gotten round.
But that is a tale for another day.
The usual quota for the last 8 years or so has been 20 shows per year give or take 1 or 2
This year for the first time ever I passed the 30 mark. But due to all sorts of chaos and craziness, I never did manage to post about a single one of them.
So what better excuse is there than the usual congruence of days and dates in February and March to indulge in a little trip down memory lane. Next year will be one of those pesky leap years but this one was not so this is the perfect occasion to remember Saturday 9th February.
That night there were 2 shows. One I had booked in advance in order to get the Fringe Friends discount and the other was a repeat performance of a show that was so good the first time that I wanted to see it again
The first was called “One Sky, Many Stories” and the blurb proclaimed it to be a musical exploration of astronomy based on both science and Aboriginal knowledge of the night sky.
Apparently this mob got themselves a bunch of STEAM grants - money available for innovative combinations of science and art
What a total waste it was.
The venue itself was simply gorgeous. A Belgian Spiegeltent which was good 100 years old.
While the music in itself was reasonably good, pleasant and relaxing but nothing particularly awe inspiring, the whole show turned out to be sad and pathetic in its attempt to bask in the glow of Politically Correct Worthiness.
Based on the blurb ad the title , I was naively expecting ancient stories of the stars of the southern skies such as the Dark Emu and the mother whose children fell out of a basket that she kept them in and ended up becoming stars.
Richard Walley and Ray Norris are well known trail blazers in this field but there was no trace of their influence at all in this pompous nonsense
If there had only been music with titles named after assorted constellations, it would have been redeemable. But no. There had to be a white screen above the musicians where worthy videos were played. No pictures of constellations or story telling just a bunch of people out in the desert talking about the significance of the night sky in their lives but without EVER showing the damn sky and stars
This event was in a Spiege tent so there was no reason why they could not project the stars onto the dome.
I have never seen such perfect illustration of breaking the rules of “Show. Don’t tell”
It was all telling and no show at all.
It was tedious and annoying and a total distraction from the music.
I felt like it was an hour of my life and $20 wasted on a total damp squib
The annual Astrofest takes place next Saturday and if Ray Norris or Richard Walley make a guest appearance then I will learn far more about Aboriginal Astronomy and a whole lot cheaper than this show which I ranked as the second worst that I have seen at the Fringe Festival this year. And since there were 30, that is pretty pathetic indeed.
If it had not been in such a gorgeous venue, it would have been at the very bottom of the list.
Bang Bang - a tribute to Quentin Tarantino was almost the exact opposite. A brilliant show in a dreadful venue
It was in a nightclub which let in so many people that many simply could not see the stage at all and I was one of those. It was just as well I had been to see it the previous week and got a front row spot right next to the Pole. For this show had pole dancers and the works. It was seriously steamy and raunchy but never seedy and the soundtrack was simply stunning.
They also had a white screen which they used to play snippets of assorted Quentin Tarantino movies and it just added to the absolute fabulousness of the whole show.
The first time there were only enough seats for 60 people. The rest had to sit on the steps or stand. But there was not the crowds there were the night of the 9th because word had not gotten around yet.
In fact so many of the people in the queue the first night I saw it were women in the 60 plus demographic that I assumed that the queue was for some parody of The Sound of Music.
By Saturday 9th February that had all changed. The audience consisted of mainly males with the odd 40 something couples. I hid in a corner and could barely see any of the show unless I stood up on tip toes near the bar. Even then it was a struggle.
But I had already seen it before and the sound track was so good that I was not as peeved as I certainly would have been had it been my first visit to this amazing show.
“Bang Bang” was the second best show of the Fringe and “One Sky, Many Stories” was the second worst. So it was a mixed bag of an evening.
Sunday 10th was the last night of the circus show “Railed” which was in the top 5
That was in one of the 3 Spiegeltents and was a packed house because word had gotten round.
But that is a tale for another day.
