The Sunday Rumble: 24.8.14

Oh dear, what a pity never mind:    Well, not quite the day of perfection I had hoped for - see post below.  I don't go to seriously posh - and hugely expensive - places too often for very obvious reasons!  So I was looking forward to my lunch at the Bath Priory. As I told you yesterday, it was a special celebration for our friends; our respective ladies were elegantly dressed, and us chaps were 'smart casual' - and, yes, as Founder, President for Life and so far the sole member of S.P.O.T (Society for the Preservation Of Ties) I was wearing a tie.  So you can imagine the grinding of teeth that occurred when I walked through the lounge to see a young man slumped on a settee wearing a bathrobe with his feet on the table!  The hotel has a Spa and presumably they allow guests to wander about outside the Spa in bathrobes.  Had we been on our own it would have qualified as 'interesting times'!  However, not wishing to spoil the day for our friends I ignored him but then moving out onto the terrace there was a middle-aged couple, the lady in a dress but the man wearing the sort of scruffy cargo-style shorts and old T-shirt that I wear when I'm cutting the Churchyard grass.  More grinding of teeth!  Next time I think I'll take them to MacDonalds, you get a better class of customer there!  Then there was the play  . . .

 

'But Mrs. Lincoln, how was the play?'   As I told you yesterday, after lunch we went to see Hay Fever by Noel Coward which was interesting for me, having played in an amateur production of it, to see how the professionals would do it properly.  Well, they did it very, very professionally and very properly . . . and yet . . . and yet . . . it didn't work!  As any thesp, am or pro, will tell you, comedy is the hardest because the litmus test takes place every minute during the play - you either get the laughs or you don't!  Despite Felicity Kendall's superb prformance and the terrific efforts of the rest of the company - they simply didn't get the laughs!  And I'm still not quite sure why, which is strange for me because I am usually quite good at analysing productions of plays.  Possibly, and I put this forward tentatively, they simply tried too hard.  The pace, at times, was ferocious.  Of course, there are inherent difficulties in Coward's play given that he introduces us to a family of four (called Bliss - yeeees, quite, that's the first joke!) whom you would happily walk a hundred miles to avoid.  Each of them, son, daughter, father and above all, mother, are monstrous but, locked in as they are to their own daft, self-centred world, they are totally unaware of their own monstrosities.  My God, how Coward, the product of a lower middle-class family, must have hated arty-farty toffs because he certainly exacted his revenge in this play.

 

Is Obama worse than Nixon?      I shall return to this question next week but in the meantime read this ruthless parody in the NYT by the ferocious Maureen Dowd who is, of course, Leftie-liberal to her very fingertips which tapped out this eviscerating attack on 'The One'.

 

One good word for 'Dave':   It's only a very tiny 'good word' but still, given the amount of offal I regularly tip on his silly head it's worth a mention.  During the week there was a photo of 'Dave' walking alone across a beach in Cornwall in his wet-suit and carrying his surf board.  All around him were the usual collection of holiday families some of whom were staring but most of them ignoring him.  Certainly none of them were getting unduly excited by his presence.  'Yeah, so he's the prime minister, so what, let's get on with our sandcastle, it's holiday time' seemed to be the general attitude.  Exactly right and so English but good for 'Dave' to be seen with the proles for a change.

 

Danniel Hannon says sorry:   And that's why I like him!  As he admits in The Telegraph, he was a prime supporter in the move to have elected Police Commissioners in every police area and now he is forced to concede that it simply hasn't worked the way he hoped it would.  Instead of ordinary but concerned members of the public keen to offer their services standing for election it has been 'the usual suspects' from the quangos that used to oversee police activities who have simply switched jobs so the effect has mostly been, to quote a phrase, 'nothing to see here, move along!'

 

Philo sums it up:  And you can almost feel the anguish behind his words.  He anticipates a blog-post from me next week in which I will propose that this is the most morally corrupt American administration since Richard Nixon.  The highest law officer in the Republic, Eric Holder, should be hauled before the courts for gross misconduct in office.  Truly, God help America!

 

"What a piece of work is man":   And woman, too, he added hastily.  Earlier this week we saw the worst of men, as one man with cold deliberation sliced off the head of another man who had done him no harm.  Then tonight I have just watched a programme showing a lady in Australia and an American lady in Costa Rica both of whom are devoting their lives to rescuing orphaned wild animals, sloths, wallabies, koalas, and so forth, and nurturing them back to health and, more important, back into their natural habitat.  What can one say?  Nothing useful, alas, except, well, "What a piece of work is man"!

 

No more rumbles today

 

Comments

[Richard Morgan]

With regard to the lack of laughs David, I think that you have answered your own question. The phrase "terrific efforts" is probably the key.

When you play comedy, particularly stuff penned from the likes of Coward, YOU HAVE TO PLAY IT ABSOLUTELY STRAIGHT. If you do this, the exquisitely written lines will do all the work for you. However if you play it for laughs, no matter how much you try, it will come out as flat as a witches tit.

Perhaps the best example I know of comedy played straight is the sublime "Only Fools And Horses" beautifully observed and written by John Sullivan AND I must add, wonderfully cast and acted. I use clips from this regularly with my Russian students, and they never fail to raise a laugh.

[Richard Morgan]

If Dim Dave actually took the chance to talk to some of these proles AND to find out what their cares, concerns and worries were, instead of surrounding himself with old Etonians who have never had to survive in the real world...

WHAT THE HELL - FAT CHANCE!

[David Duff]

Yes, "Only Fools And Horses" is a classic. As for 'Dim Dave', come on, Richard, at least give him E for Effort. Blair always sped of to the nearest zillionaire's palace. Anyway, somehow I suspect that on holiday the last thing the proles want to talk about is politics.

[AussieD]

Elected Police Commissioners - Jeesus H Christ. [I can say that 'cause he was one of our boys]. What about the independent office of Constable long lauded in Common Law? You lot really have gone down the toilet.

[David Duff]

Read Hannan's article and he explains it.

And what are you doing up and about at this time of the night?!

[AussieD]

Duffers SWMBO is watching some girlie thingie and until that is finished I am up and about.

I shall read the article. Must confess to having limbered up the fingers before reading. I may have to be contrite afterwards - not repentant as that is a concept not acknowledged by my mob.

[AussieD]

Well I have read it. You have gone down the toilet.

[Backofanenvelope]

Police Commissioners. Of course, we had a system grounded in our history. The Watch Committee made up of elected councillors, magistrates and local worthies. If this wasn't working then it could have been modified. Evolution not revolution is the English way. It is all down to meddling. In the same way, we had licensing of pubs etc done by the local magistrates - now its done by the local councils the main streets are full of drunken oafs. The magistrates would have closed the pubs and bars down if they offended. Back to the past!!!!

[Whitewall]

Well David, I can imagine you properly costumed with your tie and the Mrs. as well. Having an immediate run in with poorly clad patrons must have been a let down for all of you.

As for comedy, and this one in particular which I'm not up on, timing is key and any extra effort to "act funny" may just over power the lines much like Richard has said. In my part of the country, actors are often hired from elsewhere to "act and talk Southern". It shows when they do as nuance is left out. All in all though it sounds as if your outing was a success.

[Dom]

From Dowd : "It is for us, the duffers, rather, to be dedicated here ..."

She must read your blog.

[Whitewall]

Yeah, isn't there a copyright problem over "duffers"? Sounds like MoDo has had it with her comrade in chief. She notes Bill Clinton is twice as popular? Simple solve---Barry needs to strap on an intern or two.

[David Duff]

actors are often hired from elsewhere to "act and talk Southern"

Darling, look no further - and I am available! My performance as 'George' in "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf" won special plaudits from the critics who described my, er, American accent as wandering back and forth across the Atlantic like a migrating bird! But of course, for that I was attempting New England English. For you I would soon master 'Southern', after all, I have a voice-coach to hand - JK! - than whom, of course, they do not come more Southern!

[Whitewall]

Well "bless your heart" David! Consider the English talent it took to pull off one of the greatest films of all time- Gone with the Wind. You are surely in rare air! As for JK, it depends on how far up the mountain side he might be. There are many dialects in my part of the country--a buffet of butchery of the Queen's English.

[David Duff]

Yes indeed, Ms. Leigh was superb in that great film.

And I have just remembered that I once played a huge role - on stage for an entire three-act play - in which I had to master a 'Noo Yawk' accent. That was 'Barney Cashman' in 'Last of the Red Hot Lovers' - yeeeees quite but I do the jokes round here! Happily, I'm a bit of a mimic so I just tried to copy Walther Matthau - and hit the consonants hard! About three months after that my hair started falling out - and I have always blamed that role - terrifying!

[JK]

"There are many dialects in my part of the country--a buffet of butchery of the Queen's English."

"Most" Whitewall, in my immediate vicinity give some approximation of Y'all - those lls drawn out sorta fluid like. About thirty miles south of me (and thirty plus years [asept for the ol' folks) it was You'uns.

Seventy miles east and a hunnert miles south is Delta Ebonics. Ninety miles west is Democrats all over - I don't get over there often enough to call ready to hand what language they trade by.

Ten miles north is legal bought beer.

[Michael Adams]

Obama is quantifiably more corrupt than Nixon. Whereas Nixon was accused of trying to weaponize the IRS, Obama did it. The more minor corruption of directing government money to his buds, Obama did prodigio0usly. The reason for conservative political thinking in
America is that more government is more opportunity for corruption. The government was smaller under Nixon, with no real thanks to him. However, because of this, he did less of the crony-nurturing.

But and however, using the IRS to dry up funding for ones opponents is not political corruption. It is Constitutional corruption. It violates the ground rules by which the game of politics is played.The only real justification for socialism is that, while we can't take our business to another government, we can, at least, vote the people out who displease us. When that avenue is sealed off, and by someone who is advocating for a bigger government, too, we have a very serious problem.

[Hank]

David

President Nixon seems to be having a come back of sorts.

http://illinoisreview.typepad.com/illinoisreview/2014/08/in-new-radio-ad-oberweis-links-durbins-use-of-irs-to-nixon.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+typepad%2FbYHz+%28Illinois+Review%29

Of course the problem is that Mr Oberweise cannot afford TV time to get the message out.

[David Duff]

Thanks, Gentlemen, I had no idea that Nixon had used the IRS against the Dems - so that's where they learned how to do it!

[AussieD]

I had no idea that Nixon had used the IRS against the Dems

Given what they have done to the country he probably would have done better with a GPMG.

[David Duff]

JK, you were loitering in the Spam Box - again! What machine are you using to frighten poor Typepad with?

[JK]

Waay'll "we" been gettin' some unusual probings of late - but I'm presently on my reg'lar machine. Lessee if this one takes.