Panto

Last Friday I got to experience something quintessentially British: The Panto. Short for Pantomime, the Panto is what we consider a "melodrama" in the U.S. Built for audience interaction and tailored for kids, there is plenty of opportunity for the audience to interact and be recognised by the players.

The production was "Jack and the Beanstalk." My friend Gary works for Price Waterhouse Coopers, who stages an elaborate Panto each year for kids all around the London area. So Gary and his partner Ed invited me to come along. I also brought my friend Stefan, who took these pictures (he's a great photographer). He is Belgian, so as British outsiders, we were both curious about the whole Panto phenomenon.

I must say, the full-length performance was pretty engaging. The production took place at the Peacock Theatre, near Covent Garden. It featured a large cast of about 40 people, had a very colourful and elaborate set, bright costumes, and a full orchestra.

It is apparently Panto tradition that the lead male character is played by a female actress and vice versa, so Jack was a girl and his Mom was a man, basically in drag (the mother was the most entertaining role). I have no idea why this is tradition, nor do I have the inclination to look it up on Google right now to prove what a know-it-all I am, so we'll just accept it for what it is.

Pop songs and dance numbers were regularly intersperesed into the plotline, done with a lot of wit and humour. For example, as Jack was preparing to sell Buttercup, his cow, the cast was cleaning/gussying her up for market while singing 70s tune (?) "At the Carwash." After selling the cow for a sack of gold that turned into a bag of beans, Jack sang Britney Spears song, "Oops I Did it Again," only the words were changed slightly to say "Ooops I did it again, I sold your cow..." Another favourite was the all-cast number "Show me the Way to Cloudarillo" (instead of "Amarillo"), and the beanstalk's own rendition of Madonna's "Like a Virgin" with changed words to "I'm a beanstalk."

I was also quite amused when the Giant (or the Giant's giant leg, I should say) thundered onto the stage with his big, booming voice, only for the actual Giant to eventually pop out of a little door on the shoe -- a tiny little man in lederhosen yelling through a megaphone ala The Wizard of Oz. I screamed laughing.

But the classic appeal of the Panto still lies with audience interaction, as kids cheer the heros, boo the villains, and help the actors by yelling, "HE WENT THAT WAY!!!" and "WHAT'S UP JACK?! DOWN WITH GIANTS!" and "OH NO YOU CAN'T!" (Villain: "Oh yes I can!") "OH NO YOU CANT!!!!"

The show ended with a mass musical review of all the song and dance numbers squished together into a medley, and that was followed by a four-round singalong of "Old Mac Donald." After all, you can never ever have too much of a good thing like a sing along -- especially when you're 7 years old. But even at 33, I couldn't help leaving there with a pretty big smile on my face. As I like to say when the occassion warrants it, "good times."

Around the World in 50 Tanks

I never talk about work on my blog, but then I realised: Hey! I can generate my own publicity around my clients now that I am an official citizen journalist blogger! (And, this latest project is rather interesting/cool...)

Last Tuesday saw the launch of a project I have been working on since I arrived in London: "The Shell Fuel Economy World Record Challenge." My client, Shell, is supporting Australian couple, John & Helen Taylor, on a drive around the world to set a Guinness World Record for Fuel Efficiency. They will travel more than 29,000 km, in approximately 70 days (that's 10 days less than Phileas Fogg, my friends...), and all on under 50 fill-ups! They are road-testing a new fuel economy petrol/gasoline formula that Shell has created and hopes to launch to the general public in the future.

The Taylors left in a blaze of glory (ok, maybe not a blaze...they do have to be pedal conscious you know) Tuesday around 10:15am from Waterloo Place in central London...a stone's throw from Pall Mall and The Reform Club, where the fictional Phileas Fogg set off for his legendary trip "Around the World in 80 Days." The event garnered lots of press as the Taylors and their crew prepared to drive off. At one point, there were so many cameras there, it rather resembled the paparazzi!

The Taylors are serial-record setters with 34 notable driving acheivements under their (seat)belts, so when they approached Shell to help back their newest mission -- becuase they always find they get the best fuel efficiency with Shell fuel (up to 15%!) -- Shell immediately said yes to a great opportunity to put their newest formulation to the ultimate road test.

The Taylors will cross Europe, Asia, Australia, New Zealand, and the U.S. on their trek, arriving back in London for the finale in late March. If you would like to track the Taylors on their journey, visit www.fuelchallenge.com -- they have a blog and everything!

This has been a challenging but fun project so far. I am responsible for managing/coordinating the PR activities for approximately 15 countries for this project, so it has been a great learning experience to see how the program unfolds in different markets around the globe. It's also been good getting to know my new team here in London and working with some really talented people. I guess you could say it is an experience of a lifetime -- or a career, at least. ;)

One last postscript about Shell: I grew up in a small town with only one gas station -- a Shell station run by a little man named Micky (and my town is called Mechanicsville, isn't THAT fitting?). Anyway, Micky knew everyone and everyone knew Micky. That was back in the day when an attendent (who you knew well) pumped your gas, washed the windows, checked under the hood, and made plenty of small talk while you sat in the car. And since Micky was the only person who worked there, he did all that stuff every time we pulled up with my Mom. So, I just assumed Shell was an all-American company and perhaps the only gas company that existed. Maybe I even thought Mechanicsville was the only town that had a Shell station. So funny how things come around. Now they are my client, halfway around the world, and I realise they originated in the Netherlands and are all over the globe! Granted, they don't all come with their own Micky, so I still retain that my own "Shell experience" was truly unique and incomparable. ;)

More to come on the Taylors and their exciting feat!

A Sad Whale Tale

"Whale Fever" sent London into a tizzy last week as hoards of Londoners stayed glued to the tele to watch the drama unfold as a northern bottlenose appeared in the Thames last Friday (they say 23 million people tuned into newscasts to follow the fate of the whale). It was the first whale of it's kind spotted in the Thames since 1913. Clearly something was amiss though, being that whales don't usually go for a swin upstream in the Thames unless they are sick or confused (say the experts, I didn't just happen to know that). But it all came to a sad conclusion Saturday when he died after going into convulsions. About three thousand people watched from the Albert Bridge as he was hoisted from the river in an attempt to ferry him back to the deep sea and save him...but to no avail. Guess he figured if he was going out, he'd do it in style -- with a weekend swim past London's most heralded landmarks and a crowd to wave him off!

Edward, For the Love of God, Please Stop Dancing With Those Scissorhands!

As a New Year's gift, my boss Mitch (and his partner Anno) treated my colleague Rory and I to the new dance production of "Edward Scissorhands" at Sadler Wells -- directed by cool choreographer Matthew Bourne.

Yes, this is the same, dark and creepy Edward Scissorhands based on the Tim Burton film starring Johnny Depp.

It was very unique and artistic, although I'd say it was more pantomime than true dance performance -- a collection of musical theatre performers acting out/interpreting the movie to some very nice music.

The set was whimsical and the performance very well staged. The costumes were fantastic -- my favourite scene involved a stage full of people dressed as topiaries, dancing their hearts out. I also particularly liked the snow effects that took place throughout the play, they did a good job making it (and marketing it) as a holiday "spectacular." At the end, the whole audience was showered in fake snow (and what's not to love about that?!).

At first it made me cringe to see Edward dancing and leaping around the stage with those crazy scissorhands...I mean, the very idea that they turned this particular story into a DANCE performance makes you want to giggle, it goes against everything your mother ever told you about running and playing with scissors. But even though it took a few minutes at the opening to remove my hands from my eyes out of fear he'd take a tumble on those shiny blades, it was a giddy and fun night out.

Now I'm waiting for "I Know What You Did Last Summer -- the Ballet."

Edinburgh (pronounced "Edinbraa")

I went to Edinburgh, Scotland, like TWO MONTHS AGO and never wrote about it. I am really falling down on this blogging thing, sorry people. Not that anyone's still reading after my hypochondriac "crash" post was up for the past 2 months...hmmm, I better think about "rebranding" my blog as we say in PR.

But I diverge. Edinburgh...yes! It was very fun and I loved the city -- it's very Gothic and sinister and pretty. I know, you don't often hear "sinister" and "pretty" to describe the same thing. Hmmm, I think I would like to be sinsister and pretty! Anyway, it's a cool town with a great vibe. Only, once there, I realised that I really needed four days, not two, becuase there is so much to see. So, that means I must go back -- in springtime when I can see the country too!

I went with my friend Cristina, a darn good traveling companion. We toured the castle (very, very cool), bought some whisky, wandered the main shopping drags, ate out at a very yummy restaraunt Saturday night (called "The Grain House"), and met up with these totally fun 4 guys we met at a bar and stayed out most of the night partying with them at a series of venues -- including a vodka bar that played hip-hop (which seemed odd to me in Scotland for some reason), a pub with a live band and dancing, a kareoke bar (the guys were really into singing, it was funny), and finally, a dance club. No worries Mom, it was all innocent. ;)

On Sunday, we went to a neighboring town, called Water of Leith, where we had a nice lunch before leaving. I had the best oysters ever there....and that's saying a lot coming from a St. Mary's County, MD girl where oysters are king!

Becuase it took me a few months to write about this lovely weekend and I have forgotten the details, I'll just leave you with some pictures to show you what we saw!

The Castle! (View from our hotel too...)










Cristina at the castle. In her red hat.













To be a European city, you must have two things -- a tower and a ferris wheel!

















Cristina and I at dinner, very cozy.










View from the castle.











Torch at the castle (tres Camelot).













The Royal Mile.











The tranquil town of Water of Leith.










Dylan and Cristina being VERY serious.

Cat's Book Club UPDATED (I hear it's as good as Oprah's)

Following are some good books I've read recently that I'd recommend. I'll keep the list updated -- provided I continue to find time to read!
UPDATE to the above statement, Jan. 8th: Cat's book club won't just include "good" books I've read, because if that is the case, I shouldn't be writing about the next one. But it proves that I do read, even if I don't particularly enjoy it each and every book...

On The Road
by Jack Kerouac
Oh my God, WHY do people love this book so much? HELLO!! What a bunch of L-O-S-E-R-S! Hey boys, get a life! Look, I had a little backpacking/hitchhiking fun myself in Central America back in the days after college. But, seriously people, have some fun and then get a job already! Maybe I've been sucked up into corporate America for too long, but I'll be the first to say I missed the boat on this one. Or, err, the car.

For those who have it waiting in your "to-read" pile, let me spare you some time: It's 1940s America. Hobos are all the rage. This wanna-be loser guy (Sal) meets up with a bunch of other losers (the biggest being this certifiable moron named Dean who Sal is stupid enough to idolise for reasons unknown), and they spend the next God knows how many years of their life driving back and forth across the United States for no apparent reason, drinking, doing drugs, smoking pot, marrying multiple women, getting them pregnant and leaving them, sleeping around (often with prostitutes), stealing, scamming, leaving friends behind, picking up hitchhikers, talking a WHOLE lot of crap ALL the time, and on occasion, listening to some jazz (the only part of the book I remotely enjoyed were the jazz bar stories).

Frankly, I do not find this 'beat' generation to be one worth emulating. Each time they got stopped by the cops I prayed they'd get thrown in prison and stay there so the book would end already and put me out of my misery. Each time they zigzagged across the country, they would go to the same tedious places and meet up with the same tedious people. I got over it all the THIRD time they were in Denver...

It's a pathetic story about sad, lost people (the last, delirious, mud-caked chapter with the boys floundering in Mexico really drives this point home). I see how Mr. Kerouac's writing is very lyrical, and that's fab -- but imagine how great his prose might have been had he picked better subject matter!

So, in sumary, I must say, "Hit the road, Jack!" I'll get on a jet plane to cross the country any day vs. doing it your way!

The Hungry Years
by William Leith
This is a book about people who overeat, overdrink, overdrug, and basically can't do anything in moderation. Written by self-diagnosed compulsive overeater, English journalist William Leith, he tries to get to the bottom of his "hunger" that he just can't satisfy.

It was at times an entertaining little read (I must admit, I liked the picture of the doughnut on the cover) -- I'm always intrigued by people's battles with food and other binges. However, after he jumps around sporatically between the premise of the Atkins Diet (which is the first half of the book), to his excesses with food (he once ate an entire apple pie when he was 7!), and his many drug and alcohol binges (which he tells with an air of pride), he goes to a therapist and -- would you beleive it -- figures out all of his problems are becuase of his parents!! Of course!

And that's really the end of the book. He never figures out how to totally satisfy his hunger. But, he does go on a twenty-mile hike with his girlfriend at the end, eats a good dinner after, has some wine, and pretty much sums it up by saying it's all about moderation. Wow -- ya think? That's the part of the book where I felt rather cheated, I was hoping for just a little more resolution and insight than that. But hey, I guess it really is just that simple.

But if that's what publishers go for these days, I have a great story about how I ate an entire bag of Harry & David's Moose Munch in one sitting last Friday night in front of the tele, followed by a package of snowman Peeps and then chased the sugary delight with two glasses of wine. Some people may call that a binge. I call it dinner. And I know that's totally my parent's fault, because THEY gave me the snacks in my Christmas stocking. But I didn't have to pay a therapist to help me figure it out, because Moose Munch, Peeps and wine ARE my therapy. And if you don't count the small stomach ache that followed (totally worth it), I felt pretty darn good after...and I definitely wasn't still hungry. ;)

The Art of Travel
by Alain De Botton
This is a book I will read again and again. Botton's writing comes across like simple poetry that rings true in crystalized and gratifying ways. Anyone who is intrigued by travel -- be it in a plane, car or armchair -- will love this cleverly written book. He shares stories that illuminate different perspectives on traveling with the help of historically significant travel "guides" and classic art to add color and context. (Pretty cover too.)

Empire Falls
by Richard Russo
Anyone who knows me knows I'm a sucker for a good family drama with strong characters and real people at the center -- especially if it's mixed in with some laugh-out-loud comedy. After all, aren't many real-life family dramas funny to some degree, even if they are yours? Empire Falls is warm, smart and poignant. It was a good read all the way through and left me very satisfied and content at the end. Russo's ability to make you connect with and care for his characters is a true talent, and the dynamic portrait he paints of Empire Falls makes the town and its people come to life and jump off the page....I felt like I had said goodbye to people I knew and liked when I finished the book.

The Opposite of Fate
by Amy Tan
I must confess, I am one of the 3 people in the world who have not read The Joy Luck Club (I think my New Yorker subscription can be revoked for that), but this book of essays by Amy Tan will likely prompt me to do so. A few chapters were not compelling (some a little too self-congratulatory and others pure, neurotic hypochondria), but becuase it's a book of independently written shorts, you can just skim past any that don't hold your attention. But for the most part, I really enjoyed the book and Tan's writing. The stories are mostly based on her (twisted) relationship with her mother, her mother's family history, and other impactful moments in her life. It was a smooth, easy read, and did leave me pondering whether some things in my own life have been fate or circumstance. I actually got this book free with a newspaper while traveling through Heathrow airport and was surprised when I had finished it cover to cover by the end of my 2-day trip.

English Terminology UPDATED

Vocabulary

• pudding (dessert)
• aubergine (eggplant)
• courgette (zucchini)
• lorry (truck)
• quid (slang for a British Pound -- "it cost me 20 quid")
• wind screen (windshield)
• bin (trash can)
• jumper (sweater)
• Mum (Mom)
• pram (stroller)
• rubbish (garbage)
• fortnight (two-week period)
• plaster (Band Aid)
• stone (14 lbs.)
• trainers (sneakers/tennis shoes)
• nappy (diaper)
• loo (bathroom)
• Stag Do (bachelor party)
• Hen Party (bachelorette party)
• jab (shot) -- eg, it's winter...time to get your flu jab!

Expressions and Just Plain Funny Things I've Heard People Say

• wind-up (to 'put someone on' or trick them. For example: "Don't listen to him, he's winding you up." or "I'm not falling for that, it's a wind-up.")
• would you fancy... (would you like...)
• cheers (goodbye/thank you)
• "Not to over-egg the custard, but..."

Frequently used Adjectives

• gauche (gaudy, rude, tacky)
• dead (means very or really: "He's dead sexy")
• shattered (exhausted/worn out)
• knackered (tired/exhausted: "I'm totally knackered!")
• dodgy ("I won't eat at that Chinese place, it seems a bit dodgy")
• brilliant (We say "good" or "great!"; Brits say "Brilliant!" -- to everything)
• cheeky (I particularly like it when Brits refer to someone as a "cheeky monkey")
• naughty
• tat (cheap, tacky)