Cultural Review of 2006

[glittertigger]

I’m still getting used to this business of putting my thoughts in the public domain, but have decided to share a few of my cultural highlights of last year with you all.

Theatre:
An old favourite here. I very much enjoyed a production of The Rocky Horror Picture Show. And i_ludicrous in stockings and suspenders was certainly memorable. An open-air production of Macbeth on a sultry evening with a group of female friends comes a close second, but I didn’t like the way Creation Theatre did the witches.

Books:
The best novel I read was We Need To Talk About Kevin by Lionel Shriver, which gets right to the heart of human weakness and doesn’t pull any punches. The best biography by miles was Stuart, A Life Backwards by Alexander Masters. And the book which made me laugh most was The Vesuvius Club, by Mark Gatiss.

Albums:
My stand-out album was In Between Dreams by Jack Johnson, which gave me a lift on all of the many occasions when I needed one. I fell in love with several country albums too and will cover those separately some other time.

Live music:
The Epstein of course. With an honourable mention for Jose Gonzalez.

Films:
I went to the cinema a few times, but either I saw the wrong films or this wasn’t a vintage year. Casino Royale has great action sequences, but the new Bond isn’t suave enough for me and the torture scene was gratuitously unpleasant. I didn’t see any better films though.

Comments

[doseybat.livejournal.com]

Eep, yes, I am not going to forget reading "We Need To Talk About Kevin" in a hurry. It was the descriptions more than anything. (Well, yes, and, plot!)

[glittertigger]

It left me feeling a little uncomfortable, but I think a great book should induce some soul-searching. And the plot twists caught me out a couple of times, which I also like as well.