I'm not sure if this is an art installation or a public service announcement by the galleries doing their bit to soothe the Covid stricken populace.  When I snapped it I had not been visiting that gallery, but Modern 2 its sibling across the road.

I had gone to see the Ray Harryhausen exhibition.  The man's name meant nothing to me before this exhibition popped up and I rather doubt that I've seen any of the large number of films that he worked on, given that monster movies, sci-fi and fantasy have never much appealed to me.  However the publicity piqued my curiosity so I went along.

The exhibition demonstrates his tremendous contribution to film-making.  He deployed and indeed invented many of the techniques used to combine stop motion animation and live action over a 30 plus year career that ended with The Clash of the Titans in 1981.  By then special effects techniques like CGI and motion capture suits were beginning to replace Harryhausen's methods though the basic principles persist.

Taking pictures was allowed.  I took very few but here are two.

I've been to a couple of concerts and a few films (more Truffaut) in recent weeks but the only live theatre I've seen has come courtesy of transmissions from afar.  Tom Stoppard's Leopoldstadt was beamed to my local picture palace from a theatre in London.  It's an absorbing family saga that draws its inspiration from Stoppard's Jewish roots and spirals down from the family's affluence and contentment in late 19th century Vienna to the poverty and anguish of the holocaust.  Not a bundle of laughs.

The other show did provoke lots of laughs and that most unexpectedly.  I had not thought that a play about a tussle between parents at the Childrens' Panel would be other than serious and well meaning.  CMF Wood's Prism via Zoom defied my expectations. Hugh Simpson's review is more severe on the production that I would be (I loved it) but he makes a lot of good points.

I was on Zoom myself one morning for theatrical purposes.  This was a reading of a play it is proposed to put on as part of a weekend theatre fest in late May. The reading was to give the author, none other than the aforementioned CMF Wood, an idea of how it might sound.  I used all my guile to snatch a look or two at the Australian Tennis Open men's final (which I had been watching before the reading) while keeping my place in the script.  Afterwards I went off for an afternoon of sax playing casting a glance at the tennis score whenever I could because I had sadly had to leave before Rafa clinched the match.

Siobhan was very interested in a letter written by Mary Queen of Scots that went up for auction this month. She suggested I went along to curb her enthusiasm should she be tempted to allocate her all to its acquisition.  This I gladly did preceded by a tasty lunch of fish and chips in the Barony and a white wine in the Theatre Royal, and followed by a G&T or two in Mather's.  What a pleasant afternoon it was.  I hope the buyer of the letter enjoyed the afternoon too.

And what a pleasant evening was a Burns supper at which I recited as I often do (at Burns suppers that is) his Ode to the Haggis.  It was not one of my finest renditions.  Indeed I think in future I'll just play my Youtube version.

Back in November I became aware that a new law was to be introduced concerning the installation of inter-linked smoke and heat alarms so I bought them straightaway but only managed to get around to installing them 24 hours before the law came into force on 1st February.  Will anyone ever check I wonder.

This week I finished putting my website back together after its mysterious disappearance some months ago.  It was a tedious job but I enjoyed revisiting old productions and holidays. I'm now having a look at some of the other websites that I created in the past, for example to advertise the sale of the Barbansais house and one I did for the Grads.  I'm amazed at my now long lost skills.