Douglas Coupland’s latest novel - JPod - is supposed to be an ‘upgraded’ version of Microserfs, which wasn’t my favourite book of Coupland’s, but let’s hope I’ll like version 2.0.
Archive for June, 2006
JPod
Sunday, June 4th, 2006Mondaine - Official Swiss Railways Watch
Saturday, June 3rd, 2006
I found this Mondaine classic watch at the Design Museum to replace my Tag Heuer until I get back to Hong Kong and change the battery on it. The Mondaine clock design originated in 1940 and was used as the official clock design of the famously punctual Swiss Railway.
AVENUE Q
Saturday, June 3rd, 2006
I hadn’t been to the theatre for a while and was excited to hear about AVENUE Q coming to London. My friend, Queenie, highly recommended the show to me when I was in New York a couple of years ago but it was too popular to get in. Finally, they have a preview in London this month.
It’s just like your life… only funnier!
is the official tag line, however, I am not sure how much this applies to UK audiences. More importantly, I can’t say AVENUE Q is funny! It is defintely entertaining and has a lot of things to be said on the good sides, but it’s just not funny. (And definitely wasn’t the witty, sarcastic kind of funny that Brits tend to go for these days.)
The cast was amazing throughout the performance — the mannerisms and movements of the puppets was very well done and believable. The set was simple but clever. It easily showed both the interior and exterior of the home of Princeton (a fresh graduate who was searching for a purpose in life), Kate Monster (a kindergarten teaching assistant who dreamt of having her own school for monsters), Rod (a closet gay Repulican), Nick (Rod’s messy flatmate), Brain (a wannabe comedian), Christmas Eve (the Asian American wife of Brain), Gary (a used-to-be child-star) and Trekkie Monster (who is obssessed with internet porn).
Although the songs were hardly the most impressive element of the show, they were certainly catchy and easy to remember. I found myself annoyingly humming ‘Everyone’s A Little Bit Racist’ and ‘If You Were Gay’ for the rest of the evening and the day after! ‘Schadenfreude‘ was actually quite a funny joke but the rest of the songs like ‘The Internet Is For Porn’ needed more variety in terms of lyrics.
In short, AVENUE Q was entertaining and the performance of the cast was brilliant but it is just not all that witty or funny. I still think that it deserved to win three Tony Award in 2004 for Best New Musical, Best Book of a Musical and Best Original Score.