Walk a Crooked Line

I'm rather pleased with the title of this posting. In fact it's a pretty good title for my autobiography. Anyway I was at a party a few nights ago and my friend James was telling me how much he enjoys my blog. I apologised as there hasn't been a great deal going on here on the Wood of Kings. I did put that post up about the success of my play. I offered. Nah, fuck that, more of your drunken walks - that's what Jimmy wants and what Mr Lovebucket wants Mr Lovebucket gets. 


As luck would have it I've been attending a lot of stuff in town - thank you NZ comedy festival - so there have been a few drunken walks home of late. And a couple of them I have snapped off a few shots. As before I have little memory of taking these pictures or what interested me about them in the first place but come let's take a stroll down drunken memory lane together shall we?


This first selection come from a really foggy night a little while ago. The truth is you couldn't see more than a few feet in front of your nose. 

Ooh arty. 


My journey from town generally takes me down Williamson Ave. There's a great little takeaway at the end of this road that supplies egg burgers that my drunken tastebuds crave. 

Now in order to take this next shot I would've needed to be standing in the middle of the road. A drunk, dressed in black, standing in the middle of a road at two in the morning trying to take a photograph. I can see no danger in that; can you?

People familiar with Williamson will recognise this bit of street art. It's been there for a long time and in recent years the Queen has received a black face makeover I see. Something about the sentiment obviously appealed to my beer goggles. And since we have had a royal wedding not so long ago I think it's relevant. I guess. 

This one is a complete mystery to me. Somehow I found something of interest here in the back of a skip (or Brukes Bins as we called them when I was a kid). 

Again I have no idea about these next shots but something must've interested me about this window because I took literally hundreds of photos of it. 

This one here is a gem. What part of "No Circulars" didn't the poster understand. I also love the fact it's rolled up too. That's the icing on this particular cake for me.  Refer to my previous post for my thoughts on this issue. Check out my junk!

And - YES! - joy another abandoned couch to add to my collection.  

This next one puts me in mind of the Oscar Wilde quote:

"We're all in the gutter, 

but some of us are looking at the stars."

I was looking for stars in the gutter. Story of my life really. 

Now I do happen to know exactly what this one is about. These are that signs we have here in New Zealand to warn us about judder bars. But fore me it looks like there's an egg on toast up ahead. 

Am I right?

I bet, from now on, whenever you see one of these signs you'll think about fried eggs. Welcome to my world. 


Right Jimmy are you happy now? Now, I'm thirsty, is there anything to drink around here? 

The play's the thing...

Damn where have I been? Well I've been busy helping putting on a show. A show I co-wrote.

Yes all these years of writing feature films so I could finally break into theatre. It's been a wild ride. And in the process I'm sorry to say I've neglected my little blog and - horror of horrors - lost a follower in the process.

So what's the play about? A romantic comedy... about romantic comedy. Mike and Virginia. Both single. Both competitive. Both lecturers in film studies. Her specialty is romantic comedy, his is monster movies. She thinks he's an arrogant knuckle-dragger, he thinks she's a bitter cow. The very worst thing they could do is fall in love.

The idea for the play started when Kathryn Burnett (who I wrote the play with) and I were taking a car journey and we started having a conversation about whose students liked them better. We were both teaching screenwriting at the time. It turned into a hilarious argument and by the end of the journey we both looked at each other and said - there’s a story in this.

So were born Mike and Virginia two film studies lecturers who hate each other and then fall hopelessly in love. As I said it’s a romantic comedy about romantic comedies so it gave us the chance to explore and deconstruct the way romantic comedies work and have a fun time doing it. Honestly we were laughing until we cried some days working on this show. I know that will make its way onto the stage thanks to the team bringing it to life.

For the record my students like me better.

The plan was to write a play on get in onto stage quickly - movies tend to take years to come to fruition and when they do invariably they've been interfered with more than an attractive altar boy. Doing a play seemed like a fun idea. Write it quick, do some read throughs and get it on stage.

Four years later the play has finally made it to stage. Big houses and some great reviews.

You can read some of them here:

http://www.theatreview.org.nz/reviews/review.php?id=3924 

http://cheeseontoast.co.nz/wp/?p=6239

http://kissmyarts.posterous.com/wrap-mike-and-virginia

http://www.thecommoncritic.co.nz/?p=640

I had some fun helping building sets, sourcing props and music but in the end I was very much on the outside looking in. The play was brought to life by Te Radar our director, the crew, the awesome cast and of course the lovely Kathryn who produced the play. Hats off guys it was a pleasure and a joy to see this story finally brought to the stage and brought so effortlessly to life.


UPDATE:


For an unbiased report of the show (yeah right) check out my friend Sez's blog here.