Day: 19 October 2025

Weeknotes #143: from Bacchae to Bruce

Theatre, art, laughter, and music define a lively cultural week.

Week commencing Monday, 13 October 2025

Five male performers singing enthusiastically into microphones on stage at The Crazy Coqs, with a red curtain backdrop and neon signage, performing songs from Bruce Springsteen's catalogue
Performers belt out The Boss’s greatest hits with unrestrained passion at The Crazy Coqs’ Bruce Springsteen tribute evening.

Quantified Self

  • This week: Stand 7/7; Exercise 4/7 and Move 6/7. (81%). Morning walks: 0/3 (days in the office don’t count). Office days 2/5. Total steps: 62,275

Life

  • Monday was a day of meetings. Quite glad I finished at 5:30 p.m., as trespassers at Clapham meant all the trains were messed up and we really crawled into Waterloo. Any later would have been bad.
  • The Bacchae at the Olivier, at the National. Not much ancient in this Greek tragedy: it’s loud, contemporary, and full of attitude. All modern language, plenty of swearing, and bursts of rap and spoken word. I had no expectations going in, which added to the enjoyment.
  • Back to the National again on Wednesday evening. This time, the Lyttelton, for Shakespeare. Hamlet is bouncy: all bravado, beanie hats and oversized jumpers, a performance full of energy and humour. Ophelia’s descent into madness was raw. But it dragged compared with the energy of The Bacchae.
  • Frameless. Saturday, a wonderful immersive art experience near Marble Arch. You should go.
  • Who knew that the Lucky Saint company, known for alcohol-free beer, operates a licensed pub in Marylebone called The Lucky Saint? We were definitely on the alcoholic beer: it served a rather good pint of Beamish.
  • Also, the clock finally got replaced. It’s surprising how often we looked at the space where the clock used to hang.
  • It’s 23 years since one of my favourite stories on the Internet.
  • Sunday, lunch did not have the most auspicious of starts. We had to keep asking, but the food made up for it in the end. Still, a central London restaurant that couldn’t serve coffee at the end—really?
  • The weekend ended on a high: Crazy Coqs’ Bruce Springsteen night. I hadn’t realised how many songs I actually knew—or how much I enjoyed them all.

Media

Every day is like survival

The post marking 20 years is a lovely example of blogging 15 years ago. Short and to the point, with nothing superfluous. Let’s examine it:

I’m riding a wave of nostalgia at the moment, aren’t I?  My last piece was about something written sixteen years ago.  Today, I sail in a much more modern boat and I’m looking back at a newer post from just fifteen years ago.  The only trouble is, that post itself referenced an event 20 years earlier. Wow, it was 35 years ago, Culture Club was number one with Karma Chameleon.  

I’m sure lots of people write about that feeling of time speeding up. You know, the whole “it only feels like yesterday” view. It’s true, but if you weren’t there then you won’t care. Trust me kids, it may seem important to you now, but nobody born this morning will much care about the British rappers Dave ft. Fredo’s Funky Friday except as a footnote telling them it was number one the day they were born. What do you mean, you don’t care either. Kids of today, huh.

But I digress. The post marking 20 years is a lovely example of blogging 15 years ago. Short and to the point, with nothing superfluous. Let’s examine it:

It’s twenty years since Culture Club’s Karma Chameleon was the UK’s number one selling single (full list).

We’ve already hit a problem. The ‘full list’ link I originally used is no longer accessible. Thankfully, it’s on the wayback machine so I’ve updated it in the original. The list in the version I linked to stops in 2003 when Blu Cantrell feat. Sean Paul reigned with ‘Breathe’.  The current version of this page from the Official Charts site is surrounded by a monstrous noise of cookie alerts and advertising. But, it is up to date with the aforementioned Funky Friday as the latest UK chart topper.

I really remember the video set in Mississippi (but I don’t imagine it was actually filmed there).

Back in 2003 could I have looked up that the video was filmed at Desborough Island in Weybridge? Wikipedia tells me that – so maybe I could have done.  Anyway, it’s not that far away from where I live. One day I should plan a visit but I promise not to reenact the video for you. I can’t believe anybody fell for it being Mississippi. However, it was the 80s and music videos were all new. And I was 13 and would have believed anything.

I suspect it would be very dated now …

Well, in the intervening years, a little thing called YouTube arrived which means I can now watch the original video and confirm it’s datedness or not. And I can embed it in the post itself for you to make up your mind. The pace of change, huh? You get to see how much like a cloudy day in England it appears to be. That’s the British weather for you.

all together now, “Every day is like survival, You’re my lover, not my rival …”

Back when Karma Chameleon was top of the charts, did anybody know the ‘You’re my lover’ was a reference to Jon Moss? I know a 13 year old that certainly didn’t.  I wonder if I would have reacted differently had I known?

 

Italy Is Smoke Free

See the no smoking signs across Italy.

I just returned from a business trip to Italy to find that Italian bars, restaurants and airports are now smoke free. This is great news for those of us who don’t want to light up cigarettes as soon as we land in the country. But, honestly, Italy doesn’t smell the same any more and it’s kind of strange. Lovely, but strange.

It Was 20 Years Ago

What was number one in October 1983?

Karma Chameleon single cover

It’s been twenty years since Culture Club’s Karma Chameleon was the UK’s number one-selling single (full list). I really remember the video set in Mississippi (but I don’t imagine it was actually filmed there). I suspect it would be very dated now … altogether now: “Every day is like survival, You’re my lover, not my rival …”