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cosmolinguistI don't know if we could've had a weekend more perfectly suited to ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
strange_complex -- with Hammer movies and (nearly) getting to Touch the Teeth of Dracula and all. And magister had so much to say after The Curse of Frankenstein, The Mummy and Dracula that I imagine no one noticed he hadn't watched the films with the rest of the group.
Since I seemed to be the only person in the "Saturday school" who hadn't seen them all loads of times (I hadn't ever seen the first two, in fact, and the third only a fortnight ago in very similar circumstances, but don't tell my friends, okay? I was also made to watch Horror Express on Saturday night because I hadn't seen that before, and halfway to Leeds James turned to me just to say "You really have to see Quatermass and the Pit" before going back to his conversation), there's not much for me to say about it.*
But I want to mention the extraordinary venue that M.R. James performance was in, called the Holbeck Underground Ballroom in Leeds. It's the only gig I've ever been to where I got to sit on a sofa with all my friends, all the drinks cost a pound, the wine's served in mugs just like the coffee is, and they handed out hot water bottles (which you need, because there's no heat, but even on such a chilly night the hot water bottle kep me warm and cozy enough to nod off during the last few minutes of "A Warning to the Curious" -- which, don't get me wrong, was ace but I'd had a week of poor sleep and long days). At the end you pay whatever you decide the show was worth, and honestly it was worth more than I had (though this was because I'd lent James money to buy the DVDs). Go there and see stuff if you get the chance.
And go see Robert Lloyd Parry telling M.R. James stories; it's bloody amazing. Andrew and James and I and probably some other people are already planning to see him at the Lowry in April. And apparently he does The Time Machine too.
* Though -- and perhaps especially among all the beginner's-mindiness of the weekend for me -- I felt especially pleased when on a random tour of the Large Objects Store of the National Media Museum, the conservator pointed out a mellotron, a wickedly cool thing that I'd noticed myself but which was so much better when she was allowed to turn it on and play a few "notes" (it was set up for train sounds and boat sounds). She said she was only showing us this because the first half of our group, which had the tour while we were having the post-films talk before we swapped, pointed it out and said it was played on the Beatles' "Sgt. Pepper." Ah, I said, not "Sgt. Pepper." "Strawberry Fields Forever."
A greying man whose hair looked like it was cut with hedge trimmers, just the sort you'd expect to argue with the quizmaster in a pub on some point that no one else understands or cares about, piped up to say this at the same time I did, and I think felt he had to stick his oar in when the nice conservator seemed interested in what I'd said, so he added, "The Beach Boys used it, too!" I couldn't think of any Beach Boys songs that had mellotron on them, but most of my brain was taken up with wishing that Andrew had been there. I came home and told him this story, demanding praise and adulation for knowing what a mellotron was and what Beatles song it was used on, and got it, but then I told him about the Cranky Old Man(tm) had said about the Beach Boys and he scoffed. Of course the Beach Boys never used a mellotron. American bands didn't do that; British bands did. Take that, cranky old man!
strange_complex -- with Hammer movies and (nearly) getting to Touch the Teeth of Dracula and all. And magister had so much to say after The Curse of Frankenstein, The Mummy and Dracula that I imagine no one noticed he hadn't watched the films with the rest of the group.Since I seemed to be the only person in the "Saturday school" who hadn't seen them all loads of times (I hadn't ever seen the first two, in fact, and the third only a fortnight ago in very similar circumstances, but don't tell my friends, okay? I was also made to watch Horror Express on Saturday night because I hadn't seen that before, and halfway to Leeds James turned to me just to say "You really have to see Quatermass and the Pit" before going back to his conversation), there's not much for me to say about it.*
But I want to mention the extraordinary venue that M.R. James performance was in, called the Holbeck Underground Ballroom in Leeds. It's the only gig I've ever been to where I got to sit on a sofa with all my friends, all the drinks cost a pound, the wine's served in mugs just like the coffee is, and they handed out hot water bottles (which you need, because there's no heat, but even on such a chilly night the hot water bottle kep me warm and cozy enough to nod off during the last few minutes of "A Warning to the Curious" -- which, don't get me wrong, was ace but I'd had a week of poor sleep and long days). At the end you pay whatever you decide the show was worth, and honestly it was worth more than I had (though this was because I'd lent James money to buy the DVDs). Go there and see stuff if you get the chance.
And go see Robert Lloyd Parry telling M.R. James stories; it's bloody amazing. Andrew and James and I and probably some other people are already planning to see him at the Lowry in April. And apparently he does The Time Machine too.
* Though -- and perhaps especially among all the beginner's-mindiness of the weekend for me -- I felt especially pleased when on a random tour of the Large Objects Store of the National Media Museum, the conservator pointed out a mellotron, a wickedly cool thing that I'd noticed myself but which was so much better when she was allowed to turn it on and play a few "notes" (it was set up for train sounds and boat sounds). She said she was only showing us this because the first half of our group, which had the tour while we were having the post-films talk before we swapped, pointed it out and said it was played on the Beatles' "Sgt. Pepper." Ah, I said, not "Sgt. Pepper." "Strawberry Fields Forever."
A greying man whose hair looked like it was cut with hedge trimmers, just the sort you'd expect to argue with the quizmaster in a pub on some point that no one else understands or cares about, piped up to say this at the same time I did, and I think felt he had to stick his oar in when the nice conservator seemed interested in what I'd said, so he added, "The Beach Boys used it, too!" I couldn't think of any Beach Boys songs that had mellotron on them, but most of my brain was taken up with wishing that Andrew had been there. I came home and told him this story, demanding praise and adulation for knowing what a mellotron was and what Beatles song it was used on, and got it, but then I told him about the Cranky Old Man(tm) had said about the Beach Boys and he scoffed. Of course the Beach Boys never used a mellotron. American bands didn't do that; British bands did. Take that, cranky old man!
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
(no subject)
Date: 2014-02-18 04:43 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2014-02-18 08:38 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2014-02-18 01:19 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2014-02-18 06:06 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2014-02-18 09:19 am (UTC)....cozy enough to nod off during the last few minutes of "A Warning to the Curious"
And this nearly happened to me too. I kept thinking "Maybe if I just rest my eyes for a bit and listen..." But I resisted the urge because I knew what would happen and didn't want to miss the performance.
Thanks for being part of the awesomeness, which was at least as much about friends, silly jokes and geeky conversations as it was about Hammer. :-)
(no subject)
Date: 2014-02-18 10:22 am (UTC)And I certainly felt as welcome all weekend as anyone who had more encyclopedic knowledge -- it really was brilliant (head wound nonwithstanding!) -- but it leaves me with less to write about, is all. :)
(no subject)
Date: 2014-02-18 10:23 am (UTC)