Miki Shaw's blog

Eddie Izzard - Lessons in Improv... and Life

Just listened to Eddie Izzard being interviewed by Frank Skinner on the Radio 4 programme "Chain Reaction" (not something I have ever listen to before - just stubbled upon it on the "listen again" service)
It was so inspiring. The man seems to have clear long-held ambitions and no sense of fear. And in combination those 2 traits have served him well.
He talked about how he started off in comedy by doing street performing, which is the most embrassing experience he's ever had - yet he would keep going back, doing it over and over, sometimes performing to audiences of zero, until he progressed up the ranks to being allowed to perform *inside* a building. (Although he says lampposts were a great audience - they wouldn't hurl insults...)
Skinner pointed out that he broke many rules of stand-up, for example arriving for a gig with no notes or prepared material. Izzard said he would sometimes try to write it down ("what if cats ruled the world?..") but once in writing he'd instinctively rationalise ("of course cats couldn't do that!")  - it killed all the best ideas because it opened them up to his own censorship.
He would always try and push his own boundaries. The best moments in stand up, he said, are the newer, embryonic ideas. Once a routine becomes established and routine, it loses that spark and edginess. So the script has to keep changing. They recalled an incident when Izzard was pushing Skinner to try out his new material in a London club (whereas Skinner would normally only tiral it in safer smaller gigs). Izzard was saying that it didn't matter if the material fell flat - he'd make better progress by trying and failing.
A lot of his wise words resonated with stuff I've learnt about improv; the importance of taking risks, pushing past accepted norms, the comedy of failure, the value of spontaneity, and avoiding self-censorship.
And if it works in Improv, it also works in life...

QotD: If I Never Hear That Again...

What is the one saying that your parents said to you that you absolutely hate? 
Submitted by victoriassecret.

Good qotd! It's fascinating reading everyone else's answers

1. "You should have done it earlier/yesterday/..." - which is my Dad's most annoying way of answering a question - as if that pointless observation helps! I hate the word "should" but I still use it despite all efforts to banish it from my vocabulary. "Should have"'s are futile because you can't change the past. Why beat yourself up about it?

The runner-up phrases (minor irritants)
2.  "Try it - it won't kill you" :- how my Dad would try and convince my brother and I to taste peculiar looking food that we had no interest in sampling. Not the most enticing approach.
3. "When did your last slave die?" :- my Dad's response to me leaving my dirty plate on the table (or some similar domestic faux pas) - a comment I've never really understood and now use as an opportunity to engage in a witty riposte, detailing the recent and tragic death of my latest fictional servant.

Two observations on the above:
1. The phrases my Dad says that annoy me are ones which lack logic or reflect misguided thinking. I can't abide by that. (I am a perfectionist, you know.)
2. Full marks to my mum for having no irritating sayings!

QotD: What A Character

Who is your favorite video game character? 
Submitted by Korgoth.  

Ulala from Space Channel 5!
She's such a funky chick and a great dancer - what more could you want from a fictional tv reporter? (The aliens are pretty cute too...)

My Stationery Obsession

My name is Miki and I am a stationery-aholic.

Or maybe I'm a connoisseur. Either way, I'm a picky customer when it comes to writing implements, notebooks, folders etc.

My current pen of choice is the Uniball Signo DX 0.38, which makes beautifully smooth fine line. But I can't find them on sale anymore (I used to buy them in Israel). This is very distressing. Pencils must be the retractable kind, with a 0.5 lead: elegant precision instruments. Already you gather I'm a bit of a control freak.

My notebooks are A5 ADOCs - a very nifty system which is similar to spiral bound but with a flexibility that allows you to swap the pages around and use subject dividers and other movable inserts. They don't have the same cachet as Moleskine, but for non-linear thinkers like me, they are much more user-friendly. The only comparable methods with this degree of flexibility are: a) regular ring binders (too clunky) and b) filofax (too 80's and overpriced)
ADOC isn't perfect though. Most of the range is only available by mail-order, and they don't do narrow-ruled A5 paper. Yet. (I'm hoping someone from ADOC might one day read this and rectify that oversight.)

One of my author-friends said my obsession with stationary was "positively writerly", which I take as the highest compliment. But isn't this compulsion just another guise of my incessant procrastination? Can there be any justification for this oft repeated ritual: deciding what colour Uniball Signo DX 0.38 would be most fitting to capture the thought currently scuttling through my head?

It has been said that "language is a tool of thought". Thus stationery, in enabling us to record and communicate our words, is a conduit of thought! The journey of ideas from the brain to the page is no easy task. Thoughts flit and fly. They are emphemeral. Only the best conduit will do. My obsession is not mere indulgence. It is a necessity!

Vox Hunt: Cloud Cover

Show us your Vox tag cloud.  

Voxtags_070223

Shiny

Once again I've volunteered (or rather, been coerced) to do "site decoration" for Limmud conference this year. And  like every past year, I've got very little time and not that big a budget either. So I'm trying to think up some cheap but bold way to add a bit of visual interest to the main areas; the two conference bars.

Good Barnet citizen that I am, I went to the local "civic recycling centre" today to recycle my plastic milk cartons. (I've not managed to track down the local milkman yet, so I'm still buying milk from supermarkets). And while I was there I spotted a designated "CD recycling" bin. So, with permission, I duly emptied it into my car. (And proudly brought home 4 times as much junk as I'd taken down there in the first place. Result!)
CDs are so shiny and perfectly formed! Surely they are ideal decorating material, right?

IMG_1911

Exhibit A:
Here's a photo of the Kingly Court (and Carnaby Street) christmas decorations from 2004. They used a large number of plain CDs to make mirrorball-esque mobiles.

The bountiful web has yielded other decorative ideas for recycling CDs (for more, google "CD craft")

I like the "candle display" and "scratch board" suggestions. I'm not keen on the ones which require sawing / drilling / breaking - too much hassle. Although this mirrorball is fab.

Anyone else got nifty low-budget decorative ideas to share?

"Why is she hating on me for?"

I overheard the above on the tube a few weeks ago. I can quote it verbatim because it's been popping into my head ever since.
I guess this is youf speak. (The fact I'm even labelling it this way, shows how old I am... sigh)
When I first heard it (said by a teenage girl twice to her friend), I had to chew it over for a while to get my head round what was so weird about it - and yet mysteriously compelling at the same time.

Two points of syntactical interest:
1. "why is ... for" - this really feels wrong to me. I'd say "why does ..." or "what is ... for" but never "why is ... for". Must be an English syntax thing.
2. "hating on me" - (I realise this isn't a new phrase - but I've only heard it or seen it in fiction.) Actually I like this construction because it shows how active "hating" can be. I'd have just said "hate me". "Hating on" a person is less abstract and detached than just "hating". In my head I see it as dumping a steaming pile of dung-ish hate on said person's head. An arresting image.

So if I'd been the speaker, I'd have said "why does she hate me?" or "what does she hate me for?" but neither of these have the impact of the original.
Youf speak is more eloquent than I thought.

Reference Management Software

- that's Wikipedia's collective term for programs like EndNote - databases which let you store bibliographic references.

I just went to a training session today about EndNote, which looks good (and interfaces well with Word) but as usual, I'm now searching for the best free alternative.

So I've discovered Zotero. I shall give it a whirl. Anyone else used it?

Never-ending list trauma

Over the last month I've read and started implementing the "Getting Things Done" (GTD) system into my life.
The main aim of the game is to get all the "stuff" out of your head, out of the miscellaneous piles of paper littering your life, and into sensible folders and categories at which point you can efficiently deal with them and mark them "done".
So I've been using this, and found that it does indeed make me feel self-righteously organised. Well, a bit more organised anyway. So I fully expected to see my "action" list (for the benefit of those not initiated into GTD, thats like a "to do" list) shrinking as the weeks passed. But in fact it seems to be growing.

Its like the phrase "the more you learn, the more you realise how little you know". But in this case: "The more organised you are, the more you realise how many things you've got to do". This is a depressing thought. Someone please tell me I'm wrong.

I am feeling sad...

...that my brother and sister-in-law have left this fair land to live in San Francisco. And to add insult to injury, they've taken my nephew with them! (I suppose it would have been neglectful to leave him behind)

But when I do finally make it to SF to see them all, one attraction I'd definitely like to visit is all the pretty starfish in the city aquarium! What a wonderful photo! What a colourful bunch of 5-legged layabouts! (They do have a couch potato look about them)