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Post by Dawnstar on Jun 14, 2021 18:48:11 GMT
Definitely. The only time you get a decent sound at the RAH is when it isn't being recorded for other purposes. It's fine when Proms are using mikes for recording purposes only & the sound you hear in the hall is acoustic! I agree it's the case when amplified concerts are being considered though.
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Post by Dawnstar on Jun 14, 2021 18:33:37 GMT
I'm mostly not a fan of the huge open-plan offices the company I temp for moved into a few years ago but they are useful for managing to keep well out of the way when people bring new babies in to show them off! I am deeply suspicious of babies & if I am made to hold one fear it will either be sick over me or scream the place down.
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Post by Dawnstar on Jun 14, 2021 11:53:23 GMT
Well they can only deal with the actual sound levels once everyone is in the space. Clearly they didn’t have enough time. This is the reason I will never see a musical concert like this again. Chess at the Albert Hall was a hot mess and it was utterly ruined by the sound. And you pay a fortune for it. It’s absolutely unacceptable. I have not been to The Albert Hall since. They only cared about the recording, screw everyone else who paid to see it. I've found the musicals Proms at the RAH have sounded far better when watching them back on TV afterwards than live in the RAH, so presumably similarly they're miking for TV rather than for the live audience.
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Post by Dawnstar on Jun 13, 2021 19:56:57 GMT
Worse, when someone screenshares with you and we see the kiddies and dog on their desktop wallpaper. Yawn. Worse again, pic of kiddies and dog is their profile pic on Teams. No. One. Cares. This has given me a flashback to when the company I temp for, an exam board, changed the screensavers for the entire network of company computers from a selection of nice landscape photos to a selection of photos of children. They were in educational settings but I found it creepy as hell to have a selection of unknown children staring at me from my computer screen every time I locked/unlocked my computer. A number of people complained, including me. I got hell from HR for saying I don't like children so don't want to have photos of them staring at me - Apparently that's not a suitable thing to say if you work for an exam board. I don't see why. I had nothing to do with children in 12 years of temping. My jobs always involved data processing. - but at least they swapped to some less creepy photos, though children were still involved.
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Post by Dawnstar on Jun 11, 2021 16:34:54 GMT
Penny Thank you very much.
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Post by Dawnstar on Jun 11, 2021 9:12:51 GMT
I doubt they'd be socially distancing for end of August realistically. Or at least the moment restrictions are lifted they'll release all seats even if right now they're selling socially distanced only. I'm thinking in terms of booking, that if it is being sold in a socially-distanced format like last year then booking a single seat will be very difficult & I might need to fork out for priority booking. Whereas if all the seats are on sale then booking a single will be easier & I might wait until public booking opens.
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Post by Dawnstar on Jun 10, 2021 20:06:17 GMT
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Post by Dawnstar on Jun 9, 2021 12:23:34 GMT
kathryn I would like to emphatically second your post. I feel exactly the same way.
If ALW sues the government I suggest they counter-sue him for the cost to the NHS of providing care to anyone who catches covid in one of his theatres or travelling to/from said theatres, plus the cost to the economy if people have to self-isolate due to possible exposure & cannot go to work.
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Post by Dawnstar on Jun 8, 2021 19:53:14 GMT
What are we waiting FOR, exactly, when we're already vaccinated? For the rest of us to have our opportunity to be vaccinated. Surely that is obvious. Just because you're safe(er) doesn't mean the rest of us are, but by all means go ahead and be selfish if you don't have the patience to wait a few more weeks. It's not rocket science to remember that population numbers increase in the younger age groups and we are only just starting to get offered vaccines...
It also of course makes everyone safer. I've had one jab & should have my 2nd by the end of June but I'm still not going to feel safe until most of the population have also been vaccinated. Given the vaccines are not 100%, I'm worried in case I'm one of the percentage that it doesn't work for.
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Post by Dawnstar on Jun 8, 2021 18:56:00 GMT
If I'm honest I don't really get why people are angry, was anything major changing on the 21st? Something we can't do as at today? Aside from foreign travel which was never going to be an overnight sort anyway. But we can go to the pub, have dinner, shop, work, see friends and family, go to the theatre... just not in unlimited numbers or without a few precautions which aren't exactly a huge burden to put up with. Maybe I'm just odd but my life wasn't going to be any different on the 21st of June than it was on the 20th! Nor will mine: I'll still be staying at home shielding, not for my sake but for my mother's. I'm desparate to go to the theatre but I reckon the earliest I'll be able to go will be August & that's only if the covid rates stay low, and nothing else goes wrong with my mother's health. So if delaying full re-opening for a few weeks will help keep covid rates down then I am all for it.
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Post by Dawnstar on Jun 3, 2021 8:54:51 GMT
Grease is misogynistic. Why should Sandy conform? Les Mis and My Fair Lady are painfully long. No one wants a first act more than 1 hour 15. Wicked in the UK with the English accents adds class to the story and makes glinda a toff and it doesn’t work. “Darrrncing through life?” It’s PAINFUL. Terrible decision. It totally ruins the show in comparison to Broadway. I don't consider it misogynistic but I've never liked Sandy changing her style at the end because I think her normal style, with full skirts & pastel colours, is so much prettier than black lycra.
Tell Wagner that! The first act of Gotterdammerung is about 2 hours & there are 2 more acts afterwards!
I have the opposite view on Wicked. Since first seeing it in the West End I haven't liked hearing it with American accents. I can no longer listen to the cast recording because of that. (I also dislike hearing Les Mis or Phantom with American accents.)
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Post by Dawnstar on Jun 1, 2021 16:04:59 GMT
When I was trying to log in to the board earlier this afternoon I kept getting this error message. I think we all know who must have been responsible!
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Post by Dawnstar on Jun 1, 2021 9:51:07 GMT
Maybe it's the sudden change from col to very warm. This time last week I was still having the heating on, albeit for only an hour a day. Then in only a couple of days the temperature seemed to suddenly skyrocket so there's not yet been time to acclimatise. Not that I ever really acclimatise to the heat, as in I always dislike it, but if you've suffered a week of 30 degrees plus then 25 degrees seems good by comparison, whereas 25 degrees coming from 15 degrees seems awful.
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Post by Dawnstar on May 31, 2021 17:23:06 GMT
I'm gonna get a lot of raised eyebrows here, but 'Love Never Dies' isn't THAT bad. Don't get me wrong, it has a LOT of problems, especially in terms of story, characters and some lyrics. I agree. There's the obvious problem that an insane murderer is treated as the most eligible of bachelors by every young woman who meets him, but apart from that it's an OK show with some great musical numbers. It absolutely baffles me that we are supposed to find it plausible that a young woman engaged to a rich, handsome Viscount who she had known since childhood suddenly decides just before her wedding to go & have sex with a psychopathic, deformed, multiple murderer & stalker! I remember the one time I saw the show live sitting there simultaneously hating the plot & what had been done to the characters while getting goosebumps from some of the music. If only the lovely music had been used for a better plot.
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Post by Dawnstar on May 31, 2021 13:28:52 GMT
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Post by Dawnstar on May 31, 2021 12:09:37 GMT
One of my neighbours is practicing the piano within earshot. They are currently playing We Wish You A Merry Christmas!
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Post by Dawnstar on May 30, 2021 12:29:09 GMT
Hmm. Lots of agreement with my last one. So how about end credits on films and TV. At the very least there's too many people credited. Does anyone really need to see who the electrician or the catering were? It. whilst I agree to an extent, I do get annoyed when they start talking over credits and shrinking the screen to promote what's coming next. Sometimes I at least want to see who's in the cast but never get the chance. I agree with this. If you're going to have a long list of credits then have them at a size & scrolling speed that means they are legible, including large enough for those of us who don't have 50 inch TV screens to be able to read! Otherwise it's a complete waste.
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Post by Dawnstar on May 30, 2021 12:25:59 GMT
My opinion of the NHS has just plummeted. A couple of days ago they offered me the chance to rebook my second appointment to make it earlier because I'm in a high risk group. I chose not to because my second appointment is only a week and a half away and I thought I'd do the right thing by not muddling things up for an already stretched service. So they rewarded me for my patience and consideration by cancelling that appointment anyway and now I have to book all over again. Yesterday I met up with one of my cousins & her husband for the first time since the pandemic. Naturally we discussed vaccines & my cousin's husband said he had had his 2nd appointment cancelled & had to rebook at a different vaccination centre because the place he had his 2st vaccine & was booked for the 2nd were now only doing Pfizer & as he'd had AstraZeneca the first time he had to go somewhere else that was still doing AstraZeneca. So maybe something similar could be an explanation for your appointment being cancelled, if they don't have the right vaccine for you available at the time of your appointment.
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Post by Dawnstar on May 29, 2021 18:07:22 GMT
I might be in the minority here.... Pictures on T Shirts. I have no time for band logos, tour lists, butterflies etc etc on T shirts. Plain or patterned only please. There's no aesthetic reason. It's only done to show off and not because it looks good.
I don't care what other people choose to have on their T-shirts, unless it's obscene or offensive, but personally I only wear plain ones & have done since I got to adulthood. I'm not very keen on patterned fabrics either, apart from the occasional floral-patterned dress. The majority of my clothes are plain fabrics. I remember M&S going through an infuriating phase about a decade ago where something looked a nice colour from a distance then when you took it off the rack it had bits of patterned fabric added as ruffles or inserts.
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Post by Dawnstar on May 28, 2021 15:48:28 GMT
Theres a TONNE of scams going round at the minute, its vile. I keep getting calls from an automated message in Chinese! Hope your relative is ok. At least if they're in Chinese you (I'm guessing) don't understand what is being said. I don't know about other people but I find having to listen to conversations in languages I don't understand, for instance if someone is yelling away on their phone on a train, slightly less annoying than having to listen to conversaations in English.
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Post by Dawnstar on May 28, 2021 12:47:35 GMT
I don't know if the scammers who keep on making nuisance phone calls about Amazon Prime record the replies to their robotic calls but if they do then they've now got me on tape saying "Oh f*** off" before slamming the phone down! When you have a relative in hospital & are constantly on the alert for any phone calls with news then scam phone calls are even more annoying than usual.
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Post by Dawnstar on May 26, 2021 11:21:57 GMT
Does anyone else keep a list of performers you've seen in multiple shows or is it just me who is that geeky?
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Post by Dawnstar on May 25, 2021 11:48:25 GMT
I had my first jab through my GP and then booked my second appointment through the NHS website a couple of weeks later for 11 weeks after my initial jab. Then I got contacted by my GP again 8 weeks after my first jab to book my second jab through them, which I did for a few days later. I didn't cancel my appointment on the NHS website, just in case anything went wrong with my GP but the systems seem to be well linked, when I tried to cancel the day after my second jab, the website already knew that I had my second jab and I didn't need to cancel anymore. I've just tried the NHS website but the nearest vaccination centre it is showing for me in in the centre of Cambridge, rather than the health centre in the next village where I got my first vaccine. So I guess I'll have to wait until I'm contacted by my GP practice so I can have it done locally, as it would be harder & riskier for me to go into the centre of Cambridge at the moment.
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Post by Dawnstar on May 24, 2021 20:53:54 GMT
I share your panic/despair/frustration Dawnstar as someone who would have got pfizer if i'd been just a couple of months younger. I'm hoping it's better than in sounds. That said my sister has been trying to book a jab for a week and is just being offered appointments the other end of the country, flipping ridiculous. She thought she'd manage to book first but has no reference number or confirmation so don't think she did and the manage your appointment section can't decide if there is or isn't anything booked. Hold strong and we'll both try to not panic. Oh dear, I thought the issue with people being offered appointments at ridiculous distances had gone away, but it seems not. I don't even know how I'm supposed to make a 2nd appointment. After reading several news articles yesterday that people were being encouraged to make sure they had their 2nd jabs I looked up my local medical practice's website. The only thing I could find about appointments was a link to the government website for booking appointments. Which said that you have to book both appointments at once, but as I've already had my first jab I can't book 2 appointments! So I suppose all I can do is hope that my medical practice contact me next month but seems rather uncertain.
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Post by Dawnstar on May 24, 2021 18:04:54 GMT
They won't do it but I wish they'd stream performances with Gina Beck as well as Alex Young. The first streamed performance is 4th August & Alex Young starts sharing the role from 5th August so I thought that meant the streamed performance would be with Gina Beck.
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Post by Dawnstar on May 24, 2021 18:03:13 GMT
Does anyone know anything about this? Nowt on the OHP website It's on for 4 performances. Concert or staged?
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Post by Dawnstar on May 24, 2021 14:46:08 GMT
I think the same thing when I see people film curtain calls. When are you going to watch that? Are you ever going to watch that? Are you ever going to be sat at home of a Sunday evening and think "Oh! I know! I'll watch the curtain call of Les Mis!"? I started taking curtain call photos at the end of a number of Royal Ballet performances I saw in my last pre-covid theatregoing year after seeing other people's curtain call photos on Instagram. The ROH allows curtain call photos. A few days ago, after the Royal Ballet announced promotions for a number of those dancers, I went back through my curtain call photos, looking at photos of those that had just been promoted. It was a really nice reminder of some of the performances I saw in 2019-20. So I don't see why people wouldn't re-watch curtain call videos.
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Post by Dawnstar on May 23, 2021 18:56:18 GMT
To be fair, later in that same article they do give a potential reason for the discrepancy that suggests it’s not a major cause for concern. (I’m not 100% sure but I think they’re saying AZ will give you as good protection as Pfizer, it’s just that it takes a bit longer to build up...? They also seem to be saying a lot of the Pfizer cohort were youngish health workers, so I suppose they might naturally have higher immunity, which would boost the figure for Pfizer.) Basically I wouldn’t beat yourself up, lovely Dawnstar - I’m sure you did the responsible thing getting vaccinated early.
Yes, the article gets pretty vague at that point. A pity they're only at the trials stage of mixing jabs as if I could get Pfizer for my 2nd jab (due at the end of June) then I definitely would.
I hope so. My mother is back in hospital, for the third time in five weeks, & started on medication that has immunosuppressing effects during the first hospitalisation so I don't feel I was unjustified in begging for earlier vaccination from that point of view.
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Post by Dawnstar on May 23, 2021 18:40:15 GMT
Ah, so it is the same performance being streamed each time. I suppose that'll save me some money only seeing it once then.
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Post by Dawnstar on May 23, 2021 12:13:09 GMT
According to this article, Pfizer 88% effective against the Indian variant, AstraZeneca 60% effective. www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-57214596 As someone who has had AstraZeneca, I feel extremely depressed by this news. I got vaccinated earlier than my age group to protect my mother & had no choice of vaccine. If only I was getting vaccinated now, with my age group, then I would get the choice & would have gone for Pfizer. So I tried to do what seemed best at the time but now it's massively backfired. I can't see that I'll be able to go to the theatre for goodness knows how long now.
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