The sound of musicals

You can now apparently get the "Mamma Mia!" soundtrack on CD. Odd - I've owned a copy for several years now. It's called "ABBA Gold: Their Greatest Hits".

I remain unconvinced by musicals that grab a pile of songs by an artist or group and craft a wafer thin plot around them ("We Will Rock You", I'm looking at you). There have been far too many that have disappeared without much of a trace. I think Barry Manilow tried with "Copacabana", Billy Joel gets an outing in "Movin' Out", Take That's Greatest Hits are bastardised in "Never Forget" - the list goes on. In a change of tack, "Jersey Boys" uses the music of Frankie Valli and The Four Seasons to tell the story of, well, Frankie Valli and The Four Seasons. This seems like a sound move, until you realise that it's a "fictionalised" story. Which surely means, "we made it up over a coffee 'cos it fit the songs". Sounds familiar?

This leads me neatly onto "I'd Do Anything", the search for the nation's Nancy (which was obviously a tie between Graham Norton and John Barrowman - John Humphries was disqualified for having a truly terrible syrup). True talent always shines through, as aptly demonstrated by the final of "Last Choir Standing" which is on TV as I type this. I don't care who wins, both finalists contain more talent then you'll see if you watch the entirety of the current series of "The X-Factor" from start to finish.

Back to Nancy, and Mrs Steve and I had the pleasure of visiting the Faenol Festival in Bangor last Sunday evening. The main reason for this was the presence of a certain Mr J Barrowman, but joining him on the bill were Daniel Boys (one of the lads who wasn't Joseph in "Any Dream Will Do", but who has a bloody amazing belter of a voice) and Jodie Prenger - the nation's real Nancy.

Her performance of the full version of Send In The Clowns was even more moving than the truncated version she performed to so much acclaim on the show. She also moved me with a quite beatiful reading of Out Here On My Own from "Fame". The nation chose well.

The Internet, Facebook and Chemistry

The internet is a wonderful thing. Really. You're never alone with junk mail and malware. I'm getting breast enlargements next week. Comes with a free fake Rolex and a box of Viagra-a-like - "I Can't Believe It's Not Stiffer".

Facebook has a lot to answer for. Ignoring the draconian terms and conditions that you agree to by using it, is it just my imagination or has it turned into a more feature-rich version of Friends Reunited? And what was the real purpose of that site? Yep, it was to find all the people who'd picked on you while you were at school and rub their faces in the fact that you were now more successful than them. With Facebook you can do this with words and pictures. Here's an album showing our new car. Do you have a Mercedes too? No? Then fuck off.

It's not intentional; these things happen when you're uploading every photo you've ever taken and letting everyone who's ever met anyone you've ever met look at them. I'm going on holiday for two weeks - oh, and here's a photo of my front door. Hmm, where's all my furniture gone?

Apparently the Olsen twins are now "of legal age". This is excellent news. Beating two inane, vacuous, oxygen-thief adults to death sounds less cruel then doing the same to a couple of children. And I bet they'd still be smiling.

Having recently been to the US of A (and not a touristy part of it, either) I'm happy to relate that normal Americans are just that - normal. And American. You can't have everything. If you did, where would you put it?

In a very big box, of course. Just don't ask where you'd put the box.

It occurred to me the other day that I'd recently spent two nights sharing a bedroom with a friend who has a chemistry degree, and who has told me on a couple of occasions that she knows of several completely untracable ways of killing someone. Why the bloody hell didn't I think of that at the time?!

At least I wasn't drunk...

Erm...

The Blogroll has been recovered from the depths of the Internet and safely re-homed on my own webspace. Perhaps this time I'll manage more than three posts in four years.

But don't hold your breath...