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Searching undeterred: The Gift @ParkTheatre

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I recently had a few parcels go missing from where I live. The first parcel disappeared without a trace. The second parcel's contents were removed, and the box was left alone in the lobby. It's one of the things that you have to put up with living in central London. Apart from complaining to the delivery company and filing a police report, it crossed my mind to think about what would happen if I sent myself something rather unpleasant for a future parcel thief to open up. Well, Dave Florez's new work, The Gift, is in this line of thinking, except that the lead receives an anonymous gift of a turd in the mail rather than sending it to himself. It is lovingly gift-wrapped in a cake box from a posh north London bakery. It's a fascinating and hilarious three-hander currently playing at Park Theatre .  Colin (Nicholas Burns) is a little obsessive at the best of times. He doesn't let things drop quickly and is obsessed with the details behind anything and everythi...
Technology and the thoroughly modern lifestyle

Today it occurred to me that between my flatmate and I we have

  • 3 televisions
  • 3 VCRS
  • 3 dvd players / burners
  • 2 computers
  • 3 digital cameras


Its a lot of junk to have... Not to mention the PDA and the iPOD. All this technology reminded me of being in Fopp yesterday (which is a great music, dvd, books and record store) and heard a new track from Daft Punk's latest album - Human After All "technologic":

Buy it, use it, break it, fix it,
trash it, change it, melt - upgrade it,
charge it, pawn it, zoom it, press it,
snap it, work it, quick - erase it,
write it, get it, paste it, save it,
load it, check it, quick - rewrite it,
plug it, play it, burn it, rip it,
drag and drop it, zip - unzip it,
lock it, fill it, curl it, find it,
view it, curl it, jam - unlock it,
surf it, scroll it, pose it, click it,
cross it, crack it, twitch - update it,
name it, read it, tune it, print it,
scan it, send it, fax - rename it,
touch it, bring it, obey it, watch it,
turn it, leave it, stop - format it.


... But I'm not giving up my gadgets. Incidentally it has been pointed out to me that getting a laptop from ones ex (even if you are entitled to it), is still a good deal. One person informed me: "The only thing my ex ever gave me was a dose of the clap!".

Ok I'll take the big ugly Toshiba laptop and run...

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