Two cultures

It had to happen. This weekend our harmonious, two-cultures family was momentarily divided (well, for ninety minutes...). Yep, for the first time in history, Slovenia played England at football :-) We watched it on the hi-definition TV at Jure and Petra's place, so I was heavily outnumbered by Slovenes (me and the two halves of our two girls against three adults, one teenager, two and two-halves kids and one baby). I'd like to think that I set the early pace with a stirring rendition of God Save The Queen, which blew away the frankly weak singing of Preseren's Zdravljica!

In spite of my and Richard's confidence in a 5-1 scoreline; the game was actually pretty good. Slovenia played really rather well - nice flowing movement, which showed up some alarming holes in our defence. In the end, England were 2-1 winners. England had plenty of chances of score (and should have really scored 4) but Slovenia possibly deserved another goal. Moreover, England's first goal was a terrible refereeing mistake - there was no foul; not even the England players claimed it. That said, I still don't buy Jure's assertion that Slovenia morally won the game!

Anyway, game over and harmony restored in our household. (I was particularly impressed by Hana, who when asked at the start of the game who she supported, looked at me, looked at Mateja and then said "I don't know" and then ran off to play with her friends. A diplomat in the making!)

LG watchphone

I'm strangely attracted to the new LG watchphone.

Short film in powerpoint

There's something appealingly retro about this short film created entirely within Powerpoint.

James in The New York Times

There's a nice piece in Saturday's New York Times that features an interview with James.

Hamlet@Donmar

On Saturday we went to see the last performance of Hamlet, which brings to a close the year-long residency of the Donmar at the Wyndhams (Donmar West End).

We *really* enjoyed this show. Jude Law is staggeringly good as Hamlet. I've not been overwhelmed with some of his film work; but it's clear that he's an outstandingly good actor. Interestingly I read his interview with Michael Grandage where he mentioned his love of ballet. I have to say that this really comes across in his performance. It's full of graceful movement - especially with his arms and hands. He's a physical actor!

For such a long and brilliant play, there are so many great moments but let me mention my three favourite:

1. The "To be or not to be" scene. This was the best I have ever seen. Visually it was breathtaking: Hamlet flattened against a huge brick wall, framed by two collosal doors, behind a film of gently falling snow, and intensely lit echoing the introspection of the words. Moreover, I loved Jude's restrained delivery, which really made you listen to the words carefully (a good thing for such a well-known speech).
2. The "play within the play" scene. Again, visually superb: the players were in all-white, standing on a white carpet, and bathed in intense white light. This really helped to pull you into the scene, to watch for the King's reaction and to observe Hamlet's emotion and provocation from the side.
3. The "king's confession" scene. The simplest of scenes: the King kneeling on an empty stage, hands together, praying for forgiveness; but one of the most powerful. I thought Kevin McNally as Claudius was superb.

Now the play transfers to the actual Elsinor Castle in Denmark for a brief run (how cool is that?!), and then on to Broadway. If you have a chance to see it, you should as I think this is a sensational production.

Bye to the Hicks family!

A sad day today: I just got back from Mike and Kim's place having helped them do the last bit of ferrying around of stuff as they prepare to leave Cambridge tomorrow (and fly back to the US on Sunday). I took Mike for a last beer at The Empress and we had a last curry from the Kismet.

We've really enjoyed having Mike, Kim and the kids here in Cambridge over the past year; it's been great fun. Certainly Hana and Lina will really miss them. Hopefully we'll be able to go to see them in the US :-) Have a safe flight, guys!

Zune HD

Check out this video of the new Zune HD UI. Wow - that's really cool!