Speed The Plow

Saturday we went to see Kevin Spacey, Jeff Goldblum and Laura Michelle Kelly playing David Mamet's Speed-the-plow at Old Vic.

The Old Vic is one of my favourite theatres. Large enough to foster an atmosphere, but small enough for intimacy, so I always have great expectations when I do go. And I was not disappointed.

This is a great show. Mamet's play about the cut, thrust and ultimately fickle nature of Hollywood is a simple story, beautifully acted. The speed of the dialogue is awesome. The interplay between the two principle actors - Spacey and Goldblum is mesmerising, yet easy to follow. And Kelly's more gentle role as the office temp provides a perfect counterpoint. This was one of the best plays, and best stage performances I seen for ages.

See it if you can.

Marathon disappointment

Today's gentle training run turned into a disaster. My Achilles heel was sore from the off and after 8k my right calf pulled again. And I was only jogging a I'm still recovering from last week's Adidas Half Marathon. I think that probably ends my London Marathon ambitions for this year. I'm hugely disappointed as I'll have to go back into the lottery for a place in 2009. So, my next race will now the the Darenth Valley 10k in May. I've never run that race before, but it's local and even though the course undulates, there are some long hill stretches, so that should be fun!

TelePresence

I was given a demo today of the TelePresence product from Cisco. Wow! Video conferencing has really grown up. It’s close to being in the same room as I guess you can get without actually being in the same room. Likelike, no latency and directional audio make this a fabulous solution for cutting the travel miles for face to face meetings. Well worth a look.

Social Media Panel

This week I took part in a panel session on Social Media at the British Library. I was on the platform with Euan Semple, ex-BBC and well known in social media circles, and Conrad Bird, Deputy Director of Government Communications.

It was an interesting morning. I still find it surprising how many organisations are still thinking about whether social media is important to them, or the theory and concepts. Few seem to be dealing with the practicalities of introducing and running blogs, wikis, social networks etc. on a day to day basis inside their organisation. I don’t understand why the delays.

Inevitably SharePoint came up in the discussion and I was interested in Euan’s view that SharePoint does not support transformation. It reaffirms the status quo. This is something I have felt for sometime. SharePoint is far too comfortable, it is not a disruptive technology. It integrates well with the way we do things, with the existing culture, and with the existing technologies. It doesn’t force change. In my view it is far better to go with an open source wiki type solution, or a Facebook type social network which causes an organisation to re-think many things, taking us out of our comfort zone.

We also discussed revolution or evolution - and whether fast evolution is the same as slow revolution. I think not. Revolution implies a radical shift in many things, whereas evolution is a much less challenging affair. Having said that, one of the keys to success when deploying social media tools into risk-averse organisations (and amongst risk averse colleagues such as HR and legal) has to be to emphasise the evolutionary dimensions. Even if the results are revolutionary.

The Sound of Music

Perhaps not my first choice of a West End show to see, but I was there on Saturday afternoon for the matinee performance of The Sound of Music at the London Palladium. I knew the songs, of course, and I’ve seen the film and I’m afraid I still find the story twee. Predictable, cliché-ridden and over-hyped. I wonder if it would have had such a successful run if it the casting hadn’t been conducted via a reality TV show? I often fall asleep in the cinema, but rarely in the theatre, so when I found my eyes drooping I knew it must be bad. Even the lady in the seat in front of me was texting her friend with the message “Not good, almost asleep”. Watching her send the text was more interesting than the show itself. See it at your peril!

2,375th

I made it! I came a splendid 2,375^th out of over 4,800 runners in Sunday’s Adidas Silverstone Half Marathon. I was pleased with my time of 1 hour 57 minutes 53 seconds – a couple of minutes inside my target time of 2 hours. Although it was cold on the day, the weather wasn’t too bad, but it did get quite windy during the second half of the race. There was a great atmosphere at the start of the race – there always is – but running round the track meant there weren’t many spectators, nor much encouragement, as the race went along. It certainly wasn’t as much fun as the Bath Half Marathon last year. Nevertheless, I’m glad I did it as now my sights turn to the big one – The London Marathon in just five weeks time. At the moment I’m still thinking I’ll be doing it, but I’ll need to get a gentle 25k training run in this weekend, and a 30k run next weekend to be sure. I have moderated my target time though. Realistically I haven’t done enough road running to seriously go at 4 hours 15 minutes, so I’m settling for a target of 5 hours.

Jumper

Sci-fi is not my favourite genre, although I am a fan of Doug Liman – particularly his earlier work such as “Swingers” and especially, “Go”. So I wasn’t expecting to enjoy “Jumper” much, and I didn’t. Slow, poorly developed characters, mediocre acting all led to a very disappointing experience. It’s a shame because the basic premis is a good one – the ‘hero’ having super hero powers yet not behaving like one – a point made in a very unsubtle way when David was watching TV towards the beginning. It could have been a much better film. And why can't the camera be held still these days? I can't wait for that particular technique to go out of fashion again!