Caboose

The latest part of my campaign to get out more was a free members’ preview of Rabbit-Proof Fence at the Arts Picture House.

I thought they had really taken advantage of the scenery and found some fantastic actresses to play the parts of the three aboriginal girls taken from their families to be trained as servants. Kenneth Branagh did a very good job as the Chief Protector of Aborigines, a well-meaning but misguided bureaucrat.

Deborah Mailman also appeared, she’s one of the stars of The Secret Life of Us, one of my favourite TV programs. Sadly Channel 4 are only showing it on their E4 digital channel at the moment. I’m waiting patiently for it to return to normal TV.

Just one thing I noticed: is it just me or does the language spoken by the Aborigines in the film not sound a lot like the Ewoks from Return of the Jedi? Is this possibly where the Star Wars people got some inspiration from?

Went to see Beth Orton (alternate site) in concert at the Cambridge Corn Exchange last night, fantastic. Wasn’t too keen on the support act, Ed Harcourt, but Beth was amazing.

I had been a bit worried that her voice wouldn’t come through well live, but it did. The mixture of old and new songs was good, the band were great, on the whole a very pleasant way to spend an evening. We just caught the final encore, ‘I wish I never saw the sunshine’ with Beth alone on stage, an excellent way to finish off.

I was surprised by how teeny she looks on stage after reading lots of interviews going on about how tall she is. She seemed quite nervous and shy doing the links between songs, although later on she told a few very bad jokes.

Albums:
Trailer Park
Central Reservation
Daybreaker