I can't comfort you, I'm on hold

Knitting
I finished the Orange Shred Shag. It's not terribly long and may have to be worn en jabot, but it's lovely. I haven't seen my upstairs neighbour to pass it on yet so this is how it looks on the doorknob. (Orange Shred Marmalade is the very vivid sort, with strips of peel in it.)


The secret off-blog project can be seen on Ravelry, but I must warn you that it doesn't look like much at the moment, a bit of an ugly duckling.

Tattooed Lady
I saw the youngest member of my family on Sunday and she was wearing a temporary tattoo - at least, I hope it was temporary. She was sitting on her daddy's lap for 7 seconds before squirming off somewhere else, and I caught this.

Her daddy doesn't have a tattoo.

Telly
The title of this piece is from a television series that I came across by accident and have been revelling in ever since, Slings and Arrows. It's a Canadian series set in a theatre company that specializes in Shakespeare and it's shown every night on Sky Arts in the middle of the night. I didn't even know that I got Sky Arts (I'm on cable, not satellite) but it appeared after Mr Murdoch and Mr Branson made up their spat recently. I don't understand why Slings hasn't been taken up by a terrestrial channel, unless it's because it doesn't have any explosions or dismemberments and not much adultery (it's about actors, so there has to be some). It's full of theatrical in-jokes and even some real stories which you might recognize, and the actors are obviously enjoying themselves enormously - actors acting actors, what more could they ask - and it's written by one of them, who plays the insensitive financial manager surrounded by people who make a profession out of being sensitive, and who gave himself the line at the top.

In the first series, a film heart-throb (I think that word dates me but I can't think of a better one) arrives to play Hamlet, and in the second there's a fabulously pretentious production of Romeo and Juliet, where the lovers are dressed as chess pieces and never look at each other but address all their speeches, delivered in monotone, direct to the audience. And it stars the delicious Paul Gross - fans of Due South are probably fanning themselves at the memory - but his real-life wife is in it too, playing his love interest, so one's feet stay on the ground: probably not a bad thing. There are lots of other good actors too. Well worth tracking down and recording.

Anna Conroy: [holding Oliver's skull] It's not that heavy at all!
Geoffrey Tennant: It's much lighter without the ego.

If you can't get it on your television and the dvds are the wrong region, you can watch quite a lot of it on YouTube.


Watch to the end for the punch line.

And Geoffrey directing Ophelia: I wish Meg Ryan had seen this before she made Restoration.