The play is derived from interviews the author, Gregory Burke, conducted with veterans and
former soldiers from the Black Watch (The Royal Highland Regiment) who had served in the current war in Iraq. And while the play is about those experiences, it is also about the 'Golden Thread' that ties generations of young (Scottish) men to military service and the complete lack of respect for tradition that military bureaucracies seem to observe when they eliminate mythic collective identity for the sake of 'efficiency.' Even though it absorbed the histories of two of the oldest regiments in the British Army (the 270-year history of the Black Watch and the 375-year history of the Royal Scots), the Royal Regiment of Scotland has little of the magic that comes with generations of honorable military service.All I will say as a review is that I went in feeling on the verge of flu and as though I might have to leave before the end of the 110min continuous performance. Instead, I didn't notice the passage of time and realized that I have sat through a lot of crap in my time. Really quite impressive.
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The road-racing season is largely over. And while none of them have formally acknowledged being vanquished for the fourth consecutive year, I came out glorious in the Cobblestone Fantasy Cycling League over my friends, Dan, Mike, and Patrick -- coming in 67th overall out of 1013 players worldwide. Long live Team Chinggis!
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Speaking of Chinggis: for those of you have visited Mongolia in recent years, you are probably aware of the amount of development that the capital, Ulan Baatar, has seen in the past decade. There are plans afoot now, sadly, to develop the Children's Park in downtown UB. The park is one of the few remaining substantial pieces of green space -- and just beyond the increasingly crowded city center. Journalist Michael Kohn has started a blog to try and coordinate efforts to save the park.
Thanks to Annie-bagsh for the heads-up and to Steve Bodio at Querencia for helping to get the word out.
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We did get the call-up for the PANE Field Trial at Flaherty this weekend. I'm a little nervous at Mr. Enthusiasm's official debut as a field trial contender. Hopefully I won't screw things up for him. Here's a picture of his little muscle-butt pointing a quail from the other weekend for good luck!!!
3 comments:
Love the name Mr. Enthusiasm. Really paints a picture of his character.
I love all the pictures you put up of him on point. I can never get one of Ziggi because we only have squirrels for her to point at and they scurry off too fast for her to hold the point.
Really random question but someone told me once that a dog will pick one front leg up for feather and the other for fur. Now not sure if this is possible so could you clarify it for me.
Ziggi doesn't pick either foot up sometimes so either she is a really bad pointer or there is some crazy half feather half fur animal in the bushes according to the theory above!
Anna
Great question, Anna. Our two will point fur (ie. rabbits), but I probably haven't been paying attention enough to tell you if they pick up one leg for one thing, and the other for another. I imagine, though, that, if I went through my pictures I'd find both boys lifting any one of their four feet when on point.
Lifting a foot certainly looks cool, but some breeds don't generally do it... Pointers, in any of the continental flavors, and as opposed to the versatile breeds that point (like the vizsla and weimaraner), seem to get themselves all squared up on all four feet when on point.
best
Cute bum! consider it pinched!
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