Seven Brides for Seven Brothers

Kings Theatre Southsea March 2014

I remember watching the film when I was a child on a Sunday afternoon on my Aunt’s colour television. It starred Howard Keel, Jane Powell and Russ Tamblyn (The youngest brother) who had already captured my admiration for his performance in the Film “Tom Thumb”  The colourful costumes and the acrobatic dances enthralled me  most about it. I had forgotten the story as well as many of the songs since it has been a good many years since I watched the video with my own children, but as soon as Sam Attwater  came gliding out on a raft singing “Bless your beautiful hide” in his suede tasselled jacket and trousers the memories came flooding back like a switch in my brain. From that moment, the show was filled with vibrant energy and magical colour.

Set in the Oregon in 1850, Adam Pontipee(Sam Attwater) comes to town to trade supplies and to find himself a wife with no intention of leaving empty handed. He spots the lovely Milly (Helena Blackman) tough and hardworking in a bar and proposes immediately. Far fetched as it is, Adam is in a hurry and Milly’s time is running out having turned down townsmen’s proposals in the past. Besides that, Adam is terribly handsome and the idea of living in a cabin in the hills with her own husband was a perfect dream. However when the newly weds arrive, she is presented with six truly uncouth brothers to share her home with.

Once she is over the initial shock, she decides to teach them some manners and grace in the hope of finding them wives of their own. Cleaned up and dressed appropriately they go to town for a social event and meet some ladies. The evening ends in a brawl caused by Adam and they leave unwelcome to return. The boys have become love sick and cannot do any work.  Adam comes up with a plan after reading about the capture of Sabine women by the Romans in one of Milly’s books. They sneak back into town and each kidnap their women. When they cross the gorge they invoke an avalanche that restricts the passage from town until the spring time.

The story itself would certainly not appeal to any modern  thinking woman now but I have a sneaking suspicion that hidden beneath the modern exterior, real men would be a little like those brothers if left unattended, fending for themselves in a log cabin far from civilization. I see glimpses of similar behaviour in pubs occasionally. Equally I think even the classiest of women are attracted to raw, rugged tough men as opposed to their respectable jacket and tie office workers.

The elegant Helena Blackman gave a fabulous performance bringing Milly to life with acting and dancing .   Her powerful yet somehow calming voice told the story in the classically written songs.

The costumes were stunning and Patti Columbo’s direction and choreography was awesome especially in in the  barn dance scene with the brothers and townsmen leaping all over the stage with their axes in attempt to impress the girls  who equally  danced amazingly  with their full skirts whirling around flashing frilly bloomers  with high kicks to the toe tapping music.

It was a fantastic experience and I had the feeling of wanting to jump out of my seat and do si do but alas I was in the front seat of the lower circle and would’ve done myself some damage. It was lovely to see the audience packed with all age groups keeping this old style of musical theatre alive. I thoroughly recommend this show to anyone who just wants to feel good.

Check out http://www.sevenbridesthemusical.com/index.html

Marianna xx

To buy gym membership or not to buy gym membership.

With obesity on the rise due to convenient living in the computer age, should we be subsidizing our luxury touch screen lifestyle with gym membership. Lets take a close look at what a gym has to offer.

So, we drive there, we park up and we go in through a turnstile to the changing rooms.  There are mirrors everywhere just to remind you of how much you consumed throughout December and are still hanging on to it in early February. You suck in but it’s no use, the extra pounds have nowhere to hide. The message should be that you have come to right place but the ego mind is telling you different. It’s not really your scene and you fit in more with the folks in your local pub, at least they make conversation and they are real, yes unlike the images posted all around of attractive toned tanned bodies in gym wear holding kettle bells or other equipment saying positive things like “ you too can look like this.”  Yeah right you mutter.  Out on the gym floor you see lots of machines and strange looking contraptions all around.  You ask yourself, what shall I go on first. Well the treadmill looks easy, you can manage that movement.  So you go for a twenty minute walk on a tread mill going nowhere on a flat surface without any change to the scenery or level.  That wasn't so hard was it?  Then you see a stationary bike, again it has a ring of familiarity to it, you cycled as a kid, the movement should be like riding a bike if you will. So ten or fifteen minutes of that as you play with the gears a bit and get your heart rate up.  You come off, your thighs feel as though you've worked them a fair bit well good.  Now there you see the opportunity to sit down on the job, a rowing machine.  Sit down get comfortable, strap in and off you go. Twenty minutes of this and you get a cardio workout as well as toning arms, legs, bum and abdominal muscles.  Now that’s worth it.  All the other machines in the studio look unfamiliar and you need someone to show you what to do because you really don’t want to show yourself up.

That was me about ten years ago when I decided to join a gym but the more I used it the fitter I became and the fitter I got the more new hobbies I took up like cycling, yoga  and for a time even indoor rock climbing. However work commitments mounted and I found I no longer had the spare time to spend in the gym so reluctantly I had to cancel my membership as it just wasn't worth the money any more.

I thought I could keep fit without the aid of machinery. So I got rid of the car and cycled to work each day,  walked my dog every evening and practiced yoga once a week.  As well as all of that, I was eating a healthy balanced diet with all the food groups avoiding processed ready meals. (I love cooking) Before you decide that I'm a freaky health fanatic let me also point out that I often spend hours laying on my bed reading, or on the sofa watching films (I can digest up to three films in a row) I like a bit of chocolate and  enjoy wine. I have a tendency to gain excess fat around the middle especially in winter months.

Two years down the line I decided to go back to my old gym just to test my theory.  Am I as fit without membership or have I become a slim weakling?  I'm not joining yet just using the free trial passes that they offer.

This time it was all very familiar, they've added some features like electronic touch screen demo's and more hand held equipment, but at least it wasn't as daunting for an old timer like me. I joined a fifteen minute core class to start with, then I did a spin workout on the stationary bikes. This was really good fun and it had music to spur you on. I enjoyed the fact that there was no danger of crashing and falling so I pedalled as fast as my legs could go.  It was a great cardio workout without much pain but after I dismounted I realized my legs felt like jelly. I soldiered on into the circuits class.

I left the gym in a state of exhaustion and for two days I could hardly walk at all. However four days later I returned for more punishment. I did the fifteen minute core class which my abdominal muscles felt this time from lack of a full recovery. Then I did an hour of body pump class using not very heavy weights. Here there was lots of lunges and squats to loud music which is supposed to take your mind of the pain.  I made the most of my free day pass and did the athletic free style which involved lots of explosive movements with handheld equipment. This time I left the gym with aching arms but I felt surprisingly toned already just from these two sessions.

Apart from the stationary bike, my visit to the gym didn't involve the use of much machinery and so I conclude we can keep very fit without treadmills and rowing machines.  My home fitness regime however is not as efficient as going to the gym as I found out through the pain and recovery period. I must have been much fitter when I attended regularly but now the question is, do I really need to maintain that level of athletic fitness or is it enough just to be reasonably healthy.

Our bodies quickly get used to regular habitual movements and I think the most important thing I have learnt is that I need to be mixing things up a bit so that all muscles get used. I will be stepping up my home workouts for certain.

Gym membership? Personally my answer remains the same. It’s expensive and I don’t have the time to justify the money. However if I were struggling with my weight I think the gym would be the best and quickest solution. The faster the results come the more encouraging it is to keep working and it is not so easy to push yourself as it is to have someone do it it for you.

Next week I am going to an outdoor boot camp. I am dreading it but looking forward to the results.

Marianna Martin

www.fitnessfirst.co.uk

The Tantrums of a small child

As a teacher of small children, I believe we also have a lot to learn from them. The mind of a child has not yet undergone the conditioning of society, institution, religious doctrine or even peer pressure enough to inhibit their nature. Very young children are human beings in the purest form.  They are only evolving to survive.

So when I heard the incessant raging screams of a small child somewhere in the vastness of a huge superstore the other day only making out one or two strangled words like, I want, I will I promise etc. I wondered at first what could possibly be happening to this child. Other shoppers went about their business seemingly unable to hear it at all until the sound gradually got closer to my vicinity and only then their comments went something like, “I wish they’d buy that kid a toy and shut him up” or “Let’s get away from here it’s too noisy”. Indeed the sound of a frustrated angry child was irritating but I wanted to take a closer look, I was betting this child was getting his toy.  I followed the noise and sure enough, I found him down the toy aisle with a young girl who seemed likely to be an older sibling. He was clutching a toy and she was trying to pacify him. The momentum of the screaming tantrum wasn’t easing off any time soon because this still wasn’t enough. Was it that he was unable to give up the attention being directly on him and his needs so he was creating more conflict in his dissatisfaction with the toy? More than likely he was just so worked up that he just didn’t know how to stop.

Still sobbing and squealing as loudly as ever I watched him disappear off into the distance clutching his prize with the young girl.  By his height I would have guessed him to be about aged three to four but his behaviour suggested a taller than average two year old. I will never know for sure. The girl looked pre-teen probably not yet in senior school but taking on the role of responsibility and showing endless patience. May-be she was actually a visiting older cousin or stepsister because surely  a resident full time  sibling would have been tempted to shove a sock in his mouth.  My place was not to cast judgement on this but to step back and ask myself, why?  The child has learnt how to get what he wants. He doesn’t care what I or anyone else in the building thinks. This is the lesson he has learnt from a very young age.

What I am trying to understand is how we as a species got into this material striving world and how it is evolving for us.  Imagine being in the wild, having predators  and how  the noise of a child in full blown tantrum would have impacted a tribe.  Surviving is no longer what  we humans are all about.  The supermarket giants have a lot to answer for as does the media and advertising industry. Supermarkets strategically place toys and sweets and all kinds of things in the child’s view so that  parents cannot do the shopping in peace. Then to make matters worse they dangle fashion accessories and pretty things in our view as we find ourselves browsing the clothing aisle when we’d popped out to buy groceries. In adulthood we are already practicing shopaholics, we just don’t need to scream the place down anymore. The irony is, that  just like that small child worn ragged from his mighty tantrum, we don’t really actually need or want the item purchased nor do we feel any gratification from parting with the cash.

It’s time we stood up for ourselves by not going to the superstore and buying fruit and vegetables from the local greengrocers. Or is it  too late, because they’ve lost the space in the high street to the big guys.

Film Review Dawn of the Planet of the Apes

A stunning sequel to the Rise of the planet of the apes keeps you on edge throughout whilst challenging your loyalty to our own species. The high quality of the animation and special effects makes you somehow forget the absurdity of seeing apes on horseback but points out how dangerous they would be if they were to become intelligent. The strength, speed and agility of the apes sets them way ahead of us.
It opens just where it left off in the last film just to recap what happened. We see red lines criss crossing on a globe signifying the journey of a man made virus all over the world with overlapping news reports narrating the story so far, featuring violence and chaos in keeping with the apocalyptic scenario. In case you didn't see the last film, humans were treating apes like lab rats in search of a cure for Alzheimer’s. The antidote in early stages made apes intelligent but had a detrimental effect on humans when exposed to it creating a contagious virus known as ALZ-113 which was now wiping out our species significantly.
A decade later apes, led by Caesar, (Andy Serkis) had settled and were evolving with their new found intelligence in the Muir woodlands near San Francisco. Apes from the previous film Rocket,(Terry Notary) Maurice the Orang-utan, (Karin Konoval) and Koba (Tony Kebell) are all part of this new generation. Still primitive and innocent in many ways some of the apes could talk but many used sign language and there were subtitles enhancing the credibility of the story and our empathy for them. While it isn't essential to have seen the previous film, prior knowledge of Caesar’s back story will certainly add texture and dimension to the sequel.
Meanwhile some groups of humans had survived due to their immunity to the killer flu. The film focuses on a group in the San Francisco area led by Dreyfus, (Gary Oldman) who are trying to regain power sources in order to communicate with other possible survivors around the world. (Man’s need for technology is highlighted as a weakness.) A small group of people led by Malcolm (Jason Clarke) go out to search for an old hydro electric dam in the domain of the Apes. When the two species find out about the existence of each other it invokes fear which eventually unfolds into violence and death.

The story is intertwined with peacemakers on both sides which gives rise to division amongst the tribes. However, unexpected twists occur but I shan't give any more away.
Although the story is essentially a science fiction fantasy, it flirts with the reality of intelligent being’s fear driven lust for power that inevitably leads to war. It portrays the hopelessness of the passive and peaceful mind.
The performances of the cast were powerful particularly the apes. The effects were stunning and had me jumping out of my skin at times. Although much of the violence and fight scenes were extreme it was proportionate to the story. I look forward to the next one and look out for Blue Eyes (Caesar’s Son) played by (Nick Thurston). His soulful expression evokes the empathy we do feel for the species that will eventually overthrow our own.

Outdoor bootcamp.

 This is something I got talked into and then talked others into it also. I think that’s how it works. No one in their right mind would choose to do this.  The very idea of boot camp stirs visions of mud, sweat and pain.  It’s not like the word brings to mind a nice shiny, clean, toned to perfection, youthful body to the forefront of my imagination. I hear groans, huffing and puffing but before those of you with smut riddled mind sets go off on tangents I really don’t find the whole boot camp thing sexy unless you’re into that sort of thing.

It began on the first Sunday of March at 9.30 am.  This alone was punishment for me as I consider Sunday Morning to be a day to ignore my alarm as I curl up victoriously back under the duvet after hitting the snooze button several times.

A group of about forty people of all ages, genders, shapes and sizes met up in a car park to train on a public pathway consisting of air, mud, hills and a brook running along side. A dog walkers haven no doubt too and I daren’t wonder what else could be mixed in with the mud. But it’s not like we’re going to eat it so I decided to embrace the whole outdoorsy getting mucky feel good fun loving idea lest the fear of what we were about to do take over my mind.

There was lots of jogging and running for the first part I began to wonder when we would get our break. Running with high knees, butt kicks, clapping hands under our legs.  Running with over arm swings, under arm swings, butterfly stroke then turn around and do it all again in the other direction. I began huffing and puffing.  Now the Ex Marine trainer was actually very nice, he wasn't shouting at anyone as I expected, but to throw in the towel amongst all those people and to be the first to do it was probably the first point of motivation. No one was doing that, these people including me would rather collapse on the floor and die than give up right now.  Then there were the breaks where we would stop running briefly only to do press ups, sit ups and side planks then more running.  Did I mention I dislike running.  There were other movements like burpees, lunges, squats alternative planks.  We did things in pairs, we ran and we crawled backwards up hills, climbed over fences and tricep dipped whilst someone held our legs. There was no equipment necessary we just used what ever was at hand and if it meant another human then we used it. Halfway through we were allowed a squirt of water but literally that was all because our trainer said any more might have made us sick.

Now if it all sounds like technical gym jargon I have to point out that all the moves were demonstrated for those who were new to training and there were variations for different levels for example  press ups can be practised from a kneeling position to make it easier.

By the end of the workout I felt surprisingly energized though I did pull a muscle in my shoulder trying to rush through a set of repetitions (so It was my own fault) After a warm shower and some lunch I knew I was going to ache for the next couple of days.  It was well worth making the effort, I did it again this week and the moves were and always will be different but the level of exhaustion  remained the same.

Training in the open air, much as I moan and groan has  got so many benefits such as more oxygen available, greenery raising serotonin levels, sensory stimulation far more pleasant than an echoey gym, and of course for the coach it keeps the overheads down considerably. It challenges your body running up and down on uneven yet slightly soft surface and it just generally makes you feel so good, especially when it’s over and you get to pat yourself on the back.

I would thoroughly recommend it. I feel great for getting out of bed early on a Sunday and doing that for an hour as opposed to lounging around all day not really feeling motivated to do anything. I cleared a mountain of tedious important paper work when I got home which I can’t usually even begin until late afternoon.

 www.getout-fit.co.uk

Marianna Martin