twilightdawning

A writer's thoughts – mainly about music, sport and theatre. Shakespeare, Bob Dylan, live shows, New York Yankees

The New York Yankees – The Batters in April (2015)

Posted on May 3, 2015 by twilightdawning

The Yankees have got off to a surprisingly good start to the season with a 14-8 record in April. This becomes doubly surprising when we consider that they got off to a 3-6 run in their first nine games. Both the bullpen and large sections of the offensive line-up have done better than we had any reason to expect and whilst there are more than a few weak links, there is good reason to think they can at least stay with the pace of a division which doesn’t have a clearly outstanding team.

Let’s survey who is doing well and not so well…

Continue reading →

The Shakespearience Too at Ravenscourt Arts

Posted on April 7, 2015 by twilightdawning

Presenting Shakespeare for ages 10-14 (i.e. the ages before they start formally studying the writer for exams in school) is not an easy task but it is a challenge that I have set myself over these last six years and I have to say with some degree of success.

This year was our largest project to date. With 1600-1700 young people signed up to attend and with our troupe now firmly esconced in our own theatre at Ravenscourt Arts, we decided to strip back to basics and bring in a new cast to work with a new script. Time to take some risks.

Continue reading →

The New York Yankees Off Season Update 7

Posted on April 4, 2015 by twilightdawning

Well, in our last two part article, I made my predictions (just a few days before the start of the season) about the Yankees’ opening day roster and their performance in the 2015 season.

Wouldn’t you know that there would be an injury that would change quite a few things before we even got to that first game!

Continue reading →

The New York Yankees Off Season Update 6 – Part 2

Posted on April 1, 2015 by twilightdawning

We continue our survey of the Yankees who have done well and not so well in Spring Training:

Continue reading →

The Strangest Living Boy You Could Ever Wish To See

Posted on March 22, 2015 by twilightdawning

Who: Gary Numan

What: Convergence 2015

Where: Royal Festival Hall, South Bank, London

When: 20th March 2015

In 1981, after an exhausting two years, two number one singles and three number one albums, Gary Numan retired from touring with a lavish set of final shows at Wembley Arena in London. On Friday night, at Convergence in the Royal Festival Hall, London, for Numan it is now thirty-four years since he returned from retiring from live shows and he has a one-off special concert to mark his influence as a pioneer of electronica. The poster outside the venue doors described him as having “a ever-growing fanbase”. Apparently despite this, his records no longer trouble the top of the charts. Numan’s career has been a regular conundrum and a game of snakes-and-ladders and tonight was just the latest twist.

Continue reading →

Redfearn and Leeds

Posted on March 21, 2015 by twilightdawning

The last time I wrote an article about Leeds United was after Neil Redfearn’s last game in charge as caretaker manager (see https://twilightdawning.com/2014/09/25/ch-ch-changes-2) before Darko Milanic took over the reins for a brief period in charge – which matched the length of appointment at Elland Road previously only associated with the dark days of David Hockaday, Brian Clough and Jock Stein.

Now Redfearn is back in permanent charge (whatever that means under Massimo Cellino – oh, sorry we’re meant to believe that he has no current involvement in the club’s decision-making process as he is an unfit person), I decided it was time to give another survey of how the team has changed and so I will do so concentrating my energies on the two recent home games against Watford (3-2 loss) and Ipswich (2-1 win). Let’s see what we can learn…

Continue reading →

Songs and Stories

Posted on March 13, 2015 by twilightdawning

Who: Judie Tzuke

What: Songs and Stories

Where: Ravenscourt Arts, Hammersmith

When: 20th February 2015

Ravenscourt Arts is a delightful little venue. Seating 160 with immaculate sound reproduction, great lights, an engaging atmosphere and well-thought-out design, it is a great place to host a concert. Consequently, it is the ideal place for the kind of tasty dish that was served up on Friday night.

Tonight is the “secret” launch night for Judie Tzuke’s first ever full acoustic tour in a long and successful career. There’s some joke about the “pineapple gig” that the all-invited audience seem to be in on but we don’t need to dwell on that. What we have is an acoustic set which spans the bases from the debut album “Welcome to the Cruise” right up to the as-yet-unreleased “Woman Overboard”.

Continue reading →

Down To The Waters’ Edge

Posted on February 20, 2015 by twilightdawning

Who: The Daughters of Davis

Where: Eventim Apollo, Hammersmith

When: 18th February 2015

Being piggy-in-the-middle on a three act bill is never an enviable task but when even the opening act is allowed access to the higher ranges on the volume sliders of the mixing desk that you’re not and the top act’s target audience is very different from your own then it’s somewhat more problematic.

But having said that Daughters of Davis blew everyone else off stage when it came to artistic integrity and provided a great set for an audience who entered not really caring who they were and exited won over in some numbers.

Continue reading →

The New York Yankees Off Season Update 5

Posted on February 2, 2015 by twilightdawning

Well, the New York Yankees have had a weird off-season and it just keeps getting weirder. As we walk through the trades the Yankees made in January, I just keep hearing warning bells ringing that tell me that unless almost everyone who had an injury or a downturn in their career last year encounters a significant upward surge than this team looks worse on paper then the one which won 84 games last season and missed out on the post-season. Unless they give their manager Joe Girardi the right tools to work with, he doesn’t have a hope of turning this team into a winner.

Continue reading →

The New York Yankees Off-Season Update 3

Posted on December 24, 2014 by twilightdawning

Sometimes an article changes direction just as you’re writing it and this is one because the Yankees’ progress over the last month has had more twists than the average tornado.

First there was their majorly disappointing decision not to make an offer to David Robertson. If you’d asked me in September who was the most important player that the Yankees must re-capture in 2015 then there would be no doubt in my mind that it would have been Robertson.

Continue reading →