The View From Lower Down

That's mn as in hy mn ai as in s ai d wr as in wr ist  ea as in ea t qu as in mos qu ito rh as in rh apsody u as in b u sy sth as in a sth ma mb as in bo mb o as in lem o n ps as in ps alm; Or Merry Christmas for short. I predict that because of the new scoring system, we will be left with a tie at the end of the quiz. If this happens, I have a tiebreaker ready, but in the meantime, I thought I could try to break the tie. Every weekend, I will be sending out a new clue in the style of the above words. This time though, you have to find Christmas songs.  This time, all correct answers will receive 300 points (these can be really hard), regardless of time or order, but will go down each week. The current value is written next to them. The first clue: Mbusciltough aupndh whykn - Now worth 100 points The second clue: Sthe Aknoughthi Dhei - Now worth 200 points The third clue: Leoghtghtleea Ddwroumbmbeawr Bboeigh  - Worth 300 points Good luck! Still confused? Look up g...

Congratulations! Most of you correctly guessed that this year's theme  CNSN NTS NLY Was CONSONANTS ONLY  The quiz starts tomorrow, and every week day a clue will be sent that is the name of a Christmas movie with the vowels removed. For anyone who watches Only Connect, this is the same rules as the final round of that show. WARNING: RULE CHANGE ALERT! In previous years, the scoring system has been that the first team to answer correctly will score 150 points, the second correct answer will score 140 points and so on. However, due to popular demand, the points system has been adjusted and this time points will be awarded based on time.  Any correct answers submitted 11:00-11:29 will score 150 points; correct answers submitted 11:30-11:59 will score 140 points and so on. I am aware that this might lead to a tie at the end of the quiz, but fear not, I have planned a tiebreaker round for the eventuality. Have any questions about the new scoring system? Email me at xmasmoviequ...

These are the teams for this year's quiz; read them to make sure you don't duplicate a name: Raring to Snow - 3300 Points The Three Wise Platypuses - 320 0 points Bless Our Souls - 29500 points Correct Horse Battery Staple - 2750 points Katzen Kittens - 2600 points The Rookies - 1920 Points Santa's Little Helpers - 2090 points Merry Berry   - 1320 points Eastside Avengers - 1000 points The Muppet Christmas Cab-Ride - 880 points Christmas Cracker - 770 points Whimsical Witterings -  50 Points

 Happy December! Of course, you know what that means - Merry Christmas! The bad news is, the quiz has already started. The good news is, you can still sign up, although you may find it harder to catch up. The first day you sign up, you may receive the clue late, but your  score will be adjusted to reflect this (eg, if I send you the first clue at 13:00, you can get the maximum points by answering before 13:29). You will not be sent clues from previous days to catch up, sorry. By the following day, I should be able to get you on the clue list at the normal time See below instructions on how to sign up WARNING: THE RULES THIS YEAR ARE A BIT WORDY, SO SKIP TO THE BOTTOM PARAGRAPH IF YOU WANT A TL;DR This year, the theme (chosen by last year’s winner Raring to Snow ) is: CONSONANTS O NLY Full explanation of what that means here . If you can, email  xmasmoviequiz@gmail.com , saying you want to join the quiz and including your team name. Of course, the usual rules apply when su...

Bit of a different one today, straying away from the brand a bit  You don't post often enough to have a brand - You  Picture  Seriously, that's how you sound. I was listening to Close to you by The Carpenters recently and was struck by the bizarre nature of the lyrics: Why do birds, suddenly appear, Every time, you are near Just like me, they long to be, Close to you  If birds suddenly appear , chances are   that they were already there anyway; hiding in the trees or something.  Also, the song is probably referring to more romantic birds such as robins or doves, but let's face it, in the real world it would probably be pigeons. But pigeons are genetically indistinguishable from doves - You I know, but that undermines my point. It was then pointed out to me that birds don't suddenly appear; that's stars ! And that raises its own problem, namely that stars can't suddenly appear. There are two possible issues, depending on the context of when the song is b...

Finally, a Mischief Comedy show with a short name! I'm still going to shorten it to CAS though, because laziness. Unlike my previous Mischief reviews, this review will try to steer clear of spoilers, at least major ones in context. Fair warning though, I will be spoiling some of the major physical gags, although not the context in which they appear.  Access - With this being The View From Lower Down, we can't have a review without first discussing the accessibility of the theatre. The access to the theatre is fine; it just involves going in through a different entrance with a long internal ramp which would scare some wheelchair users, but I know the best thing is to only allow one wheelchair on at a time. It could probably take more, but that makes it less scary. Once into the auditorium, the accessible seats were inside a box, which I'm convinced made us look like Statler and Waldorf, but my brother wasn't convinced. Unfortunately, we didn't get anyone from outside...

Short name Access Screensaver Opening scene - similar but not the same Police Squad Character names Bond? Rope gag AccessAble Lots of colours  Physical gags - Australia Remember the spy? More double crosses than a Union Jack factory

I was recently watching a load of Wired videos about chess (don't ask me why; I'm not sure myself) Have you heard of Anarchy Chess? It was an event on Reddit in which users were allowed to vote on the next move in a game of chess, legal or not .  The game started simple with a move which in traditional chess is considered pointless as it offers no tactical advantage, however in this case involved White taking their own pawn. However, things quickly escalated as Black decided they wanted another Queen, which gave them a huge advantage until White's next move, when they decided that actually, the queen should be theirs. Unfortunately, this means that White has to draw 2 cards. As you can see, Anarchy Chess got unhinged very quickly. You can see the full progression of the game below: This post is not about Anarchy Chess. This post is about Chaos Chess. Chaos Chess is similar to Anarchy Chess in that it's nothing like Anarchy Chess The main reason that Chaos Chess is on th...

 Me neither. I was born in the 90's. I've had thoughts on this subject for a while now, and only just remembered that I have an (albeit small) platform to broadcast my thoughts. You may have heard of or even remember the short-lived spoof police procedural TV show,  Police Squad! , but in case you haven't, I'll briefly describe it: Police Squad is a comedy TV show about a police precinct solving crimes, focussing mainly on the activity of Detective Frank Drebin. The comedy is surreal and absurdist and despite good reviews and positive feedback, ran for only six episodes in 1982. You're probably thinking, why cancel it if it had positive feedback? I'll let then ABC entertainment president Tony Thomopoulos take that one: [Thomopoulos] claimed it was because " the viewer had to watch it in order to appreciate it. "  TV Guide magazine would later condemn that statement as " The most stupid reason a network ever gave for ending a series. "  (sourc...

 I recently saw the show (deep breath)  A Shoddy Detective and the Art of Deception ( ASDatAoD  from this point on; Shoddy Theatre seem to be getting inspiration for their show titles from Voloz Collective or Mischief Theatre ) WARNING: MINOR OUT-OF-CONTEXT SPOILERS BELOW ASDatAoD  is a reimagining of the show A Shoddy Detective  (and you couldn't keep the title why?) It was debuted at the Edinburgh Fringe in 2018, but the newer version has been improved (I don't know exactly how; I didn't see the original) As I mentioned in my review of  TMWTHKTM (please don't make me type the whole title), I don't want to compare the companies, but the fact is that there are a lot of similarities with some of my favourite theatre companies. Most obviously (other than using the idea of ridiculously long titles), only four actors are playing (I think) 11 parts, similar to a New Old Friends production. However, unlike most  New Old Friends  productions, two of t...

 When I mention the TV show Lab Rats , you probably picture one of three things: 1. Absolutely nothing. You've never heard of that show in your life. 2. The Disney Channel show about the billionaire inventor who created three robot child superheroes that ran from 2012-2016 3. The BBC show about a group of hapless scientists who work at the Arnolfini in St. Dunstan's University which ran from 2008-2008 This post is talking about the third one. First, I'll address the relatively inconspicuous elephant in the room. While I haven't directly mentioned the show before, it's been referenced in over 50 of my posts. But how haven't you noticed?  Because I didn't use the name . All of the Lab Employees in Tangents: The Play About Something Else: The Game  are named after the actors who portrayed the character they are loosely based on a badly-remembered version of, with the following exceptions: Ben, who is named after a real person I knew a long time ago Colin, who i...

 In my review of Six, I claimed that Six had a near identical plot to Cats . This was only a joke, but since then I have discovered an academic paper citing the same hypothesis. I have included the body of the work below: “From Jellicles to Queens: A Comparative Analysis of Cats and Six as Non-Linear Musical Pageants” by Dr. F. A. Catchelor of Musical Sociology, Lower Down Institute for Theatrical Overthinking Abstract: This paper explores the striking structural and thematic similarities between Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Cats (1981) and Toby Marlow & Lucy Moss’s Six (2017), two musicals with wildly different aesthetics, but eerily parallel narrative devices. Both productions utilize a non-linear, presentational format; feature characters who take turns performing autobiographical numbers; and culminate in a sort-of competition to be chosen—either for ascension to the Heaviside Layer or for emotional redemption via collective empowerment. The findings suggest that Six may, ...

Italicised text in this review is written by AI. Some of it has been removed for clarity; nothing was added except what is not italicised. When I was writing my review of Six: The Movie , I wondered how ChatGPT would write a review using my style, prompt: Please* write a review of Six the musical in the style of the blog The View From Lower Down *Always be polite to ChatGPT. This is why I didn't think it quite mastered my voice, but I did particularly enjoy this comment: Wheelchair access at the venue was decent, though I’d recommend checking seat plans ahead—some of those “accessible” areas feel about as welcoming as a medieval dungeon.  However, I quickly ended up down a rabbit hole of what it thinks I have to say. One of the things I asked was about a description of myself in the first person, which was way funnier that the one I actually wrote : Hello! I’m a culture-loving wheelchair user with a penchant for musicals, mystery plots, and mild sarcasm. This blog is where I park ...

I recently saw the movie version of Six the Musical . I've spoken about Six before on the blog , but no one who doesn't know me in real life could tell from the blog how obsessed I am with the musical. Sorry to those who do know me in real life who are wildly aware. There being four of them makes sense in context. You won't learn what the context is here Now, for a long time, I've wanted a Six movie not to exist. This might seem a little confusing, so let me clarify for those of you unfamiliar with the plot: The six wives of Henry VIII have gathered together to form a band, but they cannot decide who should lead the band. Therefore, they all tell their stories and the one who had the worst life wins the competition. Also, all the queens are modelled after female singers If that plot sounds familiar to you, it's because it's the same plot as Cats , albeit with a different ending: Once a year, the Jellicle Cats meet together at the Jellicle Ball. They all introduc...