2023 News
[This is the text I sent out to members of my mailing list - it's a thing to join! To add yourself today, email me at benmoorinfo@gmail.com with the word “SUBSCRIBE” in the subject line and I promise all your dreams of free postage on a book will come true. (Your dreams are awesome.)]Hey Friend!
2023 has been a year of contrasts between coronations and conflicts, World Cups and cups of tea, sunshine and rain, and then sometimes both or all at the same time.
Time is an illusion, but it’s one we all have to believe in, so, as it insists on continuing, I’ll keep on keeping on serving up my annual news-dinner.
But firstliness: I write to my mailing list each December, and if ever there's some big gig news, but if you'd prefer not to receive these messages, just reply to this electronic mail with the subject line changed to 'UNSUBSCRIBE' and I’ll delete your deets.
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Superdoops and Hopewards!
Starters: What I’ve Done.
Screenwise, I appeared as a minor vicar on BBC1’s GREAT EXPECTATIONS.
I play a journalist in a few episodes of a new version of a Dumas novel for the Italian broadcaster RAI, to be broadcast next year.
I did some dramaturg work with the brilliant poet Luke Wright on his fabulous current show Luke Wright's Silver Jubilee.
Lively, I have performed my show WHO HERE'S LOST? at the Hen & Chickens Theatre Bar in London, in the woods at the Latitude Festival, and in Turin.
BOOKTALKBOOKTALKBOOK (with the awesome Joanna Neary) was seen on stage at the Laugharne Weekend, the Machynlleth Comedy Festival, the Hen & Chickens, and the Latitude Festival too, and they were all wonderful shows.
Look out for more dates for both next year, when I’ll also be previewing a longer section (at least 40% of the finished work) of my new piece, now titled ALL THINGS NOW NEW WILL ONE DAY BE RUINS.
Thisbe a bit from a scene during a house-clearance…
Here was a tape of boxing matches where the punching has been edited out and there remains only the clinches. It plays like a pair of ever more injured, desperate and exhausted men looking to hold on to one another, consistently broken up by a cruel referee. Contests end with a ruined loser, unable to hug any longer, distraught or motionless; or a referee holding both men’s hands, then raising one in victory, declared to be the more loving on points. The next tape was a late-night talk show where a sleeping gas was slowly released into the studio and the guests, and presumably the viewers, let go of the threads of the day and drifted gently into slumber.
It’s ever so weird, but funny too, I hope.
Main Course: What I’m Offering.
- THIS IS WHERE THE SUPER SPECIAL ANNUAL OFFER TO MEMBERS OF MY MAILING LIST IS FOUND BUT YOU HAVE TO JOIN THE LIST TO GET THE OFFER -SO IF YOU WANT FREE SHIPPING FOR CHRISTMAS ON ITEMS IN MY WEBSHOP, EMAIL benmoorinfo@gmail.com WITH THE WORD "SUBSCRIBE" IN THE SUBJECT AND I'LL SEND YOU THE LINK.
Pudding: What I’ve Enjoyed.
I love sharing what I love, and I popped a whole smash of good things on my last mailout (it’s online here) and they all remain awesome.
These then highlights are the highs that have lit my year since.
Apologies - my taste remains particular; not everything is for everybody, but something is always for someone.)
Some of my favourite books out of those I've read in the second half of 2023 (not necessarily published this year) have been (in no particular order):
Monica by Daniel Clowes
Lioness by Emily Perkins
Mrs Palfrey At The Claremont by Elizabeth Taylor
The Librarianist by Patrick DeWitt
White Cat, Black Dog by Kelly Link
Art Is Magic by Jeremy Deller
Dr No by Percival Everett
Airside by Christopher Priest
The Maniac by Benjamín Labatut
Books still give the greatest joys and I’m always delighted to receive a recommendation.
Books.
Some of movies I've seen that have made my boat float have been: Aftersun (directed by Charlotte Wells), Ball of Fire (Howard Hawks), Spider-Man: Across The Spider-Verse (Joaquim Dos Santos, Kemp Powers and Justin K. Thompson), Sisu (Jalmari Helander), The Creator (Gareth Edwards), and Asteroid City (Wes Anderson).
Top TV has recently included The Change (Channel 4), Poker Face (Sky Atlantic) and Beef (Netflix).
Artwise, I stood silently in the presence of Guernica in Madrid in the summer, which is enough to fill a year. And I’ve told many people about an extraordinary exhibit at the Courtauld I saw in the winter about a connection between the painters Wyndham Lewis and Helen Saunders and a lost Vorticist work; read about it here.
Theatrically, I loved Sarah Thom’s Beak Speaks, Operation Mincemeat in the West End, Will Adamsdale’s Show Of Just Songs, Possession by Sasha Hails at The Arcola, and a wonderful production of Twelfth Night I caught in Turin.
But may I once again recommend the work of Scene and Heard, a remarkable mentoring project which partners children from Somers Town in London with volunteer theatre professionals, and creates not only the weirdest, funniest, most uplifting theatrical shows, but positively impacts the lives of young people and their community. It’s always trying to expand its scope, and I was delighted to help them develop a new project in the autumn.
You can support this wonderful charity by buying a book of quotes from the first twenty years of their awesome plays.
On the musicside, I saw The Pulp at Latitude and they were fab.
Here's a EweToob Playlist of a few of my most enjoyed songs of 2023, only a few of which were first released in 2023. This says much about me.
(Trigger Warning: some of the videos are music only or lyric video clips and they include poor bitrates, the German language, whimsical whistling, sincere folk, ill-advised 1970s sequins, and Powerpoint. Sing wildly, sing strong.)
So that's my annual annual.
I hope the rest of this year flies by in laughter, that you have a very festive season, and that 2024 has many good things in store.
Be excellent to each other.
love and peace!
benMOOR!
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