Avenue Q review

Dave dragged me to Avenue Q last night, and I'm really glad I went because it was brilliant!

The inclusion of puppet characters was so cleverly done and with such incredible expression. Each puppet was held by a human member of the cast, who was dressed all in black to make them less noticeable. It was slightly odd to begin with, but I got used it very quickly and it worked really well. Somehow, I managed to ignore the human puppeteers while at the same time noticing all the body language and facial expressions that they used to convey the emotions of the puppets.

There were a couple of aspects I wasn't too keen on - I didn't like the characters of Christmas Eve or Gary Coleman at all - but overall, the show was much funnier and much more fun than I was expecting, and I really, really enjoyed it.

Dave's been to see it twice already, but I may have to find more people who haven't seen it and drag them along so I can see it again and share it with them!

Desperate Housewives PC Game

Dave bought me the Desperate Housewives PC game for Christmas and I've really been enjoying it. It's very, very silly, but quite enjoyable as a time-sink. I've never played The Sims, but I gather this games is a bit like that, only with more plot. You have to maintain your house, garden and family relationships, but you also have to blackmail people, investigate murders, break into houses and stir up gossip.

The downside is that the plot is very linear - it points you to each next step and there are only a couple of places where you really have a choice as to what to do. As long as you're happy just pootling about, doing what it tells you, the game is a lot of fun, though I would imagine there are a lot of people who would find it frustrating and not nearly enough of a challenge.

The only real problem I had is that it ended really abruptly on Episode 11 - I wasn't nearly ready for the game to end, and I thought the climax was rather ridiculous. But hey, this is Desperate Housewives, after all, where ridiculous is par for the course! At least I managed to cook all the recipes before the end - and the cooking mini-game was one of my favourite aspects.