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March 22nd, 2010 by Chris McCrudden

You need to try Meow Meow

Okay, I’m sorry – this is a misleading title. I’m certainly not advocating that the readership of Speed’s blogs should be pureeing their precious and finely tuned grey matter with the Moulinex stick blender that is new ‘street drug’ Miaow Miaow. But it got your attention, didn’t it?

Instead, I’m strongly recommending that you sashay down to the Soho Theatre on Dean Street this instant (or log on to www.sohotheatre.com for out-of-towners) and get yourself tickets for Meow Meow, a cabaret singer of rare distinction. Well, I say distinction she typically staggers out on stage drunk, bums a glass of red wine from an audience member and sings Itsy Bitsy Teeny Weeny Yellow Polka Dot Bikini in Cantonese, but you get the idea.

It takes a lot of guts and even more talent to take the sacred cows of 20th century lieder by the likes of Kurt Weill and Jacques Brel, mince them into hamburgers and feed them back to an audience, but Meow Meow manages it. Her show is a fascinating mix of classic songs performed beautifully but never, ever taken seriously. And if she has the voice of a whisky-sodden angel, she has the dramatic sensibility of a Brooklyn drag queen when it comes to audience participation. So unless you plan on finding yourself dragged on stage and forced to act as a human microphone stand, sit in the middle and NEVER catch her eye.

The video below should give you a good idea of how Ms Meow Meow blends song and mortal embarrassment to high-larious effect. But of course, it’s not the same as the real thing.

It’s only a tenner and on for the next month. Kill for a ticket, and laugh like a drain.

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March 22nd, 2010 by Estelle Douine

Are you riding the tiger?

If you have been working in PR for a couple of years or have dealt with, mingled with or shouted at PR professionals, then you must have come across what is commonly known as ‘a typical wanky PR expression’ – it makes you cringe when you hear it but for some reason you can’t stop using it, especially in front of your clients and it reminds you that, well, PR is also a typical wanky sector and you’re part of it.

After only a short chat amongst my colleagues, I have managed to compile a selection – feel free to use them if they aren’t already part of your PR vocabulary:

  1. To ride the tiger
  2. Bluesky thinking
  3. To push the envelope
  4. To step up to the plate
  5. To throw it against the wall and see what sticks
  6. To pluck the low hanging fruits
  7. In a nutshell
  8. Ducks in a row
  9. To think outside the box
  10. To touch base

In the Consumer team, we have recently adopted the term ‘ride the tiger’ as our new mantra – all management books agree that it helps to pull everyone together and brings that extra bit of motivation to a team, and in our case laughter.  We have since noticed that our mantra has taken on a life of its own and has now started an international trend.  Or so it seems.

March 22nd, 2010 by Speed Budapest (Matt)

Speed Quiz: @angelicamari wins a spa day for two

Angelica Mari (@angelicamari) has won Speed’s weekly quiz. She correctly identified that Robert Pattinson shot to fame in the Twilight saga movies. Angelica has won a spa day for two.

Follow @speedcomms and every Friday at midday we’ll tweet a question. To take part simply send an @ reply with your answer. The winner will be randomly chosen at the end of the day and will be announced on the Speed Blogs and on Twitter on the following Monday morning.

Click here to find out a bit more about our weekly competition.