I was very pleased find myself amongst the large audience assembled for Dynamic Theatre’s production of Jonathan Larson’s tick, tick… BOOM! in the Unity Theatre on Wednesday evening. Better known for his musical Rent, Larson’s earlier work is an autobiographical one, telling the story of his existence as a struggling composer in New York, working in a diner and living in a squalid apartment as he waits for his big break.

Adapted after Larson’s death from a self performed, rock monologue (how very 90s), into a three hander by David Auburn, the musical covers similar themes to Larson’s other and perhaps better known work, with references made to both homosexuality and AIDs. Joe Taylor, who took the lead role of Jon in this production, brings Larson’s character to life with a strong portrayal of the frustrated composer. With most of the narrative driven forwards by his narration, delivered straight to audience the other two actors, Katie Bernstein and Chris Britton, find themselves playing multiple roles filling the New York existence of the diner waiter / musical composer.

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As March settles in, making no signs of forgetting February’s weather, it seems crazy to think that it might be almost time to embark on another year of Edinburgh Fringe adventure. The next couple of weeks will prove busy ones in the offices of Fringe venues and producers across the UK and around the world as the reduced price Fringe registration deadline rolls around on Friday 19 March.

If you are bringing a show to the Fringe this year and don’t have all of your ducks in a row just yet don’t worry too much, Fringe registration only opened on 1 March and the final deadline for inclusion in the Fringe programme isn’t until 21 April 2010. So what is the cost of missing the early deadline a week on Friday?

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There comes a time where we are all asked to make presentations. For many, and I know I have been guilty of this in the past, it mainly tends to involve working out at incredibly short notice what you are going to say, scrawling it all down into something like a Word document and then copy and pasting the resultant spiel onto an obligatory Powerpoint as bullet points. Depending on how good you are at improvising, you then find yourself reading almost verbatim from the Powerpoint screen behind you, all but ignoring your audience and quickly skipping from slide to slide.

I’ve had to make a couple of important presentations recently: one in front of other management students telling them about the three month academic placement I was on working for Perfect Pitch in London, the other pitching ideas for a dissertation – my Management Research Paper – in front of classmates and academic supervisors. For both of the presentations I chose not to use Powerpoint and instead experimented with a web based alternative called Prezi.com

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Liverpool improv group Impropriety took to the stage of the Kazimier last night for the inaugural presentation of their newly formed group. Familiar faces were certainly present on stage and in the audience with the event’s programme highlighting the inclusion of many members of the 2008 minute improv marathon and student improv group Purple Circle into a cast which numbered some 20 performers.

For Liverpool residents who have not been to the Kazimier, it is certainly well worth a visit. Nestled in Wolstenholme Square next to the Nation night club, Jorge Pardo’s colourful sculpture ‘Penelope’ and opposite the Pleasure Rooms strip bar, it is a venue run by The Arts Organisation, a group dedicated to artistic squatting of sorts, “enabling the legal occupation of disused spaces” as they express it on the Property Solutions section of their website. You will know them, probably, as the folk who run the TAO Gallery on Slater Street and the very well known Mello Mello.

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Having seen Nine, Rob Marshall’s retelling of the 1982 Broadway musical, last night I can really only say one thing: What a disappointment. There is no doubt that the film is spectacular, this is a tale of 1950s movie making against a beautiful Italian backdrop, but as far as its big budget Hollywood blockbuster title status goes I am still asking myself, “why?” Why this musical? Why now? Just why?

Nine sucks us into the tumultuous world of Guido Contini, Italian film director just 10 days away from creating his next masterpiece. It is widely acknowledged, by everyone from Contini himself to a Cardinal that he meets on retreat, that his last two films have been flops. His next piece, however will be a masterpiece called “Italia” and will be the epic tale of the country of Italy. Contini however, it is quickly established, is about as flawed a character as has ever been written. The women appearing in his imagination and his reality appear to do a terrific job of ruling both his life and his sub-conscience.

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Chris Anderson’s first book The Long Tail, propelled the Wired Magazine editor from respected tech maven to innovative business book writer. His first book, published in 2007, took an in depth look at the way the internet has disrupted the recorded entertainment  market. Looking particularly at the music and book industries Anderson examined the ability of niche products to reach a large enough audience to be highly profitable. With nothing but a simple analysis of how many more books Amazon can sell than your average (if it hasn’t already been shuttered) neighbourhood book shop he expertly illustrates how the retail rules most of us grew up with no longer apply.

Chris Anderson’s latest book is no less thought provoking. The full title, “Free: The Future of a Radical Price: The Economics of Abundance and Why Zero Pricing Is Changing the Face of Business” might not roll off the tongue but it does lay out pretty clearly what the book looks to tackle. Kicking off the book with an interesting study of how free gained its place in the marketing arsenal, popularised by the likes of King Gillette with his revolutionary safety razor.

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News has slowly spread that Musical Theatre @ George Square will not be operating as a dedicated musical theatre venue again this summer. No official announcement seems to have been made but companies looking for venues for their 2010 Edinburgh Fringe run have had the news confirmed by the Edinburgh University Festivals Office. The Festivals Office, which previously played a large role in the running of the venue advised looking to other Fringe venues.

Operated as a dedicated home for musical theatre on the Fringe, the venue first opened it doors for the 2008 Fringe with programming and leadership from then Head of Musical Theatre Matters UK and ex-Head of Licensing with Cameron Mackintosh, Chris Grady at the helm. Chris has since moved on to become Head of External Relations at the Theatre Royal Bury St Edmunds whilst his job administering Musical Theatre Matters UK has passed to Laoise Davidson. Chris retains chairmanship of the organisation but presumably does not have time to programme and manage a Fringe venue in addition to his new job.

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Facebook is the world’s most popular social network. In spite of the media’s current fixation with Twitter this study from the beginning of the year shows just how powerful Facebook’s numbers are: 350 million users is not to be sniffed at and something that Twitter, with a predicted user base of around 18 million, has quite a long way to match.

I personally would consider myself somewhat addicted to Facebook. Whenever I open a new browser window I find myself drawn to click the bookmark link that sits on my quick bookmarks bar. When I don’t open it straight away I have a copy of my news feed automatically show up on my iGoogle homepage and when I’m waiting for the bus its inevitably the Facebook and Twitter apps that I check whilst waiting for my lift into town.

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