One of our staff had a strange experience the other week. He teaches English at a private language school in Tallinn and, as a way of facilitating written homework had given his gmail addy to the group early on in the course, in January. OK so far but he hadn't counted on getting an email from one of the students professing her undying affection for him and the fact that she'd seen him in a dream..twice.

Great, you might think, but not really. We're into unrequited territory here- well it's definitely unrequited on the PMC's part. It's that old truism which nevertheless happens to be true - why can't it be the fit ones that send you these messages?!

Nonetheless there is nothing worse than unrequited affections - take the worst method of execution, hanging drawing and quartering or whatever it may be, and that's no where near as bad as unrequited love, at least the execution has the release of death at the end of it! We know this from having been on the other side of the fence, but it's also true that the recipient can feel bad too, with feelings of guilt and anxiety.

So, lesson learned, don't give out email addresses to students so readily or if doing so

Comedy Estonia Gets Izzard Seal Of Approval

Following from the previous post on the upcoming Dylan Moran gig in Tallinn (tickets to which are almost certainly sold out, even with an extra date slotted in, though I've got mine!), there has been an endorsement on on less a Facebook page than Eddie Izzard's. It's a compliment with a sting in the tail though - he's congratulating Dylan for being the 'first English speaking comic to play Tallinn'; evidently Louis Zezeran, Stewart Johnson, Keiu Kriit, Andrei Tuch and other Estonians who deliver their act in the most amazing English do not count!

Nonetheless all publicity is good publicity, I can recommend a good English teacher for the regular Comedy Estonia troupe in the meantime..

Tallinn The New Comedy Centre Of The Baltics..

If we were to twattishly refer to somewhere as being a-buzz with excitement, then that is how we would describer Tallinn right now. Or more precisely, the Tallinn comedy scene. But we don't. Nonetheless it's true.

I don't hear you asking why but if you're still reading and want to know the reason, then all will be made clear a line or two from now.

On April 11th, which is a Wednesday this year, Dylan Moran comes to Tallinn to do a gig. Yes, the same Dylan who was in Black Books and Shaun of the Dead (we only really know him from 'Notting Hill' to be honest).

Here is another clip of him in action, or on stage anyway.

Something of a coup de grace, or a coup d'etat or something like that, for the consistently cool Comedy Estonia, a group of comics, evidently, which has gone in two year from, well, being founded to having a major comedy star frm Ireland coming over specially to make us laugh. Well done people!

Added reason for the urgency of this post is that tickets got snapped up like warmed-through cakes; within hours all the tickets on the lower floor (at the Russian Cultural Centre in Tallinn) had gone at 25 Euros and so you need to be bright eyed and all the rest of it on Monday morning, if you're in Tallinn and actually want to come that is, when the balcony tickets go on (according to comedy Estonia). I know I will be. Bet they wish they'd upped the price a bit - I hope the fuckers don't read this as I wouldn't put it past them to do that!

Seth's Blog - Ignorance Is No Longer Simply Not An Excuse, It's A Disgrace..

I'm so glad we live in these times...there's no excuse not to know shit nowadays - not for any of us - and that's great when one thinks that a few centuries ago the bulk of the people in Europe were illiterate.

This post by Seth Godin explains with a bit more panache...

Zelyenu Vulitsyoo Hooligans

This is a funny story about the Ukrainians using four MiG 29 jets and some "helicopter gunships" (meaning the legndary Mil Mi-24 'hind') as "crowd control" in the impending European football championships.

Talk about nuts and sledgehammers, although it could be worse - at least they're not using the SU-27 with its tendency to crash at airshows and cartwheel into spectators.

Of course two of the four groups in the comp will play their group games in the Ukraine (as oposed to Poland), including, uh-oh, England who will play at Donetsk and Kiev.

Fortunately it seems unlikely that England will get through the group games, so the Ukrainian air force will only have a limited amount of time to get their shots on target, but most likely more shots on target than England will get. That said, the idea of a load of porcine English football fans being scattered by the raking fire of a MiG 29 and its 30 mm nose cannon would make for a memorabe image nonetheless.