Riding pillion on the Mother Road: Harley Davidson on Route 66

August 24, 2003June 3, 2013 ~ Sarah Barrell ~ Leave a comment

Sarah Barrell heads for Milwaukee, home of the world’s most famous motorcycle, to join the centenary celebrations.

Sitting in a quiet roadside café on Water Street it’s hard to imagine Milwaukee as the host of the “world’s largest rolling birthday celebration”. On a muggy evening in mid-August dark dock houses loom over the recently regenerated canal-side area of this modest Mid-West city, the new waterside walkways as deserted as the surrounding concrete shopping precincts. With several hundred miles of highway still ringing in our ears, the silence is oddly deafening.

Essex is lovely: no, really. It is.

August 10, 2003June 3, 2013 ~ Sarah Barrell ~ Leave a comment

Put aside your prejudices, says Sarah Barrell, and explore the rural heart of this much maligned county

It may be news to those in Gants Hill or Billericay but Essex has gone posh. And we don’t mean “posh” as a prefix to Spice. We mean the kind of posh associated with muddy green wellies, chic converted heritage hotels and conservation-protected countryside. If you’re looking for a bit of English quaint within dashing distance of the capital, forget the holy trinity of Home County boltholes – Sussex, Surrey or Kent – head to Essex. Or, at least, “Real Essex”.

“We needed to raise our profile,” admits Essex councillor Peter Martin. “Essex has a high profile but perhaps not the one we want to promote.” Out of such diplomatic understatements Real Essex was born – a savvy marketing campaign launched last year giving the county the kind of PR makeover that determinedly eschewed false nails, Outspan foundation and the mere mention of white leather. Despite the campaign being met with a certain amount of snorting derision from the press, one year on, with re-branding established and the general approval of the tourism industry, it seems that Essex is not, as stereotypes would have you believe, taking it lying down.

Rare twitch project. Sarah Barrell joins a parrot-counting programme deep in the rainforest of the Peruvian Amazon

April 1, 2003June 3, 2013 ~ Sarah Barrell ~ Leave a comment

All things considered, the Amazon’s waterways are not the best place to go for a dip. Yet, four hours upriver from the last major town, several of our crew members were plunging over the side of our little wooden motorboat into red clay waters that must, surely, conceal at least one of the species found on our ‘to-be-avoided-at-allcosts’ checklist. As four brave, fully booted souls pushed against the boat’s roughly hewn hull, feet struggling for purchase against the obstructive sandbar, the words ‘piranha’ and ‘caiman’ formed in a collective thought bubble above our heads…

Prickly Heat: travels in the Brazilian outback

November 25, 2002June 3, 2013 ~ Sarah Barrell ~ Leave a comment

The Sertao is Brazil’s desert land, where donkeys and cacti proliferate. But it is also home to the continent’s finest prehistoric treasures. Sarah Barrell goes exploring

There is a place in Brazil, it is said, where nothing grows but sorrow and cacti. A place of donkeys and drought where the scalding sky shows little mercy for the creatures below. In this place, potholes are more common than people and distances between towns are measured in days rather than miles. As travel destinations go, the Sertao, Brazil’s north–east hinterland, is one of the world’s less obvious. It is also one of its most spectacular.

Omid Djalili: Why my comedy is seriously funny

August 22, 2002May 20, 2013 ~ Sarah Barrell ~ Leave a comment

Link to one of a number of articles I’ve written for The Independent as a sometime reporter at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival

In the wake of 11 September, the Perrier nominee Omid Djalili’s ambitions now include world peace – and getting his own BBC2 sitcom

Some people may be surprised to see the somewhat starry name of Omid Djalili among the list of nominees for this year’s Perrier prize. After roles in blockbusters such as Gladiator, The Mummy and Spy Game, surely he’s too famous to qualify for the prize. Apparently not. It’s his career as a stand-up that counts, which, until this year, hadn’t really taken off. It’s unfortunate, but it would appear that 11 September may have been the best thing to have happened to this Anglo-Iranian comedian.

Bomb-itty of Errors, Pleasance Over the Road, Edinburgh

August 8, 2002May 20, 2013 ~ Sarah Barrell ~ Leave a comment

Link to one of a number of articles I’ve written for The Independent as a sometime reporter at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival

Pounding beats and Bard ‘n the ‘hood

On paper this did not look promising. Of the glut of musical theatre offerings at this year’s Fringe, a hip-hop treatment of Shakespeare’s The Comedy of Errorswas surely going to be one of the more painful. In fact, the only painful thing about this unexpectedly stonking show from New York/Chicago ensemble, Bomb-itty International, is that pretty soon you’re not going to be able to get a ticket for it.

What began as a student production at a New York university in 1998 quickly became an off-Broadway hit, and British bookings agents with any sense will have this show signed for a West End run sharpish. Disregarding the smart adaptation, this cast of five (four actors playing 16 roles, plus a DJ/beat boxer/composer) are plainly preternaturally gifted performers.

Lale Mansur: The actress who chooses to believe in miracles

August 7, 2002May 19, 2013 ~ Sarah Barrell ~ Leave a comment

Link to one of a number of articles I’ve written for The Independent as a sometime reporter at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival

She’s a committed political activist in Turkey, but Lale Mansur’s current passion is for magical theatre

Lale Mansur is anxious. The Turkish film star is experiencing morning-after-first-night nerves. “We didn’t even have time for a dress rehearsal. Last nightwas the dress rehearsal,” she says, rolling her eyes theatrically. “And our show is so technical: lighting cues, special effects.” She shifts from foot to foot. “Um, shall we go and sit down?”

Formerly Istanbul State Opera and Ballet’s longest-serving prima ballerina and an award-winning actress, Lale Mansur is a Big Star. Not that you’d guess it. Her face is devoid of make-up, her slight frame is clad in leather jacket and jeans, and she’s wearing trainers that are as huge on her slender ankles as they would be on a child’s. She may be an A-list Turkish celebrity, but she’s serious, softly spoken and even a little shy. Such a low-key appearance and quiet countenance are all the more surprising when you consider that Mansur is a woman who may face 15 years in prison for civil disobedience.

Back to the West Country: Glastonbury Music Festival

July 3, 2002May 20, 2013 ~ Sarah Barrell ~ Leave a comment

Link to an article written for The Independent as a sometime reporter at the Glastonbury music festival.

At sea in Ireland: A trip to Rathlin, a tiny, inhabited island off the Northern Irish coast.

March 31, 2002June 3, 2013 ~ Sarah Barrell ~ Leave a comment

Do you wanna buy a pebble?” A pint-sized girl strides across the beach and fixes me with the kind of stare characteristic of a Marrakesh market stall holder. Bargaining is going to be hard. Our guide, Alison Hurst, introduces us. “This is Shannon, and over there is her friend, Brona,” she says, indicating another girl avidly combing the beach behind us. “Now you’ve met almost half the island’s children.” Rathlin is Northern Ireland’s only inhabited island; with a population of 70 (including five children) this is only just the case.

Emo Philips: Back, without the fringe

August 9, 2001May 19, 2013 ~ Sarah Barrell ~ Leave a comment

Link to one of a number of articles I’ve written for The Independent as a sometime reporter at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival

After an eight-year absence, Emo Philips, once America’s weirdest comedy export, is back at the festival. What has he been doing?

At first I didn’t recognise him. He looked almost, well, normal. And normal is a word rarely uttered with reference to Emo Philips, by far America’s weirdest comedy export, who shot to fame with distinctive goggle-eyed amazement in the early 1980s with appearances on Late Night With Letterman andFriday and Saturday Night Live. Gone is the signature hair-do – a geeky long back bob with a ruler-drawn fringe – that suggested he’d just stepped out of an institution, rather than a salon. Gone, too, is the gangling frame, variously described as “stick insect” and “ET”, replaced by a comfortable stockiness.