Thursday, August 31, 2006

On the importance of hairstyles

especially when you have a big nose.

I learned a lot from her, but here is a woman who has not understood herself this important rule. Straight works better than curly when you have a big old hooter. Behold: on the left, quite foxy and Nerfertiti-like. On the right... the horror, the horror!

(I am not mentioning her by name, oh no. I learned from my mistake with C*h*e*r, from whom most of my traffic comes.)



Tuesday, August 29, 2006

Dublin

Without further ado, herewith some pictures of Dublin and the Festival of World Culture:

Transglobal Underground on the main stage/ Kids rocking out to Transglobal Underground
Party animal Sevitz
Mundy - To You I Bestow mp3 on the Hype Machine
(used on the Romeo and Juliet soundtrack). Listen to the mp3 whilst looking at the picture, it's almost like you are there!


Matthew has more interesting pictures here.

Why are there no pictures of our lovely host and hostess with the mostest, you ask? Because I am a numpty who forgot, that's why.

Things you might not have known about Dublin/Ireland:

Chippies are known as chippers.
At the bank, deposits are known as 'lodgements' - will my money be comfortable lodging here?
If something is deadly, it means it's good.
People do not make shamrocks in the top of your Guinness. That's only in New Zealand (so Matthew tells me.)
There are red-headed people galore in Dublin. Hurrah!


Friday, August 25, 2006

FOWC

Gone to visit the Emerald Isle (first time ever!) the Festival of World Cultures, Matt and Nikki, and of course their sofa.
Laters...


Thursday, August 24, 2006

Mission


Sometimes I get irritated with myself because I haven't achieved any of the things you are meant to by my advanced age - no house, no car, no brilliant career, no other half, no kids... But if I'm really truthful, & could have a fairy godmother wave her magic wand, the one thing that I long for is my own place, over and above everything else. Especially this week, staying in my friends' lovely grown-up house, with its big sofa and proper espresso pot and own garden.

Unlike my Young Ones-style student hovel. Little things we don't notice any more - like the spoon sticking out of the back door in lieu of a proper handle, because the wood's so rotten it won't hold up to drilling, that we forget unless visitors ask us 'Why's there a spoon sticking out of the back door?'

So this is my mission this year - 'own own house'. It is the most achievable, notwithstanding London being The Most Expensive City In The World (TM). Tokyo? New York? Monaco? Zurich? Mere pretenders, I tell you.

The reason I write this is just to put it out there in black and white - so if I'm not on the way to having my own in place in one year's time, you have my express permission to throw rotten tomatoes at me and call me a big fat loser.

Tuesday, August 22, 2006

Book meme

Promise I'll stop with the memes but could not resist this lovely book meme from the witty and handsome Tim:

1. One book that changed your life
Well, not so much my life as my mind, which is quite a powerful thing for a book to do - Toni Morrison’s Beloved, which has as a dedication ‘60 million and more’. As a Jew this took my breath away as it seemed needlessly offensive but by the end of the novel you totally take her point - that slavery was a holocaust that has still not really been acknowledged by history.

2. One book that you’ve read more than once
Cold Comfort Farm by Stella Gibbons. Genius, just genius. Satire with a happy ending. She takes very accurate and hilarious potshots at everyone, journalists, writers, film-makers, country folk, city folk… I wish I hadn’t ever read it so could have the pleasure of reading it all over again. I would like to quote the passage on games and the heroine Flora’s habit of ‘running away from the ball’ which beautifully sums up my feeling about sport, but don’t have a copy to hand. (oh, and to add a new category “Character you most identify with’ - Great Aunt Ada Doom.)

3. One book you’d want on a desert island
Ooh, Ullyses or maybe War and Peace, because then I’d finally sit down and read 'em. Or one of those 'learn the guitar the easy way' books. If there was also a guitar on the desert island, otherwise it would just be frustrating. (Or maybe a huge atlas type book which I could then turn into a raft and sail off the desert island on.)

4. One book that made you laugh
Hmm, already told you about Cold Comfort Farm... Tim's already done Douglas Adams... okay then, Mr Tickle, by Roger Hargreaves, always accompanied by some great tickling action.

5. One book that made you cry
I’m pretty stony-hearted usually but Matthew Kneale’s English Passengers made me cry. It’s the kind of book I’d never usually pick up (thought from the cover that it was about boats) but read it in Spain because of the lack of English books. Can't begin to tell you the storyline, it's well complicated. It is a technical tour-de-force, he writes from the point of view of 20 different characters but never loses his grip on the story. Bitterly angry about the effects of colonialism, he really makes you feel the injustice.

6. One book that you wish had been written
Did Mae West ever write an autobiography?

7. One book that you wish had never been written
Blimey, what a bizarre category. Okay, when I worked in bookshops I was always a bit perturbed by the true crime genre. (This was also the most shop-lifted genre, funnily enough. People used to attempt to go out with the contents of a whole shelf of books stuffed down their trousers. Twats.) I mean, what is the appeal of reading about serial killers etc? This kind of curiosity is an ugly side of human nature.

8. One book you’re currently reading
East End Chronicles, by Ed Glinert, a splendid history book all about the dark and dangerous underbelly of London that I currently live in. Medieval Londoners were batshit crazy.

9. One book you’ve been meaning to read
Boswell's Life of Johnson. I’ve been to his house, you know.

And you, gentle reader? If you don't fancy the meme, you could tell me what fictional character you most identify with and why...



Sunday, August 20, 2006

Holiday in Stokey

Warning to Dan and Adrian - you're not going to like this, look away now




















































Thursday, August 17, 2006

This month's favourite

Helga von Porno, via Tim.

"I leaped up on his back, and gripping the fat of his torso with my thighs I clonked him two handed on the back of his head..."

Is it just me, or is she brilliant?



Wednesday, August 16, 2006

Guys

'He asked for my number. Then he phoned after 3 weeks.'
Leila: 'He didn't want to rush things...'
'Right. But he couldn't see me then because the football was on.'
Leila: 'He's a guy.'
'Right. So I left it. Then he texted me. And I phoned and left a message on his voice-mail saying when we should meet. But he didn't reply. Not a text to say he couldn't make it, nothing.'
Leila: 'He's a guy.'
'But what's going on? I didn't contact him. I didn't expect anything, it was him that contacted me. Why do they do this... this weird dance? And they say we're hard to read.'

He's a guy.

Monday, August 14, 2006

Quicky movie reviews

Slaminsky recommends...

After a year seeing virtually no movies, have seen in one week (and fallen head over heels for) the following 3:-

Angel -A - Luc Besson of Leon, The Fifth Element, etc, directs - Jamel Debbouze (the grocer's assistant in Amelie) is a debt-ridden con artist who is about to drown himself in the Seine before the mafia do it for him, when he rescues a beautiful six foot blonde woman who is also about to jump in the river. Turns out she is an angel come to save him from himself...

Rie Rasmussen is the most beautiful woman you've ever seen, like an old-style Hollywood film goddess, and annoyingly a really good actor too. It is very over-the-top, very philosophical, romantic and French. Luc Besson clearly has good taste in women (was married to Milla Jovovich at one point.) (British films are never like this, the most we can do with romance is Richard Curtis films which are frankly awful and embarrassing.)

The Notorious Betty Page - Betty obligingly gets her kit off and her bondage gear on in repressive 50s America, before finding religion. Shot in black and white and in technicolour, it looks gorgeous and will inspire most lady viewers to go and buy some fancy underwear.

not the real Betty










Walk the Line
- the story of June Carter and Johnny Cash. Both actors fantastic. Very moving. Why was his dad such a bastard?












Thursday, August 10, 2006

Pop Quiz 2



















If you would like to cut and paste as suggested by Mr Sevitz, details are:

Pop Quiz at the Retro Bar
Tuesday 12 September - quiz starts at 9 pm
Retro Bar, 2 George Court, off The Strand
Nearest tube Charing Cross

Following on from this post...

£1.00 for a teams of up to 4. Bargain. It starts at 9.00 pm, I should say.

With thanks to the lovely Adrian for the recommendation. Going to check it out on Tuesday to see what it's like. It's a gay bar but friendly and mixed (so I'm told.) Spread the word, invite your readers, other halfs, friends, etc...

Email me if you want so I have an idea of numbers.

Wednesday, August 09, 2006


*Coughs*


*Whistles*

Bubbleshare

You have seen these photos before on Flickr, but just wanted to showcase the delights of BubbleShare, photosharing which has speech bubbles, audio captions, etc etc etc. Click to view my 'hilarious' speech bubbles. Very fun to use...


This album is powered by
BubbleShare
- Add to my blog

Tuesday, August 08, 2006

Love at first sight

I found her in a comic book shop. She was in the window. I walked around inside for what seemed like hours and couldn't see her. (I'm always nervous to ask inside a comic book shop because I know nothing about comics, and scared that my choice will be laughed at, like going into some cool muso boutique-style record shop and asking if they have the latest Mariah Carey?) But he didn't laugh when I asked, and they only had the copy left in the window.

'Great cover' he said. Isn't it?











Cover art by Adam Hughes


Sunday, August 06, 2006

Pride

We went to Pride, and I must apologise, I am ashamed, I let you all down, I let myself down, by not charging my camera batteries in time, because there were some rare sights on offer. Hurrah for the insanely mental people, letting their freak flags fly.

Instead I refer you to all the other clever people who managed to take their cameras and uploaded their photos on Flickr.

Two thoughts about Pride: it seems to have turned into one almighty marketing opportunity - a quick walk around revealed stalls flogging everything from pink sparkly cowboy hats and angel wings, to horrible hippy knitwear, rubberwear, leatherwear, sex toys and viagra, crystals, candles, houseware, petcare insurance, civil partnership packs... The relentless salesmanship was getting to me, had to remove myself to the bar tent before I gave in to the urge to buy a pink sparkly cowboy hat.

The other is that despite all the commerciality, it's a really mellow atmosphere, we went with our friends who all have kids and it was kind of nice to see the breeders and the gay hedonists co-existing so happily together. Really it's Utopia (with the occasional person wearing chaps without trousers underneath.)


Wednesday, August 02, 2006

Bears

Grizzly bears on web-cam. Too cute, I can hardly bear it. (boom boom).

NB: it's not on 24 hours. Currently 4.00 am in Alaska so maybe try later.

This is via the fabulous pop-science website Inky Circus