What's your ultimate rainy day song?
Submitted by J-Len.
This one because it makes me feel sunny. It's a band I saw in Santiago de Cuba back in January. I also play the album on my headphones at work if I'm having a miserable day because it takes me off to my sunny place.
Finally after what seems likes weeks of enjoying the popcorn more than the movies, I've seen something truly entertaining: In Bruges.
In it Colin Farrell and Brendan Gleeson play assassins Ray and Ken who've been told to lay low in Bruges after a hit by their boss Harry played by Ralph Fiennes.
Ray and Ken are obviously cut from different cloth which makes for an interesting journey as the real reason for the Bruges trip unfolds.
To say more about the story line would spoil it but it is funny, sad and violent all melded into one. It is nice to see Farrell working with his native Irish accent for once and he is a natural at this type of character. Gleeson is just one of those actors who consistently puts in a good turn although this is the first thing I've seen him in since Harry Potter's IV and V and I can't quite get Mad-Eye Mooney out of my head when I see him on screen, which has nothing to do with his performance.
Fiennes is fabulous as a foul-mouthed, London criminal head-case. He does suprisingly well with a broad Laahnden accent but having seen him as Voldemort in HP, playing evil again was no great test of his acting ability.
In fact the film turned out to be a bit of Harry Potter reunion with Clemence Poesy who was Fleur Delacour in IV taking the Hogwarts total up to three. Poesy plays Farrell's love interest and a character that is a departure from the children's film. It shouldn't surprise me as she's done a lot of film work in France.
Anyway I digress, it is a thoroughly enjoyable way to spend a couple of hours and having been sorely disappointed with Oxford Murders, Leatherheads and Shine A Light recently it was refreshing to leave the cinema with a smile on my face rather than just bits of popcorn.
Was at my Mum's at the weekend and ended up scrabbling around in the loft for her where upon I discovered a shoe box with the following written on it:
Letters from Family l986 (?) -
Private and confidential*
Recognising my own youthful scrawl I immediately delved inside to discover a myriad and delicious restrospective. It turns out the family bit is a fib because there are a good few correspondence from friends also, particularly from around the time I was university.
I'm still delving through but there are some gems including:
* A rare letter, indeed probably the only one I've ever received, from my brother Derren
* Letters from my father back when he was feigning an interest in me and before I told him to 'get out of my life'
* A stressed out monologue from my best friend Jen written as her Cambridge exams were about to start
* Stacks of letters from my sister which have served to remind me that she was a person before she became the epitome of the word 'mum'
But the two I am most excited about are from friends long since disappeared and whom I would love to get back in touch with. First is Deon Loudon who I met at my karate club in my teens. We trained together, he was one belt above me and got his black belt about six months before me. I had to fight him at my black belt grading.
I fancied him like crazy at time. We did go on a date (that's another story) but it didn't come to anything.
The letter was written after we'd both gone our separate ways: me to University and him up to Edinburgh. He was at a junction in his life and wrote about a decision he had to make between starting a new job and earning some money or helping a friend with his rehabilitation after an accident left him in a wheelchair. He felt there was a real chance he could do some good but was broke. Sixteen or so years have since passed and I still don't know what he decided.
The other letter is from Fritos, as I knew her. We were counsillors in the same cabin at Camp Thunderbird in 1991. It was a summer camp just outside Orlando for developmentally disabled children and adults and we had so many laughs together.
Fritos was her camp nickname. We all had to choose 'camp' names and use them when we were working, mine was Red. After a week we stopped using our real names altogether and I must admit that until I found this letter I'd forgotten what her full name was: Freida Hall. I think she was from Little Rock, Arkansas but the letter was from her University town, Fayetteville. She had a twin brother, Freddy.
Would love to know what she is up to now and if she has stayed in contact with any of the others we worked with.
Apart from the memories, finding the box has also made me think about how much more permanent letters are as a form of communication. You just can't box up texts and emails and discover them in the attic, besides most non-verbal communication nowadays seems so short and sweet.
It's a shame I don't have time to put pen to paper any more.
*Coz that works every time as a deterrent to snoopers
I am the only person I know that watched Kidnapped in the UK. And from the fact that it bombed in the US probably means only one person watched it over there. But I don't care (apart from the fact that it was obviously written with a second series in mind and now I'll never get to know what happened to the girl Knapp couldn't find).
Anyway in honour of the fact that I've finally got hold of it on region 2 DVD and am addicted to the series all over again, here is a picture of the lovely moody-looking Jeremy Sisto (I'd soon cheer him up ;0).
How do you stay in shape?
Cycle to work. Yoga. Run. Gym. Walk. And squash when my ankle will allow. (The theory is having lots of different forms of exercise to choose from means I'll hopefully be in the mood to do one of them. In theory.)
Which yet-to-be-released movie are you excited to see?
Brideshead Revisted. Loved the book and the TV series and the film has the wonderful Ben Whishaw* in it playing Sebastian Flyte as well as Emma Thomson and Michael Gambon. Believe it is being released in America first which is annoying.
(And of course Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince)
*Before getting to see the talented Ben on the silver screen, I am pleased as punch to announce that I will be seeing him tread the boards, at the National Theatre no less, in a new play based on Dostoyevky's The Idiot. Excited, moi?
What role did you play in your school play?
In the nativities I was always either an angel or a star (not the star)
When I was bit older we did a dance/drama version of the Pied Piper (our teacher was a bit of hippy with a penchant for girls in leotards) and I had one of the lead roles which was King of the Rats. I loved it because I got to wear lots of make up, had a solo dance piece and then had a duet with my best friend Louise who was Queen of the Cats (she was pretty). In our piece the King kills the Queen which was my other favourite bit (that'll teach her to be prettier).
OK so my character bought it in the end but I was the last of the rats to disappear off into the sunset.
In my final year at primary school we did our own pantomime based on nursery rhymes with a twist and I had the lead role. The story centred around discovering who had pushed Humph (Humpty Dumpty) off the wall and I was the detective Beep Po (Bo Peep but with one of those red chinese hats on which had a long, black platt stapled to it - racial stereo-typing was socially acceptable in those days). Can't even remember whodunnit now.
Then, having reached the top of my game, I made a dignified exit from public performance and have never trod the boards since.
Only a love scene with Clive Owen would tempt me back now.
What do you want to be famous for?
Submitted by bluemoon07.
I'd love to write an award winning screen or stage play. But I'm a loooooooooong way from that ambition.
What are your neighbors like? (The ones you live near or next to, not the ones in your Vox neighborhood!)
Andrew and Francesca live in the flat opposite and are great neighbours. They moved in about a year ago and we started chatting when we bumped into each other in the hall. They came over for a drink on my birthday last year and Mosh and I went to their wedding reception. At Easter we all had dinner together, preparing a course each.
They have a set of keys to my flat for when I lock myself out, we lend each other stuff and are all going to the theatre together in June.
Francesca is a knit wear designer and gives me free samples. Andrew is a bus driver and is full of amusing stories about the menagerie of passengers he encounters and tips for how to get the drivers attention when you are running for the bus.
And to top it all, they don't have loud parties.
Oh I do miss working in Soho. Popping out to get some lunch and walking past the likes of Britney and Ewan McGregor. You just don't get that working in Holborn, its all tourists, students and suits.
So there I was in Soho this evening meeting Mosh, who's working up in town, for a drink and who do I see, none other than Danny Glover strolling down Rathbone Place chatting away merrily on his mobile. He's an idol by default in my eyes because I used to be a huge Mel Gibson fan before he went a bit mental and loved the Lethal Weapon films.
