The Straight Story w/ dinner at Langans

What a wonderfully subdued evening with my otherwise rambunctious friends. It began with Suzy at Langan’s Brasserie, great artwork, delicious food and lots of laughter.

Suzy is beautiful but it was the painting in the background that caught my eye. It looks like a Hockney and the writing along the top states that it portrays a celebration of the first day of The Rakes Progress - characteristically colourful and shows the sun shining in England’s green and pleasant land.

We visited the bathroom before we left and met Laurel and Hardy, not sure who that moody git on the right is… then off to the BFI Southbank David Lynch Season to The Straight Story, one of my all time favourite films.

It may be a strange choice but it’s a wise one, and I’ll tell you why. It’s based on a true story and is one of the most sincere films in the world ever. Fact. A gent getting on in years has fallen out with his brother over 10 years since and they haven’t spoken, his brother has a stroke, and he makes the lone trip across country to make things up. Family is important, we should look after each other, even if you’re family your friends. Don’t fall out over silly things – its pointless. WATCH IT. Bring tissues!

Thank you all for coming to see this with me, you beauties! xxx

Catgut LP Launch

The serenity inducing melancholic pop of Catgut made the stage glow with equanimity at the LP launch last night.

They have been delivering their stealth pop recordings to the world since 2005… if you can get out and see them then do. You can check them out of Spotify or Youtube if not. Here’s a tiny taster…

Casablanca

Good Day Citizens,

If you haven’t seen Casablanca, then please find a way to see it as soon as possible! I can assure you, it’s not just my recent found fetish for Humphrey Bogart this is a classic movie.

A crackerjack bar owner loses his cool exterior over a smart, beautiful girl, only to show that true love is empathetic. All set against the backdrop of early Second World War unoccupied North Africa.

Major Strasser: What is your nationality?
Rick: I’m a drunkard.
Captain Renault: That makes Rick a citizen of the world.

The film also popularised the song “As Time Goes By’ by Herman Hupfeld, .

An adventurous film with a charming cast – surefire perpetual classic.

Here’s looking at you kid…

Classic Movie Weekend – Visiting the Outlaws

Beginning research with my miniature sister into our pending adventure through Canada and the US, paired with being sat in bed sick for almost 5 days, here is a short guide to some classic films.

Niagara (1953)

Marilyn Monroe and Joseph Cotten star as a troubled couple with murder in mind. Niagara Falls playing a starring role , as a result of watching I’ve booked a room at the Crown Plaza with a hot tub overlooking the falls, it’s where Marilyn stayed during filming. The history of the hotel is pretty interesting and I”m now mainly looking forward to riding The Maid of The Mist which looks pretty scary… If I can manage to look like Marilyn whilst doing this I’d be very happy x

Tombstone (1993)

I remember watching this when I was little and loving the Doc Holliday character played by Val Kilmer, ‘I’m your huckleberry’. This time round I noticed a fat Billy Bob Thornton at the beginning – didn’t recognise his face but his voice from Bad Santa and the narrator from The Big Lebowski, plus many more…

Anyway, to the point. I have every intention of visting Tombstone and of meeting some real cowboys, riding some horses and generally pretending I’m that film – possibly as Wyatt Earp or maybe as Josephine Marcus. If you haven’t seen it , please do, it’s one of my top 5 favourite Westerns!

Bonnie and Clyde (1967)

You probably know the story, but have you seen the film? It’s a pretty odd opening but I like it. It becomes obvious that Clyde is a virgin which is most upsetting seen as though he’s played by a young Warren Beatty, a fine natural resource. The film follows the couple on a crime spree through Mid-West US during the depression, we see B&C capture the societies imagination as they give normal life two fingers. It’s only the shooting that make it sad, the people that die don;t really deserve to…

Christine and I won’t be following too closely in their footsteps but we will be hightailing round in a vehicle purchased in an honest fashion possibly picking up a gang of outlaws…

3 great films

The Tower of London

Well it struck me that I’d been living in London for over 3 years and had never been to the Tower of London. Good gracious me, what had I been missing?! So off I toddled… first things first, fuel up.

One full English and cup of tea later…

We went to the Tower and prayed for forgiveness to the God of dieting, please release me from this chamber of portliness.

It felt good to learn some new things about the city and it amused me greatly to see how much times had changed! I guess the main difference now is that  instead of spending years carving a hole through a 2m thick wall with our finger nails we paid £20 to get into the Tower.

Oh and the graffiti was somewhat more time consuming than our beloved Banksy’s efforts.

Oh and we got to try on some funny hats, which is always a treat.

This wonderful creature was the Lion of St Mark, a gilded winged lion, the symbol of evangelist St Mark and emblem of  the Venetian City State.  He’s a pretty creepy guy.

We did learn that the Tower was not built to imprison people, it’s primary function was as a fortress stronghold. The Crown Jewels were there but you can’t take pictures of them , or try them on, you can just look at them and wonder how much they’d be worth. The oldest object was the Royal Anointing Spoon from the 12th century, the BEST object was the Royal Punch Bowl, which could hold over 100 litres of  vino, that would come in useful. If I was the Queen I’d be shutting the tower down to the public and throwing a massive party.

I would of course invite my new Royal chums, the guy on the right was rather a sarcastic Royal Welshman. For now i’ll have to settle for a roast at the Portobello Gold, and a few too many drinks for a Sunday

Oh boy – what a deliciously autumnal British day out xxx

Sunset Boulevard

Following a recommendation from a friend we watched Sunset Boulevard the other night…

It’s a film noir about a script writer on his way to being down and out, played by William Holden, that incidentally happens upon a wealthy ageing silent movie star, played by Gloria Swanson. The two work so well together, the story is great and aesthetics of the entire film are unbelievable. It’s the golden age of Hollywood…

I don’t like to say too much about the plot of a film, but if you enjoy a good film noir then WATCH THIS!!!

The Kidd Toy Museum, Portland, Oregon

Well I would have to say that other than attending the wonderful wedding of my old chum Taylor, that a visit to the Kidd Toy Museum was the highlight of my recent trip to Portland. The collection includes toys from around the 1860s-1940s and was truly a sight to behold! These guys were amongst my favourites…

These anxious little sailor types with the boxing guy and their elephant mate.. any ideas?

These old school money boxes are brilliant, lift the arm of boss dog in a top hat to insert cash. Winner

Charlie McCarthy was the ventiloquist puppet of Edgar Bergen, here is is driving a wind up car. The Kidd Toy Museum actually started as a collection of vehicular toys by Mr Kidd but also included many mechanical money banks.

This is the one modern thing I noticed in the museum and it made me smile, simply because it was so out of place and I quite like Obama.

Despite the shops starting to stock Christmas things it upsets me this has started in October. This aside this Santa Claus is worthy of display all year round.. this must be the guy that visits the naughty kids, he’s pretty menacing…

If you are ever in the Portland area I would HIGHLY RECOMMEND you go there!

The Playboy of the Western World

A Monday night at the Old Vic with the lovely Clare was rather enjoyable. Despite the fact I didn’t understand a word of what was said on stage for the first 10 minutes of the production, the play was rather funny as it progressed. Set in 1907 rural Ireland, the story is about a boy who claims he killed his father and has run away. He comes across a village pub and after relaying his story becomes the centre of attention amoungst the local women. They think he bold and brave. Until his father shows up.

I enjoyed the play but there are better things out there to see in my opinion.

Croatia: Rafting down the Drava River

Following a rather hungover, exciting journey, we arrived at our entry point to the Drava River. Personally, I felt like i’d stepped onto the set of Point Break

The rafts were inflated and we went on our merry way…

The river was beautiful and we didn’t see a soul all day, the only people around were…

We made a pit stop for some lunch and had a little swim.

We then continued our journey and reached where we would camp for the night.   Our hosts from http://www.mintyschoice.com/ brought our tents, barbeque equipment and most importantly lots of wine

We ate very well

We camped and spent the next half day rafting and then went on to do some horseriding.

Thank you to the rafting team that looked after to us on our journey down the Drava, I want to come back for some white water action!

Croatia: Wine Tasting & Bee Farm, Varazdin

In the afternoon we met Amanda who took us to some fabulous vineyards and had the pleasure of witnessing our gradual deterioration into obscurity over the course of the day… and it will always be remembered as one of my favourite days in the history of time.

Such beautiful countryside and a smile in the knowledge that this expanse of green will one day create a plethora of wines. But first, some lunch…

I think we’d all enjoy what happened next and it wasn’t so much a wine tasting as a wine drinking, we met the gent that created the wines and has won various International Awards at the Decanter World Wine Awards, this one was my personal favourite: http://www.decanter.com/dwwa/2011/wine/crnko-election-vintage-dried-berries—traminac-2009/7338 

We then moved to the 2nd vineyard of the day which had the most wonderful view, it really was beautiful. Our hosts were very generous and we continued to drink some tasty white wines.

Then for the most exciting part of the day – we visited a bee farm, eek.

We learnt about how it all works, although I seem to have forgotten a great deal, perhaps I shall have to return http://www.slatki-put.com/

We got to try the honeycomb, which was weird, it ended up like chewing gum. The honey was go fresh, our hosts had made some delicious biscuits which truly tasted like heaven. But the best discovery of the day and perhaps this year was MEDICA, its a honey liquor. Magically it tastes like honey but its alcoholic and I would like to think its good for you too?! It’s seemingly a type of Rakia. The medica I brought back with me ran out yesterday, I wish that bottle would refill itself!

 

I have to say the best thing about Croatia was the warmness of our greeting. Everyone we met was kind and generous with their welcome, this really made our stay. You should try to experience this for yourself!

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For some further interesting thoughts on the up and coming world of Croatian wines you can read here: http://www.decanter.com/news/blogs/team/518707/croatia-and-the-new-new-world