Rev Stan's other stuff

Roll on the weekend

This week has got to be over soon. Work has just become an exercise in juggling elephants as we hit production for the biggest issue of the year, around 80 pages of which are under my remit. I feel stressed and incredibly tired because my brain won't shut off at night and I'm sleeping bad, even for me (see previous post).
Then there's my boiler which has been playing up since I got back from my holiday and which cost me £485 to get fixed yesterday.
And now, just as we are facing what is probably going to be the coldest night of the winter so far and freezing winds forecast for London tomorrow, my heating decides to pack up completely.
So rather than getting into the office early tomorrow so I can complete a couple of pieces of writing I promised the production desk but couldn't do this afternoon because my tunnel into the work server from home was playing up, I'm going to have to sit huddled over a tiny fan heater I begged off my neighbours, waiting for the heating engineer who is calling between 9 and 12 but probably won't arrive until 11.55am only to find that it is a completely different fault to the one that was fixed, resulting in having pay out all over again. Oh and he won't have the right part and the only place which has one in stock will be on the other side of London, so adding to the cost.
(Who has the one appliance that the repairman carries the spare parts for in his van?)
I'm off to bed with my hot water bottle. At least I'll be snug as I toss and turn.

Culture QotD: Walk & Chew Gum

What talent do you most wish you had?

To be able to fall asleep as soon as my head hits the pillow, regardless of where I was. It normally takes me 30-60mins to get to sleep in my own bed, longer if I'm in a hotel. Unless I've had a skinful.

Timothy West (nearly) spat on me

You need a thick skin for the this theatre lark. First there was the watch incident at Leaves of Glass last year. Now acting stalwart Timothy West virtually spat on me during his performance in Harold Pinter's The Collection at the Comedy Theatre. It's the price you have to pay for being on the front row I suppose.

The Lover, The Collection

The Collection was second in a double bill of Pinter plays, the first being The Lover. I confess I've never seen a Pinter although I vaguely remember reading The Caretaker when I was a student.
My boss had sung Pinter's praises as a comedic playwright when I mentioned to him my planned evening and that together with promising cast (Gina McKee, Richard Coyle and the lovely Charlie Cox who was last seen in the film Stardust) made it entertaining evening in prospect.
The Lover was predominantly a two-character piece, well acted and with enough intrigue to leave you amused and thought-provoked but compared to the The Collection lacked a little pace. Perhaps it was the addition of a couple of extra characters that helped by giving the story more threads which Pinter expertly tangles, untangles and just as he looks ready to tie up the lose ends leaves you ensnared and puzzled but in a pleasant way.
There are few real belly laugh moments, but Pinter's skill is in amusement and plain old wit. In these two play's he takes infidelity as the central theme but treats it in a way that challenges common perception.
It was an enjoyable evening despite West's spit narrowly missing my leg and not least because Cox is a talented bit of eye candy. And, it has left me wanting to read both plays to learn more and definitely see more Pinter.

Entertainent QotD: Only the Good Die Young

Actor Heath Ledger was found dead at the age of 28 on Tuesday. Which celebrity death in your lifetime has affected you the most?

River Phoenix

Affected is probably too strong a word but I was moved by the tragic circumstances of River Phoenix's death. I'd been a fan of his since watching Stand By Me.
I saw the film This Boy's Life recently with Robert De Niro and a young Leonardo diCaprio who reminded me a lot of Phoenix. The film came out the same year Phoenix died and diCaprio was four years younger. I wonder who of the two would have had the bigger career had he not died when he did? And would his brother Joaquin Phoenix have risen to such stardom?

QotD: My 10 Things

What are 10 things you've done that other people probably haven't? 
Submitted by Janette.   

1. I once appeared in New Woman magazine taking part in a cooking challenge. The premise was that your boyfriend is coming round for the evening, you've got £10 and haven't time to go to the supermarket so using only what you can buy from the corner shop cook a meal for two. I was a veggie at the time so made an onion quiche (pastry from scratch) which I served with new potatoes and peas followed by trifle made from swiss roll, a carton of custard and tinned fruit. I won mainly because they couldn't believe than anyone would make pastry from scratch but there wasn't a great deal of choice, in fact the only vegetables the corner shop had were onions and frozen peas. And the quiche was Mosh's idea.
2. Flown a powered glider (and was terrified)
3. My uncle took me for a ride in his microlight which is basically a hand glider with a tiny engine attached (and I was terrified)
4. When I was a teenager my parents got me tickets to go and see my favourite singer, (who's name I'm too embarrassed to mention) and my sister, who accompanied me, managed somehow to get us backstage where we were able to rub shoulders with him.
5. Been to Nigel Havers' house to pick up an Aston Martin with Mosh
6. Driven a tank (even with cushions I still couldn't see where I was going)
7. Got a black belt in karate by the age of 18.
8. I've been to see both rubbish metal band Napalm Death and rubbish reality-TV-created pop band Hear'Say live and there can't be many people who can say that.
9. Lambeth council paid me several thousand pounds in compensation because I broke my arm falling off my bike after hitting a pot hole on Vauxhall Bridge. I used some of the money to buy the sofa I'm now sat on.
10. And, I sent my favourite teen singer (see no. 4) a cuddly toy in the post and months later, in a magazine, there was a picture of him at home in his bedroom and there was the toy I'd sent him in the background.

QotD: Burning Question

If you could ask any question in the world and get a true answer, who and what would you ask? 
Submitted by jaypo.

I'm sure plenty of people have come up with really worthy, intellectual or witty answers but I'd probably just say 'fuckit' and choose one of my favourite actors or musician's and ask something silly. I'm not going to embarrass myself by giving an example.

QotD: Worst City Ever

What is the worst city you've ever been to and why? 
Submitted by Soup.

Travel around the UK a lot so there are several places vying for pole position on this but as it says 'city' rather than town it narrows the field slightly and I'm going for Milton Keynes. Brits won't need an explanation but for those from further shores the reason is because it is the shining beacon to 60s town planning failure.
Some people in their wisdom thought it was a good idea to follow the US-style of town planning laying out wide boulevards with car parking down the sides of the road and different zones for business, retail and residential.
The result is soulless, dull and impractical particularly is you are trying to get around by foot.
Hindsight is a wonderful thing but the legacy of this failure will be around for many years to come as the process of transforming Milton Keynes into a place that is pleasant, vaguely vibrant and able to cope with 21st century public transport requirements is both costly and time consuming.
Oh and if you go to a gig at the Bowl it takes bloody hours to get home regardless of your chosen method of transport.

(Good question Soup)

Without laptop, now with life

When I was kid there was a programme called Why don't you..?. which had a theme song with the lyrics:

Why don't you just switch off your tv set and go and do something less boring instead 

The irony of the lyrics weren't lost on us even at such tender years but it is particularly apt to my life right now. Well sort of. I've lent Mosh my iBook for a few days leaving me without a domestic computer and internet access.

Suddenly I'm realising how much time I spend on it whether it is just checking emails over breakfast or blogging while the news is on, checking RSS feeds, shopping, messing around with iTunes....

I have been forced to stay late in the office so I can write this and check my emails the number of which is rapidly rising without regular intervention. But I'm determined that I won't feel like my arm has been chopped off and I will make the most of this 'new' leisure time and go and do something less boring instead.

 

Cod piece's ahoy

Just been to see Othello at the Donmar Warehouse, a theatre so small you can tell when the actors are looking you in the eye. And what actors: Chiwetal Ejiofor, Ewan McGregor and Kelly Reilly.
Acted with all the animation, subtlety and spit that befits Shakespeare and with cod piece and heaving bosom aplenty it is a tale of the worst of human emotions: jealousy and revenge and it's tragic consequences.
The machiavellan Iago (McGregor) looked over for promotion by Othello (Ejiofor) expertly plots his revenge, at first subtely sowing the seeds of doubt about his wife Desdemona's (Reilly) fidelity and then rapidly reeling Othello and his unwitting helpers into his web of lies.

EjioforEwanDM0512_468x338

Othello was played as man of passionate personality, but ultimately someone who is insecure and proud, whose pride once pricked is savagely wounded.
Iago who is one of the most evil characters of all the Shakespeare plays I know was played with firm purpose and no remorse even as he is undone.
And the beguilling Reilly played Desdemona as naturally flirtatious but with an innocence that helps steal the element of tragedy.
I was gripped from the moment the actors burst onto the stage until they took their final bow. It was such a great play to start the year.
Tickets are apparently going for £600 on ebay and I can understand why, but I wouldn't have sold mine for double that.
Oh and if all that wasn't enough, Richard E Grant and Richard Curtis were both in the audience and David Oyelowo who played Danny in Spooks was sat right behind me.

Vox Hunt: Listen to the Lyrics

Audio: Share a song with powerful lyrics.

Thank You

Led Zeppelin

QotD: Can't Do Without...and Starbucks rant

What food item would you miss the most if it were removed from your diet and recipes? 
Submitted by scorpion1116.  

Duh!

Mmmm chocolate

Talking of which I'm very disappointed with Starbucks. My only incentive for crossing the threshold other than to use the loo was their chunky bars of plain, fairtrade chocolate (being wheat and dairy intolerant it is a real treat to find somewhere that sells something naughty I can have with a cup of tea).
But to welcome in the New Year the coffee chain has a) changed the shape of the bar so it's no longer chunky but flat which isn't as much fun and b) put the price up by 20p which is more than a 20% increase!
Money grabbing, chunk-destroying bastards.

QotD: Happy Birthday To Me

How do you feel about your birthday?  Do you look forward to it and remind all your friends, or do you dread it and try to keep it a secret?

Anyone who knows me, will not be surprised in the least by this answer but I LOVE my birthday. I love planning it and bore everyone with talking about it for the weeks running up to it.
You only get one birthday a year so why not celebrate it or use it as the perfect excuse to do something special or that you really enjoy?
I also like making a fuss of other people's birthday's too: planning surprises, getting the perfect present and making a cake...

This is the cake Nadia made for my last birthday

(Last) Sunday cinema

January is turning out to be chocker with magic movies - it is Oscar season after all.
Charlie Wilson's War was last Sunday's viewing and is a witty and entertaining film. Based on a true story it tells how senator Charles Wilson facilitates the US's covert war with Russia in Afghanistan leading to them being overthrown. Tom Hanks is convincing as the womanising Wilson which surprised me because 'Tom Hanks' and 'womaniser' are not words that usually sit comfortably in the same sentence. And Julia Roberts who plays the socialite who essentially brings the plight of the Afghan's to Wilson's attention and nudges him the right direction, well, I just can't get excited about her as she is just Julia Roberts.

Charlie Wilson's War

Now I digress slightly, but I've always said certain actors have wandered into the realm of celebrity too far to be believable in character. I read recently a comment that Leonardo diCaprio made:
     "The more people know too much about who you really are, and it's a fundamental thing, the more the mystery is taken away from the artist, and the harder it is for people to believe that person in a particular role."
It is why I think I struggle with certain actors and Roberts is one of them. But anyway back to the film, Roberts is OK but Philip Seymour Hoffman is excellent, as the straight talking CIA agent.
There was a little niggle at the back of my mind throughout the movie thought and that was the more recent events in Afghanistan's history. In the film America trains, arms and funds the Afghan rebels so that they can fight the Russians and it is policy that, to put it flippantly, has come back to bite it on the bum.
There is a little nod to this fact right at the end of the film but it did taint the experience a little.

QotD: On "American Idol"

The seventh season of "American Idol" premieres tonight.  Will you be watching, or are you over it?

If someone was to arrange a car to pick me up now, whizz me to the airport and fly me to America in time then maybe.

Not quite sunday cinema

The run up to the Oscars usually results in rich pickings at the cinema and this year is no different. My first film of the year, The Kite Runner was long anticipated. I'm a big fan of the book being a sucker for a tale of tragedy and in particular, one set in a different country.

The Kite Runner

It is a tale of two afghan boys of different social status and backgrounds who are firm friends until an incidence of violence changes everything. What follows is a journey of loss, redemption and ultimate revelation that serves to add tragedy to an already sad tale.
The film certainly lived up to expectation. It is a sensitive adaptation, expertly depicted by the largely unknown cast, that captured the essence of the book. I can't recommend it enough. In fact the only negative was the two teenage girls who were sat right at the front whispering and giggling. Teenagers really should be removed from the planet and only allowed back when they can behave in polite society.
My second film of the week was one that has been much talked about in the press because it is by Ang Lee and it's rude. Although if Lust, Caution was just rude and not made by Ang Lee it probably would have got just as much press.
The film also happens to have received really good reviews so that cultured cinema-goers can justify the ticket price without blushing.
Set in Japanese-occupied Shanghai during the second world a group of Chinese drama students decide to aide the underground resistance movement by infiltrating the friends of a high-powered collaborator with the aim of assassinating him.

Lust Caution

It is essentially a tale of seduction and of two people discovering each other. And yes it is rude. Lee should win an Oscar for his ability to film such explicit sex scene's without any parts of the body being showed that would plunge it into the category of porn.
He is a finely skilled director and the film is beautifully shot and put together. It is long but doesn't really feel long which is testament to his skill but ultimately I found the ending unsatisfying. I thought it might one of those endings that would improve on reflection. Maybe it's because it didn't end quite as I had anticipated and my pride is clouding my judgement. I'm just not quite sure.
Nonetheless it is worth a look and not merely for the titilation.

Elvis reincarnated

It has to be.

Elvis goat

Cuba Libre

Mosh said at the end of our holiday: "Cuba is a country of contrasts, sometimes there are loo seats and sometimes there aren't."
There is so much I could write about this fascinating country which has completely captured my heart. It is easy to be dismissive of an non-democratic society where doctors earn the same amount as someone who works in the field but it was the simple and unwavering pride the Cubans have for Cuba which won me over.

Street in Trinidad

Yes some farmers still use a pair of ox to plough the fields and transportation is a mixture of horse drawn carriages, bicycles and motorised vehicles on roads that are falling apart but it also has one of the best public health services in the world and a compulsory education system that puts many western countries to shame.
Some people still cook over fires in kitchen's out doors and power cuts are common yet crime levels are low and arts and music valued highly.
At the very least it is refreshing to visit somewhere without any advertising and a complete lack of brands. No Starbucks. No McDonalds. No H&M, Next or Gap. Bliss.
So what were the highlights? It's a tricky one but trekking to Fidel's secret HQ during the revolution which was way up in the mountains is definitely one. It's only been in the last few months that they've allowed visitors to take camera's up so I felt privileged not only to visit but be able to capture it. Then there was Che Guevara museum and mausoleum both of which were very tastefully done.

Fidel's secret entrance to his secret hideaway

At the other end of the spectrum there was visiting Cuban's in their own homes sharing fruit and snacks with them and seeing in the New Year in the town square in Santiago surrounded by music and dancing.
Oh and swimming in the sea on Christmas Day was also quite good.
Here are some pics the rest are at my flickr

Come on in the water's lovely

Watching the world go by

Che Guevara art

Havana

Sunset at Santiago de Cuba

Man gets his cock out

And what a fine cock it was too...

Man gets his cock out

Yep I'm back from Cuba. More magnificent cocks tomorrow (and other Cuba photo's like sunsets, cars and Che and stuff but they don't sound as funny).
Oh and please feel free to leave appropriate cock captions, I'm sure there are many more than the ones we made up at the time...