Rev Stan's other stuff

Music QotW: Rainy Day Music

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.

01 Cosita Linda

Septeto Sones De Oriente

Not quite sunday cinema

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.

Discovery

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

Gratuitous post

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).

Dark n' moody Jeremy Sisto

Life QotW: Work It Out

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.)

Entertainment QotW: Reel Talk

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)

Another excuse to post a pic of Ben Whishaw

*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?

Culture QotW: School Play

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.

QotD: Almost Famous

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.

QotD: Won't You Be My Neighbor?

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.

Celebrity spot

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.

Glover

Not a sunshine moment

You know that bit in the film Little Miss Sunshine, when the brother who's been refusing to speak for month's finds out that his dream of becoming a pilot will never be realised because he's colour blind and he jumps out of the car runs down an embankments and screams FUUUUUUUUUUUUUCK at the top of his lungs? So much frustration and disappointment rolled into one is so acutely expressed in a simple action.

I had one of the moments today.

Thanks Rita.

Life QotW: Fun in the Sun

How do your hobbies/activities shift from winter to spring/summer?

I drink in the beer garden rather than in the snug. Unless it is raining.

Vox Hunt: Close to the Heart

Show us a treasured object.

It's been a while since I featured him so he's getting testy...

Bun Buns

I didn't mean it Jack

Despite what I said about Jack White in my last post, I am really enjoying the new Raconteurs album Consolers of the Lonely, which Mosh lent me. They are a band I'd really like to see, unfortunately the two London dates they are playing are while I'm on holiday. Boo.
Anyway, Jack sounds a lot better on his own album rather than on stage next to Mick Jagger. Here's a particular favourite of mine

07 Top Yourself

The Raconteurs

Sunday cinema

Saw two disappointing films at the weekend.
First there was Shine A Light the Scorsese directed film of the Rolling Stones in concert on Saturday night. If you've seen the trailers, like me, you may have been led to believe that this was a behind the scenes rockumentary made by one of the leading film directors about one of the most famous rock bands.

Shinealight

However, what it is, is a nicely shot equivalent to a 'live DVD' with a bit at the beginning which is all 'woo the Rolling Stones are being all skitish about the details and Scorsese's getting worried about whether he can have a moving camera or not' followed by pretty much the entire concert with a handful of old interview clips sparingly edited in.
Yep there are some good guests which expose the weakness of either the guests performance (Jack White is a terrible singer next to Mick Jagger) or the Rolling Stones (Christina Aguilera is a superb singer next to Mick Jagger).
It is a charity gig so the audience is obviously made up of rich gits who may have heard a Rolling Stones song once and the Clinton's who are just embarrassing. (Why didn't Scorsese get the camera to pan around on them during the gig so we could all see Bill dad-dancing as he inevitably would be).
OK so the songs are great and I'm sure it would have been amazing to have been there but I quickly got bored and it was only my fascination with Keith Richards face (please tell me he's a muppet) combined with the large glass of red that sustained me.
Why on earth Scorsese wasted his time on it I do not know. Surely the man could have wangled himself a ticket and a back stage pass if he was that much of a fan?

Leatherheads - not about people from a town in Surrey

And the second film, which was my actual Sunday cinema, was Leatherheads. Now I don't like to criticise anyone with whom I share a birthday and in particular someone who is as good looking and talented but... someone should have said 'No' to George Clooney.
He directs and stars what is actually a direction-less movie. It wants to be so many things but succeeds in being none.
You could call it a romantic comedy about a girl that is hard to get but the whole American Football thing pulls it more towards fact-based sports drama about the underdogs succeeding and how American Football became the game that is played today or something. But then there is also the media question which stops it being a sports drama and the 'what is a hero' question which stops it being about the role of the media. I could go on.
Renee Zellweger or hamster face as I like to call her (just look at how she smiles, if a fat hamster smiled it would look like Renee Zellweger) and Clooney smolder together which is about the only positive thing I can say about the whole film. Oh and the bit where Clooney gets punched in the face and falls over which is what I wanted to do by the end. Actually that was the only bit that made me laugh.
If you want to eat popcorn and ogle George for a couple of hours then it might be worth parting with hard-earned cash but otherwise I wouldn't even bother recording when it makes it onto the telly.

It seemed like a good idea at the time...

Every now and again I read something in a newspaper that is a golden nugget. Something I'd have loved to have written myself that is witty and amusing but at the same time informative. Today when I was glancing through the daily newspaper cuttings, I happened upon this little treasure from The Times about the collapse of property company Erinaceous.

QotD: And of course, the title has to be... Home Alone!

What happened the first time you were left home alone as a child?
Submitted by Warhead.

I probably argued with my brother, who is the same age, over who had the TV remote control. And if that didn't happen then the telly would have been involved certainly. We'd watch any old crap when my parents were out because they'd ration it when they were at home.
If I was on my own I'd probably put the fire on in the living room as our house was always cold and my mum would usually just tell me to put another jumper on.

Vox Hunt: How Bizarre

Show us something bizarre.

This was in the cottage we rented in Yorkshire last year. It actually scared me a little.

Frog in a dress

Life QotD: Ch-ch-ch-ch-changes

What would you most like to change about your life?

The bit where I have to get up and go to work five days a week.

Or, failing that, the bit where I have to deal with fuckwit PR's* who do absolutely no research before picking up the phone to try and palm off their irrelevant press release on me for their misinformed client (whom they have somehow persuaded they know what they doing) thus wasting huge chunks of my day when I could be doing far more pressing things like writing stuff and editing stuff and commissioning stuff to keep 20 PAGES A WEEK full and informative.

*I don't think all PR's are fuckwits. There are a handful that are very good at what they do and are extremely helpful, unfortunately they are in the minority.

Entertainment QotW: ExBf/Gf 4Eva

Carrie Underwood and Chace Crawford broke up via text message. What do you think: Would you ever break-up with someone by sending a text or email?

Call me old fashioned but I think it is disrespectful and cowardly.

Vox Hunt: Get Comfortable

Show us your favorite comfort food.
Submitted by nosa.

Mmmm chocolate

Hooray for holidays

We're off to Greece for two weeks next month which I'm really excited about. Have never been before and needless to say it is definitely a cultural trip not a beach holiday in some over-developed lager-lout resort.
We are flying in and out of Athens and Mosh has organised the itinerary which will see us visiting lots of beautiful and historic places such as Delphi and Olympia. We finish with three nights in Athens which is my birthday present to Mosh.
Mosh studied Greek as part of a classics degree so he's in charge of communing with the locals and telling entertaining Greek myths and legends over a glass of something cold in the evening.
My task is booking all the hotels so I'm spending rather a lot of time on the internet and leafing through the Lonely Planet at the moment.  Good ol' LP don't know what I'd do without it. Count down begins.
 

Holiday planning in action

Proud yoga moment

Just to prove that if you try, try and try again (4 months of practicing) you can achieve what you thought was impossible.

Headstand

A film I'm really looking forward to

Ben Whishaw

It's only just started filming and isn't out until next year but I'm already excited about Jane Campion's film Bright Star.
And the reason? Well first of all it has the wonderfully talented Ben Whishaw in the lead role and secondly it is about John Keats my favourite poet.
Whishaw is playing the romantic poet and the story is centred on the doomed love he had for his neighbour Fanny Brawne. Her family didn't approve of him and Keats who was an amazing and prolific poet died in Rome in 1821 aged just 25. (Incidentally the house where he died is right by the Spanish steps and now houses a Keats museum.)
Whishaw is one of the few actors that I look forward to seeing, surprisingly for me, not because of his looks but because he has demonstrated such range and depth in his performances to date, I'm excited to see what he comes up with next.
So Bright Star has all the ingredients for a great film: brilliant actor and director, romance and tragedy.
And there's the poetry. I studied Keats as part of my A-level English syllabus and I can still recite a large chunk of Ode to Autumn from memory. Much of what we studied was perfect for that period of my life which was full of unrequited love and teen angst. There are so many examples to choose from but here are a couple. He had such a sensuous way of describing things.

Ode to a Nightingale (first verse)

My heart aches, and a drowsy numbness pains
My sense, as though of hemlock I had drunk,
Or emptied some dull opiate to the drains
One minute past, and Lethe-wards had sunk.
'Tis not through envy of thy happy lot,
But being too happy in thine happiness -
That thou, light-winged Dryad of the trees,
In some melodious plot
Of beechen green, and shadows numberless,
Singest of summer in full-throated ease.

To Autumn (first verse)

Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness,
Close bosom friend of the maturing sun,
Conspiring with him how to load and bless
With fruit the vines around the thatch-eves run:
To bend with apples the mossed cottage-trees,
And fill all fruit with ripeness to the core;
To swell the gourd, and plump the hazel shells
With a sweet kernel; to set budding more,
And still more, later flowers for the bees,
Until they think warm days will never cease,
For summer has o'er-brimmed their clammy cells

Vox Hunt: Shoot the Sunset

"The sky broke like an egg into full sunset and the water caught fire." -- Pamela Hansford Johnson
Show us a self-taken picture of the sunset.
Submitted by Connie.

Sunset in Santiago de Cuba

This was taken on  New Years Eve and once the sun  had set we had dinner in a nearby restaurant watching the last of the colour drain from the sky before heading back into to town to  see in the year Cuban style.
Incidentally, the banner pic on my blog is one of my photo's too cleverly cropped by AKA Vasquez. It was taken in Thailand while on a rice barge and is the probably the most beautiful sunset I've ever experienced.

QotD: Where in the World...

If you were independently wealthy, where in the world would you live?
Submitted by Eileen.

I'd stay here in London but move about a mile up the road to a beautiful Georgian house in Clapham Old Town. I love living in London and making the most of what it has to offer but there is so much to see and do and if I had the money I could enjoy it so much more.

Music QotW: Best Album in 2008

We're already three months, and many, many albums, into 2008. What's your favorite album (thus far) that was released this year?

Well this one has an unfair advantage because it's by Muse and I was there and it was brilliant.

Muse: HAARP

So the best non-muse album released this year so far has to go to this one by Goldfrapp. I admit I'd forgotten about it because I've been listening to more recently purchased music which wasn't released this year and so doesn't count for this question. But then they played a track on radio and it reminded me how good it is...

Goldfrapp: Seventh Tree

1-07 A&E

Goldfrapp

QotW: Hollywood Hottie

Who is the hottest person in Hollywood right now?

The one who has spent just a little bit too long in the sauna.

Please let this be true

This email has being doing the rounds today and I really hope it is genuine. I don't want to patronise male readers by saying it's one for the girls but it is about 'women's things' so you have been warned...

This is an actual letter from an Austin woman sent to American company Proctor and Gamble regarding their feminine products. She really gets rolling after the first paragraph. It's PC Magazine's 2007 editors' choice for best webmail-award-winning letter.
 
Dear Mr. Thatcher,  
 
I have been a loyal user of your 'Always' maxi pads for over 20 years and I appreciate many of their features. Why, without the LeakGuard Core or Dri-Weave absorbency, I'd probably never go horseback riding or salsa dancing, and I'd certainly steer clear of running up and down the beach intight, white shorts.

But my favorite feature has to be your revolutionary Flexi-Wings. Kudos on being the only company smart enough to realize how crucial it is that maxi pads be aerodynamic. I can't tell you how safe and secure I feel each month knowing there's a little F-16 in my pants. 

Have you ever had a menstrual period, Mr. Thatcher? Ever suffered from 'the curse'?  I'm guessing you haven't.  Well, my time of the month is starting right now.  As I type, I can already feel hormonal forces violently surging through my body. Just a few minutes from now, my body will adjust and I'll be transformed into what my husband likes to call 'an inbred hillbilly with knife skills'. Isn't the human body amazing? 
As Brand Manager in the Feminine-Hygiene Division, you've no doubt seen quite a bit of research on what exactly happens during your customers monthly visits from 'Aunt Flo'. Therefore, you must know about the bloating, puffiness, and cramping we endure, and about our intense mood swings, crying jags, and out-of-control behavior.
You surely realize it's a tough time for most women. In fact, only last week, my friend Jennifer fought the violent urge to shove her boyfriend's testicles into a George Foreman Grill just because he told her he thought Grey's Anatomy was written by drunken chimps.  Crazy! 
The point is, sir, you of all people must realize that America is just crawling with homicidal maniacs in Capri pants... Which brings me to the reason for my letter. Last month, while in the throes of cramping so painful I wanted to reach inside my body and yank out my uterus, I opened an Always maxi-pad, and there, printed on the adhesive backing, were these words: 'Have a Happy Period.' 
Are you fu*ing kidding me? What I mean is, does any part of your tinymiddle-manager brain really think happiness - actual smiling, laughing happiness is possible during a menstrual period? Did anything mentioned above sound the least bit pleasurable? Well, did it, James? 
FYI, unless you're some kind of sick S&M freak girl, there will never be anything 'happy' about a day in which you have to jack yourself up on Motrin and Kahlua and lock yourself in your house just so you don't march down to the local Walgreen's armed with a hunting rifle and a sketchy plan to end your life in a blaze of glory. 
For the love of God, pull your head out, man! If you just have to slap a moronic message on a maxi pad, wouldn't it make more sense to say something that's actually pertinent, like 'Put down the Hammer' or 'Vehicular Manslaughter is Wrong', or are you just picking on us? 
Sir, please inform your Accounting Department that, effective immediately, there will be an $8 drop in monthly profits, for I have chosen to take my maxi-pad business elsewhere. And though I will certainly miss your Flex-Wings, I will not for one minute miss your brand of condescending bull sh*t. And that's a promise I will keep.  Always.
Best,
Wendi Aarons
Austin , TX