Rev Stan's other stuff

Culture QotW: Cheers!

Share a recipe for your favorite summer drink.

It's a smoothie:

                                                                                 Slice of water melon, half a papaya, a banana and milk (I use rice milk as I'm dairy intolerant but I'm sure cow's or soya would work as well)
Peel and de-seed the fruit, place in a blender and blend until smooth add milk until a drinking consistency or thicker if you prefer and blend again.
Chill or add ice if you can't wait.

(Saturday and) Sunday cinema

Been playing catch up with my film-watching, having been away quite a bit, so last weekend I saw two very different films.

Shaping the man who would become Ghengis Khan

First there was Mongol which is the story of Ghengis Khan's rise to power. It is a film of

The beautiful Khulan Chuluun as Borte

contrasts with beautiful landscapes and cinematography interspersed with some of the bloodiest fight scenes I've seen in a long while (and just in case you missed it, some of the blood spurts are slowed down just for a second or two).
Through the historic tale is woven threads of the legend that surround this powerful historical figure which add just enough mythical sparkle without pushing it into the realms of pure fantasy.
And I can't comment on it without mentioning the actress who plays Ghengis's wife, Khulan Chuluun, who is just painfully beautiful and I couldn't take my eyes off her when she was on screen.

Not just pretty faces: Sienna Miller and Kiera Knightley

Second film and what was my actual Sunday cinema was Edge of Love with Sienna Miller, Keira Knightley, Cillian Murphy and Matthew Rhys.
Now I'm not a massive Knightley fan as I think she is overrated as an actress and as to Miller, she's always been just a pretty face but I was actually pleasantly surprised.
Set in London and South Wales during the second world war, Knightley and Miller play the former lover and wife respectively of poet Dylan Thomas. The film tells of the relationship between the three and then later four, when Vera (Knightley) marries. Thomas is played with craft by Rhys as a moody, self-centred, bon vivant and cad whose ability with words enraptures and ensnares the two women almost to the point of tragedy.
The rapport between the two female leads comes across with such warmth and naturalness it makes a very convincing and engaging friendship on screen. There is much to admire in the performances with both  having a convincing stab at the welsh accent and Knightley singing remarkably well.
A refreshingly sophisticated and intelligent chick-flick is probably the best way to describe it.

Bonkers rotating building

Have just seen this on the BBC website and it isn't often I get excited about a building, especially as I write about property for my job, but this one did make me go wow. Chances of it ever being built, I imagine, are minimal but how fab if it was. Am especially liking the built in wind turbines...

Bad news/good news

Mosh has stolen (borrowed) my lappy for a press trip so I only have my humble dilberry to post on at home for the next couple of days.
He is threatening to sabotage my blog, facebook, flickr etc as all my settings are saved on the stolen (borrowed) lappy. So ignore anything out of character...
But the good news is my brand spanking new MacBook is on order and should arrive next week. Hurray.
Once again Adam gave me my computer shopping list and much to Mosh's amusement until I get it home to play with all I know is it is the middle one in the range with the bigger hard drive (insert pun here).
Mosh is buying my old lappy off me so hopefully I'll never be left with just the dilberry ever again...

 

Edit: Ha! Have just changed my password so all's safe and well for the time being...

Musical bandwagon

Yep I've jumped on it and bought artist-du-jour Duffy's Rockferry. And I love it. She's got a lovely voice and yes the sound is very reminiscent of a lot of 60s female singers but, well, I love it. It's sunny Sunday mornings and rainy Sunday nights all rolled into one.
This is a particularly favourite which she performed on Later With Jools Holland:

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How to lose a punt and influence people or I don't like that particular punt any more

(As demonstrated by Dan recently on the Cam)

Lets all go and have a close look at the trees and shrubbery on the riverside...

Dan demonstrates punting prowess

Ok, so we've looked at the trees and the shrubbery now, in fact the trees and shrubbery are a little close, no really they are getting close enough to get into the punt now...

Dan demonstrates punting prowess

Well the trees and shrubs looked like they would do a better job so best leave 'em to it...

Dan demonstrates punting prowess

And in case you were wondering, someone did have to go back and rescue his punt and it's passengers.

You know it's summer when...

Summer at the National Theatre, originally uploaded by Rev Stan.

The fake grass and deck chairs come out in front of the National Theatre.
Am particularly loving the giant-size three piece suite this year and the effect of seeing adults, glass of wine in hand looking like toddlers on a sofa...

News & Politics QotW: What the World Thinks of the U.S.

The latest Pew Global Attitudes survey showed a slight uptick in favorable attitudes towards the U.S. from other countries since the first time since the U.S. invaded Iraq. That being said, what is it about the U.S. you think other countries dislike so much? 

Bush. What were you thinking???? Well that's probably it in a nutshell really. Bush and not thinking.

Culture QotW: Play Time

What's your favorite play and why?

One that not only entertains but also makes me leave the theatre feeling alive. 

Fellow theatre-goers

The West End Whingers obviously have a lot more money than me the amount of theatre they see but I'm so glad they do and grateful also to Adam for pointing out the website, 'tis tres amusant.

Is this a dagger I see before me?

I could get used to going to the theatre every week, especially on Mondays which are usually such a dreary prospect, unfortunately there are funding issues so I'll have to make do with my sporadic trips for now. Anyhow, on to tonight's performance, The Revenger's Tragedy at the National Theatre which one of my fellow theatre-goers succinctly described as shagging in the first half and stabbing in the second.

On at the National Theatre: go see it

There was a bit more to it than that but Thomas Middleton who wrote the play must have been the Tarantino of his day because this certainly would have had an 18 certificate. (It's amazing what you can get away with on stage because it's culture, innit?)
Middleton looked up to Shakespeare who was the equivalent of Scorsese in his day and there are certainly influences: talking to skulls anyone?
To try and describe the plot would just confuse. I read it online and in the program beforehand and it certainly addled my poor brain but all becomes clear in the live performance.
Essentially it is set in an corrupt Italian court and sees the protagonist plot a lengthy and complicated revenge on the ruling family among whom there are also various hard done by members seeking out their own revenge. Naturally it ends in a high, bloody, body count and tragedy. Although I think Middleton needed to work on the tragic element a little, Hamlet this isn't.
It was brilliantly acted so that you soon forgot the language and verse, ably led by Rory Kinnear as Vindice. It was predominantly a contemporary staging but nothing was lost in dragging the costumes, sets and music into the 21st century.
Enjoyed every minute and I admit to a vague feeling of smugness knowing that people just two rows behind paid a lot more for their tickets as I managed to get the Travelex subsidised seats near the front for the bargain price of £10.
And now I am away to bed forsooth I will be veritably grumpy in the morning when the alarm goeth off.

Because I could

More art from Psycho Buildings at the Hayward Gallery. This one looks like an exploding building and I quite like it.

Exploding building, art, thingy

But is it art?

Psycho Buildings at the Hayward Gallery, originally uploaded by Rev Stan.

There is an exhibition on at the Hayward Gallery called Psycho Buildings. It represents various artists different takes on architecture. Or so the literature states.
This is one of the pieces in which the artist, Gelatin, has created a boating lake on one of the gallery terraces. Visitors queue up to take a turn in one of the tiny and slightly precarious boats.
I declined the boat trip myself, more interested in taking this picture which captures the unique and slightly bizarre view.
Certainly it has got people talking and is different but does that make it art?

Guilty flick

I wanted a drink, that's my excuse. It's a Friday night, Mosh is out in the suburbs somewhere on a boozy night with the boys and I wanted a drink. What is a girl to do?
Sex and the City at the cinema.
Yes, yes I know, I'm surprised too, I wouldn't entertain the TV series in my front room. Even more so that I quite enjoyed it, despite an ending so predictable a five-year-old could have written it. Mind you the large glass of Sancerre probably helped.
(A rousing huzzah to the Clappy Piccie House for letting you take a proper drink in a proper glass into the screen)

Bad day at work

So another top secret file has been left lying about for any old joe unscrupulous to find. What sort of idiots are we employing to look after these things? Don't they have a section on the recruitment questionnaire to tease out the forgetful and scatterbrained:

    You have a top secret document you need to read, do you:
    A) Leave it safely locked up in your highly secure office
    B) Lock it up in a brief case which you keep with you at all times and take it home to read
    C) Put it in an orange envelope with a copy of a magazine you happen to be reading earlier and leave it on the seat         of a commuter train

Honestly, what a fuckwit.

Theatre, theatre, theatre

Well two plays. The first at the Donmar was a disappointment which is why I haven't written about it before. And when I say a disappointment I mean specifically that I just didn't find the story engaging. It was called Small Change by Peter Gill and had a good and able cast led by Lindsay Coulson of Eastenders fame and the legend (in my eyes) that is Sue Johnson. It was set in 1950's industrial south Wales and about two mothers and their sons.
There were flashbacks to stuff that had happened when the sons were kids and here is where I falter because my mind kept wandering, when I should have been concentrating on what was being said. I came out not really sure what the whole thing was about.
I know, I know I should pay attention in class but I just didn't connect with it, unlike The Good Soul of Szechuan at the Young Vic. It is the first Brecht play I've ever seen and like Small Change I knew nothing of the playwright or the play prior to bum hitting seat.

Jane Horrocks as Shen Te

The Young Vic, in an attempt to open up theatre to the masses, gives out some free tickets to local residents of which I am one. Having successfully applied for tickets with my neighbours Andrew and Francesca, my thinking was 'well if it's crap I won't feel the need to get my monies-worth and stay for the second half'.
The whole theatre was done up to look like the interior of a warehouse with bright lighting, cheap industrial wooden paneling, conveyor belts, piles of sacks, basic metal filing cabinets and the regular seating had be removed and replaced with more basic school assembly type plastic chairs.
Set in poverty stricken China it tells the story of how three Gods searching for good people are given shelter by a poor prostitute. They reward her with some money and implore her to stay good. She buys a tobacco shop and quickly gets swamped with people who want her 'help' including an out of work pilot with whom she falls in love.
Her cousin arrives to help her and quickly sets about dismissing those who are taking advantage.
Rattling along at an energetic pace, the central theme questions whether you can be a good person in such a bad place. And it is ones of those plays you could discuss for hours afterwards.
Jane Horrocks was wonderful as Shen Te the prostitute and her cousin Shui Ta, deftly juggling what is essentially two sides of the same person.
The staging was imaginative, with the filing cabinets doubling up as front doors to characters houses and having an effect similar to a vanishing cabinet as some of the characters appeared and disappeared through the narrow doors.
I've since been reading a copy of the play bought on the night as I'm sure there is much I missed while trying to take it in visually.
I've also been reading some theatre blogs which seem to be divided into two camps, those that like Brecht and those that don't. A lot seem to get hung up on his politics - he was a communist - and in some ways I think watching a play for the first time in blissful ignorance is the best way because you can enjoy it or otherwise at face value, as a piece of entertainment.
I'd definitely see another of his plays.

Beautiful Gower Peninsula, South Wales

Beautiful Gower Peninsula, South Wales, originally uploaded by Rev Stan.

Kite flyer

Kite flyer, originally uploaded by Rev Stan.

Taken while walking on the Gower Peninsula in Wales last weekend.

Brits on the beach in Gower

Brits on the beach in Gower, originally uploaded by Rev Stan.

Just the love the way that Brits will all head to the beach the moment the sun comes out. Doesn't matter that it's only 19 degrees and quite windy, just set up the wind break, sit back and enjoy...

Euro 2008: the journey to £32

First step towards cash glory for Rev Stan. Germany, my team in the office sweepstake beat Poland 2-0 in their first round game.
And Portugal, my spiritual 'sweepstake' team, beat Turkey 2-0 too!
Overall a good start for Rev Stan's teams in Euro 2008.

Tube security

On my way home tonight, there were police at my local tube station. Nothing unusual about that except they had an airport style metal detector and were stopping and searching young males.
I'm presuming they were looking for knives following the recent spate of teenage stabbings rather than terrorists. Should I feel any less worried?
Well so far it has been teenagers stabbing teenagers and I take a selfish comfort in the fact that my teen years are long gone. And presumably the extra police presence is always a good deterrent.
But why then does it still make me feel a bit nervous?

It's all English to me

Mmm...I'll have my wooden eating implements lightly grilled please

I saw another restaurant with Grass Hill on the menu, perhaps that was the veggie option.

Only the good looking ones obviously

Clive Owen's name doesn't quite have the same showbiz pizazz when translated into Greek. (Slightly curious as to why the film title was left in English)

'Shoot 'em up' was too difficult to translate

And finally the place all straight men dream of staying (it's in Kalambaka boys):

A room service menu with a difference

Recreating famous art or design gone mad

Room in Athen's hotel had a frosted bathroom door* so I just couldn't resist...

*Note to hotel designers: Frosted glass in the bathroom door is quirky for about first five minutes you are in the room. The frosting only mildly distorts the person behind it and you don't really need to see someone scratching their arse or doing whatever it is that people generally like to do behind the privacy of the bathroom door. Secondly when you put the bathroom light on to go for a piss in the middle of the night you might as well have just switched all the room lights on, which is great for your room mate who was fast asleep.