Rev Stan's other stuff

Hurray for December

And not because of Christmas. Yes it's a great excuse to meet up with friends and I'll be doing plenty of that over the next few week but the reason I'm so excited is because it means I have only two weeks and two days of work left this year. And I have veritable feast of culture and entertainment planned between now and the end of the month: Hamlet, Twelfth Night, Gethsemane (fingers crossed Mosh's MAF is able to get us tickets), James, Gogol Bordello, Dylan Moran, ice skating at Somerset House with Nadia and a trip to Liverpool with Mosh.

Ice Skating at Somerset House

And then there are all the things I want to do while I'm off like visit the Andy Warhol exhibition at the Hayward Gallery, Byzantium at the Royal Academy and the Annie Liebovitz exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery. There are tons more but these are top of my list.

I'll also be able to queue up for cheap day seats for a some plays and catch up with some films I've missed.

All in all shaping up to be a very good month.

QotD: Black Friday

Today is the official start of the holiday shopping season. Are you planning on doing any shopping today? What are you going to buy?

Questions like this are symptomatic of how Christmas has become almost entirely about consumerism and exactly why I don't bother any more.

"...the official start of the holiday shopping season..."

Come on people spend, spend, spend those retailers have got their shareholders to keep happy after all.

Fantastic way to be remembered

This story is all over the web today and I actually think it's quite cool. Pianist Andre Tchaikowski, when he died in 1982, left his body to medical science with the proviso that his skull be given to the Royal Shakespeare Company for theatrical performances.
It had only been used in rehearsals up until the summer when it made it's stage debut in the Yorick scene in Hamlet, naturally. But what a brilliant way to be remembered and to know that part of you would be going on stage, in one of the most well known scenes in Shakespeare with probably some of the best actors. It also made me think about other ways you could bequeath yourself.
Here's a picture of David Tennant with the skull and to think Jen and I were only a three feet away from it in the summer...

Picture: AP (from the Daily Telegraph)

X Factor

Take That week and hurray Rachel has finally gone. Her performances were inconsistent and her troubled past has obviously left her with a lot of issues. She went a long way on the odd flash of talent. Dannii Minogue looked positively relieved.
And as to the rest, well Alexandra is the star and should win the whole thing if there is any justice. JLS just murder one song after another, as does Eoghan and yet the judges sing their praises every week. Must near their ears syringing.
Diana, my little favourite, hasn't been good the last two weeks and needs to step up her game. And Ruth, well I think she's gone as far as she can go vocally. Compared to Alexandra she sounds amateur.
There are only three weeks to go now and apparently Britney Spears is appearing on next weeks show. I'm sure the contestants will find her singing lessons and advice on living the pop star lifestyle invaluable.
My predictions for the final? At the moment I'd say Alexandra, Eoghan (although it would be a travisty) and Ruth (again a travisty). I'd like it to be Alexandra, Diana and I don't know because I don't like any of the others so I'll say Ruth because her performance is always strong even if her singing isn't.

Sunday cinema: Body of Lies

Since Quantum of Solace failed to deliver I’ve seen a few subtitled-indy films - some good and some bad but nothing worth posting a comment about. But what I’ve really been hankering for is the gap that Quantum should have filled: A good old settle back in the seat, hand in pop corn, action-thriller.
Step up to the plate, Body of Lies. OK so Leonardo DiCaprio is starting to get a little typecast in these edgy, action-hero-who-can-do-accents types of role and really needs to do something to stretch his acting ability again but he is good at it.

Leonardo DiCaprio and Russell Crowe do spying

He plays Roger Ferris, a name I can’t help thinking is more akin with a history teacher than an undercover CIA agent in the Middle East.  He is ‘handled’ back in the states by Ed Hoffman, played by a scruffy, overweight Russell Crowe.
Brit Mark Strong gets a look in, not playing a baddie as the Brits usually do but the head of the Jordanian intelligence agency. Naturally he can’t be trusted, he is played by a Brit after all.
To say the story boils down to trying to find and bring down the big nasty terrorist is doing a little bit of a disservice to the twists and turns of the plot but that is essentially what it is about. The ending sniffed the cheese as you might expect but didn’t quite go through the door of the dairy.
Combined with some great action, edge-of-the-seat suspense and look-away torture scenes it makes for a satisfying popcorn action thriller.
Shame the cinema was so bloomin' cold.

Flickr milestone

Graffitti, originally uploaded by Rev Stan.

Passed a milestone this week. 15,000 views on my Flickr account. I'm sure plenty of others with Flickr accounts have got far more views but I am nontheless impressed by this figure.
I find it fascinating which pictures have been viewed the most.
Two days ago it was of the roast lamb I did for my birthday two years ago.
But it is this picture which has stayed top of the pics for a a long time now which is surprising merely for the fact that I spelt graffiti wrong in the tag...

Culture QotW: Call Me Old Fashioned...

What "old fashioned" cultural behavior do you wish still existed in these modern times?

For fear of sounding like a whinging old bag but I'd like a bit more politeness.

Funniest email I've seen in a long while

I heard about this listening to BBC 6 at the weekend and it has started circulating by email now. Tis v. v. good and I bet there isn't a single person out there who would secretly love to have done it. Go look at it now!

Canny Cowell

That Simon Cowell is a canny bloke. Some might call it bandwagon jumping and you might loathe with a passion the sort of music he pushes out to the undiscerning but he certainly knows where the cash is to be made in the music industry.
He foresaw the 'gap' in the market for a hunky male classical quartet and brought us Il Divo who's latest album has just gone to number one. The four slightly tubby music students who performed as G4 in the first series of the X-Factor a year or two after Il Divo appeared were never going to generate the same interest regardless of how good they were at singing and what solidly nice chaps they are.
And then last year when Louis Walsh, who's success in the music business amounts to er Westlife, was giving Steps-esque brother and sister duo Same Difference a drubbing week in-week out, Cowell was spotting another niche.
So just as High School Musical fever is hitting a pitch only pre-pubescant teens can reach Same Difference, under the guidance of Cowell are releasing a bubbly-vomit inducing single that will play to this market perfectly.
Credit crunch bothering Cowell? I wouldn't bank on it.
 

London Beach Sculpture

London Beach Sculpture, originally uploaded by Rev Stan.

Yes London has a beach, for a short time at least while the tide is out on the Thames. I've seen sand sculpture's on this stretch before but this is the first time I've taken a picture...

Seagulls up close

Took a walk along the South Bank yesterday. This time I got the tube to London Bridge and walked back to Stockwell as that eastern stretch is a part I don't often get to.
When I got to Vauxhall there was a man feeding bread to the seagulls. They were so close and he told me they sometimes took pieces from his hand. It was an amazing sight and sadly I only had my mobile phone to capture it. (Some idiot forgot to charge my camera batteries).
Still pleased with the results though.

Seagulls at Vauxhall Bridge

Seagulls at Vauxhall Bridge2

Seagull feeder

Seagulls at Vauxhall Bridge3

QotD: Vacation All I Ever Wanted

Where do you want to go on your next vacation?
Submitted by beth.

It's not a case of want more a case of where I can afford to go. The pound is poo against a lot of currencies at the moment.

This is the best thing on the web for a long time

...if you love puppies and would love a puppy but can't have one like me... (thanks to Dave for discovering it)

Video streaming by Ustream

Good news of the day

Oh and that was my good news of the day. My Princess Bride DVD arrived! A bit lazy but then I have been busy reminiscing...

Return of a teenage crush

Me and my mate Justine were obsessed with the film The Princess Bride when we were teenagers. We went to see it at the cinema more than once, we bought the sound track and we obsessed about it as teens do. There was no internet back then or DVD's and video's were something you hired rather than bought.
Haven't seen that film for a very long time and they've just brought out a special edition DVD with commentaries and 'making ofs' and all those things that didn't exist back in the 80's and I've fallen in love with it all over again.
I mean how could you resist....

Cary Elwes in Princess Bride - I'm 16 again

The most surprising thing is that what I remember most when watching it again is the music rather than the story. I must have listened to that tape alot.

QotW: Top Museums

If you were to rank the top three museums in the world what would they be?

1. British Museum in London because it's full of stuff we've nicked taken for preservation from around the world, it's an amazing building, it's free and it's open late. Oh and it's just around the corner from where I work.

British Museum

2. Pergamon Museum in Berlin because it has even more amazing stuff than the British Museum which the Germans nicked took for preservation from around the world. The exterior has also still got shrapnel marks and bullet holes from the second world war. When you see pictures of Berlin at the end of the war it's a miracle every thing inside survived as well as it did.

Alter of Zeus, Pergamon Museum

3. National Archeology Museum, Athens. Nothing here on the scale of the Pergamon and British Museums but some incredibly beautiful and very, very old pieces. Took loads of pictures when I was there in May which are here but particularly liked the Cycladic art which dates from 3,300 BC and which have inspired artists like sculptor Henry Moore:

Cycladic Art, National Archeology Museum, Athens

Good news of the day

Been a bit lax recently but here's a good one to make up for it. The EU has finally scrapped rules governing the shape of fruit and veg on sale.
Hale-bloody-lujah. We were probably the only country in the EU that actually followed the rules anyway, they certainly didn't in France or Spain.
It was such a stupid rule on so many levels not least because it is so wasteful.
Full story by the Beeb here

X-Factor

Was meant to be posting my thoughts on the X-Factor each week and I keep forgetting - whoops.
So what have I missed? Well Daniel is still in and Eoghan is still in so the voting public are obviously deaf as well as stupid.
This week was an endurance. Mariah Carey week that's all you need to know. Got through it by playing Scramble and wincing.
And Louis is just getting worse. He says controversial and spiteful things to get a reaction and you just can't take him seriously. He's tuning bitter, twisted and desperate. At least Cowell knows what he is talking about and admits when he is wrong.
This was one of those weeks when the public turn a blind ear to the performances and let the sob stories dictate which number they dial. Ruth and Laura were in the bottom two, neither of which deserved to be their even thought they didn't do their best performances.
Then it was a case of the blind leading the blind as the deciding vote was left up to Louis who chose to kick out Laura.
Am shocked. Not least because lounge dad Daniel and school-play star Eoghan made it through unscathed.
Gutted.
The only glimmer of hope I have that history dictates that when the audience gets it monumentally wrong, having that decision slammed in their faces reawakens their sanity. Hopefully.

Merry Christmas

Two days is a long time for retailers. I mean Bonfire Night was only two days ago and already the Chrimble decorations are out. Starbucks has a festive garland and followers on Twitter have spotted other 'festive' items including a mince pie in Costa Coffee.
All this is of course old news for the supermarkets which started stocking seasonally branded (read: over-packaged and more expensive) foods back in September.
Within weeks regular groceries will be crammed onto two shelves at the back of the store and the rest of the store will be a gaudy mix of red, green, gold, silver and cellophane.
The only thing that is giving me small comfort is the fact that it is almost a certainty that retailers will have their worst trading conditions for many years.
Christmas turned commercial, nah, it's all about celebrating the birth of Jesus.

Sunday cinema: Quantum of Solace

Won't do any cliched Bond jokes but I was quite excited about seeing Daniel Craig's second outing...

More of this next time please

Well there wasn't a swimming trunk scene like the one on the right or an equivalent, so for that it already gets a mark down. The last one put a smile on my face this one didn't. It felt like a series of loosely linked chases in fact you can almost tick them off: car chase - check; motor boat - check, motorbike - check; roof-tops - check, scaffolding/building site - check. The get-the-girl-in-bed scene seemed like an afterthought or maybe a 'oh shit he hasn't shagged anyone in this one yet, what to do what to do, ah yes...' 

The whole set up was confusing but once it got into it's stride that seemed pretty superfluous as it was all about 'get Green' rather than bringing down the organisation that has 'someobody everywhere' like we are led to believe. 

There are some cool moments but I felt like I had seen it all before. Craig's Bond seems to have fallen flat and I'm hoping the next one will have a bit more personality (and swimming trunks).