Rev Stan's other stuff

Just yesterday

Went shopping for holiday stuff yesterday and took some pics along the way.
Carnaby Street has gone retro with its Christmas decorations this year. Not really doing it for me personally.

Carnaby Street Christmas decorations inspired by the 60's

Walking through Soho I came across this piece of Banksy art*. Now this is definitely more my thing.

Banksy out with the spray cans again

And then by the time I got over onto the South Bank it was dark, the carousel was all lit up and there was a Christmas market in full swing. All very festive.

South Bank gets all Christmassy

* According to a comment on my Flickr page this is actually the work of artist Paul Insect. If this is indeed the case I stand corrected.

Why is Gael Garcia Bernal wearing a hat?

Just found this lovely interview Newsweek did with actor friends Gael Garcia Bernal and Diego Luna. It was just before their film Rudo y Cursi came out. Diego reveals why the put-him-in-your-pocket-sized Gael always wears a hat these days.

Skunk Anansie 'back together again' gig

Love Skunk Anansie. Alongside Muse they are probably my favourite band so I was well chuffed when I heard they

01 Charlie Big Potato

Skunk Anansie

were getting back together again, all former differences apparently set aside. (Coughs: need the money).
They are brilliant live. Skin has an amazingly powerful voice that is note perfect. She really goes for it and also has a penchant for jumping into the audience which, naturally, goes down a storm.
Thursday night was not only the final gig on their European tour but also, it being Brixton, Skin's home turf so it held a lot of promise.
And there was nothing to disappoint. Skin was on top form, dancing around with her usual verve in a gold sequined one-piece and jumping into the audience for a bit of crowd surfing, all the time maintaining a note perfect performance.
She was a chatty mood too and during the first encore persuaded security to let about six or seven people up on the stage to jump around with her. At the end of the song she climbed onto the drum stack beckoned the on stage audience to gather in close in front of her and then staged-dived into their arms.
Fab welcome back gig playing the best of their three albums and a handful of new tracks that appear on their new greatest hits album. They also play an as yet unrecorded track which Skin described as being about "f*cking". Indeed the f-word featured quite heavily in the lyrics in typical Skunk Anansie style.
Lets just see how long they can get on with each other this time.
Oh and the support band, which we caught the last few songs of were quite good to. Most unlike the usual supports. They were called The Chemists, see if you can spot their pic in the bunch below. Pics were taken by Melanie as I, in a rare moment of restraint, decided to leave my camera at home.

The lovely David Tennant talks to Jo Whiley

About nappy coats in Dr Who and future projects including a pilot for NBC in LA

A celebrity interview that's actually worth watching

Happened upon this set of interviews in my Whishaw files. It includes not only Ben but Eddie Redmayne, whom I know for playing Angel in the recent TV version of Tess of the D'Uberville's, Rupert Friend who was wonderful as Prince Albert in the Young Victoria and Aaron Johnson who I don't really know.
I like it for its relaxed and candid nature. And for not having the usual pretty but dumb interviewer.

Hollywood sells out on another franchise: New Moon

Edward: needs to grow balls

The odds were stacked against me liking the film of New Moon. I loved the book and the scene where Edward leaves Bella is one of my favourites and had me an emotional wreck when I first read it.
So when I started seeing trailers which showed the scene in the film and it just didn't seem the same as how I remembered it, I wasn't hopeful.
I'm not saying that I didn't enjoy the film, I did, but it seemed to lack the charm and freshness of Twilight which was inevitably shot on a much smaller budget. It was like the film makers made a list of all the things that would make the teen girls scream and added them by bucket load.
Now I'm all for admiring a finely worked out male torso but it was gratuitous ripping off of shirts at every possible opportunity, or so it seemed. The audience actually started to laugh.
Edward's smoky appearances were just to appease the Pattinson fans and almost looked cartoon-like .

Bella: needs to get angry

The CGI wolves were, well, I don't watch a lot of films with CGI as I think it often looks too animated and Jacob et al looked like they'd be at home on CITV in their furry form.
And to top it all the Volturi - who I actually did like - had opera as lift music. I mean, please.
The way Bella just immediately forgives Edward irked me in the book too. I just wanted her to yell, just a little bit. Particularly as one of the bits in the book that I liked for its added emotional impact was the fact that Edward cleared out her room of all the things he'd given her so she didn't have any reminders.
There is only a fleeting reference to this in the film. I thought that was not only very mean but made Edward a far more interesting character. Well lets face it, leaving Bella is the most interesting thing he does in pretty much the entire series.
I am strangely tempted to see it again though to see if its better second time around when I'm more relaxed about what they've done and can sit back and enjoy it as a film in its own right.
Strangely I'm actually quite hopeful for what they will do with Eclipse. It is the weakest of the books with a big build up to a pretty lame confrontation. No one dies, there isn't anything tragic, its all a bit disappointing. Now the film-makers aren't going to kill someone off but they can certainly add a bit more drama. I think some of the action sequences in Harry Potter work much better in the films than in the books. 
So overall a bit disappointed really. It was OK but definitely could have been better.

QotD: New Moon Lights Up The Dark Knight

New Moon broke The Dark Knight's single day box office record. Are you planning on seeing this teenage vampire love story? If so: Team Edward or Team Jacob?

Seen it. They've sold out big time, it is a real shame. I'm too old to choose.

(Fuller review coming as soon as I've got time to write it!)

Plant love

In the summer, I noticed a heart-shaped leaf on my money tree. Since then a few more have appeared.
Timing is quite ironic.

Muse perform for BBC's Children in Need

Muse played a couple of songs at the special concert put on at the Royal Albert Hall for the BBC's annual Children in Need fundraiser - this is Undisclosed Desires. It was the same night as their second 02 gig - traffic from west to east London on a wet Friday night must have been fun.

Marvellous "Cock" but not cocky

OK OK I'll stop fishing for cheap laughs but in my defence, Mike Bartlett did choose a quite provocative title for his latest play.
I've already hinted in my tweets that I quite liked this play. Anything that has Ben Whishaw in it is going to immediately win points and, well, Cock was wonderfully entertaining.

Photo by Alastair Muir: Andrew Scott and Ben Whishaw in Cock

The Jerwood Upstairs performance space is so intimate that it immediately felt special. It's in the round block stepped-seating and the stage is about the width of my living room. The actors are so close you hardly dare move. There are no props, scenery, fancy lighting or sound it is just the audience and actors.
The story centres on John (Whishaw) who lives with his long term boyfriend M (Andrew Scott). The relationship is on the rocks and John meets and sleeps with a woman (W, played by Katherine Parkinson of the IT Crowd). He decides to confess his infidelity and mend his relationship with M but is still drawn to W and cannot quite give her up.
M decides to force John into choosing and invites W to dinner with the two of them in order have the whole thing out. But what he doesn't tell John is that he's also invited his Dad (Paul Jesson) to the dinner party for moral support.
It is both very funny and sad. John is at the same time irritatingly indecisive and endearing as he struggles with his feelings for both M and W.
 

Photo by Stephen Cummiskey

I've wanted to see Whishaw in something that had more humour in it for a while now and this certainly fitted the bill. He turned in a great performance as they all did. I'll forgive Jesson for forgetting his lines and needing a prompt as I'm continually impressed by actors ability to learn their lines. And one of the waitresses I got chatting to in the cafe bar beforehand endeared me to the entire cast by saying how lovely they all were singling out Mr Whishaw and the nicest person you could ever meet, "not like the lot in The Priory*". (Curious, I asked "are they up themselves then?" and she said "yes".)
 
But anyway I digress. Cock isn't on for very long and can only accommodate a small audience so it's no surprise that it has now sold out and I am more glad than I can express that I gambled on liking it and booked to see it twice.
Second visit will be in just over a weeks time and has a Q&A with the director and cast afterwards. Excited moi?
Oh and here are a few other reviews from the pro's who probably aren't quite as biased about Whishaw as I am.

 

Guardian "You may, according to taste, find the title a come-on or a turn-off. But, far from being a sensational shocker, Mike Bartlett's play is a sharp, witty study of a man helplessly torn between his longtime male partner and a loving woman."
Variety "Tender or tortured, every scene is a bout in which punches are verbal, not physical. Yet the stripped-down physical language is amazingly expressive. John's nervous but increasingly excited first heterosexual experience is genuinely erotic, a feat of directorial bravura considering not a stitch of clothing is removed, neither of them touches the other, and all they do is lock eyes, sway and, well, act."
The Stage But although the text is a compelling account of emotional confusion and the struggle to comprehend the nature of love, Bartlett’s idea of having a bare stage and no props, realised here in James Macdonald’s experimental production, using designer Miriam Buether’s bear-pit set, has mixed results.

Small dressing rooms

Sexy spy no. 2

I can only assume that the dressing rooms at the Royal Court theatre are tiny or smell of block drains or something because the actors that are performing there seem to prefer the sofa's in the public bar for a pre-performance drink or chat.

Royal Court - Pokey dressing rooms?

Bumped into one of the actresses who's appearing in The Priory, complete with rollers in, in the ladies. And I can now cross sexy spy no 2, AKA Rupert Penry-Jones, off my list of sexy spy spots. He strolled casually through the bar at which point I nearly spat my rather expensive, but totally worth it Rioja, all over the person stood next to me. R P-J is also appearing in The Priory which I have tickets for in January, thankfully.
Then barely had I recovered and the man himself, Mr Whishaw, walked in and bought a banana and a tangerine (you think they'd get a bit of fruit laid on for them, the theatres aren't that impoverished surely?)
Then there was the theatre audience itself. It's like a Donmar in Pimlico with Imogen Stubbs enjoying the marvellous Cock (sorry but they will give modern plays such provocative titles) in the Jerwood Upstairs. Anyway I'm too tired now to do justice to writing about Cock except to say that it was my first visit Upstairs and the theatre was so deliciously thimble-sized that I was close enough to Mr Whishaw to touch him. I didn't, I hasten to add, I sat on my hands. However, at one point one of the other actors shoved him and I thought he was going to land into my lap.
Anyway tomorrow, tomorrow for more on that. Tired and have an early start.

QotD: First Things First

 What’s the first thing you do when you log on to your computer every day?

Sponsored by Yahoo!

Quit out of twitterific. Haven't worked out how to get rid of properly yet. Yes I know I'm rubbish with techy things.

QotD: Ch-ch-ch-ch-changes

If you could change one thing about your life, what would it be? What's keeping you from making that change?

An extra zero on the end of my monthly salary would be a very good change and what am I doing. Well I'm working hard but sadly that doesn't seem to be getting me anywhere. Journalism is a 'for love' profession and I do love it so I suppose I should go to my second choice which would be the ability to sleep easily and well. Just to be able to get a good nights sleep regardless would make such a big difference, I'm sure.

And what is keeping me from that change? Insomnia mainly. I blame my mother, she is a rubbish sleeper too.

Sweet dreams

Picture by Jordon on Flickr used under creative commons

Possibly the best film I've seen this year

European cinema is where I find myself increasingly turning in order to see something satisfying and interesting these days - I think Hollywood has become chained up in the yard by commercialism.
On Friday evening I got my first taste of Austrian director Michael Haneke's work: The White Ribbon.
Set in a village in northern Germany in the lead up to the outbreak of the First World War it tells the story of a series of strange events that unsettle the peace of the towns strict protestant community: The doctor is thrown from his horse after it trips on a wire strung between two trees, the Baron's son and a local disabled child are tortured and a barn is burned down.
It is told through the eyes of the school teacher, who is from a neighbouring village.

The-white-ribbon1

The White Ribbon of the title is what the Minister uses by way of a humiliating punishment to remind his two eldest children of innocence and purity.
The film starts silently with the opening titles, is shot in black and white and finishes with silent titles. Indeed Haneke embraces silence twisting it from what should be a peaceful, law abiding and Christian community into a uneasiness.
There are some startlingly natural performances from both the adult and child cast. There is certainly no saccharin-coated Disney-club over acting with which we've become so familiar in watching US and British films.
When the film was over and the credits began their silent ascent up the screen, no one stirred for a moment or two. And no one uttered a word until they were well out of the screen. In fact Haneke had created yet another stony silence.
I'd like to see a Hollywood film have that effect on an audience.
It won the Palm d'Or at Cannes this year and the critics seemed to have enjoyed it as much as I did:

Guardian The White Ribbon has an absolute confidence and mastery of its own cinematic language, and the performances Haneke elicits from his first-rate cast, particularly the children, are eerily perfect.

Independent Superbly and sparely acted, The White Ribbon is a remarkable achievement. It reads like a sprawling modernist novel with its extensive cast, dense narrative and systematic refusal to answer questions.

Screen Daily It’s a rich, detailed work pregnant with the sinister undertones and evil deeds for which the film-maker’s work is legendary and won’t disappoint Haneke fans waiting for fresh material after his experimental US remake of Funny Games.

More Bright Star stuff

Just wading through the reams of media coverage I've been collecting on Bright Star since it first premiered in Cannes in May and I came across this interview with Ben Whishaw.
It's probably the most relaxed I've seen him in an interview, normally he just comes across as a bag of nervous tension. In it he just oozes with enthusiasm for the role and experience of making it in a way I haven't seen from him before.
Just want to ruffle his hair, pinch his cheeks and give him a large slice of cake to eat.
(Interview is in two parts)

Muse news

A bit of canny marketing from the Devon lads, while I'm still buzzing from the O2 gig on Thursday I get an email announcing a Wembley date for next year. Tickets go on sale next week, you know I'm gonna...
Meanwhile here are all the pics from Thurs:

QotD: In the Waiting Line

What's the longest you've ever waited in line?

Thursday night at the O2 felt like the longest time in a queue. Only one cash point was working and it was the slooowwwweeeessst cash point on the planet. No it was, I swear. I was ready to take out every penny I have by the time it was my turn. And to add insult to injury it charged for the withdrawal.

The lesson: always stock up on cash before you get to the O2, preferably from a Barclays cash point which are the fastest in the world. Fact. They almost anticipate what buttons you are going to press.

Muse at the O2

Just got back from seeing Muse. Brilliant as ever. Played a good mix of old and new stuff - just enough off the new album which suited me. No Stockholm Syndrome though.
Fab stage set and lights as you would expect from Muse playing an arena. Took loads of pics which need a severe edit but here are a three I've quickly grabbed off the camera. Need to go to bed and get some sleep now, got a busy day at work tomorrow :0(

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QotD: Favorite High School Class

What was your favorite class in high school? (And no, lunch doesn't count.) 

The last one on a Friday.

New Moon dilemma

New-moon-poster1

I loved the Twilight film. It made me read the books which I devoured and shamelessly enjoyed but ultimately left me feeling a little cross with Stephanie Meyer*.
New Moon is probably the most interesting and has a scene in it which haunted me for a long time. It had me looking forward for the film.
But having seen one of the trailers some time back I'm not sure it is going to live up to expectation. Firstly they give so much away it seems barely worth parting with hard earned cash. (Why do they do that?)
And secondly the scene seems to have been messed with and the essence of what moved me to tears when I read seems to be missing.
I could be wrong but I'm sure the problems lie in the fact that the books are told through Bella's eye's and, therefore, a lot of the narrative is in her head which is difficult to translate to film. In that scene it is what isn't said that makes it.
But what isn't disappointing is the soundtrack. It has some cracking tracks on it, as did the Twilight soundtrack. I'm glad they've released it before the film comes out because it sets an interesting tone to the film which has made me curious and want to see it.
Particularly love this one from Thom Yorke.

03 Hearing Damage

Thom Yorke

*The more I think about the books the more I think she whimped out, keeping the stories just slightly too sugar-coated. There was a lot of promised drama and impending tragedy but I felt when push came to shove she shied away from going down the road she created. Perhaps the films will ultimately do better in creating the drama but probably at the expense of narrative.

Treading the boards

Looks like I'm going to get the chance to be on the same stage as Ben Whishaw after all...

Thank you for booking to see Cock here at the Royal Court.
 
As you may know, the Jerwood Theatre Upstairs is an adaptable studio space that can be configured in many different ways. At the time of going on sale we had not agreed the design for this production, so were unaware of the exact seating arrangements. We can now confirm the seating layout for Cock. As always we have endeavoured to make the seating as comfortable as possible, however the unique design of this production has meant that a proportion of the seats are without back rests. There is also no space underneath the seating for coats and bags. We would therefore ask that you deposit all such items, free of charge, in the theatre’s Cloakroom, which is located downstairs in the Stalls foyer area.
 

Artwork for Cock at the Royal Court

Rehearsals are going well, with a current running time of 1 hour, 45 minutes without interval. The production’s design means that all seating is accessed by crossing the stage. We are therefore not able to admit latecomers or readmit anyone who leaves during the performance. We would kindly ask that you arrive in the Jerwood Theatre Upstairs in good time before the performance is due to start in order to deposit bags at the cloakroom and make your way to the auditorium.
 
If you have any concerns with the above information, please do feel free to contact our team who will be happy to discuss these with you.   We are contactable on 020 7565 5050, or via email at [email protected]
 
I do hope you enjoy the performance of Cock and we look forward to welcoming you to the Royal Court.
 
Best wishes
Dan Alicandro
Deputy Sales Manager

That was the week...

Just over a week ago I wrote about a week in prospect that would take in two plays and two eagerly anticipated films. Did it live up to its cultural and entertainment potential?
I've already written about Bright Star which was certainly the highlight but there was much else to be enjoyed.

Dominic West on a quest in Life is a dream

First there was Dominic West making his debut before the Rev Stan in Spanish play Life is a Dream at the Donmar.
The play's writer Pedro Calderon de la Barca was sort of a Spanish Shakespeare and was writing at a time when Spain's golden age of discovery and the wealth and culture it brought with it had be frittered away.
Life is a Dream captures that feeling of having had something so good it was like a dream. It tells the story of Prince Seigusmundo (West) who is secretly imprisoned at birth by his father after hearing a prophesy that he'll be a tyrant. Grown up, his father releases him as a test of his character but having had a closeted life he behaves badly and is taken back to prison having been convinced his time of freedom was in fact a dream.
His existence now known of by the people of his father's kingdom he is broken out of prison and embarks on getting what is rightfully his but this time in constant fear that he is living a dream and is therefore determined to behave better.
It is both comedic and philosophical something some of my fellow theatre-goers had problems but I think the two are inextricably linked.
West put in a stirling performance and I've now ordered first series of The Wire by way of a contrast.
It was an enjoyable play, easy to follow with the language updated in its translation and entertaining enough that the two and half hours flew by.
Next up was The Habit of Art a new Alan Bennett play at the National Theatre. And what a contrast.
It is a play about a play about a fictitious meeting between poet W H Auden and composer Benjamin Britten. On one level it is about two talented men reflecting on their careers at a time when their creativity is dwindling.
On another it is a behind the scenes expose of theatre life: the ego's, the tantrums and again the creative process.
It was very funny with some typically brilliant Bennett one-liners, none of which I can remember. Richard Griffiths as the dial-a-rent-boy loving Auden commands the stage and sparks off the wonderful Frances de la Tour who plays the production manager.
A highly amusing evening all round.

Clooney complete with comedy moustache

And then stage comedy to film comedy: The Men Who Stare at Goats rounded off the week's viewing pleasure. At the beginning you are told 'More of this is true than you would imagine' and I really hope it is because it is laugh out loud funny.
It you try and explain it, it sounds ridiculous: Psychic spies.
The cast is formidable with Jeff Bridges, George Clooney, Ewan McGregor and Kevin Spacey all doing wonderful turns at comedy something which is refreshing to see.
I know it's had mixed reviews but I think it worked really well and perfect Sunday afternoon silliness.
Oh and you get to see McGregor and Clooney walking away from the camera with their bums hanging out of hospital gowns. Perfect.

One for the girls (or boys if that's your thing)

Slightly disturbed by what appears to be Prince Harry and also Daniel Radcliffe included among these. Do you think there is something subliminal going on which makes certain faces stand out the most? Mine was Jake Gyllenhaal.

A sunny day

Woke up this morning to bright blue skies so I just had to make the most of it. I've been meaning to try and take some nice Autumnal shots so I walked up to Green Park to see what there was by way of subject matter.
Just a few of my favourites the rest are on Flickr

Autumn leaves in Green Park

Curious squirrel

The squirrel's are quite tame as they are used to being fed by the tourists. This little chap was looking to see if I had anything for him. I didn't but he and his Green Park buddies don't really look malnourished, far from it.

A tourist annoying one of the Green Park pelicans

Green Park has had pelican's since the reign of Charles II. I wonder whether visitors to the park back then were as annoying. I did get some non-tourist shots of the pelican after I pushed this man in (joke).

Leicester Square reflection

Leicester Square reflection, originally uploaded by Rev Stan.

I'll always remember taking this picture. Not because of the picture itself - Leicester Square after a heavy, Autumnal downpour - but because of what happened leading up to taking it.
I'd just cried my way through Bright Star at the Curzon and was on my way to the bus stop, hat pulled down low to try and cover my face, trying to compose myself and I passed Edgar Wright in the street and then I came upon this scene.

A thing of beauty is a joy forever

Ben Whishaw and Abbie Cornish as John Keats and Fanny Brawne

OK so Bright Star was in a win-win situation:
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John Keats: check
Jane Campion: check
Ben Whishaw: check

The trailers were promising. Campion was going to have to do something pretty stupid for me not to like this film, for me not to love this film.

For those who don't know the story, it is told through the eyes of Fanny Brawne, the neighbour and object of romantic poet John Keats' affection and some would say muse. The two were unable to marry because Keats didn't have any money as his poetry was yet to gain mass market appeal and then his life was cut short by TB.

Keats wrote beautiful poetry and this is a beautiful film. The setting, showcasing the simple beauty of English nature is like a third character next to Brawne and Keats.

The script is kept simple almost with the attitude that less says more leaving Abbie Cornish who plays Brawne and Whishaw who plays Keats to showcase a more subtle side to their acting abilities.

There is one particular scene which cements Cornish as such a talent, I find it hard to believe that she could have produced such overwhelming emotion for more than one take. It is when Brawne finds out from Keats' friend Charles Brown that he has died in Rome, where he had traveled to for the good of his health to avoid the British winter.

The performance touches on such grief and heartbreak that it brings tears to my eyes just thinking about it. And it is up there with Juliet Stephenson in Truly Madly Deeply.

If I was to judge this film on tears alone, my tears that is, not the actors, it would get a very damp 10 out of 10 as blubbed the whole way through. And I wasn't the only one in the cinema.

Not that I particularly care but here are what some of the professionals thought:

Daily Telegraph "It’s by some measure the best film she’s ever made. It feels special without being at all precious. Eloquent, too, but not self-consciously lyrical or florid."

Time Out "A combination of unstuffy dialogue, wise casting, unselfconscious performances and sensuous but never pretty photography makes Campion’s version of the nineteenth century feel current but not anachronistic."

Christmas is coming, already

Christmas is coming, already, originally uploaded by Rev Stan.

We haven't even had Bonfire Night yet and there I was walking through Covent Garden last night when I came across this street decoration in Seven Dials, Covent Garden.

Then I find out that the Christmas lights on Oxford Street and Regent Street were switched on tonight so I guess that means that the season of retailers' profits and excessive consumerism is truly upon us.

Back in Flickr's good books but beware of food porn

My wrists duly slapped, I've promised to be a good Flickr user and remember to follow the rules from now on. And as a reward my Flickr account is now listed as 'safe' again so I no longer feel like my holiday snaps have a seedy veneer.

I've duly noted the guidance of usage:

Please keep the Flickr guidelines in mind when moderating
your content in the future.

Female breasts, bare/thong bottom, see through topless
nudity, pasties, etc.. images need to be marked as
"moderate".

Genitalia/pubic hair images need to be marked as
"restricted".

Although I'm curious to know why pictures of meat and vegetables wrapped in pastry, Cornish-style, need to be moderated. Food porn? And if pasties are bad what do they include in the etc? Fish and chips...cakes...Sunday roast? I better moderate my pic of my five hour lamb just to be on the safe side...

Pasties - pictures should be moderated on Flickr

Picture is from here

This could be one hell of a week (in a good way)

Dominic West in Life's a Dream at the Donmar Warehouse

The entertainment stars are in alignment this week and boy I'm looking forward to it.
Two bits of theatre and two films are in prospect starting tomorrow with Life is a Dream at the Donmar with an actor called Dominic West that everyone seems to be excited about. I'm on the waiting list to borrow Dan's copy of The Wire so am quite please my first experience of seeing him will be on the stage.
Then on Thursday, I'm at the National to see the new Alan Bennett play The Habit of Art. Seeing Michael Gambon (would take my Harry Potter actors stage tally up to six) was part of the draw but sadly he's had to withdraw due to ill health and Richard Griffiths is stepping into his shoes. I've already seen Griffiths in Equus and I'm hoping for a good, more varied performance to what I've already seen him do.
The third treat, and first film, regular readers will already know about as it is Bright Star which I've already written about to death. (The excitement just grows and grows, I feel like a kid in the run up to Christmas).
And finally there is what at the very least will be a good eye-candy movie but what I'm hoping will be a quirky gem: The Men Who Stare at Goats (trailer below). George Clooney, Ewan McGregor, Jeff Bridges and Kevin Spacey - a potentially magic combination.
Shame I have to work in between really.

Blackballed from Flickr

Got an email from Flickr this morning saying my photostream has now be restricted because of certain images that some people may find offensive.

I know the pictures that have 'offended', they are the five I took of the naked man on the fourth plinth in Trafalgar Square as part of Antony Gormley's One & Other project.

The email reminded me of the community guidelines:

...play nice, upload things that you have created yourself, and
respect the fact that there are millions of people visiting
Flickr who may not see the world the same way you do.

Which is fair enough but there is a tiny part of me that thinks if you are offended by nudity you shouldn't really go searching for pictures tagged "naked man" and "nudity".

I have of course now restricted the images and written an apologetic and slightly begging email to Flickr to get them to un-restrict my entire photostream. Be a shame not to be able to show people the 2,969 other photo's that (hopefully) aren't offensive.

Oh and because they are now restricted on Flickr they won't appear on the previous posts I did about it on this blog. Apologies.