Summertime In London

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Summer in London has arrived. It’s 30+ at the moment and I have spent the day digging the garden and enjoying being outside (the thermometer is in the garden shed and it was baking in there). I’ve said before that my favourite season is autumn but a life where I can sit outside – in the warm – at 10pm would be quite appealing. You can’t argue that the sun puts you in a better mood.

Last night as I sat watching the planes in the gradually darkening sky I started to think about where all those people were heading on the trips. Were they, perhaps, heading to meet friends or for new holiday experiences? Or were they returning home? I’m not sure what it meant but I started to think of the vast size of the planet and how little I have seen of it.

And therein lies a problem. I love London and being at home. I have thoroughly enjoyed a lazy afternoon in the sunshine in the garden. But then I’d love to be off somewhere new and exciting too. Luckily, that’s why I’m travelling next Friday for three quick days in Spain.

On this day…

2005: Nightlfe
2004: A Little Update
2003: Formula One 2003 Race Calendar
2003: London’s Secret Railway
2002: Rod Stewart plays Glastonbury
2002: Paris in the Summer

links for 2005-06-18

Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma — which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.

On this day…

2004: Just Some Things

Mr and Mrs Smith

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Friday night is warm across London so we met some friends, had tapas and headed to the flicks to see Mr. & Mrs. Smith. Unusually for me, I knew what it was about before I actually sank into my lovely comfortable Clapham Picture House seat and – therefore – I wasn’t surprised in either a good or bad way with this film.

The premise: Mr. & Mrs. Smith are killers for hire but they don’t know that about each other. You need to gloss over the huge holes in that, for they don’t matter. The ongoing lies each one has to tell to cover their other life as a hitman is ruining their marriage. So, they seek counselling and somewhere along the line – again, don’t worry about the detail – they end up trying to kill each other.

The lead-up to the assassination attempt(s) is essentially background filler and, thankfully, is over pretty quickly. When the penny drops – and Mr. & Mrs. Smith head to kill the other – is the point where the movie gets better. As you would imagine for such a blockbuster, the killing spree is well covered with special effects making the gun battles comic-book in style and certainly all the more enjoyable for it.

This film, however, is made by the unexpectedly witty dialogue that writer Simon Kinberg has peppered the film with. For plot details and suspense, then two deadly assassins trying to kill each other is – perhaps – better left to Robert Ludlum. A husband and wife couple doing the same and you’ll laugh along to the clever use of the dialogue which moves this film. When it really gets going, it’s great.

Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt keep it moving well. They are a convincing couple and have all the moves a film of this nature needs. Most importantly, they carry the dialogue convincingly as a married couple.

Don’t expect realism nor a movie that takes itself seriously. Expect a surprisingly entertaining cinema experience. The fact that some in the audience applauded at the end should suggest you give this film a chance.

On this day…

2005: links for 2005-06-17
2004: Football Crazy

links for 2005-06-17

I’ll start. Third grade talent show. I must have been eight. Me, in a blonde wig and white dress that I found on the bottom of a neighbor’s closet, looking like I mixed up the instructions by brushing the dress and ironing the wig.

The DangerMouse episodes we have all come to know and love first aired in 1981. Since then it has built an audience over 6 Million strong! And for 2 years beginning in June of 1984, he started entertaining millions more in the US on the Nickelodeon channel in the afternoons where almost overnight he shot into their highest ratings.

On this day…

2005: Mr and Mrs Smith
2004: Football Crazy

Where Are You?

OK, so I haven’t been writing quite as much as I used to. There are two reasons for that and, as I don’t have anything else to write right now, I’ll bore you with those excuses.

Firstly, I have been very busy at work. In fact, so busy I have been neglecting my diet & gym routines which is awful and means that, like The Tin Man, I am getting a gut for summer which is more than I want. This is, naturally, your fault as you are my gym buddy so, c’mon, start motivating me.

Secondly, I have been on holiday. Two weeks in Vancouver was lovely. There are picture somewhere which should be updated here eventually but that’s a daunting prospect and – let’s face it – it’s unlikely to happen. And so, we are here.

Normal service will be resumed shortly.

On this day…

2004: Throughly Modern Millie

Danny Baker Shuts Up His Tree House

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So, I get back from my vacation and try to settle into my regular routine. Firstly, it’s disrupted by a strike by BBC journalists although I was amused that somebody quipped you could hardly tell and thus proving they’re over-staffed anyway.

I digress. What I came back to was the news that Danny Baker won a Sony Radio Award and promptly went on to quit his breakfast show:

The ebullient presenter is taking what the station described as “an extended summer holiday” after three years on the show, during which he will work on a film script for channel Five.

He told listeners: “We will reform and come back in another shape one day. People thought we were crying wolf … we were just crying. We’ve been saying it for a while now. We’ve been doing it for three years. We’re packing up the tree house at the end of the month.”

[The Independent]

Now that’s going to mess up my morning routine something rotten – there’s nobody else on air anything like Danny Baker. It’s not just the fact that he is the only speech-driven presenter that’s not news-based it’s because he is bloody entertaining. Ahhh. I think a paragraph from another article in The Independent says it all,

Such confidence that radio requires unique skills will always make Sony award-winning breakfast presenters highly sought after. But they have to be carefully looked after when they arrive. Getting up in the middle of the night to sound fresh at the microphone can become gruelling for even the most dynamic broadcasters. BBC London’s breakfast ace, Danny Baker, proved it with his response to Sony Awards triumph. Named DJ of the year, beating O’Connell, Baker announced his departure from the airwaves within the day. He is going to write a film script for Five. Radio executives searching the market for proven breakfast talent are hoping it flops

[The Independent]

On this day…

2004: Palme d’Or
2003: Amusing Connections in News
2003: Here We Go Again
2003: An identity crisis

Vote 2005

Well I’ve been to the polling booth and registered my vote in the general election and I suspect an interesting night ahead. Like all elections I will be glued to the television coverage and flick between channels but this year I have started on Sky News. The team at Sky have 16 mini-screens on the interactive service and one of them is a live shot of the Sky News production gallery. Already we have heard the director (or somebody) refer to one of the senior sky journalists who was calling on a mobile ‘phone as ‘that f***ing *** ******’ – or something almost that. I think I might watch this for most of the night. I think it is quite brave of them.

On this day…

2004: It’s May