Who lives in a house like this..

Early this evening I was on my way to a meeting and bumped into Loyd Grossman going the other way.

Once again life seems strange...

Website of the week - #39

The theology of Lego.

Also available in book form.

A London Treasure

I don't go to the Victoria & Albert Museum very often - but every time I do I love it and promise to go back. It is a completely mad place.

The general collection can best be described as eclectic - from huge rooms which contain the sort of thing a slightly eccentric uncle collected over the years, to fine pieces of intricate metalwork.

Sculpture mixes with P Diddy designed clothing, and in the 1980s section you can get reacquainted with things you used to have in the house as a kid but are now in the great rubbish dump in the sky.Even the stairways have beautiful ceramic work holding up the banisters.

Off course, being a slightly strange pace it is wonderful for people watching. Londoners enjoying a local treasure, locals from Brompton popping in to use the cafe, bemused tourists, and a higher than I'd expect number of young Bridget Jones types out with their 'gay best friend' - though that's probably due to the current Kylie exhibition.

A fascinating way to while away a couple of hours.

Cyber Friends

Had a look at my MySpace space.

I have 2 friends - and one of them is Tom who seems to be a mate to the whole world...

Mind you, given that I don't really know how to work MySpace, haven't told anyone where it is and, indeed, even forgot that I had such a thing, I guess I've 2 more cyber friends than I ought...

I'm not a huge fan but...

...I do seem to go to more Bon Jovi concerts than necessary. Last year I ended up watching them in Milton Keynes and later this year I'm seeing them play the first gig at the revamped Dome. It's more to with venues - I've never been to the Dome, even when I lived just 2 tube stops away - than the band, honest.

However, I did find myself in a finance meeting today looking at an income line that was about 50% on target. I heard myself saying outloud,

"Oh, we're halfway there,
Oh, we're living on a prayer."

People did laugh - but it probably also confirmed much what they suspected about me.

RIP OC

So farewell then to The OC.

Now I've admitted in the past to The OC being one of my guilty pleasures. Yes it was shallow, superficial and full of some annoying Californian teens. However, in its defence it was well written, often willing to parody itself, killed off one of its major characters, and had Jim Robinson in a major role for a couple of seasons before he headed off to become the owner of Mode Magazine.

To its credit the final episode did what final episodes should do - a couple of knowing references to teen dramas lasting too long, the loose ends about who ends with who all tied up, and above all the wonderful news that Pancakes the rabbit had a family.

Overall, The OC passed the Ronseal test - it did exactly what it said on the tin. Very witty and funny it was a true ensemble piece - none of the characters were wasted with Ryan, Taylor, Julie, Seth, Summer and the Bullet all adding to the show. All the actors had great comedy timing and in Sandy it possessed the most magnificent pair of eyebrows ever to grace the magic rectangle.

Shallow? Absolutely - it contained the depth of a British reservoir in the middle of a heatwave - but what has British TV got to offer in the way of an hour's TV escapism? Holby City??

Chrismukkah will be missed.

Website of the week - #37

I'm sure many of you have already tried this but for those that haven't, follow these steps:

1. Go to www.google.co.uk
2. Click on maps.
3. Click on get directions.
4. Go from "New York" to "Paris, France".
5. Scroll down in the directions to number 24.

This mass of humanity....

Head off to introduce my weekend visitor to the delights of watching the London Marathon. A very pleasant day weatherwise - so long as you are watching and not competing!

Had my annual internal debate of thinking "well, if they could it surely I could?" Hopefully the rash thought will pass - it usually does after a bar of chocolate.

Whilst you have to admire the sheer achievement of all these people - and be thankful for the huge amount of money raised for various charities - part of me can't help thinking there must be something more, well, constructive all these people could be doing...

And I don't care how much he raises for charity, people like the bloke 'amusingly' running the whole thing in 'slow motion' just shouldn't be encouraged (see here).

I know - just the incoherent ramblings of a grumpy old man starting another KitKat.

;o)

Tonight with...

Was spending some time catching up with a friend and we headed to Richmond. Ended up in a subterranean Mexican restaurant. So far, so normal.

Then, half way through our main course in walks 'national institution' Sir Trevor. On his own he quietly takes a table, orders and eats his meal - looked like burger accompanied with a glass of red wine, for those who need to know these things. At the end of his meal he politely poses for a couple of photos with other diners and heads off.

All slightly strange to be honest - and he's shorter than you imagine.

Darling Doris

Saw someone using a call box the other day. It wasn't a tourist posing in front of a red phone box for a photo - nor was it someone using it as a public convenience. I actually saw someone making a phone call from a public call box in a suburban high street.

Strange? Well yes - in these days of mobile phones when was the last time you used a call box? Do you even know where your nearest one is?

Perhaps Darling Doris is making a comeback.

Here comes the sun

Hope you've enjoyed the lovely weather of late.

If nothing else it has given you warning of the silly trouser lengths the fashionable man about town will be wearing this summer.

The Lives of Others

OK, so a film that lasts over 2 hours, contains no car chases, is set in East Germany in the 1980s, is about the Stasi spying on a playwright, and is in German does not sound the most appetising film. However, having been really disappointed with the films released so far in 2007 - so much so that I've not seen a film since Hot Fuzz - this film more than makes up for them all. It is quite simply superb.

It is the story of a Stasi officer who is told to place under surveillance a playwright by a government minister who is having an affair with the playwright's girlfriend and wants some dirt on him. The officer is lonely and gets drawn into the playwright's life and the film unfolds thus.

It is wonderfully written, has an excellent pace and combines moments of tension with some very funny moments. I know, a German film complete with jokes - who'd have thought it? Just as it reaches the climax - there is a wonderful coda at the end of the film which could have ruined it, but adds poignantly to the story.

Deserving recent winner of the Best Foreign Language Oscar this is simply the first 'must see' film of 2007.

A Hundred Miles or More

Having not bought any music for quite a while I seem to have found a bit of streak. There are very few artists whose recordings I'd buy unheard, but Alison Krauss and Union Station are one. Not a particularly well known artist in the UK, I found it a bit bizarre when I saw a TV ad promoting her new album as the 'Album of the Week' at Sainsburys - so off I toddled.

Now I've been a AKUS fan since their wonderful Now That I've Found You: A Collection 1995 release containing the simply beautiful "When You Say Nothing At All" (latterly completely ruined by Ronan Keating on the Notting Hill soundtrack - another reason to not like Ronan). Some of the releases since have been superb, such as Lonely Runs Both Ways, and other have been a bit, well disappointing, such as Forget About It.

A Hundred Miles or More: A Collection is a bit hit and miss - it contains some new stuff, some film soundtrack songs she has recorded (including from the Prince of Egypt OST!) and one track from The Best of Country Sing the Best of Disney recording (no, I'm not making that up!).

With some excellent new tracks written by Julie Lee (a great artist in her own right), a couple of songs from the Cold Mountain and O Brother Where Art Thou soundtracks, and the excellent Whiskey Lullaby, it's still better than 99% of the other stuff that makes it on to CD. The best starting point with AKUS for newbies is their truly superb Live CD/DVD, but this is definitely worth a listen.

Website of the week - #36

Slightly depressed that the skiing season is now pretty much over? Feel you have a long wait until the next season?

Fear not - there is an alternative.

Spring in the air?

Perhaps it's the time of year, perhaps it's because it's my birthday, perhaps it's because spring is the air, but earlier this week I found myself buying a pink jumper...

It's described as rose, but, well, I can't hide the truth - it's a shade of pink.

I know, I know - an early mid life crisis?

We shall see - not yet bought a wig/sports car, nor am I dating a model/actress/whatever young enough to be my daughter.

Mind you...

Personal Follies

Spend the day with friends in rural Shropshire wondering around Hawkstone Park - a beautiful but slightly weird place complete with monuments and follies.

I quite like monuments and follies, those completely pointless edifices built in the middle of nowhere for no apparent reason. They often seem to have been built by slightly eccentric Victorian estate owners - the phrase "he never married or had children" regularly seems to appear in any accompanying historical text - on remote parts of their country estates.

I wonder what the 21st century equivalent is??

Probably blogs...

Catching up

Spending a few days back in Birmingham. With it being Easter some people are away which gives me the chance to catch up with other people, people I've not seen for a while.

It's a very pleasant way to spend the day and it got me thinking a little. Firstly, if I'd stayed in Brum how different my life would have been - not better or worse, just different.

Secondly, I'm intrigued how friendships work, how you can pick up with people you've not seen for a while and though things have moved on, you still have that foundation, those common roots, which are the key - things paradoxically are different, yet the same.

Cuilidh

Have recently stumbled across the excellent new album by Julie Fowlis. Not your average recording - it's a Scottish album sung in Gaelic containing a beautiful collection of folk songs inspired by and relating to the Outer Hebrides.

It fascinates me that the artist is from North Uist, which is remote even by Hebridean standards! For me this is part of the attraction - having spent a brief spell in the Hebrides last September (see here) I can see how the beauty, the landscape, and the isolation can inspire.

A beautiful location has led to a wonderful album - enjoy, it could be one of the sleeper hits of 2007.

Website of the week - #35

I can't work out whether this ad is a bit sexist or actually very clever and funny.

However, this is a great time saver - all six Rocky movies in seconds.

Soulmates

From today's Observer.

"Gorgeous girl, 34, seeks balding, cheating, lying, no good rat, with a beer gut, to replace lost love. Genuine answers only please."

Finally, the ad I've been waiting for...