Eating Poetry and Poetic Violence?

So today was the Young Poets Network: Poetry Digest Launch which was help in the cafe of The Poetry Society. There was a competition to write a poem on the theme of 'Limelight' and if it won it would be put on a cake, lime flavoured. I missed the deadline but I thought I'd go along to see whats what and of course to eat some cake. It turned out to be a very pleasant event. Some of the winners read their poems out and then we ate the cakes with the words on them and they were delicious! I quite enjoyed the cafe and its decor, especially the light shades which were inscribed with poetry in old fashioned ink. There were also plenty of magazines and books to read while you drank a coffee or tea. The people were lovely, very welcoming and I will definitely go back there next time I'm in London.


And if there is anyone out there who enjoys writing or poetry or both, go have a look and a wonder:
 http://www.poetrysociety.org.uk/content/cafe/

The other part of my day was saved (and had been for months) for Drive, the awesome festival winning film directed by Nicolas Winding Refn and starring Ryan Gosling. Without giving much away, the film is about a Driver (Ryan Gosling), also his name as its never mentioned at any point in the film, who is a stunt driver, mechanic and caring neighbour by day and a getaway driver by night.

Apart from the fact I was sitting next to two arseholes who asked me to move seats, at the start of the film, because they said they had other people coming (there was a whole free row in front of me, the idiots) and they talked through it too while eating disgusting nuts, I really was absorbed by the film and soon forgot their presence. 

I can't explain how much I love this film or at least I won't be able to explain it in words, I could do it in actions but words just aren't enough. There is hardly any dialogue throughout the film, things are said through expression and glances. To me, it makes the film all the more heartbreaking. It doesn't matter that its violent, it doesn't matter who Driver is and what hes done, he's still a hero, just like the closing song says. The soundtrack was atmospheric and felt like I was watching a 80's noir film, which made me fall in love with the film even more. Noir? Hell yes, I'm there because that's what it was. It had all the noir elements, but to go into this further I would ruin it for people, so I'll say no more. I actually ran over to Fopp to buy the soundtrack only to find it hasn't been released yet. Nicolas Winding Refn deserved that award at Cannes and the film deserves all the good reviews and press because to me, its a rare film and yes, it pretty damn cool too.

I will definitely be going to see again!