That Dress

I'm sure you all have one (ladies). That dress. Your favourite, the one you always want to wear but needed an excuse. That dress.

Well I had that dress. It was love at first sight. Plus, it was in the sale. I loved wearing it because it was unusual and it wasn't from Topshop. Back in college, if I went out, I had an excuse to wear it, and in University too. There are plenty of photos of me wearing it. It shows how much I loved it. I talk in the past tense of course as I have now had to say goodbye, simply, and I hate to say it, it doesnay fit around thee bust. Literally, the only reason, oh and it falling apart slightly.

I had to say goodbye to many a pair of beloved converse becuase of small tears that turned into giant rips but this dress, was special. If you looked at it, you'd think, 'er its brown, why is it special?' Think about your special item or dress and you'll realise, its special to you, only.

I have a culling of my things so often these days but I always keep hold of this. But in the latest cull, I had to let this dress go. I need the space and I can't keep hold of things for long or I'll end up hording EVERYTHING. I think its bad habit that runs in the family.

Farewell my lovely dress, you served me well.

Print Flamingos

On Wednesday evening was the launch party of issue 4 of the marvelous Flamingo magazine. It was held at The Print Club in Dalston, London http://www.printclublondon.com/

The gallery was packed with creatives and delicious ales and of course the new issue. I was very excited to see the magazine in print, not only because Flamingo is a true indie magazine and also has great articles, it smells great, that new magazine smell, but I had an article printed in the issue. I was ecstatic to say the least. I tried to contain my cool but I did squeak slightly with delight.

I had interviewed Doug Weir from the BFI about film restoration back in October and couldn't wait to see it in print. I have had poetry printed and few things on websites but this is my first article printed in a magazine.

Flamingo is a fantastic magazine, I urge everyone to pick up a copy of issue 4, The Future Craft issue. It is full of articles and illustrations about crafting from brewing your beer, knitting, writing taxidermy and gardening. The magazine really does do what it says in the cover 'a magazine that celebrates doing-it-yourself'.

http://www.flamingomagazine.com/

Once Upon a Time There Was a Blog

Once upon a time, there was a girl. An ethnically confused girl. She was consumed by films, loved everything about them. Making, writing, reading, watching, breathing film. To let out the extra steam of wanting to talk about film, amongst other things, she decided to write a blog.

After writing her first post:http://bit.ly/X0GWDe her blog was launched onto the mystical land of the Internet.

But as we all know life isn't a fairytale so I will continue as I usually do.

Once again I had to be reminded about my blog's anniversary. Last year I completely forgot what day it was, turned out it was actually the 17th March and NOT February as I had thought. I know I'm late again with the anniversary post. The only reason I was reminded about it this year is that I saw my sister's lastest blog post, the crafty crazy http://beardtoday-gonetomorrow.blogspot.co.uk/ had its anniversary today.

So much has happened this past year (mostly film) and just to see what, where and why, have a look in my history. I promise to do a proper revue next year. It'll be bigger next year as it will 3 years of ethnically confused babble and film obsessed rants. What more could you want?

I want to thank all those around the worlds who have been popping back to see what I'm going on about, its very much appreciated.

Next year I think I will have to have some sort of celebration that distracts from the usual St Patrick's day goings ons. Maybe some fireworks. Or if there is budget restrictions, maybe some sparklers.

Here's to another year of ethincally confused film fiction reality babble!!

Not Easy Being Green

Happy St Patricks day to everyone Irish, to everyone else, Happy Today I'm Irish Day!

I think I've only ever made a big deal of St Patrick's day once or twice before, maybe because it landed on a Saturday.

Today is of course St Patrick's day, the patron saint of Ireland. The day commemorates Saint Patrick and the arrival of Christianity in Ireland as well as celebrating the heritage and culture of the Irish in general. The fact that the day is in the middle of Lent, means that the restrictions of food and drink is lifted just for the day, which has encouraged the day's tradition of drinking a lot of alcohol.

This is also the day that everyone declares that is fact they are Irish. Not I may have an Irish name and somewhere in my heritage I do have Irish in me but I do not take the day away from those true Irish people.

So for all those celebrating today, have an awesome day and don't get too drunk, you've got work tomorrow.

The Afternoon Movie: Swiss Family Robinson

This Saturday has been a lazy day, well I've done all my 'chores' that needed doing. Washing clothes, bedding, vacuuming and descaled the kettle so now its time for a film, or what used to be, The Afternoon Movie. Or some might call it The Afternoon Family Film.

(Terrible poster)


Last week I taped one of the classics, the Disney film, Swiss Family Robinson starring John Mills from 1960. This film had/has everything. The perfect mix of adventure, animals, pirates and cross dressing. Adapted from the book (1812) of the same name by German writer, Johann David Wyss, tells the tale of a Swiss Family who are shipwrecked in the East Indes while sailing to Austrailia to start a new life.

The family, in the film, Mother, Father, sons; Fritz, Ernest and youngest Francis survive on the island along with many different animals. They build an amazing tree house and encounter pirates. The elder sons build a boat and sail around the island to explore it but end up saving Bertie, a cabin boy captured by the same pirates. After discovering he is actually a boy in disguise, they take her back to their camp/tree house and safety. At the end of the film there is a fantastic battle between the family (if you can believe) and the pirates.

In the novel there was another son, Jack but I think for the purpose of the film, his personality and Francis' was pushed together. Less people to cast maybe.

There has been plenty of adaptations, nothing recently though. I'm not sure if a modern retelling would work. The last adaptation was in 1998 and it was a TV series made in New Zealand and an US TV movie. But I'll always love the 1960's version.

I remember watching the film when I was very young. We had taped it over and over and used to watch it all the time, along with the likes of Robin Hood Prince of Thieves, it was one of the most watched taped films we had. Luckily it was on the other week as I couldn't find it anywhere on youtube. Sometimes you just get the urge to watch 'that' film from all those years ago.

To All You Mothers

It's Mother's Day!

Happy Mother's Day to everyone out there. I know it's basically over but I just thought I'd say.

There isn't usually any build up to this day (unless you're still at school). I remember when I was younger we would all be given daffodils to give to our mums. That used to be a great tradition. I wonder if they still do that at my old primary school.

I decided to get flowers for my mum, lucky she likes them. Apart from me, the only other customers in the florists were dads with their young sons. it was quite sweet. They were all picking different bouquets to be made up. The little kids were picking out the single flowers and placing them on the counter. I had a look at what was left, near the end of the day, and I decided on small flowers, simple. Two white roses and two yellow.

I also decorated a tote bag and bought my mum a special edition of Persuasion by Jane Austen. See, I can be a good daughter.

Next year my aunty suggested that me, my sister and herself make the dinner. We're all going to make a course each. Of course I offered to make soup, my one and only dish I can make. We'll see if it happens next year.

The Printed Page

There seems something sacred about about keeping old magazines.

You keep them on a shelf so that you can take them out whenever you need to refer to them again. Not like a book, but in the way, you remember an article or face or drawing, and you need to see it again. A book is always there but magazines are or seem to be for the time being.

When they're on the shelf you keep them there for that purpose, just in case. But after some time you start to need the space, so you remove the older ones. Either to a cupboard or floor or on top of something, just so they are out of the way but still easy to get to. You might suddenly think, 'oh damn, I need that issue back' and then have to fetch it from wherever you've stashed it.

For time passes and they gather dust. It's time to move them again. This time to a box or draw, somewhere out of sight. But you know where they are if you need them. You start to buy newer issues, maybe even new magazines. Your loyalty to this particular magazine is waning. You miss a few issues but you still catch up with articles on the website. Yet something is lost. You don't hold the printed page in your hand, you can't smell that 'new magazine smell'. You just look at a screen.

Years have gone by now. You've started to throw things away to make room for new things. You find your old magazines and unceremoniously put them in boxes or maybe straight into the bin. You might end up regretting that.

Then one day, you look throw boxes in an attic/shed/garage or even just your old room and you come across that box full of these magazines. You can't believe you still have them. You think, maybe its time to throw them all away. But wait, not yet. You sit down and look through them all, you cut bits out that you want. You might filter out the stack but still, a few remain, those memories of the printed page. Weekly, monthy, yearly, you still want to hang on to them.

I did.

Empire magazine. Every issue (but one) since December 2003.