Sit back kids and join me on a trip down memory lane…
It’s July 2009, The Boys, V and I are all sitting in the Theatre Royal Haymarket waiting… waiting for what?! Waiting for Godot of course.
Not really sure what to make of this play… writing by Samuel Beckett it revolves around two elderly gentlemen waiting for a man named Godot, hmmm… I think it’s meant to represent purgatory, but comes out a little Groundhog Dayish when the second act is played out almost exactly the same as the first, needless to say, The Boys weren’t too impressed, but V and I were captivated, not by the story, but by the honour of being in the same room as Gandalf and Captain Picard… Magneto and Professor X… the legends themselves, Sir Ian McKellen and Patrick Stewart!! Awesome…
Have I told you lately how much I love this town?! Only in London can you witness such great treasures of the screen and stage performing together, only 5 metres away…
We weren’t allowed to film/take pictures so I had to do this on the sly (hence why it’s a little crap)…
“If you’ve got Mystique as your girlfriend the fun you could have in bed – I’ve just imagined X-Men 3 might open with me in bed with Patrick Stewart.” (a quote by Sir IM – I did notice some chemistry on stage, naughty old bugger isn’t he?!?!)
Wow, looking back I can’t believe it’s been almost 4 months since my last entry…
In all fairness it’s not just bone idle laziness that’s my excuse this time, I have actually been busy!!! In the past 4 months I have travelled, been to a few gigs, drunk abit, seen some shows, left a job, drunk some more, started a new job, left that job after a week, started another new job (FYI, that’s the one I am still in now)… did I mention I have drunk alot?!
Of all the premiers I have been to this year, or lets face it ever wanted to go to, this was the number 1!! I’ll even admit that a small tinsy winsy part of the reason I moved to the UK in November last year, was because I wanted to be here when this movie came out… but then the WB decided to push it back 6 months, sigh!! So the count down till July began…
The day finally arrived and ashamedly I have to say that Bells and I didn’t really have the dedication of other HP fans, yeah we took the day off work to go to it, but other people had been camped since 9am the day before (naturally they got primo autograph position), we got to Leicester Square as early as possible (10am, NB it doesn’t start till 5pm) and found hundreds of fans already gathered, some behind barriers that were already set up others just lingering, not knowing where to stand, we eventually found what we thought would be a good photo op spot, and it would have been, but we were stuck behind a bunch of overaged smelly and hefty autograph hounds (people who aren’t fans of the books/movies but rather scummy leeches who get things signed only to sell them later online), and despite an attempt on our part to be extra “nice” to them, they wouldn’t budge a centremetre to let Bells or I in, so making the most of a bad situation we managed to find a nice little vantage point from behind them in which to take pictures of the cast as they exited their cars.
We waited for 7 hours in all kinds of weather and just as the clock struck 5 and Rupert Grint exited his vehicle the clouds let rip, and we’re not talking a small summer shower, it pelted down with thick heavy rain, and not only that it decided to throw in some hail stones aswell (I do laugh at their “hail stones” over here, more like little bits of polystyrene in comparison to some of the ice blocks we get in Australia)
And even though its well known that there is a ”Harry Potter Premier Curse” (it rains at every premier), I don’t think anyone could have predicted the torrential downpour that caused flash floodings not only in major tube station terminals in the south of London, but caused a mini river right where Bells and I were standing, 3 months of rain in 3 hours… I’m still drying out my bones.
After abandoning our post to get out of the downpour we ended up watching the remainder of the premier from a jumbo screen they had erected for the event, so no luck with the Half Blood Prince, but there is a rainbow at the end of this rain storm… there are still two more movies to go.
So if you have any Felix Felices… I have a feeling we might need some of this liquid luck.
When I was 11 years old I made a bet with The Aunty about Johnny Depp… My wall was plastered with posters I had cut out of magazines, every week I would tune into to catch up on his adventures on 21 Jump Street, and I harboured a deep dislike for his then fiancee Winona Ryder (a dislike that still lingers today, even if its more for her rubbish acting then her involvement with him). My Aunty stated that my “crush” wouldn’t last out the year, I said “wanna bet”
So here it is “ahem” several years later and much like Johnny’s looks, my feelings haven’t changed (seriously does this guy age, Dorian Grey and an ugly painting in an attic comes to mind). So last Monday when I was reading my morning Metro and I saw the premier of Public Enemies was on that very night in Leicester Square and that the man himself was guaranteed to be there, well I had no choice did I?! I called up Bells, took an early mark off work and we headed down to the Square for a chance of a lifetime meeting…
This guy is amazing, not only did he do 30 mins of press questions and photo ops, he took another 30-40 mins to walk all the way along the carpet signing as many autographs as possible… ours included. I wish I could say we shared a moment, a witty back and forth conversation or that he even acknowledged my single existence in the crowd of hundreds, but I did manage to brush his sleeve, take some great close up pictures and most importantly (Bells and Mel you can attest to this as I’ve done it before) I didn’t make a complete douche of myself by talking about the weather.
Also in attendance was Jamie Campbell Bower, a little unknown to you now maybe, but soon a name you may not forget, well maybe not forget but you’ll at least be like “aww wait wasn’t he the one in that film …?”, but for now I’ll let you in on a little bit about him, he was in Sweeny Todd with Depp (hence why he was invited), will appear in New Moon/Breaking Dawn as Caius (a Volturi Vampire) and as Bells and I just found out, will play Grindelwald (friend and foe of Dumbledores) in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows… how exciting!!
I really can’t complain about my life, yeah I’m a little short, I’m not my ideal weight, I am always poor and lets not get started on the lack of prospects in my love life, but the one thing I have never had to be concerned about was work… yeah so they weren’t my dream jobs, but I never had to worry about where my next pay cheque was coming from… so with only 1 month to look and a job market that is almost non-existent, I was getting worried and spending alot of time telling my woes to the bottom of an ice cream tub.
I had only two potentials cross my path during this time, the first decided to go internal (took the buggers 3 weeks after my interview to decide this, they didn’t even call me to let me know, I had to call them) the second was a complete disaster (I swear they downloaded their interview questions from the internet, I can’t remember the last time I have had to answer the questions “where do you see yourself in 5 years?” or “name a time you had a problem and how did you resolve it?”).
My saviour silver lining came in the form of my friend from Manchester, Feral (seriously dude, you are my hero), he works in Travel and made me an offer I couldn’t refuse… Granted I fought it for a while (not yet willing to give up my dream of working in the entertainment industry) but after realising my other dream of staying in the UK was also about to die a painful death, I sucked it up, asked for more money and then thumped my fist on the table and said “I’LL TAKE IT”.
I’m not allowed to wear denim (except on Fridays) and I work in an office full of pastel blue carpeted partitions but the search is over, I’m still here, a little more wiser and a lot less ignorant about taking anything for granted.
I feel horrible for doing this, and shall forever be at odds with my inner Force but I saw Star Trek on the weekend and it was Awesome… I can’t fault it!! Wish that could have been said for the Star Wars prequels… awful Mr Lucus, just awful!!
I have always believed that there is no way you can be both a Star Trek fan and a Star Wars fan, there is just no grey area with this, you are either one or the other and anyone who says otherwise is kidding themselves… Dog or Cat, Chocolate or Vanilla, Sean Connery or Roger Moore, there is no room for fence sitting here.
And despite my praise of the movie, I’m glad to say my feelings are still the same, I’m not going to rush out now and buy the original series, the next generation or spend any more precious hours Trekking across the universe, the movie and plot was simple, meaning it was easy to follow (even if you don’t know the original story), easy to understand (not overloaded with TV references) and thanks to “The Chris’s” (Pine and Hemsworth) was very easy on the eye… I might have lied before tho, it did have one fault, Winona Ryder, WTF?! who cast her?! They should be shot.
So which side are you? Do you believe in the Force or would you rather Live Long and Prosper?!? Whatever the case, go see this movie, you won’t be disappointed.
The first time I ever heard Geoffrey Gurrumul Yunupingu was while watching the 2008 Arias, I was absolutely moved by his music, after searching for an album to download and having no luck, in typical me style I soon forgot about it… But by some lucky coincidence I happened to grab a copy of TNT magazine last week (a magazine in Britain written for Aussie and Safa backpackers) and saw that he was in town doing a show at Union Chapel, which is a converted Church (I think its still used on Sundays for services).
Gurrumul was born Blind, and only speaks a few words of English, so all of his songs bar one is sung entirely in his native tongue Yolngu…
I don’t know how to describe his music, haunting, melodic are some words you could use, but I think Miss Em (my fellow Aussie and music appreciator) put it best when she described the experience as “Emotionally Draining”, this is meant entirely in a good way of course, his music inspires emotions and I think he takes a little bit of you away with him in the end.
A year ago Bubbles and I brought tickets to see Phantom in Sydney, but I upped and moved back home to Townsville (all in an attempt to save for my move to the UK) and was convinced by the female parental unit that flying back to Sydney for the show was a bad idea and I should save my money and see it in London instead… turns out Ben Barnes was in Sydney that weekend for the premiere of Prince Caspian (another missed opportunity, sigh!!)
So listening to the female parental unit resulted in my usual Ying Yang scenario, not going to Sydney for that weekend meant my first time seeing Phantom was at its home, Her Majesty’s Theatre (this is the positive), but it also meant I missed out on seeing my Prince (this is the negative)… Cheers Mum!! (love you)
So that’s 3 down on the “Top 5 Wish List” 2 more to go…
The search is on, with only 1 month left in my contract I’m on a mission to find the perfect job, no not Empire Magazine (sigh!! That’s my dream job), by perfect I mean the money… with so many European cities still to see and many more weekend gigs and pub crawls ahead, I am looking for the job that can finance it ALL.
But if you happen to know anyone who works for Empire, give them my number…
