So another week's gone by, there's been epic catch ups, too much wine, disorientating bus rides and some wicked keyboard playing but what weirdly has stood out as an excellent moment is spending about an hour in Sainsbury's trying to figure out the best way of spending 10 pounds. No, seriously you should try it some time. You just wander around looking at everything like it might just be something incredibly precious, pick it up, put it down, forget the fact that you're totally broke and should be buying food to last you the rest of the week and just buy things that you really want.
Our list goes like this: fresh sesame loaf, ball of mozarella, Bonne Maman jam, one mango, tub of creme fraiche, some tomatoes, spinach and ricotta tortellinis and a bunch of purple chrysanthemums.
Life is great.
Speaking of food our craft project this week is our first ever presentation of a recipe. We hope you can read it ok and that some of you give it a go, they're pretty fucking delicious. Jamie Oliver eat your heart out.
ps. You should probably consume them with a glass of cold milk at midnight while having a sleepy conversation with your housemate. Any other time will work too.
This week we love...
For a person who spends so much time in cinemas it's incredible how little I know about how they operate. I buy my ticket, take my seat, tolerate the 25 minutes of adverts and watch the film. Simple. Cinema, like so much else in our society, has become a smooth, clean affair. Gone are the days of the piano accompanist or the risk of cremation at the hands of nitrate film reels but living in a computer age we forget that there is still one man standing: the projectionist. I personally always imagined a grey haired old man with neat facial hair and a serious smoking problem, possibly wearing a black jumper and definitely into the French new wave. Imagining though is never quite as satisfying as knowing so I headed off the the Everyman in Hampstead and asked to talk to the projectionist. This is what happened:
* Awkwardly hanging around the foyer waiting for projectionist to come, feeling like a bit of a tit. Down the stairs comes short balding man with a pot belly and embarrassed movements. Something about his face seems really young so you really wouldn't be able to say how old he is. This is Mr Projectionist. Brief introduction, trying not to sound like a total creep for waiting around to talk to him. He's super nice and invites me into the projection room.*
Being a projectionist is a pretty unusual job, how did you get into it? Did you have to do a course or anything?
No, back in the day when I started you just had to fill in a form. I started working in a cinema at the box office and then eventually went into being a projectionist and have stuck to it since.
So how long have you been working as a projectionist?
23 years now, although only 5 years as a full time projectionist at this cinema. It's a pretty cool place, it's been a cinema for 93 years now but before that it was an army drill hall in World War 1 and then a little theatre. Oscar Wilde put a few of his plays on here, you know that ones that were too edgy for the West End.
And how does all of this work?
Well films all come on these hard drives now which are sent to us in this box (indicates heavy duty yellow plastic box), we put it on the computer and then when we're done screening it we send it back and they whip the drive and send it back to us with the next film.
Wicked, so you don't have to change reels or anything like that?
MP: No, it's all done on the computer now which is why a lot of cinemas don't have projectionists anymore. I mean if I wanted to I could programme all the screenings for the week, including the trailers and adverts and everything and just control it from home but we've got all the different lights here and the curtain and everything so if anything goes wrong it's better to be on site. Also we sometimes do use the old projector if we're doing a special film screening and I'd have to be in charge of that.
So what do you do while the film's being shown, do you watch it?
No, we've got two screens here so I have to run over and take care of the other one but if they're both running then I can have a break and have my lunch.
Fair enough, what are your favourite films?
Oh you know, all the Star Wars films, I'd consider them as one big film, then all the Lord of the Rings, but not the theatrical versions, the extended versions. All five Planet of the Apes films, they're really good, and Laurence of Arabia. You know, the classics.
My dad really likes the Star Wars films, he took his girlfriend at the time to see a Star Wars movie marathon and she dumped him pretty soon after that.
Like the very same day?
Yeah, pretty much.
Hmm, that's just the way it goes isn't it.. My wife and I were going to have a Star Wars wedding but she decided that we'd have to go all the way or not at all so we didn't end up doing it. It was a bit of a bummer, Ewan McGregor comes here all the time so I'm pretty friendly with him and he said he'd lend me the robes he wore in Revenge of the Sith.
But where would you have a Star Wars wedding?
Well that was part of the problem, we'd have it in our local parish but we couldn't get the priest to agree to hold a staff with a Yoda puppet stuck on the end of it during the service.
Shame.
Yeah, you know a kid was having a Star Wars birthday party here once and he was all like 'oooh, I've never met anyone from the Star Wars film' and I was like, 'Hey kid, I was in the Star Wars movie'. He didn't believe me so I leant in and was like (in the fucking best Yoda impression you'll ever hear in your life) 'You must be wise young master' and the kid was like 'noooo way!!!'
You probably just made his life.
Yeah, probably.
Projectionists are the best.
The Kings Speech- Tom HooperSo if somebody asked you to spend ten pounds to watch the last king of England learn not to stammer you'd probably be in a fair position to ask them to jump off something. But if you mentioned that said film starred Colin Firth, Geoffrey Rush and Helen Bonham Carter, and that it also happened to have been nominated for 14 BAFTAS and 12 Oscars, perhaps you should pause for consideration. While the beginning is a little bit slow, and the content is Royalist in the extreme, it's an incredibly moving story tracking King George's progress from the stammering Duke of York to the leader of the world's biggest empire, and a whole lot of struggling in between. I won't say anything else because I'm sure you'll go and see it for yourself but I would recommend that you see it at the cinema, the shots are really very beautiful and deserve a big screen. Uplifting, with all the class of a period drama without any of the sappy dialogue.
The Beautiful Girls-Water
This australian band is famous for pulling together an electric harmony of rock, reggae, pop and folk has drawn comparisons with bands such as Xavier Rudd, Jack Johnson and John Butler Trio (who they are currently touring in the US with). Despite being more well known in Australia, they have toured such places as Japan, North America and Europe. Water is their 3rd album yet it has alot of tracks from previous albums, most of the having won awards or the great honour of being on the triple j's hottest 100 of 2003 ( for non australians.. this is a very good thing!) Definite relaxing music, perfect for sitting in the garden slowly burning under the sun. Favorites include 'Blackbird', 'La Mar' and 'Periscopes'.
My Grandad once casually mentioned that he rode his bike from London to Israel to chase after some lovely Jewish girl. Using the excuse that I am neither a cycling super sayne nor adequately besotted with anybody I have limited my own adventure to riding from Kingston to Embankment, a 45 mile trek involving Clarks desert boots, madeira cake and a lot of Kodak moments. While I have arrived home safely and feel all refreshed by my journey there seems like a pretty impossible amount of things to say about my little trip so I will limit it to this: go on a cycling trip along the Thames.
There is a path for cyclists and pedestrians pretty much the whole way along and I promise you will see so many lovely things. I would probably recommend doing the trip in reverse order, from central London outwards as it gets more and more scenic the further you go out and then you can just catch a train back into town when you're done. Trains from Kingston to Vauxhall are about 5 pounds and you should be able to bring your bike with you without any difficulty although you can't take them on the tube (unless they fold up of course). So yeah, next time you've got a spare afternoon make yourself a sandwich, grab a juice popper and scoot off along the river, it'll be the cheapest holiday of your life.
Also...
So my housemate Fran was discussing tragedy and comedy in class the other day and heard a story that seems like the epitome of both. Here goes:
You know those airplanes that fly into the sea and pick up loads of water to dump onto forest fires? Well one time they accidentally picked up a scuba diver and, well, he got dropped into an enormous fire. Isn't that the funniest thing you've ever heard? A man burning to death in his wet suit?
Maybe it's just us...
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