le cirque invisible

My Mum bought tickets on the spur of the moment after I told her about a poster I had seen on the tube. One review said that if you're depressed, before trying anti-depressants, come and see Le Cirque Invisible. Both my Mum and I had had a particularly crappy day. Having been out of work for a couple of months and feeling pretty low about it, I had missed out on a job that afternoon. Mum, who was meant to meet me for dinner beforehand, had been locked out of the house, kept builders waiting at a flat she lets out and only just got back in the house, to the flat, and back again in time to jump on a train to meet me for the performance.

We didn't know what to expect.



I'm looking online at reviews of it, all of them highly praising it, except for one Guardian review by Lynn Gardner from last year which I've just read. Ok, so the show may have hardly changed over 30 years but that is the beauty of it. It is crazily wacky, simple, timeless and quirky.

The duo are Victoria Chaplin (daughter of Charlie) and her French husband Jean-Baptiste Thierree - I was surprised to hear they were married when he is in his 70s and she looks about 40, but was then even more surprised to hear she is nearing 60. She contorts herself into the most amazing positions and creatures. But it was Jean-Baptiste who really stole the show for me, his obvious passion, enthusiasm and demeanor were enchanting.
One of my favourite bits had to be the rabbits and ducks that came on stage - seemingly voluntarily. The rabbits were given books to read so they didn't get bored. Their costume changes and the humour in the simplest of sketches is refreshing and certainly cheered both Mum and I up.

houseboat

Houseboats used to be a really cheap way to live, but not anymore, especially on the Thames. Moorings and service charges are ridiculously expensive in London.

But I know a couple of people who have lived on them for years. The downside (as well as the above) is the maintenance and the fact that that they rarely increase in value. It's the lifestyle you do it for. There is often a real sense of community spirit, sometimes communal gardens, drinks on each others roofs... and there's the waking up with mist on the river and ducks and swans paddling past - bliss!

I want one!

Which one would you have?

richmond park deer

Need a better, longer lense, better technical skills and more sunshine, but it's a start!
You can just spot the London Eye and Gherkin in the last two.

lost in translation - together

People seem to either love or hate this film. I love it. People who hate it, 'don't get it', obviously they have never had this sort of experience. I have. And the beauty of the film is how poignantly realistic it is... *sigh*, I'm going to stop there. It's too close to my own heart to go into further without revealing too much about my own experience. Plus I don't want to go there for my own sanity.

Instead I'll hand over to the words of someone else - Roger Ebert.
Here are some snippets.


Bill Murray's acting in Sofia Coppola's "Lost in Translation" is surely one of the most exquisitely controlled performances in recent movies. Without it, the film could be unwatchable. With it, I can't take my eyes away.  Not for a second, not for a frame, does his focus relax, and yet it seems effortless. It's sometimes said of an actor that we can't see him acting. I can't even see himnot acting. He seems to be existing, merely existing, in the situation created for him by Sofia Coppola.


She has one objective: She wants to show two people lonely in vast foreign Tokyo and coming to the mutual realization that their lives are stuck. Perhaps what they're looking for is the same thing I've heard we seek in marriage: A witness. Coppola wants to get that note right. There isn't a viewer who doesn't expect Bob Harris and Charlotte (Scarlett Johansson) to end up in love, or having sex, or whatever. We've met Charlotte's husband John (Giovanni Ribisi). We expect him to return unexpectedly from his photo shoot and surprise them together. These expectations have been sculpted, one chip of Hollywood's chisel after another, in tens of thousands of films. The last thing we expect is… what would probably actually happen. They share loneliness.


I can't tell you how many people have told me that just don't get "Lost in Translation." They want to know what it's about. They complain "nothing happens." They've been trained by movies that tell them where to look and what to feel, in stories that have a beginning, a middle and an end. "Lost in Translation" offers an experience in the exercise of empathy. The characters empathize with each other (that's what it's about), and we can empathize with them going through that process. It's not a question of reading our own emotions into Murray's blank slate. The slate isn't blank. It's on hold. He doesn't choose to wear his heart on his sleeve for Charlotte, and he doesn't choose to make a move. But he is very lonely and not without sympathy for her. She would plausibly have sex with him, casually, to be "nice," and because she's mad at her husband and it might be fun. But she doesn't know as he does that if you cheat it shouldn't be with someone it would make a difference to.

I wish I had written and made this film.

dressmaker required

I bought this dress of E-Bay a good year ago for a 1920s evening I was going to. Even before I won the bid I realised it wouldn't get to me on time but I then it was too late, I just HAD to have it.

It's original 1920s, made in Paris for a shop in Chicago. Oh, I can just see it now, the flapper girls in a Chicago club, Charlston, early Jazz scene...

It's so fragile and it looks like it's made out of tights with heavy beads embroidered, thread bear in places, stained in others, and too big for me anyway. My neighbour is a dress-maker, used to work for the National Ballet, and she said she'll see what she can do for me. Either way, I don't care - if I ever get married THIS IS WHAT I WANT TO WEAR.

(At some point I'll also get some better photos of it)