302: Dracula doesn’t count

What do Just Like Heaven, Last Christmas, The Sixth Sense and Donnie Darko have in common? Only one of them has a giant bunny. All of them have hot male protagonists (yes, Bruce Willis counts. Don’t argue). One of them is set at Christmas. They don’t have actors in common or similar plot lines.

The answer is, of course, that they are all ‘dead guy movies’, which is a debate my bestie and I have been having for a large part of the past week. These are movies where a character has been dead all along, not just died in the early part of the movie (which means Truly Madly Deeply is but Ghost isn’t) or been part of the action despite being dead (Weekend at Bernie’s is not). Muppets’ Christmas Carol is, since it clearly states that ‘the Marleys were dead to begin with’. There are lots of horror genre examples too, I expect, but I’m less likely to watch those.

Where it gets sticky is when the undead (or mostly dead) get brought into the equation. There was a lively debate about Dracula, for example: he’s dead but undead so is still walking around the place, thus very much a grey area. Her family say it counts, mine disagree. Frankenstein is another grey area, as all the various bits of the Monster were dead to begin with but then get reanimated. Zombie movies are mostly not, as often they’re wandering about the place having been brought back to life. It’s more complicated than you’d think….

The difference 34 years makes

That same bestie was also my companion for a Christmas afternoon out on Tuesday, when we went to see Othello at the Theatre Royal Haymarket, starring David Harewood as Othello, Caitlin Fitzgerald as Desdemona and Toby Jones as Iago.

Toby Jones, after his performance in Mr Bates vs The Post Office, his gentle nerdiness in Detectorists and understated excellence in Mr Burton is in grave danger of becoming a national treasure. He was positively malevolent as Iago, manipulating everyone around him and driving Othello to jealous madness, culminating in a great pile of dead bodies at the end. David Harewood made a very angsty Othello, and Caitlin Fitzgerald was sparky and joyful as Desdemona. It’s easy to forget how much humour there is even in the tragedies, and Toby Jones broke the fourth wall quite frequently while confiding his plans to the audience, with his usual comic timing. Costumes were modernish, the set was minimal and elegant, and PJ Harvey’s score was understated. Highly recommended if you get the chance.

Both of us had ‘done’ Othello at A-level and had written essays on the ‘noble savage’ tropes. 34 years later we both felt Mr O needed to do a bit less listening to Iago and a bit more thinking for himself.

We went to the matinee performance after lunch at Rudy’s in Wardour Street. We shared a pizza and a salad – the pizzas are huge and if we’d had a whole one each we’d have slept through the performance. After the show we walked back through a Christmassy London (well, fought our way past the tourists) to Kings Cross St Pancras to catch our trains – we saw the latest probably Banksy, a lot of festive lights and a complete set of Mario Bros in the station for some reason. An excellent day out altogether, and home in time for bed!

Other things making me happy this week

A session at the new David Lloyd in Harlow with Miriam – a mix of yoga, pilates and meditation. Just what I needed but bits of me were most unhappy the following day.
Coffee and stollen with Sue, Jill and Heather on Monday
Christmas cake

Various early morning walks with dogs and people
Christmas Mass at All Saints Epping Upland with Miriam and our Thing 2s. I got to light the advent wreath!

Finally making the Lego bouquet that my Beloved gave me for our anniversary last February. Just under 1000 very small pieces, but a permanent vase (or coffee jar) of flowers in my lair
Finishing these little ‘reel mice’ that I’ve had in my mind for ages. I think they need scarves though.
Saturday at TT1s with many cuddles from the twins, and Christmas Day with TT2 and the mad two year old
Christmas Amazon vouchers to spend. Hurray!

This morning I may go for a walk, and then have every intention of lurking in my lair for a few hours. Same time next week!

Kirsty x

What I’ve been reading:

Night Birds on Nantucket/The Stolen Lake – Joan Aiken

A World of Curiosities/The Black Wolf – Louise Penny

The Dead of Winter – Sarah Clegg

Murder at Martingale Manor – Jodi Taylor

Strange Days – Violet Fenn

Nemi, vols I & II – Lise Myhre

301: Inconceivable

This week started with the terrible news that actor, director and all-round good egg Rob Reiner and his wife, the filmmaker, photographer and also all-round good egg Michele Singer Reiner had been found dead in their home in LA. Their son Nick was later charged with their murder. He has struggled with addiction, and there are reports that he’s been diagnosed with schizophrenia.

You might be wondering why the deaths of a couple I’ve never met are the subject of this week’s blog instead of whatever I’ve been up to this week. Well, Reiner – among his many other achievements – was the man who took a chance on William Goldman’s The Princess Bride and in so doing created the greatest film ever made. He was also the man who introduced me to Stephen King with his adaptation of King’s novella The Body, in the form of Stand By Me. He was also responsible for When Harry Met Sally (“I’ll have what she’s having”), This is Spinal Tap (“These go to eleven”) and The Sure Thing (which triggered my long-standing love for John Cusack). He and Michele also ran Castle Rock Entertainment, responsible for more Stephen King adaptations – The Shawshank Redemption, The Green Mile. Misery was a Reiner film too but despite James Caan and Kathy Bates I can’t love that one. Stephen King will probably be the subject of another blog, another day (but not for many years, please). A Few Good Men is another, but as it’s got the loathsome Cruise in it I can’t watch it.

The Princess Bride will always, always be my favourite. It didn’t do well at the box office but became a cult success, and people who recognise a quote when it’s dropped into conversation are kindred spirits. I remember the first time we watched it – it was Bonfire Night in 1988, and we’d rented the video from Apollo in Monmouth and watched it as a family. We all still have copies of the film on DVD and watch it whenever it’s on TV. Reiner’s films changed the way we talk, inspired endless memes and even a socially-distanced version of the movie in lockdown where Reiner appeared as The Grandson, with his father Carl as The Grandfather. The words may have been written by Goldman, Nora Ephron, Stephen King and others but Reiner brought them to life with love and humour. I have loved listening to his reading of The Princess Bride on Audible this week.

The Reiners were also activists, campaigning for gay marriage, for tobacco taxes to be used to pay for early childhood causes, for child development, and he was outspoken against Trump whose tasteless, egotistical, offensive response to the news of their deaths may become a nail in his coffin. I can say this as I have no intention of going to the US in the near future. The outpouring of respect and grief across social media and the news, from people who knew them and people who didn’t but whose lives have been touched by their words and actions, has been enormous.

Rest in peace, Rob and Michele Reiner. “Death cannot stop true love. It can only delay it for a while.”

Things cheering me up this week

The Borough of Sanctuary Christmas Party, which was surreal and joyful in turn.
My clever daughter making marshmallows which melt beautifully and artistically in my hot chocolate (Poulain 1848, on this occasion)
Making the front room look all festive

Finishing this army of pigs
Finding some festive reading
Lunch with London sister and brother in law at Turtle Bay. Two for one cocktails at lunchtime, bad idea.
Finishing work until the New Year

Today I’ll be making stollen, marzipanning the cake and pottering about in my lair. It’s Christmas this week, and we have TT2, her partner and GT2 coming for lunch.

As you wish, faithful readers.

Kirsty x

What I’ve been reading:

The Wolves of Willoughby Chase/Black Hearts in Battersea/Night Birds on Nantucket – Joan Aiken

The Madness of Crowds/A World of Curiosities – Louise Penny

The Princess Bride – William Goldman (Audible, read by Rob Reiner)

The Secrets of Pain/The Magus of Hay – Phil Rickman (Audible)

A Christmas Carol – Charles Dickens (Audible)

300: Marley was dead to begin with…

…possibly one of the most excellent opening lines in literature (kind of spooky and oooh, as Rizzo the Rat says) and one I was very pleased to find on an enamel pin by Laura Crow which I wore to work this week in festive fashion. It is, after all, the season for this sort of thing – currently I am watching The Muppets’ Christmas Carol with GT2, one of my favourite festive films. Coincidentally my second favourite Christmas movie is also an adaptation of the Dickens classic: Scrooged, with Bill Murray. Murray’s ruthless TV exec brought to see the error of his ways by the always bonkers Carol Kane and her toaster (among other spirits) is classic viewing.

This week I’ll be doing my annual listen of Hugh Grant reading the original Dickens version, which was a freebie on Audible a couple of years ago and which is an excellent way to spend a couple of hours. The Muppet version is apparently the version with the most of Dickens’ original text in the script, which is fortunate since the Horde have all had to do the book for GCSE and they’ve been subjected to the film MANY times.

My festive mood has been helped considerably by walking back to Farringdon station via Sekforde Street and Clerkenwell Green. Dickens lived quite close to Clerkenwell – there’s a plaque to him in the gloriously Gothic Waterhouse Square/Prudential Building (Holborn Bars) on High Holborn, and his home on Doughty Street is about ten minutes’ walk away. Clerkenwell, on the edges of the City, still has a lot of Victorian streets and alleyways and at this time of year it’s adorned with wreaths. Even when it’s not Christmas it’s pretty – I love all the doorknockers on Sekforde Street, especially the bear with its cub and the cat with kitten on the old Finsbury Savings Bank (which Dickens actually used, I’ve just this minute discovered).

The denizens of Hatton Garden are a bit less festive, though the cigar-smoking skeleton Santa in the window of one of the offices made me laugh, as did the sign on ScooterTech round the corner.

Continuing this week’s obsession with Mr Dickens’ classic, I took Thing 2 and Thing 2a to see ZooNation’s hiphop version at Sadlers Wells East, Ebony Scrooge. A blend of hiphop, comedy and theatre it was very different to the last show we saw – Quadrophenia – but all of us loved it. It was noisy and joyful and funny, and the audience was encouraged to make noise and enjoy it. There was a short ‘Curtain Raiser’ performance by Boy Blue’s East London Dance School beforehand, called Sinnerman and which made excellent use of Nina Simone. The rapping narrators were great, and the animations were beautifully done and added to the evening. Highly recommended, if you’re after a festive night out with a difference.

Other things making me happy this week

Dinner at Kung Fu Mama with lovely friend Rhiannon on Wednesday, putting the world to some sort of rights while eating excellent noodles. The place is tiny and has a small street food menu, and it was packed – I had the traditional beef noodle soup which was delicious but messy. Pak choi is really hard to eat with chopsticks.
A swim on Saturday morning with Jill – it was c-c-c-c-c-cold in the water as we haven’t been often this autumn. We followed up with hot chocolates at Costa and a mooch round Hobbycraft.

My favourite and best thing this week though has been the completion of my very own lair in the attic – thanks to my Beloved who has been building tables and shelves for me, although I did have to assemble my own chairs. The contents of my frivolous shelves from the Shed have migrated upstairs and I had a happy Saturday afternoon pottering about and singing along to Christmas songs, especially Kate Rusby. I have a whole collection of things to go on the ‘walls’ – postcards and prints – and I’ll be able to work without having to put up my folding table, and leave projects out over a weekend. There’s a wide surface for cutting and sticking, space for my ironing board, and other flat surfaces. They may never see me downstairs again. All three of the Things popped up to see me while I was pottering, which was nice!

And that’s it for me for this week – if anyone needs me I’ll be in the attic finishing off some projects….

Kirsty x

What I’ve been reading:

A Better Man/All The Devils Are Here/The Madness of Crowds- Louise Penny

The Secrets of Pain – Phil Rickman (Audible)

299: coming around again already

Well, apologies for those of you who usually like to read my ramblings over their morning coffee – WKDN is late today for no good reason. Festive torpor, perhaps, setting in earlier than expected due to Christmassy things landing all at once.

Tuesday kicked the week off with a lovely moment organised by our fab Development team. Sparkling fairy lights on the safety barriers and the pile of pallets, a candelit Windmill Base filled with friends and the Centre team, and joyful winter songs from the Angel Shed Singers. The Windmill Base is the oldest structure on the new site, and will become a space for artist residencies and community handovers when we open, so it was lovely to see it in use for something other than putting on our hard hats and hi vis. Not many festive events feature a deconstructed maquette, a toilet and bicycle lamps for lighting! The plan was to hold it outdoors but the weather had other ideas….

On Thursday we had our work Christmas lunch, at Taqueria Exmouth Market – so many little tacos brought out that we were admitting defeat and it was quite a relief to leave and walk down to Holborn Community Association for the MillerKnoll We Care event. I wish I’d been able to try the Tiramisu Martini as well as the Strawberry Margarita but then I’d have been tipsy in charge of a stapler and small children. Probably for the best. This was also the scene of the Secret Santa gift exchange – the felted Christmas Pudding Snail I was given was perfect.

The We Care event was fun too – we were making pyramid lanterns for the children to take home as presents, alongside The Museum of the Order of St John making lavender scented playdough, and MillerKnoll staff making string art, friendship bracelets and bird feeders. Two hours of utter chaos, then back to the office to catch the last half hour of Christmas drinks with our freelancers, architects, and other friends. Busy day…

Yesterday was Epping Christmas Market, where I was ably assisted by Thing 2 and where the rain did not stop play. The little Chris Mouses and the pigs in blankets flew off the stall, as usual, and it was so nice to see various friends and regulars popping up. Less nice was the visit from our badly-spelled local Reform creep, handing out Christmas cards with their logo and the names of local councillors on. I gave it back as I want nothing from them, except for them to go away. In the 16 years I have been doing the market no one has tried to use it for political gain, and in a year when their actions have done more to divide the community than anyone else it was bad taste to leverage a community event.

Our stall was way too close to the PA system hosted by Forest Radio with their selection on Alan Partridge-worthy jingles and a lot of school choirs, but close to Costa and Starbucks with their hot chocolates. The jingles were truly, truly awful. It was a good day, and I like the slightly later run into the evening.

We’ve watched the Muppet Christmas Carol and The Christmas Chronicles so far – what will this week bring?

Now Thing 2 has just appeared with her amazing apple and cinnamon rolls and a coffee, so I am signing off….

Kirsty

What I’ve been reading:

Kingdom of the Blind/A Better Man – Louise Penny

The Secrets of Pain/To Dream of the Dead – Phil Rickman