There is a small, ugly overlap between the kind of people who complain about reduced state funding for the arts and education in the UK and the kind of people who excuse the burning of books, advocate the closure of places of learning, attack performances of classical music, and disrupt debates in bookshops. Outside this […]
Read MoreThe BBC’s Paris correspondent Hugh Schofield is broadly happy with his children’s French education, but he does have one complaint: French schools have absolutely no extra-curricular activities. There are no debating societies, no orchestras, no film clubs, no sports teams, no painting classes, no school newspapers, and no drama, at least none worthy of the […]
Read MoreOn being shown Michael Jackson moonwalking to Billie Jean, a friend’s seven-year-old son shrugged his shoulders and commented, unimpressed: “Ahh… He’s got wheels in his shoes.” [Anecdote and title stolen wholesale from JL.]
Read MoreBritish luvvies are a rich source of entertainment to me—as long as I am careful to keep my theatre-going to a minimum; it’s the stuff they say in interviews that puts a smile on my face. So many of them talk cobblers. Fortunately, it doesn’t matter because (apart perhaps from the likes of Mackintosh and […]
Read MoreA fortnight ago, I shot the Brighton School of Samba at Brighton’s Second revived carnival. Congratulations to them. They went on to win the prize for best band.
Read MoreThere’s a new “Where The Hell Is Matt?” video out: a world united in dodgy dancing to New Age wibbling. Go Matt! Higher resolution version intermittently available here.
Read MoreI had always assumed that there was some connection between the Cusack families either side of the Atlantic, but there ain’t. The actor and screenwriter Richard Cusack is father of John, Joan, Ann, Susie and Bill. Actor Cyril Cusack is father of Paul, Sorcha, Niamh, Pádraig, and Catherine. Sinead Cusack is married to Jeremy Irons […]
Read MoreFor a long time now the Philippines have been net exporters of strangeness. If you can’t watch YouTube videos on your computer then you’ll just have to imagine 1 500 orange-jumpsuited prison inmates recreating Michael Jackson’s Thriller. [Thank you, Dee.]
Read MoreA couple of weeks back I attended one of the two “reasonably smart” evening occasions that PooterGeekers kindly invited me to in response to my appeal so that I could test out some wacky lighting techniques. This was photographing various Latin American performers at a Cambridge college ball. I’m sure you’ll agree such a setting […]
Read MoreGo here [requires Flash video]. Skip the intro by clicking on “SKIP” in the bottom right-hand corner. Then click on “Video” and choose the first example: “Don Lewis demonstrates…”
Read MoreYesterday evening I watched The Libertine. It’s diverting and stylish; there are some lovely, elegant, theatrical speeches; but there’s not as much sex as I’d hoped for. Johnny Depp doesn’t go over the top and John Malkovich is even more pleasingly restrained. I wouldn’t go out of your way to rent it though. I was […]
Read MoreThe Ugly modelling agency provides “interesting” looking people for advertising and other media purposes. Cleverly, they have a Website to match: distracting background images, Comic sans fonts, horrid layouts—they got ’em all.
Read MoreI don’t have a TV, but that doesn’t mean I don’t watch it. Having trained myself out of treating television broadcasts as audiovisual wallpaper, whenever I visit friends or relatives and there’s a TV on in the background I have to make a huge effort not to be hypnotized by it. The main reason I […]
Read MoreGerard Butler spends almost all of the trailer for the upcoming 300 SHOUTING HIS BEARD OFF.
Read MoreAfter all those heterosexual pairings, here’s a homosexual one. I live in the gay capital of the UK and photograph weddings, yet I had to drive to Stratford-upon-Avon to shoot my first civil partnership. Ivan used to design clothes, some of which my sister used to model, and now he is Costume Co-ordinator at the […]
Read MoreBack here I complained that Dr Who was currently prettier than his assistant. Clearly someone at the BBC has been paying attention. Here’s one of several poorly lit publicity photos* of David Tennant and his new sidekick, half-Iranian, half-Ghanian Freema Agyeman: Having failed to heed the make-up artist’s warnings, David and Freema discover the hard […]
Read MoreIt’s good to see that some people have a sense of humour where their heroes are concerned.
Read More“One does not simply walk into Mortor…“
Read MoreA blasted heath on the edge of a backlit forest. Low clouds of mist lap around a natural arena. A figure strides over a hillock into view. It is IAN MCKELLEN. He is wearing a very silly helmet and matching cape. He is in possession of a KNIGHTHOOD and an enormous cheque. IAN MCKELLEN: Patrick! […]
Read MoreFurther to the ongoing debate in the comments here about street evangelism, Fark links to the anti-preachers.
Read MoreResponding to the unusually early death of actor Chris Penn, Squander Two writes about acting—and explains much of my problem with (British) theatre: If only Sean Penn were anywhere near as talented as his brother, his films wouldn’t be so irritatingly tedious. Cintra Wilson’s right: truly great acting is something you don’t even notice. That’s […]
Read MoreGINGA I could be well moved, if I were as you: If I could pray to move, prayers would move me: But I am constant as the Commons Bar, Of whose true-fix’d refreshing quality There is no fellow among vintners. The streets are linéd with unnumber’d pubs, They are all fine and every one doth […]
Read MoreI’ve been in bed for the past couple of days with a nasty little dose of food poisoning. On reflection, it was probably the Stilton, bacon, and red onion baguette that did for me. It tasted wonderful at the time. Because of my illness I’ve been listening to lots of radio. On Friday, as the […]
Read MoreWhen I was about 16, Charlotte Jones, now a playwright, beat me in the final of a public speaking competition. Because we were released from the green room to compete one-at-a-time, I didn’t meet her in person until a couple years later when we wound up undergraduates at the same college. We then spent far […]
Read MoreSorry to resort to the same edition of Private Eye again, but I have to share this with my American friends. It's from a regular column in the magazine called “Luvvies” to which readers submit ridiculous quotes from actors. This week's was from Emmy Rossum, being interviewed in Vanity Fair: “We were doing this scene […]
Read MoreI meant to post this at the start of the week when it was topical. My dad used to think Bill Kenwright was a great producer. Charlotte used to think that Tennessee Williams was a great playwright. Judith used to think Ashley Judd was the most beautiful woman in Hollywood. So that’s three people who […]
Read More
Recent Comments