Sunday 31 October 2021

A cold dark keeps arriving, punctually, sooner

Daylight Savings
by Tess Taylor

How strange it is as we verge on November
and the fields go bare, and days grow tighter
to wake and find, as if from thin air

an unexpected gift: An extra hour.
This generosity recalls the summer’s
easy August days, time and desire

to make long love and read the paper,
both. Unanticipated leisure
makes the passing morning lighter.

The sun on empty vines and stubble fields seems cleaner.
Encroaching thoughts of cold seem further off.
Seem - that is to say, these are measured offers:

by afternoon the light’s late illusion falters.
A cold dark keeps arriving, punctually, sooner.

British Summer Time - such that it was - is over.

Sigh.

Thursday 28 October 2021

Always the Bride

[on playing the title part in Bride of Frankenstein (1935)] "The most memorable thing I did in that film, I believe, was my screaming. In almost all my movies since, I've been called upon to scream. I don't know if it's by chance, but I would like to think that I'm not hired for that talent alone".

"Stardom is all hard work, aspirins and purgatives."

[on her "open marriage" to Charles Laughton] "We both needed other company. I met his young men, and I had a young man around and Charles didn't even argue."

Just in time for Hallowe'en, it's the birthday of our Patron Saint Elsa Sullivan Lanchester (28th October 1902 – 26th December 1986)!

A remarkable woman.

Saturday 23 October 2021

Friday 22 October 2021

It's a look...


click to enlarge

[From Reuters: A man wears a suit made of mirrors at a fashion and clothing exhibition in Tehran, Iran.]

Saturday 16 October 2021

THE Dame

"I've never been particularly aware of my age. It's like being on a bicycle - I just put my foot down and keep going."

It is our supreme Patron Saint Dame Angela Lansbury's 96th birthday today.

All hail!

Friday 8 October 2021

Morning, noon, and night-time, too

This week way back in 1978 saw the birth of a legend...

...as Miss Lily Savage made her world debut at the Black Cap in Camden!

Sad to say, the Black Cap remains boarded-up as the legal wranglings continue over its future, as they have been for the past six years. Happily, that other "venerable drag institution" the Royal Vauxhall Tavern - having won its own, similar, battle aganst developers - remains very much open. Here, in a grainy old bit of footage, Lily joins forces with fellow icons David Dale and Sandra Lush as "LSD" at the RVT back in the 1980s:

...and here she is on top form, live at the Filth concert in aid of the Terence Higgins Trust a few years later, in 1994:

A national treasure, indeed.

More of "Our Lil" here, here, here and here.

Monday 4 October 2021

Burnt orange till the end of time

I recently binge-watched the entire recent Marvel series Loki, and it is impressive. The storyline - typically for Marvel, given its long history of intelligent storytellng - is every bit as convoluted and extraordinary as one might expect, with a careful balance however between the cerebral and the dramatic fight scenes and special effects. The core actors (even Owen Wilson, who I have never liked in anything) give excellent performances. There's even an appearance from Richard E Grant! What's not to like?

However, what impressed me most was the sheer sumptuousness of the sets - in particular the wildly Retro-futurist Brazil-meets-Blade Runner-meets-Grand Budapest Hotel "look" of the sinister "Time Variance Authority" citadel...

...and the Art Deco-meets-neon alien worlds...

Just gorgeous!

Judge for yourself from the trailer: