Were among some of the most anticipated films on my to-watch list. Some exceeded my expectations, and some really didn’t.

From great to not so good:
A Single Man
Has to be seen for Colin Firth’s outstanding understated performance. It is a very slow paced story but it looks fantastic and is very well acted. (Nick (About a Boy) Hoult is great too.) Absolutely recommended and that BAFTA was well deserved.

Crazy Heart
Talking of outstanding performances – Jeff Bridges in Crazy Heart is also incredibly watchable as Bad Blake, a washed out country singer redeemed by a young journalist. Bonus points for Jeff Bridges for performing all the songs himself. Even more bonus points for this film not having the supersweet hollywood ending you expect. And hey – it also features Colin Farell with a pony tail! Great film which scored Jeff Bridges an Oscar. (He is also very fabulous in the Fabulous Baker Boys).

Alice in Wonderland
It has Johnny Depp as the Mad Hatter. It has Helena Bonham Carter with a very large head. It has the Cheshire Cat voiced by Stephen Fry. And a caterpillar voiced by Alan Rickman. And there are talking rabbits too. And all that is set in an incredibly visually fantastic Tim Burton universe. This should be a cracker but somehow it wasn’t. It looked great but the story was just not that great. Sorry Tim.

The Lovely Bones
I loved the book. I am not quite sure what Peter Jackson ate when he made this film, but he turned it into one long surreal trip. Too bad really as there are some great actors on board: Stanley Tucci is seriously creepy and Saoirse Ronan is great as Lucy Salmon. But those were about the only good things about the film.

Pedro mentioned this song on Twitter this morning, and I simply had to dig up that song. Try and sit still why listening to it, I certainly can’t. Nor can I listen to it without a smile on my face, it is the perfect mood buster.

If you want to see the the original film clip, it’s here . Thanks @Pedro! (Youtube possible removed it because of copyright issues, so you have to go through some ads to get to it).

Any more tips for songs that can boost your mood?

Have a good Sunday!

£170 per week (en suite) / £736 per month

We have a room to let!
Ideally want a quiet single person, who’s hardly ever in and who doesn’t need to use the kitchen much. Spacious family house in Chiswick. Big room with shared en suite bathroom. Near to tube (Chiswick Park) and mainline station (Chiswick). On the busy Ellesmere Road, but room is at back overlooking garden. £170 pw, all bills -broadband – included.

So for £736 a month they want someone who is “hardly ever in” and who does not eat as they don’t want you to use the kitchen much.

I think I am going to email them right away, that sounds like a bargain deal to me! [add Cynicism!]

(PS1: I actually emailed them to tell them that they were greedy people, sorry I could not help myself. And I hope the room does not get let.

PS2: And in case you were wondering, am I now moving again? Yes temporarily as I accidentally ended up in a smokers room in Battersea and I it making me sick (literally). The temporarily – I will tell you more about that at some point.)

More than 50 charities are supporting a UK campaign to levy a Tobin tax on transactions between financial institutions, which can be used to help fight poverty, protect public services and tackle climate change.

I think it is a brilliant idea. And this man is also just very luvely.

More about Robin Hood Tax here.

(Short film written and directed by Richard Curtis)

How working for a large 50+ employees UK (as they have offices all over the world too) creative agency is different from working for a small 6 employees communications agency.

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It’s one of those memes that force you to think about your year a bit. So here is my year in words. How was yours?

1. What did you do in 2009 that you had never done before?
I saw whales in their natural environment. I biked the Golden Gate bridge.

Both very memorable experiences. And both very recommended too.

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I am not the complaining type but saying that my new year started smoothly might be overdoing it a bit. January just isn’t my month. After losing my job in November I just found out that I need to move out of my room.

I am not happy to go as I really enjoyed the view but I didn’t really have a choice. And while I was prepared for a stressful couple of weeks chasing for a new place, things seem to have fallen into place already. (Let’s hope nothing gets in the way now but) I have found a room around the corner of Battersea Park. If I continue walking along the side of the park (even though I am already sure I will spent a lot of time in the park as there is a tea pavillion and a place where they sell ice cream near a lake) I will get to Albert Bridge and if I walk over the bridge, crossing the Thames, I stand in Chelsea. It is a brilliant location indeed with lots of cycling possibilities too.

I will share with two men again, I am used to that now, and I am fine with that, not the least because we’ll have a cleaner. And I just hope that I can stay there for a longer period than my current room. I know that nothing is certain in London, it is the nature of the city, but one can always hope.

I will also be very close to Clapham Junction (good for shopping and train connections) and loads of bus stops so that’s all good.

There is only one thing – I need to pack all my stuff down in boxes again, and I have exactly 16 days to do it.

I do think Simon looks a bit like a gentleman with his scarf, black hat and red heart shaped buttons. And he is still standing!

I finally had the time to sort out the photos I took over Christmas, New Year and here back in London.

More photos inside »

If you missed Statuesque, the brilliant silent short film by Neil Gaiman with Bill Nighy in the lead, please press play now before it’s gone. (It is about 8 minutes in length)
Very Lawrence. Very lovely. Very heart breakingly sweet.

Happy New Year to all of you!

Merry Christmas everyone!

I am about to leave London to spend Christmas and New Year with my family in the Netherlands.

If you are travelling too, travel safely, keep warm and have a good time with friends, family and whoever else you like to spent your holidays with.

Love + Rock!

This is Annerie’s xmas tree – click for larger image because there is a heart in this tree. Actually!!

Pedro’s tree, still standing in a considerate amount of snow. Wonderful.

Grigorisgirl’s tree is here Love the Sun globe. It is fun to see what other people have in their Xmas tree.

thewholetweet’s parents’ Christmas tree

If you have any photos of your Xmas tree please send them and I will add them here. (or if they are on Flickr or Twitpic or such, please send a link). I love to see how all those xmas trees are different.

I don’t really like the Christmas shopping madness, but I love the lights and Christmas trees.

My room in London is too small for a tree so I would love to see your tree if you have one setup! It might be a festive sight to see the photos so if you have a tree at work or at home, big or small it doesn’t matter, please take a photo of it and email it to me on the following address:

…

Spread the word and send me your trees please!

The snow situation in London: apart from some flakes on the roofs there is no snow here. How is the snow situation where you are?

Just a short update on the job front.

I have found a temporary contracting job.

It is in a huge international creative agency in London and I am doing project management work for projects for big international brands. It is very busy and there is a lot of work which is a good thing. I have been there for a week now and they haven’t told me to go yet so I guess I am doing allright. For now.

The plan is to hopefully stay there for some months (am hoping for January and February at least), acquire some great additional experience to put on my CV which hopefully will make it easier to find the next job after this.

It calms the nerves and worries down for a while and I am taking a short break from frantically hunting all other possible jobs, but will keep my eyes open should the perfect permanent job come by.

Somehow losing my job has had an enormous effect on my spirit and creativity, but I can feel that I am slowly getting back on my feet again now. Writings here will still be a bit irregular but will get back to normal not too long from now.

So that’s the current situation.

I also realised that I left my notebook including my sketches for my not-an-xmas-card in the plane coming back from New York! That’s a bit of a bugger, but I vaguely remember what the idea was so I will start working on that soon too.

If you are young at heart, go see this film. It is wonderful. If you have children (not to young though) take them too. And the music is absolutely awesome too.

Official website

I am not back yet, I am still running around on the island with Max and Carol and KW. If you are as tired of everything as Max and me, I can recommend you to join us and be king for a day or two.

I will return soon (ish).

Did I tell you that you should go and see this film? Really you should.

I am taking a break from this blog. I am sure I will return but at the moment I don’t have any energy for it. Sometimes life gets in the way and asks to be sorted out first.

I still have the intention to do the non xmas card exchange but it won’t be before January (which is a perfect non christmas month).

In the mean time: fare well, enjoy life and be happy!

Despite the job hunting going like wading through ever in thickness increasing mud, I had a week of wows. I witnessed beautiful things that really made me stop and say “Wow”.

Dan and Hugh

The first WOW was Daniel Craig and Hugh Jackman, Thursday a week ago exactly. I already wrote about that here, so I will spare you any further remarks. Clearly they have the wow factor. For obvious reasons.

Tim Burton Exhibition – Moma, New York

On Monday I visited the Tim Burton exhibitions in the museum of Modern Art (Moma) in New York. It was great. I am a big fan of Tim Burton’s film work and have seen most of his films. He has a very distinctive style and the exhibition showed a lot of film props from his films, models, drawings and paintings by Tim Burton. It was great to see some of the models used in stop motion productions (The Nightmare of Christmas, The Corpse Bride). Sketches of what the hands of Edward Scissorhands should look like and more. It is amazing what a creative and weird brain this man has. Very enjoyable and wow if you are a fan.

My favourite Tim Burton films: Big Fish and Edward Scissorhands. I also quite liked Sweeney Todd and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and can’t wait for his take on Alice in Wonderland (the trailer with Johnny Depp looks amazing).

You can read more about the Tim Burton exhibition here, and also have a look at some videos. The photo above is the only photo we were allowed to take, a Tim Burton designed inflatable in the entrance area of the museum.

Do you like Tim Burton’s work and what are your favourite Burton films?

Snow Patrol in the Royal Albert Hall

And yesterday there was Snow Patrol in the Royal Albert Hall. I admit that I was quite late in discovering Snow Patrol but better late than never. The Royal Albert Hall is a fantastic place for concerts and Snow Patrol made good use of the hall’s possibilities. They even used the amazingly huge Albert Hall organ in one of their songs. They had a lot of musicians with them on stage (I counted 15 people at some point!), strikers, a horns sections, a harpist, and lots more and also had an amazing light show.

They played most of the songs from their latest Up to Now – The Best Of album. The first half was dedicated to the more quiet numbers (Run played with the violinists made me cry, as did the thousands of people singing along to it, fantastic atmosphere). And the second half was more rock ‘n roll and people got out of their comfy seats. It was an amazing experience.

The concerts are filmed for a later to be published Live DVD.

Some of my favourite Snow Patrol songs:

And some others:
Chasing Cars
Run
Take Back the City

Do you know Snow Patrol and what are your favourites?

Oh and a final Wow !! for all those people who have signed up for the non-xmas-card thingy. You can still signup if you haven’t done so and I better start drawing soon!

I admit that I am a little late this year but it is that time of the year again:

The annual this-is-not-an-XMAS card postcard exchange

I will design a brand new Girl postcard which I am going to have printed in a card shop in a special very limited edition. It is not going to be your typical Christmas card, there is no Christmas tree on it nor any other Christmas references. It’s probably going to be more of a New Year card to be honest, but I am not sure yet. It can be anything.

It will be a double card in full colour and it is not going to be the image you see on the top of this post by the way.

Now, you want one of those extremely-limited-edition-due-to-be-a-collectors-item-cards won’t you?

Current card counter: 10

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Now this was bound to be a magical evening and it was. I am not sure if it was the fantastic well acted and intense play that this is, or if it was the two leads auctioning off their shirts at the end of the show. Tough choice!

It was a challenge to get a decent ticket for this. Not the least because Ticketmaster (the ticket company selling the tickets) gives American Express creditcard holders a chance to buy tickets one week before all others. A very irritating gesture for all other people wanting to have a ticket.

So at the day the left over tickets became available I went to through all performance days until I found a ticket that wasn’t in the back of the theatre. And I fond one, for the 19th of November.

Needless to say that tickets for this show are immensely popular (when will you ever have a chance to see James Bond and Wolverine on stage together again?). And while it seemed that most of the Americans seemed to be there for Hugh Jackman, I certainly had nothing against watching Daniel Craig too.

Both actors played Chicago cops, best friends, in good and in very bad. It was a very naked staged, two chairs, a little bit of background and one and a half hour of intense acting. (There wasn’t an interval, which was great).

I admit that I was just interested to see those two men without really caring about the play – but the play was absolutely gripping. It took a little time to get used to the Chicago accents with which both actors speak, and it did take a little more time to get used to Daniel Craig’s moustache, but I was drawn into this intense story very quickly and forgot all about insignificant details like that.

All I can say is that if you are lucky enough to have scored a ticket, you have something to look forward too.

When I saw Bill Nighy in the Music Box theatre in 2007 (which was just opposite the Schoenfeld theatre as you can see on the photo), after the play the actors would come out and sign tickets and Playbill programs. I can only imagine the mess it would create if Craig and Jackman would do this. They were fully aware of this too, and decided to use their stardom to support charity. This meant that you could buy signed posters and Playbills in stead (for quite a spicey price I must say), and to raise even more money, they took off their outer shirt (big approval from the audience!) and offered to sell their under shirt to the public. The shirt would be signed, and you would have a chance to briefly meet them backstage. The two shirts went for $12000!

Life is good in New York. A little bit of (steady) rain yesterday (nothing more than appropriate) but today the sun is out. I am just checking the latest emails, try to not be too worried that there aren’t any concrete job related ones, and then I am off to Coney Island for some sun, sea and fresh air.

Have a nice weekend!