Denmanstreet - home of The Cafe
I really don’t understand women who go shopping for clothes when it is 35 degrees (C) in London. I mean come on. Women who are actually willing to stand in a queue in front of the dressing rooms to try out some t-shirts and the accidental pair of trousers, when the sweat is running down your back. You have to be insane.
From Bill Nighy to Davy Jones
This is not a ramble about Bill Nighy, or maybe it is, or maybe not quite.
I was so amazed to see those pictures (they got send to me and I simply had to put them up) that it is worth a post.
And since I am warning you in advance, you can’t really complain, now can you. You can just ignore the rest of the post you know, no one is forcing you to read it all. So – what’s it gonna be …
He was just standing there, with a can of beer in his hand, unstable, lost track long ago. His clothes dirty, his shoes worn down and his voice filled with drunkenness. She tried so hard to talk him into reason.
She told him to get on bus 24.
Did he have his bus pass ?
He showed it to her.
She checked, and saw that this was just a card he had picked up from the street, it wasn’t valid anymore.
“You have to buy a bus ticket” she tried.
“I have no money” he said, and took a sip from his beer.
She told him to stay there and wait at the bus stop, while she was going to get him some money.
She came back a few minutes later, and gave him exact money for a bus ticket.
“Bus 24, remember it now” she said.
He nodded, and was staring into his own world, far away from ours.
The bus wasn’t there yet. They waited.
Finally the bus came around the corner. It was busy, a lot of traffic, and it would take a while before the bus would reach the bus stop.
She looked at him, worried, and anxious to get him on this bus.
The bus opened it’s doors, and people started entering.
“Here you go” she said.
But there was no answer.
She turned around and he was nowhere to be seen.
Bill Nighy Art III - Bill goes Blur
Even though I only saw him a split second yesterday (on the loose indeed, together with Alex Pettyfyer, and Alicia Silverstone, and Ewan McGregor(!)) it was enough. Enough to have me forget the things I should have been working on (the list is long), and enough to have me drawn to my drawing pad and pen and spent the rest of the evening and the early morning hours on “Bill goes Blur”. I must be insane.
I apologize for the inconvenience.
I love his glasses though.
(Detail of a poster for the Science Museum)
I love working in a hi-tech enviroment, and I am a gadget geek. And our office really is the center of technology.
In our mailbox today:
Something to remember in the Kitchen on the second floor: it’s on the same circuit as the server room, and the circuit seems to trip if both the dishwasher and kettle are on at the same time.
So if you put the kettle on, try and make sure the dishwasher is off…
…and vice-versa.
And someone hadn’t remembered that today, and guess what happened.
Lots of time for a cup of tea.
If Yak himself asks you if you want to make a short film with him, you would be pretty stupid to say no. So I said yes! And it is such fun, and I am learning so much about filmmaking. We will keep you up to date about this project, and you can ofcourse read all about it over at Yak too (in Dutch).
Here is a first trailer, indulge it. Any feedback is highly appreciated !
Update:
this is the second version of the trailer, it has been updated on few places, also with new pieces of film.
A part of the storyboard
It was a long, and not the least hot day but it was so cool.
This is a kind of resume of my first day at the London Film Academy. I mostly wrote it because I want to keep track of what we have been doing, and how it has been. It might not be that interesting to you, and it is quite a long story too. Be warned.
Shower. Breakfast. Recharged batteries. Pack my bag. Oystercard. Money. Camera. Yes I have everything for another day of shooting in London, both stills and also some filmclips. Now I did exactly the same thing last Saturday, only to find out that my current 2 camera’s are no longer capable of delivering filmclips in a, for these days, reasonable format. And that is absolutely needed for The Project.
So I needed a new camera. Fast. A camera that was small, handy, good quality and one that could make movieclips. My choice : the Canon Ixus 60.
I have had an Ixus 300 for years, and have it with me all the time and nearly use it every day. It takes good pictures, but lousy film clips. And it is slow. And it looks chunky compared to the new slim 60. And it is twice as big.
The 60 still has the cool metal body. It is extremely fast, both in startup and in shooting, it has a crystal clear large lcd screen, and it takes fantastic movieclips. While the Ixus 300 only would let you take movie clips of 30 seconds max., the 60 makes them as long as you want them (limited by the capacity of your SD card).
I also still take a lot of pictures with my Nikon 5700, a lot of my photoblog pictures are taken with that one. But I don’t always feel like dragging that one around. Some of my favourite pictures are taken with my good old IXUS 300 though, the one I probably like best : the sad dog. I will miss my IXUS 300, he has been a faithful companion.
The new camera is going on it’s first real testdrive today, and with some luck, a sneakpreview of some of today’s shooting will popup somewhere soon. If I can deliver good enough clips that is, because I have something to live up to with my other Project member being a very talented person. Kind of scary really, but I am going to do my very best.
OK, I have to shout the pirate out of the bath now, he has to hurry if he wants to come along, which of course, he wants. People complaining about women occupying the bathroom for a long time, well try living with a pirate. They are even worse.
We gotto go, London awaits.
Davy !
Ricky Gervais campaining for Live8.
See it. Laugh. And after that, get serious and Make Promises Happen, by posting a post-it for example.
The next G8 meeting is on the 15th of July 2006.
There, I said it. I am missing something. When you look at my right ear, it is missing a piece on the corner. It looks like they run out of dna clay when making me. It looks a bit weird, and feels weird too, as the earshell is simply missing a piece. It is not that obvious, but is is noticable and boyfriends have been joking about it.
Normally I don’t think about it at all. So why do I write this, you wonder.
Because today in the Caterham train, I sad opposite a guy who had the exact same thing! He was missing a part of his right ear, on the same place as I do.
So we are not alone, and maybe I am an alien after all.
I actually took a picture of my ear, to go with this post, but decided not to post it. Not the least because of the shockingly increased number of grey hairs I spotted on it. Where did they come from, all of a sudden?!
I absolutely adore grey hair, on the heads of men, it makes them look distinguished and intelligent and interesting, but I am not really ready to have them myself.
Do you happen to miss a piece of your ear ?
When I signed up for the course, in the beginning of February it seemed so far away. I hadn’t even moved to London there, and the future was somewhat uncertain. It was actually quite a silly thing to do, because lots of things might have happened, and I might never have settled in London. But that’s me, the impulsive girl. And things like that did not happen, and I can’t imagine living in any other city.
On of my Girl cards is featured on the Go-Cards frontpage. This is actually one of my personal favourites.
So – how cool ! (Apart from the fact that they have misspelled my last name, but what’s in a name anyway.)
You can send her as an e-card, but the picture is a bit small if you ask me.
I have been working on some London Girl cards lately too, some of them might popup here some time.
And yes, it’s all about Love, Actually. Love + Rock.
Well, how am I going to tell you this. The Girl DVD is lost – again.
My first reaction was – ok, that’s it, I have enough of it now, if it is simply impossible to keep the DVD travelling around, I stop this project.
But Davy heard me swearing, he hopped on the sofa (which was quite impressing with his one good leg and the crab, uhm, leg thingy) , and asked what was going on. I explained it to him, and that I was tired of it, and about to give up, as the fun of it was far gone now.
And he asked me why I had started this project in the first place.
And I told him why. Beautiful film, important subject, fantastic actor, Richard Curtis, Iceland, Sigur Ros, Damien Rice, you know, all that.
“So you are going to give all that up, just like that. What about the people on the waiting list ?”
“Ahrrr, I know! They have been on the list so long now, I wonder if they are still interested.”
“What if you send 2 DVD’s around, to speed it up a bit, one to Denmark, and from there to Australia and the USA, and the other one to Holland, and from there to Belgium. That way things will go faster, and the project will get alive again, I’m sure of that.”
“You know, you are a pretty clever pirate actually. What should I do without you.”.
He smiled.
I nearly smiled again too, have 2 DVD’s waiting here, am going to post them tomorrow.
I would be lost without this pirate.
(Wanna join ? You’re welcome!)
Love can’t change
what’s wrong in the world.
But it’s a start.
Because I accidently stumbled upon this song in my iTunes collection, by pressing “Play random song”. And how lucky, it could have been 3301 other songs.
Because it is a beautiful way to start your Monday.
Because I always thought that Radiohead was for musicnerds only, but it isn’t.
Because it is such a cool title for a song.
Because I feel like one at the moment.
Because I thought you should hear it too.
[audio:03radiohead.mp3]
I wish that they’d swoop down in a country lane
Late at night when I’m driving
Take me on board their beautiful ship
Show me the world as I’d love to see it
Radiohead – Subterranean Homesick Alien
New Piccadilly Cafe
Today I did speak to Lorenzo, the owner of The New Piccadilly Cafe. The Cafe, my Cafe.
I paid my Minestrone soup, and asked him the question that had been bugging me since the last time I was there.
“Is it true that this Cafe is going to close?”
My normal The flatmate that normally lives here is out of the country for 2 months (me and the pirate had the appartment for ourselves for a week, Yoho – party!) and the next 6 weeks a temporary flatmate will be living here. She moved in yesterday, and is around my age (which is very young).
We have a small bathroom here that we share, and in this bathroom there are 4 shelves. Shelves you can use to put your bathroom stuff on. You know what I mean, I mean things like toothpaste, toothbrush, deodorant, soap, shampoo, hairgel, some cream, lip cream, suncream and after-sun. And ok, I do have about 3 different bottles of Eau de toilette standing there too.
All my stuff fills about half a shelve.
The other 3 shelves are my flatmates’. And they are stuffed to the very last inch (<- see I am a Brit know).
Stuffed with mediteranean sea salt scrub cream (don’t let Davy hear that), anti aging cremes (who are you fooling), 5 different types of lotion, 8 types of soap and shampoo (probably one for each day of the week), Hair revival kits (hair is dead, don’t waste your energy), Hair survival kits, and Perfectionist with poly peptageen cellulides. I have no idea what that last one is for, but it sounds pretty scary to me. And this is only a small selection of the stuff that is standing there.
One of us lost touch somehow here, I am just not entirely sure it is me this time.
Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest (2006)
Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest
Tagline: Capt. Jack Sparrow owes an unpaid debt to Davy Jones and his army of sea-phantoms…his soul. Now, he must find a way to save himself from becoming one of them, and suffering forever.
- You’re not putting the stuff back in the dishwasher are you ?
Oh, James !
I’m so glad I caught you before you did that !
(A woman on mobile phone at East Croydon station.)
Here is my take on it. James hated those bloody horrible ugly expensive crystal glasses they had inherited from her grandmother so much, that he decided to do something about it. And he had heard that dishwashers would be rather effective for that matter.
What do you think ?
I had a serious talk with my new editor and we decided that we are not going to do it.
We are not going to write that today, it is exactly 1 year ago that I saw the film.
We are not going to write that the line “I’m not the man I dreamt I might be when I was young.” spoken by Lawrence/Nighy in the film got some alarmbells going off in my head.
We are not going to write that that exact line got me thinking “You are either going to wake up now and do something with your life, or you will wake up being 80 and realize you have missed a lot of oppurtunities and wasted your time away”.
We are not going to write that acting performances like Bill Nighy’s in that particular film made me realize that film really was something I was passionate about, and that I should try to do something with that information. And another thing we won’t write about concerning this particular performance : the fact that shy people can be this cool rocked my world.
We are not going to write that exactly one year later I have indeed used the inspiration I got from this film and Nighy to reboot my life. I do now live in the city I absolutely love and I have signed up for a course on the London film academy. I have been writing like a lunatic ever since, and will do something with that after the summer too. And besides all that we have been so incredibly lucky to actually already having met our inspirer.
We are definetely not going to write that my editor and I are going to have a little party tonight, to celebrate this one year anniversary of the film, and that we have tickets for the Pirates movie on the premiere night tomorrow too. But we do hope that you understand why the film is highly appreciated on this blog, and why Nighy is a regular subject here.
And a very last thing we are not going to reveal is that the pictures of Davy’s alter ego are here, if you would like to see how our mutual hero looks like. (they are not great, but ok, and on the last picture you find Johnny too).
It’s nice to have an editor, he’s good company and posts get a lot shorter and a lot less messy having one like him around.
© 2003-2012 The Girl In The Cafe.
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