Month: June 2006

Hidden / Cache (5/10)

thegirlinthecafe 5 Comments

Hidden/Cache (2005)

A lot was Cache/Hidden in this film. Including the whole point of it. Hidden well, because I couldn’t find it. After 1.5 hour I was wondering if there ever was going to be a point at all. And then the very unsatisfying ending, nah let’s not waste any more words on it, I didn’t like it.

There was one memorable moment for me in this film though, and it has nothing whatsoever to do with the film as such.

While watching a scene (the film’s location is France) where a car was driving on a road (where else should it drive, but you got the point), while we, as the viewers, were following this car I thought :

Hey, this car is driving on the wrong side of the road !

I am not making it up, my head really thought that. 4 months is obviously long enough for the brain to switch to the other side.

It’s going to be a warm and colourful weekend in London with Europride coming up.

I bring it to you

thegirlinthecafe 7 Comments

My head is somewhat full with joyfull things at the moment, which is good, but that means that the words don’t really want to get out right.

So in stead of giving you some crapilicious writing, I give you the song I have been trapped in for quite a while now. And if you were in London, peeking through my blinds at the late hours of day, you could see me dancing (in the most pathetic way of course) on it way too often lately.

I thought you might like to dance a bit too, so press play and get ready for some UK funkiliciousness:
[audio:Infadels – Love like semtex.mp3]

(They (the funky Brits) are called the Infadels, and I think semtex is the perfect metaphor for a thing that can have as explosive an effect as love)

I’m at my feet now
but boy
I’m still falling at ya

New York, New York at last?

thegirlinthecafe 10 Comments

The last few times when I had to decide where to travel to on holiday, I had no idea where to go. So I waited. I waited because I knew that the answer to that luxury question would suddenly present itself somehow and then I would go.

That happened about a year ago with Greenland. Greenland had been on my “to-see” list (I am a list person) for a while already, and suddenly a chance popped up. My musical heroes were going to play a concert there, and everything felt into place. I went to see Greenland for a week, and attended the concert in the middle of nowhere in a icecovered Greenland and I had a fantastic trip.

Now on the same list it says “New York”.
I have been wanting to see New York for a while now, but never really got to it. I need a kind of push in the back to actually get going so to speak. I think the push has arrived now:

“I am going to do a play at the end of the year in New York, in fact. I am going to do a play called, “The Vertical Hour”, written by David Hare, with Julianne Moore, directed by Sam Mendes …sounds good doesn’t it, and then there’s me! [laughter] Anyway … I’ll fuck it up. “

If this really is going to happen (and if I can get any tickets at all), I am absolutely going, despite november not rrrreally being the best period of the year to be there, weatherwise that is. But if I can travel to an iceberg in Greenland to see Steffen Brandt, I certainly can travel to New York to see him, on stage. And I will.

Of course he is not going to fuck it up (don’t you just love this guy), he is going to be the star of the play, I’m sure. And the director being Sam Mendes, he is going to be a true American Beauty, with a delicious English accent. Just as long as he returns to London after that, because we like having him over here.

Doing Nothing and Getting Something

thegirlinthecafe 3 Comments

Sometimes I just want to do nothing. Or for the language purists among you : sometimes I just don’t want to do anything. Whichever you like best. Those moments I don’t want to run to another cool art festival or to one of the many museums in London I haven’t seen yet. Sometimes I just want to sit somewhere, enjoy the weather, think a bit about Life, The Universe and Everything, or wonder about how on earth I ended up having a pirate living with me. Well I guess you know those moments yourself. Maybe not exactly having a pirate living with you, but the rest.

Read More

Davy

thegirlinthecafe 10 Comments


So after a visit to the Cafe, the weather being lovely, I went on a walk. Piccadilly Circus, Regent Street, and left into Oxford Street. The last shops were closing after a long and busy day and it was quiet walking here. Until I heard something weird. It sounded like – a voice of some sort?
“Ahoy!”
I looked around but I didn’t see anyone, it sounded further away.
“Ahrr. Get me out o’ here ! I want me ship !”
And suddenly I saw him. Davy Jones, trapped in the Disney Store on Oxford Street. Well, well.

Read More

The Cafe is threathened by closure

thegirlinthecafe 4 Comments

New Piccadilly Cafe, Denman St, London W1
New Piccadilly Cafe, Denman St, London W1

More and more rumours are going around that the Cafe, yes the one and only THE CAFE, is closing. The owner is facing another raise in rent, and he is not really willing to settle for that, so if things are not getting in place, they will close this summer.

I haven’t been there for a while (and I feel pretty bad about that right now), so I will go there tonight, and I hope to hear from them that things are going to be fine. It would break my heart if they had to close.

But (and this might be a last attempt), go visit the Cafe, if and/or when you are in London before it might be too late. It is a really nice place!

New Piccadilly Cafe
8 Denman Street
Piccadilly Circus
London, W1

(Here it is on a googlemap)

And some links:
New Picadilly
New Piccadilly on design classics

The Sultan’s Elephant is coming to Antwerp

thegirlinthecafe Leave a comment

The fantastic Sultan’s Elephant theatre spectacle will be coming to Antwerp between July 6th and 9th.

If you want to experience this forty-foot high mechanical elephant, the little girl, and the time-travelling Sultan , well then you know where to go.

I would really really recommend to catch this spectacle. And to all the Dutch people reading this, this is your chance. Don’t miss it.

Douglas Adams – The Salmon of Doubt

thegirlinthecafe 3 Comments

The Salmon of Daoubt - Douglas AdamsThe Salmon of Doubt is a must read if you are a fan of Douglas Adams. It contains interviews with, and articles written by Douglas Adams, and it gives you quite some personal background about Douglas Adams as a person. It’s difficult to base your opinion on books only, but I think it is safe to assume that Douglas Adams was a very witty man to be around. And how weird to read his half finished last Dirk Gently chapters, knowing the book will never be finished. And to read that he was actually considering writing a 6th Hitchhiker book, which will never see the light of day either.

Here is a bit about tea, I especially like his remark about social (in)correctness.

Some people will tell you that you shouldn’t have milk with Earl Grey, just a slice of lemon. Screw them. I like it with milk. If you think you will like it with milk then it’s probably best to put some milk into the bottom of the cup before you pour in the tea.(1) If you pour milk into a cup of hot tea you will scald the milk. If you think you will prefer it with a slice of lemon then, well, add a slice of lemon.

Drink it. After a few moments you will begin to think that the place you’ve come to isn’t maybe quite so strange and crazy after all.

1 This is socially incorrect. The socially correct way of pouring tea is to put the milk in after the tea. Social correctness has traditionally had nothing whatever to do with reason, logic or physics. In fact, in England it is generally considered socially incorrect to know stuff or think about things. It’s worth bearing this in mind when visiting.

The whole Tea article is available on h2g2 (the website h2g2 was once started by Douglas, but is now run by the BBC) which is a good source for all kind of Douglas Adams and Hitchhikery related articles.

Imagine Me & You (8.5/10)

thegirlinthecafe 7 Comments

Imagine Me & You (2005)

I was in a very bad mood, went into the cinema, and came out with a very big smile on my face after seeing Imagine Me & You. This not so typical (but still) rom com turned out to be a real mood booster. No one makes better rom coms than the Brits.

And Anthony Head (I never saw Buffy, but did you see him in Dr. Who ?) has now definetely reserved a place on my dreamcast list. He has a delicious voice, can play a charming Brit as nearly no other, and he is very very funny.

Read More

Big Ben – a poem

thegirlinthecafe 2 Comments

I have a weakness
For tall guys
You know the types
With twinkling eyes

This one has charm
And he has grace
Watching the city
From his space

I know,
it’s only just begun
But he’s towering
facing the sun

His classy suit
Not hard to see
Why, from day one
He captured me

Talking to me
Around the hour
Always on time
That is his power

I try to see him
When I can
Who wouldn’t fall
For
the Big Ben

The Girl In The Cafe on her way to Denmark

thegirlinthecafe 4 Comments

The Girl In The CafeKarin, from met-k.com has written a very nice review about The Girl In The Cafe (both in English and in Dutch !), which is of course a very nice start of the week for me.

“The film moved me and let me think. About life and it’s chance meetings. How people seem to meet and go together in their journeys and stay or leave. Laurence is the shy and insecure man who feels trapped in his life and job. And Gina is just pure and wants to live in the purest of ways. Eventhough she takes risks. Eventhough she might lose the things she loves so much.”

Read her whole review at met-k.com. A big thank you to Karin for participating !

The Girl will step on the plane again soon and fly to Denmark, where she will accompany Bjoern for a while.

~~~~~~~

If you would like to participate in The Girl In The Cafe on tour project, you can read about it here, and join. (It doesn’t matter where you live).

All it will cost you is a stamp to send the film to the next person, 2 hours to watch this beautiful film, and 15 minutes to write a review about it.

If you want to know where The Girl is, has been or will be going – check here.

Love can’t change
what’s wrong in the world.
But it’s a start.

makepovertyhistory.org

Stomp, Vaudeville theatre, London

thegirlinthecafe 3 Comments

You have to know that all the theatreshows in London are being advertised as “The best show in London” and “Not to be missed” and then the name of a newspaper and the obligatory “*****”.

So I went to see Stomp, in the Vaudeville theatre on Strand. Because I like drums and percussion and rhythm, and can remember very clearly how extatic I got watching Yamato – The drummers of Japan, when I saw them in Aarhus a while ago.

So Stomp: “Stomp is an explosion of movement and rhythms that is at all times entertaining and on occasion amusing or thrilling.”
Sounded interesting. And it was fun in the beginning, but after 15 minutes I got kind of bored. The show is basically just one long chain of people hammering on stuff. On sweepers, on wood, on metal on everything. And they do it in a very rhytmic way, and the audience loved it, I could tell. But I wasn’t too impressed. Maybe because I have seen so many cool things already here in London (Blue Men and big Elephants had no problem whatsoever to impress me).

But after them banging on for a while I got irritated. The next act began. A few people entered the stage with newspaper. And I thought – if they are going to make noise with them too I am going to bang my head against the chair.

So today I have a headache.

If you want to see concept theatre, go see the Blue Man, if you want to see a decent play, there are plenty to pick from, and I don’t mean We Will Rock You or Mama Mia. My ticket for Kevin Spacey’s The Moon for the misbegotten arrived in my mailbox yesterday, and I can’t wait to see him. I’m convinced that he is going to be really good.

What’s in the girls mind

thegirlinthecafe 3 Comments

Well not much at the moment. Or maybe too much.
It is funny, this process of writing. I have a long list of things to write about so it’s not that I lack any ideas. I could write about the man in the park, about a funky tower in London, about how I was woken by the Big Ben this morning (too late though and I missed my Caterham train again – but waking up by Big Ben talking to you is kind of funky isn’t it) or how I seem to be ending in some kind of warp hole when it comes to writing right after posting a picture of a certain Brit actor (I guess I understand what “Bill posters will be prosecuted” means now, they come at night and vacuum clean your brains for any creativity if you don’t obey. This is the second time it happens.).
To cut a short and uninteresting story even shorter, I can’t get anything decent out at the moment.

So instead go enjoy the weather, or watch a football game, or try to imagine how I get treated at work for having my orange “Hup Holland Hup” sign up, being amongst a couple of hardcore football fanatic Englishmen.
I’ll be back. If they don’t kill me that is, those Englishmen.

Interplanetary problems

thegirlinthecafe 2 Comments

This was the second time I had problems with my Oyster card. I paid for it on the internet, but somehow that information couldn’t get through to the card itself. Which meant I couldn’t get through the gates of the underground. So I went to the information desk (I am a regular customer there). And the queue was long, and I was going to be aggressively late for work. Again.
When I finally stood in front of the small glass window (no voiciliciousness this time either) I explained the problem. He did something with his computer.
“I need your password” he said.
“Right” I said. This had to come one day, and today was obviously that day.

Read More

The Fool On The Hill

thegirlinthecafe 3 Comments


I know I complained about it, but even though the weather was as good as it can be, I stayed inside to watch Holland – Serbia/Monte Negro at 3pm. 3pm UK time that was, which was about an hour too late, so I missed the first half. I keep forgetting that I am living in another timezone now.

After this act of misplaced nationalism, I needed some fresh air. And I knew where to get it. Hopping off at Belsize Park (Northern Line), I began walking, on my way to Hampstead Heath (a big park in the north of London).

But just before the real climbing began (I was heading for Parliament Hill) I needed some water. And how convenient – I passed a Marks & Spencers.

Read More

Step into another world : The Mandir, London

thegirlinthecafe 3 Comments

Mandir temple, London
You have to jump on the tube, and take a long journey North West to visit the Mandir temple. You reach areas where the underground changes to overground, and you get off at Stonebridge Park (Bakerloo Line). When you leave the train you can see the impressive Wembley Stadium which is currently being rebuild, and delayed, and on walking distance from this station.

But this wasn’t the reason for my trip in this direction of London.

Read More