Tagged: movies

Modern/Love

Have you ever fallen in love online? I did once. Or at least I thought I did. I spent the summer of 2007 spending an inordinate amount of time talking to a girl on Facebook who I had met, of all places, through a DC Comics forum. She loved Black Canary almost as much as I loved Green Arrow and, when it comes to comic book geek dating, that’s pretty much as perfect a match up as you’re ever going to find.

Despite the fact that we lived in the same city, it took us a couple of months to meet. I have no doubt that, even though we used how ‘busy’ we were as an excuse, it took both of us precisely that long to work up the courage to put a face and a voice to a lot of words that seemed to dictate that we were meant for each other. Finally, we met at a club night hosted by Simian Mobile Disco. We kissed and drank too much and fooled around and did other stuff that teenagers who spend too much of their young adult life indoors do.

It didn’t last, obviously. And I stopped reading Green Lantern for a while. (A year.)

Why have I just told you the above? Well, many of them emails I receive about sponsored posts are wildly irrelevant and make me feel like a sellout for even considering posting them. But occasionally, and only very occasionally, I receive an email about a project that resonates with me so much I’d probably write about it for free. Just…don’t tell them that.

Four Stories is a project by W Hotels and Intel in association with Roman Coppola (son of Francis Ford, brother of Sofia and perhaps, until recently, one of the lesser known Coppolas) that resulted in the production of four short films. Of those four, I was most taken with Modern/Love. Aside from the obvious chord it struck with me based on what’s written above, I also instantly fell in love with the soundtrack. If you’re already wondering what that soaring ‘kinda like MGMT but more indie’ anthem in the middle of the video is the answer is How to Disappear by Thomas Azier, and you can download it free here. You’re welcome.

More than that, though, I like all the thing that the film says between the lines about life online. It’s easy to forget that those men on Pinterest with immaculately groomed moustaches (that can, at least in the world of Modern/Love, sprout in a matter of hours) and wearing tweed in a Ryan Gosling-y kinda way aren’t always holding puppies, don’t always have good hair days and are starting to look their age in bad lighting. Likewise, those girls on Facebook (well, they had to go somewhere after Myspace died…) who seem to have all the cleavage in the world and claim to have liked that band you love since before everyone else did are probably just wearing a really good bra and breathing in while someone takes their photo. And they probably only actually heard of them after Crisis. (Alexisonfire joke, skip it.)

The message of Modern/Love is perhaps that while the modern world facilitates the telling of all sorts of stories, it can also lead to putting things on hold (sometimes indefinitely) and creating scenarios so idealised that the real world can never match up to them. I think fate, happenstance and random encounters will always be what really makes the world turn. People always say that ‘you should never meet your heroes.’ Well, I say you should always meet your Twitter friends. The sooner the better. That way you can find out if they have a really annoying voice before you start crushing on them.

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If you want to find out more about Modern/Love, head here.

Disclaimer: Blah blah blah, yes, this is a sponsored post. Big whup, wanna fight about it?

The Perks of Being a Wallflower & ‘The Loner Flick’

At the beginning of 500 Days of Summer, a guy who sounds kinda like Morgan Freeman tells us that it’s a story about boy meets girl, but it is not a love story. As well as setting the tone for that particular movie those words have come to define, for me anyway, a whole sub-genre of cinema. Garden State. Lost in Translation. Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist. Adventureland. Over the past decade or so, a bunch of films have deviated from the umbrella of ‘teen movies’ (Road Trip, American Pie etc) enough to make them something a little bit different. Because their slow pace and the way they meander is reminiscent of stoner flicks, except there’s no weed (ok, they do sometimes still have some weed), I’ve dubbed them loner flicks. Oh, and all their soundtracks seem to feature that one song by Crowded House.

In a nutshell, loner flicks appeal to those of us who are lost. Those of us who, nine times out of ten, WON’T take that big risk. Those of us who grew up desperate to believe that we could make our dreams come true, but have no idea how to actually make them happen. Those of us who are so resigned to loneliness and mediocrity that even relatively mundane events can become imbued with a sense of meaning. Loner flicks are so resonant with a certain subset of teenagers and twentysomethings because they hold up a mirror.

The Perks of Being a Wallflower is a quintessential loner flick. For that reason, it is almost invariably destined to be nothing more than a cult favourite. I first read the source material (a weird little ‘HMV Books’ paperback I picked up from WH Smith) almost ten years ago. Like most things I loved when I was fifteen, it became much more to me than just ‘a book’. It became a retreat when the world got hard, an inspiration and something like a symbol of hope. Like one of those songs you listen to over and over again, trying to get every ounce of meaning out of it. It’s safe to say that the film had a lot to live up to. Yet, at the same time, it couldn’t fail – I’ve read the book, and seen its events happen in my head, so many times that I was already overwhelmed by nostalgia when the credits finished rolling.

I have no doubt that the general public will be wowed by the fantastically camp sense of humour Ezra Miller brings to his portrayal of Patrick, and the quirky charm Emma Watson exudes as Sam (is it ok for me to have a crush on her yet?). But this will take the film only so far. Its incredibly slow pace means that most moviegoers will fail to recognise the little things - Charlie’s constant desire not to disappoint his parents, the beauty of the flickering lights of the Pittsburgh skyline and the heartbreaking innocence of young Charlie’s eyes. It’s vaguely appropriate that I sat and watched the movie alone in a room almost entirely full of couples (I’d recommend you do the same) – the film recalled all of the anxiety and introspection that plagued me as a teenager. It made me laugh, it made me cry and it reminded me of how uncomfortable I am with the real world. Like all good movies do, it took me out of my own life for a night.

If not for Emma Watson, I would have little doubt that The Perks of Being a Wallflower would bomb. Even as is, it’s touch and go. This doesn’t mean it’s a bad film, because it’s really not (I’ve already made a space for the DVD) – it’s filled with humour, emotion and completely beautiful moments. But it’s not made with normal people in mind. It’s made for people like me – the wallflowers.

The Case of the Cardinals Cap.

Well, hello. Hopefully you still recognise me, I know it’s been a while since I’ve written anything. Don’t worry, I’m not one of those people egotistical to apologise for not having blogged recently because, let’s face it…I’m sure you’ve survived without me.

Shockingly, this week I’m going to be doing a bit of philosophising (though it’s definitely going to be like…philosophy lite) rather than being all snarky. Or at least, I’m going to try. A realisation hit me this week, and that realisation was just how heavily my fashion sense (vom at that phrase, makes me sound like I think I’m Spider-Man, except…fashion-y) relies on what I’m reading, watching on TV or listening to. Before I get too much into it, I thought a few examples would probably help.

Pic credit to the lovely Kylie @ Memoir Mode

After my trip to the Louboutin retrospective at the Design Museum I found myself lusting after shoes like these Nelly spike heels. Sadly, they don’t do them in my size…But my new obsession went far beyond an interest in these seemingly Rollerboy influenced shoes, I started noticing the prevalance of spikes and studs everywhere. I’m not going to use the words ‘punk chic’, because aside from being a complete oxymoron the very phrase makes me want to vomit on a Dwarves record. The Ragged Priest, for example, have a ton of spiked denim jackets and stuff in Topman that I’d never really noticed until after my visit to the Design Museum. All of a sudden, I found myself wanting everything they do.

Example number two. After reading the sublime The Art of Fielding by Chad Harbach, my love for baseball was rekindled. I’ve recently spent some time in diners nursing a drink and watching ball games (I’ve also clearly been reading too much Bukowski), and the little number pictured above also made its way into my wardrobe. Despite having rarely seen the St Louis Cardinals play, the novel lent them a mythic quality that stuck with me long after reading it. While I was buying the cap I wondered whether or not purchasing (what amounted to) a replica of Henry Skrimshander’s cap was ridiculous, I ended up deciding that it was no different to buying any other movie or TV merchandise. I also thought ‘whatever, I already know I’m ridiculous.’

If you don’t know who the dude is above I’m not angry, but I am disappointed. As well as making lovely jangly acoustic music as City and Colour, Dallas Green (yes, he does have the coolest name ever) also helped to completely reform the post-hardcore scene in the early 2000s as a member of Alexisonfire, one of the most diverse, technical and intense bands to come out of the last century. Shamefully, I’d sort of forgotten about them (or rather iTunes shuffle had, since that’s pretty much exclusively how I listen to music) until pretty recently and I now have them on repeat almost constantly. It’s no secret that DG is one of my idols, and I recently picked up the shirt-jacket pictured on the right above fully aware that it was ‘very Dallas’. But here’s where things get interesting – at the time I bought my St Louis Cardinals cap, it hadn’t registered that Young Cardinals is the name of one of Alexisonfire’s albums. Hmm.

The fact that I chose to buy a baseball cap belonging to a team from somewhere I’ve never even been at the same time that I was getting back into Alexisonfire in a big way really suggests to me a subconscious inclination to tie as much of this stuff together as possible. I’ve always had a pretty versatile style (from scene kid to preppy Hamptons dude), and it’s always been very much dependent on my surroundings. However, the case of the Cardinals cap (which sounds like an episode of Scooby Doo) suggests to me that there’s something much deeper going on when people decide what clothing to wear.

In the past, it has generally been assumed that people dress as Goths, preps etc for one of two reasons – 1) to fit in with their peers or 2) to express themselves (c.f. parents reassuring themselves ‘it’s just a phase, they’ll grow out of it). If my hypothesis is correct, then neither of these statements alone are evidence enough for people dressing in a certain way. Rather, the very content of certain types of music, film and television shows has the power to influence actions. Potentially much, much more power than the advertisements that break them up. The insinuations that accompany this idea are pretty dangerous – if media has this power over people, does this mean that video games and rap music really are responsible for increases in high school violence and young men acting in a degrading way towards women. Was The Daily Mail right all along?

A/W ’12 Trend Forecast: The ’90s are back.

Fashion has a lot in common with a bunch of monkeys getting sprayed with cold water. Wait, come back, let me finish! Start with a cage containing five monkeys. In the cage, hang a banana on a string and put stairs under it. When one of the monkeys (inevitably) goes towards the banana, spray all of the monkeys with cold water. Repeat this process for several days. Eventually, any monkey that goes after the banana will be attacked by the others, even if the water is turned off. Now, replace one of the original monkeys with a new one. It’ll go straight for the banana, and the other monkeys will attack it to stop it. Replace another of the original monkeys with a new one, and the others (including the first new monkey) will attack it too. Keep replacing monkeys and eventually all the monkeys will stay away from the stairs, even though none of them was ever sprayed with cold water. Psychology lesson over.

So why am I talking about monkeys? Well, you can see above that the new set of monkeys all act in a certain way without knowing why. The same is true of street style – despite being (sometimes) completely unaware that a look has previously existed, people will adopt it as their own. Occasionally, enough of these occurrences will take place to signal a full scale revival. And guess what? It’s happening right now; we’re re-entering the ’90s.

Oh, hipsters, you so crazy.

People have this idea that the ’90s sucked and…for the most part, they’re right. But while pimply teenagers in Huddersfield were rushing home from playing POGs in Wimpy’s to record New Kids on the Block (holding a tape recorder up to the radio, shushing their dad whenever he came in the room, natch), American directors were creating some of the most enduring teen films of all time - Never Been Kissed, 10 Things I Hate About You,  She’s All That etc etc. By far the greatest of these movies was (d’uh!) Clueless, a movie I’ve watched like nine (hundred) times. As I rewatched last night, I began to notice that the fashion in Clueless matches up with a lot of trends that will be hitting it big in A/W 2012. Like, totally.

If Cher Horowitz was around today, she could totally be the quintessential fashion blogger. Check her out in the picture above – just add a little pink dip dye to those blond locks, and you’ve got a look that could get about 30,000 notes on Tumblr (maybe tag it ‘hipster’ ‘goth’ ‘hot’ ‘girl’ ‘urban outfitters’ ‘topshop’ ‘style’ just to get the ball rolling).

clueless cher fashion

But look! Cher could totally do the ‘proper’ fashion blog thing too – that outfit is so ready for the FROW. No wonder Mashley Olsen (I can’t tell the difference so I just refer to them as one person) is giving her a look like ‘you go, girl’. Or ‘bitch stole my outfit before I was even born’, I can’t tell. When Cher writes up events she can even find some way to work stuff in about how Ren and Stimpy are ‘way existential’, which is more profound than some of the stuff today’s fashion bloggers write…I recently saw this one dude ramble on about monkeys for a whole paragraph, can you believe that?

Hey, remember earlier this year when Tatty Devine freaked out because Claire’s Accessories ‘stole’ a bunch of their designs? Check out the above picture and you’ll see that Amber had pretty much the same necklace in 1995. Hmm.

Even the crazy skateboard fashion on the fringes of Clueless is becoming relevant again. Sure, most guys are wearing their baseball caps facing forward right now, but close enough, right? With tribal patterns and Mary Katrantzou-esque prints being so popular in S/S ’12, I have no doubt that colours will only get brighter and more garish as the year goes on.

Want to check whether or not you think I’m right? The video above (watch out, the volume is kinda loud…) shows every outfit Cher wears in the movie in 60 seconds – can you see yourself wearing anything similar in the months to come? If you say no, look in the mirror in seven months and try telling me the same answer…

p.s. Etsy totally agree with me – Cluess Fashion.

Remus Lupin and Sirius Black – The Madness Within.

I was asked to write a piece for a newly launching website on Harry Potter and its relation to a particular branch of literary theory. This is what I came up with.

The madness within

If discussing homosexuality and queer theory in relation to a cult text is risky at the best of times, it becomes downright dangerous when talking about Harry Potter. When JK Rowling announced that Albus Dumbledore was gay the reaction varied hugely, from support all the way through to disgust. The acknowledgement had huge ramifications for those with any interest in Harry Potter and (queer) literary theory – it confirmed that homosexuality is not only something that exists in the world of the novels, but is something that was part of one of its central characters without any of us ever realising. It’s worth highlighting now that this essay does not aim to have a hard conclusion – in it, I will explore Remus Lupin and Sirius Black as manifestations of the male homosexual figure, but in no way do I plan to ‘prove’ that either character is gay.

“Please, sir. An animagus is a wizard who elects to turn into an animal. A werewolf has no choice in the matter.” Immediately, a distinction is drawn between the two men in that Sirius has control over his transformation and Remus doesn’t. There are a several reasons why I began to consider the transformation process as a metaphor for homosexuality, but the following are particularly key in my mind. The first is the fact that werewolves are tied to the moon – this is feminising in that the lunar cycle and the menstrual cycle have long been associated. For a long time, gay men were viewed as being inherently feminine and it’s difficult to shake this historical association. Another is that David Thewlis, who portrayed Lupin in the Harry Potter films, recently revealed that Alfonso Cuaron (director of Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban) advised that Thewlis play Lupin as a ‘gay junkie’. As soon as allusions to homosexuality and drugs are made, it becomes difficult not to read wolf-Lupin’s scrawny body complete with patches of hair missing as reminiscent of the bodies of gay AIDS victims that were splashed across the mass media in the late twentieth century.

Because so much significance is placed on the fact that Lily and Severus have the same patronus, I find it difficult not to read into the fact that Lupin and Black transform into the same type of animal. Admittedly, they change via a different method and into a slightly different biological family, but the similarity is still interesting. Although Sirius is a bold, confident character, he also dresses like (and shares a moustache with…) Freddie Mercury – with all that velvet, he can come across as a little camp. And just like Lupin, who is ostracised and forced to resign from his job because of the stigma that comes with his condition, Black is cut out of his own family because he doesn’t (wait for it…) share their beliefs about whom it is appropriate to mate with.

Just as Lupin and Black represent different manifestations of the canine form, they can also represent different manifestations of the gay male body. While Lupin’s ‘condition’ is torturous and uncontrollable, Black’s is controlled and, to some extent, enjoyable – Sirius remarks that ‘James suggested making the change permanent. The tail I can live with, but the fleas – they’re murder.’ In this regard, Sirius represents a new breed (excuse the pun) of gay man – his confidence and ease contrast sharply with Lupin’s self-loathing. While I’m tempted to read this as being evident of a temporal shift (with Lupin representing the closeted, victimised, pre-1980s homosexual figure and Sirius as the post-1980s gay man, more widely accepted by society), this issue is complicated by the fact that Sirius is wrongfully imprisoned in Azkaban. However, there is still some mileage in the argument that the two men represent shifts in the perceptions of homosexuality. Lupin voluntarily discharges himself of his post at Hogwarts because he knows that the parents will not accept him, something altogether different from Black’s imprisonment. While Lupin’s actions are self-imposed and are the result of intolerance, Black’s destiny is forced on him by society because of fear.

Although the fact that Nymphadora Tonks marries Lupin and fathers his child complicates a queer reading of Lupin this can be countered by the fact that Tonks is a metamorphagus – if she can turn into a pig and a duck, surely she could also turn into a man. Someone also pointed out to me that the Remus/Tonks relationship might be a nod to the dynamics of Cat on a Hot Tin Roof – neither Lupin nor Tonks can be with Sirius, so they displace their feelings of desire onto each other to be closer to him. However, as I said at the outset of this piece, I never intended to ‘prove’ that Lupin and Black are gay. I’ve always found queer readings of both men to be frustrating in while they are compelling, they will always be inconclusive. Both men meet with violent ends, as does Dumbledore after his relationship with Grindelwald (something hinted at by JK Rowling but never really made clear). It’s tempting to read this as a warning against homosexual behaviour, but it’s probably worth remembering that plenty of straight characters die too.

For me, the most compelling point that emerges from this discussion is the reading of Black and Lupin that it facilitates – both men are loving father/uncle figures to Harry, are kind to their friends and are unwaveringly courageous. Their ‘conditions’ don’t change any of that. Not even a little bit.

Warner Bros Studio Tour – The Making of Harry Potter (and meeting the cast…)

I’ll just start by saying that today was one of the best days I’ve ever had. If that doesn’t set the tone for a preview, I don’t know what does. Yes, I’ve been excited to check out The Making of Harry Potter at Warner Bros Studios for months, but I was also expecting all of the problems that typically come on opening days – bad parking, inadequate tour bus shuttles, stressed out staff, big crowds etc etc. I got NONE of them. The staff were not only incredibly helpful and pleasant, but also genuinely know their stuff – from cracking jokes about Fawkes (those jokes that are lame, but the teller knows they’re lame so it’s fine) and discussing the intricacies of models to pointing out areas that you could easily miss.

That same care and attention has clearly gone into reassembling the sets – it’s a bit of a cliche, given that it’s obviously the desired effect, but it does feel like you’re stepping into one of the movies. It also feels smaller than it does in the movies…another cliche, sorry. Well, except for the clock tower (picture below); that was MASSIVE.

The tour is incredibly well structured in that you take in all the sets, costumes and props before moving on to check out the creature workshop, animatronics and model section. I know, I know, this sounds as if it could be really dull but I promise it’s not. From the creepy Voldemort foetus and Luna’s lion mask to a replica of Hagrid’s head and a terrifyingly realistic Buckbeak that moves around, there’s no shortage of things to see.

'You're a wizard, Harry.' 'Alright, don't get ahead of yourself.'
Totes leaned over the barrier and gave him a stroke.

One of the final rooms in the tour (yes, I know I’m skating over things, but that’s only because photos and a few words really can’t do the tour justice) holds an enormous  scale model of Hogwarts Castle that is simply stunning. Unfortunately, it’s probably the closest most of us will ever come to arriving at the castle for the first time. Wow, could I be any more of a geek…?

I was also lucky enough to meet some of the cast, who were attending for a special red carpet event that I’d been invited to, and get my childhood copy of Philosopher’s Stone signed by Tom Felton, Rupert Grint, Evanna Lynch (who kissed me on the cheek, thus making my life complete), Warwick Davis, David Thewlis and Bonnie Wright. The cast were all incredibly charming, each one signing enough autographs to give them a bout of RSI and chatting with the crowd. I made Tom Felton laugh and everything.

See?

We also talked about shoes – apparently this was the only part of his outfit he had assembled himself, so he was happy that I complimented them. I’m not sure why I complimented them – apparently being around celebrities makes me so nervous that I start complimenting their shoes.

Tom Felton's shoes.

If you’re a fan of Harry Potter, film or art, I can’t recommend checking out the studio tour enough. At around £25 it’s not a cheap day out, especially given you have to leave through the gift shop, but it’s a magical (wow, almost got through this post without making a lame magic pun) way to spend a day. It occurs to me that this whole reads like a sponsored post, but it’s actually not; it’s actually that much fun. Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m off to eat my chocolate frog.

Sport Luxe: The S/S 2012 trend you’re going to hate soon.

sport luxe

If you haven’t opened a fashion magazine in the past couple of months, let me catch you up: ‘sport luxe, sport luxe, sport luxe‘ (yo Google, I know that looks like keyword stuffing but pinky promise it’s legit).

I was initially (actually, I think I still am) undecided on sport luxe, because it seems to fall into two distinct camps. The first is made up of crazy colours, relaxed silhouettes and a vibe that somehow manages to feel simultaneously retro and futuristic.

sport luxe accessories

The more stuff like this I saw, the closer I came to realising what it reminded me of. Then, all of a sudden, it dawned on me.

sport luxe in movies

Yup, the reason a lot of sport luxe walks the line between past and future is because we first saw it a movie set in 2015 that was made in 1989. If you don’t know that I’m talking about Back to the Future II by now, I’m not sure we can be friends anymore. The fact that I love this crazy, experimental side of sport luxe is probably skewed by the fact that I’m a massive BTTF fan. So much so that I actually bought a replica of the cap Marty McFly wears in 2015. Judge at will.

But there is another side of sport luxe…the one I hate.

Astrid Andersen AW 2012

Above is a shot of Astrid Andersen’s AW12 collection, apparently inspired by Shaolin monks and The Wu Tang Clan. Maybe it’s just me, but that’s not what I get from the items shown. I get Eastern European tourist and Lady Sovereign. In case you don’t remember Lady Sovereign (it has been like five years since she was in the charts…), here she is…

For me, this is what it comes down too – shiny fabrics, baggy cropped clothes and sportswear have a heritage of usually being 1. very cheap looking and 2. easily imitated. I can’t get too excited about sport luxe because I know places like Primark and H&M will be flooded with this sort of stuff by the end of the month, and (because of the emphasis placed on sport luxe in the mainstream fashion press) EVERYONE will buy it.

Until then, I can only recommend going totally all out with it and rocking the bright, kooky side of the trend. And I can’t think of a much better kooky sport luxe icon to get tips from than Kreayshawn.

sport luxe icons
Yup, those are Minnie Mouse ears.

Queerness and the construction of masculinity in Fight Club, American Psycho and Frisk

Ladies and gentlemen, my third year dissertation. I’m posting it here because I’ve mentioned it to a couple of people on Twitter who have expressed an interest in reading it. FYI: it gets pretty intense in places, but if you’ve read the books you’d probably expect that.

“‘I dealt with that whole hip bi thing for about three hours back in college.’ I shrug. ‘Big deal.’” – how queerness undermines the construction of masculinity in Dennis Cooper’s novels, American Psycho and Fight Club

american psycho gay

On a plane back to Portland, an airline flight attendant leaned close and asked me to tell him the truth.  His theory was the book [Fight Club] wasn’t really about fighting at all.  He insisted it was really about gay men watching one another fuck in public steambaths.  I told him, yeah, what the hell.  And he gave me free drinks for the rest of the flight.[1]
Continue reading →

Harry Potter and the Tour of London

Sooo, if you’ve ever spoken to me for more than five minutes, you’ll be aware that I’m something of a Harry Potter fan.  Now that I live in London, I decided to go on a mission to find all the locations of the movies. Although there a bunch of sites with some locations on, I struggled to find a website with an easy walking tour you could follow. So I was like, ‘ok, I’ll make one’.

Dismount at King’s Cross, Platform 9 3/4 (even though it says 5 on the sign…)

This looks familiar…except they act like it’s the exterior of King’s Cross in the movies, even though it’s really St Pancras.

Still St Pancras. Ok, let’s get the Underground to Monument.

A short walk from Monument is Leadenhall Market, used as the first Diagon Alley! Hagrid and Harry not pictured.

42 Bull’s Head Passage – This was the first Leaky Cauldron, but now it’s an optician’s. How unbelievably depressing. If I come across some money I’ll totally buy it, make a theme bar and name cocktails after the characters. (Don’t hold your breath.)

 Cross London Bridge and you’ll see this – remember them flying past all that stuff on their broomsticks?…

…and you’ll also come to Borough Market where (at 7 Stoney Street) you’ll find Leaky Cauldron Number II. Now it’s a flower shop. I hope you can buy ‘Harry Potted plants’ and ‘Dumbledore Dahlias’ but I didn’t check.

If you stroll down the bank of the Thames, you’ll reach Millennium Bridge. At least where it used to be until the Death Eaters destroyed it.

Oh no, wait there it is. Ok, cross it, and head right to Mansion House Underground station.  Take it to Westminster…

These are the Westminster ticket gates that gave Mr Weasley some trouble.  There was a load of Chinese people having trouble with them the day I went.  They didn’t look like wizards though.

It’s a bit of a hike to Lambeth Bridge, to be honest, but if you want to see the place where the Knight Bus went really narrow…this is it! You also get to walk past the Houses of Parliament if you want a bit of non-Harry Potter related culture. IF.

 To the Ministry of Magic – guess you’ll have to take these since…

 …the phone-booth entrance (located  in Scotland place) is gone :( I blame that Colin Farrell movie.

 From there, get the Underground from Embankment to Leicester Square which is pretty close to Shaftesbury Avenue.  This is where the gang head to in Deathly Hallows Part 1 before getting attacked by Death Eaters in a cafe.  I wanted to go in to do some sort of elaborate trick where I made my coffee cup float using a piece of string, but the cafe isn’t even real, hmph.

It’s an easy walk from there to Holborn Underground station, which is pretty close to Lincoln’s Inn Fields. I know it looks totally different, but Lincoln’s Inn Fields was the filming location for 12 Grimmauld Place. There were a bunch of dogs running around in the park when I was there, but none of them responded to the name Sirius.

Back to Holborn, and it’s only a couple of stops back to King’s Cross! I constructed this tour a couple of weeks ago, and it only took me a few hours to do (with a mixture of walking and getting the Underground between locations). Two things really struck me – the first was how much things had changed in the decade since shooting started on the first movie; parts of King’s Cross used in the original are totally gone, and Lincoln’s Inn Field is pretty hard to recognise as Grimmauld Place. The second is how spread out everything is – so much kit is used on film shoots, it must have been a nightmare moving it all over London. Then again, I did go see locations used in all eight films in one day…

That’s it for today, though I do view this post as a work in progress (I haven’t even spell-checked it…and that’s an unintentional pun) – I want to add a map with the route I took on it at some point and comparison shots with stills from the movie. Oh, I also have a bunch from another Harry Potter related trip I’ll be posting soon…!

Why make stuff up…

when the truth is this funny?  Quick post to distract me from my dissertation.  Seeing a couple of funny (read: awful) movie tie-ins lately got me wondering about just how far those Hollywood fat cats will go to make a buck.  Turns out, the answer is quite far.
Yes, I very much enjoyed Iron Man 2 – lots of Scarlett’s lovely face, big explosions and some nice ‘doesn’t matter if you’re black or white…as long as you’re not Russian’ political agendas thrown in to boot.  And I will freely admit that I left the cinema thinking that the Downey/Stark beard could be a good option for when I start wanting to look ‘distinguished’.  I did not, however, have much desire to start smelling like the inside of a metal suit that (as the film tells you) absorbs urine.  If you do, then Diesel have you covered.


Is it a bird? Is it a plane? No, it’s Spiderman on his fucking train.

But what if you’re not the hero…what if you’re…the bad girl? Well, guess you might want to put this inside you, after chilling it in the fridge first of course.  As if Cullen needs any more bragging rights, now his chilly willy will be breaking Dawns everywhere. Note: is it just me or does the picture make it look kinda small…?


Sticking with the sex toy theme…You know what? Just read the above article.  It’s funny enough without me chiming in.

The SATC 'Girls' - Keeping Photoshop in Business!

From what I understand, this abortion of a film is being released soon.  Side note; the following is an excerpt from Candace Bushnell’s source novel -

“A woman is walking down the sidewalk a few feet in front of her. She’s wearing a loose white shirt, it’s like a white flag and it’s driving Carrie crazy. Suddenly Carrie feels like a shark smelling blood. She fantasizes about killing the woman and eating her. It’s terrifying how much she’s enjoying the fantasy.  The woman has no idea she’s being stalked. She’s oblivious, jiggling along the sidewalk. Carrie envisions tearing into the woman’s soft, white flesh with her teeth.  It’s the woman’s own fault, she should lose some weight or something.”

Jesus. Don’t remember seeing that when I’m flicking past it on Comedy Central.