ratzi in the background

after one photo, tiz covered her double chin in subsequent shots.

family stroll in the retiro

my fair lady

in tandem with one of my top pals, P, click here to access her fab little blog
i thought i better blog too about one of my favourite holiday films, starring old hep as i like to call her affectionately. thank GOD she played eliza doolittle and not that MINGING julie andrews. audrey could do no wrong as far as i am concerned. miscast as a cockney flowergirl on the Tottenham court road? nonsense! and she was marvellous in this little gem of dialogue at the ascott races, how i laughed. now kindly pass me the ladle of gin, if you please. lurverly.

Mrs. Eynsford-Hill: I do hope we wont have any unseasonable cold spells, they bring on so much influenza. And the whole of our family is succeptable to it.
Eliza Doolittle: My Aunt died of influenza, or so they said. But its my belief they done the old woman in.
Mrs. Higgins: Done her in?
Eliza Doolittle: Yes, lord love you. Why should she die of influenza, when she come through diptheria right enough the year before. Fairly blue with it she was. They all thought she was dead. But my father, he kept ladling gin down her throat. Then she come to so sudden she bit the bowl right off the spoon.
Mrs. Eynsford-Hill: Dear Me!
Eliza Doolittle: Now what call would a woman with that strength in her have to die of influenza? And what become of her new straw hat that should have come to me?
[pause]
Eliza Doolittle: Somebody pinched it. And what I say is: them 'as pinched it, done her in.
Lord Boxington: Done her in? Done her in did you say?
Lady Boxington: Whatever does it mean?
Mrs. Higgins: Its the new slang meaning someone has killed her.
Mrs. Eynsford-Hill: Surely you don't think someone killed her?
Eliza Doolittle: Do I not? Them she lived with would have killed her for a hatpin, let alone a hat.
Mrs. Eynsford-Hill: But it can't have been right for your father to be pouring spirits down her throat like that, it could have killed her.
Eliza Doolittle: Not her, gin was mother's milk to her. Besides he poured so much down his own throat, he knew the good of it.
Lord Boxington: Do you mean he drank?
Eliza Doolittle: Drank? My word something chronic.
[responding to freddy's laughter]
Eliza Doolittle: Here! What are you sniggering at?
Freddy Eynsford-Hill: The new small talk, you do it so awfully well.
Eliza Doolittle: Well if I was doing it proper, what was you sniggering at? Have I said anything I oughtn't?
Mrs. Higgins: No my dear.
Eliza Doolittle: Well thats a mercy anyhow...

New Year's Resolutions

well, this is usually a time-honoured tradition for the tots.

with a crackling fire in the background and the air thick with smoke, we sit around our wooden table in maremma crammed with chewed out cheese and redolent of sausage fat. after getting royally plastered and resoundingly tanked on a toxic cocktail of negronis and different assortments of wine, we grab the leather-clad guestbook by the window sill and jot down about (give or take) 50 resolutions.

now many of said resolutions are de rigueur reiterations of tired old pledges from years ago (``quit smoking''), wishful thinking (``sleep with kate moss''), or just plain foolhardy (``publish nov,'' hang on that DID happen..)

this year, although the tradition still stands, i will in the cold sobriety of my working day, compile a little list i expect to be held beholden to.

1. quit smoking
2. see sister and swing my lake district to recover from ordeal
3. find fabulous new apartment with massive terrace at contained cost to live life of domesticated goddess with j and the turd.
4. take serious steps toward writing something else outside my daily fodder
5. finish year in the black

someone once said ``small realistic goals''....so..

6. become overnight sensation slash subject of christian iconography
7. be first female to make cover of vogue and vanity fair in same month
8. own property in major world hubs slash hotspots and flit between old and new continent seamlessly and effortlessly taking drags of a non-nicotine fag
9. be on first-name terms with barrack, mickey, kristin and catherine and kate in that order
10. pen award-winning, box-office smash hit and rest on laurels for a decade to create aura of mystique and expectation in the style of garbo.

nothing gets me going more

than discussing oscar nominations. well. i do like to get my two cents in.
so am just going to go ahead and name winners already and get it over and one with

best actor - mickey rourke - wrestler



(mmmm. how how was he?? ... mmm)

best actress - kristin scott thomas - i've loved you so long



well i haven't really got round to thinking past this or seeing enough films to bang on. am just fixed on these two for the time being. and just easing myself back into blogging.

brit

back from weekly hiatus just to say
i love this bitch
cannot WAIT to see full unadulterated version.
in fact here it is
and it's freaking AMAZING


CLICK CLICK CLICK

keener alert

OH! OH! OH!
and it has robin wright penn too!

cheesy thursday

nothing like a claudio baglioni tear-jerker to get the water works going.
after listening 10 times and nodding knowingly, i decided it was time to pack it in and move on to the new britney spears.

venice

night train to trieste

3 songs

3 songs that kept playing on the radio on my 3 hour drive from maremma
after a rousing and energizing bout of olive-picking, vodka-swilling, execrable-film watching and forever-moving reunion with my tots.


are we human or are dancers? errrrrrrrrr. strike one



cheesy song that takes me back to the summer. strike two.



pretenders equals oats. my bestie.

times awastin

From Urban Dictionary:

November 05: Obama Baby
A child conceived after Obama was proclaimed President by way of celebratory sex, or any baby born under Barack Obama's term(s).
I was born July 2009. I'm an Obama baby!

a man for all seasons

love song to kevin smith

as zach and miri make a porno is poised to hit screens.
i feel it my humble duty to no one but myself to declare my love
for the short, fat and bush-wielding New Jersey native and his
love hymns to his home state.
i love his crass humor, because it underlines all the more the vein of sweetness
that underlines all his films. sweetness. and romance. and pathos. and nostalgia.
i love silent bob and will never get bored watching him or hearing his pearls of wisdom, so sparingly given.

a wee cracker

i've loved you so long

This is the film Kristin Scott Thomas has been waiting for all her life. It's the role she will be remembered for. Because nobody can sit silently and smoke a cigarette and tell a story like her. Her face has all the eloquence of a silent film star.


someone fly to the states NOW as a MATTER OF STATE URGENCY. must see this NOW or i will lose it.

con il sole pure la notte

Tonight: `Only' (2008)

sometimes.
when you are blue
only a canadian film will do.
into my lap, this gem falls.
its european premiere.
being on the mailing list of the canadian embassy has it uses.

From the press kit:
SYNOPSIS
Daniel lives in a motel, managed by his parents, in northern Ontario. People come, people go, Daniel hardly notices. Until one day a girl arrives and changes his world.

ONLY is a glimpse into the heightened impressions and dreams of two unlikely 12-year-olds. Over the course of a single day, they venture on a journey, exploring deep secrets, dark fears, and first love in a pure and powerful meeting of young hearts and minds.

and a review:
A deceptively simple film about two lonely, near-pubescent kids stuck in a snowy nowhere town, Only gently unfolds to become a deft – and blunt – exploration of the anxious yet romantic world of teens (Globe and Mail)

bernice bobs her hair

"People over forty can seldom be permanently convinced of anything.
At eighteen our convictions are hills from which we look; at forty-five they are caves in which we hide."

needs no introduction

not quite the year we met
but close enough.

belatedly late I

belatedly late part II

brings tears to my eyes

beautiful guillaume R.I.P.

special screening of tous les matins du monde a must.

slap and tickle

WETFEST


lady v and pod

yet. again.


lady v: prosec x 2
f: grunt
lady v: oatcakes?
f: carbs?
lady v: mustard?
f: fag?
lady v: mad dash to loo
f: packs little red R
lady v: marina!
f: jenny!


the end.

guess who???

HAPPY

tots in the same country: tick
little j back from her travels: tick
horse riding: tick

the future!

According to the Hollywood Reporter, filmmaker Wayne Wang (The Joy Luck Club, but more importantly DIM SUM and SMOKE) will debut his new film The Princess of Nebraska for free on YouTube on Oct. 17th. The film will appear in YouTube’s Screening Room, the section of the site devoted to independent and art house video fare.

Princess is the companion film to another new film of Wang’s titled A Thousand Years of Good Prayers, which will be released theatrically on Sept. 19th. Princess is the story of a Chinese student in Nebraska who travels to San Francisco to get an abortion, with the main character trying to find her identity through various forms of new media.

what's not to like. welcome back, wayne, after years to hollywood trash!

from this to this

little j, back today after an inordinately long time.

tina fey does sarah palin

genius

i love me a good western

obligatory maremma viewing
sorry for all those who can't appreciate.

locked out. again

well it's getting to be a habit
as is my lonely prosecco on the piazza

two paternos and a gimp

to my bestie

we like a good weep, don't we?

true blood

well. a series on vamps. with anna paquin. from the makers of six feet under.
that is three massive ticks in my book.
still, reviews have been mixed
well i will check it out for myself. even if it's not love at first bite.
now if only it had mickey..

E X T R A O R D I N A R Y

yup.
that's the wrestler
my third post in a week devoted to the SAME THING

the cherry on the cake?
the bruce springsteen song in the closing credits made especially for the film

mickey rourke?
E X T R A O R D I N A R Y

folks. well. am ready to see it all over again.
down and out. dirty and seedy. tacky and squallid.
a story of redemption and defeat. of second chances. dashed.
and well. what a man........

am going to now post a picture of the younger rourke.
when he played FRANCIS OF ASSISI.
one of my fave roles for him. i own the film NATCH.
now that is one hot monk.

ok am obsessed

mickey is god!

comebacks and second chances and new beginnings

fittingly. rourke's triumph in venice is emblematic of this year.
he may be old, overweight and out of date, but he still has the old magic.
and it is never too late to start again.
i feel MOVED already.

this week's interest

well. i've been a bit of a crap blogger. part of the reason is this.
i just cannot get enough of it. and clearly not drunk enough.



i owe it all to MicNic



tears streaming down my eyes.

guess whose?

well. i decided to clean my computer out and uncovered a frankly mystifying and phenomenally vast collection of very random stuff, from old photos to templates of times gone past. stumbling into these three pastiches seems particularly pertinent. since the artist is with me now and well she had a spectacular time doing them and i getting them sent to me.

unresistable slash irresistible

uncas!

well. in my second chapter dedicated to old screen crushes (and using my new found mastery of the screen still capture) i can finally pay fitting tribute to that handsome handsome Uncas from "Last of the Mohicans." Oh how i resented that horrid Daniel Day Lewis for hogging all the limelight, leaving me only nanu seconds of the noble Uncas. Well went in total overdrive and here he is in all heroic and tragic glory! i have now found the way to bang on via photos too!

m: she likes badgers?
j: a lot

renato & sybille

24 hours were too little