inane grinning II

don't care if i look like a pathetic little fan. i love eve best!
and here i am with her signed photo (gulp!). it arrived in the mail today (NOTHING EVER ARRIVES HERE FOR ME SO AM IN SHOCK) and i literally let out a squeak and a squeal. i have banged on about our eve for a few years now (ever since i saw her, fresh out of RADA, playing opposite jude law in "tis pity she's a whore" at the young vic in london). i knew then she was special. anyway, she is now in the nurse jackie. and i love her more than ever.
Dear Flavia, with love, From Eve Best x

spotted

along the babuino (one of the poshest streets in rome).

the gay chinese

romolo (also the photographer) had mentioned his fondness for the "gay chinese" on via cavour. i remember it vaguely from my first days in rome when i lived in monti but recall it being a bog standard place serving bog standard asian fare. WELL.
what a difference seven years, give or take, can make.
one look at the menu (see above), the rather suggestive sapphic art on the wall, not to mention a good half of the clientele's clear sexual preference and i was sold. this is in fact a (gay) friendly chinese. and the food is not half bad either! they know and love romolo in there come uno di casa.

christmas as i remembered it:part V

christmas is about coming together




and spending time apart, innit?

christmas as i remembered it: part IV

the denouement



knocking one back



carol demonstrating a point





whiff of disapproval and bemusement




and, as i was saying before i forgot what i was saying

christmas as i remembered it: part III

forza a tavola.
mic's exquisite appetizer and table-setting (flavia is off camera lunging toward the champers)

christmas as i remembered it: part II

the prep work
and Miss BB (Boeuf Bourguignon) in the final throes.

christmas as i remembered it: part I

(liberally pinching other people's photos: jasmine, romolo and antal)

Now, where was i...



girls love to get flowers.





some same-sex affection



and a hot stud in pink




and a hound with no choice in the matter



a mother up for anything

destined for cult status

i was never a big brittany murphy fan, until i saw "Dead Girl" (2006), the last film of hers that got theatrical distribution and that undeservedly sunk into oblivion. to think of that film now, in the context of her premature and strange death, is eerie to say the least.
regardless, here is someone who agrees with me along with an interview with her at the time of the film's release.

XII: XIII

corny but true

the italian equivalent to a fish and chip shop is the down-market sliced-pizza takeaway. this photo was taken from one of the tackiest i know. close to the office. i only go there when seriously desperate.

this is all i have to say about climate change

photographed in vietnam.

alco-pops 10 years later

one dark night in furio clit, i took the hound out for a walk and came home swinging a 21st century version of the bacardi breezer. jasmine was understandably horrified. i tried to explain it was a throwback to my late 1990s london years when i was a teetotaler and was experimenting with the "idea" of alcohol.
needless to say my nanu-second of nostalgia was tipped down the drain. afterall, we had a nice bottle of wine, the perfect accompaniment to whatever we were eating.

swoon

my love for jeff bridges has been well-documented through the ages. here he plays a broken down, out-of-luck, hard-drinking, hard-living has-been country music singer. MY KIND OF MAN! and also maggie gyllenhaal's too. give that man an oscar! i also want to see the fabulous baker boys, tucker a man and his dream (underrated coppola) as part of a back-to-back matinee dedicated to Jeff, all-round sex god before he became the DUDE.


(thanks oatsy for heads up...)

`Gays Won't Go to Heaven,' Cardinal Says

see you in hell? i always thought St. Paul was a misogynist prick best left blind on the road to damascus


(ANSA) - Rome, December 2 - Gays and transsexuals
won't go to heaven, a top Roman Catholic cardinal said
Wednesday.
"Transsexuals and gays will never enter the heavenly
kingdom," said Javier Lozano Barragan, until recently the
Vatican's 'health minister'.
"It's not me who says so, it's St Paul," he said, referring
to the saint credited with forging the early Church.
St Paul (5 BC-67 AD) wrote many epistles (letters) to the
rapidly spreading early Christian community.
In one of them, to the Romans, he said about unbelievers:
''God gave them up to degrading passions. Men committed
shameless acts with men and received in their own persons the
due penalty for their error".

the way we were

something rotten in the state of korea

Model Daul Kim was found hanged in her Paris apartment on November 19th, 2009
Actress Choi Jin Sil, the nation's sweetheart, found dead at her home on Oct. 2, 2008
Popstar U-Nee found dangling from a door on January 21, 2007
Roh Moo-Hyun, former prime minister, jumped out of a window May 23, 2009

I could go on ad nauseaum. Basically the South Koreans are fuked up, depressed, and topping themselves at a rate that puts lemmings to shame.
Because and/or in spite of it all, they are some of the best-looking and most-talented people around and making some of the world's best films (fuked up, bizarre, strange, moving, taking you in unexpected directions and giving you one hell of a joyride while they are at it). I for one love them, and am so happy I got to know them in my Seoul years some time in the 1980s (let's not dwell on my age).
They (and their kimchi) are an acquired taste. Now can you please stop topping yourselves and take some prozac for christ's sake.

here is a little homage to eating-live-octopus, something le duc will welcome.



yum

'nam

i took a single picture of the trip. to offset this rueful neglect, the little one took a couple hundred thousand and they will all be making their way on her blog

good to be back with my cac ban (group of pals) and strangely satisfying to be up at 5 a.m. in the morning taking a stroll with the hound, and the girl, through the market. the italians are certainly less industrious than the vietnamese this early in the day.

little red rucksack

is packed with room to spare.
on an unrelated note. not sure what will be greeting me on arrival. it would appear that the past three weeks porking down in Asia may have turned J into one of these



see you all in a couple of weeks

vietnam as seen through the movies

some people approach a new trip by reading a book, maybe a guide. i decide to fish back in the old movie vault. I have banged on about "A la Vertical de l'ete" previously on this blog, and was roundly ignored. no reason why it should be any different this time.


however, here is part 1 of the full movie posted on youtube just in case you want to heed my words.

boy, did that film make me want to go Hanoi. And now I am. I have already eyed up a 1950s hotel, with outside courtyard, century-old tree and ... "a high-tech arthouse cinema - Hanoi Cinematheque - which screens films most days in a variety of languages". what's not to like?

what girl doesn't like to get flowers?

not me
(i think i have spinach between my teeth)

a great show

uniting two of my great passions

you are not allowed to see this website from the United States

damn shame if you ask me.
am a total sucker for the valentino-clad marlboro man. salt-n-pepper ruggedness. ahem...



don't make them like they used. i feel the need for a good western. and some more cowboyish-inclined product placement.



the sad thing is, i think i remember seeing this for real.

random search

under my name took me here. i see no connection but i like it

wish you had been there

glee

my new favourite show.
once i got a wind through blogs and my top pal that joss whedon (maker of buffy and all round genius) was going to direct an episode i knew that i had to embrace. and embrace i did. micnic was beside himself. we danced. we cried. we drank a bottle of wine each. enough said. some sloppy, fuzzy stills. word of advice. singalongs a must
. as is a certain familiarity with beyonce.

new blogger in town

let's just say i don't quite believe she made it into nepal and through the green channel.
she has been at it like a rabbit, blogging that is. reminds me of those early blogging days when everything seemed so new and fresh. now if i can post something once a week i consider it an achievement. welcome, baby. folks let me introduce you to:
same same vietnam

off you go

hurtling down the appia. picking micnic en route. and sandwiching the great adventurer hyman in the backseat of a sketchy speeding cab. we dropped the little one at the airport with plenty of time to spare. she had a little red rucksack. she also sported a trolley the size of botswana that we were not quite sure she would be able to wheel past the revolving doors.
we assured her that we would be tracking her every move on google maps (in case of rape, pillage, and kidnapping) and she in turn promised me that she would be LEAVING MOST OF THOSE CLOTHES somewhere and to someone along her travels (be it children in nepalese village or trannies in ho chi minh).

i am resigned. she will be back in 5 weeks with double the load.
to wong fu

Roma in Cronaca Nera

RaiTre
based on the book



Questo libro di Enzo Rava è ormai considerato un classico nel modo di narrare la cronaca nera. Ma è anche la storia di una città, Roma, che tra il dopoguerra e gli anni Ottanta completa la sua trasformazione in metropoli. Rava descrive questo percorso attraverso i delitti sensazionali o misteriosi, clamorosi e spesso irrisolti che hanno segnato quarant'anni di storia della capitale. Le vicende della Roma del dopoguerra, con i suoi affaristi, i suoi politici, i suoi palazzinari, si rispecchiano nei grandi delitti che dilagano sulle pagine dei giornali e appassionano e dividono l'opinione pubblica. Ricostruendoli col gusto minuzioso e ironico del cronista, Rava ci restituisce ad un tempo la storia di un genere e quella di una città. La narrazione si arresta agli anni Ottanta, quando la stagione d'oro della cronaca nera declina, e si impone una criminalità meno poetica e più imprenditoriale.

someone agrees with me

yes, i think it is one of the greatest opening film credits ever. gives me goose bumps

glorious 70s

got my mits on some 70s classics. and it has been a treat to revisit that decade. this weekend's cinematic snack was this little cracker. it's been far too long since francis ford has made anything remotely watchable. but this was a timely reminder of just what a powerful director he was and that there is more to him than just apocalypse now and the godfather.

she's still got it

She laughs. She larks about. She says, ``Time for a glass!''

mic, knowing his two tot girls, also knows that our affection and loyalty to the only supermodel that counts is unswerving. we devoured the article (click headline to read), which starts with the unthinkable premise: Is the model losing it? Is she past her best? and answers it with a No, and a No.

weekend in photos

(courtesy of resident photographer: J)