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| Thanks to Jess B ;) |
Tuesday, August 28, 2012
Wednesday, August 22, 2012
Passions and new hobbies
I'm really into cinema at the moment. I'm always really into current and popular movies, despite not being able to see as many as I'd like to. But I discovered a serious passion for classic cinema in the best paper ever at uni on exchange in Canada. This is everything from the old movies themselves, to the grandeur of the cinema buildings, and the awe (and envy) of the mass popularity and experiences of cinema-going from 1890ish - 1970ish.
Unfortunately, I've been too slack to actually pursue this love...until now. In this huge city, so far slightly lacking in friends to hang out with most of the time, I have a lot of time by myself and a lot of extremely exciting things to be doing. So this past week I've seriously indulged in movie themed things, with a half formed idea of maybe meeting some similar minded people, but mainly just because it feels so awesome ;)
In a 'London's Hidden Secrets' guidebook I discovered the cinema museum. Such a quiet and unheard of place that you have to email ahead to book a time for a tour, I ended up being the only person to seek it out that day and had a personalised, one on one tour of this fantastic place. The museum is housed in a beautiful brick building; an old workhouse, similar to the one that Charlie Chaplin and his family went into so they love their location. A workhouse was the last resort for all the thousands of severely poor and destitute types in 1900s London. Anyway, my tour ended up being over 2 1/2 hours, much longer than usual I think, as the lovely guy, who happened to be the guy who started the collection, saw that I was genuinely interested and not in a rush to get anywhere. He even put on the first few minutes of The Artist, the black and white silent film from last year, in the little screening room as he found out I'd only seen it on the small screen on the plane ride over to London haha. He also plucked out a book on old New Zealand theatres for a quick flick through. The museum has so many old pictures/books/old film/magazines/advertising that it's impossible to see just the smallest bit, so the most interesting part of the afternoon was seeing all the old signage, uniforms and equipment from the old cinemas that closed down in the 50s-70s.
I loved this tour. It was perfect and magical and about exactly what I love in cinema.
An hour after leaving the museum I was at the British Film Institute (BFI) on Southbank (developed touristy area alongside the Thames where the London Eye is), devouring a chocolate brownie from a gourmet street food market, waiting until a movie started. Not just any movie - an an old, silent Alfred Hitchcock movie called The Lodger that had been remastered as part of the BFI's Hitchcock season. I then capped the night off with a twilight wander along the Thames, checking out the main sight of the London Eye and the Parliment Buildings all lit up. Such a brilliant, brilliant day.
I have discovered the great joy of going to see a movie by yourself. A few days after seeing the Lodger (where I also enjoyed a rosemary mojito mmmm) I went to see a just-released movie called Take This Waltz with Seth Rogen and Michele Williams. Really good movie, sad though. But there was an extra level of enjoyment as I was by myself, in the middle of the day, sitting in a huge, beautiful old cinema from the very era of cinemas I love, all done out in purple and gold, joining only about a dozen other people. It was peaceful, surreal and fantastic. This is definitely my new hobby.
I am forever looking up future exciting things and upcoming movies to do and see now... :)
Unfortunately, I've been too slack to actually pursue this love...until now. In this huge city, so far slightly lacking in friends to hang out with most of the time, I have a lot of time by myself and a lot of extremely exciting things to be doing. So this past week I've seriously indulged in movie themed things, with a half formed idea of maybe meeting some similar minded people, but mainly just because it feels so awesome ;)
In a 'London's Hidden Secrets' guidebook I discovered the cinema museum. Such a quiet and unheard of place that you have to email ahead to book a time for a tour, I ended up being the only person to seek it out that day and had a personalised, one on one tour of this fantastic place. The museum is housed in a beautiful brick building; an old workhouse, similar to the one that Charlie Chaplin and his family went into so they love their location. A workhouse was the last resort for all the thousands of severely poor and destitute types in 1900s London. Anyway, my tour ended up being over 2 1/2 hours, much longer than usual I think, as the lovely guy, who happened to be the guy who started the collection, saw that I was genuinely interested and not in a rush to get anywhere. He even put on the first few minutes of The Artist, the black and white silent film from last year, in the little screening room as he found out I'd only seen it on the small screen on the plane ride over to London haha. He also plucked out a book on old New Zealand theatres for a quick flick through. The museum has so many old pictures/books/old film/magazines/advertising that it's impossible to see just the smallest bit, so the most interesting part of the afternoon was seeing all the old signage, uniforms and equipment from the old cinemas that closed down in the 50s-70s.
I loved this tour. It was perfect and magical and about exactly what I love in cinema.
An hour after leaving the museum I was at the British Film Institute (BFI) on Southbank (developed touristy area alongside the Thames where the London Eye is), devouring a chocolate brownie from a gourmet street food market, waiting until a movie started. Not just any movie - an an old, silent Alfred Hitchcock movie called The Lodger that had been remastered as part of the BFI's Hitchcock season. I then capped the night off with a twilight wander along the Thames, checking out the main sight of the London Eye and the Parliment Buildings all lit up. Such a brilliant, brilliant day.
(The Genius of Hitchcock exhibition poster)
I have discovered the great joy of going to see a movie by yourself. A few days after seeing the Lodger (where I also enjoyed a rosemary mojito mmmm) I went to see a just-released movie called Take This Waltz with Seth Rogen and Michele Williams. Really good movie, sad though. But there was an extra level of enjoyment as I was by myself, in the middle of the day, sitting in a huge, beautiful old cinema from the very era of cinemas I love, all done out in purple and gold, joining only about a dozen other people. It was peaceful, surreal and fantastic. This is definitely my new hobby.
I am forever looking up future exciting things and upcoming movies to do and see now... :)
Tuesday, August 14, 2012
Better late than never....Bloody typical me
Wow! The first post! Bet you didn't actually think I was going to get around to this sooner...
A blog of my travels and experiences, beginning here in London, England, is still something I want to do, not just for myself but all you friends out there. I'm fortunate to have so many people to call a friend, but this also means it makes it hard for me to keep in touch with everyone! So I'm aiming to keep this reasonably up to date and full of random bits and pieces as my way of being in contact of everyone. If only I can beat down my old nemesis, procrastination... ;)
Yesterday was the last day of the 2012 Olympics, and since I was working all day (seriously, all day) it was quite surreal. I work/live on the edge of the central city in the north west, with the Olympics mainly based in the East so I've kind of missed the busyness and hype of it all. On the screens at work I saw bits of the marathon with the thousands of people lining the streets and up around Buckingham Palace, but the pub was completely dead so didn't feel like a big deal at all. I have to pinch myself sometimes to remember I'm actually in London, where this is all going on live. Thankfully over the past two weeks the pub has been pretty busy because of the Games, as it is a main meeting point for people going to see the football (i.e. soccer ;) ) at Wembly Stadium. I might have missed all the hype completely if it hadn't been for the sometimes frantically busy periods before a Wembly game. People also came to watch in the evenings, after work etc presumably. It has been a pretty good vibe though, everyone's gotten really into it. It's been very cool to be a part of that. I think I'll look up the tickets for the Paralympics and see if I can go see some of that.
My favourite part of the bits of closing ceremony I saw would definitely be the miniature London landmarks at the start, with Big Ben, the London Eye and the Gherkin building, then the stage in general as a Union Jack flag was really cool and worked really well for the whole show. It was great to sing along to all the hits with all of the pub. It was such a weird mash up of songs though, I think some didn't really mesh with the others. Great to hear at least one part of Oasis though!
Just a reasonably short post for starters....until next time!! :D
A blog of my travels and experiences, beginning here in London, England, is still something I want to do, not just for myself but all you friends out there. I'm fortunate to have so many people to call a friend, but this also means it makes it hard for me to keep in touch with everyone! So I'm aiming to keep this reasonably up to date and full of random bits and pieces as my way of being in contact of everyone. If only I can beat down my old nemesis, procrastination... ;)
"The two rules of procrastination: 1) Do it today. 2) Tomorrow will be today tomorrow."
~Author Unknown
~Author Unknown
Yesterday was the last day of the 2012 Olympics, and since I was working all day (seriously, all day) it was quite surreal. I work/live on the edge of the central city in the north west, with the Olympics mainly based in the East so I've kind of missed the busyness and hype of it all. On the screens at work I saw bits of the marathon with the thousands of people lining the streets and up around Buckingham Palace, but the pub was completely dead so didn't feel like a big deal at all. I have to pinch myself sometimes to remember I'm actually in London, where this is all going on live. Thankfully over the past two weeks the pub has been pretty busy because of the Games, as it is a main meeting point for people going to see the football (i.e. soccer ;) ) at Wembly Stadium. I might have missed all the hype completely if it hadn't been for the sometimes frantically busy periods before a Wembly game. People also came to watch in the evenings, after work etc presumably. It has been a pretty good vibe though, everyone's gotten really into it. It's been very cool to be a part of that. I think I'll look up the tickets for the Paralympics and see if I can go see some of that.
My favourite part of the bits of closing ceremony I saw would definitely be the miniature London landmarks at the start, with Big Ben, the London Eye and the Gherkin building, then the stage in general as a Union Jack flag was really cool and worked really well for the whole show. It was great to sing along to all the hits with all of the pub. It was such a weird mash up of songs though, I think some didn't really mesh with the others. Great to hear at least one part of Oasis though!
Just a reasonably short post for starters....until next time!! :D
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