1. 11:47 3rd Jan 2011

    Notes: 57

    Tags: the economistpubsbarsacross the pondlondon

    image: Download

    My belated reading over the break = this mournful piece about the great English pub die-off—penned, in an apt twist, by The Economist’s obituaries editor. Crabby and disgruntled and sad and great. “All these notions, severally and together, may help pubs to survive. But which Britain is being saved here? The model often seems to be the golden age of coaching, immortalised by Dickens, when pubs seethed to the bustle of horses, ostlers, serving maids and calls for peppered lamb chops; or, alternatively, some rural idyll of cricketers, oaks and village green. But pubs, despite a pickled tendency, are also mirrors of their times. Those that best reflect modern Britain, with its rapidly morphing cultures and increasingly unrooted sense of itself, are probably those that boast metal advertising boards, quiz machines, pad thai and stock antique photographs of people unknown to anyone; the Wetherspoon’s that calls itself the Willow Tree Walk, when the sooty tree outside it is a birch.”

    My belated reading over the break = this mournful piece about the great English pub die-off—penned, in an apt twist, by The Economist’s obituaries editor. Crabby and disgruntled and sad and great.

    “All these notions, severally and together, may help pubs to survive. But which Britain is being saved here? The model often seems to be the golden age of coaching, immortalised by Dickens, when pubs seethed to the bustle of horses, ostlers, serving maids and calls for peppered lamb chops; or, alternatively, some rural idyll of cricketers, oaks and village green. But pubs, despite a pickled tendency, are also mirrors of their times. Those that best reflect modern Britain, with its rapidly morphing cultures and increasingly unrooted sense of itself, are probably those that boast metal advertising boards, quiz machines, pad thai and stock antique photographs of people unknown to anyone; the Wetherspoon’s that calls itself the Willow Tree Walk, when the sooty tree outside it is a birch.”

     

  2. 18:00 22nd Nov 2010

    Notes: 1

    Tags: royal weddingacross the pondkate middletonprince williampeople

    I mean, all this story is lacking is a dragon.
    — News sleuth Larry Hackett uncovers some news about the royal wedding that is indeed newsy. [NYO]
     

  3. 14:04 9th Sep 2010

    Notes: 2

    Tags: carey mulliganacross the pondvoguepeter lindbergh

    Carey Mulligan’s voice is veritably DULCET.  I would listen to an audio book of her reading the phone book.

     

  4. 11:36 30th Mar 2010

    Tags: across the pondmoviesthe old ball and chen

    this is how real casting directors make decisions, probably

    —————

    CHEN: how do we feel about the alleged remake of my fair lady—screenplay penned by emma thompson and possibly starring carey mulligan?  i googled this and found articles at different times being like “thompson would love for hugh laurie to be higgins!” “thompson thinks hugh grant would be perfect for my fair lady.” latest is “emma thompson thinks firth is brilliant for remake.” so… basically she’ll take any tall, brunette, slightly bashful brit movie star?

    BALL: this would be awesome.  except i can’t decide if i love or don’t love carey mulligan.  she gives me uber-petulant, sullen, withdrawn, disdainful vibes.  and she’s impinging on roles i want keira knightley to get. then again, i looooved her in An Education.  i wish she seemed like that in real life.
    also, DEF hugh laurie for that role.  he’d be way better at crotchety grump.  hugh grant is too foppish/easygoing.  he’d be good as the colonel pickering, the good-natured, well-oiled BFF of henry higgins. 
    i wonder if they’ll call it MFL or Pygmalion?  i feel like calling it MFL is sort of blasphemous.  but i trust emma thompson to do the right thing

    CHEN: hmm. bad news bears for you, i’m afraid. the most recent articles have emma thompson beckoning colin firth. this reminds me of that episode of the west wing where they’re trying to get some senator on a commission and he keeps saying no, so they just announce that he’s on it and he can’t refuse publicly because that would be embarrassing. except… not sure how well the strategy is working for emma, since she’s great but no jed bartlett. 

    i forgot about your overwhelming love of keira knightley and her weird underbite jaw thing. apparently she WAS cast in this (i vaguely remember reading about this and being slightly horrified, sorry) but the movie’s been taking so long to go into production that she pulled out. maybe pre-production will drag on another two years and carey’s ingenue bloom will wilt, and they’ll be forced to cast another Brit It girl and you won’t have to resolve your issues about her petulant pixie-ness.

    ok i have officially read all the internet rumors on the internet about this and will now go fill out my taxes to balance the froth/substance scale of my morning.

    BALL: colin firth = imminently acceptable hugh laurie proxy.  perchance he’s hoping that an MFL reboot gets as many oscars as the original, and he can finally collect?  i really felt the pain for his losing out to jeff “wake and bake” bridges this year.  not that bridges didn’t deserve it… but i imagine that when you not only act your Brit butt off, but also get skinny, hot and tan at the shrill behest of tom ford, you expect a liiiiittle gravy?  he looks like he hasn’t eaten anything but zone bars since late 2008.  google image him from “girl in the pearl earring,” he’s the puffiest vermeer ever

    CHEN:hahahaha. “puffiest vermeer ever” is the name of the band i will never start but we’ll just get t-shirts made with his face on them.

    also i don’t think tom ford is shrill gay. i feel like he would just purr/judge the shit out of you and be suuuuuuper mean, but in a slightly whisper-y way.

    [Exeunt.]

     

  5. 16:53 9th Mar 2010

    Notes: 22

    Tags: across the pondmovieshistory

    image: Download

    Rewatched the brilliant Frost/Nixon over the weekend. I’d forgotten that we were mentioned, so I went through the archives. Whose do you like better?

    Rewatched the brilliant Frost/Nixon over the weekend. I’d forgotten that we were mentioned, so I went through the archives. Whose do you like better?

     

  6. 16:27 24th Feb 2010

    Notes: 14

    Tags: across the pondmoviesdesign

    If the BAFTAs’ pre-awards tea every year isn’t reason enough to adore their civility—especially vis-a-vis the ole “goddamn meat parade” that is the Oscars—then check out the promo posters the Brits commissioned prior to last wknd’s ceremony. Tavis Coburn designed; Slashfilm has the rest.

    If the BAFTAs’ pre-awards tea every year isn’t reason enough to adore their civility—especially vis-a-vis the ole “goddamn meat parade” that is the Oscars—then check out the promo posters the Brits commissioned prior to last wknd’s ceremony. Tavis Coburn designed; Slashfilm has the rest.