...I would like to advise my friends that a green jumper with snowflakes, jolly Santas, candy-cane trimming and my name on it is absolutely NOT on my Christmas wish-list!
Just thought I'd mention it now...
Friday, 14 December 2012
TOO PERSONAL
Apart from marvelling at technology that can create such a cleverly personalised sales-ad...
...I would like to advise my friends that a green jumper with snowflakes, jolly Santas, candy-cane trimming and my name on it is absolutely NOT on my Christmas wish-list!
Just thought I'd mention it now...
...I would like to advise my friends that a green jumper with snowflakes, jolly Santas, candy-cane trimming and my name on it is absolutely NOT on my Christmas wish-list!
Just thought I'd mention it now...
Thursday, 13 December 2012
SGT TIBBS REPORTING!
I have been hugely privileged, as a Disney fan, to have met a number of the actors who have lent their voice talents to the heroines, villains and creatures in classic Disney movies: among them Snow White, Alice in Wonderland, the Little Mermaid, Cinderella, Belle, Pocahontas, a couple of generations of Mickey Mice, Donald Duck, Maleficent's Goons and the fiendish Cruella de Vil.
And, speaking of the dog-napping owner of Hell Hall, I have recently – though the good offices of my friend, Jonathan Dixon – become acquainted with British-born actor, David Frankham...
David's Disney credential is having spoken for that most efficient of felines, Sergeant Tibbs, who helps rescue the imprisoned Dalmatians from Cruella's sinister grasp – despite having to cope with the inadequacies of the Colonel the sheepdog, his hard-of-hearing superior officer...
To speak up for a Disney character is to be guaranteed of a very special kind of immortality that oddly merges anonymity with universal recognition!
For some Disney voices it is their sole claim to fame, but for David Frankham it is just one of many roles on film and TV that are a testimony to his diverse talents, as I realised when, a little over a year ago, I read the first draft of David's autobiography, written with Jim Hollifield, Which One Was David? The self-deprecating title, incidentally, comes from a remark made by his father to his mother after seeing him on stage for the first time...
After a childhood growing in blitz-torn London and the Scottish home of his shepherd grandfather, David served with the British army in Singapore and became the camp's unpaid disc-jockey: a job that, post-war, led to his becoming a BBC news-reader and presenter.
As a result of interviewing star performers from both sides of the Atlantic, David got seriously bitten by the showbiz bug and, aged thirty ('Much to old to become an actor!' warned Alec Guinness) he followed many another Brit to Hollywoodland.
Contrary to Sir Alec's prognostication, David was soon busily appearing in such films as The Fly, Master of the World and Tales of Terror, seen here with Basil Rathbone in segment based on Edgar Allen Poe's The Case of M Valdemar...
On TV, he was seen in a raft of shows, among them 77 Sunset Strip, Maverick, Alfred Hitchcock Presents, The Jack Benny
Program, Thriller, The Outer Limits, Doctor
Kildare, The Beverly Hillbillies, McCloud, Cannon, The Six Million Dollar Man and The Waltons.
He is also remembered by Star Trek fans in the role of Larry Marvick, the 23rd Century engineer who helped design the USS Enterprise in the first season episode, 'Is There in Truth No Beauty?'
What fascinated me as much as the work David did in front of the camera, was the friendships he formed with a host of legendary names, many of whom had been his youthful heroes. As a result he found himself taking tea with Boris Karloff, playing bridge with Rock Hudson, reading Japanese poetry with Marlon Brando, hanging out with Liz Taylor and Greer Garson and learning to drive from Gladys Cooper.
My enthusiasm for David's story led to my being asked whether I might care to endorse the book with a few encouraging words on the book jacket. The trouble was, once I started writing, I got a bit carried away and, before long, my testimonial grew so long it turned into an Introduction!
I am delighted to be associated with David's delightful memoir and am now awaiting the published volume and a chance to re-read this intriguing and engaging piece of movie history.
Which One Was David? is available from Bear Manor Media
And, speaking of the dog-napping owner of Hell Hall, I have recently – though the good offices of my friend, Jonathan Dixon – become acquainted with British-born actor, David Frankham...
David's Disney credential is having spoken for that most efficient of felines, Sergeant Tibbs, who helps rescue the imprisoned Dalmatians from Cruella's sinister grasp – despite having to cope with the inadequacies of the Colonel the sheepdog, his hard-of-hearing superior officer...
To speak up for a Disney character is to be guaranteed of a very special kind of immortality that oddly merges anonymity with universal recognition!
For some Disney voices it is their sole claim to fame, but for David Frankham it is just one of many roles on film and TV that are a testimony to his diverse talents, as I realised when, a little over a year ago, I read the first draft of David's autobiography, written with Jim Hollifield, Which One Was David? The self-deprecating title, incidentally, comes from a remark made by his father to his mother after seeing him on stage for the first time...
After a childhood growing in blitz-torn London and the Scottish home of his shepherd grandfather, David served with the British army in Singapore and became the camp's unpaid disc-jockey: a job that, post-war, led to his becoming a BBC news-reader and presenter.
As a result of interviewing star performers from both sides of the Atlantic, David got seriously bitten by the showbiz bug and, aged thirty ('Much to old to become an actor!' warned Alec Guinness) he followed many another Brit to Hollywoodland.
Contrary to Sir Alec's prognostication, David was soon busily appearing in such films as The Fly, Master of the World and Tales of Terror, seen here with Basil Rathbone in segment based on Edgar Allen Poe's The Case of M Valdemar...
On TV, he was seen in a raft of shows, among them 77 Sunset Strip, Maverick, Alfred Hitchcock Presents, The Jack Benny
Program, Thriller, The Outer Limits, Doctor
Kildare, The Beverly Hillbillies, McCloud, Cannon, The Six Million Dollar Man and The Waltons.He is also remembered by Star Trek fans in the role of Larry Marvick, the 23rd Century engineer who helped design the USS Enterprise in the first season episode, 'Is There in Truth No Beauty?'
What fascinated me as much as the work David did in front of the camera, was the friendships he formed with a host of legendary names, many of whom had been his youthful heroes. As a result he found himself taking tea with Boris Karloff, playing bridge with Rock Hudson, reading Japanese poetry with Marlon Brando, hanging out with Liz Taylor and Greer Garson and learning to drive from Gladys Cooper.
My enthusiasm for David's story led to my being asked whether I might care to endorse the book with a few encouraging words on the book jacket. The trouble was, once I started writing, I got a bit carried away and, before long, my testimonial grew so long it turned into an Introduction!I am delighted to be associated with David's delightful memoir and am now awaiting the published volume and a chance to re-read this intriguing and engaging piece of movie history.
Which One Was David? is available from Bear Manor Media
Wednesday, 12 December 2012
A DATE TO REMEMBER
12.12.12
And winter is truly upon us...
Still, it is the day of London Premiere of The Hobbit!
Monday, 10 December 2012
DISNEY IN POSTERLAND
And that memory is followed by the array of posters that flanked my path through the passageway under the railroad track, each promoting the wild, weird and wonderful attractions that awaiting me in Disney's Magic Kingdom. Why, I even carried a print of one of them back with me as a souvenir...
From the park's opening day in 1955, posters have been a way of informing – exciting – visitors about the fun and thrills to be enjoyed in 'the happiest place on earth'. Several hundred of these posters from Disneyland (and its sister parks in Florida, Paris, Tokyo and Hong Kong) have been gathered together in a superbly designed book from Disney Editions, Poster Art of the Disney Parks by Daniel Hadke and Vanessa Hunt...
The book is introduced by Tony Baxter, Senior Vice President, Creative Development at Walt Disney Imagineering – the company that combines imagination and engineering to design and build the Disney parks, their architecture and entertainments.
Baxter writes: 'A great poster sells its story from a distance and needs to be glimpsed just briefly to work its magic.' And that is especially true of the earliest, screen-printed posters reflecting the graphic style of the '50s: works with bold designs and vivid colours that dramatically convey their message with eye-arresting immediacy...
So closely did Disneyland become associated with this graphic style, that it was routinely adapted for later attractions in subsequent decades...
More recently, Disney's designers have favoured more elaborate, illustrative style, less instantaneous in their impact, perhaps, but filled with a visual richness that causes the viewer to linger longer in order to absorb the meticulous detailing. As Tony Baxter puts it: 'Great illustrations ... can accommodate much more detail and often tell complex stories within the imagery.'
Not every poster that has been bill-stickered in the Disney Parks is here, but Handke and Hunt's large-format book certainly contains the best-of-the-best, spanning fifty-seven years – many as striking full page images – along with preparatory art and numerous examples of designs that never reached the bill-boards.
The book also highlights the differences in the way the various park attractions have been depicted around the Disney globe. Here, for example, is the Disneyland, California, poster for 'Snow White's Scary Adventures'...
...and its counterpart in Disneyland Paris...
If you were looking for a late Christmas present for a Disney theme park aficionado, I can think of no better book than this to evoke fond memories of past visits and whet the appetite for future ones.
For anyone in the rest of humanity who has an interest in poster art, this is a unique record of over half-a-century of stylish product promotion and evocative and engaging commercial art.
Sunday, 9 December 2012
UP THE AMAZON!
It is not, currently, polite in British society to mention alleged 'income tax-evaders' such as Starbucks or Amazon, so I apologise for posting the fact that my book The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey - Official Movie Guide has just made it to the Number One position on one of Amazon.co.uk's category lists...
Not, as you might have supposed, 'Film' (where I languish in 16th place!) but in Best Sellers in Poetry & Drama Criticism! Who'd have thought that that was what I was writing...?
So, you ask, how have I managed to out-sell 501 Excuses for a Bad Golf Shot? Or how did my friend Jude Fisher (author of The Hobbit - Visual Companion) find herself hot on the heels of Ms Edna O'Brien? Could it just be that Amazon (apart from paying insufficient tax to the UK Inland Revenue) are selling all our books at half the published price?
Not, as you might have supposed, 'Film' (where I languish in 16th place!) but in Best Sellers in Poetry & Drama Criticism! Who'd have thought that that was what I was writing...?
So, you ask, how have I managed to out-sell 501 Excuses for a Bad Golf Shot? Or how did my friend Jude Fisher (author of The Hobbit - Visual Companion) find herself hot on the heels of Ms Edna O'Brien? Could it just be that Amazon (apart from paying insufficient tax to the UK Inland Revenue) are selling all our books at half the published price?
Saturday, 8 December 2012
BLACKED OUT!
If, in future, I am going to use Flickr as my new source for uploading pictures to Blogger I am going to have to be a little bit careful...
A few weeks ago, I posted the snap on the left from my old photograph album.
At a cursory glance, you might suppose that it shows a young man wearing nothing other than a rather natty hat...
Of course, the cognoscenti will correctly identify it as probably the most famous example of fifteenth-century sculpture: a bronze figure of the Biblical Patriarch (and juvenile Philistine-slayer) David by Donato di Niccolò di Betto Bardi (c 1386–1466), better known as Donatello.
Dates for Donatello's David vary from the 1430s to the 1460s. It is, for example, recorded as being the centerpiece of the first courtyard in the Palazzo Medici during the wedding festivities of Lorenzo de' Medici and Clarice Orsini in 1469, but some have argued that it was commissioned by Cosimo de' Medici in the 1430s to be the centerpiece of the courtyard of the older Medici house on the Via Larga. Anyway, whatever the truth, it is one of the world's great art treasurers currently housed in the Bargello Museum, Florence.
So much for David's antiquity and cultural standing, I had scarcely uploaded the photo onto flickr when someone left a comment saying that it had been blacked out. Soon afterwards, all my flickr images were hidden from view...
...even this one of a fully-clothed, outsize, Cinderella-mouse in Disneyland...
Anyway, two days of being blacked-out was finally resolved when I successfully manged to re-classify Donatello's David as a 'resticted' image (as, indeed, it remains!) and got Flickr to lift the ban on my other less potentially offensive photos! Thanks, Flickr; apologies, Donatello!
Naturally, it will be some while before Michelangelo's David finds his way onto this blog!!
A few weeks ago, I posted the snap on the left from my old photograph album.At a cursory glance, you might suppose that it shows a young man wearing nothing other than a rather natty hat...
Of course, the cognoscenti will correctly identify it as probably the most famous example of fifteenth-century sculpture: a bronze figure of the Biblical Patriarch (and juvenile Philistine-slayer) David by Donato di Niccolò di Betto Bardi (c 1386–1466), better known as Donatello.
Dates for Donatello's David vary from the 1430s to the 1460s. It is, for example, recorded as being the centerpiece of the first courtyard in the Palazzo Medici during the wedding festivities of Lorenzo de' Medici and Clarice Orsini in 1469, but some have argued that it was commissioned by Cosimo de' Medici in the 1430s to be the centerpiece of the courtyard of the older Medici house on the Via Larga. Anyway, whatever the truth, it is one of the world's great art treasurers currently housed in the Bargello Museum, Florence.
So much for David's antiquity and cultural standing, I had scarcely uploaded the photo onto flickr when someone left a comment saying that it had been blacked out. Soon afterwards, all my flickr images were hidden from view...
...even this one of a fully-clothed, outsize, Cinderella-mouse in Disneyland...
Anyway, two days of being blacked-out was finally resolved when I successfully manged to re-classify Donatello's David as a 'resticted' image (as, indeed, it remains!) and got Flickr to lift the ban on my other less potentially offensive photos! Thanks, Flickr; apologies, Donatello!
Naturally, it will be some while before Michelangelo's David finds his way onto this blog!!
Friday, 7 December 2012
AT LIBERTY!
I may have just found a way of saving my blogs!
(Pause to let the hooraying die down!)
The test photo below was uploaded via flickr – it's a long-winded faff, but may just be the answer if I'm to frustrate Blogger's monthly demands for dosh!
The preternatural look of this photograph is quite genuine, by the way, the Lady of Liberty Island was lit by sun against a stormy sky that, seconds later drenched her and I!
(Pause to let the hooraying die down!)
The test photo below was uploaded via flickr – it's a long-winded faff, but may just be the answer if I'm to frustrate Blogger's monthly demands for dosh!
The preternatural look of this photograph is quite genuine, by the way, the Lady of Liberty Island was lit by sun against a stormy sky that, seconds later drenched her and I!
DROWNING NOT WAVING
Sadly I have run out of photo storage space on blogger. If I want to upload any more photos I have suddenly been told, I need to pay $2.95 per month; so, sadly, I think it's time to say good bye!
It's been fun!
It's been fun!
Wednesday, 5 December 2012
AN ARTIST'S IMAGINATION
She was one of the finest illustrators of the twentieth century who would, this year, have celebrated her 90th birthday.
I am speaking of that wondrous mistress of the the magical realms of Narnia and Middle-earth, Pauline Baynes, whose illustrations, decorations and map-making for the works of C S Lewis and J R R Tolkien are – despite the talented offerings of many successive artists and filmmakers – still indelibly associated with those now classic texts.
The work of this remarkable artist is currently being celebrated with an exhibition, 'An Artist's Imagination' at The Museum of Farnham, appropriately since she trained at the Farnham School of Art and lived much of her life in nearby Dockenfield.
In additions to a display of her books, many of which – for world myths and religious texts – will come as a fascinating surprise to those who only know Baynes' drawings for the Chronicles of Narnia and Tolkien stories like Farmer Giles of Ham and The Adventures of Tom Bombadil.
There are examples of the early illustrations by her (and her talented sister, Angela) as well as cover art for The Tattler and other magazines and commercial art for such companies as biscuit manufacturer, Huntley and Palmer...
This particular image is reproduced on a beautiful Christmas card that can purchased at the museum, price £2.00. A second card shows one of Baynes' stunning seasonal covers for The Tattler.
Several of our pieces are on display including this illustration of Lucy and the Sea People (from The Voyage of the 'Dawn Treader') made for my book, The Land of Narnia...
A wonderful image of Famer Giles confronting Chrysophylax from Tolkien's Stories and Poems...
And a number of illustrations made for my unpublished children's story, Osric the Extraordinary Owl, including this stunning group of peacocks...
There is also this unexpected vision of demons and monsters entitled 'The Final Triunmph of Good over the Devil'...
Photo of Pauline Baynes by David Weeks
The exhibition, An Artist's Imagination, continues until 8 January 2013. Admission free.
The Museum is open Tuesday – Saturday, 10am – 5pm. Closed 23 December–1 January.
The Museum of Farnham
Willmer House
38 West Street
Farnham
Surrey
GU9 7DX
Telephone: 01252 715094
I am speaking of that wondrous mistress of the the magical realms of Narnia and Middle-earth, Pauline Baynes, whose illustrations, decorations and map-making for the works of C S Lewis and J R R Tolkien are – despite the talented offerings of many successive artists and filmmakers – still indelibly associated with those now classic texts.
The work of this remarkable artist is currently being celebrated with an exhibition, 'An Artist's Imagination' at The Museum of Farnham, appropriately since she trained at the Farnham School of Art and lived much of her life in nearby Dockenfield.
In additions to a display of her books, many of which – for world myths and religious texts – will come as a fascinating surprise to those who only know Baynes' drawings for the Chronicles of Narnia and Tolkien stories like Farmer Giles of Ham and The Adventures of Tom Bombadil.
There are examples of the early illustrations by her (and her talented sister, Angela) as well as cover art for The Tattler and other magazines and commercial art for such companies as biscuit manufacturer, Huntley and Palmer...
This particular image is reproduced on a beautiful Christmas card that can purchased at the museum, price £2.00. A second card shows one of Baynes' stunning seasonal covers for The Tattler.
Several of our pieces are on display including this illustration of Lucy and the Sea People (from The Voyage of the 'Dawn Treader') made for my book, The Land of Narnia...
A wonderful image of Famer Giles confronting Chrysophylax from Tolkien's Stories and Poems...
There is also this unexpected vision of demons and monsters entitled 'The Final Triunmph of Good over the Devil'...
Photo of Pauline Baynes by David Weeks
The exhibition, An Artist's Imagination, continues until 8 January 2013. Admission free.
The Museum is open Tuesday – Saturday, 10am – 5pm. Closed 23 December–1 January.
The Museum of Farnham
Willmer House
38 West Street
Farnham
Surrey
GU9 7DX
Telephone: 01252 715094
Sunday, 2 December 2012
ADVENT-ISING
Once upon a time, people opened the windows on an advent calendar to see a little picture, then it became an excuse for a daily chocolate and now this, just received, from the on-line store, Sendit...
Oh, dear...
Still, if the Magi were setting out on their journey this year, they could probably have saved themselves a few bob on a Gold, Frankincense and Myrrh deal-of-the-day...
Oh, dear...
Still, if the Magi were setting out on their journey this year, they could probably have saved themselves a few bob on a Gold, Frankincense and Myrrh deal-of-the-day...
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