Overheard on Bankside...
1st Tourist:
Shakespeare's Globe...
2nd Tourist:
Amazing it's still here!
Monday, 11 February 2008
LIKE NEW
Overheard on Bankside...
1st Tourist:
Shakespeare's Globe...
2nd Tourist:
Amazing it's still here!
Sunday, 10 February 2008
LOOK OUT...
...the closing date of the latest CAPTION COMPETITION is fast approaching!
Well, actually, it's been and gone (last Thursday)! BUT, because (a) I only ever mentioned the closing date in a comment to the post, (b) completely failed to remind you, and (c) know that at least one reader -- yes, you, Gill! - said she was going to enter, I've decided to allow everyone a couple more days' grace...
The closing date has, therefore, now been re-scheduled to midnight on Tuesday 12 February.
The photo requiring a caption is shown on the right and you can be as inventive as you like. For example, I thought that since the hotel where this curious site was photographed was in Oxford, one possible caption might be...
Alice finally made up her mind to seek help in kicking the Eat-Me-Cake habit.
So, send in your entries and the winners (and runners-up!) will be published on............ Well, very soon afterwards!
Well, actually, it's been and gone (last Thursday)! BUT, because (a) I only ever mentioned the closing date in a comment to the post, (b) completely failed to remind you, and (c) know that at least one reader -- yes, you, Gill! - said she was going to enter, I've decided to allow everyone a couple more days' grace...
The closing date has, therefore, now been re-scheduled to midnight on Tuesday 12 February.
The photo requiring a caption is shown on the right and you can be as inventive as you like. For example, I thought that since the hotel where this curious site was photographed was in Oxford, one possible caption might be...Alice finally made up her mind to seek help in kicking the Eat-Me-Cake habit.
So, send in your entries and the winners (and runners-up!) will be published on............ Well, very soon afterwards!
Saturday, 9 February 2008
RICHARDSON REMEMBERED
The arrival, a few days ago, of a new German edition of my book Shadowlands, brought back memories of the late Ian Richardson who, only a few weeks before his death on the 9 February 2007, had completed a reading of the book for BBC Radio.How swiftly unbridled time gallops away from us; and yet how strong a grip our frail hands keep on the reigns of memory.
The journalist and writer SHARON MAIL became a friend of Ian and his wife, Maroussia, and (as a result of correspondence following the Shadowlands broadcasts) she has since become a friend of mine.
Sharon is currently working on a book in celebration of Ian's life (with contributions from Judi Dench, Helen Mirren, Alex Jennings, Donald Sinden, Peter Hall and other luminaries) and, in today's Guest Blog, Sharon offers this tribute to a great - and greatly-loved - actor...
Tribute and photograph © Sharon Mail, 2008Ian Richardson’s sudden death, a year ago today, came as a terrible shock to all who knew him. And yet, the fact that he died from heart failure should be no surprise. For Ian put his heart and soul into everything he did. As an actor, he gave his all in every performance, be it on stage or screen, in voice recording or recital.
He always did a vast amount of preparation, so that his performances in roles such as Francis Urquhart in House of Cards (left), Dr Joseph Bell in Murder Rooms, Bill Haydon in Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy, Nehru in Mountbatten: The Last Viceroy or Neuheim et al in Private Schulz seemed effortless.On stage, his Frank Ford in The Merry Wives of Windsor, Berowne in Love’s Labour Lost, Richard and Bolingbroke (alternating with Dickie Pasco) in Richard II and Klestakov in The Government Inspector are but a fraction of the parts he played which remain etched in the memories of those who saw them - commanding, daring and consummate on stage and yet often battling with nerves off it.
When you think of Ian Richardson you think of Francis Urquhart, a ruthless, calculating, heartless monster. And yet Ian’s own persona couldn’t have been more different. He was a tremendously giving person - to his fellow actors and all those he worked with, to the fans who wrote to him and approached him outside stage doors, to his friends and to the wife and family he adored.
He was the most thoughtful, kind-hearted - and often funny - person many of us had the privilege to meet. His loss is still keenly felt, but he has left us a tremendous legacy in the shape of his performances over the best part of five decades and fortunately many of his screen and audio recordings remain available today. His final recording, of Brian’s Shadowlands for Radio 2, was a beautiful, moving epitaph.
It will be impossible to forget him.Ian Richardson
7 April 1934 – 9 February 2007
Thursday, 7 February 2008
VENETIAN BIZARRE
Every city in the world has it oddities, curiosities and grotesqueries, but dear, lovely, Venice certainly has its fair share (or perhaps, being a small city, they are just more concentrated) - which is, of course part of it's unique and utterly delightful charm.
In Venice, for example, you can get just about anything made out of glass, but while glass balloons are one thing...
...glass balls of wool with glass knitting needles and pots of glass paintbrushes with glass tubes of paint...
...is probably going a bit too far! Especially when it's obviously perfectly easy to make a wooden vase of wooden paintbrushes on a table with a wooden tablecloth!
Naturally, such a table needs to be accompanied by a paint-brush-shaped chair...
...but, if you prefer, you can have one made out of books that are made out of - er - wood, of course!
Mind you, if you're an animal lover, you'd probably prefer to sit on a chair that sits on the back of giant, bling-encrusted tortoise...
...while attending to your toilette in front of a zebra-print chests-of-drawers!
And when you're finally ready to go out and face the day... well, you can choose from a wide selection of glass shoes --- made out of Coca-Cola bottles!
Images: © Brian Sibley & David Weeks, 2008
In Venice, for example, you can get just about anything made out of glass, but while glass balloons are one thing...
...glass balls of wool with glass knitting needles and pots of glass paintbrushes with glass tubes of paint...
...is probably going a bit too far! Especially when it's obviously perfectly easy to make a wooden vase of wooden paintbrushes on a table with a wooden tablecloth!
Naturally, such a table needs to be accompanied by a paint-brush-shaped chair...
...but, if you prefer, you can have one made out of books that are made out of - er - wood, of course!
Mind you, if you're an animal lover, you'd probably prefer to sit on a chair that sits on the back of giant, bling-encrusted tortoise...
...while attending to your toilette in front of a zebra-print chests-of-drawers!
And when you're finally ready to go out and face the day... well, you can choose from a wide selection of glass shoes --- made out of Coca-Cola bottles!
Images: © Brian Sibley & David Weeks, 2008
Tuesday, 5 February 2008
OUT OF THE CELLULOID CLOSET
One of the potentially interesting new films to have its UK release this month is The Boss of It All (Direktøren for det hele) from the innovative Danish film director, Lars Von Trier whose pictures include Breaking the Waves and Dancer in the Dark and who was a co-founder of the avant-garde Dogme 95 collective which undertook to pursue a purist approach to film-making by refusing expensive and spectacular special effects, post-production modifications and other gimmickry choosing, instead, to focus on story and performances.However, in making The Boss of It All, Trier seems to have embraced rather than shunned the technological trickery of modern movie-making since the film has been shot using the 'Automavision' process, which requires the director to select the best possible fixed camera position and then leave it to a computer to choose when to tilt, pan or zoom.
Anyway, the film is already generating some lively word of mouth and is clearly going to be worth a watch...
Meanwhile, I was reminded that Lars Von Trier made history by directing the first ever cinema commercial to not only portray a same-sex relationship but to do so in a delightfully romantic (even erotic) way. Entitled Timian (Thyme) it was made to advertise the Danish newspaper Politiken and was made for Saatchi & Saatchi Advertising in 1993...
The extraordinary range of gay and lesbian images (good, bad and indifferent) portrayed in commercials can be seen on the website of the Commercial Closet Association: a watchdog that monitors not just offensive portrayals of sexual orientation but also flagrant pursuits of the pink pound!
Here's their own commercial...
Sunday, 3 February 2008
THE PRICE OF FAITH
Following your religious convictions can be a costly business, but the Good News is it's actually cheaper than you thought...
Well, at least while stocks last!
Well, at least while stocks last!
Friday, 1 February 2008
CLICHÉ-RIDDEN
"I never take pictures of gondolas," the Photographer told me as I eyed-up a shot of one, "they are such a cliché!"
Click on any image to enlarge
Well, I thought, as I pressed the shutter, to be absolutely honest, there's not much that you'll ever see through your view-finder in Venice that can't be dismissed as a cliché!
Click!
The way we see it is if you're in Venice then there will come a point - sooner or later (and probably sooner) - when you just have to take a photograph of a gondola...
Or two...
Or three...
Or, possibly, more...
Of course, what was once the chief means of transportation in a city built upon water -- in the 18th century, gondola traffic on the canals of Venice ran to several thousand -- is now an overpriced tourist attraction much loved by the Japanese.
Nevertheless, there is something inherently beautiful and photogenic about the gondola: it's poise and weightlessness, its grace and elegance: a black and silver swan gliding effortlessly and silently across the mirror-waters of Venice's canals.
Every aspect of the gondola is appealing to the eye...
Perhaps, the most famous aspect of the gondola is the ferro - the iron ornamentation on the prow which serves as a protection for the craft, a decoration and a counterweight for the gondolier standing on the back of the boat.
It's distinctive shape symbolizes the six sestieri (areas) of Venice and the Doge's hat...
...occasionally embellished with the Lion of St Mark.
Then, of course, there are also the gondoliers!
Sorry for the digression!
Anyway, back to the gondolas... So ubiquitous is the Venetian gondola that it's distinctive shape can be found even where you'd least expect to find it - for example, in an optician's window...
OK, so that is a cliché!
But gondolas? We can't snap enough of them!
Images: © Brian Sibley & David Weeks, 2008
Click on any image to enlargeWell, I thought, as I pressed the shutter, to be absolutely honest, there's not much that you'll ever see through your view-finder in Venice that can't be dismissed as a cliché!
Click!
The way we see it is if you're in Venice then there will come a point - sooner or later (and probably sooner) - when you just have to take a photograph of a gondola...
Or two...
Or three...
Or, possibly, more...
Of course, what was once the chief means of transportation in a city built upon water -- in the 18th century, gondola traffic on the canals of Venice ran to several thousand -- is now an overpriced tourist attraction much loved by the Japanese.
Nevertheless, there is something inherently beautiful and photogenic about the gondola: it's poise and weightlessness, its grace and elegance: a black and silver swan gliding effortlessly and silently across the mirror-waters of Venice's canals.
Every aspect of the gondola is appealing to the eye...
Perhaps, the most famous aspect of the gondola is the ferro - the iron ornamentation on the prow which serves as a protection for the craft, a decoration and a counterweight for the gondolier standing on the back of the boat.
It's distinctive shape symbolizes the six sestieri (areas) of Venice and the Doge's hat...
...occasionally embellished with the Lion of St Mark.
Then, of course, there are also the gondoliers!
Sorry for the digression!
Anyway, back to the gondolas... So ubiquitous is the Venetian gondola that it's distinctive shape can be found even where you'd least expect to find it - for example, in an optician's window...
OK, so that is a cliché!
But gondolas? We can't snap enough of them!
Images: © Brian Sibley & David Weeks, 2008
Thursday, 31 January 2008
WANTED: SNAPPY CAPTIONS!
Ta-da!! It's once again time for that much loved Sibley blog feature, the ever-popular...
On a recent visit to Oxford, we stayed - as we have done of several occasions - at The Old Bank Hotel in the High Street and, once again (because we always have the same room) passed the the bottom of a staircase leading to a window with a somewhat unusual view...
Captions are now being sought for this curious picture which might either be an explanation for what we see (or think we see), or the words/thoughts of the One Looking In.
Then again, it might be a caption for an illustration in a hotel brochure, a specialist magazine (Home & Gardens or Psychic News) or, even, an estate agents' advertisement!
Be creative and send your entries either via the comments section below or directly to mail@briansibley.com.
The prize, as usual, is the fun or participating and the possible glory of being mentioned in dispatches! What more incentive do you need?!
CAPTION COMPETITION
On a recent visit to Oxford, we stayed - as we have done of several occasions - at The Old Bank Hotel in the High Street and, once again (because we always have the same room) passed the the bottom of a staircase leading to a window with a somewhat unusual view...
Captions are now being sought for this curious picture which might either be an explanation for what we see (or think we see), or the words/thoughts of the One Looking In.
Then again, it might be a caption for an illustration in a hotel brochure, a specialist magazine (Home & Gardens or Psychic News) or, even, an estate agents' advertisement!
Be creative and send your entries either via the comments section below or directly to mail@briansibley.com.
The prize, as usual, is the fun or participating and the possible glory of being mentioned in dispatches! What more incentive do you need?!
Wednesday, 30 January 2008
HIGH ART
Overheard in an art gallery...WOMAN (To Friend): Yes, well, he reminds me of Canaletto...
CHILD (Interrupting): Who's Canaletto?
WOMAN: You remember, dear, the painter who did all those pictures with water in them
CHILD: No...
WOMAN: Yes, you do! It was that exhibition we went to when you were too short to see the pictures...
Monday, 28 January 2008
CLOCK-WATCHING
David and I first visited Venice in 1998 and from that year until our visit in 2006 we never saw one of the city's most celebrated landmarks: the Torre dell'Orologio, the ornately decorated Renaissance clock tower that stands on the north side of the Piazza San Marco.
Built in the 15th Century, the tower features a carving of the Lion of Saint Mark, a statue of the Madonna and Christ Child, a vast clock face marking 24 (not 12) hours, the moon phases and the houses of the zodiac and is surmounted by a huge bell on which the hours are struck by two hammer-wielding Moors scantily clad in animal skins.
For the first eight years of our visiting Venice, the clock was under wraps and under restoration. We saw this extraordinary edifice for the first time in 2006 when the scaffolding finally came down, but it was only this year that we got to witness a special feature of the clock that is only ever seen twice a year...
During Ascension Week and on the Feast of Epiphany (January 6th) the panels to the right and left of the central statue, which normally display the hour and minutes on giant revolving drums, are removed and replaced with doors that, every hour (from 9.00-5.00) open onto the balcony allowing elaborate automata figures of a trumpet-tooting Angel and the gift-bearing Magi to process before the Virgin and Child, tipping their crowns as they pass.
It was raining at 9 o'clock on the 6th January, when the Wise Men and their Angelic Companion made their debut appearance of the day. Apart from a lot of bedraggled pigeons and a handful of disinterested caribinari, David and I were the only witnesses to the event; which, as you will see from David's video, is probably just as well!
Images: © Photos, Brian Sibley; Video, David Weeks, 2008
Built in the 15th Century, the tower features a carving of the Lion of Saint Mark, a statue of the Madonna and Christ Child, a vast clock face marking 24 (not 12) hours, the moon phases and the houses of the zodiac and is surmounted by a huge bell on which the hours are struck by two hammer-wielding Moors scantily clad in animal skins.
For the first eight years of our visiting Venice, the clock was under wraps and under restoration. We saw this extraordinary edifice for the first time in 2006 when the scaffolding finally came down, but it was only this year that we got to witness a special feature of the clock that is only ever seen twice a year...During Ascension Week and on the Feast of Epiphany (January 6th) the panels to the right and left of the central statue, which normally display the hour and minutes on giant revolving drums, are removed and replaced with doors that, every hour (from 9.00-5.00) open onto the balcony allowing elaborate automata figures of a trumpet-tooting Angel and the gift-bearing Magi to process before the Virgin and Child, tipping their crowns as they pass.
It was raining at 9 o'clock on the 6th January, when the Wise Men and their Angelic Companion made their debut appearance of the day. Apart from a lot of bedraggled pigeons and a handful of disinterested caribinari, David and I were the only witnesses to the event; which, as you will see from David's video, is probably just as well!
Images: © Photos, Brian Sibley; Video, David Weeks, 2008
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