Friday 27 April 2012

More cinema stuff...but you love it

So, in an effort to remain consistent I am once again referring you to all things film.

There is a lovely Free Film Festival, which starts today (and has absolutely nothing to do with the fact I have just moved to South London) called the New Cross and Deptford Film Festival. It goes on until 6th May and has all manner of films from family to film shorts.

I would recommend the bike-powered Harry Potter screening tonight or Sherlock Holmes tomorrow night (the one with Robery Downey Junior and Jude Law not *sigh* the one with Benedict Cumberbatch), but the weather looks to be monumentally shit this weekend. These are outside screenings where viewers' bikes are hooked up to a generator that then powers the film. This is a lovely idea and would make me feel a little less guilty about eating that gargantuan box of popcorn, but I fear it would all just end up a but soggy (both me and the popcorn. If you have a tent, or don’t care about sitting in the rain, then go nuts.

I am however recommending the festival's screening of the Science of Sleep (the one with Gael GarcĂ­a Bernal *more sighing*). This is set to take place next Tuesday 1st of May at 7.30pm and will be projected onto the ceiling of Lewisham Arts centre.

The reason is it being shown this way is to encourage viewers can lie back and fall asleep.

The website says it is “part art project part tongue in cheek”. I don't care either way if I can have a wee lie down, watch a slightly surreal film and not be laughed at if I do happen to drop off.

Hmm. Maybe I should find some more young people activities for the next post. There is a good chance this could become linked to Help the Aged.

Extreme paintballing anyone?




Friday 20 April 2012

Spring in my step

Oh excuse me, sorry to bother you but I think we know one another? Hmm? No? Oh well yes I did stop writing almost 3 months ago and you may have forgotten I ever wrote this, but now it's Spring I thought I might come back?

Oh go on. Look at this puppy-


Yay forgiveness! Puppies always work.

Sooo I may have been busy/lazy/creating an exhibition about art I know nothing about over the last 3 months, which I why I haven't written, but the point is I have returned. I have returned like the caped crusader I am (I did actually tell someone quite seriously recently that I was like Batman. Our only actual similarity is that we both have deep voices) to talk to you about..the National Trust!

Since I last wrote I have turned 24. I am now appreciating the spring blossom and stocking up on stamps. The National Trust, therefore, is a natural progression.

It came to my attention today that, this weekend the National Trust are giving away vouchers that allow FREE ENTRY for 2 adults and 2 children to one of its sites. Now this got me all excited because I always think that National Trust sites are the kind of thing Sundays were made for. Preferably with your children or loved one but a cultured friend will do. However, it always irritates me slightly that this lovely British institution charges quite a lot in entrance fees, but for this weekend only it's free!

More surprising is the number of National Trust properties in and surrounding London. From a quick search of my postcode on the National Trust's website I think the place I would most like to go would be Red House, the former home of William Morris.

No don't feel bad I had excatly the same kind of thinking, "Oh I know the name but what did he do again?" Well to save you a Google search he was famous for designing prints such as these-


He was like a Pre-Raphelite Cath Kidston.

Anyway there are other buildings which are a bit more central like Caryle's House (the home of writer Thomas Carlyle) in Chelsea, 2 Willow Road (a modernist house containing a load of modernist art) in Hampstead, and Fenton House (standard pretty 17thC house). The one that is possibly the most bizarre though is the Tudor Sutton House, that sits on Homerton High street in Hackney.

So go and take advantage of the offer and then you will have money to spare for a cup of tea and a scone. This is the true reason anyone goes to a National Trust thing - the tearoom.