Up In The Air (2009)

Enjoyable movie. Eye candy for the boys (Vera Farmiga) and girls (George Clooney). Nice twist, as expected. Subject matter close to us all at one time or another, I guess: redundancy. Worthy of an Oscar for Clooney? Not really.

IMDB 7.9/10

36 - Quai des Orfèvres (2006)

Just caught up with this excellent French thriller starring Gerard Depardieu (as Denis Klein) and Daniel Auteuil (as Leo Vrinks) and a proper plot.

From the BBC website: Admit it: we live in a world full of mediocre crime thrillers. Still, that means that when a film such as Olivier Marchal's 36 comes along, it's all the more exhilarating. In this near pitch-perfect study of ambition and revenge, two battle-worn alpha policemen - French masters Gérard Depardieu and Daniel Auteuil - go head to head in Paris, to catch a gang of murderous armed robbers. A stellar cast, a great story, and some momentous shoot-outs; what more could you want?

IMDB 7.2/10

Ronnie Wood, 'Renoir of Rock'

Ronnie Wood's autobiography, Ronnie, is a great (well, for £3.49 in paperback, it is) tour around his west London beginnings from a long family history of water gypsies, through the 60s' London band scene to his rise to fame with the Faces and on the Rolling Stones' worldwide tours. 

Fascinating read, with enough detail to keep the interest going, not least his ability to wade through money like it was water (training race horses in Ireland doesn't help, neither did the booze, drugs or bad business deals). 

His art is always interesting, in a naive way, because of the subject matter and is an integral part of his creative life (and clearly lucrative, since it's got him out of financial trouble a few times).

Former model Jo Wood was his 'rock'n'roll chick' wife, by his side for 23 years until she pocketed a reported £6.5m in their quickie divorce settlement last year - but the story runs out before then... 

However, Jo's dedication to all things organic (after being 'mis-diagnosed' with Crohn's disease) vested itself in a cleaner-living Ronnie (well, at least for part of the time they were together - how clean is clean when you've lived a rock'n'roll lifestyle like he has?) and her own organic line of skin care, Jo Wood's Organics. 

"Don't fuck with nature", she says - nicely put, dear...

Tendulkar: make mine a double

The mighty Little Master from Mumbai - Sachin Tendulkar, born 1973 - blasts his way to another great cricket record - as the first player to hit a double-century in a one-day cricket international. Awesome: only three sixes, but 25 fours in his 226-minute innings against the South Africans.

Great pdf and story from The Times here.

The Kingdom (2007)

The Kingdom (dir Peter Berg) IMDB 7.1/10 - well earned, for an action movie.

Four FBI agents (inc Jamie Foxx and Jennifer Garner)) fly into Saudi to investigate a terrorist attack and get mixed up in a whole lot of trouble. Bullets flying everywhere, but nobody gets hurt (well, actually, lots of people do). Rather poppy, guitar-based soundtrack by Danny Elfman.

IWOOT #11

I Want One of Those #11:

If I can't have a Lumix G-1 (see IWOOT #5) then how about an Olympus Pen E-P1 Micro Four Thirds Digital SLR Camera (17mm silver pancake lens, VF-1 external optical view finder kit)?

Gold medal for Amy Williams

Amy Williams slid to an Olympic gold for Great Britain in Whistler, Canada, smashing the women's Olympic skeleton track record for the second time in as many days as she obliterated her rivals to triumph by a huge 0.56-second advantage.

Story from the News of the World

Alastair Cook - England's new caretaker captain

Interesting article in the Telegraph online about Alastair Cooke, England cricket team's new 'caretaker captain'. Hope he doesn't get the captain's curse in Bangladesh and stays in the runs...Read the article here.

Joe Stilgoe @ Ronnie Scott's

Enjoyed Joe's Valentine weekend at Ronnie Scott's, with a trio and white-soul singer Natalie Williams. Joe deserves a wider audience, but his quick-witted humour (an integral part of his performance) may well unfortunately lighten the seriousness with which he is taken in some quarters. As an entertainer he's spot-on.  


Joe included a lovely, melancholic tribute to British jazz stalwart, altoist Johnny Dankworth, who passed away last week.

The delightfully under-hyped Ronnie Scott's AllStars (yes, for it is they!) supported with a few good straight-up jazzy tunes and more humour, much in the vein of the long-gone Ronnie himself. Surprisingly good food, as well. 


Founded in 1959, the jazz club is clearly thriving - it's been a long time since I saw Oscar Peterson, Dizzy Gillespie, Joe Pass and George Melly there in the 1970s. 

Churchill and Roosevelt statue

Called 'Allies', this statue by Lawrence Holofcener was unveiled in 1995 by the Bond Street Association to mark 50 years of peace. After their stand against Nazism in World War II, Winston S Churchill and Franklin D Roosevelt helped found the United Nations. Churchill’s mother was American and he and FDR were distant cousins. It stands (or, rather, sits) between New Bond Street and Old Bond Street, London.


Pic: Sion Touhig (Getty Images)

Crabzilla

One mother of a crab!

The Japanese Spider Crab is the largest known member of the arthropod family, which includes all invertebrates with jointed limbs.
Crabzilla's front limbs are his feeding arms, each over five feet long and ending in sizeable claws. They are a Japanese delicacy and are usually salted and steamed, but eating them in the spring is banned because that's when they lay their eggs.

Read more on the Daily Mail online.