Films & plays – Foster Runs

January 1, 2013

Happy 2013

Happy New Year!

We’ve had a great Christmas break with a restorative balance of quiet reflective time and really fun time spent with friends and family.

We took in the amazing Lost and Found Orchestra which is a riotous kaleidoscope of percussive sound and vision. Originally designed by STOMP for the 40th Anniversary of the Brighton Festival in 2006, it has since toured internationally to wide acclaim. Brighton is home to co-creator Luke Cresswell (who I went to school with in the late seventies & early eighties) so the performances here hold special significance!

We also saw the amazing film Life of Pi which is a beautifully produced and really thought-provoking tale of survival.

After days of dark, wet weather, 2013 dawned bright and clear so it seemed only right and proper to get out for a run. I quickly realised that the rain had left its mark with puddles and fluid mud everywhere.

I first headed out to Ditchling via Oldlands Mill, which sat facing the Downs in almost springlike sunshine.

Normally dry paths were waterlogged and those that are often wet were completely under water… there was little point in shirking the mud, though I kept generally to the edges.

One garden I passed en route had filled up to become a small lake… maybe a 150 feet long and easily 20 feet deep! The water sometimes fills the width of the garden but I’ve not ever seen it this high and close to the path before.

The normally slippery chalk up the Beacon path had been washed clean and was abnormally grippy, especially compared to the slippery ground around it.

As I neared the top of the path, the view to the left was more warm March than soggy January… apart from the extent of the midday shadow!

The top had a range of similarly beautiful views accompanied by a chilly breeze, especially where I was standing… on the trig point at the highest point in Sussex.

After slip-sliding down the Beacon again, I ran past Sporting Cars, admired the beautiful houses through Ditchling and then climbed back up to the Oldlands path at the end of the village.

Where I had been relatively circumspect on the outbound route, I now just headed through the middle of most of the big puddles… and there were a lot of them! By the time I reached the Keymer road again I was dripping wet and coated in mud.

My first task upon returning home was to stand in the garden and wash off the worst of the mud with a scrubbing brush and hosepipe… which also usefully cooled down my tired leg muscles.

So ten miles in a sploshy 1:55 and a GREAT start to the New Year.

June 17, 2011

Le retour de le Bok

Bonjour tout le monde!

After a particularly slow, frustrating afternoon yesterday, I actually contemplated going out for a run (and I can’t remember the last time that happened of an evening!), whilst dinner was cooking in the oven.

Unfortunately I got sidetracked, but the irrepressible Bok must have picked up the vibes, as about an hour later and completely out of the blue, he suddenly thought to call… to arrange a run!

And so at 7am this morning we set out for a delightful run around one of the old circuits: out to the (recently refurbished but now starting to look decidedly dilapidated again) Royal Oak, through West Wood to the industrial estate and back again via the Magical Path and Ditchling Common.

It was a lovely natterful run but, as in the excellent film Le Retour de Martin Guerre, I had to wonder whether this was really the same Bok that I used to run with… and like the film, in an entirely positive way.

I won’t bore you with the important stuff, but this Bok (quite possibly an imposter) did not lead the charge, actually stopped to catch his breath at one point and though he initiated a final sprint to the end, then didn’t have the famous speed of old.

And yet it took about the same 45 minutes to complete the 5.23 mile circuit as we quite often used to complete it in. A merest snip under 7mph.

It took me quite a while to work my way back through all the references to the Bok in my blog, to the last time I actually ran with him. I’m glad I was sitting down when I finally figured it out: 6th December, 2008… WOW!

That’s 2 years and 7 months ago… it may have felt almost like yesterday, but no wonder he seemed a little different!

July 18, 2010July 18, 2010

Aroma Sensation

Before I start, I’d just like to mention the beautiful aroma of honeysuckle and pinks in the garden at the moment. In the evenings, when the air is still, it is simply magical to walk out there, as is sitting in the tea-house in the mornings.

I’ve had another one of those manic weekends. You know the kind, where you seem to achieve a lot? And this despite feeling so drained on Friday night that I did little but read and sleep.

Saturday I finished painting the outside of the house, putting a second coat on the upstairs back, the bit downstairs that I’d missed last weekend and a coat on the back of next door’s garage. I’ve since realised that there are some silly window returns that could probably do with another coat, but to all intents & purposes, I have finished.

Then I trimmed the front hedge and cut the grass (Kim had already cut around all the edges) and painted a coat of white gloss on the garage door frame, before I started on…. the garage itself!

Clutter has gradually been building over the last few months, exacerbated by one or two DIY projects and the more recent arrival of Karen’s stuff while she’s away.

The beginning of the garage project started with my trying to find the white gloss paint amongst a hundred other pots… five deep and stacked three or four high on the bottom deck of the bench. All whilst peering over the bags of stuff on the floor in front.

I speculatively eyed up the cabinets that sit on the bench and almost before I had a chance to think, the boxed contents were stacked on the floor and the tins of paint were being organised onto eye-level shelves.

The project paused last night, as we went to see Inception (Leonardo DiCaprio) – you can read about it via the link, but I have to report that it is truly excellent… a real mind-warper on a par with Vanilla Sky.

The combination of garage dust and widescreen cinema left me with really dry eyes this morning and I strained to be able to read as I sat in the tea-house with first one, then a second quadspresso. The exertions of painting, hedge trimming etc also left me feeling stiff and I was sore tempted not to run… only the thought of an empty blog spurred me to action.

Intending to only run my normal short route, I left my water-bottle behind and set off, quickly finding myself at Ote Hall where people were emerging from the remnants of a wedding party.

At Slugwash Lane, after a brief chat to the Alpacas, I remembered seeing a modernist house (one of my passions) being constructed last year and so ran down past it to have a look, continuing on along a delightful wooded path which wove gradually back up the hill.

At the top there is a delightful place I have been before, or should I say, got lost at (at least) twice before. Fortunately I now know which way to go!

And when I got back to the path I’d been on before I detoured, there was yet another pretty scene.

I dropped down into Wivelsfield and took the bridle path to Hundred Acre Lane that we raced up last week, then chose to continue on through the woods to Ditchling Common Industrial Estate.

Then it was back down the Magical Path & across the Common to home.

The convoluted circuit was 8.5 miles and I completed it in 1.22, a gentle speed of 6.2mph.

After breakfast and a snooze on the sun lounger, the garage task continued for much of the day. I can now SEE my bench (well, the edge of it at any rate), whilst all my painting, tiling, plastering stuff is hidden away behind closed doors. I’ll need some plastic boxes to neaten up the new contents of the lower level, but it’s okay.

I also mixed up some PVA & water to try to better seal the concrete floor, starting under the bench… thank goodness for those new painting pads on long sticks which are very effective.

Now I’m off to bed, but not before wandering back out into the garden for another aroma-sensation!

August 10, 2008September 13, 2009

Weekend off

I chose not to run this weekend, but I did start to prepare the ground for my new shed so I don’t feel as if I have been slacking.

This involved moving two railway sleepers that hold back the bank in one corner, replacing them level and on their sides and reducing and levelling the ground inside to be able to build a framework on top.

After filling 18 bags to a ‘can just carry’ level, I ran out of bags to take the surplus soil, but I’ve cleared enough to progress… next time I feel in the mood!

And hopefully it won’t be pouring down with rain again next time!!

Does anyone need some additional soil… and have a truck to take it away… ?

After the physical exercise of the day, it was great to relax in front of the cinema screen. We saw The Dark Knight, which was actually anything but relaxing. Tense and darker than both the first in this franchise and previous versions of Batman & the Joker, this was definitely not for the faint of heart! Excellent though!

December 27, 2007

The Golden Compass

Based on the book Northern Lights by Philip Pullman, first published in 1995, The Golden Compass is the first in the His Dark Materials trilogy. The story could easily be based loosely on The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, but it seems much richer and far darker. Also, as it is filmed using interpolated rotoscoping, it is a much more realistic flick than the slightly less-whelming Chronicles of Narnia.

I went along with lowish expectations (possibly because I’ve not read the books and what I’d heard about the plot made it seem complex, which could have resulted in it being wooden) but the film exceeded them by a long, long way, swallowing me right into the plot and carrying me along until I reluctantly left my seat when the credits had finished and even the cleaners had gone.

If you’ve been reading my other film reviews, you might think that I get sucked into each of the plots and rave about each film I see, but I have a vivid imagination and we also try to save the more average films for DVD or TV. We saw so many films one year that it seemed like an age before there was anything new for our small screen.

For this film, I would recommend looking at the web-site above, as there are some interesting elements to retain your (or your children’s) interest… not least the ability to find out what your daemon is… in my case, a female snow leopard called Aleona.

Strangely, there is also a Rough Guide to His Dark Materials, suggesting that it might be a real place with some nice beaches and cheap hotels to stay in… though Nigel & Kristin‘s direct experience of Polar Bears in Labrador suggests it may also have a very dangerous night-life.

November 18, 2007

Macbeth

Rupert Goold’s production is clearly non-standard Shakespeare fare and the first inkling that you get is when you sit down in front of Anthony Ward’s gaunt and clinical Soviet set, reminiscent of a mental hospital or seventies comprehensive school.

Further proof is demonstrated by two of the stranger characters: a larder fridge, which is given a sinister aura by use of the soundtrack of an ageing fluorescent light; and a serving elevator, which serves as the portal for all the more important entrances. Both play supporting roles throughout the production that are quite simply chilling.

More menacing still however are the three witches who open the first scene portrayed as matrons, the transformation betwixt heralded by a cold change of light and sound… the hairs on my neck bristled at this and each subsequent transformation.

Patrick Stewart’s portrayal of Macbeth is utterly superb and his characterisation of the subtle transformation from warm-hearted to evilly-possessed is inspired, matched competently by Kate Fleetwood’s scheming and troubled Lady Macbeth.

This is a true contemporary masterpiece and if you like Shakespeare (and can get hold of tickets between now and the 1st December close) is a totally-must-see production.

November 15, 2007

Into the Wild

We went to see Into the Wild last weekend… I haven’t written about it before because it’s still buzzin’ around in my mind.

It’s a warm, funny and ultimately tragic tale of a young man trying to understand life and himself, made far more poignant by the fact that it’s a true story.

Written and directed by Sean Penn, it stars Emile Hirsch (Jesse James Hollywood in Alpha Dog) as Christopher McCandless, recently graduated and looking to escape the claustrophobia of the life mapped out for him by his parents and society in general. Shedding his very existence by burning his identity papers, he calls himself Alexander Supertramp and disappears from the grid. Throughout the story, the way that he touches the other characters is both heartwarming and heart-wrenching and his diary gives a depth of insight into the soul of this young man that is hard to ignore afterwards. The soulful soundtrack by Eddie Vedders beautifully frames both his mind and the landscape.

Go and see this film and be prepared to be moved. Five stars!

October 28, 2007

Losing sleep

Why, oh why is it so confusing? Spring forward, fall back. Nice & simple.

Of course, if it’s late and you’re tired (and having watched the film Babel, emotionally drained!) and you have it in your mind that you’re due to lose an hour’s sleep, it’s a simple mistake to make. Going the wrong way.

Compound this with presumably having nudged the alarm to 6.20am in the process and you end up waking up at… er, 4.20am instead of the intended 7.30am!

Only the fact that it is dark gives the game away. Trying to explain that gaining an hour involves putting the clocks back is oh so difficult too!

I’m not a popular bunny!

October 7, 2007

The Kingdom

We caught up with Dai in Brighton for coffee and conversation about the latest technological developments in education, before heading off to Brighton Marina for supper and a film. The marina is excellent at the moment… it seems to have progressed in waves, getting quite depressingly tired between moments of excellence, but right now there are a more than 20 capacious places to eat, a stack of shops, a David Lloyd gym, a casino… the list goes on. Oh, and a cinema, of course.

Oh my, WHAT a film!

The Kingdom, directed by Peter Berg and starring Jamie Foxx and Jennifer Garner, is based in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia after a terrorist bomb shakes a compound for western workers. With it’s complex post-911 / east-west / inter-cultural tensions and stunning performances from the cast, the action is relentless and the plot gritty and scarily believable. Overall, it’s a very thought-provoking film and left us slightly dazed! Five stars!

September 30, 2007

Michael Clayton

I’m suprised to report that we’ve not been to the movies since the middle of August, but this is mainly due to the traditional lull in the launch of decent films at the end of the summer holidays.

Ironic then, having raved about the Bourne Ultimatum, to go and see another film penned by Tony Gilroy, although this time he directs too.

George Clooney plays Michael Clayton, a fixer in a greedy corporate law firm whose largely honourable motivations are misunderstood by those around him, to his detriment. It’s a tense thriller for those people that like to have to think about what’s really going on… in fact, I overheard one of the women who had clearly only gone along for George Clooney (swoon!-), having the sub-plot explained to her afterwards! Tom Wilkinson gives a stunning portrayal of a brilliant laywer pushed way beyond his principles for too long, while Tilda Swinton gives fascinating insight in the two-sided personality (the perfectly composed side you see and the one that worries like the rest of us) of a top executive.

Cracking plot and brilliantly executed, I give it 5 stars!