London

That swear word in Paris was appropriate because this is what happened in London (not all that far away from us, actually) on our first night in London.  


While we were checking out the Food Hole (25% discount for teamies!) and having a smashing dinner at e&o restaurant in Notting Hill, Chelsea FC were busy eliminating PSG from Champions League two-nil.  It was a late goal from Chelsea that sealed Paris' fate.


So, even though, after two matches, both sides were level on points and goals (three each for both for both), it was Chelsea's penalty in Paris that saw them through to the semis. Chelsea scored an away goal, you see.  Paris did not.  


PSG will get 'em next year.










xxxoooxxx,

Ardent

London

When the Wife and I finally made it to the Rothko Room at the Tate Modern in London, there was a docent, a teacher, and about a dozen and a half French schoolchildren -- I would guess they were Junior High age (?).  (I also like to imagine they were from Paris, but I have no idea.)  The docent spoke in English to the children.

Rothko Room at the Tate Modern

The docent explained about the Seagram's commission, and how Rothko turned it down, and the paintings ended up here at the Tate instead.  And, he even told the possibly apocryphal story about why Rothko refused the Seagram's job, where his very large paintings would have been hung in the Four Seasons restaurant on the ground floor.  The story goes that Rothko refused the commission because he could not stand the idea that people would be eating in front of his paintings.  The docent leaned heavily on the idea that the story was not true.  Personally, I disagree.  That seems totally like something Rothko would say.

The Wife and I explored the room a bit on our own, and soaked up the religious atmosphere, but you really could not help but be sucked in to the docent's talk.  The kids were not having any of it. They were bored to distraction.  They seemed to understand the language.  That was not the problem.  They just did not "get" Rothko, or Abstract Expressionism, I suppose.  

The docent even tried some typical English laconic humor out on the kids.  I do not remember the jokes.  The Wife, the teacher, and I all thought he was very funny.  The jokes died with the kids, though.  They continued to yawn, scratch their arms, and smack their gum.  

A Monet Water Lilies panel at the Tate Modern

Finally, at one point, the docent proclaimed that just about everyone believed that the Rothko paintings at the Tate were considered the finest acquisition the museum ever made. Then, he said, he begged to differ.  He thinks the Monet Water Lilies panel is the best.  

I love the Water Lilies panel, but I got to disagree with him there on that one, too.

When we first encountered the group upon the entering the room, I thought it might spoil the experience for me.  It did not.  Everything was just fine.

Long work week just about over! 

All my love, 

Ardent (mds)

London

The fifth series of Downton Abbey debuts in the US in January of 2015.  I already adore the program -- even if sometimes I have issues with it -- but I adore it even more after a visit to Ealing Studios in London in April.



Ealing made some of the greatest films ever, and some of my all-time personal faves.  I have serious crushes on a few of their actresses, too:  Googie Withers, Joan Greenwood, and Valerie Hobson.  Kind Hearts and Coronets, Dead of Night, Pink String and Sealing Wax, Passport to Pimlico, The Ladykillers, It Always Rains on Sunday, The Lavender Hill Mob, etc, are all magnificent motion pictures, made at a tiny studio in the decidedly not posh,  but pleasant London suburb, Ealing.



Ealing ceased as a production company in the Fifties, and sold their sound stages to the BBC.  The Dennis Potter BBC masterpiece, The Singing Detective was shot there.



But, in the Nineties, Ealing became an independent, for hire, studio.  In fact, Shaun of the Dead was shot there.  That is right.  The Winchester was in London!



And, then I found out that Downton Abbey shoots there, as well.



All the "downstairs" servant's rooms, kitchen, etc, is really shot at Ealing.



So, while all the rich posh characters get to shoot at the luxurious manse up north, all the servants are working at Ealing.



I find that hilarious.



Another cool thing about Ealing is that there is a pub, The Red Lion, right across the street, where all the actors, directors, and technicians used to frequent after work.



Oftentimes, the wives of the Ealing folks would call, wondering where their husband was.  The Ealing staff would reply, "He's on Stage Six."



There were only five sound stages at Ealing.  Stage Six was the Red Lion.  The pub even has a nice Stage Six plaque at the entrance now.



And, I have been told that many of Downton Abbey crew and cast frequent the Red Lion, too.





















Mwah, ... 

London

I was fully expecting to see Lily Allen Sheezus hand bills plastered all over London while I was there.  That was not the case.  (btw, Sheezus entered at No 1 in the UK album charts.  Sweet!)

But, I saw two wonderful hand bills all over the London Underground:

That is Lesley Sharp and Kate O'Flynn, starring in A Taste of Honey, which was its author, Shelagh Delaney's first play ever.  She was twenty years old.

I fell in love with Lesley Sharp aboot twenty years ago, when she was in Mike Leigh's masterpiece of a film, Naked.  I fell in love with Ms O'Flynn about five years ago when she was in Mike Leigh's masterpiece of a film, Happy-Go-Lucky.

Moreover, I knew about A Taste of Honey before I had even seen the script, thanks to The Beatles, and The Smiths.  The Beatles covered the song from the film version, and Morrissey referenced the play in a song, and also made Ms Delaney (a Mancunian) a cover star for their Louder Than Bombs double lp.

I did not catch on to those facts until I actually read the script, and did some scene work for a graduate student playwright.  It was some of the best work I ever did.  Stephanie Swenson played the Kate O'Flynn role.  I can not remember the name of the woman who played Lesley Sharp's part, and I played O"Flynn's sort of boyfriend.  We did it in untutored Mancunian accents (and did it quite well!) I just channeled Paul McCartney crossed with Ringo, and even though Stephanie and I were crushed back stage after finishing, thinking we had done an epic fail, it was one of our finest performances.  I got a number of other off-Main Stage roles from writers and directors just on the strength of that performance.

Also saw this on the Tube walls:

Well, I love both of these guys.  A lot.  And, apparently this show has won a bunch of awards, but Jeeves and Wooster will always be Fry and Laurie to me, so, I do not know.

There is also a production of this play with one of my sweetie's favorite stars, Matthew Macfayden, too.  Macfayden plays Jeeves.  Renee would definitely be down with that!
















Mwah, ... 

fauxluxe isnae dead

I lost my chic glasses,
Just reading frames,
In a Parisian taxi
On our way
To L'Atelier
On the Champs-Élysées

Near the Portobello Road,
In London,
Did I later
Refresh my eyesight
At a bookstore

The sweet shop girls there
Spoke of Cumberbatch
As Richard the Third,
But,
I know he is too tall

This new prescription is intense
And stronger than before,
But,
Now through these glasses
I can see in to your soul

************

So, we were waiting to go in to the most fabulous department store evah, in London, called The Liberty, and we were waiting because it was Sunday, and on Sundays The Liberty don't open till noon.

The Wife is furiously working on her mobile, researching The Liberty, and I keep drifting further to the left, with both my eyes and my feet.  Because, just to my left are some crappy cafes with Hull FC Tiger supporters, sitting down for an early lunch.  (Hull FC would win its FA Cup Semi at Wembley later that day.) And, also further to the left is the real honest to goodness Music Hall where Mister Memory from The 39 Steps had his last breath.  Not really.  Hitch did it in a studio, of course.  But, that is the very same Music Hall that Buchan and Hitchcock based their whole masterpiece upon.

I wander down, the Wife wonders why.

The Wife wis right.  There are a tourist group in front of the Music Hall, and the Hall is plastered with an obnoxious giant neon sign of the travesty that is pretending to entertain Londoners at the present time.  I did take a picture.  It is bad.  Here t'is:

The London Palladium, where Donat, Carroll, and Mr Memory saved the day.

That's right.  The London Palladium.

Meanwhile, here is what London department stores look like:

The Liberty.  Badass old school department store.

Anyroad, The Liberty is on our right, The Palladium is on our left, and I wander back to The Wife, and she has been doing some furious research on her iPhone about The Liberty.  And she says, "Ugh.  Sometimes it is better to do Wikipedia.  Know what I mean? I do not want The Liberty's version, right?"

"Yes," I say, "The public relations point of view? The Pee-are version, right?"

"Look," Renee says, "The doors are opening."

************

The Wife is right.  Most of the time.

Sometimes the PR version is done so well, you can do nothing but admire.

To wit,

All apologies to my Mexican friends, and their Cinco celebration (which is basically, yet another crappy reason for United States of America citizens to get loaded and embarrass themselves), but my new idea is to make a holiday out of Chanel No. 5.  The fifth day of the fifth month, which was Mademoiselle's lucky number, and when she launched the most famous perfume ever.  Seriously, ever.  This is not some, "I like The Stones, The Beatles suck" kind of thing.  There is Chanel No. 5, and there is everybody else.

But, let me get back to what I was saying:  Sometimes the flipping industry can give you the great story.  And the Inside Chanel videos, which you can watch on YouTube, and are a product of Chanel, are the best video representation of Coco Chanel's life I have yet seen.  (The last two videos with Lagerfeld speaking in French suck, but it is all animated magic till then.)

Those animated videos are better than both of the Chanel bio films I have seen.  Coco Before Chanel is not bad, actually good.  Fudging the truth in a pleasant sort of way.

As I like to do.

fauxluxe isnae dead.

"Realize all things have their place/And live my life with dignity and grace"






All my love,
fauxluxe isnae dead.
You will be bombarded with fab posts re Paris et Londre, so get used to it.















xxxoooxxx

I am not some Johnny Come Lately in regards

To my support for Everton FC in the English Premier League (EPL).  I picked them as my team some time in the late-Nineties, probably just after I finished reading Nick Hornby's smashing Arsenal memoir, Fever Pitch.

Liverpudlian ladies model Everton FC's  kit.

I picked Everton because I did not want to support the super rich big city clubs in London like Arsenal, Chelsea, or Spurs.  My London club is Fulham (who right now are on the verge of being relegated.) And, I did not want to support Man U, as they were the hottest thing on the planet at that time, and everybody here in the States loved them.  (Now, most folks here in the States are madly enamored with Arsenal.  Yuck.)

When I found out there was another club in Liverpool, that was not nearly as wonderful as Liverpool FC, a club that was the underdog of one of the biggest underdog cities in the world, well, that was it for me.  It was just gravy on my chips when my favorite football player of all-time, Landon Donovan, had two loan spells with Everton, and the Liverpudlians really took to him, and loved him.

Everton are nothing if not consistent.  For the last decade and a half Everton FC have finished on the top half of the table every single season.  That is great except they have never finished fifth or higher.  If you finish in the top five of the EPL that means the next season you get to play in "Europe".  In either the Champions League, the greatest club football tournament in the world, or the NIT version of Champions League, Europa.

Everton always finished between sixth and tenth during that spell.  Not good enough for Europe, but still nowhere close to relegation, either.

But, this year something beautiful might just happen for the Toffees -- Everton's nickname.  Man U's Sir Alec retired after last season, and Everton's coach, David Moyes, took the job at Man U. Everton hired a very good young Spanish coach, Roberto Martinez, who had had a fair amount of success with some other lesser known Welsh and English football clubs.  The conventional wisdom going in to this season was that Man U would continue its winning ways, and Everton would probably end up on the bottom part of the table.

That has not happened.  Martinez has done a masterful job of incorporating a smashing counter attacking style, and has nurtured some very fine young talent, and judiciously used some loan players to give Everton their first real crack at going to Europe in ages.  Meanwhile, down the road in Manchester, David Moyes is probably receiving death threats, and is being lambasted every single day, as Man U have had -- for them -- a very rough season.  They will probably finish  in sixth or seventh place.

I think a fifth place finish for Everton is on the cards.  They are one point up on Spurs, but still have a game in hand.  A fifth place finish would get Everton in to the Europa tourney next year.

But, recently, Arsenal have been struggling, including getting shellacked by Chelsea about a week ago, 6-nil.  A few days later Arsenal gave up an own goal in the ninetieth minute against lightly considered Swansea, and were only able to muster up a draw.

So, there is still hope for Everton to finish in fourth place.  Everton have a big game tomorrow against Fulham.  It is a game they really have to win if they have any legitimate shot at making it to Champions League.  The game after that is against the team they are chasing, Arsenal, up at Goodison Park in Liverpool.

We will see what happens.  When I am in London a few weeks from now Everton will be facing Sunderland at the Stadium of Light in Sunderland.  I will be in Paris when Everton square off against Arsenal the day before my birthday.





Ta,
Ardent







UPDATE:  Arsenal drew 1-1 against title contenders, Man City, in London today, and are seven points ahead of Everton as of this moment.  The big shocker in the EPL today, though, was Crystal Palace beating Chelsea 1-nil on a own goal by John Terry.












-Ardent