the flicker club film recommendation:
La Cabina
Spanish TV movie, made in 1972. English title: The Telephone Box. I caught this on tele years ago as boy and chilled me to the bone but in a good way.. A simple story, a man gets trapped inside a telephone box but the way this simple scenario builds to its shocking conclusion has stayed with me ever since.
the flicker club quotation:
"Imagination is more important than knowledge"
Einstein
the flicker club art exhibition recommendation:
The Royal Academy of Arts Summer Exhibition is one of London's longest-running art shows, now in its 242nd year! It's also the world's largest open-submission contemporary art exhibition with around 11,000 works submitted annually. It covers painting, printmaking, photography, sculpture and architecture. 14 Jun-22 August. We were thrilled to go along to the private view on Friday night and you can read what we thought of it below... Pimms anyone?
the flicker club gift guide:
Father Day Present
This bespoke book stamp is the most lovely present for anyone who loves their books, but especially those hard-to-buy-for men. It’s a useful way to keep track of books when you lend them to friends too.
Summer Exhibition 2010
How lucky are we? the flicker club have just returned from the private view of this years 'Summer Exhibition' at the Royal Academy. The 242th year no less..!
As always, there was an eclectic selection of work on display that vary from “I could do that,” ( A canvas with a vertical yellow and white stripe) through to “Why would they want to do that,” (A woman licking a dog) to “How did they do that?” (A silver back gorilla sculpted out of wire coat hangers). The exhibition is always an exhilarating and challenging experience.
I found myself walking dismissively past a David Hockney and then scurrying back to posture appreciatively when I overheard his name from a more informed patron. But it is those little discoveries you make for yourself, those paintings that just call to you from amidst the bombardment of images. “Wolf and Chandeliers” by Emma Molony captivated me. Sadly sold out before I could snap it up. Another striking image was Van Gogh’s “Sunflowers” rendered in burnt black by Mark Alexander, so powerful.
In the room, an old canvas book entitled 'How to Understand Sculpture', delicately disemboweled and transformed into sculpture from its own shredded pages. Please go and make your own discoveries, be outraged, be delighted, whilst supping a glass of pimm’s.
For the first time ever I made a few investments. For the child in me, 'Life Under Water', a boy and a girl swimming among aquatic dreams by Quentin Blake, for the adult in me “The Sun Is But A Morning Star”, a lighted window shining out from an impossibly dark house at midnight by Ian Whittlesea and, unexpectedly, “For You” a lovely little etching of a dog by Tracey Emin.
I’m still crushed at missing that wolf though...
QI 2010 Quiz at The Groucho's
the flicker club do love a pub quiz so when we were invited to the QI 2010 Quiz at The Groucho's, well how could we resist?
It was the most ridiculously difficult, frustrating, and incredibly clever quiz wonderfully hosted by John Lloyd, (producer of Not The Nine O'Clock News, Spitting Image and Blackadder).
Snipbits we picked up, that we are just waiting for a opportune moment to drop into conversation include..
1: What unusual facial feature do Mona Lisa and a horse have in common?
No eyebrows..
2: Which country has no hotels?
Vatican City...
and lastly, what did Sir Henry Royce say on his deathbed?
"I wish I'd spent more time in the office".
Talking of which, I must get back to work.
Be seeing you,
Juliette for the flicker club
Stephen Merchant
Exclusive Comedy Gig
Tonight the flicker club found themselves in the front row of a immensely appreciate audience enjoying the one may show of Mr. Stephen Merchant. You know the one, the Stan Laurel to Ricky Gervias' Oliver Hardy.
The writer and star of Extras and The Office, Merchant has taken to the stage, he says, for the "lucrative DVD sales", which he won't have to share with "you-know-who". His rapport with the audience was engaging, endearing and very clever, his insight into the life and times of a person above average height, (Merchant is 6'7"), set the stage for some wonderfully surreal humour and we particularly liked the Jehovah's Witness sketch and the indignity of a lanky man's life when on New Year in Trafalgar Square, a young woman tells Merchant that she and her boyfriend have arranged "to meet back at you"..
The highlight for us though, was the encore, where Stephen invited two members of the audience to re-enact a school play he had written as a boy with hysterically earnest social vignettes entitled 'Choices'.
Jacksons Lane Theatre is a lovely little venue, opposite Highgate tube, well worth a trip as they have such a varied program throughout the year..
RIP Sebastian Horsley
Thursday 17th June 2010
'a futile blast of colour in a futile colourless world'. At Damian Barr's literary salon he predicted he'd be dead by 45... Viva the Dandy!
Soho will not be the same without you.
