#627 Belgium

We went to Ghent:
We visited SMAK the museum of modern art
We watched Day 4 of the Ghent Six Day bike race.

Short video of one of the events where the riders are each paced by a Derny motor bike. It's the last few laps and Mark Cavendish is 4th but can't get through to win, so he's waving his arms in disgust, at 60 kph! 

#621 Library Books

#614.2 Central Saint Martins

At Central Saint Martins for a week's course 100 Drawing Projects.

1st day had to draw a paint brush with the wrong end of (another) brush and my chair using a chair! (dipping the leg in a pot of ink).

Can you spot the Selfie? clue: it's not the goat.

Bye Bye traveling Underground (phew) 

#606 f#@k

I just watched the Beatle's film Hard Day's Night.
First shown in 1964, that makes it fifty years old.
FIFTY YEARS OLD!  . . . . . f#@k

#602

#587 Greek

I'm not buying any more books (for at least a week):

#585 Cogito ergo sum

I realised I know nothing about Kant!
And I've been enjoying A. A. Gill's Sunday Times back page,
so I'm investigating some of his books.

#577 Keeping Amazon in Business

#568 December Books

#558 Very Old Vinyl

I *could* play my old vinyl but it's easier to call up Spotify or even YouTube - you don't have to get up and turn the LP over (although having free Spotify I have to mute the ads between each track).

Love - Forever Changes

Terry Riley - Rainbow in Curved Air

Swingle Singers & the MJQ - Place Vendôme

#540 Faith

We went to see Carrie in a theatre production of Faith, which she and her actor friends jointly wrote and produced. The theme was the word Faith and there were references to George Michael's hit single plus other sketches based around faith. Plus, between each sketch a video screen showed short interviews with people who where asked to explain their conception of the word. It was V Good!

Photo Credit Angela Ulloa

#528 3 Books

#525 Escalator

#522 Library Service.

#520 Big Band

#516 Almodóvar

We went to the cinema and watched  
Pedro Almodóvar's Los Amantes Pasajeros. 

It's about a plane that has to crash-land because it's landing gear is broken and the film is the story that the passengers tell leading up to the forced landing. There is a funny scene where the gay cabin crew do a dance sequence to the record It's So Exciting. It's an OK film.

Years and years ago we went on holiday as a family to Crete. On the way back the pilot left his flight deck and came down with a torch and peered out of a window. Apparently a red light on the dashboard said the wheels hadn't come down in preparation for landing. We did a few circuits above Heathrow until the flight tower could look up and assure the pilot that the undercarriage was in fact in place.

Phew! (and as a bonus, we didn't have to watch our cabin crew do cheesy disco dancing).

#505 Reading

New books - Christmas presents and recent Amazon purchases:
By happenstance two by the same author, Muriel Barbery. I enjoyed them both.
*The* Kerouac book to add to my Kerouac collection.
I'm a fan of Murakami so that's all right.
Keith Richards' Life was an impulse purchase - it's very long.
Your Creative Writing Masterclass, so I know when to dot the i's and cross the t's.

#502 La Grande Boucle

I bought this book about the history of the Tour de France on-line from FNAC in France for 40€ - I could have bought it from the US where it was priced in hundreds of dollars.  !

#500 Chasing Legends

500th post!
Downloaded then watched a tv programme called Chasing Legends, mostly about Mark Cavendish and his HTC highroad team in the Tour de France. It was good.

#485 Film Review

I just watched a film called Holy Motors. It's a French surreal / bizarre / black avante garde sort of film. Yes it was strange! A man is driven around Paris in a stretched limo. Every now and then he gets out and is metamorphosed into a weird or mad person, he acts out a scene, most of which are rather gruesome, then gets back in the limo. That's it.

The sets or scenes together with the cinematography is excellent. Very moody and believable. Oh, Kylie Minogue is in it and she sings a song (bizarre eh?). Only one real complaint it was too long (nearly 2 hours) and I got a bit bored with the freakyness towards the end.