Who Needs Sunshine?


Recently I went to the Bowie exhibition at the V & A.  It was beautifully curated.  Filled with memorabilia of an amazing and eclectic career.  Exhibits included posters, books, exhibits on how he wrote his lyrics, film clips, costumes, voice booths to listen at and a recreated gig room. He has had such a varied career; artist, writer, singer, actor and performer.
This exhibition is a bit like an obituary without the loss, when presented with the grand sum of Bowie's collected work you realise the effect Bowie has had on us.  It revived lots of memories. 



I found this book whilst searching for treasure for my on-line bookshop. This book is a fascinating snapshot of Britain in 1960, just before my time.  Reading the transcript you are transported back to a time of innocence - and fear of what unleashing such powerful words would do to the youth of Britain.  Reading it makes you want to shout; save your breath, the internets coming!  



Daniel Radcliffe strikes me as an intense actor, so seriously wanting to get it right.  He totally nails Billy the cripple in this black comedy at the Noel Coward theatre.  There's still tickets if you fancy being transported to a poor 1930's Ireland, where a boy with a physical disability hears about a Hollywood screen test on the next island and desperately wants to try for it.  The humour is black, the kind you need to survive poverty and adversity.  Looking forward to Radcliffe's upcoming film on the beat poet Allen Ginsberg too now.


And talking of films, I can highly recommend Behind The Candelabra.  The biopic of Liberace, with Michael Douglas as the closeted pianist, and Matt Damon as his troubled young lover Scott Thorson.  A glossy film based on the book Scott wrote after Liberace died.  Rob Lowe's all too brief appearance as a plastic surgeon who has overdosed on procedures himself is hilarious. Michael Douglas was Liberace; camp, caring and callous in equal measure.

Who needs good weather when there's so much else to do?




16 comments:

  1. I loved the Bowie exhibition - particularly the last room with the floor to ceiling video screens. And behind the Candelabra is fantastic. Some brilliant acting, shame that Michael Douglas won't get an Oscar because it's HBO.

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    1. It is a tragedy, but good on HBO taking a punt when no one else would touch it because of the subject, I hope it's a box office smash!

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  2. I was 10 when the Lady Chatterley trial took place so wouldn't have taken it in at the time although I do remember the Profumo affair on TV and in all the newspapers just three years later. The Bowie exhibition sounds good:)

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    1. I live near Cliveden Rosie, so whenever I take my daughter or son there I bore them with the Profumo affair, I wonder if the film would stand the test of time?

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  3. Rob Lowe in Behind the Candelabra stole the show!

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    1. Yes, I keep wondering how they did that to his face - hooks?! It can't be digital wizardry. I remember reading once that Greta Garbo used chains attached to her ears and running under her chin to give her jawline more definition. How people are willing to suffer in the quest to defy time...

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  4. Also saw the Bowie exhibition too - but it was so crowded ! Made sure I stayed ages in the last part which was amazing. The Liberace film is on my list of ones to see... Maybe it will be showing on my flight back to Oz? S x

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  5. I hope it does, it will make that long journey pass more quickly. Safe trip back x

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  6. I found Rob Lowe laugh out loud funny, also Liberace asleep but unable to close his eyelids - the horror! I did wonder how they achieved such dramatic facial effects, with Michael Douglas looking like a cadaver in the final scene.
    As for me, everything is heading south - and it's going to stay there!

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    1. I think I'll be heading south, in my entirety, if this weather keeps up!

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  7. Some good recommendations there to compensate for the, ahem, summer weather! I do love living in the north but can't help envying the great exhibitions, theatre etc that goes on in London.

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    1. Thank goodness the sun had arrived Ellen, we can finally 'do' summer outside

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  8. I agree, great recommendations, I still haven't seen the david bowie and must get there before it finishes!

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  9. Love the V&A. I'd like to have seen the Bowie exhibition.

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    1. It's being televised at Regal cinemas - so not too late!

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