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?