Category: this is london
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This post was originally written on 9th September, 2009. Foyles Bookstore, London Tonight we saw John Banville (who is also Benjamin Black) at a free author’s talk organised by the Foyles Bookstore. In the event, Banville discussed his latest novel,…
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I was gripped from the opening seconds of Kathryn Bigelow’s The Hurt Locker about an elite Army bomb squad whose main job is to defuse roadside bombs. The film uses suspense masterfully to suggest the tension and fear of the…
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Baozi Inn, ChinatownSaturday 4th Decemer, 2010, 12:30pm
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–The Ghost is based on the novel by Robert Harris of the same title. We thought it was a fine old-fashioned thriller; it reminded one of both Hitchcock and the paranoid thrillers of the 1970s. Directed by Roman Polanski, the…
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Seen at the South Kensington tube station on a Saturday afternoon
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Outside lands contiguous with China, emigration has never been promoted by the Chinese state. The spread of Chinese cooking around the world has therefore been colonial but not imperial, carried by peaceful migrants in self-imposed “economic exile.” At least, this…
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–The Welsh documentary sleep furiously1 by Gideon Koppel records a year of life in Trefeurig, a small farming community in Wales. The film does not have an obvious structure or narrative. But in its formless way, it documents the slow…
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This post was originally written on 6th September, 2009. District 9 (official website: www.d-9.com) is about the problems posed by the unexpected arrival of an alien spaceship above Johannesburg, South Africa. When humans board the aliens’ hovering ship (which reminds…
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Moon is a great film. It reminded me of 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968), Solaris (1972) and even Blade Runner (1982). The film centres on Sam Bell (played marvellously by Sam Rockwell), a miner living alone in a space station…
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by Tammy Lai-Ming Ho(This post was originally written on 14 February 2010.) . As many of you know, I am currently on a blog break. However, after seeing the National Theatre’s revival (actually, the return of the revival) of…
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This afternoon, my friend sent me this — a view from the window:
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Today, my friend sent me a smiley fox:
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This post was originally written on 24th January, 2010. When we were having dinner with our friend Jonathan (also the prose guest editor of the second anniversary issue of Cha) in a Sichuan restaurant in Soho, London (by the way,…
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Parts of this post were first written on 28th January and 1st May, 2010. Updated and expanded on 18th November, 2010.Adam and Eve This is an image from the wonderful Ebstorf Mappamundi, a Medieval European map of the world created in…
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This post was originally written on 5th March, 2010. Last week, we went to see the West End transfer of Enron. The play, which was written by the promising young playwright Lucy Prebble and directed by the current it-boy of…
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Parts of this post were first written in March this year (9th March and 11th March). Revised on 17th November, 2010. Recently, I read Melanie Benjamin‘s Alice I Have Been (2009), which is a fictional account of the life of…
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This post was originally written on 6th March, 2010. One good thing living in London is that you can just take fancy and go to any number of museums, galleries, theatres whenever you want. Last Sunday, we went to the…
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This post was originally written on 20th September, 2009. Today, thanks to Sunday Times, we got free tickets to watch The Crimson Wing, a documentary about the lives of a million East Africa’s lesser flamingos. The film will be released…
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This post was originally posted on 18th July, 2009. – Today we went shopping in the upmarket neighbourhood of Chelsea. Our first stop was the famous John Sandoe Bookstore. The store, which sells new books, is absolutely packed, much more…
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Picture source Last night we went to see Tribes (written by Nina Raine – Craig Raine‘s daughter) at the Royal Court. I was glad to finally get a chance to go to this near-legendary theatre, which is a leading spot…
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Benedict Cumberbatch (the new Sherlock) will be featured in Steven Spielberg’s film adaptation of War Horse (source). Today, the play is under the limelight again: in an Observer article, it is revealed that racism and bullying plague the production backstage. Horrible.My review…
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This post was originally posted on 31st October, 2009. Tonight, we went to watch the terrific An Education, starring Carey Mulligan and Peter Sarsgaard. The film was adapted by Nick Hornby from Lynn Barber’s memoir, originally published in Granta (maybe…
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This post was originally written on 17th June, 2009.– Tonight we went to watch Samuel Beckett’s Waiting for Godot, a tragi-comedy. (Also see my review of Krapp’s Last Tape.) The production stars Ian McKellen (Estragon) and Patrick Stewart (Vladimir). I…
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, This post was originally posted on 7th November, 2009. –Last night, we went to watch Jane Campion’s luscious Bright Star, the story of the doomed relationship between John Keats (played by Ben Whishaw) and his muse, Fanny Brawne (played…
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The inimitable Gambon plays Krapp It is my birthday tomorrow and therefore it is perhaps fitting that we went to watch Krapp’s Last Tape (full text), a work which portrays an ageing writer’s birthday. (Also read my brief review of Waiting…
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