| Posted by Lou | The time is 12.05pm here in London UK |

My 30th Birthday Party turned out to be the best party I've ever had, so thought I'd share some of the best tips!

Generally I find hosting a party to be extremely stressful so had done a lot of googling for ideas, but in the end it came down to mac'n'cheese, Abbey Road, and good ol' punch.


1. Macaroni Cheese Canapés

Surprisingly this was the hit of the night. I had whipped up a massive batch earlier in the day which was sitting in the oven. At the mad-hungas time of the party (10? 10.30?) I cooked it (making sure someone more responsible than myself was standing chatting in the kitchen and found themself on timing duty) then wrangled myself a helper whose job was to hold an old vinyl record. I bunged big spoonfuls into muffin cases (double them up as it'll be hot), stuck in a plastic fork, and sent her into the room... She was back in about 10 seconds shouting "more! more! faster!" as the room made an audible shift towards the kitchen.

This is totally not what mine looked like at all, it just looks yummy.

Hopefully someone has a photo of mine I can insert here later...

My macaroni cheese is based on a recipe that exists only in my head - I believe it comes from the Edmonds Cookbook white sauce with lots of medium chedder cheese put in. Normally I would put a crunchy topping on of teensy bits of toast (like not quite a crumb but much smaller than croutons) mixed with grated cheese, which creates a nice crunchy texture - but for the party I couldn't be fucked and nobody noticed! Best part? Clean up is minimal, and it took about 15 mins to prepare earlier in the day and about 10 mins to serve during the party.

2. Abbey Road

I had organised very few decorations for the Beatles theme, leaving me somewhat reliant on costumes. I made my bedroom (which opens onto the living room with double doors) reminiscent of the "bed in for peace" and plastered the doors with these Yoko Ono "War is Over" posters. Other than that was the occasional Beatles decoration that I already owned, and the use of Thomas the Tank Engine paper cups for my instant pudding/ angel delight canapés.

So luckily for me two wonderful guests turned up with suits and Beatles wigs and brought along the Abbey Road crossing. It was the best thing possible for emphasising the theme and giving a focus point for the costumes and photos. Luckily they were quite early to arrive too so probably everyone else thought I'd come up with it...

Louise in the Sky with Diamonds and Ringo

Please note alcohol stains all down my dress...

3. Magical Mystery Punch

Ah, punch - the lowest of the low, easiest of the easy. But such a classic...

I was trying to be somewhat more sophisticated than the 21st birthday party version of punch (cheap vodka, juice, lemonade) and at least bought proper vodka and variety of juices. I believe it started out as vodka, orange juice, lemonade, fiery ginger beer, and cranberry & raspberry cordial. It became more potent and mixed as the night progressed, with the requirement for speedy refreshment of the bowl's supply leading me at one point to throw in half a bottle of bubbly, some gin...

But it did the trick, it actually seemed to keep somewhat of a modicum of sobriety at the party (I guess even if it seems strong it isn't as strong as drinking bubbly for 6 hours non-stop (and by "sobriety" I mean "not quite rollicking drunkenness")), and was an easy space-saver due to the limited ingredients; without seeming like total cheap student piss.

Err... mine was more pyrex-baking-bowl-with-plastic-tumblers

On the day of my party I was stressed and thinking "I'm never hosting a party again!!", but focussing on the simple touches I think I just might possibly... next time I have an excuse... (my 40th?)

| Posted by Lou | The time is 5.00pm here in London UK |

I feel like you and I and everyone else know the answer to Bel's question:

If I could have My 30th Birthday in any other Time/Era...

Instead of having a Beatles-themed birthday party, I would be having an authentic Beatles birthday party by casting myself back 49 years to Liverpool 1961*.

Alcohol features quite pleasingly in this photo

Liverpool on the 12th November 1961 would have been cold and miserably rainy, but we'd clomp down the cobblestoned street (our bouffant hair protected by plastic shawls) to The Cavern...

10 Mathew Street

...and find ourselves in the overwhelming heat of an underground space filled to the brim with not-yet-manic fans of an emerging band...

This photo was apparently taken on 8th December 1961 - close enough!

...and have the night of our lives.

Artist's impression of Lou gazing adoringly at John from the front row

*Ah, it would be so much nicer to just be able to say "50 years ago today..." but alas they weren't yet The Beatles.

Posted by Lou. The time is 7.25pm here in London, UK.


The best adjective I can think of for A Single Man is distinguished. As you would expect from a fashion designer, Tom Ford has given us a beautiful (visually) piece of cinema. As you may not expect from a fashion designer turned first-time filmmaker, he has also given us a beautiful (emotionally) piece of cinema. This is one cross-over I hope marks a career change as it is an absolutely fantastic - and under-recognised (*coughUpInTheAircough*) - directorial debut.

Also fantastic is Colin Firth. Now, I know that you know that I love Colin Firth solely and wholeheartedly for giving us The Darcy, but please don't think this is praise rooted in a biased desire to love him in this. He is honestly better than I thought he could be. If he was George Clooney they would have already engraved his name on the Oscar a month ago. His performance is surprisingly perfect (apparently also a surprise to him based on his BAFTA acceptance speech where he confessed having almost pulled out thinking he couldn't do it), and stands out even beyond the wet shirt scene Darcy as being his career high.



Set in one day in 1962 Los Angeles, Colin [he lets me call him Colin (when we're in bed he let's me call him Darcy*)] plays an English Professor unable to come to terms with having lost his (male) partner to a car accident several months before. As he tries to navigate one last day of his numbing present his overriding sense of sentimentalism finds meaning to each and every interaction, be it with a neighbour, complete stranger, best friend, or student. It is a deep and touching story told with exquisite style and one I very much recommend you treat yourself to. (I'm saying little about it as it's both very character-driven (so there isn't much to say of plot), and it's so well-told visually that you just need to see it.)



There are two further things beyond the qualities of the film itself that that make it such a stand-out for me. When Brokeback Mountain blazed a trail just a few years ago, the hope was that soon a film could be a love story between gay men without it having to be A Thing - that the being gay wasn't the story itself. I feel like this is that film. It is specific to the fact that he is a gay man, but it is not about the fact that he is a gay man. Hurrah, and may many more follow. Secondly, from the perspective of being a heterosexual woman this film is notable for the fact that it is one of the few that capture the beauty of men, losing the heterosexual-male gaze that the majority of cinema is and has historically been shot from. Overall the film is made with close attention to aesthetics, but it is most notably cast upon the men on-screen - from Colin himself to an impossibly beautiful man you feel blessed to have cast eyes upon. Again: hurrah, and may many more follow.


*Disclaimer: Lou has never met Colin. (Though did come across his home address in the course of professional duties once. (But didn't write it down. (Honest.)))

PS: I didn't much mention the supporting cast, but have to say that I was absolutely stunned to discover that his student is played by the boy who was Marcus in About a Boy. Who'd've thunk!

***************

Colin isn't the only man I love, and Tom Ford isn't the only cross-over artist making their directorial debut. Nowhere Boy is a film about my beloved John Lennon's troubled adolescence, made by high-profile British photographer/ conceptual artist Sam Taylor-Wood. And happily, I can add to the list of things in common that A Single Man isn't the only film that twists the traditional gaze of cinema... Aaron Johnson's eyelashes, soft skin and physicality are certainly gazed upon by the sensual lens of his (heterosexual female) Director*.

The story is well known: In late-50s Liverpool John is a rebellious teddy boy living with his mother's sister "Aunt Mimi" and his beloved uncle. After the sudden death of his uncle he regains close contact with his mother Julia, who introduces him to rock-n-roll. He starts a band, meets Paul, and... well, we'd love to say that the rest is history from there, but unfortunately tragedy interrupts first.



The heart of this story - surprisingly - is the relationship of two sisters. Kristin Scott Thomas is good as Aunt Mimi, but Anne-Marie Duff is spectacular as Julia. Her Julia is a seductive figure for John, fun and tactile and out-of-control, in total contrast to the prim and ordered and controlling Aunt Mimi who wrestles against her effect on John. The filmmaker is highly sympathetic to both, squarely positioning Julia as bi-polar, and Aunt Mimi as controlling by necessity. Instead of going down the tempting and all-too-easy road of giving us a misunderstood genius, she has seen behind him to the women in his life and provided a compelling story of their struggle to reconcile their relationships to him and each other.



And yet... I didn't love it. Even though I saw this film weeks ago and even though I love John and am absolutely interested in his early-life, I've sat down several times to write a review here of the film and found myself totally uninspired. A Single Man is its perfect companion in one more way then: it showed me the distinguishing x factor that Nowhere Boy lacks. It is a good film with some good performances, but without the excellence of A Single Man that might make it more memorable and more of a quintessential portrayal of The Boy That Became John Lennon.


*They are now engaged and pregnant - another nice skew of traditional filmmaker-actor gender relations!

Posted by Lou. The time is 1.25pm here in London, UK.

Tuesday 22nd December 2009 will be forever tattooed in my memory as the night my dreams came true and I got to see A Beatle perform live.

This alone would be enough, but the two-and-three-quarter hours of magnificence that Paul McCartney delivered was beyond my wildest dreams.

For the geeks, here is some info on the set-list in rough chronological order and with many gaps due to just having jotted it down on the way home. I also have to confess that I am very unfamiliar with Paul's solo and Wings stuff, so there are a few songs I remember but couldn't identify.

I also broke my cardinal rule of not filming things but rather enjoying, however I decided part way through some lasting evidence of the magic will be something I'll enjoy over and over in the future.


Magical Mystery Tour
Drive My Car
Jet
Eleanor Rigby
...his brand new Golden Globe nominated one for a de Niro film...
Long and Winding Road
...a love song he wrote for Linda?...
Paperback Writer
...that newish one that is about dancing...
Blackbird
Here Today - this was an extremely emotional one. He led a cheering/ clapping session for John and spoke about the regret of not telling someone you love them and then it being too late.
I've got a Feeling
Band on the Run
Let It Be
Something - he began this on a ukulele that George had given him and sang it to a backdrop of images of George. The band then kicked for the second half. This is where I felt compelled to capture some moments:


A Day in the Life - he did the first two verses then his bit, and then they merged into us all singing the chorus of Give Peace a Chance - the crescendo that you know ends in his bit was pretty fucken awesome
Lady Madonna
Back in the USSR
...that fucken Christmas song that I hate!... (it was quite hilarious though)
Live and Let Die - fireworks! My God! It was awesome!!:


Hey Jude - total tears moment screaming out the naaa-naaa-naaa-na-na-na-naaas.
Get Back
Yesterday


At about this point - I mean, by now we're on a 2nd encore and about two-and-a-half hours in - I thought it couldn't get any better... but then...

Mull of Kintyre - complete with Highland drummers!:


And I was spent. There was nowhere to go. We'd reached the apex... but... but... Paul said "you want to rock some more don't you?" and we screamed "YES!!" and he took us into the best, rockingest, awesomest version ever of:

Helter Skelter

And I knew life would only be downhill from here. I had reached the top. And so he played us out on...

Sgt Pepper exit bit