This is not a blog

The last little while I have taken approx. one (1) metric fuck-tonne (phoque-tunn) of photographs! Maybe you will get to see some of them?

It occurred to me the other day that though I have gone into the city to see Hyde or St. James park...I hadn't walked the twenty minutes it takes for me to get to what is my larger local park - Finsbury Park. I'd also had Finsbury on the brain a little bit since watching Cronenburg's new film, Eastern Promises.

The above was almost certainly a political satire sketch being shot since, two seconds after I took this, the flasher opened his jacket to reveal his being nude but for a large cardboard cartoon of Gordon Brown's face over his crotch.

I'd read in more than one source about how the film was supposed to show a different London than what the tourists see, than what generally gets shown in films set in London - particularly ones made by American film makers. Thinking back to Woody Allen's portrayal of London in Match Point, this made pretty curious - especially since I live adjacent to areas where filming took place, such as Hackney and Finsbury (and had spent my first month here living in the former).It was a Cronenburg film about the Russian mafia, so understandably everything was pretty dark. But I would say the film did follow through, with only one or two shots of the Thames and the Gherkin, while the majority of the film felt very authentic. I'd get into the story etc, but you can find plenty about that elsewhere. Suffice to say, for those give a hoot, I thought it was a fairly impressive film that delivered what it promised and succeeded in surprising me where it wanted to. Can't ask for much more than that!
Meanwhile, I'd go on but I'm rather tired from a night on the towne. One thing I don't mind sharing from it was that the first stop for my pals and I was an establishment that had decided to try and work around the anti-smoking bill which was passed several months ago. Why, it wasn't a bar...it was an art gallery that served drinks! Really, it was a hilariously decorated squat with a great bit of graffiti on it's front. I'm glad I got to see it, since disapproving folk have noticed and made some legal noises that will result in it's closure some time not too far down the road. The two spirited folk behind the place plan to just keep having fun while dragging their heels, then moving on to other fun ventures when the law eventually clamps down. I gotta say, I admire their spirit!