Guy Fawkes Night, 2006

I am now here in England (for those of you that don't know me, I'm originally from Australia) and they still celebrate Guy Fawkes night or Bonfire night, as it's sometimes known. We stopped celebrating this back home when I was just a child. I'm sure it was because too many accidents occured with people and their DIY fireworks. The selling and purchasing of fireworks in Australia is illegal. It is only permissable to those who do it as a profession - for example the people that do the awesome display on Sydney Harbour every December 31st, which, sadly I am still yet to witness with my own eyes.

So these are some photos I took just from looking out the window of my room. My (basic) digital camera has a setting specifically for 'fireworks', so I had to have a steady hand (actually, I just leaned it against the brick wall). If you don't mind me saying so, I'm quite pleased with how they turned out.




For those that don't know what Guy Fawkes night is, here's the explanation I took from Wikepedia - 'It celebrates for some the failure of the Gun Powder plot (to others the attempt), in which a group of Catholic conspirators, led by one Robert Catesby, and including Guy Fawkes, attempted to blow up the Houses of Parliament in Westminster on the evening of 5 November 1605, when the Protestant King James I (James VI of Scotland) was within its walls.The celebrations, which in the United Kingdom take place in towns and villages across the country, involve fireworks displays and the building of bonfires, on which "guys", or dummies, representing Guy Fawkes, the most infamous of the conspirators, are traditionally burnt. Before the fifth, children traditionally used the "guys" to beg for money with the chant "Penny for the guy", although this is now rarely seen'.

'The Devil Wears Prada' Charity Screening & 'Hoodwinked' Movie Premiere.

Hi Readers... I had two waste of time premieres about a month ago. By waste of time, it means no one in the movie turned up. Infact, I don't think anyone who worked in the movie turned up - not even the boom operator - hence, it was a waste of (my) time.


(Anthony Head of 'Buffy' and 'Little Britain' fame. He was nice enough to walk all the way around the barriers and signed for every fan!)

The first was premiere was for the movie The Devil Wears Prada on Thursday 21 September 2006 at the Odeon West End. I can only remember who turned up as I've attached the photos throughout. I do remember Graham Norton (sort of like Jay Leno and Letterman... except gay) turned up, but he was too nasty to sign an autograph for the waiting fans. And too quick to even pose for the 'paps'.


Keisha from 'Sugarbabes'

Keisha Buchanan from the girl band 'Sugarbabes' turned up and I got her autograph. She was having trouble standing up and had just told us she'd only had 3 hours sleep after the music awards last night. There was literally a lady with her, holding on, to make sure she could stand straight. There was a young kid standing next to me who was yelling at people the whole night - he just wanted an autograph from anyone and was constantly asking me the names of people. I'd tell him and he'd yell really loud for them to come over. He managed to call Keisha over and he asked for a photo with her. She said he was just adorable and asked how old he was, '15' he said. She pulled an 'oops' face and then left. Lady Victoria Hervey turned up, but I've no idea who she is. Wait, I just googled her, she's a wannabe actress.


Lady Victoria... yeah, I have no idea either!

There was a lady in white dress that turned up, she's in a new group and the boy kept saying how good looking she was. I told him to call her over and he said 'I will, what's her name'. I said I had no idea and jokingly said 'Lady in the white dress'. He then yelled at the top of his lungs for the 'Lady in the White Dress'. It got a laugh out of the crowd. He must've called her about 10 times and she eventually came out of the cinema and over to us. It was her first movie premiere.


Lady in the white dress - don't know her name, she's in a new group.

After all the lesser known celebs, Kimberley Stewart (daughter of Rod) turned up last and very late. I think she was the only 'celebrity' I'd heard of. Sorry for the bad photo... trust me, it's her.


Kimberley Stewart, famous for being Rod's daughter.

The next premiere was the following Sunday the 24th at the Vue, Leicester Square for the kids movie 'Hoodwinked'. This too was a waste of time as I don't even think the coffee runner turned up to this one. There were a couple of British celebs who I've never heard of and didn't pay much attention to. The only one I'd heard of was Caeser from the Big Brother show - no one special, I'm sure he'll be asking if I 'want fries with that' in 5 years time with all the other '15 minute famers'.


An actor dressed as 'Granny'

This was an afternoon premiere and they'd hired some actors to dress up as the four main characters from the film. There was Granny, Red, Big Bad Wolf and the Woodsman. Other than that, it was 3 hours of my life I can't get back.


Red and Wolf battling it out at the Hoodwinked London Premiere.



Red and the Woodsman getting in their '15 seconds'...

I will write something more interesting next time...

London Lunchbreak

I was out on my lunch break on Wednesday and I stopped by Jubilee Gardens to take some photos of the London Eye. Actually, I heard there was a film crew down there, so that was the real reason I went down (me and movies...).


The Houses of Parliament and Big Ben



The film crew for either 'The Bourne Ultimatum' or 'Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer' or 'Run Fat Boy Run'. All are currently filming in London.



The helicopter in the background is taking aerial shots for 'Fatastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer'. That I know for sure as I received an email mentioning why there was a helicopter flying over the River Thames. I imagine it'll be a scene where Johnny Blaze or the Silver Surfer is flying through the sky, with London as the backdrop.



It was a lovely clear day, the sky was a perfect blue and the sun was out and although you can't tell by the photos I think the weather was about 7C and it warranted the wearing of a long wool jacket.

Is It A Cultural Thing?

I have been living in London now for 5 months and becoming a regular commuter, I have started taking the Tube to work. The first thing that struck me about the tube was that I'd just come from New York City, and their subway had no problems dealing with the 8 million locals plus the extra 2-4 million tourists there on a daily basis. London has a population of 7 million and I wonder why, oh why, is there never a day when every single tube is running as it should be?!

And when did it become acceptable to try and push through the travellers who are trying to get off the train, so that they can get on first. Even if the announcement comes over the loudspeaker to let passengers off the train before boarding, there are still those selfish a$$holes who thinks it's acceptable to be impatient.

And another thing, when did it become ok to not stand up for your elders and give them a seat on the train? I have given up my seat a few times this week and have noticed the other commuters looking at me, wondering what I'm doing, then proceed to bury their heads in their evening paper. It's like a seat becomes available and thre's this mad dash to get there first. Why not look around and see who's more deserving of it, like the pregnant lady on my train yesterday.

Finally, when did the sentence 'The (insert train line name here) is having delays at the moment, due to a person on the tracks' become ok to be announced out loud?

I am 5 1/2 months into my 2 year working visa... I wonder if I'll last the distance...

Children of Men Premiere

On Tuesday the 19th of September at the Odeon in Leceister Square in London was the premiere for the UK film 'Children of Men'. I wanted to go to this premiere because it stars Clive Owen and Michael Caine and both being British, I knew it was guarenteed they'd turn up. They proved me right.


(Saffron Burrows turned up and signed for the waiting fans)

I got there after work and managed to score a front row spot right opposite the cinema entrance. I couldn't believe it, it was going to be a great view. After waiting a few hours, the celebs started to arrive. Michael Caine turned up with his wife. Two of the minor stars, Claire-Hope Ashitey and Charlie Hunnam, also turned up as did the director Alfonso Cuaron. Clive Owen arrived after all of them. I first got an autograph off Michael Caine (arrived with his wife) who I thought was a bit of grumpy, rushing his signatures and going 'Ok, who's next' and things like that. (I have since met him again and he was quite nice). Unfortunately, the girl next to me had a big red marker, and that's the pen Michael used to sign and you can't really see he signed on my photo. Oh well. Michael didn't sign as much as the bottom of the red carpet, but after he did his interviews, he came over and signed on my side of the carpet. The paparazzi cameras can zoom that far, so the stars have to look good for them.


(The gorgeous Clive Owen signing before heading into the cinema)

After Michael, Charlie also came over and he signed quite a bit for the fans. I didn't get Claire-Hope or Alfonso's autographs, but that's ok, I was hanging out for Clive Owen's. After much waiting and a lot of 'is that him? Can anyone see?... is itClive?', he finally made it to where I was standing and I got him to sign a photo (about 10cm x 15cm) of him in 'Inside Man', which is a film that I just love. I got some nice photos of him before he made his way to the end of the red carpet to pose for the photographers. After that he headed inside.


(Clive was nice enough to come out and sign for us again before he left)

I was reviewing my pics and only managed to take three ok shots of him, because the flash takes forever to re-load. I was hoping to get some more pics, but they don't usually sign twice. When they were done introducing the film, a lot of the people who were behind me for arrivals had disappeared, and Clive stood at the door entrance waiting to leave. HIs car was running late, so he just had to wait for it. We all started to yell out to him 'Clive... Clive' and he finally came over. I managed to get another autograph on a 'Children of Men' photo and I got some better photos of him. It was good too, because there weren't that many people there - maybe 25.



(Charlie Hunnam talking to the fans)

Michael had also come out earlier to sign before he left, but I was moving around and missed it, which is a shame, because it would've been nice not to have it in red pen. It was a good premiere, and I'm surprised four of the movie's stars plus the director turned up. I did get some good photos though... and I finally met Clive Owen. Even George Clooney thinks he's got talent!

Miami Vice London Premiere

I haven't uploaded my pics from the London Film Festival as I'm a bit busy at the moment. This is going back a few months, but here's some reading about the Miami Vice London Premiere... On Thursday 27 July 2006 was the 'Miami Vice' premiere at the Odeon, Leicester Square. The premiere was taking place in Leicester Square park and there were probably about a hundred people spread out around the park. I hadn't seen a premiere like this before, so I didn't know where to stand. I ended up getting a spot at the front of one of the barriers which was lucky. It was a warm day and sitting in the sun for a couple of hours wasn't the most fun I had, but what can you do?

One of my friends, came down because she loves the Irish accent and wanted to meet Colin Farrell. I met him a couple of years ago at a baseball game in Toronto and got my photo with him then. At the time I only had my baseball ticket stub to get signed, so I was hoping to get something better signed today. I had a photo - about 10cm x 15cm -that I was hoping to get signed. At about 5.30pm Colin arrived and the car stopped on the opposite side of the park to where I was standing. That'd be right. He signed some autographs, posed for the photographers and then did the interviews about the movie. It must've taken him almost an hour before he reached us, but by that time, it had started to softly rain, so he was moving quicker than when he was on the photographers side. Because of the rain, it had gotten darker quicker too, so by the time he got to me, I took a photo then had to wait for what felt like 10 minutes while the flash on my slow and simple digital camera re-loaded. By the time I took my next photo of him, he was already on the other side of me.

I was going to try and get another photo with him, but my friend pulled him and said 'Can I borrow you for a photo?' and she got her photo with him. I noticed that if he posed for someone, he wouldn't pose again for another 5 or 10 people, so I didn't get a photo with him... but, I did get the photo signed I wanted, plus, there was another photo I had of Colin and Jamie Foxx taken at the L.A. premiere of Miami Vice that he signed as well. I was hoping Jamie would sign it when he turned up.



( Colin and my friend who's face I have blanked out)

Michael Mann, the director arrived about 20-30 minutes after Colin. He did his bit over in the corner on the other side of the park (now I know where to stand for next time), did lots of interviews, but with all the yelling we couldn't get him to come over and sign on 'our side of the park'. Oh well. When Jamie finally turned up it was about an hour after Colin and he wasn't outside for long - maybe 20 minutes. He only signed over where the photographers could get a photo of him doing so. He walked around the park and waved to us - Whoop De Doo - and then he stopped before going up the stairs to sign about 5 autographs about 15 metres from where I was for some fans. After that, he did a quick interview, then walked over the bridge that had been set up and made his way to the cinema entrance.

So, unfortunately he didn't sign the photo of him and Colin that I had printed up. I figured no one else was turning up, so I made my way to the other side of the fence and got near the cinema entrance to see Jamie walking inside. He didn't sign any autographs over there, just shook peoples hand. A lot of the crowd dispersed after this as I don't think anyone else from the movie was turning up. Oh, Li Gong also turned up aswell, complete with English Translator.






I was hanging around for about 10 minutes, as were about 50 other people, when Samuel L Jackson came walking down the stairs. I had to fumble for my camera and only got one quick photo of him. He was wearing a T-Shirt which on the back was shamelessly advertisting his new movie 'Snakes on a Plane'. This was the photo that made the paper the next day - the back of Samuel L Jackson's T-Shirt. After he went in I left as I left and heard screaming as I was walking away. I saw a photo in the paper the next day that Ewan McGregor had turned up. I think that explains the screaming. Turns out he went because he and Colin are currently in London filming a movie.