steven berkoff

Huge fans of Steven Berkoff. Have seen him in Kvetch (1986), Acapulco (1990), Brighton Beach Scumbags (1991) and Massage (2000 maybe?, he directed and was not in the cast, but illness took out the lead and he stepped in on the day i went; fan-fn-tastic) And love his turns chewing up the scenery in Under the Cherry Moon (Let the dogs loose, they look hungry) and The Krays (Bang bang, end of story, end of agro)... aaaaaaahhhh could go on. [sidenote: Ron Kray's funeral procession went right past our window when we lived in the East End. Quite the scene] He is a bit of a punch line for some, the slow motion, the mime techniques, the threats to kill critics... Great scene in The Tall Guy riffing on him, sort of lovingly I think.

His production of On the Waterfront finally coming to London's West End (has had many years of fits and starts). Read. He will play Johnny Friendly.

Great stuff below, SB performing his Shakespeare's Villians. If we can all be so vibrant and energetic (and articulate) at 70-odd.

bookshelf -choo choo

"Whenever I can, I substitute picture for word." -VLB

Written and illustrated by Virginia Lee Burton, Choo Choo was her first published children's book (an earlier work, Jonnifer Lint, did not get accepted). Quite an amazing lady actually. A Massachusetts native, father was first dean of MIT, on the bleeding edge of children's book illustrating. Read more here. The premise for this story came from watching the trains at Rockport (MA) station with her son, Aris. Our wee boy is mad on trains and loves this, especially as the train runs away and goes too fast in his estimation...




Her better known works may be The Little House or Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel, but the dark graphics of Choo Choo definitely give an illicit thrill to the sub5 set...

lee denim

'Course love my blanket-lined Levis to death, but have written about the stealth pick of Lee denim here before too. M thinks Buddy Lee is a creepy doll a la Chucky... i think he looks like our wee boys hahaha. Lee are digging in the archives ('archive' is a word thrown around a little too loosely sometimes, but this time it does apply). Nice animated/potted history of the Lee company on their euro site here. Via Selectism. The Lee store does not even offer the jackets for sale, forget 101 repros etc... huge hole.

Exhibit A, Lee repro shirts by Edwin below. Classic shapes, good materials. Not rocket science guys...

bonus -tom waits

Remember that movie Mystery Men? Found this deleted scene on the internets. Tom Waits.... rascal. Watch.

dean's shortbread

The bakery Dean's of Huntly is less than 50 years old; unlike the storied, ubiqitous, red wrapped, Walker's shortbread and much more like-granny-baked to me. A step up. Easy to spot as it is the one in the green and cream wrapping.

woodsongs -lambchop (and others)

Lambchop was on Michael Jonathan's WoodSongs Old-Time Radio House, last Monday, January 26. Streaming media available from today here. They were preceded by the Tannahill Weavers in this clip (a Scottish trad band). Lambchop at the 16 and 47 minute mark. Play. They tell the story of how they came up w/ 'lambchop' as a name incase you didn't know (i didn't). Lot of chatting. Good stuff.