About Me
leamington spa is a many faceted individual. she enjoys chocolate and flattery.
Occupation
Occupations are so bourgeois and in my experience, just a bore...
Favorite Music
KATE BUSH! Portishead, The Doors, Siouxsie and the Banshees (as opposed to The Cure or anything Robert Smith related - yeuch) Led Zep (if I'm in the mood. Sometimes I get irritated by Robert Plant's affected Southern drawl, but Jimmy Page's guitar doesn't lie)....B-52's, cos they're true originals...Blondie...ABBA!
Favorite Shows & Movies
1. One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest - brilliant, bold and unflinching look at a psychiatric ward, pretty damn accurate if I do say so myself....plus the best acting you will ever see in the world EVER!.
2. Hobson's choice - great acting again from Charles Laughton as a controlling Lancashire father/shop-owner to three daughters...very funny.
3. Badlands - Beautiful, breathtaking cinematography, directed by the genius recluse Terrence Malick and based on a true story - two youths go on a violent rampage, much imitated (Natural Born Killers, Kalifornia) but never bettered - starring Sissy Spacek and Martin Sheen.
4. Kind Hearts and Coronets - An aristocratic lady marries beneath her, for love, and is rejected by her snobbish family. Following her death, her son vows to wreak his revenge on his extended family, for their rejection. An Ealing comedy classic, with Alec Guiness playing multiple roles.
5. Marnie - Hitchock classic, a favourite of my sister's also, starring Tippi Hedren and Sean Connery - a beautiful con-artist gets psycho-analysed....even Connery is good in this and I loathe the man normally...
6. Play Misty For Me - Clint Eastwood's directorial debut and the "inspiration" (ie they ripped it off) for Fatal Attraction. Clint is a DJ, stalked by an obsessed and disturbed fan (and one night stand) Jessica Walter. Great acting and beautiful Californian scenery.
7. Blithe Spirit - an early David Lean film. Rex Harrison is happily married to Constance Cummings, during a seance held to provide inspiration for his new novel, his deceased first wife shows up and causes mayhem. Charming, witty stuff (the script was by Noel Coward) and featuring the unique Margaret Rutherford as the batty village medium.
8. Play It Again Sam - Woody Allen (actually, any Woody Allen films are worthy of your attention - except the later stuff like Everyone Says I Love You and crap like that.) Woody is a thirty something writer hopeless with women, and desperate to find the secret of Humphrey Bogart's appeal to the ladies, Bogey appears in parts to advise Woody about women. Oh and it's very funny...
Favorite Books
"The Secret History" by Donna Tartt - Prose so clear it felt like I was watching a really good film. An excellent murder mystery and an examination of the folly of pretending to be someone else in order to gain social acceptance.
"The Wasp Factory" by Iain Banks - Dark, menacing, imaginative and even at times, funny. A modern classic.
"For Esme with Love and Squalor" by JD Salinger - Why does everybody talk only about "Catcher in the rye"? This is probably the best collection of short stories I have ever read.
"Lolita" by Vladimir Nabokov - Vivid and claustrophobic, but in a good way. Unforgettable.
"Portnoy's Complaint" by Philip Roth - How did he have the nerve? in them days!
"Small Sacrifices" by Ann Rule - A mother of 3 shoots her children in order to be with her lover, who does not want to be a daddy. She claims a bushy haired stranger did it...The best true crime book I ever read. (and yes, I've read "In Cold Blood.)
"Tales of the City" by Armistead Maupin - Armistead Maupin's compulsive tales from San Francisco. Warm and human and life-affirming. I wish Mrs. Madrigal was my landlady...
"The Birthday Boys" by Beryl Bainbridge - A stunning account of Scott's ill fated expedition to the South Pole. One of our best (and most unsung) British writers
"The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe" by C.S. Lewis - The book that got me into books....
"Complete Prose" by Woody Allen - "..Helmholtz is currently revising his autobiography, to include himself..."