I'm almost embarrassed to admit that I enjoyed the movie Mamma Mia which I watched last night as the rain deposited even more misery on my head - more specifically I laughed till I cried watching Julie Walters who has been for many many years one of Britain's premier comic actresses with an acute sense of physical timing which would be the envy of a gymnast and an accent which can make you laugh even before she's opened her mouth. I sat, surrounded by a bunch of small dogs entwined in each other, sipping my PG Tips and punching the rewind button so that I could laugh over and over again at the sight of her sliding down a banister (you know the sense of exhilaration you get until that dreadful moment when your skin scrapes against the polished mahogany and you screech to a halt) and there isn't a funnier moment in the film than Julie Walters trying - and failing - to navigate a small dinghy.
I photographed Julie Walters once, with her onetime partner in comedy Victoria Wood, whose comic skit where she plays an overweight lonely teenage girl swimming the English Channel in freezing weather ranks as one of English comedy's funniest moments, and whose sister Penny Wood once played in a women's band that I almost managed to stardom (have I lost you yet?). I photographed Julie and Victoria in Covent Garden before the market was redeveloped and laughed so hard the whole time that almost all the shots were a little...shall we say...soft on focus?
I was crazy in love with Penny Wood's band The Mistakes, but between Georgina downing a bottle of vodka as she staggered offstage between songs, Mavis writing political anthems about radiation sickness that no-one could understand and Penny and Alison gamely trying to craft perfect pop songs, it was probably a mercy killing when Judy the drummer was stolen away by a band that become famous with a remake of Iko Iko - the Bellestars. And then I photographed the Bellestars for the Daily Mirror, when I almost became successful working for the Features editor, later to become incredibly famous, Ann Robinson, standing in a circle of hopeless contestants in her show 'The Weakest Link'.
I have lived. That much is true.
But I'll add some other little embarrassments. I'm admitting sheepishly that I listen to Barry White and that I crack up watching the deeply nasty Gordon Ramsey slice and dice his poor reality wannabe chefs on 'Hell's Kitchen' (the only TV I watch beside Seinfeld re-runs). My ipod is crammed full of Coldplay, AFI and Citizen Cope, Aretha, Otis and Elvis. I'm as likely to be listening to the Pogues as to KT Tunstall, Mary Gauthier and Alanis as to Wolfgang Amadeus, Weezer and Toots and the Maytals. I'm embarrassed to admit that I blew an opportunity to sell a great pop song to EMI records and that I once turned down Depeche Mode when I was booking bands for a venue in London. But I did book the Au Pairs, Poison Girls and the astonishingly crude Crass. That was the night all the fire extinguishers in the building were set off by some dumb drunk fucks.
Yup, it's been some kind of (wonderful) adventure.
I'm deeply embarrassed to admit I've been the affair too many freakin' times and I didn't seem to learn the lesson until....well, until just now really. I've been threatened, had someone's irate ex try to run my car into incoming traffic, had a chunky guy tell me - as if I should feel sorry for him - that it took all his self control not to come over to his ex girlfriends house, shoot us both and then kill himself. For someone who hates secrets as much as I do, I've certainly helped create a whole bunch of them. Right now, I'm contemplating the wisdom of a far away distant love affair with someone I never meet. She's there, I'm here. She's never late for lunch. No conflict, no pain, no romantic screwups. It's sounding like the sort of simple scenario that might just avoid embarrassment.
Much too clean for my kind of life!
Jill you always make me smile. Where were you when I was also looking for a love affair from afar? Damn I am always too late for the good things.
Your music would be welcome here as long as you don't mind my current obsession with the soundtrack of Rent. Well that and my girls recent affinity to listen to Joyce Meyer's half hour ministry everyday. I still hope you swing by on your way to somewhere else this summer. We will do all we can to be more exciting that we sound I promise.
Posted by: nina | March 05, 2009 at 05:02 AM
Aw Nina, excitement isn't all it's cracked up to be!
Posted by: Jill | March 05, 2009 at 06:52 AM
well then my dearest, you will have the time of your life. ;)
Posted by: nina | March 07, 2009 at 05:38 AM
I have a Celine Dion song on my iPod. It pains me to confess so. But I love some Barry White!
Posted by: Deb in Minnesota | March 08, 2009 at 10:12 AM
Aw Deb, wish you hadn't told me that about Celine - now I'm regretting accepting your FB friend request!
Posted by: JP | March 08, 2009 at 12:31 PM
I've been a lone living on a farm too long (my choice- metro transplant)It gets lonely and I rarely have time for dating or the patience for the drama that goes with it. So I turn up Barry White or other sexy R&B. My Rottie dances really well but my Boxer steps on my feet.
I wonder about relationships. I've never really been good at them. Sometimes it better to connect with friends and if you bounce upon chemistry wonderful. Otherwise love is ok without it.
Posted by: Tamara Burton | June 26, 2009 at 08:36 AM