The Very True London Word

I am subscribed to The London Word, a lovely blog with lots of articles about reviews of things in London. A post flashed up today whacking the nail on the head exactly for me and countless others, I'm sure. It's all about how living in London, you feel this irrational urge to read every single book ever written, dance at every gig ever played, ponder every exhibiton in every museum and just generally aspire to be the most cultured person on the planet. The point, made very well by Paul McGhie, is that if we're running all over London sucking up as much culture juice as possible, there's no time left to enjoy anything, which was probably the object of the excercise in the first place.

Below is a list, that I have unashamedly swiped straight from his article, of suggestions of things to do to help us all out and discover what you really enjoy.

• Make a list of the things in your life that give you the most pleasure – be it gardening, modern art or spending time with your family – and focus more of your time on that
• Learn that you don’t have to be doing something all the time. Book a night in your diary every week just for you, when you don’t go out but go home and spend some quality time alone, doing nothing
• Keep a thank you diary, where you note down the positive things that happened to you each day
• Discover something new about the area where you live. You might realise that you don’t have to venture as far to experience the hidden gems of London as you might think.

 Read the full article here.

Dakota Fanning, The Runaways and Tatum O'Neal

There has been a lot of hype surrounding the not-so-little star as of late. Dakota’s new film The Runaways is out on the 10th of September and we hear it might be a bit of shock to those who still picture her as the small blonde child who seems to keep running into aliens (War of the Worlds) and is BFFs with a spider (Charlotte’s Web). Not that we at Handpicked, are quite up there with those who saw it months ago at Sundance, but from what we gather Ms Fanning is phenomenal as the 15-year-old Cherie Currie, a member of the The Runaways (breakthrough all girl band of 70’s fame, all underage and controversially human-cannonballed into an American tour unsupervised at very tender ages) alongside her fellow Twilight co-star Kristen Stewart who plays Joan Jett. When my copy of Dazed got to me earlier this month, I didn’t recognise Dakota on the cover. It’s a beautiful shot by Mark Segal (and a horrible Blackberry photo of it by me):

I watched Paper Moon a couple of weeks ago and its not often that a reasonably slow paced, black and white talkie obviously made on a budget draws me in but it really is a gem of a film. I mention it now because Tatum O’Neal who was 10 years old when cast as Addie Pray in the 1973 film now portrays Cherie Currie’s mother in The Runaways. Tatum O’Neal remains the youngest person to win an Academy Award. In Paper Moon she starred alongside her father Ryan O’Neal; she was heavily affected later in life by fame. Sadly there were lots of controversies regarding her father abusing her when she was young which he firmly denies. She also dated Michael Jackson in the late 70’s. Now having slightly disgraced herself (for want of a kinder term) it’s interesting that she was cast in this film with very current young actresses and a $10 million budget.

Thinking of the similar fame that Tatum O’Neal and Dakota Fanning have been subjected to in youth, is it likely that Fanning will go through a rough patch as O’Neal did? Is The Runaways the beginning Fanning’s rebellion? I hope not and I very much doubt it. Dakota, born Hannah Dakota Fanning, comes from a family with strongly grounded Christian morals and also from a very planned childhood. Her parents supported her talent, sending her to auditions and relocating the family to Hollywood, showing not only that she went down the path of formal auditions but stage school and proper training too.

With some speculation and very little proof, I doubt that Tatum O’Neal would have had such a structured background. The daughter of thespian parents, she would not have had her roots as firmly planted and it was probably easier to go off the rails in the 70’s and 80’s without too much hassle than it is today.

At sixteen, Dakota is ready to launch her adult career and step out of her child star roles and from where I’m standing, she’ll do it with style.

Here is Tatum O’Neal looking lovely with her father Ryan O’Neal at the premier of The Runaways in LA earlier this year and then below is the same pair from Paper Moon in 1973.

Images courtesy of www.zimbio.com and Diaro de Bizzarices http://diariodebizarrices.blogspot.com.

David's Lyre - Tear them Down

It's been a good bank holiday, still a full day of debauchery to go. Need some good background music today. Below is the official video for David's Lyre Tear Them Down and then after that is David's Lyre playing English Roses for The Mahogany Blog.

Octopus Rooftop Pool Hayward Gallery

It’s a funny season summer. To be honest you’d think that people might get bored of talking about the weather, or bored about talking about how much we talk about the weather. But no, never us Brits. We’re always to hot or too cold, too wet, too dry, never happy unless we’re talking about how we could be happier.


To round up to my point, what do you think of this weather?! There are still lots of things going round in the city which have high hopes of sunshine and could not be held in winter time, but only the Great British Public would spend £11 on a ticket to an exhibition and head to a rooftop pool with overhanging clouds and dubiously heavy rain.

Nevertheless, I really quite fancy it. Perched atop the Hayward Gallery, sits an octopus shaped pool at the heart of the Ernesto Neto exhibition. The £11 gets you into the exhibition but if you feel the sudden urge to jump in a pool you will have to pre-book by calling 0844 847 9910. The exhibition lasts until 5th September.

Why not?

Cineroleum, Kensington Palace, Loud Tate, Hungamunga and a beach at Whitechapel

Maybe it’s because I had a week off last week or maybe it’s just that everyone feels the August weather is betraying us, but it has been a long week. This morning I got into the office at 8:50 and no one was in. After a thoughts of apocalypse and ‘the end is nigh’ had passed I checked my calendar to find that, yes, indeed, it is still Friday and not the weekend yet. See, our office is usually, without fail, a hub of coffee-making, cereal-eating and thinking-about-working activity by at the latest 8:45 every weekday.


At the end of a long week, nothings better than a productive weekend. Here are some things going on this weekend...

The obsession of pop-up shop culture is still going strong. If you throw ‘pop-up’ in with the word ‘derelict’, you get a definite East Central kind of feel out of this one. That’s where you’ll find me on this, the opening night of Cineroleum. It’s a hand-built pop-up cinema on Clerkenwell Road; the brainchild of a group of local young artists and architects, the cinema is showing a choice of wonderfully selected films. Tonight is Rebel Without a Cause, unfortunately but not surprisingly sold out, there are more on over the rest of the weekend (also sold out) and then a combination of The Long Goodbye, Night of the Living Dead and The Third Man make up some of the rest of the showings over the next three weeks. I love this page of their website showing the construction of the petrol station turned cinema. Tickets are only a fiver, click here for more info.

Kensington Palace this evening anyone? The much celebrated and well received Enchanted Forest Exhibition is holding a bit of do this evening. It finishes at 10pm (good pre-party for going out elsewhere), it costs £12.50, you can dress up like an idiot, run around Kensington Palace spying on puppet shows and participating in fun frolics then take your mischief elsewhere.

Another event that we’re super excited about is the Loud Tate Festival, at, believe it or not, the Tate. If you head south of the river on Saturday, you should find frolicking somewhere near that rather large red brick chimney, a free festival aimed at those who enjoy a little bit of art/culture/music. The frequenters are predicted to be young and free, so bring your skinny jeans and high tops or turned up chinos and espadrilles, down with the kids man.

After a Saturday night I plan to spend at Cargo, there’s a choice of two on Sunday. Two city festivals, Hungamunga and the Beach at Whitechapel. The first is £10 a day and from what I hear is £10 entry, once in, there are DJ’s, live acts, burlesque shows, paper mache, drawing, painting, knitting and sewing with all the materials provided free of charge. The latter, the now not quite so weird idea of a beach in the middle of the city, takes place near Whitechapel High Street, is free and includes the following: beachcombing for holiday novels, a rockpool of authors’ epigraphs and literary volleyball. Interesting. And free – even better.

Vampires Suck Trailer

Why we forgive Americans.

The Wanted

Who doesn't love a bit of manufactured modern-day boyband action? Check out my March prediction. The Wanted were named Number One this week. Here's their excuse for the hotspot.