tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21607611566139597372024-03-16T00:08:49.681-07:00Ray Frensham WorldWelcome to my world.....................................Ray Frenshamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18102271184582937704noreply@blogger.comBlogger101125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2160761156613959737.post-35653149606187303632011-04-04T15:50:00.000-07:002011-04-04T16:15:56.258-07:00Broken Britain - 12: Two tales that expose why Britain will forever remain Stuffed….I wondered how long it would take to get back to ranting and raging. Two recent stories that explain exactly why this (once-great) country will forever remain in the Doldrums: Attitude.<br />
<div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-2eue57d7Ilo/TZpEPSXwisI/AAAAAAAAAzk/nCjL0wgzkj0/s1600/Royal+Mail+Sucks.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-2eue57d7Ilo/TZpEPSXwisI/AAAAAAAAAzk/nCjL0wgzkj0/s320/Royal+Mail+Sucks.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><b><br />
</b><br />
<b>Part 1</b>: Today (Monday 4th April 2011) our mailing prices increased, by a considerable degree actually - but that’s not what I am raging about. This morning I wanted to send some things to a friend of mine in the USA, air mail / small packet. And so I queued at my local Post office (for over twenty minutes, but that’s normal now) with my package. The lady behind the grill weighed it and quoted me £18.44.</div><br />
I thought this was somewhat outrageous and she explained to me the reason it was so high was because it was “over the one kilo threshold” (whatever that was). She also made it clear to me that it might work out cheaper if I sent the items in two packages.<br />
<br />
So I went away and re-boxed up the things in two packages and returned later to the same Post Office (with a 30+ minute wait this time) and the very same counter clerk weighed both and charged me £6.48 for each. That’s a total £12.96 (and a saving of £5.48). <br />
<br />
If the Royal Mail were an independently-run business they would have gone to the wall pronto with that attitude. How do they get away with it!? [Because they can]. <br />
<br />
No wonder the Royal Mail is regularly holding its hand out to successive Governments for hand-outs to stave off bankruptcy (financially and in “customer-services”).<br />
<br />
<br />
<b>Part 2<b></b></b>: This story happened just a few days ago.<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-HIWF7rrcMq0/TZpLQ-ABWSI/AAAAAAAAAzw/DoIOPOReGWU/s1600/a_m_s_t_e_r_d_a_m_welcome_to_holland_postcard-p239470255005417999qibm_400.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-HIWF7rrcMq0/TZpLQ-ABWSI/AAAAAAAAAzw/DoIOPOReGWU/s320/a_m_s_t_e_r_d_a_m_welcome_to_holland_postcard-p239470255005417999qibm_400.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div>I wanted to book a short trip away to Amsterdam and decided the best route was with what’s called the “Dutch Flyer” (a train/boat/train package from Stenna Lines that works out about £37 each way). <br />
<br />
So I phoned up Stenna to discuss matters. “You can book over the phone if you like”, she informed me…”but we need two days notice”…… “or”, she continued, “you could always book online!…. But we would need five days notice for that one”.<br />
<br />
I asked her: “Well, seeing as the journey starts at Liverpool Street Station” (local for me in the East End of London)…”could I not just turn up at the station and book my tickets there and then?”.<br />
<br />
There was a silence at the end of the phone. Maybe I should’ve sensed this was going to go all pear-shaped. “Well…..”, she said…..“We’ve had this all before.....Technically, you should be able to get your tickets from them, yes. But, you see, it all depends on the mood of the people in theTicket Office that morning. If they don't feel like selling you the tickets, they won’t do”.<br />
<br />
I then asked “what if I turned up at Ilford Station and bought the ticket there?” [After all, Ilford is just down the road from where I live and the train runs from Liverpool Street and stops at Ilford en route to the coast].<br />
<br />
“I’m afraid the same thing applies”, the Stenna woman said, “It really does depend on what side of the bed they got out of that morning”.<br />
<br />
At which point I said: “D’you know something? It would be easier for me to just turn up at Victoria Coach Station with my suitcases and get on the coach on the day. It would probably be cheaper too”. [I later checked, and it was cheaper: £66 return].<br />
<br />
Is it any wonder that, with attitudes like these, this country is never going to pull its socks up and get out of the crud we are in. And thus I return to my past mantra: Nobody actually Cares anymore in this country - about anyone or anything”. This country is Fucked.<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-KqLJNCUNSe8/TZpKgdOxrFI/AAAAAAAAAzs/R0-rMWpmIpU/s1600/AmsterdamDM_468x315.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="215" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-KqLJNCUNSe8/TZpKgdOxrFI/AAAAAAAAAzs/R0-rMWpmIpU/s320/AmsterdamDM_468x315.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>Ray Frenshamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18102271184582937704noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2160761156613959737.post-30416920473105526812011-02-15T03:46:00.000-08:002011-02-15T03:50:07.783-08:00Another Cartoon featuring Me???<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div style="text-align: left;"><div style="text-align: left;">I have mentioned before that certain friends of mine have included me in their splendid cartoons (see: </div><div style="text-align: left;"><a href="http://rayfrenshamworld.blogspot.com/2009/07/and-now-im-featrued-in-cartoon-strip.html">http://rayfrenshamworld.blogspot.com/2009/07/and-now-im-featrued-in-cartoon-strip.html</a> and </div><div style="text-align: left;"><a href="http://rayfrenshamworld.blogspot.com/2011/01/and-now-i-am-appearing-in-photo-story.html">http://rayfrenshamworld.blogspot.com/2011/01/and-now-i-am-appearing-in-photo-story.html</a><br />
<br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;"></div><div style="text-align: left;">This week (on the occasion of Valentine’s Day, perhaps?) some chums drew my attention to another cartoon, dating back to 2008 which seemed to feature me by default!). It’s entitled: “In Which Jake Does His Best”.<br />
[Again, click on the picture and it will open out to full size]. Enjoy:-</div></div><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-XSXxPghcSZQ/TVpm2n8o5QI/AAAAAAAAAzA/-E7pOSRJHXw/s1600/httpwondermark.com380.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="123" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-XSXxPghcSZQ/TVpm2n8o5QI/AAAAAAAAAzA/-E7pOSRJHXw/s320/httpwondermark.com380.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br />
<br />
Did it predate me or I inspire them? - who knows, who cares. I enjoyed it.<br />
<br />
It can also be found at: <a href="http://wondermark.com/380/">http://wondermark.com/380/</a>Ray Frenshamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18102271184582937704noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2160761156613959737.post-58552049392880392942011-01-31T13:14:00.000-08:002011-01-31T13:15:50.187-08:00Henry de Winter + BHS: an updateJust a short note to inform everyone that I have just updated my main blog regarding the legendary Sir Henry de Winter:<br />
<a href="http://rayfrenshamworld.blogspot.com/2010/09/henry-de-winter-at-last-his-website.html">http://rayfrenshamworld.blogspot.com/2010/09/henry-de-winter-at-last-his-website.html</a><br />
<br />
New links (including one to FaceBook) + a couple of extra photographs.<br />
<br />
The<b> latest news</b> is that Henry has just returned from Bratislava where, after a few days rehearsal with the Bratislava Hot Serenaders, did a couple of performances (the latter being filmed) and then went into the studio for a few days of recordings. That is all I know. But here, at least is a photograph from that weekend:-<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_Rk7J5NFZUkk/TUcl54SzkGI/AAAAAAAAAy0/rLICC9DZYGY/s1600/2011-01-23+-+Henry_BHS_01.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="180" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_Rk7J5NFZUkk/TUcl54SzkGI/AAAAAAAAAy0/rLICC9DZYGY/s320/2011-01-23+-+Henry_BHS_01.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_Rk7J5NFZUkk/TUcl-C9dTAI/AAAAAAAAAy4/z88ydHtbxzA/s1600/2011-01-23+-+Henry_BHS_02.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="318" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_Rk7J5NFZUkk/TUcl-C9dTAI/AAAAAAAAAy4/z88ydHtbxzA/s320/2011-01-23+-+Henry_BHS_02.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>Ray Frenshamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18102271184582937704noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2160761156613959737.post-76593942923304942332011-01-18T17:16:00.000-08:002012-01-08T07:26:03.313-08:00Cufflinks anyone?OK, I admit it, it was love at first sight. From the moment my eyes came across this on e-bay recently, I have been going back to that page just to drool over it.<br />
<br />
It’s billed as: CLASSIC SOLID OAK 30 x 4 TRAY CELL CUFFLINKS BOX - Made2Order<br />
<br />
And the Cost? (gulp)…<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_Rk7J5NFZUkk/TTY6q4glejI/AAAAAAAAAyg/mWRSXRE9soY/s1600/Box+01.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_Rk7J5NFZUkk/TTY6q4glejI/AAAAAAAAAyg/mWRSXRE9soY/s320/Box+01.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">[[Usual protocol: click on the pics to open out to its full version]]</div><div><div>£165 + £10 Courier delivery. Custom-made, they said it would take about eight weeks from order to delivery.</div><div><br />
</div><div>For what it’s worth, here is the (current) link: </div></div><div><a href="http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=370475459158#ht_2648wt_905">http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=370475459158#ht_2648wt_905 </a><br />
<br />
and their website:<br />
<a href="http://www.aandtcrafts.co.uk/">http://www.aandtcrafts.co.uk/</a> </div><div><br />
</div><div><div>Perhaps it’s because my father was a carpenter & joiner I’ve learned to really appreciate well-made and skilled woodwork and craftsmanship. But then maybe that’s just an excuse because…there it was - and that yearning ache in the pit my stomach was clearly there and just grew over the weeks.</div><div><br />
</div><div>Eventually, today, I succumbed. and contacted the maker to make my order - And, surprise surprise, they said “just pay a £10 deposit and pay the balance nearer delivery date”. How could I resist?</div></div><div><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_Rk7J5NFZUkk/TTY7BhMHoLI/AAAAAAAAAyk/eHj94sT6Mns/s1600/Box+02.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_Rk7J5NFZUkk/TTY7BhMHoLI/AAAAAAAAAyk/eHj94sT6Mns/s320/Box+02.JPG" width="234" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div><div>Here’s a few more details of the spec: </div><div>Made from solid oak (Thickness of the wood will depend on what we have in stock and how much we have to plane it . But typically 15-20mm for the box, approx 10+mm for the lid and approx 8-10mm for the dividers)</div><div><br />
</div><div>Box dimensions</div><div>- Trays: 30 cells, 6 across and 5 deep (each cell is 35 x 35 and 30mm deep)</div><div>- Tray internal dimensions 260mm x 280mm x 30mm deep</div><div>- Tray external dimensions 280mm x 235mm x 40mm deep</div><div>- Overall box internal dimensions 280 x 235 x 165mm - approx</div><div>- External dimensions 310-315mm long and 265-270mm wide and 190-195mm deep </div><div>- Box is rounded at all outside corners and outside edges & corners.</div><div>- Trays are square edged and removable</div><div>- Matrix are square edged and fixed for ease of lifting out the trays….</div></div><div><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_Rk7J5NFZUkk/TTY7Re2KuDI/AAAAAAAAAyo/8PLFCNrohhc/s1600/Box+03.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="251" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_Rk7J5NFZUkk/TTY7Re2KuDI/AAAAAAAAAyo/8PLFCNrohhc/s320/Box+03.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><div><br />
</div><div><div>The first question my friends asked me when I showed them what I was thinking of buying, was: “but do you have enough cufflinks to fill the thing?” [A total of 120 slots for you mathematicians out there]. Well, it’s fess-up time, I’ve been collecting antique cufflinks and accessories for about three decades now and somehow I think I might just have enough to fill the trays. Dammit, alright, I’ll come clean, I’ve probably got more than enough to fill the bloody box.</div><div><br />
</div><div>And I do feel that this is the kind of item that can only increase in value over the years (well that’s what I’ve convinced myself anyway).</div><div><br />
</div><div>But I don’t care. I shall just smugly sit here and wait for delivery of this little (er…big) beauty in about early April. Call it a belated Christmas present to self (or an early Birthday present - it’s March 2nd, in case anyone wanted to know!).</div></div><div><br />
</div><div><br />
</div>Ray Frenshamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18102271184582937704noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2160761156613959737.post-71590713827356472802011-01-16T08:04:00.000-08:002011-01-16T08:09:34.813-08:00And now I am appearing in a Photo-Story…A chum of mine on Facebook asked me if he cold use some of my photos and insert me into one of his historical slide-show stories. I agreed (after all, this is not the first time I have been depicted in some fictional storyline: see my visage being portrayed as Jack the Ripper here: <a href="http://rayfrenshamworld.blogspot.com/2009/07/and-now-im-featrued-in-cartoon-strip.html"> http://rayfrenshamworld.blogspot.com/2009/07/and-now-im-featrued-in-cartoon-strip.html</a> ).<br />
<br />
So here goes. I present to you …<br />
<br />
<b>Facing the Past: 1932 by Professor William Boxington</b><br />
<div><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_Rk7J5NFZUkk/TTMUT7yMJFI/AAAAAAAAAx0/aiXloA_AtZQ/s1600/001.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="241" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_Rk7J5NFZUkk/TTMUT7yMJFI/AAAAAAAAAx0/aiXloA_AtZQ/s320/001.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Professor Boxington must finally face a mistake from his past and correct it before moving on into the future... </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: -webkit-auto;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_Rk7J5NFZUkk/TTMUXWHEdOI/AAAAAAAAAx4/igu6EpgGYGY/s1600/002.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="244" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_Rk7J5NFZUkk/TTMUXWHEdOI/AAAAAAAAAx4/igu6EpgGYGY/s320/002.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">The telephone rang early one morning at the home of Professor and Mrs. Boxington in Arkham, Massachusetts. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_Rk7J5NFZUkk/TTMU5lInW7I/AAAAAAAAAx8/9c_185Kp8nI/s1600/003.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_Rk7J5NFZUkk/TTMU5lInW7I/AAAAAAAAAx8/9c_185Kp8nI/s320/003.jpg" width="243" /></a></div><div><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">William Boxington, professor of esoteric folklore at Miskatonic University, was surprised by the source of the call. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_Rk7J5NFZUkk/TTMVCgulC-I/AAAAAAAAAyA/Xmf-YGU9ZLM/s1600/004.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="262" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_Rk7J5NFZUkk/TTMVCgulC-I/AAAAAAAAAyA/Xmf-YGU9ZLM/s320/004.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;"><div style="text-align: left;">Mr. Ray Frensham, head Regent of Miskatonic University and Master of the Esoteric Order of Dagon, was calling to offer William the position of dean of the University! There had been so many mishaps and deaths in Arkham lately that the pool of candidates was quite small. Boxington ignored the insult and accepted the job.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_Rk7J5NFZUkk/TTMVND-rFTI/AAAAAAAAAyE/ffYHGU3DFgs/s1600/005.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_Rk7J5NFZUkk/TTMVND-rFTI/AAAAAAAAAyE/ffYHGU3DFgs/s320/005.jpg" width="275" /></a></div><div><br />
</div></div><div style="text-align: left;"><div style="text-align: left;">Regent Frensham was rudely interrupted during the installment ceremony for Professor Boxington's elevation to dean of the school... It seemed that a particular dinosaur, from Professor Boxington's 1925 expedition to South East Asia, had not perished in the wilds after all! </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_Rk7J5NFZUkk/TTMVXrVjTMI/AAAAAAAAAyI/2FtYXroZtjc/s1600/006.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="234" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_Rk7J5NFZUkk/TTMVXrVjTMI/AAAAAAAAAyI/2FtYXroZtjc/s320/006.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div><br />
</div><div>The Regent and fellow members of Miskatonic's educational board all dived for cover when the beast let loose with a mighty roar. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_Rk7J5NFZUkk/TTMVgNB-nxI/AAAAAAAAAyM/Hv6GuA__YsU/s1600/007.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="305" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_Rk7J5NFZUkk/TTMVgNB-nxI/AAAAAAAAAyM/Hv6GuA__YsU/s320/007.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div>Fortunately the Boxingtons never left home without being fully prepared. Too many adventures had taught them that harsh lesson! Mrs. Boxington quickly tossed her husband a rifle from her front row seat.<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_Rk7J5NFZUkk/TTMWPwM1gBI/AAAAAAAAAyQ/N5Zt5oO4EA0/s1600/008.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_Rk7J5NFZUkk/TTMWPwM1gBI/AAAAAAAAAyQ/N5Zt5oO4EA0/s320/008.jpg" width="266" /></a></div><br />
Professor Boxington caught the rifle and he chased the beast down the main street of Arkham, away from the University. Frightened by the automobiles, the monster realized it was time to fight or die. It turned to attack William. The creature was no match for the gun and was laid low. William felt bad for the beast but there had been no other alternative.<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_Rk7J5NFZUkk/TTMWXbzcGjI/AAAAAAAAAyU/t4pY2v50xBQ/s1600/009.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="245" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_Rk7J5NFZUkk/TTMWXbzcGjI/AAAAAAAAAyU/t4pY2v50xBQ/s320/009.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br />
The following month, after the dinosaur had been carefully dissected and scientifically studied, Regent Frensham said with a little exasperation, "Well, William, as a professor or as the dean of the university, I can see you will always be in the thick of it! But please, really now, can we tone the adventures down for your new position? We would not want Miskatonic to get a bad name, after all!"<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_Rk7J5NFZUkk/TTMWkIHIXaI/AAAAAAAAAyY/mmKPUGw-3Wk/s1600/010.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_Rk7J5NFZUkk/TTMWkIHIXaI/AAAAAAAAAyY/mmKPUGw-3Wk/s320/010.jpg" width="244" /></a></div><br />
The Boxingtons, very pleased with events, moved into their new residence on the grounds of the University. Being dean of the school was defiantly going to have its advantages! Despite Regent Frensham's wishes, they knew that their adventures would certainly continue.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_Rk7J5NFZUkk/TTMWt1YiQcI/AAAAAAAAAyc/BJyXDc3QOAU/s1600/011.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_Rk7J5NFZUkk/TTMWt1YiQcI/AAAAAAAAAyc/BJyXDc3QOAU/s320/011.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br />
</div></div>Ray Frenshamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18102271184582937704noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2160761156613959737.post-517182009926535722011-01-13T15:59:00.000-08:002011-01-13T16:03:35.475-08:00Shoelaces anyone???<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_Rk7J5NFZUkk/TS-RhZkE4eI/AAAAAAAAAxw/LTkxvfakHL0/s1600/BowTieLacing6.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_Rk7J5NFZUkk/TS-RhZkE4eI/AAAAAAAAAxw/LTkxvfakHL0/s1600/BowTieLacing6.gif" /></a></div><br />
I came across a rather bizarre website that is clearly a labour of love……<br />
<br />
You know how some people get really obsessive about things like How Many Ways to Tie a Tie?<br />
<br />
Well, this site just Has to be one of the most anally retentive ever: <b>Ian’s Shoelace Site</b><br />
<br />
The thing is, once you start reading it, and the more you get into it, it becomes curiously addictive.<br />
<br />
Just go to it explore and indulge (for starters) in the 33 different ways to tie a shoelace. Revel in the Sawtooth, the Bow Tie (illustrated above), the Twisty, the Double Helix or the Hexagram.<br />
<div><br />
</div><div><a href="http://www.fieggen.com/shoelace/lacingmethods.htm">http://www.fieggen.com/shoelace/lacingmethods.htm </a></div><div><br />
</div><div><div>Oh, and I’d better warn you, the list is growing regularly. Bravo Ian - whoever you are, wherever you are - your site has educated and informed and made me smile and be baffled in equal measures.</div></div><div><br />
</div>Ray Frenshamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18102271184582937704noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2160761156613959737.post-57074491604256811972011-01-12T15:56:00.000-08:002011-01-12T16:10:33.500-08:00The Blog is BACK! - (and now I’m a Guest Blogger too)It seems quite frightening to realise that I haven’t posted up a blog here for three months.<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_Rk7J5NFZUkk/TS4-e3UG9mI/AAAAAAAAAxs/0OpN5hFLEG8/s1600/168041_10150408607865651_526035650_16644890_6605659_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="221" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_Rk7J5NFZUkk/TS4-e3UG9mI/AAAAAAAAAxs/0OpN5hFLEG8/s320/168041_10150408607865651_526035650_16644890_6605659_n.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div><div>What happened?….. A combination of things:-</div><div><br />
</div><div>- To be honest, most of the time I’ve simply been out there in the real world just living a life (it’s not bad out there, apart from the bloody weather), and besides I got a bit lazy!…</div><div><br />
</div><div>- media-wise it all got a bit frantic: after decades away from it, I sort-of fell back into doing bits of background artiste / extras work in tv and films…first on <i>Midsomer Murders</i> (the episode <i>Noble Art</i> that went out in October 2010), then on <i>Pirates Of The Caribbean</i> (4): <i>On Stranger Tides</i> (yes, I did do a few days with Mr. Depp) and then, without a pause for breath, straight onto the latest Martin Scorsese movie <i>The Invention Of Hugo Cabret</i> working alongside Ben Kingsley (you’ll just have to wait ‘n’ see how much). I shall inevitably be blogging about these exploits in due course…</div><div><br />
</div><div>- I must admit I also got a bit ticked off with Blogspot changing a little their settings for posting up blogs - nothing major, just annoying little things that really piss you off and you have to pointlessly re-learn things all over again. [It’s a disease that notably afflicts sites like Facebook and MySpace: changing formats just for the sake of change; I guess these people do it to attempt to justify their exorbitant salaries. Hey Buddy, listen up, try this one: if it Ain’t Broke, DON’T Fix it!]</div><div><br />
</div><div>- and now (January 2011) Hodders, my publishers, want me to update and expand (considerably) my book <i>Teach Yourself Screenwriting</i> for a new edition due out in July/August, and to be retitled <i>Break Into Screenwriting</i> (a Teach Yourself book)…I mean, it's been a best-seller for fifteen years, just why they've decided to change things...what was that I said about ‘if it ain’t broke….’ ?</div><div><br />
</div><div>…So what made me apply the seat of my pants to the seat of the blogging chair again? Well, a few days ago my pals Matt and Enrique at <a href="http://www.fineanddandyshop.com/">www.FineandDandyShop.com</a> asked me to contribute a guest blog to their site. </div><div><br />
</div><div>They had noticed that UK GQ had done a “50 Best Dressed Men in Britain”. </div><div><a href="http://www.gq-magazine.co.uk/style/articles/2011-01/03/gq-style-news-best-dressed-men-in-britain/2010-2011">http://www.gq-magazine.co.uk/style/articles/2011-01/03/gq-style-news-best-dressed-men-in-britain/2010-2011</a><br />
<br />
And asked me to come up with my own list of Stylish Men.<br />
I took a look at the GQ list and realised:<br />
- a third of them I had never heard of,<br />
- a third were somewhat scruffy buggers (to say the least),<br />
- and only the remaining third were what you might call borderline acceptable.<br />
<br />
I didn’t feel exactly stretched to come up with a riposte. So I just went to the local coffee shop, sat down for a bit and just created a list of chaps I know / admire / fancy who are on the cusp of ‘breaking bigger’ into the public eye whom I regarded rather stylish and classy.<br />
<br />
And these are the ones that came into my mind, pretty much in the order they arrived:<br />
<div><br />
</div><div><a href="http://fineanddandyshop.blogspot.com/2011/01/dandys-list-of-15-most-dapper-men.html">http://fineanddandyshop.blogspot.com/2011/01/dandys-list-of-15-most-dapper-men.html</a><br />
<br />
</div><div><a href="http://fineanddandyshop.blogspot.com/2011/01/dandys-list-of-15-most-dapper-men.html"></a></div><div><div>I hope you liked them (and my reasons for choosing them). If you disagree with the names, tuff - I like annoying people. </div><div><br />
</div><div>[Naturally, since publishing this list, I’ve thought of plenty of faces I have overlooked. Maybe next year]. The good news is that FineandDandyShop have asked me to be a regular guest blogger…in which case, I guess I had better get my s**t together…I have a few ideas. (Naturally, I will cross-post and cross-reference).</div><div><br />
</div><div>- And I guess I had better start blogging here again. Hold onto your hats…and bow ties!</div><div><br />
</div><div>…Oh, and I shaved my moustache off yesterday……</div></div></div></div>Ray Frenshamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18102271184582937704noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2160761156613959737.post-87502659839803518082010-09-26T16:57:00.000-07:002010-09-26T16:58:27.030-07:00T.O.B.I. - Tired Of Being Ignored<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_Rk7J5NFZUkk/TJ_dwVe-iyI/AAAAAAAAAww/ecWcEWQi5Gc/s1600/yelling_into_phone.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="218" px="true" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_Rk7J5NFZUkk/TJ_dwVe-iyI/AAAAAAAAAww/ecWcEWQi5Gc/s320/yelling_into_phone.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>I’ve had a few bits of correspondence since I posted up my last blog (yesterday). One of them (Paul) suggested I change the name of this blog to RAY FRENCHES 'EM’<br />
<br />
<br />
And then listening to a radio broadcast this evening about the Tea Party grassroots political movement in the USA, it occurred to me someone should start up a similar people-power activist group in the UK (although not along the political parameters of the Tea Party)….<br />
<br />
And remembering one of my favourite all-time movies Network and its mantra: “I’m Mad as Hell and I’m Not going to Take it anymore!”…<br />
<br />
… the name came to me:<br />
<br />
<strong>T.O.B.I. - Tired Of Being Ignored</strong>……<br />
<br />
Let me think about it over the next few days…<br />
<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_Rk7J5NFZUkk/TJ_dKKL-haI/AAAAAAAAAws/q-6IfzkEHjQ/s1600/63082_10150303058560651_526035650_14868102_6391036_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" px="true" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_Rk7J5NFZUkk/TJ_dKKL-haI/AAAAAAAAAws/q-6IfzkEHjQ/s320/63082_10150303058560651_526035650_14868102_6391036_n.jpg" width="240" /></a>Ray Frenshamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18102271184582937704noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2160761156613959737.post-64851382813988533922010-09-26T10:26:00.000-07:002010-09-26T10:30:41.407-07:00Selling on Amazon? FORGET IT! - another RantOK, I’ve been holding this one back a couple of weeks, letting it brood and fester. <br />
And seeing as I shall probably be filming in the coming weeks, I thought it best be posted now.<br />
<br />
Isn’t it always the way, like London buses, you wait for one for ages and then three come along together?<br />
I’m starting to get the same feeling about life, and the cock-up principle. First there was BT (see my blog of 22nd August inst. <a href="http://rayfrenshamworld.blogspot.com/2010/08/bt-part-4-yet-another-broadband-rant.html">http://rayfrenshamworld.blogspot.com/2010/08/bt-part-4-yet-another-broadband-rant.html</a>) - and that is still unresolved…I’m still waiting for your phone call, Mr. Das…<br />
<br />
And now it’s amazon.co.uk - something that started a couple of months ago and then started to spiral out of control and travel to another planet. Here’s my latest communication to Amazon, I think it sets out ‘the story so far’!:- <br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_Rk7J5NFZUkk/TJ-BvEB6FUI/AAAAAAAAAwk/TO1QNNHnP4E/s1600/amazon-sucks.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" px="true" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_Rk7J5NFZUkk/TJ-BvEB6FUI/AAAAAAAAAwk/TO1QNNHnP4E/s1600/amazon-sucks.gif" /></a></div>Let’s go back to the beginning, shall we?:<br />
3rd June, 2010: I decided to sell a few items on amazon.co.uk. I was led to your complex web of buttons and ended up setting up a Merchant Seller account. However, having the listed the few titles I had for sale, I immediately realised your company were going to charge me about £25 per month for the privilege.<br />
<br />
I immediately sent a request (3rd June) to close down my selling account / capacity. But your site is so complex and confusing (rather like the structure of your company, I have come to realise) it took you about five days to respond.<br />
<br />
8th June, 2010: I receive a communication from Michael Janowicz ( <a href="mailto:mjanowi@amazon.com">mjanowi@amazon.com</a> ) telling me he will look into my case. <br />
<br />
22nd June, 2010: Case No. 9126312 is created.<br />
You also inform me that I have sold an item (for £25 - £2.75 charges) and that I have yet to transfer this money to any of my accounts.<br />
<br />
Amazon then make a couple of attempts to extract money from my account - all rejected. <br />
<br />
24th July, 2010: Consequently, I discover that my selling account is still open, Against my expressed wishes.<br />
<br />
3rd August, 2020: Eventually (!) I am sent an email by Amazon Services Europe that my Pro Merchant account subscription (sic) is cancelled.<br />
<br />
18th August, 2010: I receive an e-mail from one Narsing K of Amazon.co.uk Seller Support [quoting Case No. 10111292 - a new number] informing me “I have checked and confirmed that your account has been closed”. I thought that was the end of it.<br />
<br />
How wrong I was. (This is, after all, amazon - and it is very evident to me by now that your departments are not co-ordinating or even communicating with each other). Because…. <br />
<br />
31st August, 2010 (5pm GMT): I receive an e-mail from amazon telling me your company had taken out of my bank account an unspecified sum…(characteristically helpful, amazon) [I later discover, from my Bank, the sum is £11.83] - Unauthorised by me.<br />
<br />
When I attempt to raise a query with you, you respond (31st Aug) by telling me that the Ray Frensham selling account was Open (you had already assured me it was closed) and informing me you were Unable to cancel my Merchant Account.<br />
<br />
…There was a trace of a silver lining, of course: you invited me (sic) to…(here we go again)…open up a new case! [N.B.: Trouble was, the link they sent me was Not one where I could open up a new case but to a place where I could edit my credit card details].<br />
<br />
Well this is it.<br />
<br />
I want ALL (and any) selling account/s in my name cancelled immediately; I want an explanation as to what the heck is going on; I want action; I want it done NOW; I want my money/ies refunded into my bank account. A.S.A.P.<br />
<br />
But it still doesn’t end there:-<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_Rk7J5NFZUkk/TJ-A1imM4lI/AAAAAAAAAwg/cvFmoZMroSM/s1600/amazon_and+your+done.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="213" px="true" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_Rk7J5NFZUkk/TJ-A1imM4lI/AAAAAAAAAwg/cvFmoZMroSM/s320/amazon_and+your+done.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>1st September, 2010 (7.13.pm GMT): I receive yet another e-mail from your company (this time from “Joannne” at amazon.co.uk Seller Support), with yet Another new case number [No. 10356622] - the third one to date - assuring me “this matter is being investigated”.<br />
<br />
To be honest: I don’t believe you anymore. I don’t think that one part of amazon knows what any other part is doing. What a mess.<br />
<br />
The word “compensation” is starting to creep into my vocabulary: not just the amount/s of money you have already taken from my bank account unauthorised, but for the precious time I have wasted in dealing with this matter (repeatedly) and for the stress caused thereby - which is still on-going.<br />
<br />
[[For what it’s worth, I am now in discussions with my own publishers (Hodder & Stoughton/Hodder Headline and McGraw-Hill) to have my book titles withdrawn from your distribution database - worldwide (including foreign translations).<br />
<br />
You have clearly demonstrated to me that amazon cannot reliably handle customers’ accounts I am starting to wonder whether the sales figures you return to my publishers are accurate in the first place. Please do not force me to send in the Accountants to examine your books.]]<br />
<br />
…and don’t even flatter yourselves into thinking I will use amazon again to buy stuff. [I think this story is good enough to post up on my blog].<br />
<br />
- And that was where my (new) complaint letter ended. But that didn’t stop Amazon, oh no. Because three days later…<br />
<br />
4th September: I received another e-mail from Narsing K of Seller Support (.co.uk) [Ref. Case No.: 10111292 - remember that one?]: “I can now confirm that your account has been closed”. [Although he didn’t specify it, I presume he meant a Seller’s account…which one?]. He added: “The £-11.83 (sic) was the pro merchant subscription fee charged on a pro rated basis [don’t they mean pro rata?] for your account upgrade in June. Warmest regards…”<br />
<br />
Warmest Regards? Warmest Nothing! The question remains: why did Amazon charge me £11.83 - without my authorisation and without even informing me until after the event - for an account that should not have been open in June anyway, had Amazon actually listened to their customer and done their job properly?<br />
<br />
The case continues…<br />
<br />
<strong>Postscript:</strong> <br />
Oh, and for the casual reader, angry at the way Amazon has treated them, I recommend the following websites / information:<br />
<br />
Amazon.co.uk’s well-hidden <strong>Customer Service</strong> phone number<br />
<strong>0800 496 1081</strong> <br />
<br />
You can also try this number <strong>0207 084 7911</strong> (listed as for ‘International Customers’) The 0800 number is working as of January 10th 2010<br />
<br />
[[Where did I get this info? <a href="http://www.saynoto0870.com/">http://www.saynoto0870.com/</a> . Why did I have to go there? Because it’s deliberately buried on the Amazon website so you can’t find it]].<br />
<br />
You can also try:-<br />
<a href="http://www.edifyingspectacle.org/usedbookdealer/archives/online_bookselling/i_hate_amazoncom.php">http://www.edifyingspectacle.org/usedbookdealer/archives/online_bookselling/i_hate_amazoncom.php</a> <br />
<br />
…and if you are in the USA:<br />
<a href="http://gethuman.com/Amazon_com-customer-service_44.html">http://gethuman.com/Amazon_com-customer-service_44.html</a><br />
Another Very Useful link:<br />
<br />
<a href="http://ceoemails.com/">http://ceoemails.com/</a><br />
This gives you the personal e-mails of the CEOs and Managing Directors of many major companies. Bombard them with complaints direct and see if you get anywhere. (I was recommended this site by someone in Government, so it should be effective, if a rather hush-hush site).<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: left;">I shall regularly update this posting and see where it takes is. Are you reading this Amazon.co.uk??? …and if you are, do you CARE?</div>Ray Frenshamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18102271184582937704noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2160761156613959737.post-32139161249206250322010-09-23T16:55:00.000-07:002010-09-26T10:03:33.044-07:00Filming in London with Off-Beat London siteAnother look back to earlier this year (10th April, to be precise) and a day spent filming in London with Murielle Gonzalez Oisel for a new website called OffBeat London: ( <a href="http://www.offbeatlondon.co.uk/">http://www.offbeatlondon.co.uk/</a> ), specifically:-<br />
<a href="http://www.offbeatlondon.co.uk/Issue03/quirks/eccentrics.html">http://www.offbeatlondon.co.uk/Issue03/quirks/eccentrics.html</a><br />
<br />
She later posted up the video on Vimeo: <br />
<a href="http://vimeo.com/11324381">http://vimeo.com/11324381</a><br />
…and on YouTube: <br />
<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2E3Ihl7oo8A">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2E3Ihl7oo8A</a> <br />
[or just put into YouTube’s search box: Ray Frensham Living Victorian].<br />
<span lang="EN">- it’s only 2’ 16” long so it won’t tax your brain too much and people seem to like it - Ah! my wonderful adoring public…I love you all!.</span><br />
<object width="640" height="385"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/2E3Ihl7oo8A?fs=1&hl=en_GB"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/2E3Ihl7oo8A?fs=1&hl=en_GB" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="640" height="385"></embed></object><br />
Basically, we spent a very nice sunny Spring Saturday afternoon together, being interviewed at an outside coffee shop in Jermyn Street and then a stroll through Green Park - from Piccadilly to Buckingham Palace - chatting and filming and snapping away as we went. Listening to the film she made, my voice was terribly gruff and gravely that day - maybe it was the effect of the traffic exhaust fumes from Jermyn Street.<br />
<br />
I lost count of the number of times we were stopped by tourists and asked for a photo (see the results below) - you can tell it was sunny, I seem to have with a permanent squint that day.<br />
<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_Rk7J5NFZUkk/TJvm8r1MBcI/AAAAAAAAAwQ/_c0BRqgs67s/s1600/SAM_0897.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" px="true" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_Rk7J5NFZUkk/TJvm8r1MBcI/AAAAAAAAAwQ/_c0BRqgs67s/s320/SAM_0897.JPG" /></a><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_Rk7J5NFZUkk/TJvmrHgReHI/AAAAAAAAAwA/LRDX3xUmrNY/s1600/SAM_0896_simba_27atmsn.com.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" px="true" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_Rk7J5NFZUkk/TJvmrHgReHI/AAAAAAAAAwA/LRDX3xUmrNY/s320/SAM_0896_simba_27atmsn.com.JPG" /></a><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_Rk7J5NFZUkk/TJvnGE9SnuI/AAAAAAAAAwY/J0mqOz4iLEE/s1600/SAM_0898.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" px="true" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_Rk7J5NFZUkk/TJvnGE9SnuI/AAAAAAAAAwY/J0mqOz4iLEE/s320/SAM_0898.JPG" /></a> <br />
<br />
When I look back on that time of the year, it was a busy time. The sun had started to peek through after a long, hard and cruel winter, it was only a few days after I’d done the film with Russian TV (see this blog: <a href="http://rayfrenshamworld.blogspot.com/2010/04/filming-with-russian-tv_06.html">http://rayfrenshamworld.blogspot.com/2010/04/filming-with-russian-tv_06.html</a> <br />
or <a href="http://www.ntv.ru/novosti/189725/">http://www.ntv.ru/novosti/189725/</a> ) <br />
and just a day after Ian Flitman and I had filmed my section for The People, his interactive video installation (see this blog: <a href="http://rayfrenshamworld.blogspot.com/2009/08/and-now-i-am-become-art-installation.html">http://rayfrenshamworld.blogspot.com/2009/08/and-now-i-am-become-art-installation.html</a> <br />
or <a href="http://www.blipstation.com/thepeople/webversion/release/ThePeople.html">http://www.blipstation.com/thepeople/webversion/release/ThePeople.html</a> )Ray Frenshamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18102271184582937704noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2160761156613959737.post-19202126072909910832010-09-15T05:55:00.000-07:002010-09-15T06:05:52.097-07:00The Art of Acting BritishA few days ago I came across a recent piece by my chum and fellow dandy Winston Chesterfield. He made such pertinent points and so elegantly expressed I felt compelled to simply re-post as is (which I do with his permission). <br />
<br />
He was also photographed by Stephanie Rushton, (<a href="http://www.stephanierushton.com/">http://www.stephanierushton.com/</a> ), below - whose portraits I recently posted up in three parts - for her English Eccentrics project:<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_Rk7J5NFZUkk/TJDCIffzL-I/AAAAAAAAAv4/aiMfnaPzQs8/s1600/winston1+by+Steph+Rushton.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" qx="true" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_Rk7J5NFZUkk/TJDCIffzL-I/AAAAAAAAAv4/aiMfnaPzQs8/s320/winston1+by+Steph+Rushton.jpg" /></a></div><strong>The Art Of Acting British (September 12, 2010)</strong><br />
<br />
<br />
“On the 4th September Jermyn Street, London’s shoe-and-shirt mecca, was closed to traffic. However, this was no ordinary inconvenience. The entire street had been taken over for the celebration of a particular Art; the Art of Being British. Many of the street’s retailers had set up stalls exhibiting their trade, trumpeting British values of quality….<br />
<br />
“…It was a confection as British as an imagination would dare and, acknowledging the special occasion, some of the crowd had taken the opportunity to exhibit their Art of being British. I say ‘being British’, when in fact I mean ‘acting British’; most of the fantastically, elegantly and colourfully dressed gentlemen there were not British at all yet they chose to mark the day in particularly British ensembles; tweed suits, fedoras, bow ties and even bowler hats. I heard Italian, American, Spanish and French visitors enjoying their promenade on this special day, attired in beautiful British classics. My fellow countrymen were largely anonymous.<br />
<br />
“You see, the trouble with the British is most of them are trying to be something else. They want to be Italian, or American or French. They’re either not comfortable with their nationality, or they secretly believe the grass is greener. Admittedly, the effect can be repeated elsewhere – Milan is full of men who see British tailoring as the pinnacle of elegance. But despite all the apparent British nationalism, our connection with Britishness, all the stuff that Jermyn Street was celebrating – that oaky, tweedy, burnished state of being - has become a museum in itself. Our citizens wander around in this world with a passive unconcern that suggests it no longer exists. Whereas those looking in on Britain see such things as worthy of protection and celebration, the curious Brits who peer in through the windows seemed to have lost all association with that world.”<br />
<br />
<br />
- Food for thought indeed. Winston’s own blog can be found at: <br />
<a href="http://venividivrai.blogspot.com/">http://venividivrai.blogspot.com/</a>Ray Frenshamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18102271184582937704noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2160761156613959737.post-2069432587705544052010-09-04T16:14:00.000-07:002011-01-31T13:07:59.932-08:00Henry de Winter - At Last: his Website !!!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_Rk7J5NFZUkk/TILRppO_P3I/AAAAAAAAAvw/ZX6UYIDpKQI/s1600/henrydewinter_logo.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" ox="true" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_Rk7J5NFZUkk/TILRppO_P3I/AAAAAAAAAvw/ZX6UYIDpKQI/s320/henrydewinter_logo.gif" /></a></div>Since I discovered this man and his music a couple of years ago I have written regularly about Henry de Winter:- <br />
<br />
<a href="http://rayfrenshamworld.blogspot.com/2009/03/bratislava-hot-serenaders.html">http://rayfrenshamworld.blogspot.com/2009/03/bratislava-hot-serenaders.html</a> , <br />
<br />
<a href="http://rayfrenshamworld.blogspot.com/2009/07/bratislava-hot-serenaders-henry-de.html">http://rayfrenshamworld.blogspot.com/2009/07/bratislava-hot-serenaders-henry-de.html</a> <br />
and<br />
<a href="http://rayfrenshamworld.blogspot.com/2009/04/so-who-is-henry-de-winter-quest.html">http://rayfrenshamworld.blogspot.com/2009/04/so-who-is-henry-de-winter-quest.html</a> <br />
<br />
But there was such scant information about him, I felt helpless when responding to all the enquiries I received from my friends (not just in Europe but from America, where HdeW is now gaining a growing fan base, mostly thanks to his two YouTube recordings with the Bratislava Hot Serenaders - links above). [Again, click on the pics to get larger versions, then click again on That pic to get the full sized versions].<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_Rk7J5NFZUkk/TILQ0CZHKyI/AAAAAAAAAvg/C4PcfquTWUM/s1600/HdeW+YouTube+01+-+Henry+de+Winter.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" ox="true" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_Rk7J5NFZUkk/TILQ0CZHKyI/AAAAAAAAAvg/C4PcfquTWUM/s320/HdeW+YouTube+01+-+Henry+de+Winter.jpg" /></a><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_Rk7J5NFZUkk/TILQ2riQiEI/AAAAAAAAAvo/SADkXpnNrL0/s1600/HdeW+YouTube+02.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" ox="true" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_Rk7J5NFZUkk/TILQ2riQiEI/AAAAAAAAAvo/SADkXpnNrL0/s320/HdeW+YouTube+02.jpg" /></a></div>I knew he had released 3 CDs (see my previous blogs for photos), all of them very difficult to obtain and a trifle expensive [I am still looking for Volume 1 myself], as were the postage costs from Germany via amazon.de . Sometimes the odd item might appear on ebay.de, as I recently bought this card (below) dated December 1997, but these were very rare occasions. And hard information was still proving elusive.<br />
<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_Rk7J5NFZUkk/TILQRNOuaHI/AAAAAAAAAvY/YF-p_1ZLbqo/s1600/HdeW+-+autographed+photo.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" ox="true" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_Rk7J5NFZUkk/TILQRNOuaHI/AAAAAAAAAvY/YF-p_1ZLbqo/s320/HdeW+-+autographed+photo.jpg" /></a> <br />
<br />
He did have a website presence, but that had been dormant for years (possibly unactivated). All it showed was a photo of Henry gardening with his dog Bobby - Peter, his original dog, and the one who appears in the YouTube videos and on the cover of his 2nd CD - having passed some years ago.<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_Rk7J5NFZUkk/TILQCTe-bwI/AAAAAAAAAvQ/MJQKvgwgM0c/s1600/Gardening+w+Bobby_Henry_baustelle+-+agent%40henrydewinter.com+030-3646+0349.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" ox="true" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_Rk7J5NFZUkk/TILQCTe-bwI/AAAAAAAAAvQ/MJQKvgwgM0c/s320/Gardening+w+Bobby_Henry_baustelle+-+agent%40henrydewinter.com+030-3646+0349.jpg" /></a></div>…even when gardening, he still looks immaculate!<br />
<br />
<br />
Things started to change earlier this year (2010) when my chum Imants, who runs the Eccentric Club (<a href="http://www.eccentricclub.co.uk/">http://www.eccentricclub.co.uk/</a> ), gave me his home address. In typical fashion, Henry has an e-mail address but is not online himself. [They have a term for “these people” now: Digital Refuseniks… and their numbers are growing!].<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_Rk7J5NFZUkk/TILPinHIHiI/AAAAAAAAAvI/V9j1v0yZt7U/s1600/77257154.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" ox="true" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_Rk7J5NFZUkk/TILPinHIHiI/AAAAAAAAAvI/V9j1v0yZt7U/s320/77257154.jpg" /></a></div><br />
And so began our mutual efforts to bring this Legend to the UK. We had to start with the complex negotiations with Pet Passports and forms for Bobby (Henry goes everywhere with his canine companion, you may have realised by now). Unfortunately, at the very last moment, illness intervened and any planned gig had to be postponed. <br />
<br />
HOWEVER, now - At Last!, Henry’s Official Website has been launched and here it is:- <br />
<a href="http://henry-de-winter.de/">http://henry-de-winter.de/</a> <br />
<br />
It’s in German (for the present), so here’s a link to Google Translator, which may help you:- <br />
<a href="http://translate.google.com/#deen">http://translate.google.com/#deen</a><br />
[[Henry has since been in touch, to tell me that an English version is being worked on]].<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"> <a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_Rk7J5NFZUkk/TUckMor5woI/AAAAAAAAAyw/-bkCH-uCc30/s1600/1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_Rk7J5NFZUkk/TUckMor5woI/AAAAAAAAAyw/-bkCH-uCc30/s320/1.jpg" width="221" /></a></div>Sir Henry and the BHS are also now on FaceBook:-<br />
<a href="http://www.facebook.com/pages/Henry-De-Winter/194716343888147">http://www.facebook.com/pages/Henry-De-Winter/194716343888147</a> <br />
<br />
and<br />
<a href="http://www.facebook.com/pages/Bratislava-Hot-Serenaders/58985520945">http://www.facebook.com/pages/Bratislava-Hot-Serenaders/58985520945</a><br />
…and their FanClub page:<br />
<a href="http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=53174855459">http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=53174855459</a><br />
<br />
- And even on MySpace:-<br />
<a href="http://www.myspace.com/henry-de-winter">http://www.myspace.com/henry-de-winter</a><br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.myspace.com/bratislavahotserenaders">http://www.myspace.com/bratislavahotserenaders</a> <br />
<br />
…and here’s the official website for the Bratislava Hot Serenaders (in English):-<br />
<a href="http://www.serenaders.sk/?lang=en">http://www.serenaders.sk/?lang=en</a> <br />
<br />
Here are four pictures from Henry’s website, to give you an idea of the quality...<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_Rk7J5NFZUkk/TILOSv7XJyI/AAAAAAAAAuo/wuvxRFyoRXA/s1600/__henrydewinter_biografie.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" ox="true" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_Rk7J5NFZUkk/TILOSv7XJyI/AAAAAAAAAuo/wuvxRFyoRXA/s320/__henrydewinter_biografie.jpg" /></a><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_Rk7J5NFZUkk/TILOVvzLbbI/AAAAAAAAAuw/SQ3fRDj6n40/s1600/l_46ed03ee43524e748403ad2023c41674.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" ox="true" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_Rk7J5NFZUkk/TILOVvzLbbI/AAAAAAAAAuw/SQ3fRDj6n40/s320/l_46ed03ee43524e748403ad2023c41674.gif" /></a><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_Rk7J5NFZUkk/TILOZot1HiI/AAAAAAAAAvA/IP5LmM1j_w0/s1600/l_f7a055fe13db417196cdef8eeca23dac.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" ox="true" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_Rk7J5NFZUkk/TILOZot1HiI/AAAAAAAAAvA/IP5LmM1j_w0/s320/l_f7a055fe13db417196cdef8eeca23dac.gif" /></a><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_Rk7J5NFZUkk/TILOXRkan5I/AAAAAAAAAu4/1NKetJYN_jI/s1600/__henrydewinter_kontakt.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" ox="true" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_Rk7J5NFZUkk/TILOXRkan5I/AAAAAAAAAu4/1NKetJYN_jI/s320/__henrydewinter_kontakt.jpg" /></a></div><br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Also posted up on the site are his two YouTube recordings with the BHS + details of his CDs. There are lots of photos in the Medien section (no, you can’t ‘grab’ them, but you can on the FaceBook page), including a particularly splendid shot of Henry and the BHS on the Orient Express.</div><div style="text-align: left;"></div><div style="text-align: left;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_Rk7J5NFZUkk/TUcjJlxv19I/AAAAAAAAAys/CJ9JPumfBVo/s1600/168092_194718183887963_194716343888147_707578_3828091_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="218" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_Rk7J5NFZUkk/TUcjJlxv19I/AAAAAAAAAys/CJ9JPumfBVo/s320/168092_194718183887963_194716343888147_707578_3828091_n.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;">I am now in contact with his [new?] agent (Diana Enders) and have asked whether we can buy his CDs direct from the site (it’s not specified).</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Over the recent months I have been sent a selection of random photos of Herr de Winter from various sources, which follow. Firstly, a couple of shots of Henry and the BHS on their 2002 debut in the Netherlands … and of the Morning After (Henry still impossibly immaculate! - how does he do it?):-</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_Rk7J5NFZUkk/TILM6PdQDkI/AAAAAAAAAug/kn6UjzboS8w/s1600/Henry+w+Peter+and+the+BHS+in+glorious+colour_August+2002.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" ox="true" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_Rk7J5NFZUkk/TILM6PdQDkI/AAAAAAAAAug/kn6UjzboS8w/s320/Henry+w+Peter+and+the+BHS+in+glorious+colour_August+2002.jpg" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_Rk7J5NFZUkk/TILM0h-2byI/AAAAAAAAAuY/5k6_YbWkKhA/s1600/Henry+and+the+BHS+_+the+morning+after_+groepdorint.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" ox="true" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_Rk7J5NFZUkk/TILM0h-2byI/AAAAAAAAAuY/5k6_YbWkKhA/s320/Henry+and+the+BHS+_+the+morning+after_+groepdorint.jpg" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">The Trocadero Ball in Wuppertal, Germany, 2003:</div><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_Rk7J5NFZUkk/TILLne4rJPI/AAAAAAAAAt4/a5g7dRjbhp0/s1600/tables3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" ox="true" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_Rk7J5NFZUkk/TILLne4rJPI/AAAAAAAAAt4/a5g7dRjbhp0/s320/tables3.jpg" /></a> <br />
<br />
Dancing at Berlin’s Club Sauvage in 2007:<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_Rk7J5NFZUkk/TILMbgD6iPI/AAAAAAAAAuQ/P3IeeMqjdjo/s1600/2007-06+-+Boheme+Sauvage+Club+Berlin.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" ox="true" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_Rk7J5NFZUkk/TILMbgD6iPI/AAAAAAAAAuQ/P3IeeMqjdjo/s320/2007-06+-+Boheme+Sauvage+Club+Berlin.jpg" /></a></div><br />
A candid photo at the Berliner Kunsthall (November 2009):<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_Rk7J5NFZUkk/TILMKswGAOI/AAAAAAAAAuI/_8WfmzPAqdo/s1600/2009-11-01+-+de_winter_+Berliner+Kunsthall.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" ox="true" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_Rk7J5NFZUkk/TILMKswGAOI/AAAAAAAAAuI/_8WfmzPAqdo/s320/2009-11-01+-+de_winter_+Berliner+Kunsthall.jpg" /></a></div><br />
A shot from an Art Gallery, unknown date, but probably 2009/2010:<br />
<br />
<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_Rk7J5NFZUkk/TILL6Bz4rRI/AAAAAAAAAuA/XgwqF7YAcT8/s1600/HdeW_Art+Gallery+w+Bobby-+fotoecken.blog.de_Ich+traf+ihn+in+der+Emerson+Gallery,+beim+4.+Sommerfest+der+internationalen+Kunst.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" ox="true" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_Rk7J5NFZUkk/TILL6Bz4rRI/AAAAAAAAAuA/XgwqF7YAcT8/s320/HdeW_Art+Gallery+w+Bobby-+fotoecken.blog.de_Ich+traf+ihn+in+der+Emerson+Gallery,+beim+4.+Sommerfest+der+internationalen+Kunst.jpg" /></a> <br />
<br />
Two shots with a German Vogue magazine link (from 2010?): a shot from the magazine itself and one taken a few months later at that issue’s launch party:<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_Rk7J5NFZUkk/TILLLKQn44I/AAAAAAAAAtw/ht33B7Pn6fk/s1600/w+Bobby_+Vogue.de+-+eva-padberg-bei-felix-krull_4.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" ox="true" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_Rk7J5NFZUkk/TILLLKQn44I/AAAAAAAAAtw/ht33B7Pn6fk/s320/w+Bobby_+Vogue.de+-+eva-padberg-bei-felix-krull_4.jpg" /></a></div><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_Rk7J5NFZUkk/TILLF2tt3ZI/AAAAAAAAAto/h9rE5KXIMqs/s1600/w+Bobby+vogue-fashion-s-night-out_13.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" ox="true" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_Rk7J5NFZUkk/TILLF2tt3ZI/AAAAAAAAAto/h9rE5KXIMqs/s320/w+Bobby+vogue-fashion-s-night-out_13.jpg" /></a></div><br />
And perhaps the two most recent photos of the man (?): one taken a few months ago, with Bobby again, when he played a Benefit for a young Leukaemia patient named Lisa: <br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_Rk7J5NFZUkk/TILKRC7BmvI/AAAAAAAAAtg/x2NIVSIpbbg/s1600/2010+-+Summer+2010+-+w+Bobby_+Benefit+for+Lisa+leukaemia.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" ox="true" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_Rk7J5NFZUkk/TILKRC7BmvI/AAAAAAAAAtg/x2NIVSIpbbg/s320/2010+-+Summer+2010+-+w+Bobby_+Benefit+for+Lisa+leukaemia.jpg" /></a></div><br />
And one taken on 29th August, 2010, out for a pleasant Stroll in Berlin [look at the faces on the people passing-by…hilarious! They just don’t ‘get’ it]<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_Rk7J5NFZUkk/TILKAzq7ogI/AAAAAAAAAtY/chZplbu3234/s1600/2010_08_29_Historiale+104_de_Winter+w+Bobby.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" ox="true" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_Rk7J5NFZUkk/TILKAzq7ogI/AAAAAAAAAtY/chZplbu3234/s320/2010_08_29_Historiale+104_de_Winter+w+Bobby.JPG" /></a></div><br />
So, the website is active. Henry is active and performing: he’s currently working on a new show (which will be touring 2010 and 2011) and a new album of recordings is promised. His next immediate live show is part of the Berlin Story Salon (which, it seems, is also a TV series) on October 6th. Here’s the link + details:-<br />
<a href="http://www.berlinstory.de/salon/programm-salon/henry-de-winter.html">http://www.berlinstory.de/salon/programm-salon/henry-de-winter.html</a> <br />
<br />
I will finish this blog entry with what, I think, is my favourite shot of Henry (and just look at those trousers: Double-braided seams!!…fantastic). It epitomises everything about the man and his music...<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_Rk7J5NFZUkk/TILJgB_uh2I/AAAAAAAAAtQ/UNKeCb6nPb8/s1600/HdeW+Fave+Pic+-+nevermindjazzband.com+-+henrydewinter_cigar+and+wine.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" ox="true" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_Rk7J5NFZUkk/TILJgB_uh2I/AAAAAAAAAtQ/UNKeCb6nPb8/s320/HdeW+Fave+Pic+-+nevermindjazzband.com+-+henrydewinter_cigar+and+wine.jpg" /></a></div><br />
[[ For those interested in this type of music, Henry is at the forefront of a whole new wave of German performers (mostly based in Berlin) like the Trio Ohrenschmalz, Daniel Malheur, Max Raabe & his Palast Orchester, Robert Kreis etc. (I shall no doubt get round to covering them at some point) - but I discovered Henry de Winter first and in This household, the man is a Legend!]]<br />
<br />
From Berlin… to the World!Ray Frenshamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18102271184582937704noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2160761156613959737.post-80465657136119340452010-09-02T08:10:00.000-07:002010-09-02T08:13:21.689-07:00Stephanie Rushton photo shoot - Part 3 (of 3)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_Rk7J5NFZUkk/TH--R8u3nqI/AAAAAAAAAtI/b9h-2NFFhw4/s1600/802_cropped.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" ox="true" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_Rk7J5NFZUkk/TH--R8u3nqI/AAAAAAAAAtI/b9h-2NFFhw4/s320/802_cropped.jpg" /></a></div>Back to last August 25th and the final selection from the photo shoot I did with Stephanie Rushton at Valentines Mansion, just down the road at Gants Hill.<br />
<br />
We left out intrepid explorers out in the gardens of the Mansion, happily snapping away, when suddenly it started to get overcast (and, latterly, with “a few spits and spots of rain“, as the BBC Weathermen are wont to say).<br />
<br />
So we moved inside of the Mansion itself. The full history of the mansion and it’s restoration can be found by following the links in Part 1 of this trilogy of postings.<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_Rk7J5NFZUkk/TH-92HQOszI/AAAAAAAAAs4/Zs6y-5wvcRw/s1600/840.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" ox="true" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_Rk7J5NFZUkk/TH-92HQOszI/AAAAAAAAAs4/Zs6y-5wvcRw/s320/840.jpg" /></a><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_Rk7J5NFZUkk/TH-930yA8tI/AAAAAAAAAtA/2BuZa8CVeV4/s1600/820.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" ox="true" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_Rk7J5NFZUkk/TH-930yA8tI/AAAAAAAAAtA/2BuZa8CVeV4/s320/820.jpg" /></a></div><br />
With so many rooms and wings and extensions to the building the photographs were done all over the place. The fireplace /with the birds wallpaper was on the ground floor, as was the room with the chair and the plain green painted walls. The fireplace with the flowers wallpaper was upstairs.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_Rk7J5NFZUkk/TH-9Z65R6xI/AAAAAAAAAsw/rKuDhbvsFGA/s1600/833.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" ox="true" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_Rk7J5NFZUkk/TH-9Z65R6xI/AAAAAAAAAsw/rKuDhbvsFGA/s320/833.jpg" /></a><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_Rk7J5NFZUkk/TH-9WqGJm4I/AAAAAAAAAso/L9VHdoErrHI/s1600/825.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" ox="true" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_Rk7J5NFZUkk/TH-9WqGJm4I/AAAAAAAAAso/L9VHdoErrHI/s320/825.jpg" /></a><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_Rk7J5NFZUkk/TH-9TkPuEII/AAAAAAAAAsg/gA0SculM4PI/s1600/792.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" ox="true" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_Rk7J5NFZUkk/TH-9TkPuEII/AAAAAAAAAsg/gA0SculM4PI/s320/792.jpg" /></a></div>The curators did ask us kindly Not to touch or sit on the furniture - not because they were over-precious about things, but because all the pieces were on loan from the V&A (Victoria and Albert Museum, London) and naturally subject to all manner of Insurance Policy restrictions.<br />
<br />
Still we managed to have a little bit of fun upstairs courtesy of Steph’s “post-production”, as you can see.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_Rk7J5NFZUkk/TH-87fr_3tI/AAAAAAAAAsY/DckejE0MGOI/s1600/803.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" ox="true" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_Rk7J5NFZUkk/TH-87fr_3tI/AAAAAAAAAsY/DckejE0MGOI/s320/803.jpg" /></a><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_Rk7J5NFZUkk/TH-8xAVcavI/AAAAAAAAAsQ/zYieZ2ZKmeE/s1600/804.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" ox="true" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_Rk7J5NFZUkk/TH-8xAVcavI/AAAAAAAAAsQ/zYieZ2ZKmeE/s320/804.jpg" /></a><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_Rk7J5NFZUkk/TH-8uH0WfgI/AAAAAAAAAsI/h6GeEFrwBj8/s1600/808.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" ox="true" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_Rk7J5NFZUkk/TH-8uH0WfgI/AAAAAAAAAsI/h6GeEFrwBj8/s320/808.jpg" /></a></div><br />
As we were getting towards the end of the day’s shoot, the weather started brightening up again outside - so we decided to venture out for a few last shots.<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><img border="0" ox="true" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_Rk7J5NFZUkk/TH-8Vb5zP8I/AAAAAAAAAr4/ZQVTs7wBeAg/s320/861.jpg" /><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_Rk7J5NFZUkk/TH-8Z2mTdJI/AAAAAAAAAsA/mX4Dj53tD5g/s1600/851.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" ox="true" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_Rk7J5NFZUkk/TH-8Z2mTdJI/AAAAAAAAAsA/mX4Dj53tD5g/s320/851.jpg" /></a></div><br />
And that was it really. Stephanie and I went off for a coffee in the gardens whole the sun still shone. Later she sent me the results (it’s hard Not to be pleased with this collection of photographs). <br />
<br />
A few months after these were done, Stephanie is well under-way with her book / exhibition / project English Eccentrics, and is even in discussion with Getty Images, who are interested in adding some of her work to their photo library (if that comes off, we all stand to get a nice little earner from this splendid day).<br />
<a href="http://www.stephanierushton.com/eccentrics.html"></a><br />
<a href="http://www.stephanierushton.com/eccentrics.html">http://www.stephanierushton.com/eccentrics.html</a><br />
<br />
To repeat, you can find the whole photo-shoot on this ’secret’ link!: <br />
<a href="http://gallery.me.com/stephrushton/100522">http://gallery.me.com/stephrushton/100522</a><br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_Rk7J5NFZUkk/TH-6-HwqY3I/AAAAAAAAArw/Sh_sxxwFVmY/s1600/869.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" ox="true" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_Rk7J5NFZUkk/TH-6-HwqY3I/AAAAAAAAArw/Sh_sxxwFVmY/s320/869.jpg" /></a><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_Rk7J5NFZUkk/TH-63eggf3I/AAAAAAAAAro/fdfbN2MhM44/s1600/878b.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" ox="true" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_Rk7J5NFZUkk/TH-63eggf3I/AAAAAAAAAro/fdfbN2MhM44/s320/878b.jpg" /></a></div>Ray Frenshamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18102271184582937704noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2160761156613959737.post-52983284485108629802010-08-22T13:06:00.000-07:002010-10-19T04:35:54.861-07:00BT - Part 4: Yet ANOTHER Broadband Rant!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_Rk7J5NFZUkk/THGDoNdr_FI/AAAAAAAAArY/pqv0AFNn5iU/s1600/01+-+bt-broadband-in-the-bin.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" ox="true" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_Rk7J5NFZUkk/THGDoNdr_FI/AAAAAAAAArY/pqv0AFNn5iU/s320/01+-+bt-broadband-in-the-bin.jpg" /></a></div>Here we go again! It all started on Wednesday night (18th) when my local area experienced a power surge. While some parts of the district lost their entire power for an hour we only noticed a momentary flicker of lights for seconds.<br />
<br />
<b>19th August</b>: Next day (Thursday) I was out most of the day at a Wardrobe Fitting (for a film part - I shall write about this in due course). When I returned home about 4pm my broadband was dead.<br />
<br />
I tried all the diagnostics suggested by BT on-screen, none of which worked, and ended up on the notice that read “Phone BT engineer on these numbers:<br />
0800 800151<br />
0800 1114567<br />
0800 1690199 "<br />
<br />
…and so I did…and waited…and waited…only to reach the recorded message “things are rather busy at the moment, please try later”.<br />
<br />
Two hours later, after repeated attempts, I finally got through to speak to someone…at a BT Call Centre…in India (as usual!)….here we go again.<br />
<br />
After thirty minutes of fruitless chat and suggestions, I realised I was getting nowhere and asked to speak to the chap’s Supervisor. And I got through to him. Surprisingly, he actually gave me his Full name [they rarely do at BT]: one Mr. Rocky Chaman.<br />
<br />
Rocky babbled on incomprehensibly for a while, until I said - as I have had cause to when dealing with BT’s Indian Call Centres - “Could. You. Please. Speak. Slowly. And. Clearly. So. That. I. May. Understand. You?”.<br />
<br />
And so he did - or, at least, he tried.<br />
<br />
It ended up with me giving him a five-minute lesson in English pronunciation:- <br />
<br />
Him: blah blah…prowider…..<br />
Me: I beg your pardon?<br />
Him: prowider….<br />
Me: Eh?<br />
Him: prowider….<br />
Me: Do you mean Provider, with a Vee?<br />
Him: Yes.Prowider.<br />
Me: No, repeat after me: pro-vider<br />
Him: Prowider<br />
Me: No, again: provider<br />
Him: prowider<br />
Me: again...<br />
<br />
…and so we went on until it became clear that young Rocky Chaman was not going to speak clearly or properly.<br />
<br />
Ah, yes, dear dear Rocky (remember, he is a Superwiser!) he did try to suggest a number of solutions to my broadband problems, while still firmly refusing my repeated requests for a visit from a BT engineer. And then he said…<br />
<br />
“what I want you to do is go to the junction box on the wall and, with a screwdriver, unscrew the protective covering off…”<br />
<br />
“NO!”, I yelled, “No, no!. What you are telling me is Illegal - in the UK anyway - and if a BT engineer saw that, they would say ‘someone’s been tampering with that connection, I’m not touching that’”.<br />
<br />
<b>So now, we have BT employees telling their customers to perform an illegal act.</b><br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_Rk7J5NFZUkk/THGCpbPOjpI/AAAAAAAAArI/c2oxrQM9-ws/s1600/02+-broadband.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" ox="true" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_Rk7J5NFZUkk/THGCpbPOjpI/AAAAAAAAArI/c2oxrQM9-ws/s320/02+-broadband.jpg" /></a></div>It was at this point that I informed Supervisor Rocky that I wished to speak to His boss. Eventually, after much pressure and a lot of waiting, he finally put me through to Mr. Samir Das (of the BT Complaints Department). By now I had been on the phone for about an hour.<br />
<br />
I explained the situation to Mr. Das and he sounded a little slow on the uptake until I mentioned two things:<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
(a) I pointed him in the direction of this blog, and to my previous rants about BT, particularly: <br />
<a href="http://rayfrenshamworld.blogspot.com/2009/10/how-to-take-on-bt-and-win.html"></a><br />
<br />
and (b) I mentioned to him “funnily enough, this week, I received a bill from BT for over £100. I was going to pay that off, in cash, tomorrow at my bank. You are not seeing a penny of that until this entire matter is cleared up and resolved“. [I also mentioned the word “compensation” and he did not shy away from it].<br />
<br />
That seemed to gee-up Mr. Das a little. Finally, he said he would mark-up this case as “High Priority” and book me a visit from a BT engineer (from their Diagnostics Team, whatever that means). We both agreed that this visit take place tomorrow (Friday) between the times of 1.pm. and 6.pm - he even sent me a text confirming this information [just remember that]. This took, in all, one hour and twenty minutes to resolve. And so on to…<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_Rk7J5NFZUkk/THGCJVKPXxI/AAAAAAAAArA/jcU6R3bwVXg/s1600/03+-+BT+crap_2.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" ox="true" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_Rk7J5NFZUkk/THGCJVKPXxI/AAAAAAAAArA/jcU6R3bwVXg/s320/03+-+BT+crap_2.gif" /></a></div>…<b>Friday 20th August</b>: Morning, 10.am., there’s a knock on the door. It’s the BT engineer. I mentioned that we had arranged a visit “between 1pm and 6pm” and he replied “you were definitely booked-in on my schedule for between 9am and 12 noon.<br />
<br />
My heart sank, but I decided not to argue. I explained the problem and he ran various tests on my BT hub, which was still blank on the Broadband light. I also explained to him about the “now go to the junction box with a screwdriver…” nonsense and he threw his hands in the air and agreed with my assertion that a BT engineer would Never touch a junction box that had been tampered with.<br />
<br />
It took him almost two hours of comings and goings and visits to the local “Green Box” (the junction box) at the end of the street. He’d worked out that the fault did not lay between my computer and the Green Box, but between the Green Box and the local Exchange.<br />
<br />
By 11.55.am. He said to me “I may have to time this job out and return it to the depot”. What he meant was: each engineer is given a two-hour space in which to sort out a problem. If it can’t be fixed after two hours, the job goes back to the depot and put in a pool for another engineer to pick it up at another date. <br />
<br />
So much for blinding efficiency, BT! (no wonder this country is f***ed). What management consultant thought that one up!?<br />
<br />
At twelve noon he left, the broadband seemed to be working somehow (whatever he did I don’t know)….<br />
<br />
…and then 45 minutes later, the Broadband stopped again. I pressed the Restart button on the BT Hub (my third in as many years!) and it seemed to work again. So, later that night, as arranged, Samir Das of BT Priority Care (he called it) [number 0800 3289393] phoned me back…at 7.50.pm, even though he’d promised to call me between 6pm and 7pm.<br />
<br />
I told him that my broadband seemed to be working, albeit unreliably. He agree to phone me back tomorrow (Saturday).<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_Rk7J5NFZUkk/THGBV9EID2I/AAAAAAAAAq4/cAMjhCXaNVA/s1600/04+-+ist2_913500-phone-rage.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" ox="true" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_Rk7J5NFZUkk/THGBV9EID2I/AAAAAAAAAq4/cAMjhCXaNVA/s320/04+-+ist2_913500-phone-rage.jpg" /></a></div><b>Saturday, 21st August</b>: I was filming in Brighton that day [another project]. No call from Mr. Das at the agreed time (between 11am and 12 noon), but he finally got to me at 1.50pm. I explained that things seemed to be going OK but we both agreed that he keep track of this and phone me again tomorrow.<br />
<br />
<b>Sunday 22nd August</b>: Again, the agreed time (between 1-2pm) was irrelevant: Mr. Das of BT Priority Care phoned me at…11.15.am - I was in bed and barely awake (well it was a hard day’s filming yesterday). I told him to phone me later, which he did…at 2.30pm.<br />
<br />
I explained to him that things Seemed to be working OK and he agreed to keep monitoring this on a daily basis for at least another 48 hours; he also mentioned the concept of “compensation”, which I seemed to be bringing him around to.<br />
<br />
Ironically, barely three minutes after the end of our chat, at 2.36.pm., my broadband stopped again. So I went to the hub and pressed the Restart button and things appeared to work again……..<br />
<br />
At 4pm, having come back from a coffee, I went online again…until 4.40.pm. When (you’ve guessed it) the broadband stopped again. And Again I pressed the Restart button on the BT hub, to get the thing working again.<br />
<br />
Oh, Mr. Samir Das of BT Priority Care, I hope you are reading this. We have MUCH to discuss tomorrow (and that‘s even before we reach the moment of “compensation“) <br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_Rk7J5NFZUkk/THGA_DZ8RgI/AAAAAAAAAqw/W2zdz5pFBT8/s1600/05+-+banksy_telephone_box.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" ox="true" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_Rk7J5NFZUkk/THGA_DZ8RgI/AAAAAAAAAqw/W2zdz5pFBT8/s320/05+-+banksy_telephone_box.jpg" /></a></div><b>Wednesday 25th August (late evening):</b> Over 48 hours have passed and no communication whatsoever from Mr. Das since we last spoke on Sunday afternoon, and the broadband went down - twice. Oh, and the bill remains unpaid. Congratulations BT, you really sorted that one out, didn’t you?Ray Frenshamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18102271184582937704noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2160761156613959737.post-58118549897146708442010-08-18T03:58:00.000-07:002010-08-18T03:58:03.478-07:00Sartorial Questions - 4: Little Horseshoes.....I came across this clip from the Fry & Laurie series of Jeeves and Wooster and could not resist posting ut up here:-<br />
<object height="385" width="480"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/O25ZkFVFY0Y?fs=1&hl=en_GB"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/O25ZkFVFY0Y?fs=1&hl=en_GB" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="480" height="385"></embed></object>Ray Frenshamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18102271184582937704noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2160761156613959737.post-80003897439692313232010-08-08T11:29:00.000-07:002010-08-08T11:30:52.427-07:00Stephanie Rushton photo shoot - Part 2 (of 3)Returning to 25th August 2009 and the second part of the photo shoot with the excellent Stephanie Rushton. (Just click on the images and they will open out to their full glory).<br />
<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_Rk7J5NFZUkk/TF720kv0hhI/AAAAAAAAAqo/s5om_SVrXfE/s1600/637.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" bx="true" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_Rk7J5NFZUkk/TF720kv0hhI/AAAAAAAAAqo/s5om_SVrXfE/s320/637.jpg" /></a> <br />
Next we moved into the Rose Garden (see map in the previous posting) and a change of clothes.<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_Rk7J5NFZUkk/TF72k30hLoI/AAAAAAAAAqY/3ctjfJprLfY/s1600/651.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" bx="true" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_Rk7J5NFZUkk/TF72k30hLoI/AAAAAAAAAqY/3ctjfJprLfY/s320/651.jpg" /></a><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_Rk7J5NFZUkk/TF72oWbaUwI/AAAAAAAAAqg/Z68UNzzq7ck/s1600/655.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" bx="true" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_Rk7J5NFZUkk/TF72oWbaUwI/AAAAAAAAAqg/Z68UNzzq7ck/s320/655.jpg" /></a></div>I swapped the High Imperial collar for a standard Windsor wing, with a maroon self-tie cravat and a different stickpin, a somewhat new (for then) double breasted frock coat in Hunter Green (perhaps it’s a little difficult to tell) with matching grey/green striped trousers and a dark bottle green velvet waistcoat from years back. Oh, and the top hat is a Dark Green felt one.<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_Rk7J5NFZUkk/TF72YTvwBZI/AAAAAAAAAqQ/5_xLizLeiA8/s1600/663.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" bx="true" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_Rk7J5NFZUkk/TF72YTvwBZI/AAAAAAAAAqQ/5_xLizLeiA8/s320/663.jpg" /></a></div>As the session gradually progressed, the sky started to darken a little and Stephanie started to experiment with different filters, doing all manne4r of splendis things with the sky…<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_Rk7J5NFZUkk/TF72GEJVakI/AAAAAAAAAqA/eojw0MSjG44/s1600/644a.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" bx="true" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_Rk7J5NFZUkk/TF72GEJVakI/AAAAAAAAAqA/eojw0MSjG44/s320/644a.jpg" /></a><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_Rk7J5NFZUkk/TF72JOHjs9I/AAAAAAAAAqI/jd1btKWtb5M/s1600/644b.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" bx="true" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_Rk7J5NFZUkk/TF72JOHjs9I/AAAAAAAAAqI/jd1btKWtb5M/s320/644b.jpg" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_Rk7J5NFZUkk/TF71-NbRndI/AAAAAAAAApw/OXHAcXn_CXI/s1600/653a.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" bx="true" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_Rk7J5NFZUkk/TF71-NbRndI/AAAAAAAAApw/OXHAcXn_CXI/s320/653a.jpg" /></a><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_Rk7J5NFZUkk/TF72BSHIpVI/AAAAAAAAAp4/JgN7a6SqdNI/s1600/653b.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" bx="true" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_Rk7J5NFZUkk/TF72BSHIpVI/AAAAAAAAAp4/JgN7a6SqdNI/s320/653b.jpg" /></a></div>After a while it started to rain a little so we decided to make our way towards the Mansion itself….<br />
<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_Rk7J5NFZUkk/TF71p2ip36I/AAAAAAAAApg/v7Xc75yNLio/s1600/690.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" bx="true" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_Rk7J5NFZUkk/TF71p2ip36I/AAAAAAAAApg/v7Xc75yNLio/s320/690.jpg" /></a><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_Rk7J5NFZUkk/TF71tU7bQ2I/AAAAAAAAApo/ckQ2usleaGQ/s1600/732.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" bx="true" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_Rk7J5NFZUkk/TF71tU7bQ2I/AAAAAAAAApo/ckQ2usleaGQ/s320/732.jpg" /></a> <br />
These were done under the entrance to the Mansion itself……<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_Rk7J5NFZUkk/TF71SY46cMI/AAAAAAAAApQ/pdmLXI0s4zQ/s1600/744.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" bx="true" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_Rk7J5NFZUkk/TF71SY46cMI/AAAAAAAAApQ/pdmLXI0s4zQ/s320/744.jpg" /></a><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_Rk7J5NFZUkk/TF71WRxWvVI/AAAAAAAAApY/pTJItGzL09k/s1600/727.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" bx="true" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_Rk7J5NFZUkk/TF71WRxWvVI/AAAAAAAAApY/pTJItGzL09k/s320/727.jpg" /></a></div>….looking and feeling Totally at home (couldn‘t resist a touch of that Gene Kelly swagger)……<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_Rk7J5NFZUkk/TF702Dqc8cI/AAAAAAAAApA/RLi_JsjuUXg/s1600/753.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" bx="true" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_Rk7J5NFZUkk/TF702Dqc8cI/AAAAAAAAApA/RLi_JsjuUXg/s320/753.jpg" /></a><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_Rk7J5NFZUkk/TF7053hYNMI/AAAAAAAAApI/gNHcTrnyWCI/s1600/746.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" bx="true" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_Rk7J5NFZUkk/TF7053hYNMI/AAAAAAAAApI/gNHcTrnyWCI/s320/746.jpg" /></a></div>…and then inside sitting on one of the many window seats. You don’t know how comfortable and appropriate I felt in this environment….<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><img border="0" bx="true" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_Rk7J5NFZUkk/TF70ktjJwDI/AAAAAAAAAow/HSWQA5ZVhV8/s320/779.jpg" /><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_Rk7J5NFZUkk/TF70pYIHGaI/AAAAAAAAAo4/alrn-Ia8x8U/s1600/774.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" bx="true" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_Rk7J5NFZUkk/TF70pYIHGaI/AAAAAAAAAo4/alrn-Ia8x8U/s320/774.jpg" /></a></div>As Stephanie and I chatted during the session we discovered we know the same fellow photographer. A chap called Ian Tilton….<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><img border="0" bx="true" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_Rk7J5NFZUkk/TF70BrFRt3I/AAAAAAAAAog/afbJCK7kzWA/s320/786.jpg" /><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_Rk7J5NFZUkk/TF70I0B58xI/AAAAAAAAAoo/qCk84dDKrfY/s1600/785.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" bx="true" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_Rk7J5NFZUkk/TF70I0B58xI/AAAAAAAAAoo/qCk84dDKrfY/s320/785.jpg" /></a></div>Over twenty years ago I employed “Tilly” (then a fledgling photography student) to take some photos of one of the groups I had on a record label I was running, publicity and cover for shots for an album we were planning to release. He was in Manchester and the group were nearby, so it seemed logical; and he delivered a very impressed set of shots, the album ones hand-tinted in colour.<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_Rk7J5NFZUkk/TF7zzpvwoWI/AAAAAAAAAoY/0HnYCA4z1QE/s1600/787.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" bx="true" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_Rk7J5NFZUkk/TF7zzpvwoWI/AAAAAAAAAoY/0HnYCA4z1QE/s320/787.jpg" /></a></div>Fast forward about five years and the next time I see his name mentioned is on the first album by the Stone Roses, he took the studio shots… and then later on The Smiths album Rank and then his pic of Kurt Cobain Crying - a “legendary image”, I am informed - is on display at the Brooklyn Museum, New York. [I do pride myself on spotting fledgling talent and early on].<br />
<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_Rk7J5NFZUkk/TF7zltZ9lZI/AAAAAAAAAoQ/RtQHGQiuDDk/s1600/image5.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" bx="true" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_Rk7J5NFZUkk/TF7zltZ9lZI/AAAAAAAAAoQ/RtQHGQiuDDk/s320/image5.jpg" /></a> <br />
These photos here, of course, are just a mere selection of the shots that were taken by Stephanie Rushton. <br />
I shall post up the third and final set next week.Ray Frenshamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18102271184582937704noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2160761156613959737.post-34100989524678273332010-08-04T09:57:00.000-07:002010-08-04T09:57:36.731-07:00My Heart Will Go On - Recorder By Candle Light by Matt MulhollandMy Heart Will Go On (and on...and on...and on...)<br />
I was sent this by a friend in Sweden (remarkable how quickly these Swedes pick things up on the interweb). I’d been looking for my modern-day equivalent of Jonathan & Darlene Edwards [wikipedia them] and I think I have found it in Matt Mulholland.<br />
<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X2WH8mHJnhM">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X2WH8mHJnhM</a><br />
<br />
Turns out he’s from New Zealand…. Well it made me laugh anyway. Enjoy.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<object height="385" width="480"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/X2WH8mHJnhM&hl=en_GB&fs=1"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/X2WH8mHJnhM&hl=en_GB&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="480" height="385"></embed></object><br />
<br />
Try his website: I still think his recorder tutorial should be essential viewing for All school orchestras.<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.mattmulholland.com/">http://www.mattmulholland.com/</a> or <a href="http://www.mattmulholland.co.nz/">http://www.mattmulholland.co.nz/</a>Ray Frenshamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18102271184582937704noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2160761156613959737.post-10934755689251414102010-08-02T14:26:00.000-07:002010-08-03T05:42:03.503-07:00Stephanie Rushton photo shoot - Part 1 (of 3)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_Rk7J5NFZUkk/TFcx2AL1BfI/AAAAAAAAAnQ/wmxRldBHc_M/s1600/image1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" bx="true" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_Rk7J5NFZUkk/TFcx2AL1BfI/AAAAAAAAAnQ/wmxRldBHc_M/s320/image1.jpg" /></a></div>Looking at the backlog of things I have not posted so far (and there is much of it) I am astonished how many of them are photographs of … me! (surprise surprise) - either specific photo shoots or at events I have attended. So, at risk of a surfeit of self, I am going to stagger them over the next few months (chronologically).<br />
<br />
Let’s go all the way back to last August (25th) - 2009. I had been approached - probably via the Eccentric Club - by a professional photographer, Stephanie Rushton. <br />
[ <a href="http://www.stephanierushton.com/index.html">http://www.stephanierushton.com/index.html</a> ]<br />
<br />
We chatted for a while, she had already taken photographs of some friends of mine - the blogger and musician Winston Chesterfield and “fellow eccentric” Lyndon Yorke - and they both had good shoots with her - so I felt a comfort zone there. She said she was putting together a project “English Eccentrics” and, as I never allow people to photograph me ‘at home’, I suggested the local (and recently restored) Valentines Mansion, a Georgian pile just down the road at Gants Hill. <br />
[ <a href="http://www.valentines.org.uk/">http://www.valentines.org.uk/</a> <a href="http://www.valentines.org.uk/"></a>and <a href="http://www.valentinesmansion.com/">http://www.valentinesmansion.com/</a> <a href="http://www.valentinesmansion.com/"></a>], see also my previous posting on the reopening of the Mansion on February 14th 2009 [ <a href="http://rayfrenshamworld.blogspot.com/2009/02/valentines-mansion-reopens.html">http://rayfrenshamworld.blogspot.com/2009/02/valentines-mansion-reopens.html</a> ]<a href="http://rayfrenshamworld.blogspot.com/2009/02/valentines-mansion-reopens.html"></a><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_Rk7J5NFZUkk/TFcz8XxLdPI/AAAAAAAAAnY/46T1oeINtfA/s1600/map_of_garden_L.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" bx="true" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_Rk7J5NFZUkk/TFcz8XxLdPI/AAAAAAAAAnY/46T1oeINtfA/s320/map_of_garden_L.jpg" /></a></div>The weather was rather splendid for most of the day (a little darkening in the sky, which you will see in the second posting of these 3) and we decided on three different “looks” [not ‘outfits’ and Definitely Not ‘costumes’!]. What follows is just a mere smattering of the first lot of photos that were taken.<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_Rk7J5NFZUkk/TFc0Owiup4I/AAAAAAAAAno/QcFvPH1buJU/s1600/627.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" bx="true" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_Rk7J5NFZUkk/TFc0Owiup4I/AAAAAAAAAno/QcFvPH1buJU/s320/627.jpg" /></a><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_Rk7J5NFZUkk/TFc0NXsBOVI/AAAAAAAAAng/uXz2keFsk_8/s1600/601.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" bx="true" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_Rk7J5NFZUkk/TFc0NXsBOVI/AAAAAAAAAng/uXz2keFsk_8/s320/601.jpg" /></a></div>I do urge you to visit Steph’s site, she is a rather splendid photographer with a fantastic ‘eye’ <br />
<a href="http://www.stephanierushton.com/eccentrics.html"></a><br />
<a href="http://www.stephanierushton.com/eccentrics.html">http://www.stephanierushton.com/eccentrics.html</a><br />
As you can see, we started out in the gardens of the Mansion - the walled Old English Garden, to be precise. I have to say, we were both impressed at the splendid and authentic restoration job that had been performed on the Mansion (luckily funded and finished before the credit problems hit this country - and the Borough).<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_Rk7J5NFZUkk/TFc2I_Z5vvI/AAAAAAAAAnw/rAJ5KBsedc8/s1600/630.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" bx="true" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_Rk7J5NFZUkk/TFc2I_Z5vvI/AAAAAAAAAnw/rAJ5KBsedc8/s320/630.jpg" /></a><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_Rk7J5NFZUkk/TFc2Kskzq4I/AAAAAAAAAn4/jDBDutM_JuM/s1600/633.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" bx="true" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_Rk7J5NFZUkk/TFc2Kskzq4I/AAAAAAAAAn4/jDBDutM_JuM/s320/633.jpg" /></a></div>Looking at my clothes for this part of the shoot, I was wearing my single-breasted black barathea frock coat (part of a suit) but with striped trousers. The waistcoat was my (newly finished) red Chinese silk ten-button double-breasted one. Notice the buttons - black - this is the only time you will see these as the deadline for the shoot meant that my tailor (Ayres, who made this creation) did not have the time to cover the buttons in the same fabric so we went with black silk as a stop-gap! (And just wait till you see the back of this magnificent creation!).<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_Rk7J5NFZUkk/TFc2w5CxctI/AAAAAAAAAoI/Dvv5T0yhULE/s1600/636_altered+-+with+Full+Imperial_by+Brad.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" bx="true" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_Rk7J5NFZUkk/TFc2w5CxctI/AAAAAAAAAoI/Dvv5T0yhULE/s320/636_altered+-+with+Full+Imperial_by+Brad.jpg" /></a></div>[A slightly cropped and "adjusted" version of Stephanie's photograph, done by my pal Brad in the USA, giving me a wrap-around collar.... something which I crave and are simply impossible to find these days!]<br />
<br />
[P.S.: This secret link leads to the full selection of the entire photo-shoot, should you care to explore:<br />
<a href="http://gallery.me.com/stephrushton/100522">http://gallery.me.com/stephrushton/100522</a> ]. I shall post up Part 2 of this three-parter next week!<br />
<br />
For the record, Winston’s blogsite is:<a href="http://venividivrai.blogspot.com/">http://venividivrai.blogspot.com/</a> <br />
…and Lyndon’s website is:<a href="http://www.lyndonsmachines.co.uk/">http://www.lyndonsmachines.co.uk/</a>Ray Frenshamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18102271184582937704noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2160761156613959737.post-25636719724059584672010-07-29T08:09:00.000-07:002010-07-29T11:09:11.569-07:00Eccentricity - a Response by Max DavidsonFurther to yesterday’s rather bonkers piece in the Telegraph, today they published this:-<br />
<a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/7915067/Being-a-little-odd-doesnt-mean-that-Im-mentally-ill.html">http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/7915067/Being-a-little-odd-doesnt-mean-that-Im-mentally-ill.html</a><br />
<br />
<strong>Being a little odd doesn't mean that I'm mentally ill.</strong><strong><br />
</strong><strong>[Labelling every behaviour out of the norm as a sign of mental illness is insanity]. </strong><br />
<strong>By Max Davidson</strong><br />
Published: 5:46PM BST 28 Jul 2010<br />
<br />
The bean-counters at the NHS must be tearing their hair out. If we take our cue from America, as we generally do in these matters, the number of people diagnosed with mental disorders may be about to rise exponentially, with knock-on effects for their budgets.<br />
<br />
Even tearing your hair out, once a perfectly acceptable sign of emotional frustration, could soon be re-categorised as psychotic behaviour – innocuous in itself, but symptomatic of underlying mental health problems.<br />
<br />
In fresh guidelines promulgated by the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders – the definitive American textbook, in use all around the world – the latest buzz-phrase is "Psychosis Risk Syndrome". The clue is in the name: it is concerned not with how people behave now, but how they might behave in future.<br />
<br />
Nobody should make light of mental illnesses, or the importance of understanding them. But if the bar for mental illness is to continually lowered, it will sound the death knell for the kind of benign eccentricity at which the British have long excelled. If someone is doing something odd but harmless – sporting an asparagus in their buttonhole, say – doctors will find it increasingly hard to leave it at that. They will ask: "Why the asparagus?" and seek abstruse explanations. Perhaps the asparagus-wearer harbours feelings of sexual inadequacy? Or perhaps he has a pathological hatred of his mother, after being forced to eat asparagus as a child?<br />
<br />
Medical knowledge may be growing, but the world is shrinking. Once everyone has been labelled, has had a name slapped on their condition, there is no room left for the kind of people who defy labelling. Sherlock Holmes, brilliantly reinvented in a new BBC series, is no longer a maverick, but a "sociopath". Yet our history is littered with colourful oddballs, from William Archibald Spooner, the Oxford professor whose bloopers packed lecture halls ("Such Bulgarians should be vanished") to Sir George Sitwell, who invented a pistol for shooting wasps and had the cows on his estate stencilled with a blue Chinese willow pattern – and they have been remembered far more fondly than their po-faced contemporaries.<br />
<br />
Glyndebourne opera house is now celebrated around the world, but its founder, John Christie, was so many high Cs short of an aria that he would be placed under restraint today. On one occasion, he was sitting next to the Queen during a performance, when he took out his glass eye, cleaned it, replaced it in its socket, and asked the Queen if it was in straight.<br />
<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_Rk7J5NFZUkk/TFGZKL8RlqI/AAAAAAAAAmw/gio80zI07m8/s1600/shperh_1687245c.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" bx="true" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_Rk7J5NFZUkk/TFGZKL8RlqI/AAAAAAAAAmw/gio80zI07m8/s320/shperh_1687245c.jpg" /></a><br />
<div></div>Cricket lovers all over the world treasure the memory of the late, great David Shepherd [above], the umpire who hopped from foot to foot whenever the score reached 111 or multiples thereof. Shepherd hailed from the West Country, and was a mass of old rural superstitions of the kind that psychiatry is powerless to heal. He belonged in a museum, not a hospital.<br />
<br />
Of course, eccentrics are not to be confused with the kind of desperate attention seekers who find their way on to Big Brother. If they wear odd clothes, or have acquired odd mannerisms, it is not because they are showing off, but because they live their own lives, oblivious to what other people think of them. The best of them are holy fools, blessed with an innocence that their more conventional friends can only envy.<br />
<br />
Sadly, I have never really hacked it as a major-league eccentric: the habits of conformity are too ingrained. But the further I drift from the mainstream – as I did at a barbecue recently, performing a full-on impression of Laurence Olivier as Richard III, hunchback and all – the happier I feel.<br />
<br />
I certainly don't want doctors totting up my little quirks – loud ties, Wild Man of Borneo hairdos, DIY fish recipes, talking to myself in the bath – and finding a medical condition to explain them. I would rather be myself, unlabelled and untamed.Ray Frenshamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18102271184582937704noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2160761156613959737.post-31587101058115678472010-07-29T06:01:00.000-07:002010-07-29T11:08:21.385-07:00Eccentric? - Try this for size................<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_Rk7J5NFZUkk/TFGxUriiSgI/AAAAAAAAAnI/oktiu9g9tnE/s1600/01+-+albert-einstein.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" bx="true" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_Rk7J5NFZUkk/TFGxUriiSgI/AAAAAAAAAnI/oktiu9g9tnE/s320/01+-+albert-einstein.jpg" /></a></div><br />
Firstly, apologies for my silence these last few weeks (I will post some catch-ups in due course) - I was out there in real-life land enjoying the Summer and the sun and not stuck behind a computer (my only friend). I believe it is called "getting a life".<br />
<br />
Anyway, I saw the following article in yesterday's Daily Telegraph and took great comfort in it. I reprint in full! The link is: <br />
<a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/healthnews/7913122/Eccentrics-could-be-diagnosed-with-mental-disorders.html">http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/healthnews/7913122/Eccentrics-could-be-diagnosed-with-mental-disorders.html</a><br />
<b>Eccentrics 'could be diagnosed with mental disorders' <br />
<br />
[Eccentrics could be labelled as having mental disorders under planned changes to diagnostic guidelines, experts have warned]. <br />
<br />
By Nick Collins</b><br />
Patients may be more likely to be told they have psychological illnesses after experts proposed to modify classifications in a mental health guide used by doctors around the world, it was claimed. <br />
<br />
The suggested new diagnoses in the manual, written by leading American doctors, and the potential lowering of the bar on other disorders "shrinks the pool of normality to a puddle", critics said. <br />
<br />
It is feared that difficult or eccentric people may be diagnosed as mentally ill, dramatically affecting their life and job prospects, without ever developing "full blown" psychosis. <br />
<br />
One new diagnosis put forward by the authors is "Psychosis Risk Syndrome", which identifies people thought to be at risk of developing a mental illness. <br />
<br />
Symptoms for patients in this category may include mood changes, feelings of distress, anxiety or paranoia, or fleeting episodes of hearing voices. <br />
<br />
Other diagnoses under consideration include "mixed anxiety depression", "binge eating," and "temper dysregulation disorder with dysphoria". <br />
<br />
Definitions of some existing disorders, such as depression, may have the bar lowered so that more people are deemed to have symptoms that merit a diagnosis. <br />
Professor Til Wykes, from the Institute of Psychiatry at King's College London, described a trend that was "leaking into normality". <br />
<br />
She said: "It shrinks the pool of normality to a puddle, and there are going to be fewer people who won't end up having a diagnosis of mental illness." <br />
<br />
The changes are due to appear in the fifth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5) – the first time guidelines have been altered in 15 years. <br />
<br />
The guide, published by the American Psychiatric Association, is used closely by mental health care professionals across the world. <br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_Rk7J5NFZUkk/TFF8YdjFh8I/AAAAAAAAAmg/d__IcBe31bs/s1600/Rove_Says_Hello.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" bx="true" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_Rk7J5NFZUkk/TFF8YdjFh8I/AAAAAAAAAmg/d__IcBe31bs/s320/Rove_Says_Hello.jpg" /></a></div><br />
The Journal of Mental Health, which Prof Wykes edits, contains a "health warning" about the planned changes in its latest issue, co-written by Prof Wykes and Dr Felicity Callard, from the Biomedical Research Centre for Mental Health at the South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust. <br />
Prof Wykes said the proposal for diagnosing "at risk" patients may lead to unnecessary psychological or medical treatments. <br />
<br />
Dr Callard added: "If this category were to be introduced the people likely to be given this diagnosis are going to be relatively young. What are the implications of someone receiving a diagnosis that is not a diagnosis of a disorder as such, but a potential disorder?" <br />
<br />
….so that’s it. Please feel free to visit this website:- <br />
<br />
<b><a href="http://www.eccentricclub.co.uk/">http://www.eccentricclub.co.uk/</a></b><br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_Rk7J5NFZUkk/TFGxF_CazDI/AAAAAAAAAnA/RO18xIZuXzs/s1600/LOGO-1000.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" bx="true" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_Rk7J5NFZUkk/TFGxF_CazDI/AAAAAAAAAnA/RO18xIZuXzs/s320/LOGO-1000.jpg" /></a></div>Ray Frenshamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18102271184582937704noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2160761156613959737.post-39647535660787919942010-06-04T04:48:00.000-07:002010-06-04T05:12:24.210-07:0030 Years of Fry & Laurie - a Tribute?</strike></strike>I was up in town last week and for some strange reason - the same one that attracts the strange, odd and disaffected to me like dust - I was accosted by a small camera crew from Tiger Aspect Productions (no small-fry here - and no pun intended). “We’re putting together a programme to be broadcast later in the year", they said, " <i>Thirty Years of Fry and Laurie</i>, would you mind being interviewed?”<br />
<br />
Normally I turn down things like this or fend them off with lines like “you’d have to speak to my Agent first”. But what they did not know was that about 25 years ago (in the late 1980s) I fleetingly worked on a couple of programmes that Fry & Laurie were involved with [<i>Friday Night Live</i> … or was it <i>Saturday Night Live</i>? and <i>The Tube</i>].<br />
<br />
“Just don’t expect me to say anything complimentary about them”, I stung back, but the crew replied “No, that would be great”. So here are a few remembered questions and my replies:<br />
<br />
Q: What’s your opinion about thirty years of Fry & Laurie?:<br />
A: Well in their early days (<i>A Bit Of Fry And Laurie</i>) and most especially in <i>Jeeves And Wooster </i>they were superb and for many were the definitive couple - as Simon Cowell might say, they really nailed it. But then one got fat and neurotic and the other got thin, emaciated and psychotic and neither have produced anything of any worth since.......<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_Rk7J5NFZUkk/TAjnKXfJtdI/AAAAAAAAAlw/19L4DDFFva8/s1600/_a_A+Bit+of+Fry+%26+Laurie_DVD+set.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" gu="true" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_Rk7J5NFZUkk/TAjnKXfJtdI/AAAAAAAAAlw/19L4DDFFva8/s320/_a_A+Bit+of+Fry+%26+Laurie_DVD+set.jpg" /></a><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_Rk7J5NFZUkk/TAjnPjjB61I/AAAAAAAAAl4/kjFYKKtdnv4/s1600/_b_Jeeves+and+Wooster_the+best+pic.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" gu="true" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_Rk7J5NFZUkk/TAjnPjjB61I/AAAAAAAAAl4/kjFYKKtdnv4/s320/_b_Jeeves+and+Wooster_the+best+pic.jpg" /></a></div>Oops! [OK, maybe I forgot <i>Blackadder</i>]<br />
<br />
Q: What's the first thought / word that comes into your mind when I say the name… Stephen Fry?<br />
A: Over-exposed<br />
Q: …and Hugh Laurie?<br />
A: superb pianist.<br />
<br />
Q: If you met them on the street, what would you like to say to them?: Stephen Fry? <br />
A: Could you perhaps throw me a spare million pounds, please?<br />
Q: …and Hugh Laurie?<br />
A: why don’t you play the piano more often?<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_Rk7J5NFZUkk/TAjngkg5iQI/AAAAAAAAAmI/aOSkUOLsHSE/s1600/_c_Fry+solo+later+black+tie.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" gu="true" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_Rk7J5NFZUkk/TAjngkg5iQI/AAAAAAAAAmI/aOSkUOLsHSE/s320/_c_Fry+solo+later+black+tie.jpg" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_Rk7J5NFZUkk/TAjnd80p0YI/AAAAAAAAAmA/BcytNxtn8cA/s1600/_d_Hugh+Laurie_black+tie_haunted.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" gu="true" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_Rk7J5NFZUkk/TAjnd80p0YI/AAAAAAAAAmA/BcytNxtn8cA/s320/_d_Hugh+Laurie_black+tie_haunted.jpg" /></a></div>And that was it really. Well, all I can remember. I signed the Release Form and disappeared into the night. Most of it will probably end up on the cutting-room floor.<br />
But seeing as they weren’t paying me for it, I felt justified in saying my bit.Ray Frenshamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18102271184582937704noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2160761156613959737.post-87716639038721417132010-05-23T08:37:00.000-07:002010-05-23T13:49:30.180-07:00Ready for my close-up, Mr. ScorseseAnd so I tripped into London for a casting call - not one of those open castings with thousands lining up, this was more targeted, there were only four of us in the room.<br /><br />It was for some film-maker chappie called Martin Scorsese (he wasn’t there) for his new film The Invention of Hugo Cabret, based on the children’s novel by Brian Selznick. I’m told it’s part novel, part comix, part picture-book visual adventure, I must go out and get a copy.<br /><br />It’s about a young kid who lives in the tunnels of the Paris Metro of the 1930s -filming across the next few months in London and Paris. Apparently they’ve built a huge set at Shepperton of the main Metro concourse. Somewhere along the line the story involves Georges Melies, the pioneer of movie making (aha, hence the fascination for Scorsese?) - sorry I can’t seem to add the accents.<br /><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_Rk7J5NFZUkk/S_lMMSapofI/AAAAAAAAAlY/9UTj1il663k/s1600/Martin-Scorsese-The-Invention-Of-Hugo-Cabret.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 202px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_Rk7J5NFZUkk/S_lMMSapofI/AAAAAAAAAlY/9UTj1il663k/s320/Martin-Scorsese-The-Invention-Of-Hugo-Cabret.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5474490596031308274" /></a><br />Believe it when you see it, of course: but the idea was we were commuters on the Metro in 1930s Paris and we are supposed to react negatively to this mad surrealist artist working away on the Metro walls and denounce his work.<br /><br />What they didn't tell people (but what I found out) is: the artist is a cameo played by..... yeah, well let’s keep quiet about that one for now! It‘s always good to have a few secrets. (Suffice to say: be still my beating heart).<br /><br />There were only about four of us up for the commuters so I might be in with a chance.<br />And they wanted to know whether I could “take direction”, I guess.<br /><br />They said they liked the moustache but the side whiskers would have to go. The standard response in circumstances like this is: "for a price, I will", but secretly I was thinking "for Mr S, he can slash my wrists and film me bleeding to death, I don't care".....<br /><br />Let's see what happens anyways. (It’s not even due in the cinemas until December 2011, and it‘ll be in 3-D).Ray Frenshamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18102271184582937704noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2160761156613959737.post-80074867494265834422010-05-08T12:55:00.000-07:002010-05-09T03:58:43.858-07:00A day out in sunny…Walthamstow?<strong></strong>Saturday 8th May, 2010<strong></strong><br />A relaxing, if uninspiring, day. First, a casting call booked for 1.30.pm at Blackhorse Road (yes, I had to look it up too). It’s sort of north-east London, vaguely near Walthamstow - it hardly lifted my spirits, but still…onwards and upwards.<br /><br />So I got out of the tube at Blackhorse Road and set foot onto a deserted wasteland, like an industrial business park that had been evacuated years ago through some nuclear alert. In fact, the area was epitomised by my visit to this place:- <br /><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_Rk7J5NFZUkk/S-XUvjzVm0I/AAAAAAAAAkg/7oKPmAoWl4g/s1600/2010-05-08+-+02_Blackhorse+Road.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_Rk7J5NFZUkk/S-XUvjzVm0I/AAAAAAAAAkg/7oKPmAoWl4g/s320/2010-05-08+-+02_Blackhorse+Road.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5469011236040842050" /></a><br />I was running thirty minutes early for the call so, deftly dodging the drifting tumbleweed, I decided to go for a coffee, and this place was about fifty feet from the station. I entered and there were just two people sitting by the window and behind the counter was a forlorn looking aging Turk - you felt like: if he smiled, his face would be rent asunder. And there was no menu. Anywhere.<br /><br />So I said, all chipper, “A cup of coffee please”. <br /><br />“No coffee”, he moaned, “coffee machine broke”. I looked at his food cabinets, every one of them empty and I struggled to find any kind of food - and there they were: four lonely looking deflated croissants. And that was it.<br /><br />So I left. Once outside I could not resist taking that photo (above), then off I went to the casting.<br /><br />Casting was the usual stuff: snap, snap, snap, chat, chat, chat, thank you, we’ll let you know. I left the building (on this glorified business park) and, looking for a place to relieve myself - as you do when you reach my age - I turned a corner and was confronted by this.<br /><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_Rk7J5NFZUkk/S-XU62cB1AI/AAAAAAAAAko/HvwTiHbsUN0/s1600/2010-05-08+-+03_Blackhorse+Road_mannequins.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_Rk7J5NFZUkk/S-XU62cB1AI/AAAAAAAAAko/HvwTiHbsUN0/s320/2010-05-08+-+03_Blackhorse+Road_mannequins.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5469011430021911554" /></a><br />Is it me, or do I just attract the weird? This fantasy of fibre-glass seemed to epitomise the strange and surreal day that was developing around me. And besides, if the sole reason for this blog is a chance to post this picture up, fine. <br /><br />On my way home I decided to drop into Walthamstow. It was a dump in the 1960s when I was growing up and has succeeded in expanding its capacity for being even more of a dump ever since.<br /><br />Today, the only reason I might visit the place on the off-chance is to drop into the sari shops along Walthamstow market to browse the fabrics for possible future waistcoats. What a disappointment. Times must be hard, there was nothing of any interest or stimulation fabric-wise. What has gone wrong?<br /><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_Rk7J5NFZUkk/S-XVGXkoXRI/AAAAAAAAAkw/kKNEzOmq8Oc/s1600/2010-05-08+-+04_Walthamstow+Market.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_Rk7J5NFZUkk/S-XVGXkoXRI/AAAAAAAAAkw/kKNEzOmq8Oc/s320/2010-05-08+-+04_Walthamstow+Market.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5469011627894922514" /></a><br />And the market itself?: nothing special, the same as any other scuzzy old London market in decline. Identikit. Kiddies clothes and foreign footwear. Cheap shit.<br /><br />Elections, hung parliaments and political paralysis mean little to these people. Look at their faces. Nothing has changed.<br /><br />At least I had a chance to drop into Manze’s for some (delicious) pie and mash and not bad at £3.95 for one pie, one mash and licker (hot parsley sauce/gravy).<br /><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_Rk7J5NFZUkk/S-XVTyH9ZCI/AAAAAAAAAk4/xbCkiGQv6G4/s1600/2010-05-08+-+05_Walthamstow+Manzes+pie+shop.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 240px; height: 320px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_Rk7J5NFZUkk/S-XVTyH9ZCI/AAAAAAAAAk4/xbCkiGQv6G4/s320/2010-05-08+-+05_Walthamstow+Manzes+pie+shop.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5469011858360722466" /></a><br /><br /><br />This place is probably the last remnant in Walthamstow market - in Walthamstow itself maybe! - of the “true” East End from the era that I grew up in (1950s/60s)…and the opportunity to admire the interiors. Sadly the marble-top and iron tables were no more, replaced by plastic ones - probably a victim of Health & Safety or Hygiene or something, no doubt. <br /><br />I don’t know if this place has a Preservation Order on it, but it should have.<br /><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_Rk7J5NFZUkk/S-XVlbsWtdI/AAAAAAAAAlI/KRvgAQT3g8E/s1600/2010-05-08+-+06_Manzes+interior1.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 150px; height: 200px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_Rk7J5NFZUkk/S-XVlbsWtdI/AAAAAAAAAlI/KRvgAQT3g8E/s200/2010-05-08+-+06_Manzes+interior1.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5469012161577006546" /></a><br /><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_Rk7J5NFZUkk/S-XVgFkumWI/AAAAAAAAAlA/HziR_xuUaQg/s1600/2010-05-08+-+07_Manzes+interior2.jpg"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 200px; height: 150px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_Rk7J5NFZUkk/S-XVgFkumWI/AAAAAAAAAlA/HziR_xuUaQg/s200/2010-05-08+-+07_Manzes+interior2.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5469012069740091746" /></a><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br />I could tell you how I also felt like following my meal with a plate of jellied eels (but I passed on that) - at least I shall save your stomachs churning at the thought…. I mean, what is it about jellied eels that seems to turn people off???? They are yummy.<br /><br />…And that was it really….an odd sort of day piqued by two tiny moments: the strange and the sublime.<br /><br />But is good old fashioned pie and mash enough to make me want to stay in the UK? Hardly. I shall purchase the latest copy of Living Abroad magazine and ponder on’t.<br /><br />(At least I’m glad my mobile phone has a camera in it - here’s an early attempt to frame the mannequins picture).<br /><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_Rk7J5NFZUkk/S-XVznUBHAI/AAAAAAAAAlQ/Q69Xc9tCYCs/s1600/2010-05-08+-+08_Blackhorse+mannequins+outtake.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_Rk7J5NFZUkk/S-XVznUBHAI/AAAAAAAAAlQ/Q69Xc9tCYCs/s320/2010-05-08+-+08_Blackhorse+mannequins+outtake.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5469012405214321666" /></a>Ray Frenshamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18102271184582937704noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2160761156613959737.post-9609243606370416952010-04-08T07:51:00.000-07:002010-04-08T07:57:10.853-07:00We need Your VOTES: (…and now I am become an Art Installation…Part 2)Regular readers of this blog may recall that in July of last year I was filmed for a future interactive video-art installation (I blogged about it in: http://rayfrenshamworld.blogspot.com/2009/08/and-now-i-am-become-art-installation.html ).<br /><br />Well, the piece, called <em>The Peopl</em>e (by Ian Flitman), has made the final of the Canadian competition Flash In The Can.<br /><br /><strong>We need your votes:</strong><br />-go to... <br /><br />http://www.fitc.ca/awards//pc/ <br />- look down the 3rd column, 3rd box down…<br />- under “Audio in Flash”, there it is: The People.<br /><br />You have to fill in your e-mail address but you can un-tick the box about ‘further postings’. As far as I can tell you can only vote once (per e-mail address)…<br /><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_Rk7J5NFZUkk/S73uOeZXPeI/AAAAAAAAAjg/GhY-3uS_CPQ/s1600/2009-08-01+-+d.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_Rk7J5NFZUkk/S73uOeZXPeI/AAAAAAAAAjg/GhY-3uS_CPQ/s320/2009-08-01+-+d.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5457780255887932898" /></a><br />…In order to see the piece itself, go to: <br /><br />http://www.blipstation.com/<br /><br />click on: Play The People [there‘s also an Artistic Statement piece you can click on], it will take you to <br /><br />http://www.blipstation.com/thepeople/webversion/release/ThePeople.html <br /><br />then<br />- Click on Single. <br />- Run the cursor over the faces, my name will pop up in the box (eventually) <br />- then choose a voice-over randomly <br />- then choose various options for background noise or silence (plain traffic is best, I‘ve found) <br />- it will take a while to download so please be patient <br />…and see what you think<br />(It runs for about two or three minutes).<br /><br />…oh, and the title The People is not some pretentious artistic whim, it’s the name of the poem by W.B. Yeats that we were listening to while being filmed.Ray Frenshamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18102271184582937704noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2160761156613959737.post-30542674065560049422010-04-06T14:00:00.000-07:002010-04-06T14:13:34.480-07:00Filming with Russian TV<div><strong>1st April </strong>- Back for another of the monthly evening gatherings of the Eccentric Club at the Arts Club in Dover Street - just off Piccadilly (can it really be exactly one year to the day since their Eccentric of the Year awards? - see the blog: )<br /><br />Sadly, the long-awaited appearance and performance by fellow member Henry de Winter (aus Berlin) had to be postponed due to illness - new readers: put his name into the search box for this blog, and enjoy - but it Will happen.<br /><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_Rk7J5NFZUkk/S7nxGEDFkQI/AAAAAAAAAgo/Wr8jcLV3JFM/s1600/Evgeny+Ksenzenko_NTV.ru.jpg"><img style="MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 213px; FLOAT: left; HEIGHT: 320px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5456657510004265218" border="0" alt="" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_Rk7J5NFZUkk/S7nxGEDFkQI/AAAAAAAAAgo/Wr8jcLV3JFM/s320/Evgeny+Ksenzenko_NTV.ru.jpg" /></a><br /><br /><br /><br />At least Evgeny Ksenzenko from the Russian tv channel NTV was there [yes, girls, that’s him on the left, click on the pic to get him in his full glory - I really must have a word with him about how to tie up a necktie properly].<br /><br /><br /><br />We did a little bit of filming (as per usual, walking along Piccadilly and then at the Club and a short interview). And here is the result (just copy and paste):-<br /><br />http://www.ntv.ru/novosti/189725/<br /><br /><br /><a href="http://www.ntv.ru/novosti/189725/"><img style="MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 150px; FLOAT: left; HEIGHT: 200px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5456658954497483714" border="0" alt="" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_Rk7J5NFZUkk/S7nyaJNG48I/AAAAAAAAAg4/81ZFFNLT_DI/s200/2010-04-01+-+Eccentric+Club.jpg" /></a><br /><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_Rk7J5NFZUkk/S7nySx5cPEI/AAAAAAAAAgw/og9QschW3Z8/s1600/2010-04-01+-+Eccentric+Club+w+Ian+Valentine.jpg"><img style="MARGIN: 0px 0px 10px 10px; WIDTH: 200px; FLOAT: right; HEIGHT: 150px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5456658827981896770" border="0" alt="" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_Rk7J5NFZUkk/S7nySx5cPEI/AAAAAAAAAgw/og9QschW3Z8/s200/2010-04-01+-+Eccentric+Club+w+Ian+Valentine.jpg" /></a><br />The text reads (sort of).....<br />“Here at the Eccentric Club, Ray and fellow member Lyndon York do not stick out as unusual [for the record I am with a chum Ian Valentine in that pic on the right, not Lyndon York]. The Club has a 200-year old history and among its patrons is Prince Philip, the Duke of Edinburgh (husband to the Queen)…<br /><br />“…The club meets at 6.47.pm, a suitable choice for eccentrics (6.45 or 6.50 is too normal) and its motto is: Nothing But Good. To become a member you must be recommended by a fellow member.”<br /><br />[Well, that’s how it kinda translates as best as I could work it out. Oh, and the two stills are from my mobile phone, with ghastly lighting, hence the “quality”]. </div><br />Рaй Френшaм (That's what my name looks like in Russian).Ray Frenshamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18102271184582937704noreply@blogger.com0