Quote

Attention-seekers

“And it strikes me as odd that those complaining about the constant videoing, photographing and sharing – those shaking their heads at people’s need electronically to document their existences – are often doing so on TV, radio or in newspapers. The complainers are usually people like me, whose job gives them ample opportunities for self-expression. It seems to be people who are blessed with a superfluity of attention who are first to disparage attention-seekers.”

David Mitchell

On Paul Newman’s passing

Paul Newman

In 1981 I was 18 years old and a big fan of Paul Newman. Fandom in those days wasn’t as concentrated as it is now. Apart from my best friend, with whom I went to see his movies, I didn’t know anyone else who was a fan and all I knew about the man was what I read in the printed press. I kept a scrap book with cuttings from newspapers and magazines and saved up to buy posters and picture books from a movie memorabilia shops in The Hague and London.

When I spotted a birthday card with the text ‘You have something in common with Paul Newman, Robert Redford and Marlon Brando’ on the front and ‘You’re all over 40 years old’ on the inside, I bought it and sent it to Newman. I had learned the name of his house, in Westport, Connecticut, and that’s where I sent my card. I didn’t expect anything of it.

A few weeks later I received a large envelope. In it was a signed still from his latest movie – Absence of Malice – and a letter, written by Newman’s secretary on ‘Paul Newman’ embossed stationery. I didn’t know at the time a lot of actors would send out autographed pictures to fans when written to. So for me, a – somewhat immature – girl living in a small village in the Dutch countryside, it was a wonderful surprise.

Learning of Paul Newman’s death today through Twitter made me dig out my old scrapbook to find the picture and letter. I’m not sure the autograph is Newman’s own, his secretary may have signed the photo. It doesn’t matter, really, and I’m way past the autograph-phase, but I’m glad I still have it, a reminder of the person I was back then.

Star in a reasonably priced car

‘What is it with that corner?’ ‘I dunno, I just don’t like it.’

If you can, download this week’s Top Gear, starring Michael Gambon in the reasonably priced car part of the show. He previously appeared on the fourth ever show and had a corner of track used for the celebrity laps named after him.

He does quite well on his lap. But never mind that, his little chat with Clarkson is the interesting part. He admits to telling stories (read: lying) in most of his interviews, or otherwise he’d be bored. For example, when a journalist asked him how he dealt with the ‘homosexual’ scenes in his role as Oscar Wilde, he explained he had no problem at all because he used to be a homosexual himself, but had to give it up. Then he told the bewildered journalist it was because it made his eyes water.

So very Irish, despite the plummy accent.

Yes, that’s my excuse. I watch Top Gear for the interviews.

Blake goes on the road

Scoundrel cum poet Robert Blake after his ‘not guilty‘ verdict:

After the verdict, he said he needed to find a job but would first go “cowboying.”

“Cowboying is when you get in a motor home or a van and you just let the air blow in your hair,” he said. “And you wind up in some little bar in Arizona someplace, and you shoot a game of one-hand nine-ball with some 90-year-old Portuguese woman that beats the hell out of you.

“And the next day you wind up in a park someplace playing chess with somebody, and you go see a high school play where they’re doing ‘West Side Story.’

“And you just roam around and get some revitalization, that there are human beings in the world, that there are people living their lives that have no agenda.”

Maybe he could write a book about it all.

(Nobody knows who Robert Blake is anymore. I’m the oldest at work and in my circle of friends. It means that nobody remembers the stuff I grew up with. In fact, they don’t know or remember stuff they should have grown up with. Lately that’s making me a little sad.)

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