Parrish Presents this Friday

This Friday we're looking forward to signing books at the Parrish Presents--a fun and festive annual event to benefit the Parrish Art Museum in Southampton. More about it here.

NME's Top 50 List

NME has come out with it's list of the top 50 albums of the noughties and taking first place is the American band the Strokes with British indie band the Libertines taking the second spot. More about it in today's Guardian.

English Man Cave

I like the idea of an English Man Cave (this is, by the way, Leslie writing, I have no idea what William will think of an English Man Cave or Union Jack sofas). In today's NY Times there's this article about Timothy Oulton, who's an English furniture maker setting up shop at ABC Carpet in NYC. I like the end of the article where Oulton says he'd tell Ricky Gervais he had to get a Union Jack sofa--like there's no choice.

Fantastic Mr. Fox

Fantastic Mr. Fox was one of my all time favorite books when I was a kid. I can't wait to see Wes Anderson's movie of it, but am also sort of nervous. What if it's not as good as Roald Dahl's original?

Dahl, born in Wales, was the author of basically all of my other favorite childhood books: James and the Giant Peach, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, and some dark short stories that kind of freaked me out. More about him here.

Remember, remember the fifth of November,
The gunpowder treason and plot,
I know of no reason,
Why the gunpowder treason
Should ever be forgot.

Today is Guy Fawkes' Day, also known as Bonfire Night, when all across the land bonfires are lit, fireworks fired and pedestrians accosted by snotty-kids demanding a "penny for the guy", all in celebration of the capture and public disembowlment of one Guy Fawkes, a Catholic plotter who attempted to blow up Parliament back in 1605. As a child I loved the bonfires and sparklers; as a Catholic I felt a little sheepish about being on the same side as Fawkes, a religiously inspired terrorist. Nowadays of course its mostly politicians and such burned in effigy on top of the bonfires, there being little if any anti-Catholicism in modern Britian, (beyond the decidedly unmodern laws of succession.)

In fact, that there are still those who get all worked up about the religious roots of the holiday just adds to the fun. Witness the silliness of one comment left on a blog item at Reuters about the holiday pronouncing "It is the greatest display of anti-catholicism in all of Britian. Of course it should be banned!!!" My personal favourite is the utter inanity of the Catholic Leage For Religious & Civil Rights (Except Gay Marriage) which was so outraged by the 1995 plans for Plimoth Plantation, a living museum of the Mayflower Colony in Massachusetts, to "celebrate it like a Halloween-type festival, irrespective of the historical context" that they organized protests and screamed persecution until the event was called off. I sincerely hope these prigs never refer to anyone as a "guy", the etymology of the word stemming from the effigies burnt on Guy Fawkes night!

World Champions?

It seems presumptuous that the Yankees, after winning the World Series, are now "World Champions." I mean, they only played other teams from the US. As far as I know, other teams from other hemispheres or continents aren't invited to join the World Series. Anyway, at least in the football (soccer) World Cup different countries play each other to claim title of "World Champion."

Amis vs. Price

I was struck by this Books Blog post in the Guardian. I guess I never thought of Martin Amis and Katie Price (a.k.a. Jordan) in the same breath.

Parlez-Vous Wegee?

I suppose the biggest surprise is that it took someone so long to fill an obvious market gap. London based translation services provider Today Translations is advertising in the Glasgow Herald for Glaswegian-English interpreters, or, as they put it, speakers of "Glaswegian English". Apparently, there is some demand for language assistance by Sassenachs and such conducting business in the Scottish city.

According to the BBC, Today Translations' Mick Thorburn described the peculiarity of the position: "Usually, the role would involve translating documents but in this case its more likely to be assisting foreign visitors to the city whose 'business English' is not good enough to understand the local dialect." Smart fellow Mr. Thorburn, casting the blame on the visitors' "business English" rather than the thick Glaswegian dialect.

How to Offend a British Person

Sex Pistols Pissed

Seems the Sex Pistols don't see the humor in the Icecreamists, a boutique ice cream brand, riffing on their famous cover image and title and have filed a lawsuit. More about it here in today's Guardian. I guess there's something to be said for there being no such thing as bad press. Now we know who the Icecreamists are.