The Devil in the Barbican

It was raining today so I decided it would be a good time to see an afternoon movie. So I headed over to the Barbican to see the Devil and Daniel Johnston.

This was my first time at the Barbican, and I am not sure what was stranger - the venue or the movie. It is a major arts/film/music venue in the heart of the City of London and I have always wanted to go, just hadn't gotten around to it. Since it was Saturday, the area around the place was really deserted - people just do not hang around in the City after business hours. I took the bus and it let me off right near the tube station, and I walked the well marked yellow line to the centre.

The Barbican is surrounded by very modern looking apartment-like places, literally hundreds and hundreds of small flats. It was hard for me to tell if they were college dormitories, council estates, or regular housing, but with all the flats there we hardly any people about. The buildings all had house names, such as 'Thomas More House,' which made me think they might be dorms for the nearby City University. I guess that would explain why they would be so empty. The architecture of the whole area is pretty ugly really, sort of 70s brick meets communist era housing, although there was a lovely pond with fountains in the middle. Of course I have noticed that a lot of these places in London always look worse in bad weather, so maybe that made it more drab than normal.

Once I got into the Barbican Centre itself, I was surprised to see that it was also very empty. It is a huge facility, with six floors, two theatre/performance areas, three restaurants, three movie theatres, and a bookstore. But there were probably about 10 people in there total when I arrived just before five. I had a nice vegasauras meal in the small cafe and had a good time peoplewatching. There was a guy who looked like an aging overtanned movie star with really bad hair, a guy that was wearing a scarf as a woman would, and a very diverse looking family with a white grandpa looking guy, two small black girls and two scruffy gay guys. All very bizarre, I wish I had a camera to capture them all.

The movie theatre was small but very well appointed with comfortable seats and a nice sound system. They served wine, beer, cookies and gourmet ice cream (no popcorn, thank goodness) and I bought myself a reserved seat.

The movie was a documentary about Daniel Johnston, a singer/songwriter who has been in and out of mental institutions but has had his music covered by David Bowie, Wilco, and Flaming Lips to name just a few. It was a great story and I will have to check out some of his music, even though I am not sure I could bear listening to it on my iPod. His lyrics are brillant, though.

All in all, an interesting afternoon. I look forward to going to the Barbican for movies more often - it was quite civilized.

A Long Way Down

I meant to write about this earlier - I bought this book during my nightmare day getting to Rome, finished it there and accidentally left it at the B&B when I meant to bring it home.

I read a lot of Nick Hornby before I came here, About a Boy, How to be Good, High Fidelity, etc, and of course I have seen the movies. Turns out that he lives pretty close to me, in Highbury, North London. Of course I have absolutely no idea what he looks like. For all I know we shop at the same Waitrose. He is a big Arsenal supporter, which makes sense, I can see the new stadium they are building from my flat, just across Holloway Road.

Strange aside by the way - I have now seen both the UK and the American versions of Hornby's Fever Pitch, which is really about a guy who loves Arsenal, not the Red Sox. Here the Red Sox version was called 'A Perfect Catch,' and came out at least six months later. I bought the English version, which wasn't quite as good, but did star Colin Firth, which makes up for its shortcomings as a film. Even though I can never really see myself getting that into football, I have to have a soft spot for Arsenal just because of where I live.

Anyway, I would definitely recommend this book, especially if anyone is interested in references to where I live. I do not think there is a real 'Toppers House,' or if there is I am not aware of it, but all the characters sort of live in and around Islington. In fact the polaroid on the web site is of my local tube stop, Holloway Road.