Guess the Footballer: Easy

So, England are out of the World Cup, getting beaten by a Croatia side who simply had more guile and experience than them.

As predicted, I am ambivalent about this loss, largely because my main draw for supporting England spent the majority of the tournament warming the bench (at least Gaz had Phil Jones to keep him company).

Also, I despise Jamie Vardy and will never quite forgive the British press (especially a certain football journalist who I used to be on quite good terms with #cryptic) for affording Vardy a free pass for racially abusing a Japanese man.

These same football journalists wrote mini-tomes about racism when Suarez and Terry did it. And to me, an east Asian, the silence from the hacks after Vardy’s choice word selection is a pretty clear sign that the British media don’t think racism against east Asians is problematic.

By not acting, the British press was complicit in the racism that I have suffered and continue to suffer.

That being said, there was a certain spark in the England side of the 2018 World Cup that was a joy to watch at times, and I’d be lying if I said I didn’t get swept up in the momentous occasion of us winning our first penalty shoot-out in an international tournament since 1996. There's also something to be said for seeing the country unify over a common cause, especially when the weather was so gorgeous too.

In the final, I’ll be supporting France, a decision that I'm not ashamed to admit that is largely driven by aesthetic reasons.

Book review: THE LOST SYMBOL (Dan Brown)

Robert Langdon, the Harvard professor whose impressive cognitive abilities was put through their paces in Angels and Demons and then The Da Vinci Code, finds himself at the centre of another mystery. This time, it involves the kidnapping of his close friend, Peter Solomon, a renowned member of the Freemasons. Along with Peter’s scientist sister Katherine, Langdon must piece together the fragmented clues to get Solomon’s abductor the information he strives, if he wishes to see his friend alive again.

A few bits of BBFC geekery when I was doing Christmas shopping yesterday.

From the DVD boxset of the final season of The Good Wife. A bit on the descriptive side!

From American Horror Story: Hotel's boxset. Notice the distinction between 'sexual violence' (i.e., rape) and 'sexualised violence' (the conflation of violence and sexual images, e.g. a stabbing during a sex scene).

Not gonna lie, reading this tells me I'm right in my convictions never to watch an episode of this scabrous show!

This is from How to Get Away with Murder. I was quite taken aback by this; all I know about this show is that Viola Davis is in it, and she is typically excellent. I was not expecting it to be an 18 cert! A quick glance over the American TV rating (TV-14), tells me that this might be the BBFC being weirdly strict.

Two other TV shows that I've noticed are TV-14 in the States and 18 over here are The 100 and Scandal. A telltale sign that a show is aiming for the TV-14 market when you're watching is extensive sexual dialogue and maybe even steamy sex scenes featuring nudity, but not once does anyone say the f-word (this also applies to many a TV-14 show that have gotten 15 over here, such as the aforementioned The Good Wife). 

I find it amusing that you can put quite a lot of adult content in a TV-14 and get away with it, but once you say 'f_ck', that's when you cross the line into TV-MA...

From Gotham's boxset. Again, I was just amused because of the juxtaposition of those four disparate classification issues.

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Whilst the BBFC are playing hard to get with regards to their rating of Elle, for which Isabelle Huppert is gaining Oscar buzz (I know I haven't seen it yet but I really hope she wins!), their Irish counterparts aren't so coy, and have released it with an 18. Given that the two awards bodies more often than not align, I'm guessing that this will be my second 2016 release that I've seen of an 18 cert! I've been very lax with watching 2016 releases of this rating; the only other has been The Neon Demon.

By the by, I noticed in HMV yesterday that on the occasions when the BBFC and IFCO don't agree on a film, they just bung the British rating on the front (otherwise, they put both, side-by-side):

Eddie the Eagle is a 12 in Ireland and A Hologram for a King is 15 in Ireland. I think this precaution is sensible; you wouldn't want to confuse buyers!

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Finally, I have no intention of watching this, but, nice wall mural for Assassin's Creed:

This same wall has also hosted Star Trek art in the past as well!

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I adore BBFC geekery. My entire compendium of BBFC posts is here, check it!

Pub review: THE WOOLPACK (Bermondsey)

Review: Next warm handle snowflake and reindeer tights

This week, I cracked out these tights which I got in the sales earlier this year, and seeing as I haven't reviewed any hosiery products for over two years, I thought I'd share some brief thoughts on them!

Gorgeous pavement art at Trafalgar Square.

Greetings from Paris.

Had my caricature drawn this evening, which I found amusing:

A caricature. Like Jennifer Lawrence's unbearable performance in American Hustle.

My best friend Anna said the look on my face in this picture is identical to the look on my face when I'm talking to someone who's boring me. Ehehe.

The French get Park Chan-Wook's Handmaiden, my most anticipated movie of 2016, three months before the British do! No fair.

By the way, I like that France has stayed true to the literal meaning of the film's title, Agassi in their translation, rather than giving a slightly more specific meaning to the title, as we've done.

And finally, a side-by-side of the The Accountant poster in the metro in Paris and the underground in London:

Strange how despite staying true to Agassi's title, they decided to re-brand The Accountant with a new title of their own!

Goodbella.

Retrospective Outfit of the Day from when we celebrated my brother's 18th birthday (back in April) in a Petts Wood restaurant called Cyprianis. The wall art game in this place was strong!

Blue top: Marks and Spencer

Vest top underneath: Miss Selfridge

Glasses: Red or Dead

Star Trek mural, is it?

Photos from my trip to the Rijksmuseum.

My final post of four from my brief trip to Amsterdam will be a pic spam of photos I took from the fantastic Rijksmuseum. It's funny; when in London, I'm not really one for art galleries (the last time I visited was November), yet the second I'm in a foreign land, I actually engage the artistic part of my brain and want to check out what that country has to offer!

Girl with a Pearl Earring is my favourite novel (tied with Lolita of course), so I was delighted to see a Vermeer painting in the flesh!

yellowbluepink States of Mind exhibition at the Wellcome Collection.

On Thursday, a friend and I visited Ann Veronica Janssen's installation/exhibit at the Wellcome collection. Basically, you enter a room which is pumped with coloured mist, the colour of which changes throughout, and in doing so, altering your mood with the colour. I bought along my Moschino Lolita sunglasses and a lot of photos were taken!

a usual OOTD:

dress - Quiz

earrings - Topshop

All this making the most of being in London is turning out to be rather good fun!

A few photos from the Alexander Calder exhibition at the Tate Modern.