Eli Roth - 2007

I love love love Eli Roth! He is my favourite horror director and Hostel is one of my favourite movies of all time. Eli has received a helluva lot of flack and criticism and has more or less been "blamed" for inventing "torture porn", something which, from reading Eli's (often hilarious) blog on his Myspace, really frustrates him. I am of course on his side. His critics need to grow up, chill out and get a life and realise that it's only entertainment. Yes, call us sick, call us twisted, but some people actually find celluloid killing and torture as entertainment. It's nothing shocking, especially in this day and age (Iraq anyone...) and most of us are intelligent enough to not read into horror movies. Some of you like cheesy Disney musicals, some of us want to have the living daylights scared out of us. It's a personal choice at the end of the day and one which does not make me feel like going on a killing spree.

Anyway, I digress! Back to meeting the man himself. He was in town to promote the release of the "Hostel II" DVD with an instore signing at Virgin Megastore. There were a fair few fans by the time Matt and I turned up and we took our place in the queue behind a rather odd-looking fan with a weird comb-over (it was weird because this dude couldn't have been more than 25, and he had a comb-over!). I'd say we were about 10th in the queue. I have to admit that I was feeling a bit teenagerish and I tried to keep my gushing under control when Eli turned up. As I had known all along, the man is super hot in he flesh! And really nice and normal.

Anyway, Matt was given the task of taking my picture with Eli since he didn't really have a clue who Eli Roth was (he has seen "Hostel" and "Cabin Fever" but he is not as geeky as me to find out who the director is). I brought along my "Hostel" DVD and obviously I had to buy "Hostel II" for the instore signing, which I was going to do anyway. Eli was really sweet to his fans and very obliging, especially when it came to picture taking, although I think he was quite taken aback when a little boy, who couldn't have been more than 10, turned up with his mother and who had obviously been allowed to see the "Hostel" movies despite being underaged! As the boy and his mother were walking away, Eli yelled after him "Don't stay in school and do drugs!" (before any of you gets your knickers in a twist, Eli was joking as I don't think he was comfortable with a little kid watching his movies).

When it was my turn, I am embarrassed to say that my opening line was something along the lines of "Eli I am such a big fan". I know, I am a complete dork. But the rest of it went quite well for a fan/director meeting! For reasons that cannot be disclosed, I told Eli how Matt and I had come to the signing, to which Eli was touched by and even said, much to Matt's delight, "You've got a good boyfriend over there" (FYI, Matt has already tried using this as a defence: "Oh, I can't be wrong because Eli Roth said I was a good boyfriend").

I then said that I really enjoyed reading his blogs and that I found them hilarious. Eli said he was always pleased to hear when fans have read and enjoyed his blog. Then I made reference to a recent blog which contained an amusing Spice Girls anecdote and I jokingly asked him if he had gotten his tickets to the Spice Girls' reunion. Eli's reply was no but he admitted that if he was actually given tickets, he probably would go and see them (it turns out Eli may be a closet Spice Girls' fan as evident by an interview he gave with The Guardian. See under the question "What is your guiltiest pleasure?"). Obviously during this time Eli had signed my two DVDs (please note the "XOXO" on "Hostel" hahaha):




Eli then took a picture with me and man, is he tall!


And being the nice guy that he is, he even suggested that Matt should have a picture too (you know, for being a "good boyfriend").


Before my time was up, I managed to slip in one more thing. I said to Eli "By the way I've burned all my Hostel stills!" (which was a reference to a recent debate in the House of Commons on the Criminal Justice and Immigration Bill where an unresearched and ignorant comment was made about "Hostel II" by Charles Walker) to which Eli laughed and pointed and said "Good!".

So there you have it folks! Eli Roth is genuinely a nice, down to earth guy and it was AWESOME that I got to meet him!

Mission accomplished

Jessica Lange in The Glass Menagerie, 2007

Apart from Meryl Streep, Jessica Lange is one of my all-time favourite actresses. Everything she's been in is absolutely stunning and flawless. It was therefore a no-brainer that I made it a point to see her in Tennessee Williams' "The Glass Menagerie".

Jessica played Amanda, the matriarch of the Wingfield family, the faded, ageing Southern belle who emasculates her son and daughter with the impossible expectations of living up to her glorified past of gentleme callers. I think reviews of the play and Jessica's performance itself were mixed but I can only express my opinions based on what I saw and I thought that Jessica portrayed the overbearing, emotionally-draining mother perfectly. Hey, I'm not being biased, I can tear apart a hero if necessary (see Roddy Doyle below). Ms Lange is one of the greatest actresses of all time and I am honoured to have seen her live onstage.

Wong Kar Wai, National Film Theatre, 2007

Wong Kar Wai (WKW) is one of my favourite directors. I think it has a lot to do with the central themes of most of his movies; isolation, unrequited love, yearning, obsession... you get the idea, I love me my depressing, bordering on arty-farty, movies!

WKW was interviewed live as part of the Stanley Kubrick Masterclass and I managed to get tickets to this sold out event. A part of me expected WKW to be a moody and sullen tortured "artist", given the nature of his movies! But I was pleasantly surprised to find him nothing like that at all. He was funny, witty and charming. He punctuated his stories with amusing anecdotes and he didn't take himself too seriously which was evident when he was asked all these pretentious & assinine questions by members of the audience, half of whom were film students doing dissertations on his movies and reading way too much existentialism-type meaning into them. Idiots.

I have a great video of part of the interview but can't seem to upload it at the moment. Watch this space!

Roddy Doyle, 2004, The Guardian/Orange Hay Literary Festival

I have read every book by Roddy Doyle up until "The Woman Who Walked Into Doors" and enjoyed every movie that was made out of his books. So I was delighted to be given the opportunity to attend a talk with him in 2004, him being one of the featured persons in the Guardian/Orange Hay Literary Festival that year.

I was sorely disappointed. He came across as arrogant and up his own arse which completely shattered the image I held of him. I've not had the appetite to read another one of his books since, although I still enjoy his older work with a sense of sad nostalgia.

The Day I Met U2 and my man Bono - 2001

Me and the B-man
Those who know me know that I love U2 and that I hold my man Bono in high regard. Just look at that picture of us... I will never wash my right shoulder ever again. Who'd have thought that this girl from Melaka would ever fulfil a lifelong dream of meeting her favourite band U2? Melaka girl done good!

Anyway, it was September/October 2001 and U2 had just released All That You Can't Leave Behind. I had just moved to London and was living in the lovely Maida Vale area. Within the Maida Vale area there is a BBC studio. Coincidence? I think not. So I heard from a reliable source one morning that U2 were going to be interviewed by Jo Whiley in... you guessed it... BB BLOODY C IN MAIDA VALE!!! Without so much as washing my face or brushing my hair, I raced down to the studios where sure enough, some fans were already loitering about. Apparently, I had just missed The Edge and Larry. But not Bono, no sirree no.

Within 10 minutes, Adam Clayton showed up. I asked for a picture and he obliged but the guy who I handed my camera to had no clue how to use it and I ended up with no picture of me and Adam. Fekker. Adam disappears into the studio and within another 10 minutes, THE B-MAN TURNS UP. Commotion all over the place (or maybe that was just me...). Bono, in the flesh, unfuckingbelievable! I managed to approach him first and asked him for a picture which he happily obliged and without me even having to ask, beg, bribe or plead, Bono voluntarily puts his arms around me, I kid you not (picture above is proof and for the last time, THAT IS NOT A WAXWORK OF BONO). Bono was tiny (in fact, they all were) and he reeked of booze, which was amusing considering that it was only 10 a.m. Rock n Roll!

Everyone else then clammered around him for pictures and autographs; they all had these valuable U2 memorabilia for Bono to sign while all I could offer Bono was my crappy WH Smith notebook. Won't fetch much on ebay I know that much. Bono was really obliging and chatted to us for ages before being whisked into the studios. Obviously, we loitered around outside until the session ended and this time, I got pictures and autographs of The Edge and Larry.

For the skeptics, U2 are genuinely nice people who have no qualms about making time for their fans. I was on a high for several days after that believe it or not and a naive part of me wants to believe that Bono still thinks about the day he met me...

P.S. Larry is really hot in real life, as suspected.