Living in the Sun

For all you spring lovers, with your sunny weekend crushes, your sudden exposed skin, your frisky night habits, I recommend you watch a double-bill of Before Sunrise and Before Sunset before the great ball of fire disappears again. If you are feeling extra romantic, top it up with Two Days in Paris (but please don't blame me if you fall in love with Julie Delpy.)

Before Sunrise takes place in Vienna, summer of 1994, when the world of Facebook and rampant text messaging was still a dream for most. The last romantics had to either write letters to each other or use the phone if they wanted to keep in touch with flings they had in beautiful european cities hours before their planes flew back to America. Do you remember your first love? Your first connection with someone? Spending hours talking about nothing (but it felt like everything at the time), wandering around a city until it was late, the grass was soft like a bed and you were slightly tipsy from too much alcohol. Forever young... I want to be, forever young.

Before Sunset is shorter and more ackward - as life usually is when old lovers meet again after nine years and have so much to catch up with, and so many sorrows and hurts to get over in the space of a few hours. This time, the setting is Paris, City of Light and Romance. It's more autobiographical for both stars, Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy, since their characters resemble so much their real lives - he is a writer, she sings and lives near her parents (who pop up again in Two Days in Paris.) All three films want to put frenchies and americans in the same sleeping bag, with a bottle of tequila, a pack of condoms, a guitar and perhaps a box of chocolate.

This beautiful weather we see in London? This is my natural state of being; this is what I'm comfortable with; this is the cocoon shell I grew up in. I recommend BoJo (the new mayor of London) build white beaches in the EastEnd and dig a canal that brings the sea to us; I want him also to sponsour my one thousand and one flings, my picnics, my light reading (chick lit is out, gay erotica is in) and my many pints drunk outside the Palm Tree (the best pub in London, inside Mile End Park.)

Let's go dancing at Feeling Gloomy this Saturday. It will be warm and beautiful and life-affirming. I'll bring brasilians, you'll bring money to buy me caipirinhas. Drop me a comment/e-mail if you are interested.