Out of this Weekend

[dotinthesky]

The British Library - NW1, a photo by Malcolm Edwards on Flickr.

The past couple of days have been wonderfully long and enjoyable. It started on Friday with a talk on time travel at the British Museum as part of their current exhibition on Science Fiction, Out of this World. Audrey Niffenegger, who wrote The Time Traveller's Wife, was part of the panel as well as sci-fi novelist Stephen Baxter, some guy who writes for Dr Who, some other guy who writes on the science of time travel and a woman who works in publishing (and who chaired the talk.) Audrey was a cross between Margaret Atwood and Tori Amos, all deep husky voice and very funny down-to-earth comments. The audience had a few nutters who shot theirs arms straight up when it was question time. I spotted a few friends of hester 's in the audience but I couldn't remember their names or LJ handles.

Yesterday, I went to the garden's Summer Fair then met friends in the evening at Rich Mix for the documentary Senna. It's a wonderful film which is hard for me to be objective about. Because I'm brasilian, I grew up watching Senna race every Sunday, my family and friends filing my home with cheer for his victories or despair for his losses. Seeing his life played out on the big screen brought back nostalgic memories for me as well as some good laughs at how naff Brasil was in the 80s. Well, wasn't the whole planet?

Senna was to Brasil what Lady Diana was to Britain in their deaths: this outpouring of emotion that showed the true extent they had affected people's lives while alive. He was different from her though in how there was nothing contrived about him: he was pure talent, hard work and charisma. There was something about his eyes that was very beautiful, his smile too - that gave away how idealistic he was about Formula 1 and making a mark in the lives of the less fortunate in Brasil (I suppose similar in that sense to Diana).

Everyone in Brasil knows where they were when they heard he died (i.e. most were in front of the telly) just like everyone in Britain still remembers hearing of Di's accident in Paris.

Today, I woke up early to meet kirsten at Columbia Road market for breakfast. It was rainy, cold, grey and horrible. We had a look around the shops and found a table in Restaurant Espagnol, which has lovely coffee and breakfasts (chorizo on top of fried eggs and toast; why did I never think of this?!)

We then drove to Camden so she could get a piercing at Cold Steel. On the drive back home we blasted 2 Many DJs and talked about Salt-and-Peppa and what the hell happened to them. Weirdly enough, a few hours later I watched a documentary by Chris Rock called Good Hair, which featured interviews with them. It's a bit of a surreal documentary that falls under that subgenre "we all live on a crazy planet". It looks at the multi-billion dollar industry surrounding hair in America in the black community, and its consequences to themselves and other parts of the planet. Funny at parts, weird in others. Made me wonder what will happen to all those people who spend thousands of dollars on their hair if the American economy continues to slide into the hole. It's completely unsustainable, like a lot of other things in America...

Tonight, we are watching Soprano episodes while eating our dinner, reading old newspapers in bed and listening to classical music. Global warming feels like a dream when the typical grim British summer returns to chill our apartment and cover the city with rain.

P.S. More Gingerganza this way! (thank you kirsten for the link.)

Comments

[meemeedarling.livejournal.com]

I watched Good Hair not too long ago, I found it to be so fascinating. I was amazed at the cost! I complain when my haircut is $50. lol
I was also feeling so bad for the poor children getting that toxic straightener/relaxer on their scalps.

[commonpeople.livejournal.com]

Children always get the worse end of the deal in all this stuff: ads on TV, junk food, hair products, you name it...

[commonpeople.livejournal.com]

Hmmm! Interesting project! Is it for one of your DJ sets? I think the first two Smiths albums have plenty of yelps and so forth. Maladjusted has a song that's just him talking and has him repeating "liar. lawyer. liar. lawyer" over the sound of whipping.

[commonpeople.livejournal.com]

I wanna go too!

[commonpeople.livejournal.com]

Have you advertised it in www.morrissey-solo.com? I could see lots of people there being interested.

[olamina.livejournal.com]

there is the "Thank Your Lucky Stars" mix of live Smiths performances and he is very grunty and moany on a lot of those songs. Also The Complete John Peel Sessions...

[commonpeople.livejournal.com]

Good call!

[olamina.livejournal.com]

Good Hair focuses on America but this hair thing goes on with black women WORLDWIDE. the weirdest thing i ever saw was my friend in Slovenia tying and sewing fake hair into the sparse head of hair of this (black) Brasilian girl we knew there. the Brasilian girl gets these long waist-length weaves that make her real hair fall out, but she is too vain to take a break from the weaves so she is now nearly bald. she has some vague plan to save up her money and get hair plugs, but until then she just about has to get the fake her glued to her hair in places. it was a horrific and saddening sight.

though to a much lesser degreee, i am also obsessesed with my hair. but at least it's my own real hair and nothing i need to buy in a pack and have attached. so i feel a little saner.

[commonpeople.livejournal.com]

I was wondering about how widespread it was! What about in Africa? Has it become popular in some countries there, a sign of wealth?

I also noticed that Chris Rock spoke of his daughters and showed them, but never mentioned his wife. I just did a Google on her and the first predictive text that came up was Chris Rock Wife Hair. ;-)

[olamina.livejournal.com]

Yes, in Africa too. For sure. In ALL the countries. But then again in Africa (at least in Ghana, which is the part of Africa I know firsthand) there are ancient traditions of weaving animal hair into natural hair for different rituals and also for daily wear. of course, that hair was never about being long and dangling and trying to look the way beyonce looks. it is definitely a sign of wealth (and being "clean" and "kempt") in many many places. that said, people don't hate natural hair quite as much in africa.