The New Adventures of Mr Stephen Fry » Forum: General Scribblings

The New Adventures of Mr Stephen Fry » Forum: General Scribblings - Recent Posts http://www.stephenfry.com/forum/forum/general-scribblings Just another bbPress community en-US Sat, 25 May 2013 06:11:54 +0000 http://bbpress.org/?v=1.0.2 <![CDATA[Search]]> q http://www.stephenfry.com/forum/search.php spessial on "Cheap Built Up Kitchens" http://www.stephenfry.com/forum/topic/cheap-built-up-kitchens#post-293429 Fri, 24 May 2013 09:08:36 +0000 spessial 293429@http://www.stephenfry.com/forum/ Cheap Built Up Kitchens w w w.s o l i d w o o d k i t c h e n.co.u k . Built Up Kitchens with appliances only £595. Tel 01616-694785. Cheap Built Up Kitchens father o blivion on "More horrible job stories from the Axis of Weevil" http://www.stephenfry.com/forum/topic/more-horrible-job-stories-from-the-axis-of-weevil#post-293359 Mon, 20 May 2013 16:49:31 +0000 father o blivion 293359@http://www.stephenfry.com/forum/ "I worked at several piles of photographs, staring into the eyes of strangers and dabbing at dazzling smiles. Eyes were the worst to spot because they are small - but also the first thing a viewer connects with. The eyes are the windows to the soul, it is said, but after I had spotted the clear blue peepers of a six year old, any viewer could be forgiven for detecting cunning or even cruelty in those eyes." <a href="http://axisofweevil.blogspot.co.uk/" rel="nofollow">http://axisofweevil.blogspot.co.uk/</a> Rose on "For Nitro! Poetry I should be shot for having the audacity to write" http://www.stephenfry.com/forum/topic/for-nitro-poetry-i-should-be-shot-for-having-the-audacity-to-write/page/38#post-292519 Fri, 29 Mar 2013 22:13:13 +0000 Rose 292519@http://www.stephenfry.com/forum/ When is it going to be ok, To be fragile and sensitive, Yet normal. Will I live to see the day? <img src="http://www.stephenfry.com/bb-content/plugins//bb-smilies/default/icon_sad.gif" title=":(" class="bb_smilies" /> Willie Wit on "Off The Page" http://www.stephenfry.com/forum/topic/off-the-page#post-292395 Sun, 10 Mar 2013 14:13:31 +0000 Willie Wit 292395@http://www.stephenfry.com/forum/ I love acting, I always have. It touches you deep down, often your very essence is being formed anew. It has always fascinated me. I was so lucky to be spotted early in my career, prior to that I felt as if I was stuck at the back of a drawer gathering dust. People with great vision could see what lay within me, recognising my range and flexibility - allowing it to break free of the mould. I also enjoy meeting new people and the great variety in the parts you can get offered. The first time I stepped under the bright lights I knew I was at home. A truly great director took me under his wing, in his experienced hands I felt like putty. I left that shoot later that day, knowing I had become something new. I had stepped over an important line, and my future was sealed. A long and successful life had opened up, so much more than I had ever dreamed of. I was quick to learn the tricks of the trade. To be touched so deeply by such creative hands, made me respectful of those involved in this Art. It is not something you can achieve on your own. I was very inspired by Stanislavski, studying his 'Method acting' techniques in my formative years. To see De Niro in 'Taxi Driver' was a defining moment in my life. I knew from that day on that this is what I had to do - to become whatever the part needed me to be. To change, to become something else - can still touch me profoundly. To share this existential truth with an audience is sublime indeed. There has always been a quality in film making, it's standards have always been of the highest imaginable. I have just been auditioned for an important part, a film that will begin shooting soon. I avoid speaking parts. Instead having concentrated on the range of emotions facial expressions you can tap into - thus speaking volumes... of a different kind. The European audience appreciates these subtleties more I have always found. The previous work brought to the screen by this team is the finest I have seen. It has a truly distinctive and original style, recognisable instantly. I have watched their work develop over the years, from their small 'independent' beginnings, to huge blockbusters now being shown worldwide. Always keeping a simple, almost humble style in their work has earned them great respect. I believe this may be a new direction for me to travel in, despite my having come so far already. I suspect they have been waiting for the perfect part for us all, it may have finally arrived. An opportunity to further develop and stretch my skills so late in my career is welcomed by me. One must continue to learn and grow - whatever your age. I open the letter within moments of it hitting the mat. I scan it quickly, immediately gleaning the information I had hoped for. I have got the part! I feel ecstatic! And such a lovely hand written letter has been enclosed, I admire the professionalism in this personal touch, it reads... Dear Morph, Would you like to be in our new film? We have seen you on the telly and think you are a cracking actor! Let us know soon and we will pop the kettle on and celebrate in style! Love Wallace and Gromit XXX (Taken from my free kindle book 'Twenty Tiny Tales') (hope its ok to mention that) <img src="http://www.stephenfry.com/bb-content/plugins//bb-smilies/default/icon_smile.gif" title=":-)" class="bb_smilies" /> OhOkay on "For Nitro! Poetry I should be shot for having the audacity to write" http://www.stephenfry.com/forum/topic/for-nitro-poetry-i-should-be-shot-for-having-the-audacity-to-write/page/38#post-292349 Tue, 05 Mar 2013 04:03:31 +0000 OhOkay 292349@http://www.stephenfry.com/forum/ This time he's gone to contemplate his fall, Will there be grace that saves his wounded soul? The battles much too hard, he won’t stand tall To make just one in love his final goal. I grieve this may be loss and touch the snow; I pray that he recovers by the light but deep in heart this fear I’ve come to know Will return when the day turns into night. His eyes hold back a pain I've felt before I start to shudder while our worlds collide Just when I really couldn’t ask much more He turns his back on me as if to hide. If I can’t find him then it’s bitter cold; His heart lies still, his story I have told. Rose on "For Nitro! Poetry I should be shot for having the audacity to write" http://www.stephenfry.com/forum/topic/for-nitro-poetry-i-should-be-shot-for-having-the-audacity-to-write/page/37#post-292297 Fri, 01 Mar 2013 09:22:15 +0000 Rose 292297@http://www.stephenfry.com/forum/ <blockquote><cite>Ambrosia <a href="//www.stephenfry.com/forum/topic/for-nitro-poetry-i-should-be-shot-for-having-the-audacity-to-write/page/37#post-292247"">said</a>:</cite> Not me, Rose! <img src="http://www.stephenfry.com/bb-content/plugins//bb-smilies/default/icon_confused.gif" title=":?" class="bb_smilies" /> I've got a bit of writer's block My rhymes and iambs fail to rock I'm sitting here, my brain's gone soggy My mind's so clouded, downright foggy Oh, Rose, I don't know how to play But I'll write something come what may And when I think of something funny Let's hope it scans and flows like honey But meanwhile I am sad to say Sheer crap's my order of the day! <img src="http://www.stephenfry.com/bb-content/plugins//bb-smilies/default/icon_mrgreen.gif" title=":mrgreen:" class="bb_smilies" /> </blockquote> Maybe you need to read "The Ode Less Travelled", as I am doing at the moment. We can then graduate from shotgun worthy to showorthy poetry <img src="http://www.stephenfry.com/bb-content/plugins//bb-smilies/default/icon_smile.gif" title=":)" class="bb_smilies" /> joan on "This (non-sporting )Life" http://www.stephenfry.com/forum/topic/this-non-sporting-life#post-292283 Tue, 26 Feb 2013 05:29:39 +0000 joan 292283@http://www.stephenfry.com/forum/ This is something I've sent to 'The Australian'our only national weekly, for their 'This Life' column. This (Non-sporting) Life If they had known, they would never have granted me Australian citizenship. But I cannot hide it any longer: I hate competitive sport; I hate to watch it, and I hate to participate in it. It has always puzzled me why others care about it so much, which makes me feel like the small boy in ‘The Emperor’s New Clothes’, being the only one who sees or admits that the reality is vastly different from the hype. But now the truth is coming out; more people are realising that what is in front of their eyes, or on the TV is not really what they think they are seeing. It may be a pharmaceutically enhanced version of sporting reality, or a manifestation of a bookmaker’s agreement, or it may be genuine competition. They simply have no way of knowing. My attitude is not new though; it dates from long before drugs in sport was an issue. It even dates from before John McEnroe made toddler tantrums part of the tennis scene. It dates from my years at Heckmondwike Grammar School in Yorkshire, where I was a happy school kid, glad to have passed my 11+ and achieved a place in that state school, with no bullies, no snobs, and mainly excellent, caring teachers. But not all. Not the PE mistress, whose name escapes me in Freudian forgetfulness. Sports lessons were a study in psychological, and occasionally physical, torture. We had to play hockey in the freezing fog, netball in the rain, sometimes watched by leering boys hoping our PE clothes would become transparent when wet, and rounders on the playing fields, where I found it utterly ridiculous that we were expected to hit a small ball with a narrow stick. I never failed to miss. Other kids screamed at me when fielding, because boredom set me off day dreaming, so I never noticed the ball. Not that I would have been able to catch it anyway. We also had to run, climb ropes, and jump over things in the gym. It all tended to hurt. The PE mistress had her hatreds, with me at the top of the list. She was hostile, sarcastic, and often utterly furious, not only because I failed to achieve anything, but because I clearly didn’t care. To make matters worse, I looked athletic, as I cycled a lot, and did Judo. I did not regard these activities as sport: I never considered doing any cycle racing, and only did Judo because I fancied a boy who went to the same club. As it turned out, judo trained me to fall painlessly, which was great for cycling as I was inclined to fall off from time to time. My indifference to her subject turned the PE mistress from a vaguely hostile presence to the creature from the depths of hell. The kindest thing she ever said to me was that I was the most uncoordinated creature she had ever had the misfortune to try to teach. I took it as a compliment. She seethed. There is a dark side to my sporting problem, and in a way, it ruined my working life. At sixteen I had the option to leave school or stay on for 2 more years and do the exams that would lead to university. My parents insisted I leave: I would have fought their decision tooth and nail, but the knowledge that the twice-weekly torture would stop, softened my opposition. I left, ending up in the civil service; well paid work but not really inspiring. I have had a good life, married a gorgeous sailor and we now have two adult sons. Finally making it to university in my late fifties, I graduated with honours at the age of sixty two. I loved campus life: it had everything: great teachers, interesting subjects, a wonderful library, good company, and for me, NO SPORT. Ambrosia on "For Nitro! Poetry I should be shot for having the audacity to write" http://www.stephenfry.com/forum/topic/for-nitro-poetry-i-should-be-shot-for-having-the-audacity-to-write/page/37#post-292247 Fri, 22 Feb 2013 18:35:21 +0000 Ambrosia 292247@http://www.stephenfry.com/forum/ Not me, Rose! <img src="http://www.stephenfry.com/bb-content/plugins//bb-smilies/default/icon_confused.gif" title=":?" class="bb_smilies" /> I've got a bit of writer's block My rhymes and iambs fail to rock I'm sitting here, my brain's gone soggy My mind's so clouded, downright foggy Oh, Rose, I don't know how to play But I'll write something come what may And when I think of something funny Let's hope it scans and flows like honey But meanwhile I am sad to say Sheer crap's my order of the day! <img src="http://www.stephenfry.com/bb-content/plugins//bb-smilies/default/icon_mrgreen.gif" title=":mrgreen:" class="bb_smilies" /> Rose on "For Nitro! Poetry I should be shot for having the audacity to write" http://www.stephenfry.com/forum/topic/for-nitro-poetry-i-should-be-shot-for-having-the-audacity-to-write/page/37#post-292243 Fri, 22 Feb 2013 08:35:06 +0000 Rose 292243@http://www.stephenfry.com/forum/ <blockquote><cite>Ambrosia <a href="//www.stephenfry.com/forum/topic/for-nitro-poetry-i-should-be-shot-for-having-the-audacity-to-write/page/37#post-292221"">said</a>:</cite> I like these two poems very much, Rose! <img src="http://www.stephenfry.com/bb-content/plugins//bb-smilies/default/icon_biggrin.gif" title=":D" class="bb_smilies" /> </blockquote> Yeah, but um, like....where's yours? Who is gonna make me laff today? Ambrosia on "For Nitro! Poetry I should be shot for having the audacity to write" http://www.stephenfry.com/forum/topic/for-nitro-poetry-i-should-be-shot-for-having-the-audacity-to-write/page/37#post-292221 Wed, 20 Feb 2013 21:53:49 +0000 Ambrosia 292221@http://www.stephenfry.com/forum/ I like these two poems very much, Rose! <img src="http://www.stephenfry.com/bb-content/plugins//bb-smilies/default/icon_biggrin.gif" title=":D" class="bb_smilies" /> Rose on "For Nitro! Poetry I should be shot for having the audacity to write" http://www.stephenfry.com/forum/topic/for-nitro-poetry-i-should-be-shot-for-having-the-audacity-to-write/page/37#post-292165 Mon, 18 Feb 2013 10:33:52 +0000 Rose 292165@http://www.stephenfry.com/forum/ PLUCK pluck up the strength but from where duck down the street see if I left it there suck it up sweetie <img src="http://www.stephenfry.com/bb-content/plugins//bb-smilies/default/icon_exclaim.gif" title=":!:" class="bb_smilies" /> that's all you can do mcelderrypoems on "If The Earth Had A Pocket" http://www.stephenfry.com/forum/topic/if-the-earth-had-a-pocket#post-292163 Sun, 17 Feb 2013 22:15:14 +0000 mcelderrypoems 292163@http://www.stephenfry.com/forum/ It's a bit late for St Valentine's Day but here goes anyway: If The Earth Had A Pocket If the Earth had a pocket for spare change, a place where all its superfluities could be safely stuffed as it scrambles round the heavens like a giddy schoolboy, playing marbles with the planets and the Sun, with space for crumbled cliffs, salt-laden lakes, bolt-blasted forests, dried up river-beds, mile-wide herds of hopeless wildebeest, stranded without water, ice mountains fleeing from Antarctic shores, Pacific islands sinking under rising seas – if there were such a compendious place, all-embracing in its vastness, then it could just about fit in my love for you, with, right on the top, just room enough for a single, heartfelt kiss: x mcelderrypoems on "Benediction (after Walt Whitman)" http://www.stephenfry.com/forum/topic/benediction-after-walt-whitman#post-292161 Sun, 17 Feb 2013 22:13:21 +0000 mcelderrypoems 292161@http://www.stephenfry.com/forum/ Benediction (After Walt Whitman) Let your arms enfold a comrade's embrace around me and your lips bestow a chorus of kisses upon my yearning face: they will make music as they touch my skin, each kiss a note of its own accord, rising to the war-crimsoned sky and falling back upon the blood soaked ground. And if this is not enough to quell the clamour of guns, let the notes become seeds as they tumble down and when they have sought shelter in the gore-moist earth, they will grow as trees, giving song birds branches of friendship so their trilling can fill the air, until the cries of our poor comrades become antiphons of joy and the weeping of shell-shocked bairns is stilled in their cradling harmony. Sing, O sing to me with your kisses, sing me a benediction as old as time, sing me the tune the stars sang when they were born, let the strife-dark sky become a gleaming sound-bowl, till the Earth resonates with love's dream-song. This poem was inspired by reading Walt Whitman's 'A Song' (from 'Leaves of Grass') : at first reading it seems pleasant though unremarkable but after a few days you realise its language has worked its way deep inside you, revealing Whitman's genius - to make a great, beautiful and expansive work of art from such simple material. sitatunga on "Publishers for books?" http://www.stephenfry.com/forum/topic/publishers-for-books#post-292109 Fri, 15 Feb 2013 23:25:13 +0000 sitatunga 292109@http://www.stephenfry.com/forum/ I too am wilting in silence - another 'mute inglorious Milton'. Rose on "For Nitro! Poetry I should be shot for having the audacity to write" http://www.stephenfry.com/forum/topic/for-nitro-poetry-i-should-be-shot-for-having-the-audacity-to-write/page/37#post-291595 Mon, 04 Feb 2013 22:56:33 +0000 Rose 291595@http://www.stephenfry.com/forum/ WAGS Wonder abounds when we see the hounds that are known as WAGS. It astounds me There are none to see of the plump and/or intelligent variety. <img src="http://www.stephenfry.com/bb-content/plugins//bb-smilies/default/icon_twisted.gif" title=":twisted:" class="bb_smilies" />