Pink Sauce

I had a meeting for a project I am working on with Slightly Lost so I only got home around 8.45pm. As I was closing the front door, I notice a thin parcel waiting for me on the mail rack. From Amazon . I first thought it was one of the CDs or DVDs I have ordered recently but then I misread the inscriptions on the packaging and started to think the parcel was from France and therefore from my parents or my godmother who, although she is over 70, recently got herself a computer. It seemed rather impressive that she had already found her way to online shopping. As I started to open the package, I was wondering what sort of moralising crap... sorry... book she had found to send me. Still in the frame of mind that this was a present coming from France, I was not surprised to find that the content of the parcel had been wrapped and came with a short note saying: [Zefrog] SALUT. BONNE ANNIVERSAIRE, (en retard). Ahoj Which means: [Zefrog] HI. HAPPY BIRTHDAY, (late). Ahoj. Those of you who r...

Via this post , here is my selection of ten blogs I like and would like to recommend. Not surprisingly, they are in my blogroll already... They also fall roughly into two categories. Personal blogs: Horizontal Lives Hot Toddy's Toaster Oven Joe.My.God. Post Secret Slightly Lost in the World Issue driven blogs: That Coloured Fella's Blog Republic of T Ex-Gay Watch AmericaBlog Positive Liberty Tags: 10blogs , blog , blogs , blogging , tags , tagging , weblogs , Elephant & Castle , Roman , obelisk , regeneration

In my quests for new interesting blogs and thanks to StumbleUpon.com , I recently started to read Gaping Void . I usually subscribe to new blogs through Bloglines and keep them private for a while to see if I find them interesting enough to add to my blogroll. A couple of days ago, I read this post on Gaping Void which explains why the author does not like Apple and would rather use his Dell computer, running windows. From there I followed a link to this post where the author tells about an encounter he had with Steve Jobs, Apple's boss. I myself am a keen computer user. I have been for almost ten years now. This actually put me in a rather advanced position compared to the other members of my generation at the time. My first computer was an Amstrad CPC 6128 . To be honest that was rather limited and eventhough I started to learn basic Basic , I gave up after a couple of years. I went back to computers at the end of the 1990's when the Internet made things really interestin...

Mo Mowlam

While I was trying not to well up in the window of Pret , Slightly Lost was thinking about his knickers . In the aftermath of Saturday's exertions , I was looking forward to a quiet day on Sunday but it wasn't to be so. After the monthly meeting of my reading group where we discussed Avoidance by Michael Lowenthal, I had coincidentally arranged to meet Slightly Lost to go and see Mysterious Skin (based on the book by Lowenthal's boyfriend, Scott Heim ) at the Prince Charles' . An interesting (and dare I say, enjoyable) film about the same controversial issue as Avoidance. Both are well worth checking out. Since the film was at 9pm, we had plenty of time to kill. Again we indulged in a session of talent spotting at a terrace in Old Compton Street, the only worthwhile reason for the existence of which is precisely that: to see and to be seen. We then wandered about and ended up (surprise, surprise!) in a bookshop. Blackwells on Charing Cross Road, to be precise. I t...

Go through these quotes from the American Talibans , read The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood and be scared.. Be very scared! Tags: USA , bigots , bigotry , ring wing , republicans , talibans , americans , christianity , Christians , homophobia , religion , politics , extremists , extremism

It was a rather unusual week-end for me. A very social one. On friday evening, I found myslef at Lorelei with a Chorus member for what turned out to be a date. The guy had already asked me for a drink sometime ago. I had gone along thinking he just wanted to be friends. It quickly transpired however that he was looking for more. I kickly let him know that I was not interested and I did not hear from him until last week when he offered dinner. Considering what had happened earlier, I, again, naively, thought that he wanted to explore a friendship. During the evening however, he starting to explain how he had been in a very long relationship and had never really had a chance to date anyone but that that was what he now wanted to do, dropping some other, less subtle hints along the way. The conversation would probably have quickly died away if it had not been highjacked by our neighbour, an oldish australian guy visiting his daughter, who started telling us about the cultural dearth wher...

On the day where demonstrations will be taking place around the world against the recent execution of to Iranian teenagers, most probably, because they were gay, comes a horrific story. As sad and wrong as that sounds, one is not really suprised when stories such as the one of the execution in Iran appear. We know that some countries are intolerant of homosexuals and have forceful ways of showing it. Iran, Saudi Arabia, Afghanistan, Mauritania, Sudan, Nigeria (northern states), Yemen, Pakistan, United Arab Emirates are all countries where people know they can be killed by the state for who they love. More disconcerting however is when homophobia rears its head closer to home. The so-called "Land of the Free" is not doing too well in that respect. Even closer, some serious incidents are taking place in Northern Ireland (as I have mentioned before) and only last year, a gay man got killed on the South Bank in London. Every cloud has its silver lining, we are told and perhaps...

Slightly Lost advised me to do it as a surprisingly good way of attracting the crowds to one's blog. Unashamedly, here is therefore my version of the "the area where I live" post . I am not really holding my breath but I hope that those of you who make it will enjoy the post and find it interesting. The view from my window, London - October 2003. If I mention to someone that I live near Elephant and Castle , they usually wrinkle their nose and mumble something about a pink shopping centre. The area, after being the victim of the Blitz , had to suffer under the assaults of the developers and still hasn't recovered. Metro Central Heights and the facade of the Metropolitan Tabernacle Church , which survived the flames twice, are possibly the only two buildings of interest there. The southern part of the Elephant , composed of ugly and unwelcoming estates, together with the infamous shopping center has been mercifully earmarked for regeneration by the council . Going a...

A slight change in the name of this blog. From Aimless Ramblings of the Mind , it has now become Aimless Ramblings of Zefrog . This is to celebrate the fact that I am now the proud owner of my own domain name to which this blog is attached. I would love to be able to fiddle with the template to integrate the look of the blog more closely to that of the site but my technical expertise is unfortunately way too limited in this respect... Please feel free to have a look at www.zefrog.co.uk I am also giving tags a try... To see what they can do for me and if they are not more trouble than anything else. Read more on the tag phenomenun here . See also del.icio.us . Tags: tags , blog , blogging , blogs

Read Part One and Part Two . It was an early start on Monday morning: 6.30 am. A full hour and a half earlier than for work! What one has to do for one's art, really! From my past experience, I knew there was going to be a lot of waiting and I was not disappointed. Getting to the bar where the scenes I would be in were going to be shot for 8.30, we only started shooting at about 11. I was not the only one from the Chorus, who had reply to the invite, GM, our General Manager was there too. For the same reason that I was there: get away from work and do something different. Slowly other extras starting to trickle in. One girl and half a dozen poofs. The first scene was going to be a gay club scene. It turns out that the guy who sent the email is also the lead. Looks like it is going to be a very small budget affair. Soon we are introduced to Dean's flatmate, errr Dean, who has been roped in to be an extra too. He looks taller then he is, lean, toned and tanned. The sort of guy ...

Read Part One Here is the text of the email that was sent out asking for extras for the film shoot I went to earlier this week. We are looking for people to come along and help on our film, we have several scenes over two days where we need background. We are filming at the Warwick Bar (45 essex rd, N1 - Angel tube) over two days, 1st and 2nd August from 8.30am - 4pm. We desperately need people for the morning sessions as we are shooting a gay club scene on Monday and a Media Party scene on the Tuesday. We have make up and stylists who have assisted on films such as Moulin Rouge and Star Wars. It is going to look great! If anyone can help us we would be hugely appreciative. We are a group of young professionals and we have put all our own resources into this project. We can promise a fun day, and a drink!! With out the backing of huge budget we are pulling all our resources, we are not going to wait to make this film, it could never happen.... We want this film to be the best it can b...

Is it the warm weather? Celebs are out and about in Soho at the moment (bit like me really!). Last night it was dishy Jeremy Sheffield 's turn to be spotted by my eagle eyes, reading a film script at a terrace. Not the first time I see him in Soho either (but then again, that is no real surprise....). God, this blog is turning into an online version of Hello ... Later on, on the way home, I met up with my former manager... And thankfully, guys' eyes are still meeting mine more often then usual...

I am just back from an evening in Soho with MFD (whom I will be calling Slightly from now one). It was a strange day with a series of unexpected encounters. First of all several guys meet my eyes (if nothing else). It is usually quite an event when even one to notice me. Immediately after meeting Slightly in Charing Cross, we bumped into RS (a Chrous member of whom I have talked recently ). We all decided to go to Bar Aquda where I had the lovely surprise of finding DB working behind the bar. DB, a cute, very nice west indian young man, is one of my exes and is not very good at keeping in touch. I am very fond of him. I hope we manage to keep in contact better in the future. Finally, Slightly and I saw Keanu Reeves (with two beards: one on his face and one on his arm). We first noticed him in one of the Original Soho Bookshops in Brewer Street before he moved to the next, looking for some book or other.

July 5th was the fifth anniversary of my moving to London. A date I feel much more inclined to celebrate than my birthday to be honest. In those five years I have come to do things I would never have had the chance to do in a lifetime, had I stayed in Haute-Marne . With the Chorus, I have sung in several very prestigious venues around the world and my name appears in two of their CDs (there is a third one in preparation for Christmas). I have appeared in Court... on the prosecution side, representing the Council I work for. I am the moderator of a gay reading group for which I have designed the website. Although I have never met him, I have an open invitation from David Bowie to come and check out his collection of first editions the next (read: first) time I am in New York.... (don't ask!) Just a few months after I arrived in London, I saw an advert in the Pink Paper asking for volunteers to take part as extras in a club scene for a small budget film. As was no working yet and ...