Pink Sauce

40 people gathered yesterday afternoon (Sunday) outside the London Schools of Economics (where the first meeting of the Gay Liberation Front UK took place in the 1970) for a march marking the 40th anniversary of the Stonewall Riots that took place on 28 June 1969 in New York and are considered as the beginning of the modern gay rights and gay pride movement. The march which went through Soho (one of London's gay quarters) finished in a club called Central Station (King's Cross area) where a free afternoon of cabaret performances had been organised. More pictures are available on my flickr account, here . details of the event can be found on this Facebook page . The picture above was used by Londonist to illustrate their short article about the celebration, here . I may blog more extensively (and specifically) later about my feeling towards yesterday's event...

Having never registered as unemployed I had only a very vague idea of what the Jobcentre can do for it customers. That's until I registered with them earlier this month. Now I have no idea whatsoever of the point of this organisation. In my naivety, I imagine that a Jobcentre was there to help people find a new job, providing all sorts of services and facilities to support jobseekers in their quest. Not at all. I now know that Jobcentre does not offer CV surgeries where people can get advice on how to improve their CV. I am assuming that interview technique advice is also out of the question. It also seems that the centres do not provide jobseekers with the facilities to print out documents (such as CVs or job applications that can only made by post - yes they do exist still!) or make photocopies. Jobcentres are also not there to process your benefit claims or event track their process and make sure that they have been made properly with all the required documents. On Saturday 20th...

Jean Racine is, together with Pierre Corneille and Molière , one of the three major French playwrights; all from the 17th century. Still, while I have read some of Corneille's stuff and endured the study of some of Molière's comedies at school, I have never actually explored Racine's works in any way. Therefore going to the National Theatre to attend a performance of Phèdre, with Dame Helen Mirren in the title role, presented several levels of interest. Before talking about the play, I would like to have a good moan about the quality of the seating in the theatre. Cozy doesn't even start to describe it. There is barely enough place to fold one's legs and certainly none to change position, which can be an issue when watching a two hour play with no intermission. The back of the seats are also too low in my view. I am sure that actress Fiona Shaw, who had the misfortune of sitting right behind this 6'1 hindrance, would also have had something to say about the se...

I saw a link on Twitter to this cameraphone picture . I quick google search help me found the graphic but no trace of a version with the same text as on the image I had seen. Half an hour on Photoshop later: tada! No on H8! - Liberty and Justice: the ultimate in same-sex marriage. Idle hands are the devil's tools!

Flyer for the London Gay Men's Chorus concert at the Shaw Theatre (Euston www.theshawtheatre.com ) - 16th July 2009 at 7.30pm. The Facebook group for the event is here .

The former lead singer of British rock band The Kinks treated a gathering of tourists, fans and journalists to a rendition of one of the band's hits, earlier today, on the riverside next to the Royal National Theatre and Waterloo Bridge in London. Bathed in the setting sun, Ray Davies , backed by singers of the Crouch End Festival Chorus, performed the bitter sweet ballad Waterloo Sunset . The event was in advance of the release of Davies' new album, The Kinks Choral Collection , to be released next week and on which the Crouch End Festival Chorus is also taking part. The 1967 song, which reached number two in the charts, appeared in the album Something Else by The Kinks and was composed by Davies who performed it twice tonight to the delight of his fans. The lyrics are from the point of view of a solitary man on the south bank of the Thames watching (or imagining) the romantic encounters of a couple at Waterloo Underground, then crossing Waterloo Bridge. Davies, in his 1996...

In 25 days (5th July), I will be celebrating nine years since I moved to London. In those nine years, I have tried my best to integrate and make a positive contribution to the country that welcomed me by working and paying taxes and by volunteering in various community groups. Of course there has been highs and lows, and things could probably have gone better than they have (though I am only blaming my own inadequacies for this) but this week, I find myself signing on to receive the Jobseekers Allowance, Housing Benefits and Council Tax rebate. I hope that this will only be the precautionary measure I want it to be and that I will find a new job soon but this can't help but grate against my values. This is also compounded by the rather depressing and very disheartening fact that, should I receive all that I have applied to, I may find myself better off unemployed (when everyone seems to agree that the Allowance is really not much) than I am when working. How can this be possible? W...

Thought for the Day , 25 May 2009 Clifford Longley I get a sense that our society is reappraising the value of virtue. We are finding in the City, in Parliament, in journalism, in truth everywhere else too, that "going to the very limit of what the rules permit" isn't good enough. As the Archbishops of Canterbury and Westminster have been saying over the weekend, we need an internal moral compass as well. To be precise, we need a conscience. We need it in order to apply to our lives the four cardinal virtues of prudence, justice, moderation and courage. Whether we do so successfully depends crucially on what sort of people we are. If we are virtuous we will act virtuously, and become more virtuous in the process. Well, that's the theory anyway. Am I saying only religious people can be virtuous? Certainly not. Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O'Connor said, controversially, last Thursday that "For Jesus, the inability to believe in God and to live by faith is the greate...

Following my previous post about Milk Watch , I have put my talents as a stalker to the test and thanks to Facebook (the stalker's best friend), I have managed to track down the sexy guy that was giving me eye on the shoot (see this post for the full (non-existant) story). It seems however that the guy (who, so a feature about him in the Independent informs me, is actually not (just) Indian but a delicious mix of English, Polish, Dutch, Indian and Guyanese) is "Interested in: Women". That doesn't completely square with the experience related in the post I linked to above but there is no sign of gayness whatsoever on his profile. What should I do? "poke" him (ooo, matron!) to see how he reacts or just let it die and stop being such a creep? I think I have just answered my own question. Update (10/06/09): on the advise of a couple of friend, I did "poke" the man on Facebook. A few days later, though he has logged in to FB (his profile picture has c...

A few months ago, I mentioned my participation together with other members of the London Gay Men's Chorus in the filming of a short film about crime-busting milkmen. The film premiered at the East London Film Festival and is now up for an award. You can view it, try and spot me and vote for the film here . Enjoy! Milk Watch Duration: 05' 44 Film fund: New Pathways Film Fund Borough: Newham Film synopsis: An all-singing, all-crime-stopping musical about milkmen on a mission. Key cast/crew: Writer / Director: Michael Taylor Producer: Christiana Pascali DOP: Ben Liddell Music: Yo Zushi Cast: David Penkert, Rhys Lawton, Ben de Sausmarez, Daniel Poole, Charlie and Angelo de Vangelez, The London Gay Men's Chorus