A weekend in London
It’s taken me a few days to get my head together and sort out my photos. Here at last, though, is my attempt at reporting on the JM “Love Hearts” event in Notting Hill
Saturday, as I posted, was a family day with the lovely F. We shopped, ate, went to a show together and had a good time. My hotel was OK, though the rooms were both minuscule - the first, long and thin like a cabin on a ship, had a non-functioning TV, so I was offered an alternative, if anything even smaller. I had an unusual view from my window.
That's a pair of aircon pipes and behind them is the rear window of Reception.
This is just over 50% of the room.
I didn’t bother paying twelve quid for breakfast in the hotel. With no mobile reception I was sadly unable to catch up with spikesdeb, but I stopped at a Café Nero for a drink and a pastry. My map skills were limited, on account of having left the A-Z in the hotel room, so I caved and hailed a taxi.
The Tabernacle is a very intriguing building, erected in the 1880s as a non-denominational church but used as a local arts centre and performance venue for over 40 years, as far as I could discover. Pink Floyd used it as a rehearsal hall, apparently. It seems to be a power-house of the Notting Hill Carnival too.
More to the point, it was refurbished not long ago and the ground floor is a very pleasant open bar/café/restaurant space, where we could wait in the warm without queuing. I was hailed as soon as I got in by spikesdeb and seductivembrace, and was able to sit and chat with them, which was great. Soon after shapinglight joined us too.
We were given wristbands (not that anyone checked them after the first time) and table numbers. When we went in we discovered the seating was in groups of seven or so at round tables. There was even table service with drinks. Each table was decorate with confetti, red roses and Love Heart sweeties, a mini-tube each plus a few extra scattered around. We also had a few goodies, including the set of badges Steve Himber's been flogging off for the last year or two and tiny hand mirrors.
First off were the photos, on a raised area at the back of the room - not exactly intimate, but offering a good chance to see James operating in his customary warm, friendly manner, varying his poses and greeting each person individually.
I had a photo in my turn. Somehow I had the nerve to hug him - my legs went wobbly only after the photo.
Meanwhile
Fool For Love was projected onto the huge white wall. Sadly there was too much light in the room for it to be very sharp, but it was possible to spot key Spike moments in that wonderfully Spike-centric episode.
After that was the rehearsed reading of a play well-suited to the form, Love Letters by A R Gurney. It was a two-hander, James working with a delightful actress called Robyn Isaac (she graduated from Mountview in 2002 it seems and was in an episode of Torchwood S1, which may be how James encountered her.) Two characters exchange notes, letters and cards over an entire lifetime, revealing much about themselves in the process. It was very good, using a lot of James’s range, from comedy to heartbreak, and there were more than a few damp eyes by the end.
This is Robyn, the only picture I found of her online - she's a vibrant redhead when not desaturated!
James had been in a suit up to that point, presumably as a prop for his character, though it meant we had pics with a very yummy Smart!James.
When he reappeared for the Q&A, though, he had changed into something more comfortable - jeans and an old t-shirt which those in the right place to see told me had a big hole under one arm!
The Q&A was almost Spike-free, apart from a reference to the comics, but full of material I really enjoyed, about acting, Shakespeare and some of his recent auditions etc. I didn’t manage to write everything down, but managed some notes.
Firstly James apologised for nearly crying at the end of the play, something the playwright is adamant should not happen. Steve Himber, his manager, was supposed to warn him if he paused, a signal of near-tears, but he made miaow noises instead, so James had a real break in his voice - which worked for me at least - you could really see him fighting off the emotions.
He talked about a teacher he’d had - from him he “learned that I sucked” and has a habit of doing too much when the least you can do is enough. He talked a little about the play, which he’d done before in Newark, with a different actress, which can make a huge difference to the play. He talked about how his character had settled for an OK, safe life, rather than demanding what he really wanted. - his bad, according to James. He felt the character was the author thinly disguised.
A few questions referenced the occasion (Love Hearts, remember?). The weirdest thing he’s ever had to sign? “I guess breasts” got a laugh. The most romantic thing he’s ever done? He gets excited about Valentine’s Day, “I’m, like, to my girlfriend, ‘What d’ya get me?’”, but in reality the most romantic thing he can remember was a night spent with her just talking on the beach for hours. And making out a bit.
He was asked why men seem to be intimidated by clever women. He thinks they don’t “I find intelligence to be radically sexy”. He may never have noticed the problem, but a large number of bright women there had. James wears Y chromosome lenses. Later on he said he believes in love at first sight, “”Then it takes about a year and a half to learn to trust your instinct.”
He would love to go back into live theatre, but with two kids he feels he will have to wait till they are both in college. He was asked if making the audience cry counted as good acting. He said, once more, what he’s said before - it’s all about not messing up good words, not getting in the way of what the playwright wants.
He did martial arts when he was younger “I was the poor man’s Jackie Chan.” He reached green belt, but the brown belts were too much for him. In any case stage fighting is more like ballet than martial arts. He’s dabbled in other sorts too.
When asked which character he’s played is most like him, he said they all were - the trick is to find elements in each character you can link to elements in yourself. They are all like him - it’s about taking off the mask. Which led to a shudder at the experience of the space helmet in Moonshot and a short rant on his first day of shooting on High Plains Invaders, when he was on a real scaffold with a real noose, which made him very angry.
I asked him about his experience of drama schools and what advice he would give to an aspiring actor like my daughter. He said he’d learned some good stuff at the Pacific Center for the Performing Arts, but Juillard had taught him almost nothing. Acting school can be very tough because students accept the right of their instructors to abuse them, so his advice was to “Just get in their faces. If they disrespect you, spit in their faces, because they can’t act, and they need to be reminded who can do it and who can’t.” (I’m not wholly convinced this would work at British conservatoires like RADA, mind you.) He feels actors should learn by watching other, experienced actors, cleaning up after them, anything so they can watch and learn. (Pretty much the way the old rep system used to work in this country till the 60s, in fact.)
He talked about recording the Harry Dresden audiobooks “The hardest thing I have done in my life!”, because he would be getting into the emotion only to be stopped because he’d slurred a consonant - but in the end, that’s what it’s all about. No point in emoting if the listener can’t follow. Thomas is the hardest character to do - he feels he can’t get his voice low enough to do the sexy vampire who is also funny. Jim Butcher uses the word “little” a lot - he sometimes uses it twice in a sentence, once even three times. James wants him to get a thesaurus and listed a whole range of possible synonyms.
He quite likes the idea of teaching despite his antipathy to drama school, but feels he has such a bug about acting training that he would hate himself.
He was asked why in the photoshoots he always looks so fabulous while we look awful. He told us we have to “love the camera” like a friend, and put all the expression into the eyes, not using the facial muscles too much.
He thinks psychodrama is interesting, but if he’s going to act he wants all the tools - a proscenium, lighting and so on. Psychodrama is what actors are doing all the time anyway, after all.
He got on to The Scottish Play. He auditioned once for Sir Peter Hall (directing guru, former director of the British National Theatre) who said Lady M was a “castrating bitch”, which annoyed James so much he argued back. Macbeth is not castrated at all - his reaction to her death, “She should have died hereafter” is the point at which he stopped being the hero and shows he’s merely a human failure. Lady M must not castrate the hero in Act 1 or her sleepwalking scene will fail. Her reaction to the murder is like a child’s - she wants to get it over with quickly and move on; she can’t, which makes the sleepwalking scene powerful and it’s that which makes his reaction to her death so central. He’d still love to make a film if anyone has a spare ten million hanging around. Someone asked if he’d thought of raising it from his fanbase. He hadn’t. (I don’t see that working, frankly.)
Another question was about Torchwood - he’d love to reprise Captain John; for that matter, anything RTD writes and wants him to speak he’d do.
Apparently the voice artist who dubs his voice into German also does Jonny Depp.
He still uses nicotine patches eight years after giving up smoking - he pulled up his sleeve to show us. He said he’d got it down to a quarter-patch, then his brother gifted him with his daughter and his stress levels went back through the roof and he was back on the full patches.
He ranted a little about Joss calling Spike the “ingénue”, which in the theatre is a term used to describe someone young, pretty and clueless, and he took offence, even though Joss meant it as a compliment.
His favourite clothes are jeans and a t-shirt every time.
There was a question about the comics - he made a hilarious face when he was told who was the supervillain. Then he ranted about his hatred for Dark Horse and what they had done to the image of Drusilla and that he’d had to break what they’d done to Juliet which he hated.
His father was a minister of religion, like David Tennat’s - was there something in that? He said that perhaps it made you want to get some of the attention the father had as of right. He thought his father was a very poor minister of religion, though.
His ideal is to be involved with a group of people who put aside their differences to create something beautiful.
He was asked if he found it hard to be a villain since he seems such a nice man, but “I can be a real dick if I want to” He’s also “a flaming liberal”, but feels that 25% of the population are too stupid to vote and all they want is a dictatorial bully father-figure. So an ideal world needs you to eradicate a quarter of the population - or send them to Sheffield, as someone suggested!
He rarely watches sitcoms - documentaries and news are much more his thing, as he’s a real newshound. Sitcoms “vanilla it out”.
His back is fine now - fifteen minutes with a chiropractor sorted it out. He enjoyed his work on Caprica; Jane Espenson was like a terrier about getting him on the cast. He doesn’t know if hell be back though as Steve negotiated so much money for him that he might be too expensive. Someone suggested he took a cut: “What? NO!” with a very funny look.
He talked about how his home is dominated by women - his girlfriend, it seems, now lives with him.
Time ran out all too soon, and then it was on to the autographs, again with a brief conversation with each person.
I loved the crowd of fans snapping away from the sides to get close-ups. I did too, of course.
seductivembrace took this picture of a certain old bat shaking hands with teh pretty man.
Then there was a lengthy break. shapinglight, sueworld2003 and I just went downstairs where they did very tasty food, including a good range of veggie stuff and something plain enough for Sue too.
The concert was an hour long. I felt he was in good voice, and he sang several of my favourites - Finer Than Gold and Don’t You Worry Son amongst others (sorry, I didn’t write down the full list.)
It finished much earlier than the JMLive folks had said, but I can’t say I was surprised - at the end of a long day like that it wasn’t really probable that he’d sing from 7.45 to 9.30, frankly. We had just about an hour, but his singing was great - I genuinely enjoy his voice. He was terribly excited by his new guitar-tuning gadget which changes colour when the note is right, though.
The crowd stamped and yelled, but he’d already done his encore after he tuned the guitar, and that was that. A bunch of us headed to a pub and sat and chatted for about an hour. jamalov29 and angipet were at one end of the table, and shapinglight and sueworld2003 at the other, but nobody realised they didn’t know who each other was!
Eventually it was time to go. Bless shapinglight, who guided me to the Tube station, giving us a chance to chat even more. We parted to sit facing each other with the tracks separating us till one, then the other train came. I made it safely back to Bayswater and bought melon chunks and a Danish pastry to take back to my room, thus pre-empting the breakfast problem.
And so to bed.
On Monday morning I took my time getting ready, then went via Mayfair where I had a sneak preview of the new exhibition at F’s gallery. Then an equally smooth journey to Euston. Where all the trains had stopped running because of a problem somewhere in the vicinity of Hemel Hempstead - it had better not be bogwitch’s fault! I took a cab to Marylebone, waited around half an hour and then managed to secure a seat on the next train to Leamington, not an easy task. Home at last, I pretty much keeled over.
But it was a good weekend. Time with friends, family, a show and lots of lovely James. If you want more pictures, you can have a look at my PhotoBucket collection; take any you want, but I'd be grateful if you credited me as photographer if you post them anywhere.
Saturday, as I posted, was a family day with the lovely F. We shopped, ate, went to a show together and had a good time. My hotel was OK, though the rooms were both minuscule - the first, long and thin like a cabin on a ship, had a non-functioning TV, so I was offered an alternative, if anything even smaller. I had an unusual view from my window.
That's a pair of aircon pipes and behind them is the rear window of Reception.
This is just over 50% of the room.
I didn’t bother paying twelve quid for breakfast in the hotel. With no mobile reception I was sadly unable to catch up with spikesdeb, but I stopped at a Café Nero for a drink and a pastry. My map skills were limited, on account of having left the A-Z in the hotel room, so I caved and hailed a taxi.
The Tabernacle is a very intriguing building, erected in the 1880s as a non-denominational church but used as a local arts centre and performance venue for over 40 years, as far as I could discover. Pink Floyd used it as a rehearsal hall, apparently. It seems to be a power-house of the Notting Hill Carnival too.
More to the point, it was refurbished not long ago and the ground floor is a very pleasant open bar/café/restaurant space, where we could wait in the warm without queuing. I was hailed as soon as I got in by spikesdeb and seductivembrace, and was able to sit and chat with them, which was great. Soon after shapinglight joined us too.
We were given wristbands (not that anyone checked them after the first time) and table numbers. When we went in we discovered the seating was in groups of seven or so at round tables. There was even table service with drinks. Each table was decorate with confetti, red roses and Love Heart sweeties, a mini-tube each plus a few extra scattered around. We also had a few goodies, including the set of badges Steve Himber's been flogging off for the last year or two and tiny hand mirrors.
First off were the photos, on a raised area at the back of the room - not exactly intimate, but offering a good chance to see James operating in his customary warm, friendly manner, varying his poses and greeting each person individually.
I had a photo in my turn. Somehow I had the nerve to hug him - my legs went wobbly only after the photo.
Meanwhile
Fool For Love was projected onto the huge white wall. Sadly there was too much light in the room for it to be very sharp, but it was possible to spot key Spike moments in that wonderfully Spike-centric episode.
After that was the rehearsed reading of a play well-suited to the form, Love Letters by A R Gurney. It was a two-hander, James working with a delightful actress called Robyn Isaac (she graduated from Mountview in 2002 it seems and was in an episode of Torchwood S1, which may be how James encountered her.) Two characters exchange notes, letters and cards over an entire lifetime, revealing much about themselves in the process. It was very good, using a lot of James’s range, from comedy to heartbreak, and there were more than a few damp eyes by the end.
This is Robyn, the only picture I found of her online - she's a vibrant redhead when not desaturated!
James had been in a suit up to that point, presumably as a prop for his character, though it meant we had pics with a very yummy Smart!James.
When he reappeared for the Q&A, though, he had changed into something more comfortable - jeans and an old t-shirt which those in the right place to see told me had a big hole under one arm!
The Q&A was almost Spike-free, apart from a reference to the comics, but full of material I really enjoyed, about acting, Shakespeare and some of his recent auditions etc. I didn’t manage to write everything down, but managed some notes.
Firstly James apologised for nearly crying at the end of the play, something the playwright is adamant should not happen. Steve Himber, his manager, was supposed to warn him if he paused, a signal of near-tears, but he made miaow noises instead, so James had a real break in his voice - which worked for me at least - you could really see him fighting off the emotions.
He talked about a teacher he’d had - from him he “learned that I sucked” and has a habit of doing too much when the least you can do is enough. He talked a little about the play, which he’d done before in Newark, with a different actress, which can make a huge difference to the play. He talked about how his character had settled for an OK, safe life, rather than demanding what he really wanted. - his bad, according to James. He felt the character was the author thinly disguised.
A few questions referenced the occasion (Love Hearts, remember?). The weirdest thing he’s ever had to sign? “I guess breasts” got a laugh. The most romantic thing he’s ever done? He gets excited about Valentine’s Day, “I’m, like, to my girlfriend, ‘What d’ya get me?’”, but in reality the most romantic thing he can remember was a night spent with her just talking on the beach for hours. And making out a bit.
He was asked why men seem to be intimidated by clever women. He thinks they don’t “I find intelligence to be radically sexy”. He may never have noticed the problem, but a large number of bright women there had. James wears Y chromosome lenses. Later on he said he believes in love at first sight, “”Then it takes about a year and a half to learn to trust your instinct.”
He would love to go back into live theatre, but with two kids he feels he will have to wait till they are both in college. He was asked if making the audience cry counted as good acting. He said, once more, what he’s said before - it’s all about not messing up good words, not getting in the way of what the playwright wants.
He did martial arts when he was younger “I was the poor man’s Jackie Chan.” He reached green belt, but the brown belts were too much for him. In any case stage fighting is more like ballet than martial arts. He’s dabbled in other sorts too.
When asked which character he’s played is most like him, he said they all were - the trick is to find elements in each character you can link to elements in yourself. They are all like him - it’s about taking off the mask. Which led to a shudder at the experience of the space helmet in Moonshot and a short rant on his first day of shooting on High Plains Invaders, when he was on a real scaffold with a real noose, which made him very angry.
I asked him about his experience of drama schools and what advice he would give to an aspiring actor like my daughter. He said he’d learned some good stuff at the Pacific Center for the Performing Arts, but Juillard had taught him almost nothing. Acting school can be very tough because students accept the right of their instructors to abuse them, so his advice was to “Just get in their faces. If they disrespect you, spit in their faces, because they can’t act, and they need to be reminded who can do it and who can’t.” (I’m not wholly convinced this would work at British conservatoires like RADA, mind you.) He feels actors should learn by watching other, experienced actors, cleaning up after them, anything so they can watch and learn. (Pretty much the way the old rep system used to work in this country till the 60s, in fact.)
He talked about recording the Harry Dresden audiobooks “The hardest thing I have done in my life!”, because he would be getting into the emotion only to be stopped because he’d slurred a consonant - but in the end, that’s what it’s all about. No point in emoting if the listener can’t follow. Thomas is the hardest character to do - he feels he can’t get his voice low enough to do the sexy vampire who is also funny. Jim Butcher uses the word “little” a lot - he sometimes uses it twice in a sentence, once even three times. James wants him to get a thesaurus and listed a whole range of possible synonyms.
He quite likes the idea of teaching despite his antipathy to drama school, but feels he has such a bug about acting training that he would hate himself.
He was asked why in the photoshoots he always looks so fabulous while we look awful. He told us we have to “love the camera” like a friend, and put all the expression into the eyes, not using the facial muscles too much.
He thinks psychodrama is interesting, but if he’s going to act he wants all the tools - a proscenium, lighting and so on. Psychodrama is what actors are doing all the time anyway, after all.
He got on to The Scottish Play. He auditioned once for Sir Peter Hall (directing guru, former director of the British National Theatre) who said Lady M was a “castrating bitch”, which annoyed James so much he argued back. Macbeth is not castrated at all - his reaction to her death, “She should have died hereafter” is the point at which he stopped being the hero and shows he’s merely a human failure. Lady M must not castrate the hero in Act 1 or her sleepwalking scene will fail. Her reaction to the murder is like a child’s - she wants to get it over with quickly and move on; she can’t, which makes the sleepwalking scene powerful and it’s that which makes his reaction to her death so central. He’d still love to make a film if anyone has a spare ten million hanging around. Someone asked if he’d thought of raising it from his fanbase. He hadn’t. (I don’t see that working, frankly.)
Another question was about Torchwood - he’d love to reprise Captain John; for that matter, anything RTD writes and wants him to speak he’d do.
Apparently the voice artist who dubs his voice into German also does Jonny Depp.
He still uses nicotine patches eight years after giving up smoking - he pulled up his sleeve to show us. He said he’d got it down to a quarter-patch, then his brother gifted him with his daughter and his stress levels went back through the roof and he was back on the full patches.
He ranted a little about Joss calling Spike the “ingénue”, which in the theatre is a term used to describe someone young, pretty and clueless, and he took offence, even though Joss meant it as a compliment.
His favourite clothes are jeans and a t-shirt every time.
There was a question about the comics - he made a hilarious face when he was told who was the supervillain. Then he ranted about his hatred for Dark Horse and what they had done to the image of Drusilla and that he’d had to break what they’d done to Juliet which he hated.
His father was a minister of religion, like David Tennat’s - was there something in that? He said that perhaps it made you want to get some of the attention the father had as of right. He thought his father was a very poor minister of religion, though.
His ideal is to be involved with a group of people who put aside their differences to create something beautiful.
He was asked if he found it hard to be a villain since he seems such a nice man, but “I can be a real dick if I want to” He’s also “a flaming liberal”, but feels that 25% of the population are too stupid to vote and all they want is a dictatorial bully father-figure. So an ideal world needs you to eradicate a quarter of the population - or send them to Sheffield, as someone suggested!
He rarely watches sitcoms - documentaries and news are much more his thing, as he’s a real newshound. Sitcoms “vanilla it out”.
His back is fine now - fifteen minutes with a chiropractor sorted it out. He enjoyed his work on Caprica; Jane Espenson was like a terrier about getting him on the cast. He doesn’t know if hell be back though as Steve negotiated so much money for him that he might be too expensive. Someone suggested he took a cut: “What? NO!” with a very funny look.
He talked about how his home is dominated by women - his girlfriend, it seems, now lives with him.
Time ran out all too soon, and then it was on to the autographs, again with a brief conversation with each person.
I loved the crowd of fans snapping away from the sides to get close-ups. I did too, of course.
seductivembrace took this picture of a certain old bat shaking hands with teh pretty man.
Then there was a lengthy break. shapinglight, sueworld2003 and I just went downstairs where they did very tasty food, including a good range of veggie stuff and something plain enough for Sue too.
The concert was an hour long. I felt he was in good voice, and he sang several of my favourites - Finer Than Gold and Don’t You Worry Son amongst others (sorry, I didn’t write down the full list.)
It finished much earlier than the JMLive folks had said, but I can’t say I was surprised - at the end of a long day like that it wasn’t really probable that he’d sing from 7.45 to 9.30, frankly. We had just about an hour, but his singing was great - I genuinely enjoy his voice. He was terribly excited by his new guitar-tuning gadget which changes colour when the note is right, though.
The crowd stamped and yelled, but he’d already done his encore after he tuned the guitar, and that was that. A bunch of us headed to a pub and sat and chatted for about an hour. jamalov29 and angipet were at one end of the table, and shapinglight and sueworld2003 at the other, but nobody realised they didn’t know who each other was!
Eventually it was time to go. Bless shapinglight, who guided me to the Tube station, giving us a chance to chat even more. We parted to sit facing each other with the tracks separating us till one, then the other train came. I made it safely back to Bayswater and bought melon chunks and a Danish pastry to take back to my room, thus pre-empting the breakfast problem.
And so to bed.
On Monday morning I took my time getting ready, then went via Mayfair where I had a sneak preview of the new exhibition at F’s gallery. Then an equally smooth journey to Euston. Where all the trains had stopped running because of a problem somewhere in the vicinity of Hemel Hempstead - it had better not be bogwitch’s fault! I took a cab to Marylebone, waited around half an hour and then managed to secure a seat on the next train to Leamington, not an easy task. Home at last, I pretty much keeled over.
But it was a good weekend. Time with friends, family, a show and lots of lovely James. If you want more pictures, you can have a look at my PhotoBucket collection; take any you want, but I'd be grateful if you credited me as photographer if you post them anywhere.