On Sunday, fifth scary thing in a row.. mwah-hah-haa, 'twas the long-awaited launch of Dracula Interactive! It's a LoMAZ event, but to be fair, they didn't come up with it - it developed during the pandemic, based on the fact that the novel, Dracula, is written as a diary. Anyway, a website was set up whereby you could have the section of the novel corresponding to a particular day emailed to you on that day! So.. LoMAZ has decided to read along. Oh, but that ain't the half of it.. On Sunday, we were meeting in our regular haunt of the Union Jack, and dressing up (preferably vampirically) was encouraged. Happily for that, the predicted rain never came. Plus, apart from (we hoped) making a start on deciding the ongoing schedule of events that day.. we also have a couple of tie-in travel events.. because the action moves to Whitby in August, and to Transylvania in November! And I had so many ideas for the trips.. I was asked to be a co-host. This is going to be a record-breaking Meetup - and with a terrific bunch of people. Ooh, I was looking forward to it..
I broke out The Cloak - it was just cool enough for that. I also have a long, velvet dress that would've been perfect with it - definitely wasn't cool enough for that, so, having dug it out of the case, it went straight back into storage again. But the cloak made it, and the dragon necklace I got in Nordkapp.. the cloak got some stares, but hey, I enjoyed wearing it again after so long. As I walked the last bit to the pub, it was a bit cool, so I decided to tie the buttons - unfortunately, one popped off. I retrieved it though, and will sew it back on.. one of these days..
Predictably, the group wasn't hard to find - although not many had arrived when I did:
Our main organiser was there, of course.. complete with, er, a pop-up coffin!And aw, I got my LoMAZ organiser badge!Before the majority of people arrived, we co-hosts were drilled in the order of events - a serious amount of effort went into the organisation of this event. We agreed that the initial book drop was quite long to read in one go - we decided on one paragraph per person, with half of the whole to be done immediately, then the other half later. We were also to split into groups, with each group tasked with writing some biographical facts about one of each of the main characters, plus the author.. handily, with me being Irish, we got Bram Stoker, who, of course, was Irish..
Next up, we were to contribute ideas for future events, inspired by characters and events in the book. At this point, Mark arrived, fashionably late, but beautifully attired as a vampire, and so making a spectacular entrance. And wow, the various groups came up with some great and diverse ideas.. the organiser took them away to ponder. Also asked for more volunteer co-hosts.. one of whom since produced a spreadsheet.. watch this space for more events. Crikey, I've never seen the like of this..
Back to the present, and after a brief advert for our Dracula-related trips, we repaired to the larger back room, being a bit cramped where we were. Where our organiser whipped out some appropriately red food (strawberries and raspberries), and there was a raffle - the prizes being a map of Dracula-related sites, a copy of the book, and - of all things - a very fetching, black, coffin-shaped picnic basket.. many of us were jealous not to get that. The one who won it was at my table, and promised to use it as the centrepiece of a Hallowe'en party..
Final readings from the book extract - and lo, it fell to me to read the very last bit.. Dracula's letter to Jonathan Harker, welcoming him to Transylvania. Nice.. and when that was done, I suddenly found myself tasked with finding another pub, because it turned out this one was closing at 6pm, it being a bank holiday weekend! Oh, lovely. I lucked out - the nearest was The Charlotte, but that was closing at 8pm - the next nearest was the Lord Nelson, which closed at 10.30pm, and crucially, does food. A whole 1-minute walk away.. once I figured out which way to turn..
The outside was pretty crowded - but wouldn't you know it, there was plenty of seating down the back, with room for all of us. The menu was almost exclusively burgers - I chose #1 on the list, the "Dirty Southern Fried Chicken" burger, which comes with fries. Handily, when they came, they turned out to be open burgers, so if you weren't a burger fan, you could pretend the bread wasn't there.. and mine actually turned out to be delicious - frankly, much better than expected. A larger portion than I could manage though, even hungry as I was. Decor is quirky:
And the walls are lined with film posters - on my side, at least, mainly horror:And we had a lovely time, relaxing after the day's activities. A great success, I'd say - thanks so much to all involved! Looking forward to the continuation of this Meetup story.. I was too tired to blog last night though, just came home and crashed.
These two days are also looking like film. Yesterday, I was thinking of Coup '53, a documentary about the Western coup in Iran in 1953 - and of course, showing in the Curzon Bloomsbury. But when I checked on Friday, it was sold out! Crikey. Anyway, The Hideout came to my rescue.. our organiser was on a binge of films for the weekend, and wanted to finish it with a repeat trip to see Lee Cronin's The Mummy. Well.. all righty then, I did enjoy it. And we were going to the matinée in the Vue. And that'd be two Meetups, and six scary things, in a row. We were to meet in Victory House again.
The morning was inundated with WhatsApp messages from attendees from the night before - always a sign of a good event. As I left, buses were supposed to be affected by a May Day workers protest march in the centre.. mercifully, I was early enough to avoid it; I could hear the dispatcher warning drivers when it was starting, just as I was coming to my destination. Dodged a bullet there.. Anyway, I was early enough that, as I passed Victory House, there was no-one there.. I nipped over to the nearest Pret, feeling peckish, and with no seating there, had my sandwich in Leicester Square.. where someone was celebrating Star Wars Day:
Thence to Victory House, where people were slowly gathering - we didn't actually have that much time before the film screening. With everyone else queueing for food, I said I might as well nip over and get another glass of wine.. I had no queue at all, and was heading for the screen much faster than the others..
So, the second viewing. With what happens later, I'd actually forgotten a lot of what happens at the start. I'd forgotten the lovely family exposition, where we get to know the characters to whom so much awful stuff is about to happen, and we see the start of the events that become so dramatic later on. Most of the gorier stuff, I remembered - and wow, if you can imagine it, some people beforehand were saying it wasn't gory.. now, it's not the goriest out there, but it does have gore.
Everybody who was seeing it for the second time rated it higher. Personally, I found I paid more attention to detail on the second watch. Just as before, I basically love this injection of Evil Dead imagery into a film about a mummy.. or, if you like, a touch of archaeology injected into an Evil Dead film. I also caught a lot more of the (very dark) humour on the second watch. Highly recommended, this isn't a perfect film, but it is good.
The idea of the matinée was to get food afterwards - and while our organiser was thinking Chinese, one person didn't fancy it - another suggested a good Malaysian restaurant he knew, so we headed to Rasa Sayang. As he remarked, you can't book, and there's usually a queue out the door.. but there was none yesterday! Mind you, as I'd noticed on the way in, it was unusually quiet in London yesterday. Perhaps they were all on holiday..
Well, they had no problem seating us - there are booths down the back, one of which perfectly seated the six of us. I spotted my favourite Chinese dish on there, and had that.. and lo, it was gorgeous. A side of egg fried rice and a decently priced glass of wine, and I was well fed. Meandering on afterwards, four of us dropped into Cafe de Nata and got some of their pastries.. and one person suggested heading to Whole Foods, where we could get a hot drink and have it, and the pastries, upstairs. So that's what we did, leaving when they threw us out, because they were closing early for the Bank Holiday.
It ran far too late to blog last night.. especially as I was booking ahead. And tonight, well, there's a new Irish horror film, Hokum, that I might check out - it's certainly highly rated! The Hideout actually went to it on Sunday evening, just late enough that those also coming to the Dracula launch could do both, if desired - and a couple did. (So yes, that was four films in a row for the organiser, who's just flown in from the States..) Closest showing to me this evening is in Peckhamplex - so, so glad it's a late one, giving me time to do this. And that's two films.. and seven scary things.. in a row!
Tomorrow.. well, it happened before and it's happened again. There's a Meetup group called LGBTQ Culture Lovers - and they're off to a performance of Brahms Symphony No. 1 at St. John's Waterloo. I don't swing that way, but nothing to stop me going on my own! It's called a "rush hour" concert, and certainly it's on early - so I'm eating afterwards in The Archduke.
On Saturday, first of two Meetups in a row, back with Laurence Summers and the 45+ Not Grumpies for a reprise of his walk through the Old Jewish Neighbourhood. Yes, I've done it before - but I'm sure I don't remember half of it, and it's been years since.. I do remember it being good, though. Also delighted to see that prepayment is no longer required for attendees, whatever setting was changed!
On the 18th, back with UITCS in Soho Place for The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind - a musical based on the true story of a boy in Malawi who built a wind turbine from scrap materials and provided necessary power to his community. Chiwetel Ejiofor, who starred in, and directed, the film, is executive producer. I got my ticket on Seatplan, which I used a Seatplan voucher for, and which garners me extra Seatplan points! Eating in Bistro1 beforehand.
On the 22nd, The Hideout and their sister group, Movie Roadhouse London, are finally having a social again! Ah, it's been so long.. so, back at the BFI Balcony Bar, and I've booked to eat at The Archduke beforehand. I tell you, without the main organiser in town, these things don't happen.. strange that numbers are limited, mind- never happened before..
On the 23rd, that same organiser is talking about heading to a cat cafe.. watch this space. Anyway, that evening I've signed up to go with him, and The Hideout, to a new slasher, Corporate Retreat - details TBA.
On the 24th, talking about heading back to The Lanesborough for sachertorte, this time with Mark and Martin.. our monthly catch-up. Waiting on Mark to confirm.
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