Sci-Fi-London

Do you enjoy sci-fi? So, you are lucky because the 12th Annual International Festival of Science Fiction and Fantastic Film is coming to London.  

The festival will take place from Tuesday 30th of April to Monday 6th of May in three main venues: BFI Southbank, Stratford Picture House and Stratford Circus. 

The programme includes night films and premieres like Vessel, The Search for Simon, Stress Position, The Man from the Future, Dead Meat Walking, Birdemic II: The Resurrection and sixteen more titles. 

But this independent film festival, created by Louis Savy "because there wasn't one", organizes the annual in-cinema pub quiz and more events like the celebration of the 50th anniversary of Doctor Who. Important novelists and comic book writers will talk about the Doctor’s trips and his adventures. 

The Sci-fi festival will plan free attractions like Write the Science Fiction Film with Robert Grant. On Sunday 28th of April the Costume Parade will take place. Zombies, Superheroes, Darth Vader, Mario Bros, Freddy Krueger, Dr Who, The Blob… Choose your favourite character, dress up and join the march. 

A great week is waiting for you. So, don’t miss it.

Trafalgar Square, 1844

William Henry Fox Talbot, Nelson’s Column under construction,
Trafalgar Square, London, April 1844

Walk Around London

Yes. It’s true. London is a huge city. You can take the underground and the overground to arrive quickly to your destiny, if the lines are not closed. But if you really want to know the city, you have to walk through streets, parks, squares... It’s the best way to discover the secrets of London. 

Because of the 150th tube anniversary, PruHealth has created a singular map. It’s an underground plan showing the steps between stations. This could be a good way to have a healthy body this summer.

The Lion King

More than 7 million spectators can't be wrong. 

With The Lion King, performed for the first time in October 1999 in the Lyceum Theatre, magic and fantasy came to London. Not just with old songs, a touching story or the moral, but with masks, puppets, lights and African sounds. 

A beautiful theatre, opened in 1834, and a great red curtain with savannah’s motifs help us to the wake up our curiosity. The lights turn off and, in that second, we can live the most powerful moment in the play. The curtain rises and we hear the amazing Rafiki’s voice, performed by Brown Lindiwe Mkhize. There are giraffes, antelopes, zebras, colours and even a big elephant moved by five actors. That is theatre. That is a musical. That is The Circle of Life. 

Sitting inside the theatre, a wonderful play lights invite you to travel around the African savannah. Orange tones show us the passage of time in just a couple of second. 

More than 200 clothes are required to perform this function. But the masks and puppets deserve a special distinction, inspired in the African culture, and some actor’s elasticity. They are capable of camouflage themselves with their own character. Without any doubt, you will amaze to see a Jaguar, a real master piece. 

The 46 actors do a notable work but I like to stress the remarkable Rafiki’s voice, a great interpretation of Scar, thanks to George Asprey, and the Stephen Matthews and Damian Baldet’s ability to move Zazu and Timon. 

With some jokes, at pure English humour style, the musical follows faithfully the Disney’s film. For that reason, it is a spectacle for all the family. Through the play, you will laugh, will cry and will sing. 15 musicals numbers, thanks to Lebo M, Tim Rice and Sir Elton John, will be mixed with the sound and rhythm’s Continent. The Circle of Life, I Just Can’t Wait to Be the King or Hakuna Matata, one of the funniest parts in the function, are not to be missed. And you will have a lump in your throat with He lives in You, a very emotional moment. 

And it’s true that the most intense scene in the film, Mufasa’s death, is not too dramatic in the play but I appreciated that. I didn’t cry so much and I think was an original way to represent a delicate scene. 

I don’t have anything else to say. The Lion King is waiting for you with 2 hours and 45 minutes of fun, fantasy, dance, love and music. Enjoy it! 

Pillow Fight Day

Last Saturday, April 6th, was the International Pillow Fight Day. More than 100 cities sheltered this amusement. In London thousands of people went to Trafalgar Square, armed with their pillows, to battle. It was a good way to have fun and get rid of stress. 

            

            

The Skateboard Graveyard

Hungerford Bridge connects Charing Cross Station with the south of the River Thames  It’s situated between Waterloo Bridge and Westminster Bridge, in the heart of London. 

In a first place, it seems like a normal bridge, except for the great views. But this platform hides a valuable secret in the London subculture: a skateboard cemetery call "Skateboard Graveyard”. 

When young skaters break their boards, they throw them into the platform. In that point, the skate will rest after a long and busy life. Even, they have created a website “to commemorate the «lives» and «deaths» of the skateboards”. The applicant can upload a description and the key dates of their skate. As well, they can have an obituary and know, in just a second, what is the physical situation of their board. 

This cemetery is located at this point not by accident. In the River’s edge, between Hungerford Bridge and Waterloo Bridge, the Queen Elizabeth Hall is placed. Under these pillars, for more than 40 years, appears the Southbank Skatepark. It’s a circuit with ramps, benches, columns and stairs that allows young skaters to perfect their technique with the roller skate, the bike or the skateboard

Pickles, The Dog Who Won The Jules Rimet Trophy

All the soccer players want to win the FIFA World Cup. This award, from 1930 to 1946, was called Victory. After that, it was renamed to honour the FIFA President Jules Rimet, who in 1929 approved a voting to create this tournament. The Cup was representing Nike, the ancient Greek goddess of victory, and was made of silver, gold plated and marble.  

The first Cup was taken by Uruguay in 1930. Brazil was the last country winning the tournament in 1970. That year, the Canarinhos won for the third time the competition and, thanks to the rules, they retained the real trophy. On 19th December of 1983 the Cup, which was guarded in the Brazilian Football Confederation, was stolen. The thieves were convicted but the trophy is still missing. 

This was not the only theft. It seems that the trophy was cursed. In 1966, the World Cup was celebrated in England. On Sunday 20th of March, four month before the competition, the Cup was stolen in the Westminster Centre Hall during an exhibition. The dumb thief only stole the trophy but not the stamps, with value of £3 millions. 

One week later, far away, in South Norwood, Pickles became a hero. A black and white Collie dog found the trophy, covered by a newspaper, when he was walking with David Corbett, his owner. 

England won the Jules Rimet Trophy and the National Team invited Pickles to join them in the celebration. David obtained £6,000 for compensation. 

No one knows who the thief was but Pickles and David are, even today, suspects. Nevertheless, Pickles became a star and he starred, the same year, the film The Spy With the Cold Nose. One year later Pickles died.