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OH, RAPTURE…
// June 11th, 2008 // No Comments » // geek stuff
I was truly delighted to learn today that one of my favorite celebrities in the whole world, one of the top ten ‘people I’d love to have over for coffee and crumpets’ and definitely in the top five ‘people I wouldn’t mind getting stuck in a lift with’, Stephen Fry, actually has his own blog, which he actually updates, albeit fairly infrequently.
“Moving from chair to chair, from coffee machine to coffee machine is the limit of my action in most films. But I enjoy being cast in them because I love watching them.” – SF
I’ve loved Fry’s dry wit and rather somewhat staid character roles since my school days and endless reruns of Blackadder episodes. He also starred in A Bit of Fry and Laurie with Hugh Laurie, who is, incidentally, his godson (??) and Jeeves and Wooster. I’ve always likened Fry’s droll nature in some way to Oscar Wilde, a character he also played in a movie that didn’t really blow me away. He’s done countless cameo roles and has also had smallish parts in V for Vendetta; Gormenghast, A Fish called Wanda; The Young Ones and (eek) Spiceworld, the spice girls movie. He’s done loads of stage work and documentary work and also narrates the pretty disappointing Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy and the Harry Potter movies, which I confess I’m addicted to. Most recently I’ve been watching his show, IQ which I thoroughly enjoy, it showcasing him as the true geek I always suspected he was.
“I get an urge, like a pregnant elephant, to go away and give birth to a book.” – SF
It was only about 5 years ago that I realised Fry was a writer and a damn good one at that, his style eminently Wildesque. I found his first novel, The Liar , side-splittingly funny and have read it at least 3 times. Fry also smokes a pipe (obviously), loves Jethro Tull, Led Zepplin and Abba. He was a good friend of Douglas Adams, and reportedly one of the three people in the whole universe to whom Adams confessed the meaning of the enigmatic “42″ – sadly he’s sworn to take the secret to his grave. When in London, he drives his own black cab for ease of transportation (I wonder if he picks up fares?)
“Digital devices rock my world.” – SF
I was really excited and surprised about this blog because, as it turns out, Fry is “’deeply dippy for all things digital’, claims to have owned the second Macintosh sold in the UK and to have never encountered a smartphone that he has not bought.”
The blog posts consist mainly of his column “Dork Talk” published in the The Guardian . It also includes “podgrams” – narrations of his life and experiences over the last couple of years, as well as “Bloggery” and “Blessays”.
Do yourself a favour and check it out here: http://stephenfry.com/blog/
Here are some of my favourite Fry quotes:
“I think animal testing is cruel. They get nervous and get all the answers wrong.”
“The e-mail of the species is more deadly than the mail”
On being gay: “My first words, as I was being born… I looked up at my mother and said, ‘that’s the last time I’m going up one of those.’”
“Complete loose-stool-water. Arse-gravy of the very worst kind.” (Speaking about Dan Brown’s novel, “The Da Vinci Code.”) (I agree there)
“I don’t need you to remind me of my age. I have a bladder to do that for me.”
“An original idea. That can’t be too hard. The library must be full of them.”
“Many people would no more think of entering journalism than the sewage business – which at least does us all some good”
Nuff said…
