Hi Mic

Been a busy week and now I have a quiet moment to reply. I am on a train this time coming back from Brighton on the South coast where I have been working today on the 24 Hour Museum.

Really enjoyed watching the singing scene from Modern Times - like the globe one from The Great Dictator it captures Chaplin's balletic talent. I liked the fact you'd found the French version - did you notice the cutaway of his cuff with the song lyrics on was in French whilst the signs on the door are in English?

I love the scene in Modern Times when Charlie picks up the red flags fallen from the back of the scaffolding lorry, waves them to attract the driver's attention and ends up leading a workers' demo.

Now talking of red flags, interesting to hear about your Russian heritage. Do you feel any warmth towards that country? My grandmother, for example, came to Britain from Poland just before the Second World War and I feel less than nothing for that country. No interest in going there. No interest in the culture. Do your parents miss the Old Country? Or perhaps just the people from it?

Have you read Amos Oz's memoirs? (i forget the title, almost as forgettable as Good Night & Good Luck! - something about Love and Darkness) I seem to remember his family coming from Russia. I really enjoyed reading it, especially the parts around 1948. There's a story in it where as a child he accidently injures a young Arab girl in her garden when his family is visiting. The misunderstanding is very poignant and of course highly symbolic in the context of the history of the region.

Where in Israel were you born?
And where in the US did your family settle?

Here's a short film I made about where I live. It's a suburb in the North-West of London.

So on to weightier matters - Sheshbesh ;-)
What you have to understand about that game is it's the perfect mix of luck and skill. Whether you win is largely down to how confident you're feeling at the time deep down. It goes perfectly with a Turkish coffee or fresh mint tea, and a Camberwell carrot if you're that way inclined. (If you don't know what a Camberwell carrot is, you'll have to watch Withnail and I again.)

What do your sister and brother do for a living? Do they also live in Tiberias?

My boys are 6 and 10. I forgot to tell you they have been in Tiberias when we went to visit their Irish-Israeli cousins. We stayed in a place for pilgrims on the North shore of the Sea of Galilee - very peaceful. The older one was talking to me about that place just a few days ago and saying how he wants to go back. We visited Tiberias from there for dinner one evening. Here's a picture I took in Nazareth on that trip.

Your recollection of the Independence Day celebrations in the US (Arizona? or somewhere else??) was very evocative. Music, and i guess especially national anthems, can do that for you - a very direct connection to the heart. An English writer/critic called Walter Pater, inspiration to Oscar Wilde, wrote: "All art aspires to the condition of music" which I take to mean that other art forms envy Music the directness of its connection to the emotions, having no concrete form between the art and its impact, no paper, no canvas, no bronze.

Talking of bronze, I bought a small sculpture when we visited Israel from Victor Halvani. It is of a pregnant woman, very simple and very resonant.

Back to national anthems, I have no love for our one - God Save the Queen. (It even looks stupid writing it down.) I'm a bit of a Republican i guess, can't stand the idea of royalty or the aristocracy. The Queen poos. Lords fail their exams. Ladies can lack basic human decency. There's nothing innately special about them, au contraire. A vrai dire, the Marsaillaise is more stirring to me. Do you know the scene in Casablanca when the French and the Germans have a battle of anthems in Rick's cafe and the French win?

I also found The Wind That Shakes The Barley disappointing - and it's a subject I'm really interested in. I think Ken Loach is very over-rated as a director. He makes a lot of dull films, often unmoving. Too much head, too little real heart. I believe a film must be a moving experience.

You might find it a moving experience ;-) to know that Matt Lucas from Little Britain is my cousin's step-brother. So that's not like my best friend (i've never met him) but it's a connection of sorts.

For the casting game, I've recently read The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins - have you ever read that? (If not, it's a great page-turner.) Otherwise it might be easier if you list a few things you've read (the only Dan Brown i've read so far is the DaVinci Code - i thought the movie was so bad it inspired me to write my first review on IMDB.)

I'm back in London now walking up my street so time to say:
Over+out
A