8 Things To Do Solo In San Francisco

Basheer Tome / Flickr

Sometimes you find yourself with the day off but no partners-in-crime available. Other times, you just really want to spend the afternoon on your lonesome. Whatever the reason for ditching the plus-one, here are eight things to do in San Francisco that are either best enjoyed alone, optimized for the individual visitor or at least won’t make you feel at all awkward for being by yourself.

Read my full piece over on KQED.org!

Obsessed with... the British Library in real time

I'm currently adding my two penn'orth/cents to KQED Arts' new Obsessed feature, "a weekly series featuring everything the KQED Arts gang can’t stop talking about." My contribution to Feb 5's post:

Carly Severn: Stalking Book Requests at The British Library

Thrill-seeker that I am, I’m currently obsessed with this video showing “10 hypnotic minutes of real-time book requests from the British Library’s book delivery system.” Yes, this really *is* just 10 minutes of scrolling book titles, and it’s mesmerizing. Marvel as you bounce from Hebrew poetry and a 1963 New York Review of Books to The Life and Lore of the Bird. Like whenever my dad insists on showing me his (admittedly fascinating) historical coin collection, I love wondering about the hands that these objects are being passed back and forth between; all the novels being researched, the PhDs and night classes being labored over. And in case that all sounds a bit insufferable, you’ve also got bizarro titles like London is a Man’s Town, But Women Go There (1930) to chuckle at.

Missing The Actors Who Quit Downton? Here Are 3 Strange, Dark Gems To Watch Them In

(My deep, abiding love for Adam Wingard's 2014 film The Guest prompted me to write this for KQED Arts. Here's an excerpt on that criminally underrated movie — you can read the full piece about Boy A and Black Mirror too over on KQED!) 


‘Twas ever thus: seasons change, dogs molt and stars of phenomenally popular television shows junk their secure employment for "exciting new roles." Downton Abbey, now in its fifth season (9pm Sundays on KQED 9) is no stranger to departing actors—many of whom came to the Crawley estate from very different roles, or have since gone on to unexpected things. So to all those still missing Matthew, Sybil et al, I say: why not let that aching sense of loss be your spur to discover some dark, strange and under-appreciated stuff these actors have given the world before or since Downton?

Dan Stevens (as Matthew Crawley, last seen in 2012’s Christmas Special)
Why not watch him in: The Guest (2014)

 

Well, I’ll be damned if little Matthew Crawley wasn’t responsible for the best — but also most underrated — American thriller of last year (even better than Nightcrawler!). The Guest was the movie for which Dan Stevens got buff and jumped the Good Ship Downton to widespread outcry — particularly in his native Britain, where ridiculing homegrown stars who exhibit any sense of ambition to “crack America” is basically a national pastime. On the evidence of this irresistible homage to 1980s thrillers, the doubters should now be eating humble pie, or at least they would be, if anyone had actually seen it. (The Guest made barely over $300,000 in the U.S., and was met with a critical reception best described as “eh?”)

5 Authentic Anglophile Experiences in the Bay Area for Downton Die-Hards

The Pelican Inn, Muir Beach (photo: Frank Towery / Flickr)

Has your Downton Abbey obsession reached unprecedented heights with the arrival of Season 5? Does your general addiction to Masterpiece Theatre have you craving the English life, with only the small matter of 5,000 miles of U.S. soil and Atlantic Ocean standing in your way?

The Bay Area may not be overrun with bona fide Anglo experiences (the sunshine and cheery dispositions here don’t help), but there are a few select places to enjoy a suitably authentic Anglophile afternoon, without the buzzkill of an 11-hour flight to Heathrow. So without further ado, here are the local spots that make this particular English lady feel peculiarly at home.

Read my full piece over on KQED.org!

To the lighthouse! Confessions of a unsolved mystery addict

There are certain keywords that are just digital catnip to the easily-obsessed internet browser. For me, those words are: 'never to be seen again'.

As a wiser (and more male) man than I once said, "Joe Public loves a good mystery blaze" - but seriously, is there anyone alive that doesn't thrill to read an unsolved mystery? Somewhat tragically, I found my childhood obsession with unexplained disappearances, ghoulish foretellings and, er, ghost ships reignited by this phenomenally creepy account of a 1957 camping trip in the Urals that went spectacularly wrong for ten US skiers, who ventured into the mountains never to be - ah, you've guessed it.

So if you too owned and loved the Reader's Digest Strange Stories, Amazing Facts - a book whose total penetration throughout every British household during the early 90s is an unexplained mystery in itself - I present to you the Top Five Creepy Mysteries that unsettled my nine year-old self most. As my new compatriots might say: addicting!

The 5 comedy songs that are just genuinely awesome

Anyone can write a silly song, but occasionally that rare beast comes along - a comedy song that is also a genuinely superb bit of music. And sometimes, that beast comes along five times!

Based on my passion for said musical comedy (and 1980s-inspired synths, it would seem), please enjoy this entirely subjective list of the five comic songs from television and radio that are just awesome tracks.

The 3 non-fiction books you need in your life

They say you can learn a lot about a person from the possessions they'd rescue if their house was burning down. For the purposes of this post, I think the same holds true if you replace 'possessions' with 'books', 'rescue' with 'didn't sell', and substitute moving abroad for the whole burning house thing.

Scanning our sparsely-populated shelves here in our SF flat, here's what I have learned: a surprising number of my non-fiction books accompanied me onto US soil. So, in honour of these brave little pioneers, and taking my cue from the Guardian's recent '100 Greatest Non-Fiction Books' list, here's my recommendations for three non-made-up books you have to read: