Dr Bex Lewis quoted in the New York Times

Not that I'm excited by this or anything! Read more on my WordPress blog relating to the Keep Calm and Carry On posters etc.!

My bucket list starts with: Visit Canada

Visit Canada
Canada looks a beautiful, friendly country, and all the Canadians I've met (and shared rooms with on my travels) have been lovely! I read all the Anne of Green Gables novels when I was younger, and have always wanted to go and see Prince Edward Island... also want to get the train across to the Rockies, see the bright lights of Toronto, ski in Banff, and just take in the beautiful landscapes... while trying out some daft activities and taking a million photos no doubt, see: http://www.travelblog.org/Bloggers/drbexl/ for evidence of that!

Publish my PhD as a Book
I will never feel like I've finished my PhD until I see my name on the spine of a book in the bookstores. There's plenty of interesting material in my PhD (see http://www.ww2poster.co.uk), lots of interest in it (see the recent furore over 'Keep Calm and Carry On': http://drbexl.blogspot.com/2009/03/keep-calm-and-carry-on.html). Originally I intended to call my book "It's Up To You" after a poster which takes the Kitchener "Your Country Needs You" as a design inspiration, but now Keep Calm and Carry On seems far more appropriate, as I'm particularly interested in why such images still resonate over 60 years later). At my PhD viva we spent most of the time discussing turning the thesis into a book (would probably take around a year on top of a steady job), and the book proposal is in process... meantime, travelling and job-seeking have rather taken away from that!

Visit Israel
OK, so it's another "visit somewhere", as the remainder may be... I want to take a trip to Israel with http://www.oakhall.co.uk. I know loads of people who've been and they all say the same thing... really tiring, but completely awesome and inspiring (well, that describes pretty much any Oak Hall trip that I've been on!)

See a Formula 1 Race live
I used to follow Formula 1 avidly, watching heats, races, repeats, highlights - you name it, and reading all the magazines. I then realised how much of my life this was taking up and pretty much went cold turkey. However, getting to know Emma @ Manchester we chatted about Formula 1 lots, and I would still like to go to see a live race... not sure where yet. I have stood on the starting grid and podium at Albert Park in Australia, and may watch some of this weekend's... if only to remind me of the time I spent in Australia (and there's somewhere else to go back to!)... I had a day's race car driving experience: http://www.bex-lewis.co.uk/career/big_achievements/drivingexperience.htm, whic was great... bring on the skid-pan racing next!

Run the London or New York Marathon
I've done a couple of 10ks, and would even need to build back up to that length at the moment, but I've always wanted to run the London Marathon (although sometimes I think the New York would suit my traveller mind more). I have actually completed a full-length marathon event: http://www.bex-lewis.co.uk/career/big_achievements/moonwalk.htm, which is maybe almost harder than a daytime marathon, but still, running a marathon beckons...

Memoirs of a Geisha

Memoirs of a Geisha by Arthur Golden (unusually) kept me occupied for several evenings whilst travelling through Asia (I have been known to read 3-4 books in a day!). I hadn't realised until I started to read it, and found the odd bit of text slipping off the page, that I'd bought one of the notorious photocopied texts so easy to find in South East Asia (not much respect for intellectual property there!).

Stupid as it sounds, it hadn't really registered in my consciousness that the author was male, and I certainly hadn't realised that he was American. The author of the book appeared to have got into the mind of a Geisha so well, that many people believe that she was a real character - she's not, she's fictional, but he apparently did his research well!

So, last night, I borrowed my friend's DVD and watched the film and all the extras. I can't remember the ins and outs of the book, but with the time lapse, I certainly didn't notice anything particularly jarring/missing, and really enjoyed the film, which was well-paced and intriguing. I enjoyed the extras even more (as always... watching the 'Making of Shrek' was very inspirational for writing a chapter on the way an artist approached poster design for my PhD), and it was fascinating to see how the authenticity was approached, with each actress undergoing 6 weeks of Geisha 'boot camp', working with Liza Dalby, the only western woman ever to become a Geisha (as a part of her PhD research). 

Even more interesting was that the director/producer said that they looked to establish what were the rules/authenticity, and then looked for ways to re-interpret that in a more modern way that would work for film. 

Links

• Sony official site
• IMDB information
• Wikipedia
• Questions for a Reading Group