Month: October 2022

Throwback Thursday to Damian Lewis at the New Yorker Festival

I’ve been reading The New Yorker quite religiously for more than a decade now. I don’t remember how many subscriptions I gave to friends as gifts over the years and it is still one of the few subscriptions that I receive in the mail every week. And, the New Yorker Festival feels like the pages of the magazine literally coming to life for a weekend throughout the city with talks, conversations, readings, performances, panels with individuals that are at the top of their game in their respective fields — including arts, sciences, politics, sports, theater, music, literature, film, TV, food and more… As someone that attended quite a few events at the festival over the years, I can confidently say that, independent of the context, all events share one characteristic: intelligence. The festival participants are without exception endowed with some real brainpower. They are, in The New Yorker‘s own words, “some of the most talented and influential thinkers about topics ranging from politics to pop music, science to cinema, and so much more.”

damiannyerlineup

Well, it is the New Yorker Festival time of the year again! And I cannot help go back to my most favorite New Yorker Festival moment ever. It was exactly seven (whaaaaaaaa??????)  years ago that JaniaJania and I were extremely lucky to attend the fabulous conversation New Yorker staff writer Lauren Collins had with Damian Lewis at the festival.

Continue reading “Throwback Thursday to Damian Lewis at the New Yorker Festival”

“Is this a young Damian Lewis?” The Story of an Old Picture

It all started with a tweet back in 2015.

What Mr. Corney refers to in his tweet is Sports Life Stories: John Barnes  – a 2015 ITV documentary about the life and career of the legendary LFC footballer John Barnes. And 1:24 minutes into the documentary, John Barnes has a training session with a handful of teenagers one of which looks exactly like Damian! Continue reading ““Is this a young Damian Lewis?” The Story of an Old Picture”

Happy 11th Birthday, Homeland!

Homeland premiered on Showtime on October 2, 2011, exactly eleven years ago today.

Happy Birthday!

None of us on Fan Fun had any idea about the show when it premiered. However, it is Damian Lewis’ mesmerizing portrayal of Nicholas Brody that brought “almost” all of us to the fandom at some point. And, well, the rest is history!

I know that Season 3 finale was the series finale for many Brody fans who protested Homeland and quit watching the show after Brody died. And I am not going to lie to you, I was desperate enough to jump on the “No Brody, No Homeland” bandwagon in my own way when Season 3 was over and stayed there until a certain ginger told me to keep watching it 😀 So I did, and thanks to the healing powers of time, and Damian tackling other fantastic roles in Wolf Hall and Billions, I came to accept that, as Brody told Carrie, it was over. It still makes me happy to know no one can take Homeland Season 1 and 2 away from me, but I also recognize the fact that Homeland is a show about the CIA and, in particular, about one CIA agent, Carrie Mathison, one of the best written female characters on TV. And I cannot agree more with Damian who praises Claire Danes’ portrayal of Carrie in an interview with Hunger Magazine:

“Can you imagine if the part had been played by any other Hollywood actress, anyone with an ounce of vanity about them as a performer? Claire has no vanity. She’s committed to making sure she represents the story in the best possible way. Her performance is totally and utterly committed, terrifyingly so at times.”

Continue reading “Happy 11th Birthday, Homeland!”