Never touch your idols: the gilding will stick to your fingers. Il ne faut pas toucher aux idoles: la dorure en reste aux mains.
― Gustave Flaubert, Madame Bovary
How I love when art gets meta: when a writer or artist has the self-awareness and genuine capacity to make fun of themselves. That’s what we mean when we say the writing is “honest”. There’s no agenda to convince or win over the reader, just a need to show, everything, even the warty not-attractive bits.
With her first novel, Meeting Damian Lewis, Christine Wilson has succeeded beautifully in that effort.
Boys and their cars. And girls too, for that matter. There’s something about being behind the wheel of a nice automobile, pressing the gas, shooting ahead with the force of however many horses, and letting a machine take you where your feet can’t. Damian made his second appearance on Top Gear this week and got to drive around a bit: recklessly, dangerously, at the sort of speeds humans probably weren’t ever designed to go, at least not unaided. Yes, no doubt, there’s a rush there, the burst of power and the addictive lurching feeling of hairpin turns at top speed, the balance between control and utter abandon. One small explosion in a combustion chamber to get things moving, then the lingering burn of the fuel made from our fossils, and we’re off to the races, quite literally. And for those few seconds of sheer joy, you sorta want to forget that these are the very machines that have summarily sent our planet on a not-so-slow burn. Alas, let’s keep this post about joy, and the joy of watching Damian play with cars. Read on!
What a match Soccer Aid 2016 turned out to be! Sure as shootin’, England came ready to play, with energy, enthusiasm, and most of all, a truly united front. With the Rest of the World, they 1) raised a tidy sum for UNICEF, a wonderful cause helping children all over the world and 2) Gave us a beauty of a show over a muggy evening at the Old Trafford in Manchester.
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The three of us, Damianista, myself and TBkWrm, all on separate continents at the moment, miraculously managed to meet up and ‘watch’ together. TBkWrm is already there in the same time zone, sporting her Rest of the World hat, so we knew she’d get to watch. As for me, by sheer dumb luck, I happened upon a live stream and darn near bust a hole in my hardwood floor jumping up and down at the OMG of getting to watch live. Damianista didn’t get to watch exactly, but did happily read along to our play by play, some of which I’ll transcribe for you now. Let’s look together at some highlights of the match, shall we? Oh, and, England took away the trophy, 3 – 2, just so you know. 🙂
Damian Lewis plays in Soccer Aid Charity Match at Manchester’s legendary Old Trafford Stadium TODAY, June 5, kick off at 8pm, airing on ITV. Here’s some of what he’s been up to as he warms up and gears up for the match up between Britain and the Rest of the World, followed by Damianista’s post on his presence at this event over the years. Enjoy!
