I bought a magazine recently on eBay. Nothing particularly unusual about that, I collect Johnny Depp memorabilia (as you might expect) and this was a rare copy of a magazine with a nice long interview in it. And pictures! I was looking forward to the pictures.

When it arrived, and I eagerly turned the pages to find the article, I found rather more than I’d bargained for. Apparently, some time during the year of 1998, Johnny Depp transformed briefly into a large lizard! And Terry Gilliam did too – it must have been an epidemic! It may have been the drugs, of course, and it was clearly hushed up quite well because I don’t remember hearing about it at the time and I’m sure I’d have remembered.

But the proof is out there. Two pictures of Terry and Johnny in a well-known glossy magazine, captured in all their green and scaly glory. Check out the captions on these two.

I spent a while wondering which was which, and I came to the conclusion that since the caption says ‘Terry discusses … ‘ it must be him in the centre, and Johnny must be the red-clad lizard to the right, earnestly waving his arms, possibly to make a point about the plot or the dialogue. Maybe he was saying ‘but why would lizards care about bats?’ or ‘do I look like someone who wears shorts?’ Who knows? Who can fathom the mind of a lizard?

Looks like they recovered pretty quickly. anyway. Even if the writer of the captions didn’t.

Oh, and in case you can’t quite read the captions, you’ll need to click on the picture to enlarge it, but also click on the thumbnail on the next page.

And there are no prizes for guessing which movie this was. Ask any Johnny Depp fan.

Johnny Depp in in London today for the Royal Premiere of Alice in Wonderland, his new movie. Tim Burton will be there too, no doubt, and I have a lot of time for Tim, too. He gave me a beaming smile, once, you know!

And I won’t be there.

*Sigh*

Why not? Well, with all my current health problems and worries, I really didn’t feel able to make the journey and weather the trench warfare all by myself, and I had no-one to go with for support, protection, and those all-important ‘I’ll keep your place by the barrier while you go to the loo’ occasions.

Just the thought of carrying a bag containing the necessary stuff (camera, water, lunch, phone, handwipes, gift for the man, should I be fortunate enough to get close enough, folding stool, wet weather gear etc etc) was daunting. I’m still waiting for an MRI, a gastroscopy and a second shoulder repair, and what with the fibromyalgia, and the fact that I’m not sleeping well and my back is killing me, well… I stayed home.

I will be going down to London with OH and a good friend to see the movie on IMAX, but for the first time in years, I won’t be at the premiere of a new Johnny Depp movie.

Sorry to whine, but … Fuck it. And not in a good way.

The picture up there is one I took at the premiere of Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest.

It snowed again yesterday. But though we had two or three inches it’s thawing already, so when I took Sid to the playing field this morning I wasn’t really expecting to find anything pretty, let alone a thing of beauty – but I did!

Take a good look at that picture up there. It’s just a park bench, right? And some local idiot has been walking on it. Well, good grief .. can’t they find anything better to do? I dunno. Youth of today. Thugs and vandals the lot of them.

Except … take another look. This time, look at it this way -

Before school this morning, a young man – judging by the size and type of the footprints – is struck with youthful exuberance. He delights in the clean, white appearance of the world and he’s suddenly a few years younger, just for a little while. On a whim, he jumps up onto the bench, bunnyhops along it and jumps down at the other end, just like Sam in Benny and Joon*.

It must have felt good, because a little further along, he decided to have fun with the bicycle ramps, too!

I think he was walking the family dog, because if you look closely at this second picture there’s a set of doggy footprints following along at the side, and I’m betting the dog had fun, too!

Now, isn’t it a thing of beauty that a young man (whether twelve, sixteen or nineteen, it doesn’t matter) should suddenly find his heart lifted so that he just has to express it in physical joy?

I think so. I think it’s sad that we lose that, as we ‘grow up’. So, go on – do something a little young for your years today. It’ll be fun!

And if you’d like to see more examples of the beauty that people have found in their lives this week, pop along to Claudia of Dipity Road.

*A Johnny Depp movie, needless to say

This week’s ABC Wednesday post begins, most unusually, with a Photoshopped picture of the Princess and the Pirate singing a duet. Oh, it’s true that they did sing a duet, and they were in the conservatory when they did it, but they weren’t actually on the same bed, so I had to cut’n'paste, so to speak. See that little plastic hamburger toy? That’s what did it. Jack had only been with us for a week or so when he discovered this thing and took it to his bed to play with. And it squeaked at him, so he dropped it and looked disconcerted, then bit it again .. and it squeaked. And he squeaked back and the more the toy squeaked, the more Jack squeaked and yelped until he was pointing his nose to the ceiling and delivering a most spectacular roo. And then Princess Renie joined in, though judging by her face she had absolutely no clue why she was doing it. And amazingly enough, I was able to grab the camera and snap some shots.

This particular duo were very fond of each other and while they seldom shared a bed, they did like to be close.

You see, Jack was a very twitchy little fellow and couldn’t bear to have anyone touching him while he slept.  I think Renie would have liked to double up in a bed, but he wouldn’t let her so she used to get just as close as she could.  Just occasionally, with great delicacy, she’d manage to get a paw on him without disturbing his sleep.

The did love their big soft beds, but didn’t matter if there were none nearby, they’d simply drop to the carpet and doze there.   One day I took a picture looking down on them from above.  And as you can see, they’d just finished their dinner.

And talking of dinner – here they are eating.  This was in the month before she died, and Renie was hungry but didn’t want to jump down from her chair.  She ate her entire dinner like this, in the ‘downward dog‘  position.

And finally, just for fun, I snapped this picture for you this morning.

I invite you to guess what’s going on here.  Could it be that Data and Mr Depp (in his persona as Jack Sparrow) went to say hi to Sid, whereupon our brave dog took it upon himself to dismember poor Data?  As you can see, he’s missing a hand already and the other one is inside Sid’s mouth, probably getting dented!   As to Cap’n Jack .. is he defending his friend?  I dunno.  Seems to me more likely that he’s determined to keep his treasure chest!

Life is never dull with a dog!