Tales of The Sofa

After some very hectic weeks I've been catching up with a bit of 'ME' time.

When I'm not sewing, selling or promoting I like nothing better than curling up on the sofa with a dvd or 3 (and at least 1 cat of course!)

This weekend I decided to go a bit further back in time and got our some old videos (remember them!) I don't know anyone who can just watch a video these days - if you're like me it involves trying to figure out which scart to un-plug and find another plug socket! So it's been quite a while since I visited my video collection but I've got some great old favourites.

With the new version of Fame just being released it made me nostalgic for the old one - well worth re-visiting (if only for the very gorgeous Leroy Johnson!) The old version is done so well - the characters are believeable and face similar issues as any teenager today I can't see how they can re-make it to be any better but that's Hollywood I guess.

Another great forgotten gem is a series that was on TV in the early nineties. Tales of The City is a series based around the books of Armistead Maupin. Set in San Francisco in the seventies, it follows the lives of a group of inter-connected people across all walks of life. The main idea is it follows the life of Mary Ann Singleton is a naive young woman who decides to escape conservative middle America by relocating to San Francisco. She's thrown into the middle of a Bohemian and sexually free city - San Francisco was the epicentre of the 60's hippie 'free love' movement and was one of the first places in Americs where people could be openly gay.

Mary Ann Singleton finds a room at 28 Barbary Lane, where an eccentric landlady Mrs Anna Madrigal acts as a motherly figure to all her residents. With gay and lesbian characters, lots of marijuana, casual sex and intriguing twists and turns to the storyline, I remember it being quite shocking at the time of its TV airing - scheduled for late night Channel 4 viewing.

I love the fashion and clothes from this period - the hippy 60's vibe mixed with the structure of the sharp suits in the business scenes. The opulence is also reflected in the decor of the houses - and I love the houses. All this big rambling properties on hillsides overlooking the city. Theres loads of scenes really showing off the city - watching the series made me remember how much I wanted to visit San Francisco - I've never got there yet!