I was asked a few days ago who my ideal dinner companions would be. You know the question, you’ve heard it before, usually while sat in a bar or at a training function, or ironically while at dinner, often with good companions.
Who would you six dream dinner companions be?
I answered with some unthoughtful answers who, although I’d love to have dinner with (Ben Affleck, Jesus, Spongebob Squarepants), they wouldn’t be my dream companions. So I’ve thought about it and the list below is my semi-definite edition. I’m pretty sure in a few months it’ll change but that’s the very nature of these things isn’t it? Three years ago Dustin Kensrue wouldn’t have made this list. Not because he wasn’t worthy but because I’d never heard of him. I could find out about someone tomorrow who I just have to get to know and if I’m limited to six people that would mean bumping someone off the list. That in itself is a difficult task!
For now though here’s my list. It doesn’t include friends or relatives because if I wanted to have dinner with them I could. This is about those potentially unobtainable guests, and why I’d love to break bread with them at my table. Also, they’re in no particular order!
Coco Chanel
“Fashion is not something that exists in dresses only. Fashion is in the sky, in the street, fashion has to do with ideas, the way we live, what is happening.”
For as long as I can remember I have loved this woman. As a child I’d hear her mentioned and think ”That woman has the coolest name!” and as I grew up and I discovered more about her I didn’t just adore her name but I adored her too. Her style and grace was beyond compare. It would be wrong to say her designs were ahead of her time when, as far as I’m concerned, her designs are timeless. The outfits she created are as fashionable now as they were then. As is Chanel No.5, a scent I’d love to wear if it wasn’t for the fact it’s very feminine and doesn’t go well with my big butch beard. Okay so she was a Nazi spy but hey, we all make mistakes!
Alfred Hitchcock
“Always make the audience suffer as much as possible.”
My six guests contain two movie directors and personally I feel both of them deserve a seat at my table. I honestly don’t think there isn’t a Hitchcock I don’t like. Rebecca, his adaptations of the Daphne Du Maurier book, is my favourite film of all time. I would love to talk with him about David O. Selznick and his time working with him. I’d like to tell him how much I admire him for his work. He talks about fear like it’s was commodity and I suppose to him it was. It was his main tool. He gave a speech once about how fear starts in people when we’re babies and our parents say boo and I smile every time I hear it; purely because of the way he says boo. I hear it and I can see hips lips make the Oooh shape and sound.
Dustin Kensrue
”Between the river and the ravens I’m fed.”
I cannot remember who introduced me to his music but I owe them a huge thank you. As a solo singer there isn’t one song of his I do not like. I like some of the stuff from his band ‘Thrice’ but it’s his solo stuff I was first introduced and that’s what I’ve grown to love. His music is inspired by his devotion to Christianity and I was once asked, given that I consider myself an atheist, how I feel about the religious tones in his music. To be honest, it’s easy to ignore. Where he gets his inspiration from is of no concern to me. We all take inspiration from different sources and none of us really have a right to judges others on those. I’ll let you in on a secret… he’s also getting a place at my table because he’s kinda hot!
Herbert Brenon
”She’s clearly a woman, but somehow she’s also inescapably and perfectly Pan.”
This is the second of my two movie directors sat at my table and in my humble opinion his seat is just as important as Hitchcocks. Herbert Brenon, to me, is one of the true unsung greats of the movie business. His epic “Neptunes Daughters” rates, in my mind, as one of the most incredible silent films made in its day. He moved effortlessly from silent movies to talkies and would instruct his actors in their screen presence. This was probably something he developed from his days in Vauderville with his wife. He was the first man to bring J. M. Barrie’s ‘Peter Pan’ to the big screen and for years it was thought to be lost but in the 1950’s it was found and restored and in 1996 a new score was written and recorded and premiered at the Pordenone Silent Film Festival. When it comes to film-making he has my respect and admiration equally with Hitchcock and it’s shame more isn’t known about him.
Isabella Rossellini
“I didn’t want to become an actress because the competition with my mother would have been to much to live up to.”
Have you seen Fearless? With Jeff Bridges? No? You’re missing an amazing film! Go watch it now. Go on. We’ll wait. She’s an incredible actress. More often than not when you mention her name people usually only come with three things she’s been in. Blue Velvet, Death Becomes Her and Friends. There are so many more films and productions to her name but there is also so much more to her. She loves dogs and trains guide dogs. I’m instantly in love with anyone who loves dogs but the fact she also trains guide dogs gets her extra brownie points. Not that she needs them as she’s already sitting at the top of any list I’d create. And as if she couldn’t be perfect enough her mother was Ingrid Bergman and her father was Roberto Rossellini. How perfect is that?! I can see my having long conversations about Italy, her career and literally anything else I can think to talk about with her!
William Sommers
“This bit Harry I give to thee and this next bit must serve for me,”
William Sommers is probably my most wayout selection but I have my reasons. Sommers was the senior and most well known of Henry VIII court jesters. When King Henry was ill he said it was only Sommers that could lift his spirits. Remember this was a king who was notoriously difficult to please and beheaded two of six his wives. Anyone that can put a smile on his face while not lying on block with a thin piece of steel coming down on him at high speed must be talented. Humour these days is insanely repetitive of the 60’s and 70’s and it’d be amazing to have his unique style there to learn from as well as, selfishly, entertain us during dinner.
So there you have it. My six dream dinner companions. All I need to do is work out who is sitting where!
Note: All images taken from Wikipedia.