Nº 57: Edson Caldas
Edson recommends curl cream, Master Wei Xan and the best cinema to premiere your film.
We’re back with Edson Caldas. Read on to find out what he’s into, and if you’re new here, hit subscribe for secret recommendations every Monday.
Edson works as a camera assistant in film & television alongside shooting his own films, taking photographs and writing jingles.
☞ LONDON CINEMAS: For a city so large, London seems to be home to only a few great cinemas. By this, I mean places that not only have appropriately dim and velvety screening rooms, but also maintain great line-ups, special seasons and incentives for the young and impecunious. For myself and indeed many others, Prince Charles comes out on top. Their membership entitles you to regular £1 screenings and they screen on 35mm and 70mm more than any other place I know of. Second comes the BFI. An under 25 membership is free and entitles you to £3 tickets for pretty much everything. During London Film Festival (LFF), tickets cost just £5 with the membership. Inland, the first feature film I worked on had its premiere here last year and should be returning to various cinemas this June.
☞ JINGLES: One of my favourite pastimes is picking up a guitar or keyboard and improvising jingles either for or with friends. Often jingles will naturally extrapolate into more fully formed stories and all of a sudden you will find yourself writing a musical. Musical talent is not necessary, simply learn a few chords or recruit a friend to play in order to enter frontman mode.
☞ JUDD BOOKS: Bloomsbury is possibly my favourite part of town and most of my time spent there is filled by simply strolling around. It is through this pastime that I one day stumbled across Judd Books, which has now become my favourite second-hand bookstore in London. There’s a great selection of books on the local history and architecture of Bloomsbury and of course an otherwise huge array of genres. It’s also very reasonably priced, with most of their paperbacks going for a few quid.
☞ GOWER ST. WATERSTONES: If you find a good book in Judd or have some work to do, just around the corner is a Waterstones, which sounds very boring, but this one has a great brick alleyway garden out the back which is usually very quiet. I try and time my visit for the couple of hours the sun shines through the alley.
☞ MASTER WEI XAN: One of my favourite places to eat in London, Master Wei Xan, serves regional Chinese food (Xian Provence) that’s some of the best I have had the pleasure of tasting. Get one of the Biang Biang hand pulled noodle dishes, smashed cucumber salad and tofu skewers.
☞ IBRAHIM’S MOROCCAN SOUP: Due to a lack of signage and no advertising, I shall refer to this place as Ibrahim’s Moroccan Soup. During my time living in Ladbroke Grove, Goldborne road was my favourite place to stroll through and eat. Opposite Café o Porto, you’ll find a plain white food truck that has been run by Ibrahim and his cousin Mohamed for the last 25 years. He cooks and sells various Moroccan dishes, namely soup, and I don’t know of a dish on his menu that exceeds £7. Their lentil soup (£4) is excellent as is what Ibrahim told me to refer to as ‘special soup’; a bowl of lentils, beans sausage egg and lots of fresh harissa paste.
☞ GREEK POTATOES: My new favourite way to consume potatoes…
☞ CURL CREAM: Curl cream, a recent and long overdue discovery for me. Smells sensational, keeps the ringlets strong.
♪ LISTENING TO:
Album: There’s no “I” In The Spice World – Spice world
Song: La Nava del Olvido – José José
Song: The First Taste – Fiona Apple
☠︎ HATES:
Handling frozen things; the mere sight of a frost covered package or drawer gives me goosebumps, the bad kind.
Large backpacks at gigs
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