On Saturday an enjoyable time was had at Tate Modern gawping at their exhibition, KANDINSKY: THE PATH TO ABSTRACTION. It was very interesting watching his progression from impressionism to abstraction, by a process of whittling away what was not needed - almost like a sculpter. It was fascinating to see his motifs of houses, mountain peaks, horses and boats being reduced with each painting to the smallest suggestion of a figurative shape with a few spare lines. My favourite painting on display was his COMPOSITION VII from 1913, an enormous canvas that swirls and explodes with vibrant colour. My eyes floated over it and it put me in mind of visualising a piece of music with it's highs and lows, it's repetitions and cadences. All quite marvellous.

On Sunday Owen & I schlepped up Mitchum Lane in a deluge to get to the West End to see VOLVER at the Haymarket Odeon, the Pop Quizzer's favourite screen! On the way however we stopped off at the Apple store in Regent St. I think Owen enjoyed VOLVER, although I'm sure his mind was on his latest purchase, a new iPod! Bearing in mind how many songs, music videos and photographs can be downloaded onto it, it's not the size of a wheelbarrow. The evening passed with O's feet sticking out from the pile of cds being uploaded onto his shiny new iPod while I watched the last 2 episodes of the LOST second series on E4. Oh and shouting at the television as the credits rolled!

On Monday - after accompanying O to finally get the long-awaited Slade box-set from HuhMuhVuh on Oxford Street - I went with Angela to see Stephen Frears' film THE QUEEN at the Barbican. What an odd film. Although the performances certainly warrented the praise that has been heaped on it, I couldn't shake the feeling I was watching something that rightfully belonged on television. It struck me while watching it that the Queen and Diana were almost a retelling of an older clash of conflicts. Two women equally as famous as the other, one seen as being tied to duty and one being seen as pure emotionalism - you could almost be describing Elizabeth I and Mary Queen of Scots especially as the death of one of them reflects on the other. As I said I enjoyed it for the performances. Helen Mirren inhabits the role of Brenda remarkably, the characteristics that make the Queen so familiar - the ramrod posture, downturned mouth - are suggested but with a deftness that doesn't leave you thinking of WHO DO YOU DO? Her triumph in this role is in making one see the woman behind the image all too familiar with us. There is a crafty little scene quite early on in the film which surprised me - when the Queen and Prince Phillip (James Cromwell in a restrained performance bearing in mind who he is playing) are watching a news report which mentions Mrs. Parker-Bowles and Phillip makes a reference to the age-old practice of keeping one's mistresses out of sight which is greeted with a small flicker in the eyes of the Queen. A small scene but a brave one methinks. Of course the film is also about how the Queen was made to change her mind on the Royal Family's stance on Diana's death by Tony Blair and the spin-doctoring of Alistair Campbell. The role of Blair is again played by Michael Sheen who really should concentrate now on fictional characters - over the past few years we have seen him in film, theatre and television as Blair (twice), Kenneth Williams, Caligula, David Frost and Nero - what a bunch! His performance is great though and the two scenes that book-end the film of Mirren and Sheen together are great. The final one where the Queen icily punctures Blair's ingratiating spiel with the insight that one day the public will turn on him too is all too topical! There is also a nice scene-stealing turn from Helen McCrory as Cherie Blair. As interesting as Peter Morgan's script is, it leaves a strangely empty feeling at the end as he never once gives us a scene which shows us what the Queen actually felt about Diana.

It did however make me remember that extraordinary week in 1997 and the feeling that I was living through history actually changing by the hour.