Once - The Musical

The Optimist spent Saturday night watching Olivier award winning musical Once, at London's Phoenix Theatre. In the words of Iggy Azelia: I'm proper fancy - or something along those lines.

Ann Street Studio does New York

Today seems like a good day to drop in on one of my favourite blogs. You might've seen the work of Jamie Beck and Kevin Burg on The Optimist before - they're the creators of the cinemagraph and their blog Ann Street Studio, is brimming with gorgeous photography. They recently used cinemagraphs to document a day in New York - through the lenses of Jamie's Giorgio Armani glasses no less. Take a look ...

Doctor Who

The time has come for the Timelord to return ... Doctor Who's back, and The Optimist could not be more excited! With Peter Capaldi taking control of the TARDIS, now's a great time for those not acquainted with the 50 year-old institution to get involved. You've only got 800 episodes to catch up on - that's twenty-five days of back to back, uninterrupted Who - sounds like the dream to me! If your boss is refusing to give you the time off work though, you could just take a look through The Optimist's edited highlights; 50 years of TV history condensed into five carefully selected episodes that you need to watch RIGHT NOW!

Eddie Vs Benedict

Is it award season again yet? The Optimist's already getting a bit too excited about next year's Oscar-hopefuls. This past fortnight's seen the release of not one but two inconceivably gorgeous trailers - could one of our favourite Brit-actors be about to win a little gold man?

Boston Tea Party

If  TGI's is for Friday nights, Cheltenham's Boston Tea Party is for Sunday mornings, and, as Lionel Richie and Maroon 5 will attest - Sunday morning's are swell. I spent a leisurely AM in the cafe where there's tea on tap, burgers for breakfast and the eggs are Benedict-ified!

Begin Again

There are some films that you know you're going to love before you've actually watched them; 500 Days of Summer and Gatsby for example. When I heard the words 'New York', 'Musical' and 'Keira Knightley' I knew Begin Again would be the same. So here's a slightly redundant recommendation, for the new film by John Carney - Oscar winning director of Once (SOLD!)

Snugburys

As we all know - it's not summer until you've dripped ice cream on your shoes and today The Optimist is introducing you to a better class of ice cream: ice cream so moreish you'll just want to shove your face in it. If the picture above hasn't convinced you already, read on ...