Jake Gyllenhaal hangs on to Mumford and Sons in New Orleans and heads over to Memphis. And a WDW Interlude...

Mumford and Sons' Railroad Revival Tour may be over but the band's basketball playing, trumpeting mascot, Jake Gyllenhaal, is not that easy to shake off. Last night the band played at the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival and Jake was there to support them. Jake was seen backstage during the Avett Brothers set making sure that one Mumford and Son at least (Winston Marshall) couldn't make a getaway.


Jake's attempts to pass himself off as his 'Mum' fooled no-one.


Earlier in the day tweets put Jake on a boat tour of New Orleans, which means that it's quite possible that Jake did not watch the Royal Wedding yesterday. Nor did Brit Band Mumford and Sons engage with Jake in those two well-known sports that generally accompany Royal Weddings in Blighty (or at least within two square miles of it) duck racing and bun throwing (or was that duck throwing and bun racing...?). I've been assured that you don't have to eat the buns afterwards. Not so sure about the ducks.


But back to Jake. All this fresh air, touring and loud music is having the wonderful side-effect of making Jake's hair grow as well as his beard. He's now approaching that stage where his whole head has the same hair growth.


And the tweets and facebook sightings are already pouring in that Jake and Mumford and Sons - or, as they're now known, Mumford and Jake - are now in a town with a few musical connections, Memphis. Jake has been spotted taking part in his favourite activities of drinking coffee and pottering around a farmer's market. Tonight, the Memphis Music Fest takes place and I'd say that it's 99.95% certain that Jake will be in the wings at least to watch his new adopted band on stage. Of course, this does mean that he will have to let go of Winston, whether Winston wants him to or not. Now there's a man with hair for both of them.


The lovely pics are from IHJ.

Source Code in India

Yesterday we had a video from Italy to mark the release of Source Code there. The film also opened in India on 29 April and here is a video from CNN-IBN to mark the occasion.



A WDW Wildlife Interlude

Today was warm and sunny and this is my favourite time of year. And so I headed off to somewhere I visit a lot at this time, Cotswold Wildlife Park. The flowers were blooming, the animals were sleeping, but then they woke up (except for the sloth). It's a fine setting and the animals come in all shapes and sizes although it is true indeed that put them all in front of a child and they won't give a monkeys if there's a baby duck around. Fortunately, there were some of those as well. Not to mention the baby lemurs.







Before...


After.


Last year, I watched the ostriches care for their nest of many eggs. Now some of those eggs have grown up into fine young strapping ostriches. Here are a couple of them. I could swear that one of them reminds me of the third egg from the left, second row up.

Source Code opens in India, Vietnam and Italy and Jake Gyllenhaal involved with the Born to Run movie

It's an important day today, so get the bunting out! Yes, today Source Code opens in India, Vietnam and Italy. Obviously, noone in those countries will be reading this post because they will be doing their duty and be in the theatres right now watching Jake Gyllenhaal save the world.


However, for the rest of us, here is an interview from Italy with Jake and Duncan Jones which isn't dubbed and has the added charm of reminding us of those halcyon Source Code days when Jake had hair on his head...



In this brief interview with the Hindustan Times, Jake remembers the first day on the Source Code set: 'The first day of shooting was nerve-racking. Although we had rehearsed like crazy and knew what and where every person would be doing, we knew we could never ever off that course... I would often do six or seven pages of script by myself. I’d play a whole scene out, then Duncan would let me go right back in. So it wasn’t about gathering pieces, it was more like theatre. I felt very empowered as an actor, as you would on stage'.



Born to Run

Chris McDougall of barefoot running fame has been talking a little about his running and the transformation of his story into a movie. He talks about Jake and Peter Sarsgaard being with him at Leadville last year and how Jake had been happy to be away from the crowds, taking photos of Chris with his fans for a change. Chris also discusses the film and whether Jake will be in it or not: 'They're keeping that one a bit under wraps for now, but he's involved. I'm not sure in what sense. But I will tell you that this dude is in unbelievable shape. We went up this mountain pass and this guy just blazed on by' And the same with Peter. You can listen to the interview and download it here.


Picture from IHJ.

Mumford and Sons give in and let Jake Gyllenhaal join the band - Jake on trumpet in New Orleans

It was only a matter of time... after spending a week as a stowaway on the Mumford and Sons Railroad Revival Tour Train there was only one thing left for Jake Gyllenhaal to do. Yep, he joined the band. No doubt hoping to work off his fare. One thing occurs to me and I wonder if it occurred to the band. Can Jake actually play the trumpet. In the words of a good friend, is Jake the equivalent of the Fifth Beatle? Is Jake the Fifth Mumford?


After seeing pictures of Jake carrying his guitar to regale Bear Grylls over stewed walrus in an Icelandic glacier, having seen Jake batter the skins in Proof, and now watching Jake accompany Mumford and Sons on trumpet, surely it can't be long before the Jake Gyllenhaal One Man Band Album reaches iTunes. Jake Gyllenhaal may be the new Adele. In fact, I can see the album title now: 'Jake 30'.





A reader left the comment last night that she was sitting two seats away from Jake at Camellia Grill in New Orleans at midnight and that he was still wearing the basketball clothes. Pleasure and alarm combine... And, as we can tell from the video below, Jake was indeed at the show, the closing one of the tour, but this time, Jake took a more active role. Many thanks to the reader for her comment! A different t-shirt at the show, thank heavens.



As the tour finishes, ATX Gossip from Austin has posted its record of the group photo from Austin. You can spot Jake, and I don't just mean because of the big smile, handsome face and shiny head. He's the one putting in that little bit extra and carrying someone on his shoulders. I wonder if they drew lots...


And a personal note...

Thinking of friends and readers in Alabama. Hope you're safe x

Jake Gyllenhaal - a stowaway on the Mumford and Sons Railroad Revival Train

Mumford and Sons just can't shake him off... Jake Gyllenhaal was so seized by the moment when he saw the Brit band at San Pedro the other day that he hopped on their vintage train and stowed away. He didn't even take a change of clothes. One would have thought that Mumford and Sons would have discovered him by now and chucked him off at the next station. But they haven't. Perhaps Jake is working his passage, doing the cooking and washing.


Last night the Railroad Revival Tour reached Austin in Texas, mere weeks after Source Code's triumphant premiere in the city. Before the show, the band played at Austin High School, jamming with the school marching band and playing basketball with the kids. Never one to miss an opportunity to get sweaty, Mumford and Sons' mascot got out there to test those hoops* (*making up the lingo as I go along) and take out the opponents. Do check out the K-AHS flickr - there are lots of photos of Jake and the band on and off stage.


Two things to note here: 1) Jake's head is a little less shiny. I do believe we have some growth. 2) Jake didn't bring a change of clothes - he'd have been better off playing without the shirt.


The whole tour is being filmed for a documentary by Emmett Malloy. One hopes Jake will feature. What with Man Vs Wild, this could be the Jake Gyllenhaal Documentary Season.

As for that school marching band...



Next stop New Orleans!

There are more details of the tour - and the train - here. And this is the official tour website.

Mumford and Sons takes its Mascot Jake Gyllenhaal to Texas and a WDW Interlude

Jake Gyllenhaal is taking his duties as official Mumford and Sons Mascot extremely seriously. Either that, or they can't shake him off... Last night, Jake followed the British band out of LA and into the Chihuahuan Desert of Texas, to be more precise the town of Marfa, the latest stop in the Railroad Revival Tour. Jake clearly felt safe enough in Marfa without the hats and hoods but he was still spotted by the side of the stage. You should be able to identify Jake in the picture below from The Chase Night - he's the one in the background whose head you need sunglasses to look at.


The Calvy Calv tumblr has a great account of the evening, including this: 'Jake Gyllenhaal and Lance Armstrong were on the side of the stage singing along and jamming out with the crowd and the band. Jake came in to my friends store and she got to meet him and all that stuff.' It's good to hear that Jake is spending time hanging out with Lance again. Thanks to Mermon for the heads up!

Kevin Bacon

JustJared today published a photograph of Jake from the 1998 yearbook from Columbia. Rather peculiarly, students were asked which actor they admired and if they couldn't name one - as Jake couldn't - they were automatically allotted Kevin Bacon. Am I the only one to find that odd? No matter how good an actor Bacon is, and he is a good actor, why Kevin Bacon?


Men's Journal

I'm very grateful to IHJ for presenting these two pictures today from the Men's Journal photoshoot.


Absolutely gorgeous... And Jake's not bad either.


WDW Interlude - on the Isle of Widgit

Earlier this Easter holiday Mr WDW and I took ourselves off on our beautiful and extremely uncomfortable Triumph Thunderbird to explore the Isle of Wight. We didn't see all of it as our time was too short but we were lucky enough to enjoy the island in perfect sunshine. It's a beautiful island and so here are a few photos which do nothing to do it justice. Firstly, here's Osborn House - the favourite home of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert. After Albert's death, Victoria slept with a portrait of her husband above his pillow and by the side of the bed. She died in that bed in 1901. Happily, before that sad time, she spent years there with her family in gardens that are among the most beautiful I have ever seen.





We visited another royal home, but this time one with less pleasant memories for the royal in question (not that he'd have remembered it long as he had his head cut off). Charles I was imprisoned in 1648 in Carisbrooke Castle in the centre of the island. They built Charles a bowling green and he still tried to escape out of a back window. Ingrate. Mr WDW kept saying 'This is a proper castle!' as if they'd have kept Charles in anything else. Built in the 1100s the castle was one of the few in England to be attacked by the French.






The island's history goes back further than that, as any dinosaur hunter will agree, and, although we didn't see anything from that far back, we did visit the best Roman villa I have ever seen in the United Kingdom - the villa of Brading in the east of the island. And all credit to English Heritage for what they have done to preserve and present these superb remains. And the mosaics... men with cockrel heads, Medusa, Bacchus, peacocks, monkeys - stunning.



From more recent history, there is Bembridge fort. Originally built as a Napoleonic fort in the 19th century (and just look at that Victorian brickwork!), it had a part to play in the defence of Britain during World War 2, as can be seen by the enormous gun placements.



The Isle of Wight is all about the sea and there was plenty of it, all blue and under sunny skies.





Thanks to everyone for all the wonderful messages on the occasion of WDW's fourth birthday! I appreciate every one of them and they spur me on and onwards. Thank you!

My review of Thor is now up at MovieBrit.

WDW four years old today! Jake Gyllenhaal celebrates with Mumford and Sons

It's time for a street party! Wet Dark and Wild turns four years old today. Pretty much house trained and not too badly behaved when dragged around to the in-laws. And so, while I wait for Jake Gyllenhaal to come round with trifle and cake in one hand (he does have big hands) and a magnum of bubbly in the other, festooned in bunting, it's time for a quick recap of what Jake has been up to this weekend. Mostly, he's been sorting out hats - and hanging out with this chap.


On Friday, Jake attended the Railroad Revival Tour show in San Pedro, which is in LA and not in Spain as I initially thought. It did include Mumford and Sons and so I wouldn't have been at all surprised if it had been Spain because Jake is, after all, their number one famous fan. The band also gives Jake the chance to holler at someone else for a change instead of being hollered at. Jake also grabbed the opportunity to hide his shiny noggin with another hand and distort his face through multiple funny expressions. Photos abound from fans at the event as well as tweets of sightings of Jake at the show and before it, engaged in one of his favourite activities, buying coffee. This fun picture is from Bobushnell and features Jake and director Emmett Malloy. There are some other wonderful pictures there of the event from backstage.


I recommend that you take a look at the Flickr account of blueveins333 for a whole array of pictures of Jake behind the scenes. There is another one here (hood and a cap combined).

A couple of catch-up videos. This first one, although not all of us may be able to understand the words, shows Jake looking, in my eyes, his most lovely. I'm also partial to a bit of knitwear.



This second video has the dubious honour of being just about the worst interview I have ever seen and I give full credit to Jake and Michelle Monaghan for getting through it!



There are also some great new Source Code stills. I particularly like the second. I love Jake set against bright blue sky.




Includes pictures from IHJ.

And finally...

A big heartfelt thank you to readers old and new who have made the journey over the last four years such a pleasure and a special thanks to Jake for being my inspiration. Here's to the years to come, for all of us! How time flies!