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.