onwards and upwards

According to the Dec 17th Economist print edition, "In the rich world the idea of progress has become impoverished."
This is an excellent article about this very reason of why the modern view of progress is so impoverished: "The popular view is that, although technology and GDP advance, morals and society are treading water or, depending on your choice of newspaper, sinking back into decadence and barbarism. On the left of politics these days, “progress” comes with a pair of ironic quotation marks attached; on the right, “progressive” is a term of abuse."


image by Matt Herring

onwards and upwards

banksy

some new work in London-town! 

banksy

Happy Xmas

Have a Merry Merry Christmas and Good Tidings to all...


xx Sydney

Happy Xmas

Passion Pit - Sleepyhead (unofficial video)

Very cool video....this clip does a great job of using vintage/archived film clips to create something new and original. There is something foreign about some of these clips that feels odd and relevant at the same time.

"Sleepyhead" by Passion Pit from Barker Gerard on Vimeo.

Passion Pit - Sleepyhead (unofficial video)

LA LADY

First of all, Happy Birthday to my little brother, Beau! You rock.


Second off, I fly back to LA tomorrow for the holidays! So excited! And to get me even more pumped, I decided to write about a favorite LA club...
Sometimes going out just can't compete with a great party at home...BUT, I discovered the perfect alternative: both at once! ...Hollywood's after-dark stunner: My House (7080 Hollywood Blvd.)

David Judaken and Tony Daly (Mood, Crimson, Opera) re-imagined a nightclub as a decked-out, supersize modern home...aka: my new favorite Dodd Mitchell-designed hangout house! Past the front yard, step into the foyer and plot your tour:  A contemporary kitchen serving fresh-baked cookies (perfect end of the night treat) is the club's main bar (as it's a fully functional kitchen).  The furniture in the plush living room is pushed aside in the late hours to make way for a dance floor and DJ; an upstiars "master bedroom" with a leather bed functions as a more secluded hangout (including a bedroom bar); the patio holds a fire pit, and bathrobes are doled out to patrons after dips in the hot tub!

It really does throw the most fabulous "house" parties!

LA LADY

white xmas?

Snow is falling in London today!!!!!!

There are bets on a white Christmas in London...so I suppose there's still hope yet!

white xmas?

treehouses

I want to move to a pretty land with a decent climate and find a nice old tree, and build one of these to live inside!
It will be marvelous.

 

treehouses

airports

It's the holiday season. And let me guess...you are traveling?? And let me assume, that you may, within the next few months, be stuck in an airport.  After-all, you can't predict massive snow storms!  So then you will become very tense and frustrated. 


But guess what?!  GateGuru is a new iPhone application that serves as an insiders guide to American airports.  I can't give you first-hand experience feedback because there are, of course, two downsides, which make me unable to use the app: primarily because it is not an application for Blackberry (yet) and secondly, it only features airports in the good ol' US of A (85 of the top American airports, and none abroad).
According to Dan Gellert, the creator of this helpful tool, the app uses GPS to recognize which domestic airport you're sitting in, and then you type in what you need to survive your delay—for example, a good beer and a decent steak, orrr maybe a foot massage—and you'll get a list of the best and closest options.

And soon, GateGuru will add flight notification—your phone will get a quick alert if your plane's been delayed, so you can keep on talking with that traveling lion tamer you met at the bar.

airports

books in winter

This weeks book is Stones into Schools.  This is Greg Mortenson's latest novel about promoting peace with books not bombs. A few years ago I was in a phase where I was reading loads of books on the Middle East, especially Afghanistan.  I finally read Mortenson's Three Cups of Tea, which I loved because I went to an all-girls school.  I then had the opportunity to see Mortenson speak at the University of San Francisco and it was so inspiring! 

His second book is even better in my opinion. Teaching people that they have the power to change themselves is so simple but sometimes takes incredibale amounts of work by other people. Mortenson and his team have performed incredible acts of bravery, endurance, and dedication to the noble cause of providing education to the girls of Pakistan and Afghanistan. You will not be able to put this book down. You also learn firsthand accounts of the success of many of the first girls to go through Greg's schools. 

I definitely recommend you read this book; it is an incredible account of an individual who has changed the world for so many people. It is so insightful and could only be written by Mortenson, whose experience as a philanthropist in the Middle East gives his writing a unique credibility. In many ways, Mortenson makes you want to be like him, and that's the biggest compliment you can give a person. Probably the most resonating element of the book is its ability to help us see war as completely archaic, illogical, and unnecessary. Please do yourself a favor, read this book.  It may be a slow and careful read at times, as there is a lot to take in, but it is well worth the effort. 

books in winter

LA LADY

I haven't been sleeping much, some might simply say this is because I've always been more of a night person than a morning person, soooo this week for "my LA".....


SWEET LOVE HANGOVER!


This is a diner at a Hollywood nightclub...I know, you are wondering where this is going, but just listen:
After a wild night of hedonism, bourbon, debauchery, and impressive feats of aerial endurance, you might think it would be unwise to immediately return to the scene of the crime, but you are wrong.  Sweet Love Hangover is open at Hollywood's Playhouse nightclub.
It has a glass facade right on Hollywood Blvd. and plenty of mirrors inside, the room offers views of that only-in-Hollywood two-step between shutterbug tourists and sultry night owls any direction you look. (Even if it's behind dark glasses.)

So drop in by those windows and order up some much-needed greasy delicious-ness from the all-day menu: Buttermilk Pancakes Straight Up, Eggs on Toast or The Hangover—which involves crispy chicken tenders, gravy, eggs over-easy and some Tabasco. They've also got Bacon-Wrapped "Dawg" (hot dog), Dan the Man's Bad *ss Burger, Sloppy Sliders and Grilled Cheese and Tomato Soup.

And if only the old hair-of-the-dog cure will do, not to worry—a full bar at the back gleams with the promise of relief. Stay there long enough, and you can just go back to the dance floor.

(my kind of people).

LA LADY

mulled wine is amazing

So, it's been December for 8 days now and I don't think I've been to more Christmas fairs than I care to count!! Fair after fair but I haven't gotten sick of going to these festive gatherings! I just love it!
At every fair I've been to so far -- from my local block party to the Winter Wonderland in Hyde Park -- there is always, without a doubt, a stand with mulled wine.  
I had never actually tried mulled wine until this year...but let me tell you, it tastes like Christmas in a glass. It’s a lovely celebration of those traditional festive spices like cloves, cinnamon and nutmeg. 
So, I decided to try and make it last night since it was a typical London evening -- cold, rainy, cloudy, dark -- and it turned out delightful! So...here's what I did:
• 2 clementines
• peel of 1 lemon
• peel of 1 lime
• 250g caster sugar
• 6 whole cloves
• 1 cinnamon stick
• 3 fresh bay leaves
• 1 whole nutmeg
• 1 whole vanilla pod, halved
• 2 star anise
• 2 bottles of Chianti, or other Italian red wine

Peel large sections of peel from your clementines, lemon and lime. Put sugar in a large saucepan over a medium heat, add the pieces of peel and squeeze in the clementine juice. Add the cloves, cinnamon stick, bay leaves and about 10 to 12 gratings of nutmeg. Throw in a halved vanilla pod and stir in just enough red wine to cover the sugar. Let this simmer until the sugar has completely dissolved into the red wine and then bring to the boil. Keep on a rolling boil for about 4 to 5 minutes, or until you’ve got a beautiful thick syrup. The reason I did this first is to create a wonderful flavour base by really getting the sugar and spices to infuse and blend well with the wine. It’s important to make a syrup base first because it needs to be quite hot, and if you do this with both bottles of wine in there you’ll burn off the alcohol.
When your syrup is ready turn the heat down to low and add your star anise and both bottles of wine. Gently heat the wine and after around 5 minutes, when it’s warm and delicious, ladle it into glasses and serve. mmmm, christmastime!

mulled wine is amazing

a posh secret lair in greenwich village

21 W. 9th Street, NYC:  No name at the entrance of this underground townhouse space...leading you down past the bar, into a warren of rooms: The Salon, Palm Terrance, The Library, etc... parlor rooms, hidden chambers...a world of wonders.  This is the Hotel Griffou.


It is a kind of dining club -- like the game of Clue, but with Gin instead of pipes and ropes. the owners are veterans of those seminal neo-speakeasy joints Freemans, La Esquina, and the Waverly Inn ... so they know what they are doing, or rather, they know how to feed people while maintaining some cool.  Leather banquettes, gold-framed paintings, and soft light from chandeliers call for stuffed lobster tails with brown butter veloute and steak tartare with a fried quail egg or bacon-Gruyère burger. Cocktails obligatory.


Things are never what they seem!

a posh secret lair in greenwich village

the wave

Yesterday I participated in THE WAVE -- the UK's largest Climate Change March ever.  There were over 50,000 people there and everyone dressed in blue to create "a wave".  The march took place yesterday as a public call to make sure something happens at the Climate Talks in Copenhagen next weekend. People started gathering as early as 9am, and walked through London, ending at Parliament around 3pm. People from all over the country dressed in blue encircled Parliament, calling on the UK government to settle for nothing less than a climate deal in Copenhagen that avoids dangerous climate change and protects the world’s poorest who are already feeling its effects! Not only did Ed Miliband (Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change) hear us, but Gordon Brown invited 24 Wave supporters to 10 Downing Street after the event to hear their demands -- so awesome! 

Great photos of excited protestors of all ages to come; I am quite exhausted to tell the truth and prefer to upload them later this week!  I have been at a block party in my neighborhood all day, which was adorable! Lots of cute children eating cotton candy, adults drinking mulled wine, families lined up for bbq hamburgers from the local butcher and Christmas carols throughout!  A lovely way to end the weekend.

Have a fantastic week.

the wave

Sophie Blackall's missed connections, revisited

I know that a while back I already posted about these "missed connections" drawings by illustrator, Sophie Blackall...but I saw this interview with Sophie Blackall about her illustrations and I decided to look at her funny and unique depictions of these fleeting moments, described in haste, and posted in public!

Sophie Blackall's missed connections, revisited

mmm, delish!

So...it's been a while since I posted a recipe, and now that Christmas is coming, I figured it'd be a good idea. Plus, I made some amaaaazing blondies the other day!

So, for those of you that are in the dark, a blondie is basically a brownie minus the chocolate. I know, I know...you chocolate lovers are all going to stop reading now, but I dare you to read on...even I, a devout chocoholic, adore this amazing treats.  While brownies have a common base of melted butter, granulated sugar and cocoa powder, blondies are created with melted butter and brown sugar. The result is a rich toffee-like flavor. Mixing the butter and brown sugar creates such a fabulous aroma that it will make you want to eat the batter by the spoonful. I’m not kidding. Be prepared to muster up some serious willpower. The flavors in these blondies are fabulous – the batter is rich, the coconut slightly sweet and adding a chewy texture, and the chocolate with the perfect amount of, well, chocolateness.

I was a huge fan of how the batter smelled when being mixed together, and loved the crisp, crackly, brownie-like top that the blondies had when they came out of the oven. MMMmmmmm, I want to bake more already!

So here I go...

Coconut Chocolate Chunk Blondies

Yield: 16 two-inch-square bars

1 cup all-purpose flour
1/8 teaspoon salt
4 ounces unsalted butter, melted and cooled to room temperature
1 cup light brown sugar
1 large egg
1½ teaspoons vanilla extract
1 cup sweetened flaked coconut
1 cup chocolate chips or chunks

Topping:
1 cup semisweet or bittersweet chocolate chips
1 teaspoon butter

1. Preheat oven to 350°F. Grease and flour an 8-inch square baking pan.

2. Combine the flour and salt; set aside.

3. Stir together the melted butter and brown sugar until smooth; beat in egg and vanilla extract until well blended.

4. Slowly beat in the flour mixture until blended, then stir in the coconut and chocolate chips.

5. Scrape the batter into the prepared pan and smooth even with a rubber spatula.

6. Bake for 25-30 minutes, or until set in the center but still soft. Do not overbake. Let the bars cool slightly before drizzling with chocolate, then cool completely before cutting into squares.

7. For the topping, combine the chocolate and butter and melt until smooth. Using a spoon, drizzle over the bars.

Some notes on the recipe:

- I used Ghiradelli bittersweet chocolate chips, which are larger than regular chips, so more like a “chunk”. Plus I like dark chocolate.
- You don’t need to break out a mixer – I made these with one bowl and a large spoon.
- To get clean cuts, use a bench scraper to cut straight down...no slicing or sawing with a knife, perfect edges!
- I am now a blondie convert.

mmm, delish!

books in winter

What perfect timing for this weeks book, as I just finished it this morning...
Eating the Dinosaur by Chuck Klosterman


I just finished reading this book.  Solid 3 stars. Great tube-ride read.  The book begins by presenting a problem that most journalists would love to face: "For the past five years," Chuck Klosterman writes, "I've spent more time being interviewed than conducting interviews with other people." He then engages in a 20-page exploration of the nature of interviewing with gifted inquisitors such as documentary filmmaker Errol Morris and NPR's "This American Life" host Ira Glass. What at first seems like a self-absorbed stunt reveals itself over the course of the piece to be a thoughtful contemplation of media, truth and discourse in the modern age. And that's what you often get with Klosterman's pixilated intelligence and vivid prose. He is too substantial to be dismissed as a shallow hipster, too idiosyncratic to be easily classified. "Everyone I've met in New York or California tells me I'm conservative," he writes. "The rest of America tells me that I'm almost comically liberal." Overall, it's signature Chuck Klosterman which, if you enjoyed Sex, Drugs and Cocoa Puffs should make you a prime candidate for enjoying this; on the other hand, I think the range of the essays starts to feel unnaturally stretched towards the end of the book. He still sticks mostly to popular culture, but instead of ruminating on Britney Spears and The Real World, he's discussing - in surprisingly complex terms - subjects like the possibility and mechanics of time travel, and defending to a degree the philosophy of the Unabomber (while not condoning his actions, obviously). It surprised me how unfunny most of this book was, while still being quintessentially Klosterman. Maybe not the best introduction to him, but definitely worth a read.

books in winter

LA LADY

This weeks post for MY LA...

I've been thinking a lot about LA recently because I'm heading back for the holidays in a few weeks.
So I've been planning all the places I want to go while I'm there and I won't miss one of my fave lunch spots, famous for its' chopped salad...
La Scala
434 N Canon Dr. (between Santa Monica Blvd and Brighton Way)
Beverly Hills 90210

So delicious! So..."chop, chop", get over there!!

And while you're on that side of town...some other places to check out:
Sprinkles Cupcakes (9635 Little Santa Monica Blvd) for a red velvet cupcake after lunch.
Ron Herman (325 N Beverly Drive, between Dayton and Brighton Ways) for a new Free City hoodie, special party dress or the latest jeans...

LA LADY

EMPTY LA

For anyone who is from Los Angeles, as I am, or has even just visited...Matt Logue's book, Empty LA, will kind of freak you out, but be totally awesome at the same time! Imagine an LA with no cars...

Check it out HERE

EMPTY LA

new Aussie talent!

Jonathan Boulet:

This 21-year old Sydney skate rat is the latest signing to Australia's Modular label, landing with a tidy package of promotional offerings: a catchy, moistly breezy indie-pop debut single that couldn't be better titled for a meet-the-artist track; a subtly arresting/marginally tricked-out video; and a slightly more ambient remix by long-time post-rocker the Album Leaf. Here's to good starts.  "A Community Service Announcement" practically drips with humidity, a honeyed guitar bit pushed along by tropical toms, a pop song's forward movement that's fit for cruise boat line-dancing. If that sounds ripe for the OST to a Disney film set in some sunny climes well... it sort of is. But then there's this Special Problems-directed video (they also did Tame Impala's video I posted a few months back) where someone gets offed and dumped into a lake, suggesting their might be some menace beneath the mellifluousness. We'll need more than one Boulet track to fully suss. Until then, here's a community service announcement:

new Aussie talent!

Snowtunnel

Winter is here
Mountains are opening for ski season...
and it makes me think about ways we could ski or board all year
....welllll, check this out:
The Snowtunnel

Snowtunnel

yikes!

Oh my, goodness gracious, mercy me oh my! It's Sunday! (I thought it deserved that drama, no?)
Maybe I only think it deserves that drama because London has been battered with this stormy weather over the last week or so. The British climate can be a bit limp at times, with words such as ‘light rain’, ‘drizzle’ and 'overcast’ populating our weather forecast, everyday. So when we get some real weather, I'm starting to love its' drama! When the wind is howling against my windows at night, so much so that it wakes me up, it makes me feel as though I'm not in a flat in South West London, but in a solitary cottage on a cliff top, like the house in ‘Wuthering Heights’...
Until I wake up and look outside to see commuters and buses and cars all in a hurry to get somewhere. And it's still raining.
But, honestly, I can't believe it is already Sunday! I had all these plans this weekend. They were brilliant, and involved making up for my recess from the Masters Research World, but goodness! Suddenly I blinked and here I am on Sunday, at 3pm, in my Patagonia sweatshirt and yoga pants at my computer writing a blog-post, listening to Christmas music, as I watch the rain start and stop and the sun go down.  Weeks are racing by lately.  Just when you want time to work on final projects and research, there's no time.  And dinner parties and holiday celebrations and birthday parties and top secret Christmas crafting have all passed, in a wink of an eye. Shuckles. So I have decided to dedicate the rest of this afternoon in an effort to be more organised this week. I'm hoping in between all this research, bread will be baked, booze will be drunk, snuggles will be had and home made meals will be made. :)
Cheers to everyone for a productive and enjoyable week to come!

yikes!

Zaha Hadid designs new museum in Rome

Pope Urban VIII, one of the most prominent cultural patrons in Roman history, understood that great cities are not frozen in time. He loved dreaming up lavish new projects over breakfast with his artistic soul mate, the Baroque sculptor and architect Gian Lorenzo Bernini. When Bernini needed bronze for the baldachin in St. Peter’s, the pope simply ordered it torn out of the Pantheon. Neither was afraid to make his mark on the city...since then not much has happened, until now:
Zaha Hadid designed Maxxi Museum, Rome's first National Museum of Contemporary Art and First National Museum of Architecture!
If Pope Urban were alive today, I’m certain he and Ms. Zaha Hadid would be having breakfast right now, plotting the next move...

Zaha Hadid designs new museum in Rome

ferrari world

Car fans, get ready...soon there will be a world class destination for the Ferrari experience. Ferrari World will be in Abu Dhabi and it's nearing completion....it will be the LARGEST indoor theme park in the world!  This bright red architectural gem will bare a Ferrari logo stretching 215 FEET n diameter...also largest in world. Indoors and out, Ferrari World Abu Dhabi will feature 20 rides and attractions including the world's FASTED roller coaster...taking its passengers to speeds up to 124 mph...after all, Ferrari is all about speed.
Not only is this some big idea with fancy renderings, the park will feature state of the art racing simulators, driving and racing schools, museum exhibits of the Ferrari history, etc....

ferrari world

books in winter

A current bestseller, this weeks book is:
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Steig Larsson

I'm not going to lie about this one...once you start it, you won't be able to stop.  I was attached to my Amazon Kindle while I read this thriller.  It's the first of a trilogy and a serious page-turner! I must first admit that since it takes place in Sweden, it was a bit hard to get used to the names of places and people, but once you do, the book is a breeze. Henrik Vanger, an elderly Swedish industrialist, has long been receiving the same anonymous gift on his birthday: a single framed flower. He is convinced the series of flowers has something to do with his great-niece Harriet who vanished decades ago in mysterious circumstances when she was just 16. Vanger coerces a disgraced and prison-bound journalist, Mikael Blomkvist, to do some research into the disappearance. In exchange for information on his niece, Vanger promises Blomkvist enough dirt to take down the rich man who is sending him to jail. As Blomkvist moves closer to the truth, he teams up with the titular character, a tattooed detective named Lisbeth Salander who's the real star of the show. Together they uncover things that stun even Blomkvist, a crusading financial reporter who thought he knew all there was to know about the rot of corruption, the myriad abuses of power and the darkest sides of ourselves. I definitely recommend this international bestseller to all who luxuriate in immersing themselves in the ambience of a compellingly created world and memorable characters.
Then -- read the next book in the trilogy, The Girl Who Played With Fire.


Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!!! xx

books in winter

LA LADY

Although I've lived in quite a few different places -- currently in London -- Los Angeles, where I was born and raised, will always hold a very special place in my heart.  Not the LA of Hollywood, but the old-school beach vibe that still lingers in corners.  As strange, spread out, and flatly lit as it can sometimes be, Los Angeles, with its bougainvillea, sea breezes, avocados, and eccentric inhabitants, is like no other place in the world and will always be in my soul.
Sooo, I've decided to dedicate a weekly post about places and things to see, do, and eat in LA.
This is MY LA:


For my first LA Blog, i decided to pick out something that everybody loves: a really good reason to get out of bed...Maybe even a baker's dozen reasons... 
HUCKLEBERRY opens every morning with just one batch of old-fashioned doughnuts, ready at 8am—and when they're gone, you're out of luck until the next day.

From the husband-wife owners (Zoe and Josh) of the dinner-only Rustic Canyon just up the street, Huckleberry takes the modern-rustic thing into daylight hours, starting with carb-loading for the most important meal of the day—pastries, pancakes and those doughnuts. But they've also got Green Eggs and Ham…and by ham they mean La Quercia Prosciutto, an artisan salumi made of 100 percent Berkshire pork that would have rocked Dr. Seuss' world! And not only that, they have a great sandwich menu at lunch, as well as an early evening menu...all around good ol' fashioned bakery and cafe! Worth a visit.
Side-note/Fun Fact: Zoe learned to bake at Tartine Bakery in San Francisco (one of my faves from my SF days!), and worked in the kitchen at Lupa in NYC and Joe's in Venice

LA LADY

FOOTBALL HERO: GUITAR HERO SOCCER VIDEO

Check it out...A group of enterprising modders in the UK have sucessfully hacked Guitar Hero to be controlled by soccer...YES, SOCCER.
The Football Hero game is a standard Guitar Hero game in its display, but the control has been rigged to 5 pressure sensitive squares that trigger a specific key when struck with a soccer ball. Sooo, the Guitar Hero song begins, and 5 soccer players kick balls at precisely timed moments to trigger the pad that corresponds to the key on the screen ! Sweet!!

FOOTBALL HERO: GUITAR HERO SOCCER VIDEO

Manmade Mountain Towers Over Berlin!

German architect Jakob Tigges has unveiled a plan for a 1,000m tall faux mountain at the site of the former Tempelhof airport in Berlin, and his supporters are taking it rather seriously. Dubbed “The Berg,” the snow-capped colossus would be the world’s largest man-made mountain and would serve as a tourist attraction for skiers from September - March offering the perfect skiing climate in the otherwise slope-less city. I am ALL about adding green space to urban environments, but devoting an enormous amount of time, energy and resources into a gigantic landmass that isn’t even inhabitable on the inside seems like a huge mound of you-know-what, if you ask me...

Plans for The Berg seem to have spawned out of a severe case of “peakis-envy”. Says Tigges in his manifesto “While big and wealthy cities in many parts of the world challenge the limits of possibility by building gigantic hotels with fancy shapes, erecting sky-high office towers or constructing hovering philharmonic temples, Berlin sets up a decent mountain… Hamburg, as stiff as flat, turns green with envy, rich and once proud Munich starts to feel ashamed of its distant Alp-panorama and planners of the Middle-East, experienced in taking the spell off any kind of architectural utopia immediately design authentic copies of the iconic Berlin-Mountain.”

+ The Berg

Via World Architecture News

Manmade Mountain Towers Over Berlin!

Rock n Roll + Art = Fun

Last night I went to the Phillips de Pury "Music" auction and then Chairman Simon de Pury's birthday party.  The night started off well as I sat front row flipping through the MUSIC catalogue, (which had more of a lifestyle magazine look with articles on Martin Creed, Jonsi and Alex, Matthew Herbert, Goldie, Daniel Birnbaum, Christian Marclay, Graham Coxon, Damien Hirst, and others) I began talking to a charming older Swiss man sitting next to me named Claude, who just so happened to be Claude Nobs -- the founder of the Montreux Jazz Festival! (Totally heading to Montruex next July for it!).  Then it quieted down and the bidding began!
The auction was great.  It was part of their new theme sales, this one staging music-inspired contemporary art, design editions, photographs and memorabilia, with a live soundtrack by Matthew Herbert.  There was sensational work by rock (Paul McCartney, David Bowie, Jim Morrison) and art (Keith Haring, Andy Warhol, Kenny Scharf) stars; fashion photographers (Albert Watson, Helmut Newton, Miles Aldridge); and (not so) Young British Artists (Gavin Turk, Sam Taylor-Wood, Damien Hirst).  I so very much wanted an amazing iconic photograph of the Stones and watched the price get higher and higher that I couldn't even watch the gavel hit the podium when it sold. There was also some great work that really was unique, which included: a self-portrait in blood by the notoriously self-destructive musician Pete Doherty (formerly of the Libertines and Kate Moss), distressed gauzy prints by Riceboy Sleeps (a Sigur Rós-associated duo) and a rhinestoned painting of Donna Summer by Mickalene Thomas. Elsewhere, iconoclastic images like Shi Xinning’s imagined meeting between the Beatles and Mao and a silk-screen print of the Rolling Stones clad in female Elizabethan garb by Jesus Diaz De Vivar turn the rock star-worshiping on its head.  Fashion was very briefly represented by a Technicolor couture dress by Bernhard Willhelm that Björk wore on her Volta tour and by one of Bob Dylan’s fringed leather jackets. Better than either, though, was the diamond-encrusted eye patch commissioned for the bling-loving rapper Slick Rick.  
Simon de Pury had said, "Whether it's Peter Blake creating the ultimate album cover for Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band by The Beatles in the 60s or more recently Damien Hirst doing all the fabulous artowrk for the last two releases of The Hours, there has been an inextricably close link between art and music."
My favorite part of the auction was definitely Matthew Herbert's influence with his bespoke score "sound carpet" to accompany the live event conducted by Simon de Pury.  He mixed songs from Frank Sinatra with Jay-Z, to Run DMC with top Jazz performers and Beyonce with Donna Summer, Snoop Dogg and Miles Davis, Bob Dylan and Sammy Davis Jr. The sounds really got the audience excited and made the normal auction experience a bit more fun and unique!
Also, a collection of works from the Destroy/Rankin project were offered up in a charity auction where all proceeds go to Youth Music to help change young peoples live with the power of music, whatever the circumstances: 80 destoryed photographic portraits of renowned musicians, which had been sent to the featured musicians to be artistically defaced, were on display at Philips as well. The artists all did really different things to their portraits and was definitely interesting to see.
As the auction ended, I headed into a reception room with others in cocktail attire and was served champagne and delicious chocolate birthday cake with for Simon! We sang happy birthday (in English and French) and Simon cut the first piece of cake.  Then I chatted with classy European art/music-lovers into the evening. A really fun night, indeed!

Rock n Roll + Art = Fun

skyline by memory

Autistic artist Stephen Wiltshire took a twenty-minute helicopter ride over Manhattan. Then he sketched the entire skyline from memory. Every building was correct and drawn to scale! He's also done panoramic memory drawings of Tokyo, Rome, Hong Kong, Frankfurt, Madrid, Dubai, Jerusalem and London. How mindblowingly incredible.

Read more here.

(Photo via Stephen Wiltshire)

skyline by memory

fab over 50

A website designed for women to share the things that make them fab -- the 'shops they love, the creams they swear by, the books they can't put down and the wisdom they've amassed'... the website will be launched in early 2010, but for now they have a blog. Women such as Cathie Black, president of Hearst Magazine, and author Suzy Welch are already a part of Geri Brin's great idea! Check it out!


Update: Fab Over Fifty features me! Take a look here.

fab over 50

books in winter

This weeks book is...
The Sheltering Sky by Paul Bowles

This book is another classic.  Some of you may be familiar with the 1990 film, which I never saw, so I can't judge or compare.  However, I recently read the book, and it is a masterpiece.  An American couple, Port Moseby and his wife, Kit, are traveling in North Africa with their rather annoying friend, Tunner. The story focuses on the couple as they try to cope with what their journey brings them -- including the Arabs, the French colonizers, a very unsavory mother/son combination and their enigmatic selves.  It is, in essence, about what happens when one changes landscapes, physical or metaphorical, without intellectual and emotional openness.  It also teaches that the unfamiliar must be approached with humility and respect, slowly and without force. This might just be the book to set you straight.

books in winter

YINKA SHONIBARE

Today I saw Yinka Shonibare speak.  I've always noticed his work in museums as quite interesting and richly complex. Well, he was a fantastic speaker! Shonibare currently lives and works in London, where he has gained international attention by exploring issues of race and class through a range of media that includes sculpture, painting, photography, and installation art. His works, simultaneously innocent and subversive, address a range of cultural and historical issues and, in the process, blur the boundaries of design, ethnography, and contemporary art.
Definitely go check him out. He has a show on view now at the Stephen Friedman Gallery in London until this Friday the 20th of November!!!!

YINKA SHONIBARE

moomah

totally loving the branding from Moomah, uber cool kid cafe/art/craft space in NYC. the fantasy animal illustrations = adorable!

via Apartment One

moomah

sleeping bags

I pretty much have one thing to say about the new Selk'bag, which is that its awesome. This sleeping bag is more like a body bag ( not the corpse ones ). It's padded and shaped to the human form and allows free movement both in and out of sleep, where traditional sleeping bags don't.

sleeping bags

fall in a glass

Nobody at Modern Spirits' California-based vodka lab is revealing what's in their latest batch. Why? Because the ingredients of the Pumpkin Pie Artisan Vodka, like many homemade P.P. recipes, are top secret. Sure, it has pumpkin puree in it, but what makes it taste so much like nostalgic holiday dinners? Clove? Orange? Make no mistake, this low-sugar vodka is no nancy post-tryptophan liqueur—it's a robust drink specifically crafted to be sipped during dinner.
It pairs especially well with tangy and meaty dishes like BBQ short ribs, roasted game and bacon-wrapped anything, but is versatile enough to be a cocktail mixer. "This is the best batch we've made to date," admits pie-lover and co-founder of Modern Spirits, Melkon Khosrovian, who began creating specialty vodkas five years ago for his wife Litty to sip during Armenian family dinners. She let us in on this little secret: "We put every pie-related ingredient into the vodka except cream and crust."

Make It:

The Jack O' Lantern
2 oz Pumpkin Pie Vodka
1 oz Whisky or Bourbon
1 tbs Maple syrup
Squeeze of fresh Lemon

Serve on the rocks.

Thanksgiving Duo

2 oz Pumpkin Pie Vodka

1/3 oz 100% cranberry juice

1/3 oz maple syrup

shake and serve over ice, top with soda

fall in a glass