A grand opening

An 80 minute train ride from Paris, The Centre Pompidou-Metz in Metz, opens next month. Shigeru Ban and Jean de Gastines have created a building with a lattice roof struture and fibreglass. The first exhibition is simply entitled Masterpieces and includes Yves Klein’s “Grande anthropophagie bleue".

Cake and tea and the book

300 people gathered in Ibberton's village hall, Dorset to purchase their hardback signed editions of Mr Rosenblum's list. Mid mouthful of scones, knowing looks were shared amongst locals as they listened to Natasha read an excerpt that transported them to the story of Jack and Sadie set in the 1950s.

I took my position as a 1950s tea lady and proud friend serving the sticky sweet jam scones. I'm never impressed when people ask for half a scone. Or just a sliver of cake while we are on the subject. I told them to eat the whole thing.

Come to Daunt books, South End Road, NW3 on 14th April at 6.30pm for the London meet the author event. No tea this time. A glass of white or red. See you there.
*gorgeous 1950s design details this weekend. Union Jack bunting, wild flowers, ordnance survey maps and of course Mr Rosenblum's Jaguar.

Road trip preparations

Me: Lea, sending you a bring the tom tom reminder.... otherwise it’s a map and we will miss the clotted cream celebrations because we realize none of us can read a map.

Lea: i just moved the tom tom out of the way to reply to this email.
Like a rash.

Wallpaper collected invitations

For Autumn/ Winter Fashion Shows.
Craftsmanship.

North Sea

North Sea Fish on Leigh Street.
Fish. Chips. Mushy peas.
A happy (welcome back) evening.

Awaiting clotted cream.
For a much anticipated (launch) weekend.

A Cultural Manifesto was launched this morning at a press call at the British Museum. Directors of the Tate, Southbank Centre, National Theatre and British Museum put forward their case for what sustained investment in the arts over the last 15 years has achieved. They want this story to evolve further and are calling for the next government to continue to invest in the arts.

17p of each of our taxes a week is spent on the arts. The cost of half a pint of milk.
"Let's not spill the milk", Alan Davey, Chief Executive of Arts Council England

Serpentine Summer 2010

Just announced. French architect Jean Nouvel will design this year’s Serpentine Gallery Pavilion. Why the proposed red? To evoke London's buses and telephone boxes of course.

Lunar proposals

Concepts for lunar architectural sustainability.

The idea is to create a robot that could take the regolithic powder found on the moon and make buildings from it, using advanced sensor technology being developed by La Scuola Normale Superiore and propulsion devices created by Alta Space.

Full article

Patti Plinko

Patti Plinko and her boy

A former nun, Patti's songs are laced with dark whisky tales of the underworld. Edith Piaf would have taken her under her wing.

Patti is playing Fridays at Leciester Square theatre

Ye Olde White Bear

I'm never sure about gastropubs. A lingering sigh usually follows a fervent query, "Where are all the old regulars, this was an old man's pub. Are they drinking speckled hen ale in the basement"?

Speculation on New End, NW3 after the closure of Ye Olde White Bear last October. Renovation? Flats?

Midway through last night's lament, I saw candles flickering. A golden glow in what I presumed was the living room of flat number 6. It is in fact a new Ye Olde White bear restaurant. Salty padron peppers with flaked paprika, sardines and a bowl of stewed apples. Influences from everywhere but largely Spain. Library green walls, french hand painted tiles and the obligatory unmatched bric-a-brac chairs.

Feeling local. Might get a copy of Ham & High this week.

LEON

School for Life invited LEON's Allegra McEvedy to give a 'Sunday sermon' at Conway Hall.

On gluttony.

Let's not confuse gluttony with sloth. Or the two combined. Gluttony is a commitment to the joys of eating and predisposition to relish every morsel of freshly made tagliatelle with cream and black truffles. Allegra adeptly discussed a range of true gluttons; Churchill's war time overzealous lunchtime spread and of course, Miss Piggy who advised "Never eat more than you can carry".

On the art of Theatre

Modernist theatre practitioner Edward Gordon Craig
On the art of Theatre, 1911.
Craig's legacy of neutral space and screens as a staging device.

Contemporary scenographic concepts by Alexi

A week of incredible women: Liv completed the Western Sahara Marathon and an old work friend ran the marathon of the Birds Eye View Film Festival.
(card via Once Upon a Fold)

Talks Seminars Lectures

Mooting ideas for RIBA Lectures.
Idea #1:
Is London pedestrian friendly? Are London architects and planners embracing walking as part of a sustainable future or are we focusing on isolated pedway schemes like Oxford Circus' expanded pavements?*
Thoughts on a postcard.
*Diagonal crossing Oxford Circus. Let's all take detours to work and I'll meet you midway.

You Me the Royal We

Illustrator Oliver Jeffers's map of the world designed for You me the Royal we.
"Each print comes with 202 pins to chart your path to total global domination. 200 of the pins are black, one of them is red and one of them is blue. red is for headquarters, blue is for next target".
Flags for smug travellers.
(via swissmiss)

Tuesday but let's think of last Sunday

My Jewish book week ended with sharp and wry writers Amy Bloom and Lionel Shriver. They concluded that crabby makes for far more interesting characters. You might not invite said crabby character to dinner. But include them in a novel.

'Booking' continued afterwards at Judd Books on Marchmont Street. Predominately an academic bookshop, there is one haphazard floor of lush photography books priced at a smidgen of the original cost.

Helvetica Biscuit Cutters

Sometimes everything aligns. Biscuit cutters. Typography. On a sunshine Friday. I'm on the verge of dotting my i's with hearts.

I'll stop now.
(via Seesaw)

Rare Bethnal Green

Bethnal Green's grade II listed Edwardian Old Town Hall has been redesigned to become the grandiose Town Hall Hotel & Apartments. Rare Architects have designed for luxury but the beauty is in the detailed renovation; laser-cut metal that was inspired by the art deco air vents in the council chamber as profiled in this month's Wallpaper*.

Philip Glass poster

Songs from liquid days. Einstein on the Beach.
(designed by Tom Balchin)

Magnolia

It's March and we are restless for hazy Spring and Summer days. I wanted to mark our anticipation with magnolias in bloom by Abbey.

London Architecture Diary

Justin McGuirk, Editor of icon magazine lists architectural happenings this month in the gospel, the London Architecture Diary.

As you might expect, he lists what to see and do at the Royal Academy and the Architecture Foundation. He goes on to add "That, or you could go and see Jeff Bridges play a washed up country singer in Crazy Heart. Hell, architecture’s not everything".

Published!

Natasha Solomons spoke at Jewish Book Week about her debut novel Mr Rosenblum's List. Themes of immigration, assimilation, cooking your way back home and Dorset's jitterbug cider. Jewish Book Week don't typically preview books and invite authors before UK publication. However, Geraldine D'Amico, Director of Book Week presented the novel as her gift to all of us. She also added that on it's first day in Australian bookshops, Rosenblum outsold Ian McEwan's latest (insert: woop!)

Purchase your copy at Blackwells' outlet at Jewish Book Week before Rosenblum is available at all bookshops from April Fools Day.
(n.b Note how Rosenblum is located on a shelf between Arthur Miller and Voodoo Histories)

Alex Katz

New works at Timothy Taylor gallery from 4 March - 9 April 2010, W1
A taster before National Portrait Gallery's summer retrospective.

I met Alex in his New York studio in 2008. When I say met, I mean we shook hands and I sipped tea made by his wife and muse for many decades, Ada.
I rationalised that it's fine to be shy with people we deeply admire.

Learning on the Liverpool Road

St Mary Magdalene Academy's rooftop football pitch. Panoramas of N1. For urban young folk.