In truth, neither of us much liked it. I really didn’t like it at all. Some of the rooms were so noisy and had so many different stimulae at the same time, I couldn’t really get my head around the art of it all. Perhaps it really was replicating the heaving nature of fashion shows. It didn’t help that, for this show, that Friday evening slot seemed very popular and therefore very crowded. Not for me.
We knew that we’d find several examples of our fashion photographer friend Anthea Simms’s work and sought those out; several to be found amongst the iconic postcards and posters for sale in the exhibition shop. We liked that bit best.
I for one was grateful that we’d arranged to go on to the Wigmore Hall for some grub and a late night concert afterwards; it felt like an escape from chaos into tranquility – what a huge cultural shift just down the road.
We were having a pretty shitty Christmas break, with mum in hospital since just before Crimble (and, as it turned out, never to come out). Our main respite had been some reasonable weather that at least enabled us to play tennis in the mornings, as reported on Facebook at the time – see below:
At the end of that long weekend (the Sunday I think) we went to the Park Royal Vue to see Paddington- click here for the IMDb resource on that movie. Janie warned me that I would probably blub at the scene where Paddington loses his old uncle and moves on from his family – she was right as usual.
Still, lots of laughs and fun in Paddington. I loved the way that there was a calypso band on every street corner in this version of Notting Hill, in contrast with the ubiquitously pale look of the neighbourhood in the eponymous movie.
Yet we craved some high culture and had been eyeing up the Allen Jones as high on our list for the holiday season, so we took some respite on New Year’s Day and went to see the Allen Jones in the afternoon.
We were treated to a drinks reception, a talk by New York economist Nouriel Roubini who had many interesting insights into the post 2008 crisis world.
Then a delightful recital performed by the City Of London Sinfonia with Dame Felicity Lott. Writing this up more than three years later (February 2018), I nevertheless can report on all the pieces we heard…
…because my memory is so superb…
…especially when supported by some scribbled notes on my programme:
Elgar – Serenade For Strings;
R Strauss – Morgen!;
Vaughan Williams – The Lark Ascending;
Schubert – The Shepherd On The Rock.
No video from the actual evening, of course, but below is a short video of the City of London Sinfonia performing something else (a charming Mozart presto) somewhere else…
…and here is a live performance of Felicity Lott (with a different lot in a different grand setting) performing Strauss’s Morgen! which will give you a reasonable idea of the sounds we actually heard:
If anything ever befalls the Gresham Society site, you can read my words on this scrape here.
This was my first visit to the Wallace for several years – Janie and I went in 2008, primarily to see an Osbert Lancaster exhibition – click here or below:
I’m not sure quite what put us on to this superb movie, but we booked an all-too-rare showing of it weeks in advance at the Riverside Studios, Hammersmith. I suspect this was our last visit there before the closure for major redevelopment of the site.
It is a most unusual, true story. The American singer-songwriter, Rodriguez, was for some time billed as “the next Dylan” (the kiss of death for many a career) but vanished into obscurity.
Unbeknown to him, he was a cult, underground figure in South Africa where his music was extremely well-known and where he was believed to have died. After South Africa emerged from the apartheid era, some fans tried to track down Rodriguez’s story, discovered that he was still alive and the rest is history.
Afterwards we went on to Haozhan chinese restaurant for dinner – we felt this place had gone down since our previous visit, but still was a good enough and convenient place to end an enjoyable evening.
…Janie and I saw a different exhibition from the rest of the people on our pre-Christmas Dinner works outing.
Below is the trailer vid for the Shunga:
We really enjoyed this exhibition.
I sense that the Z/Yen team enjoyed El Dorado too.
Z/Yen Xmas Dinner At Sardo In Grafton Way
The whole event was themed as “Gold” in honour of the El Dorado aspect. Almost everyone wore something gold.
Sardo was a Sardinian restaurant, rather a good one, which itself had a somewhat gold look to it.
I crafted a seasonal song to go with the gold theme:
DRESSED UP IN GOLD ( Sung to the tune of “Silver and Gold” )
VERSE ONE – SILVER AND GOLD – ORIGINAL VERSION (by Johnny Marks) Silver and gold, silver and gold Ev’ryone wishes for silver and gold How do you measure its worth? Just by the pleasure it gives here on earth Silver and gold, silver and gold Mean so much more when we see Silver and gold decorations On ev’ry Christmas tree
VERSE TWO – BITCOINS AND LAND – LONG FINANCE VERSION Bitcoins and land, bitcoins and land Long Finance topics are bitcoins and land How do you measure their worth? Just by the value they gain and disburse Hedge funds and bonds, hedge funds and bonds Seem such a bore when you show Bitcoins and land valuations In each portfolio
VERSE THREE – DRESSED UP IN GOLD – Z/YEN VERSION Dressed up in gold, dressed up in gold Z/Yen folk this Christmas are dressed up in gold How do you measure dress sense? Not by this sartorial elegance Shrouding in gold, shrouding in gold Might cause some people offence (If) Z/Yen folk wear such decorations At normal Z/Yen events
Once people got their heads around it……the singing went rather well.
We have loads of pictures from this event, which I have uploaded to a Flickr album for ease of navigation – click here or below:
I went to a private viewing of this exhibition, thanks to Tony Friend of College Hill (latterly Instinctif).
It was a very convivial corporate hospitality event in that grand foyer of the British Museum…
…so much so, that I felt very much in the minority when I took a good look around the exhibition. There was plenty of time to eat, drink, be merry and see the wonderful show.
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