Wednesday
-mental soundtrack - Flight of the Conchords
-munching on a Marks & Spencer feta and roasted tomato pasta salad whilst the Heathrow Express whisked me to Paddington
-free room upgrade and a leafy tree view on the top floor of the fabulous
Stylotel-heading straight to
The Concise Dictionary of Dress, Artangel's interactive site-specific show at Blythe House, and having my mind blown by what happens when fashion curation and psychoanalysis come together in the V&A's storage and conservation space
-an ice cream cone and Cadbury Flake from the Mr. Whippy truck outside the British Museum, eaten amongst the riot of
South African flowers and trees currently planted in the front courtyard
-a quick check-in on my favorite pieces in the Museum, none of which have moved in the past fifteen years
-apple/cucumber/lemon/mint juice + amai udon + apple and sweet yam tart with vanilla pod cream at
Wagamama-Anne Schwanewilms singing Strauss and Schoenberg at
Wigmore Hall, accompanied only by piano and in a setting so intimate it felt like a recital
-Ribena and a Cadbury Caramel bar for a nightcap
Thursday
-mental soundtrack - Jimmy Scott
-morning stroll through the grounds of Alexandra Park, pausing at the boating lake to say hi to the water birds
-the views from the steps of Alexandra Palace, both of the city and of the burly boxers of various nationalities arriving for their bouts at the Palace
-Picasso's Mediterranean years at the Britannia Street
Gagosian Gallery, curated from the Picasso family's private collection and better than some museum shows I've seen
-a magical show at
Sprüth Magers London pairing Joseph Cornell and Karen Kilimnik, full of twinkling stars and their shared love of ballet
-Father's Day shopping at
Smythson of Bond Street-paintings Matisse made in the South of France on display at
Helly Nahmad, gorgeous women and sun-drenched landscapes, plus four of his massive bronzes on loan from the Tate
-delicious smells inside
Ormond Jayne-a glass of Italian white + shaved radish salad with truffle oil, pomegranate seeds, pecorino + spaghetti with basil, cherry tomatoes, olives + espresso gelato at
Bocca Di Lupo-toys both vintage and new at
Honeyjam-towering over the British boys in my three-inch heels as I step out for the evening
-Chardonnay + butternut squash, zucchini, eggplant ravioli with chunky tomato sauce + rhubarb sorbet at the
Fish Shop-extreme emotion brilliantly translated into movement by the Belgian Les Ballets C de la B at
Sadler's Wells, choreographed by Alain Patel in the manner of Pina Bausch and with sound developed and generated by the company
-a Toffee Crisp candy bar
Friday
-mental soundtrack - Divine Comedy
-a moment of morning meditation at the always-charming
All Souls Church-stepping outside at the exact moment Nicolas Sarkozy and Carla Bruni arrived at the BBC building across the street, and literally feeling my jaw drop open as I recognized them
-the wonderful and wee
Monocle Shop-the summer sale at
Liberty, where I found myself the perfect Paul Smith stripey knit hat
-Mark Wallinger's clever explorations of portraiture at
Anthony Reynolds-lettuce and mint vichyssoise + the ideal fish and chips + organic red ale at the
Giaconda Dining Room-
The Surreal House at the Barbican, an amazingly constructed multi-room home filled with art, film, architecture from Bourgeois, Keaton, Deren, Godard, Cocteau, Tarkovsky, Magritte, Woodman, Cahun, Švankmajer, Matta-Clark, Cornell, Duchamp, Kienholz
-
Rude Britannia at Tate Britain brings together a surprisingly comprehensive survey of hundreds of years of British humor and comic art and proceeds to make me giggle a lot
-
Tate Boat!
-the room dedicated to Viennese Actionism at Tate Modern, complete with warning label at the door about disturbing content
-hot sake + Japanese nibbles at
Tsuru: wasabi peas + cucumber and wakame salad + agedashi tofu + veggie tempura
-glorious pageantry and a very strong Queen Katherine (and Ian McNeice as Cardinal Wolsey!) in
Henry VIII at the
Globe, as well as watching the groundlings get rained on from my dry seat in the galleries
-another Cadbury Caramel bar
Saturday
-mental soundtrack - Kominas
-morning ramble through Hyde Park to gawk for a bit at the reliably gaudy Albert Memorial
-
1:1 - Architects Build Small Spaces at the V&A that had me sitting in a treehouse tea room in the Medieval and Renaissance gallery and clambering up the world's largest bookshelf as well as a few other unexpected architectural experiences
-a Tsingtao + little steamed parcels of deliciousness at
Ping Pong-Netherlands winning their World Cup match against Japan, even if De Hems was so full of Oranje supporters they turned me away at the door
-more surreal architecture (seriously a major theme of this trip) at the
Hayward both in the
New Décor show and in Ernesto Neto's joyful interactive installations upstairs, including his fully-functional swimming pool on the roof
-massive weekend Tube closures giving me the perfect excuse to just stay put and chill out on the South Bank for a while
-a Red Stripe + three-bean soup + a healthy veggie salad + warm naan at
Giraffe-
Al-Thawra,
Fun-Da-Mental, the
Kominas bringing the
Taqwacore punk doc to gloriously noisy life at the Queen Elizabeth Hall and striking a deal with the guards so we could jump up and down to the music at the front of the stage
-one last Cadbury Caramel bar
Sunday
-mental soundtrack - Mahler
-devouring William Trevor's
Love and Summer while waiting for my flight to be called at Heathrow
-getting caught up on some movies in between Dramamine wooziness on the plane:
Shutter Island (Scorsese does his own excellent version of
Session 9) +
Where the Wild Things Are (OK, could have used a plot) +
The Road (worth seeing for Viggo and Hillcoat's direction and the last scene) +
How to Train Your Dragon (cried more in this than during all the other films combined)
-how hard I'm going to sleep in about fifteen minutes flat, after I displace the cat from my lap
