Sunday 25 January 2015

State of mind

Little colour in Warsaw this morning.
It's cold and grey. Not quite cold enough for real snow - just the occasional flurry. Everything has bleached to a green/grey/white.

So perfect to find a cafe where everything is red and plush. Love the contrast of the striped velvet chair back with the washed out rose print table cloth. Real roses in a glass on the table. It's still Christmas in Warsaw.






Wednesday 21 January 2015

Rimbaud's Chanson de la plus haute tour

Par delicatesse
J'ai perdu ma vie.

Sunday 11 January 2015

Henry Cobb's colour photographs of Warsaw in ruins

Reading about the Warsaw Uprising (1944) in preparation for a trip to Poland - remember seeing Henry Cobb's colour photographs of Warsaw in ruins on display there a couple of years ago. It was a real jolt - a shock even - to realise that I thought of the past in black and white (not colour). The past is in colour, of course.  Henry Cobb was one of a party of young American architects who visited Europe in 1947 to view the extent of the devastation and consider reconstruction. The exhibition about this was astonishing. Background here.

 

Thursday 8 January 2015

Joan Didion and clothes for the journey

I've always loved Joan Didion's journalism and novels and thought her a bit of a role model.
So it was wonderful to hear yesterday that she is the new face of the fashion label Celine.

Joan Didion previously mentioned in this blog - here's her list of clothes packed for assignments....

Reading and watching

  • Foot by Foot to Santiago de Compostela/Judy Foot
  • The Testament of Mary with Fiona Shaw at the Barbican
  • The Testament of Mary/Colm Toibin
  • Schwanengesang/Schubert - Tony Spence
  • Journals/Robert Falcon Scott
  • Fugitive Pieces/Ann Michaels
  • Unless/Carol Shields
  • Faust/Royal Opera House
  • The Art of Travel/Alain de Botton
  • Mad Men Series 6
  • A Week at The Airport/Alain de Botton
  • The Railway Man/Eric Lomax
  • Bright Lights, Big City/Jay McInerney
  • Stones of Venice/John Ruskin
  • The Sea, the Sea/Iris Murdoch
  • Childe Harold/Lord Byron
  • All The Pretty Horses/Cormac McCarthy
  • Extreme Rambling/Mark Thomas
  • Story of my Life/Jay McInerney
  • Venice Observed/Mary McCarthy