Merry Christmas and/or Happy Holidays

This Christmas bit from William Faulkner, writing to his mother in 1953 from St. Moritz, appeared in my daily email from The Writer’s Almanac:

Dear Moms —
This is right in the middle of the Alps, snow on them and moonlight, very beautiful, much ski-ing and bob-sledding, place full of American movie people, plus King Farouk of Egypt — Gregory Peck, Charles Feldman, my California agent, many others — actors, writers, etc. I don't like it. I am going to England then Paris for Xmas and New Year's, wish I was home which is the only place to spend Xmas. I love you all and miss you all.

Wherever you are this year, enjoy! I'll meet you back here in 2009.

Photogenic City

Somerset House is currently hosting a free exhibit of photographs of London by architectural photographer Richard Bryant. The works on display are huge and lush and will make you fall in love with London. My favorites were a shot of the snaking river taken from the Citigroup building and a still life of wine glasses and bowls from inside the Dennis Severs House (which is really a wonderful place to visit at Christmastime).
      You can buy his prints (on paper or canvas) here. There’s also a large, lovely book, which you can buy signed at the gallery. All of which has inspired me to take more photographs of London myself (and to remember to charge my camera battery before I leave the house).

Christmas Quote

from Borough Market, where I picked up this holiday recipe from the Italian guy behind the booth at the Tasting Room cheese shop: layer slices of sautéed pears with slices of his mild pecorino (he also sells a sharp one) and drizzle with truffle oil. I haven’t tried this combo yet, but I can confirm that the pecorino, on its own, is delicious.

(My sister has another shot of a Borough Market banner, with an entertaining quote from Jane Grigson over at her photo blog.)

Mysteries of the Mail Service

This package was left in front of my door. And I was home.


But that is preferable to finding a note in my mailbox saying that I have a package that needs to be signed for, waiting for me at some inconveniently located postal depot that I have to show up at (during limited hours, with my passport, and not before 24 hours have passed from the date of the note). Of course, I was home when that note was left. If only the mail carrier could figure out the mysteries of my buzzer!

I’ve said it before (and I’ll say it again): London needs more doormen.

Website of the Week: Someone Once Told Me

I really like the look of photography site Someone Once Told Me, which showcases black-and-white images of people in London, holding up cards with advice that someone once told them. The site is more compelling than my description, and it’s difficult to stop flipping through these snapshots of Londoners and their environment. (Not all of the photographs are in London, however, but most seem to be, and the site’s creator lives in London. You can read an interview with him here at the Londonist blog, which is where I first discovered the site.)
      Do you have a bit of pithy advice to write on a card if someone asks you? Mine would have to be, “You gotta pay to play” (from my friend Michi, who was talking about blackjack, but I’m pretty sure his advice has wider applications).

On the other side of the pond, here’s a different look at some regular people—fifty New Yorkers (and tourists, it seems)—being asked one question (via Swiss Miss). Some of these characters will be quite familiar to anyone from New York City, and they nicely illustrate the point made by a friend from Italy who visited New York for the first time last month and sent back her impressions: “I don’t think NY represents the USA.” Comparing the city to other parts of the States, she wrote, “I can say that NY is 'another story,' " which I thought was a nice bit of phrasing, and it was stuck in my head all day. Although the city is really more like eight million stories, isn’t it?
      Or as Colson Whitehead wrote in The Colossus of New York: “The New York City you live in is not my New York City; how could it be?”

Christmas Music: New Wave Xmas

If you don’t already own this Christmas CD from a decade ago, then you’re in for a treat (it includes, for example, the Pretenders singing "2000 Miles," Wall of Voodoo with "Shouldn't Have Given Him a Gun for Christmas," and David Bowie and Bing Crosby on "Little Drummer Boy"). Every year, I get tired very quickly of traditional sappy Christmas music, but this CD seems to put me in the mood immediately. (“Holiday mall music is irritating because the sort of music that appeals to people of disparate backgrounds and ages is going to tend to be harmonically unsurprising,” according to a December 12 article in the Wall Street Journal [“Do You Hear What I Hear”] about holiday music and how it can both bind us together as a community and drive us crazy as individuals.) But I never get tired of New Wave Xmas, and this is my favorite track: "Fairytale of New York" by the Pogues with Kirsty MacColl. You can watch the video here.

If that doesn’t do it for you, here are a few other alternatives to the usual Christmas stuff, from Wired magazine.

At the Theater: Hamlet

Even though the Royal Shakespeare Company’s production of Hamlet was sold out as soon as the show went on sale, there were several empty seats in the theater on Friday night, so I think it is now possible to get tickets. This chance to score tickets occurs because David Tennant has had to drop out of the lead role (for now), and his understudy, Edward Bennett, is in the limelight—and fantastic: all simmering anger and moodiness, sarcasm and despair. This was one of the rare nights at the theater when the crowd gave a standing ovation, which occurs much less often here than in New York, it seems. (It helped that the always-fun-to-watch Patrick Stewart is Claudius.) I was also looking forward to seeing the real human skull play Yorick, but the company decided not to use it in London, unfortunately.
      This current version of Hamlet seems to be set in the 1940s—or maybe even today. Hard to say. And it’s just another example of the timelessness of Shakespeare, which is also the subject of a new book, Shakespeare and Modern Culture, by Marjorie Garber. The reviewer in the New York Times said,

Shakespeare’s work, in her opinion, is so constantly mutable that it always exists in the present, whatever that present might be. The ways in which Shakespeare is interpreted in different eras say as much about those time periods as they do about the writing itself.

And people keep watching the same plays, repeatedly. Shakespeare is always selling out in this city.

Christmas Crisps

One thing I will one day miss about London is the staggering variety of crisp flavors. I don’t really eat potato chips very often, but there’s something about the huge array of chips in the store (in any store) that reminds me I’m on an adventure in a foreign country. This cheese and chutney flavor is a limited-edition variety, just out for the holiday season. Taste test: nice!—with a spicy, fruity bite and an aftertaste of chili and cloves.
      For more reading, check out this post about one eater's top five crisp flavors from We Are Never Full.

Website of the Week: Gizmine

This is the place for all kinds of crazy Japanese junk. (And I like how you can search for products “by color.”) Who wouldn’t love a pink USB-powered Hello Kitty foot warmer? Or this Tokyo street watch, with LED ants somehow marking the time? Here’s what the product description online has to say about it: “This watch has a very unique way of telling time. It is also engrossing gross. If you don't want to look at it but you can't look away, it might be time to crush that buy button.”
      The site apparently delivers all over the world. It’s sort of like having a bit of the Tokyu Hands department store in your home.

Mini Rockefeller Center

Found at Canary Wharf. This view over the ice rink is from the Reebok Bar.
       Almost everyone I talk to here hates Canary Wharf, but I have to say, I don't mind it. I even like it. Where else in London can you feel the soaring up of buildings, the surround of glass and steel, the power of a grid, the patterns of squares, and the impersonality of repetitive elements? That is, I am very happy standing among skyscrapers. (I hear the ice skating is better at Somerset House, however.)

If You Have Five Free Minutes on South Bank

Pop into the Dazzle jewelry show on the second floor of the National Theatre for a quick look at a pretty wide array of contemporary jewelry (all of which is for sale, by the way, with prices clearly marked on each piece). A couple of highlights: Sue Gregor’s large cuffs, created from what the catalog calls “fossilized plastic/glass acrylic with silver,” which makes them sound more complicated than they look, which is beautiful. You can also see them here at the artist’s website. (Bonus: these were quite reasonably priced at around £40 per cuff.) I was also excited to see the work of Anthony Roussel, who I’ve been reading about a lot lately, who creates pieces built up of thin layers of laser-cut wood. I’m not sure how wearable his rings and bracelets are, but they certainly work as mini sculptures: take a look at Roussel's work here.

If You Have Five Free Minutes in Trafalgar Square

Pop into the National Portrait Gallery and take a look at the three portraits of Queen Elizabeth II taken by Annie Leibovitz (these are on display for free; to see the full Annie Leibovitz show, on until February 1, you’ll have to buy tickets). These three portraits of the queen, at least, are worth a visit: they seem majestic but also intimate, revealing while overwhelming. They are large-format with moody colors and dark backgrounds and feel like contemporary versions of history paintings. And if you can’t get over to the gallery, check out this eight-minute video of Leibovitz’s photography session with the queen, found on my photographer/writer friend Wayne Yang’s blog.

Annie Leibovitz also has a new book out, Annie Leibovitz at Work. As she says in a brief essay over at Amazon about the development of this book, “I started to think that I would try to answer every single question anyone has ever asked about how my work is done. To defuse the mystery, and the misconceptions. To explain that it’s nothing more than work. And learning how to see.”

A Change of Fonts

Has anyone else noticed that the fake handwriting that used to advertise the day’s headlines at news kiosks has changed to a more standard font? Look at the difference. This is from about a month ago:


This is from yesterday:



I could be wrong, but it seems as if the handwritten style had been around forever (I seem to recall it from vacation trips long ago). I wonder what made the font decider change his mind.

In other font news, take a look at this fascinating, in-depth history of the typefaces used in the New York City subway system. (And here’s the London Underground font, with just one quick paragraph of information about that.)

And for even more weekend reading, there's always Thinking with Type: A Critical Guide for Designers, Writers, Editors, & Students, which is, I'm afraid, one of those books that I gave away when we moved to London (it was an accident, I think). I am trying to console myself with this article about pruning your bookshelves, which reconfirms that I was right to get rid of most of my library. But still, there is the pang of remembering a book I no longer have, the chill of having gone too far.

Product Recommendation: Porcelain Can

I stumbled upon this lovely porcelain vessel made to look like a tin can with a pop-top lid (mine has a platinum finish) at the Conran Shop, and I couldn’t resist it. It is now holding M&Ms on my kitchen counter, and I highly recommend it. (When I run out of M&Ms, I’m going to put vitamins in it.)

Restaurant Recommendation: Rasoi Vineet Bhatia

I love Rasoi with its Indian artifacts, candlelight, and silk-covered menus in an old townhouse with steep steps inside leading to the various dining rooms. I’ve eaten here a couple of times, and it is by far my favorite Indian place in London. (I was happy to see it got the highest food rating for an Indian restaurant in the 2009 Zagat guide, which Londoners don’t rely on nearly as much as New Yorkers do, but I just can’t seem to give it up.)
      When I ate here last week, I was part of a group of six, and we were shown, unexpectedly, into our own private dining room. (The house is so narrow that most rooms have tables for only two or four, it seems.) We were rather spaced out around a large table, which made conversation a bit difficult but left lots of room for wine glasses and all the various dishes from the tasting menu (£75 for seven courses, which was pretty reasonable, given the variety and quality of our food). Our dinner was mostly seafood and included all manner of tasty tidbits layered on top of each other: a tender, almost liquid scallop encased in some crunchy, shredded Indian bread and served with a spoonful of chunky Bloody Mary; a mushroom khichdi I think it was (sort of a risotto) with tomato ice cream; ginger and chile lobster dusted with cocoa at the table; a small spicy lamb chop with the tastiest dal ever. The waiter’s descriptions of all these dishes (and others) were much more intricate and explanatory: every dish was composed of several layers and many ingredients. But this is how I am remembering the food after the fact, after a couple of bottles of interesting wines that the sommelier recommended but that I'd never heard of before, such as the Marcel Deiss Grasberg 2001, which I can't even attempt to describe but was perfect with spicy Indian seafood appetizers. (You could also order wines by the glass to accompany the tasting menu, if you have the kind of constitution that can handle a variety and quantity of wines at one dinner.)
      Even dessert—roasted, spiced pineapple with kulfi and coconut cream—was perfect (and I don’t even like Indian desserts).
      The food here (though not the atmosphere) reminded me of my favorite Indian restaurant in New York, which is Tabla, where the food is more minimal but no less inventive or delicious. (Find some of the recipes for Tabla dishes here, especially the tamarind margarita.) The Rasoi experience has a richer feel, however, and if you make a reservation far in advance for a special occasion, you won’t regret it, I think.

See more reviews at

Gift Guides

Does anyone really want a glitter gnome for Christmas?

Here are a couple of gift guides (with better ideas) that I've been looking through lately, that have been making me wish I still had some Christmas shopping left to do:

The Guardian has gift suggestions organized by category, such as “Food from Britian,” which includes a funky, chunky cheeseboard “handmade from sustainably managed English oak.” And in the “Stocking Fillers for Foodies” category, I found tiny sugar ducks, which would be quite cute floating in a cup of coffee (or tea, I suppose, which is what the Guardian writers probably had in mind). This list has plenty of nonfood categories as well, such as “experiences” or “gifts for pets.”

New York magazine has a ton of interesting ideas this year, from cheap things to score at the drugstore to splurges, where the advice is to “spend all your money today instead of losing it tomorrow on the stock market.” In the “100 under 100” category, I thought the soap dishes from Anthropologie and the Muji flashlight were especially nice. (Bonus over at the Muji global site: a free download of a Christmas song once a week until December 25.)

Christmas Carols

Now that Thanksgiving is over and we can really get the Christmas preparations going, I went to hear carols at St. Martin-in-the-Fields over the weekend. They’ve already decorated the church with greenery and white candles, and it was quite a calming—though simultaneously festive—musical experience on a gray afternoon. (Also educational: I learned that “Away in a Manger” in England does not have the same melody as the American version, although the two versions do share the same words. Follow the links in the last paragraph of this post from the Separated by a Common Language blog to hear the difference.)
      There's still plenty of time to hear more Christmas music at St. Martin-in-the-Fields. Here’s the schedule for what's on in December.
      And here’s some info about the recent refurbishment the church has undergone. Look at that wavy window behind the altar: