Tag Archives: Frost Magazine

RIBA Restaurant Review.

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RIBA restaurant at art deco gem 66 Portland Place, London W1

 

I have had many a party at RIBA, it is a wonderful venue. I had never eaten at the restaurant before and was incredibly impressed by the food and the service. No one likes to eat alone so I went to review this restaurant with my friend, New Statesman columnist Nicholas Lezard.

 

The venue is bright and airy, in the summer you can eat outside. There is always a lot going on at RIBA.

 

What I ate.

 

Middle white pork belly

 

Black pudding, quince

 

Jerusalem artichoke and red onion fritters

 

Braised lentils, grilled artichoke hearts

soft poached egg

 

Baby leaf salad, cherry tomatoes, cucumber

 

White chocolate mousse

 

Dark chocolate honeycomb, gold leaf

 

What Nicholas ate:

 

Seared scallops

 

Leeks, candied hazelnuts, black olive powder

 

Braised Yorkshire venison

 

Sautéed girolles, truffled mash, redcurrants

 

Sticky toffee pudding

 

Clotted cream, butterscotch sauce

 

Curly kale, garlic butter

 

The starter comes on black, granite slabs, a touch that I found different and original. They are very good at presentation. My pork belly was done perfectly.

 

The food tasted like heaven, the fritters I had were absolutely delicious. The different consistency of the ingredients of my main meal worked brilliantly. I didn’t know lentils could taste so good. My egg was poached perfectly. The fritters were crispy, as all fritters should be. At first I wasn’t sure how all the ingredients would work together, but they do, beautifully.

 

I had a side salad with my main even though it wasn’t necessarily needed. The main was very filling. I liked that they put balsamic vinegar on my salad. The staff were also attentive and eager to please.

 

My white chocolate mousse was absolutely divine and was a visual treat too.

 

To drink I had port and coca cola. Nicholas had red wine and port.

 

RIBA is a good restaurant, the food is divine, the staff expert and the location incredibly up-market. I highly recommend. I will definitely be eating here again.

 

 

Ink Exhibition at the Saatchi Gallery

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Ink
The New Ink Art from China
at the Saatchi Gallery 16-28 June 2012
and at Asia House July 2012

Xu Lei, Tree of Blue Underglaze, 2008, Ink and color on xuan paper, (213 x 125 cm)

Ink is an exhibition featuring the finest examples of contemporary Chinese Ink art at London’s landmark Saatchi gallery and subsequently at Asia House. The exhibition, curated by Michael Goedhuis, is the first comprehensive display of this genre to be shown in a public gallery of international standing and draws together major examples from distinguished private collections. Timed to coincide with London in June when art and antique collectors from all over the world descend on the capital, this cutting-edge show will feature ground-breaking artists from the internationally recognized Xu Lei to the avant-garde Qiu Anxiong. Ink will run from Saturday 16 June to Thursday 28 June 2012 at the Saatchi Gallery, Duke of York’s Square, London, SW3 4SQ.

“I am delighted to be working with the Saatchi Gallery to finally be able to provide the general public access to The New Ink Art which is perhaps the boldest pictorial experiment in art today. Artists trained in, and deeply knowledgeable of classical painting, are meeting the challenge of creating a pictorial language that is a convincing expression of the world of TODAY and in particular the transformed world of China. It is the theme of this exhibition to define just how audacious and innovative the best of these artists are, despite, or perhaps because of, their deep study of the past. Just as Cezanne and Picasso assimilated the work of Poussin and Velazquez and other Old Masters in order to develop their own revolutionary language, so the ink artists are grappling with the same challenge – how to express the transformation of their society with works that are meaningful precisely because they take account of the past in order to make sense of the present”.

The New Ink Art is increasingly being recognised, not only in China but also internationally, as the most audacious and idealistic movement in contemporary culture and is poised to shortly enter the mainstream of the art-world’s focus.

Michael Goedhuis, who was the first dealer in the west to recognize the significance of these radical innovations in Chinese culture, has concentrated in the past eighteen months on identifying for this exhibition the artists who are in the process of shifting the axis of Chinese aesthetics. It is for this reason that informed art-lovers and collectors and indeed the public at large will be drawn to the Saatchi Gallery for this culturally ground-breaking initiative. Although this exhibition is a loan show and works will therefore not be for sale, it is significant that the price range for the best of contemporary ink paintings is still very accessible by international standards.

A highlight of the exhibition is Tree of Blue Underglaze by the internationally feted artist Xu Lei who last year was the chosen artist for the design of the 2008 vintage Chateau Mouton Rothschild wine label. Inspired by the significance of the year 2008 for the Chinese and to highlight Mouton’s stature in the Chinese wine market, Mouton selected a Chinese artist. Xu Lei himself is one of China’s foremost artists and a leader in the innovative field of ink painting; he serves as the art director of the Today Art Museum in Beijing and is the editor-in-chief of the magazine ‘Classics’.

Qiu Jie, Mao in the Cotton Field , 2007, pencil on paper, (150 x 168 cm)

Other works of note include Gao Xingjian represented by the painting Dream Mountain (La Montagne de Rêve), who was born in Ganzhou, Jiangxi Province in 1940. A writer, translator and dramatist he moved to Paris in the 1980s as a political refugee. Here he immersed himself in nature creating semi- abstracted landscapes, believing that art should not be used for political activism, but instead should be an expression of the soul. He received the Nobel Prize for literature in 2000. Qiu Jie, who was born in Shanghai in 1960, grew up during the most violent phase of the Cultural Revolution and by the age of 10 was nurturing his talent making copies of propaganda images from local newspapers. He creates images blending stark themes from the Cultural Revolution with striking elements from contemporary culture (see illustration).

Artists to be exhibited include:
Gao Xingjian (???), Gu Wenda (???), Huan Yong Ping (???),Jennifer Wen Ma (??), Li Huayi (???), Li Jin (??), Liu Dan (??), Liu Kuo-sung (???), Liu Qinghe (???), Liu Wei (??), Lo Ch’ing (??), Lu Hao (??), Qin Feng (??), Qiu Anxiong(???)?Qiu Deshu (???),Qiu Jie (??), Qiu Zhijie (???), Wang Dongling(???), Wei Ligang (???), Wilson Shieh ( ???), Wu Yi (??), Xu Bing (??),Xu Lei (??), Yang Jiechang (???), Yang Yanping (???), Yao Jui-chung (???), Zeng Shanqing (???), Zeng Xiaojun (???), and Zhang Huan (??).

After the Saatchi Gallery, the exhibition will travel to Asia House where it will remain until the end of July. Founded in London in 1996, Asia House is the leading pan-Asian, non-profit and non-political organisation in Britain.

Rupert Murdoch Flying to UK to Stop Sun Going Down.

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Rupert Murdoch is flying to London to meet staff at The Sun this week, after the arrests of five senior staff members over bribery allegations. The source told the AFP that Murdoch would fly to London “later in the week” and News International has said that Murdoch has given “personal assurance” that The Sun will not be closed like the News of the World.

The News of the World was closed on July in the midst of the phone hacking scandal.

 

News International chief executive Tom Mockridge said in an email to staff that Murdoch would stand by The Sun in the “greatest challenge” it faced.

 

“You should know that I have had a personal assurance today from Rupert Murdoch about his total commitment to continue to own and publish The Sun newspaper,” Mockridge said.

 

The Sun journalists that were arrested were deputy editor Geoff Webster, picture editor John Edwards, chief reporter John Kay, chief foreign correspondent Nick Parker and reporter John Sturgis.
News International has not made a statement on Murdoch coming to London, and neither has Murdoch himself.

 

Allegedly The Sun were furious at the fact that News Corp had handed over the information to police that led to the arrests.

 

Whitney Houston Dies Aged 48.

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Whitney Houston has died at the tragically young age of 48. Her death has left the entertainment industry in shock.

 

Houston was found dead in her room in the Beverly Hilton yesterday. The Los Angeles police said paramedics had tried to resuscitate Houston but they were unable and she was pronounced dead at 3.55pm local time.

 

Houston, who was one of the biggest selling artists of the 80s and 90s, had battled drug addiction. Police also said that there was no “obvious signs” of any criminal intent.

 

Houston had been due to make an appearance at the Grammy Awards tonight, and had been at rehearsals, as she was to perform for her mentor Clive Davis.

 

Aretha Franklin said: “I just can’t talk about it now, It’s so stunning and unbelievable. I couldn’t believe what I was reading coming across the TV screen. My heart goes out to Cissy, her daughter Bobby Kris, her family and Bobby.”

 

Tributes have been flooding in for the singer. Mariah Cary said she was “heartbroken”

 

“Heartbroken and in tears over the shocking death of my friend, the incomparable Ms. Whitney Houston,” Carey wrote on Twitter.

 

“My heartfelt condolences to Whitney’s family and to all her millions of fans throughout the world.

 

“She will never be forgotten as one of the greatest voices to ever grace the earth.”

 

In a statement, Dolly Parton said: “Mine is only one of millions of hearts broken over the death of Whitney Houston.

 

“I will always be grateful and in awe of the wonderful performance she did on my song and I can truly say from the bottom of my heart, “Whitney, I will always love you. You will be missed.”

 

Houston also starred in hit movies including The Bodyguard. She won multiple Grammys and sold millions of records.

As well as her drug addiction her 15-year marriage to Bobby Brown came to an end in 2007.

 

Brown told a sell-out crowd in Mississippi: “First of all, I want to tell you that I love you all. Second, I would like to say, I love you Whitney. The hardest thing for me to do is to come on this stage.”

 

Bupa launches new Fitness Assessment

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Bupa has launched a new Fitness Assessment which has been designed to help all athletes understand their fitness levels and improve their performance, from the advanced triathlete to the newly keen runner.

Previously, detailed fitness assessments were the preserve of professional athletes and Bupa’s new Fitness Assessment is the first of its kind to be made widely available to the public. The test analyses in detail the user’s fitness levels, then works with this information to identify the different types of training and exercise that will help them achieve their very best.

No matter what the fitness goal is, Bupa Fitness Assessment offers invaluable insight to improve performance. It has been developed to provide bespoke advice to amateur runners, cyclists and triathletes – or simply someone looking to use exercise as a means of losing excess weight.

Britain’s number one distance runner Mo Farah recently trialled the test and said: “I found the stats fascinating. I’ve only ever seen these types of test available for elite athletes, so it’s brilliant that everyone can now go along and find out how fit they are!”

The hour-long assessment, carried out at a specialist Bupa Centre, involves three key stages:

* A pre-fitness test to measure body composition and assess blood pressure and lung function
* A full fitness analysis, which consists of a cardio-respiratory fitness test on a cycle ergometer or treadmill, using detailed breath-by-breath gas analysis to calculate fitness levels and produce an individual o2 Max reading[1]
* A post-test consultation, which allows the user to benchmark their performance against peers and professional athletes. Advice on how to improve all round cardiovascular fitness is given as well as a comprehensive health and fitness action plan and results analysis.

The assessment is currently performed in the fitness rooms at Bupa Centres across the UK at a special introductory price of £149 (usual price £199). Further Information can be found at Bupa.co.uk/vo2max.

Dr Peter Mace, Assistant Medical Director of Bupa said: “By helping individuals understand their current exercise responses, the Fitness Assessment will give them a much clearer view of their strengths and weaknesses, but more importantly it will provide an indication of what they can do to improve their fitness and meet their goals. Bupa can ensure that you train the right way to get to where you want to be.”

The Fringe Report Awards 2012

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John Park has run the Fringe Report for ten years, and I am as unhappy as the other 400 odd people who turned up to the Fringe Report Awards that The Fringe Report is ending this year. John has run the Fringe Report without profit and has connected everything and everyone on the fringe of London, and indeed, the UK.

James Aylett, James Yardley and Lynn Howes.

The Fringe Report Awards took place at Monday 6 February 2012 at The Leicester Square Theatre. The Leicester Square Theatre was packed with the great and good of Britain’s theatre and acting talent. [Disclaimer: I am an editor, writer and photographer for the Fringe Report].

Jack Bowman and Catherine Balavage

The awards were as fun as ever and the list of winners is below. Goodbye to the Fringe Report. The fringe now weeps at your loss.

Elliot Grove – Outstanding Achievement Award – Film
Steve Forster – Best PR – Theatre
Flavia Fraser-Cannon – Best Creative – Producer, Photographer, Publicist
Paul L Martin – Best Producer – Cabaret
Sibyl Madrigal – Best Music Curator (for Boat-Ting)
Performers Without Borders – Best Encouragers of Talent
Steve Henwood & Wendy Matthews – Best Festival Directors
Guy Chapman – Outstanding Achievement Award – PR
Kiki Kendrick – Best Creative – Actor and Writer
Becky Talbot – Best Presenter – Radio
Kevin Sampson – Outstanding Achievement Award – Literature & Film
Vocal Motions Elastic Theatre – Best Theatre Company
Sasha Regan – Best Venue Director
Adam Morley – Best Director – Theatre & Film
Ricky Dukes – Best Artistic Director (Lazarus Theatre Company)
James Hyland – Best Performer – Solo Show (for A Christmas Carol / Jacob Marley)
Paul Sayers & Simon Bolton – Best Shakespeare Producers (Rooftop Theatre)
Paul Levy – Best Publisher
Tactful Cactus – Best Short Film (for Starcrossed)
Alison Wright – Best PR – Arts
Stuart Price – Best Creative – Director & Writer
Laura Pitt-Pulford – Best Performer – Musical (for Parade at Southwark Playhouse)
Alexander Parsonage – Best Artistic Director (Finger In The Pie)
Andy McQuade – Best Director – Theatre
Catherine Brogan – Best Poet

Brighten Up Valentine's Day in Aid of UNICEF

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PURPLE RONNIE BRIGHTENS UP VALENTINE’S DAY WITH A SPLASH OF COLOUR

– Retro poet provides uniquely created poems in aid of charity –

Romantic rhyming favourite, Purple Ronnie, is creating a series of one-off poems for loved-ones this Valentine’s Day, to accompany a very special gift – your very own colour.

A world first, men and women will be able to gift their loved-ones an actual colour for them to own, through Facebook.com/OwnAColour, for a minimum donation of £1 – an initiative in aid of UNICEF, the world’s leading children’s organisation.

A number of celebrities have named their own colour, including;

Jemima Khan – CFC Blue, named hers for her Chelsea mad son

· Sir Roger Moore – Swedish Blue, I chose to name this particular shade of blue Swedish Blue as it is the colour of the Swedish flag, the homeland of my very wonderful and very beautiful wife, Kristina, and not far off the cyan blue that represents UNICEFfor his wife

· Matt Dawson – Arcos Olive, Reminds him of his wedding day as it was the theme of my Wedding so will always be associated with good memories

· Duncan Bannatyne – Scottish Saltire Blue, It represents my proud Scottish roots

The gift of colour, accompanied by a unique Purple Ronnie poem, will be available from 8th February – for those who are organised – until Valentine’s Day itself – for those not so organised – and provides a special solution for all those Valentine’s Day gifting dilemmas, whilst also contributing to a great cause.

The limited-edition poem, in Purple Ronnie’s iconic cheeky style, will appear on your loved-ones Facebook wall on the 14th February, along with a link for them to pick and name their colour of choice.

Stewart Longhurst from the Own A Colour team comments:“What’s great about the Own A Colour initiative is that, not only does it allow people to put their name to a never-before-owned colour, but it harnesses the power of colour to have a positive impact on saving lives of children. Colour is such an important and personal method of expression, so what better way to show someone you love them this Valentine’s Day than with a colour of their very own, accompanied by an original love poem?”

PURPLE RONNIE OWNACOLOUR

With Own A Colour, your Valentine will be the exclusive owner of one of the 16.7 million colours that the average computer, smartphone or tablet can display.

Recent celebrity donators include The Saturday’s beauty Frankie Sandford as well as other UNICEF Ambassadors and fans such as Jemima Khan, Matt Dawson and Sir Roger Moore, who have all been inspired by their loved-ones in buying and naming their colours; Jemima Khan named hers CFC Blue for her Chelsea mad son, Sir Roger Moore’s Swedish Blue for his wife and Matt Dawson’s colour reminds him of his wedding day.

To Own A Colour, and for more information, visit: Facebook.com/OwnAColour

Diary of a Fashion Week Intern…

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Having given up my place at the London College of Fashion for Drama School, I have never looked back, but it hasn’t stopped me wondering where I would be now if I did chose to embark on the fashion world instead of the thespian… would I be treading the boards at Elle, Or selling my creations at Portobello Market?  I’m sure if I chose that over acting, I would be sitting here thinking exactly the same. It goes without saying, I have not lost my passion for fashion and continue to build a portfolio of fashion drawings as a hobby. So it was a great pleasure when Catherine Balavage, the esteemed editor of Frost Magazine, was looking for interns to cover London Fashion Week, the most prestigious Fashion event of the capital.

Whether you have been to fashion week before, or not, I’m sure you can imagine the biggest dilemma I am faced with…WHAT TO WEAR????

 

 

Keshini Misha

xx