 I generally dislike articles that sound like advertising,
especially when they are written about foreign cities. You
know the type? Like, how everything is good in XYZ and people
are nicer and girls/boys are prettier and
things are cheaper and nobody works and everybody's happy.
A couple of years back I felt it was appropriate to
comment
on the much promoted virtues of Buenos Aires.
Right now, I feel the same
way about Berlin, except I can not claim to have lived there
myself, so I only have my scepticism to go by...
Read the rest of: "If At First You Don't Succeed, Try It Again In Berlin"» The writers' strike may be over, but not everything is going
well in Hollywood, I read in yesterday's Corriere della Sera (Milan).
The latest trend of shows and movies abandoning the city for cheaper
locales leaves the film industry capital increasingly isolated.
And if things continue down the same path, soon nobody will be filming
there (that prediction is courtesy of Carsten Lorenz who made it
in an interview with the Financial Times)...
Read the rest of: "Frankie Goes To... New York?"»  You may remember the tragic accident at Paris
Roissy Charles-de-Gaulle Airport's Terminal 2E four years ago.
A large part of its glass roof collapsed killing
four people and injuring several others.
Well, it only took four years and about 150M€ for engineers to
fix the damn roof, but they finally did it. A couple of weeks ago first
scheduled flights started using the terminal...
Read the rest of: "Terminal 2E Reopens at Paris Charles de Gaulle"»  French architect Jean Nouvel, 62, received
the 2008 Pritzker Architecture Prize, the most prestigious
award in architecture (which is often compared to the Nobel prize in
science in the degree of honor it affords)...
Read the rest of: "Jean Nouvel is Awarded 2008 Pritzker Prize"»  It's only natural that any project signed by
Philippe Starck
guarantees attention to an establishment, whether it be
a hotel, restaurant or a high-rise apartment tower.
But now the maestro seems to be making space for another
family member - his daughter Ara.
In the latest example,
she was charged with the only truly "artistic" part of
a restaurant renovation project for the
Meurice hotel, while
her famous father was busy desgnining the 600+ pieces of furniture
that went into the restaurant...
Read the rest of: "The Starck Surreality: Le Dali at Le Meurice"»  When you feel like having a coffee in a classic
Left Bank café setting but shudder at the thought of
neighboring a group of starry-eyed tourists (which is almost
inevitable if you go to either the Café de Flore or
Les Deux Magots), I have an
alternative suggestion.
A few blocks away from the two oh-so-atmospheric
stalwarts of Parisian café life sits a slightly
less frequented etablishment: Le Rouquet...
Read the rest of: "Le Rouquet: The Lesser Evil of St-Germain"»  Whether we like it or not, we live in an age
of product placement. Anyone doubting that can
ask the judges of "American Idol" how they're liking their Coke.
Kube Hotel
in Paris is an appropriately modish collaboration
between Grey Goose Vodka and Murano Resort
centering on the concept of cubicity (cubicality?).
Its 41 high-tech rooms are cube-shaped, as is the foyer, the
elevators and the exterior spaces...
Read the rest of: "Kubic Volumes"»  One of the most frequently photographed sights in Madrid that's nevertheless completely ignored in the city guidebooks is the Tío Pepe sign in Puerta del Sol. Given the number of tourists taking pictures in front of the sign (with many opting for a silly trick where they pretend to be "holding" the giant bottle behind them... very creative, guys, but it's been done before) and consequently, given the sign's status as the city's de facto second emblem (at least in tourists' minds... the first still being the bear, of course), it seems almost unbelievable that no guidebook provides at least a cursory look at the sign's story.
Allow me to take the onerous task upon myself..
Read the rest of: "Glowing Above the Sun: The Tío Pepe Sign"»  There are many restaurants in this town proving their worth by hiring the right chef, PR agency or interior designer, attracting the "in" crowd or serving the most "creative" (sometimes absurdly creative) nouvelle cuisine dishes.
And then there are restaurants that don't need to prove anything: as long as they stay true to their mission and character, they will be deservedly popular.
L'Express at 3927 rue St-Denis belongs to the second category. In the 20-odd years that the place existed, it slowly transformed its status from that of a "cool new thing" to that of a Montreal institution...
Read the rest of: "L'Express Way"»  If there's one place that symbolizes the quirkiness of Madrid's
history for me, it is the Sabatini Gardens next to the Palacio Real.
Of course, it's not the quirkiness that draws hundreds of
people here every day - the gardens are beautiful and for
anybody who's tired of the city's heat (in summer), or
crowds (all year round) it's a perfect place to chill,
relax a little bit, read or just people-watch. And did
I mention the location? Quite literally in the shadow of
the Palacio Real, perhaps Madrid's most famous landmark:
it just doesn't get more central than that.
But still, that's not the whole story. The whole story
would need to mention a few quirky facts. Here's one, for
example: the Sabatini Gardens are named after Italian architect
Francesco Sabatini who... had nothing to do with them...
Read the rest of: "Sabatini Gardens: Chilling With the Kings"»
Slavito  |
