Thank you 2015!

A photo posted by b (@benjaminlalala) on Dec 26, 2015 at 9:56am PST

For ringing you in with an old friend, for Laos, for Rome, for Valmir & Victor, for Charlotte's baccalaureat, for vintage Michael joy, for Sintra, for getting to know Andy & Jon & Dan better, for long-awaited and surprise babies, for the fitness push, for Bristol, for the summer cycle rides, for the validation from people i shouldnt realy care about, for that meal at Bao with Nicolas, for learning to draw a little bit with my little neighbours, for Faustine's blue eyes, for singing with friends and family, for stolen kisses on empty sidewalks late at night, for Netflix, for the freedom from a certain type of worries, and for work and life plans that make me look forward to 2016!

C'est intéressant w/c 30 Nov 2015

It's been a busy few weeks, but I managed to get quite a bit of reading done., and some discovering Some highlights below.

The Green Lady of Brooklyn (New York Times)
A lovely written portrait of the kind of eccentric characters one totally associates with New York. Elizabeth Sweetheart is 74, an artist, and has been wearing and living life in bright lime green. There are many funny quotes in this, but I thought one particular fact said a lot about this artist's drive and passion: "In 1964, she hitch-hiked [from Nova Scotia] to New York City to establish herself as an artist". Inspiring.

One does not 'live' at Xanadu (blog)
Talking of artists making their way to New York - my friend Helene moved there earlier this Autumn and her blog - in French - is pure joy to read. Full of references (from random music to sweets to Girls), and games of languages, it always makes me happy. I friggin' hope she gets to stay in the big apple so she can keep writing her adventures, and hopefully become her own Elizabeth Sweetheart.

A day as only London can throw them

8-8.45: gym. aaaaah push it.
9.30-10.30: meeting in Facebook's offices (career highlight, but I wouldn't work there because they have this frozen yoghurt station which I would basically empty every day).
12-12.30: quick run through the Ai Weiwei exhibition at the Royal Academy, with noticeably diverse and engaged crowds. Wanted to linger more.
12.30-15.30: work lunch where I met interesting people who live in a different sphere of life (one where people pay £20,000 a year of school fees, one where they can be a Masterchef finalist - it was Emma, for those who watched it)
16-19.30: work
20.30-22.00: recording of my future single "Let One Go", a version of Let It Go that is about a different kind of wind (written by Michael), ahead of a drag cabaret next week.
22.00:00.00: baking of cardamom biscotti for office bake off tomorrow.
22.45: snarky comment from partner seeing me type, delete, shape, re-shape this post, but I can only shrug my shoulder because this was a day as only London, that city of opportunities, could throw them and I feel grateful.

C'est intéressant w/c 19 Oct 2015

Special edition: facts and figures for our governments.

The myth of welfare's corruption influence on the poor (New York Times)
Cash transfers do not discourage work.

The snarling dud of May (The Economist)
"Theresa May, the home secretary and would-be successor to David Cameron, this week declared that “there is no case, in the national interest, for immigration of the scale we have experienced”. Wrong. In 2001-11 new immigrants from the European Economic Area (EEA) contributed one-third more in revenues than they drew in public spending, subsidising native Britons. This boost to the public purse will be handy."

Girls Just Wanna Have Fun - soundtrack

Your classic 1980s dance film - with all the plot holes, montages, outfits, and clicheed characters you'd expect from the genre (buttoned-up dad, mad friend, silent but supportive mum, nuns...).

And amazing music! Some of which is not even on Spotify - whaaaat! So I am putting them in here so it's easy for me to find those tracks again.

You've got techniqueeeeee

80s remix of Motown...

C'est intéressant w/c 21 Sep 2015

Video: Mr Bojangles tap dancing his way up some steps

Music: Frida's I Know There's Something Going On (Lindstrom Remix)
I love the slow groove throughout.

Meeting the Pope after a Fight for Better Pay
Because when those with no individual power come together and organise, they can change their lives for the better. An inspiring read on fighting for a better life and system for everyone.

Dance films
The kind of films I wish I could put out at work! Soon, soon, I will!
Ballerina Lauren Cuthbertson on Nowness
The "third stage" of Paris Opera Ballet

C'est intéressant w/c 31 Aug 2015

Video: Flamenco in Granada in the 1960s
A Swedish documentary around the Sacromonte neighbourhood of Granada. It really shows how kids mimic the movements they see around them.

Essay: Tim Kreider - The Summer That Never Was (New York Times)
My hubby shared this with me. The longing it describes, and also the realisation that the little things are also beautiful, are very much me.

Interview: Quentin Tarantino (New York Magazine/Vulture)
Was lead to this from a Guardian article that rather misquoted what Tarantino said about "those Cate Blanchett films that dont have longevity" (or something like that). He was being more subtle than that, and I am surprised by the Guardian on that one.

C'est intéressant w/c 17 Aug 2015

NYTimes: Ballet Life, Unfiltered and Uploaded to Instagram
A cool article about the use of the social media photo platform by ballet dancers. I use it all the time for work, as the dancers in my company share the most interesting content themselves.

Music: Kolaj - The Touch
Song of the summer! As simple as that. I can't stop listening to it.

Katherine Anne Porter - a second helping

This paragraph in Katherine Anne Porter's short story Holiday rang so true to me. I read it during a week I was alone at home, and enjoying the solitude, and it described very exactly how I felt.

In this story, set in the 1910s or 20s (I am not sure) the narrator goes to stay with a German-American family in deep rural Texas. The family (with children, sons and daughters in laws, grand children) speaks in German so he does not understand what they talk about.

"I liked the thick warm voices, and it was good not to have to understand what they were saying. I loved that silence which means freedom from the constant pressure of other minds and other opinions and other feelings, that freedom to fold up in quiet and go back to my own center, to find out again, for it is always a rediscovery, what kind of creature it is that rules me finally, makes all the decisions no matter who thinks they make them, even Il who little by little takes everything away except the one thing I cannot live without, and who will one day say, 'Now I am all you have left - take me'. I paused there a good while listening to this muted unknown language which was silence with music in it; I could be moved and touched but not troubled by it, as by the crying of frogs or the wind in the trees".

Beautiful.

Royal College of Art Graduate Exhibition 2015

My office is right opposite the Royal College of Art's Kensington campus so I went down to the recent graduate exhibitions they held there. The work put out by the students in Global Innovation Design (MA) was amazing and made me feel optimistic about the future. Here are the five ideas I felt compelled to write down.

Katherine Anne Porter

In one of those lucky moments where one's mind is unsure of what it wants but is so open to suggestions it knows it will find it, I stumbled upon a collection of short stories by American writer Katherine Anne Porter at the library.

I like short stories and I like female writers who work in that form: Lydia Davies, Loorie Moore, Alice Munroe, Tove Jansson etc. so it all felt very serendipitous. And the book was in that fantastic Penguin Classics series, with its black and white covers and great overall look that make you pass for a hipster at a local swish cafe on Saturday mornings.

Porter was born in 1890, won a Pulitzer Prize in 1965, and wrote one novel (Ship of Fools - apparently it is famous but I'd never heard of it until researching this post) and 27 stories. From the first story in this book, Maria Concepcion, I was taken. Characters were defined sharply , the sense of place and time was evoked powerfully, and the ending opened the story up completely. As I was reading it,it was like the story grew and grew , encompassing so much more.

In The Jilting of Granny Weatherall, Porter writes about the slow death of Ms Weatherall from the point of view of the dying woman (The Death of Ivan Ilyich will come to mind, obviously). We go in and out of Granny's consciousness and reality. At one point she listens to her doctor, and the next she is off on the trail of an old memory. One returns often - that of the jilting of the title. I don't think I'll give too much away by writing down the almost perfect ending:

On the value of dance in schools

On Friday I went to City Hall for the launch of the Dance element of the London Curriculum (a set of resources relating curriculum subjects to our city and enabling teachers to use London and all it has to offer in their classes). The sun was shining bright, there were short speeches, well-behaved kids and we got to learn a call-and-response African dance.

One speech was truly inspiring. It was made by Jamie Brownhill, headteacher of Central Foundation Boys School in Old Street. He talked about a dance project run at his school by Sadler's Wells (a dance venue) and Wayne McGregor Random Dance (a dance company). On Monday mornings (not the best time slot, he admitted, but he thought it set up the kids for the week and was probably their most valuable learning session of that week), a group of GCSE Drama boys would have two hours of dance with members of Random dance, and worked towards putting on a short performance on the Sadler's Wells stage. They also got to attend a couple of shows at the theatre.

Mr Brownhill was evangelic about the value of the project to his students and his school and listed the following benefits of the project:

- the students developed their creativity, by doing something they would have never done otherwise

- they saw the value of working as a team, and got the sense of what it is to achieve something together as a group

- they developed a better understanding of the similarities and differences between cultures, by learning different styles of dance and working with international artists

- the project was an opportunity for students to see excellence, by working in world-class dancers and seeing world-class shows at Sadler's Wells, and experience what it takes to achieve it, by performing on that stage

- because they had a clear final objective (to perform on a big stage), they got a clear pay off for their hard work and commitment. He hoped that, when later in life they may face a challenge, they would think back to this time as an example of what they can achieve and overcome.

His final plea was not just that such projects should happen in all schools. It was that, when implemented, they be compulsory. "If, at the start, I'd asked those boys to voluntary join this class, only 2 or 3 would have done it, if that. But at the end, when I asked all of them if they wanted to do it again, they all said yes! It is essential that all students engage with those opportunities, and not a self-selected group".

My write-up of his speech doesn't do justice to Mr Brownhill's warmth and enthusiasm: give him a TED talk slot instead.

More about the project on the Central Foundation school website.

C'est intéressant w/c 6 Jul 2015

Interesting, intriguing, exciting, amusing, enraging, fascinating things I recommend.

A World Without Work (The Atlantic)
I have moments when I freak out about the future, mainly how I will earn a living. I often wonder what will be left for people to do once all the cashiers are automated and especially self-driving cars become reality and who knows what else. This article goes into the importance of work for self-worth and social cohesion and re-assured me a little bit. Maybe the end result won't be widespread poverty but actually fulfillment, as we'll learn to spend less and have more time to find our calling.

Beware of Greeks Bearing Bonds (Vanity Fair)
I have felt bad for the Greek people ever since the crisis hit: they've had it rough. But then I read this 2010 article, that goes through the unbelievable level of clientelism, corruption and tax evasion that plagued the country in the preceding years. I am sorry for those that stayed honest during that time, while others filled their pockets. It's a long read, but worth it. This piece about an hospital in the third largest Greek town, Patras, covers the same topic, really. A friend of mine just came back from holidaying in Greece and told me she paid less at the restaurant because she didn't need a receipt: habits are hard to change!

Obituary of Tama the cat, Japanese station master
I love how some obituaries manage to make you smile and in love with life, even though they are about someone who just died. Quirks and other charming details bubble up to the surface of often eventful lives. this obit is about a cat, believed to bring luck, who reversed the fortunes of the railway company that owned the station where she had decided to live. They dressed her up at the station master, they turned her into a cartoon slapped on merchandise, they even made the station look like the face of a feline. So bonkers it made me sad I never got to meet her.

A cosmic and atomic voyage

Netflix double feature picture show: The Purge, GBF

So last night I ended up having a film night on my own, watching two films I'd never get my partner to agree to slumber in front of: The Purge and GBF (Gay Best Friend).

I was in the mood for a bit of suspense and thrill, and The Purge fitted that bill without reaching Saw-like levels of twistedness (which I can't hack at all ;-). In the 2020s, America is a happy place where crime is low, mainly because for 12 hours every 21 March (7pm-7am), pretty much all crimes are allowed. The reason is that, this way, people get out their anger and the weak are weeded out. Great premise, right? Sadly the writer kept it tight (to one family). Too tight really - I think so much more could have been wrought out of the idea of anything being allowed. On that night, who can you trust? who might shaft you? what have you done during the year to avoid pissing people off and becoming a potential victim? you dont want to take part in it but why do you still condone it? what could you do to make it stop? Also it wasn't completely consistent: if you have the money for a fancy security system, why wouldn't you just go on holidays out of the country? Also there is only so many times you can pull the rope of the hero about to be killed but s/he gets rescued at the last minute by someone else hidden in a corner.

GBF is a high school comedy with your typical set of characters ending with an eventful prom. It's pretty witty, but I found it hard to go past the cheap production values - the lighting in particular sometimes made it look like a South American soap opera. Funny highlights were Jojo presiding an LGBT society without an actual LGBT person in it (until our hero is outed), a very sharp black girl (maybe a bit of cliche but she was sassy...) and Megan Mullally playing an embarrassing mum (after finding out her son is gay, she plans a gay movie night-in: they watch Brokeback Mountain. Her live commentary of the tent scene is priceless).

Both get 3 stars.

Why Sintra (Portugal) is worth more than a day trip

I was lucky enough to spend a week in the pretty town and landscape of Sintra, a 35-40 min train journey west of Lisbon. (price: 2.15 euros each way! so cheap). Many tourists rock up for a day tour and leave, and I even got raised eyebrows from locals when I told them we were here for longer. "You are here until Friday!!??" said the woman behind the counter at the panaderia opposite the main square with incredulity. Even our super nice air bnb host, Daniel, had emailed us after we made our booking to check we indeed wanted to stay this long: "you'll have done Sintra in 2-3 days max".

Well actually, I wish I'd stayed longer! Here's why - with a few pics by me and the friends I was with.

The place has about 7 palaces to visit, with large gardens/estates (we only did 3). As a playground to the Portuguese aristocracy from the 1500s onwards, it's got gothic gardens (a tower carved inside the rock at Quinta da Regaleira), lots of exotic plants (some Sequoia redwoods can be found in the Palacio da Pena ground), stunningly designed rooms (the blazons room with its ceiling painted with the emblems of the Portuguese royal family and many others, at Sintra Palace) and more. The Moorish Castle is from even earlier. I found it hard to edit down my pics for instagram!

shape over shape over colour over shape over colour #sintra palace #yellow #blue #arabic architecture

A photo posted by b (@studioincovent) on Jun 23, 2015 at 9:41am PDT

C'est intéressant w/c 22 Jun 2015

Interesting, intriguing, exciting, amusing, enraging, fascinating things I recommend.


Long form - Alanis in Chain (Solaya Roberts, Hazzlit)
Alanis Morissette before Jagged Little Pill. Good read. This made me think of a couple of tracks from the album after Jagged Little Pill (ie the not as bestselling one): Unsent (no chorus, extracts from letters to lovers) and So Pure (with its video of Alanis Morissette dancing in a range of style - has she thought about taking part in Dancing with the Stars? She's do well I reckon)

Opinion piece - The real benefit cheats are the employers who are milking the system (Deborah Orr, The Guardian)
Lots of interesting facts for your next dinner party with your right wing friends. Only £8bn worth of benefits go to the unemployed, while an estimated £76bn go to people who are working. Why? In part because some employers don't pay a living wage or offer contracts with enough hours, so the government has to supplement the employees' income somehow. Does it sound right that Tesco has cost the Treasure £364m in pay-rate supplements in the last year? Maybe if employers paid better, the government would have to spend less on benefits, and would be able to cut taxes: all in all everyone would win!

Creative Review July issue
My big boss is on the cover of one of the best mags on creative culture. Amazing! Go, ballet, go!

C'est intéressant w/c 25 May 2015

Interesting, intriguing, exciting, amusing, enraging, fascinating things I recommend.

BBC Radio 4 - Soul Music: Gracias a la vida
A moving listen. People talk about what this song, made famous by Mercedes Sosa, has meant to them. Includes the testimony of a political prisoner under Pinochet in Chile in 1973. I responded to these words from a recent widow, who grew to associate the song with the death of her husband: "when you're saying to yourself thank you to life which has given me so much, you can't actually focus on what's been taken, if you really hear those words" 

Snaps: If Tate Modern was Musee de la Danse

C'est intéressant w/c 11 May 2015

Interesting, intriguing, exciting, amusing, enraging, fascinating things I recommend.

Podcast: The Producer's Perspective

A podcast by Broadway producer Ken Davenport with Liz Furze, co-head of AKA agency's New York office. AKA are a major player in the world of promoting live entertainment, particularly big musicals and plays (and ballet! I work with their London team). This is a really insightful podcast on how they made it from London to New York, and Ms Furze is surprisingly candid about budgets and how her business is working.

Article: Where To Look for Insight (Harvard Business Review)

Despite what most people are lead to believe, new ideas don't just appear out of nowhere. "Few people find great ideas on a blank canvas" says this article, which lists different sources to discover insights and help you think more creatively. Worth a read - I particularly related to the theme of 'questioning orthodoxy'!

A Frida Kahlo love and farewell letter

I am reading Frida, the biography of Frida Kahlo by Hayden Herrera, as I realised I didn't know that much about this important artist, beyond her looks, marriage to Diego Rivera and bisexuality.

During her loving yet tempestuous marriage to Rivera, they both had many affairs. When Frida was in New York for her first solo exhibition in 1938, she fell in love with Nicholas Murray, a portrait photographer working for Harper's Bazaar and other mags who had helped her organise the show during a visit to Mexico. During her stay in Paris in 1939 (she despised the town and was not impressed by many of the Surrealist painters she met there), the affair floundered as she felt the need to return to Mexico to be with Diego and Murray got involved with a woman he eventually married that year.

Murray wrote to her:

"I knew NY only filled the bill as a temporary substitute and I hope you found your haven intact on your return. Of the three of us there were only two of you. I always felt that. Your tears told me that when you heard his voice. The one of me is eternally grateful for the Happiness that the half of you so generously gave. (...) When you left I knew it was all over. Your instinct guided you so wisely. You have done the only logical thing for I could not transplant Mexico to NY for you and I've learned how essential that was for your happiness."

Frida later wrote him a farewell which includes this paragraph I find extremely moving:

Death of Maya Plisestkaya - reactions

Maya Plisestskaya was a legend of ballet, and her death yesterday, aged 89, marked the passing of one of the true greats. Her grace, class, technique, passion, legacy were celebrated by many ballet dancers and fans around the world. Here is a round-up of their tributes.

Ballet Stars

A partir de 3'45 c'est unique.... From 3'45 it's unique !!!
Posted by Sylvie Guillem on Sunday, May 3, 2015

Maya Plisetskaya - one of the greatest, an immense loss for dance. pic.twitter.com/GIa89axnFI

— Tamara Rojo (@TamaraRojo1) May 3, 2015

Maya Plisetskaya defined ballet. I'll never forget her walking into Bolshoi Theatre to see a show and the audience erupted in applause. RIP

— David Hallberg (@DavidHallberg) May 2, 2015

The epoch of Great Ballet Legends comes to an end today… Unforgettable, terrific and beloved Maya Plisetskaya! pic.twitter.com/T2fp5mCJ6o

— Diana Vishneva (@dianavishneva) May 2, 2015

One of the greatest dancers of our time, Yves Saint Laurent's and Pierre Cardin's muse, beautiful and graceful Maya...

Posted by Mikhail Baryshnikov on Saturday, May 2, 2015

Pina Bausch - Ahnen

The first half of this piece was probably the favourite Pina Bausch work I've ever seen. I was really wowed by it, and somehow at the end of the night I didn't want to break the spell by writing down things on the way home, I wanted to let things stew over. So the list may not be as long as for other works - do add moments I missed off in the comments.

25 performers
stage with sand in the back and large cactii
jumping through a hoop and crashing into the wall
eating salad, nervously, little bits and lots of quick chewing
a woman with a big heart drawn on her face, sitting cross legged, obsessively grating chalk (or soap? couldnt tell) and stopping to put her hand on her knee
a woman in a large dress walking around, admiring the scenery, a man following her - first holding a tray with something wrapped in white cloth on it, then the same man is swirling around, she runs to escape him
a song about the Shinkansen train
tutus worn as headdresses
a wind machine and blowing newspapers
a woman carrying bricks in a wheelbarrow, noisily emptying them at the back of the stage (on the sand), building a wall
a walrus
a walrus saying a joke and clapping
a pianist and a saxophonist
a punk in a kilt
on the side of the stage, a woman in sunglasses eats very slowly, takes out a gun and shoots (surprising and making us jolt us every time!)
a jackhammer
a blindfolded samba/mambo dancer, who uses a towel to fan himself while dancing
three men on sun chairs, one is singing Carmen (L'amour est enfant de boheme...), the second one translating the words in English to the third, deadpan
wiping the floor in rhythm
a remote-controlled helicopter
an alarm

C'est intéressant w/c 20 Apr

Interesting, intriguing, exciting, amusing, enraging, fascinating things I recommend.

Music: Goldroom - Mykonos
According to my husband, I am a terrible music fan. He is a "let's listen to the whole album" kind of person ("this is how it's meant to be listened to"). I am a "Repeat song" ad infinitum sort of guy. If I like a song, it can take over my ears and mind completely. I will listen to it all afternoon at work, hitting replay every 3min28 on youtube. If I somehow forget and notice the absence of that melody, I jerk myself up and put it back on straightaway. I will listen to it on my commute home. I will put it on spotify and have it on repeat until my other half comes home and my obsession has to be  on hold until the next morning. (I may sneak in another listen before going to bed, while he brushes his teeth). 
My current obsession is this rework of Fleet Foxes's Mykonos, by Goldroom, a guy who makes sun-kissed grooves and takes the original folk version into completely new territory: French-touch, Ace of Base, tropics, that sort of thing. At my current rate of listening, my memory will imprint spring 2015 into this song. 

TV: BBC Young Dancer competition (BBC4)
The BBC has launched a Young Dancer competition (like they have a young opera singer one). I watched the first 'category' final (there will be 4 in total: contemporary, hip-hop, south asian, ballet) and was bloody impressed by the talent in the contemporary category, particularly those with their own choreography, or those made by their friends. I really liked this duet, by Jason Mabana. It made me think of Akram Khan and Sidi Larbi Cherkoui's works, and Hofesh Shechter in the second half too, without seeming like a rip-off, still feeling original.
You can see all the clips here. Get past the swooshy graphics, it's great.

Pina Bausch - Auf dem Gebirge hat man ein Geschrei gehört

stage covered with soil
25 dancers + a brass band
a man in red pants, black shoes, red swimming cap, an elastic band over his face that squashes his nose, red sunglasses. he picks up balloons from his pants and blows them up until they explode, again and again. after 4 or 5 he stops blowing them too much and ties them up as one would.
a man lying on the floor, another man trying to put balloons under his body so he floats up, but some balloons explode.
a man and a woman chased by groups of men, and being made to kiss
a typical Pina walk dance, made only of flicking hands
a song about a hunchback ('bossu') and his wife, and somehow a turtle ('tortue') as well
a woman as a dead weight, being lifted by a man and moved energetically left to right so her arms fling about and hit another man
a woman, slowly walking down stage, back combing a piece of her hair, and saying "Pourquoi t'es pas calme? Calme-toi! Pourquoi t'es pas calme?"
a man yelling 'I want to kill! I want to spill blood!'
a woman walking slowly upstage, the auditorium gets very dark, the light is very dim. she wears a black dress, a black veil, we can't see her face. she carried a shovel and a chair. she starts burying the chair under soil
"la tete... comme ca! les jambes... comme ca! plantees! la taille hop la poitrine flack! tu meurs! tu meurs!"
song: parlez-moi d'amour, dites moi des choses tendres
25 spruces brought on stage, looking freshly fallen
a dancer singing, her long black hair being painted white with chalk by a man
a dancer in a black negligee running in circle, running, running, repeating an arm movement: right hand pushing the left to the side, then both hands coming back to her heart, then the right arm is flung forward as though she is trying to catch something. she then lies on the floor
someone who seems to be drowning
a woman chasing a man, who has her dress "why did you take it? give it back! why? why? give it back!". when she gets it back, he stands behind her and holds two chunks of her hair up (as though pulling it). she screams for a long time
double cartwheels
a dancer, bent down, her long hair parted forward so you can't see her face, dancing, lying on the floor, being marked with a slash of lipstick by a man
a man moving like he is playing drums, but the drum kit is actually four people's bottoms which he slaps
the male dancers running onto the stage like ballet princes, head high, one arm bent in front of them (hand to the heart), the other extended out, stopping and running on again

C'est intéressant w/c 13 Apr

Interesting, intriguing, exciting, amusing, enraging, fascinating things I recommend.

The Guardian: most disturbing novels list
The Guardian asked its writers and readers what novels unnerved them the most. Replies include Brett Easton Ellis, Murakami and many more. I'd add to the list Hubert Selby Jr's Last Exit to Brooklyn (the violence and self-hate, heightened by the stream-of-consciousness writing style) and David Vann's Legend of a Suicide and Dirt. Those really shook and it took me a good few days to get over them. I reckon it will be another 5 years before I read another Vann novel.

Music: M.O - Preach (Cahill Radio Edit)
This popped up on my soundcloud stream. The original has a sleek, mid-tempo beat, a la Aaliyah/TLC, and the video, while low on production values, emphasises the connection with baggy outfits and classic hip-hop moves. I like it a lot, but not as much as this pumping remix by Cahill. After 15 seconds I was like 'oh ok...' and wanted to be on a dancefloor where I could take my top off. And it made me miss some very good friends who now live way too far away... It's set to be my summer theme tune.

Food: Fennel, feta and bean salad (Leon)
Super simple, quick to make, and delicious. Perfect for when temperatures hit the twenties in the UK next week (no, we don't know why either... well..).

Music: Michelle Williams - Say Yes live feat. Beyonce and Kelly Rowland
Because a Destiny's Child reunion, even if only 7min long, will always have a place in this blog.

A book to make you scream in frustration and disbelief

I've just finished reading And The Band Played On, Politics, People and the AIDS Epidemic, by journalist Randy Shilts.

Randy Shilts was a reporter for the San Francisco Chronicle through the 70s and 80s and, as such, was in the eye of the storm. His account is very researched and detailed, focusing on key protagonists in the discovery of and fight against AIDS, starting from one of the earliest cases (a female Danish doctor who had worked in country hospitals in Zaire in the the 70s) up to the revelation to the public that Rock Hudson, one of Hollywood's biggest male stars of his era, was dying of AIDS, in 1985.

It is a gripping story, and sadly, a real-life one.

Reading the movements of Patient Zero (an Air Canada stewart who was at the centre of a cluster of victims in San Francisco, LA, NY and other cities), you can't help but gasp at the guy's refusal to believe his diagnosis and change his lifestyle.

On my grandmother

10 years on, here is what I never want to forget about her:

- her cooking. Hearty, simple, epitomised in her ‘salmis de palombe’ (a stew of wild doves my granddad would have hunted) and her pasta with cheese gratin (so crusty on the top, so cheesy in the middle. I have never managed to replicate it)
- the blue/purple/flowery colour of the blouses/aprons she would always wear over her clothes. Always useful for cooking, gardening etc
- her habit of wearing lots of layers of clothes and cranking up the heating. Gosh we were always so hot in her house in winter!
- the self-deprecating way she always said she just knew nothing: ‘enfin tu sais moi je n’y connais rien!’
- her evening TV ritual: 6.30pm = quiz show ‘Questions pour un Champion’. That show is still running and everytime I hear the jingle, I am transported back into my grandparents’ front room again.

C'est intéressant w/c 22 Mar

Interesting, intriguing, exciting, amusing, enraging, fascinating things I recommend.

Video - Public Domain Review: Strange Contests in the Netherlands
Public Domain Review explores all the films, images, texts and more that are free of copyright. It's full of weird stuff. In this post, they look at videos of contests such as a 1933 ostrich race, and the use of typewriters to make art in 1937 (the precusor of those images created from signs like ( 3 ^ and the like on Twitter.

Article - New York Times: Debunking the Myth of the Job-Stealing Immigrant
I am an immigrant myself to the UK, after all. A simple point: "Logically, if immigrants were “stealing” jobs, so would every young person leaving school and entering the job market; countries should become poorer as they get larger. In reality, of course, the opposite happens."

Breakin' - ten things I love about the 1984 breakdance film

A few weeks ago, I wrote about cheesy dance films I had to see this year. The first one I got to enjoy was Breakin', the story of female jazz dancer  (Kelly) who discovers the street dance of Venice Beach. Here are some of my favourite bits (all the dance sections are a great watch, so make sure you catch the entire movie one day!)

1. This top. Adolfo 'Shaba-doo' Quinones has amazing style. If only I could rock a jumpsuit like he does!

2. This signature look, worn by Kelly's friend Adam, who takes jazz class with her and is friend with streetdancers Ozone and Turbo. One word: tight. (credit to @ParisLDN, who came to see the film with me, for the joke). In a later scene, Adam pays Kelly a visit in the diner she works for, and wears really tight bright blue trousers. From this, the audience can easily work out that Adam tucks it to his left.

3. Ice T being credited as 'Rap talker' in the end credits. I guess the term rapper didn't exist at the time?

How would you imagine a #dancingmuseum?

French choreographer Boris Charmatz is taking over the spaces of Tate Modern on 15-16 May, with the goal of turning it into a musee de la danse, a museum of dance. I am so there to watch it happen.

I still remember the first time I heard Mr Charmatz speak. It was at a poorly-attended event at Southbank Centre, where a number of artists had been brought together to present ideas, works in progress and the like. He just stood up and started talking, leading us to imagine what a musee de la danse would look like if there was one right here at the Queen Elizabeth Hall. "I was looking at the skaters underneath here, and thought that they would fit in well within a musee de la danse. I would put people in that green space you can look down on from the foyer too..."

He went on with more ideas like that. He was refreshing. His French accent was charming. Now it's kind of happening, in a re-hash of his takeover of MoMA in New York in 2013.

In some marketing copy, the Tate asked "how would you imagine a #dancingmuseum?". Well here is a first list of what I'd like to find in that kind of museum...

C'est intéressant w/c 9 Mar

Interesting, intriguing, exciting, amusing, enraging, fascinating things I recommend.
Article: This is what it's like to go to jail for trolling (Buzzfeed)

It's not all silly pointless lists over on Buzzfeed... a sobering (!) report on two Twitter trolls who were sentenced to 8 and 12 weeks in jail for online threats.

“I thought in my head actually, that when someone sees something like that and they read it, they’re gonna complain … But you think, ‘This is Twitter’ – you don’t expect to be raided by nine police officers.”

Music: San Fermin

Their song Sonsick made it into my list of 13 tracks of 2013, and it was probably the most played track on my Spotify in 2014. I just could not get enough of it. Their gig at the Village Underground was perfect - hot singers (sorry, can't help it!), awesome brass section, the album played in order with a sprinkle of new tracks. They are back in London in April at the Jazz Cafe: I have my ticket already.

C'est intéressant w/c 2 Mar

Interesting, intriguing, exciting, amusing, enraging, fascinating things I recommend.

Essay - The New Enquiry: Permanent Records (by Molly Knefel)
Kids are uploading their adolescence in real-time, and the Internet refuses to forget. Will it change the way we live as adults?

Gane: chamge all n into m.

Gane: chamge all n into m, amd vice versa. Go om, do it! Ism't it fummy? How would ome even promoumce sone of those words? Anazimg, infuriatimg - how cam you read that aloud?

This exercise nakes ne thimk about the actual writimg of the letters n and m. Im cursive, n has three 'bridges' (as my prinary school teacher used to describe then), and m has two. How cone they lose ome whem we capitalise then or write in primt? Where did they go to?

What made me cry during the final song of this concert?

Was it its minor key?

Was it its story of childhood memories, powerlessness, and sad resignation?

Was it because it came after two other sad songs - one written for a best friend who 'lost her battle with depression' ('you are a goldmine, you are a prize for winning!'), the other based on the last words of a coal minor, trapped underground and slowly losing air ('oh, how i love you Mary...')?

Was it because the earlier folk harmonies had taken me back to that summer we went mountaineering with dad, aged 14, and, deep in the Pyrenees valleys where the car radio wouldn't catch any signal, the only tape we had to hand was his bluegrass mixtape? (Mr Sandmaaaaan bring me your dreaaaammm)

C'est intéressant w/c 16 Feb

Interesting, intriguing, exciting, amusing, enraging, fascinating things I recommend.

Opinion piece - Washington Post: Why I'm So Over Dancers As Athletes (Or Why Misty Copeland Is An Artist)
I must say I am guilty of that myself, being in such awe at the dedication, discipline and training regimen of ballet dancers. They commit hours upon hours to learn and refine their art, while I seem to just sit at my desk. But, as Sarah Kaufman reminded me, they are, above all, artists, and their impact on us comes from more than their physique.

Documentary - Storyville: Bulldozers, Paving Stones and Power: The Chinese Mayor

A fascinating documentary about the work of Geng Yabo, Mayor of Datong, a town of about 3m people known for its coal mining industry (which makes it the most polluted city in China) and historical monuments (hanging monasteries, Buddhas etc).

Mr Geng has huge ambitions for Datong, and no time to waste: he is rebuilding the 14th century city walls, watchtowers included, and housing cultural institutions within them. This means demolishing thousands of homes, building thousands of new flats elsewhere and relocating hundreds of thousands of Datong residents.

Pharaonic is the only appropriate term to describe his plans.

For me, its interest laid in the access the film maker was given, as he followed the mayor from meeting to his morning meet with disgruntled locals in need of help from someone in power to solve their problems, via his surveying of the progress of demolition and building works happening around town, and his telling off of underperforming suppliers and colleagues ('the hospital is still not finished!', 'the drain pipes are too small. Can you add one on the other side?').

C'est intéressant w/c 9 Feb 2015

Interesting, intriguing, exciting, amusing, enraging, fascinating things I recommend.

Podcast - New Yorker: Psychedelics as Therapy
Discussing the therapeutics effects of LSD on alcoholism, depression and terminally-ill patients. It made me think of all those very old people in hospices and retirement homes who are slowly declining, and how, gently, with ever increasing doses of morphine, they are being led to the end.

Cheesy dance films I have to see this year

Did the 1980s turn out to be the best decade for dance in films? Sure, Ginger Rogers and Fred Astaire were queen and king of the box office back in the 1930s, performing in classics like Top Hat, Shall We Dance and Swing Time, but for sheer range of movies that were about dance and the people who lived for it, it seems to me like the 80s can't be beaten.

As a kid in countryside France with two older sisters, Flashdance and Dirty Dancing were watched pretty much on loop on the family 'magnetoscope' (VCR), and I have a blurry memory of a bit of Chorus Line too. With their stories of dancing against all odds and living for one's passion, they resonated within our young hearts. And of course the soundtracks just made us want to dance ourselves!

The other day, I stumbled upon the trailer for White Nights, a 1985 drama starring Mikhail Baryshnikov and Gregory Hines. It looked completely over the top: the Soviet dancer defecting to the US, his capture in Siberia after an emergency landing while on a plane journey to Tokyo, his run-ins with a US tap dancer who himself had defected to the USSR, and their ultimate plan of escape. Cold War movie meets ballet and tap - that just sounds too ludicrous not to be enjoyed (no matter how damning the reviews)! Plus it includes Lionel Ritchie's Say You, Say Me in the soundtrack. And also stars Helen Mirren and Isabella Rossellini!

After I shared it with an ironic comment on Facebook, my sister commented: 'I love that film! We used to watch it every Sunday! This scene stills make me cry, like Helen Mirren in it'. I don't remember it at all, but White Nights is definitely on my list of films to watch this year, especially as it includes choreography by Twyla Tharp (see previous link) and bits from Le Jeune Homme et la Mort by Roland Petit.

After a bit of digging, I've come across a few more 1970s and 1980s dance films I just have to see asap. Clearly the success of Fame, Flashdance and Staying Alive got the Hollywood machine excited, a little too excited even as cheese got piled on top of even more cheese.

Joan Didion on computers

I love reading Joan Didion's essays and novels. I regularly feel the need to read On Self-Respect or Goodbye to All That, some sections of which bring a lump to my throat they are so full of truth (my truth).

I also love listening to Joan Didion's voice. So posed, almost bored. I recently found this 1987 interview with Don Swaim for CBS radio, where the conversation somehow lead to this question: 'What sort of computer do you use?'

In 1987, that was an interesting question, and it brought an interesting answer, and a discussion about crying learning to use a laptop, how literal you have to be when dealing with a computer and the value of spell checker. How quaint!

On 'New Year, New You'

Walking along the Regent's Canal on a crisp January morning, on our way to the gym.
'Notice all the runners today, with their new tops and flashy accessories...' I say.
'It's January' he replies 'oh dear look at that one blobbing along...'
'Come on' I say with mild exasperation (My new year hope is to be less negative and critical of others), 'it's commendable! Give them credit, at least they are making an effort. Maybe they are training for the marathon, for all we know!'
'No - I'll only applaud them in March, assuming they haven't given up...'
'Some people don't even try!'
'Yes and you know who they are? They are the happy ones.'

Laos trip stocktake

Lost in Laos

- bright blue Uniqlo hooded fleece jacket (probably in some Luang Prabang restaurant I had to run out of to catch a bus)
- digital camera (dropped in a stream at Kuang Si waterfalls)
- SD memory card with photos (I put it in my jeans pocket after the camera went under water, and I reckon it fell off the pocket when I got into my swimming trunk to swim in the freezing, turquoise water)
- travel pillow (in a cafe in Pakse)
- hiking boots (not technically lost, but had to abandon them after they did not survive the exploration of stunning caves, developing several holes in their sole)
- my breath, on several occasions
- 3 kilos (we cycled a fair bit and it was hot)


Nearly lost in Laos