Those birds off the telly box

I recently bagged a ticket to watch The Children's Hour at the Comedy Theatre and it was excellent.

What's not to like? Kiera Knightley, gorgeous. Elisabeth Moss (or Peggy from Mad Men as she's known to most), incredible actress.

The greatest shock of the play was probably Kiera's performance outshining Elisabeth's, the other shock was Kiera not being anywhere near as gaunt as she appears in some of her roles.

Kiera is thought by some to be a bit of a wooden actress but her performance in the Children's Hour a yarn about two New England teachers and how a lie can have devastating effects is anything but wooden. It has the air of a Grecian tragedy, you know something awful is going to happen but you keep willing it not too.

There are unfortunately not many surprises in the script but the performances are so gripping it doesn't really matter. I often don't empathise with characters in plays, their personalities are frequently too one dimensional or their actions too vacuous. The stellar performances in The Children's Hour meant I had no such problems. 

The theatre industry has been buoyed by ticket sales of  £512 million in 2010 and with megastars on the stage and some brilliant productions on the horizon it's not difficult to see why.

The Children's Hours star cast means tickets are hard to come by so try a matinee showing for a cultural day out. 

Forget about your golden arches

Food at its very best can feed not just the body but the soul. I'm a firm believer in good food and its power to unify friends and bring together families. 

As a young male in London it's actually surprisingly difficult to get a group of guys to go out for a quality meal, most would rather spend it on boozing which is a shame as London is arguably the gastronomic capital of the world. According to Joel Robuchon at least. It adds fire to the phrase when a man is tired of London he's tired of life.

In an effort to experience some fine dining and in search of the perfect burger I recently visited Bar Boulud. Daniel Boulud is a French chef known for hearty dishes without fuss, he has three Michelin stars at his New York restaurant which is consistently ranked within the best 5 restaurants in the world. I'd much rather his real food with an artisans touch than the twee nonsense served up at the worlds current best restaurant Noma any day.

The menu is sizeable with something for everyone but everything for carnivores. A merguez sausage and chickpea stew was one of the simplest and most impressive dishes I can remember eating.

The main event was the Piggie burger, wait for it - Beef patty, pulled pork, red slaw and green chilli mayo. Expertly cooked it showed that even the most common of dishes can be mind blowing with a little fine tuning.

As you've probably deduced I rate the experience highly. Next time you're about to spend £35 on beer on a so-so night out why not instead try arguably Londons best burger at the awesome Bar Boulud?

For more food porn I recommend things we've eaten

 

 

My type of type

I quite randomly happened upon the Standpoint gallery while strolling pretty aimlessly through East London the other day and was incredibly glad that I had. 

The gallery was featuring a witty and deftly striking exhibition with a theme centred on how beautiful the right language and type are together.

Graphic designers were falling over themselves. 

Unfortunately it was the last day of that particular exhibition and the next show at the gallery will be taking an entirely different direction but it's definitely a gallery to watch out for.

Here's a visual treat......

An idea worth spreading

The media savvy blog readers here might know everything there is to know about TED the more pretentious among you might even label it passe but for the uninitiated you should probably get to know.

TED is quite simply just a conference. But it is the conference.

Some of the greatest minds in business, technology and literature come together to discuss, pontificate and present their ideas for the future.

You could think of it as the winter music conference or E3 for the good, the great and the digerati.

TED started of as a small conference in the 80's focused on technology, entertainment and design (hence the name) and has grown to become something of phenomenon.

The past speakers list reads like a who's who with Steve Jobs, Al Gore and Naomi Klein having all imparted their wisdom.

Check out this link for some of the interesting stuff that goes on there and if your really 'savvy' download the app.

For any madmen check out this link

I'm on that Drizzy flow.

So I got myself some tickets to see Drizzy Drake in 'Birmunum' last Friday so I was pretty damn happy with myself.

Succesful is a powerful song and there was never any doubt he was going to bring the girls out.

Opinion on Drake at the moment online seems to be 'overated rapper is overated' and perhaps that's true.

I severely doubt he'll be around as long Gil Scott-Heron or Jay-Z and he's not as cool or as 'loveabley' arrogant as Kanye but that didn't stop him putting on one heck of show.

The crowd were movin like they were in the club, the lyrics were crisp and we saw a charismatic showman own the stage.

It would of been nice to see some other Young Money members there but when J.Cole's got your back that's highly irrelevant.

My phone pictures were poor quality so to make up for that I leave you with a track.

Drake FTW

Handy

I'm often chastised for opening bottles with my teeth. What can I say, I'm just that dangerous.

Now thanks to Carlsberg I won't have to.

More simple but effective advertising, by creating some theater it's possible to be incredibly impactful and relevant with print.

Check it out.

1 for 11 on the 11th

I don't believe in perfection.

For me perfection is anguish and despair, after perfection there is no motivation, nothing to strive for and nothing to improve upon.

That being said I've got no problems with almost perfect.

It's also the most apt phrase to describe Dj Yasmin. uber talented Urban DJ, blogger and fashionista who just happens to be inferno level hot.

You can catch her set at HMV's Next Big Thing  in Camden on Feb 11th, it's a Friday so why the heck not.