Iconic people

Picture: Madonna as a Raphael Madonna

Q: What do the following people have in common?
(Other than their varying degrees of "iconicity")

Vaslav Nijinsky, Leni Riefenstahl, Douglas Fairbanks Jr., Anna Pavlova, Drew Barrymore, Louise Brooks, Arthur Miller, Babe Ruth, Greta Garbo, Madonna, Jean Cocteau, Virginia Woolf, Irving Berlin, Fred Astaire, Isadora Duncan, George Clooney, Gary Cooper, Cecil Beaton, Claude Monet, Jessie Norman, Lance Armstrong, Kate Winslet...

A: Their timeless portraits are sharing the same walls until end of May at the "Vanity Fair Portraits" exhibition. Go and gasp!!!

A thank you note

I am very honoured that Linda from Mirando el Catalejo has named Monomania Diaries one her favorite blogs.

Linda stumbled upon this blog by chance when she was searching the blogosphere for posts on a certain petite Romanian ballerina I idolize.

Now the funny thing is: Cojocaru is the reason I first stumbled upon Linda's own blog too, way before we even started reading each other's blogs regularly ... What can I say, we both have great taste, he he!

The hedonist's guide to winter - Part 2: Hot Chocolate

I had been meaning to write about hot chocolate, one of my instant cures for winter blues, for a while and when I had finally compiled a list of London's worthiest purveyors a few weeks ago, Time Out stole my thunder by publishing their own. Not fair...

However, this fresh spate of chilly weather - reminding us that winter is not over yet - and the fact that that Time Out's list seemed far from definitive, encouraged me to revisit the topic: while I give TO credit for introducing me to chocolatier Paul A Young's wonderful spicy hot choc, I disagree with their pick of Carluccio's and here's why: powdered cocoa mixture, thickened with corn/maize starch does not result in proper hot choc. I appreciate this is the Italian method, which gives the drink a gloopy consistency, but taste-wise, it's a no go.

When it comes to hot choc, expertise lies with the Mexicans (as most of you know, they invented the stuff and plus that trademark hint of cinnammon is genius!) and the French (pure chocolate thickened with cream and more cream, none of this starch nonsense).

So, which ones are truly worth wasting your calorie allowance on? In my opinion:

1) Konditor and Cook

Very dependable, choc-tastic hot choc from this mini chain of patisseries. A real pick-me-up. I love it even more with some of their Kipferl biscuits on the side.

2) Paul A Young

Thanks for the tip Time Out! You can add whichever spice mix you fancy (cinammon, cardamon, nutmeg, chilli, everything...) to this exquisite dark chocolate blend. Their other chocolate treats and cakes are glorious too!

3) La Maison du Chocolat

Choose between a darker or lighter blend. Either way, there's no need for adding extra sugar as both versions are quite sweet. Great for takeaways.

4) Laduree

Perfectly thick and gooey. Not too sweet, not too bitter, just right and heavily caloric!

5) The Wolseley

You can go with the basic hot choc or add extras (whipped cream, alcohol, etc.). Much less thick than the options above but they score top marks for presentation (beautifully served in a tall glass and silver tray) and lovely surroundings.

Try at home:

In a pan or on microwave: mix a generous amount of melting dark chocolate flakes or pieces (good buys: "Prestat" or "Hotel Chocolat" flakes, "Cool Chile Co's" Mexican hot choc pastilles) with full fat single cream. You can use half dark, half milk chocolate for balance. Add hot milk to taste (but watch the consistency!) and blend with a hand mixer to froth the whole thing up. Finish off with cinnamon on top! Yum, yum!

See also: The hedonist's guide to winter - Part 1: Cupcakes

Sunny days in London

The month of February brought an unusual and welcome guest to London: the sun!!

All of a sudden, the cold did not matter so much and I felt like those lucky New Yorkers with their winter bright skies. For about 2 weeks London was just perfect (well, almost: transport was still as chaotic as usual)!

Don't believe me? As sure as my camera is my witness, I swear...

Picspam: 2008 Red Carpet Face Off

Better late than never. I may have missed Sunday's red carpet reports but - as Lady Catherine de Bourgh would say - "I simply must have my share of this conversation". I am, after all, a big party frock enthusiast!

You Go Gal!

A common theme in the red carpet this year seemed to be relative newcomers stealing the fashion thunder of more established A-list actresses - check this out:

Katherine Heigl - The Knocked Up star was a knockout in red. This Escada dress was - in my opinion - not only the best of the red squad (I counted at least 5 ladies in red), it was the best of the whole evening. A wonderful one shoulder + elegant sweep combo.


Admittedly, I would not wear this Galliano dress in a million years but Oscar winner Diablo Cody looked amazing in it. And what a great idea to accessorize this bad girl gown with a big tattoo à la Brody Dalle. Much better than borrowed diamonds.

A controversial choice: Some considered it bland but I loved Zellweger's nod to vintage Hollywood in this sparkly Carolina Herrera. So glamorous! But I would have loved it even more had it been worn by a pale skinned brunette (I'm thinking ultimate glamour queen Dita Von Teese).

Must Try Harder

Marion Cotillard - I have nothing against the mermaid theme at the bottom but not keen on the foamy effect at the bust level. It looks like it's been finished off with whipped cream...

Penelope Cruz - She was one of my favorites last year, but now only one thing springs to mind with this Chanel: kangaroo pouch!

Heidi Klum is this year's winner of the "This dress is larger than life" award. Past winners include Charlize Theron (2006) and Nicole Kidman (2007).

And finally, Tim Burton and wife Helena Bonham Carter looking half eccentric, half drab as usual. No, wait... it's Day-Lewis and his missus, oh dear!!

Source: www.oscar.com

Othello: Ewan has really come a long way round

I had seen other high brow Shakespeare adaptations before (most memorably, Ralph Fiennes in Richard II and the wonderful Ben Daniels in As You Like it) but I think Michael Grandage's intimate staging of Othello, which mr. R and I were lucky enough to catch last weekend, raises the bar for theatrical greatness.

One of the Donmar Warehouse's biggest assets, other than its artistic director (Michael Grandage), is the pocket size space: with limited seating and a tiny stage one is drawn into the drama, not as spectator, but as an eyewitness... because you cannot physically distance yourself from the play you also get emotionally closer to it than in a conventional theatre (which makes me think: what a shame that the Donmar will be staging Twelfth Night and Hamlet at a much bigger venue!!). Add to that a strong cast, dramatic sound effects plus a few clever props to evoke Venice (a very interesting water feature replicating the canals and sewers) and later Cyprus (Turkish motifs, sun light pouring through the windows) and you have an Othello as poignant as it gets.

Some critics maintain that Ewan McGregor is miscast (probably the same ones who criticized Ewan's delicious all singing, all dancing Sky Masterson in Guys and Dolls) but I thought his Iago was spot on. If at first you cannot get the full dimension of his evil mind (and why would everyone trust Iago so blindly if he did not seem genuinely nice?), once he starts laboring the ugly beast of his revenge you really hate him! And yet you cannot help but empathize when Ewan shows Iago's obsession with Desdemona. He looks at her suggestively, he softly touches her. She is like a precious object he can never have... and how that plagues him! But here's just one of the myriad reasons he hates Othello so much.

When compared to Chiwetel Ejiofor's Othello there is no doubt Ewan's Iago is (and has to be!) a more subtle characterization. You get immediately taken with Chiwetel, he has enormous range and his diction of the Shakespearean verse is beautiful. His delivery of the text is so musical it is almost an operatic experience! Throughout you really feel this guy's pain, all his self doubt. The scene where he smothers the poor Desdemona was bone chilling. Same when he discovers the truth about Iago.

The all strong cast drew loud cheers from an adoring crowd. Given all the hype (ie. likeable Ewan playing a baddie!), the production is entirely sold out, but a limited number of day tickets are up for grabs. It's worth joining the queue!!

And Now For Something Completely Different

For the first posting of the year, Mr. R. volunteered to write a few words. And so we kick off 2008 through this e-portal to the world, making abstraction for just a few moments of my usual family of artistic, poetic, aesthetic, idyllic, balletic, operatic, symphonic, performatic, mystic, erratic, in short, epicurean wonders – So, without any further ado:

Reflections on “e-Beingness and e-Otherness”

As the year winds down; the wheel stops spinning for a few moments, we catch-up on sleep, reading, viewing our collection of movies, writing fragments of thoughts; all these delights cohabiting with the tediousness of tax returns and other administrative trivia and, and, and, and.

"We always find something, eh Didi, to give us the impression that we exist?"
S. Beckett, Waiting for Godot [exchange between Estragon & Vladimir]

Until the domino effects of the credit crunch forces our employers to “inflict” freedom and Contingency on us; cowardly one may continue pursuing the predictable (yet fickle) corporate ladder. Taking part in the 24/7 corporate stage play unfolding in offices, Eurostar and airports, permanently connected by the Blackberry implants (or rather, “Crackberry”), these e-fragments and e-trails are nothing more than our Synthetic corporate e-identities. A virtual irreality stage, driven by perceived necessity (à la Sisyphus).

Outside of our work environment, communication can also remain Synthetic. When these friendly excursions into apparent existence extend beyond any individualist framework, we interface with the “Other”. Nowadays, through our “electronic footprints … and e-litter” (thank you Google, Facebook, MySpace, Second Life... our Big Brothers), it is easy to find electronic fragments of amiable “Others”. Such Synthetic exchanges, including through our daily e-mails or even Blogs, give us a virtual “e-Contact”, however parsimonious, a refuge nonetheless for one’s craving for some form of friendly connectivity.

While our toil, and simply modern times, affords one the wonders of technology, and provides us with immediacy, accessibility and the varnish of sympathetic “e-Contact”; it often lacks the Intuition… or Contingency (element of chance, spontaneity, the fall of the dice versus necessity or pre-determination).

Authenticity, Contingency: frameworks so dear to our existentialist and phenomenological masters (think Kierkegaard, Heidegger, Sartre…) or as illustrated in literature or movie, from Lewis Carroll’s Alice falling down a rabbit-hole to Alain Resnais’ Smoking/No Smoking (which incidentally was based on Ayckbourn’s Intimate Exchanges); not forgetting most of Buñuel’s work; Kieslowski’s intuitive Double vie de Véronique or Three Colours trilogy; and even Richard Linklater’s Before Sunrise.

So as I reflect on the threat of the virtual fragments of e-Beingness, e-Otherness and Waiting for Godot; what might the solution be to reconcile one with Authenticity, Contingency and Intuition?

Do we need to undertake a radical rupture with the corporate world as advocated by Tom Hodginkson in How to be free? Is it just a question of reminding oneself of every moment’s infinite possibilities, in the maelstrom of 24/7 conference calls, Blackberrying, permanent business travel and meetings? How, within the confines of the spatio-temporal continuum, can we refrain from transferring our relationships with family and friends to the sphere of e-mails, Facebook, Blogs, e-Etc?

I have no answers… but a good start is to try focusing on the following challenge, and hopefully this will be a catalyst for more authentic connectivity with dear ones, reconciled with intuitive Beingness:

“… for a long time it had seemed to me that life was about to begin - real life. But there was always some obstacle in the way, something to be gotten through first, some unfinished business, time still to be served, or a debt to be paid. Then life would begin. At last it dawned on me that these obstacles were my life. This perspective has helped me to see there is no way to happiness. Happiness is the way. So treasure every moment you have and remember that time waits for no one…” - Souza

Matthew Williamson at the Design Museum

Here are some pictures taken by my fashion enthusiast friend Ciça at the fabulous Matthew Williamson exhibition at the Design Museum. Those who still want to catch this one should hurry (on until 31 January 2008 only)!

Some of Matthew's psychedelic patterns...

... and the final product:

Wallpaper-inspired "De Gournay" dresses: