CreativeMornings Austin: A Magical Initiation
It’s 7.30am and I’m peddling through South Austin’s winding roads, greeted by the glorious pink light of sunrise. The cool, fresh air envelops me; a welcome change after the past 6 months, more accustomed to the feeling of wearing a vest of hot coals. With 2 different lollipop ladies (mind my British, I mean ‘crossing guards’) waving me by...
A Dive Bar of Creativity: 125 Church Street prepares for launch
After the closure of a long-standing cocktail bar ‘White Rabbit’ in Stoke Newington (and not to be mistaken for it’s twin by name in Dalston, a recommended eatery which I wrote about during its advent), mutterings and shifty glances have been made whilst passing by the premises due to the masked windows covertly named ‘125...
A Romance Continued: Returning to New Orleans & Tasting the Deep South
It’s a beautiful thing to build a relationship with a City. Guidebooks can offer up suggestions, multiple apps help seek out hidden gems and there are always online recommendations (incredibly useful when in dire need of feeding), however I always find my best experiences are gained by seeking out and conversing with the locals. The...
Soaking up New Orleans: My NOLA Inauguration
Aside from Austin, Texas and a weekend in Las Vegas, I have had no other experience of the US of A until recently, when the fine opportunity to celebrate New Year’s Eve in “N’awlins” presented itself. I am sure like many others before, I speculated upon what NOLA had to offer (NOLA is the informal...
A Week in the Dark: The 57th BFI London Film Festival
The nights draw closer and the official end of British summertime approaches, which times perfectly with the arrival of the BFI’s 57th London Film Festival. This time of year never fails to excite me, particularly with a programme that ever widens with a delicious celluloid chocolate box to pick and choose from. I proclaim myself...
Gaining Inspiration at the Pop-Up Circus
Warning: please be aware there may be mention of dental pain in occasional descriptive detail. I may also spare you the information dear readers however it is one of the reasons I found inspiration for this latest article. Diminished creativity has been hindering my penmanship for some weeks and unlike the expected normality of scribing...
A Prodigal Daughter’s Philippine Adventure
Six years since my last visit and a journey I do not intend to delay again, a reunion with my family was eagerly looked forward to. There are many perceptions of the Philippines with the principal ideas gained mainly by encounters with the people administering to your needs in hospitals, cleaning your houses and caring...
Tuning into Talent at the London Jazz Festival 2012
“The combination of sounds with a view to beauty of form and expression of emotion” And so goes the description of MUSIC. Through the utilisation of a staggering number of instruments, as well as incorporating vocal chords to produce the finest food available to the ear, our human existence continually benefits from the endless possibilities...
Baltic Offerings to revisit this Winter
It occurred to me whilst perusing recent restaurant articles that there is a lot of information available to the reviewer (and reader) based on NEW openings and NEW places to “be” at. I share the enthusiasm that abounds from the mere mention of a new eatery and there is an enormous amount of reassurance gained...
Being Anti-Social: a movie-going mission at London Film Festival 2012
The BFI London Film Festival is an incredible excitement-inducing highlight in my calendar. This year marks its 56th run and appallingly I’ve only been attending the past four. A pity. Had I discovered it sooner, I may have been privy to many more (yet to be seen) motion treasures that seem to join a personal film-purgatory; a...
Cocktails Ahoy!
Impromptu and spontaneous; somehow the best evenings of enlightenment come from the unplanned. It is with these circumstances that saw me enter an unassuming doorway, down the dimly lit stairs and into the realms of speakeasy-esque Nightjar, the much talked about cocktail and music spot in Old Street. It has already built a reputation of...
Feed your ears, eyes and mouth at Trangallan
A long overdue reunion of friends was happily met with sunny skies one Wednesday afternoon in London. Damon & Michelle, two Texans I had the pleasure to make the acquaintance with back in Austin, had arrived in London in upbeat tempo. Regardless of over 30 hours lack of sleep (attributed to the excitement and unfortunate...