31 December 2011 HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

 

We cannot tell the precise moment when friendship formed. As in filling a vessel drop by drop, there is at last a drop which makes it run over; so in a series of kindness there is at last one which makes the heart run over. (Dr Johnson, 19 September 1777)  

 

26 November 2011.  Nick Turvey's sculptures at The Print Room in Hereford Road, London W2.  Inspiring.  Exhibition runs till 17 December. 

 

19 November 2011.  Two days in Durham filming Lumiere.  Unforgettable.  Especially Compagnie Carabosse's fire sculpture in Durham Cathedral.  What is it with me and cathedrals this month?  Many thanks to Richard Coulson and Joe Ziegler and congratulations to everyone at Artichoke for staging such a magical event.

 

9 November 2011.  Four fabulous days in Barcelona, staying once again at the Praktik Ramblas. Chic and understated, with green-tiled bathrooms and excellent value (so long as you don’t expect room service or a mini-bar), close to the centre of this magical city. 

We were walking distance from many of Antoni Gaudi’s masterpieces: La Pedrera (aka Casa Mila), Casa Batilo, and his greatest legacy, that still unfinished ode to the immanent and transcendent, the Sagrada Familia. When we first visited the basilica in August, I thought my boyfriend Pete might be undergoing a religious conversion. 

On Monday, a warm and sunny day, we took the bus to the Parc Guell on Barcelona’s Bald Mountain, home of the world famous mosaic dragon, where Count Guell had envisioned a garden city, but only ever sold three plots, including one for the show home which Gaudi ended up buying himself. There we struck up conversation with photographers Michael Smith and Paula Chamlee, visiting from Ottsville, Pennsylvania and exchanged travellers tips.  

We feasted like kings. In case you’re also planning a trip to Barcelona, these were our gastronomic highlights:

La Bodegueta Provinca (corner of Carrer de Provenca and Rambla de Cateluna):  foie gras, padron peppers and Spanish omelette. Recommendation courtesy of Martin Dufty.

Bar Tomas, Major de Sarria, 49 in the old town of Sarria:  their famous patates bravas, washed down with cold beer, are served by Ki Ke the waiter, whose fame is nearly as considerable as his tapas.  Recommendation courtesy of Rupert Thompson.

And on our last day, a third visit to Bar Mut (pau Claris 192, on the corner of Avenue Diagonal, opposite Casa Asia) finally paid off.  This time it was not only open but there was room for us too.  Crumbed fried rabbit ribs and seared tuna with seaweed followed by fried wild mushrooms and a taco of filet mignon topped with foie gras that melted in our mouths.  Scarily expensive but I wouldn’t have missed it for anything. Recommendation courtesy David Gryn.

 

2 November 2011.  War.  What is it good for?  Andrew Feinstein talks about his new book, The Shadow World: Inside The Global Arms Trade.  

 

30 October 2011  Tonight, Stuart Maconie featured on his Radio 6 Freak Zone show David Bedford’s 1976 album, The Odyssey, as a tribute to the composer, who died on 1 October. Mr Bedford - as I knew him - was one of my favourite music teachers at Queen’s College. When I was just 10 years old, he rounded up a group of us to perform one of his avant garde compositions (Some Bright Stars For Queen’s College) for the BBC and I still think of that day whenever I go to TV Centre, the excitement of participating in a television programme. I was in Mr Bedford's wine glass orchestra and part of a timpani orchestra, specially formed for Vangelis’ album Heaven & Hell and later we played timpani on stage at the Albert Hall. I even got to hit some of the tubular bells for a recording of the orchestrated version of Mike Oldfield’s seminal album.  

For Mr Bedford it must have been quite handy to have on tap an endless source of nubile girls to take part in his musical enterprises, but for me and my school chums, these were priceless insights into the professional music world, and perhaps no coincidence that after I graduated, my first job was running a recording studio. Music, under his guidance, was playful and fun. Above all, he taught us the value of originality, to follow our own path, just as he followed his own.