How to make a Drambuie cocktail fit to raise the dead September 24, 2012 Morning Wire’s resident cocktail expert TO MAKE Donn Beach’s infamous Zombie cocktail you’ll need white rum, golden rum, dark rum, apricot brandy, fresh pineapple juice, fresh papaya juice, 151-proof rum and grenadine. Good luck with that. Making some cocktails is akin to trying to cook like Heston Blumenthal. You’ll be back on the beer in [...]
Antarctica is a mysterious, icy wonderland and a visual feast September 23, 2012 THE Antarctic tundra is a black and white world, except for the occasional colourful beak, feather, foot or fin, or the blue ice and turquoise underbelly of a whale. While it is certainly remote and desolate, it is also pure and peaceful: it makes you feel alive. From October to March, there is no night [...]
Open House unlocks London’s hidden gems September 20, 2012 The Gherkin 30 St Mary Axe, EC3A 8EP; Sunday 9am-5pm Sir Norman Foster’s spectacular 40-storey office building has become a landmark of the London skyline. Built in the heart of the financial district, it has 360-degree views across the city. Every 10 minutes, groups of 30 people will be shown around this magnificent building. Heron [...]
Pre-Raphaelite exhibition is an ethereal, poetic success September 20, 2012 ART PRE-RAPHAELITE, VICTORIAN AVANT GARDE Tate Britain | **** THE TATE Britain presents the most extensive Pre-Raphaelite exhibition on these shores in 25 years. The collection maps the progress of the brotherhood, paying special focus to the three originators; Dante Gabriel Rossetti, John Everett Millais and William Holman Hunt, and records how they challenged the [...]
Enjoy the glut of new openings near the City September 20, 2012 This Month has seen an unprecedented number of openings across the capital, particularly in the City. The first that warrants attention is NeNe, which is located nearby the lovely, and formerly lonely, Eight Club Moorgate and in the same building as L’Anima. NeNe adjoins Chrysan, the first international venture from the Japanese visionary Yoshihiro Murata. [...]
Hysteria is a coy toothless cartoon September 20, 2012 FILM HYSTERIA Cert 15 | * Hysteria, the story about the invention of the vibrator in Victorian London, could have been the perfect companion piece to Maggie Gyllenhaal’s sexually-charged 2002 movie, Secretary. It promises to be an exploration of female desire, a subject that remains something of a taboo in mainstream cinema. Instead, we get [...]
Now is Good… But it ain’t great September 20, 2012 FILM NOW IS GOOD Cert 12A | *** Now is Good is a mawkish but ultimately effective teen weepie. It follows the last months in the life of terminally ill 17-year-old Tessa (Dakota Fanning) as she ticks off a list of things she wants to experience before death. One of the things on the list [...]
Pitt’s latest is blunt, violent and zingy as hell September 20, 2012 FILM KILLING THEM SOFTLY Cert 18 | **** Killing Them Softly has the kind of script that, in lesser hands, and with lesser actors, could have been laughably bad. But director Andrew Dominik, the man behind the excellent The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, never blinks as he unfurls this ultra-violent, [...]
These contrasting dramas have their moments but are sunk by insurmountable flaws September 20, 2012 FILM SAVAGES Cert 15 | ** Oliver Stone’s latest follows the progress of cannabis farmers Ben (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) and Chon (Taylor Kitsch) and the beautiful beach bum girlfriend that they share, O (Blake Lively). Bound by a mutual devotion to O and getting stoned, Ben and Chon live in hazy harmony in their massive cannabis [...]
London fashion week: the trend report September 19, 2012 Neon After last season’s preoccupation with dark glamour, the neutral colours making the rounds this season have been quite the palette cleanser. But the collections haven’t been completely without colour. Even John Rocha, who doesn’t tend to steer too far from monochromatic hues, introduced colour for the first time on a series of neon dresses. [...]