2011年3月31日 星期四

Brick Lane/ Banglatown

磚巷成為2012奧運咖喱之都

磚巷

咖喱餐廳聚集的磚巷又被稱為孟加拉城。

倫敦東區著名的咖喱餐廳聚集地——磚巷(Brick Lane)獲得奧運組辦方命名為「2012咖喱之都」。

倫敦奧組委(LOCOG)主席塞巴斯蒂安·科勛爵(Lord Coe)日前陪同前來倫敦視察奧運準備工作的國際奧委會官員造訪了磚巷的咖喱文化。

磚巷及其所在的鄰近地區又被稱為孟加拉城(Banglatown),一直以咖喱餐廳聚集而聞名。

科勛爵表示,奧運承諾要支持地方性商業活動,帶動當地就業人口,將磚巷和孟加拉城命名為「2012咖喱之都」,是我們實現承諾的一部分。

磚巷所在的陶爾哈姆萊茨(Tower Hamlets)地方政府表示,磚巷是一個蓬勃發展的地方,很多方面都符合奧運精神,例如從艱困環境中成長,包容新的文化,提供一流的娛樂。

馬拉松風波

此前,2012年倫敦奧運將馬拉松比賽路線改到倫敦市中心,讓東倫敦的陶爾哈姆萊茨的地方政府感到很不高興。

馬拉松比賽路線原本涵蓋陶爾哈姆萊茨大部分地點,但是奧運組委會後來將路線改到市中心,包括白金漢宮、聖保羅大教堂和議會大廈。

奧運組委會說,因為「運作考量」而更改路線,但陶爾哈姆萊茨地方政府指責奧運組委會「背叛」承諾,並計劃尋求法律途徑解決。

奧運組委會後來承諾,提供陶爾哈姆萊茨當地學校學生免費入場卷,當地居民享有優先工作權,陶爾哈姆萊茨地方政府才撤銷法律行動。

2011年3月26日 星期六

Londoners embrace the speakeasy bar culture

Inside Europe | 26.03.2011 | 07:05

Londoners embrace the speakeasy bar culture

London's classiest cocktail lovers are turning to America's Great Depression for inspiration - but not for the quality of its alcohol.

The prohibition-era may have brought hard times as drinking was forced underground, but Londoners have discovered a glamour to 1920s America. The secretive 'speakeasy' bar culture is back, as Nina-Maria Potts reports.






Londoners embrace the speakeasy bar culture

London's classiest cocktail lovers are turning to America's Great
Depression for inspiration - but not for the quality of its alcohol.

The DW-WORLD.DE Article
http://newsletter.dw-world.de/re?l=ew99gnI44va89pI8

prohibition of books :禁書。詳見 index of forbidden books

prohibition
[名]
1 [U]((主に米))酒類の製造販売禁止. ⇒TEMPERANCE 1
2 ((しばしばP-))((米))禁酒法時代(1920-33).
3 [U]禁止, 差し止め, 禁制;[C](…の)禁止(法)令((against, on ...)).
pro・hi・bi・tion・àr・y
[形]
pro・hi・bi・tion・ist
[名]((主に米))(酒類製造販売)禁止論者;((P-))禁酒党党員.
speakeasy
(spēk'ē') pronunciation
n., pl., -ies.
A place for the illegal sale and consumption of alcoholic drinks, as during Prohibition in the United States.

No Cuts: Thousands march in London against austerity measures

Politics | 26.03.2011

Thousands march in London against austerity measures

Up to 250,000 demonstrators thronged the streets of London to protest planned government cuts to tackle a massive budget deficit. The "March for the Alternative" marked the biggest protests since the Iraq war.

In possibly the biggest protests since those against the Iraq war in February 2003, organizers say up to 250,000 people took to the streets of London to show their frustration with planned austerity measures designed to cut a record budget deficit.

Police would not confirm that number.

People carried banners reading "Don't break Britain" and "No to cuts" in the largely peaceful protests, with about 4,500 police standing by.

violence at protestBildunterschrift: Großansicht des Bildes mit der Bildunterschrift: A small, breakaway group got violent

The protests were characterized by an almost carnival atmosphere, with dancers, choirs, bagpipers and the sound of vuvuzelas providing the backdrop.

Some demonstrators set off flares and fireworks, however, and a small breakawawy group threw bottles and paint at a branch of the Royal Bank of Scotland, one of the UK's largest banking groups.

Masked demonstrators smashed the windows of clothing chain Topshop on Oxford Street in central London and there were sporadic scuffles with police.

The "March for the Alternative," was organized by Britain's umbrella union body, the Trades Union Congress (TUC), to protest plans by Britain's Conservative-Liberal government to slash public services to the tune of 81 billion pounds (92 billion euros, $130 billion).

The cuts are an attempt to almost eliminate by 2015 the country's soaring budget deficit, currently 10 percent of gross domestic product (GDP), which the current government blames on the previous Labour administration.

Bildunterschrift:

Opposition: measures too harsh

Unions and the opposition Labour Party say the measures go too far, too fast and bring misery to millions in Britain, where unemployment is at its highest level since 1994.

"Our struggle is to fight to preserve, protect and defend the best of the services we cherish because they represent the best of the country we love," Labour leader Ed Miliband told demonstrators in London's Hyde Park.

The government, meanwhile, insists the cuts are painful but necessary.

Anti-austerity protests in LondonBildunterschrift: Großansicht des Bildes mit der Bildunterschrift: Saturday's protest was likely the largest since the Iraq war demonstrations

"Of course, people will feel a sense of disquiet, in some cases anger, at what they see happening," Education Minister Michael Gove told BBC Radio.

"But the difficulty we have, as the government inheriting a terrible economic mess, is that we have to take steps to bring public finances into balance," he said in a thinly veiled swipe at the previous Labour government.

The demonstrations follow student protests last year against a tripling of university tuition fees. Several of those demonstrations turned violent, with one resulting in protesters damaging the car carrying heir-to-the-throne Prince Charles and his wife Camilla.

Author: Nicole Goebel (AFP, Reuters)
Editor: Kyle James

2011年3月16日 星期三

The Lord Mayor's Show

倫敦金融城(City of London)為在大倫敦市的核心地帶,面積約1平方英里,所以也有Square mile之稱;金融城內有上百家銀行及倫敦證交所,是倫敦及歐洲的金融重鎮。

金融城市長(The Lord Mayor of the City ofLondon)任期一年,不具有大倫敦市的治權,主要任務為倫敦金融城的金融服務業及貿易推廣等,每年由區內各公會選出後,舉辦慶祝市長就職的遊行活動(Lord Mayor show 錯誤)。

倫敦金融城市長白爾雅(Michael Bear)今晚抵台訪問4天,重點在推廣「低碳經濟」發展,他將在明天以「台灣與英國:攜手合作求成長」為題發表演講。

Lord Mayor's Show - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

- [ 翻譯此頁 ]


The Lord Mayor's Show is one of the longest established and best known annual events in London which dates back to 1535[1]. The Lord Mayor in question is that of the City of London, the historic centre of London that is now the metropolis's financial district, informally known as the Square Mile. A new Lord Mayor is appointed every year and the public parade that is made of his inauguration reflects the fact that this was once one of the most prominent offices in England. The ancient position of Lord Mayor of London has a role in the Square Mile, whilst the Mayor of London (which has existed only since 2000) is a different individual entirely, namely the elected head of the Greater London Authority.

The event is a street parade which in its modern form is a fairly light-hearted combination of traditional British pageantry and elements of carnival. On the day after being sworn in, the Lord Mayor and several others participate in a procession from the City of London to the Royal Courts of Justice in the City of Westminster, where the Lord Mayor swears his allegiance to the Crown.

2011年3月15日 星期二

Fast-car-loving U.K. executives—and football stars—are in for a financial blow.

OVERHEARD: Fast-Car Slowdown
Fast-car-loving U.K. executives—and football stars—are in for a financial blow. Drivers of company cars currently pay annual income tax on their cars, but the tax is capped when the underlying car's value exceeds £80,000 ($128,700), meaning owners face a maximum tax bill of £14,000. That cap will disappear after April 6, due to a decision made by the previous Labour government in 2009, which the current administration hasn't reversed. Accounting firm Baker Tilly says that means, for example, that the owner of a Ferrari 612 worth £222,000 could be liable for income tax of £39,000 next year. The extra tax is most likely to hit bosses of small owner-run businesses who have used the tax break to buy themselves a Mercedes or the like. But soccer players who drive sponsored cars could be hit as well—worse than a red card, for many.

2011年3月13日 星期日

Rococo Chocolates

Our new flagship store in Belgravia's Motcomb Street opened in December 2007. It is full of hidden treasures, including the MaRococo secret garden, a Moorish courtyard oasis for sitting with a rich hot chocolate, tea or coffee from the cafe. A glass window in the shop floor lets you spy on the kitchen as we make delicate fresh truffles and dream up new flavours. This kitchen is also where we hold chocolate school (the kind of classes you dreamed of as a child), host bespoke parties and where we have even organised (successful!) marriage proposals.

轉個頭,卻在一口朱古力裏,感受到風和日麗。
朱古力 (廣東話) /巧克力 都是力


原來世上有朱古力師!83年剛自大學畢業Chantal Coady到底是先有這個發現,抑或純粹是一股對朱古力無法抵擋的熱情,帶她走了這麼遠?Rococo Chocolates開在倫敦Belgravia的店,是一家個性小店。小店地牢是工場(圖1),地面有塊玻璃讓客人的視線直達下面,看得見朱古力師的專 注,貨品的價錢並不便宜,但跟香港慣見的意大利名牌的華麗氣派很不一樣,她儼然就是童話中的糖果屋,歡欣的田園氣息滿滿,朱古力花樣百出也色彩繽紛(圖 2、3),每一個角落都放着無限驚喜——說的暫且是視覺上,好戲還在後頭。

Coady在大學念紡織設計,一切出於她對朱古力的喜愛。市面上 只那幾個銷售商,根本滿足不了她,她很想做一點徹底不一樣的。初開店,倫敦不過幾個朱古力師,「可能是英國人事事挑戰的精神吧,why not?」28年過去,在著名產可可豆的格林納達開立聯營公司,出了3本書,共有3家店,拿過獎而且看來很有機會拿個更大的獎,辦了一間朱古力烹製學校, 她仍然繼續做着拓闊朱古力定義的各種嘗試,為朱古力調出無數味道。來自香港的我,對朱古力的味覺世界認知牢固地貧乏,不外是果仁花生脆米酒心橙等選擇吧, 香港不就是來來去去都是ABCD餐那幾味嗎?此行我首次知道竟有海鹽朱古力這回事,多麼paradoxical!他們說這是奧巴馬(相關)的摯愛。

都 是舊故事了。新的,在大家喝一口未經發酵的英國茶以後正式放上枱面,那是2010/2011年度特色設計的多款新口味,我們在創作人的指導下,一邊聽他描 摹品味一邊順着次序放肆地吃,先由牛奶味開始,然後是原味,格林納達麥芽甘納許,黑加侖子紫羅蘭,玫瑰荔枝山莓——配搭多麼新奇,賣相也經過悉心設計,全 都是前所未有味道感受。到咬一口青檸芝麻,精神為之一振,就是前面說過的風和日麗了,清新輕快而甜美。驚鴻一瞥,離去前心想,鐵定是要回來再慢慢精選手 信,讓大伙兒也開開味界了,這一回,他們不會說「又買朱古力?香港都有啦」了吧。

不,網上購買也只限本國。暫時仍是倫敦的「土產」。

關於這個朱古力故事,我實在不想說出「創意」兩個字,爛啊,只想說,倫敦的天空真是有點不一樣,敢想敢做的人,特別有福。我知,我知財爺不會同意,他會說,我們有莎莎。


About Rococo

Rococo was founded in March 1983 by Chantal Coady.

Coady graduated in Textile Design (Camberwell School of Art & Crafts) in 1981, and went on to complete an MSC Small Business Course. Armed with a little knowledge, a dangerous passion for chocolate and a belief that there was room for a radically different approach to chocolate, she decided to open a shop in the King's Road (Chelsea, London). 26 years later, the author of three books about chocolate, Coady still pushes forward to boundaries of chocolate retailing with 3 shops in London - the flagship store is at Motcomb St, in the heart of Belgravia.

CHANTAL COADY AND ROCOCO AWARDED SPECIAL PRIZE FOR 'CHANGING THE WAY PEOPLE THINK ABOUT CHOCOLATE' Academy of Chocolate Awards 2008

Rococo, Grococo and the Grenada Chocolate Company: A Potted History.

This story began in Spring 2002, when we first tasted some chocolate from the Grenada Chocolate Company. We fell in love with it, and in 2004 we visited the island of Grenada to make a chocolate documentary with film maker Eti Peleg. During this visit we met Mott, Edmond and Doug who founded the Grenada Chocolate Company in 1999, and with whom we formed strong friendships, forged over countless cups of Grenadian cocoa tea and chocolate bars. Later that year, Grenada was hit by Hurricane Ivan; when Hurricane Emily came less than a year later, more damage was sustained at the northern tip where the GCC are based. All the cocoa on the island was devastated, and it would be 5 years before the next really good harvest. In aid of the Grenada Relief Fund, ‘Hearts and Hands’, Rococo produced a special edition ‘Hurricane Emily Bar’. This was made from the chocolate that had been in the conch when the storm hit, combined with Rococo’s own organic chocolate.

In 2007, a small cocoa farm came up for sale, close to the Belmont Estate, offering the perfect opportunity for a joint venture between Rococo and the Grenada Chocolate Company to produce fairly traded "ethical" chocolate. This plot of land, which we call GROCOCO, is now the ‘home farm’ which supplies 100% of its harvest of fine flavoured organic Trinitario cocoa beans to the GCC where they are made into fine chocolate. It was also one of the founding farms that make up The Grenada Organic Cocoa Farmers' Cooperative.

Seven years after our first taste of Grenada chocolate, we will be mixing Grococo beans with the Rococo Organic House Blend. From now on, all Rococo’s organic products will include Grococo beans in the recipe.

Fair Trade

According to one of the founders, it's more than procrastination that's kept them from filing the paperwork: Fair-trade chocolate companies still, almost exclusively, process the value-added product in the first world with raw materials they import from the equatorial belt where cocoa grows. In that way, even the fair-trade system perpetuates a cycle the founders of the Grenada Chocolate Co. are determined to break. "They're buying cocoa from the south part of the world to bring it to the north part of the world," Green said. "But what we're doing can effectively make sure that the people doing the work are actually part of the process.

Source: Salon magazine.

2011年3月1日 星期二

Winfield HouseIs Showcase for American Art

LONDON — Winfield House, which has been home to American ambassadors here since 1954, is a stately neo-Georgian mansion nestled in 12 ½ acres in the northwest corner of Regent’s Park. Originally built for Barbara Hutton, the Woolworth heiress, in the 1930s, it was sold to the United States government for $1 shortly after World War II. Its imposing facade has not always been appreciated by the British; in 1937, when it was still under construction, the venerable British journal The Architectural Review described the redbrick structure as “pinkly glowing like an open sore.”
****
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jump to: navigation, search
Winfield House, London

Winfield House is a mansion set in 12 acres (49,000 m²) of grounds in Regent's Park, London, the largest private garden in or close to central London after that of Buckingham Palace. It is the official residence of the United States Ambassador to the Court of St. James's.

[edit] History

The first house on the site was Hertford Villa, later known as St Dunstan's. This was the largest of the eight villas originally built in Regent's Park as part of John Nash's development scheme. Occupants of the villa included the Marquesses of Hertford, newspaper proprietor Lord Rothermere, and the American financier Otto H. Kahn. The villa was damaged by fire in the 1930s and was subsequently purchased by the American heiress Barbara Hutton, who demolished it and replaced it with the existing Neo-Georgian mansion designed by Leonard Rome Guthrie of the English architectural practice Wimperis, Simpson and Guthrie. The house's name derives from Barbara Hutton's grandfather Frank Winfield Woolworth and likely his famed Glen Cove Estate, Winfield Hall. Hutton's only child, Lance Reventlow, was born in Winfield House.

In World War II Winfield House was used by a Royal Air Force 906 barrage balloon unit. It was visited during the war by Cary Grant, who was Barbara Hutton's husband at the time. After the war Hutton sold the house to the American government for one dollar, and it has been the official residence of the United States Ambassadors to the Court of St. James's since 1955. In the early 1950s, the building had been used as the London officers club for the 3rd Air Force. Among the ambassadors in residence has been Walter Annenberg, Anne Armstrong, and John Hay Whitney, and the house has been visited by Queen Elizabeth II, several U.S. presidents and many distinguished guests.


Winfield House has been listed on the United States Secretary of State’s Register of Culturally Significant Property, which denotes properties owned by the Department of State that have particular cultural or historical significance.

In light of the planned relocation of the Chancery to Nine Elms in Wandsworth, it is possible that the official residence of the Ambassador may also be relocated to a more convenient location.

U.S. President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama stayed at Winfield House during their visit to London on March 31-April 2, 2009.

[edit] See also

***

In London, Embassy Residence Is Showcase for American Art


第一段在本文最前面
Multimedia
The Art of Winfield House

Hazel Thompson for The New York Times

Ambassador Louis B. Susman and his wife, Marjorie. Behind them is Ad Reinhardt’s “Abstract Painting, Red.”



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But its interiors are about as grand as grand can get, and the art inside has sometimes been even grander. In 1969, when the publishing magnate Walter H. Annenberg moved in, he brought much of his own collection, including three Monets, two Gauguins, five Cézannes, two van Goghs, three Renoirs and a Toulouse-Lautrec.

Nowadays filling an American ambassador’s residence with European paintings would raise a few eyebrows; instead, the current occupants have gone American. In the house’s entrance two large red-and-orange canvases by Mark Rothko share space with sculptures by Martin Puryear and Claes Oldenburg. In the stairwell, an Ellsworth Kelly faces a Jasper Johns. And the state rooms beyond are filled with prime examples of other American masters, including Roy Lichtenstein, Louise Bourgeois and Philip Guston.

This showcase has been assembled by Ambassador Louis B. Susman, a lawyer, retired investment banker and longtime Democratic Party fund-raiser, and his wife, Marjorie.

“From the moment Louis got the appointment I thought about bringing American art to Winfield House,” said Ms. Susman, a petite woman with a Midwest twang. The couple, who are from Chicago, have been art lovers and collectors for decades. Until his appointment Mr. Susman served on the board of the Art Institute of Chicago, and Ms. Susman still sits on the board of the Museum of Contemporary Art there. (From 1991 until 2009 she was also a representative for Sotheby’s.)

When they moved to London in 2009, much of their art came with them. There is a delicate red-and-black watercolor by Brice Marden; a 1997 dark blue curved canvas by Mr. Kelly (who provided them with detailed installation instructions for the move) and two abstract paintings by Ad Reinhardt. Bringing their own things made them feel at home, Ms. Susman said.

But with its 35 rooms Winfield House has a lot of space to fill. So even before she arrived Ms. Susman started talking to museums, dealers and collectors about loans. She also teamed up with the State Department’s Art in Embassies Program, which was created in the early 1960s to organize and facilitate loans to American outposts abroad, especially diplomatic residences. “We made a dream list of what we wanted,” Ms. Susman said. “We see this as a way of combining our passion for art with our new diplomatic role.” The previous ambassador, Robert H. Tuttle, and his wife, Maria, were also art collectors, and they too had contemporary art around Winfield House — works by de Kooning and Rothko and Mr. Kelly.

Ms. Susman has a mission. “There is a very active art world in the U.K.,” she said, “and we’re initiating outreach. We have this elegant home, and it’s a public place, and we want as many people to enjoy it as possible.”

The National Gallery of Art in Washington served up the two Rothkos; Agnes Gund, the New York collector and president emerita of the Museum of Modern Art, lent several works too, including another painting by Mr. Marden and one by Lichtenstein; and the Pace Gallery sent several things from its stable of artists, like a 1958 painting by Agnes Martin and a colorful chrome and steel sculpture from 2007 by John Chamberlain.

Some works were chosen for their subject matter and history. The Willem de Kooning Foundation lent Winfield House charcoal drawings of the Washington Monument; the Art Institute of Chicago sent over a bronze American flag that Jasper Johns made in 1960. “Leo Castelli gave one to J.F.K. when he was in the White House,” Ms. Susman said, adding that one of the Chamberlain sculptures fashioned from twisted and smashed up car parts, reflects “America’s fascination with the automobile.”

Some artists, like Mr. Johns, lent them works from his own collection like the 1998 painting “Untitled (Red, Yellow, Blue)” that hangs opposite the grand staircase. “It’s always been nice to have American art shown abroad,” Mr. Johns said.

As advocates for American art, the Susmans have not been shy in reaching out. In early 2010, when the actors Alfred Molina and Eddie Redmayne were playing in “Red,” the play about the life of Mark Rothko that ran in London before coming to New York, they were invited to come study the Rothkos in the entrance hall. The couple have also been host to gospel choirs and museum directors; other actors like James Earl Jones and the cast of “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof”; as well as scores of art students from places like the Courtauld Institute of Art and the Royal College of Art.

Two students from an art college in Birmingham, who are involved in a study program with the Ikon Gallery there, were among a group of 11 who toured Winfield House last year. “I thought it was incredible to see such important works out of a gallery context,” said Sean Burns, 19, who said that he was also “really impressed to see the Rothkos and other Abstract Expressionists” he had been studying. One glaring omission Mr. Burns noticed: “They didn’t have a Warhol,” something he said he mentioned to Ms. Susman. (They do now — having borrowed a 1978 self-portrait from the collection of Anthony d’Offay, the retired London dealer.)

His classmate James Lawrence Slattery said visiting Winfield House was particularly interesting because it gave her a chance to see a Jasper Johns for the first time. “In real life, up close, it has real impact,” she said.

For Ms. Susman, “the art tells an American story,” she said one wintry afternoon over tea in the Green Room, an elegant space that has walls covered in 18th-century Chinese wallpaper and French doors looking out to the garden. Over the fireplace, where a Gainsborough portrait once hung, a bright red abstract canvas by Reinhardt makes for a somewhat startling centerpiece.

The couple say they are well aware that not everyone who visits will be pleased by their taste in art. But that’s O.K. too. As Ms. Susman said, “It’s great for getting the conversation going.”