Hermès

Der Computer Nr 3 (France Gall)

Eton Wall Game

The League of British Maidenhood

Starálfur (Sigur Rós)

La plus belle aventure du monde, c’est la nôtre !

Happy New Year

I Still Miss Someone (Johnny Cash)

Merry Christmas 2009

Scottish Rite

I acquired my first pipe in 1997. An Austrian friend from boarding school bought it for me from a tobacconist in Covent Garden. The model was called 'The Prince,' so named for the Duke of Windsor who was partial to the style. After a period of experimentation I settled on a favourite tobacco, Black Cherry Cavendish, and soon learned that Davidoff and J.J. Fox offered a premium supply. I even attended a few meetings of the Pipe Club in London. From my social circle I was introduced to a fellow pipe enthusiast, an elderly English gent in a trench coat who wrote action novels. Pipe smoking is an experience that introduces one to a world of pleasure, mental lucidity, and self-transcendence.

Fad Gadget

Hackett à Paris

© 2009 Monsieur

Nicky Haslam: Redeeming Features

Nicky Haslam has found himself at the centre of the most interesting circles wherever he is--at parties, opening nights, royal weddings. In London in the late '50s he crossed paths--and more--with Cecil Beaton, Francis Bacon, Diana Cooper, Lucian Freud, David Hockney and Noel Coward. In the '60s, in New York, he encountered Dorothy Parker, Cole Porter, Andy Warhol, Jack Kennedy and Marilyn Monroe while working at "Vogue" and "Show" magazines, before decamping to a ranch in Arizona to raise Arabian horses, when he wasn't commuting to Los Angeles to decorate for the stars. Back in England in the early '80s, he attended the wedding of his cousin Diana Spencer and designed for everyone from James Goldsmith to Bryan Ferry. Haslam is a gifted and exuberant storyteller with an exacting eye for the telling detail. "Redeeming Features" is a fascinating look at our culture, a compelling and wholly singular document of our times.

Nickly Haslam on cuff links:

"...I hate cufflinks. I think they're very ageing. And also, cufflinks were meant for when the cuffs of the shirt were stiff, and you couldn't do up the buttons; for evening wear. You should never wear cufflinks in the day time. It looks terrible."

The Observer, 11 May, 2008

Northern Sons Under Southern Skies

Dreamhome

Manhattan, München, & Martini

Manhattan, München, & Martini

Für den Fall, daß du einmal in die Situation gerätst, einem Barkeeper oder einer Aushilfsbedienung erklären zu müssen, aus welchen Zutaten sich deine Bestellung zusammensetzt und wie dein Drink zu sein hat und wie nicht. Immer öfter nämlich werden, so irrtümlich wie fließend, Grenzen verwischt oder, wie jüngst in einem nicht nennenswerten Schickimicki Establishment der Stadt (welches sich um internationale Größe bemüht), wo ich einen Martini Classic Dry bestelle und damit schon das System der Barkeeperin überanstrengte, die einfach nur auf Prosseco Caipi und Champagner programmiert war - und mir nach gestreßter Ratlosigkeit schließlich ein normales Standardglas präsentierte, das sie zur Hälfte mit Martini auffüllte und fertig.

Echte Barkeeper--davon gibt es in keiner Stadt zuviel. Man muß wissen, wo sie walten. Man kann und darf ihnen vertrauen. Sie wissen, was sie tun, - sie leben nach ihrer Berufung und müssen an kein Studium denken, während sie in alchimistischer Würde den Drink bereiten, der dich erhebt.

Classic Dry Martini/Martini Cocktail

2 cl Martini Extra Dry
7 cl Bombay Sapphire London Dry Gin
Olive

Den Martini Extra Dry und den Bombay Sapphire London Dry Gin in einen mit Eis gekühlten Shaker geben. Schütteln und dann in ein gut gekühltes Stielglas gießen und mit einer Zitrone oder Olive garnieren. (Wir empfehlen grundsätzlich die Olive.)

Manhattan

4 cl Jack Daniel's Tennessee Whiskey
2 cl Martini Rosso
1 Spritzer Angostura

Zutaten in ein Rührglas mit viel Eis geben und verrühren, ohne die Eiswürfel in ein vorgekühltes Martiniglas abgießen.

Manhattan Dry

4 cl Woodford Reserve Distiller's Select Whiskey
2 cl Martini Dry
1 Spritzer Angostura

Zubereitung wie Manhattan. Eine grüne Olive mit dazugeben.

Modern Drunkard: In Defence of Drink

Larkin on England

I thought it would last my time -
The sense that, beyond the town,
There would always be fields and farms,
Where the village louts could climb
Such trees as were not cut down;
I knew there'd be false alarms

In the papers about old streets
And split level shopping, but some
Have always been left so far;
And when the old part retreats
As the bleak high-risers come
We can always escape in the car.

Things are tougher than we are, just
As earth will always respond
However we mess it about;
Chuck filth in the sea, if you must:
The tides will be clean beyond.
- But what do I feel now? Doubt?

Or age, simply? The crowd
Is young in the M1 cafe;
Their kids are screaming for more -
More houses, more parking allowed,
More caravan sites, more pay.
On the Business Page, a score

Of spectacled grins approve
Some takeover bid that entails
Five per cent profit (and ten
Per cent more in the estuaries): move
Your works to the unspoilt dales
(Grey area grants)! And when

You try to get near the sea
In summer . . .
It seems, just now,
To be happening so very fast;
Despite all the land left free
For the first time I feel somehow
That it isn't going to last,

That before I snuff it, the whole
Boiling will be bricked in
Except for the tourist parts -
First slum of Europe: a role
It won't be hard to win,
With a cast of crooks and tarts.

And that will be England gone,
The shadows, the meadows, the lanes,
The guildhalls, the carved choirs.
There'll be books; it will linger on
In galleries; but all that remains
For us will be concrete and tyres.

Most things are never meant.
This won't be, most likely; but greeds
And garbage are too thick-strewn
To be swept up now, or invent
Excuses that make them all needs.
I just think it will happen, soon.

Going, Going, Philip Larkin (1972)