Stalin and the other Soviet leaders were very popular. Whenever any leader popped round they would always bring a present. An enthralling exhibition at the Museum of Contemporary History displays some of the bizarre and grovelling gifts that countries and leaders bestowed on the most powerful men in the world. Displays include a telephone in the shape of a globe with a hammer-and-sickle receiver sent by Polish workers and a pipe with a mini Stalin drawn on it.
Dates, Events, People: Pages of History in Gifts
November 19, 2008 · Comments Off
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Tagged: dates, events, people:, pages, history, gifts
Vicar Street
November 18, 2008 · Comments Off
As a music venue, Vicar Street is well known, but don’t let a lack of tickets to the next big gig stop you from popping in for a drink. The gorgeously designed main bar is big and bright, with windows on the world it seems - the most coveted seating areas are somewhere between the floor-to-ceiling windows and beside the huge roaring fire. As a lunch venue, the bar menu is substantial enough, with a moderately good wine list. Expect the usual leek and potato soup and ciabatta sandwiches. And best of all, as most people only think of going to Vicar Street for a pint before the gig starts, it’s empty most of the time.
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Tagged: foreign, holiday, street, travel, vicar
Karl Bryullov
November 17, 2008 · Comments Off
The vast canvas of ‘The Last Day of Pompeii’ goes on show in Moscow for the first time in an exhibition featuring 200 of Karl Bryullov’s paintings and drawings. Bryullov, who is known as Great Karl by Russian schoochildren, has always been valued as a master. His most famous painting of Pompeii residents fleeing the fire-spewing volcano is usually housed in St Petersburg’s Russian museum. Bryullov’s other works are more serene - portraits of aristocrats, sketches, drawings and doodles that include more than a little of the erotic.
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Tagged: holiday, flights, trip, karl, bryullov
Brussels by Light
November 13, 2008 · Comments Off
If any city could be described as a chameleon, it would be Brussels. Alternating between a big village, with a real sense of community, and a bureaucratic wasteland, inhabited more by office-blocks than people, it draws a curiously ambivalent response from visitors and residents alike. This exhibition captures that juxtaposition of ugliness and beauty, using the works of 11 photo-artists, including such celebrated snappers as Dirk Braeckman and Marin Kasimir. Organised as part of the events for Brussels’ stint as a European City of Culture.
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Tagged: brussels, hotels, light
Art of Accelerated Time
November 6, 2008 · Comments Off
A comprehensive showcase of Czech art from the 1960s, this collection poses the poignant question ‘What if?’. More than a few people believed that the Prague Spring of 1968 would finally give official free reign to artists already emboldened by Dubcek’s ‘Socialism with a Human Face’. That lost chance puts these provocative, experimental and whimsical images by the likes of Jiri Kolar into a bittersweet perspective.
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Tagged: accelerated, art, time
Etiopia-Abuelas Borana
November 5, 2008 · Comments Off
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Tagged: borana, domestic, etiopia-abuelas, fun, photos, travel
John Prine + Iris De Ment
November 1, 2008 · Comments Off
American legend John Prine plays the Olympia for one night only, supported by the smooth-voiced Irish De Ment. The 1970s singer-songwriter has braved throat cancer and an inescapable ‘new Dylan’ tag to record an album of duets with the likes of Dolores Keane, Emmylou Harris and De Ment. Prine has an uncanny knack for touching on universal truths via songs populated with everyday, small-town characters and Irish fans will be thrilled with chance to catch the main man himself.
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Tagged: john, prine, +, iris, de, ment
Le Derrière
October 28, 2008 · Comments Off
To win the affections of the gay dad she’s never known, Frédérique (Valérie Lemercier) dresses up as a boy. But her country upbringing was short on cultural savvy, and her clubby clothes and mincing walk are the sort of queer clichés that make her father squirm. He and his boyfriend (Dieudonné) work hard to keep their affair out of the public eye, and Frédérique’s gay act embarrasses rather than pleases. Lemercier’s second film as director and actress is a very funny, sometimes burlesque, tale, which refreshingly casts homosexuality as a norm from which its straight characters deviate. Visual gags, a witty script and colourful sets are married to warm performances that are nuanced enough to be both hilarious and touching. (In French.)
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Tagged: derrière, domestic, flights, foreign, le
Sweet William
October 27, 2008 · Comments Off
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Tagged: domestic, fun, photos, sweet, trip, william
Cinekid 99
October 26, 2008 · Comments Off
An annual film, television and new media festival for children between the ages of four and 16. There are nine days of screenings of children’s films and TV shows from around the world, along with play-stations where children can experiment with the latest computer games and education programmes. Not to be missed.
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Tagged: 99, cinekid, flights
