the big smoke

white cube; the winemakers club; far west london; spa terminus; the camberwell arms; flint street.

the way around is through

When we want to go into the universe, we can't look at a rock like the Japanese. We have to actually go to the moon. We are so literal ... We have devices, sensors, alpha conditioning machines. The machines are just manifested thought. Technology isn't anything outside us ... We just go about it very clumsily and very wastefully. Because we have to actually make all these devices, we have to go to the moon, we can't see the cosmos in a rock, and we can't meditate without having this thing strapped on us.

james turrell, in james turrell: a retrospective

previously.

the span of control

Dominion over his environment was supposed to be one of the hallmarks of man. Now, that dominion is almost wholly vicarious, derived from the past ingenuity of others. In urban and industrial communities it is never direct, physical or spontaneous. Our implements are at twelve removes and we may all live inside so many thermos flasks. It may be well to remember how to use a pair of sticks and stones.

sybille bedford, the sudden view

as paul rand says: "It is important to use your hands, this is what distinguishes you from a cow or a computer operator."

the school for maximum process

refshalevej 96; finally open, the inderhavnsbroen—view from nyhavn and behind nordatlantensbrygge; the result of an industrious morning in arctic house; some things discovered upstairs at noma; some things discovered under and above ground on bredgade; a game of krolf in fælledparken; brian eno at kunsthal charlottenborg; the skolen for maksimum proces.

copenhagen is hard work, but someone's got to do it.

south of the river

bermondsey street; druid street; maltby street; the whitgift centre; the south london gallery; surrey street market.

neither here nor there

mobilia gallery; upland street; hungry ghost bread; housatonic; sparks street (geoff hargadon)

the shoulder season

devonshire square; malet street; hanbury street; endell street; abbey street.

left light

lincoln at rose, venice; venice skate bowl; w pico at s la brea, LA; venezia ct, venice.

alternative designs for the first bridge at blackfriars

the thames path.

city streets

s central ave, LA; westminster ave, venice.

an incomplete list of nearly perfect meals

[march 2016]

new: studio in copenhagen

what is a nearly perfect meal? it is an idiosyncratic confluence of elements, the sum of parts. it has almost nothing to do with expense, other than that special dinners draw people together and place them in a suitable and shared frame of mind. this can be done anywhere, which is why this is not a list of restaurants but a list of meals. this can also be done for nearly any price, which is why some of these meals involve pancakes.

i now realise what everyone who opens an ambitious restaurant knows: it takes enormous effort to reproduce reliably what sometimes unexpectedly and serendipitously materialises when people get together to cook or eat.

in most of these cases, the food was confident and made with care, the beverages appropriate (but often not exalted), the company incomparable. some of these places i've been to many times, some only once. in every case, the particular perfection of the meal has not been reproducible in other places and at other times. your mileage may vary.

copenhagen
studio; frederiks have; kødbyens fiskebar; noma; ved stranden 10

nuremberg
essigbrätlein

paris
chheng sim; les deserteurs

london
10 greek street; 40 maltby street; otto's; st. john bread and wine; kandoo; brawn; taberna do mercado; morning coffee at mother's milk; saturday afternoon tea at postcard

tokyo
shunsui; gesshinkyo; tsuru ni tachibana (with updates from our japanese correspondent)

las vegas
chada

san francisco
kiss; quince; minako; greens; food inc (for their tuna niçoise sandwich on either a sunny day or a rainy one); pagolac; chapeau!; firefly; jackson fillmore; pancake sunday 5.13.07

berkeley
chez panisse; the cheeseboard

cambridge
hungry mother; bondir; cooking with fire and clay; morning coffee at hirise

malden
biryani park

palo alto
bay leaf cafe (yellow lentil sambar soup, on a wet day); homma's (outside on a warm summer night)

new york
shopsin's

lenox
nudel

boulder
the kitchen

marfa
cochineal

new orleans
galatoire's, the parkway bakery

osaka
hon-kogetsu

kyoto
mo-an

singapore
green pasture; fuli seafood

järpen
fäviken magasinet

washington dc
minibar

polanco

the rodeo drive of mexico city.

between sunset and santa monica

on the red line.

accumulated time

Setting up residence in a one-room Siberian hut is a victory in the battle against being buried alive by objects. Life in the woods melts the fat away. Unburdened, the airship of life sails higher. Two thousand years ago, the Indo-Sarmatian steppe nomads knew enough to transport their possessions in a small wooden coffer. One's attachment to belongings is in direct proportion to their rarity, and to a Siberian woodsman, a knife and a gun are as precious as any flesh-and-blood companion. An object that has been with us through the ups and downs of life takes on substance and a special aura; the years give it a protective patina. To learn to love each one of our poor patrimony of objects, we have to spend a long time with them. Soon the loving looks directed at the knife, the teapot and the lamp come to embrace their materials and elements: the wood of the spoon, the candle's wax, the flame itself. As the nature of objects reveals itself, I seem to pierce the mysteries of their essence. I love you, bottle; I love you, little jackknife, and you wooden pencil, and you, my cup, and you, teapot steaming away like a ship in distress.

sylvain tesson, the consolations of the forest.

brick and mortar

Give a mason bricks and mortar and tell him to cover a space and let in light, and the results are astounding. The mason, within his limitations, finds unending possibilities, there is variety and harmony; while the modern architect with all the materials and structural systems available to him produces monotony and dissonance, and that in great abundance.

jamshid kooros

in architecture without architects by bernard rudofsky

also: limitations.

above and below

australia

brilliant corners, kingsland road; ceryth wyn evans at white cube; wigmore street; manchester square; russ & daughters; robert irwin at white cube; lamb walk; shand street.