Loving Laduree

The extraordinary Parisian cake shop Laduree did not exist in London until two years ago. I can’t imagine how I survived with out their delicious macaroons. My favourite flavours are rose, salted caramel, lemon and raspberry. My friend likes the black liquorice flavour but I don’t fancy that, nor would I waste my money on mint, vanilla or pistachio. Each season new flavours are created in limited edition , this year there is coconut, champagne, orange saffron and gingerbread. Laduree has a small golden outlet in the Burlington Arcade and a larger restaurant/shop in Harrods where they sell boring regular food like sandwiches and really interesting ice cream sundaes made with rose and violet ice cream.

Tulsa

Taken from the series of portraits of damaged youth, Tulsa by Larry Clark published in 1971, the above picture is one of my favourite photographs ever. Despite the gravity of the image, I doubt either of them made old bones – there is warmth and itimacy in the relationship of the couple that resonates regardless. Perhaps it’s the seventies sideburns on the man but it looks to me like a twisted outtake from that ‘joy of sex’ manual one used to find when ransacking the parents bedroom.

Thin on the ground

I noticed this picture of Keanu Reeves and it reminded me that there are some amazingly beautiful men in the world. I just don't see them about though , thousands of extremley attractive women but very few attractive men. Is it a London thing?

The fall of the house of Chloe

One must not be too resistant to change I suppose but in the case of the fashion house Chloe I do think ‘out with the new in with the old’. I loved the Karl Lagerfeld seventies Chloe vision – full length floral prints, fantastic models with long hair and huge eyes. Misty golden hued advertisements for the divine house fragrance with its notes of honeysuckle, Jasmin and Tuberose. Phoebe Philo did an amazing job creating the most desirable feminine looks season after season I wanted one of everything she ever designed, the company should never have let her go. The designs of her successor Paulo Melim Anderson do nothing for me and nothing for anyone who wears them either. The company ruined the clothing line the day they employed him and then not satisfied with that they ruined the perfume as well. The new re-launched Chloe perfume has none of the subtlety of the first. Made up of notes magnolia & rose over an amber and cedar wood base, the perfume seems to marketed women who shop in Debenhams and buy fake Chloe handbags from the street vendors outside. The aroma is common and over powering – eau de high street.

Does the taste of sugar on your lips remind you of a sweet sweet kiss?

Two years ago I was in New York at the height of the cup cake boom – I shared delightful buttery cakes from Magnolia with the pigeons in the park on Bleeker Street . I sat in Billy’s Bakery on 23rd and 9th snacking on cupcakes there. Each afternoon I counteracted jet lag with vanilla/vanilla cakes at The Sunshine Bakery on Rivington. I probably ate 15 cupcakes in 6 days –average price $1.20 or 65p each.

London finally caught on to the cupcake buzz and now they are available from the Primrose Bakery £1.75 for pretty average cup cake. The dreadful Hummingbird Bakery in Portbello Road for £1.55 for a teeny cake with hardy any topping that looks a packet made cake at a dodgy school fate. And if you really want to waste £3.95 then pop into Liberty and by a cupcake there, the cakes look cute but £4 for two bites!! On the brighter side Peyton & Byrne on Tottenham Court Road do spectacular cakes for £2.50 – still expensive but they are huge with a ton of topping and come in fancy boxes. John Lewis food hall have perfectly delicious cakes for only 99p each.

This woman's work

I live in a flat that conspires against me – I clean it and 2 days later it looks like it wasn’t cleaned in years. The results never do reflect the labour, the sense of achievement upon completion gives way to a sense of despair within 48 hours. I read that dust is skin ... I can’t be shedding that much skin I am still here ..... I could never hire a cleaner unless I could afford to pay her a bankers wage - some thing about hiring people to clean up after me doesn’t sit right in my heart, perhaps it because cleaners traditionally work so hard for so little...

And the promise that she is blessed among women

Land 250
Polaroid Photographs by Patti Smith
Fondation Cartier pour l’art Contemporain, Paris, March 28 – June 22, 2008

"Sometimes, if I crave silence I turn to my Land 250. The experience of taking Polaroid’s connects me with the moment. They are souvenirs of a joyful solitude."

A retrospective of Patti Smith’s art created between 1967 and 2007, exhibition includes Polaroid’s, sketches collages, audio installations, referential objects, lyrics, films, music and poetry. The foundation book shop has been restocked by Patti to include works by Blake, Rimbaud and Virginia Woolf.

http://fondation.cartier.com/