If you’ve only a few hours to do Venice and are lacking a sense of direction, why not join a guided tour. Employing many out-of-work Commedia dell’Arte actors, ‘Enjoy Venice’ organise 3-hour walks for small groups along different themes – Casanova, Gondolas, Casinos and Cut-Throats etc. They leave from The Thomas Cook office at Rialto [...]
Entries from December 2009
December 28, 2009
Monnipan
This little shop opened a year or so ago, but the owners are continually expanding their carefully-sourced stock of beautiful Indian goodies. Highest-quality pashminas come in every colour imaginable as do the beautiful loose-woven, hand-dyed silk shawls from Benares. Woodblock-printed table cloths and bed covers, Kashmir rugs and cushion covers, fabulous patterned Kashmir shawls and [...]
December 27, 2009
St Germain
All those Talkin’ Loud types may have moved on to Bossa Nova or two step, but over in France Ludovic Navarre is staying close to the traditions of his American label, Blue Note. Having laid out a dance-floor jazz manifesto on ‘Boulevard’, he reconstituted himself as St Germain and brought out ‘Tourist’, with its infectious [...]
December 18, 2009
Sunday Drum School
It’s not every day that your favourite pop star offers to teach you all he knows. But Jonathan Yip, the drummer from local band Beyond, has no qualms about such a move. Beyond were once phenomenally successful, offering a guitar pop alternative to sickly-sweet Canto-pop soloists and remain revered. Each Sunday he and local jazz [...]
December 17, 2009
Dates, Events, People: Pages of History in Gifts
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 [...]
