Gherkin; mother; gig

[bugshaw]

On Tuesday I took the day off and went to London. First I had lunch with alexmc at Bevis Marks. I think that's the first time I've been to a kosher restaurant, and it was very nice though the latkes were off. Afterwards we went up to the bar at the top of the Gherkin - there were great views all around from the circular glass room, and it struck me how low-rise most of London is compared with other cities I've seen from tall buildings. Though at a mere 40 storeys, it isn't that tall. The people in the bar seemed quite cheerful for people who work in the financial industry on the day that UK banks see up to a third fall off their share price.

Tea with Mum next, and a good chat, and we picked out a couple of CDs for her birthday present. She took me past the window display at Selfridges, which is currently mostly red and black, couture dresses, and an eerie phantom of the opera/theatre of the macabre feel. From the corner of my eye I saw the red metallic mannekins as skeletons, I think because the light reflected off their limbs in bone-like highlights. We also dropped in to the Wallace Collection, a house and collection of mostly 18th century art, which includes The Laughing Cavalier. It was not my taste at all - got a clock? a picture frame? a teapot? Cover it with gold curlicues, pile them on like custard on a slab of pudding, then top each curlicue with another curlicue, and another, then maybe a cherub or three (gold-painted), then all curlicues down to the atomic level.

I met Philip at Liverpool Street, we had a quick dinner and set off along Brick Lane. It's packed with curry restaurants, and it might be nice to eat there one day but not when hurrying for a gig and not in one of the places which says "No dairy? Yes you can eat here (pick us pick us we've a lot of competition), see, anything on the vegetarian menu!" Ah, the tikka masala, the paneer, you're not giving me much confidence in your assertions of suitable food provision.

The gig was as good as I'd hoped! Blitzen Trapper put a lot of energy into their performances, they're bouncy thrashy folky rocky countryy, with lots of guitars and lots of odd things to hit and make odd noises with. This gig featured a bird whistle, the sort I used to have as a kid, plastic and bird-shaped and you fill it with water and it makes a warbling sound :-) Their new album has just come out, it's more lyrical than the other one I have, and feels like they're writing a new Oregonian folklore. I've noticed another effect of No Internet: when I load a new CD, iTunes can't give me an instant track listing. It's strange, what I've got used to.

Blitzen Trapper played first; I'd expected them to headline. After a few songs from Absentee we decided that a good night's sleep and getting up early in the morning was the better part of valour, and I was happy to be on a train home at 10:30 with a good book (The Diamond Age, Neal Stephenson, yes I have had it for years, no I hadn't read it yet).

Comments

[saare-snowqueen.livejournal.com]

There used to be quite a good vegetarian Indian restaurant in Chapel Market in Islington - an all you can eat for 1 price kind of thing. The food was good but the guy who ran it was an unpleasant bully

[brixtonbrood.livejournal.com]

The people in the bar seemed quite cheerful for people who work in the financial industry on the day that UK banks see up to a third fall off their share price
I refer you to my earlier post here here, but since you are not a financial journalist by profession I am much more willing to forgive you your ignorance than I was Newsnight. Life is actually pretty good from the top of the Swiss Reinsurance building: Gustav and Ike were just the right size, the largest insurance company in the US has been nationalised and all its business is up for grabs, and unless you underwrote the Errors and Omissions coverage for Lehman's directors (underwritten in London, and a USD200 million loss) the credit crunch is pretty much someone else's problem.

The Wallace Collection has a grisly fascination. We enjoyed playing the "Which of these items would you be prepared to have in your home if you really had to?" game - I found just one tiny black and white enamel pill box which I would be able to refrain from melting down for scrap.

[bugshaw.livejournal.com]

Sorry for my breathless misreporting; I've hardly had web access and relied on the Sky News tickertape at the gym and then the trenchant pages of Metro :-)

The blue glassware/chinaware was okay. Sort of. If you chipped the curlicues off. And the curtains, they were good too. If I could take the lovely Atrium, I'd have that :-)

[brixtonbrood.livejournal.com]

It's not your lack of uptodateness I was disputing, it was the assumption that The City is all one place, where they short-sell stocks, shares, and their own grandmothers all day: EC1 and EC2 may be full of bankers, but EC4 is mostly lawyers, and EC3 is largely insurance, and you, of course were at the very heart of the insurance district, where the talk is all of Richter and Saffir-Simpson scales, and our interest in the Bank of England monetary policy committee is limited to its effect on our personal mortgages.

But as I said, there's no particular reason why you should know that.

[bugshaw.livejournal.com]

But now I do know it, and that is good :-)

[anef.livejournal.com]

"but EC4 is mostly lawyers"

And accountants!

[techiebabe.livejournal.com]

How do you get into the gherkin bar - do you have to know someone who works there?

[bugshaw.livejournal.com]

'Fraid so; they have to vouch for you and accompany you.

[cdave]

I think part of the reason that London's so low rise is because of various protected views, usually of St Paul's Cathedral.

Also it's built on loam mostly on the earlier remains of Ankh Morpork on relatively soft ground.

IIRC most of London's tube lines were dug through. Where as in New York, where the bedrock is much closer to the surface, they had to dig down, then cover them over.

Another IIRC is that the BT tower has some sort of plumb line in the basement measuing if the building is tilting over time, since the foundations aren't anywhere near deep enough to hit bedrock.

[bugshaw.livejournal.com]

Cool. I hadn't known about protected views, even though I went to school at Parliament Hill and looked at the views every day :-)

[desperance.livejournal.com]

all curlicues down to the atomic level

Fracticues!

*steals idea*

*runs off giggling*