Saturday, February 28, 2009

HUB Liverpool



My good buddies at URBEATZ in the great City of Liverpool are involved with HUB which this year is featuring YOUNG KOF.

www.urbeatz.com

www.kofmusic.com

HUB hunt for talent

An invitation is now open to the best musicians from indie to funk, rock to soul, hip-hop to metal to send in a demo which could see them starring on HUB's live music stage (May 23 & 24, Wellington Dock).

Successful bands will earn themselves a slot at the festival, joining confirmed headliner, Liverpool hip-hop legend Young Kof.

Susan Whitehead, Event organiser, said: “HUB has really matured now and attracts the best urban performers from around the world - and we want the best of Liverpool to perform with them. The music search is open to anyone with heaps of energy, style and passion. Only the best talent will be selected to play at what promises to be a wicked weekend.”

Bands have until March 10 to apply with a biography, a completed artists’ contact form and a demo. A panel of music industry professionals will judge all applications and choose their favourites to play at the event. Full line up will be confirmed by Monday, April 6.

Application forms can be downloaded from www.hubfestival.co.uk

HUB Liverpool



My good buddies at URBEATZ in the great City of Liverpool are involved with HUB which this year is featuring YOUNG KOF.

www.urbeatz.com

www.kofmusic.com

HUB hunt for talent

An invitation is now open to the best musicians from indie to funk, rock to soul, hip-hop to metal to send in a demo which could see them starring on HUB's live music stage (May 23 & 24, Wellington Dock).

Successful bands will earn themselves a slot at the festival, joining confirmed headliner, Liverpool hip-hop legend Young Kof.

Susan Whitehead, Event organiser, said: “HUB has really matured now and attracts the best urban performers from around the world - and we want the best of Liverpool to perform with them. The music search is open to anyone with heaps of energy, style and passion. Only the best talent will be selected to play at what promises to be a wicked weekend.”

Bands have until March 10 to apply with a biography, a completed artists’ contact form and a demo. A panel of music industry professionals will judge all applications and choose their favourites to play at the event. Full line up will be confirmed by Monday, April 6.

Application forms can be downloaded from www.hubfestival.co.uk

Friday, February 27, 2009

(U)Ryanair


The Mouth of the West

Checking into Ryanair Flight FR118 at Dublin to London Gatwick the other evening I noticed a familiar face in the security line in front of me at Dublin Airport. It was none other than Michael O’Leary the outspoken Chief Executive of Ryanair, widely known as “The Mouth of the West” in Ireland. I asked him where the bodyguard was and he smiled and said he could look after himself. I don’t doubt it and there he was going through the ordinary line in jeans, check shirt and leather jacket having his luggage x-rayed with all the other passengers. The flight to London he was on (he sat in the front row and was first off the plane) had a number of innovations, namely it was enabled for mobile use in the air at “only” £3.00 a minute and you could get a “Ryanair Flame Grilled Cheese Burger” for only 9 euros. Strangely I resisted both temptations and the Sage’s zero purchase on Ryanair policy was maintained.

Now Ryanair gets a lot of knocking copy (sometimes from me) but those of us with longer memories remember what a restrictive cartel European air travel was before Ryanair. BA and Aer Lingus operated a cartel on the Dublin / London route and charged £230 return for a trip 20 years ago. Cheap fares could only be bought with stupid restrictions like being re-endorsed by a travel agent (What! Why!) for the return leg which led to British Airways stranding me in Dublin for 3 days and don’t even get me started on how exploitive Aer Lingus was with its so called “Compassionate air fares” designed to "help" customers travelling for bereavements or family emergencies. I remember in 1987 when Dublin / Oslo cost £564 (£2,000 in today’s terms) and Dublin / Geneva cost £380 in 1976. What a contrast when In 1999 I flew London / Lubeck for £5.00 return all in and laughed when I saw Ryanair fly in with a plane with “Aufwiedershen Lufthansa” on the side. Well, nobody is laughing today as Ryanair is the biggest and most profitable European airline with 170 Boeing 737-800’s in the air.

So I do admire what Michael O’Leary has achieved and his simplification of the business model and operation will be thought to Business Course drones for many years to come, no doubt to O’Leary’s great amusement. However Michael has the same problem as Oliver Cromwell had in Ireland, he doesn’t explain his mission too well and sometimes he revels in going too far. For the next morning he was at it again, pissing off his customers, if you’ll excuse the pun; “One thing we’ve looked at in the past and are looking at again is the possibility of maybe putting in a coin slot on the toilet door so that people might actually have to spend a pound to spend a penny in the future,” Chief Executive Officer Michael O’Leary said in a televised interview with the BBC. His comments were confirmed by the carrier.



Ryanair may charge passengers to use toilets on its planes, adding to fees already imposed for beverages, stowed baggage, airport check-in and preferential boarding. Ryanair generates about 20 percent of revenue from so-called ancillary income, the money it makes aside from ticket sales. The Dublin-based company this month introduced technology allowing passengers to use their own mobile phones on aircraft.

Mr O'Leary said this would not inconvenience passengers travelling without cash. "I don't think there is anybody in history that has got on board a Ryanair aircraft with less than a pound," he added. "We're all about finding ways of raising discretionary revenue so we can keep lowering the cost of air travel."

Mr O'Leary has a reputation as a cost cutter, expanding Ryanair by offering low headline fares and charging extra for items such as additional luggage. The move has been criticised by air passenger groups. James Freemantle, industry affairs manager at the Air Transport Users Council, said while they supported some charges to drive down ticket prices, a lavatory fee was a "step too far".


One pound to spend a penny?

He said: "There's a limit on these extra charges and they shouldn't be putting them everywhere." Ryanair spokesman Stephen McNamara said: "While this has been discussed internally, there are no immediate plans to introduce it. Passengers using train and bus stations are already accustomed to paying to use the toilet, so why not on airplanes?" True but they don't pay ON trains and once asgain Ryanair is not thinking how this would impact on older and disabled passengers and families or indeed the dignity of all passengers - I pay to travel, not to enjoy ritual humiliation? Last week, Ryanair announced it was to shut all its European check-in desks by early next year and have passengers check-in online.

Now Michael O’Leary has the same weakness as Oliver Cromwell had, he is very bad at bringing the public with him for the simple reason that he is too confrontational and travelling with Ryanair can become a hassle filled obstacle course with the carrier waiting in a predatory manner to bite your bum financially! The result is it alienates a whole section of passengers, including older flyers, those with children and those who have impaired mobility. Other carriers do it differently, for instance, if you miss an Easyjet Flight and are at the airport within two hours they will put you on the next flight for £40. By contrast I have seen a Portuguese family at Stansted when they missed their flight by minutes because the so called Stansted Express had a signal failure being in tears after being quoted £220 for a one way leg to Oporto on the next Ryanair flight.



Similarly toothless regulators have allowed Ryanair to laugh in the face of British and European Disability legislation by playing “trick or treat” by only allowing 4 people with mobility impairment or special needs on each flight, and these have to contact an impossible to contact Call Centre (at a cost) the same day and take the risk of being bounced off the flight. 10% of the population is in the mobility impaired category but 4 out of 186 seats on a Ryanair plane equates to 2.15% availability of seats for these vulnerable people. Altogether apart from the moral and legal equations it makes little sense to turn your back on such a large pool of customers. So Michael stop doing a Cromwell and work on making the Customer Interface less confrontational and more friendly and inclusive. Who knows the Business School drones of the future could be doing a module on how Ryanair transformed its image, rediscovered its customer and became “The Friendly Skies of Europe.” Not a bad way to go in a recession?

Ryanair on December 2nd. 2008 raised its net income forecast for the year ending March 31 to 50 million euros, saying the falling price of oil has more than compensated for the lower fares it’s offering to stave off a traffic drop. Passenger numbers rose 11 percent in January from a year earlier. Ryanair was trading up 15 cents, or 0.5 percent, at 3.02 euros as of 12:26 p.m. in Dublin. The stock has added 1.5 percent this year, giving a market value of 4.44 billion euros.

See also; “Ryanair, The European Airline?”

http://daithaic.blogspot.com/2007/08/ryanair-european-airline.html


(U)Ryanair


The Mouth of the West

Checking into Ryanair Flight FR118 at Dublin to London Gatwick the other evening I noticed a familiar face in the security line in front of me at Dublin Airport. It was none other than Michael O’Leary the outspoken Chief Executive of Ryanair, widely known as “The Mouth of the West” in Ireland. I asked him where the bodyguard was and he smiled and said he could look after himself. I don’t doubt it and there he was going through the ordinary line in jeans, check shirt and leather jacket having his luggage x-rayed with all the other passengers. The flight to London he was on (he sat in the front row and was first off the plane) had a number of innovations, namely it was enabled for mobile use in the air at “only” £3.00 a minute and you could get a “Ryanair Flame Grilled Cheese Burger” for only 9 euros. Strangely I resisted both temptations and the Sage’s zero purchase on Ryanair policy was maintained.

Now Ryanair gets a lot of knocking copy (sometimes from me) but those of us with longer memories remember what a restrictive cartel European air travel was before Ryanair. BA and Aer Lingus operated a cartel on the Dublin / London route and charged £230 return for a trip 20 years ago. Cheap fares could only be bought with stupid restrictions like being re-endorsed by a travel agent (What! Why!) for the return leg which led to British Airways stranding me in Dublin for 3 days and don’t even get me started on how exploitive Aer Lingus was with its so called “Compassionate air fares” designed to "help" customers travelling for bereavements or family emergencies. I remember in 1987 when Dublin / Oslo cost £564 (£2,000 in today’s terms) and Dublin / Geneva cost £380 in 1976. What a contrast when In 1999 I flew London / Lubeck for £5.00 return all in and laughed when I saw Ryanair fly in with a plane with “Aufwiedershen Lufthansa” on the side. Well, nobody is laughing today as Ryanair is the biggest and most profitable European airline with 170 Boeing 737-800’s in the air.

So I do admire what Michael O’Leary has achieved and his simplification of the business model and operation will be thought to Business Course drones for many years to come, no doubt to O’Leary’s great amusement. However Michael has the same problem as Oliver Cromwell had in Ireland, he doesn’t explain his mission too well and sometimes he revels in going too far. For the next morning he was at it again, pissing off his customers, if you’ll excuse the pun; “One thing we’ve looked at in the past and are looking at again is the possibility of maybe putting in a coin slot on the toilet door so that people might actually have to spend a pound to spend a penny in the future,” Chief Executive Officer Michael O’Leary said in a televised interview with the BBC. His comments were confirmed by the carrier.



Ryanair may charge passengers to use toilets on its planes, adding to fees already imposed for beverages, stowed baggage, airport check-in and preferential boarding. Ryanair generates about 20 percent of revenue from so-called ancillary income, the money it makes aside from ticket sales. The Dublin-based company this month introduced technology allowing passengers to use their own mobile phones on aircraft.

Mr O'Leary said this would not inconvenience passengers travelling without cash. "I don't think there is anybody in history that has got on board a Ryanair aircraft with less than a pound," he added. "We're all about finding ways of raising discretionary revenue so we can keep lowering the cost of air travel."

Mr O'Leary has a reputation as a cost cutter, expanding Ryanair by offering low headline fares and charging extra for items such as additional luggage. The move has been criticised by air passenger groups. James Freemantle, industry affairs manager at the Air Transport Users Council, said while they supported some charges to drive down ticket prices, a lavatory fee was a "step too far".


One pound to spend a penny?

He said: "There's a limit on these extra charges and they shouldn't be putting them everywhere." Ryanair spokesman Stephen McNamara said: "While this has been discussed internally, there are no immediate plans to introduce it. Passengers using train and bus stations are already accustomed to paying to use the toilet, so why not on airplanes?" True but they don't pay ON trains and once asgain Ryanair is not thinking how this would impact on older and disabled passengers and families or indeed the dignity of all passengers - I pay to travel, not to enjoy ritual humiliation? Last week, Ryanair announced it was to shut all its European check-in desks by early next year and have passengers check-in online.

Now Michael O’Leary has the same weakness as Oliver Cromwell had, he is very bad at bringing the public with him for the simple reason that he is too confrontational and travelling with Ryanair can become a hassle filled obstacle course with the carrier waiting in a predatory manner to bite your bum financially! The result is it alienates a whole section of passengers, including older flyers, those with children and those who have impaired mobility. Other carriers do it differently, for instance, if you miss an Easyjet Flight and are at the airport within two hours they will put you on the next flight for £40. By contrast I have seen a Portuguese family at Stansted when they missed their flight by minutes because the so called Stansted Express had a signal failure being in tears after being quoted £220 for a one way leg to Oporto on the next Ryanair flight.



Similarly toothless regulators have allowed Ryanair to laugh in the face of British and European Disability legislation by playing “trick or treat” by only allowing 4 people with mobility impairment or special needs on each flight, and these have to contact an impossible to contact Call Centre (at a cost) the same day and take the risk of being bounced off the flight. 10% of the population is in the mobility impaired category but 4 out of 186 seats on a Ryanair plane equates to 2.15% availability of seats for these vulnerable people. Altogether apart from the moral and legal equations it makes little sense to turn your back on such a large pool of customers. So Michael stop doing a Cromwell and work on making the Customer Interface less confrontational and more friendly and inclusive. Who knows the Business School drones of the future could be doing a module on how Ryanair transformed its image, rediscovered its customer and became “The Friendly Skies of Europe.” Not a bad way to go in a recession?

Ryanair on December 2nd. 2008 raised its net income forecast for the year ending March 31 to 50 million euros, saying the falling price of oil has more than compensated for the lower fares it’s offering to stave off a traffic drop. Passenger numbers rose 11 percent in January from a year earlier. Ryanair was trading up 15 cents, or 0.5 percent, at 3.02 euros as of 12:26 p.m. in Dublin. The stock has added 1.5 percent this year, giving a market value of 4.44 billion euros.

See also; “Ryanair, The European Airline?”

http://daithaic.blogspot.com/2007/08/ryanair-european-airline.html


Thursday, February 26, 2009

Eileen Gray’s Armchair




Fauteuil aux Serpents

The Celtic Sage has previously championed the Irish Designer Eileen Grey who designed many famous furniture pieces and the seminal Moderne building E-1027 at Roquebrune Cap Martin. She is now in the news because an armchair she designed sold by the estate of Yves Saint Laurent has sold at auction for almost €22m, the highest price ever paid for a piece of 20th Century furniture.

Wexford-born Eileen Gray was one of the most important architects and designers of the 20th century. She was an Irish aristocrat who inhabited a bohemian world and who was neglected for much of her career but whose work and achievements has been greatly appreciated with hindsight, particularly in Ireland where she was largely unknown in her lifetime as she mainly lived and worked in France. From her early laquer work to design classics like the Bibendum chair and her architectural masterpiece, E-1027, Eileen Gray's work was as individual as it was exciting. The Dutch magazine, Wendingen, declared in 1924: "Eileen Gray occupies the centre of the modern movement. In all her tendencies, visions and expressions she is modern."


Eileen Gray Snake Chair

After her father’s death in 1900, Gray moved to Paris with two friends from the Slade, Jessie Gavin and Kathleen Bruce, and continued her studies at the Académie Julian and the École Colarossi. For the next few years she shuttled between Paris and the family’s homes in London and Ireland, but moved back to London in 1905 when her mother became ill.

During her stay in London, Gray returned to the Slade but found drawing and painting less and less satisfying. One day she came across a lacquer repair shop run by a Mr Charles on Dean Street in Soho. Allured by the antique Chinese and Japanese lacquer screens in the shop, Eileen asked if she could learn the rudiments of lacquer working. By the time she returned to Paris in 1906, she was obsessed by the art of lacquer and, thanks to Mr Charles’ contacts, had an introduction to a young lacquer craftsman, Sugawara. He came from Jahoji, a village in northern Japan famous for its lacquer work and agreed to teach her. In 1907, Gray found a spacious first floor apartment at 21 rue Bonaparte where she could live and work and persuaded her mother to increase her allowance so that she could afford the rent. Three years later, Gray bought the apartment outright and thereafter it became her main home.


Le Corbusier, his wife Yvonne and Jean Badovici in E.1027 with one of Corbusier's murals in the background

Gray studied with Sugiwara for four years. Lacquer work was not only painstaking, but perilous. Like many people who come into close contact with it, she contracted a painful ‘lacquer disease’ on her hands. Slowly she refined her technique to create stark forms with simple geometric decorations. This simplicity was, however, as much a product of the complexity of the process as of Gray's aesthetic preferences. It was not until 1913 that she felt confident enough to exhibit her work by showing some decorative panels at the Salon des Artistes Décorateurs. They attracted the attention of the Duchess of Clermont-Tonnerre and the couturier Jacques Doucet, who bought one of her panels at the Salon and commissioned other pieces of lacquer work from Eileen for his Paris apartment.

The leather armchair standing at just 24 inches high and designed by Eileen Grey 90 years ago has been sold for almost €22m. It is a record for a piece of 20th century furniture and, in fetching six-and-a-half times its pre-auction estimate at Christie's in Paris, the chair proved a welcome tonic for a world art market worried about the economic climate.

"We're absolutely amazed by what's happened," Edward Dolman, Christie's managing director, said of the sale. "There are still a lot of extremely wealthy people out there." The unique piece, created by Wexford-born designer Eileen Gray between 1917 and 1919, was the highlight so far of a three-day sale of artworks collected by the late designer Yves Saint Laurent and his partner. The first two days have brought in more than €300m in sales, another world record.


Eileen Gray

Gray was first to become know for the lacquer technique she developed, a technique that combined the Asian lacquer tradition and its motifs with a contemporary modernist aesthetic. By 1912-1913 she was already becoming a name, and her luxurious screens, tables, and door panels sold well and were exhibited.

In the hour before the chair was sold, another piece by Ms Gray briefly held the title of the most-expensive piece of 20th century design sold at auction, when a New York dealer paid €4m for a sideboard dating from 1915 to 1917.

But there was no doubting the real star item on offer. Known as the Fauteuil aux Serpent or "snakes' armchair" because of the ornate sculptures on its sweeping armrests, the one-off rounded brown leather piece was designed by Ms Gray when she was in her early 30s and after she had moved from Enniscorthy to London to study art.

She became renowned for the luxurious finish of her lacquered furniture, but it was not until after her death in 1976 that she was truly recognised as one of the most important furniture designers and architects of the early 20th century. The buyer was the same dealer who had sold it to Mr Saint Laurent in the early '70s. Cheska Vallois raised his bid in increments of €500,000 to see off a phone rival with a bid of €21.9m, and was applauded by the 1,000 people present.

The highest amount ever paid for a piece of furniture was €27.5m - paid for an 18th century Badminton cabinet in 2004. "It is a fabulous price," Philippe Garner, Christie's international head of 20th Century Decorative Art and Design, said yesterday.

"The sale was an homage to the great personalities, designers, collectors and patrons who so marked their era in Paris in the 1920s and 1930s and to the pioneering vision of Yves Saint Laurent and Pierre Bergé as collectors."

Ms Gray flitted between London and Paris for much of her life and had a colourful personal life, taking both male and female lovers, but never marrying. She died at the age of 98.


Yves Saint Laurent

Yves Saint Laurent was hailed as a 20th century cultural icon who revolutionised the way women dressed. The reclusive Saint Laurent's couture creations won global fine art status and he was widely considered to be one of an elite club of designers including Christian Dior and Coco Chanel who made Paris the fashion capital of the world. From Princess Grace of Monaco to the actress Catherine Deneuve, Saint Laurent's creations adorned many famous women but he was also the first designer to make luxury labels accessible to a wider audience through innovative read-to-wear collections.

Saint Laurent and Mr Bergé began collecting art in the 1950s, at a time when the young designer was gaining a worldwide reputation with the fashion house Christian Dior. He needed art "like water to survive", in the words of one dealer, and acknowledged that his creations were inspired by his passion for paintings. Yves Saint Laurent died of cancer aged 71 in June last year.




Jardins Majorelle, Marrakech

Mr Bergé said the decision to sell the collection was taken because without him "it has lost the greater part of its significance". The proceeds are to help create a new foundation for Aids research. Yves St. Laurent and Pierre Bergé were wonderful patrons of the arts and in 1980 purchased the wonderful gardens and house laid out by the French Painter Jacques Majorelle in Marrakech. St Laurent, who was born and grew up in Algeria, had a particular affinity with the Maghreb. They had been visitors to and admirers of the Majorelle garden and they saved it from speculators who had devastated the inheritance of Marrakech’s gardens. Jacque Majorelle’s former house now contains a museum of Islamic art collected by Yves and his partner.

For more about Eileen Gray and the house she designed which became Le Corbusier’s obsession see;

http://daithaic.blogspot.com/2008/09/e-1027-roquebrune-cap-martin.html



E-1027, Roquebrune Cap Martin

For more on Architecture and Design see ArchiBlogs in the Blog sidebar.

Eileen Gray’s Armchair




Fauteuil aux Serpents

The Celtic Sage has previously championed the Irish Designer Eileen Grey who designed many famous furniture pieces and the seminal Moderne building E-1027 at Roquebrune Cap Martin. She is now in the news because an armchair she designed sold by the estate of Yves Saint Laurent has sold at auction for almost €22m, the highest price ever paid for a piece of 20th Century furniture.

Wexford-born Eileen Gray was one of the most important architects and designers of the 20th century. She was an Irish aristocrat who inhabited a bohemian world and who was neglected for much of her career but whose work and achievements has been greatly appreciated with hindsight, particularly in Ireland where she was largely unknown in her lifetime as she mainly lived and worked in France. From her early laquer work to design classics like the Bibendum chair and her architectural masterpiece, E-1027, Eileen Gray's work was as individual as it was exciting. The Dutch magazine, Wendingen, declared in 1924: "Eileen Gray occupies the centre of the modern movement. In all her tendencies, visions and expressions she is modern."


Eileen Gray Snake Chair

After her father’s death in 1900, Gray moved to Paris with two friends from the Slade, Jessie Gavin and Kathleen Bruce, and continued her studies at the Académie Julian and the École Colarossi. For the next few years she shuttled between Paris and the family’s homes in London and Ireland, but moved back to London in 1905 when her mother became ill.

During her stay in London, Gray returned to the Slade but found drawing and painting less and less satisfying. One day she came across a lacquer repair shop run by a Mr Charles on Dean Street in Soho. Allured by the antique Chinese and Japanese lacquer screens in the shop, Eileen asked if she could learn the rudiments of lacquer working. By the time she returned to Paris in 1906, she was obsessed by the art of lacquer and, thanks to Mr Charles’ contacts, had an introduction to a young lacquer craftsman, Sugawara. He came from Jahoji, a village in northern Japan famous for its lacquer work and agreed to teach her. In 1907, Gray found a spacious first floor apartment at 21 rue Bonaparte where she could live and work and persuaded her mother to increase her allowance so that she could afford the rent. Three years later, Gray bought the apartment outright and thereafter it became her main home.


Le Corbusier, his wife Yvonne and Jean Badovici in E.1027 with one of Corbusier's murals in the background

Gray studied with Sugiwara for four years. Lacquer work was not only painstaking, but perilous. Like many people who come into close contact with it, she contracted a painful ‘lacquer disease’ on her hands. Slowly she refined her technique to create stark forms with simple geometric decorations. This simplicity was, however, as much a product of the complexity of the process as of Gray's aesthetic preferences. It was not until 1913 that she felt confident enough to exhibit her work by showing some decorative panels at the Salon des Artistes Décorateurs. They attracted the attention of the Duchess of Clermont-Tonnerre and the couturier Jacques Doucet, who bought one of her panels at the Salon and commissioned other pieces of lacquer work from Eileen for his Paris apartment.

The leather armchair standing at just 24 inches high and designed by Eileen Grey 90 years ago has been sold for almost €22m. It is a record for a piece of 20th century furniture and, in fetching six-and-a-half times its pre-auction estimate at Christie's in Paris, the chair proved a welcome tonic for a world art market worried about the economic climate.

"We're absolutely amazed by what's happened," Edward Dolman, Christie's managing director, said of the sale. "There are still a lot of extremely wealthy people out there." The unique piece, created by Wexford-born designer Eileen Gray between 1917 and 1919, was the highlight so far of a three-day sale of artworks collected by the late designer Yves Saint Laurent and his partner. The first two days have brought in more than €300m in sales, another world record.


Eileen Gray

Gray was first to become know for the lacquer technique she developed, a technique that combined the Asian lacquer tradition and its motifs with a contemporary modernist aesthetic. By 1912-1913 she was already becoming a name, and her luxurious screens, tables, and door panels sold well and were exhibited.

In the hour before the chair was sold, another piece by Ms Gray briefly held the title of the most-expensive piece of 20th century design sold at auction, when a New York dealer paid €4m for a sideboard dating from 1915 to 1917.

But there was no doubting the real star item on offer. Known as the Fauteuil aux Serpent or "snakes' armchair" because of the ornate sculptures on its sweeping armrests, the one-off rounded brown leather piece was designed by Ms Gray when she was in her early 30s and after she had moved from Enniscorthy to London to study art.

She became renowned for the luxurious finish of her lacquered furniture, but it was not until after her death in 1976 that she was truly recognised as one of the most important furniture designers and architects of the early 20th century. The buyer was the same dealer who had sold it to Mr Saint Laurent in the early '70s. Cheska Vallois raised his bid in increments of €500,000 to see off a phone rival with a bid of €21.9m, and was applauded by the 1,000 people present.

The highest amount ever paid for a piece of furniture was €27.5m - paid for an 18th century Badminton cabinet in 2004. "It is a fabulous price," Philippe Garner, Christie's international head of 20th Century Decorative Art and Design, said yesterday.

"The sale was an homage to the great personalities, designers, collectors and patrons who so marked their era in Paris in the 1920s and 1930s and to the pioneering vision of Yves Saint Laurent and Pierre Bergé as collectors."

Ms Gray flitted between London and Paris for much of her life and had a colourful personal life, taking both male and female lovers, but never marrying. She died at the age of 98.


Yves Saint Laurent

Yves Saint Laurent was hailed as a 20th century cultural icon who revolutionised the way women dressed. The reclusive Saint Laurent's couture creations won global fine art status and he was widely considered to be one of an elite club of designers including Christian Dior and Coco Chanel who made Paris the fashion capital of the world. From Princess Grace of Monaco to the actress Catherine Deneuve, Saint Laurent's creations adorned many famous women but he was also the first designer to make luxury labels accessible to a wider audience through innovative read-to-wear collections.

Saint Laurent and Mr Bergé began collecting art in the 1950s, at a time when the young designer was gaining a worldwide reputation with the fashion house Christian Dior. He needed art "like water to survive", in the words of one dealer, and acknowledged that his creations were inspired by his passion for paintings. Yves Saint Laurent died of cancer aged 71 in June last year.




Jardins Majorelle, Marrakech

Mr Bergé said the decision to sell the collection was taken because without him "it has lost the greater part of its significance". The proceeds are to help create a new foundation for Aids research. Yves St. Laurent and Pierre Bergé were wonderful patrons of the arts and in 1980 purchased the wonderful gardens and house laid out by the French Painter Jacques Majorelle in Marrakech. St Laurent, who was born and grew up in Algeria, had a particular affinity with the Maghreb. They had been visitors to and admirers of the Majorelle garden and they saved it from speculators who had devastated the inheritance of Marrakech’s gardens. Jacque Majorelle’s former house now contains a museum of Islamic art collected by Yves and his partner.

For more about Eileen Gray and the house she designed which became Le Corbusier’s obsession see;

http://daithaic.blogspot.com/2008/09/e-1027-roquebrune-cap-martin.html



E-1027, Roquebrune Cap Martin

For more on Architecture and Design see ArchiBlogs in the Blog sidebar.

Tuesday, February 24, 2009

Voices from Our White House: Gregory Maguire

NCBLA Board Member answers questions about "Looking In, Looking Out"

Welcome back to the NCBLA blog's new weekly feature, Voices from Our White House, a series of interviews with some of the talented contributors to the art and literary anthology Our White House: Looking In, Looking Out, conducted by NCBLA high school intern Colleen Damerell.

Our White House was created by the National Children's Book and Literacy Alliance. A collaborative effort by over 100 authors and illustrators, the book is the product of a desire to encourage young people to learn and read about American heritage. For more information, please visit ourwhitehouse.org and thencbla.org.

This week we feature NCBLA Board Member Gregory Maguire, author of Wicked, Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister, and his series of books for older elementary school children, The Hamlet Chronicles. Mr. Maguire wrote the opening piece for Our White House whose title, "Looking In, Looking Out," is the subtitle of the anthology. He writes about the House itself, how it has changed over the years, and the many people who shape its history. Here's an excerpt:

However, as for the trees, gardens, the world around the house—just think of the tendency of vines to trail, of hedges to poke and seethe in new growth. Of lawns to go to seed, given half a chance. The world outside the windows of any house has a habit of breaking free. One might as well try to govern the shape and spacing of the clouds in the sky.
We asked Mr. Maguire some questions about his piece:

NCBLA: I like that the piece begins as a scientific approach to the House itself, and later moves into the history surrounding it. What motivated you to structure the piece this way?
GM: To be frank, I have always loved making houses--from building blocks when I was five to renovations of my family's homes as a father. Since history is a kind of house of events in which we all live--and exploring history is like finding secret rooms in your house that are true, but rooms you never looked at closely before--I thought using the house as a concrete item and as a metaphor would be a usefully poetic way to approach the topic. Also, by taking a larger approach (the entire history of the house as a metaphor for our country) I could avoid writing about anything too specifically and then be accused, probably justifiably, for having failed to do accurate research and gotten my facts and interpretations wrong....

NCBLA: Did you learn anything about the White House that you did not know before writing "Looking In, Looking Out"?
GM: I did not know anything about the White House before I began except its address: 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, and its color, and the general look of it on a postcard or the TV news, and the job you have to have in order to be able to count it as your private home. Beyond that, it was all a mystery to me, a deep dark secret. Well, except that it has a Rose Garden. That wasn't a secret. Also that it sometimes has an egg hunt. That wasn't a secret. But if anyone ever hid eggs in the rose garden and visiting children became horribly scratched by thorns, that is still unknown to me.

NCBLA: At one point you comment on the many physical changes that have been made to the White House over the years. President Obama has famously declared his intentions to install a basketball court, possibly replacing Richard Nixon's bowling alley. What would you add to the White House that's not already there?
GM: For President Obama to add a basketball court, well, that is mighty fine. If I happened to be President, which is not a job to which I aspire, I might add a private chapel, because the country would need a whole lot of prayers if they accidentally elected me President, and I would be the first one to start praying.

NCBLA: Who is your favorite president and why?
GM: I like President Lincoln but perhaps not for the same reasons that others do. I like him because he was (let's say this politely) somewhat unfortunate looking. He wasn't a glamour puss. He wasn't a media star. He didn't have the profile of a Roman god or a Greek triathlete or a Hollywood movie star. His very ordinariness of mien is in itself an example, and a reminder to us, that looks are superficial--on the surface--and what counts is what is behind the face, however handsome or ugly it might be. And what a beautiful, glamorous, gorgeous, attractive mind he had, and still has for us, if we take the time to read what he left us in writing.

For more information about this author, please read his NCBLA bio or visit his website.

Monday, February 23, 2009

DC’s Drunkard’s Onion Soup


Grafton Street, Dublin

Dublin’s Grafton Street was once the home of two funky upstairs restaurants. One still remains, Captain America’s Cookhouse is famous for its excellent collection of pop memorabilia, and for the fact that Chris de Burgh started off by playing the guitar there - a fact which produces mixed emotions! It also acted as a catering catalyst as for a time everybody in catering in Dublin seemed to have worked / met at Captain A’s. However my own favourite (and with better food) was the Thunderbird Food Company run by the O’Donoghue and Fahy families and unfortunately closed many years ago. They were kind to me on many occasions in my younger years (no more so than insisting on feeding me and my companion for free when my car was stolen and wrecked!) and I got to know most of their recipes. Their variation on classic French soup was a crock served with a crust of melted Irish Cheddar.




Captain America's Cookhouse

Now there is nothing wrong with the classic French Onion soup but variety is the spice of life and this variation is packed with onion flavour and is delicious for those occasions when soul food is needed to raise the spirits. The ingredients in the Drunkard’s Onion soup recipe below will make enough for four good portions and is a main course which will fill you all on its own.

The ingredients are;

4 medium sized onions
1 tablespoons of butter and 3 tablespoons of Olive Oil
4½ cups of beef stock (easiest to add 3 OXO beef cubes to boiling water) - 700 millilitres
Cup of Dry Cider or Dry Vermouth
1 tablespoon of Worcestershire sauce, double if you like this sauce
Teaspoon of Demerara sugar
1/4 teaspoon of grated garlic or 1 fresh garlic clove chopped up small
French bread or sliced white bread
Irish Cheddar or Red Leicester cheese to top the bread
1/4 teaspoon of pepper
Salt to taste (not much needed and don’t add if you use stock cubes)


Technique

Start by peeling the four onions and chopping it into small bits. This is the most laborious part of this recipe - it takes 5 minutes or so to chop up four onions and the tears will flow! However if you keep a cold tap running and occasionaly rinse the knife under the running water it helps. Put the onions into a deep saucepan; add the garlic, butter and olive oil and turn up to a medium heat. Turn the onions every minute or so to ensure they are evenly cooked. Aim to cook the onions until they are a light brown colour, this normally takes 6 minutes. Then reduce the heat to its lowest setting, add the Worcestershire sauce and allow them to stew for a further 10 minutes.


The Magic Mixture

Now increase the heat to medium and add the Demerara sugar, stir and allow to caramelise. After a couple of minutes add the Cider or Vermouth and allow the mixture to reduce and thicken for a further two minutes. Then add the beef stock, season with the pepper, and then stir with a wooden spoon, scraping the base of the pan well. As soon as it all comes up to simmering point, turn down the heat to its lowest setting, then go away and leave it to cook very gently, without a lid, for about 30 minutes.


DC's Drunkard's Onion Soup

When the soup mix is ready (and there is no problem with reheating it or indeed freezing it for another time - indeed you can "Supersize" the ingredients and freeze a batch) spoon the hot mixture into individual tureens or pottery crocks and cover the surface with the lightly toasted French or sliced bread. Cover generously in the grated cheese and put under the grill for 8 / 10 minutes making sure you don’t let it burn. Serve immediately (and don't forget to warn your guests that everything is very hot!) as a substantial main course to bring comfort to the body and soul best accompanied by cider or beer!


Bon Appétit!

DC’s Drunkard’s Onion Soup


Grafton Street, Dublin

Dublin’s Grafton Street was once the home of two funky upstairs restaurants. One still remains, Captain America’s Cookhouse is famous for its excellent collection of pop memorabilia, and for the fact that Chris de Burgh started off by playing the guitar there - a fact which produces mixed emotions! It also acted as a catering catalyst as for a time everybody in catering in Dublin seemed to have worked / met at Captain A’s. However my own favourite (and with better food) was the Thunderbird Food Company run by the O’Donoghue and Fahy families and unfortunately closed many years ago. They were kind to me on many occasions in my younger years (no more so than insisting on feeding me and my companion for free when my car was stolen and wrecked!) and I got to know most of their recipes. Their variation on classic French soup was a crock served with a crust of melted Irish Cheddar.




Captain America's Cookhouse

Now there is nothing wrong with the classic French Onion soup but variety is the spice of life and this variation is packed with onion flavour and is delicious for those occasions when soul food is needed to raise the spirits. The ingredients in the Drunkard’s Onion soup recipe below will make enough for four good portions and is a main course which will fill you all on its own.

The ingredients are;

4 medium sized onions
1 tablespoons of butter and 3 tablespoons of Olive Oil
4½ cups of beef stock (easiest to add 3 OXO beef cubes to boiling water) - 700 millilitres
Cup of Dry Cider or Dry Vermouth
1 tablespoon of Worcestershire sauce, double if you like this sauce
Teaspoon of Demerara sugar
1/4 teaspoon of grated garlic or 1 fresh garlic clove chopped up small
French bread or sliced white bread
Irish Cheddar or Red Leicester cheese to top the bread
1/4 teaspoon of pepper
Salt to taste (not much needed and don’t add if you use stock cubes)


Technique

Start by peeling the four onions and chopping it into small bits. This is the most laborious part of this recipe - it takes 5 minutes or so to chop up four onions and the tears will flow! However if you keep a cold tap running and occasionaly rinse the knife under the running water it helps. Put the onions into a deep saucepan; add the garlic, butter and olive oil and turn up to a medium heat. Turn the onions every minute or so to ensure they are evenly cooked. Aim to cook the onions until they are a light brown colour, this normally takes 6 minutes. Then reduce the heat to its lowest setting, add the Worcestershire sauce and allow them to stew for a further 10 minutes.


The Magic Mixture

Now increase the heat to medium and add the Demerara sugar, stir and allow to caramelise. After a couple of minutes add the Cider or Vermouth and allow the mixture to reduce and thicken for a further two minutes. Then add the beef stock, season with the pepper, and then stir with a wooden spoon, scraping the base of the pan well. As soon as it all comes up to simmering point, turn down the heat to its lowest setting, then go away and leave it to cook very gently, without a lid, for about 30 minutes.


DC's Drunkard's Onion Soup

When the soup mix is ready (and there is no problem with reheating it or indeed freezing it for another time - indeed you can "Supersize" the ingredients and freeze a batch) spoon the hot mixture into individual tureens or pottery crocks and cover the surface with the lightly toasted French or sliced bread. Cover generously in the grated cheese and put under the grill for 8 / 10 minutes making sure you don’t let it burn. Serve immediately (and don't forget to warn your guests that everything is very hot!) as a substantial main course to bring comfort to the body and soul best accompanied by cider or beer!


Bon Appétit!

Thursday, February 19, 2009

Gerard Cowan





Gerard Cowan was a wandering minstrel from the Emerald Isle whose love of music and restless nature brought him on a convoluted but fascinating journey over the course of his life. Gerard died in the United States in his adopted home of Pawcatuck, Connecticut on the 2nd February 2009 after battling for over 10 years against a brain tumour which was diagnosed not long after the birth of his three children. Pawcatuck is a small town of just over 5,000 people along the Pawcatuck River in the North Eastern corner of Connecticut on the Atlantic Coast. It is an old established town which is part of New London County and the Mechanic Street Historic District is a historic riverfront district on the National Register of Historic Places. It was a centre of engineering and textile manufacturing in New England from the 1800s and before that had a thriving seafaring and boat building tradition along the Mystic River. It is also the home of the Freedom Schooner “Amistad” made famous in the 1997 movie of the same name by Steven Spielberg about the 1839 mutiny aboard a slave ship which was travelling towards the Northeast Coast of America




Mystic Seaport

Gerard Cowan or "Bouncer" as he was nicknamed due to his exuberant character and physique was well liked amongst his friends in Dublin, in Scouting and in Traditional Music circles. Many of us met him last at Conor Maguire's funeral at the end of November 2008 in Dublin and while he was very obviously not himself he was still delighted to catch up with the old gang. I told him that Conor would have really appreciated he was there and he just said "Conor would have done the same for me." There was a lot of decency about Gerard and we felt for him in his fight against his illness. It is odd and unsettling that the two West Finglas friends who grew up two doors apart on Kildonan Avenue have gone from us in such a short time. Many people at that other sad occasion in Dublin had not seen Gerard for many years and were both shocked at the physical toll his illness had taken but delighted to meet him again after many years. The psychological toll on Gerard and those around him must have been immense as he had been told on a number of occasions that he had only months to live.


Gerard at Woodstock 1978

His obituary in his local paper “The Day” hints at the colour and variety which he packed into the 49 year long journey of his life;

http://archive.theday.com/re.aspx?re=550edf9c-b2d3-4319-b617-ccadb2c0e04a

“Pawcatuck - Gerard Patrick Cowan, 49, of Pawcatuck, beloved husband of Michelle Morris and father of Ciara, Ben, and Jamie Cowan, passed away, Monday, Feb. 2, 2009, at home after a long battle with a brain tumour. Born in Dublin, Ireland, he was the son of Margaret (Dignam) Cowan of Dublin, Ireland, and the late James Cowan. Gerard was a traditional Irish musician, and was also a veterinarian technician for many years in New Jersey, Michigan, and Virginia. At various points in his life he trained as a baker, worked as a tiler, was a stay-at-home dad with his triplets, and even a cowboy. He loved to fish, appreciated the outdoors and all wildlife, the Pittsburgh Steelers, and enjoyed listening to and playing traditional Irish music.

Besides his wife, children, and mother he leaves his sister and brother, Deirdre Duffy and her husband, Eric, and Robert Cowan and his wife, Ann, all of Swords, Ireland; a niece, Alana Witter; and his nephew, James Duffy.

A memorial service celebrating Gerard's life will be held Thursday, Feb. 5, at 11 a.m. at the Old Mystic United Methodist Church, 44 Main St., Old Mystic. There are no calling hours. The Mystic Funeral Home has charge of arrangements.

The family has asked any donations be made to Hospice of South-eastern Connecticut, 227 Dunham St., Norwich, CT 06360. The family invites you to visit www.mysticfuneralhome.com for the online guest book.”



Leading a music session in the Ballymun Scout Den

Gerard had a wide circle of friends amongst his neighbours and childhood friends, his involvement in the Scout Movement and in traditional Irish music circles. After leaving school he had a number of jobs before training as a baker and obtaining his City and Guilds with the major Dublin firm of Johnston, Mooney and O’Brien and afterwards did a number of jobs in catering and in music. Traditional Irish Music was his great love and he was an accomplished balladeer and guitarist who occupied regular pitches at music sessions at the famous Brazen Head (the world’s oldest licensed premises and mentioned in Leon Uris’s “Trinity”) and in O’Donoghue’s in Merrion Row, Dublin. The latter establishment is the holy grail of traditional music famous as the launch pad of the Irish Folk Group “The Dubliner’s.”

http://daithaic.blogspot.com/2008/08/farewell-ronnie-drew.html

Gerard was a talented musician and singer and with his natural sociability he was a fixture at social gatherings amongst his wide circle of friends. It was his music which first brought him to the “Next Parish to Ireland”, America where he married, set up home and had three children who are not yet teenagers.

He loved the outdoors and weekends in the countryside and was an enthusiastic member of 57th Dublin Venture Scouts. As well as his own unit Gerard often joined in events with 1st Dublin and 5th Port Scout Groups. We also remember him giving freely of his time and effort on two other projects.

http://daithaic.blogspot.com/2010/11/ballymun-scouts.html

Firstly, in the late 70’s and early 80’s he was involved with 64th Dublin Scout Group based in the basement of Eamonn Ceannt Tower in the Ballymun Public Housing complex in North Dublin. This was a unique experiment in Scouting Outreach in a deprived area and Gerard was always on hand when help or assistance was needed as he identified with the aim of bringing the benefits of the Scout Movement to youngsters who needed it most.


Hiking in Glenmalure, Co. Wicklow; Francis Caulfield, David Caldwell, Gerard Cowan, Síle Mc Inerney, Ann Paisley, Gay Spencer

Secondly and fittingly for one with such a musical bent he was very much involved in the great event at Woodstock! This was not the small event in upstate New York but the International Scout Jamboree held at Woodstock in County Kilkenny in 1978. Gerard was down most weekends in the year beforehand where we were based in Cullen’s Farmhouse constructing the infrastructure needed for an event with 7,000 visitors over 10 days in August 1978. In true “Bouncer” fashion there were many happy musical evenings in Cullen’s farmhouse and in the local hostelries in the village of Inistioge



As his Obituary from “The Day” shows he fitted a great deal into his 49 years and touched many people. He was not the most organised or, at times, the most rational of people but there was no doubting his love of life, his exuberance which earned him his nickname “Bouncer” or his happiness in the company of others particularly indulging his love of music and the outdoors.

At times like this there is no point in looking for fairness or reason in what has happened, death is always a glutton and it never seems more avaricious than when it takes those who are too young and relish life. Nobody could doubt Gerard’s love of people, his capacity for friendship and his zest for life. Our deepest sympathies go to his wife Michelle, his children Ciara, Ben, and Jamie Cowan and his family in Ireland.

Ar dheis Dé go raibh a hanam dílis.


Gerard P. Cowan

Born Dublin, Ireland, June 16, 1959

Died Pawcatuck, Connecticut, United States of America, February 2, 2009


See also;

Conor Maguire;

http://daithaic.blogspot.com/2009/11/conor-maguire.html


Ballymun Scouts;

http://daithaic.blogspot.com/2010/11/ballymun-scouts.html