Why Murdoch’s MySpace is going back to its roots June 25, 2009 WHEN Rupert Murdoch bought MySpace for $580m (£319m) back in 2005, most people thought he had gone crazy. A few years later when Microsoft snapped up a 1.6 per cent stake in rival Facebook, giving it a notional value of $15bn, all was forgotten; Murdoch had been right all along, picking up a mass market [...]
OUT THIS WEEKEND PREVIEWS June 25, 2009 FILMYEAR ONE The star power of Jack Black and Michael Cera can’t save this brain-dead pre-history comedy. TENDERNESS Drama with the world’s least tender actor, Russell Crowe. DVDGRAN TORINO Clint Eastwood delivers a terrific sign-off on his acting career in this race drama. CHE – PARTS ONE AND TWO Tiresome biopic with Benicio Del Toro. [...]
Bullets, bombs and books on the front line June 24, 2009 THE JUNIOR OFFICERS’ READING CLUB: KILLING TIME AND FIGHTING WARSBy Patrick HennesseyPENGUIN, £16.99PATRICK HENNESSEY is a 27-year-old trainee barrister, who happens to have spent the past five years as an officer in the Grenadier Guards, fighting his way through the horrors of Iraq and Afghanistan and – as the title of his book suggests – [...]
Frugal food hits the top table June 24, 2009 A RESTAURATEUR who grew up in the South of France once told me that the reason that French cuisine is superior to English simply because the produce is better. In the Mediterranean world, he led me to believe, tomatoes as big as your hand grow effortlessly, exotic fish jump straight out of the sea and [...]
RECIPES ADDING VALUE TO DULL INGREDIENTS June 24, 2009 ONIONS by Jeremy Lee, Blueprint Cafewww.blueprintcafe.co.ukWe get these lovely pink onions from Lincolnshire, and we fry them for as long as possible – we are talking about 30 to 40 minutes – so that they go really soft and turn a golden brown. When they are done, we then add lots of chopped parsley, cider [...]
Breezy RIDER June 23, 2009 IN September last year I waxed poetic about the performance and handling of the 2.0 litre version of this car. It’s a sublime drive, with oodles of torque and finesse and I was impressed. So much so that I thought that they would struggle to better it with the new Golf GTi. In my view, [...]
With Polish vixens and Japanese beef, it’s like the boom never ended June 22, 2009 NO 2020 WARWICK STREET, W1B 5NF, TEL: 020 7292 6102 FOODSERVICEATMOSPHEREPrice per head without drink: £35 AN economist I know is fond of saying that nothing epitomised the boom years like Wagyu and foie gras burgers. Well, he’ll be relieved to know, the boom years are back in one corner of town: No 20 at [...]
OTHER NUMERICAL RESTAURANTS June 22, 2009 RHODES 24Spiky-haired celebrity chef Gary Rhodes’ City headquarters sits halfway up Tower 42, and has some of the best views of any restaurant in London, with food to match. 24th floor, Tower 42, 25 Old Broad Street, EC2N 1HQ, www.rhodes24.co.uk 1 LOMBARD STREETThe City’s most central fine-dining restaurant, sitting in prime location outside Bank Tube [...]
Pamper your feet with the best pedicures in London June 22, 2009 Spa Studio at the LanesboroughThe Lanesborough, Hyde Park Corner, SW1X 7TA. 020 7333 7700 THE SETTING: The Lanesborough is London’s last word in hotel luxury. The spa is a hidden chamber in the depths of the hotel appointed with perfect European luxury and taste. THE PEDICURE: The Foot Loose and Fancy Free package (£85) begins [...]
Holidaying through rose-tinted spectacles June 21, 2009 BEACHES are what the Caribbean does best, and you’ll struggle to top the postcard perfection of Pink Sands in the Bahamas. Gazing out across the sand, it’s as though you’re seeing the world through rose-tinted spectacles, as the swathes of powder edging Harbour Island have a fantastical salmon-tinged hue. Crushed pinky shells of microscopic marine [...]