Games, guns and gyrating girls in Sin City March 7, 2010 FAHVE bucks? Girl, for five dollars yew can take as many pictures as yew want. Come on over, and get yo’ man over heyah too.” This was Elvis talking. Yes, Elvis. Tinted shades, jet-black jumpsuit, rhinestone belt, sideburns you could iron clothes on. Standing on a street corner. A few minutes previously, we’d been inhaling [...]
TRAVEL NOTES March 7, 2010 Oporto, Portugal gains new luxury hotel This five-floor, sustainably-built hotel has been carved into the hillside using a terraced effect mirroring the vines of the neighbouring Douro Valley. Views (each room has a terrace) take in the Douro River and the UNESCO world heritage site of Oporto with its cobbled streets, trams and beautiful spires. [...]
Live like a modern Victorian in London March 4, 2010 WALKING through London, it is hard to ignore the wealth of wonderful Victorian buildings in the city. Gothic turrets and solid red-crick municipal buildings are everywhere you look. Those Londoners who are forced to live in flimsy new-builds no doubt look enviously at the beautiful – and solid – architecture that made the city the [...]
FOCUS ON: BATTERSEA March 4, 2010 FOXMORE STREET, SW11 4pu Price: £1.995m It might look small from the outside but this end-of-terrace property near Battersea Park has almost 3,000 sq ft of space. Set over four floors, it has five bedrooms, an open-plan double reception room with a fireplace and high quality solid oak flooring. There is also a modern kitchen [...]
SELLING March 4, 2010 Russell Hunt MANAGING DIRECTOR OF PROPERTY HUNT Q.Dear Russell, we are cash buyers but we keep losing out on houses. I thought cash buyers were supposed to have a better chance. Any advice? A.Buying your home is one of the biggest decisions that you ever have to make and it is also one of the [...]
Add a bit of fun to your nursery March 4, 2010 1 Jeeves and Wooster pendant lights by Leigh Harmer, £338.10 at www.leighharmer.co.uk 2 Coco Stylewood baby lounger by bloom, £130 at www.johnlewis.com 3 Pirate chest of drawers by Steve Allen, £299 at www.steveallen.co.uk or www.mydeco.com 4 Spot pillowcase, Cath Kidston, £10, www.cathkidston.co.uk 5 Natural History Museum remote controlled rattle snake, £32.95 at Harrods, www.harrods.com 6 [...]
Animation fails to bring Alice alive March 4, 2010 Film ALICE IN WONDERLAND Cert: PG THE idea of Tim Burton turning his imaginative powers to Lewis Carroll’s children’s fantasy, and roping in his old mucker Johnny Depp as the Mad Hatter in the process, seems so blazingly obvious it’s a wonder it took them this long. Sadly, it seems what they were waiting for [...]
SIX OF THE BEST March 4, 2010 FILM Ponyo Japanese auteur Hayao Miyazaki’s latest flight of imagination is his uniquely surreal take on The Little Mermaid. ART Richard Hamilton Tate Modern’s fascinating retrospective of the political works of the painter, sculptor and father of British Pop Art. THEATRE Off the Endz Former So Solid Crew member Ashley Walters stars in Bola Agbajes’s [...]
OUT THIS WEEKEND March 4, 2010 FILM LEGION Supernatural thriller with Paul Bettany as an angel saving the world from God’s wrath. Sure. ONDINE Colin Farrell plays an Irish fisherman who thinks he’s caught a mermaid in his net. CASE 39 Squinty-eyed Renee Zellwegger is a social worker working with a seriously creepy kid. DVD FANTASTIC MR FOX Stop-motion animation of [...]
London’s new power couple March 4, 2010 THE day I meet Carolina Herrera and her business partner and daughter, also called Carolina Herrera, I am foolishly wearing trainers. It is the wrong choice. Not because they are in any way snooty, but because I forgot when getting dressed this morning that I am meeting two of the most elegant women alive today. [...]