Beautiful Things: The items on our shopping list this month, from instant cameras to invisible teapots May 23, 2016 Votteler Chair £POA, walterknoll.de This Walter Knoll armchair, based on a 1956-design by Arno Votteler, is a perfect example of Scandinavian objectivity and austerity. The angular volume of the upholstery rests on a delicate tubular steel framework, while the armrests are made from elegantly shaped solid wood. German industrial designer and academic Votteler, who founded [...]
Beat the post-Eurovision blues with a trip to Stockholm, where these waxen ABBA nightmares stand in perpetual, staring horror May 20, 2016 Landing in Stockholm, bleary-eyed and frizzy-haired, I wondered if this was all going to be a bit too cool for me. People have got their act together in Sweden. They eat well, they look immaculate and everything they do is world-beating – from their achingly cool subtitled dramas, to their forward-thinking paternity leave policy and [...]
The Kindle Oasis is a masterful showcase in usability and design, but can Amazon’s e-reader justify the price tag? May 18, 2016 Like sensible shoes, boxes of staples, and that plastic bag in your kitchen that’s filled with other plastic bags, it’s really difficult to get excited about e-readers. They’re functional and mundane. Unsexy grey slates that can’t load Candy Crush. The worst ones stand in the way of your efforts to read, but the best ones [...]
Roka review: A Japanese robatayaki restaurant serving up grilled meat and seafood, sashimi and sushi May 17, 2016 Roka is a Japanese robatayaki restaurant – basically BBQ, but with a lighter touch – serving up grilled meat and seafood, sashimi and sushi. WHERE? 4 Park Pavilion, E14 5FW. On the first and second floors of Park Pavilion, that shiny enclave off the South Colonnade. Floor One is the main restaurant and wine/sake tasting area while [...]
Morgan gives its 65-year-old car a racing makeover. Introducing the Morgan AR Plus 4 May 16, 2016 There is an office deep within Morgan’s ‘frozen in time’ Malvern HQ, where there hangs a picture of Sir John Harvey-Jones. He was the star of Troubleshooter, the 1990 BBC TV series that made Morgan famous again. “Modernise or die” was Sir John’s advice for the firm. It didn’t. But neither did it die, and [...]
Catch some waves in beautiful Taghazout Bay: The upcoming surf-capital of Morocco May 16, 2016 Agadir and its coastline have been likened to the French Riviera, but while this windswept Atlantic resort has its charms, it would be generous to call it a Moroccan Saint-Tropez. What Agadir lacks in va-va-voom, however, it makes up for with action. Ten miles north of Agadir is Taghazout, a laid-back beach town and Mecca [...]
The Angry Birds Movie is a story for children about a collection of rare birds violently catapulted into shoddily built towers May 12, 2016 In a post-Battleship world, it seems no premise or product is too remote to base a film on. Step in Angry Birds, the mobile game that was the saviour of long commutes everywhere when it burst on to the scene in 2009. The spin-off movie was met with incredulity but hopes have quietly risen given [...]
How do you create a sex-heavy unreality for an unshockable twenty-first century audience? May 12, 2016 Diarist Samuel Pepys saw A Midsummer Night’s Dream – for the first and last time – in 1662, describing it as the most “ridiculous play that ever I saw in my life” despite “some good dancing and some handsome women”. Centuries later, can the sex-fuelled plot still baffle a contemporary audience? Emma Rice takes a stab in her first production as [...]
Battleborn review: An unholy union of Borderlands’ goofball run-and-gun sandbox style and Street Fighter’s colourful character roster May 12, 2016 Fans of the Borderlands series have eagerly awaited the next big title from 2K since 2014. I speak from experience. So when Battleborn appeared to be an unholy union of Borderlands’ goofball run-and-gun sandbox style and Street Fighter’s colourful character roster… Well, I won’t lie, I squeaked with excitement. A Gorillaz-esque exposition sequence explains that [...]
Leica M-D review: The $6,000 digital camera with no screen, no autofocus and no video recording May 11, 2016 Once, while striding purposefully to see a brand new animal at the zoo, I slipped on a frozen puddle and shattered the LCD screen of my DSLR. I could no longer review the pictures I’d taken or fiddle about with menus, but it was otherwise a perfectly functional camera. If anything, it was made somehow [...]
