An American in Paris

As a timeout tastemaker I was invited to watch An American in Paris currently showing at the Dominion theatre in London’s West end and was super excited! I wasn’t familiar with the storyline beforehand and didn’t research anything as I wanted it to all be new, I was pleasantly surprised by the good mix of narrative, music and dance.
The storyline was a classic love story (who will get the girl) and could have been a bit more imaginative but for me it was brought alive by the stunning costume and set design that has made me want to book a ticket back to 1940s Paris.

The talent in the show was immense with actors taking on both singing and dancing and even a few humorous moments. There were a couple of catchy songs but I was expecting some more big numbers. This show was definitely about the dancing and with the lead role being a ballerina I suppose that’s understandable, however I did feel that the dance scenes were a bit long and sleep inducing and I did have to dig the OH in the ribs when I heard a faint sound of a snore… cant take him anywhere!

I don’t want to give away who did get the girl so If you are a fan of musicals then this feel good show is definitely a must see and you will have to go and watch to find out!

What is your favourite show to watch in the theatre?

*images of the show taken from the An American in Paris website as no photography is allowed in the theatre.

 

 

 

Tiger Tiger – Haymarket

Searching for somewhere to eat around the west end on a Saturday afternoon can be a bit of a task. I really wanted to try Shake Shack but noticed that there were people standing up and eating and after strolling around Soho for an hour I wasn’t really in the mood to do that. A short walk down the road and we came across Tiger Tiger. I know this place more as a club that is quite popular with students but the restaurant looked nice and there was loads of space so we decided to sample their lunch menu.

Décor

I imagined eating at Tiger Tiger as a bit of a pub lunch so was quite impressed with the ornate layout of the tables and atmospheric lighting. The chairs were comfortable and the tables were far enough apart that it didn’t feel you were sitting on the laps of other diners. It was all rather fancy until the waitress came and plonked a bottle of tomato ketchup and vinegar on the table! While taking a trip to the toilet I noticed loads of long tables reserved at the back so I assume it is really popular with large groups of people as it has quite a range of food and drink on offer.

service/atmosphere

The restaurant was both a mix of couples and families enjoying their Saturday afternoon in the heart of London. It was probably less than half full so fairly quiet so I was surprised that it seemed to take so long before the waitress approached us to ask for an order. After placing the order I noticed somebody paying and using a Tastecard so we asked the waitress if we could use ours, she went off to speak to the manager and returned saying that because we already placed an order that it was too late. I understand that there is protocol and we should have checked beforehand but I don’t think it would have been too much of a problem for them to accept it as we hadn’t even started eating yet.

Food

We ordered a mix of starters and my favourite was the deep fried macaroni cheese although it was piping hot so I nearly burnt my mouth eating it!

Myself and my daughter had the cheese burger and chicken burger which were really reasonable at £6.50 each served with chips and salad. The OH had the sirloin steak served with two sides which was a bit disappointing for the price of £18.00.

The food was OK and managed to fill us up but I wouldn’t class it as one of my favourite places to eat.

Have you tried Tiger Tiger?

 

Somerset House

I managed to make the Malick Sadibe exhibition at Somerset house before it closed, which was lucky as it was on the 10 places I want to visit in London list.

The building itself is really impressive and I imagine there are loads of interesting things housed inside but I didn’t have time to explore too much and headed straight for the exhibition.

Malick who is known as Mali’s most famous photographer captured the popular culture of Bamako in the newly independent Mali in the 60s and 70s. Armed with just his lightweight kodak brownie and his bicycle he set off around the city capturing scenes by the river, in the music venues and within his own studio to document the celebratory atmosphere.

I love how his images show the energy and exuberance of the young generation during a social and cultural change. The confidence in their dance moves and party attire reflecting youth across the world. His images are displayed in a very traditional way with large format black and white photos placed in plain white frames made it unfussy and focused on the intimacy of the subjects.

The images were accompanied by a soundtrack curated by DJ and African music expert Rita Ray featuring a mix of British and American rock n roll to Malian roots music,  which is believed to have been played in the nightclubs and during sibedes photoshoots

It may be too late to see the show at Somerset house now but all the images are for sale at their online store as posters, post cards or within a book.

Taking a break at Borough Market

I feel a bit like I am drowning in work at the moment and my to do list seems to never end. I am a few weeks into the second semester of my second year studying for a photography degree, the projects and tasks I am currently working on include…

• Creating a photobook of Elephant and Castle including archived images that I have to source myself
• Setting up a photography website
• Writing an essay on photographic debates, my subject is questioning the ethics of the paparazzi and whether celebrities have a right to privacy in public (your views on the subject are welcome in the comments)
• Mentoring first years on a commissioned project
• Collaborating with sound design and digital design students to create a film
• completing different types of work experience (paid or voluntary) to gain new skills across the industry
• Creating a live portal installation in collaboration with a group of creative industry and engineering students based in London and Toronto to be placed in the windows of our two universities. (This is a competition that has 10 groups of students, the winning team get to fly to Canada to install their idea…no pressure!)

Now I am really enjoying the work and it is exciting to get to meet and work with new groups of people but being the biggest procrastinator there is I am always looking for a distraction and what better place to take my mind of it all than somewhere filled with loads of food!

I had to visit the local history library in Borough to look at their archived images so decided to meet my daughter for lunch while I was there as she works around the corner.

I haven’t been to Borough market for many years and was surprised at how big and how busy the place was but it may have been because it was the middle of the afternoon and everyone was on their lunch break.

You can pick up just about anything you feel like eating, from fish to fresh fruit smoothies, the finest cheese to the fluffiest chocolate brownies, it’s probably best not to go when you are too hungry because you might want a bit of everything.

There is a mix of stalls where you can buy products (anyone for liquorice covered in white chocolate and chilli powder?) or cooked meals. I really like the way you can pick what you want and then watch the chefs cook it for you.

After walking around for a while we decided to eat at Café Brood as they had a nice seating area away from the crowds. We chose the steak sandwich with fries as it sounded the most filling and we were salivating from the smell of food everywhere. I do like steak but don’t order it very often. At £7 I thought it was quite expensive for a sandwich but I have to say this was one of the nicest pieces of steak I have eaten for ages so was well worth the price.

Visiting Borough market was on my list of 10 places to visit in London so I can now tick that off but I will definitely be back in the future to try out some more of the dishes as there was so much to choose from.

Have you got a favourite food market?