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Robert Clayman
Watching the clip, it’s Christopher Waltz’s face that strikes you. As the man with a (fake) gun and a (fake) grenade walks onto the podium of a live French TV chat show, the colour drains from the German Oscar-winner’s gob. He goes white as milk, which is the perfect counterpoint to the sapphire sea and…
Part speakeasy, part gentleman’s club, Pankhurst London is a style-conscious grooming den, where the environment is as manly as the bay rum and lime scent of their products. Drop in for a classic wet shave or a full groom and finish from one of the hand-crafted Bentley barbers’ chairs. That’s right, no longer are the…
I once spent a great semi-year in Los Angeles. As often discussed, the City of Angeles is less an actual city, more conurbationised sprawl. Sure, there was a liberating feeling of opportunity, a sense that my creative germ was being activated by all that vitamin D, a slight electric thrill upon realising I was physically…
“Oh, I am most dreadfully sorry officer. I had absolutely no idea. Oh, I do apologise…” The same effect happened just outside of Austin while driving the Cadillac CTS. Let me put this in perspective though. American roads? One of the fastest production sedans in the world? A car capable of 0-60 in the sort…
Rhode Island. Doesn’t evoke much by way of word association, does it? Well, apart from a breed of chicken. The only other bits of trivia that spring to mind are that it’s the smallest state and also the setting for Family Guy which: a) admittedly, isn’t going to look good on a poster; and b)…
A charming slice of classic England, that comes served whole. With cream on top. The express train barging its way through the thickening snow drift on a journey to who knows where. The glowing yellow eyes of the spiky Gothic pile set against a blue/grey dusk. The huge fireplace crackling, crowned by the heads of…
‘Suffering is implicit in major decisions that political leaders have to make in times of upheaval. Not everyone making these decisions is psychopathic.’ Any self-respecting geek knows that the Voight-Kampf empathy test is used to find replicants hiding amongst the general population in Ridley Scott’s Blade Runner. Testing for blush response and pupil dilation, through…
Freud considered all dreams to be in essence a form of wish fulfilment. Yes, even the scary ones. Luckily, Vikram Chatwal’s theatrical sci-fi hide out, deep in Midtown Manhattan is no dystopian nightmare. Let’s leave behind the blurb that describes it as ‘not your mother’s luxury hotel in Midtown’ (I’m assuming that’s not a euphemism)…
Take an old Scottish church. Furnish it to look like a shag pad as imagined by Charles Rennie Mackintosh. You’re in business. Debauched. One of those words that, being a pedant, I often flinch at. ‘Oh last night was SOOOOO debauched!’ some tool will indulgently groan at you. ‘Why?! What happened?!’, I’ll ask, my eyes…
Is the place where this really good wine comes from. This isn’t about McBain’s nemesis at all. It’s not every restaurant that gets it’s very own wine. But over two years ago, Bodega Ruca Malen created Malbec magnums for Roast, the consistently great meat’n’Brit eatery nestled above Borough Market. This proved to be a jolly…