While it feels clich?d to assign the lilting La Vie En Rose, made particularly famous by French icon Edith Piaf,?as an anthem for the city of lights, I think it's a perfectly?fitting soundtrack for a town so full of beauty. Seriously, every corner looks like a photograph to hang on the wall of some sad American version of a “bistro”.

The song was the title of last year's big Piaf biography (which I've yet to see) and it's been featured in countless movies, shows and commercials (Sabrina, Wall-E, and Natural Born Killers, just to name a few of the better ones — but it appears in The Bucket List too).

It's also been covered by numerous artists, most famously perhaps by Brix Picks fave Grace Jones (side note: I just caught a few minutes of Boomerang and fell in love with the Amazon all over after seeing her emerge from a huge wooden crate that had been flown in by helicopter on a gladiator chariot driven by half naked men).

But really it's Piaf's version that hits the spot best and truly evokes all the wonders the magnificent city.

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Posted on March 2, 2009

The children's book The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint Exupery is so precious to anyone that's read it that people literally were stopping me in the subway to mention how much they loved it. The very simple truths expressed in the book, about what is actually important in life (hint: it's not making money, gaining fame, or staying drunk) have made the slim novel one of the best selling books ever. Shame then, that two of the three books stores in my neighborhood didn't carry it (and thanks Spoonbill & Sugartown for coming through).

If you haven't read it, I encourage you to take a day for it, it won't take more of your time than that, but it will fill you with the wonder and hope that you hopefully possessed as a child. Saint Exupery creates a world where a flower can be the most important thing in the universe and where all the stars in they sky can be laughing.

The book is graced with many charming illustrations also the work of the author. My favorite are the little sketches of sheep and the elephant inside a boa.

Surprisingly, considering the exotic and fanciful narrative, some of the book was inspired by real life. Saint Exupery was a pilot who crashed in the Libyan desert, nearly died hallucinating and dehydrated until a Bedouin found and saved them. During that incident, he saw a desert fox, also called a fennec fox and totally completely adorable (like the French bulldog of the wild) which inspired the fox character.

Sadly, this was his last book as he was shot down during World War II.

Among the adaptations of this classic are a Japanese animated TV show, a few theater attempts, a hard to find – but perhaps not worth the effort claymation, and probably most famously a failed live action film that I haven't seen but has earned quite a cult following and is easily available for the curious on Netflix.

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Posted on March 2, 2009

Over the years I have recommended so many British TV shows, it's almost a wonder that there were any left for this week. I was delighted, though to find that Nighty Night, a famously bleak comedy from Julia Davis (the baby mommy of the incomparable Julian Barrett) was now available in the US.

You know when a comedy begins with a cancer diagnosis and ends with more than one murder for the gain of a hairdressing sociopath that bright and cheerful comedy escapism is not in the cards. What I didn't expect, was how very, very odd it all is, beyond the dark as night humor, the entire tone is just plain weird and I'm not totally sure how I feel about it. It's an interesting concept to center a sitcom around a truly heinous woman who is fascinating in her insanity and trashiness but it isn't one that evokes laughs so much as curiosity and awe.

It's not a bad thing, necessarily, especially if you prefer your humor off kilter, but makes this series a tougher sell to American audiences who are unfamiliar and uncomfortable with the very British tradition of mixing devastating gloom with their laughs (see the work of Nighty Night's producer Steve Coogan and the original Office).

Davis, who writes as well as stars here, may have also found inspiration in the horror movie inspired series League of Gentlemen and even has League member Mark Gatiss co starring as a lonely outsider looking for love. There are actually lots of familiar BBC faces including Rebecca Font from The Day Today, Kevin Eldon who sang “Machadaynu” on Look Around You, Ruth Jones who was Coogan's wife in Saxondale, and even Shirley Ghostman himself, Marc Wootton makes an appearance.

Strangely enough, Sex and the City man Darren Star was been announced as the producer of an American version. Called “An exquisitely vile comic creation” by The Guardian and “a blistering wall of superbly unredeemed cruelty that manages to trample over every social convention in a pair of cheap stilettos” by the Times, the source material doesn't quite sound like a comfortable follow up to the shopaholics and cosmos in his resume, but maybe if he employs some Arrested Development people who know how to do warped humor, it could turn out OK. I know, wishful thinking, but who would have thought the American Office would have turned out so charming?

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Posted on February 23, 2009

Our main objective in London was to shop, and shop we did, starting with the famous Portobello Market in Notting Hill. It was a crowded stretch of road with vendors of all kinds, mot notably lots of cheap and trendy clothes (I finally found a plaid jacket inspired by Tokyo Drifter) and some good vintage once you cross under the bridge. Nearby children's clothing shops Stasi and Jigsaw were great for work. It's a lovely area to walk around with quaint buildings and antiques and fresh flowers peering out of windows.

Soho was much less quaint, a bustling center that reminded me of midtown and houses the colossal four story Topshop (soon to be causing mayhem in NYC). The place is a madhouse sea of intimidating head to toe trendy teens throwing hangers and grabbing sizes before you can reach for them. Not a spot for those prone to panic attacks, it is still worth a look for it's fun and exciting trends that are sold at comparatively reasonable prices.

For relative calm we headed to the exquisite concept store Dover Street Market, where even a pair of socks was out of my price range. Amazing designer clothing like Commes des Garcons and Manish Arora set among interesting displays of wax heads, neon tree branches, and giant plastic octopuses. It's more like a museum of avant garde design than a retail shop.

The next day got up early for the Brick Lane Market that reminded me of Brooklyn and bore great handmade t-shirts, spray painted shoes, beautiful people watching and excellent food (see restaurant picks). Nearby Beyond Retro, Shelf, Labour and Wait, Ella Doran and Mar Mar are worth visiting.

I really fell in love with London and hope to visit again when I can. Part of the magic was the comforts afforded by the great hotel No. 11 Cadogan Gardens in beautiful Chelsea and seeing my friend and her adorable baby again. It's the only city outside New York I could see myself living in.

Photos here.

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Posted on February 23, 2009

The V&A Musueum of Childhood is a charming laid back space that's free to the public and teaming with kids – one of which was even in head to toe Oshkosh which made my co-worker and I very excited. We met up with my friend Dana and her beautiful baby Bea, who enjoyed the flashing lights and bright colors. For us adults, there's also much to enjoy.

The main exhibit areas are filled with cases of toys through the decades and seeing some of them like this weird E.T doll we had that erroneously featured a glow up condom on it's finger, the brain thing from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Care Bears, these Indian puppets that we had as kids and the totally square Heart Family filled me with happy nostalgia.

Others amazed me with their packaging like this mechanical marionette theater or this arrow copter. Some things wowed me with their strangeness or grossness while still more made me envious of little British kids. I mean, really why couldn't we have grown up with Playsacks??!! I ended up taking hundreds of photos (that you can view here).

Currently they have a retrospective of children's fashion called Tip to Toe (open til April19th)?that features the exquisite, the fun, and the sometimes strange in children's fashion through the ages.

The book store is a good one, and you're likely to walk away with a fun souvenir, whether a book based on the Top to Toe exhibit or a He-Man toy postcard.

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Posted on February 23, 2009