Backchat - 5 March 2007

Being Boutique & Starck Contrasts

Maybe I’m a slob, I’m not entirely sure. But once I walk through the door of a hotel room I like to spread out. The contents of my bag get strewn to all corners in a matter of minutes. This normally occurs to the strains of some ‘top stories at the top of the hour’

Global - 5 January 2007

Dazzle — Tokyo

Dazzle: www.huge.co.jp/DAZZLE Diners at Tokyo’s latest fashionable restaurant, Dazzle, are bedazzled by more than just the amazing interiors. As they step out of the elevator floor they encounter not a swish maître d’ station but a frenetic kitchen! Owner, Yoshihiro Shinkawa, says the aim is to share the ambience of chefs preparing the food, while

Backchat - 5 January 2007

Slave to the Machine

It’s been a busy year. That’s 2006 I’m talking about, not 2007, which remains tantalisingly out of reach as I write. How busy? Five expresso machines busy. Ché? Let me explain. The best yardstick of the pace of my year is how many stove-top expresso machines I incinerate — the more frenetic I get, the

Hotel - 5 November 2006

Hesperia Tower — Barcelona

Hesperia Tower: www.hesperia-tower.com Barcelona’s Hesperia Tower hotel, designed by Richard Rogers Partnership, is a somewhat controversial skyscraper whose architecture and design are reason enough to make it a destination hotel. This imposing monolith, with a glass-honeycomb-domed restaurant perched on top like a visiting UFO, towers 104 metres high. It also features a second restaurant ‘Bouquet’

Backchat - 5 November 2006

Red Carpet Treatment

Remember how good it felt to sit on the back seat of the school bus for the first time? To be initiated into the ranks of the back seat brigade meant you were accepted, and being there made you feel socially bulletproof. Crazy really. It’s really no different from the rest of the bus, and

Backchat - 20 September 2006

Tupac Shakur – Runnin’

Magazine deadlines are inevitably a bit stressy. But nothing relaxes the nerves and smoothes the furrowed brow like a good browse through the latest pop music videos on iTunes. It’s always interesting to peruse the ‘Hip Hop & Hot’ section. As you’d expect, the various Dog(g)s were all present: Snoop Dogg, Nate Dogg, Bow Wow

Club & RSL - 5 September 2006

Shed — London

» Shed: www.shedlondon.com There was a time that when dad said he was “popping to the shed” we were talking about a rickety wooden structure down the allotment. The Shed — London’s latest members’ club — could not be further away from this image of yore. The hardworking men and women of London’s ‘Square Mile’

Backchat - 5 September 2006

Minimum Award

I recently found myself loitering in the Main Beach precinct of the Gold Coast. For those unfamiliar, it’s a swanky part of the country. Just to give you an indicator of the type of prosperity we’re talking about, I calculated that the short stretch of road I was in had about $3m worth of parallel-parked

Video Watch - 20 July 2006

LL Cool J – Control Myself

The woman with the $1m bottom, Jennifer Lopez, doing the watusi with the man with the $1m overdraft, LL Cool J? It’s a mouth-watering prospect. My goodness me, times have changed. Has it really been 20 years or so since a rap collaboration meant speed dialling speed metal merchants, Anthrax, or faxing rock dino’s, Aerosmith?