I LEGO N.Y.

A wonderful series of sketches, doodles and visual puns - all inspired by New York and all made of Lego. They are the work of Christoph Niemann, an artist whose work has appeared in many magazines, including the New Yorker.

More pictures available from the NY Times

The artist's website

Snow

The heaviest snow in London in 18 years, with an accumulation of about 8 inches.

Oslo or Vienna - or even New York - would easily cope with that much snow. But without the infrastructure to clear the snow, it brought London to a complete standstill. The trains and buses were out of action for most of the day, and the airports were closed.



It felt like a "snow day" off work for the entire city. Many people took the day off because they couldn't get to the office on public transport, and the centre of town was extremely quiet. Parks were filled with adults making snowmen and throwing snowballs.







The courtyard of Burlington House, home of the Royal Academy.


A Land Rover, the best form of transport in this weather.


Outside a local pub.

A cultural weekend

A cultural weekend in London.

On Friday, the new Palladio exhibition at the Royal Academy. In the evening, the Mariinsky Theatre (the company formerly known as the Kirov) performing Tchaikovsky's Queen of Spades, conducted by Gergiev. A sell-out show at the Barbican.

Saturday morning at the Wallace Collection.

On Sunday, the new film Frost/Nixon, adapted from the stage production at the Donmar.

End of an era

Image from 21 Club website: www.21club.com

The last restaurant in New York that requires men to wear a tie has finally given in and changed its dress code.

Jackets are still required, but while ties are "preferred" at dinner they are no longer mandatory. A sad development -- it was nice to know that there was one last holdout against casual dress -- but I suppose it was inevitable.

Alan Flusser, quoted in the NY Times, huffed "I don't think this sends the right message to young people."

The Man of Mode returns

After computer problems throughout December, travel over Christmas, and a busy January, the Man of Mode returns.

Krakow

A few more photographs from the Man of Mode's recent trip to Hungary and Poland. This time, some images from Krakow.

More Soviet era statues

After my previous post of Socialist Realism and the statue park in Budapest, here are a couple more communist era statues.

Marx and Engels, in the Alexanderplatz in Berlin. In the background stands the partially-demolished Palast der Republik, the former parliament building of the DDR which also housed restaurants and a bowling alley. It stands on the site of the Stadtschoss, the Prussian-era royal palace in Berlin, which was badly damaged during the war and what was left was pulled down after the war. There are now plans to rebuild the palace at the same location.


Lenin, in October Square in Moscow. Apparently this is the last remaining public statue of Lenin in the Russian capital.


There is also a statue park in Moscow with various Soviet era works. I'll post some pictures of that in due course.