Seeking Art - Tate Modern

Living in a big city always seems to be a gateway to becoming an 'artsy' type. You know, you become one of those people that frequent the theatre for a night out or you keep your eye out for the latest street art on the scene.  It's not to say it's a bad thing, this part of our culture is a dying, errm, art to say the least but you can't help but feel like you're becoming 'one of those guys' when you join in.

A friend of mine that works in the art industry invited me along to the Tate Modern recently. In the 3 years that I have lived here, I had never stepped foot into this building. Don't judge me.  Stranger still, we went to the museum for the start of our Big Saturday Night Out of celebrating.  Museums on a Saturday night, is not in my usual lineup but I liked a bit of change.

As this isn't normally my scene, I couldn't help but feel like the gang in Ferris Buller's Day Off when they went to visit the museum.



That song was totally playing in my head for most of my visit.

In short, it was very enjoyable to exercise my brain in a way that I haven't in quite some time. I can almost certainly conclude that I am not a fan of sculptures but I do like landscape photography and abstract art.  

One of my favourite pieces, (which I'm not really sure what you would classify this under), was titled 'Air Pollution of Iran 2004-6. Eight Flags' by Mahmoud Bakhshi Moakhar.   It was presented in a room that had 8 different Iranian flags, each from a different year in the Iran-Iraq war.  Each flag had been raised for only one year and each flag had acquired varying levels of soil and damage depending on the year.  It was some powerful stuff that had me reaching for my inhaler just looking at them.

Another good'un was 'Lament of the Images 2002' by Alfredo Jaar. When you approach the room, it may seem like nothing is or will happen.  The best way of seeing this installation is if the room is dark at first.  There's a thin white light that cuts the room in half horizontally and it stays this way for about 2 minutes. Suddenly, the thin white light grows into a large glowing light that fills the room and you realise this light was coming from two steel tables with their tops meeting in the middle - one suspended from the ceiling. I liked Jaar's message of becoming blind to everyday things in life, just as we focused on the thin white light when the room was dark rather than the two tables that were in the centre of the room.

I'm kicking myself because I didn't take any photos. I don't know what it is, but I'm always afraid they're going to tell me off and say no photos allowed - so I don't. Is that a myth?

Also, I always assumed you had to pay to go to the Tate Modern, but I only saw the free galleries. There are different exhibitions that have a fee attached or if you're a paying member you can have unlimited access.  From Wednesday, 14 November for £10 you can see their new exhibition 'A Bigger Splash: Painting After Performance' featuring key paintings by Jackson Pollock and David Hockney.

I'd certainly go on a late night adventure again as the museum stays open until 22.00 on Fridays and Saturdays - if not for a bit of culture before drinking my cares away, at least for the phenomenal view.

The moon above London

St. Paul's Cathedral

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Seeking London - What's Cool 19SEP

I never realised how many London event things I read on a weekly, if not daily basis - but it's quite a lot.  So much so, that I plan my weeks around some of the cool things that I see.

Here are a few:

Street Feast London

If you haven't had enough of the pop-up bar, the pop-up restaurant and the pop-up theatre trends that cover London then get your fix with the Street Feast crew.  It's been running since the summer and after being kicked out of a few locations by jealous establishments, they've now found a home in Hackney (where else really).  Meant to have some of the best street food we'll find in these here parts.

Coffeehouse Tour

Image from the Londonist review of this tour

I didn't even know this was a thing!  You can go on tour with actors, musicians and the whole shebang and tour some of London's original coffee spots.The history geek in me thinks this is pretty awesome, and for the coffee lovers out there (I'm not really one of them) you can get your caffeine fix while learning a bit about London.  The tour runs every third Saturday of the month and is £13.50 + bf. 

Hint Hunt

Shutthefrontdoor!! Wait, no, really. Apparently, going out to a bar and getting pissed is just not enough for us Londoners on a Friday night.  Now we want to be purposely locked in a basement room and have to crack codes and find clues on how to break out of the room in 60 minutes. Crap, maybe when I put it that way it doesn't sound nearly as exciting as it should be. I love puzzles, but this is just insane that it even exists. Nonetheless it sounds really interesting if not at least a bit different. Tickets are £16 + bf and must be booked in advance.

What cool things have you seen happening in London lately?

Ariel on Google+

Seeking Routine

Last week I had a disappointing realisation.  My fridge shelf was beginning to look more like someone on You Are What You Eat and I hadn't cooked a decent meal in at least 2 months.

This is not like me at all.  I love being in the kitchen, keeping it clean and fully stocked with things to prepare.  It's my place of serenity and a reminder that I am in control of what I cook if at least nothing else in my life at times.

Living and working in London can put the average Londoner into the eating routine of takeaways and ready meals from the supermarket and very little exercise in between. While it is convenient, I think we all need to take time to make our own dinners. In the end, it's heaps cheaper and to be honest once you get used to doing a certain dish it doesn't take that much time out of your day.

I've made a concious decision (and I'm trying really hard to stick to it) to change my habit of waking up, taking the tube, going to work, eating a ready meal, leaving work, taking the tube, and ordering a takeaway. As well as changing my eating habits, I'm trying to include exercise in that routine.  It's hard, and it's particularly harder when no one around you is making the change to their routine either. But I'm stubborn, and if I want to do something I'll keep trying at it!

I've ordered a massive selection of meats and fish from the shop (online shopping is the way forward in big cities), wrapped them individually and frozen each bit of chicken and fillet of salmon so I can always have food in the house. I've even gone so far as to plan out my meals for each day.

Today was veggie lunch and I was craving courgette (zucchini).  Here's the recipe I found to make my lunch (sans lima beans, I've got childhood nightmares about those).

How have you had to manage your eat/work/exercise routine?

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup fresh or frozen lima beans, blanched
• 1/2 cup drained canned chickpeas, rinsed
• 1 zucchini, quartered lengthwise and cut crosswise into 1/4-inch-thick slices
• 1/2 small red onion, halved and thinly sliced
• 2 to 3 romaine leaves, cut into thin strips
• 1 ounce Parmesan cheese, broken into small chunks (1/4 cup)
• 1 tablespoon chopped fresh basil, plus small sprigs for garnish
• 4 1/2 teaspoons fresh lemon juice
• 3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
• 1/8 teaspoon red-pepper flakes
• 3/4 teaspoon coarse salt
• Freshly ground pepper, to taste

Directions

1. Combine lima beans, chickpeas, zucchini, onion, romaine, Parmesan, and chopped basil. Add lemon juice, oil, red-pepper flakes, salt, and pepper, and toss to combine. Garnish with basil sprigs.

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Seeking London Life

Three years ago I made one of the biggest decisions of my life. I decided I had had enough of Ohio and America(ns) and I was tired of saying 'I want to live abroad'.  I applied to a few Universities in London, sold my everything and put my United Airline miles that I had racked up over 5 years of travelling the world to good use - a one way ticket to London.

The day I moved to the UK

Since moving here I've done something that many people aren't able to do: pick up and start again in life. I went back to school for my Masters, I gained new circles of friends, I travelled even more, I discovered an undying love for festivals, I started a new career path, and I found love again. Maybe these things could've happened in the States as well, but I don't feel that it would have.  My life may have different priorities than the average 29 year old woman, but I'm feeling pretty accomplished!

London, I love you and you have me under your spell. Here's to another 3 years of magical bliss and opportunities. 

Ariel on Google+

Seeking America - MEATliquor

Sometimes it happens and there's just nothing you can do about it.  A new club, restaurant or venue opens and everyone proclaims it to be the greatest of its kind, ever. It's happened before while I've been here and no matter how much I and others have said the other location is by far more superior and more authentic, the establishment with all the marketing money comes off as being the better venue of its trade.

This, I feel, is the story of MEATliquor.

I went during a weeknight, immediately after work - no problem with the queues that everyone keeps going on about. Don't show up past 7, or don't leave it to be a Friday night meal.  Obviously that's when all the eager trendy people start flocking to what they only heard was the next best thing.  I got there around 6.30 or so and it was fine.  Get in, have a few drinks (and by few I mean 1 - £4 for a small can of beer, £9 for a mason jar of what was effectively a margarita) and browse over the menu.

Don't be upset that you can't see the menu on the website, that's just part of MEATliquor's disappointing charm to get people wanting more.  They have 4 or 5 different burgers and a few other American type sandwiches.  I went for a Philly Cheesesteak, because again, I'm craving all things that I never ate that often at home, and as always the boyfriend went for the thing that I would otherwise get if I wasn't skeptical of the place (a burger).  We also had wings as a starter.

MEATliquor - Hot Wings

MEATliquor - Philly Cheesesteak, burger, fries

The Good: those hot wings were pushing on hot, so that was good.  French fries were pretty tasty.

The Bad: I have never, in my life, seen a Philly Cheesesteak look like that. I didn't realise it was OK to just pass off steak as mince meat (ground beef).  I must have missed that memo. And FFS that's an ungodly amount of green peppers. I pulled about 1/3 of them out but there were still too many to find the actual meat section of this sandwich, making the peppers really over powering.  

With the wings, though it was labelled as bleu cheese dip, I know they just went out and bought some ranch dressing. Don't mess with me and these wings, world!

So I feel the cheesesteak served is one of those 'Expectation/Reality' moments. I was expecting something closer to below

mmmmm I miss steak-umms

Notice the thin slices, not chuck ground beef.

The Interesting: All this being said, it is an interesting venue to look at inside. I'm not really sure why they painted it the way they did. It looks like a cross between a slaughter house, and the house of someone that wants to slaughter people.  Weird scribbles on the wall, red drips of paint everywhere, very odd.

The Worse: Normally if I have a part of my meal that I didn't enjoy, at least I know the bf has enjoyed his. In his words, 'It was alright, but nothing worth queuing for'.

And there you have it. 

As we left the building, a queue that did not exist only 2 hours prior was indeed wrapping around the block on a weeknight and we were half tempted to tell them it wasn't worth it.  But there wouldn't be any point, the media monkey has turned his tricks and enough people are intrigued by the place to keep it in business for a while.  Maybe that'll give them enough time to suss out what American food is, and I'll try the standard any-country burger instead of the American 'delicacy' next time.

MEATliquor can be found at:

74 Welbeck Street

W1G 0BA

Nearest Tube: 

Bond Street

Ariel on Google+