Blog Scribbles

It's not a journalists thing… It's the result of a vote of poll of readers of the luxury magazine..

OK. That was before the pickle we found ourselves in during spring 2010.

Bangkok on top of the list.. in front of Florence, Sydney or New York!!!

What are you waiting for?

Serge Gainsbourg was a French singer and composer who became a major icon of the twentiest century of western culture as much as Bob Marley in music, Bruce Lee in cinema or Che Guevara in politics. He had a voice, husky and nasal, a face (a 'mug' according to his own words) that was not advantageous but still he had allure and ultimately, he had fame. He was considered a genius of his time and his legacy goes beyond just music, leaving an imprint that art and life are intertwined as much as music goes beyond borders and times.

A poet of modern times he was also a dandy with all the romantic apparatus: he seduced the most beautiful women of his time, he had a style that became iconic, a mix of loose elegance and sartorial casualness, always dressed in essential non colors: black, white, navy blue or demin. He was cool but in a lazy way, provocative but with nonchalance. He religiously groomed himself to look rough, like a Keith Richard would do.

In other words the man was large and it was logical to photograph a biopic of his life, and that was the challenge that Joann Sfar, a cartoonist by training tried to do with his movie. However classic as Gainsbourg the figure was, Gainsbourg the movie is not really a classic of its genre.

Good biopics, especially depicting music geniuses do not abound in movies, compared to book adaptations for example, but both constitute a difficult exercise for both are a very personnal interpretation (the one of a director) of something that belongs to the collective mind. However, the study of the genre necessarily leads to remind ourselves about what we expect from a good movie in particular and a good artwork in general.

When we go to the movies we want to be entertained and moved. Cinema, as an artform is probably the only one that can emcompass all the other artforms: music, painting, litterature, fashion, sculpture… Etc. But that is not enough to move the audience, which needs to connect with the story and the characters. Otherwise the reel can turn into a documentary or worse, a succession of nice images (a long advertising, a long music video or an endless screen saver). Therefore we all want to be mesmirized by the screen from the first scene to the end. When Milos Forman directed Amadeus, the life of Mozart, his genius idea was to introduce the character of Salieri, the mediocre rival who envied Mozart's gift and blamed God with despair and disbelief for not having chosen him. Of course the fact that Mozart was depicted as normal human being, driven by his passions and earthly desires also facilitate the audience to connect with him. The narrative used in Amadeus (the story begins after Mozart died and is a recollection or a testimony of Salieri about Mozart) is almost similar to the one of sir Richard Attenborough's Chaplin in which a fictional biographer, played by Anthony Hopkins interviews an already old Chaplin in his swiss home, in retirement, in the opening scenes. This narrative style has the double effect of telling a story within a story but also to set a fictional dialogue between the audience and the story teller. This helps a lot in terms of staging as it gives an additional dimension to the picture and it saves some long developments where the audience is left with just a picture to look at.

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Stumbled over an article about cocktail guys who age their spirits to make vintage cocktails. Pretty popular in Portland, Oregon.

http://tmagazine.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/06/01/case-study-vintage-cocktails/?src=tmcolum

Warning: this review contains spoilers.

For those who saw MICHAEL CLAYTON, I will try to explain why I believe this movie is a modern classic, a true redemption story, that it has all the ingredient of a contemporary myth served with the aesthetic of our time without falling into a moralising stance.

This is the story of a disillusioned hero in the modern sense. Baudelaire, considered the inventor of modern sensibility, once wished there were an artist who would depict the "modern hero" in his black uniform. George Clooney is such a hero. But unlike Batman, he is wearing a black suit with a white shirt and a dark tie as an armor. His gadgets are his blackberry and the mercedes benz sedan he drives. In a grey world where justice is not always on the side of the oppressed and the innocent, Michael Clayton tries to "fix" complicated situations guided only by his unique expertise and a relative sense of morale, which are ultimately guided by money. Clayton is lonely and this trait of character is illustrated by his addiction to gambling which, we all know, can lead to isolation and debt. He is also a divorced dad and too often an absent member of family gatherings. We learn through the movie that he has lost all his savings in a restaurant venture with his drug addicted brother, with whom he has stopped corresponding.

Another great classic story frame is character development. The hero in the beginning of the movie clearly belongs to one side (the bad guys which are represented by the law firm he works for and which heavily depends financially on the defense of a shady multi-million dollars firm – the bio-chemical firm U-North). As the movie progresses we can see the psychological conflict of the hero who eventually will opt for the other side to defend the victims of the biotech firm (justice's side). This character development is word by word what Marlon Brando's character goes through in Elia Kazan's classic ON THE WATERFRONT. I could not ignore the analogy of the taxi scene at the end of the movie when the camera frames a silent and thoughtful Clooney on the back seat of the taxi while the credits are rolling. This is almost the same shot when Brando argues with his brother that he "could have been somebody". Although Clooney's performance is not on par with Brando's one, which critics agree, belongs to the pantheon of acting.

That being said, now I would like to share the other dimension of the script which is the superb screenplay. In Gilroy's movie the viewer is almost like another character of the movie, I am tempted to say a ghost. But it doesn't have the transcendental dimension of TAXI DRIVER, in which the point of view could be the one of an angel. The ghost (the viewer) in MICHAEL CLAYTON could be alternatively all the ghosts of people the bio-chemical firm killed with their lethal product (more than 400 victims) or the spirit of the great character, Arthur Edens, played by remarkable Tom Wilkinson, the tormented lawyer who, by an almost mystical force, is struggling to get out of his body, rotten by years of remorses defending U-North. This explains why the style of filming is not so organic (shaking camera or "camera au poing" to employ a Nouvelle Vague terminology) but very still, almost floating. When we see how Gilroy films the assassination of Edens, it feels like the camera is right on the side of Edens body and when he eventually dies, it pans backwards as if the spirit has left the lifeless body, almost like a relief. The name of Edens, could be translated into "from the garden of Eden", a place where ignorance was bliss and where man lived in innocence. This mystical drive, which can be stretched to a religious one is illustrated by the tone and the temperament that Wilkinson employs: the one of a preacher, energetic and bordering insanity (as performed by Karl Malden, the priest who tries to convince Brando to make a righteous decision in ON THE WATERFRONT). In the scene where is is confronted to Clayton, he symbolically shares a loaf of bread (which represents truth) with him, probably a direct reference to Jesus Christ, a man who pays with his life for human kind's sins. Edens is indeed the only spiritual character in the movie.

What is striking is the chilling temperature of the relationships between the characters (a fact that is emphasized in that the movie was filmed in winter). The lack of humanity in the movie is beautifully expressed with the cinematography: cool, greyish with lots of diffused light. All the scenes take place in environments where modern individuals are left with anything but warmth: conference rooms, hotel rooms, empty lofts, office rooms, except when the camera shows a home – where kids enlive the atmosphere.

This is where the redemption aspect of the movie is stepping in. The only way the characters that have lost touch with their humanity (compassion, love, forgiveness…) are saving themselves is through saving what can be saved: kids, youth and family. Arthur Edens is falling in love with Anna, a girl who saw her family slowly die because of the bio-chemical product (in a fervent way like one loves the Virgin Mary), whilst Clayton is reaching out to his kid.
Ironically Clayton is saved from a car bomb when he, without apparent reasons, leaves the car to get closer to the horses he sees on the top of a hill whilst driving in the country side. A lot of people ask why does he leave the car? Maybe because Clayton feels the only humanity he can get  can be given by three horses at dawn (the dawn of a new day or a new Michael Clayton) or maybe it's an illustration he saw in a book Edens was reading before he died. I am tempted to answer simply because the ghost of Edens tells him to do so. As the car is burning, Clayton throws inside his watch and his phone. We see him afterwards reaching out to his drug addicted brother to help him in his hideaway –  a double redemption: Timmy the brother can get Michael's sympathy back and show him he is more worthy than his brother thinks. From that moment onwards Michael Clayton is a new man.

Overall, the cinematography used is very similar to another great classic which is Alan Pakula's ALL THE PRESIDENT'S MEN. In Pakula's movie a lot is happening in modern offices that become the battlefield of justice (the Washington Post's offices). A lot of the narrative also happen in both movies on the phone which is the new confessional. In both movies, modern hero, in pursuit of truth, are also wearing suits and ties. MICHAEL CLAYTON starts with a phone conversation between Sidney Pollack and a journalist who threathen to publish a story that could shatter U-North's reputation, just as Dustin Hoffman and Robert Redford's characters are publishing their articles that will lead to the Watergate scandal in ALL THE PRESIDENT'S MEN.

All of that leads me to think MICHAEL CLAYTON belongs to the modern iconography. The same one that one can find in Christopher Nolan's THE DARK NIGHT: that modern, steel and glass urban environment, cool but inhuman.

Ultimately, MICHAEL CLAYTON also benefits from a superb cast that is right on the money. Of course Tilda Swinton deserves her oscar but all the secondary characters (Sidney Pollack as the ultimate law firm exec) are perfect in their roles.

At Bed every Monday we have CINEMA DINE nights where we show a movie during dinner. Maybe one day we can show MICHAEL CLAYTON but not without showing ON THE WATERFRONT and ALL THE PRESIDENT'S MEN in the preceding weeks.

Cocktails bars in Paris are rare. Good cocktail bars are an exception in a city known for cafés and wine drinkers. Parisians are not very unconventional either, to say the least, when it comes to drinking habits. Proud as they are of their wine, they consider that the sheer simplicity, of only choosing wine, is masking the complexity of the variety of wines to chose from. For, Parisians need to know where the product is coming from before they delectably throw it down their throat. Choosing a wine being the national sport, choosing a cocktail is pure exploration (and full of risks). God knows Parisians are not explorers. So what is left for them is simply to copy those of their peers who dared exploring. That explains why the cocktail du jour is the Mojito. So yes, Parisians do drink cocktails but that would be just Mojitos. There is a real Mojito mania in town: every café and restaurant are now introducing their own recipe. I predict this trend is here for at least another quarter of a century, undoubtedly. Not really a revolution per se but definitely a great cultural leap forward: They drink cocktails!

That is probably the reason why Paris is now seeing the emergeance of a few good cocktail bars in town. Make no mistake, we're talking about less than there can be fingers in one hand. And there are even fewer good cocktail guys. I am talking about real, passionate fantastic technicians and creators. They're all very young and prolific for they belong to a new breed of bartenders. Even fewer of them are entrepreneurs who have decided to risk opening a cocktail bar in a city where new food and beverage concepts are abhorred. Such is the case of the people behind the PRESCRIPTION cocktail bar located in rue Mazarine a few steps away from the iconic ALCAZAR cabaret, in the posh and arty Saint-Germain area.

Like any good Parisian bar, the place is tiny and there is no sign in the street. The facade is pitch black and the only design element is a brown and beige striped marquee above the door. The theme of the design is a kind of Sherlock Holmes library meets cabinet of curiosity, with old-fashioned wallpapers, dark brown velvet sofas and there is even a bordeaux brick stone wall (the ultimate New York bar signature) at the lounge on the ground floor. Every thing there is old-fashioned (risk-free so to speak in innovation allergic Paris). The drinklist is printed in a single sheet of beige paper and the fonts used are a mix of edwardian scripture and engraver's lettering. There is also a nice finger food selection printed on a separate menu. Cool detail: the champagne bucket is an oversized stainless steel derby hat. Although the cocktail list has all the classics, I wish there were more creamy selections to balance the all sweet and sour direction.

Now the ambiance. The best time to catch the real buzz of the bar is to go on the weekend obviously. There is a bouncer at the door which means you could be told "private party" if you are not well-groom and dressed chic. The ealry evening crowd is made of a preppy anglo-saxon crowd – expect the best looking american women in Paris to sip a drink there, most certainly hailing from NYC (is it the brick wall?). Although I suspect the decor partially explains their presence, but on top of great cocktails there are also a very good selection of young Parisians to look at. As the clock goes past midnight, the bar is filled with more locals since the NYC girls left  to catch the last metro. Such crowd in a small place is also not very convenient to get a drink swiflty. So you have to order at the bar, and wait which is a great way to break the ice with your neighbour. The atmosphere is very casual and intimate and a DJ on the first floor is laying down a good party vibe. All the waitresses are styled similarly in a chic creamy rock glam attitude and the garcons wear a white shirt with black tie and black vest. Although I wished the debit was faster (complex cocktails are not as profitable to make as a standard drink since they are very labor intensive) those who are impatient can chose directly from the vast worldwide selections of single malts and whiskeys on the shelves.

Do not expect to meet the owners on the weekend they are probably busy at their other cocktail joint, THE EXPERIMENTAL. But that's the subject of another blog. The bar closes at 2 am.

As a DJ, I always love when people are putting their hands in the air because of the music I play. The problem when you are "only a DJ" is that it might take some time, during the night, building your set, until they actually feel like doing it. It has to be at the right time, with the right crowd and when playing the right track. It is also easier if they are already a bit plastered and, of course, if more girls than guys are in the club.

Many conditions are then required to have the crowd reacting the way you want, at the moment you want them to react.

Recently, I have been looking for a House MC to perform with me on Saturdays. I thought it would add something to the night having an entertainer in addition to my music. It has been working great since he started and we are getting a lot of wicked comments from Bed's guests.

But what does an MC add that is essential and that a DJ can't do?

- The immediate reaction of the crowd or should I say the "even more" immediate reaction of the crowd.

Whilst a DJ dreams of having everyone's hands up in the air right away and hopes that it will happen, the MC can make it happen instantly, just by saying "I wanna see all those hands up in the air". Frustrating…

Actually, it is not frustrating because I can now get "hands in the air" "people screaming" "crowd singing" just by pushing the MC "button". As a DJ, working with a good MC means: you don't need to get people drunk anymore, it doesn't need to be the perfect right crowd anymore, the club does not have to be full with more girls than guys anymore and most importantly for me, I get to focus more on the music that I want to play without having to think every 5 minutes about what would be the perfect track to have them to go crazy…  They are already going crazy.

Fred Jungo.

PS: Check MC Jason performing with me every Saturday in the Whiteroom from 11.30pm until 3am.

BRING 4 PAY 2 FOR DINNER

(exclusive of beverages)
*Promotion through June, 2010.

A RESTAURANT LIKE NO OTHER
Bed Supperclub is best described as a unique combination of upscale restaurant, club, art gallery, theatre and stage merged into one. The white, minimalist interior of the restaurant was designed specifically to act as a three-dimensional canvas for each night’s events, which includes a regular theme change every month with interactive performers, installations, singers or dancer. The key to dinning in Bed is to be prepared for surprises and to keep an open mind.

BED SUPPERCLUB
26, SOI SUKHUMVIT 11
FOR BOOKINGS PLEASE CALL 02 651 3537 OR EMAIL | info@bedsupperclub.com
MORE INFO ON |http://www.bedsupperclub.com/bangkok/en/restaurant/

An application that most of us have been waiting for, especially if you are an iPhone user. Bed Supperclub launched an official iPhone Application today, best of all it's free for you to download. (more…)

Although DJs are not yet pulling pigeons out of hats or romping behind the decks with a white tiger, we may be close.

The days of simply presenting the DJ and his music are over — we want and expect a 'show.'

As the showmanship expectations of DJs increase, we’re beginning to see a good number of DJs become more flamboyant with their acts. By flamboyant, I see more and more DJs wearing costumes, performing with live musicians (trumpets, saxophones, and percussions, in particular), mixing it up with several MCs, and grabbing hold of a catchy DJ name other than their birth given name.

"DJ Tiesto" sure sounds a lot more like a real party than does his real name –  “Tijs Verwest.” Massive Full Moon party tonight with “Tijs Verwest!!!” Sorry, no one’s coming.

 After recently reviewing the top 150 DJs on www.DJmag.com, I have listed what I feel are the top 10 DJ Names in the business (from this list of 150 names). Obviously, a professional and flamboyant DJ name may not have anything to do with their talent, but a good name sure supports the possibility of a more exciting show – especially if the crowd may be unfamiliar with the particular DJ.

 In descending order:

 1.)    Laidback Luke

2.)    Infected Mushroom

3.)    Bad Boy Bill

4.)    Lisa Lashes

5.)    Dirty South

6.)    Deep Dish

7.)    Felix Da Housecat

8.)    John "00" Fleming

9.)    Judge Jules

10.) Lisa Pin-Up

Laidback Luke on the decks at Bed Supperclub

Justin Dunne

Our monthly theme, 'Last Night at The Office,' is coming to an end on 21st April 2010. If you haven't already seen the show then now is a good time to catch it.

It seems like this show lighten my heart  every time I see it, last night a diver (more…)