Archive for April, 2008

On my last day in London, I dropped in at the Tate Modern. Like many London museums, the Tate does not charge an admission fee, so it’s perfectly reasonable to just pop in to check out one exhibition or even just to get out of the rain. I stumbled upon Doris Salcedo’s installation, Shibboleth. Almost literally. Salcedo’s work is a crack in the gallery floor that widens to a small chasm and branches once or twice as it runs the length of the turbine hall.

The work is entirely negative space. It certainly makes you wonder how it was “installed” and how it’s going to be “removed” at the end of its run. Except for the handy warning signs, it’s an act of subtraction, and an engaging one, too. People were getting down on the floor to take pictures or stick their hands down into the crack. I was pleasantly surprised to see no litter in there.

In case you are not a professional logophile or a biblical scholar, a shibboleth is a shared idea, a buzzword or even a joke that helps people identify members of their in group. Wikipedia has the whole story, which begins with ancient Gileadites killing 42,000 Ephraimites as they tried to cross the Jordan river. The Ephraimites were distringuishable by their inability to pronounce “shibboleth” to the exacting standards of Gileadite diction.

I suppose this bloody bit of history is recalled in Salcedo’s use of a chasm, a crack that looks like it will cleave the gallery in two, as a stand-in for the river Jordan. Those who don’t know the password - or those who don’t get the joke - might be killed crossing it.

The Boston Globe served up a double shot of tough fashion love for men today - here and here.  I was tipped off by ever-alert J, but of course not because she thought I needed any fashion tips.  Here’s the rundown, paraphrased for brevity:

• Don’t wear a colored t-shirt under a dress shirt such that it shows
• Don’t wear ugly jeans
• Don’t wear a short-sleeved T over a long-sleeved one
• Don’t wear a fleece vest in the office
• Don’t wear pleated khakis ever
• When out at night, wear something other the “nightlife uniform” of “untucked striped shirt, boot-cut jean and over-gelled hair” (check, I’ll cut back on hair gel right away)

Let me add a couple, if I may…

• Never, ever, wear anything clipped to your belt that’s not medically or professionally necessary.  Your cell phone is neither; put it in your pocket or buy a murse.  If you must wear things clipped to your belt for professional reasons - for example, if you are a police officer - please unclip those things as soon as your duty is done or your shift is over.
• Never wear headphones, a headset, or most especially a bluetooth thingie for more than 30 seconds before or after you are actually using such equipment.  If you are not actually on a call or listening to music, there should not be stuff in or on your ear.  Ignore this tip and brain cancer will be the least of your worries.
• Never ride a high bike.  If for some unknowable reason, you absolutely must do so on Mass Ave in Cambridge, please mount and dismount your absurd contraption at a safe distance from pedestrians.  (OK, that’s not exactly a fashion tip, but it’s important.  Trust me.)  Being affiliated with MIT is not sufficient license to ignore this or either of the preceding tips.

Thanks for listening, gents.  Together, we can make the world a better-looking place.

You think I’m making this up? Check the menu, and the photo evidence from my bud RoninOtter’s photostream: Kaffir limeduck salad at Oishii. Mixed greens and shredded duck with pine nuts and mustard jalapeno and kaffir lime vinagrette. Yum.

We were seated in the lower-level dining room, where I’d never been before, but it was as tranquil and comfortable as the upstairs. An unremarkable party of five in the middle of the week, we were visited by the chef at least three times. I hope it wasn’t because we were making too much noise. We were definitely having too much fun.

When I ran across The Fryer’s Delight, I was actually on my way to Lamb’s Conduit Street, where a guidebook had suggested I might find some nice restaurants. Leaving aside why I stopped for fish & chips instead, let me say that “Lamb’s Conduit Street” is one of the coolest street names I’ve run across anywhere. It’s even better than Einbahnstrasse.

I returned on my final night in London, and found myself in a pub with the almost as interesting name of “The Perseverance.” The website gives no indication of how they chose the name, but I settled in for a cider - Kopparberg Swedish pear cider over ice - and perused the menu.

“Our menu is based on traditional pub fayre; it is home made, freshly prepared honest pub grub at reasonable prices,” claims the website. Note sure if anything in London seems reasonably priced on the lousy dollar these days, but I ordered leek and bacon soup and salmon-haddock fishcakes.

For some reason I was expecting a thick, creamy or potatoish soup with crumbled bacon. I was wrong but not disappointed. The soup was not too think, definitely not creamy, and had real leek flavor without too much of anything else. Except bacon. There were good sized bits of thick smoky bacon in the soup. The cibatta and English butter made the prospect of a main course a little worrying.

The salmon and haddock fishcakes (with homemade tartar sauce) were served on some of the best greens I’d had in a week in London. The cakes themselves were full of good-sized chunks of both fishes and potatoes, too. Not spicy like a crabcake, but hardly bland. The salmon added interest to what might have been a too-predictable pub dish. Very satisfying. I’m glad I persevered.