The Last Tuesday Society

After introducing our new Last Wednesday of the Month Architecture feature last week, we became aware of how many days become commemorated, or have some special ritual bestowed on them. Everyone knows that sometimes legend is better than the reality, sometimes they live up to being just as good as each other, and sometimes it’s just better not to care which is which. In the sense of the latter, London’s The Last Tuesday Society, which claims it is a ‘Pataphysical organization founded by William James at Harvard in the 1870s and currently run by it’s present directors, positions itself in a history with no traceable evidence of truth, but with all they’ve got to offer — balls, lectures, a shop/museum, and and art gallery — why bother caring?

Got a friend who’s impossible to shop for? Maybe your home decor leans to the macabre? Their Little Shop of Horrors might be exactly what you’re looking for. The impressive collection of oddities here also forms their museum and creates a unique atmosphere for the gallery space Viktor Wynd Fine Art Inc, currently featuring the work of Mervyn Peake and Meave Gilmore in celebration of Mervyn Peake’s centenary.

It’s probably safe to say that you won’t find anything quite like The Last Tuesday Society anywhere else. For another local original, take a short walk down Cambridge Heath Road to the Town Hall Hotel & Apartments, as chosen by the crew here at White Line Hotels.

images www.thelasttuesdaysociety.org

ART IS IN THE AIR: sommer.frische.kunst

Bad Gastein is one of those rare places where, almost as soon as you enter it, the world outside its mountain-defined borders seems to evaporate into a distant memory. Imagine you’re walking down one of the spa town’s many winding Alpine streets, en route to a thermal water spring no less, and the unmistakable smell of spray paint begins to mix with that of the mountain air. Your first reaction is confusion. “What IS that?” you ask yourself as your second reaction begins; you remember what spray paint is and begin for a moment to come back to the real world. As you round a corner and begin down some stairs, you realize that you have not just had your Bad Gastein bubble burst. No, you have just entered a new pocket of it: sommer.frische.kunst.

The summer long festival program includes an artist residency culminating in the presentation of a light installation by artist Thomas Hoke and an exhibition opening on August 27th in the historic hydroelectric power station, used in the meantime as a studio building for the residency’s artists. After you’ve worked your way all the way down the hillside, it’s no time to be shy – the power station door is more than likely open, and if you happen to catch one of the artists with a minute to spare, maybe you’ll get a preview of what’s to come in August’s exhibition. If you don’t get lucky at the power station, don’t despair. Just head up to Hotel Miramonte where works by several of the artists – who are also spending their residency at the hotel – are on display in the lobby and dining room.

Visual arts not really your thing? No problem, sommer.frische.kunst still has something for you! The Summer Jazz In The City program offers 15 national and international jazz acts performing in the open air, or if the skies aren’t cooperating that evening, in the Grand Hotel de l’Europe.

Bad Gastein is home to endless hotels all perched on its steep cliffs, but we can only see 2. Start your Bad Gastein experience at Haus Hirt or Hotel Miramonte, the edit chosen by White Line Hotels.

Get Bike Crazy in Bike City

If you haven’t heard, Copenhagen was awarded the world’s first Bike City by the International Cycling Union, and it shouldn’t be any wonder why. The Copenhageners are crazy about their bikes and have one of the highest percentages of bikers in the world and 346 kilometers of bicycle paths to prove it.

From July 26^th until July 30^th, check out the UCI BMX World Championships in the city and then stop over at the bar at White Line Hotels edit Avenue Hotel for a cocktail and a chat with bartender Morten Dinitzen – a true Copenhagen bike enthusiast if there ever was one – about customizing cargo bikes and the best biking routes around the city. Of course, you can’t talk about cargo bikes and customization in Copenhagen without talking about White Line Collaborator Larry vs. Harry, maker of the world’s fastest cargo bike. Next time you’re stuck in traffic in your car at home, you might just find yourself thinking, “If I had a bike, I’d be home by now.”

One Night Only: Celebrated chef Doug Katz at LD Terrace

If the recent flood of pop-up restaurants has taught us anything, it’s that there’s something particularly seductive about a dining experience that may not be available again next month, next week, or even tomorrow. They remind us to grab life by the horns and enjoy the pleasures available to us while we can, because let’s face it, sometimes we all need the little push that a time limit imposes to get off our comfy sofas and out into what the world has to offer.

Similar to the allure of the pop-up restaurant is the allure of the guest chef, who can transform a familiar restaurant, and whose residencies are always as short-lived, and as talked about afterwards. The shortest and most exciting of these is, of course, the one night engagement, and White Line Hotels edit Lesic Demitri Palace is offering one of these not-to-be-missed culinary events on the 25^th of July with Doug Katz of Fire Food and Drink, repeatedly awarded as one of America’s best restaurants.

Katz’s philosophy of ”Simple food, sustainable practices, igniting the community” should be right at home at LD Terrace. Check out the menu and find out how to make reservations for the 2 sittings here, but be warned, you might find yourself booking a last minute trip to Korcula.

Stiftelsen Kokkonst and elBulli Foundation: Considering the Art of Eating at Stockholm’s Moderna Museet

Some say a passion for food is synonymous to a passion for living, and it’s not hard to understand why. If you take a second to remove the basic survival relationship from the equation, the act of eating is a daily opportunity to excite every one of the senses. A meal doesn’t just satisfy hunger, or even the taste buds; done right, a meal is a visual delight and an olfactory experience, the texture of the food thrills the tongue, and a good crunch, snap, or the clang of silverware against a plate or glasses mid-toast brings the ear into the total-sensory event of sitting down to eat. If you think about it, even a simple meal is a gesamtkunstwerk.

Even then, and undoubtedly because it is part of our daily routine, the art of food is often overlooked. This is exactly why the world needs people like world famous chef Ferran Adrià, head chef at elBulli, to remind the rest of us that artistry and innovation is as important on our plates as on the walls of our museums. Despite millions queuing for tables at elBulli, Adrià is closing it forever as a restaurant on July 31^st, only to reopen again in 2014 as elBulli Foundation, an organization entirely dedicated to innovation.

To introduce the concept of elBulli foundation and kick off the new Stiftelsen Kokkonst – a Swedish initiative on innovation through food with the objective of creating a long-term platform in Sweden for the international discourse on innovation, food and art – Stockholm’s Moderna Museet is presenting a unique event. Open to the public, the event will feature a discussion between Ferran Adrià and Vicente Todoli, the former Director of Tate Modern, as well as with artists Carsten Höller, Rirkrit Tiravanija, Elaine Tin Nyo and Tobias Rehberger and the writer Bill Buford. It will be moderated by Moderna Museet’s director Daniel Birnbaum and curator and initiator of Stiftelsen kokkonst Jan Åman. The talk will be followed by an exclusive preview screening of the film “Documenting Documenta”, featuring Ferran Adrià and the artist Richard Hamilton.

Sure to be inspiring, don’t miss the talk on June 27^th at 16.00 followed by the film screening at 18.00. It will take place in Moderna Museet’s auditorium and will be accessible from the sea side of the museum. If you want to reserve your seat, send an email to ferranadria@stiftelsenkokkonst.se.

Continue your journey of inspiration at Nobis Hotel, Hotel Skeppsholmen and Hotel J, White Line Hotels’ edit in Stockholm.

Image courtesy www.stiftelsenkokkonst.se/