Yes, we are enjoying ourselves in Tokyo, thank you very much…

London

Oxford

Oxford

Bristol

Milton Keynes

To those who celebrate it, I’d like to wish everyone a Merry Christmas (or as the British say, “Happy Christmas”). I’d also like to wish my Jewish readers a Happy Hanukkah (or Chanukah if you prefer), which began on the 15th. Apologies for the slow-down in posts over the last fews days. I’ve been bouncing around England and have had pretty spotty access to the web. I randomly ran into a friend from MIT in all the madness at Gatwick yesterday, before flying back to the U.S. and stopping in Minneapolis (we arrived late last night in Seattle, where we are spending Christmas with family). Minneapolis has a dandy new light rail system, which allowed us to even pop over to the Mall of America during the stop-over, which I believe still holds the title of largest mall (close to the West Edmonton Mall). I’ll try and get some pics uploaded later today — of Milton Keynes (last of the British New Towns), Oxford and Bristol. The thick fog that blanketed much of southern England over the past few days was both good and bad for pics (good in that some places looked more charming than without the fog, but bad in that visibility was rather limited).

Had some meetings here in London yesterday and caught up with some friends. But most of the day was spent doing touristy stuff — Tate Modern (Architect: Herzog + de Meuron), City Hall (Norman Foster), British Museum (roof: Foster). Here are some pics.

Note to self: avoid Northwest Airlines in the future. Our flight our of L.A. was delayed, which would have caused us to miss our connection in Minneapolis. So, after being told there were no other flights available, I called up American Airlines on my cell and found a direct flight to London (and got the incompetent agent to book us on that flight at the same rate as our Northwest flight). No worries, it just meant spending a few hours drinking at Encounters — that extraterrestrial-looking thing at LAX.

So, after a long delay, we finally arrived in Londres. And had a dandy dinner in Kensington. Ah, London.

This is a real travesty — Ben’s Deli in Montreal is closing.

I remember when I was an undergrad at McGill going with some frequency to Ben’s for late night eats (architects work laaaaate!). Their smoked meat rivaled Schwartz’s as far as I was concerned. And I loved their smoked meat poutine (takes a couple years of your life, though!). The Kravitz’s are closing shop because workers there — who were veterans, very professional — wanted to unionize for better pay and better working conditions. They didn’t think they could be profitable, as business has fallen off in recent years. I feel that Montreal has lost a piece of itself today. Very sad.

We’re off to see the latest (remade) James Bond 007 flick, Casino Royale at the fabulous Grauman’s Chinese Theater (below) and its spectacular DLP projection. How’s that for your local theatre? And importantly, it’s just down the street so, contrary to popular opinion, it’s possible to walk to places in Los Angeles. I’ll follow-up with a review…

Update: I was pleasantly surprised. It was better than I thought it would be. Bond movies of late have turned away from the nuance and have become just another action series. But Casino Royale manages to combine action with more of a story than we’ve seen of late. Undoubtedly, this is the influence of Canadian writer Paul Haggis. And it does remind me more of the older 007 movies. The opening credits sequence is visually stunning and the opening scene(s) draws people in quickly. Like many movies these days, it needs a little tightening, running about almost 2.5 hours (I think you need to have a pretty good reason to go beyond 2 hours). In particular, there is a sequence at Miami airport that I’m still scratching my head why it was included. That sequence, where Bond is trying to stop somone from blowing up an airplane, was more like what we’ve seen with recent 007 movies (a lot of quick cuts, fantastical chases and explosions), but adds little to the story. Cut that sequence and it would be a lot tighter. Essentially, the movie is a prequel. It shows Bond as a rookie. And it shows how Bond turned into a cold, hard killer and detached womanizer. The story weaves its ways across many stunning locales, from Nassua to Montenegro to Venice. While it has its flaws, I would recommend it.

A plug — be sure to watch tonight’s episode of The O.C.; it was directed by my cat sitter. Yes, my cat sitter is a director for The O.C., strange as that may seem. If you have any praise you’d like to pass along, let me know, as I’m having drinks with him on Monday.

Edit: here’s a pic of my cat — he’s a Bengal (his name is Pickles but we call him “The Bandit”). Isn’t he the cutest thing you’ve ever seen?

Busy week, so I’ve been slow to get this up. We had friends visiting from Boston over the holiday weekend (Canadian Thanksgiving/Columbus Day) — Canadian ex-patriates from Winnipeg and Vancouver. More evidence of the Great Infiltration! Being all architects, on Friday we took in some of the local sites, visiting Frank Lloyd Wright’s Hollyhock House (1921) in Los Feliz, after enjoying one of my favourite local cafes, Figaro. It’s trendy and is often frequented by B-list types, but it reminds me of Montreal and they make a yummy cafe au lait et crepes au poulet.

Hollyhock House, Frank Lloyd Wright Los Feliz (Los Angeles)

Gamble House, Greene & Greene Architects, Pasadena

We went out to Pasadena on Saturday to see Greene & Greene’s Gamble House (1908) and toodle about the town. And on Sunday, we had drinks on the Santa Monica pier, and of course, I had no trouble killing an hour at the amazing Hennessy & Ingalls bookstore on Wilshire, where I picked up a copy of L.A. Now vol 3-4, the product of UCLA’s Research Studios. On Monday night, we went across the street to the Arclight to see The Last King of Scotland, which I recommend — Forest Whitaker is great and it was great to see Gillian Anderson (takes me back to watching X-Files when I lived in Montreal!). And yes, another celebrity sighting — Arclight is always reliable for that. Geoffrey Rush (of Pirates of the Carribean fame) was buying tickets beside us, wearing a groovy, spotted jacket (and no, he’s not a member of Arclight — shame on him!).

One of the perks of living in Hollywood is getting pre-screening tickets (that is, special invitations to see a longer version of a movie, before its final cut, and attended by media, celebrities, etc). Well, I was fortunate enough to go to a pre-screening tonight of “Man of the Year”, starring Robin Williams, Laura Linney, Lewis Black, and Christopher Walken. I’m not allowed to disclose anything about the movie, unfortunately (they make you give up your first born if you do). You’ll be happy to know that I sat close to Bill Maher who took in the show. Maher of course is an idol of mine - if you don’t watch Real Time with Bill Maher, you should; it’s Must TV for anyone who follows politics, along with The Daily Show with Jon Stewart and The Colbert Report, of course. But it was funny to see him there since the premise of the movie is that a political comedian becomes President (and Maher was mentioned a couple of times in the movie). So another night, another run-in with celebrities at the Arclight.