photos of the year

A selection of my best pics of 2009, mostly taken from my flickr stream.

culture










night






eat and drink







nature






portrait

Merry Christmas

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Salt dough goodness inspired by Kirsty Allsopp's homemade Christmas! I used satin finish white spray paint from Paperchase to coat them. Was going to finish them off with silver doodlings, but felt they look quite good as they are!


More homemade Christmas - Nigella's iced Christmas tree decoration biscuits and a festive batch of Christmas fudge!

Wishing you a very Merry Christmas!

Christmas Carols

I went with my twitter friend @banerji1 to the GLA’s Christmas Carol service at Southwark cathedral last night. The guest choir was the London Gay Men’s Choir, and our friend @zefrog was singing.

I’m not religious at all but I still like church ceremonial and choir services are such happy occasions. I realised that this one was actually the first I’ve attended since coming to London over 20 years ago!


The Mayor of London, Boris Johnson was attending the Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen so we didn’t see him. However, there were lots of London worthies, especially from the emergency services. In fact, the theme of the event was 'Service to Londoners', in recognition of the work of the police, the fire service, ambulance and nursing staff, as well as the armed forces – all of whom were represented at the service.


Those Gothic builders really knew their acoustics - the choir was on great form and sounded and looked absolutely fantastic in the space.

Last Day of the Anish Kapoor Exhibition, RA

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Anish Kapoor at the RA has been quite the autumn sensation - I've been three times myself and each time the RA has been more crowded. I think they were very wise to end it on a Friday rather than the more usual Sunday - it would have been a riot! Photography was not allowed, but the rule was being comprehensively flouted so I joined in. I'm rather pleased with this mobile cam shot.

Carnaby Street Lights

Goodness I knew I'd left my blog around here somewhere!

And now Christmas is very much speeding towards us. This year, and indeed this decade, end in a few weeks' time.

Boz reminds me I saw the Carnaby Christmas lights get switched on:





The decorations wittily reference the Swinging London decade of the 1960s when the street achieved world fashion domination. It's coming up for Swinging London's 50th Anniversary. I was so excited by these lights I reported on them for Londonist. More photos on my flickr stream.

Carnaby celebrated with some groovy 60s style dancing:



In the National Portrait Gallery's current exhibition Beatles to Bowie there are early fashion photos of David Bowie (before he was David Bowie) shot on Carnaby Street (before it was Carnaby Street). Here is a video of Carnaby Street in its late 60s heyday:



(Thanks to Jan at Race of Style for the links to the videos)

Bonfire Night on Clapham Common

Find more photos like this on Clapham


Above slide show courtesy of Jack Wallington from Love Clapham blog. Jack is calling for more contributions to his fireworks gallery, so if you have any, he’d be delighted to have them. My photographic skills unfortunately don’t survive into the dark.

After last year’s shock and awe display word must have spread through London town, as Clapham Old Town was hopping with firework frenzy last night. I have never seen larger crowds for a display here, and every year we have enormous crowds. Good news for all our lovely pubs, bars and restaurants.

After a few wet days the common was a bit muddy, but the rain held off for a lovely evening of fireworks. Just superb.

The finale was captured on video by the Mayor of Lambeth, no less.

Happy Halloween

The decorative pumpkins above were part of a Holborn florist's display, caught when I visited Chord.



These scary critters are from the halloween window display of our local Clapham burcher's, M. Moens & Sons. They always have the most imaginative jack-o-lanterns in these parts!

My attempt at carving this year!

Trick or Treat!

A New Life at the Globe

A New Life is about the life of Thomas Paine and is by  politically radical English playwright Trevor Griffiths, whose stage work peaked in the 70s but who has since been working as a screenwriter. His biopic of Thomas Paine fell through, so the Globe offered him the chance of reworking it for the stage. (2009 is the 200th anniversary of Paine's death.)


John, Caroline and I went on the last night when the Globe offered groundling places for £5 each. It was my first time at the Globe as a groundling! - Exhausting! - standing was hard on my hips - one really has to fight to keep one's sightline free, and the actors jostle you frequently (this production used the pit to the fullest extent for crowd scenes)

The playwright and a few celebrity actor guests were there, also politicos and lefties, school groups and tourists. An interesting audience. We thoroughly enjoyed the play, despite its faults.  Knowing next to nothing about Thomas Paine, it was interesting to learn more (Griffiths wove in many quotes from Paine's works).

The structure though was exhausting. Three hours on your feet is quite tiring - the first half told the whole story of the American Revolution, so it had a self-contained story arc - at the break one could assume the play was finished. But no - the second half took us to France for the French Revolution (another virtually completely self-contained story arc, with different characters). John seriously suggested leaving at the interval, but Caro and I were keen to stay to the end.

It was all fascinating, and the production and acting were wonderful (Dominic Dromgoole directed), and the audience was terrifically engaged, but the structure of the play let it down as a drama. It was very 'biopic' - just so much raw chronology on display. For me, not really a major problem as it was interesting to learn about the character but this certainly was no A Man for All Seasons or even Amadeus, let alone Shakespearian history. However, individual scenes and the dialogue were highly entertaining, and the production was energetic, imaginative and flowing. The entire cast deserves high praise (the majority play several characters each) but special mentions have to go to Keith Bartlett as the narrator (Benjamin Franklin) and John Light as Thomas Paine himself - in the thick of the action for a full three hours.


The play proposed Paine as a naive idealist whose radicalism was betrayed by both revolutions he helped inspire - the American Revolution compromised by wealthy individuals and corporations (Paine was very anti-slavery and a total egalitarian) and the French ignored his message of non-violence (he voted against the execution of Louis XVI). Finally he returned to America, where he was completely sidelined by puritanical society (he was an aggressive atheist). His funeral was attended by only 6 people, two of whom were freed slaves.

Candle lit vigil

more candles
Originally uploaded by Matt Eason

Last night a candle lit vigil was held in memory of Ian Baynham and other victims of homophobic hate crimes.



The vigil was well attended, and a moving and uniting experience. I think it was particulalry shocking that Ian Baynham was murdered in Trafalgar Square - the very centre of London - and in a relatively gay-friendly area too.



After a two-minute's silence the comedienne Sue Perkins read a list of names of people lost to hate violence. It was shockingly long.



More photos of the vigil

Sarah Brown at the vigil - photo from the organiser, Mark Healey's, Facebook album of the event.

Chord

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“British artist Conrad Shawcross has constructed a giant, site specific, mechanical installation in the Kingsway Tram Subway, Holborn. This vast underground tunnel is a remarkable and fascinating survivor of London’s tramway heritage which has been closed for public use since 1952.

Chord is Conrad Shawcross’ most ambitious and complex work to date. Conceived specifically for the long subway, the artist has built two identical rope machines that weave a thick hawser from 324 spools of coloured string. These vast machines will begin back to back in the centre of the space and then gradually move away from each other slowly down the subway following the old tram tracks. Like two huge spiders, they slowly travel through the space over the course of the exhibition.”

- from the Chord pamphlet


I finally visited Conrad Shawcross’es brilliant installation in the Kingsway Tram Subway in Holborn yesterday. The location itself if wonderfully atmospheric - the subway has been out of commission since 1953, and obviously not accessible to the public since then, although it has been used as a location in films.

The exhibition is free, although one has to book in advance and arrive ten minutes before at a marshaling point - a guide then takes your group down the atmospheric tunnels to the artwork.



The huge weaving machines twist in the darkness, creating a multi-coloured hawser between them. Over the course of the exhibition, the rope grows longer as the spinning machines move down the tram tracks.


They make the most amazing sounds - mechanical but organic. Comparisons to huge spiders are powerfully evoked. Weaving and spinning are fundamental manufacturing processes which we tend to undervalue these days, but weaving and spinning for the ancient Greeks were symbols of destiny and fate. Las Hilanderas by Velázquez is a meditation on the myth of Minerva, goddess of Wisdom, turning Arachne into a spider for her pride in her weaving skills. Conrad Shawcross’es Chord is a very modern approach to human solutions to the inevitability of the passage of time.

Chord
Conrad Shawcross
Kingsway Tram Subway,
Southampton Row, Holborn,
London, WC1B 4AP

8 October - 8 November 2009
For tickets - www.measure.org



More photos of this installation and the subway are on my flickr stream.

Media homophobia on the rise?

It’s been a good week for twitter, with two major victories for UK tweeters, over the oil company Trafigura and the columnist Jan Moir of the Daily Mail.

Jan Moir’s vile column on the tragic death of Stephen Gately was deeply shocking and rightly aroused a huge reaction across the UK and Ireland. Special credit must be paid to the Mail’s own readers, who overwhelmingly rejected Moir’s sentiments in the comments section. The twitter reaction was such that “Jan Moir” topped the trending topics chart throughout Friday, but #janmoir and “Daily Mail” also trended in the top ten yesterday and “Daily Mail” remains trending this morning.

The PCC received an unprecedented number of complaints - so many their website crashed on Friday afternoon. Celebrity tweeters such as Stephen Fry joined in the condemnation, and M&S and Nestle demanded their adverts be pulled from appearing on the article page. Eventually, the Daily Mail pulled all advertising from the page.

With Charlie Brooker in the Guardian accusing her of gay bashing, Jan Moir released through her paper’s PR officers a self-serving “apology” which really just compounded her original homophobic rant.

Why did she do it? In the wake of last weekend’s furore over Danii Minogue’s (quite tame) comments on XFactor, why did the Daily Mail think they could get away with it? Were they deliberately courting controversy and sales?

Or is it something more sinister? Many have considered Jan Moir’s article the worst case of blatant media homophobia in years. The Daily Mail is a right-wing newspaper and if the polls are to be believed we may be only months away from a Conservative government. The Tories’ gay-friendliness has been exposed in the last few weeks as a tissue thin veneer: they are more than happy to partner up in Europe with extremely homophobic eastern European political parties. Moreover, apart from apologizing for Section 28 they lack any real gay equality policies and have opposed Labour on this issue - Cameron himself voted against the repeal of Section 28 in 2003.

So, is Tory ambiguity on LBGT matters encouraging the re-emergence of rabid homophobes in the right-wing press? Of course, with only one article it may be too early to say, but we should maintain vigilance. It is most gratifying and grounds for optimism that Jan Moir’s rant was so comprehensively rejected.

Trafigura again

My third post in a row about this; sorry. I have got really worked up by a company which allegedly caused 15 deaths and injured thousands of innocent people in the Ivory Coast; then attempted to subvert the reporting of parliamentary proceedings in the UK. Check out their Wikipedia entry - apparently they have also gamed the legal establishment in The Netherlands, preventing relevant evidence reaching the victims in their London suit for compensation (an agreement in this case was reached last month).

Trafigura are suing the BBC news programme Newsnight for libel.

I quote directly from Carter-Ruck's (Trafigura's lawyers) press release announcing this lawsuit, dated 15th May 2009 and currently available on Carter-Ruck's website:

"Speaking today, a Trafigura spokesman said:

“Trafigura has today brought libel proceedings against the BBC over its Newsnight broadcast. This decision was not taken lightly.

Trafigura has always accepted that the Probo Koala ‘incident’ is a matter of public interest and has never objected to the media reporting on it responsibly. However, the BBC’s one-sided reports on 13 May were wildly inaccurate and libellous, leaving us with no choice but to take legal action. There was no justification or public interest in the BBC misleading its viewers in this way.

Trafigura has always denied that the slops caused the deaths and serious health consequences presented by the BBC – a position fully supported by independent expert evidence which will be presented to the Court in due course. As the BBC is well aware, these matters are already the subject of a personal injury action currently taking place in London. It is deeply regrettable that the BBC felt it appropriate to prejudge those proceedings in this sensationalist and inaccurate way.”

The trouble is, this statement appears to be in conflict with the Minton Report. The Minton Report was commissioned by Waterson & Hicks, another law firm acting on behalf of Trafigura, in the aftermath of the Ivory Coast disaster. Basically, the company was attempting to ascertain privately whether the human tragedy in Abidjan could possibly have been attributed to the dumping of slops from Trafigura's ship MT Probo Koala. And the short answer appears to be yes (check out the link above, it's a very interesting document).

The thing is, the Minton report is dated 14th September 2006. In large part it contradicts the press release quoted above, issued 15th May 2009.

Newsnight's 13 May 2009 report

defence of democracy in Britain

The legal gagging of the Guardian reporting on Parliament is such an outrageous attack on our right of free speech I have written to my MP Kate Hoey, through the They Work for You website:

Dear Kate Hoey,

I was alarmed and concerned to hear that the Guardian is being legally prevented from reporting on MP's Parliamentary questions.

My understanding was that the public's right to know what is happening in Parliament was established in the 18th century by John Wilkes. It is a savage indictment on the state of our democracy today that this public right can be so casually overturned by what appear to be narrow commercial interests (The Guardian is also prevented from identifying them) who have instructed the legal firm of Carter-Ruck.

Is it possible for Parliament to prevent such legal abuses happening in the future? I look forward to hearing your views.

Yours sincerely,

Edward Clarke

From the Minton report on the toxic waste from Trafigura's ship Probo Koala dumped in landfill on the outskirts of Abidjan, Ivory Coast, in 2006 (Abidjan's metropolitan population is in excess of 5,000,000 people):

"Hydrogen sulphide (H2S) is a corrosive gas. It is highly toxic. At low concentrations the gas has a strong unpleasant odour. UK Occupational Health guidelines allow exposure to 5ppm for 8 hours or 10ppm for 15 minutes. Between 20 and 100ppm the ability to smell the gas is lost. Negative health effects, such as eye irritation may be observed as low as 20ppm. Prolonged exposure at these low levels may result in pharyngitis and bronchitis. Between 250 and 500ppm, pulmonary oedema may occur. Above these levels, other effects may occur such as vomiting, breathing difficulties, loss of consciousness and death. A single breath of 1000ppm concentration in air may be sufficient to induce a coma and death"

[UPDATE] Carter-Ruck abandoned their injunction at 13:08 today, in response to the social media firestorm reaction to their attempt to gag the British Parliament (twitter trend map above). The Guardian reports that the gag on them has been lifted. Hopefully, this episode will awaken our MPs to the need to reform libel law in Britain.

Guardian ordered not to report on Parliament

Democracy is entirely dependent on a well-informed citizenry. Free speech and a free press is vital to democracy's continued healthy functioning.

Therefore, the legal gagging order against the Guardian reporting on an MP's question in Parliament is absolutely deplorable. The Spectator speculates what the gag could be about - of course, we have no idea until the gag is lifted. Here is the key part of The Spectator's report:

"Remarkable, even by the appalling standards of our libel laws and addled judiciary. This appears to be the question in, er, question:

From Parliament.uk, “Questions for Oral or Written Answer beginning on Tuesday 13 October 2009″

(292409)
61
N Paul Farrelly (Newcastle-under-Lyme): To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what assessment he has made of the effectiveness of legislation to protect (a) whistleblowers and (b) press freedom following the injunctions obtained in the High Court by (i) Barclays and Freshfields solicitors on 19 March 2009 on the publication of internal Barclays reports documenting alleged tax avoidance schemes and (ii) Trafigura and Carter-Ruck solicitors on 11 September 2009 on the publication of the Minton report on the alleged dumping of toxic waste in the Ivory Coast, commissioned by Trafigura."

The Guardian reported last month on how Trafigura attempted to cover up the dumping of toxic waste in one of the worst pollution disasters in recent history

Stephen Fry on Channel 4 News

Absolutely blowing the Tory spokesman away:

speaking in tongues - review

“A missing person. A mysterious stiletto. Relationships in crisis. In SPEAKING IN TONGUES, the seemingly random confessions of a group of strangers are pieced together into a powerful study of infidelity and interwoven lives, as Detective Leon Zat (John Simm) investigates the disappearance of a leading psychiatrist (Lucy Cohu).” 


One of the most exciting (and to me unexpected) features of blogging/twittering/flickring/general web 2.0-ing is actually meeting cyber friends in person. So I was thrilled when the charming and talented Zefrog of (newly renamed) blog Pink Sauce invited me to a preview of Speaking in Tongues. It was a great evening out. His review appears in Londonist. This is my take.

The production features some beautiful, supple ensemble acting from the cast of 4 (John Simm, Lucy Cohu, Ian Hart and Kerry Fox), who play 9 different characters in total. I can see why this text (by Andrew Bovell) would appeal to actors and directors - although the individual lines are simple and naturalistic, the writer patterns them largely in intercutting, almost mosaicized soliloquies, creating steep technical challenges. Meaning emerges haltingly through cross-jumps, cuts, and temporal distortions. The effect is frequently astonishing, really quite jaw-dropping - and it depends critically on perfect timing and interaction between the actors and the production team, which they pull off magnificently well.

At other times, however, Bovell’s technique can tend to slow things down and things get tangled up in lengthy, repetitious backstory. Concentration is critical. As the audience attempts to piece the story together clues can emerge from anywhere. If your concentration momentarily fails, you’ve lost it as the plot moves on.

The sombre, slightly seedy set works powerfully in the first act (largely bars and bedrooms) and opens out in the second, where back projection of a forest helps to create an ominous atmosphere. Lighting and music create flashes of beauty throughout.

Speaking in Tongues is playing at the Duke of York’s Theatre until 12 December 2009.

bad apple

My poor powerbook is having problems. Luckily, the lovely Rachel at Apple Kingston store patched it up for me last Sunday (I first tried Apple Regent Street, who were stunningly unhelpful).

I have to go back today - hoping very much the poor mac doesn't have to go in for repairs :-(

This video can only have been written by someone with intimate knowledge of Apple's aftercare system:

District 9

For a Johannesburger by upbringing, I loved the sly in-joke of calling the aliens "prawns". For indeed, there actually are alien prawns in Johannesburg. Any Jo'burger will have a fund of stories about the mysterious and frightening "Parktown Prawn".

These awesome creatures - of terrifying size and menace - suddenly appeared as if from another galaxy in Johannesburg's lush northern suburbs in the 1960s. The eponymous Parktown was then an inner-city garden suburb, established originally by Edwardian gold-mining plutocrats. As the suburbs and their heavily irrigated and exotically stocked gardens spread northwards, so the prawn followed.

They reached our suburb as I reached my late teens. They arrived literally in an infestation - suddenly they were everywhere (sometimes even in your bed, or underwear drawer - a friend's sister found one in her swimsuit crotch as she put it on).

This is what they look like:


Vaguely prawn-like in appearance (and size - this in an era when Mocambiquan prawns regularly reached 9" - not like the tiddlers one gets in M&S today). They do have an attraction to swimming pools (hence I suppose their nickname). They jump quite high, and usually jump towards you when surprised, violently hissing. Frequently they land on your shirt or shoulder, where their barbed legs hook, making them impossible to brush off. Attempting to do so causes them to discharge a foul stinking dark liquid all over you.

They also tend to be more active at night. There are stories of people spending the night in their cars rather than their bedrooms in order to avoid late night interruptions.

They are apparently intelligent beings - in their own strange insect way they seem to interact with other species and each other. As I said, when jumping they have a tendency to come towards you. My friend Mark once heard his boxer Honey (usually quite a ferocious, alpha female dog) whimpering outside. When he went to check on her, she was cowering in a corner, surrounded by three Prawns pinning her down. Our Jack Russell did go after them, but he was very careful to hold them in his mouth with their spraying end pointing outwards. His 'attack' was also notably quite tentative for a terrier of his class.

Urban legend had it that these creatures were the result of a biology experiment at the University of the Witwatersrand which went wrong (the University being just over the hill from Parktown). Alas, the truth is more prosaic.

King Crickets are a distinctive insect species of southern africa, and the Parktown Prawn's biologically correct name is Libanasidus vittatus. Specimens were collected in the subtropical lowland town of Barberton in the Transvaal over 100 years ago by the Natural History Museum's William Forsell Kirkby. The current theory is that the suburban gardens of Johannesburg created optimal environmental conditions for the cricket to flourish on the highveld - the suburbs are generally regarded (by Johannesburgers) as forming the largest man-made forest on the planet, in a region which would naturally be savannah.

Anyhoo, this all takes me a long way from the film, which is generally excellently exciting. The exotic location and re-imagining of the aliens as shipwrecked outcasts rather than hostile invaders is original and works well. The film has its faults (it doesn't develop or even sustain the racial theme it posits), and harsher souls than I would argue that while it's heart is in the right place its racial attitudes do not stand close analysis (Nigeria has already banned it). Although taking place in contemporary South Africa, the government has clearly delegated dealing with the alien problem to a white dominated evil multinational. The government itself remains entirely absent from the movie.

However, the story's set up is so imaginative and original, the performances are so good, and the story rattles along at such an engaging pace one has to applaud. It's definitely a very different and very successful take on the alien blockbuster genre.

Desperate Romantics

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This BBC serial is an interesting development in the heritage drama genre: all the known facts of the Pre-Raphaelites’ lives are there, but cheerfully strung together with all the blatant sensationalistic plot devices available to the modern soap scriptwriter (Peter Bowker).

All amplified by production values (especially the music). The six episodes snapped and crackled along under fluent direction by Diarmuid Lawrence.

Reverent it was not - more like sheer effrontery, knowingly done - but hugely entertaining and cleverly preempting criticism.

Ann Mason’s Lizzie Siddal, well-cast with her beautiful Pre-Raphaelite features, was convincing in the role of the artistic talent and artists’ model trapped in a doomed love affair with Aidan Turner’s complex and irrepressible Dante Gabriel Rossetti.

She was one of several female characters - Effie Ruskin (Zoe Trapper), Annie Miller (Jennie Jacques) and Jane Burden (Natalie Thomas) all exploring the ambiguities of women’s status in the era - actually with a lot more subtlety than most such dramas, in spite of/because of the deliberately anachronistic scriptwriting approach(?)

Tom Hollander’s uptight and sexually damaged John Ruskin emerged as the cartoon baddy in this drama; Sam Crane’s sensitive Fred Walters as its conscience. Samuel Barnett’s John Millais was a naive baby spoiled by happy love and financial success; Rafe Spall’s William Holman Hunt a man tortured by the contradiction between his Christian beliefs and physical compulsions.

Bringing up the rear, Dyfrig Morris as the eponymous William and Peter Sandys-Clark as Edward ‘Ned’ Burne-Jones were a pair of comedy twins - Rossetti declaring in the final episode that William had a future in ‘design’. Leaving us to ponder on the future of historical genre television.

St Paul's

Jamie's Italian

My friend Mark is an enthusiastic foodie both by inclination and profession, so as he was visiting London recently a meal at Jamie’s Italian was essential. A party of us went to the Kingston branch.

Due to Jamie Oliver's celebrity the restaurant has been reviewed widely, but the reviews I read were mixed. Mark’s passion for all things new and foody in London meant we had a look at Jamie’s other new culinary project, Recipease. Although I cannot fault the quality of products in this shop or their presentation, I have my doubts about the basic mercantile premise. To me it feels too much like a pre-crash conceit; it’s not right for straitened times now.

So I approached Jamie’s Italian with low expectations, not at all alleviated by the massive queue outside at 8pm. No booking is accepted, one has to wait and queue. We were told it was going to be an hour’s wait before we got inside. It turned out to be 40 minutes. And I have to say no-one left that queue - in an area where there are other restaurants very readily available nearby.

They sent out a lady with a tray of tasty treats for us as we waited - a very nice touch. And once inside, we were given a table very quickly. The girls in our party spotted a better table apparently free (in fact, the best table in the whole restaurant) and upon asking we were immediately led to it - no trouble at all.

The staff’s attitude was perfectly pitched - friendly, efficient, helpful and knowledgeable, but not in your face the whole time. They’re around when you need them.

Jamie’s Italian offers classic Italian dishes - spaghetti bolognese is offered, for instance - interspersed with some interesting unusual things such as chickpea “popcorn” and “the best olives in the world” - peppery and meaty, almost neon-green giants served with crisp flat breads and a black olive tapenade. You’ll find it hard to select from the menu - there are so many tempting things available!

We opted for a spread of starters - the olives, bruschette with four different toppings, a sensational broad bean salad, the chickpea popcorn (gently spicy and indeed, with a slight popcorn texture - very moreish), and polenta chips. I’m not a fan of polenta but these had a light open texture and a cheesy finish which went down very well.

I struggled to choose between crab pasta and a steak for my main course, eventually opting for the steak. It was superb. Perfect thick chips accompanied it. Tracey had grilled chicken -if possible, this was even better. I always feel it is the mark of a good restaurant to do something seemingly simple dazzlingly well.

Our meal came to under £30 a head - not all of us had pudding (pannacotta, ice-cream scoops), but some had cocktails to start and we had wine and water. Jamie’s offers really superlative service and food in a wonderfully buzzy atmosphere at a very affordable price. It feels right now. I can't wait to go back.

Jamie's Italian, Kingston
19-23 High Street
Kingston KT1 1LL

Tel: 0208 912 0110
Fax: 0208 912 0111

hummingbird cake

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This has to be the best name for a cake ever. Olive magazine recently included it in a feature on great American cakes, and I just had to try it. Just the thing for a bank holiday, I thought.

Apparently, the cake’s first documented mention was in the February 1978 issue of Southern Living magazine – the southern belle bible of gracious hostessing. It was submitted by Mrs L.H. Wiggins of Greensboro, North Carolina. To this day Southern Living claims the recipe is its most requested ever. From the South the cake made its way to the heady cosmopolitan sophistication of Manhattan’s booming celebrity cake industry, and from there is obviously well placed for world domination.

However, there is some evidence to suggest the cake actually originated in Jamaica - the hummingbird “Dr Bird” is Jamaica’s national bird, and there are intriguing references to something similar to the hummingbird cake being used by the PRs for the Jamaican national airways in the 1960s. So come on Jamaica, track down those printed references and make a claim to culinary history!

My oven almost derailed my attempt at this cake. Although it can roast chickens and ribs of beef without any trouble whatsoever, it consistently fails at baking cakes. Grrrrr. Olive said to bake for 30 minutes at 160C (fan oven) - well, it eventually took about 20 minutes mores. The crumb came out beautifully, but is cinnamony rather than anything else - banana and pineapple quite absent. I used just-ripe bananas from Sainsbury’s - it’s always better to use overripe splotchy brown bananas for cooking. There were heavenly pineapple smells in the baking process but clearly the pineapple itself was all baked away.

So, I would be interested to taste a professional attempt at this cake to taste the difference. I possibly may try again at some point - what I have is very nice, no doubt about it - but not up to all the hype. Still a major carrot cake fan here.

More picture of the cake and my process in making it are on my flickr stream.

The Last Lion: Ted Kennedy passes away

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"And may it be said of us, both in dark passages and in bright days, in the words of Tennyson that my brothers quoted and loved, and that have special meaning for me now:

"I am a part of all that I have met
To [Tho] much is taken, much abides
That which we are, we are --
One equal temper of heroic hearts
Strong in will
To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield."

For me, a few hours ago, this campaign came to an end.

For all those whose cares have been our concern, the work goes on, the cause endures, the hope still lives, and the dream shall never die."

– Senator Edward Moore "Ted" Kennedy (22 February 1932 - 25 August 2009), from his 1980 Democratic National Convention address (12 August 1980).

"Teddy represented the state of Massachusetts for forty-six years, eight months and nineteen days. That is nearly three months longer than all the years his older brother Jack lived on earth. ...
I am happy Ted Kennedy lost the Democratic primaries to President Carter. It was only after he lost that race - only when he came to terms with the truth that he would never be president - that he became the lion of the senate that history will justly remember him as."

– Tom Degan, in a great tribute worth reading.