JANUARY NEWSLETTER

We begin 2011 contemplating simplicity, calmness and wisdom. These qualities are inherent in much that we admire. We look first to our new store in Aoyama, and then to sixteenth-century Japanese architecture which brought the world wooden country houses, Shinto shrines, Zen temples, and fortified castles, crafted with precision and care. We refer you to Arata Isozaki ’s writing on Japanese architecture to learn more. Closer to home, we will reacquaint ourselves with the local yoga teacher and cobbler, and encourage our customers to do the same. There are some activities – creating, stretching and repairing among them - which, when undertaken with sincere application, become the core of a life lived well.

EAT
At Tarallucci e Vino. Their East Village cafe and bakery serves outstanding fast-paced Italian food, with strong interpretations of traditional fare, including panini, pastries and scrippelle. The room is comfortable and welcoming. If you’re fortunate enough to live close by, consider repeat visits – one could easily eat at Tarallucci e Vino three times a week and not be bored.

ENJOY
Aesop’s Sage & Zinc Facial Hydrating Cream – SPF15, a mineral-based moisturiser that offers broad spectrum SPF protection. Micronised Zinc Oxide coats the surface of the skin and reflects sunlight, Tocopheryl Acetate (a form of Vitamin E) assists with hydration and offers anti-oxidant protection, and Sage Leaf extract calms and soothes the skin. Skin will feel softened and protected without any whitening or clogged pores.

SUPPORT
Poland’s Historical Museum of Kraków. The museum’s collection is spread across more than a dozen locations, with Krzystofory Palace the main site for a vast number of paintings, maps, Judaica, and objects of military history, with the oldest pieces dating back to the fourteenth century. In addition to permanent displays, the museum hosts temporary exhibitions renowned for their confronting expressions of life during the Holocaust.

SHARE
President Barack Obama’s children’s book, Of Thee I Sing: A Letter to My Daughters (Knopf), a story for readers three and up, artfully illustrated by Loren Long. Laudable in many ways – the text offers tales of thirteen inspirational Americans including Georgia O’Keefe, Abraham Lincoln and Billie Holiday, and proceeds go to a scholarship fund run by the Fisher House Foundation – this is President Obama’s third book. Previous publications are The Audacity of Hope and Dreams from My Father

DISCOVER
Ito-ya pencils. Produced by Japanese stationery retailer Ito-ya, purveyors of all things for the desk since 1904, these HB pencils have been a bestselling item since the mid-1980s. We like this pencil for its pleasing-to-hold shape, and excellent eraser. If you can, visit Ito-ya’s three-building shop in Tokyo’s Ginza district to peruse their calligraphy supplies and 5000 varieties of washi paper. There is also a display of model boats in the basement of Ito-ya building number three.

LISTEN
To character actor Stephen Tobolowsky in the podcast The Tobolowsky Files. The film Stephen Tobolowsky’s Birthday Party (2005) was the launching point for this series of connected tales about the actor’s family, his decades of work in cinema and television, and topics including Halloween and Davy Crockett. His ruminations are funny and poignant, clever and honest, described by critic Myles McNutt as ‘not so much performances as they are expressions of emotions’.

LEARN
From Australian artist Stella Bowen (1893-1947). In 1914, Bowen moved to London to pursue her passion for painting, fell in love, then struggled to create art while caring for her husband, English writer Ford Madox Ford, and child. When the family moved to Paris, Ford’s star rose but his infidelities ultimately left Bowen a single mother. She found success as an Official War Artist during World War Two before passing away aged 54. Bowen was described by her friend Keith Hancock as a ‘courageous, vital and harmonious personality’, qualities that show in all of her work.

WATCH
The masterful ghost story Ugetsu Monogatari (1953), directed by Kenji Mizoguchi. Set during the Japanese Civil Wars, the film tells the story of two ambitious peasants who head to the city to make their fortune, setting off a chain of terrible troubles for their families. Mizoguchi often stands in the shadow cast by Kurosawa but both men are giants of Japanese cinema, and this black and white feature is testament to Mizoguchi’s technical skills and understanding of human emotion.

LOOK
Inside the Milly-la-Forêt country house of Jean Cocteau, which was opened to the public in August 2010, following a five-year renovation. A short drive south of Paris, it was here that Cocteau lived with Jean Marais and his final companion, director Édouard Dermit. Some rooms have been restored to their original state, while others serve as exhibition spaces for work by Cocteau and his contemporaries Picasso, Satie and Modigliani.

'What matters in literature in the end is surely the idiosyncratic, the individual, the flavour or the colour of a particular human suffering.' Harold Bloom