CURLED UP WITH A BOOK

When I open a book these days, somewhere in between the first chapter and the introduction, there's the quote. What's this thing with quotes? Is it the idea of giving the reader some insight in the deeper meaning of the literary work  he's about to begin? Or is it merely to raise the author to a higher level by quoting someone, preferably from the past, obscure and in another language (Latin works great), who has earned his stripes in the printed world ?

     

                    

To read like the flame reads the wood, from top left corner clockwise; Illustration by Norman Rockwell for the Saturday Evening Post, Italian illustrator Lorenzo Matteoti, dutch graphic artist Kees Kelfkens wonderful book promotion ad, book week illustration by Jan Balet, illustration of woman reading by Japanese artist Uemura Shoen, a painting by polish born painter Balthus , famous fashion illustrator Antonio Lopez illustration for ELLE magazine, Peter Newell's bad potato book illustration and finally Robert Wagt's girl reading on a Suzani couch.

TEA BREAK

Sure enough one associates Britain with High tea, that other great British invention, after the yodel meter, Peter Sellers and the Queen mother.
Whilst you nod off on a plush sofa, dusty waiters complete with stiff upper lip sneak by with trays filled with little sandwiches and pastries, whilst a harp player provides for some back ground muzak, sending you back irreversibly to the days when men were made of steel and ships were made of wood and Britain still was an empire.

 

                              

Coffee, tea or me? From clockwise top left corner; Amanda Upton's tea woman, Robert Wagt's morning tea in the kitchen, detail of a Fornasetti plate, famous illustrator Peter Newell's tea drinking lady, the wonderful Alice in Wonderland illustrations of Sara Mulvanny, Arthur Rackham's take on the same subject, two tea packaging examples and finally Patrick Hruby's russian doll tea lady.

The knitting craze

Now that knitting has become the new yoga and just about everybody from Brooklyn hipsters to soccer moms have taken up the needles, we've almost forgotten about the days of yore when knitting was forever associated with grannies and ill-fitting and/or scratchy pullovers with weird patterns or images that by definition were uncool.

            

              

                               

       

                



Ripping yarns, clockwise from top left; Giles Deacon's knitted orange scarf, a Savignac wool ad, Belgian designer Walter van Beirendonck's knitted men's wear sweater, Happy Valentine illustration by  Robert Wagt, Dior headdress by Paolo Roversi for Italian Vogue, Orly Genger's knitted red wall in NY 's Madison Square park, Irving Penn's photograph of a Balenciaga dress and a Japanese wool ad.

ROYAL BLUE

According to Vincent Gregoire of Nelly Rodi trend forecasting agency in Paris, Royal Blue will be the trend color for the year 2014, however Karl Lagerfeld tells us that "trend" is the last stage before the "has-been".

 

Royal blue, clockwise by; Miles Davis' "kind of blue" album cover, pantone color chart No 18-3949, french artist Georges Rousse optical illusion in blue, Henri Matisse blue nude paper cut out 1952, the blue city of Jodhpur in India, Valentino 2013-2014 fall/winter collection of delft blue dresses, Robert Wagt fashion illustration of an Yves St.Laurent dress and make up artist Pat Mc Grath's eyeshade for Anna Sui.

Bad weather

Gene Kelley was singing in the rain, Milli Vanilli blamed it on the rain, Leo Sayer had it raining in his heart, for Elvis it was all he needed, and  the Weather girls had it raining men, Prince's was purple and Peter Gabriel's red, the Seekers asked themselves what they had done to it and for Aaron Neville it felt like rain, whilst Duran Duran had to hold it back and where Rod Stewart lives they had ten days of downpour, which would have been great for Garbage and Eric Clapton , because they are only happy when it rains. So they ain't going to thank Nick Cave because according to him it ain't going to rain no more.

                             

      

                 

                     

Hard rain's a gonna fall, according to, clockwise from top left; Japanese woodblock print artist Hiroshige, Pierre Le-Tan, Robert Wagt 's couple on a solex in the rain, Adrian Johnson likes London in the rain, British photographer Martin Parr's famous "bad weather" pictures, Rene Gruau Blizzand raincoat ad and last but not least Saul Steinberg.

I want to ride my bicycle

It seems that the Dutch, among the worlds most bike friendly inhabitants, are born with a bicycle between their legs.

Countless two-wheelers in more or less advanced state of ruin, have succeeded my first one, a sturdy grey colored fixed gear, which was too big for my 4 year old body, as I was soon to find out, collecting my first road rash.

Nobody wore a helmet in those days, let alone training wheels.

Since then I have had numerous encounters with fate, pushing my luck biking in big cities not particularly known for their bike-friendliness (Milan, Paris) only to find myself living in Nyack, NY a little village on the Hudson a stone throw away from New York and better known as the home of the "Runcible spoon" obligatory turnaround point for hordes of MAMILS biking from the city and showing of their latest bike gadget whilst boasting about making more mileage then your average jetliner.

         

          

     

     

        


\               

Spin those wheels, clockwise from top left; famous dutch illustrator Fiep Westendorp's illustration for Big Ben rain wear, Robert Wagt little girl riding her bike, the Tour de France as seen by german illustrator Wolf Erlbruch,  New Yorker cover by Frank Viva, Rogelio Naranjo, french photographer and illustrator Jean-Paul Goude's take on the Olympics for ELLE, a yarn bombed bicycle by  Guerilla crochet, dutch illustrator Joost Swarte poster for "rencontres Chaland 2010", poster for Vittorio de Sica's 1948 classic movie "bicycle thieves/ladri di bicicletta".

A cafe in Paris

        

       

      

Parisian cafes, brasseries and bistros, clockwise from top left; Robert Wagt, Miles Hyman, Kiraz, Rene Gruau, a Parisian terrace by Henri Cartier-Bresson, Irving Penn for Vogue, famous Parisian cafe "les deux magots" by Jean-Jacques  Sempe and a Parisian brasserie terrace as seen by Voutch.

To some people Paris may seem as a clutter of Bistros, Bars, Cafes and Brasseries and sure enough my earliest memories as an 18 year old thumbing my way into France are of a mixture of Gauloises cigarette smells and cafe au lait, of waiters shouting "un jambon beurre, un!" and of those famous Turkish toilets, the French sanitary equivalent of a car driving of a cliff.
A lot of water has passed under the bridges of the Seine since then, gone are the Gauloises and the Gitanes and with them the Turkish toilets, the coffee's still not strong enough to defend itself and the waiters, well.... after all it's Paris!