Simon Levene is a multi award winning film director. www.simonlevene.com / @SimonJLevene
Jan Peterson was his film school tutor @J_Peterson68
Jan thinks Simon's career has been "one of failure and great disappointment"
Together they have become Film Forum
Riding the Subway with Stanley Kubrick
As most New Yorkers know, the subway system is the lifeline of New York City. In 1946 Stanley Kubrick set out as a staff photographer for LOOK Magazine to capture the story of New York City’s subway commuters.
(Source: tobwaylan, via rachelevataylor)
Whilst in LA, Jan and I went to see the film “Jiro dreams of Sushi” which is an account of the greatest sushi chef and restaurant in the world. It is a story of one man’s dedication to perfection. Although not the most amazing cinematic ride of my life, it remains a compelling documentary I recommend everyone should see.
At one point in the film, one of the underlings has to prepare the impossible-to-get-right semi sweet egg dish. After being rejected 200 times, his effort is accepted, he then recounts how he broke down in tears when told of his achievement.
Afterwards, Jan took the opportunity to hammer home my own inadequacies!
I was determined to treat Jan to the best Sushi experience I could find, so we ended up being at Mori Sushi in West LA. It is a Michelin starred restaurant (Jiro has three). We chose to sit at the bar. The sushi is served one piece at a time and must be eaten immediately (or I was told it would be thrown away)
As in the film, the delivery, and taste, of each piece is described as a “symphony” where the chef controls the ebb and flow of each sensation of the palate.
Over priced pretentious crap or the greatest meal of my life? I plead the latter. Jan of course disagreed.
We finished our meal by requesting the semi sweet egg dish. The chef looked at us and quietly asked if we’d seen the film. We said we had.
“Pretentious crap” the chef replied.
My friends at Stooki describe themselves as “an independent Jewellery and Apparel label based in Europe, presenting themed capsule collections through interactive art and immersive events”
They teamed up with the legend that is Yayoi Kusama at the Tate Modern a few weeks back for what was a highly inventive and original event.
Although that day has now passed, the Kusama exhibition runs until June and it is utterly unmissable. Please go.
My next blog post will be on how Stooki collaborated with this great artist.
