Wireless operators to become less, er, wireless

Everyone is making small base stations this year, some will even drop into the palm of a hand, but that's good as operators are desperate to get their wireless services safely ensconced in copper as quickly as possible.

Radio is very expensive, both in terms of power consumption and the cost of spectrum, so the less radio an operator's customers use, the better. At this year's Mobile World Congress, the focus is firmly on how to get customer calls out of the ether and onto the wires as quickly as possible. Once into the physical space calls can be cheaply routed around the place, and the radio spectrum they were occupying can be given to someone else.

The magic words here are "heterogeneous networks", or HetNets, where one network operator will deploy a macro network using their traditional towers, but then deploy tiny base stations within the covered area to which traffic can be offloaded as required. That requires really clever cells which can configure themselves to avoid interfering with the macro network, but can enable the network operator to switch them on only when required – and get all those calls onto the fixed infrastructure when it matters.

Putting all that intelligence into the cells could make them expensive, though the cost of processing continues dropping apace, so the challenge is getting backhaul organised and getting permission from the landowners to deploy all these Small Cells.

Backhaul these days can be an ethernet cable: Alcatel-Lucent even has Small Cells which can take Power over Ethernet (PoE), so connectivity is limited to plugging in a single wire. Others are using microwave backhaul, sometimes not even requiring line of sight and operating in the cheaply licensed 3.6GHz band, so those can simply be hooked up to a power source and bolted to the wall.

You still need planning permission to bolt boxes to the wall, on the outside at least, but in America you don't need planning permission for anything that is slung from wires, and a Small Cell is easily small enough to be deployed suspended from a pair of telegraph lines: no planning permission required.

Alcatel-Lucent made a lot of noise with its Light Radio solution, which offloads the burdensome processing of radio signals into the cloud . But like all cloud-based services it requires huge amounts of bandwidth, more than copper can provide, so it should be limited to deployments where fiber-optic connections are available.

The telco has surmounted this problem, in its recently announced deployment with Telefonica, by moving the processing out of the cloud and into the radio, which ceases to be "Light". We're told this is perfectly legitimate as "Light Radio" refers to a portfolio of products – including Alcatel-Lucent's admitedly impressive cube antenna – so it can claim to have a Light Radio customer even if that customer isn't using the Cloud RAN which gave the portfolio its name.

That's not to say that the cube antenna isn't an impressive bit of kit, and Alcatel-Lucent is so worried about the design being ripped off that the one bolted to the Mindspeed stand is unbolted every night for removal to the Alcatel-Lucent strong room to prevent industrial espionarge.

But it's not just Alcatel-Lucent that is squeezing cells down in size. Nokia Siemens Networks (NSN) has announced its own clustering technology which enables deployed Small Cells to mesh themselves together and share a single backhaul – but then pretend to the macro network that they are really a single base station of the traditional type. That means no additional complexity at the backend, but intelligence at the fringes.

Even the Wi-Fi players are getting in on the act, with Ruckus Wireless launching its own range of LTE base stations showing that the polyopoly of network infrastructure providers which has lasted so long isn't just under attack from China.

Nine-year-old can solve Rubik’s puzzle in seconds

IT’S a puzzle which has left most people stumped for almost 40 years.

But nine-year-old Darrin McDonald can solve the Rubik’s Cube no problem – and it only takes him around 90 seconds.

The youngster is such a natural at the puzzle that he has also solved a larger version – which has five squares down each side rather than three – though that takes him around an hour.

He’s also mastered a 15-sided pentagonal version and is now working on the seven-square cube.

Darrin, from Chesser, said he had started out with the regular cube.

“I got that about a year ago,” he said. “It was a present from my mum’s boyfriend. For the first one I used YouTube to work it out, but after that I started trying to figure them out myself and I moved on to the next one and the next one.

“I don’t know why I’m good at it. Everyone was really surprised when I brought it into school and I showed them, I felt nervous, but proud too.”

Perhaps not surprisingly, Darrin’s favourite subject at school is maths – but he’s not your archetypal studious puzzler and is more likely to be found getting up to mischief than asking for extra homework, according to class teacher, Chris Kelly.

He said: “It’s great, it’s absolutely terrific. I was just blown away, particularly with the 15-sided one. It’s particularly good with Darrin because he sometimes gets in a bit of trouble but it’s brilliant to recognise his talents – all children have talents in a range of different ways and this is one particular area where his talents are really shining.”

Darrin showed off his incredible skill to fellow pupils at Balgreen Primary in assembly, and has now become a tutor for classmates who want to follow in his footsteps.

“We have problem-solving hours on Tuesday and I teach a group of people, but they find it quite hard,” the youngster said.

His record for completing a standard cube from scratch is one minute and 39 seconds, achieved in school assembly, which puts him just a shade behind Labour leader Ed Milliband, who famously boasted that he could solve the cube in 90 seconds.

He still needs a little practice until he can challenge the world record holder, however, after 17-year-old Feliks Zemdegs completed the cube in just 5.66 seconds at the Australia Melbourne Winter Open competition last year.

Mr Kelly said: “In class we’ve been focusing on problem-solving and thinking skills and how to apply that in lots of other areas.

“So then Darrin brought in his Rubik’s cube and showed it to us, so we started to celebrate that and it’s grown from that.

“He’s got a real talent for maths – a lot of kids don’t recognise they do have talents. Since we started celebrating his talents, his self-esteem has risen, and his ability to be more self-reflective on areas that he’s good at.”

Another Golden Opportunity

Besides "money," the word "opportunity" may just be the hardest working word in show business. Everybody says they need it, many more claim they have been denied it, some squander it, others misuse it or fail to take advantage of it. In some cases, like with my friend Lindsay Lohan who will be off probation in a week or so, opportunity is now set to knock twice. Just two weeks since the Grammys and tonight we are buzzing about the Oscars. The accolades are flying and the nominations have been made and decided. The question is, do we accept the winner or are there just a lot of different opinions and support basis simply giving a few people a chance "on deck?" Either way, the glitz and glamour of the Oscars is seen around the globe, sparking the imagination of future winners and the dreams of many.

Today, we live in a global community; one that is primarily about movements such as the wildfire sparked in Egypt by one woman on a computer, which then set a revolutionary domino effect into play. The present debate on whether Olivia Spencer and Viola Davis should be receiving awards for playing out the role of maids in "The Help" is not a movement but an argument. We heard the same outcry when Halle Barry got an Oscar for "Monster's Ball" and Denzel Washington for his role in "Training Day." I hear that point. It was clear to me about the acceptance of people of color, when in "Boys in the Hood" Ice Cube said the line "Either they don't know, they don't show, or they don't care about what is going on in the hood." I personally understand that America can never live up to its "true value" until it learns the "economy of us."

But, with that said, are we really looking for actors "playing a role" to do the job of a people? Reality is, if we want these sisters playing a better role or making better points then we should write it, fund it and get behind it. Years ago, Magic Johnson made a move to put his line of theaters across the country. But where is the "Michael Jordan Film Company" to compliment it? I have seen Oscars, Grammys and Championship rings sitting on the shelves of upper scale pawnshops, so I am not much worried about the current Oscar debates. Civil Rights advocate Walter Reuther once said, "When there is hatred in the heart there is no reasoning in the head." One of the responsibilities to winning is "proper preparation." If Olivia Spencer has put in her proper "preparation" for the role she played, let us not minimize her victory because we can't reason in "our head" that she received an opportunity based on a reality of a pain we don't want to face.

When I see the Oscars, I take note that at the end of every interview, the question is asked "Who are you wearing?" The replies are laced with the names of designers from all over the world. Yet, like the brother Hill Harper said recently "You can't be free, if the cost of being you is too high." As for me, wherever I am called to pick up my Gold Statue, what I will be "wearing" is the dreams of those who have yet to make it there. This week I am on my way to Boston to see Darrell Jones and to see what can be done to help shine some light on Boston and Providence's film and hip hop community. I will be holding a showing of my Award-winning short "Hollywood Jerome" as well as looking for talent for my upcoming feature film. Guess you could say I am looking to take it to the streets and see how many awards from the Academy of "Hard Knocks" we can give out! Let us always be mindful that it is not always where you're from, but where you're at . Me, I am always with the people!

Hunterdon stores with games and toys to take you back

Childhood memories stay with us throughout our lives. Everyone recalls those carefree days when the world was just beginning to take shape inside our heads.

As we grow up, things that interested us as children are cast aside. Puzzles and games and toys end up in attics, basements and garages.

Youngsters have no inhibitions when it comes to play. Fooling around with whatever’s at hand is as natural as eating and sleeping. It is also a vital part of getting young brains acquainted with the world.

Mara Tippett opened her Sunbeam Toys last Halloween. The place is 650 square feet at 24 Bridge Street in Frenchtown, and it is full of toys.

“There’s something for everyone,” Tippett said. She concentrates on “toys that cultivate the imagination.”

There are science toys, toys for pre-schoolers, some classic tin toys, gags and magic, puppets, kites, balloons, weaving looms, jump ropes and microscopes. And so much more.

“We have a lot of retro toys as well as some modern takes on old favorites,” she said.

Tippet brings together quality and unusual things. She was a biologist before she launched this career, and her former interests peep out from the shelves here.

Customers tell her “this brings me back to my childhood…it’s magical.”

“I tossed the idea around for years,” she told me. “And I’m still learning.”

When children grow up, they leave behind the kids’ games that intrigued them when they were young. But the attraction of games remains. In adults, games mature into the strategies of chess, the pleasures of trivia, the challenges of puzzles.

“I’ve just completed the world’s largest jigsaw puzzle,” Heather Caroline told me. “It’s 32,000 pieces and it took me about eight months to complete.”

She plans to hang it soon. “It goes on the wall in my home. It’s called Double Retrospect.”

Caroline operates Lambertville’s The Missing Peace, an emporium of quality board games, puzzles, and related pursuits. She will be celebrating her fifth anniversary in May of this year.

“I always had it in the back of my head to own my own business,” Caroline told me. “I was a microbiologist originally, and I did lots of research before opening.”

This shop is stocked with a multitude of jigsaw puzzles, varying in size and shape. In addition to the familiar two-dimensional puzzles, there are three-dimensional puzzles as well. Try your hand at the Eiffel Tower, the Taj Mahal, the Empire State Building and other world attractions.

But puzzles are only the beginning. The Missing Peace has chess sets, dominoes, dice games, cards and card games, and Rubik’s cube in many of its iterations. Plus party games, trivia, scrabble and others for both indoor and outdoor pursuits.

Attics, basements and garages get cluttered with all sorts of discarded stuff. When we no longer use things, they tend to accumulate around the house. Sooner or later, furniture, toys and games, decorations and other things can overwhelm the best of intentions.

It might be time to call Jennifer’s Found It!

“We are not a consignment store, but we do removal services when people are downsizing or moving,” Jennifer told me. Realtors regularly call her to remove items from homes, and she maintains wish lists for items when people are looking for special things, including decorators.

Found It! is more than removal services, however. It is a store in Flemington’s Turntable Junction. It opened in October 2011.

Here, shoppers find all sorts of wood furniture, dating from antiques to present day. Appliances are on the floor—from refrigerators to stereos from the 1960s.

But it’s a lot more than furniture and appliances. Jewelry, china, kitchen collectibles, decorations, signs, tools, toys and games round out the selections. There are GI Joes and Barbies here.

‘The Secret World of Arrietty’ brings whimsical story to dazzling life

"The Secret World of Arrietty" looks to shrink us down, both in size and in age, to a smaller, simpler world where little people inhabit the walls and an empty meadow holds all the promise and potential of imagination. It is nothing short of captivating and magical, and although both words are well overused when describing a Studio Ghibli movie, there is simply no other way to say it.

This world comes to the screen by way of English children's writer Mary Norton and her successful series, "The Borrowers." In this universe, mazes are constructed through walls, dollhouses and floorboards to allow miniature versions of people, called "borrowers," in and out of the "beings" world — the realm of normalsized humans. Borrowers live by a credo to take what they need and nothing more, with the one condition that a being can never notice what's been taken. Here, a single tealeaf will last for a week, a sugar cube a month and a tissue possibly forever. Water drops in slow beads like syrup, and when it rains, the borrowers are able to brush off each drop individually. At the same time, cats and other animals appear mountainous, and a brush with a creature as small as a rat can be fatal.

In this dangerous yet fascinating world, Pod (Will Arnett) has started to teach his daughter Arrietty (Bridgit Mendler) how to navigate through the walls as well as the various climbing techniques required of any successful borrower. While hunting for a tissue, however, they are seen by a twelveyearold boy, Shawn (David Henrie), who is resting in the country before undergoing surgery on his failing heart. Arrietty and Shawn eventually become friends, but in keeping with the borrower code, Arrietty's parents decide they must move because they've been discovered. The old caretaker, Hara (Carol Burnett), long suspicious of the borrowers' existence, has other plans and tries to trap the borrowers to prove once and for all that she is not crazy.

Part of what makes the environment of "The Secret World of Arrietty" so compelling is the lack of any immediate antagonist or villain to push the plot along, allowing the magnificent visuals to shine through. Sure, the occasional crow or cat saunters along to chase the borrowers around the house, but these actions are more a compulsion than ill will. Similarly, Hara seeks them out not to destroy or hurt them, but rather because she cannot help herself.

Instead, the real conflict is found in the juxtaposition of Arrietty's magic wonderland with the truth of Shawn's cruel circumstances — that life is just not fair to some people. When the beings' recognition of the borrowers' world forces Arrietty's family to move, she must confront the unfortunate reality that it was a result of her own carelessness. Likewise, Shawn and those around him remain silently fixated on the fact that he will not survive in the coming weeks. His talk of death and the pointlessness of existence is sharp, especially coming from someone his age.

It is only when Shawn is willing to believe in the mystical around him that he can confidently look toward his future with all the imagination and wonder he deprived himself of as a child. Meanwhile, Hara's singlemindedness in tracking down the borrowers will never end until she is willing to quit hunting and just believe.

The real heart of the movie is found in Hayao Miyazaki's tradition and Hiromasa Yonebayashi's flourishing, modest direction. While Peter Hewitt and John Goodman's "The Borrowers" (1997) may have been impressive in the technical details, "The Secret World of Arrietty" manages to retain the mystique without sacrificing the tone for slapstick. There are no moments where Arrietty's femininity superficially stands in the way of her capability, nor does the movie trade quick jokes for a hollow laugh. Instead, this is an animated movie in the classic style of greatness: full of heart, sincerity and confidence in its message.

Studio Ghibli’s 'The Secret World of Arrietty' Reminds Us

Despite the odds, two-dimensional drawings of cute little critters scampering across a movie screen are not a dead art form. They’re just not a very American one anymore.

Back in 1995, there was a lot of hand-wringing over the future of cel animation—Pixar’s Toy Story had brought computer animation to feature-length cartoons so suddenly and so perfectly that most everyone feared for traditional hand-drawn art. And, sure enough, with the scent of new fortunes to be made, every Hollywood studio jumped onto the computer-animation bandwagon. The result was DreamWorks’ Antz and then-Disney CEO Michael Eisner firing his company’s longtime animation crew in favor of hiring CGI programmers. Despite those ignoble acts, is it really any wonder that computer animation overtook hand-drawn animation? It reinvigorated the entire industry.

After Disney’s apex of success with The Lion King in 1994, the studio churned out mediocre efforts like Pocahontas, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, and Hercules, and then deservedly forgotten epics like The Emperor’s New Groove and Atlantis: The Lost Empire. Other studios couldn’t even muster that much creativity. Frankly, the future of animated features as a whole was in far more danger from its own lack of inspired storytelling and artwork than from impertinent computer jockeys. Pixar reminded everyone, even its own corporate benefactor Disney, that stories matter first and foremost. Since that tide turned, we haven’t seen many hand-drawn features from Hollywood, but we haven’t missed them much, either.

In Japan, however, cel animation is still a thriving art form—principally because its industry happens to be led by a genius animator named Hayao Miyazaki whose company, Studio Ghibli, creates cinematic magic. Its latest effort to be released in the U.S., The Secret World of Arrietty, may not benefit from Miyazaki’s personal direction, but it stands as yet more proof that good old-fashioned, hand-drawn “2D” animation is still every bit as viable a technique as computer graphics. Just as long as you have great artists behind it.

Arrietty is an adaptation of Mary Norton’s The Borrowers, and as such it’s more of a familiar tale than Ghibli’s typically unpredictable fantasies. Although the setting’s been moved to western Tokyo, the 60-year-old novel’s storyline is for the most part unchanged: A family of tiny people—Pod, his wife Homily, and their daughter Arrietty—live under the floorboards of a house owned by an elderly woman who is caring for her great nephew, who isn’t well. The boy accidentally sees Arrietty, and they form a friendship, but one that endangers the small family of “Borrowers.”

First-time director Hiromasa Yonebayashi imbues Arrietty with much of the painterly style that the studio is known for, using lush backgrounds of verdant countryside and allowing for quiet moments of natural beauty. Whereas American animated features are usually in a hurry to inundate their presumed young audiences with images of nonstop action lest they get bored, Arrietty and other Ghibli films go in nearly the opposite direction: They take their time to create characters and settings. Conflict—the raison d’être of any Hollywood production—wafts onto the scene only after we’ve been totally immersed into a fantastic new world. Likewise, Arrietty does not intend to wow us with an incredible battle between two worlds, big vs. small, as a more typical adaptation might have attempted; instead, it simply wants us to see our world from a different viewpoint.

The pleasures of Arrietty arrive in the precise observations made by its expert animators: the way a single drop of rain hits a dry piece of concrete, how a cat expresses disdainful acceptance with its eyes, the shimmer of sunlight over a meadow . But those are only the familiar sights that we may already have in our memories, beautifully brought to life onscreen. The true immersion here lies in how the animators conceived of the ordinary world as seen by 2-inch-tall people. Like mice, they live in the spaces between walls and floors that we never see. To get by, the Borrowers do just that—taking small bits of things from the “human beans’” household, like fibers from a piece of tissue or sugar from a cube. Outside the house is a vast jungle, its thick vegetation hiding places unknown.

While those used to Western movie standards of fast action may find Arrietty lacking in high stakes, fans of Hayao Miyazaki may miss his unique vision. In watching films like Spirited Away, Howl’s Moving Castle, or My Neighbor Totoro, you feel as if you have truly entered a different world, one that hasn’t already been thoroughly explored in other stories or other movies. These are places where unpredictable things can happen. The Secret World of Arrietty does not quite attain that sense of adventure, but it is nevertheless a lovely place to visit—one that may offer Hollywood executives a few reminders of a lost art.

From hard edges to London glamour

BIGGER, BETTER, brighter and British. That was the national sense of pride in London yesterday as Fashion Week drew to a close after an impressive number of promising winter collections proved its status as a fashion capital is secure.

This confidence and authority showed in the event itself, which has become far more professional and well organised. A busy schedule of nearly 60 catwalk shows along with a host of ancillary launches, exhibitions and presentations lured influential international buyers and press, many from Asia and the US.

The presence of Anna Wintour, powerful editor of US Vogue, at many shows gave them an added frisson and imprimatur. Locations were as varied as the collections and provided a sightseeing tour of London, from the Royal Courts of Justice and the Old Billingsgate market to the White Cube art gallery and the modern high rise Broadgate Tower.

Walking into Somerset House every day was to face a battery of bloggers, camera teams, photographers and what’s called “bloggerazzi” detaining the fashion packs from all over the world. A noticeable trend was the curious lack of clapping, particularly after many really good presentations, explained by so many in the audience videoing the finale or frantically tweeting or instagramming.

There has never been a better time to be a young designer in the UK with huge support from government and from industry, all sorts of funds and a determined effort by the British Fashion Council to get business skills on a par with the country’s celebrated design talents.

It wants to encourage home manufacturing and bring standards up to luxury level; make locally, sell globally is the mantra. Many designers are already doing so, such as Catherine Teatum who, with partner Bob Jones, launched the Teatum Jones label last year. It is made in the UK, stocked at Liberty and exported to the US.

As for winter clothes, among the trends noticeable on the catwalk were: modern interpretations of lace, which were often veiled, embellished or rubberised; the pervasive and continuing play of print and pattern; the preponderance of peplum waists; and the fearless use of fur. Skirt suits were much in evidence, often pleated, as were skinny trousers. Colours such as inky blues, black, grey and oxblood saturated the catwalks. If there was an overall look, it was hard edged, street cool, but ladylike. There were many contrast or stand alone collar details.

Print continues to dominate, however, and yesterday Mary Katrantzou, whose Topshop collaboration has been a sellout, lived up to her reputation as the queen of prints with a collection of decorative exuberance and Victorian shapeliness that introduced Lesage embroideries on printed knits for the first time. “I use my mouse as a paint box,” she says.

But it was Sarah Burton, the creative director of Alexander McQueen, who provided the standout show of the week for the company’s second line McQ. It reprised many of the familiar McQ motifs, the sharp military style tailoring, the Scottish tartans and romantic ballerina dresses, in a fresh, appealing way without excessive styling. The unveiling of a little house in a fairytale forest of real trees at the end to highlight the opening of McQ’s new London shop was a real coup de thtre and a fitting end to a memorable week.

Ghibli creates animated magic in ‘Secret World of Arrietty’

In Japan, Studio Ghibli plays a role akin to Disney's place in American culture. Its wonderfully inventive films are celebrated as classics, with 2002's "Spirited Away" out-grossing "Titanic" to become the most successful movie in Japanese history.

As Ghibli's cofounder Hayao Miyazaki nears retirement age, however, the question looms of who will carry on the studio's legacy. In light of this, Ghibli's new film "The Secret World of Arrietty" can be seen as a test run for first-time director Hiromasa Yonebayashi. Fortunately, it's a test he passes with flying colors.

The film follows Arrietty, a 14-year-old - and 4-inch-tall - girl from a family of borrowers who live underneath the floorboards of humans' homes, taking only necessities that won't be missed. As Arrietty begins to embark on her own borrowing expeditions, she is spotted by a sickly boy awaiting heart surgery, and her family must decide whether to trust the big people or move on to a new home.

It's a simple story, but Yonebayashi has stretched this tale to its absolute limits, cramming more beauty and wonder into the film's 94 minutes than you'd think possible, considering that the entire film takes place within a single house. The art is downright gorgeous, and the attention to detail is breathtaking - in one scene, Arrietty stands behind a leaf of ivy, and you can see each of the tiny veins that run through the plant's translucent surface. The film transitions seamlessly between the humans' and the borrowers' view of a room, the latter of which casts a kitchen as an epic canyon that the borrowers must traverse in pursuit of a sugar cube. All the while, Cecile Corbel's lovely score gives the film a feel distinct from previous Studio Ghibli movies, yet no less magical.

All of these elements lead to a fantastic viewing experience, but what sets Ghibli movies apart is their heart, and "Arrietty" definitely has it. You'll find yourself immersed in an enchanting world for the length of the movie, genuinely concerned over not only Arrietty's plight, but also that of the ailing human she encounters.

Looking forward, it seems the future of Studio Ghibli is in good hands, because "Arrietty" isn't simply a magnificent work of animation, it's one of the best films - animated or otherwise - you'll see all year.

‘The Secret World of Arrietty’ Is Too Big To Let Slip Through The Floorboards

There’s no doubt that animated films wowed us in recent months. Films like The Adventures of Tintin and Rango were impressive in every way and to compare The Secret World of Arrietty is simply unfair because it’s the antithesis to those other films; yes, it’s animated too but where many animated films make sure that no stone goes unturned, giving us everything we could dream of, Arrietty still leaves plenty to the imagination. It’s the type of story that makes you ask what or who is living under your home. It makes you look at your light sockets differently or maybe that crack in your kitchen baseboard. And maybe, it makes you look at yourself in the mirror a little differently too.

Our story introduces us to the Clock family, four-inch tall species of humans called Borrowers who live underneath the floorboards. The protagonist is a young girl named Arrietty (Bridgit Mendler), who is in a rush to grow up and explore the world that sits above hers. She doesn’t quite know what the outside is like, Arrietty only knows that others like herself are becoming fewer and far between. At least those are the stories she hears from her paranoid and protective mother, Homily (Amy Poehler). Her father, Pod (Will Arnett) on the other hand is the stable voice of patience, trust, and calm resolve. Pod understands that he can only contain his daughter’s curiosity so long and takes her on her very first borrowing day.

Borrowers take only what they need of beans, as in, human “beans.” They take from their surplus of goods, but only so much that the beans won’t notice it’s missing. On this day, the plan is to get some tissue paper and one sugar cube. Now, everything is magnified to borrowers. At four inches tall, to fall off a table is like leaping off the edge of a giant canyon. A cat is giant dinosaur-like beast. Humans, are well… like Godzilla.

They prepare as if they are going to go on a three-day expedition, when in reality they’ll only be gone for a few hours. Pod leads his daughter on a dangerous journey between the frameworks of the house. The head of nails, which hold the support beams together, act as steps and spools of thread work like a pulley system to navigate far away from rats and bugs that could eat them. Pod’s experience leads the way while the world as a miniature opens up to us through Arrietty’s eyes. A whole new world has opened up for her, and for us, a whole new way for us to look at our world.

Pod leads a flawless journey and teaches Arrietty tips to remember for her next trip. The day should end on a high note but someone in the house spots Arrietty. Shawn (David Henrie) is terminally ill and is a guest of the house to rest up for surgery. We don’t know what has plagued Shawn, but he has come to the Clocks with an open mind and has surrendered to destiny.

Knowing that humans cannot calm their interests, Pod believes that the best move is to begin scouting for a new home, which saddens Arrietty who did not want to disrupt her family’s harmony. She believes Shawn to be harmless, helpful even, but Pod cannot take that chance based on what he and Homily have experienced with big people in the past. In an act of bravery, Arrietty tries to right her wrong and tells Shawn that he must remain silent except he is not the one to be feared.

The Secret World of Arrietty is a candy sweet addition to the growingly scarce family films but there are also surprising themes of survival and mortality present. There are no action sequences that run five minutes long, neon bright colors or an encompassing ballet of sound. Does every animated story have to be though? The answer is an emphatic “no” and where the houses of Pixar and Dreamworks have all but re-established animation in this high-definition world, Studio Ghibli’s signature–so pronounced even in an ordinary story–remains a lonely cloud of magic that you never want to drift away.

The story is based on Mary Norton’s series of 1950’s novels, The Borrowers, and may remind adults of an ABC cartoon in the 1980’s called “The Littles.” Make no mistake though; this film has Japanese filmmaker Hayao Miyazaki written all over it. Arrietty’s dual conflicts with nature and “beans” are a dead giveaway. Animals are alive with personality–the insects too. Even the grisly reality of the food chain is vividly illustrated when the Clocks come across Spiller, another Borrower who lives in the woods. It’s in these details that Miyazaki wrote and first time director Hiromasa Yonebayashi assembled a much-needed change of pace.

The voice cast is a sturdy bunch. Mendler’s Arrietty is a character that parents can be proud to show their daughters because she’s not only brave and valiant, but is also compassionate and considerate. The coarseness in Arnett’s voice fits Pod’s personality although there are no moments for him to fly off the handle. His subtle performance is a welcomed change from his shameful soliloquies from Arrested Development. Poehler contrasts her husband’s work with her typical spastic presentation we’ve come to know. And Carol Burnett gives housekeeper Hara that little bit of panache needed to show the more resentful side of humans.

If The Secret World of Arrietty doesn’t interest you, then perhaps the gluttony of computer-animated films have already done their damage. I still have faith that films like this can find their audience and that modern-day parents haven’t forgotten what it’s like to wonder what happens at the end of a story, to imagine beyond “the end” with their kids and not have to worry about what toy to buy to match their pajamas and bedsheets. This film is unlike so many that have come before it, and that’s just fine by me. Hopefully it is for you too.

‘The Secret World of Arrietty’ a dead-end tale

The new anime version of “The Borrowers,” titled “The Secret World of Arrietty” by screenwriter and “supervisor” Hayao Miyazaki, has the fascination with household “spirits,” the same lovely colour palette and attention to detail for which his films are famous.

But Miyazaki, director of “Ponyo,” “Spirited Away” and “My Neighbor Totoro,” didn’t direct this Studio Ghibli film. Perhaps that is why it lacks his sense of whimsy, that little sprinkling of Miyazki magic that the Japanese director has given his best work over the decades.

Mary Norton’s oft-filmed 60-year-old novel is about the miniature people who live in the walls and below the floorboards of old houses, creatures who “borrow” what they need from the “human beans.” Every shopping trip is an expedition — nabbing one cube of sugar, that could last them months, a cracker than can be crushed to make Borrower bread. They live by two rules. “Borrowers take only what they need,” and once they’ve been seen, it’s time to move. Those humans and their curiosity are nothing but trouble for Borrowers.

Arrietty is a 13-year-old straining at the limits of her world. She only knows her family, can only hope that there are other Borrowers, still surviving elsewhere. She sneaks outside , tempts the evil ravens who wouldn’t mind gobbling her up as a snack — and is spied by a sickly human boy. Shawn wants to help, and Arrietty wants to make contact. She sees no threat from this fellow her own age and no need to move, or even tell her parents. Naturally, they see things differently.

The gorgeous pastels of Studio Ghibli films and famous attention to detail are much in evidence in this Hiromasa Yonebayashi film. The Borrowers’ world of re-purposed human detritus — pins and empty spools and discarded bolts, double sided tape, which allows father Pod (Arnett) to scale the heights of a kitchen counter to fetch sugar — is ingeniously realized.

Carol Burnett voices an old housekeeper who longs for the day when she can catch a real Borrower and be exonerated from those childhood charges that she was “crazy,” one of the film’s many lightly humorous touches. And there are hints of the larger world of Borrowers beyond this garden cottage. Norton wrote more than one book in the series, after all.

But Miyazaki, who co-wrote the script, had nowhere to take it. Either the Borrowers leave, or they stay. They’re either discovered and survive or captured and exposed. There’s no romance, no way to open the tale up, despite the fact that they’re using that most fantastical film form, animation.

'Secret World of Arrietty' is lovely, but has nowhere to go

The new anime version of "The Borrowers," titled "The Secret World of Arrietty" by screenwriter and "supervisor" Hayao Miyazaki, has the fascination with household "spirits," the same lovely color palette and attention to detail for which his films are famous.

But Miyazaki, director of "Ponyo," "Spirited Away" and "My Neighbor Totoro," didn't direct this Studio Ghibli film.

Perhaps that is why it lacks his sense of whimsy, that little sprinkling of Miyazki magic that the Japanese director has given his best work over the decades.

Mary Norton's oft-filmed 60-year-old novel is about the miniature people who live in the walls and below the floorboards of old houses, creatures who "borrow" what they need from the "human beans."

Every shopping trip is an expedition — nabbing one cube of sugar, that could last them months, a cracker that can be crushed to make Borrower bread.

They live by two rules. "Borrowers take only what they need," and once they've been seen, it's time to move. Those humans and their curiosity are nothing but trouble for Borrowers.

Arrietty (voiced by Bridgit Mendler of TV's "Good Luck Charlie" and "Wizards of Waverly Place") is a 13-year-old straining at the limits of her world.

She only knows her family, can only hope that there are other Borrowers, still surviving elsewhere. She sneaks outside , tempts the evil ravens who wouldn't mind gobbling her up as a snack — and is spied by a sickly human boy.

Shawn wants to help, and Arrietty wants to make contact. She sees no threat from this fellow her own age and no need to move, or even tell her parents . Naturally, they see things differently.

The gorgeous pastels of Studio Ghibli films and famous attention to detail are much in evidence in this Hiromasa Yonebayashi film. The Borrowers' world of re-purposed human detritus — pins and empty spools and discarded bolts, double sided tape, which allows father Pod to scale the heights of a kitchen counter to fetch sugar — is ingeniously realized.

Carol Burnett voices an old housekeeper who longs for the day when she can catch a real Borrower and be exonerated from those childhood charges that she was "crazy," one of the film's many lightly humorous touches.

And there are hints of the larger world of Borrowers beyond this garden cottage. Norton wrote more than one book in the series, after all.

But Miyazaki, who co-wrote the script, had nowhere to take it. Either the Borrowers leave, or they stay. They're either discovered and survive or captured and exposed.

There's no romance, no way to open the tale up, despite the fact that they're using that most fantastical film form, animation.

So as pretty as it is, this "Secret World" is too Earthbound by far.GO!

Tiny hidden humans meet the neighbors in Arrietty

Synonymous with the humanistic, eco-minded, pastel-hued elegance of Japanese filmmaker and animation virtuoso Hayao Miyazaki (Spirited Away), Studio Ghibli, which Miyazaki co-founded, has earned its vaunted reputation as Disney's Pixar of the East. Although Miyazaki serves only on the periphery as co-writer and production supervisor, his soulfulness still radiates through The Secret World of Arrietty, a hand-drawn adaptation of Mary Norton's ageless kid-lit series The Borrowers, about four-inch-high humanoids who live beneath the floorboards of those dangerous "human beans." Within the Ghibli catalog, director Hiromasa Yonebayashi's delicate debut (the English-dubbed version is credited to Gary Rydstrom) is an underplotted, near humorless trifle, but in contrast to the shrill, saccharine CGI cartoons — live-action included — that pass for family entertainment today, it's pure magic.

Fourteen years old and literally knee-high to a kitty cat, inquisitive emblem of purity Arrietty ventures to the idyllic rural home above to forage with her somber father, Pod . Among her pop's golden rules of "borrowing" is that only necessary items that won't be missed should be pilfered. Grappling to ledges with a fish hook and string, a grand nighttime kitchen heist — the front-loaded film's most thrilling sequence — yields one measly sugar cube...which Arrietty loses when spooked by the gaze of Shawn , a giant boy with a bum ticker who has been sent to the house for pre-op care from an elderly woman and her meddlesome housekeeper . Back in the teenier kitchen, anxiety-prone mom Homily flips out over her daughter being spotted by the sickly enemy, who is obviously destined to become Arrietty's only friend and unspoken first crush.

Perhaps too fittingly small-scale, the story is trouble-free to the point that it feels slight, though it's full of gorgeous renderings: Shawn matter-of-factly explains the permanence of death to Arrietty while lying in a field that's alive with lush watercolors. The otherworldliness that is Miyazaki's trademark has been tamped down into naturalistic textures, but the look is still as meticulous and confident as the master's handiwork. Beyond the ace animation, there are also inspired sensory delights to be heard, from the sweet theme song by French vocalist/harpist Cécile Corbel, to the way a straight pin unsheathes from Arrietty's dress with a loud, metallic clang like a broadsword to the ears of the little people.

UNQUENCHABLE Thirst for Wine Bargains

‘The best wine is the one someone else pays for’ goes the cliché but it is a lifestyle statement for Natalie Maclean, the Canadian prolific writer, TV anchor and author of UNQUENCHABLE- her second book that was released a couple of months ago. The mongrel taster who spent her early childhood in tight economic environment knows the value of money and therefore has an eye for good bargains in wine, even as she warns you not to expect a good wine for $5.

As she writes, ‘I have tasted many inexpensive wines with flavors and aromas that lingered long after I swallowed. It is simply snobbery to suggest that only pricey bottles have the unexplained magic,’ she puts you in a comfort zone where you feel you are not in the hands of a wine snob who is talking down to you but a wine friend who is sincerely helping you look for good wines at affordable price, yet not dumbing down wine.

Perhaps inspired by Bridget Jones Diary, the book is written as a narrative in the first person and takes you through wines from 8 different countries and regions, matching food with the wines anchored around 8 different meals of the week. She starts with wine for a Sunday dinner and progressing through each day, ends with Sunday lunch.  It is not a clinical description of the wines and listings; she transports you to various wineries and winemakers  and makes you feel a part of the conversation-starting with Wolf Blass and Peter Gago in Australia. Like any good novel, she introduces the protagonist, the wineries, history, cultural background and heritage  and soon you realize she is taking you beyond ‘what’s in the glass,’ be it Wolf Blass, Yellow Tail or Penfolds.

Before you are finished  with the Sunday dinner, you have also met Stephen Henschke and his viticuturalist wife Prue and tasted their iconic ‘Hill of Grace’. But if you are a certified bargain hunter and before you are disappointed she lets you take a peek at her ‘Field Notes from a Wine Cheapskate’. There is useful information about Insider Tips, Wineries Visited, Best Value Wines, Top Value Producers -that include Angove, d’Arenberg, Evans and Tate, Lindemans, McGuigan, McWilliams, Peter Lehmann. Xanadu, Rosemont and Yalumba- some of the Australian labels imported into India. Point of observation- the ubiquitous Jacobs Creek is missing in the list.

Known to promote food and wine pairings passionately, she even suggests a few dishes for each meal followed by her ‘Terrific Pairings.’ Thus the First Chapter focussing on Shiraz, lists 18 dishes, including a sprinkling of vegetarian fare like ‘Grilled vegetables’ (the book is not written specifically for vegetarians).  She does not claim to write in-depth for a country or region so she also gives ‘Resources’ for each section- for instance James Halliday Australian Wine Companion by the best-known Australian author, James Halliday.

Chapter 2-Monday, takes you to Germany- mostly Mosel where you meet the top producers J. J Prüm and Dr. Loosen. Ernie Loosen shares with you his vision ‘when I drink Mosel Riesling, I want to smell the blue slate soil that formed the fruit, taste the memory of the old vines and  feel the rain and the sun that year.’ Her average reader may not excited by a Mosel Riesling but hopefully would get inspired by  Ernie’s comments, ‘without all of this, wine is just another drink…Blue Nun and Black Tower  don’t represent a region or style, they are Coca-Cola brands.’

Her evening is spent at St.-Urbans Hof with the owner Nik Weiss. She takes you through the German appellations system, styles and their characteristics before leaving you at her Field Notes. It is heartening to note that her Best Value Wines include Dr. L and 3 wines from St- Urbans Hoff, available in India through the Wine Park, Mumbai.

On Tuesday, she takes you to her home country on a chopper ride over Niagara Falls. A tour through the ice-wine country is completed with Inniskillin. She focuses on Pinot Noir in Niagara as she spends time at Malivoire Winery where you learn about organic farming as well. It is natural that seemingly she spends a lot of pages on the wine from her own land which may not be as exciting to the non Canadian readers but provide interesting resource material for reference.  Like in every Chapter he picks out her favourite wine for dinner from the Best Value Wine list- Le Clos Jordanne Village Reserve Pinot Noir. As she has pre-warned in the beginning of the book, vintages are avoided.

In ‘Wednesday’ she is in South Africa, taking you to Sicily- Vino under the Volcano, on Thursday. There is sufficient history and background on Sicily and the grapes before she takes you to meet Diego Planeta and his 1000 acres owned by the family at 3 locations, followed by an educative meeting with his equal in Etna, Giuseppe Benanti .  A couple of more producers and you are in her anchor territory-the Field Notes where the Insider Tips suggest why ‘Regional food and wine matches often make sense, since the food and wine ‘grew up’ together in the same soils and climatic conditions.’ It’s not a rigid rule as she admits but it partially explains why Indians do not drink wine with food-it was not around a couple of decades ago and we still drink mostly water with food  even as wine producers thrust their wines down our palates and gullets.

If it’s Friday, it’s A Smoldering Liquid Tango in Argentina.  Visit Cheval des Andes, a JV with Cheval Blanc. You get to meet Nicolás Catena, the well-known winemaker- owner of Catena Zapata. You learn more about the local signature grapes Torrontes and Malbec and how the Argentine wines have been doing well internationally and the country continues to be a place where a wine producer can write his own story. She takes you to Zuccardi Family Wines in Uco Valley before letting you on to her secrets, doling out the usual tips. Interestingly, there are 31 Top Value Producers-the highest number from any country. A great tip for importers in India or wherever they are looking for good value for money wines for their markets.

Telling stories, touching lives

Blackberry shayar or Pied Piper of radio… .call him by whatever name, Neelesh Misra remains the man who understands the pulse of India. The master story teller, who has enthralled millions with his unique radio programme Yaad Shehr, has earned for himself a permanent place in the memoryscape of his listeners that cut across all age groups. Yet the man who has reinvented the whole tradition of story telling credits the stupendous success of his programme to his listeners, the social media and above all to what it does to people.

 In Chandigarh for the Festival of Letters organised by Chandigarh Sahitya Akademi, he says, “When I started out I had no idea how the concept would go as we had no reference points.” Yet the programme that touched a nerve people didn’t even know existed, got 5.5 million responses on the Facebook itself within three months that too mainly from listeners aged between 13 to 24 years. He quips, “There goes the presumptuous assumption that the youth of today are only interested in the frivolous.” As he has been travelling the length and breadth of India, he has realised the youth of today see the world through a different prism. And it’s this modern India that is changing fast, where seven out of 10 Indians have left home, where many of them feel the pinch of loneliness that is his subject. Indeed, most of what he tells he has experienced, heard or observed. “To be a good writer you need to be a good listener and observer,” he believes.

Being a journalist has helped too, more so to think and write visually. Besides he deems, “As journalists we are privy to a world which others don’t have access to.” So what prompted him to take a hiatus from active journalism? He replies, “For over a decade I was an outsider in Bollywood, writing songs from my Blackberry from distant destinations. Today I am one in journalism.”  Looking “in” at the world, he asserts, is a far better vantage point. And right now sharing his perspective are budding writers who meet at his home in Mumbai every Monday.  He felt the need for this Monday Mandali for, “In India there is no mentoring in creative arts.” And the first and the foremost rule he expects the young aspiring writers he is training to follow is, “We are socially conscious commentators. We will not ridicule anyone nor discriminate on the basis of caste, creed or religion. Our stories must have a message.”

So how does he reconcile the meaningful purpose of his role as a raconteur with his foray in Bollywood? And the lyricist of over 30 films who has just penned a Mujra song, is ready to write for Jism 2 and has written scripts too. He explains his presence in Bollywood thus, “In the commerce driven world of cinema I try to write concept based songs.” So even in a Mujra song for Agent Vinod there is a thought not just inane tukbandi. Is writing songs, as he has often proclaimed, his first love? He says, “I always wanted to do many things. But be it journalism, song writing or turning dead research into books I am compelled to tell stories.” Even when he goes to deliver a talk on his book The Absent State he turns it around into a story telling session. His biggest grudge against journalism today is, “The moment the narrative begins to tell stories, we relegate it to the category of features.”

No wonder, he feels that as journalists we fail to touch people’s lives. How he affects people is evident from not only the way fans swarm him but also how in a small town in India an old woman on her death bed has begin to include him as part of the family in her morning prayers. Misty eyed he questions, “What can be more humbling than this?” So as he is all set for the new season of his radio show, it’s this love that scares him. Perhaps like Bajrang Bali, he needs a Jamwan to remind him of his strengths. Or may be not.

For the millions that tune into his programme, whom he understands better than they know themselves, are his biggest strength. As he lends voice to their aspirations, dreams and dilemmas, he becomes them and they his USP.

Art Installations and Performance by Aman Sandhu

Aman Sandhu's artwork, re-, is a performance and sound sculpture that includes five speed-cubers who will continuously be solving the Rubik's cube for two hours. Each speed-cuber will have a microphone attached to their sleeves and the sound captured will be amplified through speakers placed outside the gallery. This artwork exposes and exaggerates hidden processes while also addressing anxieties about incompletion. The Rubik's cube was created by Erno Rubik, a sculptor and architect, in 1974. He first called it the "Magic Cube", and the traditional 3x3 format has 43 quintillion possible figurations, but only one solution.

Sandhu is currently studying Sculpture at OCAD.

The mathematical equation of the Lokta-Volterra model measures the rate of change of predator to prey taking dynamics of environment into consideration. This equation proves that the predator is solely reliant on the prey and if the prey diminishes, the predator population extinguishes or finds new prey. Tamhane’s sculptural installation consists of box with a python and a rabbit separated by a clear layer. This work, titled ‘Dumb Bunny’, evolved from a series of drawings that discuss consumption and how different societies confront the natural cycle of life and death. The consumer and that which is created to be consumed are a co-dependent, co-reliant relationship that evolve together and become more and more sophisticated for each other. Tamhane is an artist and curator, currently based in Toronto, Canada, and has been exhibiting since 2009 in Delhi , Bangalore .

Doug and Debbie Grills of D & D Exotics are kindly lending an 18-foot python, who is currently under risk of being euthanized by the city of Oshawa because the company is wrongly being accused of reselling rescued reptiles and may have to shut down. The rabbit is also being lent by these owners and is not a feeder rabbit.

Reposado's (at 136 Ossington) is kindly offering half-off appetizers and $2 off their featured tequila from 7:30-8pm, while the second installation is set up.

Praise for North star

Every day when Rhys Priestland awakes he thanks the Lord he's Welsh. There's a very good reason for this. "It means I don't have to tackle George North," he says. Four days on from the win against Ireland and, apart from the spear-tackling ban of Bradley Davies, all anyone wants to talk about in Wales is the teenager with the torso of Jonah Lomu and the hands of Barry John. As an international team-mate, and a fellow Scarlet, Priestland is happy to croon about the boy he calls "The Freak".

"I remember the first time I met George. It was when he started training with Scarlets at the start of last season," Priestland says. "I'd heard of him, he'd been playing for Llandovery and the word was he was good. But I had no idea how old he was. Well, there we were, doing gym testing, and this guy was just so much stronger than anyone else in the squad. We were like, 'Wow'.

"I chatted to him afterwards and asked if he'd done much with his time off during the summer. He said he'd had exams, and I said, 'University exams?' And he said, 'No, A levels!' I've played in the same team with him since and he still doesn't stop surprising me."

Take Sunday at the Aviva Stadium, with the home side on top and the Blarney Army sounding the call to arms. From nowhere, the wing, 6ft 4in and 16st, barges through the defence before providing Jonathan Davies with the sweetest back-of-the-hand pass. It was like watching the Incredible Hulk take a second to perfect a Rubik's cube.

"I was standing right behind George when he gave that offload. And I had to stop," Priestland says. "I couldn't believe what I'd just seen. He's already a superstar – and he's only 19."

North makes the game simpler for a playmaker like Priestland who doesn't have to don the traditional wizard's cape of the Welsh No 10 and perform all the magic himself. "You'd be lucky to have one player like George on your team, because a player like him does not come around very often," Priestland says. "But we've also got Jonathan, Jamie [Roberts] and other big lads who are fast. I wouldn't fancy them lot running at me all day. So part of my job is unleashing this back line."

Since emerging at last year's World Cup as the rank outsider of three to win the race for the fly-half jersey, Priestland has exuded the sort of intelligent control for which his coach, Warren Gatland, was so desperate. In Priestland's words, "It's about me playing with my head up and weighing up the options". The Welsh game plan focuses on making their defence as much a virtue as their attack. With this in mind, Priestland, 25, often applies boot to leather. He is a tremendous kicker out of hand and has always had the reputation at being just as adept off kicking tee. Until last weekend.

Priestland took three kicks at goal and missed them all. Two hit the post and the other fell miserably short. Early in the second half, Leigh Halfpenny assumed the duty and it was the full-back's penalty in the last minute which secured the comeback win. Nobody was more relieved than Priestland.

"Let's just say it helped that we won," says Priestland, who dismissed the notion he was rusty after a two-week break through injury. "I spoke to some of the coaches and I told them it felt bitter-sweet to me. I was disappointed with the way I kicked, but I was over the moon with the way we played and, of course, that we got a win against such a strong Irish team. Over time I've learnt that you can't keep dwelling on things.

"A few years ago, that would have affected me. I'd worry what people thought. But I spoke a lot to [Scarlets coach] Nigel Davies about it back then and he said, 'The people who criticise you couldn't do it, so keep your head down and keep believing in yourself.' It did take a while to convince myself that's the best way to handle it and it's still a work in progress."

The progress is evident, both in his game and his maturity. It was his decision to chuck the kicking tee to Halfpenny, and Priestland understands he must prove himself to see it chucked back. "Yeah, I'd like to kick against Scotland," he says. "But the way Leigh has kicked it's going to be hard for me to get it back off him. I just have to forget what happened last weekend and if I do get another opportunity I have to take it. If not I'll just try to concentrate on every other aspect of the game."

There's plenty of "other aspects" at No 10, a position which only seems to grow in influence with every passing season. This week witnessed Dan Parks' retirement from international rugby and Priestland can sympathise with the Scot concerning the levels of abuse he received from disgruntled fans. But he is determined to never become a victim of the boo brigade.

"You have one off-day and they think someone else should be playing," says Priestland. "I had some stick a few years ago, but not on the same scale as Dan, as I was just playing for the Scarlets. It is hard but you just have to do your best not to take any notice.

"I recall once getting a bit annoyed. Someone shouted something and my mother got upset. But I told her it's part and parcel of her coming to watch me. If you don't want to hear what people have to say you shouldn't turn up for games. I'd say it's probably harder for the family who have to listen it."

Not that Priestland's family has heard anything but praise in the last six months. His elevation has been one of the crucial factors in Wales' rise and his attitude sums up a young squad in which professionalism reigns.

Inside Next El Bulli | The Drinks

With the first official Next El Bulli dinner service merely days away, sommelier Joe Catterson is looking at the full menu on paper, tilting his head from one side to the other while his eyes dart up and down over the wine pairings. “This is just the first stab,” he says. “Almost everything here will change.”

Catterson has that freedom. And not only does he have the power to change the pairings as he sees fit, but he also has the power to walk back into the kitchen and tell chefs Grant Achatz and Dave Beran that their menu needs to be changed. “He came to us and said instead of doing it in the order we originally had it, he wanted us to drop the gorgonzola globe down later in the meal and move some stuff up,” says Beran. “He basically did his Joe Catterson magic.”

“Which he does often,” Achatz chimes in. “We’re trying to craft the best possible experience and if he says ‘look, this clashes with this wine so if we move it down it’ll be more fluid’ then I just go ‘okay.’ I think I’ve only told him no, like, twice…but Joe knows his stuff.”

While the chefs are in the kitchen executing the very precise El Bulli path, Catterson is working in an open field, with the option to go in nearly any direction that feels right. That's because El Bulli does not do wine pairings. Instead, meals start with cava, the bottle often left on the table to take diners through a few courses. When sherry arrives, guests have the option of sipping it through a few more courses, the glass refilled as it gets low. Ditto for white or red or whatever the diner feels like drinking that night. “I’ve never had a chance to talk to anybody from there and I’m curious, because I’ve never gotten to go there myself,” Catterson says. “But from what I’ve been able to read it’s not that pairings isn’t something they specifically didn’t want to do but it was more ‘let’s pick something that’s refreshing and diverting and you drink something you like.’ One of the quotes from Juli Soler [El Bulli’s maitre d’] was ‘Well, we’re dictating what you eat so you might as well just pick something that you like to drink.’"

That doesn’t work so well for Catterson. His job is to give you what you’ll like to drink, even if you don’t know it yet. So for Next El Bulli he took a similar approach to Next Thailand by creating a pairing menu that mixes things up with wine, beer, sake and two different sherries, not to mention a shapeshifting cava cocktail. For the beer, Catterson collaborated with Half Acre to brew an ale accented with beets and oranges dubbed Sanguine and intended to pair with either a rabbit course or a concoction of bone marrow, smoked eel and nasturtium. “It should go well with those,” Catterson says. “But we’ll see.”

Characteristically casual about getting down to the wire for the first night of service, Catterson is still playing around with many of the pairings, making most of his changes after sitting down for the full meal at Saturday’s friends-and-family night. “Last night I tasted through a half-dozen sakes with that cuttlefish ravioli and found the one that’s just right, a junmai gingo from Kaetsu,” he says. “But what I’m really excited about is the cava cocktail.”

For that, diners are given an unaltered glass of cava just after the frozen caipirinha (the very first thing presented), the cava intended for sipping throughout the opening salvo of snacks: a tempura pocket of trout roe, the famous olive sphere, toast topped simply with avocado and anchovy, crackery bread ensconced in silky jamon Iberico. As the cava in the glass gets low, servers refill to just about two-thirds full while presenting a small vial of Pineau des Charentes (French fortified wine served as an aperitif) with a little bit of farigoule (Provencal thyme liqueur), which they instruct the diners to dump into the glass. After guests have slipped themselves the mickey, the golden egg course arrives, ideal with this new DIY cava cocktail. Then, as the cava gets low once again, servers return to refill. This time they present another vial of the same mix but also an eyedropper of Molaga muscatel (Spanish fortified wine) and Regan’s orange bitters. A few drops later and the resulting cocktail is the perfect pair for both the smoked foam and carrot air hot on its heels.

Non-drinkers get to play too, their cava cocktail replaced by a sparkling lychee-coconut soda that later is doctored with saffron and celery to rev up complexity. Server Bobby Murphy has taken ownership of the non-alcoholic pairings, intent on giving them equal attention so that passing on booze doesn’t mean feeling left out of the experience. For this menu, he’s come up with a roasted-golden-beet-and-apple-juice infused with carrot and black mustard seed, as well as a combination of rose tea, rosemary honey and peach juice, a drink derived from an El Bulli recipe. While Murphy works in the beverage station tweaking and tasting, John Schafer is intently trying to perfect tiny jelled booze cubes of Pedro Ximenez and aejo tequila, an idea of Catterson’s intended to mimic a sugar cube, to arrive with the meal-ending cortado with instructions to drop and drink. “We have some perfecting to do but we’ll see if we can’t get it right before Wednesday,” Catterson says. “And if we don’t, we do something else. It’s different in the kitchen but as far as beverage pairings, we can chuck anything at any moment, and then? Well, then we start all over again.”

A missing sense of direction, or do I just lack confidence?

I passed my driving test in 2006 with just one minor. That’s not a boast; it’s the start of a confession.

The thing is while I love motoring about, and the freedom that comes with it – I have never been that confident at it.

In fact few things fill me with more dread than having to hit the road to somewhere I haven’t been before, especially if I am travelling alone.

I think a lot of this fear is down to my complete lack of geographical awareness.

And when I say complete lack, I mean it – just last week I got lost in Chichester. Yes, I know the city is designed around a compass. Yes, I have worked here for nearly two years and yes, I did have a map.

My lack of simple skills has reached such a degree I almost see it as a skill in itself.

I do have excuses however.

Like the fact I left for university almost straight away after getting my licence.

Meaning that for three years I replaced my own transport for public transport – and that old-fashioned means of getting around known as walking.

Despite this I have always shunned sat-navs, preferring to struggle. Or relying instead on directions scribbled, by a parent, on a post-it note.

So this week when a visit to a land far, far away (Worthing) was sprung on me, I have to admit I was worried.

Especially when I found my usual back-up, national rail, weren’t going to come to my rescue. Figuring events had conspired to push me outside my comfort zone, I took a deep breath and got behind the wheel.

As it turns out, it wasn’t so bad. And it struck me that road signs and signposts in particular are very useful inventions.

The fact I managed to do something I would normally have considered as outside my abilities has got me thinking – perhaps it is confidence I am lacking rather than a sense of direction.

I have found something to add to my list of 30 things to do before I am 30.

Leaning how to solve a Rubik’s Cube which has bewildered generations.

My desire to crack them was inspired by seeing one being solved in under two minutes at a party the other night.

The only thing I am worried about is...once the mystery has gone will it have lost the magic?

SF's Dogpatch pier district braces for renewal

There's a hidden corner of the City by the Bay where rusted cranes used to build WWII battleships loom over dilapidated artist studios, where working-class fishermen bob up against first-class ocean liners docked for repair.

Residents of San Francisco's Dogpatch neighborhood overlook the rough-and-tumble Pier 70 waterfront and bask in the smell of fresh fish, the cacophony of fog horns and Canadian geese, the jumble of Victorian cottages tucked between corrugated barns and industrial brick icons of the late 1800s.

It's a nautical nugget where few tourists have ventured. A secret stash of cheap artist studios in old clapboard pier offices commands a view of the rusted bones of crumbling canneries, metal scrapyards and silent smokestacks. And it has one of the only working boat yards in San Francisco, where boaters can dry dock for repairs and grab a beer at The Ramp.

The city plans to redevelop Pier 70, hoping to capitalize on its historic charms while providing badly needed jobs, commercial and residential space _ all while maintaining the neighborhood essence that dates back to the mid-1800s when the Union Iron Works, Bethlehem Steel, Pacific Rolling Mills and the Spreckels Sugar refinery dominated the waterfront.

"The winds of change are blowing south and it's time to get Pier 70 and this area back into economic use," said Kathleen Diohep, project manager at the Port of San Francisco for the redevelopment plan. "We want to have the capacity for companies to grow and we think that Pier 70 offers opportunities that are unlike anything else."

The Port is tasked with restoring the two dozen buildings from what's been described as the most intact 19th century industrial complex west of the Mississippi River. Diohep insisted most of the historic buildings would not be razed and that new structures would integrate nicely. The Port is working with developers who will present their proposals to a citizens' advisory group Wednesday.

The roughly 1,000 residents, artists and small business owners, shipyard workers, fishermen and boat builders are passionate that their historic surroundings and lifestyle not be harmed.

"I don't think the people in the city staff positions understand the nuances of what happens down here," said Allen Gross, a retired San Francisco Opera set carpenter who is restoring the Folly, a wooden cutter built in 1889.

Gross, 63, has been working on the Folly for more than five years and hopes to race the boat in the spring, launching from the San Francisco Boatworks just down the street from Pier 70. Wearing canvas overalls filled with rags and tools, the gray-bearded Gross shouts out greetings to others washing, scraping and painting their boats. They all express anxiety about losing this lifestyle.

"I think the folks at the port are seeing the slick, upscale stuff like what they've done out on the Embarcadero," Gross said. The restored piers along the Embarcadero waterfront from the stadium where the Giants play baseball, under the Bay Bridge and up to the historic Ferry Building are now filled with tony restaurants, bakeries, coffee sellers and pricey artisan cheese and chocolate shops.

"They're going to have all this kind of frou-frou upscale stuff, and what they're going to lose in all of that are some of the things that are part of the fabric of this city," Gross said.

The gritty neighborhood at the foot of Potrero Hill on the eastern side of the city peninsula once manufactured supplies for the California Gold Rush and the Transcontinental Railway.

Ships built at Pier 70 supported U.S. military engagements from the Spanish American War to the two world wars, including Admiral George Dewey's flagship, Olympia, and the battleships USS Oregon and USS California.

Hundreds of steamboats, ferries and freighters were assembled by the men whose families resided in Dogpatch, named for the wild dogs that sniffed around the butchers and slaughterhouses of the 1800s. The families were mostly Irish, Italian and Russian immigrants as well as African-Americans who came up from the South during the maritime boom of World War I.

The shipyard today has the largest floating dry dock on this side of the Pacific, where massive cruise liners come in for inspections and repairs and tiny tugs get their underbellies scrubbed free of barnacles.

The artists, filmmakers, architects and designers in the three-story, wood-frame Noonan Building at Pier 70, built in 1941 by the government as war production offices, overlook an auto impound yard and a rusted-out warehouse. On a clear day, they can see across the San Francisco Bay to the massive Oakland cargo port.

They are besotted with the ambience and the rental rates.

"This is the only place that artists can actually afford," said Jason Sussberg, a filmmaker with Dogpatch Films. "San Francisco is a place that values its artists and innovators; that has to be more than just a slogan."

Sussberg and his three colleagues pay about $800 a month for their 1,300 square feet of open space on the second floor of the Noonan. Natural light pours in off the bay.

"Even if they do tear down the Noonan Building, or they upgrade it, they should at least have subsidized rent or something that makes it so that we're not priced out," he said.

At the same time, the 29-year-old filmmaker called it "kid of tragic" to see so much architectural glory boarded up.

"I'm kind of torn," he said. "It's gorgeous and I love to see the smashed windows, the wild cats running around and the graffiti. It's totally fantastic and bizarre, but at the cost of all this wasted space, it's just not worth it."

Janet Carpinelli, a graphic designer and Dogpatch resident for 30 years, said most residents would agree. They are eager to see those beloved buildings restored to their glory after so many years of neglect.

"We have the bones of a really fantastic area here and we just want to see it enhanced," said Carpinelli, president of the Dogpatch neighborhood association. "But we don't want to see it developed in spite of the historic buildings; everything has to be done in this organic way to encompass the history. We don't want the new buildings to obscure or overpower the historic ones."

The historic ones include rare examples of modified Renaissance Revival in red brick that withstood the catastrophic 1906 earthquake, as well as rusticated stucco, granite staircases and fluted Doric pilasters alongside warehouses made of corrugated iron.

People here don't want the revival to follow the path of Mission Bay, the waterfront just north of Pier 70. The old Southern Pacific Railroad Company yard is now a biotechnology hub of tall glass structures and shiny new hospital and research facilities for the University of California San Francisco. Its detractors say that while the development has been an economic success, the San Francisco soul is missing.

Diohep insists that won't happen at Pier 70. She said most of the buildings within the 70-acre district are listed on the National Register of Historic Places as being under consideration for preservation.

While the Noonan Building might be moved to make way for development, the more architecturally significant structures should remain. Even the two rusted, graffiti-laden mobile gantry cranes will stand tall at Slip 4 for a public park to be called Crane Cove.

The company bidding to do the bulk of work on the most prized buildings believes the area can be revitalized without compromising character.

"It's a challenging Rubik's Cube of opportunity," said Loring Sagan, head of design at Build Inc., a boutique firm partnering with historic preservation specialists, Equity Community Builders.

They will recommend several cornerstone tenants to jumpstart activity. Those include headquarters for the Burning Man festival; incubator space for the life sciences firm Prescience International; and Conxtech, a company that builds sustainable steel structures.

The Union Iron Works powerhouse with its massive pneumatic compressors still intact might make a great gathering site for entertainment, restaurant and bars, he said.

But the start-ups and artists won't be forgotten, said Sagan, himself a sculptor. He plans to call on bigger tenants to provide subsidized space for artists in the new historic zone.

"It's a fertile ground for creativity down there," Sagan said. "And we see that type of fertility as a necessary ingredient for our project to be successful."

'Smash' Is Look at Broadway Musical

David Marshall Grant sits at his desk in a nondescript office in an unmarked building in the Greenpoint neighborhood of Brooklyn, near the East River.

That's where Broadway magic happens, at least by way of the new NBC series"Smash," which premieres 10 p.m., Monday, Feb. 6.

As an executive producer/writer on the show, the Westport native faces a large whiteboard hanging in his wall. On it are math-like diagrams of the characters, plot points and musical numbers of the final episodes of the first season, now filming.

"It's very Rubik's Cube-y," he says with a relaxed smile, not showing the least bit of anxiousness at the much-hyped premiere just a few days away.

For NBC, it's a high-risk throw of the dice for the last-place network, committing to an expensive series about a subject that no one has yet undertaken on this scale: a prime time soap about the backstage drama surrounding the creation of a big Broadway musical.

But even with Steven Spielberg as a prime producing hand on the show — not to mention a huge Superbowl promotion, there is no guarantee that viewers will buy into the musical series the same way they did to make"Glee" and "High School Musical," well, smashes — as well as franchises.

But Broadway is invested in the success of the show, too.

"I think there's a lot of hope riding on this show — and 'Marilyn,"" says Grant, referring to the musical within the series. The last time Broadway tried to do a musical based on the life of American icon Marilyn Monroe in 1983, it flopped.

"['Smash'] doing well would be a huge help to the Broadway community,' says Grant, 56, "but it would also be a seismic change in the cultural appreciation of Broadway music."

Not since the '30s, '40s and '50s have Broadway shows been a regular contributor to the American songbook, says Grant. Since then, Broadway is seen as a musical footnote in America's cultural conversation.

Broadway veterans Marc Shaiman and Scott Wittman , are creating the original songs for "Marilyn" which also counterpoint the off-stage drama.

The show also features pop tunes in the course of the off-stage story-line with performers singing in pianos bars, karaoke clubs and auditions.

"Every number is intoxicating," says Grant, "and I defy America not to like that music and want to download it the next day."

For the moment, Grant is focused on his script of the 14th episode — the next to the last of the season —which is about to be filmed. The final show of the first season will be "Marilyn"'s out-of-town opening in Boston. Grant says the second season — still in outline stage — will involve bringing the musical to Broadway.

"What's so complicated about our show is that we're trying to put on a musical within a television soap opera," he says, "so we're beholdento two masters. First there's 'Marilyn,' the musical and then there's 'Smash,' the TV show."

Grant says the logistics and plotting of "Smash" is infinitely more difficult than previous TV series he worked on in an executive producing position.

"With 'Brothers and Sisters" we did a story line and we were done," he says. "This is like doing the story line, making sure it fits into the musical numbers that are in the show, serving the [TV] show, and seeing that it all fits in the progression to the musical's opening night. There's more to worry about than just the emotional lives of the characters."

The show, which was created by playwright-TV writer Theresa Rebeck, has parallels to real life.

Megan Hilton plays Ivy, a stunning Broadway talent in the chorus line looking for the right part to propel her to star status. Hilton, too, has years of experience in the ensemble as well as a leading replacement role ("Wicked") and a major role in a flop show . Hilton is looking for her star-making role.

Past Ellerslie winners design gardens for the future

Four past gold medal winners at the Ellerslie International Flower Show return to this year's show to create an inner city courtyard or rooftop garden for Christchurch of the future.

Aucklanders Xanthe White and Tim Feather, Wellington's Ben Hoyle and the Canterbury Horticultural Society will each design a City in a Garden, a new look for the city as it rebuilds following the devastating earthquakes.

Xanthe, who has won two sliver gilt awards at the world's prestigious Chelsea Flower Show and several medals at Ellerslie, says her 2012 garden has two sides. "The garden has duality, embracing Christchurch's heritage through stone work and classicism, while looking to the future with a contemporary courtyard where diversity in planting gives the garden complexity."

She says the garden retains the most beautiful aspects of the city's heritage in a lush planted green garden, complete with water feature, transitioning into a dry, arid garden featuring a marble Tim Royall sculpture.

Xanthe's garden, sponsored by Daltons, will also aim for sustainability through its design, bringing heating and cooling elements into the garden, the plant material being a mix of native plants and flowers.

"The garden will be about aspiration with a balance of architecture and the magic of plants. It will be beautiful with a fresh city edge for the future."

Ben Hoyle's She Loves Me, She Loves Me Not garden is "a little bit out there" and captures Cantabrians love/hate relationship with their ever changing environment as a result of what has happened in the city.

In essence, his courtyard will be a giant water lily, about seven meters wide and two metres tall, floating in the middle of a still pond. Giant petals will spread out across the water, with two or three broken and floating in the pond.

"What I am creating is a garden in the water. Normally, it is the other way round - you punctuate a landscape with a water element. This provides an opportunity to mentally and physically float away from the ground as the garden is insulated by water which acts as something of a shock absorber. Demolition material such as bricks and broken concrete from the city will be used to form gabion walls around the garden in a symbolic process of the historic past providing the core of a solid foundation for the future.

Ben was only 21 when he took part in his first Ellerslie Show - that was in 1998 when he won silver. Fourteen years on, he has now competed at eight Ellerslie shows and has a fistful of gold medals to his credit, including more recently taking out Gold and the Supreme Peace Award in 2010 while representing New Zealand at the Gardening World Cup in Japan.

Christchurch's Tony Milne is designing the garden on behalf of the Canterbury Horticultural Garden, which won gold at the 2009 Show with its A Taste of Tomorrow garden designed by Rob Watson.

Tony says Love (in) Your Garden is a play on the Society's new slogan designed to inspire a new generation of gardeners.

His garden is a sculptural rooftop garden that tells a love story combining aspects of romance, fertility and resilience. The story is told through a sculptural display of abstracted flower anatomy, drawing inspiration from the older love gods.

"A grove of 12 stamens dance around the pistil in a display of affection that will ultimately regenerate new life, reminding us of the resilience of the flowering plant life cycle to survive even in the most damaged environment."

Tony says the top of the stamens, the anther will be filled with a number of items that we need to survive in the event of a disaster, symbolic of the sustenance required to be self-sustaining and resilient.

The garden will also allude to alternative energy sources, feature drifts of wildflowers blooming among crushed rubble and the garden walls will feature William Morris prints, peppered with an abstraction of words from Shakespeare and love stories.

Tim Feather's A Moveable Feast garden is a selection of four whimsical pop-up and portable courtyard gardens inspired by the recent earthquakes in Christchurch, creating to help meet the challenges the city faces in designing the gardens of the future.

He says the garden, sponsored by Bay Audiology, allows the homeowner to select a courtyard that reflects their mood and to change or reconfigure elements to enhance their enjoyment. "There is a lot of humour is the garden which I think visitors to the Show will enjoy; everyone should have a bit of a chuckle."

Frayed nerves can be soothed in the Easy Listening Courtyard where you sit on cube seats around a water feature listening to background sounds and enjoy the visual feast of a pop-up planter. The Disco Courtyard turns the back lawn into disco heaven where the homeowner can boogie on down; while in the Seismic Shuffle Courtyard you are able to rearrange the decking segments to create a different look every day. The Liquefaction Blues Courtyard is a place to sit, relax and kick sand in the face of life. It has a pool, deck chairs and beach balls leading through to an overgrown garden with vegetables and fruit trees.