Bulletin

Highlights from this week in London. Read about everything from architecture to food and delve a little deeper into London's culture.

Subscribe

Issue 26

Let's take a look back at one of the most celebrated sportsman the world has seen and discover London's art events that you simply cannot miss.

Carl Sagan: A Pale New Dot

On February 14th 1990 Voyager spacecraft looked back at earth from a distance of 3.1 billion miles and took a picture now widely celebrated as the “Pale Blue Dot”. It shows the earth as a barely distinguishable speck of dust surrounded by vast cosmic darkness. Carl Sagan a leading astronomer and philosopher discussed this picture eloquently in his series Cosmos. An excerpt is below

From this distant vantage point, the Earth might not seem of any particular interest. But for us, it's different. Consider again that dot. That's here. That's home. That's us.

The Earth is a very small stage in a vast cosmic arena. Think of the rivers of blood spilled by all those generals and emperors so that in glory and triumph they could become the momentary masters of a fraction of a dot. Think of the endless cruelties visited by the inhabitants of one corner of this pixel on the scarcely distinguishable inhabitants of some other corner.

How frequent their misunderstandings, how eager they are to kill one another, how fervent their hatreds. Our posturings, our imagined self-importance, the delusion that we have some privileged position in the universe, are challenged by this point of pale light.

The Earth is the only world known, so far, to harbor life. There is nowhere else, at least in the near future, to which our species could migrate.

Visit, yes. Settle, not yet. Like it or not, for the moment, the Earth is where we make our stand. It has been said that astronomy is a humbling and character-building experience. There is perhaps no better demonstration of the folly of human conceits than this distant image of our tiny world.

To me, it underscores our responsibility to deal more kindly with one another and to preserve and cherish the pale blue dot, the only home we've ever known."

Summer Art Openings

Both the Serpentine and the Tate Modern have big launches coming up over the next couple of weeks.

At the Serpentine, the (new) Pavillion and the Summer Houses both open on the 10th.

Currently, the exhibition is of the master Alex Katz's delicate, yet powerful paintings, done as he enters the final phase of

his life..

The upcoming launch of the extension to the Tate Modern by Herzog de Meuron is however, buzzing the entire artworld.

Go there as soon as you can to marvel at the ingenuity.

The Greatest: 1942-2016

“Impossible is just a big word thrown around by small men who find it easier to live in the world they've been given than to explore the power they have to change it. Impossible is not a fact. It's an opinion. Impossible is not a declaration. It's a dare. Impossible is potential. Impossible is temporary. Impossible is nothing.”

Mohammed Ali was perhaps the greatest sportsman of the last century but to describe him as a boxer would be to do him a disservice. He was a fighter, a renegade, a poet and a civil rights campaigner. He was also a man of principle in a society in which celebrities and politicians manoeuvred their ideological positions back and forth to suit the prevailing mind-set at the time.

He refused to fight in Vietnam War because as he saw it “why should they ask me to put on a uniform and go ten thousand miles from home and drop bombs and bullets on brown people in Vietnam while so-called negro people in Louisville are treated like dogs and denied simple human rights?”. As a result of this stance he was stripped of his title for three and a half years during what should have been the peak of his career. He spent the time instead touring around university campuses debating and actively campaigning for civil rights. An outspoken critic of the institutionalised racism that was prevalent in the United States during his life, he converted to Islam in what is still a deeply conservate Christian country when he was younger and changed his name from Cassius Clay to Mohammed Ali in order to reclaim his identity which he had been robbed of by his white oppressors. He went on to claim that Clay was his slave name and refused to be called by it thereafter.

Towards the end of his life he fought his hardest battle of all, finally succumbing to Parkinson’s disease after suffering with the disease for decades which he had done so with a dignity and resoluteness that characterised his persona. He was, by all accounts the people’s champion.

Archived Bulletins

Issue 102
Design, Banksy and Gaia
Issue 101
Pasta, Christmas and Cabaret
Issue 100
2020 & King's Cross Spotlight
Issue 99
LFW, Pancakes and Vintage
Issue 98
Selfies, Art and BRAT
Issue 97
Toys, Bars and Soup
Issue 96
Chrom.Art, Ceramics & Balfron
Issue 95
Awards, Scheme and Charity
Issue 94
Invest, Gallery & Midcentury
Issue 93
LDF, Decorex, Maximalism
Issue 92
Launched Projects & Festivals
Issue 91
Podcasts, Pools and LFA
Issue 90
Velvet, Roundhouse and Art
Issue 89
LN Lifestyle and Chapter House
Issue 88
Mental Health and Mobility
Issue 87
Adjaye, Eine and Gingerbread
Issue 86
Idris, Memories and Charity
Issue 85
LN Interiors and Photography
Issue 83
Fur, Brunch and Somerset House
Issue 82
LDF, Bodyscapes & Digital Art
Issue 81
Mr Fogg's, Japan House and Art
Issue 80
Women, Waterloo & World Cup
Issue 79
Architecture & Artisan Gelato
Issue 78
Postmodern, Shoreditch, Race
Issue 77
Allbright, Smoking & The Tube
Issue 76
Film, Surrealism & Millennials
Issue 75
Bloom, Brexit and Candles
Issue 74
Fur, Sleep and the South East
Issue 73
Pie, Goldilocks and Gander
Issue 72
Tings, Colour and Dalston
Issue 71
Design, Love and Running
Issue 70
Food, Festivals & Skyscrapers
Issue 69
IKEA, Art and Covent Garden
Issue 68
Caravan, Murals and Mazes
Issue 67
Pancakes, Art and Robots
Issue 66
Trends, Dates and a New You
Issue 65
Reminisce Over 2017 and Party
Issue 64
Festive Fun and Facebook
Issue 63
Theatre, Peckham and Décor
Issue 62
Secrets, Tapas and Totems
Issue 61
Art, Smartify and Hackney
Issue 60
Underwater, Music and Cake
Issue 59
The Divide and the Great Dane
Issue 58
Kape Barako, Books and Beauty
Issue 57
Prison, Underwater Homes, Food
Issue 56
Epoh Beech and The Antidote
Issue 55
Football, Cocktails and Coffee
Issue 54
Bed Making and Drinks in Soho
Issue 53
Ben Nevis, Art & Gallery 46
Issue 52
Juice and Scotland Air
Issue 51
Jerk Chicken and Fine Culture
Issue 50
Thought-provoking Art
Issue 49
Burgers, Art and More Art!
Issue 48
Coffee, Pizza and Street Art
Issue 47
Selfies, Ramen and The Beast
Issue 46
Grilling, Facebook and Doodles
Issue 45
Watercolours and Gucci Décor
Issue 44
All About the Rosé
Issue 43
Jousting and Baking Mad
Issue 42
Eating Insects and Tech Talk
Issue 41
Gardening and Picnics
Issue 40
Food Chat and Fashion
Issue 39
We're California Dreaming
Issue 38
Food Photos and Hackney Canal
Issue 37
RIP Sir Roger Moore
Issue 36
Arts Fringe and Roger Mayne
Issue 35
David Adjaye and No More TV
Issue 34
Coffee and Fake News
Issue 33
Day of the Dead
Issue 32
Gallery 46 and Roundhouse
Issue 31
Heavy Thinking and Grumpy Goat
Issue 30
Our Death Row Meal
Issue 29
LN Newspaper is Now Available
Issue 28
Brexit is Upon Us
Issue 27
The Festival Season Begins!
Issue 25
Our Outlook on Beards and Punk
Issue 24
More Football and Scepta-cism
Issue 23
Catlin Art Prize and Beigels
Issue 22
Population Boom and Jazz Hands
Issue 21
LN's in a Football Frenzy
Issue 20
Food for Thought and Arty Fun
Issue 19
Spring and the London Divide
Issue 18
A Whole Lotta Flavour and Art
Issue 17
US Faves and Nomadic Gardens
Issue 16
Monkey Business and Fantom
Issue 15
The Force Awakens...
Issue 14
All Things Christmas!
Issue 13
Our Top Festive Coffee Picks
Issue 12
La Marseillaise and Otto Dog
Issue 11
Global Values and Dishoom
Issue 10
Sushi and Beautiful Balfron
Issue 09
LN Throwback and Stylist Mag
Issue 08
More Graffiti and UFOs
Issue 07
Graffiti and Top Creativity
Issue 06
T Swift and a Fine Heartbeat
Issue 05
Fro Yo, Coffee Hits and Art
Issue 04
Super DJs and Gelato in Soho
Issue 03
Doughnuts and Coffee
Issue 02
Lovebox, Dirty Talk and Space!
Issue 01
Forest Live and Summer Reading