The Off Topic Topic

[Ideologue]

So, I texted my stepmom earlier today and wished her a happy Easter.  She was the last person I texted.  Evidently, I forgot this was the case, because two minutes ago I texted her and thanked her for the fun sex.

Jesus?  Wept.

[Eddie Teach]

You should break it off with her. I don't care how poorly your dad treated you, that's just not right. /scold 

[garbon]

Too good!

[Josquius]

So, I texted my stepmom earlier today and wished her a happy Easter.  She was the last person I texted.  Evidently, I forgot this was the case, because two minutes ago I texted her and thanked her for the fun sex.

Jesus?  Wept.

Look on the bright side, at least you had fun sex.

[Liep]

I find a bit odd that all Danish newspapers are headlining with "iPads are bad for children" (exception: "Clara deletes pictures with few likes") while all international news sites that I check are going with Kenya or Yemen.

Maybe this is why we're the happiest people on earth?

[Sheilbh]

Interiors: an intensely artistic London house
The granddaughter of Stephen Spender and Arshile Gorky displays her illustrious heritage in her family home

Spender's study Photo: Tim Beddow
By Elfreda Pownall3:28PM GMT 13 Mar 2015

'When we were fixing up the house, the whole family spent four months living and sleeping in this room,' Saskia Spender says, standing in her study in the west London home she shares with her husband, Carter Coleman, and two children, Cleopatra, 12, and Ondine, nine. 'We enjoyed it,' she adds, 'well, except for my husband. He found it difficult, but then his upbringing – he's the son of a bishop in Louisiana – was more suburban. The children said to him, "Babbo, you do realise this is how most people in China and India live?'''

Spender grew up in the remote Tuscan enclave created by her parents, the painter Maro Gorky and the sculptor Matthew Spender. Maro is the daughter of the painter Arshile Gorky, Matthew the son of the poet Stephen Spender. Their home is an intensely artistic place: the frescoed walls were painted by Maro, and Matthew's terracotta and wooden sculptures stand on every landing and terrace. And Saskia Spender has done her best to recreate a version of that life, albeit in a comfortable London terrace of trim four-storey houses.

'My hand is a kind of Renaissance hand,' she says. 'In those days they believed that if you could draw you could do anything. I paint portraits, cook, make curtains and clothes – I made costumes for the whole class for the kindergarten play. I've made my own pigments from sieved earth, made stained-glass windows and... mosaics,' she says, opening the door of Ondine's bathroom, where a vision of palm trees in mosaic recalls Djenné, a beautiful town in Mali that has been designated a Unesco World Heritage Site.


Ondine's bedroom
There were two inspirations for the mural: the garden of Spender's parents' home in Tuscany, and a Roman fresco. PHOTO: Tim Beddow
'I love this shameless orientalist fantasy,' she says. 'If you have a bath in here it's a psychedelic experience. I was taught mosaic, in an apple orchard in Canterbury, by a man called Dru, short for Druid, who had a huge red beard and long curly hair. It took me two days to do the palm trees.' Painting Ondine's bedroom took her a little longer. She created a mural of a sylvan grove, inspired by a garden fresco from the Villa of Livia, in the National Roman Museum in Rome. 'The trees are portraits of my favourite trees in my mother's Tuscan garden,' she says. Spender's study, on the next floor, mixes shocking-pink curtains and velvet-covered Victorian chairs with a 1930s cut-glass mirror and grey-brown walls. 'I mixed burnt-umber pigment with white paint; if you don't mix too thoroughly you get this effect, like storm clouds about to break,' she says.


The kitchen The kitchen features tiles by Fired Earth (firedearth.com). PHOTO: Tim Beddow
Her husband's study, on the half-landing, is a complete contrast. Coleman is a writer, passionate about Africa, and is away two weeks out of six at his ecological farm in Tanzania. The fabric on the walls is an African favourite. Spender put it up herself: nailing battens to the walls, attaching interlining, then stretching and fitting the batik-style material. Though batik designs are in vogue now, fashion is anathema to her. 'You won't find many designer items here,' she says firmly. 'With designer pieces you subsume your personal identity to a brand, and brands feed on people's insecurities to sell more. In this house you're more likely to find an expression of the character of the person who is using each room.' However, Spender is, herself, in danger of becoming fashionable – a rock star has asked her to design his new music room in Kensal Green, and she is also engaged in redesigning the office of a hedge fund to make it more personal, less anonymous.


The master bedroom Both the old trunk and the portrait of Spender were painted by her mother, Maro Gorky; while the sculptures are by her father, Matthew Spender. PHOTO: Tim Beddow
The master bedroom on the next floor has robust sculptures by her father and a portrait of Saskia aged 15, 'as a blue fairy', by her mother. There is also a striking nude photograph of a pregnant Saskia, taken by a family friend, George Woodman, the father of the ill-fated young photographer Francesca. 'I was his model for 20 years,' Spender says.

Family life these days is centred on the dining table (stripped by Spender) downstairs. This is where meals are eaten, homework done, Radio 4 listened to. 'We don't have a television or electronic games – the children understand they are heirs to a lost culture,' she says. They also have fun. When Spender painted all the floorboards in the house, she painted as far as the front door, locked the house, and she and the children went for a week's holiday at her mother's flat in Paddington.

Spender's study
Saskia Spender has crowded the mantelpiece with sculptures and maquettes by her father, Matthew Spender. The 1930s mirror (main image) came from Alfies Antique Market in north London (alfiesantiques.com). Saskia Spender made the chevron mosaic pattern on the fire surround. The Victorian chairs, found at Portobello Road Market in west London, were all covered in fabrics from the market in Cairo. Spender made the curtains using linen from the Cloth Shop on Portobello Road (theclothshop.net). The Greek lace tablecloth was a gift from a friend. Paintings are by Spender's mother, Maro Gorky, who also decorated the stool. The plaster bust was a present from Spender's godmother.

Ondine's bathroom

PHOTO: Tim Beddow

PHOTO: Tim Beddow
Saskia Spender's palm-tree design complements the pre-existing brown mosaics. The towel hooks are vintage.

Coleman's study

PHOTO: Tim Beddow
Batik-style fabric by the Dutch firm Vlisco covers the walls (vlisco.com). The Alvar Aalto chair was a present.

The master bedroom

PHOTO: Tim Beddow
The 1930s headboard is from Alfies Antique Market. The suzani hanging above the bed was found in Israel, and the paintings are all by Maro Gorky.

Cleopatra's room

PHOTO: Tim Beddow
The headboard and bedcover were made from Vlisco fabric. The painting is by Maro Gorky

[garbon]

Facebook's memory feature is odd. It noted to me today that 5 years ago today, I had posted about being kissed by Alan Cumming.

[derspiess]

I've been getting stuff I posted a year ago-- most of it seems to be things I had forgotten about that didn't get a lot of likes or comments.

[Caliga]

Facebook's memory feature is odd. It noted to me today that 5 years ago today, I had posted about being kissed by Alan Cumming.

You got kissed by Alan Cumming? :thatshott:

[garbon]

Is a cheek kiss ever hot?

edit: Well I guess that would depend on the cheek in question.

[lustindarkness]

So, I texted my stepmom earlier today and wished her a happy Easter.  She was the last person I texted.  Evidently, I forgot this was the case, because two minutes ago I texted her and thanked her for the fun sex.

Jesus?  Wept.

What did she respond?

[DGuller]

So, I texted my stepmom earlier today and wished her a happy Easter.  She was the last person I texted.  Evidently, I forgot this was the case, because two minutes ago I texted her and thanked her for the fun sex.

Jesus?  Wept.

What did she respond?

"Awww, I didn't think you'd remember"?

[Malthus]

So, I texted my stepmom earlier today and wished her a happy Easter.  She was the last person I texted.  Evidently, I forgot this was the case, because two minutes ago I texted her and thanked her for the fun sex.

Jesus?  Wept.

What did she respond?

"That's what makes an Easter happy" 

[garbon]

So, I texted my stepmom earlier today and wished her a happy Easter.  She was the last person I texted.  Evidently, I forgot this was the case, because two minutes ago I texted her and thanked her for the fun sex.

Jesus?  Wept.

What did she respond?

"That's what makes an Easter happy" 

I don't think Christ died for this. No, no, no.

[Malthus]

So, I texted my stepmom earlier today and wished her a happy Easter.  She was the last person I texted.  Evidently, I forgot this was the case, because two minutes ago I texted her and thanked her for the fun sex.

Jesus?  Wept.

What did she respond?

"That's what makes an Easter happy" 

I don't think Christ died for this. No, no, no.

No, but maybe he came back from the dead for it. 

After all, who saw him first? Mary Magdalene.