Social – L'ItaloEuropeo – Independent Magazine in London

5 TIPS FOR MAKING THE PERFECT PICNIC

With Wimbledon and a heat wave marrying nicely this summer, picnics are the perfect way to celebrate the tournament, relish the SPF 50 temperatures, and enjoy good food and better company. The Betty Blythe Vintage Tea Rooms is a private vintage tea room in West London, in a little nook called Brook Green. The beautiful 1920s themed setting even offers to the table the Betty Blythe’s Fine Food Pantry.

Serving their very own bespoke picnic hampers that capture the essence of a quintessentially English picnic; from a wicker basket with Chinese ceramics, fresh sandwiches and cakes, to Champagne and lashings of ginger beer! Today Betty Blythe’s own Founder, the UK’s no.1 expert on Street Parties and author of Style Me Vintage Tea Parties, Lulu Gwynne, is giving her top tips on how to be ever ready for a perfect picnic:

Don’t forget a blanket! – genteel folk who picnic in the outdoors must show a commitment to a day of lazing and indulging by having an essential summer luxury of a wool or cashmere blanket to spend the day on. Don’t forget fans, pillows, and sun hats. Ones’ delicate skin can be saved by having a sun umbrella – choose a light colour shade and decorate with pretty bows and frills!

Dress for the day – if the Yahoo! Weather gods allow it, aim to hold your picnic on a sunny day. Choose the perfect dress to spend the day in, think about how comfortable the dress is to sit in; anything tight around waist is bad news for digestion and don’t also choose anything too short, the chaps don’t need a flash of your undergarments whilst enjoying their eats!

Keep it cool – while quaint picnic hampers are beautiful way to keep all your eating equipment in check, it’s best to the food itself stored in a cool bag or box. Do not turn up with plastic bags! If in doubt borrow these types of things from a kind neighbour!

Fun food – when packing for a period-themed picnic use your vintage china, depression glasses; packed safely using your linen napkins. What about the food I hear you cry! What delicious goodies you could pack? Betty Blythe favourites are tea sandwiches with salmon and cream cheese, thin slices of ham or chicken with asparagus with vinaigrette, rice salad with celery, nuts and raisins, a fruit and cheese plate and to complete your picnic plenty of fresh strawberries, a Victoria sponge and lashings of good cheer!

Boozy beverages – on your picnic, it’s essential to bring a varied menu. White wine and rosé wines are very good for a picnic, being bright and breezy in taste. Champagne is encouraged as its perfect to accompany things like smoked salmon and picnic foods. For cool drinks try a refreshing lemonade or ginger beer!

Located in leafy West London in a little nook called Brook Green, the Betty Blythe Vintage Tea Room is a privately-owned vintage tea room who pride themselves on having the best cake counter in London. Placed in a beautiful 1920s setting that is quintessentially British with a hint of Hollywood glamour

Opening Hours

Monday to Friday – 8am-5.30pm
Weekends – bookings only

Iconic mural of David Attenborough and Elon Musk appears on Brick Lane, Shoreditch

LONDON, 28 JUNE 2018 – Shoreditch is home to a new meeting of the minds following a dramatic unveiling this morning. An iconic piece of guerrilla street-art has appeared off Brick Lane, Shoreditch, depicting national treasure, David Attenborough, and tech magnate, Elon Musk, side-by-side in the hub of London’s tech community.

The enormous mural has been created to pay homage to two of history’s greatest minds, and to get people thinking ‘what if they collaborated?’ in celebration of the opening of Mindspace in Shoreditch. The global coworking operator opens its 2^nd location in the hub of London’s Tech City, with history’s ‘Greatest Minds & Greatest Collaborations’ that could have been.

Having spent his life deeply immersed in the natural world, Attenborough has been painted in collaboration with Musk, a visionary in the technology space, who is transforming the ways in which the natural world navigates its immediate surroundings.

Huge 200 sq ft portrait appears in Shoreditch to celebrate the world’s ‘Greatest Minds & Greatest Collaborations’ that could have been
Mural marks the opening of Mindspace Shoreditch, the global coworking operator’s 2^nd London space, and 22^nd global premises
New upscale and inspiring coworking space offers imaginatively designed, flexible coworking environments to accommodate 900 coworkers in renowned Tech City
Mindspace Shoreditch follows the inaugural opening of Mindspace Aldgate in December 2017

Mindspace, the boutique hotel of coworking, is already brimming with some of London’s most influential startups, enterprise teams, and entrepreneurs. The all-inclusive professional environment boasts private offices, lounges, open plan kitchens, and a team of highly engaged Mindspace community managers. A packed monthly events calendar also includes a fully-fledged wellness program, networking parties, meetups, hackathons, hands-on workshops and industry lectures.

Mindspace Shoreditch will accommodate 900 members across two floors and over 40,500 square feet. Located at 9 Appold Street, Shoreditch, part of the Broadgate Quarter office complex in the vibrant City Fringe market.

Dan Zakai, co-founder and CEO of Mindspace, said, “London is the undoubted European capital of collaboration – specifically in the heart of Tech City, a community emblematic of collaboration and innovation. We are dedicated to contributing more innovation and creativity via our new standard of coworking, and an iconic new mural on the streets of Shoreditch.

We want Mindspace to be the epicentre of collaboration within London, a place where inspired individuals from diverse industries can come together and collaborate to carry out extraordinary work. We want our members to experience a space that is designed to meet their needs and drive them forward, so they can focus on their best work.”

The impetus behind the mural was to get people thinking ‘what if?’ by documenting two of history’s finest minds within the neighbourhood. The connections made at Mindspace are organic, impactful, and manifold – 50% of Mindspace members claim that they are doing business with other members.

Love at the time of Tinder: are dating apps making Londoners more lonely?

by Valerio Esposito

London is a city where it’s easy – almost inevitable – to feel lonely. In such a fast-moving environment it is becoming increasingly difficult to connect with other people. You see it every day: your co-worker is leaving for a better job, your neighbour is moving out because the rent is too high and the girl who made your morning coffee moved back to her country.

It’s a city of 9 million people, and yet it’s never enough to ease your misery: everyone is too caught up in their daily drama to care about others, to even realise that they’re there. And at the end of the day, you crawl into an empty bed and search for the easy solution on the screen of your phone, trying to find comfort in yet another dating app.

A recent survey[1] conducted by tech start-up Wonderush showed that 64 per cent of Londoners feel lonely on a daily basis. Of those surveyed, 65 % attributed their loneliness to the demands of their job, while 42 % said that London itself is the main cause.

Loneliness is a tricky concept: it can be social or emotional, the latter being more damaging. Research suggests that the feeling of loneliness does not arise from the lack of company, but rather the lack of emotionally fulfilling connections. Just try to take a train in the city and look around: not a whisper, or a smile or even innocent eye contact. We are like flies in a web, permanently alone, helplessly disconnected.

But are dating apps making it worse? It sure is difficult – almost impossible – to form meaningful relationships just by playing a little game with the thumb: swipe left, swipe right. Ugly and hot. Good and bad. The selection mechanisms have never been so simple – and ruthless. People have become bidimensional exchange goods, with no depth: their worth is established by the movement of a merciless finger.

”I’ve tried Tinder but it didn’t work. I found that fast mechanism of ‘consumption’ degrading and impoverishing. This model makes it impossible to develop a relationship,” comments retail worker Fiorina, 36. “You can’t keep up with it, you’re always greedy and you can’t focus on what’s in front of you because you’re impatient to see what’s next.”

Julia Keller, love coach and author of Attract Authentic Love, attributes this to our “incapability to communicate with each other. Some say that dating apps were invented because we lost this ability. Or maybe they made us lose this ability. It’s a chicken and egg kind of situation, hard to tell”.

We are a selfish generation and yet we live in the senseless effort to project ourselves onto others. That new pair of shoes, that stylish haircut, that rejuvenating cream and the new red lipstick. Why do we do it, if not to make ourselves more appealing – or tolerable – to others? This is just one of the many faces of this business called love.

Dating apps are perhaps the newest – and most insidious – degeneration of this business. It’s no surprise that people’s approach towards relationships has become increasingly business-like. Student Aara Syed, 19, explains how she felt that “dating apps might be a way to tick a box: boyfriend sorted. People might feel that way because it’s so easy to meet people and have many options. But it doesn’t work like that”.

The truth is that, most of the times, dating apps create a demand by exploiting basic needs: human contact – and affection. They claim to sell a solution: if you can’t find the one, they’ll do it for you. ”We’ve lost the notion of process. We don’t take the time to solve the problem but we just move on to the next things. And that’s why we are constantly dissatisfied. And constantly lonely,” Keller adds.

In the meantime, it seems as dating apps try to convince you that what you want is easy to get; and you end up wanting more – and faster. It’s a scam, a palliative. It offers relief but it doesn’t heal people’s brokenness.

Yes, technology is breaking us. We don’t work the way we used to. ‘’How do you even meet people in the real world?’’ is a question that I have heard countless times. I usually answer with another question: ”How did your parents meet?”

Julia Keller argues that ”It’s a completely different world than it was the time of our parents. People are confused and busy. The world is becoming much more superficial and we find ways to make love faster and easier and this leads to a lot of disappointments”.

Indeed, things have changed. Millennials are the main victims, for they were born in the era of dating apps and might not even know that they have an alternative. Jekaterina Drozdovica, 20, a student in London, explains how “what were normal human interactions are now considered abnormal. Especially in London, If I just went to a bar and started a conversation with a stranger it would be considered… creepy”.

We got to the point where starting a conversation in a train or in a pub has become weird. But, ironically, sending and receiving ”dick pics” and other obscenities is more tolerable.

Maybe it’s true: the world has changed and dating apps have become an essential tool for human interactions. This leaves us wondering if it’s worth fighting the new system or if it’s just better try to find a way to deal with it. Aara is not sure whether dating apps should be completely demonized: ”I can’t say that they make things worse, but they clearly don’t help”.

Love Coach Keeler, on the other hand, believes that it’s all about “learning to navigate the odds. Good or bad they might be, dating apps are still a practical way to get to know people. And once you’ve met someone you just need to know the right thing to do from there”.

[1] http://blog.wonderush.com/pull-sickie-make-friend-month/

The little Heroine Johanna -4 years old-

LONDON
Luisa Liu
Sometimes we are not on the same page, even though we live in the same area.
Sometimes it is not a matter of you and me, nor a matter of your father and my father, but a matter of your forefather and my forefather. Just like Romeo and Juliet.
Sometimes past wars and conficts influence people’s though and behavior.
It is sad to admit that we are living among judices and sterotype.

“Yet Love Your Neighbour”, said genuinely Johanna -4 years old-. She said it in a so genuin way that no argues went on. She said it as if it is the most normal thing. If a 4 years old baby can understand this simple thing -love your neighbour-, why can’t we?
“We are all going to the New Jerusalem, so why can’t we just be happy? Look this flower, it is colourful and it smells… wow! Quarrelling leads nowhere. Why shall we waste time and breath?“.
Short sentences, simple, but deep. Perhaps precisely because of this simplicity, we tend to neglect them.
Sometimes young people are the only one who can remind us so simple things.
Therefore, in this way, the little heroine Johanna has stopped the argue, bringing back the simply feeling of happiness. That’s why she appears in the first page of the magazine “Osborne“, which is a “family” business moulded out of a strong sense of partnership with its customers. Osborne is driven by a clear desire to work together in order to solve problems and add value over the long term to make people successful, providing personal culture as well as the professional standards of excellence. The main aim is to establish a supportive environment where creative ideas and solutions are encouraged from everyone involved.

Don’t forget, sometimes just a smile can change your day and the day of people around you. Sometimes the same smile can even change your entire life. Smile, it’s free.

The highest number of refugees in our time

The latest report from the United Nations High Commission for Refugees ( UNHCR ) states that in 2015 there was a record increase in the number of people global forcibly displaced worldwide.

By the end of that year a total of 65.3 million individuals across the globe had compelled to abandon their homes as a result of conflict, persecution, generalized violence, or violations of human rights. Broadly speaking those forced to seek refuge can be categorized as follows:

– 40.8 million internally displaced within the borders of their own countries;
– 21.3 million refugees (including 123,00 in UK and 118,00 in Italy);
– 3.2 million asylum seekers (including 45,870 in UK and 60,000 in Italy).
Over the previous four years the global population of forcibly displaced people had already increased by more than 50 %, with 42.5 million in 2011, 45.2 in 2012, 51.2 in 2013 and 59.5 million in 2014.

Ban Ki Moon, the United Nations General Secretary, says, “ We are facing the biggest refugee and displacement crisis of our time. Above all, this is just not a crisis of numbers, it is also a crisis of solidarity.”
Filippo Grandi, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, states “ The willingness of nations to work together not just for refugees but for the collective human interest is what’s being tested today, and it’s this spirit of unity that badly needs to prevail.”

In 2015, 8,6 million people were forced were newly displaced within the borders of their own countries by armed conflict, generalized violence, and human rights violations. Taking into account the cumulative figures of previous years, Colombia ranks as number one for having the highest quantity of internally displaced people (6.9 million), followed by Iraq (4.4 million ).

In 2015 again, 1.8 million people were forced to flee their countries and become refugees. Turkey registered the largest number of new refugees, including 946,800 from Syria.

More than 50% of all refugees worldwide come from just three countries: Syria ( 4.9 million ), Afghanistan ( 2.7 million ) and Somalia ( 1.1 million ). The overwhelming majority of Syrian refugees were hosted by neighbouring countries, most notably Turkey ( 2.5 million ), Lebanon ( 1.1 million ), Jordan ( 628.000 ),
Iraq ( 244.000 ) and Egypt ( 117.000 ). Major hosted countries for Syrian refugees outside the immediate region include Germany (115.600) and Sweden (52,700).
The Afghan refugee population worldwide was estimated at amounting to 2.7 million at the end of 2015. The majority of these refugees are now in Pakistan (1.6 million), Iran ( 950.000 ), with further 30,000 in Germany, 17,500 in Austria, 13,100 in Sweden, 12,200 in Italy and 10,200 in India.
Over 1 million people arrived in Europe in the course of 2015 year, mainly from the three countries best known for crating refugees: Syria (50 % ), Afghanistan ( 21% ) and Iraq ( 9% ), and also from Eritrea, Pakistan, Iran, Nigeria, Morocco and Sudan.

The majority of these new arrivals – at least 850,000 people – crossed the Aegean Sea from Turkey and arrived in Greece, while the minority crossed the Mediterranean Sea and fetched up in Italy (153,800) and Spain (15,400 ). At the same time some 3,770 people died or were reported missing at sea.
The conflicts in Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria have drawn international attention to the dramatic exodus of forcibly displaced peoples, but other humanitarian crises are also scaring Burundi, Libya, Niger, Nigeria, Sudan, Central African Republic, Congo and Yemen.
Every 60 seconds an average of 24 people worldwide are forcibly displaced from their homes. The number of displaced persons is now equal to the population of what would rank as the 21st largest country in the world, ahead of the United Kingdom.
According to the UNHCR’s report, war – or armed conflict – is the main driver of the forcible displacement of people as refugees, of which 50% are children.

In every country the general public is becoming increasingly sensitive to whatsoever is perceived as the effects of immigration on living standards, and people traffickers are generally looked upon as the perpetrators of the greatest of all evils, requiring immediate eradication by any means available. At the same time, however, people hesitate to demand that their governments promote peace and better conditions for life in those areas where people traffickers flourish.

Wiener – Dog Key phrase of the film: “The dog is a dog”

Review By Katya Marletta

The fact that critics have noticed the bravura of the independent director and screenwriter Todd Solondz is proved by the positive reviews of his film.

The fact that his works have been appreciated worldwide is shown by the countless nominations, amongst which – to cite the most prestigious – the one for a Golden Globe, and a flood of awards which he has collected in his career participating in the most important film festivals. What is not yet clear to the many is why the consecration of one of the sharpest and most sensitive directors of recent years has not yet reached the altar of the greats. Will this be the right time for “Wiener-Dog”? The new film by the American seems to have all its papers in order to deserve the title of ‘masterpiece’.

After its official debut at the recent Sundance Festival in fact, “Wiener-Dog” has embarked upon its happy path towards success. The story, structured in a distinct anthology of four parts, uses the subterfuge of the pilgrimage? of an animal to narrate the life of its owners. In the development of the film the attention of the director, initially focused on the fate of the dog, moves to that of men whose common denominator is depression.

The characters, as if on a stage, alternate, as do their lives, inexorably intertwined with those of the dog: the child who has survived cancer, the young woman with her incomplete life, the professor ravaged by the frustration of his lack of success, and the old woman abandoned to her loneliness. The four protagonists bring to the screen the egoism and weaknesses of human beings, inclined to satisfy a egoist dependency and never simply enjoy the company of their faithful friend.

“The dog is a dog” says the mother to the depressed child, as if to imply that it cannot feel emotions. In the background the gaze and the silence of Wiener who participates, powerless, in the fate his owners have decided for him until, if only for a few moments, he lets himself go in the irresistible discovery of freedom. Charlie Tahan, Greta Gerwig, Zosia Manet, Ellen Burstyn and Danny DeVito all bring a touch of irresistible acting brilliance to their characters.

Twist and Shout a 50s and 60s night

Bring me back to the 50s and drive me around the 60s. Well, shake it up, baby, now Twist and shout Post World War II rebellion, the vitality of Rock ‘n’ Roll, Elvis, the British invasion, Cadillac, mini skirts and the Hippie movement.

is back to London and It will bring back to life the atmosphere of the two most revolutionary decades.

Twist and Shout! has been founded in 2011 by Alessio Granata who rediscovered the 60s music due to a journey to London CEO of Twist and Shout S.r.l. And Dj for the events. Together with Alessandro Leuci, coorganiser, tour manager Dj and bartender, they started organising Dj sets in Milan’s Club.

Due to the audience’s positive response Granata and Leuci started to cooperate with bands, dancers and hairstylists. Since then they have been touring Italy (Milan, Turin, Rome, Vicenza, Treviso and so on), Europe (Paris and London) and on November 3 they’ll reach New York – entertaining the audience throughout the night with a rock’n’roll, swing, do woop, twist, and so on and so forth, repertoire.

This time, here in London, the two Djs will work sidebyside with an extraordinary team of professional artists. Lipstick and Curls, Uk’s leading make up and hair team – winners of the London Vintage awards – that will provide a Free Hairstylist and make up service.

Markus Rosendal , professional dance teacher, performer and Dj, will offer a 50s dance class. Active from 1998 he moved to London in 2015 performing and teaching 20s50s style.

Surfin’ Kids, an Italian band from Turin, will be live on stage. Andy Caligaris – drums Luca “Zanna” Simeoni double bass – and the frontman Nick Mantoan founded the band in 2014 brought together by the passion for rockabilly.

Influenced by the Stray Cats, the trio brings adrenaline and rock’n’roll energy on the stage. The moment for London to wildly dance is approaching. And, who knows, maybe you’ll get a chance to slow dance with Elvis. th @ the GARAGE, 7.30 pm. London. April 14