Law Against Loneliness: 20 November

The Lawyer Shopping Channel

“One of my favourite independent businesses is Designs by Kate Whyley,” says Jill Phillips of Linklaters.

“Kate has a wonderful range of satin scarves, headbands (perfect to brighten up video calls!) and notebooks. She’s also doing face masks to match now.”

Previously: Pet Hates Toys | Cocolulu | Biscuiteers | Vinegar Hill | Gander Market | Rennet & Rind | Cocoa May 

Image of the Day

Movember used to be quite the thing round these parts eight or nine years back; it’s not as widespread as it used to be but surely some of you are still doing it? Gents, send us your ‘tache successes and failures as we come towards the end of the month.

To kick us off here is Moore Barlow managing partner Ed Whittington (all right, so it’s a fake). “We had a very jolly ‘Movember’ virtual drinks party after the inaugural Moore Barlow partners conference on Friday,” he writes, “with all members of the family invited including pets. We sent everyone a hamper and a box of fake moustaches beforehand.”

Poll of the Day

In all seriousness, a number of firms have approached us asking if we know what others are planning, so clearly people would appreciate bright ideas.

Dog of the Day

It’s a double contribution from Jill Philips today as she also sent us a photo of her feline assistant Macci “(mostly found sleeping… apparently the Company Law Handbook makes a good pillow!)”.

Legal Instagram of the Day

@thequirkylawyer: Glimpses of a lawyer’s life in Barcelona.

 

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A post shared by Isabella Galeano (@thequirkylawyer)

The Lawyer Listens

Leonard Cohen – Take This Waltz

Deliriously romantic and beautiful poetry, Leonard Cohen’s song is a loose translation of “Pequeno Vals Vienes” (Little Viennese Waltz) by Spanish poet Federico Garcia Lorca.

Lorca wrote the poem in 1930 when he was briefly at Columbia University. He had never seen such poverty and decay and was disillusioned by New York life and it’s anguish and alienation. Coming from a prosperous Andalucian farming family, Lorca was dismayed by the spiritual corruption of city life. He imagined Vienna as a symbol of glorious European civilisation.

60 years later, Cohen revived the fading splendour of Vienna, his words accompanied in waltz time with the mournful violin, the mandolin and the accordion.  He reimagined the opulence of grand balls inside sprawling concert halls, where beautiful women in white gloves flounce in clouds of chiffon under colossal chandeliers.

What shines through Lorca’s poem and Cohen’s song is a sense of nostalgia and sadness, lamenting the effects of time on art and beauty, and a yearning for  the spectacle of a golden past, as grand palaces descend into decay.

Cohen turned the poem into a potent love song. With undercurrents of sexual longing, he reminisces a night in a Baroque ballroom, blood hot with brandy, swept up in the ‘flood’ of a past love’s beauty. A melody that can both soothe you and make you tremble. -Gabriella Kane