Salone Internazionale del Mobile

The 50th Salone is taking place in Milan this week and if your interests include furniture design you'll appreciate Monocle's daily coverage of the exhibits, kicked off by Hugo Macdonald's piece about Established & Sons.

Romanian Cinema

Yesterday Monocle magazine's Monocolumn discussed Romania's film industry. Despite recent acclaim for films such as Cristian Mungiu's Four Months, Three Weeks, and Two Days, apparently all is not well:

Cinemas are closing and internet piracy is the norm for Romanian film-watchers. The national film body that disperses tax revenues to filmmakers did not fund a single production in 2009 because it is reworking its procedures following widespread complaints about corruption and nepotism.

Despite these difficulties, Romanian filmmakers continue to produce great films and several (including Corneliu Porumboiu's Police, Adjective) will appear in U.S. theatres in 2010.

Absinthe plans to screen a Romanian film this April at Oakland Community College in Farmington Hills. More on this soon.

Monocle

The London-based magazine Monocle is quickly become one of my favorites and, if you're not familiar with it, is definitely worth checking out. The current issue is "devoted to building better cities, neighbourhoods and residences" and ranks the top 25 liveable cities in the world. Only a few US cities are on the list and they might not be the ones you'd immediately think of. The number one city? Tom Kennedy's Copenhagen. I'll just have to plan a visit soon.

Do you think Detroit warrants a mention? Well, how's this: "A bad example of neighborhood planning is Detroit, Phoenix, or any American suburb." Not too much to argue with, really.