Amy Winehouse Waistcoat Worn at BRITs to be Auctioned at New York Gala

The waistcoat with an image of Amy Winehouse on the back, which was worn by Mitch Winehouse to the BRIT Awards last month, will be auctioned in New York on Thursday 21st March 2013 at the Amy Winehouse Foundation Inspiration Awards and Gala.

The waistcoat will be signed by a number of celebrities including Tony Bennett, who’s receiving a lifetime achievement award, and Jennifer Hudson who is performing at the Gala.

The waistcoat was designed and created by British celebrity tailor Stephen Williams of tailoring house Bespoke HQ, who also made the suit Mitch wore to the Amy Winehouse Foundation Ball held in London last November.

Stephen has dressed and created suits for the likes of David Beckham, Stephen Dorff, Jermaine Jackson, and Jacobi Calthorpe, and he previously worked for Giorgio Armani before working as a tailor at William Hunt on Savile Row.

“The uniqueness and extra detail we have put into the garment celebrates the impact Amy had on the music industry and comes after great feedback from the press and Amy’s fans when Mitch wore it,” Stephen said.

Mitch said he wore the beautiful suit which Stephen created to the BRIT Awards when Amy was nominated for a posthumous award and everyone loved it with pride.

The Amy Winehouse Foundation are raising money for various charities in the USA, including the New Orleans Jazz Orchestra (NOJO) to assist in supporting after school music programs for children in those districts still struggling from the devastation caused by Hurricane Katrina, and the Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM).

The foundation hope the Inspiration Awards and Gala will become an annual event to raise awareness and resources for the Amy Winehouse Foundation in the US. All monies raised in the US, including from this event will go to US programs.

The function will take at the famous Waldorf Astoria in New York City and will honour Tony Bennett, NAS, SaLaAM ReMi and Elhadj “Moe” Kane.

Review: The Rwizi Arch Hotel in Kampala, Uganda.

The Rwizi Arch pub at the underground in the backyard of the hotel

I was privileged to share abode at Rwizi Arch Hotel at Kansanga area, Kampala together with seven journalists from six African countries from 24-29 June this year.

Together with an equal number of local Ugandan journalists we were attending Financial and Economic reporting course from Reuters Foundation.

During the stay we loved staying at the pub in the back of the hotel taking up the backyard space and the underground floor with a capacity to seat close to thirty patrons.

The pub’s atmosphere though set with a outdoor gardens have the ambience of an extension of the hotel’s dining room with the chairs set at a distance on a soft lighting shades for a quite conversation and dating scene but not for the rowdy football watching crowd as experience in Kenya.

To compound the atmosphere further there is no pool table, ballroom lights or the longer counter bar stools making watching a game to be akin to twiddling with a remote control in your sitting room with the children reading in the background and your wife trying to get her sleep, a quite no shouting affair.

But the huge board which projects games and music is a plus for football watching, though the music is pre mixed and not engaging as there is no dance floor without any DJs.

Though the food is sumptuous as the bar shares the kitchen with the hotel, their drinks are expensive. Kenyan Tusker Lager and Tusker Malt, brands at the bar, go for USh4,500 and USh4,000 respectively while Ugandan special Nile Special goes for Ush3,500. Being a teetotaler, for the two games I watched from the pub i settle for Norvida pineapple and a 300ml Stoney which went for Ush3,500 and Ush2,000 respectively.

The bar counter

I realized the prices were high as which forced me to watch German being bundled out of Euro2012 finals by two Mario Balotelli’s first half goals on pubs along the Kabalagala Street wher drinks are Ush500-1,000 cheaper.

Critique:

With the quite atmosphere for conversation the pub is best for a business meeting and dating and you can easily reach the hotel,6Km from the CBD along Kabalagala Street in a 30 min drive.

On the down side, for foreign revelers seeking the feeling of Kampala’s night life the pub isn’t ideal with setting and would recommend the numerous pubs along Kabalagala streets which has several East African universities.

                              ©Manuel Odeny 29 June 2012, Kampala-Uganda