My trip to the red city:
Manchester is very red. Lots of bricks, so very red. To anyone who's been to Manchester, I expect those are annoyingly obvious statements, but the color of the city just stuck with me.
The city 'o bricks and Victorian hugeness gave me a very full weekend. Actually, Helen should probably be credited with filling my weekend, but the city helped.
On Friday I had my usual flurry of a morning that occurs when I'm leaving for a trip and have failed to pack or do errands. Then I settled in for a four and a half hour train-ride up to Manchester. The trip didn't really feel that long except around the two hour mark (not sure why). At one point I ended up with a mom and her two daughters (2 and 7) as table-mates. I'm generally pretty good about children, so this didn't bother me too much, though I was thankful that they only joined me for an hour or so of my trip (the two-year-old was very vocal). What was funny was that I was reading up on Piaget at the time, so I had live examples of his stages of child development to illustrate the text. The two-year-old also seemed pretty intent on climbing across the table and grabbing my water bottle. Her mom kept apologizing, but since nothing was being spilled on me, I didn't really mind. The mom was actually doing what I thought was quite a good job of wrangling two young, *energetic* children on a cramped train. She didn't get mad at her girls, but she also didn't ignore the fact that other passengers might not enjoy a high level of noise and movement. I'm no expert, but I've been present for a lot of glimpses into parenting (working at a children's gift shop for nine months), so I have my opinions on the subject. I thought she was one of the better ones I'd seen.
Annnnyway, I didn't start this entry to go on about kids on trains. I got to Manchester Piccadilly (on time!), where Helen met up with me. My first night there, we just watched TV and ate kebabs.
The next day we got a late start (theme of the weekend and perfectly fine by me). Helen had done some planning, so we headed out to the keys and took in the Lowry. Can't say I'm a huge fan of the guy. He actually sort of reminded me of the illustrations from "Madeline" books. Didn't have anything against him . . . I just tend to like more color, detail, and narrative in my art. The Lowry also had an exhibit of modern works based around football (soccer). Quite a range. Some I had absolutely no interest in, some were technically brilliant (but otherwise "eh"), some were engaging, some alluded to other subjects . . . I was impressed because a collection that involves variety is much more likely to hold my interest than one where the work is fantastic, but all the same.
Next Helen took me on a nice wander 'round Castlefield and the surrounding areas. Just walked in big loops, chatting and taking pictures as we saw the site of a Roman fort, the canal, shopping areas, the oldest standing building in Manchester, the cathedral, the city hall (friking huge!), etc. We didn't really go into anything, just had a nice ramble. Then Helen continued to be an excellent hostess (because she doesn't much like art galleries) and took me to the Manchester Art Gallery . I will most certainly have to go back there sometime. We only had about a half hour and it was an exceptionally well set up museum. They had an interactive gallery which seemed to be great for kids, but which I enjoyed as well. I even got to add a tag to a interactive piece consisting of a pile of suitcases and hundreds of tags stating where visitors most wanted to be. In another room (non-interactive), they were restoring "The Sirens and Ulysses" and letting visitors watch the process (though there was no one working when I walked through).
Home to change and back out for Nando's (my lips haven't hurt that much from spices in a *long* time). We then took ourselves to the Royal Exchange , which is an amazing building with a theatre constructed inside. I took pictures, but I don't think they even come close to doing it justice. Anyhoo, we watched "Who's Afraid of Virgina Woolf" by Edward Albee. I like his plays, but I think this is the first time I've seen one staged. Kudos to the publicity staff for picking this quote for the season program:
“I cry alllll the time; but deep inside, so no one can see me. I cry all the time. And Georgie cries all the time, too. We both cry all the time, and then, what we do, we cry, and we take our tears, and we put ‘em in the ice box, in the goddamn ice trays until they’re all frozen … we put them … in our … drinks.”
The play was utterly long, depressing, deranged, cruel, . . . and very good. I didn't like any of the characters, but found myself pulled into caring about what happened to them. That's excellent playwriting right there. That isn't to say you should never create likable characters, but if they happen to be dismal specimens of human life and you can still make audience members silently beg for their emotional salvation, then you've got talent. The production wasn't without faults (I think every piece of theatre has its failings). The American accents seemed a bit heavy-handed at points and two hours is pushing the acceptable first act length a tad. Little things mostly. It was absolutely a worthwhile evening of theatre.
Then home, more TV (I fear I may be seeing the beginnings of a "Grey's Anatomy" addiction), and bed.
Sunday we headed out to Quarry Bank Mill . It turned out to be a beautiful day, so after we toured the mill and apprentice house, we walked to the village and I took pictures of sheep. I also baaed at the sheep. I'm not sure what they thought of that.
The mill is huge and they have demonstrations of working machinery (roughly 100 years old). Everyone who worked in those mills must have been deaf. They only run two or three machines at a time for visitors (loud!) and there were hundreds operating at once back when it was a working mill. I learned a bit about the evolution of spinning and weaving technology and about how children worked and lived there. I think it all struck me as more disturbing than it would have last year. Last semester brought me to the point where I can't simply tuck that sort of information in the drawer labeled "past". Thirteen hour working days are something of the past for children in the UK, but exist very much in the present for some of the world's kids. So information like what I read and heard at QBM is (and should be) harder to just let drift through my head . . .
We went for a Sunday pub roast dinner after our country wanderings. Yeeeah, travel guides aren't kidding about pub food being sort of mediocre. It was filling though and I can now tell Nick that I've had a kebab, fish and chips (Saturday's lunch), and a Sunday roast. These are all apparently essential British meals.
We went home and watched "Shopgirl". My review is simple: long, bland, understated to the point of colorlessness, and seemingly pointless. It screams "written by a man" in ways which I found insulting. I could go into what those ways were, but I'm a little worried I'll get rant-ish, so I'm going to skip it. More "Grey's Anatomy" followed to revive my senses.
Today I had a quiet train-ride home.
So that was my weekend and I'll be posting pics when I get around to uploading them. Hope everyone had a fun weekend. (:
The city 'o bricks and Victorian hugeness gave me a very full weekend. Actually, Helen should probably be credited with filling my weekend, but the city helped.
On Friday I had my usual flurry of a morning that occurs when I'm leaving for a trip and have failed to pack or do errands. Then I settled in for a four and a half hour train-ride up to Manchester. The trip didn't really feel that long except around the two hour mark (not sure why). At one point I ended up with a mom and her two daughters (2 and 7) as table-mates. I'm generally pretty good about children, so this didn't bother me too much, though I was thankful that they only joined me for an hour or so of my trip (the two-year-old was very vocal). What was funny was that I was reading up on Piaget at the time, so I had live examples of his stages of child development to illustrate the text. The two-year-old also seemed pretty intent on climbing across the table and grabbing my water bottle. Her mom kept apologizing, but since nothing was being spilled on me, I didn't really mind. The mom was actually doing what I thought was quite a good job of wrangling two young, *energetic* children on a cramped train. She didn't get mad at her girls, but she also didn't ignore the fact that other passengers might not enjoy a high level of noise and movement. I'm no expert, but I've been present for a lot of glimpses into parenting (working at a children's gift shop for nine months), so I have my opinions on the subject. I thought she was one of the better ones I'd seen.
Annnnyway, I didn't start this entry to go on about kids on trains. I got to Manchester Piccadilly (on time!), where Helen met up with me. My first night there, we just watched TV and ate kebabs.
The next day we got a late start (theme of the weekend and perfectly fine by me). Helen had done some planning, so we headed out to the keys and took in the Lowry. Can't say I'm a huge fan of the guy. He actually sort of reminded me of the illustrations from "Madeline" books. Didn't have anything against him . . . I just tend to like more color, detail, and narrative in my art. The Lowry also had an exhibit of modern works based around football (soccer). Quite a range. Some I had absolutely no interest in, some were technically brilliant (but otherwise "eh"), some were engaging, some alluded to other subjects . . . I was impressed because a collection that involves variety is much more likely to hold my interest than one where the work is fantastic, but all the same.
Next Helen took me on a nice wander 'round Castlefield and the surrounding areas. Just walked in big loops, chatting and taking pictures as we saw the site of a Roman fort, the canal, shopping areas, the oldest standing building in Manchester, the cathedral, the city hall (friking huge!), etc. We didn't really go into anything, just had a nice ramble. Then Helen continued to be an excellent hostess (because she doesn't much like art galleries) and took me to the Manchester Art Gallery . I will most certainly have to go back there sometime. We only had about a half hour and it was an exceptionally well set up museum. They had an interactive gallery which seemed to be great for kids, but which I enjoyed as well. I even got to add a tag to a interactive piece consisting of a pile of suitcases and hundreds of tags stating where visitors most wanted to be. In another room (non-interactive), they were restoring "The Sirens and Ulysses" and letting visitors watch the process (though there was no one working when I walked through).
Home to change and back out for Nando's (my lips haven't hurt that much from spices in a *long* time). We then took ourselves to the Royal Exchange , which is an amazing building with a theatre constructed inside. I took pictures, but I don't think they even come close to doing it justice. Anyhoo, we watched "Who's Afraid of Virgina Woolf" by Edward Albee. I like his plays, but I think this is the first time I've seen one staged. Kudos to the publicity staff for picking this quote for the season program:
“I cry alllll the time; but deep inside, so no one can see me. I cry all the time. And Georgie cries all the time, too. We both cry all the time, and then, what we do, we cry, and we take our tears, and we put ‘em in the ice box, in the goddamn ice trays until they’re all frozen … we put them … in our … drinks.”
The play was utterly long, depressing, deranged, cruel, . . . and very good. I didn't like any of the characters, but found myself pulled into caring about what happened to them. That's excellent playwriting right there. That isn't to say you should never create likable characters, but if they happen to be dismal specimens of human life and you can still make audience members silently beg for their emotional salvation, then you've got talent. The production wasn't without faults (I think every piece of theatre has its failings). The American accents seemed a bit heavy-handed at points and two hours is pushing the acceptable first act length a tad. Little things mostly. It was absolutely a worthwhile evening of theatre.
Then home, more TV (I fear I may be seeing the beginnings of a "Grey's Anatomy" addiction), and bed.
Sunday we headed out to Quarry Bank Mill . It turned out to be a beautiful day, so after we toured the mill and apprentice house, we walked to the village and I took pictures of sheep. I also baaed at the sheep. I'm not sure what they thought of that.
The mill is huge and they have demonstrations of working machinery (roughly 100 years old). Everyone who worked in those mills must have been deaf. They only run two or three machines at a time for visitors (loud!) and there were hundreds operating at once back when it was a working mill. I learned a bit about the evolution of spinning and weaving technology and about how children worked and lived there. I think it all struck me as more disturbing than it would have last year. Last semester brought me to the point where I can't simply tuck that sort of information in the drawer labeled "past". Thirteen hour working days are something of the past for children in the UK, but exist very much in the present for some of the world's kids. So information like what I read and heard at QBM is (and should be) harder to just let drift through my head . . .
We went for a Sunday pub roast dinner after our country wanderings. Yeeeah, travel guides aren't kidding about pub food being sort of mediocre. It was filling though and I can now tell Nick that I've had a kebab, fish and chips (Saturday's lunch), and a Sunday roast. These are all apparently essential British meals.
We went home and watched "Shopgirl". My review is simple: long, bland, understated to the point of colorlessness, and seemingly pointless. It screams "written by a man" in ways which I found insulting. I could go into what those ways were, but I'm a little worried I'll get rant-ish, so I'm going to skip it. More "Grey's Anatomy" followed to revive my senses.
Today I had a quiet train-ride home.
So that was my weekend and I'll be posting pics when I get around to uploading them. Hope everyone had a fun weekend. (: