That Time Once More
On Friday morning I am off to see the wizard to the annual festivities of Horbling! I am very much looking forward to a weekend of too much food, too much wine, gentle rambles to the co-op and inappropriate conversations over spotted dick.
I had a quiet weekend in preparation but did go visit Shakespeare: Staging the World at the British Museum. I hate the British Museum at the weekend but it was well worth elbowing tourists out of the way for! The exhibit itself examines the real world context of Shakespeare's plays such as the Gunpowder Plot, Tudor propaganda to establish their legitimacy and the discovery of the New World. Amongst the displays are Henry V's funeral artifacts, John Dee's Obsidian mirror and a coin minted to commemorate the death of Julius Caesar. It's a world class exhibit and if you can catch it before the end of the month I encourage you to do so!
Somewhat by coincidence I had watched Ralph Fiennes version of Coriolanus and had to put the subtitles on to understand what everyone was saying. I don't know if that's because I'm going deaf or they were MUMBLING. Once I could follow what was being said though I enjoyed it in a 'it's very well acted but these people are all kinda dicks' way. Still that's the Romans for you. I was particularly impressed by Gerard Butler though, his best performance since Scottish Indie Dear Frankie, unless you count the performance of his abs in 300.
My flatmate (who is still in Brazil)made the astute observation one night, "Huh, you really like history don't you?". When I concurred that I did she rummaged through her bookcase to find Over the Edge of the World: Magellan's Terrifying Circumvention of the Globe by Laurence Bergreen. It's about, well, Magellan's terrifying circumvention of the globe. Or rather the exhibition he originally headed up as Magellan didn't make it the whole way round. It's a fascinating read though about an event that is one of the building blocks of how we now understand the world. It also reawakened my desire to go to Patagonia.
I had a quiet weekend in preparation but did go visit Shakespeare: Staging the World at the British Museum. I hate the British Museum at the weekend but it was well worth elbowing tourists out of the way for! The exhibit itself examines the real world context of Shakespeare's plays such as the Gunpowder Plot, Tudor propaganda to establish their legitimacy and the discovery of the New World. Amongst the displays are Henry V's funeral artifacts, John Dee's Obsidian mirror and a coin minted to commemorate the death of Julius Caesar. It's a world class exhibit and if you can catch it before the end of the month I encourage you to do so!
Somewhat by coincidence I had watched Ralph Fiennes version of Coriolanus and had to put the subtitles on to understand what everyone was saying. I don't know if that's because I'm going deaf or they were MUMBLING. Once I could follow what was being said though I enjoyed it in a 'it's very well acted but these people are all kinda dicks' way. Still that's the Romans for you. I was particularly impressed by Gerard Butler though, his best performance since Scottish Indie Dear Frankie, unless you count the performance of his abs in 300.
My flatmate (who is still in Brazil)made the astute observation one night, "Huh, you really like history don't you?". When I concurred that I did she rummaged through her bookcase to find Over the Edge of the World: Magellan's Terrifying Circumvention of the Globe by Laurence Bergreen. It's about, well, Magellan's terrifying circumvention of the globe. Or rather the exhibition he originally headed up as Magellan didn't make it the whole way round. It's a fascinating read though about an event that is one of the building blocks of how we now understand the world. It also reawakened my desire to go to Patagonia.