(no subject)
Yesterday I took the day off to go and see the Ships, Clocks & Stars exhibition at the National Maritime Museum with my parents. I've been meaning to go for months but we could never find a weekend that worked and then I looked at the amount of TOIL I've accrued recently and realised I could just take a day off!
We started with the main exhibition which was really interesting although I have to say between what I already knew about the Longitude Act + the talks I went to at Nine Worlds there wasn't much new information in the exhibition however they'd arranged things really well and there was an interesting mix of objects. It was pretty hard to get near the Harrison clocks sadly because they had them all lined up very close together and just ahead of us were a group who clearly knew a lot about clocks and gathered round one clock they'd block half of them :-/ Still I've seen them at the observatory before and there were all the other replicas and attempts by other clockmakers to make their own versions to look at and those were fascinating!
The after lunch we walked up the hill to the Observatory to see Longitude Punk'd. Basically they gave a group of Steampunk artists the brief to make things inspired by the Longitude Act and all of the different solutions that were set and there are all kinds of pieces of equipment and clothing and designs and pictures all tied together by "the Rime of the Ancient Commodore" (written by Robert Rankin). There are some wonderful designs and little bits of detail that really repay close attention but actually the best bit was where they'd left some of the real objects in one of the Flamsteed House galleries but written new labels. I only caught the first one by accident and did a proper double take and I'm so glad I did because some of them were genius and we kept getting the giggles. It was a lovely way to bring art and literature and humour into that space and I'm so glad we finally got there!
Plus I don't think I'll ever get tired of the view from the Royal Observatory.
After that Mum & Dad headed home and I headed into the centre of town to the National Portrait Gallery and Grayson Perry's Who Are you? exhibition/trail. It was pretty busy in the NPG and there were clearly a lot of people there to see Who Are You, I guess particularly given the TV show to make everyone aware of it! Luckily I managed a bit of time on my own with the first piece which is a map of his own mind/personality and which I could have looked at for MUCH longer. It was nice seeing the pieces in person after watching the show- the Dementia piece in particular was even more striking in person because I hadn't really picked up on the fact that he'd turned "dementia" into a demon figure on the vase.
The exhibition is scattered through some of the more modern galleries and it's free so worth dropping in if you're near Trafalgar Square!
The reason I stayed in London though was that I realised I finally had a chance to see Hoje Eu Quero Voltar Sozinho/The Way He Looks (it's a Brazilian film with subtitles so it's not exactly been on general release!) I was the only person in the screen and to be honest I may have been the only person in the cinema (other than staff) so that was a bit creepy but I was glad I went!
This is the film that came from the short I Don't Want To Go Back which I've mentioned before and which is still online if you want to watch it. No spoilers but the longer film really does build on the short without losing any of its charm and I was pretty glad to be alone in the cinema given the amount of slightly besotted face clutching I was doing :-P It's a sweet coming of age/coming out story and the central trio of characters are all given space to make mistakes and be themselves and work through what growing up means to them and even if you can't get to see it in the cinema then I'd recommend watching it when it comes out on DVD.
And that was my day off *g* now back to reality!
We started with the main exhibition which was really interesting although I have to say between what I already knew about the Longitude Act + the talks I went to at Nine Worlds there wasn't much new information in the exhibition however they'd arranged things really well and there was an interesting mix of objects. It was pretty hard to get near the Harrison clocks sadly because they had them all lined up very close together and just ahead of us were a group who clearly knew a lot about clocks and gathered round one clock they'd block half of them :-/ Still I've seen them at the observatory before and there were all the other replicas and attempts by other clockmakers to make their own versions to look at and those were fascinating!
The after lunch we walked up the hill to the Observatory to see Longitude Punk'd. Basically they gave a group of Steampunk artists the brief to make things inspired by the Longitude Act and all of the different solutions that were set and there are all kinds of pieces of equipment and clothing and designs and pictures all tied together by "the Rime of the Ancient Commodore" (written by Robert Rankin). There are some wonderful designs and little bits of detail that really repay close attention but actually the best bit was where they'd left some of the real objects in one of the Flamsteed House galleries but written new labels. I only caught the first one by accident and did a proper double take and I'm so glad I did because some of them were genius and we kept getting the giggles. It was a lovely way to bring art and literature and humour into that space and I'm so glad we finally got there!
Plus I don't think I'll ever get tired of the view from the Royal Observatory.
After that Mum & Dad headed home and I headed into the centre of town to the National Portrait Gallery and Grayson Perry's Who Are you? exhibition/trail. It was pretty busy in the NPG and there were clearly a lot of people there to see Who Are You, I guess particularly given the TV show to make everyone aware of it! Luckily I managed a bit of time on my own with the first piece which is a map of his own mind/personality and which I could have looked at for MUCH longer. It was nice seeing the pieces in person after watching the show- the Dementia piece in particular was even more striking in person because I hadn't really picked up on the fact that he'd turned "dementia" into a demon figure on the vase.
The exhibition is scattered through some of the more modern galleries and it's free so worth dropping in if you're near Trafalgar Square!
The reason I stayed in London though was that I realised I finally had a chance to see Hoje Eu Quero Voltar Sozinho/The Way He Looks (it's a Brazilian film with subtitles so it's not exactly been on general release!) I was the only person in the screen and to be honest I may have been the only person in the cinema (other than staff) so that was a bit creepy but I was glad I went!
This is the film that came from the short I Don't Want To Go Back which I've mentioned before and which is still online if you want to watch it. No spoilers but the longer film really does build on the short without losing any of its charm and I was pretty glad to be alone in the cinema given the amount of slightly besotted face clutching I was doing :-P It's a sweet coming of age/coming out story and the central trio of characters are all given space to make mistakes and be themselves and work through what growing up means to them and even if you can't get to see it in the cinema then I'd recommend watching it when it comes out on DVD.
And that was my day off *g* now back to reality!