Auf Wiedersehen, London! (V.)
Sadly, the weather, as of easing me in to my departure, remained on the cold and cloudy side, so I paid the Dickens museum a visit, where, as with the Tower, I hadn't been since I was 21. It is as a I dimly remembered a really well reconstructed Victorian house, and the three things which struck me most this time were:
- Dickens's reading desk with a manuscript for his vaunted public readings, full of crossed out print and handwritten sentences over it
- the serpent ring which Kate Dickens gave to her sister, Georgiana Hogarth, as a very pointed present (Georgiana stayed with Dickens and sided with him in the infamous separation after he kicked his wife out) - it is so large a ring that Georgiana must have had thick fingers, btw
- the bust of Dickens' eternally broke father John and on the opposite side of the room a drawing of Wilkins Micawber from David Copperfield ; the fictional Micawber looks so remarkably like John Dickens (who was his real life model), that I suspect either the artist who made the illustrations knew Dickens's father (possible), or conversely the artist who made the bust knew the illustration (even more likely)
With the occasional drop of wetness in either watery or snowy form from the sky I decided to indulge myself and round my time in London off with what was basically a Beatles tribute band going through their entire career, the show Let it Be. Not a musical, as there was no plot or pretense at dialogue, aside from the occasional quip, but the songs themselves and the musicians in costume as appropriate to whichever period the songs hailed from. (Though they stopped short of fake beards of depression for the final year.) It was great fun, though it was a bit distracting that the Paul player was not left handed! Other than that, though, they had the body language for each Beatle down, and the voices were pretty good. The sheer range of songs, the development within a few measly years, reminded me all over again why the Beatles are my favourites. Since it was a matinee performance but still completely filled, I was in company in that regard.:) Most bewildering moment: first the George, while their Paul is moving from bass to piano, says the next song was never written to be played with an orchestra arrangment (boo, hiss, Phil Spector!), but to be heard like this, cue "Paul" playing piano and singing The Long and Winding Road... and then, after the first two verses, up pops the cursed Spector arrangment on playback in the background. I swear, it's a conspiracy.
But anyway: it was a good way to say goodbye, and I'm heading towards the airport now, with a much heavier suitcase full of books and dvds I did not arrive with. Oh, to be in England, now that April is there.:)
This entry was originally posted at http://selenak.dreamwidth.org/884818.html. Comment there or here, as you wish.
- Dickens's reading desk with a manuscript for his vaunted public readings, full of crossed out print and handwritten sentences over it
- the serpent ring which Kate Dickens gave to her sister, Georgiana Hogarth, as a very pointed present (Georgiana stayed with Dickens and sided with him in the infamous separation after he kicked his wife out) - it is so large a ring that Georgiana must have had thick fingers, btw
- the bust of Dickens' eternally broke father John and on the opposite side of the room a drawing of Wilkins Micawber from David Copperfield ; the fictional Micawber looks so remarkably like John Dickens (who was his real life model), that I suspect either the artist who made the illustrations knew Dickens's father (possible), or conversely the artist who made the bust knew the illustration (even more likely)
With the occasional drop of wetness in either watery or snowy form from the sky I decided to indulge myself and round my time in London off with what was basically a Beatles tribute band going through their entire career, the show Let it Be. Not a musical, as there was no plot or pretense at dialogue, aside from the occasional quip, but the songs themselves and the musicians in costume as appropriate to whichever period the songs hailed from. (Though they stopped short of fake beards of depression for the final year.) It was great fun, though it was a bit distracting that the Paul player was not left handed! Other than that, though, they had the body language for each Beatle down, and the voices were pretty good. The sheer range of songs, the development within a few measly years, reminded me all over again why the Beatles are my favourites. Since it was a matinee performance but still completely filled, I was in company in that regard.:) Most bewildering moment: first the George, while their Paul is moving from bass to piano, says the next song was never written to be played with an orchestra arrangment (boo, hiss, Phil Spector!), but to be heard like this, cue "Paul" playing piano and singing The Long and Winding Road... and then, after the first two verses, up pops the cursed Spector arrangment on playback in the background. I swear, it's a conspiracy.
But anyway: it was a good way to say goodbye, and I'm heading towards the airport now, with a much heavier suitcase full of books and dvds I did not arrive with. Oh, to be in England, now that April is there.:)
This entry was originally posted at http://selenak.dreamwidth.org/884818.html. Comment there or here, as you wish.