london update.
OK, before I get started: I'll be home on Tuesday night. If you are in Livermore or in San Francisco and want to get together in the next week and half PLEASE respond to this or send me an e-mail! Thanks! I'd really really love to see you all.
Right. That said, back to the present. I'm in London right now, at the Strand with Caitlin. Tomorrow is my last day of sightseeing, since I leave for home on Tuesday. I'll write more later, but here's what I've done in brief since my last update:
1) Visited the Scottish National Gallery and looked at the Scottish paintings, which were refreshingly down to earth in their subject matter. Poussin would have been disappointed. I like Guthrie and MacTaggert (sp? crap I might have gotten both of them wrong) the best.
2) Ate a hearty meal of haggis. It's actually not bad--spiced, with barley softening the meat flavor, and moist and steamy when you scoop it out of the sheep stomach. Who ever knew sheep guts could taste good? Monty Python clearly didn't appreciate the finer things in life. We also had "neeps" (turnips) and potatoes, making the meal one of the most filling I've ever eaten. In short, I really liked staying with the Knops, seeing Edinburgh by day, and then falling into easy, humorous conversation by night.
3) Took a train from Edinburgh to London, with the sea on one side and the sun lighting the grass and hillocks and woods on and fields on the other side.
4) Arrived in London. Caitlin took me down the Strand and over to Trafalger Square, down the street with all the war monuments, and over to Big Ben and the houses of Parliament. Then by the Thames and back over to the Strand with a stop at Sainsbury's, a British supermarket that sells standard fair along with TV dinners in whatever ethic cuisine you prefer. I got Indian and Caitlin got Chinese, and we both grimaced at the Indian dinner for two box which weighed about 3452109479 pounds and boasted 1000 calories worth of food per person.
5) We've been having dinner most nights with 2 of Caitlin's cool art history friends and usually a ridiculous London tabloid. They all feature 26 page spreads on Princess Di, because the official 850 page (no joke) report just came out. No, it was NOT a conspiracy! No, she WASN'T pregnant! Henri-Paul (or whatever the taxi driver's textbook French name was): DRUGS! Fayed STILL insists the royal circle is up to no good, those lousy stinking Germans. (Incidentally, Fayed is crazy. Accordingly to Caitlin, he's graced the decor of Herrod's with a sculpture of Di and Dodi dancing and releasing a bird into the air).
6) Went to a Pub with a resident cat called Tom Paine. He's big and black and wears a ruff at all times. I had cider and it was quite good.
7) Next day (I'll speed up): Went to Westminster Abbey and saw the tombs of the British monarchs (Elizabeth I and Mary Queen of Scots were my favorite; it's canned, I know, but I admire them and their wily ways). Saw the poet's corner--Dickens, Byron, Chaucer, Austen, Handel, Browning, and much much more. As I walked around the courtyard, I stumbled (literally) upon the grave of Muzio Clementi (geez, I played some many of his little sonatinas when I was a kid). Spent an inordinate amount of time looking at effigies and rehearsal crown jewels in the museum, and looking at old medieval paintings in the charter house, then onto Winston Churchill and the unknown soldier and out.
8) Met Caitlin for the a look-see at the British National Gallery. Amazing Rembrant and Titian and the Holbein piece with the distorted skull (man, Caitlin, I am so terrible with names, you're probably wincing). We also looked at their amazing medieval art collection.
9) Services at the New Synagogue on Abbey Road. It was so nice to hear the chants (as always) but I was also relieved when the rabbi gave his little mini-sermon in English. It was the first night of Channukah (didn't see them light candles, since that happened at 4pm when the sun set). All in all, I felt just right being in synagogue celebrating, especially with all the Christmas glitz up and down Oxford and Piccadilly.
10) Next day: British museum. Holy shit. Saw the reading room where Marx wrote bits of Das Kapital (all I could think of was Tom Stoppard and Travesties...set in Zurich, I know, but I kept getting flashes of the prologue). Saw the Rosetta stone and the HUMONGOUS Egyptian art collection--huge busts of the pharoahs and granite cases for the sarcophagi, and then in the Assyrian collection, with entire walls depicting battles and lion hunts, and slaves and tribute, and violence, power, submission, all capped with two huge men-lions overlooking the exhibit from a great height. Then on to Greece...again, the scale is unbelievable. They reconstructed a temple at Lycia (although Caitlin and her friend were a little skeptical about the authenticity), and then bits of the Parthenon, a fragment of a monumental bust, a wall of meropes and reliefs and rooms extending filled with sculptures of the high classical period with their garments billowing lightly, transparently behind them. Yeah, we saw more, but I'm gonna fast forward to......
11) Much Ado About Nothing! Yay! Royal Shakespeare Company! 1950s Cuba style...and no, the 1950s Cuba was not accurate, but whatever, they had an orchestra pit with GREAT GREAT GREAT GREAT GREAT GREAT trumpet parts. OMG. I was drooling every time that sweet horn growled up to the stratosphere and gave a little tug to the top of the note. It's actually a pretty hard technique to master (for me, at least), but these guys were good. The dancing didn't really match the quality of the band (or the Shakespearian text--Balthasar was a Jamaican woman jazz singer who the Don Pedro was a little hot for...wha...?). Beatrice was by far the hardest, strongest Beatrice I've seen, a thin whiplash woman who could do the salsa better than anyone else, but sometimes reverted to screaming (esp when she asks Benedick to kill Claudio). I kept hearing Lisa in my head, saying that the worst thing to do, find another way to express anger on the stage, but a simple scream is flat and alienating and deadens the action. But still, I can't get her tight, bound shoulders out of my head. Her Beatrice was tough because she'd been hurt and scarred and now knew only the soldier's life...strangely right for Benedick, even though they were the most rough and untamed couple at the end.
12) Today...spent most of it looking for two fringe theaters and not finding either. One was in Camden Town (whoooah! goths! and a whole lot of goth street market). The other was in Greenwich (could not figure how to get to the bloody tube stop...and when I finally realized my mistake I was just to tired and annoyed to take another two trains to it). But I walk along the South bank docks where there were street musicians and Christmas markets and all sorts of people milling around. It was sunny and the gilding on Big Ben was glinting. I went to the Globe and saw a pantomine (or at least close to a pantomine, but, from what I hear, not as bawdy): St. George and the dragon. Then I looked at the exhibition hall in the Globe until they kicked me out at closing time. After that, headed over to London Tower (they have a skating rink and a playground in the moat...hows that for irony?) and walked across London Bridge (is falling down). Then over to Leicester Square for some terrible but cheap Chinese food at Mr Woos. And back to Caitlin's, where I am now, after having taken a lonng shower).
Right. That said, back to the present. I'm in London right now, at the Strand with Caitlin. Tomorrow is my last day of sightseeing, since I leave for home on Tuesday. I'll write more later, but here's what I've done in brief since my last update:
1) Visited the Scottish National Gallery and looked at the Scottish paintings, which were refreshingly down to earth in their subject matter. Poussin would have been disappointed. I like Guthrie and MacTaggert (sp? crap I might have gotten both of them wrong) the best.
2) Ate a hearty meal of haggis. It's actually not bad--spiced, with barley softening the meat flavor, and moist and steamy when you scoop it out of the sheep stomach. Who ever knew sheep guts could taste good? Monty Python clearly didn't appreciate the finer things in life. We also had "neeps" (turnips) and potatoes, making the meal one of the most filling I've ever eaten. In short, I really liked staying with the Knops, seeing Edinburgh by day, and then falling into easy, humorous conversation by night.
3) Took a train from Edinburgh to London, with the sea on one side and the sun lighting the grass and hillocks and woods on and fields on the other side.
4) Arrived in London. Caitlin took me down the Strand and over to Trafalger Square, down the street with all the war monuments, and over to Big Ben and the houses of Parliament. Then by the Thames and back over to the Strand with a stop at Sainsbury's, a British supermarket that sells standard fair along with TV dinners in whatever ethic cuisine you prefer. I got Indian and Caitlin got Chinese, and we both grimaced at the Indian dinner for two box which weighed about 3452109479 pounds and boasted 1000 calories worth of food per person.
5) We've been having dinner most nights with 2 of Caitlin's cool art history friends and usually a ridiculous London tabloid. They all feature 26 page spreads on Princess Di, because the official 850 page (no joke) report just came out. No, it was NOT a conspiracy! No, she WASN'T pregnant! Henri-Paul (or whatever the taxi driver's textbook French name was): DRUGS! Fayed STILL insists the royal circle is up to no good, those lousy stinking Germans. (Incidentally, Fayed is crazy. Accordingly to Caitlin, he's graced the decor of Herrod's with a sculpture of Di and Dodi dancing and releasing a bird into the air).
6) Went to a Pub with a resident cat called Tom Paine. He's big and black and wears a ruff at all times. I had cider and it was quite good.
7) Next day (I'll speed up): Went to Westminster Abbey and saw the tombs of the British monarchs (Elizabeth I and Mary Queen of Scots were my favorite; it's canned, I know, but I admire them and their wily ways). Saw the poet's corner--Dickens, Byron, Chaucer, Austen, Handel, Browning, and much much more. As I walked around the courtyard, I stumbled (literally) upon the grave of Muzio Clementi (geez, I played some many of his little sonatinas when I was a kid). Spent an inordinate amount of time looking at effigies and rehearsal crown jewels in the museum, and looking at old medieval paintings in the charter house, then onto Winston Churchill and the unknown soldier and out.
8) Met Caitlin for the a look-see at the British National Gallery. Amazing Rembrant and Titian and the Holbein piece with the distorted skull (man, Caitlin, I am so terrible with names, you're probably wincing). We also looked at their amazing medieval art collection.
9) Services at the New Synagogue on Abbey Road. It was so nice to hear the chants (as always) but I was also relieved when the rabbi gave his little mini-sermon in English. It was the first night of Channukah (didn't see them light candles, since that happened at 4pm when the sun set). All in all, I felt just right being in synagogue celebrating, especially with all the Christmas glitz up and down Oxford and Piccadilly.
10) Next day: British museum. Holy shit. Saw the reading room where Marx wrote bits of Das Kapital (all I could think of was Tom Stoppard and Travesties...set in Zurich, I know, but I kept getting flashes of the prologue). Saw the Rosetta stone and the HUMONGOUS Egyptian art collection--huge busts of the pharoahs and granite cases for the sarcophagi, and then in the Assyrian collection, with entire walls depicting battles and lion hunts, and slaves and tribute, and violence, power, submission, all capped with two huge men-lions overlooking the exhibit from a great height. Then on to Greece...again, the scale is unbelievable. They reconstructed a temple at Lycia (although Caitlin and her friend were a little skeptical about the authenticity), and then bits of the Parthenon, a fragment of a monumental bust, a wall of meropes and reliefs and rooms extending filled with sculptures of the high classical period with their garments billowing lightly, transparently behind them. Yeah, we saw more, but I'm gonna fast forward to......
11) Much Ado About Nothing! Yay! Royal Shakespeare Company! 1950s Cuba style...and no, the 1950s Cuba was not accurate, but whatever, they had an orchestra pit with GREAT GREAT GREAT GREAT GREAT GREAT trumpet parts. OMG. I was drooling every time that sweet horn growled up to the stratosphere and gave a little tug to the top of the note. It's actually a pretty hard technique to master (for me, at least), but these guys were good. The dancing didn't really match the quality of the band (or the Shakespearian text--Balthasar was a Jamaican woman jazz singer who the Don Pedro was a little hot for...wha...?). Beatrice was by far the hardest, strongest Beatrice I've seen, a thin whiplash woman who could do the salsa better than anyone else, but sometimes reverted to screaming (esp when she asks Benedick to kill Claudio). I kept hearing Lisa in my head, saying that the worst thing to do, find another way to express anger on the stage, but a simple scream is flat and alienating and deadens the action. But still, I can't get her tight, bound shoulders out of my head. Her Beatrice was tough because she'd been hurt and scarred and now knew only the soldier's life...strangely right for Benedick, even though they were the most rough and untamed couple at the end.
12) Today...spent most of it looking for two fringe theaters and not finding either. One was in Camden Town (whoooah! goths! and a whole lot of goth street market). The other was in Greenwich (could not figure how to get to the bloody tube stop...and when I finally realized my mistake I was just to tired and annoyed to take another two trains to it). But I walk along the South bank docks where there were street musicians and Christmas markets and all sorts of people milling around. It was sunny and the gilding on Big Ben was glinting. I went to the Globe and saw a pantomine (or at least close to a pantomine, but, from what I hear, not as bawdy): St. George and the dragon. Then I looked at the exhibition hall in the Globe until they kicked me out at closing time. After that, headed over to London Tower (they have a skating rink and a playground in the moat...hows that for irony?) and walked across London Bridge (is falling down). Then over to Leicester Square for some terrible but cheap Chinese food at Mr Woos. And back to Caitlin's, where I am now, after having taken a lonng shower).