London Arts!
Well, I just got back from an absolutely fantastic concert. The church of St. Martin in the Fields holds baroque music concerts regularly and cheaply if you're willing to forgo a view of the musicians. (Most of them are incredible enough just to listen to, plus you get better acoustics in the balcony anyway.) So for just £6 I got treated to two Vivaldi concertos, Pachelbel's Canon and Gigue in D, a short Mozart Symphony, AND Vivaldi's "The Four Seasons." Played with candles in the window, no microphones, and period instruments. It was honestly one of the most absorbing concerts I've been to in a long time. The beautiful thing about London having so little space is that the performances are all so intimate, and with something like this... just incredible. I got completely lost in the music despite my usually mild appreciation for Baroque music.
Since I'm on the arts subject, I've also been briefly to the National Portrait Gallery and the Tate Modern recently. The Portrait Gallery was interesting just to familiarise myself with the historical figures- I've now memorised the monarchs (and one effective president) from Henry VII through Charles II at least.
The Tate Modern- FANTASTIC. The galleries are grouped by theme rather than chronologically or by artist, which is wonderful. It allows you to compare various styles and interpretations more directly. And the art- as I said, fantastic. I know some people may not care for modern art much, but I think I just developed a strong interest in it. They had Picasso, Miro, Dali, Cezanne, Kandinsky, Pollock... and of course some other more controversial things. By the way, this was just one gallery section. Yup. Definitely going back.
Uhm, otherwise I've been getting over a minor cold that prevented me from going out the past few nights, and wandering around generally. I took a wander through some old book shops (as I'm wont to do), which was a blast for me at least. LOL I didn't drag anyone else along. I think my favorite moment though was when I was in an antiquarian children's book shop and I asked the owner to see a copy of "The Wind in the Willows." It was 1st edition, beautiful condition... and the man casually tossed out the remark, "Now, that one is £3,000." OOP. Tried mostly successfully to hide my shock and calmly stated that I thought I would put it back. Then he asked me hopefully whether I was a collector, so I guess I look less like a college student than I thought.
Since I'm on the arts subject, I've also been briefly to the National Portrait Gallery and the Tate Modern recently. The Portrait Gallery was interesting just to familiarise myself with the historical figures- I've now memorised the monarchs (and one effective president) from Henry VII through Charles II at least.
The Tate Modern- FANTASTIC. The galleries are grouped by theme rather than chronologically or by artist, which is wonderful. It allows you to compare various styles and interpretations more directly. And the art- as I said, fantastic. I know some people may not care for modern art much, but I think I just developed a strong interest in it. They had Picasso, Miro, Dali, Cezanne, Kandinsky, Pollock... and of course some other more controversial things. By the way, this was just one gallery section. Yup. Definitely going back.
Uhm, otherwise I've been getting over a minor cold that prevented me from going out the past few nights, and wandering around generally. I took a wander through some old book shops (as I'm wont to do), which was a blast for me at least. LOL I didn't drag anyone else along. I think my favorite moment though was when I was in an antiquarian children's book shop and I asked the owner to see a copy of "The Wind in the Willows." It was 1st edition, beautiful condition... and the man casually tossed out the remark, "Now, that one is £3,000." OOP. Tried mostly successfully to hide my shock and calmly stated that I thought I would put it back. Then he asked me hopefully whether I was a collector, so I guess I look less like a college student than I thought.