THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 13, 2007

I don't know what it is about us and London, but when we were here in 1996 they had the Mad Cow Disease scare, and now there's Foot and Mouth (not foot in mouth).

Gord was working at home today and, until we figure out how to install wireless, only one of us can be online at a time. I usually work on my blog in the morning because Gord is working on his laptop at night, but this morning I took my book up to the roof and had a nice hour or so in the sun.

Today's itinerary was the Tate Britain. I thought I was so clever in working out the best way to get there, combining the underground and a bus. But, when I emerged from the subway at Westminster, the road from which I was supposed to catch the bus was under construction (i.e., closed) and the bus route had changed (I'm not sure where you get that information ahead of time). So I walked the rest of the way.

The Tate has an interesting logo, well it is really multiple variations on a blurry TATE (some more blurry than others). I don't get it, I'm not sure I like it, but somehow it works. There are four museums: Tate Britain, Tate Modern (both in London), Tate Liverpool, and Tate St. Ives. The Tate Britain is the national gallery of British art.

I started out with a tour of the current exhibition, Hockney on Turner Watercolours, which is a rare opportunity to see some of Turner's watercolours. Part of the exhibition included David Hockney's selection of some of Turner's works (hence the title), as well as the new acquisition of Turner's The Blue Rigi, Sunrise 1842. The funds for this acquisition were raised by a unique scheme. Visitors paid 20 pounds to buy a "brush stroke" of the painting, and I think they had a computer image of the work and your donation allowed you to put your name on the brush stroke you purchased, or something like that. The docent said the work cost 4.95 million pounds (I think--4 point something at any rate). Anyway, I was pretty underwhelmed by the tour, not because of the docent but because I'm not a fan of Turner. I was trying to figure out why I don't like his stuff--I appreciate that he had amazing talent, and his technique makes his watercolours look like oil paintings sometimes, his skies are impressive. Is it the colours? No, I like other artists who use those hues. Do I not like landscapes? No, I don't think that's it. Are they too blurry and I like crispness (and that's why I wear glasses)? Well I like some of the Impressionists so that can't be it. I don't really know why. I wanted to like it.

Then three of us took the tour of their twentieth century art and that was more interesting to me. Henry Moore, Barbara Hepworth, Jacob Epstein, Lucian Freud, Francis Bacon--now there are some interesting folks. I can't say I liked ALL of it, but it was certainly much more gripping. I'm sure many would disagree.

After that I toured the rest of the permanent collection--Thomas Gainsborough, Joshua Reynolds, William Blake, John Constable (maybe I really DON'T like landscapes). I think my favourites were the Victorian era and later stuff--Millais, Rossetti, Holman Hunt, Waterhouse, Burne-Jones--I kind of liked the realistic style of painting. I'm looking forward to the Millais exhibition they're having in a couple of weeks. Whew--it was an exhausting visit.

FRIDAY

I'm told that if I really want to impress a Brit, I have to listen to the radio drama, The Archers. Apparently it's on Radio 4 every day in the afternoon, but they replay the week's episodes on Sundays. And if that's doesn't fit your schedule (which it doesn't) you can listen to the episodes online. It's been on for years and there is quite a following. I just might have to check it out. Then if I get hooked I can listen to it online when I get back to the U.S.

Today, I joined Gord's class on a walking tour of Chelsea led by Richard who has been doing the Beatles walking tours for fifteen years. We saw the hotel where the Beatles' stayed when they recorded their first album (in one twelve-hour day, no less), where Keith Richards and Mick Jagger had lived, the city hall where John and Yoko married, and the current London home of Eric Clapton. More than just pointing out these places and others, he gave a sense of what it was like on King's Road and environs during the sixties.

Gord and I continued on to Leicester Square to buy theatre tickets for tonight, and then we lunched (can you say dim sum-ed?) in Chinatown. While Gord went to a faculty meeting I went home, did some laundry (isn't this exciting?) and worked on my blog.

The play was wonderful. We saw The Emperor Jones by Eugene O'Neill, a wonderful play unfamiliar to me, and it was a great production. The lead was extremely talented, the set design, the lighting, the music (no it wasn't a musical but there was music in parts), the choreography were all outstanding.

Tomorrow it's the Portobello Road Market.