Day 66 - I’ve Never Called Weapons Beautiful Before Today
Wednesday, June 29, 2011
Big, tiring day again! You must understand, however, that when I say “big and tiring”, it is NOT in a bad context. I would be happy doing this for the rest of my life. I don’t want it to end!
We went to Selfridges department store which set the base for all department stores to date. I’ve never been in a store that big. It was extremely overwhelming. But it was great that we got to shop for an hour or so! Damn, I love these classes!
The Wallace Collection:
I thought this was just going to be another damn cabinet of curiosities; something I’ve seen every week since coming. I found myself thinking, “If everyone has a cabinet of curiosities, and they are all the same, are they still curiosities?”
I may have misjudged the Wallace Collection, for I had certainly never seen these things before. Before this day, I have never called a weapin beautiful. The sheer amount of weaponry and armoury this man had was staggering! And it wasn’t just the magnitude that startled me. These weapons were breathtaking! Little artworks in themselves.
I’m really happy Gerard chose to keep this place under wraps until our last weeks. I was beginning to lose my faith in the wonder cabinets, but this lifted my spirits a bit. I even got to try on CHAINMAIL! Epic!
Tracey Emin Retrospect:
Once again, I was not looking forward to this show. I had seen a few examples of Emin’s work and was really unimpressed and didn’t think much about her as an artist. I changed my mind after viewing this show. I feel like her work is meant to be viewed as a whole, and not individual pieces. Her artwork tells her life and sometimes individual pieces don’t make sense until you see the rest. In viewing this one show, I felt like I personally knew her; her struggles, her pain, her fears. It was so personal and heartfelt that I couldn’t help but be moved by it.
Rosencratz and Guildenstern are Dead:
It was a little odd seeing this after Tracey Emin, as one was entirely about identity and the other was about having no identity. As a whole, I thought the production was put off very well. It was extremely funny and I didn’t even miss Tim Curry!Rosencratz and Guildenstern played their roles well. I think I liked Rosencratz better… or maybe it was Guildenstern? The stagecrew put together a very smart set; playing with perspective. It was very simple but the simplicity worked very well.
Day 74 - GET UP ON THIS!!
Thursday, July 7, 2011
HARRY POTTER TONIGHT!!! Scratch that… ROADTRIP TO BRIGHTON! Oh well it wasn’t a total loss. Salt N Peppa got us in the mood, even if it was damn early. I don’t think the other van knew what got into us.
Okay, I’ll be blunt… What a Sweet, Fucking Castle! Before Gerard showedit to us, he told us about the history of the place and about the mad, deer-hunting, egotiscal bastard that owned the place. Quite fun. Although, I think the reason he waited to show us the castle is that he knew nobody would be listening once they saw it!
It was such a beautiful place and environment! Unlike SOOO many of the tourist attractions I’ve seen on this trip, this place was so lenient when it came to visitors. I mean, we could basically do anything except climb the walls. It was great to be able to go around by yourself without an annoying tour guide or audio device. I was very pleasantly surprised. It almost made up for missing Harry Potter…. almost.
Brighton was beautiful! It was great to see a beach again! Also caught a glimpse of the white cliffs! The pier was a bit filthy, but otherwise pretty fun. I would have loved to have gotten there before the rides closed though. *maybe consider it in later trips?*
Day 73 - Sculpture Tour
Wednesday, July 6, 2011
So we did our tour through Ne Harlow today… I was a bit disappointed, honestly. I wasn’t expecting it to be a ‘sculpture’ tour. They were interesting to look at but I was hoping for a bigger tour of the town. It felt like I was shopping.
Dreary Day — Dreary Tour.
