British Museum: The Celt Show

I've had several days without class this week, so today Kristin and I had an outing to the British Museum to see their Celt show. With my Art Fund card, I got half price on admission, which made is only eight and a half pounds. Otherwise known as: REALLY EXPENSIVE. But it's been a show with some buzz and we decided it would be worth a look.

To sum up my feelings on the show I'd say that it wasn't equal to the sum of its parts. They had some great objects. Some really beautiful work, some interesting reproductions, and an interesting starting point. What they did with these things ended up feeling a little half-hearted and a little confusing. They failed to answer a few key questions such as Who were these Celts, anyway? Where did they live? The organization made it hard to tell what the point was. There were artifacts from Scotland and Ireland, sure, but they also had things from Spain and Portugal and Germany. They had Roman stuff. They had Victorian stuff. They had comic books and Celtic jerseys. All and all... what exactly were they doing?? Plus, the whole thing was horrendously busy.

Despite this, here are some pictures of my favorite shiny things from the show. Not pictured: The St Chad Gospels.

 The top broach is more Anglo-Saxon than Celt, the mystery of this show's purpose continues... 

There was also an Arkansas razorback hanging out at the British Museum. Who knew??

And finally, look at the Christmas tree that's gone up inside the Courtauld Institute! Christmas is on its way!

Adventure is out There!

My day had a fairly inauspicious beginning. This week, since I had Core Methodologies Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday are totally free. So I slept late, ate the last scratch of food I had in my room and thought to myself: What do I do today? 

Well.

Sally had mentioned that the Crytal Sceptre, a gift from Henry V to the city after the Battle of Agincourt, was on display until the 3rd at the Guildhall Art Gallery near St Paul's. Okay, I thought. Why not? Especially since this object is never on view and has nothing published on it. So I set out walking.

It's about half an hour down the Strand, down Fleet Street, past St Paul's and then across a street or two to reach the Guildhall Square. They were having a food truck festival complete with band! The Traveling Tilbury's (haha...) playing George Harrison to a group of snacking Londoners. The atmosphere was really great, the band friendly and I enjoyed walking around and looking at the various foodstuffs. 

I ducked inside the gallery to find my sceptre and it was just inside the door. Really, startlingly beautiful object. The rock crystal particularly. It look almost looks too nice, too elegant for being 700 years old. It only comes out of its hiding place once a year for the Silent Ceremony, and for the handing over of power from on mayor to another. A feminist art historian would say its a visual embodiment of masculine, phallic power. what do you think?

 There were some other nice things in the gallery as well, including a work by Rosetti and beneath, the ruins of a roman amphitheater. It was just a pile of rocks so I didn't take a picture of it...

 This is the Rosetti 

 I referenced this painting in a paper i did on Millais once and then just ran into it here

Nice, right? 

Rather bizarrely, in the rooms of the gallery they were having a brick-a-bracky Christmas fair, with little old people and baked goods and hand made items. I sort of felt like I'd run into a flea market ... but I was in an art gallery. Go figure.

Days out exploring in London on your own on so special--you never know what you'll find!

St Alban's

On the Saturday after Thanksgiving (the same day I went over to Sally's, as it happens) The Medieval Society had a much-needed excursion out of the city to St Albans. Twenty minutes outside of town, St Alban's is a vibrant little place and was having their famous Saturday market when we showed up.

 The once-abbey-now-cathedral is home to england's very first martyr. It's a funny old church made up of disparate elements and cared for by a highly engaged community. They very clearly love their old abbey, with a refurbished shrine, exhibitions and multi-denomentational services. Our little tour guide was adorable.

Some architectural highlights
    The heavy, ancient Norman tower over the crossing

    Some surviving paint in the arches in the nave and in the pilgrim's shrine
    The "Watching loft" where monks could spy on pilgrims
    Miniature fan vaulting in the chantry chapel

After a nice long look at the church, our group tromped down the hill to Ye Olde Cockfighters, claimed to be the oldest pub in England, which foundations dating back to the original Norman church (aka old). We had lunch and drinks and enjoyed the homey atmosphere.

What a great day!

A Thanksgiving Away

I think I had a lot more trouble with Thanksgiving than a lot of my American colleagues at the Courtauld. It may be because, for a lot of people, Thanksgiving just isn't that big of a deal. Some people just sit down to a meal with their immediate family and that's it.

For me, Thanksgiving is an enormous deal. It is the biggest family occasion on our calendar, one of the few times a year when we are all together. It's the Little Rock holiday, where everyone comes to us. We give thanks for days. Fires out on the porch. Long talks. Shopping and football and food and, of course, the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade.

Not this year.

Despite being acutely aware of how much I have to be grateful for (I have so much to be grateful for!!) I was seriously bummed. I had trouble, especially Wednesday night, knowing that my family was arriving and I was stuck on the other side of the Atlantic. What was I thinking? How could I miss my birthday and Thanksgiving in Europe? Who thought this was a good idea? Being able to skype in at home was obviously incredible helpful.

Luckily, Thanksgiving comes in many different shapes and sizes! Even though I missed out on our Thanksgiving traditions, there were people here in England who cared, who wanted to make it special--and it was! I also had to turn in my first assessed essay of my MA, my first grade period. It was such a relief to get it turned in. Yet another thing to be thankful for.

Thanksgiving came in two parts this year. the first was a fun lunch with the Kristins (I have two friends names Kristin, both from LA) at Big Easy BBQ and Crabshack in Covent Garden. Their smoked turkey was delicious and their dressing was not dressing (made it with sweet potatoes?). the clotted creme on the pumkin pie was a definite plus.

My second Thanksgiving was with Sally's family and a group of friends where there was also plenty of food and laughter to go around. Andy, Sally's husband, made his famous creamed corn and we lingered at the table to hours talking about graduate school and evil neighbors and all kinds of other things. Sally's friends had an enormous standard poodle named Oscar. There were kids everywhere. It felt very homey. I was stupid and took no pictures, but it was wonderful!

 Thanksgiving, in sum, is about realizing how many different things in your life are worth celebrating. Family, of course. Food, of course. But also new friends and faraway travels and high adventure. It's worth it. This is worth being away, missing out on some things in exchange for an unparalleled experience to learn and grow.

Canterbury

November 20th my MA option took a day trip over to Canterbury, about an hour outside of London, to look at the Cathedral! It was a blisteringly cold day and I was lucky I'd bothered to bring my hat, scarf and gloves.

I've been to Canterbury once before when I was 16, when I knew nothing after art and was mainly interested in Becket and The Canterbury Tales. Ah what a trip that was. In summer Canterbury was chock full of fortune telling weirdoes, tourist trappy shops and weird spectacles like the "Canterbury Tales experience" complete with terrifying animatronics.

Winter is a better look on Canterbury, which was a quaint, christmas wonderland this time around. And, of course, the Cathedral was amazing again. The first time I was overcome by the beauty of the Cathedral as a cohesive building. This time, my better trained eye was able to piece apart the different centuries of construction on the church, the cathedral as a living creature adapted and transformed through time. We spent the day looking at the interior of the church beginning with the crypt and working our way up to what survives of the pilgrim's shrine. It was a great experience, though exhausting--an excellent way to apply the skills we've been honing in the classroom and at museums in a living, breathing monument.

I also ate a great hot dog.

And the 12th c monks probably burned down the old church so they could build this one.

 See anything wonky about this arch? 

Remember Remember the Fifth of November

       So this blog post is not really about Guy Fawkes day. At least not entirely. It's about this weekend, but Guy Fawkes felt like a nice place to start. On 5th November, 1605, Guy Fawkes and his buddies tried to blow up Parliament and King James I and failed. Guy Fawkes was the last man ever to be drawn and quartered, and the rest of England basically took it as an excuse for fireworks. Every year on Gundpowder Treason Day (Guy Fawkes Day) and into the weekend, everyone burns effigies, leads protests and stages fireworks to celebrate the day that Parliament was not blown up. It's a bit like Fourth of July. See V for Vendetta for further details.
       This year, Guy Fawkes was on a Thursday, which is my busy class day. In the afternoon, the medieval society took a trip to Temple Church, just down the street, which is the famous home of medieval effigies of members of the Knights Templar. It was heavily bombed in WWII, so very little of the original church survives. The effigies are cool, though, and include Sir William Marshal, the 1st Earl of Pembroke, who was an upstart from being the youngest son of somebody to advisor  to the king. His memoirs provide interesting insight into tournaments and medieval politics and spirituality in England.

Once darkness fell, the Duchy crew wanted to get into some Guy Fawkes trouble with the rest of London. Rumor had it that there would be fireworks on the embankment at 8, which meant, of course, that it made perfect for us all to tromp down to Trafalger, towards Buckingham Palace and then over the Parliament before reaching embankment at 8:45 or so. Well it turns out there were no fireworks anyway. There were, apparently, protests (with a burned car!) , but we didn't see any of them--only an odd stillness, like the city was holding its breath waiting for trouble. There were also guards blocking off the Admiralty Arch for a few minutes.

 Guards at Admiralty Arch

 Big Ben from Trafalgar Square

Crowds assembled outside Parliament

So: Guy Fawkes Day. Not really the big moment of the weekend, as it turned out. But only because most of the fireworks were actually held on Saturday. More on that later. 

       Friday was special because I got to have dinner over at Sally's house in Kentish town! For loyal readers of this particular blog, Sally is a fairly familiar face. She was the Dean of European Studies and a personal hero of mine. She inspired me to go to the Courtauld in the first place, and was John Lowden's first PhD student. She's been so welcoming and helpful since my arrival in London, but this was the first time I got to go over and have dinner with her and her family because of the hectic nature of European Studies, which concluded last week. So on Friday, with Ben's Cookies in hand, I took the Northern line up to Kentish town to eat with Sally, Andy, and their ten year old son, William.  It was absolutely lovely! We laughed and talked and I kept them up all night (it was 11:53 when I left, i"m sure they were exhausted and thinking 'good grief, let's never have her again!)

 An Indian-ish dish with Prawns followed by Plum ice cream! 

      I did some work in the library on Saturday afternoon and then embarked on an adventure with Sean and the Kristins (and later on, Sam)  over to Marylebone to visit Daunt's bookshop. It was gorgeous inside and I found ten books I wanted and didn't buy any of them because, oh, look how responsible I am. They had a wonderful children's section, but the real draw is THIS huge travel section, arranged by country:

(My eyes are awkwardly half closed in this one so don't look too close)

     Just down the street from Daunt's was Tommi's Burger Joint, which is in the running with Patty&Bun (where we went for Kristin's birthday) for the best burger in London. For 10, 90 you could get a burger, fries and a drink--this kind of combo is unheard of in London. The atmosphere was casual and fun and a bit like Huey's midtown! 

Tommi's Burger Joint

vs. 

Patty & Bun

YOU DECIDE

After dinner, we took the ambitious, camino-style walk up to Primrose Hill, the highest point in the city just by Regent's Park, for a good view of the Guy Fawkes fireworks happening all over London. It was beautiful up there, and we did see a number of fireworks as well as running into some other friends. Then a walk through Camden on the way home. 

On Sunday, Kristin and I went shopping Oxford Circus! So all in all....

A truly explosive weekend! Happy Guy Fawkes Day! 

Happy Halloween!

     Well, the European Studies 2015 kids flew home a few days ago, and today actually marks the two year anniversary of my last night in England when I was on that trip. I remember at that time being amazed at an English Halloween. Where are the kids? Where's the candy? All I seemed to see were adults wearing white make-up on their faces. This year, I'm pleased to say I've seen a more nuanced view of the holiday. 

      Yesterday morning, as Kristin and I rode back from the Saatchi gallery's chanel show, it occurred to us that being Tube stops would be a clever and absurdly simple costume idea! We really enjoyed using our best Tube-lady voices: "This is a circle line train to Cockfosters ... exit here for Ben's cookies." "Please mind the gap between the train and the platform." Our minimal, understated design (lol) caught eyes and was a big hit for how little we actually worked on it. Last night was the Halloween triple pound party over at the Institute, which means that for three pounds you have unlimited beer and wine. Does this sound like a recipe for trouble? It is. All of Duchy House was hungover today.

       So for actual Halloween, we were looking for something a little more low key. The day began with a brave expedition to Borough Market. We couldn't have asked for a more beautiful, crisp fall day with sunshine and beautiful light on the Thames. The toasted cheese sandwich we sampled was decadently rich and an utterly unmissable experience.

We walked along the river home, taking our time and a lot of pictures!

As evening approached, I realized that I never wanted to look at an alcoholic beverage ever again, so we decided to approach Halloween with a new tactic: The Lambeth Fire Festival at the Vauxhall Pleasure Gardens! They had a fireworks show, a band, food trucks, fire eaters and dancers! Not to mention a HUGE bonfire. I ate a toffee apple and danced to Thriller (Vincent Price went to the Courtauld, did you know that?) and had a lot of fun. 

Walking through the more residential area, we saw children trick or treating and more interesting costumes than just white paint on faces. It turns out, London shows out for Halloween!

Boo to you and you!