Two beautiful days in London town.  On Monday, I started the day trying to download an update for my Fitbit.   It was going to take 10 minutes.  After 40 minutes, I stopped and restarted then left for my museum adventure.  (When I got home, I found  out why the “update” took so long.  It was actually providing all the daily information that had been missing since I bought this replacement several months ago.)
Leicester Square Tube Station is a gateway to the heart of London’s theater, cultural, tourist, and party world.  To climb those stairs is to step into a bustling world – the square itself, St. Martin in the Fields, Foyles’ Books, Trafalgar Square, the National Portrait Gallery, the National Gallery, restaurants, theatres,  and so much more. On this day, I walked through Trafalgar Square with the homeless, the tourists, the buskers,  the chalk artists, the man proclaiming his personal knowledge of God’s revelation (about human sexuality , of course) and the rest of the Human Comedy playing there.  I crossed the Square and entered Britain’s National Gallery of Art.  The Gallery has a great collection of Impressionist art tucked away upstairs in several connected rooms.  I  love to make the trek through art history to reach them.  Monday was quite busy with the people taking pictures of the pictures.  This particular phenomenon has become more prevalent recently.  I like to sit with a piece like “Bathers at Asnieres”  by Seurat, to name one and take in the incredible detail.  To have the camera monkeys snapping away is kind of sad and disturbing.  Putting them aside, the collection remains, for me, enthralling.  These works, “La Terrasse at Vasouy, The Garden”, by Vuillard is another, can let the mind spin such tales, if you let it.  I hope that this not lost on people.  It was a glorious afternoon for me.
Tuesday turned into another lovely day.  I decided to spend part of it just enjoying a walk in the city, culminating with a nice lunch at Thai Square, a great restaurant on the verges of Covent Garden and Leicester Square.  The service is notoriously sketchy, but the food is worth it.  When you order a hot curry, you get a hot curry!  After a great meal and a walk around Covent Garden, I headed back to Russell Square to enjoy the sunshine.  This picture really captures the lovely leafy square, just a few blocks from my flat.  After enjoying the sunshine and the fountain, I made my way to the nearby Weiner  Library that is hosting an exhibit on Nazi human experimentation during the Holocaust.  This institution is described as:  The Wiener Library for the Study of the Holocaust and Genocide; is the world’s oldest institution devoted to the study of the Holocaust, its causes and legacies.  Sadly, in the times we live in when Germany has just elected far-right politicians to its legislature, I found the doors to the library locked.  Entry was through an electronic system.  The exhibit was every bit as sobering and disturbing as one would expect.  It certainly puts our petty bickering over who is a patriot and who is a “son of a bitch” to shame.  We all love our country an we should all be grateful for our right to dissent.  Let’s never confuse our symbols with our loyalty.  Let’s not disrespect our flag by trampling on it or wearing it, but let’s also respect all Americans and be grateful that our parents and grandparents fought to stop the insane ideas that came out of Nazi Germany and out of the Eugenics Movement in America too.  Teach your children well!

Source: Musings on Visits to a Museum and a Library- Sept 25 and 26

I’m not sure if all of these are visible to blog readers or not, but if anybody is interested, here they are.

 

A basement level book shop just down the street from my flat!  I can’t even tell yowhat it was like to step into that warren of pure joy.   This sojourn to London has been long enough to give me the time to appreciate the places near my flat.  The local shops and their charms are something I am particularly enjoying.

Wigmore Hall did not disappoint with another Tuesday concert.  This time it involved a pianist and a trombonist!  They were part of the Young  Classical Artists Trust series.  These fellows played a variety of classical pieces.  They were very accomplished but, sadly, looked like a pair of accountants.  They also played a new recently premiered composition called “Three After Dinner Pieces.”  Each piece was named for a piece of cheese.  The composer, Jack White, who was present to introduce the pieces, explained that he had worked in a cheese shop during his studies.

With another Wednesday upon us, I was on a search for a bargain Matinee.  I was expecting a potential Tube strike on Thursday.  So,  Thursday had the possibility of being a day of extensive “walkies.”  I settled on:   Dreamgirls, of course, is the thinly disguised tale of the Supremes and what might have happened  if original Supreme Florence Ballard had not died shortly after leaving the group.  I grew up a huge Supremes fan and knew the real story well.  This production was well staged and very engaging.  Both the acting and singing were outstanding.  The actress portraying Effie, the Florence Ballard character had an amazing voice.  During the interval between Acts 1 and 2, I overheard the Americans behind me expressing confusion about the relation of the story to the real history of the Supremes.  I couldn’t help myself, I turned around and offered the benefit of my Supreme Knowledge.  Before the show began, I had the chance to begin a new book (on the Kindle) called “The Lost Way.”  Its about how the New Testament came to have4 Gospels and what some of the other Gospels say.