What better way to start my first weekend of the sojourn than a trip to see the Fulham All Whites play Nottingham Forest in a Championship League match at Craven Cottage, the cozy and venerable home ground of Fulham FC.  The park in question is Bishop’s Park which, like “the Cottage” sits along the River Thames.  Saturday was a perfect day to

step off the Tube at Putney Bridge station and take a walk through this beautiful urban oasis on the way to the excitement of a British football match.  My seat at midfield was perfect

and I was surrounded by fellow home team supporters.  There is, of course, noticeably less media and “hoopla” in England’s Second Division, but it is still high quality football.  Officiating is not quite at the same level, perhaps, but ask me again when I see Fulham win a match because sadly it was not Fulham’s day.  But I shall be back to see them win a future fixture.  It was great to see fellow alum (and former SUNY Oneonta soccer star) David Daly taking part in halftime activities at today’s game.

Other than reaffirming my love of the beautiful game, I am also reaffirming just how much peace  get from being away from the 24 hour US news cycle.  Its amazing how free my mind becomes when I don’t have that crutch of talking  heads and the disturbance of the huge orange “Tweety-Bird.”  Also, becoming a non-car  person opens a new world too, for two months.  I’m lucky to be living between two tube stations, one of which is part of a major International rail hub (Saint Pancras – or the Blessed Pancreas, as Sally Krahn and I call it).  All the basic shopping needs are close by, as are numerous great restaurants.  So life, at the moment, is pretty sweet.

If you missed this picture of my ugly mug on FB yesterday.  Here I am at Craven Cottage, no doubt thinking of the irony of Craven being the name of the man who was President of SUNY Oneonta during its glory days in Division I Soccer.

Tonight (Sunday) looks to be great fun.  My cousins Joann and her husband Frank are in London and we will be dining together.  I love seeing family and friends and getting to show them a little bit of “my London.”  We’ll be eating at a great neighborhood place.

 

So, what happens when a certified history geek who is also a certifiable theatre geek sees

“Hamilton.”  Well, first, he has to get out of his brain the  picture of Alexander Hamilton in “The History of New York State and Its People” (the textbook used to teach history of the Empire State one of the two times it was taught to young scholars back in the years when history was still “His-story.”  That particular depiction of Mr. Hamilton had him look incredibly like TV’s favorite secret agent, Napoleon Solo, the Man from U.N.C.L.E., portrayed by the dashing young Robert Vaughn.   The theatre geek side loved the show. though Jefferson as Prince was a bit of a surprise, but very well done.  I liked the use of women in the chorus for cross-gender roles.  I won’t bore you with all the history geek’s nitpicks, but James Madison was physically tiny and the whole Jefferson – Sally thing was a little weird.  Oh, and the Hamiltons had a shedload of kids, not just the two mentioned.  But my brain is full of that kind of stuff.   Like poor old Martha Washington who was BFF with Elizabeth and she got short shrift.

Oh, and I forgot to mention in my previous entry on the Hislop exhibit, he covered protest music too.  One of the songs was “Strange Fruit” made famous by Billy Holiday and written by Abel Meeropol.  What surprised me was that the exhibit didn’t mention that Mr. Meeropol adopted and raised the sons of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg after they were executed for spying.

The brilliant Ian Hislop has put together an exhibit at the British Museum called Search for Dissent.”  He traces dissent as simple as graffiti and as subtle as the shade of green on a piece of porcelain.  He brings dissent up through the pink pussy hat and events of the past year.  Here is a rude depiction of Cleopatra that I found interesting.  The

amazing thing about this exhibit is that so many of the pieces in it came from the Museum’s collections.  After leaving the museum, I had a nice time visiting the neighborhood of the first VRBO I rented two years ago, the fondly remembered 5th floor walk up.  It was also a chance for a pleasantly remembered walk to the Covent Garden neighborhood.  Since visiting the Hislop exhibit, I’ve been more sensitive to the importance of dissent and freedom of expression.  The plight of the Uighurs in China and how little is known or heard about them in the outside world comes to mind.  How lucky we are in the US to have the right to dissent.  I have heard several English friends and acquaintances speak of how different our systems of public engagement are.  Again, it all seems to come together when I think about dissent and what our two countries are going through.

A lovely First Class Virgin Atlantic flight, a successful key hand over at Clare Court, and I was settled back in my little English flat.  I have a wonderful feeling of coming home in this pleasant neighborhood sitting between Kings Cross and Russell Square.

After my pal Nigel warned me that Foyles Books, my favorite London book store, was under attack from Amazon, I made an early pilgrimage to Foyles.  As I entered I went up to the information desk and said “say it ain’t so..”  He looked at me strangely.  I said, “Bezos, Amazon”.  He assured me the deal wasn’t done and agreed that buying more books might help.  So, I obliged.

I had an early Saturday wake up to make it to the Tate Modern’s special Member’s Hours for the last week of the Picasso exhibit.

I love Picasso and this chance to see the exhibit under less the jam-packed conditions was great.  His use of shape and color and his imagination were so exceptional.  It made for a great morning.

A weekend walk took me past St. Pancras Church, or “the Church of the blessed Pancreas,” as Sally Krahn and I call it.  It is a lovely old church and the church yard has some wonderful pieces of sculpture in it.  Its oe of the lovely things about London.

Today is September 11th and I decided to visit Saint Bride’s, “the journalists’ church on Fleet Street.  It was  a touching visit and the memorials to journalists past and present on this

  solemn day had special meaning.  The church crypt had exhibits and artifacts from churches on the site over some 1500 years.  So glad John Kelly suggested this place.