Friday, 16 January, 2004

11.30

We started the morning with breakfast, which was a bit confusing for Kim and me because we had missed it yesterday, when everyone was trying to figure out what was going on. We had bad service too, though apparently just at our table. It took forever to get cleared off so we could sit down, then we never got our cutlery or coffee cups; we had to steal them from other tables (which promptly received new cutlery), and we didn't get our coffee and tea until we tracked someone down and asked for it towards the end of our meal (by 'we' I mean Michelle).

We all met in the lobby at 10.50 to walk to the tube station together. We went to Temple, but I discovered that Charing Cross is easier to get to from the hotel, and I think closer as well. I guess which station I'll use depends on where I'm going!
When we got to Temple, a bunch of us had to get our passes. This process was much simpler for those of us who bought our passes today because of the brave souls who did it, without any guidance what so ever, yesterday. They told us what districts to pay for.


(taken from the London Underground website)

13.30

Our first stop was Tate Britain. Parts of this were very cool. Others, not so much. I'm not a huge fan of modern art. I'm much more into the historic stuff, although I love photography too.

The first exhibit (which we looked at as a class) was Turner Prize 2003. Some of this was all right. As I said, I'm not a fan of modern art. I've got extensive notes on this exhibit anyway.

The first room in the Turner Prize 2003 exhibit contained the works of Anya Gallaccio. Her specialty is working with materials that will change with time, such as ice, chocolate, and apples. There were three pieces displayed. The first was I'm nobody! Who are you?; three bronze twigs with red glass berries standing in a corner. The second was titled preserve 'beauty' (1991-2003), and was four panels of gerbera daisies hanging on the walls. The daisies had started our fresh, but now have mostly turned brown. because I could not stop was the third piece in the gallery. It was a large bronze cast from an apple tree, and it had huge bunches of apples tied to the trunk and branches with rope. Some of the apples had rotted so much, they had fallen on the floor into a big puddle of mush.


preserve 'beauty' and because I could not stop (taken from the Tate Britain website)

Then next featured artist was Willie Doherty, whose video installation, Re-Run, along with other videos and photography not displayed, is "rooted in the experience of life in Northern Ireland." The video is different shots of a man in a suit running down a street at night, and he appears frightened. The clip is looped, so it plays repeatedly, and it's not obvious where the beginning is.

The works of Jake and Dinos Chapman were displayed in the next room. Their art "combines material from all areas of the cultural landscape… [and they] use subversive strategies to make works that defy straightforward interpretation." In their series of etchings, Insult to Injury, the artists "methodically grafittied over a set of [Francisco deGoya's The Disasters of War etchings]." Sex (2003) is a bronze "translation of one of the most brutal scenes from Goya's series." Death (2003) is the companion piece to Sex. "The title refers to the philosophical belief that the sexual act mirrors the end of life."


Insult to Injury and Insult to Injury (along the wall), Sex (background) and Death (foreground). (taken from the Tate Britain website)

The final artist in the exhibit, and winner of the 2003 award, was Grayson Perry, who had three mediums displayed. By far the most prevalent was his "seductively beautiful pots," which he uses as an "unexpected way to tackle a wide range of personal and social themes." Perry's first piece was Coming Out Dress, which has something to do with his transvestite self (I think that's what the sign said anyway, I forgot to write that part down). Here is a list of all the pots displayed in the room:


Golden Ghosts, Village of the Penians, and Boring Cool People (taken from the Tate Britain website)

Perry's last three pieces were photos: Claire and Florence visit Shrine to Essexman (1998), Claire with X92 (1999), and Claire at the Site of a Fire (2003).

At the end of the Turner Prize exhibit was a room with articles on the exhibit and the artists, comment cards, and the Turner Prize 2003 video.

When I finished there, I found Emily and the Lizes on their way into the Tudor and Stuart Portraiture gallery. (In each of the following exhibits, I wrote down a little blurb from the gallery descriptions found just inside the entrance.) "Tudor and Jacobean clients expected portraits to emphasize surface pattern and ornament, and to focus on rich costumes and costly jewelry." This was a really cool exhibit, but unfortunately, I didn't think to write down the artists or subjects of my favorite portraits.

The next exhibit was The Royal Academy. "'This idea of the perfect state of nature, which the Artist calls Ideal Beauty, is the great leading principle' -Joshua Reynolds."

Next, we looked at a collection of George Stubbs' work from 1724-1806. Stubbs is "best known as the supreme animal painter in British art." His favorite subject was the horse, as there were maybe five of the fifteen or so paintings not of horses. Horse Devoured by a Lion was my favorite, and maybe the oldest (1763?), of the four lion-attacking-a-horse paintings displayed. He captured the look of fear in the horse's eyes so perfectly.


taken from the Tate Britain website

The next room we looked at was William Hogarth and the Theatre of Life. "Hogarth was fascinated by controversial issues such as prostitution, gambling, mob violence, poverty, and social prejudice. " "[He] became the dominant figure in the London art world during the early 1740s." One painting in particular caught my eye: Covent Garden Market (1737) by Balthazar Nebot. It captures the market as it was in the 1650s, and I'm interested in comparing it to Covent Garden as it is today.

Worldly Goods 1660-1730 demonstrates that "one of the functions of art was to provide a visible expression of this new commercial wealth." My favorite piece was John Senex's Terrestrial Globe (approximately 1718). It is inscribed "A New and Correct GLOBE of ye EARTH together with a view of ye General and Coasting Trade Winds, Monsoons & c. laid down according to ye Newest Discoveries and from ye most Exact Observations." It was just so funny to see a glimpse of what was known to be true 300 years ago.

The Making of British History display "focuses on paintings of scenes from British literature and history, and the role they played in popular perceptions of national identity from 1770 to around 1900." Two pieces caught my eye in this exhibit. The first was The Battle of the Nile (1800), by Philip James deLoutherbourg. The painting was so realistic, I felt I too was drowning in the water and cringing as one of my ships exploded not too far away. The other piece was The Lady of Shalott (1888) by John William Waterhouse. This is one of the paintings we looked at while discussing Tennyson's poem in Survey II! I'm glad I got to see the original, because I remember really liking the print we looked at in class. I think this final room was my favorite.


taken from the Tate Britain website

17.00

There was so much more to see, but we were getting hungry and I needed to go back to the hotel to replace my camera battery before we met our guide at 14.30. I left the Tate Britain with Akiko and the Lizes, but we split when we got to the tube. Liz A. and Akiko went to the Blackfriar Station, where we were meeting our guide, and Liz E. and I went to the half-price ticket booth in Leicester Square to find tickets to Phantom for that night. Unfortunately, they didn't have any, so we dejectedly made our way to Blackfriar's. We still hadn't eaten lunch by the time we got to the station and found people we knew, so we ran around the corner to Starbucks for a quick bite.

Because I was still finishing off my raspberry frapiccino when the guide, Janet, got started, I missed her opening remarks on when and where Dickens was born, etc. Also, I must confess that I wasn't at all motivated to try to hear Janet over the wind and street noise because, quite frankly, I don't care where Miss Havisham was from, or where Pip lived with his roommate when Magwich showed up, even though I read Great Expectations (and enjoyed it). And I certainly didn't care about the places we saw that were briefly mentioned in books or stories I've never read. Some of the information about Dickens' life was cool, like where he worked, and how he got his start in professional writing, but I would have preferred to learn this stuff from the warmth of Dickens' House, rather than wandering around in the cold wind for almost two hours.


taken from the Dickens Museum website

Regardless, I tried to pay attention and take good notes when I could hear Janet because I knew I'd be doing my website on the tour (although I'd almost forgotten that morning before we got to Tate Britain!) Although I personally didn't enjoy the tour, I thought Janet did a great job. I loved that she had quotes and stories for every stop we made.

Like I said, I missed most of the introduction, but I caught that most of Dickens' works incorporate the people and places around him, which is pretty cool. For example, a character in David Copperfield is based on his father, and another on his first love.

Just after the family moved back to London (shortly after Charles turned 12), his father was thrown in debtor's prison, and the family (except the eldest girl, who had a music scholarship, and Charles, who was old enough to make his own living) went to the prison with him.


taken from the Dickens Museum website

At the age of 18, Charles fell in love with Mariah, the daughter of a wealthy banker. Her family disapproved of the match, and sent her to Paris. When she came back, she felt she was too good for Charles until he became famous. I didn't hear what happened between them, but at age 24, Charles married Kate. We don't have any of her letters to him because he destroyed them, but we have the letters he wrote to her, so we know approximately how their courtship went, and we learned more about Dickens himself, although little is known about Kate.

We walked through Hanging Sword Alley, which was in A Tale of Two Cities.

*(side note) We noticed that London has few trashcans on the streets. Half the class, including yours truly, carried around our Starbucks containers for over half the tour before we found one!


taken from http://www.kazrak.com/pictures/WDWNew/Trashcans/

We made a stop outside Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese, a pub rebuilt after the 1666 fire, and frequented by many actors and writers, including, of course, Dickens.

We also got to see the house that Dr. Samuel Johnson lived in (he's the guy who wrote the first English dictionary), but I couldn't hear the connection Janet made between the two men.

We walked through Johnson's court, where Dickens' writing career started. The story went that Charles was trying to get over Mariah, so he started writing what eventually became The Pickwick Papers. He dropped off the first installment anonymously to The Monthly Magazine, and waited patiently for a month to see if it would be published. It was, so he went there and identified himself as the author. He wrote another installment every month, and they became popular. After a year he asked to be paid, and after two years, there was enough material to publish Sketches by Boz (Boz was apparently a childhood nickname). I think this was the thing that didn't sell well until Dickens got a new illustrator, then it became wildly popular.

We walked to the Temple Bar Monument (which used to be the gate between London and Westminster), which is mentioned in every Dickens novel set in London.

Next, we saw the Old Curiosity Shop, which was built in 1567, and is still the original building. Dickens moved its location for the novel, which was published in weekly, rather than monthly installments. As the story progressed, the public wrote in to save Nell, a favorite character, from dying. Dickens consulted his friend John Foster, who told him not to give in to the public, and to follow his artistic instinct. Nell died, and the public was outraged, even in the U.S.

John Foster lived just down the street from the shop. He was Dickens' best friend. He gave him the idea to read his works for money, but didn't actually like the idea. At first, Dickens raised money for charities, but eventually kept the money for himself.

At the age of 45 (or 46), Charles split from Kate and took in a 17 year old actress. He took his kids with him, however, and refused to let Kate see them.

We walked through Lincoln Inn's Fields, and then the Courts, where Barristers get their training. Dickens worked here as a court reporter for Edward Maloy. The old hall (built in 1492) was described in the first scene in Bleak House.

Staple Inn was described in the novel that Dickens never finished. The fig tree and sign reading "PJT 1747" are still there, just as they were described by Dickens.

Our final location was Gray's Inn (the second of the four Inns of Court that we saw), where Dickens worked after he quit school at 15. It was a horrible job, and to amuse himself, he threw stones at the clients below as the entered the building. He also got his first taste of private theatre at Gray's Inn. A private theatre is one where you can pay to play a role! Overall, Dickens described Gray's Inn as a "depressing institution."

Shortly before his death in 1870, Dickens was invited by Queen Victoria to Buckingham Palace. He thought he was going to be made a Lord, but she only wanted to give him a copy of her own writings.


taken from the Royal Residences website

After he died, Charles was buried at Westminster, with no pomp or flair, just as he wanted it.

22.30

I can hardly contain myself!! "The Phantom of the opera is here, inside my mind!" The music! The set! The costumes! The singing! The acting! I could go on forever! Everything about this show was amazing. I still feel giddy and high from the performance! I fell in love with the Phantom Highlights in junior high when my brother gave me the cd. When I was in high school, I had the opportunity to see the show cruelly ripped from my hands (I'm being a little overdramatic here, but now that I know what I missed out on then, I'm starting to feel bitter again!). I am so thankful this opportunity came my way again, and this time I was able to take advantage of it! And for only £20. I had to sit behind a pole, but that didn't detract (too much, anyway) from all the excitment. I just can't get over all of the wonderfulness! During the entire performance Liz and I were on the edge of our seats, singing along to all the songs we knew, our jaws were practically hanging on the floor (I literally caught myself with my mouth hanging open several times), and at times we even clutched each others' hands.


The Phantom and Christine (taken from the Phantom website)

One aspect of the performance that really stood out (if I manage to quell my gushing enthusiasm for a moment and think rationally), was the scene changes. They were so smooth and flawless, yet often really complicated!

The costumes were amazingly elaborate and full of color, especially in the Masquerade scene. The characters were all so alive and vibrant. Actually seeing the show filled in al the holes left by only listening to the highlights. Now I know why Monsieurs Firmin and Andre talk about their new chandelier in the first scene of act 2, and how the transition from "All I Ask of You (reprise)" to "Masquerade" goes so smoothly (there's a month between the acts).

Her Majesty's Theatre is incredible! They were able to do so much with such a small space. We thought that, like Les Miserables, this was another example of choosing a theatre to match the performance.

Well, I guess that's it for today! There is more fun to be had tomorrow!