Big catch up.

Bronze Ballet -  Edward Wadsworth 1940

Firstly - thank you for the kind comments after my last post, I'm afraid it sounded a little bit like a cry for help or me fishing for compliments, it was neither.

Anyway...

A week away from my studio work, and aside from everything else I needed to do, I've taken advantage of 'holiday time' and have been n London to catch up on Culture with a capital C and sit on a judging panel for the ISTD international student awards thingy.

so...

The Kurt Schwitters at Tate Britain was fantastic - and very comprehensive, and included several other artists work for context, including this painting (see above) - which has long been one of my favourites. I have to say, the cafe at Tate Britain is very dull and depressing, dreary academic types growling over their peppermint teas.

On the way back to town I passed Parliament, just as the budget was about to start - bumped into Baroness Scotland, who is shorter than you might expect - but looks 25 years younger than her real age (I looked it up).

I also saw the Man Ray at The National Portrait gallery - again, very good - but packed to the gunnel's and with dreary posh people 'ooing' and 'aaahing'. Both exhibitions were staggeringly expensive - as was everything else in London.

Entertainment wise - first night I caught Ken Loach's magnificent 'Spirit of '45' - which I cannot commend highly enough ( it's regularly been getting standing ovations )  - and later on 'Old Times' at the Pinter Theatre - with Rufus Sewell ( basically, playing Harold Pinter ) - Kirsten Scott Thomas (she has very nice feet, as if she had been carried everywhere, her whole adult life) and Lia Williams in alternating roles - I liked it very much, again, an audience of fossilised rich people who may have looked the part, but frankly didn't have a clue what was going on ("is it about lesbians, dear??"). 

On another night I was lucky enough to catch 'Trellawny of The Wells" At the Donmar - which was much lighter in tone, much more fun and highly entertaining - The Donmar has seating around 3/4 of the jutting stage area - and I was at the extreme corner - so tight to the edge - I was practically back stage. This was particularly enlightening near the end when one of the male leads and one of the female leads were required to sit in the badkground, back to the audience out of the way - whilst the rest of the cast took centre stage - I'm quite sure they had no idea I could see her give him a fast and vigorous hand job to pass the time.

On Thursday I had lunch in The Albion in Shoreditch - near where I used to live. Then it was a dump - now it's hipster hellmouth - grossly over priced and trendy beyond belief - white linen with 'ironic' brown sauce bottles on the tables etc. They have a posh food outlet at the side - hand grown organic vegetables etc - porchini mushrooms…… and large economy bags of Yorkshire tea, displayed as if they were precious jewels. One interesting thing there was a that I seemed to have the pick of about 20 different free Internet providers - all high speed. The rest of the customers appeared to work in film production. I tried very hard to give the impression I was trendy - by eating and surfing the web at the same time - looking very self important. I also went shopping in Labour and Wait - and nearly bought something - which would have been silly - I know the owners, they only live down the road.

That part of London is where I lived through my 20's - it was a dump then - but it's trendy, 'vibrant' and expensive now - I keep glimpsing things that have remained unchanged for decades juxtaposed next to things that are new, shiny, futuristic and out of all proportion. I caught one tiny piece of graffiti that has been there since I was 20 - next door is now a skyscraper.

The hotel was 'OK' - but staggeringly noisy - as my room looked out over Charring Cross road and Cambridge Circus and was buzzing with activity 24hrs a day - the other guests were constantly in and out of their rooms - next door appeared to have 5 different occupants, or just a very exciting sex life. 

It's great fun being in central London - but wore thin after a couple of days - the noise at night was just too much. I know someone who has a flat on Charring Cross road - directly opposite the hotel - dunno how he copes.

The next hotel - from Friday - was in the city and much quieter. As there were so many of us booked in we were all upgraded to staggeringly good suites - I had a separate bathroom, office and lounge - whilst  soaking in the bath on the first night I noticed a door I'd not noticed before that led to another room - essentially a walk in wet room. A quick scout around the internet revealed that my 2 night stay would have cost about £700. I could quite happily have lived there. It was in a very quiet street, almost opposite the Tower of London, and felt a bit like being in New York, being situated under all the tall new office buildings. London has changed so much now and the skyline is so different, I struggled to get my bearings.

I really enjoyed my stint with the ISDN, it was exciting, demanding and quite challenging plenty to think about. Saw some staggeringly good work - humbling.

In conversation with one of the other judges - we established that he was brought up 2 streets away from me as a child, knew members of my family and we had frequently been in the same room at the same time as teenagers.

There was a street adjacent to the hotel called 'Savage Gardens'.

The breakfasts were superb. I had an omelet for breakfast every day, better than any omelet I have ever tasted.

It snowed every day, was very cold, high winds, and not like the week before Easter.  We seem to have an endless winter.

I'm back home now - I shall probably have an early night - picking the dogs up in the morning. Might as well make the most of that.