First of all, apologies for the late delivery of last week’s essay and I hope it didn’t spoil anyone’s weekend too much. I’m still not exactly sure what caused the computerised glitch that prevented the usual Saturday morning dispatch from going out but my guess is that the software technology embedded within the WordPress blogger’s … Continued
To Charing Cross Road and across Trafalgar Square where the hordes of happy tourists are, as usual, clambering all over the famous Landseer lions that stand at the base of Nelson’s Column. And, considering the rough treatment to which these big bronze beasties are subject every single day, they still look in marvelous, near pristine … Continued
Down to Oxford Circus tube station and emerging at ground level I find the torrents of rain that were cascading down from the heavens earlier this morning have subsided, leaving only big pools of water on the pavements for pedestrians to dodge past. There’s still a bit of what the TV meteorologists call light precipitation … Continued
Down to Piccadilly station and off to the Royal Academy which, thankfully, is quite a bit quieter today than it has been over the past few months. With the Summer Show now ended, the polite hubbub of people who make their special annual pilgrimage to see that particular seasonal favourite has consequently subsided and, as … Continued
To Oxford Circus tube station and then walk past McDonald’s and down on towards Muji and beyond. Many’s the time I’ve trudged along this particular route and been so deeply involved in deconstructing the intricacies of my own meandering random thought processing, or else been distracted by the turbulent torrents of oncoming touristic traffic that … Continued
Decide that it’s time to take a break from seeking cultural treats by pounding my lonely path down the mean streets of the capital and so head out for a day trip into the wild bucolic wilderness of the outer Home Counties, and specifically that place where aspiring dreamers go to commune among the dreaming … Continued
Take the tube out to Finchley Road and then walk up the hill to get to the Camden Arts Centre. And here the main galleries are filled not with the usual rather self-consciously modish video displays, installations or mixed-media sculptural-cum-bricollage site-specific whatnots, with which so many of the non-commercial, grant funded galleries seem so often … Continued
To Tottenham Court Road tube station and then take the shortish walk round the corner to get to the British Museum. I had wanted to take a look at the exhibition here of Hokusai prints which has been getting rave reviews but, checking it out on the Museum’s website yesterday, I realise that – drat … Continued
Down to Regent’s Park tube station and then take the short walk to get into the grounds of the princely Park. But grizzly grey clouds are starting to gather above and I can’t help thinking that I may have picked the wrong day to step outside the safe-zone sterility of the climate-controlled, air-conditioned, light-monitored, dehumidified, … Continued
Get the tube to Southwark and then walk down to Tate Modern to take a look at the big new exhibition that’s recently opened there and which is entitled Soul of a Nation: Art in the Age of Black Power. So, whose soul, which nation, what age, what power? Well, as the accompanying gallery leaflet … Continued