Archive for August, 2010
No Plain Sailing
August 31st, 2010
I was just in London and found time for Trafalgar Square, to see what was sitting on top of the famous Fourth Plinth. In recent years this erstwhile empty pedestal (it was made in the 1840s to exhibit an equestrian statue that was never completed) has played host to works by Marc Quinn (Alison Lapper Pregnant, 2005), Thomas Schütte (Model for a Hotel, 2007) and Anthony Gormley (One and Other, 2009, in which members of the public ‘became’ the art work by booking hour-long sessions on the Plinth).
Over the Moon
August 30th, 2010
Recently, with my youngest brother in tow, I visited the Air and Space Museum on the Mall. It’s part of the Smithsonian Institution and is, I believe, DC’s most popular museum, explored by over 10 million visitors each year. As you approach it, the soaring architecture of the building (designed by Hellmuth, Obata and Kassabaum) sets the tone for an air-space experience of the most mighty kind. A total of 23 galleries display 240 aircraft, 50 missiles, a planetarium and a theater with a five-story screen. There are balloons and space capsules of aviation and space flight. Read the rest of this entry »
First Dance
August 29th, 2010
This time last week Husband and I were at a wedding of dear friends in the UK. Though, instead of focussing fully on the exchange of vows or immersing ourselves in chit-chat with other guests, we found ourselves running through some “moves” in our minds. Even as we ate our delicious dinner, repeats and rhythms danced through and dominated our brains. Let me explain: this is an email we received from the groom ahead of the big day:
“CONFIDENTIAL! Seriously. Not a peep to ANYONE. Not even a hint of a surprise please! We want this to be completely unexpected and unanticipated! We would love you to help us in a bit of fun… We’d like you guys to join us in our first dance! We are going to be dancing a slow dance (for the first bit) and then it will turn into… JAI HO! And we would love you to join us for the Jai Ho for a bit of a laugh.”
Striking Matches
August 28th, 2010
Far be it from me to comment on the machinations of love in all its manifestations, but I’m going to venture that we notice, don’t we, when there’s an ill-matched pair. By ill-matched, I might mean decided decades separating the one from the other, or definite discrepancies in levels of beauty. Even pertinent polarisation in intellect or interests. As an example: this summer there’s been much feasting (in photographs) on the (wrinkled) flesh of billionaire Italian tycoon Flavio Briatore (60) and his perter, perkier model wife Elisabetta Gregoraci (30). Across the pond, age is but a concept for contemporary artist Sam Taylor-Wood, who just gave birth to a baby girl by her toy-boy fiancé, actor Aaron Johnson. She’s 43, he’s 20.
Shop, Don’t Drop
August 27th, 2010
Pop to the shops with Art 2010 in this week’s video and learn a whole new way to pick and choose a prime picture off the shelf.
Check out this week’s video blog. And special thanks to TC for his guest appearance.
Shark Bite
August 26th, 2010
Now why didn’t anyone tell me about Shark Week? I missed all the hair-raising and the gut-spilling at the start of August and was totally unaware that the powerful predator was mashing its jaws all over the box. One thing’s for sure: next year I’ll be sitting up front and centre for Discovery Channel’s Shark Week, a long-standing tradition in the broadcaster’s summer schedule (they first ran a full week of shark-devoted shows in 1987). This is a shot of the channel’s Maryland headquarters during this year’s Week, taken by one of my lovely readers:
The Art of Bart
August 25th, 2010
I met my first Bart through one of my brothers, who introduced me to the spike-haired, high-voiced cartoon character that’s so ingrained on all brains. My second Bart was a bit of an oddball, a boy in another brother’s class, who I recall once rubbed a burger across his face. Neither of these crazy characters could come close to the big Bart that’s beaming down from the altar wall of the Sistine Chapel: in the titanic scene of the Last Judgement there, St Bartholomew appears perched on a cloud, clasping the loosed husk of his own skin as well as the sharp tip with which it was removed. Michelangelo, the master responsible, painted his self-portrait in the molten pelt.
