A LOVELY COUPLE OF DAYS AND A NEW LOVER
The proverb, «safety in numbers» does not apply to me! I prefer the complicity of «one» and yet in London this week, I picked up a second lover! The first one is already perfect. There when I want him. Never pesters me. Always as I want him to be and leaves me alone when I don’t need him. You don’t get better than that. So discovering a second one in the citizenM on London Bankside could be termed as infidel - but you’ll see....
Would I get to the UK at all? The snow had fallen heavily since my return from Florence and Eurostar had been cancelled from Brussels to London. Finally we left - on time - and arrived ten mintes or so late. Down to Meldreth and there the countryside did not seem to be as white as Normandy had been. In the afternoon we wandered up to Cambridge and there Kings College looked beautiful in white although the ducks were not finding too much to eat.
The following day we were coming to London to celebrate Pierrette’s birthday, see a show and an exhibition and experience - or so I hoped - a new boutique hotel. citizenM. I had chosen it as there was every imaginable gadget around in the rooms. However, I was somewhat worried as there were not two beds. The hotel had confirmed just a huge double....I took the risk. Quite unpretentious on the outside but once inside , booking in was done directly by the client (with a little help from charming young staff) on a tactile screen,
then up to the third floor in a trendy lift and into our room with written philosophical comments on the wall from different countries. Australia was there with wichitie grubs to eat in the afternoon for intelligence reasons - I wouldn’t do so.
The room was minimalist with every mod com and tiny into the bargain. The bed was ENORMOUS and probably more than King size. We would probably be able to sleep in it together without knowing we were sharing it. One big let down though, there was no mod com to switch the lights off once you were in bed, so scrambling down to the end seemed a long way and a bit of a nuisance. One night is quite sufficient for our age group but it’s an extremely trendy place, filled with young people in the bar in the evening and consequently rather noisy. We opted to find a place to eat at the Old Vic.
The show was «Kiss Me Kate». I had already seen in in 1999 - I thought it was much earlier but looked the date up this morning. A wonderful romp. And how elegant playing it at the Old Vic which I had not been to for over 40 years! The theatre had not changed though !!!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JVyAcuurAEM
Some of the songs are just fantastic and we will both be «Brushing up our Shakespeare» for some time. This was not the rendition that we saw the characters can be seen in the former video - I think ours was even better but this was great too
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XJIpp2Jj8AQ
The following morning it was to be the Modern Tate -just around the corner too. The exhibition was «A Bigger Splash»
I had read but diagonally about the exhibition before going to the UK. What had caught my attentions was the Jackson Pollock and the David Hockney..
Also I suppose because the exhibition looks at the relationship between painting and performance (action painting ) since the 1950’s. How experiments are made with the body - for instance Klein as his nude bodies covered in paint, sprawling all over canvas. The use of body is perhaps a ritualistic action but when it becomes vulgar, from my point of view it becomes ugly and just not art at all. Niki de Saint Phalle also «shot» at canvasses and her actions were filmed.
Shozo Shimamoto painted by hurling bottles of pigment that would smash against a canvas or firing paint from a canon. I discovered him some years ago but really didn’t need to know how active he was to quite like his very abstract work.
Apart from these few paintings, it will not be an exhibition that is memorable for either of us. Another artist, Scot but now living in Belgium which we did quite like because of her trompe "l'oeil" Magritte approach, was Lucy MacKenzie. But checking her out again this morning, I wasn't quite so enthusiatstic.
By the time we got to the permanent collection, the Saturday crowds were upon us. A visit to see some «old friends» and then out again.
The trip back to Paris was uneventful. It had been a wonderful two days and of course you want to know who my lovers are don’t you? The first lives downstairs and is called Picard - a frozen food supermarket and let me introduce you to Marvin. He was sitting on our bed at citizenM. Could you resist him? I couldn’t. What a doll !
Would I get to the UK at all? The snow had fallen heavily since my return from Florence and Eurostar had been cancelled from Brussels to London. Finally we left - on time - and arrived ten mintes or so late. Down to Meldreth and there the countryside did not seem to be as white as Normandy had been. In the afternoon we wandered up to Cambridge and there Kings College looked beautiful in white although the ducks were not finding too much to eat.
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| On our return th snow was melting |
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| King's College |
The following day we were coming to London to celebrate Pierrette’s birthday, see a show and an exhibition and experience - or so I hoped - a new boutique hotel. citizenM. I had chosen it as there was every imaginable gadget around in the rooms. However, I was somewhat worried as there were not two beds. The hotel had confirmed just a huge double....I took the risk. Quite unpretentious on the outside but once inside , booking in was done directly by the client (with a little help from charming young staff) on a tactile screen,
 |
| All about the hotel.... |
 |
| Booking in |
 | |
| Nothing to write home about |
then up to the third floor in a trendy lift and into our room with written philosophical comments on the wall from different countries. Australia was there with wichitie grubs to eat in the afternoon for intelligence reasons - I wouldn’t do so.
The room was minimalist with every mod com and tiny into the bargain. The bed was ENORMOUS and probably more than King size. We would probably be able to sleep in it together without knowing we were sharing it. One big let down though, there was no mod com to switch the lights off once you were in bed, so scrambling down to the end seemed a long way and a bit of a nuisance. One night is quite sufficient for our age group but it’s an extremely trendy place, filled with young people in the bar in the evening and consequently rather noisy. We opted to find a place to eat at the Old Vic.
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| The Lobby |
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| The bar at breakfast time |
The show was «Kiss Me Kate». I had already seen in in 1999 - I thought it was much earlier but looked the date up this morning. A wonderful romp. And how elegant playing it at the Old Vic which I had not been to for over 40 years! The theatre had not changed though !!!
Kiss Me, Kate is a musical with music and lyrics by Cole Porter. The story involves the production of a musical version of William Shakespeare's The Taming of the Shrew and the conflict on and off-stage between Fred Graham, the show's director, producer, and star, and his leading lady, his ex-wife Lilli Vanessi. A secondary romance concerns Lois Lane, the actress playing Bianca, and her gambler boyfriend, Bill, who runs afoul with some gangsters.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JVyAcuurAEM
Some of the songs are just fantastic and we will both be «Brushing up our Shakespeare» for some time. This was not the rendition that we saw the characters can be seen in the former video - I think ours was even better but this was great too
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XJIpp2Jj8AQ
The following morning it was to be the Modern Tate -just around the corner too. The exhibition was «A Bigger Splash»
I had read but diagonally about the exhibition before going to the UK. What had caught my attentions was the Jackson Pollock and the David Hockney..
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| David Hockey - A Bigger Splash 1967 |
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| Jackson Pollock - summertime Number 9A 1948 |
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| Niki de Saint Phalle "Shooting Picture " 1961 |
Shozo Shimamoto painted by hurling bottles of pigment that would smash against a canvas or firing paint from a canon. I discovered him some years ago but really didn’t need to know how active he was to quite like his very abstract work.
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| Shozo Shimamoto - untitled 1980 |
Apart from these few paintings, it will not be an exhibition that is memorable for either of us. Another artist, Scot but now living in Belgium which we did quite like because of her trompe "l'oeil" Magritte approach, was Lucy MacKenzie. But checking her out again this morning, I wasn't quite so enthusiatstic.
By the time we got to the permanent collection, the Saturday crowds were upon us. A visit to see some «old friends» and then out again.
The trip back to Paris was uneventful. It had been a wonderful two days and of course you want to know who my lovers are don’t you? The first lives downstairs and is called Picard - a frozen food supermarket and let me introduce you to Marvin. He was sitting on our bed at citizenM. Could you resist him? I couldn’t. What a doll !
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| Introducing Citizen Marvin |
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