Charing Cross

12 May 2011

There has to be something said for being able to talk to a group of people with the same interests and understandings as ones self. As our class started on Thursday we focused on what we saw the day before, including our feelings on the play The Cherry Orchard. The discussion lead us to the idea of a poignant tension which was clear in the play. Between the fear of the orchard being sold and the general unease of the country's upcoming history at hand, you could tell there was change coming for the family and it's friends.

There were characters you actually felt sorry for and others you believed got what they deserved. The main character, Ranevskaya, many agreed they did not--and have never felt--any sort of pity for her. My feelings were a bit different. She was a character that did not seem to want to change, in her family life or her business; for that she was despicable. As others tried to talk sense in to her she blindly looked the other way, but there was something almost sad in that, her attempts to cling to her past as if they could not change. There was a desperation I feel that we all can identify with, a fear of change that she took to the extreme.

From there however, we moved on to our new days activities. So far we have been lucky enough to have beautiful weather and today was no exception. The walk to St. Martin in the Fields was beautiful and the church itself was magnificent. It is the traditional style of architecture that we now use nearly exclusively in our protestant churches in America. It combines classic and gothic architecture with its very recognizable layout of a church parish and the steeple rising out of it in the front.

I feel I should state that the first time I've seen this church was not this trip, my last trip however, I wasn't paying much attention to it because of Trafalgar Square only steps away from it. Trafalgar Square is a fairly recognizable area in London with it's lions and large fountains. It's a wonderful area that people from tourists to locals like to sit and enjoy the day. 

It is also right across from the National Gallery, which is the museum dedicated to all the art I had previously only ever read about and studied in books. Again, it was not my first visit but there was significant change that last time I did not get to enjoy. 

If I had to pick any artistic period as my "favorite" I would have to say nearly all the Impressionist. Degas, Cassat, Renior, Manet, Monet, Turner (who techicnally is a preface rather then an actually impressionist) I adore their work. Last time I visited the ENTIRE Impressionist gallery was closed for renovation and I was not able to see any of the work there. This visit, however, it was open and I was able to see not only great works but was able to sit and enjoy the wonders of Degas as there was an entire room nearly devoted completely to him. 

Degas is my favorite painter, regardless of his womanizing ways and unsavory personality, and being able to enjoy his almost floating brush strokes and airy style was a treat. Degas is known for his ballerina's, of which there were two in the collection, but I was particularly drawn to the saturated reds of the "Combing the Hair". We were told to try and sketch in the museum (as pictures were obviously not allowed) and my first thought was to try and do that painting, but with it's over encompassing reds and subtle line changes within the shades I determined it was not a great idea and focused on the ballerinas. I have to say the sketching was terrible, I haven't done it in ages and my proportions were off, but it was nice to just focus on what I saw rather then worry about anything else. 

I have to say that while the National is a wonderful place and I would never call something necessarily "bad art" in a museum like that, there was some confusion over the large painting in one of the rooms. Portraits of human beings are traditional, back dropped with a simple color as we focus on the visage of some stone faced long dead man or woman. This portrait was nothing like that, 9 1/2ft tall, there was a giant picture of a HORSE. No back drop to place the situation, it was a (very well done painting) of a horse. I should have done research on the point of the horse, but I was so confused by this iconic large painting of simply a horse I could only, flabbergasted, walk past it to the other areas of the Gallery. 

By the time evening came, we had been rushed around other areas of London to be dropped off in a impressive building where we would be seeing the old eighteenth century play, School for Scandal by Richard Brinsley Sheridan. I had never read the play, but it had some really amusing scenarios that were atypical of that sort of period play. Disguise, confused identities of parties involved, and of course, scandal. Even the set and its design were eye drawing; there was a fashion show and bright strobe lights; except, the two did not meld well together in-tandem. There were inconsistencies between how the play was being enacted and how it was being perceived that left you jarred, trying to meld the two in your mind. Our final decision was that with more consistency one way or the other it could have been that much more enjoyable.

Tower Hill

11 May 2011

It has been a pretty busy week, which is part of the reason why I haven't been constant with blogging, that and our internet is shoddy at best. It cannot handle 11 students on it all at the same time, which is what tends to happen. We return from our busy days and all want to just relax on our computers, but if we all do, it bogs down the network (or this is what the house manager Fabio stated during that first meeting). 

In a nutshell this week has been walking a ton, seeing areas of London I have never even imagined, and watching a lot of shows. Like a lot of shows. One every night since Wednesday.

Tower of London being protected by a metal bowman.

Wednesday started with a class meeting going over our itinerary for the day and discussing the Tower of London (which we would shortly be going off too) and the show that we would be seeing that evening, The Cherry Orchard by Chekhov. Going through the tube, we got on the Piccadilly line to Tower Hill (appropriately named) to come out of the station with the menacing old castle spanning across the horizon. This was not the first time I have seen the Tower of London, and I do hope it is not that last (there is always still so much to see there, I feel), but every time I love just looking up at it, realizing the immense history that oozes from it's very stones. Weddings, funerals, tortures, beheadings; the Norman Tower is a place of tragedy as well as awe. 

We saw the crown jewels first, which were ridiculously expensive and hugely sparkly (yes, sparkly); nearly every surface was covered with some sort of precious stone or metal. I also learned that the fur ring around many of the royal crowns and robes is actually hundreds of tails of the rodent ermine. It is a special breed that is albino and the only spot of color they have is the little black dot at the end of their tail. They are extremely rare and hard to come by, so having so many of those black dots implies wealth and prestige because one can afford the luxury.

A guard at his post where the Crown Jewels are kept.

Finishing up our tour of the crown jewels we were left to wander around the area (which is quite large, as you can imagine) and a gentleman came up to us in costume that proceed to act in character of a warden of the prison as if it were 1614 (I believe). It came to pass that one of our group was decidedly visiting Sir Walter Raleigh, a prisoner there, for the tobacco that he was growing in the gardens of the prison (because he paid enough money to be allowed to grow tobacco). He was fairly amazing, almost seamlessly playing the part of a 17th century prison warden and being a fabulous guide in letting us know where the exhibits were. He and Cat were improv'ing which brought up a pretty fantastic blunder in which he asked if we were from the "Colonies" and how difficult it must be for us to live with the "red-skin savages"; her response "we should have let them keep their country" which left our guide speechless. 

It was both humorous and eye opening. In the States we are all aware that what we did to the Native American's was terrible, but as American's we forget that while much of it was going on we were still under British rule; and [particularly] while that man was playing in character they would not have seen it as wrong. His pause reminded--me at least--that our views are not all encompassing. 

The Real Diagon Alley as seen by "muggles".

After a longer chat and some wandering around the Tower a bit more it was time to go on a walk about London. It lead us to a very special area that was used in the Harry Potter and the Philosopher (Sorcerers) Stone movie. Diagon Alley was quite beautiful, the shops nearly as fantastical as one would imagine in the books themselves. The most wonderful part was the contrast with the newer buildings so close by; they fit together quite nicely but with Diagon Alley looking so classical and renessicence in conjunction with the tall metalic city-scape it was quite an experience. 

After a very quick dinner, we were off to the National Theater to see The Cherry Orchard where we had to cross a rather large bridge at night. Now I don't have many height problems, but I do suffer from a combination of agoraphobia and anablephobia; it's not specifically either one of them, but I cannot handle the wide open sky and tall things shooting up into the air.  The combination of the two makes me nauseous, light headed and extremely anxious and the bridge we crossed had all the right components to give me a start. It was a very long walk over the bridge but I managed to make my way.

An example (this is not London) of what would set off my phobia.

The Cherry Orchard was not what I was expecting, but I did enjoy it. The premise was a family where the mother, who has been abroad, comes back home to Russia because the cherry orchard they own can no longer be kept up and they must either pay their debts or it will be auctioned off. It is set right before the Russian Revolution and there are many illusions to what will soon be happening because of it. 

Now, tonight I will not be going on about it, but the National Theater is becoming one of my personal favorite places because of the sightings that have so far happened there. Luckily we have another show that will be previewed there and in the next few days Cat and I are planning on on seeing a different one that opens up next week. But more on all that in my next post, for tonight I must sleep and hopefully catch up the rest of my days tomorrow!