The Ashmolean Museum, Oxford

The Outside of the Ashmolean Museum

The Ashmolean Museum in Oxford has had a revamp, and I absolutely love it. It's so modern, fresh and light, completely the opposite of the typically dark and stuffy museums. It's like a miniature British Museum. Unlike the British Museum however, it is not filled with masses of tourists and visitors (well not the day I visited anyway). So I had the run of the place without having to queue or stand on my tip toes to see anything. If you want to see Egyptian mummies this is the place to visit. I also recommend the restaurant on the rooftop, wonderful food (I had a watermelon salad washed down with a pint of Pimms!) and a little grassy area with deck chairs. Be warned though, they seemed to have a wasp issue when we visited, so don't sit near the flowers!

The Rooftop Restaurant at the Ashmolean

Lowry at the Tate Britain

St Augustine Church, Pendlebury

My preconception of the exhibition was that I wasn’t going to enjoy Lowry’s work; I thought it would be too childlike and simple. How wrong I was. I found it very thought provoking and touching. The paintings showed everyday life as seen through Lowry’s eyes, and depicted events such as going to and from work, eviction from houses... the paintings were often showing a sad event, and were very melancholy. I really loved the paintings of churches, with the graves picked out like little figures, and also the large paintings of panoramic views over the towns. When you got close to the paintings you found there wasn’t much detail, and you could see how Lowry had used a few brush strokes to form a person, this gave movement to the paintings, but you really had to stand back to get the effect. Too close and you lost the detail. Paintings by other artists were included, I think to show Lowry’s influences. For me this wasn’t needed. I felt that Lowry came across as a really individual painter, and I paid little attention to this. I didn’t like the paintings where Lowry had tried to paint in the detail of peoples’ faces, and showed the people very close up. For me this was too simplistic. The whole exhibition was very thought provoking, and I came away from it feeling sad that nothing much had changed, that Lowry had captured the monotonous events of everyday life. I would be very interested to visit the Lowry Museum in Manchester, and to see more of his work.

Returning from work

Tales in the Round: Manjū Netsuke and Japanese Woodblock Prints at the Ashmolean Museum

Manju Netsuke at the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford

Netsuke are little Japanese toggles that hang from a cord on a kimono, and attached personal items such as purses and tobacco products. But unlike toggles netsuke are incredibly beautiful pieces of miniature art.  The book ‘The Hare with the Amber Eyes’ is about the story of a collection of netsuke being passed down through a family, and is really worth reading. The exhibition at the Ashmolean focused on Manjū netsuke, which are round, named after a sweet bean filled bun. The Manjū are mostly made of ivory, and depict folk tales. Wood block prints were also displayed next to the Manjū showing the folk tales.

One of the Manju Netsukes

Wood block print of The Golden- haired nine-tailed fox

Another type of Netsuke is the Katabori netsuke. this is a sculpture, and is usually a 3d figure. Some examples are shown below:

My Day of Archaeology...

I posted a blog for a Day of Archaeology 2013:


http://www.dayofarchaeology.com/archaeology-in-london/

The Tempest at the Globe

On Sunday 11^th August the folks and I went to see the Tempest at the Globe. Now usually I can’t speak highly enough of the Globe, it has such a high standard of performances, and I’ve seen some amazing plays there. All this made Sunday’s performance very disappointing. The actor playing Sebastian came on at the beginning, and told us that Colin Morgan who was playing Ariel was sick. Now I’ve never watched Merlin on the Beeb, but it’s obviously quite popular, and there were a lot of youngsters who I think had turned up to see him. The actor then joked and asked whether anyone knew the part of Ariel, and that Matthew Raymond would be reading the part. Reading was the key word there. The play started well, but in the first scene involving Ariel all became clear. The ‘understudy’ came plodding on clutching the script, and read the lines out. There was no acting involved. Roger Allam tried to make light of the situation by pretending to check his line over Ariel’s shoulder, but all in all it was very awkward. I just felt embarrassed and bad for the stand in actor, and it was not comfortable. I was so glad that we’d had a long lunch with plenty of wine. Having an actor on stage reading from a script just destroys all the magic of the performance, and it was ironic that it was the part of Ariel that’s meant to have the most magic.

The worst (or most hilarious) part came at the end, when a young chap appeared on stage shaking and clutching a small piece of paper, and then read out from it. It was like watching a school performance; we were all willing him to get through his speech. I have no idea what he said, I was on the edge of my seat hoping he’d be okay (and trying not to giggle).

 I read the reviews of the play afterwards online, and we obviously missed out big time. It’s rated highly and is described as ‘magical’ and ‘enchanting’. I don’t think the play itself helped, I found it clunky, and drawn out, but having scripts on stage definitely broke the allusion of the play. I’ve bought the dvd of the Tempest by Julie Taymor, so I’m going to give that a watch, and see how I feel after that. I do hope the Globe change their policy of no understudies though (apparently it’s due to funding) as I really don’t ever want to see that again!

 Interestingly my parents were going to see a play at the Donmar last Saturday, but one of the actors was ill. The Donmar phoned to let them know the performance was cancelled, and they would be getting a refund. So is it better to struggle on through the Tempest, or to admit defeat and cancel? Personally, I prefer the latter.

Day Tripping

So the last few weeks have been pretty hectic, as I went on a bit on an adventure around the country. I had five interviews for a community archaeology placement, which unfortunately I didn't get, and I've been pretty gutted about it. On the plus side I did get to see these amazing places, (Wales was my favourite!) and I met some wonderful people on the way:

Aberystwyth Castle

Bainbridge, North Yorkshire

Powis Castle, Welshpool

Arbeia Roman Fort and Museum, South Shields

Watergate Bay, Cornwall (interview was in Truro!)

The long way home.....the view from Garsdale Station

I would recommend a visit to any of these places- a word of warning though, I don't recommend doing them as a day trip!

Life on the North Bank

People always talk about the south bank of the river thames, and quite rightly so, it’s a great place. But I’d like to give a special mention to the North Bank, along which I walk to work every day, and have become familiar with the goings on. It has its own wildlife and inhabitants, here’s a description of some:

Ipod tramp. Now I haven’t seen this chap in quite a while, hopefully he’s been picked up and placed in a more comfortable home, but I used to see him every day. He was usually asleep on the bench in the morning, but more awake in the afternoon. He looked like he slept rough in every way, apart from the ipod. I always wondered how he charged it, and how he loaded music on it – It was one of life’s great mysteries.

Camping man. Now I don’t think camping man is homeless, as he has a proper nice tent, and a bike. I think he just lives next to Blackfriars bridge at night in a tent. I’ve failed to get a photograph so far, but next time.....

The two elders. I love these guys, they make me feel like I’m in a little village in France. They are usually found on the North Bank when it’s a nice sunny afternoon, by the lavender beds. There will be a radio on with the cricket playing, and they have flasks of coffee and a picnic. The two of them are usually reading the paper, and not acknowledging each other at all, completely chilled out in each other’s presence.

The boxers. These two are morning people, and can be found just underneath the millennium bridge, hitting each other with boxing gloves. I believe they’re training, and not trying to kill each other.

And lastly the Ducks. The ducks love the North bank, and are often found sunbathing in the morning on the river wall.

I really like the North bank of the Thames, and despite the trashing it regularly gets, someone really looks after it. There’s lavender planted all the way round, and a park area with seating has recently opened (Sadly it’s often littered with empty bottles and cans). I really recommend a wander down the North Bank sometime.