Ouch

I'm not actually sure whether I've mentioned on this blog that I write in my spare time. I've been writing mostly poetry as of late, and have begun to note my developing an irritating habit. When my eyes scan over a line that I'm not satisfied with, and that for the life of me I've been unable to get right, my brain blocks any ability to think critically about it, and instead of feeling annoyed or depressed, it just hurts. Reading that bitch of a line is actually like a knife to the heart. Well, more like a small injection or something. Mmm, no, more like a...a punch to the eye. Yeah that's about right. So, not fatal, but still.

Courtald Gallery

I'm not sure if I'd ever been here before last week. But me and my friend finally went and had a look at he Courtald's famous collection which was indeed impressive. We met the curator of the next exhibition at the Courtald - Victorian drawings and watercolours, and she confirmed for us that even the most famous paintings on show at the Courtald are, as far as they know, all originals. Wow.

Since we went on a Wednesday, we spent a couple of hours in the drawings and prints room, which is open for dropping in from 1.30 - 4 on Wednesdays only.  So we got quite lucky there. I'd never been in a drawings and prints room before so it was a bit awe-inspiring sitting in front of something Andrea Mantegna had drawn with his own hands :/ Amongst the others we saw were drawings by Fuseli, Guercino and Dore. So it goes without saying that it makes you feel pretty privelaged to have all this at your fingertips. And for free. I really could not have more love for London. Wordsworth had it right.

Royal Philharmonic Orchestra

Photos from the concert at the Royal Festival Hall last night. It was the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra playing Mussorgsy, Grieg and Stravinsky so I guess it couldn't fail to be brilliant really. The Grieg was piano concerto in A minor which I'd never seen performed professionally before so that opening bar was quite a moment. And it was one of those nights when you feel the main performer is looking right at you - I felt like the pianist was looking into my eyes for a full minute or something...of course there's a one in a hundred chance you're actually right, but it's nice to hope. For the few seconds you lock eyes with the pianist in a piece like that, your world shrinks to this one jealous desire - 'look only at me'. Or perhaps that's just me. Or Grieg. Or both.

Please?

I know a lot of these are a bit too much to hope for, but never mind - please, please, please be at Reading:

30 Seconds To Mars
Greenday
Red Hot Chili Peppers
The Offspring
Sum 41
Angels & Airwaves
Bright Eyes
The Wombats
Young Guns
Buckcherry

Oh and Sonisphere please, please hurry up and release day tickets.

Now Listening To: Jump Into The Fog - The Wombats - wowwwww!
                            The Bitter End - Placebo - bit of a classic

Update

Being in the recording studio at school sometimes reminds me of my old bedroom, the one in my house in Welwyn Garden City. The sun used to flood through that window, and the room was painted yellow, so on mornings at the weekend, it would seem like such a carefree place to be. At least, that's how I remember it. The windows were higher in my old bedroom than they are now, and the curtains never used to fall down like they do now. It's that quality of copious amounts of light that the studio and my old bedroom have in common. Copious amounts of light plus seclusion, and the studio's a one-man room. Can't really appreciate bright light unless I'm alone, if not it's just glaring and a tad annoying. I hate the colour yellow now. Ugh, orange is even worse.

Saw RSC's King Lear last night, it did not disappoint. Greg Hicks just gets better and better. Lie To Me gets ridiculouser and ridiculouser. And am watching Boardwalk Empire, have two episodes recorded and am fairly excited about watching the first one tonight...it better be good after all the hype. Want to watch Mad Dogs when it starts too - when's that...? 10 Feb I believe. Marc Warren plus John Simm plus what's his face...Gene Hunt. S'Gonna be good.

London - Current Exhibitions

Saw all this on Saturday the 29th. All photos my own. Spent the day running from gallery to gallery. And actually made it on time to the theatre that night - As You Like It at the Roundhouse, in which Katy Stephens was a brilliant Rosalind. Photos are mostly awful but a nice photo's not really the objective when you're being chased by security guards the whole time. The aim's more base, it's more like "quick take the fucking photo!"
Erik Van Lieshout at the Hayward Gallery:

The Erik Van Lieshout was just one video, maybe about half an hour long. Funny to watch. Again it's a shame the longer video I took isn't uploading, but this is a short one.  Can not wait for the British Art Show to start at the Southbank Centre on the 16th Feb.

View from the Saison Poetry Library:

 

What a pretty city we have eh? Even with a sky like that. We then moved along Southbank to the Tate Modern. I only photographed my favourites as I'd seen everything there before. Francis Bacon ahoy...I reckon this triptych is one of my favourites of Bacon's:

 

The Unilever Series: Ai-Weiwei's Sunflower Seeds. I find this so beautiful to consider. It sounds like part of an oriental fairy-tale, to fill a vast hall full of handmade porcelain sunflower seeds. Despite whatever else it means, and I think it means a lot, it looks to me like an expression of love. Anything this unbelievable can't help being inspiring.

Royal Academy of Arts was next on the list...We bought tickets to the Modern British Sculpture exhibition as well as the Art, Fashion, Identity exhibition but my camera ran out of battery by the time we reached the fashion exhibition :(. So, these are just of Modern British Sculpture. This exhibition hasn't recieved rave reviews and I can see why - it isn't particularly didactic or comprehensive...more one for the tourists. It's cheap thrills. But what thrills - the Damien Hirst installation is, unsurprisingly, hugely impressive. I kind of regret not eating one of those maltesers by Siobhan Hapaska.