London Day 5
(This is a part of a 7-day series about my trip to London.)
Date: February 15, 2008
Today was c-c-c-cold. I have no idea how cold, but it was cold to begin, and there was a lot of wind, which made it even colder. Of course, it was also today that I chose to take a long walking expedition, thereby getting the chance to experience it full-on.
I spent the day walking across and then along the south side of the Thames river. I probably wouldn't have done this except that my maps made it look like a much briefer walk than it ended up being. During my walk, I passed by several famous sites: Tate Modern Museum, London Bridge, Tower Bridge, Shakespeare's Globe Theatre, City Hall and also the Design museum (not really famous, but important for me). Across the water, I could see St. Peter's Cathedral (huge) and Towers of London (visited this last time).
My visit to the Tate Modern lasted about an hour and a half. This is about how long it takes to walk through the place when you don't really enjoy much of it. As it turns out, I'm really not a big fan of so-called "modern art"; however, I can appreciate some of the sentiment and thinking that goes into these pieces. For many of these newer pieces, the importance does not really lie in the accuracy of the depiction itself; instead, the value of the work often lies in the technique/method that was used combined with the philosophical underpinnings of the work. There is therefore a much deeper focus on societal and artistic context in which the work was created. The Tate Modern, because of its size and ability to show a broad range of works, is able to convey much of this context to the viewers. While I am still not an expert in art history, I feel as though walking through the museum gave me a greater appreciation for a lot of the more modern work.
I was touched a by a few of the so-called "minimalist" works. I was particularly attracted to the philosophy of these guys, "It is what it is, it is nothing more." I can appreciate that, because it means I'm not missing anything, and I don't have to feel too stupid.
One of the pieces that really caught my eye was by an artist who spent six weeks working as a chambermaid at a hotel. She documented what she saw in the rooms in a room-by-room fashion, making inferences about the absent occupants based on the room contents or layout. She also took pictures of what she saw. Kind of creepy, but I really appreciated the piece. Remember: it is what it is.
After spending time in that museum, I headed toward the Design Museum. I wasn't really sure what I'd see, but I have often thought that with my interest in interface design, I still do have an oblique interest in all things that are design. It turns out I was right -- most of the things in the museum were of interest to me except for the fashion area which I simply could not appreciate (I think this part of my brain is somehow deficient of brain cells). It was also here that I experienced the first real incident of a stranger helping me for no good reason whatsoever.
Upon arriving, I was dismayed to discover that there was a £8 admission fee. I was further dismayed to see that there was a £5.5 admission fee for students, but that I'd left my ID card at the hostel! DOH! I debated for about 5 minutes whether to actually head in: on the one hand, I had actually done a good job of saving money thusfar, and so didn't want to break that trend; on the other, I'd walked for so long in the cold to get here, and the thought of going back outside was not at the top of my list of "fun things to do". Ultimately, I decided to go in. What's £8 compared having to relay the story that I really am cheap? While I was waiting in line, a random guy came up to me and offered his ticket (he'd just come out, I think)! The stars have aligned! It was an unbelievable feeling. I haven't felt so much gratitude toward another in a long time! I must remember to repay this favour to another stranger. Actually, a part of me wonders whether I got this ticket because my giving a stranger a used parking ticket/pass back at UBC actually set off a chain of "kindness" events leading to yesterday. It's funny to think of those kind of things.
The next thing in the evening was to meet up with Spencer. In spite of all the things that has happened to this guy, it turned out he was in pretty good spirits. This was really good to see. We ate dinner at a Korean BBQ place (where they cooked the food for you rather than your cooking it yourself), and ended up wandering the streets for two to three hours afterwards. It was actually quite enjoyable. Spencer's a really funny guy -- sometimes it's hard to believe he's making this stuff on the spot, but I guess that's the mark of a clever guy.
It turns out, for example, that the place he's staying at was built in 1880. "Almost older than Canada," he proclaimed. Kind of hard to believe, but true. The houses are built as a whole block of houses attached together, which means that they rarely ever get torn down and rebuilt -- it would displace too many people, and coordinating that would be insane. One of the implications of this practice is that "hotels" are often just converted homes. Most are not the tall buildings that we typically see in North America -- they're just old houses that the hotel company bought. Thus, the old stuff in the center of the city really stays old, and is never replaced by anything newer. London has always built outward, but people keep coming into the centre, which means that housing prices continue to go up, and it gets even more expensive to live here.
People are really used to crowding in London. The underground tube gets insanely packed during the rush hour. It's much much worse than in Vancouver. People are quite literally pushed against the glass on the inside -- it looks like something you'd imagine in a comic book. Anyway, for this reason, it's not hard to imagine why it there were such hysterics for the London underground bombing thing. There's really no opportunity to get away from it even if you had advance notice -- the best you can hope is those other peons around you can absorb the blast on your behalf.
I'll leave with a funny story from Spencer. He relayed this story when I asked if he'd heard of any overt cases of racism. So a Vietnamese girl (Spencer's friend) goes to a store. She hears some snickering to her right and looks over. "Ni how ma! Ni how ma!" -- a couple of little kids are sneering, laughing and pointing at her. The punchline (aside from her being Vietnamese)? They were a bunch of little brown kids.
The world is a weird place.
Date: February 15, 2008
Today was c-c-c-cold. I have no idea how cold, but it was cold to begin, and there was a lot of wind, which made it even colder. Of course, it was also today that I chose to take a long walking expedition, thereby getting the chance to experience it full-on.
I spent the day walking across and then along the south side of the Thames river. I probably wouldn't have done this except that my maps made it look like a much briefer walk than it ended up being. During my walk, I passed by several famous sites: Tate Modern Museum, London Bridge, Tower Bridge, Shakespeare's Globe Theatre, City Hall and also the Design museum (not really famous, but important for me). Across the water, I could see St. Peter's Cathedral (huge) and Towers of London (visited this last time).
My visit to the Tate Modern lasted about an hour and a half. This is about how long it takes to walk through the place when you don't really enjoy much of it. As it turns out, I'm really not a big fan of so-called "modern art"; however, I can appreciate some of the sentiment and thinking that goes into these pieces. For many of these newer pieces, the importance does not really lie in the accuracy of the depiction itself; instead, the value of the work often lies in the technique/method that was used combined with the philosophical underpinnings of the work. There is therefore a much deeper focus on societal and artistic context in which the work was created. The Tate Modern, because of its size and ability to show a broad range of works, is able to convey much of this context to the viewers. While I am still not an expert in art history, I feel as though walking through the museum gave me a greater appreciation for a lot of the more modern work.
I was touched a by a few of the so-called "minimalist" works. I was particularly attracted to the philosophy of these guys, "It is what it is, it is nothing more." I can appreciate that, because it means I'm not missing anything, and I don't have to feel too stupid.
One of the pieces that really caught my eye was by an artist who spent six weeks working as a chambermaid at a hotel. She documented what she saw in the rooms in a room-by-room fashion, making inferences about the absent occupants based on the room contents or layout. She also took pictures of what she saw. Kind of creepy, but I really appreciated the piece. Remember: it is what it is.
After spending time in that museum, I headed toward the Design Museum. I wasn't really sure what I'd see, but I have often thought that with my interest in interface design, I still do have an oblique interest in all things that are design. It turns out I was right -- most of the things in the museum were of interest to me except for the fashion area which I simply could not appreciate (I think this part of my brain is somehow deficient of brain cells). It was also here that I experienced the first real incident of a stranger helping me for no good reason whatsoever.
Upon arriving, I was dismayed to discover that there was a £8 admission fee. I was further dismayed to see that there was a £5.5 admission fee for students, but that I'd left my ID card at the hostel! DOH! I debated for about 5 minutes whether to actually head in: on the one hand, I had actually done a good job of saving money thusfar, and so didn't want to break that trend; on the other, I'd walked for so long in the cold to get here, and the thought of going back outside was not at the top of my list of "fun things to do". Ultimately, I decided to go in. What's £8 compared having to relay the story that I really am cheap? While I was waiting in line, a random guy came up to me and offered his ticket (he'd just come out, I think)! The stars have aligned! It was an unbelievable feeling. I haven't felt so much gratitude toward another in a long time! I must remember to repay this favour to another stranger. Actually, a part of me wonders whether I got this ticket because my giving a stranger a used parking ticket/pass back at UBC actually set off a chain of "kindness" events leading to yesterday. It's funny to think of those kind of things.
The next thing in the evening was to meet up with Spencer. In spite of all the things that has happened to this guy, it turned out he was in pretty good spirits. This was really good to see. We ate dinner at a Korean BBQ place (where they cooked the food for you rather than your cooking it yourself), and ended up wandering the streets for two to three hours afterwards. It was actually quite enjoyable. Spencer's a really funny guy -- sometimes it's hard to believe he's making this stuff on the spot, but I guess that's the mark of a clever guy.
It turns out, for example, that the place he's staying at was built in 1880. "Almost older than Canada," he proclaimed. Kind of hard to believe, but true. The houses are built as a whole block of houses attached together, which means that they rarely ever get torn down and rebuilt -- it would displace too many people, and coordinating that would be insane. One of the implications of this practice is that "hotels" are often just converted homes. Most are not the tall buildings that we typically see in North America -- they're just old houses that the hotel company bought. Thus, the old stuff in the center of the city really stays old, and is never replaced by anything newer. London has always built outward, but people keep coming into the centre, which means that housing prices continue to go up, and it gets even more expensive to live here.
People are really used to crowding in London. The underground tube gets insanely packed during the rush hour. It's much much worse than in Vancouver. People are quite literally pushed against the glass on the inside -- it looks like something you'd imagine in a comic book. Anyway, for this reason, it's not hard to imagine why it there were such hysterics for the London underground bombing thing. There's really no opportunity to get away from it even if you had advance notice -- the best you can hope is those other peons around you can absorb the blast on your behalf.
I'll leave with a funny story from Spencer. He relayed this story when I asked if he'd heard of any overt cases of racism. So a Vietnamese girl (Spencer's friend) goes to a store. She hears some snickering to her right and looks over. "Ni how ma! Ni how ma!" -- a couple of little kids are sneering, laughing and pointing at her. The punchline (aside from her being Vietnamese)? They were a bunch of little brown kids.
The world is a weird place.
posted by tangaroo at 7:15 a.m.
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