Sensing Spaces At The Royal Academy
Today was a preview day for Sensing Spaces at the Royal Academy.
What was unusual about the exhibition was that the taking of pictures was encouraged.
We need more of this. Obviously, under the control of a tasteful set of rules. Like no flash, not getting in the way of other visitors and not taking pictures of the visitors. Almost like the rules on the London Underground, where I’ve heard that drivers get fed up of the camera flashes, as they drive trains into the station.
One installation even allowed me to take a reflected selfie.
Go and see the exhibition. But make sure you take a camera that is good in low light, with the flash switched off!
I suspect too, it would be best to go,when there are a shortage of walk-on extras.
How To Muck Up A Country
When I was a child in the 1950s and 1960s, Argentina was reckoned to be one of those countries that would be an economic powerhouse in the future. I can remember positive stories about how it was developing a strong motor, aviation and other industries. It was also thought that dictators like the Perons were firmly in the past.
But now we only get stories like this one from the BBC, which talks about restricting on-line shopping and foreign currency transactions to limit the damage on reserves. Here’s the first bit.
Argentina has introduced new restrictions on online shopping as part of efforts to stop foreign currency reserves from falling any further.
Anyone buying items through international websites will now need to sign a declaration and produce it at a customs office, where the packages have to be collected.
The procedure will need to be repeated for every new purchase.
It just shows how politicians can so easuly drag a country into the mire.
Too Many People In Oxford Street
This is predicted to happen, when Crossrail opens in 2018 in various media articles over the last couple of days. Look at articles on the BBC and in the Standard.
I have just added this comment to another article.
What Oxford Street needs is a moving walkway along the street at first floor level, with escalators up and entries to the shops at that level. It could be covered over much like the long escalator in Hong Kong. It could also be expanded as time goes on with cafes and stalls, and sub branches down Bond Street and Tottenham Court Road and towards Soho, Hyde Park and the British Museum.
Underneath would be for buses, taxis and cyclists, and for pedestrians going to and from the various stations.
All it needs is a bit of vision and Oxford Street would be the envy of the world, rather than the overcrowded gutter it is today.
This may be an old idea of mine, but I think even more that its time has come.
A Patient Sub Editor Uses His Word
I wonder how many years one of the sub editors in The Times has waited to use the word murmuration!
But today it was used under a picture as the correct term for a flock of starlings. There’s a lot more here.
Around Smithfield
There was an article in The Times yesterday, about the redevelopment of some of the market buildings in Smithfield.
So I went and took some pictures.
the main Smithfield Market was rebuilt some years ago, but the western end, is a mixture of dereliction and the worst of 1960s architecture. Surely, any modern sympathetic development would be better.
After all the area is surrounded by some good watering holes and first class tourist attractions, so perhaps an artisan market and craft workshops might be better than what is there now.
As the area is close to Farringdon station, which when Thameslink and Crossrail is complete will be one of London’s major interchanges, it must surely be an area with potential visitors.
The Elephant In The Stand
Watching the arguments about the performance of Manchester United this season, gives me a very much a sense of deja vu.
The talk is just the same as it was, when Wilf McGuinness succeeded Matt Busby, except that with social media it is in more places.
When a manager retires, who had a tremendous effect on a club, company or organisation, inevitably the one who follows suffers from the presence of his predecessor. You could argue that Tesco, post-Leahy has similarly suffered.
Moyes will probably go and Manchester United won’t do anything until Sir Alex stops being seen at the club.
Ariel On The Bank Of England
I’ve never thought that the actual building for the Bank of England, was much more than a functional one. Wikipedia says this about the building.
The Bank moved to its current location on Threadneedle Street, and thereafter slowly acquired neighbouring land to create the edifice seen today. Sir Herbert Baker‘s rebuilding of the Bank, demolishing most of Sir John Soane’s earlier building, was described by architectural historian Nikolaus Pevsner as “the greatest architectural crime, in the City of London, of the twentieth century”.
I’d thought it was much older.
As you walk alongside the building up Princes Street, it looks very much like an over-grand prison.
There is though, a gilded sculpture on the roof.
Ariel On The Bank Of England
Surely this isn’t the best place to put a work of art!
Why We Need Plain Fag Packets!
My old and sadly departed mate, Brian, who was an innovative and reliable accountant, always used to joke he did his best work on the back of one of his fag packets.
He would have laughed at a reader comment in The Times describing the mess politicians have got into on the economy.
The arrival of plain fag packets can’t come too soon for this lot.
We need some sound sense, otherwise the next election will be a disaster for everyone.
The trouble is that if a few economic home truths were printed on fag packets instead of health warnings, they would be ignored, just the same.
The Other Side Of Hollande’s Troubles
The letter writers in The Times have been telling tales of President Felix Faure and his mistress Marguerite Steinheil. His death is described here in Wikipedia, with this being the first part.
Faure died suddenly from apoplexy in the Élysée Palace on 16 February 1899, at a critical juncture while engaged in sexual activities in his office with 30-year-old Marguerite Steinheil. It has been widely reported that Felix Faure had his fatal seizure while Steinheil was fellating him.
Read the whole section, as there are a lot of good jokes about pompe funebres.
Today’s episode in The Times, is from John Julius Norwich, no less!
It described how Steinheil was feted by admirers after being accused of murdering her stepmother and husband. it also disclosed how he met the femme fatale.
Francoise Hollande has a lot to do, to leave the same note in history as President Faure.
Perhaps, they’ll give his name to a Metro station, as they did for Felix Faure.
Is Bristol Left Behind?
I travel all over the UK watching football and visiting cities. Go to Hull, Brighton, Nottingham, Liverpool, Newcastle, Glasgow and many other places and you’ll see shining new stadia and public buildings.
This article entitled Why Does Bristol Never Build Anything? got me thinking. I have been to Bristol a couple of times to watch football and Bristol City’s stadium at Ashton Gate was one of the worse in The Championship.
Bristol is the sixth’s largest city in England and over a million live in the catchment area, so it is up there in size and population with some of the biggest.
It deserves better! The city is missing out as this piece from the article says.
When England hosts the Rugby World Cup in 2015, a number of games will be played at Cardiff’s Millennium Stadium, as well as at 12 stadiums across England. No games will be played in Bristol, though, because “there is no decent stadium”, says Rhodri Morgan, Wales’ First Minister from 2000 till 2009.
It certainly, isn’t a city that keeps calling me back like Nottingham, Brighton, Liverpool and Leeds do!
The only other large city, that seems to not present its best face to visitors is Coventry, which again has stadium trouble.
The Anonymous Widower 