John Betjeman at St. Pancras
There is also a charming status of John Betjeman, who did much to save the station from demolition in the 1960s.
John Betjeman
The Meeting Place at St. Pancras
I like sculpture and I often think it is the dominant art form, as it can be placed in the open so that everyone can enjoy it. The Meeting Place is by Paul Day and it is in St. Pancras in London.
On the Plinth
I said earlier that yesterday, I ended up on the Fourth Plinth in Trafalgar Sqaure.
Whilst I was on the plinth, I took about thirty minutes of video of what I saw around me.
This is the video. Or at least the edited version after taking out some of the most boring bits. There are still plenty of those there, so don’t watch it too often.
If you want to see the official one produced by One and Other, then click here.
How I got to be on the plinth is a complicated story. Let’s say that I came down to support Janet and ended up coming on as a substitute because someone had to cry off at the last minute. And you know how you have to scape the barrel to get anybody sensible at seven in the morning, as all sane and sensible people are in bed.
But it was all great fun and well worth doing. It’s probably not too late to go to their web site and register.
Janet W on the Plinth
Janet W is someone who is also a member of the Yahoo UK-Coeliac list. I went to support her on Sunday when she did her hour on the Fourth Plinth in Trafalgar Square as part of Anthony Gormley‘s One and Other project.
The video shows her on the plinth.
Click here to see the video footage taken, whilst she was on the plinth by One and Other.
Fun and Games at the Fourth Plinth
This morning I went to London to support an Internet friend who was appearing on the fourth plinth in Trafalgar Square. I took a lot of video at seven in the morning and it will be going up soon.
But the twist was, that someone had called off at the last minute, so they went looking for volunteers. As Sir Arnold Bax once said, “One should try everything once, except incest and folk dancing”.
So I accepted and you can see the result here.
I shall post my video in the next couple of days.
Is It Art?
There was a discussion as to whether some of the high-profile art in the UK recently, like Anthony Gormley’s Fourth Plinth, is actually art. Perhaps, it is, but perhaps it is not.
In the 1960s, the Engineering Department at Liverpool University bought a set of modern prints. Some wag put a beautifully typed and framed note beside one, which said “We would have liked to buy a painting by this artist, but unfortunately we could afford it. So he was gracious enough to sell us the rag on which he wiped his brushes.”
Seriously though, I went to the University recently to see the Stuart Sutcliffe retrospective. I don’t like modern art generally, but when it is good like some Warhol, I relate to it. Now, the Sutcliffe paintings showed a certain talent. I wonder what would have happened if he hadn’t died at 22.
The Meridian Line in Naples
Naples has two of the best museums in the world, let alone Italy. In fact the collection of paintings in the Museo di Capodimonte is considered to be the second best in Italy after the Uffizzi in Florence. But the National Archaeological Museum is to me the more interesting, as I prefer my sculpture to my painting.
Sometimes, in Italy I think that if I’ve seen one Madonna and Child, I’ve seen a hundred. Or perhaps even a thousand.
But the sculptures are stunning. Most are from the Farnese Collection and have been on display in Naples for around 200 years.
The Farnese Bull
The museum is also unusual in that it has a Meridian Line, which shows midday, the seasons and the signs of the Zodiac.
Meridian Line, Naples
It’s accurate too, as this picture with my mobile phone shows. You can just see the time. I would have used a watch, but I wasn’t wearing it after the previous incident.
Meridian Line at Midday
The phone is a legendary Nokia 6310i and is about seven or eight years old. It was in my pocket when I was attacked and doesn’t seemed to have suffered. It’s still on the original battery.
In Your Head You Can Go Anywhere
The title came from the excellent documentary on David Hockney last night on BBC1.
He also said that “You don’t retire doing this, you do it until you fall over.”
I feel like that about programming.
The Anonymous Widower 