London- Part One

London Monday/ Scariest landing of my life / Earls Court, Kensington / pouring rain, gale force winds, lightning strikes in Hyde Park / Victoria and Albert Museum / Serpentine Gallery / waiting out the storm / wandering down Sloane Street / Harrod’s food halls / dinner at Sticky Fingers / nursing a beer and listening to the Stones Got Live if You Want It / a wet walk back to room 312 / Tuesday / more rain / The Royal Academy of Arts / From Russia show / Matisse’s The Dance and Red Room (Harmony in Red) / Bond Street / the giant Louis Vuitton billboard of Keith Richards / being refused tea service at Fortnum and Mason (I was not properly attired) / browsing books at Hatchards (oldest in London) / antique fair in St. James square / Oxford Street / new umbrella (old one snapped) / Liberty of London / Carnaby Street / tube to St. Pancras / British Library / Breaking the Rules Avant Garde show / Magna Carta / Jane Austen manuscripts / Shakespeare’s signature / Beatles lyrics / rush hour at King’s Cross Station / lonely dinner at Wagamama / Wednesday / sunshine in Trafalgar Square / drawing the view from Nelson’s Column / musing on the lack of pigeons / little boy fell off one of the lions / National Portrait Gallery / Vanity Fair Portraits: Photographs 1913-2008 blockbuster show / Tudor galleries / drawing Anne Boleyn alongside 30 school children / taking a break at the café and drawing my fellow dinners / more sunshine in Trafalgar, more people too / National Gallery (Sainsbury wing) / very stuffy and crowded / Van Eyck’s Arnolfini Wedding / Hans Holbein’s The Ambassadors / tea and writing postcards on Whitehall Road / the chaos of Leicester Square / The Photographer’s Gallery / weaving my way through Chinatown and theater district / magically arriving on Wardour Road in SoHo / pint at the Ship / chatty waiter, refreshing Pimms, and delicious dinner at Palms of Goa / saw “Cubism is Dead” sticker walking to Oxford Street / Oxford Circus tube / Thursday / surprisingly no rain / braved the queue at the Royal Post office / Tottenham Court Road tube / L. Cornelissen and Son (est. 1855) art shop / Shepard’s Paste brushes and hand cut reed pens, the comforting smell of linseed oil / Antique print and maps shops on Museum Street / Neal Street / the divine Neal’s Yard Dairy / happily sampling British cheeses for an hour / gave in a bought half a wheel of Tunworth (like Brie) / the eccentric Neal’s Yard / lavender soap at Neal’s Yard Remedies / Covent Garden / Jubilee Market / admiring the posters at the London Transport museum / stocking up on tea at Harrod’s / Friday / contemplating the #328 bus to “World’s End” at breakfast / London Bridge / the sunlight streaming into the divine Borough Market / eyes, ears, and nose in overload / wandering the market stalls and taking pictures / octopus, venison, ostrich, chocolate covered honeycomb, enviable Parma hams, mushrooms, green grocers, butchers, fish mongers, bakers, etc. / Queen’s Path along the Thames / Millennium Bridge / birch trees outside / Tate Modern / Duchamp, Man Ray, and Picabia show / Duchamp’s Nude Descending a Staircase / the urinal (ready made) / Duchamp’s LHOOQ is literally a postcard / Duchamp’s and Man Ray’s obsession with chess / hot chocolate and a 4th floor balcony view of the Thames / happily sketching the riverfront / “Pardon, but photographs are not allowed…” oops / Joseph Beuys Felt Suit / the Tate has a marvelously unnerving way of hanging art / in example: pairing Boccioni’s Futurist masterpiece Unique Forms of Continuity in Space with Lichtenstein’s “Whaam!” / giant “crack” in the Turbine Hall’s floor / back on Queen’s Path / scrambling down the staircase to the riverbank / collecting biomorphic beach stones and beach glass / busker playing Bob Dylan under an overpass / tea break at the National Film Theatre café / browsing the South Bank Book Market under the Waterloo Bridge / mimes and tourists near the London Eye / Westminster Bridge / storm clouds and Big Ben / Parliament and Westminster Abbey / man protesting the Iraqi war camping out in Parliament Square (he’s been there since we went to war) / walk up Parliament and Whitehall road / back in Trafalgar Square / feeling like a sardine on the tube / dinner at Sticky Fingers again / listening to the Stones Stripped / a long walk back to room 312 / Saturday / farewell London / waiting for an eternity at Heathrow / Boston