Oxford

Finally made it to Oxford on my last weekend in England, after a coach ride that included clipping the mirror of a parked car. But the driver let me on for student concession and saved me $6, so we will not speak a word against the driver! I really love Oxford, just wandering around and popping into museums here and there. The Bodelian Library Museum had a fascinating exhibit on Dante, Bocaccio, and Petrarch, with scads of 13th century illuminated books present too. I kept trying to imagine myself going to school at Oxford, because after U of C it was probably the PhD program in which I was most interested. Blackwell's book, music and art shops alone would make Oxford a destination!

Diana Day

Friday August 31st was the tenth anniversary of the death of Diana, Princess of Wales, and while I was embarrassed to see Americans quoted in the press as saying they arranged their vacations to be sure they were present for this, I have to admit I was a bit interested and even sat in the Clock House pub stealing glances at the memorial liturgy on telly. I went to Kensington Palace and took in all the flowers and messages at the gate. Let no one say England is not a free country--a few of of the messages were very uncomplimentary to the Royal Family! I took a snap of one that seems to express the middle ground most English seem to feel:

Long Live the Queen
Diana Forever
King Charles/Queen Camilla NEVER

Also walked to the famous memorial fountain in Kensington Gardens. It is not at all the type of monument I was expecting, no grand scale as the fountain of even a small Italian piazza would have, just a circular granite trough with two waterfalls. My very first thoughts were shockingly catty, even for me: "Expensive and disappointing, like Diana herself." But I have to admit I am still a fan of the Princess, specifically for being the first royal to include queers in her court in an official and respectful way and also for being the first celebrity to kiss babies with AIDS and demonstrate convincingly that one would not contract the virus doing so. Also I must say the memorial fountain lacks the pizzazz of a grander edifice but stays with one longer--as a work of art I like it far more than my original reaction.

Holland Park

This was a must-see for me simply because of the Absolutely Fabulous television show, where the lead character Edina Monsoon is constantly pointing out her residence in this posh neighborhood and is furious when anyone mistakes her address for the nearby but far less fashionable Sherpherd's Bush. It really is the Beverly Hills of London--huge mansions with enormous courtyards, Rolls Royces and Daimlers on every street, the most luxurious Tesco Express supermarket I could imagine, and a very upscale, brainy bookshop. The park itself is lovely and combines formal gardens with pure wilderness, as well as its famous population of peacocks.

Portobello Road

This weekend I wore my Reeboks to shreds and gave myself a blister to boot, trooping in Notting Hill to see the famous Portobello Market. I was sorely tempted by an antique map of Northern Ireland, only £20 ($40), but then I remembered that I am an impoverished PhD student and chose to shop in my price range (an Italian language copy of Stephen King's Cujo for only 50 pence--a buck!). People constantly asked me for directions or to take their photos, which made me feel both authentically English-appearing as well as kindly.

Tate Modern

The Tate Modern is a former power station on the southern bank of the Thames across from St. Paul's, crossed by the Millenium Bridge footpath. It holds the Tate Collection post-1900. It was interesting; I like certain forms of modern art very much, and in fact am obsessed with Kandinsky and respond very well to 1960s Pop artists like Lichtenstein as well as Dadaists from the teens and twenties. Only one Kandinksy unfortunately, and very few Dadaists. I was amused to see how little regarded my least favoroite forms of modern art seemed to be; the multiple fluorescent light installations and over-sized canvas pieces painted in a single color were quickly walked past. The Tate is also fortunate to have Piero Manzoni's Artist's Shit #4, in convenient canned form, and this also found few patrons! The Tate purchased this item in 2002 for about $45,000--the remaining pieces of Manzoni's original 90 cans are increasingly valuable as many of them are said to have exploded over the years!

Pork Faggots, Steak and Kidney Pie

Yes, this is what I have been eating this week. I have long loved steak and kidney pie (the Duke of Perth pub restaurant in Lakeview usually has them on the menu) but I had to try faggots for the name alone. It turns out they are related to haggis and other offal-based culinary creations--basically pork liver, pork, and traditionally pork cheek, rolled into what looks like Swedish meatballs (and sort of looks and tastes like a gamier Salisbry steak when it comes out of the oven). Very tasty!

Museum of London

The Museum of London is a cute little place right on the London town wall (one "exhibit" is simply a window, pointing out the spot where a Roman wall from the 1st century meets a 13th century tower!). It takes you through the prehistoric history of the Thames valley through Roman and medieval times up to the Great Fire. Very cool, very kid friendly--I was embarrassed when answering a computer pop quiz on patron saints, getting all the answers correct, and having it light up in full electronic jackpot mode as if I were at a casino! Maybe a little too kid-friendly there!

Tate Britain Gallery

Spent several hours here last weekend, very delightful, and the best organized gallery I have yet seen, entirely laid out in chronological order from the Middle Ages to 1900. My only complaint is that a few pieces are mounted behind such shiny reflective glass that there was simply no way to get a good view; unless what follows is salt water and tropical fish, there seems to be no need for the aquarium glass! I was especially struck by the Pre-Raphaelite William Holman Hunt's 1952 piece, "Scattered Sheep: Our English Coasts." Taken by many as a comment on Britain's tendency toward isolationism, it was also seen as a rebuke to the clergy of the Church of England for being consumed by internal quarrels during this same time. The sheep certainly do seem bewildered!

Imperial War Museum

I live right nextdoor to this imposing edifice, immediately to the right of this pic, so given my own military service and my near-obsession with Napoleon and Frederick the Great, it was just a matter of time before I found myself lost here for five solid hours. It was a very powerful experience, with two whole floors devoted to "Crimes Against Humanity" and the Holocaust. I tended to disagree with quite a bit of the museum curators' point of view (I in fact do not think "any of us" could become genocides; I would posit that genocidal societies invariably are societies that devalue and subjugate women; once you subjugate 51%+ of your own population, it's much easier to begin sorting down those to kill; societies where women are not only equal but actually leaders are not ripe to become genocidal anytime soon it seems to me; etc, etc.). Also the snuff film sequence in the middle of the documentary, where we watch one Rwandan after another be slowly butchered, with a final close-up of a 12 year-old boy dying from a severe head gash, seemed to me to have the opposite effect of "sensitizing" us, especially after the documentary rather incredibly segues on from this to sing the praises of Fair Trade Coffee. I love Fair Trade Coffee, I endorse it unreservedly, but after watching the 12 year-old bleed out in close-up I simply wasn't in a very coffee kind of place, and the process of filming these graphic scenes always seems to skirt the edges of morality to me. Not to sound too harsh on the Imperial War Museum; it was in fact a very stirring experience that will remain with me long.

"Kid Nation" Reality TV Show to Premiere Sept. 19th, Greased with a Bit of Scandal

Something to look forward to when I return? A new reality tv show about 40 kids electing their own government in Montana will premiere the week I return to the USA, and already a participant's parent is complaining that child welfare laws were not followed. I can't quite follow the kernel of the complaint (inadequate supervision? failure to register with the state film office? child labor laws?) and my cynical nature leads me to wonder if this isn't part of the advance PR for the show, since I certainly had not heard of it until this story. But I must admit, I am intrigued.

National Army Museum

This weekend went to the National Army Museum, very interesting. I was attracted to the Napoleonic exhibits but also got very caught up in the World Wars exhibits. Then I pseudo-shopped at Harrods again (didn't buy anything, but did spritz myself with $80 cologne--Acqua di Parma, a little too sweet for me).

New Pub

Clock House, very cool, Old World atmosphere with a strangely mirrored ceiling. The important thing is, I feel like one of the cool kids.

New Amy Welborn Blog

Amy Welborn, the Queen of Catholic Blogging and my own inspiration in blogging about a mixture of Important Issues and everyday life in an always interesting way, is in the process of transferring to a new blog. I still check Amy's blog almost every day, and while I sometimes am irritated by her treatment of LGBTQ issues (Amy's dismissive "whatever" comment about the gay couple who write the HBO show Big Love was especially annoying recently), I still love her to pieces. The new title is Charlotte Was Both, an allusion to Charlotte's Web I will leave you to find on your own. Alas, Amy mentions that she chose this title and wanted "no allusive Latin" in the blog title, which made me blush and despair that anyone reads this blog!

Bonus points to any of you familiar with Barchester Towers by Anthony Trollope, from whence the title of my blog comes. A must-read for any Anglicans, especially those of us who enjoy taking ourselves too seriously!

British Museum, Victoria & Albert Museum, Harrods

Busy weekend, in sunny temperatures that bordered on hot. Went to all of the above and snapped piles of photos, but alas, have not developed any and may not until I return home. You can judge my photpgraphy skills later!

"Becoming Jane" Film Out Today

The reviews are so-so, but you should go see this dramatisation of Jane Austen's life and then report here how you like it. It came out in the UK in March but apparently is just this weekend out in America.

Church House Book Shop

After considerable effort to meet this place's limited operating hours (basically Monday-Friday 9-5, with a precious extra hour on Thursdays), I finally succeeded in gaining entrance. Not quite what I expected--like any religious goods shop I suppose they must cater to plenty of lowest common denominators with lots of jokey books and plastic jimjaws. Perhaps I had puffed up the official book shop of the Church of England a little too much. My biggest surprise was that there were almost as many Roman Catholic items for sale as Anglican, which cheered me to think the my long education was still of much use in the Anglican theological world! I did buy two very interesting books unavailable stateside--The Life and Work of a Priest by the Bishop of Oxford, and Anglican Spiritual Direction by a canon of St. Paul's. Book reviews sure to follow.

Birthday Thanks

Thanks to you for your birthday wishes! I spent the day at Buckingham Palace, the first day it was open to the public as the Queen is at Balmoral for the rest of the summer. I am too much of a statistician not to be somewhat wan that 36 is "officially" the LATE 30s, and I have already been kicked out of the 18-34 demographic last year. But I cheered myself with the realization that THIS is the ageI should be when I am ordained deacon! Assuming we have our summer synod as early as we intended this year. The palace was lovely, 19 state rooms, like the White House only larger. My orignal destination was the Victoria and Albert Museum, a place which I did not see when last in London and one which has the seductive benefit of being free. Watch for the V&A in next weekend's postings.

Tonight Begins Pottermania

Tonight people will be on line in bookstores at midnight to purchase the first legal copies of the final Harry Potter book. I have generally been neutral on Harry Potter; anything that gets kids to read chunky 700 page books has some good to it. But those of you who have listened to me discourse on "what's good for kids" know that I have issues when kids are portrayed as unnaturally independent and in perpetual conflict with adults. I am less concerned about the "witchcraft" problems that fundamentalist Christians have oft mentioned; I tend to tally much of that brouhaha up to sheer sexism. Male "wizards" are seen as benign or at least neutral while female "witches" are seen as evil; even Glinda is suspect. But the day is here at last, the Potter saga is at an end, and soon enough we will have new controversies to debate.