10 October : London day one

An overnight flight to London landed us at Heathrow 6:30 am GMT. We are troopers. We navigate the morning rush on the tube without ease but with determination, and arrive at a very petite room in one of the holiday residences of travelers along Princes Square in Bayswater. We are not the sort to allow a minor thing such as jet lag take hold. We immediately set out into the sunlit streets- destination: Portobello Road. It is nearby and seems a likely first stop. It is monday, and before noon, so the street is only functioning at about one-third maximum capacity, but provides us a lovely cafe with outdoor seating for our first elevensies of the trip. Coffee and cigarettes, sitting in the sun- a fine way to pass half an hour no matter where one finds oneself.

Trekking south again, we walk through Kensington Gardens; people lazing in the sun, walking dogs. We comment on the straight lines of it all. Unlike our Central and Prospect Parks here in New York, the Kensington greens are all linear; straight rows of trees, benches, walkways which diverge and converge at mathematical angles. Pretty nonetheless. Having exited the gardens on the southside, we meander awhile through what appears to be a sort of university and business area, but wend our way back towards liveliness and brasseries. Finding at last a spot for lunch that is not filled with the business crowd, we order up some toasties and again find ourselves at a small outdoor table, soaking up the noontime sun. Refueled and rejuvenated again, we walk.

Now realizing our proximity to the Palace, we decide to have a shot. Off to walk round to the Palace gates. En route we are passed by a lovely black carriage pulled by a two-in-hand of smart-looking greys and driven by men of some importance, to judge by their livery. We learned a few minutes later, while peeking into the Queen's Mews (where all her many horses are stabled) that we'd just witnessed the return trip of one of Her Majesty's twice-daily mail calls. Ha!

Buckingham Palace is surprisingly disappointing to look upon. When in London, if you don't have any other reason to find yourself in the vicinity, do not go out of your way to see the palace. Seriously. The fountain out front is quite lovely, and the gates are the most interesting things in the square, but there are far more lovely and impressive structures upon which to gaze. The mall which runs alongside St James's Park from the Palace Gardens, however, gives one a straight shot to Trafalgar Square, and the National Galleries. Off we go.

Traversing the square, we come across a most disturbing large sculpture of what appears to be a pregnant woman with thalidomide limbs. She sits atop a large sort of column in front of the National Galleries. We experience the pigeon frenzies up close and personal as we approach the Gallery, then enter. We stroll through 1700-1900; Degas' "Le Coiffure" and Goeneutte's "Boulevard de Clichy Under Snow" are two that strike me as stunning. Another which stuck with me was Delaroche's "The Execution of Lady Jane Grey". Positively staggering in its scope and detail; it struck me that perhaps an epic painting such as this was the equivalent of a great motion picture in todays' world. One could stare at it for countless hours and still be quite outside its inherent mystery. Other galleries visited included the Dutch paintings in 1600-1700. After a while we find ourselves sitting upon the benches in the galleries, even in front of paintings of no particular interest to us. Troopers we are, yes, but on so little sleep one must keep moving.

As we are so close to Charing Cross Station, we duck in there to see if we can procure any information about the high-speed intercity line trains, one of which we will require next morning to set off for Edinburgh. As we are very near to one of the jubilee bridges, as well as the Eye, we head toward the river and have a look. We decide we may check out the Eye up close and possibly even partake of its constant revolutions upon return to London the following week. But for the time being, the walk has tired us, so we hop the tube and head back to Bayswater.

Dinner was found at a place known as the Commander. A comfortable enough interior, and music which was neither annoying nor intrusive, we sit down and order pints. Decide on splitting a great platter of kebabs, chips and other such things. The Commander Platter arrives to table on a great wooden bowl/platter, the circumference of which nearly matched the breadth of our table. We laugh, and set about to make a dent in the vast quantities of rather bland fare. Being among the walking dead by this point, we have no real complaint, but this was the last time on the trip that we bothered with a modern "restaurant" style pub (save one in Glasgow which was exceptional). One must stick with real and proper pub lunches and pub dinners. Okay, sometimes you just want something quick and small for lunch, but mostly-- no. Pub lunch, as we would learn in Edinburgh, is one of the loveliest day-to-day pleasures of Great Britain. A midday sanctuary, especially on those chill, drizzling days so popular among the weather cycles of that green and rocky place. But all that comes later.

On to pubs! We must make it til pub-closing if we are to beat the damn phenomenon of dreaded lag! We go from one to the next, in search of the right atmosphere. Though unaware of it at the time, we are only just beginning to hone our pub-judging skills. One must first learn what one doesn't want in a pub. New York City bar-finding skills are of little use here. One place that we found (which was roughly the pub equivalent to a T.G.I.Friday's) was called Shakespeare's. The name should have been enough; way too obvious. Also, it was too centrally located to Queen's Way, the main drag near all the little hotels, to be much good. (We did notice, however, that we heard no American accents in this little neighborhood of travelers; we'd apparently found the area where folks visiting from the continent stayed. So that was nice.) In short, Shakespeare's was for punters. We left in short order. Final pub of the evening was a good one, however, and seemingly a spot for locals as well as travelers. Called the King's Head, with a cozy interior and of the proper old style set-up, we hunkered at a table and finished out the night there with pints and whiskeys. Sleep came easily to two such non-stop zombies, and next morning we awoke feeling fully alive once again.

otherwise...

Okay, two rants in two days and I've written absolutely nothing else in a couple of weeks. Getting geared up for the trip abroad, but several worrisome things: a mild ear infection (which could become quite painful in the compression of an aeroplane cabin), and today- a pain in a tooth- maybe a cavity making itself known. Announcing its presence as if at a fabulous party (I can picture it walking elegantly down a large staircase having heard its title and name announced.) I certainly don't have time to have cavities filled before leaving; I can only hope it subsides, as these things often do.
Still, it is frustrating to suddenly feel random ailments coming on just before a long-planned-upon trip. Perhaps they have been brought on by the stress of trying to finish a thousand things before disembarking.

I am excited nonetheless for the trip, although I'm thinking that perhaps we should take a cab to Newark after all; even if no explosions visit the subways, I'd rather not be made to miss our flight due to mad searches of luggage! They will spend plenty of time on that once we get to the airport.
(Man, this writing sounds so formal. habit of writing versus speaking.)

terror

Brilliant.
On top of the "news" of a potential attack to be perpetrated upon the NYC subway system, along with stepped-up efforts to randomly search bags and parcels therein, there was a dreadful and dangerous *brand new* speech by our f*ing president.
Firstly,
the whole random search maneuver in the subways is idiotic. Anyone who has got explasives with them will obviously be the last person to succumb; and secondly- it is thoroughly unconsitutional. Idiots.
Secondly,
whenever I hear George W. Bush say things like "... and we will never accept anything less than complete victory," it just scares the crap out of me. Why? Well, two reasons: A) Because when fighting against something as non-specific and nebulous as an idea (eg: "terror"), there is no achieving a clear and total victory!! So that means Infinite War, Guaranteed™. B) When I think about how infuriated I become whenever I hear that man deliver one of his useless, overblown and rhetoric-filled missives, I can only imagine how much it must piss off the many other folks in the world who are not Americans. That's scary.
:: shudder ::

He makes the point that bin Laden is unwilling to go with his followers, to follow them to the promised paradise (which ostensibly is the destination immediately following successful suicide bombings); But that kinda brings to mind how Bush himself was unwilling to follow his fellow soldiers to war... It brought it to my mind, anyway...

"No act of ours invited the rage of the killers," he said.
Oh, I don't know about that... I think the policies of the US in the Middle East over the past several decades (and ongoing) have had quite a lot to do with their feelings toward us; more specifically- toward our government. He may be semantically correct; no single act, but years of acts, both overt and covert, by the US which led to such feelings. That, combined with fundamentalist religious values, (which are also running rampant at home) of course.
ugh.

oil

According to Salon.com, despite the fact that the hurricanes left the gulf coast tragically and toxically polluted by crude oil and numerous other contaminants,

"Senate Republicans, led by Environment and Public Works Committee chairman James Inhofe -- who has declared that global warming is a hoax -- have introduced a bill that would allow EPA to waive clean water and air laws during the cleanup. The EPA itself is drafting a plan that would allow the agency to waive state regulations on smog emissions or pollutants pouring out of coal plants."*

This is the kind of reporting that is never on the News™, or when it is, it is never dwelled upon the way that, say, lost white teenaged girls are. Or celebrity shennanigans. It has appeared that some of the news reporters have snapped out of robot mode since the twin hurricanes and resulting floods, but things seem to be settling back to "normal" already. "Normal," in the Bush era, meaning that little or nothing gets aired that might give Americans a clear picture of how nasty, greedy and ill-motivated these bastards in the White House really are.

REMINDER: It's not their White House! We the people own it, and all those damn politicians are, in fact, under our employ.
America, you made some godawful hiring decisions. Not once, but twice in a row now.
(:: cheers to term limits, at least ::)
But, really, it's long past due for some "downsizing" in our nation's capitol.

* excerpt from an article by Katharine Mieszkowski and Mark Benjamin

autumn is here.

the air has done its subliminal shift and now summer is gone.
it's not just about temperature; it's something to do with the texture. probably relates to hurricane season, the great sweeping northward.
my brother has been in town this weekend, and it was his birthday yesterday.

Here is a sneak peak at the beginnings of the next in the series of grotesques. she hasn't a name yet, nor a title, and i am unsure of a color palette for this one.


in progress

thursday

well despite best intentions, it is now 12:35 am and i've done nothing of note this evening. nothing at all, really. television and internet are evil things at times. distractions that eat up one's time.
have been busy on the whole, lately, but not spending enough time on anything somehow; any single thing, that is. so much easier to just blast through things and keep the thread in your mind when you've the opportunity to focus on and finish one thing at a time......

very much looking forward to the trip.

signs of the times

advert : funny


attention : unconstituional

Well, I have been remiss at this blogging nonsense of late. In lieu- working on many projects, watching and reading much news (and despairing), planning trip to the UK. I have begun work on a new 30' x 40" canvas, and so far it looks great, so that's intimidating. Haven't decided on color scheme yet. Would like to finish it before leaving on trip. Also must stitch up and bind another sketch book for use on the trip, as the current one will likely be full before we leave.
Oh! I did take some time out yesterday to paint the 'Pod, whom we now affectionately refer to as Hal, as it appears to have intelligence when assigned to "shuffle." (Not just of one playlist, mind, but with thousands of songs to choose from-- mf smart!)


HAL, newly painted

seasonal shift

Well, it is not even quite 7:30, and yet I have already had to turn on many lights in the house; though still blue outside, the process of darkening seems more abrupt from inside, beginning at this time of year. I mourn for the passing of summer; for the loss of light; the end of Daylight Savings Time. (Oh how I loathe the afternoon darkness of the winter months!)

Moyers does it again.

Holycrap- this excerpt from an address given by Bill Moyers is a must-read. A scary one, because of the realities pointed out (which should be so obvious, but seem only to be to a few), but brilliant and to the point.

Sorry it's all been just links of late, but things have been busy 'round here.

saucy!

buttons!

they're finished and available here for the low low price of $5.

olbermann

says it.

interview

to hear

article

to read

ugh.

well, things are getting worse.
broken levees, and the city fills.
it will never be the same as it was.
devastion. crime. further evacuation.

(still, some perspective can be gained by looking back at the tsunami in indnesia- that was on a much larger scale)

president bush is such a #%$*... well, that's nothing new.
and of course the requisite numbers of people talking "why did god do this?" or "the end is nigh" crap.
IT'S A WEATHER SYSTEM PEOPLE!!!