Rob Matthews’ London journal continues
Thursday July 29, 2004
Another English breakfast of Rice Krispies and coffee. This time I had a hard-boiled egg. Tubed to St. Paul’s cathedral, walked up about 450 steps to the top of the dome, looked at the city, walked back down, bought a refrigerator magnet since they didn’t have any “I climbed St. Paul’s” t-shirts and then headed to Westminster Abbey. (image of St. Paul’s under construction)
At the Abbey, The Da Vinci Code sprung to life. Just kidding. Really what it did was confirm my belief in my eventual cremation and not take up any space after I’m gone. Why all the dead royalty are taking up valuable church space is beyond me. Nice to see both of the churches though. Standing in a solid building that’s 1,000 years old is humbling considering my house is about 120 years old and was about to fall apart until we paid a ton of money to hold it all together.
Found a London Eye snowglobe in the gift shop. The collection grows. As always, with each new snowglobe purchase I said a little prayer in remembrance of my Fargo “wood chipper” snowglobe (complete with bloody snowflakes) that threw itself off my bathroom shelves last year.
Ate a prawn/mayo sandwich at the Abbey on top of some dead guy’s grave.
In the afternoon, I braved South London to see the Tom Friedman show at the South London Gallery. It appeared to be a non-profit that puts on nice shows.
The Friedman work was all 2004 and most of it was really great. The poop made out of paper was convincing (image).
It even attracted a fly to land on it as I was looking at it.
You can check out the South London website for info on the sculpture show that was in the garden. (image below is sign explaining an audio piece in the garden)
[ed note: we wondered if this could be a Dave Allen piece, he of the singing birds at Arcadia last year. But indeed there is another bird and music obsessed Brit artist, Hannah Rickards, who sang bird songs in her own voice and you hear them in the garden. Words explain her process.]
It was confusing while I was there and I don’t do well with art that involves real plants.
On the bus and subway rides back to the city, I talked to a sculptor/postal worker from Bristol named Ian. He was in town for the Friedman show and to see Gillian Welch. We also shared a mutual love of Lambchop. (lampchop poster)
It was great to know that someone in Bristol knew about the 14-piece country/soul group from Nashville. Ian managed to almost get me lost. Word of advice- just because someone is from the country you are visiting doesn’t mean they have a good sense of direction.
Tracy and I went to the British Museum that night because they were open late and she wanted to see it. She hit the highlights and bought a bookmark (because that’s what librarians do). If I’m not mistaken we had Subway for dinner because most non-restaurant food was closed.
I think we watched the news, the Weakest Link, and highlights from a cricket game before going to sleep. Not knowing anything about cricket, my curiosity was stirred. Games last for days? I must learn more.
