Evening Sun

Enjoying a bit of early evening sunshine. Maybe our summer has finally come out of hiding.  

The Artist

Enjoying the garden on many levels.

Out of Luck

No I don't have any bread to give you and anyway don't you know it is bad for you?  Clearly not.

Golden Diva

She greets you upstairs at the Barbican.  Suspended from the ceiling, yet suprisingly easy to miss.  I know, you wouldn't think so would you? 

Recycling in the Hands of an Artist

A whole lot of rubbish or  - "A Partial Disassembling of an Invention Without a future: Helter-Skelter and Random Notes in Which the Pulleys and Cogwheels Are Lying Around at Random All Over the Workbench."

London born artist Walead Beshty, who lives and works in Los Angeles, spent a year gathering discarded paper, cardboard and pieces of wood creating more than 12,000 prints using the cyanotype process.  Most of the pieces of discard materials were gathered on the walk between his home and studio.   Except for the the last month of the commision when the materials were gathered near and around the Barbican where the work is currently showing.

Each piece has been catalogued and photographed both front and back with the photographed images placed in a series of large art books.  The prints themselves are methodically placed on the wall in chronological order from the day he started the project until the last discarded ticket found near the Barbican 12 months later.

The work is currently showing at the Curve Gallery at the Barbican until 8 February 2015.

James Bond - 50 years

Fifty years of Bond movies! All those gadgets and designer clothes plus trailers from some of the iconic movies they're all on exhibition at the Barbican "Designing 007: Fifty Years of Bond Style".
While standing in the queue to get in we debated how many movies could we name and how many actors played James Bond. How many can you name?
What about many of the other big name actors who also appeared - Robbie Coltrane as
Zukovsky? Diana Rigg as Mrs Bond? etc ...
Who could forget Q's futuristic (at the time) super spy gadgets and accessories ... the car phone, underwater breather, the radio active homing pill, and the Bell Textron jet pack being just a few.

This is a great exhibition that shouldn't be missed. It finishes 5 September so get down there.

Strangeworks

As part of the Shakespeare Festival, the Barbican has created a library trail aimed at primary school children.
They are given the following brief:
"Quotes from the Bard's famous works have gone missing from Shakespeare’s Library and are lost in the Barbican’s concrete jungle. Now the Librarians desperately need your help to capture the quotes before they are lost forever!"

I found the quote (pictured) as single words floating in various pools around the courtyard.

Gentlemen's Afternoon Tea

I was invited to sample gentlemen's afternoon tea at the very classy Neo Bar. It's a hard job but someone has to do it.
Belvedere Vodka and mixologist Andy Pearson have created very imaginative cocktails. I sampled the healthy version, truly this creation being made is called brainbox as it covers your 5 vege a day with salmon oils, egg whites, green tea and of course Belvedere Vodka. I can hear you saying similar things to me, but I'll bet like me you will be pleasantly surprised at how delicious it really is. To accompany your cocktail chef Joel Edmond has created a number of miniature food treats. All classics you will know, Italian pizza, croquemonsieur, fish cakes to name just a few.
Continuing on the healthy theme I finished with a cup of tea. Of course it was not ordinary tea, this was a peppermint tea martini.

December Theme Day - Time

Time:
Today is post 1000 for aglimpseoflondon.
As the first of the month it is also theme day for CDP bloggers this month is time. So I did a little research to see what happened in London 1000 years ago.

What I found was that a bloke who became known as St Edmund the Martyr who was king of East Anglia, becoming a saint shortly after his death in 869 he died in battle fighting the heathens. As was the case in these days bodies of the dead were frequently moved to keep them safe or in one piece. Well it appears that in the year 1010 his body was carried through creplegate (later spelled cripplegate) on route to St Gregory's Church.

Cripplegate was one of the gates in London wall, which I discovered stood on the part of London Wall Rd where it intersects Wood Rd. This now leads into the Barbican Estate.

Just inside the Barbican at this point stands St Giles Church. You were wondering how I was going to weave my photo into this story weren't you. St Giles church was originally built in 1090, named after the patron saint of cripples and beggars. They all hung out around this part of the city, hence the name of the this gate in the wall.
Much of this area was heavily bombed in the WWII. Amazingly St Giles survived.

To see how others have interpreted Time
Click here to view thumbnails for all participants

City Boys!

First the bankers, then the MP's with their expenses, now it's the city ducks. Theses chaps were having an altercation over Jessica or maybe it was Jemima, whoever she was she left with another chap and left these two to tough it out on their own.