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I went to lots of museums this trip, and didn't even get burned out like last time. It helps that I was often with ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
othelianna, and it also helped that I was there for me, and not anyone else. If I wanted to leave the museum, I could do so any time. Not that I actually did that. I was often the last person out.
Ok, here are some stories about assorted museums in London.
British Museum
I love that the British Museum is a bunch of buildings they put another building over. A friend of mine bitched that a Western Canadian totem pole was put in the food fare, but it would be more accurate to say that they put both the totem pole and the food fare in the atrium, as that was the only place large enough to hold either.
It was rather cool in the museum.
There were ten thousand people crowded around the Rosetta Stone. There was a 1:1 replica in the next room that you could touch, and there was no one there. everyone loves authenticity I guess. I licked it.
I want this for my house as a bathtub. Don't worry, I'll clean it out first.
The British Museum has a purpose-built area for the Parthenon Marbles. Lord Elgin is mentioned exactly once, in an out of the way plaque. What they did have was a lot of propaganda suggesting how having the Parthenon marbles in London, and not Athens, was good for everyone, and that it complements the remaining marbles in Athens. It's a big reason why no one who asks for their stuff back is ever going to get it - because if they say yes to anyone, the Greeks will be there saying "Now that we've established that you should give people's stuff back, give us back our marbles."
If anyone ever destroys the British Museum, the loss to the world will be immeasurable.
A lot of the marbles concern Humanity's wiping the Centaur scum from the Earth.
National Portrait Gallery
Apparently, one of Rosie's favourite activities when waiting for a play to start is to wander around the National Portrait Gallery. Not to be confused with the National Landscape Gallery. She took me there when we were wandering around between two show.
St. Sebastian, patron saint of archery targets.
If everyone looks like Putin, it's Van Eyck.
I just really like this one. She's gorgeous.
Horniman Museum
If the British Museum is the cool older brother, the Horniman is the little brother that just tries in heartbreakingly inadequate ways to be cool too. It's closer to what a Victorian would think was a museum, then what modern museums strive for. That is to say, it's more look at all this cool shit I found rather than the British Museum's Here is a collection of historically significant antiquities displayed in a manner to educate.
They're famous for their stuffed walrus, so they put it on the cookies.
The walrus itself is significant because all they sent back to England was the skin, then they asked a taxidermist, who had never seen a walrus before, to mount it. I've heard taxidermy described as akin to getting a set of ballerina's tights, and trying to fill it in a manner that will look like a ballerina when you're finished. That's actually really difficult to do. Example one of how difficult is the Horniman Walrus:
Lots of stuffed things. Including a Dodo!
Kiwi! Strangely, it looks nothing like a giant scaly green testicle.
The Cowardly Lion. Killed, stuffed, shellacked.
Science Museum
I was especially looking forward to The Science Museum. It did not disappoint. The exhibit I most wanted to see was, of course, the Difference Engine they built for Charles Babbage's 200th birthday.
I was geeking out left and right seeing this. I may have accidentally splashed Rosie.
It was a kick in the nuts to see a computer that I once owned (well, not this one specifically, but the same model) in a museum. Damnit, I'm not that old yet!
Victoria and Albert
The Victoria and Albert Museum
The V&A was between the Horniman and the British Museum in tone. I.e. it had a lot of pretty stuff, but they did try to put it in a historical context.
What I loved about the V&A was that they had a movie-making exhibit. It included stage models, props, and costumes! You could even play with some of the costumes!
What's the point of playing dress-up if you can't dress-up as a pirate!
A 100% accurate depiction of how a Viking woman would have dressed:
And a final picture for this entry: A girl and her fish.
othelianna, and it also helped that I was there for me, and not anyone else. If I wanted to leave the museum, I could do so any time. Not that I actually did that. I was often the last person out.Ok, here are some stories about assorted museums in London.
British Museum
I love that the British Museum is a bunch of buildings they put another building over. A friend of mine bitched that a Western Canadian totem pole was put in the food fare, but it would be more accurate to say that they put both the totem pole and the food fare in the atrium, as that was the only place large enough to hold either.
It was rather cool in the museum.
There were ten thousand people crowded around the Rosetta Stone. There was a 1:1 replica in the next room that you could touch, and there was no one there. everyone loves authenticity I guess. I licked it.
I want this for my house as a bathtub. Don't worry, I'll clean it out first.
The British Museum has a purpose-built area for the Parthenon Marbles. Lord Elgin is mentioned exactly once, in an out of the way plaque. What they did have was a lot of propaganda suggesting how having the Parthenon marbles in London, and not Athens, was good for everyone, and that it complements the remaining marbles in Athens. It's a big reason why no one who asks for their stuff back is ever going to get it - because if they say yes to anyone, the Greeks will be there saying "Now that we've established that you should give people's stuff back, give us back our marbles."
If anyone ever destroys the British Museum, the loss to the world will be immeasurable.
A lot of the marbles concern Humanity's wiping the Centaur scum from the Earth.
National Portrait Gallery
Apparently, one of Rosie's favourite activities when waiting for a play to start is to wander around the National Portrait Gallery. Not to be confused with the National Landscape Gallery. She took me there when we were wandering around between two show.
St. Sebastian, patron saint of archery targets.
If everyone looks like Putin, it's Van Eyck.
I just really like this one. She's gorgeous.
Horniman Museum
If the British Museum is the cool older brother, the Horniman is the little brother that just tries in heartbreakingly inadequate ways to be cool too. It's closer to what a Victorian would think was a museum, then what modern museums strive for. That is to say, it's more look at all this cool shit I found rather than the British Museum's Here is a collection of historically significant antiquities displayed in a manner to educate.
They're famous for their stuffed walrus, so they put it on the cookies.
The walrus itself is significant because all they sent back to England was the skin, then they asked a taxidermist, who had never seen a walrus before, to mount it. I've heard taxidermy described as akin to getting a set of ballerina's tights, and trying to fill it in a manner that will look like a ballerina when you're finished. That's actually really difficult to do. Example one of how difficult is the Horniman Walrus:
Lots of stuffed things. Including a Dodo!
Kiwi! Strangely, it looks nothing like a giant scaly green testicle.
The Cowardly Lion. Killed, stuffed, shellacked.
Science Museum
I was especially looking forward to The Science Museum. It did not disappoint. The exhibit I most wanted to see was, of course, the Difference Engine they built for Charles Babbage's 200th birthday.
I was geeking out left and right seeing this. I may have accidentally splashed Rosie.
It was a kick in the nuts to see a computer that I once owned (well, not this one specifically, but the same model) in a museum. Damnit, I'm not that old yet!
Victoria and Albert
The Victoria and Albert Museum
The V&A was between the Horniman and the British Museum in tone. I.e. it had a lot of pretty stuff, but they did try to put it in a historical context.
What I loved about the V&A was that they had a movie-making exhibit. It included stage models, props, and costumes! You could even play with some of the costumes!
What's the point of playing dress-up if you can't dress-up as a pirate!
A 100% accurate depiction of how a Viking woman would have dressed:
And a final picture for this entry: A girl and her fish.
