Way Out (London, April 2006)
I can't let April depart without blogging about one of the key events of this month, a week-long trip to London, one of my favorite cities. Although the weather was miserable -- cold and rainy -- the city was teeming with life, and it reminded me what a big difference there is between a place like Washington DC and a real, world-class city. A few highlights. We popped out on British Rail to Hampton Court Palace, about an hour outside of London, a place which saw hundreds of years of intrigue, upper-crust derring-do, and such luminaries as Henry VIII and William III. One gets a real sense for how people lived, and it's striking to me how much time and attention went into mingling with the nobility, and keeping them happy; and how there were different levels of access to different parts of the palace, depending upon your stature in the court. The most awe-inspiring rooms were not the rooms where real business was done, but rather the King would meet with his inner circle in much plainer surroundings. In seeing the care taken to entertaining, one realizes how much these kings depended upon those they governed. Unfortunately, the rains made it impossible to see the gardens, which are beautiful, and which feature a hedge maze.
We were lucky enough to be in London while two exhibits on Mondernism were going on, a broad one on Modernism from 1914 to 1939 at the Victoria and Albert and a more focused one on Josef Albers and László Moholy-Nagy titled "From The Bauhaus to the New World."
The V&A exhibit starts out with some of the weird utopian visions of its founders, and touches on the uneasy relationship with Communism and Fascism, which sometimes embraced Modernism and sometimes suppressed it. Among the highlights of the V&A exhibit were the early sketches of the London Undeground Map by Henry C. (Harry) Beck, which I never realized was a design classic; the Frankfurt kitchen which was designed to reduce the amount of steps and time required to prepare a typical meal; and famed architect Le Courbusier's chilling design for Paris, in which he proposed razing the center of the city and replacing it with tower blocks. There is also, of course, the famous chair, pictured at right.
Albers spent years researching color relationships, and also produced some cool amazing stained glass and wood cuttings (sample at the left). A sample of Moholy-Nagy's work is at right.
On to less cerebral things, I was fortunate enough to satisfy a dumpling craving at Ping Pong Dim Sum, where the slogan on the door was "little parcels of deliciousness." For once the reality lived up to the advertising, and the long line was completely worth the wait. If you're in a hurry, nothing beats Wagamama, Asian fast food including a delicious interpretation of tom ka gai, and heaps of edamame. Finally, perhaps the best restaurant find was a cozy, unpretentious but delicious Italian restaurant on Hollywood Road just off Fulham Road not far from Earls Court called Santa Lucia. Great food, great staff, great atmosphere.
A couple of other touristy things: a visit to St. Paul's Cathedral, where we climbed all the way to the top of the inside of the dome, which involves a phenomenal number of steps but a beautiful view at the end of it. And the rest of the time was spent just walking around this amazing city.
I've only posted a couple of my photos here, but you can see the rest on my Flickr page.
