Monday, 5 January 2009

Heat, red bricks and too little music

Well I’m back in Brussels after my whirlwind tour around England. As well as family and friends, port and mince pies, there were also a couple of cultural highlights.

Art:
I saw the Rothko exhibition at the Tate Modern in London. It was brilliant. I left with a completely different appreciation for colours – some were so warm that heat seemed to actually be emitted from the canvas and others made you realise how individual any one particular colour is. I couldn’t believe how long could be spent looking at such deceptively simple works.

Architecture:
As you probably know, the Eurostar now arrives at St. Pancras station in London. While I’m not a fan of that from the point of view of my personal travel convenience, I am a big fan of the building itself. The Victorian architecture, and in particular the red brickwork, is just great. And I hadn’t realised until I made my first trip into Leeds this time that this northern city centre boasts some of the same Victorian brickwork.

Music:
Unfortunately my trip was somewhat devoid of music, though there was plenty of Radio 4 to be had, which is also very important. I think for this category, I’ll have to cheat and say the original music manuscripts on display in the British Library’s gallery of treasures.

And on that note, here’s to cultural discoveries, however small or large, in 2009.

3 comments:

Cycling the Vistula said...

St Pancras not convenient? Don't you have to go to Euston at least some of the time, and isn't that just a five-minute walk away?

Anna Jenkinson said...

Eurostar trips for me usually mean a weekend in London and so I want Southwest trains, which depart from Waterloo i.e. where the Eurostar used to arrive...

Cycling the Vistula said...

Think about the statues at St Pancras! Aren't those beacons of culture enough to outweigh the locational inconvenience? (And the British Library is just around the corner too).