National Air and Space Museum

Yesterday Sarah and Desh took her little brother Jim and me to the National Air and Space Museum at the Udvar-Hazy Center near Dulles. Now, I need to tell you that in spite of my father swearing UP and DOWN that I loved the Museum of Flight in Seattle as a child; I remember hating that museum. (Except for the flying car, which you really ought to click on because: hilarious) Anyhow, suffice to say that because of my history with museums full of air planes- I was suspicious of the Air and Space Museum.

But! BUT! BUT!!! I was wrong. I was totally wrong. It was *awesome* and ridiculously fun.

We ended up taking a tour and were lucky enough/privileged enough to end up on a lengthy tour with an excellent tour guide and while he was totally upfront about the gaps in his helicopter knowledge was a darling and entertaining speaker. I was utterly riveted for the whole two hours plus. ("Plus" because I kept asking questions and he said that the tour was running over time, but he would be happy to answer those questions for me and whomever wanted to stay on after he was done if I would just please shut up and let him finish! Sheesh.) (That's not verbatim. He was much more polite than that.) (I wouldn't have kept asking questions if he hadn't kept hauling me up to the front when I muttered things under my breath.) (Hmmph.)

It's interesting being in a flight museum as an adult, or at least as someone with slightly more perspective than a five year old. The place was filled with scrambling, running kids (including a scrumptious toddler in an orange space suit from the gift shop and bunch of kids at that stage where their feet are huge but the rest of their body hasn't quite caught up yet). And everywhere around are weapons. Giant, flying, weapons. The Enola Gay is the second thing to catch your eye as you walk into the main hangar. (The first is The Lockheed SR-71A Blackbird, which, granted, doesn't have any guns on it, but is still clearly an instrument of war.) We were walking around the museum talking about various evolutionary improvements versus leaping advancements (like swept wings) and how all these things allowed us, the US military, to be better at killing the bad guys.

Killing. The. Bad. Guys.

Okay. Yeah. The history of flight has two branches- commercial flight and military flight. And our wonderful, fabulous, can't compliment him enough tour guide spent 20 years in the Air Force so of course he is more interested in the military branch of things. I am well aware that my lack of military knowledge allows me to be all judgemental from a particularly safe and ignorant point of view. But I have to admit that I didn't expect the National Air and Space Museum to make me think that hard. Or be that emotional. Or that uncomfortable and conflicted. Or, you know, that involved.

(Side note: The tour guides get to talk about whatever they're interested in. There isn't a set tour that they have to follow. Which is great because it means they are fascinating tours, but also means that Sarah and Desh once went on a tour that spent the entire time looking at engines. Which probably, at this point, I should trust and believe would be great because the tour guides are so fabulous, but really? Engines? Two hours of engines? I fear that that would be like a wrench museum. (Boring, guys. I mean boring.) All of the title cards for the artefacts and what have you are very technical; they totally and completely fail to be compelling on their own. Which is why the tours are so great.) (Have I made that clear yet? If you go to the National Air and Space Museum take a tour.)

Oooh! You guys ready for my favourite part? The Langley Aerodrome was hanging above our heads near the end of the tour. It is beautiful- made of pale wood and yards and yards of creamy cloth stretched out on an architecturally stunning framework. But, you know, it is also flat. With a boat in the middle. And clearly couldn't fly if you paid it to. So what on earth was it? I wanted to know.

See how this is falling into the water? how it is totally not going to fly? Isn't this silly? It was catapulted off of that there house boat and kerplash! fell into the water. Many times. I love it. Oh, early flight. So many times you did not work.

What makes it even more fun is that when the Wright Brothers managed to fly, the U.S. Patent office granted them a patent on the idea of flight. Take that to the bank. So after people had got thoroughly fed up with paying royalties on the idea of flight someone came along, dug out the Langley Aerodrome from its storage place in the Smithsonian, heavily modified it, got it to fly, unmodified it, and sued the Wright Brothers. Ultimately the judge rolled his eyes at both groups and said something along the lines of "don't waste my time with your ridiculous flying contraption, but Wright brothers? You can't patent the idea of flight, anything related to it that you invented? Sure. Go ahead. Definitely. But not the idea of flight."

Highlights (and lowlights)

Graduation:
High: We were referred to as "Graduands;" it was in The Guildhall which is old and venerable and cool; I ran into a bunch of old friends; I didn't trip on the stage; Latana's whole family was there to say 'hi' to; I had family there; I won a bottle of champagne (random prize draw); Meredith came to celebratory dinner; and Samir gave us a free bottle of Prosecco

Low: Grandpa was feeling poorly and couldn't make the ceremony; my diploma looks like it was printed on a laser printer (possibly a highlight actually because I think that is *hilarious*)

Tykes:
High: I'm so totally on top of this Christmas show thing. And the nursery kids got really into singing about putting on warm clothes (see? fun AND educational! It's cold outside! Put on a hat! Side note: what is with all of these three year olds having gloves? I'm sure I was much older before I was allowed to have hand warmers with individual fingers). I've already used "Galaxy of Games for Music Class" book that Grammy brought over from the US for me. Music club went really well (we finally broke it up into two sections because the 20+ kids was just getting too crazy. I have the nursery tykes and Linda has the reception tykes) and I still totally love my job. So much.

Funny: I got an email today from work informing me that one of the classes is singing "Too the loo" instead of "Toodaloo" and could I please correct that with them? Heh.

Kids:
Highlight: After ages and ages spent calling all sorts of people trying to find a sub for Tuesday (graduation) Ella finally agreed to sub for me. So I ended up making this kick ass lesson plan complete with sheet music and hand drawn pictures all tucked inside of a handy blue folder. (I remain incredibly pleased with my lesson plan folder.) Ella did a great job, I got reacquainted with a bunch of people I had lost track of while calling everyone I knew to find a sub, and on Wednesday my lesson plan was all ready for me and laid out. I had two new kids on Wednesday trying out the class and one of the mothers stuck around to watch. Her three year old sat on her lap and was *dying* to join in which a: is great and b: means, I think, that I need to step up my game for the six year olds- make it a bit more challenging? Working on that one. *Another* highlight is that on the stairwell while bringing the kids back down to their parents I got not one, but TWO hugs from a kid who was only in my class for one session before getting bumped up a level. Thanks sweetie!

Low: Um. I still need to work on classroom management? Though I'm probably not as bad at it as I think I am given that the mother in the classroom said that the class was great and since she has a six year old, I figure she's better able to judge than I am.

Museums:
Highlight: Mical and Dan and I have spent two days wandering the V&A. It is such a treasure trove of awesomeness. I actually started getting teary and a little breathless when walking into the theatre and performance displays (think I should do more of that? Yes, I think so too.) Speaking of which- they had a short clip from my favorite dance scene in Billy Elliot the musical and I still get goosebumps listening to/watching it. For those of you who haven't seen it yet- would you please do so should you ever get the opportunity? Please? We also spent a bunch of time in the textiles and lace sections.

Today we looked at the jewelry collection and a little exhibit about Owen Jones http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Owen_Jones_(architect) which was interesting on it's own but made even more interesting by the lecture that was going on to a tour group. I was fascinated and getting really annoyed by the students who were so clearly ignoring the woman who was so excited about the subject. I actually tracked her down when they moved to another room to a: find out who she was teaching for and b: tell her I thought she was amazing. She teaches at the Courtauld Institute of Art History http://www.courtauld.ac.uk/institute/index.shtml and it was a group of undergrads that she was shepherding around. Ooh! And they have a history of dress programme! Neat. Anyhow-I've probably just spent too much time online trying to figure out who she was- but I finally found her- she's one of the current PhD students there. And she's awesome.

The British Museum (ages ago!) was also pretty great. Old stuff there.

Grandparents:
It's been really nice having everyone here (Grandpa Frank, we missed you!) and finally having a chance to really chat with everyone. I think that has been my favorite part so far- all the conversations. That being said, it is a weird sensation hanging out with people who are on vacation and belatedly forgetting that you are not also on vacation and in fact have work tomorrow and really should be figuring out what you're going to teach those small children!

Last night Mical and Dan and I went to see the London Philharmonia play Shostakovitch 5 and Night on Bald Mountain. My friend Gwen was recently hired as a violist with them (congratulations!!) and so we met up with her for tea and tasty desserts before the concert and that was super fun even though the bakery we were in was directly over the trains and so was a bit...loud. It was also super fun watching Mical and Dan with the concert (Grandpa may or may not have been bouncing along to the music a little bit. A very little bit...) Anyhow- success! But now I am *tired* so sleep it is.

The Grandparents Are Here

Grammy arrived on Tuesday and hung out with me at the Tyke's school while I had a meeting about the Nativity play with the reception teachers. She made friends with the cleaning staff (lovely, lovely women) who took very good care of her and brought her tea and chocolate cake. I'm afraid I have been walking her very hard as we then took my usual walk home which is probably over a mile. Possibly over two... she's been a trooper though and spent Wednesday exploring the V&A and Science museums while I was at work.

Thursday we took a little easier and went up to Walthamstow to look at the William Morris Gallery which is housed in one of his childhood homes. It was fascinating- there were some of the wooden blocks they used for printing the wall papers and chintz, there were amazing tiles done by Burne-Jones, and even one of the "medieval" dresses that Morris designed when they were painting Arthurian legends and he met Jane Burden.

My favorite part (I had a lot of favorite parts; one of my favorite parts) was reading about the Red House which was the first building designed entirely by Philip Webb (one of Morris's friends) and was used as an early experiment ground for all sorts of ideas tying decoration and the finer arts together. Basically it sounds like the whole place was decorated by the Pre-Raphaelites and early Arts and Crafts Movement and everyone hung out there (it was where the germ of Morris & Co. was started) and had lots of dinner parties and creative sparks. So, perhaps if I could subtract the whole marital infidelity thing - could I have that life? And maybe not quite so much decoration- the photographs of the inside of the house are actually a bit dizzying.

Mical and Dan arrived yesterday afternoon and Grammy and I joined them at their flat for a bit of a chat. It was really good to see them and I'm so looking forward to this trip! Time with grandparents!

Today we are meeting for lunch and then heading to the British Museum. I'll let you know how that goes!

Tired.

Just so you know, I am exempt from any "Casey, you should write more!" comments for the rest of the month. Kay?

Today I woke up early in the morning and got on the tube to High Street Kensington where I then walked to the Royal College of Music where I then went to a three hour long Viola da Gamba masterclass. So that was cool. It was nice to be surrounded by a bunch of gambists and I chatted with people a bit but the really cool part came after the masterclass when we went down to the library where there was an exhibit of autograph editions of various consort pieces. I would be more specific, but I wasn't paying that much attention. But the hand writing! Some of these handwritten parts were clearer and easier to read than a lot of printed music today. Also, the parts were tiny- like maybe 3"x5" tiny.

I was glad I stuck around after the masterclass because then they took us to the museum too, which was superfly. They've got an upright harpsichord instrument from 1480, a bunch of totally neat spinnets, a piano with a 'bassoon' pedal (a metal bar that was lowered on to the strings), and a couple of important gambas that I am now well enough informed of to have been in awe of.

There were about 30 people in the gamba group in the museum and they started getting into quite a heated debate over whether the instrument was a division viol or a lyra viol. I talked to the curator later and she was telling me about a thread on their website regarding what is thought to be the first guitar. Apparently the comments have been getting downright violent over whether the instrument is actually the first guitar or just a vihuella, the museum has had to point out that they are merely taking care of the instrument and not taking part in the debate.

At that point it was nearly two and I hadn't eaten. Fortunately, even though I was severely sleep deprived after having stayed up late cleaning my room (I know, weird. But I've really become almost tidy here in London), I had managed to pack myself a lunch. Unfortunately, this ended up being half of a quiche shoved in a zip-loc bag shoved in my backpack. It was barely recognizable as food by the time I ate it, walking along the Royal Albert Hall. Tasty, though.

I decided I should go to the V&A and finally see that fashion exhibit I've been meaning to see for forever and ever. And you know what? It wasn't worth waiting three years to see... ah well. There were a bunch of fashion students making sketches so that was fun to watch and I wandered through all of the iron works (feeding my secret desire to become a blacksmith) which is how I found the plaster works. Dude....Four storey tall plaster casts of elaborately carved towers and rows upon rows of royal tomb effigies. I turned around the corner and suddenly there was this giant room filled with amazing, wondrous things. Highlight of the museum today.

I rushed back to school in time for jazz singers, went to a lecture that degenerated in to a silly rather pointless debate about nothing, and then hung out with the early music kids in the basement. So now I'm tired, but happy.

Saturday

Patrick the missing roommate (who now has a picture) and Isabel (1st year acting, Colorado) and I walked to the British Museum on Saturday. It was a lovely day and a great walk. I made us pop into the London Review Bookshop which is actually heaven. I ended up buying a book called "Necropolis" which is a history of London's dead and looks totally fascinating. We had lunch at a mediocre french sandwich shop and then braved the museum.

Patrick wanted to see Egypt, but on the way to Egypt I got distracted by the Great Death Pit of Ur. Needless to say, my fascination with the great death pit as well as my recent purchase of the Necropolis book made Patrick and Isabel look at me oddly, but whatever- it was totally cool.

There were a lot of cuneiform receipts and tax records and such. A few thousand years later (and the room next door) there were these cylinders filled with writing that were placed at the edge of a plot of land. They said who owned the land, the dimensions of said land, the circumstances under which the land changed hands, etc. Basic legal stuff. But then they also had buckets of curses on them so that people wouldn't scratch out the name of the landowner and render the legal document useless.

I suggested to Angela when I spoke to her than night that it might be a good idea to use this technique when her housemates are stealing food: take that milk carton, cover it with curses to turn the milk stealers bright orange, and then sit back and see if it lasts longer. She wasn't terribly impressed.

On our walk back to Sundial we were stopped by a man who had heard us talking and asked if we were American. It turned out that he was a bass player with the LA Philharmonic who were playing at the Barbican that night. We walked with him to the Barbican and he brought the three of us back stage to take a look at their instrument flight cases. Each of the bass cases were custom made for the bass they carry. All of the cases are large rectangles with lots of padding and compartments so that a: they fit in freight carriers, and b: the bass players don't really need a suitcase. So that was neat.

I'm so tired...

We did a bunch of shopping today, which is good because now I have some silverware and a couple of plates. I don't have a can opener yet, nor any hangers. But I'm getting closer to having an actually stocked kitchen.

What I do have (and this is really key) is an alarm clock! Which is orange and cost one pound and that my Mommy bought for me while I was having a bit of a nervous (sleepy) breakdown. Isn't she wonderful and amazing?

We started the shopping somewhere up by the Angel tube stop at a street market that was just beginning to open. It was fun to see all of the booths being set up and to realize that these are actually fully functional stores that just happen to be nomadic. I couldn't think of any sort of comporable thing that I've seen before. I'm used to street booths like that in NYC, but they don't sell anything decent there- just designer knockoffs, which is I think why I was so suprised to figure out that being in a market booth didn't mean that what you were selling was trash. (Isn't that so arrogant of me? To assume that? Oh well, I won't anymore.) We got a lot of kitchen stuff in the market and then stopped at Woolworths which was good because now I have a towel.

We dropped our purchases off at the hotel and then made our way to Spitalfields which was phenomenal. I want so many things that I can't afford! Mommy did an excellent job of haggling and ended up with three new pashmina scarves. (The seller was charming and towards the end of our haggling started giving Mommy the price written out on the screen of his cell phone rather than aloud. He was very good at his job.) We didn't have quite what he asked for in cash, so we handed him everything we had left and he didn't take it all (he gave us back two or three pounds) which, as Mommy says, was "the most charming part." She's holding one of the scarves up right now, and she's right; it is "glorious."

What did we do next? I have no memory...oh! We went to the Museum of London! I was suprised (again) to see so many human skulls. I guess the Britons used to throw skulls into the Thames for ceremonial reasons (they think) which means that archaeologists have found all sorts of skulls, but not many complete skeletons. They have interesting room reconstructions there, but what really got to me was the tribute book to the people who died in the tube bombing in 2005. Each of the 56 people who died got a five or six page section filled with pieces written by friends and family and filled with pictures. I kept trying not to cry (it was in the middle of a museum after all.) There was a very palpable sense of "this could have happened to any of us." Which feels like a good sentiment. Mommy pointed out that there was no information about who the attacks were carried out by, no advertising for them at all- just a very sweet, very personal memorial.

Then we came back to the hotel and I passed out for five hours. School starts tomorrow, I'm not really sure when, but I figure I'll wake up early and take it from there. I seriously doubt there is anything I need to do before 9am. (And by seriously doubt, I mean when I called all the time this summer I wouldn't get ahold of anyone before 9:30am and even then was usually their first call for the day "hold on a sec' while I get my computer on...")

Ozomatli!

Ozomatli is the best live band ever. For real. Anyone who can get an entire hall full of people standing up and dancing and waving their arms in the air during the very first song of the very first set is gifted and amazing and quite probably not entirely of this world. I got very sweaty. Plus, the shows are fun because they make you meet whomever is near you. In my case an older couple named Judith and Garreth. "Our names just have the same ending coincidentally, we didn't do it on purpose."

Also, again with the Capoeira: the opening band (which was terrible and felt like watching narcissistic people doing bad karaoke) had a couple of people doing capoeira during a few of their songs and it was awesome. One of the guys kept sliding across the floor on his head. On his head.

I also finally went to the design museum yesterday. And really? The bookstore was the best part. And I think I want Phaidon's entire catalog. I'm off to the Tate today, because I need to see some pre-raphaelites. It is just necessary.

True to form

I spent yesterday at the National Portrait Gallery- which is much cooler than you would expect. I rented one of those head sets that have mp3s of interesting facts, which ended up being a good idea. The headset actually made Tudor era portraits fascinating, which I think is saying something. Each set started with a piece of music that then continued in the background (they did a good job of having era appropriate music, which I was pleased with 'cause I'm a dork like that) and explained who the important person was, why the painting was important (if it was, many weren't), who the artist was, and if there were any important historical things illustrated by the painting those were mentioned too.

The gallery has also done a very good job of making sure that there is actual diversity within their collection (like every room had at least one painting of a woman, even the science rooms. A disproportionate number of the women were operatic sopranos though) and currently have informative panels along some of the paintings about slavery. Like, was the person in question involved with the abolition or did they own slaves and the like. Cool, huh?

I had purchased a ticket to go see a candlelight concert at St. Martins in the Field, but that didn't start until 7:30 and the museum closed at 5, so I had some time to kill. I ended up going to Trafalgar Square and climbing up on to the lion pedestal in order to do some serious people watching, but instead ended up talking to these two Pakistani students at Queen Mary: Waqas and Abbas. They wanted to go down to embankment and watch the buskers, so we walked down there. There is a fellow who plays the steel drums immediately next to the carousel which makes for terrible terrible cacophony that was only very slightly reminiscent of Ives.

The concert was good, but I was cheap and got tickets that had a completely obstructed view. (It wasn't supposed to be totally obstructed, but the only thing I could see was sometimes the baton of the conductor if I was trying really hard to see.) So what I did instead was stare at the ceiling. Fortunately, being a baroque era church, the ceiling was pretty cool. They are doing a lot of work on the church right now. The crypt and the brass rubbing area are both closed, and starting in May the church will be closed for services and concerts as well, so it was good I got there when I did. However, that meant that when I was looking at the ceiling I had to look up and past the scaffolding and plywood. I would tell you what they played, but I left the program at home. Sorry.

This morning I went to "cafe" in Mile End, which is a little, um, cafe, that I went to a couple of times with Laine. I remember it very fondly and have been wanting to have at least one English Breakfast while I am here, but I think remembering it fondly was a better idea then actually going and eating there again. Oi, so much grease. But lots of fried mushrooms, and you can't go wrong with fried mushrooms. Well, in my book anyway.

I'm going to the ballet tonight, total nose bleed section tickets, but at least they are not standing room- that would be awful. I'll let you know how it goes, and thanks so much for commenting (those of you who do) it makes me really happy!

John Watson

Remember that fellow from Williamsberg? The one that I went and met with and cooed over a derelict, but historically interesting spinet with? I called him today about this whole Horniman thing. (It was really scary, I much prefer e-mail.) Here is what I found out:

*Galpin Society: society in Britain of people working with musical instruments: curators, researchers, historians, etc.

*The Horniman is either the most important instrument collection in England, or one of the most important. (I don't remember exactly what he said, I wasn't taking notes at that point.)

*I would have a better chance if I had any sort of museum studies, but it is certainly worth a try applying for the position.

*The guy who started Target is retiring and with his retirement is starting a new music museum that will be in Phoenix, AZ. It, cleverly enough, is called (The?) Musical Instrument Museum. (As far as I can tell, it doesn't yet have an online presence.)

*The National Music Museum in Vermilion, SD is apparently the fastest growing museum in America and all sorts of important instrument societies are having their conferences there and such. The downside being that it is in the middle of nowhere. In South Dakota.

So anyhow- I'm glad I called him, he told me to keep in touch and to definitely go for the position (Even though he thinks that what I should really be doing is more along the lines of museum education. Eh, probably.) So there you go. If you're supposed to do at least one scary thing a day, that totally counts for today. Now I'm off to go hold keys for Eliot at the Basilica (my first time working there, apparently the organ is huge and it is quite possible to get lost inside of it. Circuitous donchaknow.) And then Andrew has his gamba recital at 6:30, so that should be really cool.