a girl in the world

finding beauty, pleasure and grace on the road less traveled

Rainy Saturday Entertainment

I think that despite my wishful thinking, summer in London has officially come and gone.  The last week has been markedly cooler and wetter than June and July.  We purchased an umbrella and the shorts and dresses have been hanging in the closet untouched for weeks.  The only reason I’m not moping about it too much is that we’re headed south in a few days for two weeks of extreme heat, warmth and sunshine.

But how to spend these last few days without going mad?  Well, the dryer is on full blast (just enough to heat the house), we’ve got tea in the kettle and cookies on the table.  And we’ve got movies!  Lots of them.  Actually, they’re not really movies.  We’ve been obsessed with documentaries lately and YouTube is a treasure trove of excellent, full length documentaries.  We’ve been learning about Stephen Hawking’s universe, about Columbia’s drug king Pablo Escobar, about the production of cocaine in Peru, about Indian orphans and the Gaza conflicts.  It has all been extremely educational, mind blowing entertainment and I’d like to share our favourites with you.

Unfortunately, the links I’ll post below will only work for UK IP addresses but you can use an online guide like this one to learn how to use a proxy server in the UK so you can access these shows from anywhere.

Rainy Saturday Documentaries

Dancing with the Devil – a film based on a true story about drugs, violence and redemption in the favellas for Rio

My Father, Pablo Escobar – a fascinating story about Columbia’s drug king as narrated by his son and his widow.  Incredible.

Dispatches – excellent investigative journalism on world topics like The Slumdog Children of Mumbai, The Children of Gaza and Pakistan’s Taliban Generation.

Master of the Universe – a series on Stephan Hawking’s life and research about the birth and death of the universe, the meaning of life and why we are here.

Iran Undercover – Shocking insider coverage of Iran’s medieval customs that authorities want to keep secret.

And finally, a selection of Cannes Film Festival movies from the independent films website, Mubi (formerly The Auteurs), all free to access.

Happy Rainy Saturday, wherever you are in the world.

Lunatic thoughts: Imaginative escapism

We had some dear friends over for dinner last night and honestly, one of my favourite things about small, intimate dinners is the quirky conversation that is bound to come up about none-sense things.  It’s amusing to listen to it all flow from architecture in Canary Wharf, to suicide in one of the large towers, to suicide in the tubes, to Jamie Oliver, to cleaning bathrooms, to lime water that could be pinot grigio, to sex shops, to movies, to salary negotiations.  It’s like communal A.D.D. between four grown adults.

We were talking about a documentary on YouTube about suicide in the London Underground and quickly the conversation diverged to lunatic thoughts.  You know the ones.  Imagined scenarios in your head so real and so possible, they scare you.  Like when you’re standing there waiting for the train to arrive, it’s barreling down the tunnel at 30-40 miles per hour, it’s loud, it’s windy, the platform is packed with people.  How easy would it be to step a few feet over and into that rushing train?!  Danger is so close.  There are no barriers, no gates, no guards to stop you.  I used to imagine jumping in front of the train in the mornings, with a rush of fear so strong, I’d shiver all the way through the ride to work.  It’s nice to imagine vividly an alternate universe where recklessness knows no bounds.  The imagination is a powerful thing.

Our friend Andy’s lunatic thought was a little less sinister.  You’re in the office talking to a colleague face to face and you’re distracted by the lone, curly hair sticking out of the tip of his nose.  It must have been there for months, maybe years and how he hasn’t seen it every morning in the mirror and tried to remove it is beyond you but wow, how you’d love to just reach out and pluck that thing off his face.  You’re talking, smiling, nodding, completely distracted by the desire to save this man from any more embarrassment.  Maybe if you just pretended it was a fly and you quickly reached over to just get a piece of it.  He’d be startled but you’d laugh it off, ha ha ha, oh there was a fly on your nose!  It’s teasing you, that one grey grangly strand of hair, asking you to save it from the spotlight of this man’s nose.  Are you going to listen?!  What would happen if you did?  Would you get fired? Would he yell?  Would you care?  Would it be funny?  Of course it would be funny!

Or what about kissing that total stranger for no reason at all but to selfishly bemuse yourself over his reaction.  You’re walking down the street, he’s distracted, you’re bored.  Let’s spice things up a little, create an interesting human experiment.  He’d probably push you away before you even got the chance to get close enough.  Maybe he’d fall over from shock.  Would it be funny?  Definitely.  Would that classify as harassment?  In the USA, likely.

Or what about jumping from the gallery section of the Royal Albert Hall onto the arena below.  Would you break your bones?  Would it hurt?  How mad would the orchestra be over your disruption?  You’d probably get arrested.  What would jail be like?  How long could they really keep you there?  It’s not a crime, really, is it?  Silly yes.  Criminal, not really.

And wow, how cool would it be to go Jackie Chan on that really annoying colleague of yours?  A punch here, a karate chop there.  A black eye and a bleeding nose.  Ooooh, blooood. Too many action movies.  Fight Club. James Bond. You can punch like the best of them. Would your hand hurt?  It’s been said that punching someone is just as painful as being punched.  What would it sound like to hit someone on the nose?  He’d probably fight back.  Then what would you do?  Run?  Punch him again?  You’d for sure go to jail then.  It’s silly AND criminal.  Bad. Ass.

Decades ago in Calgary, we used to attend a baptist Sunday school where they taught us that thinking is the same as doing.  I was as nervous then as I am now about this teaching.  If it were true, my seat in hell would have been saved for me years ago.  I completely disagree with that preaching now.  Of course thinking isn’t the same as doing!  They’re two different words!  Duh!  And besides, that’s the whole point of being able to have lunatic thoughts.  Sometimes, we just need some fantastical escapism. =)

London on a budget: Museum Guide

This past weekend I wrote about the ridiculous extravagance of this city (and just last night I found this article on a flat selling for £140 million) but I have to admit that there are many ways to enjoy London on a small budget.  We’ve spent the whole summer discovering affordable, beautiful, London.  And I’m going to share what we’ve found in a multiple-part series of posts.  Today:

Museums

Perhaps one of the things I love most about London is that it holds some of the world’s most precious collections of art.  And despite her staunch and wealth, Her Majesty the Queen has been generous enough to ensure that museums are free to visit!  FREE!  Here are my favourites:

The British Museum (nearest tube: Tottenham Court Road)

I’m not particularly interested in all of the Greek vases they have in this place (and some of my own Greek friends that this museum houses more Ancient Greek artifacts than do the museums in Athens) but what I love about the British Museum is the architecture of the place.  It’s one of the most beautifully designed buildings I’ve seen.  We come to browse for a little while and then go upstairs to have a coffee under the filtered light passing through the atrium sun roof.

The National Gallery (nearest tube: Leicester Square)

A wonderful place to spend a weekday afternoon away from the crowds.  I discovered my favourite Van Gogh painting here, The Two Crabs, on loan to the museum by a private collector.  And surprisingly, this painting, called Whistlejacket by George Stubbs is magnificent in person.  It hangs in a grande room and feels as large as a house.

The Tate Modern (nearest tube: Waterloo)

Weird, large, contemporary, hip and located on the south bank of the River Thames.  It’s a converted factory and is one of my favourite modern art museums in the world.  Always, there is something shocking in there that will give you pause.

The Victoria and Albert Museum (nearest tube: South Kensington)

I love this museum for one reason and one reason only: the jewel room.  There are colourful shiny things in all shapes, forms and sizes.  Tiaras made of diamonds, the greenest biggest emeralds you’ll ever see, necklaces so heavy with pretty coloured stones that you’d be sure to drown in the sea if you fell overboard.  The National Art Library is in there too (see picture above).

The National Portrait Gallery (nearest tube: Leicester Square)

The kind of paintings so real, you will think they are photographs.  I am always amazed whenever I come out of here.  Go.  Often, I can be found nose-to-nose with a painting trying to figure out where photography and paint converge on the canvas.

The Natural History Museum (nearest tube: South Kensington)

Life-sized whales, dinosaurs and mammals.  This place, like other natural history museums, will make you feel like a little kid again.  Impressive scale and excellent exhibits.

This is just a short list of my all-time favourites but if you want ful details on all museums in the city, you can go to the Visit London website to find out more.

Next in this series:  London on a budget – Great Walks.

 

Hi, I'm Denise. I'm a writer, artist and photographer. This is where I share what I'm seeing, learning and making.
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