All Sorts of Easter Goodness...

Just a super-quick blurb about this past Easter weekend.

I’m still dealing with the residuals of my recent illness (seriously, WTF?), but it was Easter weekend and so some pretense of ‘doing something’ was in order.

Saturday morning (7 April) was cold, gray, and raining, but I forced myself out of bed relatively early nonetheless. This was so I could meet EN at nearby Stratford Center and get my eyebrows threaded—she found a place there that would do it for £2, which is a heck of a lot cheaper than what I paid before. 

Well, let me tell you: there’s a reason why it was so cheap! 

The first time I underwent this process it was a breeze…this time it was a hurricane. I seriously thought she had drawn blood on more than one occasion. I think in the future I’ll stick to my hot, albeit more expensive Middle Eastern stylist.

As an aside, it was also during this trip that I realized that the God-awful, red, twisted-metal thing that I can see from my kitchen window is actually part of the Olympic Park! (In other words, all those times I said I hadn’t seen any of the Olympic junk firsthand I was totally wrong!) 

The monstrosity is called the ‘ArcelorMittal Orbit Sculpture,’ and is the tallest sculpture in the UK—taller, even, than New York’s own Statue of Liberty…

But, seriously, isn’t this the most hideous thing you’ve ever seen?

The sculpture and stadium where the Olympics will be held. [NB: This image is not mine!]

At any rate, having de-caterpillared my eyebrows I headed back home and spent the rest of the afternoon attempting (and failing) to start on my final essays for my three UEL classes—as crazy as it is to believe, we only have one class session left, and then one week after that to work on our essays…and then the semester is over!!!

That night, I decided to reward my…lack of progress with another trip out. 

EN and I met up again in Soho, determined to have a night of fun and dancing. And we succeeded this time! We met at Village at around 10:30 PM, and didn’t leave until they closed—and most of that time was spent up on the ‘stage’ downstairs, jumping around like crazy people. 

(At one point we got down, but I was prompted to get back up by some random guy who told me I was a good dancer. I don’t know if he was just drunk, or if he meant it, but it gave me an ego boost and so I climbed back up—EN was right on my heels, LOL!)

Where it all goes down... (This photo was taken on a different day when I was in the gaybourhood.)

Sweaty dancing queens...in bad lighting...

As another aside: since the tube stops running at around midnight, after my nights out I’ve been frequently forced to take a bus (which everyone knows I hate). In particular, I take the 25 bus to get to my place on the eastside of London. 

I bring this up because some of my readers who are also my Facebook friends may recall that I posted a comment Saturday night/Sunday morning complaining that there’s always some form of drama on the bus on my way home. (In that particular instance it was three young, drunk, straight guys harassing a lesbian couple, and then everyone who tried to intervene.) 

So, I did a bit of research today…only to discover that “Route 25 from Ilford [basically where I live] to Oxford Circus [which is where Soho is] has been revealed as London's most dangerous bus route with 471 code red emergency calls…” Now, admittedly, this statistic is from 2006—but still…not overly comforting.

Moving on...

Despite the fact that I only had one beer Saturday night—far less than I’ve had any other time I’ve gone out during this trip—I didn’t wake up on Easter Sunday until almost 2 PM. I guess I was just depressed that the Easter Bunny couldn’t leave me his/her usual basket of goodies (though she did send me an e-basket with money which was greatly appreciated). 

Regardless, this meant that my day was pretty much over before it even began, because I needed to leave shortly thereafter to go to church.

Yes, church. (I’m not a total heathen…I just play one on TV and the interwebs.)

Since arriving in London, one of my goals has been to go to the Easter service at Westminster Abbey. Well, I made it! Fortunately, their main service for the day wasn’t until 6:30 PM, so my extra-long sleep didn’t totally mess up plans.

I arrived at around 5:45, and we were finally allowed into the abbey at around 6:15. I took an aisle seat to the right of the High Altar, in the area known as ‘Poet’s Corner’—near where Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip sat during Prince William and Catherine’s wedding service.

Eyebrows Threaded and Ready for Easter

[NB: Obviously, I was not at the wedding, nor is the image mine (other than the arrow and text).]

What I did not realize going in, and which came as a welcomed surprise, was that the official delivering the service was the brother of my friend AH. (I knew that AH’s brother was a reverend at Westminster, but I had no idea I would ever actually sit through a service delivered by him.) 

Another welcomed surprise was that the first song was ‘Jesus Christ is Risen Today.’ By itself this was not a surprise—it is, after all, a traditional Easter song—but this particular song is a favorite at my parents’ church, and so it made me feel somewhat connected to them to hear it. 

Also, while I’m on the subject of music at the service: I was standing near a woman whose voice was…well, bless her heart, I’m sure it sounded lovely to the good Lord’s ears. But, though off-key, it was also kind of sweet to mine because it reminded me of my paternal grandmother. My grandmother was the epitome of a good Christian woman (the real kind), and I have so many fond memories of standing beside her at Sheppard Park, listening to her joyfully warbling along with the hymns. 

So, in a way, the service not only reached me on a spiritual level, but it also made me feel more closely connected to my friends and family (both here on Earth and beyond). Aww…

Finally, I just want to share striking bit of text that was included in the service’s program. This excerpt comes from an Easter sermon attributed to St John Chrysostom (c. 347-407):

If any be lovers of God, let them rejoice in this beautiful, radiant Feast. If any be faithful servants let them gladly enter the joy of their Lord. If any have arrived only at the last minute let them not be ashamed because they have arrived so late. For the Master is gracious and welcomes the last no less than the first. Enter then, all of you, into the joy of your Master. First and last receive alike your reward. Rich and poor dance together. You have fasted in Lent and you who have not, rejoice together today. Come, all of you, to share in this banquet of faith; draw on the wealth of God’s mercy and love. Let no one lament their poverty; for the universal kingdom has been revealed. Let no one weep for their sins, for the light of forgiveness has risen from the grave. Let no one fear death; for the death of our Savior has set us free. He has destroyed death by undergoing death. He has despoiled hell by going into hell.

Though it may come across as a bit preachy, I share this bit of text because, for me, it encapsulates the true meaning of Christ’s teachings: love and forgiveness, regardless of your socioeconomic class or potential moral failings. In essence, none of that matters because we are all equal (meaning it is none of our places to judge another). 

This is the ideology behind my understanding and practice of Christianity, and it is this understanding which allows me to continue calling myself a Christian despite the fact that men like James Dobson and the Pope have tried to pervert what it means to be a Christian.

And so, I leave you with that happy thought—now, if anyone wants to send me some of their extra jellybeans and/or chocolate bunnies (even if you’ve already bitten off the ears), let me know and I’ll give you my address!

Of Paintings and Passion Plays

I’m going to take a quick break from telling you about Morocco (really, all that’s left is my last day there) so that I can tell you about Friday (April 6).

Having been stuck in bed for most of the first week of Easter Break, I was determined to get out and do something on Friday. Unfortunately, I’m still at that phase of recovery where I get tired very easily, and so I planned on making said-adventure pretty small. Boy, did I misjudge.

I kicked things off by finally going to the Charles Dickens Museum. Now, you have to understand that this was one of those things from our 2008 trip to London that I really regretted not having time to do, and since the museum’s closing for renovation on April 10th it was kind of a now-or-never thing.

And now that I’ve been, I can honestly say: thank goodness we did not make it back in 2008, because if I had dragged Nic to this and the Royal Mews back then, it probably would have been the end of our relationship.

Seriously, even I was bored at the Dickens Museum (shocking, right?).

Entrance to the Dickens Museum

 Basically, it’s in a townhouse that Dickens lived in alongside his family for about two years. To the museum's credit, despite the short time of occupancy this is the only house of Dickens’ that still survives. Unfortunately, once inside you’re given practically no information (just one, single-sided informational page in each room). Furthermore, items are displayed within cases without explanation, and most of the furniture is replicated. The biggest draw for the proprietors seems to be the café (which takes up three of the five rooms on the ground floor), and a looping film that was so boring I had to leave after less than 10 minutes. 

Dickens' Study: the desk under the window is the same upon which he penned his last words.

Sitting Room

 All in all, I was majorly disappointed in the Charles Dickens Museum I’m sad to say. Then again, I am probably guilty of building it up in my mind over the last four years, ensuring that it could never live up to my expectations.

Following the museum, I was still feeling relatively okay, so I decided to wander around London for a bit, which I always enjoy doing. 

Soon thereafter, I found myself standing in front of the British Museum. I started to go in, but having been there before, I knew what an exhausting experience that would be. Instead, I decided to keeping walking, heading toward Trafalgar Square for some picture taking. 

I stopped en route at LJ’s for some coffee and at the not-as-skeezy-as-its-website-makes-it-look Prowler to finally pick-up a copy of Beautiful Thing on DVD (which they had on sale for £6—normally, the cheapest you can find it for in the US is $30+.)

Eventually, I arrived at Trafalgar Square...only to discover that it was packed! Apparently, a local church was putting on a public performance of The Passion of Jesus. But I’ll come back to that in a bit…

A packed Trafalgar Square and National Gallery. Note the pretty blue sky--that will be relevant later on.

In an attempt to avoid the large crowd outside, I thought this might be a good opportunity to duck into the National Gallery. It was okay—certainly far better than the Dickens Museum. As with most museums, they would not allow photography and, anyway, there really wasn’t anything there that I was interested enough in to go out of my way to record. 

That being said, there was a nice exhibition of Titan’s work that I liked, as well as some always enjoyable pieces by Seurat and Monet (including ‘The Water-Lily Pond’). The piece that I was most excited to see at the National Gallery, however, was van Eyck’s ‘The Arnolfini Portrait.’

NB: This image is not mine.

I’m realizing now, as I write this, that my attraction to this painting might actually stem from an old coffee table book my maternal grandmother used to have, and which I used to thumb through as a child. The more I think about it, I have vague recollections of stopping on a photo of ‘The Arnolfini Portrait’ every time I flipped through the book, mesmerized even as a small child by the mirror in the background (without realizing at the time the significance of it). 

Damn, I really wish I had remembered this while I was there!

After going through the National Gallery, I headed next door to the National Portrait Gallery, where they had an exhibition devoted to Princesses Charlotte and Victoria (later Queen Victoria). And while it was a decent exhibit, and one which I was thrilled to see, I was pleasantly surprised to find far more interesting pieces at the NPG!

The very first piece I came across upon entering the gallery was the portrait of Princes William and Harry from 2010 (their first). I remember when this painting was unveiled I like it quite a bit, so I was thrilled to see it, unexpectedly, in person. 

My next unexpected, but totally welcomed, surprise was their collection of Tudor and Elizabethan portraits! Here I encountered more paintings that I was all-too-familiar with, as they’re used in just about ever historical documentary about Henry VIII’s famous family. Such paintings include the following:

Queen Elizabeth I Coronation Painting [NB: This image is not mine!]

Queen Elizabeth I [NB: This image is not mine!]

Queen Mary I [NB: This image is not mine!]

King Edward VI [NB: This image is not mine!]

Sadly, the famous portrait of Anne Boleyn is being restored, and was not on display.

There was also the (life-sized) drawing seen here:

King Henry VIII and his father. [NB: This image is not mine]

Though this particular one was never used (presumably a second one was created, which was used and subsequently ruined), such drawings were used as a means of facilitating the creation of life-sized murals circa the 1500s. Basically:

The cartoon is exactly the same size as the finished painting and was used to transfer [the artist] Holbein's design to its intended position on the palace wall. To do this the cartoon was pricked along the main outlines of the composition and then fixed in the intended position on the wall. Chalk or charcoal dust was then brushed into the holes made by pricking, thus transferring the outline to the wall. Holbein could then proceed with filling in his design. ~ National Portrait Gallery Description

Very interesting!

Another highlight of my trip to the National Portrait Gallery was a small selection of photographs of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II taken by Sir Cecil Beaton in the late ’50s and early ’60s, including an amazing one of her in full regalia (including tiara) and leaning somewhat wearily against the arm of a couch at the palace. 

While at the National Portrait Gallery I received a text from EN, informing me that she was also in the Trafalgar Square area—turns out, she was there to watch the Passion of Jesus performance happening outside. We made plans to go for coffee after the show, and so when I was done at the gallery I went and met her in the square.

I arrived during the telling of the Last Supper, and wound up staying until the end. I have to say, they actually did a really good job (excepting, of course, the predominance of whiteness amongst the cast). 

Two things that are particularly interesting to note about the performance:

First, the actor playing Caiaphas (the high priest who played in instrumental role in the crucifixion of Christ) sounded remarkably like the late Billy Barty, known for his iconic portrayal of Gwildor of Thenur (and more)! In fact, so close was the sound of their voices that I frequently had to remind myself that Mr Barty is dead and that it could not possibly be him.

Second, the producers did a really good job of portraying the crucifixion: before the audience's collective eyes, three crosses were raised near Trafalgar Square’s large central column. What was really interesting about this bit though, was the moment wherein the Jesus character died. I had been watching the sky above for a bit—most of the day had been warm and sunny (as reflected in the earlier picture I posted), but as the play progressed it was steadily growing cooler. Sure enough, it just so happened that by the end of the crucifixion scene it was gray, cold, and slightly drizzling. Though the play’s sponsors had nothing to do with that, it was a cool effect to go along with the performance!

'Jesus' being 'nailed' to the cross.

And it is on that note that I will close. I hadn’t intended for this entry to be as long as it turned out to be (especially since I have a lot of other stuff I want to work on today). 

Until next time…