A Degastation

Off to Cambridge and Degas feeling sick and giddy. I have doubled my dose of Losartan to 50 mg and now my blood pressure is so low I can barely function. Degas was a multi-tasker as the exhibition at the Fitzwilliam demonstrates.

Published
Categorised as Art

Studios

  If you drive over the Hammersmith flyover you are sure to to have noticed this parade of artists’ studios by Barons Court station.

Munro Bagging

I wonder why there are so many sculptures depicting humans and animals or fish? Does the chap paying wrestle with the problem of which to have and then think – I know, I’ll have ’em both?

Published
Categorised as Sculpture

Popgood & Groolley

Since I was made redundant two and half years ago I have taken on a few honorary jobs. Hitherto I have not mentioned them but as the latest has been made public I want to keep you in the picture.

Two Fine Lutyens Memorials

There are twenty Grade I listed war memorials in England (out of over 3,000 listed war memorials) including the Arch of Remembrance in Leicester designed by Lutyens, his largest war memorial in England. I have not seen it but on Friday I visited another of his memorials, also Grade I listed.

Betjeman

I have been trying to buy Lord Mount Prospect by John Betjeman and these days you can get anything … at a price.

Published
Categorised as Poetry

General Stewart

If you walk along Pont Street you may have noticed this house opposite St Columba’s Church. Both were built in 1884 but the church was destroyed by a bomb in 1941 and rebuilt in 1955. No 67, known as Farm House, was commissioned by Major General Sir Herbert Stewart KCB but he never lived there.… Continue reading General Stewart

Popcorn

Experiments in psychology are thought-provoking. The University of South California did one using popcorn. They gave cinema audiences free popcorn and monitored how much they ate. Then they gave a similar group free popcorn but with the proviso that they had to eat with their non-dominant hand.

Ware’s War

Yesterday we left Fabian Ware in 1914 as a civilian in charge of The Mobile (Ambulance) Unit, reporting to the Red Cross and St John Ambulance.