London: National Gallery & Othello

7/19
The National Gallery was wonderful! I also went to the Tate Modern, but I wish I had had more time at the National Gallery. I just didn't have enough time to see all the great paintings, and it was a bit frustrating. Some things I saw: Arnolfini Wedding Portrait by Jan Van Eyck
Jan Van Ecyk's Self Portrait
The Rokeby Venus by Velazquez
Venus and Mars by Botticelli
The Ambassadors by Holbein
(The weird figure at the bottom is a skull, which is in perfect proportions if you stand at an odd angle from the canvas)
Woman Standing at a Virginal by Vermeer
Boy Bitten by a Lizard by Caravaggio                These, of course, are not faithful representations of the actual paintings. I included them so you would all have an idea of the great art that I was able to visit in person. :) They had tours set up for us, but they were being given by that boring Jo Rhymer lady, so I thought to myself, "I'll stick around for the first painting and if it's bad I'll leave." It was bad. When you listen about paintings for two weeks, you just want to go look at them, not hear more about them. Well, if you are new to art history, do it. But most of the people lecturing during this program picked paintings that were from the Nat'l Gallery specifically so we could see them in person. So I just wanted to look, and enjoy. I heard later that they only stopped at 4 paintings. FOUR PAINTINGS!!! I would be okay with that in an hour only if I was the one picking the paintings, so I'm really glad I left to look on my own.                                                                                                                                           
 I would've rather stayed at the Nat'l Gallery all day instead of going to the Tate Modern. Most of the modern art that was there I could see (or have seen) in the United States. Once you've seen one Rothko, or Pollock, you've pretty much seen them all. Although I did hang out in a room full of Rothkos, and just enjoyed sitting down after such a hectic day. I didn't even have time to eat lunch...I had more important things to do!
The Tate did have a really good exhibit about Global cities. It was concerned with the growth, density, diversity, and problems that major cities would encounter in the near future. Nicolas Friend said in his first lecture that art has the power to change your life, or how you even view the world. This certainly did it for me. I am going to try and have an edible lawn! Veggies instead of grass...why didn't I think of that? Grass is so...useless! But Vegetables would make so much sense. I hope all the people that don't believe in Global Warming are right (they seem to all be conservatives in America though...everyone here in the UK agrees or doesn't disagree openly that there is a climate problem). But I don't think they are, which is really scary. The downside to the exhibit was the fact that it didn't provide anything that an ordinary person could do (except for the edible lawn). So it's terrifying, but provides no solutions. Never a good thing to walk away from. I was supposed to go to a Jazz event tonight, but I was too tired and ended up falling asleep. But I heard it wasn't that great anyway, so maybe it was for the best.                                                                                                                                                          
7/20
Today is Harry Potter night! We had a really boring lecturer today, who spoke about the power of Gothic. He just talked to the wall. At least I was awake, though, because I got so much sleep last night. Then I took another nap, did some laundry, and wrote some of my essay. I didn't get out to purchase the last Harry Potter because I was doing my essay, and I didn't have anyone to walk the 45 minutes with me into town at midnight. I figured it would be safer to wait until Sunday (since I'll be in London tomorrow). 7/21
I'm on the bus going to Othello. I'm going to be a groundling so I hope the weather holds up! 18:06
Othello was amazing! My feet hurt, though...We also walked all over London before the performance. We saw Big Ben and Westminster Abbey. I even called Glen from one of those red phone booths. It rained a bit while we were standing, but we had bought Ponchos so it was all right. The performance was hilarious, even though it was tragic. I both hated and loved Iago...sometimes wanting to rush on stage and hurt him, even though I knew it was just a story and it wouldn't make a difference. I felt like crying for Desdemona and Othello at the end...and poor Emilia's face when she found out that she contributed to this horrible end. If only jealousy wasn't so strong, or the mean-spirited wouldn't make prey of the honest and trusting. The theater itself was beautiful, although I thought it would be a lot bigger.
 

P.S. Sorry about the weird paragraphs. For some reason the travel blog is acting wacky.