Posts

Showing posts from 2014

Christmas Poem, William Barnes, Dorset dialect poet & friend of Thomas Hardy

Image
William Barnes - St Peters Church,Dorchester To have zome fu n last night: how wer’t? Vor we’d a-worked wi’ all our might To scour the iron things up bright, An’ brush’d an’ scrubb’d the house all drough; An’ brought in vor a brand, a plock O’ wood so big’s an uppen-stock An’ hung a bough o’ misseltoo, An’ ax’d a merry friend or two, To keepen up o’Christmas. An’ zoo you didden come athirt, An’ there wer wold an’ young; an’ Bill, Soon after dark, stalk’d up vrom mill. An’ when he wer a-comin near, He whissled loud vor me to hear; Then roun’ my head my frock I roll’d, An’ stood on orcha’d like a post, To meake en think I wer a ghost. But he wer up to’t, an did scwold To vind me stannen in the cwold, A-keepen up o’ Christmas. We play’d at Forfeits, an’ we spun The trencher roun’, an’ meade such fun! An’ had a geame o’ dree-ceard loo, An’ then begun to hunt the shoe. An’ all the wold vo’k zitten near, A-chatten roun’ the vier pleace, Did smile in woone ano

Cast Court reopening (at last)

Image
For years, they have kept us away from the Renaissance Cast Court, hiding all the copies of statues of Michangelo, the Doors of Paradise, the pulpits of the Pissani's and Donatello's sublime statuary and so much more. Before restoration All those years it has been a parking lot for curators.  Such a pity it has taken so long! Why do we only worship 'real' works of art? | Polly Toynbee | Comment is free | The G

Zeppelin Walk

My Zeppelin Walk went off well, after a lot of research! The public walk was virtually rained off but acted as a rehearsal for a group walk with students from Lafayette University. The route follows that taken by Kpt/Ltn Henrich Mathy in Zeppelin L31 on 8th September 1915.   I note that someone else has copied the idea - so that's flattering. The walk begins where Mathy dropped the first bombs on Central London.  The route is: Russell Square Queen's Square Lambs Conduit Street Dolphin Pub. Jockey Field Grey's Inn Road Bourne Estate Mazim plaque, Hatton Gardens 61 Farringdon Street Smithfield Postman's Park Gresham St Morgate Finsbury Square Liverpool St Norton Folgate Although we have so far not got further than Moorgate on foot. ZEPPELIN > Historical Note

Pain De Campagne Rustique

I am on the 4th Day of making this french country bread.  Mostly, it involves a bit of kneeding and then leaving the dough around for a long time. So, I have no idea, as yet, whether the effort is worthwhile. Here is a recipe but not the one I am using. http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Pain-de-Campagne---Country-French-Bread/

Museum of London moving to Smithfield?

Image
The following article was published by Salon IFA Issue 332 15 December 2014 Next issue: 5 January 2015 The Society of Antiquaries of London Online Newsletter (Salon) is a fortnightly digest of news from the heritage sector. It focuses on the activities of the Society and the contribution that the Society's Fellows make to public life. Like the intellectual salons of eighteenth- and nineteenth-century Europe, it aims to amuse and to sti mulate debate as well as to inform. A copy of Salon ’s editorial policy can be found on the Society’s website . News and feedback for publication in Salon should be addressed to the Editor, Christopher Catling . Museum of London considering a move to Smithfield General Market The Museum of London has revealed that it is considering moving from its current Powell & Moya-designed building to Smithfield General Market, which was saved from demolition to make way for an office and retail scheme in July when Eric Pickles, Secre

Clichés

Clichés   They are, originally, phrases which are so overused they are predictable and therefore boring.  In design, solutions which have been used so often they elicit a groan when proposed. http://literarydevices.net/ cliche/ However, because they are so well used they often are clearly understood, and can be concise, and this can,in certain limited circumstances,  be a good method of communication (if they can be used in an innovative way). Have a look at this for further information on the appropriate use of Clichés. http://thefederalist.com/2014/ 06/06/in-defense-of-cliches/ In essense, you should avoid all hackneyed, boring, dull use of cliche, but you can occassionally get awy with cliche by   using them,knowingly, cleverly, or by subverting them. Here is one article on cliche and design http://www.smashingmagazine. com/2011/02/21/clich-s-and- idea-generation-how-to-turn- clich-in-a-successful-visual- solution/ cliche is a bit like kitsch, avoid lik

7th Arrondismont, Paris

Image
The CSM tutors stayed in the Hotel Royal Phare whose name was grander than the reality.   But what a good location.  The Rue Motte-Piquet is on the Metro and in walking distance are Les Invalides and the Musee DÁrmee; Musee Rodin; Eiffel Tower, Musee Quai Branly, and across the River are the Trocadero, and the City of Paris Museum of Architecture, and the Palais de Tokyo and Musee of Arttt Moderne.  All well worth visiting. On route to the Tour is Rue Cler and Rue Sante Dominque both of which interesting roads with  traditional French shops such as wine shops, boulangerie and butchers.  I  had the best pain de raisin here, after queuing with a lot of Parisians.

Palais de Tokyo and the Musee dÁrte Moderne

Image
Across the River From Quai Branly Museum, near the Eiffel Tower are yet another 2 wonderful Museums in Paris.  The Palais de Tokyo is a modern White Cube gallery full of the most interesting installations.  Varied in quality, yes but there are so many of them each with their own big space - either white, bright, or dark, filmic, and some with chaotic art pieces.  But the shere quantity truly gives the measure of the French love of culture. The suspended crawl-way made out of clear parcel tape was a mere bit of claustrophobic fun, but the marvelous tree growing out of the white  columns was a true deconstruction of the White Cube ideal..  Next door is a 'traditional' collection of modern art with paintings from Cubism to the present day, with just enough paintings to give a tolerable narrative, and enough star names to satisfy anyone.  But the glory of the collection is the Salon de Dufy with a huge work of art made for an international exhibition; and the Salon de

Quai Branly, Paris

Image
The  Quai Branly is an amazing museum dedicated to art from cultures all around the world.   This, would once have been called an Ethnographic Museum. It was set up as Jacques Chirac's Grand Project and is designed by Jean Nouvel.  It has been heavily critised for the way it deals with the source material, and has a very heavily and rigorously controlled editorship of all aspects of the Museum.  What is interesting is how the many decisions that have been taken - probably with good intentions, somehow open the Museum up to all sorts of post-colonial criticism. And yet, one has to admire the single-minded focus, the stance that has been taken and stuck to.  Forget context, we don't have room to discuss context properly, so we are just going to present these items as gorgeous works of Art. The building is screened from the road by a large glass wall,  designed to make the garden visible from the road and to shelter those in the garden from the  roar of the Seine-side road.  

Roman Ship Dug Up In Thames - British Pathé

This is a video of the Roman boat discovered by Blackfriars Bridge in 1963. Roman Ship Dug Up In Thames - British Pathé

Andreas Vesalius' Fabrica: The Anatomy of a Revolution

 One of the world's most important books? Andreas Vesalius' Fabrica: The Anatomy of a Revolution on AbeBooks

Mythogeography - Mythogeography

Mythogeography - Mythogeography

Necklace from 600 B.C. was found in a Danish bog.

Check this very beautiful bronze necklace - really unique design. 585. This necklace from 600 B.C. was found in a Danish bog. | National Geographic Creative

London - early electrical generation

This is a good article on the subject, http://www.ianvisits.co.uk/blog/2008/01/15/early-electricity-supplies-in-london/ and also Shoreditch Electricity Station : London Remembers, Aiming to capture all memorials in London

Why the City of London is indefensible in a modern Democracy

The City of London has long been gerrymandered to make sure it remains a bastion of financial priviledge. In this piece George Monbiot explains some of the details. http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2011/oct/31/corporation-london-city-medieval

Why is the Original so important

This is a TED talk explaining why a Fake will not do, why the original is so important to humans. http://www.museumsassociation.org/video/22102014-why-is-original-so-important

Weird Things in a Coffin - Queen Victoria

This is what the Victoria files has to say about the contents of Queen Victoria's Coffin. I do hope she shagged John Brown. 'The Victoria Files » Queen Victoria’s Funeral : In her coffin, Queen Victoria wanted various items of jewellery, Prince Albert’s dressing gown and his cloak which had been embroidered by Princess Alice, the daughter she had lost in 1878, a plaster cast of Prince Albert’s hand, her lace wedding veil, shawls, various photographs and also a lock of John Brown’s hair and a photo of him, which she wanted placing in her left hand. It has since been discovered that she was also buried wearing John Brown’s mother’s wedding ring.'

William Shakespeare, Gangster | History | Smithsonian

This is an article on the writ against Shakespeare, by William Whyte.  The article uses it with a discussion of the old chestnut about who wrote the plays. William Shakespeare, Gangster | History | Smithsonian

How many people to defend a Hill fort?

This interesting article on the Hillforts of Dorset contends that the Parish Boundaries date back to the Roman period.  Evidence is very much circumstantial. But it also has a useful go at working out how many people needed to defend a hillfort, and the population of Roman Dorset.  Parish Boundaries In Dorset9.doc - parish_boundaries9.pdf

How old is English?

How to explain how come so few Celtic words in Old English. Answer: Celtic was not spoken in East England. How old is English?

▶ Except from Billingsgate Excavation in 1982 - computers and Kevin Flude

'A very sophisticated filing cabinet' says Kevin Flude ▶ Big82 Computers in 1982 - YouTube

Operation Stonehenge: what the TV films left out | Mike Pitts – Digging Deeper

Image
The argument Mike Pitts makes is that the recent TV programme on the survey results of the Stonehenge Landscape left out much of the story of Stonehenge as discovered by recent excavation. While this is certainly true, and to get the most our of the programme you need to read Mike Parker Pearson's book on Stonehenge, the programmes did reveal some of the major results of the new project. So it was essential, if annoying viewing. Operation Stonehenge: what the TV films left out | Mike Pitts – Digging Deeper

Effect of TV/Film on history as show in Smithfield

Before the release of Braveheart, very few flowers/memorials were ever left at the memorial to William Wallace at Smithfield. Since then, flowers/flags have been ever present. Since the Independence Vote, it has become a centre for Scottish sentiment, with the addition of flags. Further down the road, a telephone box has become the centre of fans of Johnlock - Sherlock Holmes and Dr John Watson.  St Barts is indeed where Sherlock and John meet and decide to lodge together with Mrs Hudson, but the Telephone box has only become a 'shrine' since the Cumberbatch/Freeman show in which the death at Reichenbacker Falls is relocated to Smithfield.  Every so often the authorities clear it out but the notes soon reappear. Nearby in Charterhouse Square is Florin Court, where Poirot lived in Whitehaven Masions (actually Florin Court). But this is just the TV location. No web site I could found actually tried to locate the building in fictional reality, but accepted  the TV location wit

Early use of computers in archaeology

Hobley's Heros has just uploaded this snippet of a 1982 BBC programme which features me talking about one of the first uses of computers in an Archaeological excavation in the UK. http://youtu.be/m-UROHEvfvU
A new suggestion for Arthur's second most famous battle has been proposed - Braydon Forest - it should be, says Andrew Breeze. the Battle of Mons Bradonicus.   The context for the battle is the battle for Cirenceaster  between the Saxons and the Britains.  - which Breeze  calls the capital of Celtic Britain.    The full text is : Salon: Issue 325 1 September 2014     'Another major hillfort, this time Ringsbury Camp, in the parish of Purton, some 5 miles east of Swindon, is being proposed as a possible site for the Battle of Badon, or Mons Badonicus, which Gildas says was decisive in halting the westward march of hostile Saxon migrants around AD 490 (though an alternative reading of the crucial passage in Gildas suggests that the battle that took place there was part of a civil war for supremacy in southern England, rather than a conflict between British and Saxon combatants). Various suggestions have been made over the centuries for the location of t

Enfield Rifles and the River Lea

Image
A year or so ago  we moored  by Enfield lock on the River Lea, in London and explored the The Royal_Small_Arms_Factory in Enfield.   Much of the factory and the workers cottages are still there, and, although slightly compromised by modern development still has a lot of interesting red brick buildings, So I was quite interested when Michael Portillo  started his exploration of the 'Great Railway Journeys' in Enfield.  This, ofcourse, was his old constituency before that famous defeat by Stephen Twigg in the 1997 election. This is quite an ideal TV format because essentially, Portillo simply uses the Bradshaw Guide to create a narrative, hops on a train and interviews a few historians and the like in places along the Railway line. I don't normal watch these programmes but I had the TV on while  rearranging my front room to make way for a French 19th Century 'Boat' Bed. I had just watched Clare Balding cycle along Offa's Dyke, on a Dawes Bi

How Much Does it Cost to Make a Website in 2014 -

Image
I am considering methods of updating various web sites. They are originally set up using Dreamweaver with templates set up by professional web designers - way back when in the prehistory of the World Wide Web. I am very tempted by wix and wembly. which seem very easy to set up, although the make professional and with ecommerce there is a monthly fee. Wordpress is the other option which is the one I think I would go for except for the initial set up which seems difficult. It seems to involve loading wordpress onto the server, and this always fills me with fear. Reading the instructions, they are all written by people who know what they are doing, and each step seems fraught with unknowable methods. This web site gives a good summary. How Much Does it Cost to Make a Website in 2014 -

What is Augmented Reality?

What is Augmented Reality? AR Resource List | Marxent Marxent | Top Augmented Reality Apps Developer for Android & iOS

Tell me a story: augmented reality technology in museums | Culture professionals network | Guardian Professional

Tell me a story: augmented reality technology in museums | Culture professionals network | Guardian Professional

Follow that robot: the hi-tech tour guides taking over Tate Britain at night | Art and design | The Guardian

Strange, I was talking about this very thing yesterday  discussing whether machine tour guides were better than human ones. my arguement was that a good tour guides tour is an improvisation, tailored to time, and group and the mood of the guide, not a mechanical excercise Follow that robot: the hi-tech tour guides taking over Tate Britain at night | Art and design | The Guardian

Stonehenge new visitor centre

First visit to the new Stonehenge visitor experience. A work in progress, partly it seems like a building site and as you arrive by shuttle to the old visitor centre (now buried) nothing much seems to have changed except that it has taken an extra 30 minutes to arrive her. There is ofcourse a new interpretation centre with Cafe, shop and exhibition.  The Exhibition has some impressive graphics which give some idea of being inside the Circle. But it neither provides a spiritual or evocative experience nor an intellectual engagement.  The interpretation seems  aimed at a low level, no real discussion of the archaeological arguments.  Aimed squarely at the person who is vaguely interested.  Also rather surprised that it is grant aided - surely the government should not be bleeding grant funds for things it ought to be funding directly? Stonehenge new centre leads to English Heritage being criticised by members of the public on TripAdvisor | Western Daily Press

Ruin & Reputation in Georgian England - No1 Royal Crescent

This is a really good exhibition of portraits (Mezzotints) of Georgian women - from Duchesses to Prostitutes.  Great pictures and the text is also good.  Worth a visit. Exhibitions | No1 Royal Crescent

London's Abandoned Tube Stations

  Wills Week writes: Did you know that there are no less that forty-six abandoned tube stations on the London Underground network. The easiest to spot is on the Central Line on the left hand side (going East and up-hill) about 200 yards after Holborn station. Within a few seconds of leaving Holborn, you’ll race through ‘British Museum’. If you cup your hands (I’ve done it) you’ll just see the old station platform and even a WW2 air-raid shelter poster. It’s awesome, although not quite as spectacular as the rumour that’s been circulating for years – that it’s been preserved since the day it closed before the war, complete with all the original advertising posters etc. If only someone had the foresight to have pickled that! Further information on Wills week and  London's Abandoned Tube Stations

Adam Worth - the Real Moriaty?

This is an interesting life - I wonder why it is not better known. Seems like a nice bloke! Adam Worth - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Fire Brigade Museum could stay in Southwark Bridge Road [20 April 2014]

Good news, if this happens, but it really should be mandatory for the purchaser to keep it open Fire Brigade Museum could stay in Southwark Bridge Road [20 April 2014]

To Tell Your Story, Take a Page from Kurt Vonnegut​ - Andrea Ovans - Harvard Business Review

Thanks, Karin for pointing this one out! - It contains a video of Vonnegut teaching. To Tell Your Story, Take a Page from Kurt Vonnegut​ - Andrea Ovans - Harvard Business Review

Kurt Vonnegut’s 8 Tips on How to Write a Great Story | Brain Pickings

Very good advice from a master story-teller. Kurt Vonnegut’s 8 Tips on How to Write a Great Story | Brain Pickings

Offa's Dyke Dates to the Dark Age

Society of Antuquities reports in Salon:   Doubts cast on Offa’s Dyke, Richard III and the Holy Grail Offa’s Dyke may not have been built by the eighth-century ruler of Mercia after all, according to our Fellow Paul Belford, Director of the Clwyd—Powys Archaeological Trust, who announced last week the ‘tremendously exciting discovery’ that parts were constructed between AD 430 and 652 (Offa ruled from AD 757 to 796). The Clwyd—Powys Archaeological Trust carried out excavations on a stretch of the dyke along the Shropshire border near the town of Chirk. The dated material came from a layer of re-deposited turf underneath the bank, laid down as part of the construction process. Before we rush to rename the dyke, Paul Belford made it clear that, even if parts of the dyke system were in place before Offa’s time, ‘it is likely that he would have consolidated the existing network into what we now call Offa’s Dyke’. Paul added: ‘It is now clear that it was not the work of

Britain from Above | Rescue the Past

This is a new archive of images of Britain from the air. Amazing pictures Britain from Above | Rescue the Past

Digitising the Museum at Central Saint Martins | Digital Present

This is a blog article from the CSM museum about the benefits and disbenefits  of digitisation. Digitising the Museum at Central Saint Martins | Digital Present

The Worshipful Company of Arts Scholars - new company set up

This is a new City Livery Company The Worshipful Company of Arts Scholars

Safely into the Unknown? A review of the proposals for the future of English Heritage | Larkin | Papers from the Institute of Archaeology

Safely into the Unknown? A review of the proposals for the future of English Heritage | Larkin | Papers from the Institute of Archaeology

Funding scheme for heritage organisations

Become a partner organisation

Marlborough Mound is proven to be prehistoric

 I: think we always thought it was but it has finally been proven by archaeological investigation that this mound is second only to Silbury Hill and is now the second biggest artificial mound in the UK. Marlborough News Online - Merlin's Mound

Our Church tower becomming an icon of London

Plans for 27-storey residential tower next to Shard go on show [14 January 2014]

Bureau Of Silly Ideas

this is a great way to make a living and it makes a lot of sense too. Bureau Of Silly Ideas