Been busy on many levels. I have acquired a temporary lodger. A trainee barrister who has found himself without a home. He is the best mate of one of my ex-trainees, and so quite convenient for him to have the two of us in one place for visiting, which he duly did last weekend. Great Saturday night as the three of us braved the intermittent showers for the long walk to my best local bub, the Woodman, for a couple of pints. Unlike most of the pubs in this area, it is and always has been designed as a pub. Most of the others around here have been converted from shops of one sort or another. Then on to my favourite Italian for a good meal and a bottle of wine. And then another bottle. And then the complimentary grappas. And then back to my place where the offer of tea, coffee or more alcohol came down on the latter. There were many points in the evening where a coffee rather than another drink would have been the best decision. But I took none of them. A loud conversation about Scottish politics (of all things) rounded off the evening (well now small hours of the morning), and a very enjoyable one. Followed by a much slower Sunday morning.
And no sooner had I acquired said lodger than I had to, temporarily, kick him out to make way for a visit from an old university friend with his wife, daughter and her friend. Last time I had seen the daughter she was a girl. Now a very attractive 16 year old young woman. My how they grow. Does make me feel old (although mostly because I am). The girls headed to Oxford Street for retail therapy, while the old brigade headed to the British Museum,
As I am a Friend of the BM I can get into the exhibitions for free and so my friend (a vicar) and I decided to take advantage of the unusual circumstance of two exhibitions at once to do them both and get my money's worth from my membership.
The Afghanistan exhibition I had already seen, but when I was still on crutches. Good, but to be fair the best bits were the Greek stuff rather than things truly indigenous to the area.
The much heralded Treasures of Heaven was an interesting exhibition of bling. It shows a collection of reliquaries. Apart from the obvious points of fine workmanship and somewhat gruesome subject matter (such as casks for arms, heads etc) it certainly gave rise to some thoughts in my mind. One was the sheer gullibility of the populous, until Martin Luther came along to burst the bubble. When someone pops up with a splinter and says its from the True Cross, or Christ's manger, or whatever, did no one say, "Exactly how do you know its genuine?"
Secondly. it seems the declining Byzantine Empire had a small industry going along peddling this trade in little bits of old twig and bone. I suppose part of it was no one had an incentive to shout" fraud." The church peddlers had something to dangle in front of the gormless congregation, the rich had something to buy that seemed like a "limited edition" and the poor saps had something to hope for from the miraculous healing powers of these bits and bobs, given that medicine didn't have anything more than a brew made of local weeds and a few leeches. And the craftsmen had the remunerative job of embellishing the tat in ever more grandiose caskets since lets face it, a random bit of bone isn't much to look at. I guess lavishing some gold and jewels around it gave it some status and credibility. And made it rather more attractive for a pious king to have lying round the palace than a bit of twig.
The other thing hat struck me was the plethora of saints, many long forgotten who had bits of their remains stuck in these jewel encrusted boxes. Just how easily religions adapt to the useful form. Of course Christianity in is monotheistic compared to all those pagan Roman Gods of war, wine, healing or whatever. And then of course they make all those saints who are patron saints of this that or the other, giving a new chance to venerate someone for the relevant subject matter. Just like the old gods, but not actually the old gods. So it just morphs neatly into the socially useful bits of the old religion, with new names. Which of course is what happened to Roman religion which picked up new gods or melded ones into existing cults as it took over other cultures who had their own religions. Plus ca change as they say.
Been keeping up my at least once a week theatre going, so now into critic mode
School for Scandal
Probably went to this for the wrong reasons, namely its a famous play which I hadn't seen, and it was across the road from where I work. However against that I just don't like Restoration comedy. Not funny and not particularly interesting. I do not believe comedy travels easily down the ages. Even much classic 20th century comedy seems tame and dated to me, let alone stuff from earlier centuries. And that includes Shakespeare's comedies where I am afraid people laugh more out of duty and to show they know where they are supposed to do it.
So, contrived plot and if compared to a modern play, vastly overlong. A 20th century editor would have cut the dialogue in half. (or given the choice put a line through the whole lot and asked Sheridan to start again.)
One Man Two Guvnors
Another comedy, but this time modern farce starring one of the most in vogue comic actors James Corden. Now I am not much of a Corden fan. Two much giggling at his own humour. But fair does to the man, he really carried this and he was very funny. Again, farce isn't my favourite style, and the doddery waiter routine, carried out with great aplomb, has certainly been done before. But it was all very good fun. But the cackling woman behind me was very trying. Give me someone's mobile going off over a cackling crone any day. But even with that, an entertaining evening.
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