![]() If you've worked as, known, or met people who play costumed characters helping to interpret historical sites for visitors, then you'll have encountered some laugh out loud tales of the thoughtless or heartless questions asked. So imagine the questions which were asked of Azie Mira Dungey, when she played various black characters from history, in the DC/Maryland/Virginia area. Yup, because she was a black actress, Azie, in her own words "must have played every black woman of note that ever lived... I liked to call myself the time-traveling black girl. " You don't have to imagine what Azie was asked, as she's turned her experiences into a comedy series, currently two episodes in. In character as Lizzie Mae the slave, she fronts it as if on a talk show, where she gives funny and thought provoking answers to some occasionally dumb, and sometimes outright painful questions. And she's darned funny, giving a unique voice to a much misunderstood group from the past, as well as challenging some of our assumptions about the era's attitudes and America's founding fathers. Find out more, and go to her site to watch the rest of the show!
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![]() “Until then I had thought each book spoke of the things, human or divine, that lie outside books. Now I realized that not infrequently books speak of books: it is as if they spoke among themselves. In the light of this reflection, the library seemed all the more disturbing to me. It was then the place of a long, centuries-old murmuring, an imperceptible dialogue between one parchment and another, a living thing, a receptacle of powers not to be ruled by a human mind, a treausre of secrets emanated by many minds, surviving the death of those who had produced them or had been their conveyors.” The Name of the Rose, Umberto Eco With a couple of hours in Manchester awaiting the arrival of a hen party lost somewhere on the way from London, I didn't make it out to the Manchester Museum to proffer Neb-Senu's statue a burger, but I did spend some time in the amazing John Rylands Library. I only had my ipad so the pictures aren't too hot, but if you want to think of the Unseen University coupled with Hogwarts and multiplied by the Jedi library, you're not far wrong. Go and check out my snaps of the shelves, stonework and lusciousness. I would wholly expect to find among its shelves books never written, or yet to be written. Post title quote is by John Lubbock, and taken from Turning the Page, newsletter of Friends of the Adamstown (PA) Area Library. It was found here. I went Norwich recently to bob about the Norfolk Festival. And then we decided that great British weather made the castle a safer bet (and a few pubs afterwards!) I had studied the castle briefly in uni as an example of this and the other, but had little idea of it's long use as a prison, or attached local museum and the stunning contents therein. Slideshow reviews are below, just click the pic to see the next one! The castle is a strange building in all, impressive in scale it's almost hard to get your head around as we're so used to semi ruined or very rebuilt sites, and much remains the original keep. Once inside the height and space is giddying, but as we visited when it's undergoing reinterpretation, it's hard to judge the presentation and information. An area on it's use as a prison has some good hands on kids things, but felt very text heavy with most visitors skimming through, a shame as it had some excellent tales to tell. Space downstairs covering the castle being built hold some well put together but slightly tired mannikin/diorama displays and a very good CGI of the whole Norman site.
Then... we went into the musuem, where you can find out about inexplicable skeletons, LOTS of teapots and treasure and more, in the rest of the post below..... (click the read more text ->) Today was spent in Manchester enjoying David Shrigley at the Cornerhouse, so this comic is loosely in his style.
Read more for some amusing nude real life pictures and to find out about paper cutting.... ![]() November 3rd I found myself with a day to kill in Cambridge, so asked you lot for suggestions of where to go. First up was the Sedgwick Museum of Earth Sciences. A quick prod online didn't tell me much other than it looked small, had a world class set of rocks and fossils, and seems geared to the academic, but with some arts and kids activities. I figured it was worth a reccy, but wasn't that fussed. As I discovered, their website really does not do them credit. (and online details on collections seem to have not been updated since 2009) Within a university courtyard, you enter what is essentially a long L shaped pair of large corridors, with beautiful old varnished wood cabinets and small offices converted to gift shop, toilet etc. The years of study, care and collecting are tangible. I headed to the left, through no real reason other than it was the shortest end of corridor visible to me, but seem to have chosen well as I then began with a recent display about Darwin as a Geologist. Because this covered a collector, collecting and cataloguing, and the reasons and drive behind it, it helped place in context all the following exhibits. ![]() Fort William in Scotland has the tagline: The Outdoor Capital of the UK and with Ben Nevis, and lochs and skiing and walking etc etc there sure is a lot of outdoors to explore. The West Highland Museum is certainly worth a bit of time though, try it out while waiting for better weather or between browsing for yet more hiking gear. Having been there last year, I popped back in recently to distract myself from nerves before starting the Three Peaks Challenge (my colleagues shopped for boots, ate lunch and drank beer) Yes, I am quite a nerd... The museum combines that wide collection of stuff and things that are the local museum's stock in trade, traditional homewares, crafts, war memorabilia, local history relics, Victorian costumes, stuffed animals... Yet the range is very broad, and by covering (of course) big themes in Scottish history and the Jacobites with such local and personal items, you get a real feel for how people dealt with these nationally discussed issues and conflict in everyday life. |
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February 2023
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