What about the artistic life in London!?

There are so many things to tell about the Artistic Life in London !!

London could be actually renamed the “The Capital of Art”, because it groups together all the different kinds of art:

Music

Everybody will agree that a lot of famous bands’ went through London (The Beatles for example). And still today you find hundreds’ of little bands’ music every night in the pubs and in the clubs.

But what stroke me about the music here, it is the persons who are playing an instrument or singing in the tube. They are really numerous, and it is definitely not like in France where they are often beggars. Here we can hear some real musicians very talented. I heard that in London, you even have to pass an interview to be able to play in the tube.

Theatre

Theatre of course! If you have ever been in London, you must have seen everywhere some musical theatre poster. If you are looking for something to do a night, you really have to go to one of them. You can find a lot of movies adapted for musicals. And if you look for a ticket carefully, you can find some really cheap (the first price is relatively expensive).

Museums

London is the Museum Paradize! If you like going to museums, you will be verry glad here. First because all (or almost) the entrances are free. But also because you can a lot of verry interresting museums. My favourite for now are: The National Gallery, The Courtauld Gallery and The Tate Modern.

Fashion

I wanted to talk a little bit about the fashion in London, because it really surprised me when I arrived here for the first time. In France you clearly have a clothing fashion which changes over the years. But here, you have no fashion. My point of view is that the city is so cosmopolitan than finally nobody really imposed his style.

However, there is each in London the very famous Fashion Week (which occurred in February).

A little bit more about London

Today, I would like to talk about the social rituals at London. The life here is not very different from the life in France, but we still find some differences with our country.

First I have to talk about a point which really struck me since I am here, the food. If I say “The food in France” you will tell me: Cheese, bread, cooked pork meats, patisseries… Here, there is the famous Fish & Chips, but except it, there is not a lot of very “typical foods”. You can’t (and I tried to) find a “typical English restaurant”.  Actually, what you always find everywhere here, is Fast-Food. Especially the very well-known Starbucks (each 100 metres you are sure to find one). And the all day, you can see people in the street eating a burger, a kebab, crisps or even Chinese fast-food…

 

(Discovery of Starbucks)

Now let’s talk about symbols. Of course the very first symbol of the UK is the Queen of England! She is very famous and really loved by all the country, like all the royal family. All the English people are really involved in every event concerning the royal family. For example, we saw that again with the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee last year. The 60 years of Queen’s Elisabeth reign gathered more than a million of people. And I have to say that I feel very impressed by all the devotion of people for their Queen.

What about the national celebrations here? Without being a public holiday, what we can call here a national celebration is St George’s day. Of Palestinian origin, George de Lydda is a Roman army’s officer under Diocletian. At the beginning of the 4th century, when the emperor required the persecution of the Christians, he was delivered in the city of Lydda (Israel) to numerous tortures (burned, scalded, crushed under a wheel, etc.), which he survived supernaturally before being beheaded. Very quickly, we set up places of worship to his memory. Later, a legend will say that he would have killed a dragon. He becomes very popular with the Crusaders. Today, he is celebrated on April 23^rd, a day when we can see a little more than usually the English flag: a red cross on a white background à St George’s cross.

To conclude my post, I just wanted to notice all the little things which struck me here!!

-First, there is the fact here, the families eat the meal very early (like 6.30pm)

-Secondly, there is really less smokers than in France

-And last, I noticed that there is also really less dogs than in France. You rarely meet someone taking out for a walk his dog.

Sunny London/ Meeting with Ben Musgrave

For the first time since I a am here in London, I wore a T-Shirt to go outside. My sister came for five days, and we visited all London under a very shinny sun. Imagine, it was so warm that we ate an ice cream in front of Buckingham Palace!

Another point very interesting of my week was the meeting with Ben Musgrave, a play writer who wrote the play Pretend You Have Big Buildings. It was the first time that I met a real play writer, and it was really interesting. He explained to us how important was the place and our relation with this place that we are writing about. He also told us about his own story and why he decided to write his play Pretend You Have Big Buildings. I really liked having for the first time the writer’s point of view.

Tate Modern

This week, I have been three times to the very well known Tate Modern of London. I visited the all museum, and I also saw the exhibition of the moment : Lichtenstein. It was amazing! I don’t really like modern art as usual, but what Roy Lichtenstein did was really wonderful. It was very interesting, because all his paintings look like printed canvas; and it is just when you get closer that you realize it is really panited.

 

Another painting that I really liked is Seated Figure (1961) by Francis Bacon.

I imagined a short story about it :

The famous, the very well known Mr X was here, in front of me, in a blue sofa. Seated like that he looked like everybody. I wonder what he is thinking about right now.

I was seated on this blue sofa, alone, and I was thinking of how I got there. What did I do to finish today, seated in that very expansive blue sofa, waiting for the president to congratulate me, with a thousand of paparazzi waiting for me just behind the window. Just three weeks ago I was a tramp alone and cold. I was ready to do everything to get out of this situation, but what I did, I don’t know if I will be able to live with that.

Three weeks aago, a plane scratched in the middle of London during the night. I was here, with my dog. All the passengers were blocked into the plane, but a man, a hero, came and openned the door. He saved all of them because ten minutes laterthe motors exploded. And then he just went back to his car and left. One hour later, when all the medias arrived to understand what just happened, I stood up and I said that I saved everybody, that the I was THE hero.

Today, in this blue sofa, I would not be able to look my face again.