A Gallery of Photographers

Another great day in London. So many treats! 

M and I started the day with a delicious breakfast at Bühler + Co in Walthamstow. What would you pick from the menu? www.buhlerandco.com/menu

Then we hopped the Tube over to Oxford Circus and headed to The Photographers’ Gallery where we enjoyed the ‘For the Record: Photography & the Art of the Album Cover’ exhibition https://thephotographersgallery.org.uk/whats-on/record-photography-art-album-cover which was right up my street! Although featuring some classic album covers, and some shockingly bad ones, it also introduced me to many that I’d never seen before. Maybe it’s time to revive my album cover recreations series…?

Later in the afternoon we were joined in the café by three Legends of Blip, Pokeybagel https://www.blipfoto.com/Pokeybagel, Emsie https://www.blipfoto.com/Emsie and WhiskyFoxtrot https://www.blipfoto.com/WhiskyFoxtrot all of whom have become friends of mine thanks to this great site; and all of whom are utter delights to spend time with. What a joy it was to see them, introduce them to M, and have a good old gab! 

After the Blipmeet, M and I wandered over to Victoria, with a stop-off to enjoy the sun in Green Park. After a quick bite to eat we rocked up at the Victoria Palace Theatre in ‘London’s Glittering West End’ to see our first theatrical production since the pre-Covid days, and what a production it was. 

‘Hamilton’!

I have to confess that M was already much more familiar with this musical behemoth than I was, but I’m now a complete convert (and apparently physically unable to stop singing the songs). Respect to Lin-Manuel Miranda for his epic creation! 

The show took me back to my ‘O’ Level History days, when I studied the American War of Independence and Civil War (but without the singing and dancing). It also formed a nice companion-piece with the Hew Locke work that we saw at Tate Britain yesterday, in that it’s about colonialism, self-determination, freedom for some… but not for others, the compromises we’re prepared to make (or not) and for whose benefit. When ‘Mad’ King George III  (currently played by Harry Hepple in the West End but sung by Jonathan Groff in the original Broadway production) sings “Oceans rise, empires fall” in ‘You’ll Be Back’ www.youtube.com/watch?v=lh4mDKnijlI I also thought of the impact on the environment of centuries of international trade in goods and people, and about recent discussions about the role (if any) that the royal family should play both at home and in the Commonwealth. Not to mention Putin’s determination to rebuild the former Russian empire. Nothing much changes.